Johnny Graphic and the Etheric Bomb Read Online Free PDF Page A

next to his seat.
    Whunk .
    Whunk .
    Whunk .
    Inches from his right ear.
    Then they dissolved into wispy nothingness.
     

 
    Chapter 6
    Tuesday, October 8, 1935
    Airborne over the northern Plains Republic
    Horrified, Johnny saw that one of the propellers had stopped turning, the engine trailing smoke. Down below, ghost riders in pointed helmets circled and swooped.
    He had to wake up Melanie. Fast . He swiveled and punched her in the arm.
    “Aaaa-oow!” She jumped up out of her seat and banged her head on the overhead compartment. She whimpered in pain. “You little worm, I’m going to wallop you!”
    “Trouble!” Johnny snapped. “Big trouble! Window! Now! ”
    Growling and rubbing the rapidly forming knot on her head, Mel leaned over and looked out. It didn’t take her long to comprehend their dire situation.
    “We’re under attack,” she gasped. “ By Steppe Warriors!”
    Johnny took another look, just in time to see the ghost soldiers plummet earthward and out of sight. Almost all of the one hundred and twenty seats in the big passenger compartment were occupied. Several people had woken up, peeking through the portholes on both sides. Air stewardesses and stewards brought up the lights and circulated, reassuring people that everything was under control.
    Johnny knew all too well that they were lying.
    “I’m going up to the flight deck,” Mel said.
    Johnny stared up at her, his mouth beginning to form the sound “Oops.”
    He’d forgotten about the mustache.
    “What?” Mel snapped.
    “I’m coming with,” he announced, grabbing his camera bag and sticking his Zenith Clarion press card in the band of his fedora. A fellow never could tell when there might be a newsworthy shot that needed taking.
    The stewards and stewardesses were so occupied with the other passengers that they didn’t notice Mel and Johnny sneaking up the steep, tight ladderway and onto the flight deck.
    “The Goose is Johnson Aircraft’s safest flying machine,” bellowed the frizzy-haired woman in the left-hand seat up front. “One of the safest in the whole world. The Goose has never crashed. Now, tonight, we have two engines blow out within seconds of each other. Two more and we go down.”
    She must be the pilot, Johnny thought. She had on headphones and a microphone, and probably didn’t need to shout. But he couldn’t blame her. He’d be shouting, too.
    “Dash it, Danny, we have to get down on the water,” the pilot continued. “Summit’s five hours west. That’s too far. And we’re too big to splash down anywhere else—we might never get airborne again.”
    The co-pilot, sitting in the right-hand seat, carefully worked some levers at the bottom of the main control panel. Their radioman sat behind them. He seemed to be broadcasting an emergency call.
    “Then it’s gotta be back to Zenith, Hilda,” the co-pilot shouted.
    Johnny jammed his elbow in Mel’s ribs and gestured at the pilot. “ Tell her what’s happened!”
    Beet-red in the face from embarrassment, Mel took a very deep breath and yelled, “Excuse me!”
    With headphones on, neither of the pilots, nor the radioman, could hear her. No one had even noticed the two youngsters.
    So Johnny decided to take charge. Mel was just too shy sometimes. He tramped over to the radio operator and tapped him on the shoulder. A wiry, middle-aged man with a prominent Adam’s apple, the fellow jumped almost a foot out of his seat. Ripping his headphones and mic off, he gaped at the two siblings. “You can’t be up here,” he said. “Get back to your seats right now, or you’re in big, big trouble.”
    “Everybody on this aeroboat is in big, big trouble,” Johnny barked back. “We think we know what happened, why your engines conked out.”
    “You know what?”
    “My brother here saw what happened,” said Mel in a loud voice.
    “You’re not pulling my leg, are you?” asked the radioman.
    “We’re deadly serious,” Mel replied.
    The radioman lurched