Stan hurried away. He did not want Nick to see him at the door. When he arrived at the Hudson they were to fly, he found Tom Koo explaining flight details. Nick Munson sauntered up a few minutes later and stood listening.
“It is not unusual to be attacked by Jap fliers over the Gulf of Siam,” Tom Koo said. “They do not recognize neutral waters or soil. But you all know the Hudson can fly as fast as most pursuit ships and that she is well armed. Our only danger comes from spies flashing word of our take-off to the enemy. In that case we may be ambushed by a swarm of fighter planes.” He smiled at the fliers. “If you sight ten or twenty enemy planes, you duck and run for it.”
“What if we sight half a dozen?” Stan asked.
“We shoot them down,” Tom Koo said modestly.
“Very encouraging,” Allison drawled.
“Jest you furnish me a fighter to ride herd on the bombers and we’ll show the spalpeens,” O’Malley exclaimed.
“The distance is too great for a fighter plane,” Tom Koo explained. “We just fight our way through.”
Stan smiled. The Chinese were used to fighting with the odds against them. They had been meeting the Japanese that way for years.
“We’ll take the Hudson through,” Stan said. “And if you hang a few eggs underneath, we’ll drop them on Saïgon just by way of a little token.”
Tom beamed. “A very good idea. But we have no bombs here to take along. At our China bases we will find bombs—American made bombs and very good ones.”