Titanium Texicans Read Online Free PDF

needed a friend.”
    Lamont grabbed his wife and pushed her towards their aircraft. He paused before following her. “I’ll tell you this, son. I don’t like being turned away at the point of a gun. I will go, but I will remember this the next time we meet. You’ve made an enemy tonight.”
    Tasso shouted back, “You’re seven years too late coming to that realization, Mr. Lamont. You remember that.”
    He continued to point the shotgun at the aircraft until it vanished in the distance. He yelled in frustration, blasting a dozen shots at the dark sky.
    “Yeah, I know, Grandpa. Wasting ammunition is childish,” Tasso said, but he felt better.
    He propped the shotgun against a fender and walked to the repaired tie rod. He cautiously tapped the metal and found that the weld was cool enough to touch. He picked it up and saw a large lump of metal had fused around the cut. He tapped one end against the rock, but it stayed in one piece. He pulled at each end and it held.
    “Hunh! That might have worked.” He looked at the patch of sky that swallowed the Lamont’s aircraft and shouted, “I may not have to walk after all, so there.”
    He carried the part back to the flitter and carefully examined it in the light. He couldn’t see any cracks in the impromptu weld, but the knobby blob of metal would keep the tie rod from sliding smoothly through its attendant groove. Crawling into the back, he held the tie rod to its boltholes in the engine. It looked like it would still fit. It looked a bit thinner than other tie rods. He grabbed a rasp from the toolkit and sat down to file the excess metal away.
    Working to fix the flitter helped calm his jangled nerves. He was already upset over the loss of his grandfather, and the flitter damage really didn’t help his mood. The encounters with the Lamonts made him angry. Breaking rocks would help him release his frustration, but the small delicate engine work was all he had available. He knew if one more thing went wrong, he was going to have to break something.

CHAPTER 5
    THE SUN WAS WELL ABOVE THE HORIZON AS TASSO watched the Bain Highlands disappear behind him. He was flying low enough to frighten the flocks of sheep scattered across the deep green hills in the morning light. Watching the fluffy looking animals bleat and bound away from his shadow would have been funny if he’d been in a laughing mood.
    His grandfather was gone and he’d had to leave his home for who knows how long. He’d managed to make temporary repairs to the flitter, but he was still angry that someone had damaged it before he took it on his long flight. And yes, now the flitter was his. Grandpa would want him to have it, not Uncle Bruce who hadn’t wanted anything to do with their place. On top of it all, why did Dougall have to be the one to answer the flitter transponder call?
    The little red flitter sputtered occasionally, causing Tasso to hold his breath. Once through the McGrath Pass, he put the McWithy Range behind him. He set the autopilot to an altitude of ten feet. He was barely skimming the surface of the planet, scooting around trees and avoiding steep hillsides. It shouldn’t hurt any worse than his first crash, assuming he crashed right side up, if he crashed this low. A ten-foot drop wouldn’t give him any time to react.
    Flocks of sheep gave way to herds of cattle. The sight of large cattle herds shifted to views of large farms and plowed fields. Tasso spotted a small cluster of horses. He knew about horses, he’d just never seen one before. He stared at the large creatures until they were out of sight. Smaller farms replaced the large farms and slowly changed to industrial parks and clusters of homes.
    Along the way, the autopilot beeped at Tasso and took over. It slid over a dirt farm path, slowed, and lowered the altitude by a couple of feet. The flitter turned onto a gravel road. It slowed again and lowered the altitude a few more feet. It turned again onto a paved road, slowed, and