Wildfire Read Online Free PDF Page A

level.
    Ben felt inordinately pleased with himself. He gave Kelly a wide grin.
    ‘Now we’ll try a turn. You can turn using the stick, but if you don’t use the pedals as well you’ll get too much yaw. Have a go at turning her right. Keep your right foot on the rudder pedal, but not too much.’
    ‘How will I know when it’s too much?’
    Kelly tapped the horizon. ‘Keep this as close to the middle as possible. Oh, and don’t turn too sharply because we’ll lose lift and airspeed.’
    Ben looked around at the controls. ‘Will we need the throttle? Where is it, by the way?’
    ‘Forget about the throttle,’ said Kelly firmly. ‘Just turn using the stick and pedals.’
    Ben pushed the stick away from him and pushed his foot gently on the pedal.
    The microlight turned. This was easy.
    Suddenly Ben’s stomach seemed to leave his body, making for the top of the craft. He let go of the controls.
    The plane was dropping out of the sky.
    The map flew off Kelly’s lap and over her shoulder, like a trapped seagull. She snatched it back and, with her other hand, grabbed the stick. ‘You idiot!’ she yelled. ‘What did you do?!’
    Just as suddenly, the plane flew smoothly again. But the altimeter said they had fallen a hundred feet.
    Ben was white. He was gripping the seat so hard his fingers hurt. ‘I didn’t do anything. It just went by itself.’
    The respite was short-lived. The plane started to jump up and down, like a boat on choppy water. Kelly tried to control it with the stick and the pedals. She pointed the nose upwards and the engine roared as she tried to regain the height they had lost.
    But at least it seemed to be under control again. Ben’s stomach was calming down. He even felt able to make a joke.
    ‘When do we get to loop the loop—?’
    His words ended in a strangled sound. The plane dropped again, like an elevator plummeting with a snapped cable. Ben’s buttocks lifted off the seat. If he hadn’t had the seat belt on he’d have gone clean through the roof. He was paralysed with fear, only just able to hold on.
    Kelly was struggling with the controls. The engine above them seemed to be screaming. Ben caught a glimpse of the instruments. They were doingcrazy things, the needles swinging from side to side.
    Then the bright blue sky around the cockpit went dark, and Ben realized he could smell smoke.
    Something was burning.
    Was the microlight on fire? He looked behind and above. Where was the smell coming from?
    The windscreen cleared again, the smoke disappeared and they soared away into blue sky. Kelly watched the dials with fierce concentration, making adjustments. Ben gripped the seat, dreading it happening again.
    But the craft was flying calmly now. And he could no longer smell smoke.
    Kelly relaxed and unclosed her fingers from around the stick. She was breathing hard, like she had been running.
    Ben let go of the seat again. ‘I didn’t do that, did I?’
    Kelly shook her head. ‘You couldn’t do something like that even if you were flying in boxing gloves. There must be something outside that did it.’
    Ben craned around in his seat to see where the smoke had come from. A black plume rose from the park below. Bright orange flames flickeredthrough the tinder-dry trees, consuming them one after the other as though they were no more substantial than twigs. Ben had never seen anything like it.
    Kelly was peering out of the other side. ‘We caught the thermals from that fire. It must be giving off heat like a furnace.’
    The park adjoined a street of houses and the fire was eating through the trees like lightning. Soon it would run out of trees, and the next thing in its path was the row of houses.
    ‘Oh my gosh,’ said Kelly. ‘That looks really out of control. Call nine-one-one.’
    Ben slid his phone out of his pocket. He knew she meant the emergency services – 999 in the UK. ‘Actually,’ he said, ‘here it’s treble-zero.’
    Wanasri Kongprapoon had only finished her