Instead of turning on his opponent, Ted swung up and under an enemy coming from above and, seeming to stand his plane on its tail, sent a burst of fire into the enemy’s engine. The Zero wavered. Something hung from it for a space of seconds, then rocketed downward.
“Shot off his motor!” Jack exulted.
Stew did not hear. His mind was still on the task before him. The rain squall was over. He spotted the two groups of enemy ships, also some small islands off to the east. With a strange sense of finality coursing through his being, he reported all this to the Black Bee’s radioman. As he listened after that, he thought he heard the low rumble of many distant planes. He could not be sure; too much was going on directly beneath them.
Continuing his magnificent circles, Ted came up behind the very Zero that seconds before had been following him. He let out a burst of fire. Smoking badly, the Zero limped into a cloud.
“Now! Now we’ve got to get down there!” Jack tilted his plane for a steep dive, then set his motor at top speed.
The two remaining Zeros were closing in on Ted. At the same time three others were swinging in on him from the left. The three were flying in formation, rather far apart.
“Get ready with your twinflex,” Jack ordered. “We’ll go right into that trio and break it up.”
Did the Japs see them coming? No matter. They came in too fast for the Japs to dodge. At just the right instant Jack pulled up short, then let out a burst of fire that cut squarely across the lead plane of the Japs.
At the same time Stew swung his twinflex gun on the second plane and let him have it for all he was worth.
What happened after that came so quickly that it remained a blur in Jack’s memory. Afterward he seemed to recall seeing two Jap planes falling, and Ted, with a damaged plane, disappearing into a cloud. At the same time something had creased his forehead. He went dizzy for an instant, then he was all right again.