The Fly Boys Read Free

blue heavens became
     slashed with bold black brushstrokes of smoke as waxed Jap fighters plummeted to the sea. Steve remained dutifully glued to
     Wohl as the major went after another target. The Zero corkscrewed as Wohl hosed it down with tracer rounds. An instant later
     it cracked open like a seed pod blossoming into fire.
    Steve glanced into his rear-view mirror, and then craned his neck to check the blind spots behind him. He saw a pair of Zeros
     angling in. He keyed his throat mike. “Major, we got company—”
    “Tell you what, old son, you’ve been a good boy so far. Why don’t you have at ‘em? Over.”
    “Can I have ‘em both, Major?” Steve asked eagerly.
    Wohl’s laughter filled Steve’s headset. “Sure, old son.” He banked hard left, skidding steeply away as the lead Jap’s twin
     20-millimeter cannons and a brace of 7.7-millimeter machine guns begin winking fire. “Take two, Lieutenant. They’re small.”
    The brace of Zeros were closing in fast as Steve worked his speed brakes and hauled back on his throttles and stick to roll
     up and over. The Zeros overshot him, streaking past still flying wing to wing. Steve leveled off and sighted in on the lead
     plane. He pressed his triggers. The staccato chattering of his quartet of .50s played counterpoint to the thudding of his
     20-millimeter cannon. The gunfire reverberated inside his cockpit as his rounds hammered sparks from the silvery wings and
     fuselage of the Zero. The wounded Jap plane yawed in preparation for a desperate skid to safety, but then Steve’s rounds blew
     off its propeller. The crippled Zero slammed into its companion, and then both disappeared in a crimson fireball.
    “Two for the price of one! Well done, Lieutenant,” Wohl said. “Now come on back into position as my wingman.”
    Fuck that
, Steve thought. He now had seven kills. There were still a half-dozen Zeros in the sky. With a little luck, he could get
     three more, to become a double ace. He keyed his throat mike. “Major, your signal is breaking up. Please repeat orders, over.”
    “I said get back into position as my wingman. Over.”
    “Major, there must be something wrong with my radio. I’m not receiving.”
    “Now you listen, you son of a bitch—”
    Steve turned down the gain until the major’s voice was barely audible. No way was he going to quit now. Maybe it was the fact
     that this was the first action he’d seen since being shot down, or maybe it was the ribbing from the other guys he’d just
     taken about how he’d been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Whatever it was, Steve knew that he just
had
to wax a couple more tails. He realized that he would likely catch hell for it, but he was willing to take the heat later
     on in exchange for more kills now.
    Steve opened up his throttles and pushed his stick forward, chasing after a fleeing Zero skimming low over the sea. He quickly
     closed the distance between himself and his target. He was less than a hundred feet above and behind the Jap when he began
     firing, whittling away the Zero’s tail. What remained of the Jap fighter tore itself to pieces cart-wheeling across the surface
     of the sea.
    “
Lieutenant Gold, this is Major Wohl. Return to position. I repeat—
”
    Steve pulled up and began to climb, on the lookout for fresh meat as Major Wohl’s tiny voice continued buzzing in his ear
     like a baleful conscience. Steve ignored it. It had been a long time since he’d seen combat, and now it felt just too good
     to stop. A Zero darted across his nose and Steve instinctively kicked rudder to try a difficult deflection shot. He managed
     to rivet a generous burst into the big red circle painted on the Zero’s side, evidently cutting come of the Jap fighter’s
     control cables. The Jap pilot slid back his canopy and bailed out as his fighter fluttered out of control like a flame-singed
     moth.
    “
Damn
, I never ever saw
anybody
shoot like that,” Steve heard Major Wohl blurt