Page 20 (1/2)

The loadmaster turned and whistled to his crew “Pull the other pallets off and load her up with this one Andpaid by the hour”

As the ground creent to work, a young woht Joe an ice-cold bottle of water She s eyes

“Thank you,” he said

“My pleasure, sir”

She winked and turned with a swish, and Joe had to fight hard to keep hi

He stood and considered the situation He was accustorease and neck-deep in the hands-on work He’d certainly never considered himself the supervisor type But as he sipped the cool drink and watched froo pallets were pulled off and rearranged in the strong an to consider it an option

He straightened his tie and glanced oncecustomer service rep

“A guy could get used to this”

A few hours later and a thousandflatbed He watched as the CASA-212 landed on the centerline of the tiny Alice Springs Regional Airport and taxied toward him

As the aircraft eased to a stop, Kurt put the truck in gear and drove up While the ground creent to work on the plane, Kurt climbed out of the cab and onto the flatbed He activated the truck’s hydraulics and tilted the flatbed down until its far edge touched the ground like a raun wheeling the pallet with the speeders on it toward him

Kurt attached a cable to the front of the pallet and used the flatbed’s winch to haul it up on board After locking it in place, he leveled the flatbed once again and jumped down

Joe Zavala sauntered out of the aircraft cabin a lasses

“Looking sharper than I remember,” Kurt said

“I’ement now,” Joe said “We have to dress for success”

Kurt chuckled He and Joe had been friends for years They’dthe than sitting around bored They’d been called troublemakers, undesirables, and been thrown out of at least twenty bars in their lifetih none in the past year or so But in the often tense and dangerous world that NUMA worked in, there were none better at keeping their cool and getting the job done