“I pull this?” She placed her hand over the ring.
Stan nodded. “You do,” he said.
Light was beginning to reveal the meadow as Stan settled himself on his chute and leaned back against the shock pad. He slid the hatch cover forward and opened the throttle. The P–40 surged with power and strained at her brakes. He looked back at Niva, cupped his hands and shouted.
“We’re about to take off!” He pointed to the sky. “I have a hunch there’ll be a committee from the Mikado to see us off.”
Niva bobbed her head and smiled.
Stan kicked off the brakes and blasted the tail up with a surge of exhaust. The ship slid out into the meadow and roared away, bouncing and bumping along until Stan sent her knifing upward.
They lifted above the jungle in a surging roar of power to meet the rising sun. At ten thousand feet Stan gave his attention to a cloud bank lazily floating above him. He eased over and headed away from the cloud. If there were Japs lurking up above, they would be in that cloud.
They were zooming along with their backs to the rising sun when Stan spotted four ships high above him. They had slipped out of the clouds and were nosing down. Three of the planes were Kariganes, the other was a P–40. Stan banked and looked up. His eyes were hard and cold. Munson was heading a pack to intercept him. He knew he could easily run for it and get away.
Glancing back at Niva, he pointed up toward the planes. She leaned forward and shouted:
“Don’t run away because of me!”