Posted by Extranjero on June 27, 2007 at 15:35:20:
WAR WIDOWS (Part 9)
“Yesterday,” the Major said, “I was prepared to shoot you. Today I’ve half a mind to spank your disobedient arse.”
Gemma chewed her lip but didn’t answer. She, Leilani and Laura were stood stiffly to attention in his tent. Their military postures were a contrast to their clothing. Gemma still wore her sleeveless blouse and small bikini briefs. Laura’s bra and tight skirt were still drying. She looked like a bedraggled cat and was pouting miserably. Leilani wore a half-unbuttoned shirt over her loincloth. Defiance smouldered in her eyes, but she kept it carefully veiled.
The Major’s single ice-blue eye studied each of them in turn. “Just in case it slipped your mind, I give the orders here.” His gaze went back to Gemma. “You were asking to get killed, girl! And then I’d just have one pilot.”
“Instead of three.” The blonde girl swallowed. “Sir.”
“I didn’t want this either, sir,” said Laura plaintively. “I was prepared to meet my fate …”
“Shut up,” the Major said, “you stuck-up cow.”
Laura’s face grew pale, as if he’d slapped her. Her dark eyes flickered hatefully, but she pouted like a girl about to cry.
The Major sat back in his chair. “So you hit the Delta Base?”
“Demolished it, more like,” Leilani said.
He stared at her. “I haven’t got you figured out yet, babe. I know you’re ex-Command Guard. But is this our war, or yours?”
Leilani shrugged. “I’m not at war. I just helped out a friend. Like the Rivermaids who helped us out – and died while we escaped.”
Sara and Hazell had survived. They were waiting outside somewhere. The landing had been hair-raising, in a rice-paddy too shallow for the hull. The plane lay on its belly now, not far from the encampment. Leilani didn’t think they’d get it in the air again.
The Major glanced at Laura. “Anything you learned?” he asked.
The posh girl hesitated for a moment, as if she didn’t trust herself to speak. Then she dropped her gaze. “I saw the regional Commander. Its tank was at the airstrip, and I know it’s still around.”
“Sure,” the Major said, “but in the Cobra-Nest or somewhere. I’m not sending planes against that place. They’d waste the lot of you.”
Laura licked her lips. “Yes, but … it’s due to leave the sector. I overheard an officer … there’s a Command Train heading north. It goes tonight.”
“Sir,” said Gemma breathlessly, “that’s just our kind of target. Low level, deep penetration – we catch it on the move and clobber it!”
“Not so fast,” the Major said, but Leilani saw his interest. “Do we know what time it’s due to leave?”
“They always move at midnight,” Laura said.
Gemma nodded. “We can work out where to intercept it. And aren’t two Widows worth the risk, to take a Warlord out?”
The Major paused, considering. “You volunteer, I take it?” Gemma gave a smart salute, and even surly Laura did the same. His gaze flicked to Leilani, and she gave a crooked smile. Her life had a momentum now. “I reckon you can count me in as well.”
Despite his rugged cynicism, the Major seemed impressed. “All right, I’ll get your Widows fuelled and armed. I guess you girls should go and have some breakfast. And then you’d better get yourself some sleep.”
Outside, Gemma laid her hand on Laura’s smooth bare shoulder. “I know – you let me have your place, and the bastard didn’t even mention it!” But Laura shrugged her off and stalked away like a spoilt princess, her buttocks rippling in her damp sheath skirt.
Gemma sighed, then turned towards the mess tent. She and Leilani ate some soup, mopped up with doughy bread. Fatigue was catching up with them. Leilani felt light-headed. Her adrenal glands had been pumped dry, and her carbine seemed too heavy to take off. Plodding back to settle down in the shadow of some trees, they paused to wish the Rivermaids farewell. Sara and Hazell kissed them, then went wading slowly off across the paddy field, past the crippled Cat, towards the tree-cloaked hills.
Leilani and Gemma curled up in the grass, their bodies touching. Sleep rolled over them at once and their minds sank into darkness, not hearing the sounds from nearby as the Widows were prepared for their night’s work.
* * *
Leilani woke as her face was bathed in molten orange light. The bloated sun was going down, its blaze reflected in the paddy fields. The camp was quiet, just murmured conversations in the background. A guard went mooching past them in the long grass by the road.
She yawned and glanced at Gemma, who was snuggled up beside her. The blonde girl’s face looked soft and very young. Still rounded out with puppy-fat, Leilani noted fondly. She flicked at Gemma’s wispy fringe. The pilot frowned and opened bleary eyes.
“Feel better for that, hey?” Leilani murmured. Gemma smiled beatifically, but then her eyes turned grave. “It’s not time yet?” she asked as she began to raise herself. Leilani shook her head and eased her back into the grass.
They settled down again, Leilani’s head on Gemma’s shoulder. The sun was melting as they watched. “What’s the Cobra-Nest?” Leilani asked at last.
“The Guards’ base for this sector,” Gemma answered. “It’s where we used to fly from. There’s an airstrip, and a pen for their black tanks. I hated being there: the place feels evil. And outside the wire, it’s even worse – like a haunted cemetery.”
Leilani raised her head. “How do you mean?”
“There are tunnels and buried bunkers all around it. Left over from some other war, but all abandoned now. They say that there are people still entombed there. And booby traps still waiting in the dark …”
She broke off as somebody sauntered over. Leilani saw it was Louise, the dark-haired pilot with the sapphire eyes. She was dressed in her sheer off-the-shoulder nightgown. “You should be wearing this!” she said. “You’ve got my plane tonight.”
Gemma looked abashed, but Louise didn’t seem too bothered. “Laura wants me as gunner on Moonhappy,” she went on. She held out Gemma’s purple leotard. “I guess you’ll need this. Take care of Nightie Mission, Gem – but you’ll always be our Lady in the Dark.”
Gemma beamed; her blue eyes glistened briefly. “I’ll see you at the briefing, love,” she said. Louise smiled impishly and sashayed back towards the tents. Gemma sniffed and wiped her cheek. Leilani gave her shoulder a quick squeeze.
“So where do you want me then, Captain?” she murmured.
“Are you all right in the back again? I think it might be safer! You can keep an eye on the radar scope while Nicky works the guns.”
Leilani nodded, swallowing a tang of disappointment. She preferred to see where she was going – though it wouldn’t make much difference in the dark. But more than that, she’d rather plunge headfirst into the action. No matter; she was glad to come. At least she would be watching Gemma’s arse ...
The wry thought made her cheeks grow hot. She glanced away, across the paddy fields. Gemma sat up next to her and started to undo her sticky blouse. Leilani’s heart began to thump. The dusk was closing round them. Soon it would be dark. They might not see another dawn.
As Gemma shrugged out of her blouse, Leilani touched her cheek and turned her face. She kissed the blonde girl, long and slow, not caring who might see them, and Gemma responded almost greedily. Leilani fondled her warm breasts, then tugged her own blouse open and Gemma pulled it off her shoulders, both of them still kissing tongue-to-tongue. Their tits rubbed up against each other, nipples hard as pebbles. Leilani forced her fingers down the front of Gemma’s briefs. She found a yielding stickiness and poked until it gave, admitting her to liquid heat. The pilot gave a sob and raised her hips. Leilani probed her urgently, embraced in her strong arms, till Gemma came convulsively. Her squeal was muffled by Leilani’s mouth.
They rocked together quietly in the twilight. Leilani’s body ached with lust and loss. There was an emptiness inside, where Lena used to fill her. She didn’t dare believe that Gemma’s love could bridge the gap.
At last, reluctantly, they moved apart and started dressing. Gemma slipped into her slinky leotard once more. Leilani buttoned up her shirt. Her bosom still felt tender. “I owe you one,” said Gemma shyly. Leilani shrugged and hooded her moist eyes.
The two Black Widows lurked beside the road like crouching spiders. Leilani’s fine hairs prickled as she followed Gemma to the Major’s tent. A lantern cast a yellow glow over a map-draped table. Laura was staring down at it, arms folded sulkily. She had a leather flying jacket slung around her shoulders. Louise and Nicola were there, along with Tracey, Laura’s radar girl.
The Major talked about the route and navigation points. It all looked easy on the lamp-lit map. But Leilani was too conscious of the boundless night outside, and of the monster that would carry her. As well as the dark target they were planning to surprise. A fallen angel crawling on the Earth …
“Good luck, girls,” said Gemma as they came out of the briefing. She hugged Louise and Tracey. Laura deigned to let her kiss her on the cheek. Then they walked towards the waiting Widows. Leilani climbed the steps into the Mission’s abdomen. The isolation of the rear compartment weighed on her at once. She strapped herself into the seat and stared out at the tailplane; then swivelled to inspect the complex radar console. The engines coughed and clattered into life. The whole plane shuddered. Leilani put her headset on, and touched her carbine’s stock, as if for luck.
“Hold tight,” Gemma said over the radio. Her voice was crisp and self-controlled, not whimpery with passion any more. Leilani pictured her large breasts, cocooned in the tight leotard. Reaching down, she rubbed herself, a rough distraction from what lay ahead.
The plane moved off and bumped onto the roadway. Laura’s Widow followed, as if shadowing its mate. The sense of being stalked by it turned Leilani’s skin to gooseflesh. Pivoting, she turned away from Laura’s prying gaze.
The Nightie Mission picked up speed, and then her stomach tumbled as the aircraft left the ground and roared aloft. “Wheels up,” crackled Gemma’s voice as they banked over the jungle. The airframe rattled. Cables creaked. Leilani gripped the seat with her free hand. The other Widow settled into place astern of them. Leilani kept on glancing round, as if afraid to turn her back on it.
“Ladies,” Laura drawled, “I hope you’re sitting comfortably?” Behind her, at the gunner’s station, Louise answered yes with a wry smile. Tracey chimed in dutifully from the rear compartment. She was rather awed by Laura, in the same way that Susanna used to be.
Laura’s own smile was both smug and sour. Her dark eyes glittered. Gemma’s Widow drifted like a spectre through her sights. She forced herself to settle back; her breasts heaved in her bra. The flying jacket still hung round her shoulders like a cape.
Gemma altered course again, and they sped on through the darkness. Laura felt her mouth go dry. It might be never if it wasn’t now. She reached under her jacket, touched the butt of the Beretta and drew it from the waistband of her skirt.
“Careful, Laura,” Louise joked, “or we’ll be up her arse.”
“I do hate back-seat drivers,” Laura sighed.
She twisted round, aimed up and shot her colleague through the forehead, stamping a dark spot above those startled sapphire eyes. Louise’s head flipped back; her body bucked against the seat straps, her bosom straining at the nightie’s silk. Then she slumped and let her head fall forward. A stream of blood ran past her nose and dribbled, dark as ink, onto her chest.
The aircraft gave a wobble. Laura grasped the yoke and steadied it again. “Did you hear something?” Tracey asked over the intercom. “It sounded like a fuse just blew …”
“Don’t fret. All systems normal,” Laura purred.
Leilani had been staring at the looming plane behind her, compelled by its black shape despite herself. She saw a flicker in the cockpit, like a flashbulb popping. The Widow lurched, then caught itself and flew as surely as it had before.
But somehow it seemed different now, and much more ominous. Leilani felt a twinge of rootless dread. As if the thing behind her was no longer a mere aircraft but a living predator about to pounce.
“Gemma …?” she said hoarsely, still not sure what she was seeing. The plane behind them shifted, lining up. “Yeah?” came Gemma’s voice. Leilani peered at Laura’s Widow. Then fear boiled through her – “Break left! Break!” – and Gemma banked aside instinctively.
Laura’s aircraft opened fire with its four ventral cannons. The spray of 20mm shells just clipped the plane in front. Leilani gasped and felt the Widow shudder. A fragment of the engine cowling spun into their wake.
Gemma steered into a dive, and Leilani’s stomach surged towards her throat. The other Widow followed them, its belly cannons blazing. Tracers crackled through the night. Leilani cringed, unbearably exposed.
The jungle canopy rolled up towards them, and Gemma flattened out at treetop height. “She’s lining up on us again!” Leilani called, voice cracking. The pursuing plane was at their level, too low for the turret to engage.
Laura opened fire again with a fixed smile on her lips, ignoring Tracey’s gabbling in her ears. Gemma’s aircraft twisted like a fish out of the gunsight. More firefly tracers sped into the night.
A hillside loomed out of the dark and Gemma tilted past it, then plunged into a valley just beyond. To Leilani it felt like falling over backwards. She could just see Laura’s plane against the slightly lighter sky. The sense of hurtling blind towards her fate was horrible, but maybe it was just as well she couldn’t see the cliff ahead of them.
The Widow rose up suddenly as Gemma hauled the yoke back. Leilani had a sense of weight being shed. As she clutched the armrests of her seat, the night lit up behind her, a fireball boiling up out of the trees. The Widow turned into a lesser valley, still tilted on one wingtip as it fled across its slopes. Like a spider scuttling on a wall, Leilani thought, light-headed. The churning blaze was blotted out. She saw no sign of their pursuer now.
Laura had seen the fiery gout of petrol. Its fierce glare almost blinded her to the tree-cloaked cliff beyond. She pulled the yoke back into her taut midriff and climbed out of the valley, then came swinging round again. A swathe of trees below was burning fiercely. “You bitch, Gemma,” she panted. “Who’s the better pilot now?”
A part of her felt cheated that she hadn’t shot the plane down, but maybe her hits had damaged it and fatally impeded its escape. She almost preened herself with satisfaction. There was silence in her earphones now, but she sensed the fear of her trapped radar girl.
“Don’t worry, Tracey,” she said dryly, “I can’t get at you. Just sit back and relax … I’m taking you to meet some friends.” Still smiling, she changed the frequency. “Moonhappy calling Cobra. Are you receiving, over?”
“Loud and clear,” a cold voice said.
“Tell Tavener I’m coming in with the last surviving Widow; and tell her Gemma’s lost her wings for good.”
Still smiling, Laura banked towards the distant Cobra-Nest. Louise’s body lolled behind her, cleavage glistening with treacly blood. The Widow levelled out and hurtled southward. Poor Tracey felt as helpless as a field mouse caught in an owl’s claws.
She didn’t see the darkness stirring far astern of them, as another aircraft tracked them through the night.