In the Boss's Arms. Barbara Hannay

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СКАЧАТЬ like a vice, breaking the rhythm of her breathing. She had a vision of the ground racing up to meet them, fancied she heard the shriek of ripping metal, the blast of an explosion. Pain.

       Idiot, stop that right now!

      She heard a faint groan and stared hard at Joe. Had he made that noise? Was his colour improving? Surely he looked a little pinker?

      He groaned again and coughed.

      ‘Joe’s alive!’ she screamed.

      Liam was too busy focusing on instructions from the radio to reply.

      Joe clutched at his stomach.

      ‘He’s coming round,’ shouted Alice.

      ‘Can he talk?’ Liam called back to her.

      Alice gave the poor man a shake. ‘Hey, Joe, wake up. We need you!’

      ‘Ask him if the plane has fixed or retractable landing gear,’ yelled Liam.

      ‘Joe,’ Alice shouted. ‘What kind of landing gear does this plane have?’

      There was no reply. Joe’s face was pale again and beaded with sweat.

      ‘Please, Joe,’ urged Alice. ‘Tell me about the landing gear.’

      ‘Fixed,’ he whispered.

      ‘Fixed,’ she called back to Liam.

      ‘Fixed,’ Liam shouted into the radio. ‘Hallelujah! We’ve got wheels!’

      His excitement was contagious. Suddenly it seemed possible that somehow Liam was going to land this plane. They were going to be all right. Alice felt a surge of courage. She was going to have faith. Now. Even when poor Joe rolled onto his side and groaned wretchedly, she remained calm.

      She found a hand towel and a bottle of water in her backpack and washed his face. His eyes flickered open.

      ‘Sorry about this. Think it must be food poisoning.’ And then he tried to sit up. ‘I’m all right now. I’ll take over.’ But he’d no sooner spoken than his face turned as white as paper and he sank backwards again, clutching his stomach.

      ‘If you try to fly and keep blacking out we won’t make it, Joe. The best way you can help is by lying still and staying conscious. That way, Liam can ask you questions.’

      Eyes closed, he nodded.

      She dampened the towel again and mopped the beads of perspiration on his brow, and as she worked she watched Liam in her periphery.

      From her point of view he looked perfectly cool and collected, but she knew that was impossible. He’d never flown a plane before. He would be fighting fear every second.

      ‘I can see the landing strip now,’ he was telling his instructor on the radio and he sounded remarkably calm. ‘Yes, I’m pulling back on the throttle, reducing power. Yes.’

      Joe grabbed Alice’s elbow. ‘Tell him he mustn’t let the nose drop more than six inches below the horizon.’

      She relayed the message at the top of her voice.

      ‘Doing my best,’ was Liam’s grim-voiced reply.

      She could feel the plane’s descent and panic rose again, but she pushed it away from her. She had faith in Liam Conway. He was going to make this. They were going to be safe.

      Joe’s eyes were shut and she wondered if he’d fainted again, but when the sound of the motor suddenly changed his eyes opened and his head snapped back.

      ‘Pull all the way back on the throttle,’ he shouted.

      ‘Pull all the way back on the throttle,’ Alice repeated.

      ‘I’m pulling!’

      This time Liam sounded really worried. Alice could see the tension in his shoulders, the strain in the back of his neck.

      Through the windscreen in front of him, she saw the airstrip, tilted at an alarmingly rakish angle, zooming closer, closer.

      She almost jumped out of her skin when Joe’s hand grabbed her wrist. ‘You should have your seat belt on,’ he said.

      ‘What about you?’

      ‘I can’t bloody move. I’ll be OK down here.’ He was grasping the legs of seats on either side of the aisle. ‘You get in a seat. Quick!’

      The plane teetered back to the correct level as Alice scrambled into her seat and buckled up. Oh, God, they were almost touching the ground. She wanted to yell to Liam that he could do this, but her throat was too jam-packed with fear. Besides, she knew he was listening intently to the person talking him down on the radio.

      She held her breath.

      The hard red dirt of the outback airstrip was so close now. Coming closer every second.

      She shut her eyes as the wheels skimmed the earth. They bumped and bounced off again and then reconnected with a rough thump that almost jolted her out of her seat. Oxygen masks tumbled out of overhead lockers as their tiny craft bounced and streaked at breakneck speed along the rough airstrip. Alice didn’t dare to breathe.

      On the floor beside her lay Joe, his face contorted with pain and the effort of holding himself in place.

      But they were slowing. Yes, they were definitely slowing. They were alive and the plane…was…coming…to a stop.

      ‘You did it!’ she screamed, rushing over to Liam.

      He turned as she reached him and he looked pale and shell-shocked, as if he didn’t quite believe he’d made it.

      ‘That was just fantastic!’ she cried, throwing her arms about him and hugging his shoulders.

      ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘But I think we’d better get out of here fast. God knows what I’ve done to the plane.’

      She stepped back quickly, realising that her celebration was premature.

      ‘You get out while I get the pilot,’ he said.

      ‘I’ll help you.’

      ‘No, you look after the door.’

      Right. Alice turned to the door and saw the complicated handle. Oh, heck. How on earth was she supposed to open it? For a moment she felt embarrassingly useless—especially when Liam had been so amazingly resourceful—but then she noticed a helpful sign and a diagram.

      Liam hauled Joe’s arm over one shoulder and got him to his feet, but the poor fellow only took a few steps then folded, so in the end Liam had to carry him out and they settled him on the ground in the shade of a bush.

      Shading her eyes against the glare, Alice saw two four-wheel-drive vehicles scorching towards them, their cabins barely showing above clouds of billowing red dust.

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