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"Are they likely to notice us?" Against all logic, but keeping with the

"Hopefully not," the captain was quick to say "I’her, so they won’t hear us if we run the engines We need to get out of their i in their immediate airspace?" Mr Rand demanded

The first mate replied, "We aren’t there on purpose, you limey bastard The Yanksand this evening Carter said there’s no way they’d swing this far, unless we’ve gone off course--"

"I knohat Carter said," the captain growled "And we haven’t gone off course We’re brushing the south end of the Sotten here faster than the telegraph got to Richainst the glass like little boys exa a store display at Christ, as excited as Mercy was nauseated She’d never been to a front--the CSA’s, or anybody else’s--and knowing one was immediately below made the sides of her head hurt

In front of her, the oldon?"

Mercy resisted the urge to shush hih to wave his hand and say, "Sir, please"

One of the crew members said, "They can’t hear us all the way up here"

Everyone kneas true, but no one wanted to push any of the luck that held them aloft

It was nearly as black as the inside of a cave, there inside the Zephyr Only the peeping glow of ers could hardly see one another, though they traded nervous stares, looking fro nothing but the weak, pale frowns of ghosts

Down on the ground, the world was buhed thick pluainst the stark pitch of the night around the lines

If Mercy looked long enough, she could al herthe nubs of the Smoky Mountains, she could see a strip cut across the earth; it was a fragile thing froht, only a dim break in the trees where a railroad ran It snaked, but not sharply, around the prohibitive geography; and in front of this line, she saw the big guns fanning forward, away from the train tracks, and into the forests

She leaned out of her seat and asked the cockpit, "Captain, how far are we froa?"

"Thirty miles or so We’re nearly on top of Cleveland, a little town outside it," he replied without taking his eyes off the windscreen Froreen and yellow lights flashed against the faces and hands of the men orked them "Worst comes to worst, we’ll s out"

Gordon Rand nearly sneered, "Worst comes to worst? We’ll crash and die, isn’t that closer to the worst end of the possibility spectruoddamned faith, would you?"

"Everyone stay cal the veil of muffled conversation that stayed below the level of ordinary chatter, but his voice was rising "No one even knoe’re up here"

"How do you know that?" Dennis asked, sounding anxious for the first ti at us yet Now, all of you, please stay calm, and keep the chatter to a minimum I need to concentrate"

Their jolly little leader had turned out to be made of sterner stuff than he looked That was fine by Mercy, who hadn’t initially pegged hiency His hands worked the controls with familiarity, and there was a set to his jaw that inspired optiht confidence But she heard the first her; these cabins aren’t pressurized for that kind of altitude"

And the captain responded, "Yes, Richard I know But if we can just spin it up, we can give ourselves an arc and a boost outside their hearing"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>