Ghosts of the Past Read Online Free PDF Page A

he was going to survive this war.
    “Everything appears okay, Major.” Gernert announced as he bent down to enter the cockpit again.
    “Yeah, the bird seems to be holding up.”
    “I did notice some pretty significant damage on this side, up in the wing and around the engine, but nothing was smoking.” Gernert added as he strapped himself back into his seat.
    Hignite glanced over at the oil pressure gauge for the starboard engine and noticed a slight dip, but nothing noteworthy. Gernert followed his reaction and came up with the same conclusion.
    “Keep an eye on that,” Hignite nodded toward the instruments.
    The next fifteen minutes were uneventful. They had managed a visual of the southeastern tip of Lake Zurich off in the distance and altered their heading to the southeast, making the turn over the town of Uznach. It was the first time in a long time Hignite had seen the lights of any town at night from the air. Blackouts had been the norm for most of the cities on both sides of the war.
    Gernert noticed the problem first, “Major we’ve got a problem with my engine over here.”
    The smoke started billowing out almost immediately, followed by a spontaneous drop in the oil pressure gauge. The injured line had burst and was now throwing oil all over the engine.
    Hignite leaned forward and eyed the damage. “The bastard did get us!” He sat back, reached for the throttle on the right side engine, and eased back on the power. “I’m not real confident we can stay afloat without it.”
    The two of them started looking ground ward simultaneously. Almost in unison, they somberly looked back at each other with identical concern.
    Gernert peeked back at the engine, which was now starting to pop bursts of flame. “She may be getting ready to burn Major.”
    “Shut her down!” Hignite barked.
    Gernert reached for the ignition switch and flipped it off, watching the propeller slowly wind down, and stubbornly come to a complete stop. Hignite could feel the precipitous drop in power and the heavy load was self-evident as the weighted down Junker began a gradual uncontrolled descent.
    “We’re going to have to dump some of the loot.” Hignite reasoned.
    “I hate to be the bearer of bad news Major, but our little rendezvous with that Mustang moved things around back there. The stuff has been slammed back into the door so hard, it would take a miracle to get it open.”
    “You better head back there and start praying for a miracle, because if we don’t shed some weight we’re going to have to put her down in the next few minutes. I assume you noticed, as I did, our choice of landing strips appear to be more vertical than horizontal.”
    Gernert did not bother to reply, he was already making his way back to the belly to see what he could do. As he crawled his way over the wood encased treasures, his worst fear was realized… the door was blocked completely. He stripped off his flying gloves and tried desperately to jam his hand down to where the door handle was located, but the small crease allowed only four fingers and half his palm to wiggle there way in. He rolled over on his back and repeatedly started kicking at the door with the heel of his right foot, to no avail.
    “Max, I’m not having any luck back here, how much time have we got?” he yelled as loud as he could.
    Hignite was trying to hold her up as best he could, without success. He was looking frantically down on the terrain below for any semblance of lights that would indicate a village and a flat spot that would function as a landing area. He was headed over a valley wall when he spotted the long, irregular, virgin patch of snow that meandered around the valley they were dropping into fast.
    As he banked left to get a better look at what might be their only opportunity, he heard Gernert yelling in the back.
    “We’re out of time, get yourself strapped in back there,” Hignite screamed, knowing Gernert probably stood a better chance in the back