"Definitely not!" young Farmer echoed. Then with a frown he said, "But that business last night still bothers me. Somehow, I just can't see how that Japrat we met at San Diego could possibly have had anything to do with it. Just sabotage, I think, and we happened to be the two unlucky ones who took this aircraft off the L.A. base field."
"Maybe," Dawson said with a shrug. "But until I get a better explanation I'm going to continue to pin it on that Japrat. Anyway, here we are, and that Japrat back at Dago is a forgotten issue, as far as I'm concerned. Now it's for that dirty Nazi in a Yank Naval Aviation uniform, the stinker."
"Quite," Freddy Farmer murmured. "And here comes the reception committee, or something. Looks like they don't trust you to taxi this thing in. The signal tower says for us to stay put. Just as well, too. You can mess up an airplane even on the ground, you know."
Dawson had a fitting crack to that remark, but he sighed and let it go unspoken. An Air Forces jeep had come rocketing out to the Flying Fortress, and braked to a stop just under the left wing. Dave half waved at the occupants of the jeep, three Air Forces officers and a Navy commander, and then slid out of his seat, and made his way aft to the belly exit of the plane.
A couple of minutes later they were facing the wide-eyed stares of the jeep's riders.
"I'm Captain Larkin, duty officer," one of the Air Forces officers said. "But, what happened to you two? You run into trouble? From here you look like you bumped into the whole Jap air force."
"We had a little trouble," Dawson said with a grin. "But ..."
That's as far as he got. The Navy commander gave a sharp shake of his head, and stepped forward.
"Sorry, Captain Larkin," he said with a pleasant smile, "but these two are to report to Vice-Admiral Stone at once. Any report is to be made to him."
Captain Larkin frowned, then shrugged and returned the other's smile.