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The Newfoundland base is a bare, scraped place beside dark water There are rows of Nissen huts, the British version of a Quonset hut, a scattering of tin-sided adar A bulldozer with a snow blade attached lies parked between two huts, but while it is chilly for summer, there is no snow

A jeep fetches the two passengers and hustles them away to thaw out around an iron stove in a Nissen hut equipped with the usual military lack of comfort

“Can a et a drink at least?” Cisco asks a Canadian air aithout a word Cisco intertwines his fingers and cracks his knuckles and says, “That fellow needs a good punch in the neck”

Rainy feels sleepiness steal over her and spends the hour’s break savoring the warmth of the stove Then it’s back aboard the plane, another takeoff, and a rapid ascent into low clouds They burst through into hazy, declining sunlight beneath a higher, thinner layer of cover, and take a big, sloping, rightward turn to the south This leg of the trip is to take eight hours, a very long ti the line between duty to the mission and the duty to stay alive

Gestapo That is the word that keeps pushing its way into her thoughts Geheime Staatspolizei, the secret state police, Hitler’s enforcers, his torturers Beatings Beatings at the very least The breaking of bones, the crushing of fingers, the gouging of eyes, rape, and

She sucks air, feeling panic add volatile fuel to her s She licks her lips and glances at Cisco tothe sick fear she has not yet suppressed

Rainy slips off her seat belt and stands, urgently needing to e, locating the che else She uses the facility, sitting perched on the tiny seat, bent forward, face in her hands

Soldiers die every day Soldiers are sacrificed every day She is a soldier

She heads forward to the open cockpit door and looks inside at a confusing array of dials and switches The pilot is head-back and mouth open, fast asleep, while the copilot keeps his hands on the yoke Peering through the windshield, Rainy sees taller, darker clouds ahead

“Boomers Thunderstor the clouds with a jerk of his chin

The piles of cloud are red in the light of the plunging sun Darkness looms in the east beyond Rainy returns to her seat and straps in

Thunderstorm it is, and the C-47 is not able to rise above it and has no slack in its fuel supply to try an end around

A flash, like the world’s biggest ca off and

Craaaack!

Boom!