Side-Winder, who was a yard or two behind RITCHIE, K. understood what was happening a split second earlier. Spinning round in an effort to escape, he found the masked figure of Clearwater behind him. As he attempted to hurl her aside, he fell full length over the crouching body of Cadillac.

Jodi, who had masked up after her scream, then ducked underneath the aircraft, fell on the big mexican and helped Clearwater hold him down till he started to choke. When they let go, Side-Winder rolled over on to his back and just lay there, convulsed with pain and gasping for breath.

Steve limped over and helped Kelso drag him across to the fire then went back for the two pilots. Jodi was trying to get Cadillac back on his feet. When the pilots had been laid alongside Side-Winder, Kelso pulled out the heavy air pistol he'd taken from BLACKWELL, B. and aimed it at the pilot's head.

Jodi pushed the pistol aside. 'No, Dave! Please. Don't do it!" Her voice, through the mask, sounded full of cotton wool.

'Okay." Kelso relieved both men of their shoulder holsters, then checked Side-Winder for hidden weapons. Nope. Just the handset...

Clearwater picked up the empty flask of sake, slipped it inside the mexican's tunic and gave him a farewell pat on the forehead. Picking up the canvas tote-bag, she walked over to the aircraft with Jodi and Kelso. Cadillac had fallen over again.

'Leave him to me,' said Clearwater.

'How come you're still on your feet?" asked Kelso.

'I drank a lot less than you thought,' she said.

Jodi and Kelso helped Steve manhandle the second plane round so that its rear-mounted propeller faced the port side of its sister craft.

Steve hauled himself painfully aboard, locked the brakes, hit the starter-b.u.t.ton, then pushed the throttle wide open, using the slipstream to clear the gas-filled c.o.c.kpit.

He allowed a good ten minutes for the toxic fumes to disperse, then eased the throttle right back and climbed out, leaving the prop ticking over. 'Okay. Who's gonna take the first sniff?"

'Cadillac." Clearwater marched the gla.s.sy-eyed Mute forward. 'Don't worry. He won't feel a thing."

Steve pulled Cadillac's mask off, patted his face to gain his attention, and shouted in his ear. 'Breathe!

Deeply!" Cadillac did his best and showed no ill-effects. Steve tore his own mask off and tossed it away. Everyone else followed suit.

'Okay! Let's make tracks!" Steve pushed Cadillac into Kelso's arms.

'Stow him in the cargo bay. By the time he wakes up, we'll be halfway to Wyoming."

Kelso hesitated. 'What about that store of goodies on the beach?"

Steve grabbed the tote-bag and backed away towards the second aircraft with Clearwater. 'Forget it, Dave!

We can't afford to hang around!" 'Are you crazy? By the time we find Malone we're gonna be up to our a.s.ses in snow! We need some of that stuff! Look! Give us fifteen minutes to pick up as much as we can carry!" 'All right. But move it!" Jodi and Kelso stowed Cadillac in the small cargo hold and ran off towards the beach leaving the hatch open.

Steve helped Clearwater up into her seat in the c.o.c.kpit, stowed the tote-bag, then limped over to Kelso's plane and started up the motor so they'd be ready to make an instant getaway. Where AMEXICO was concerned it was best not to take any chances.

Down on the beach, Kelso had jumped down into the waterproofed Aladdin's cave and was tossing out as many goodies as he could lay hands on. Medicaid kits, ration packs, filtration packs. There was enough to keep a bunch of guys alive this winter and the next.

Jodi knelt down, and gathered them up as fast as she could, stuffing them into a couple of zipper bags Kelso had found in the store.

'Dave!

You've had eleven minutes. C'mon! Jack it in!" Kelso threw out some more packs. 'Are the bags full?"

'Yeah! C'mon! Stop fuggin' around! We gotta get.outa here I'

'Okay!

You go ahead. If he sees you, he'll know I'm right behind!" Jodi hauled the bag off the ground and looked down at Kelso. 'You got precisely three minutes and nineteen seconds! If you're not there, I'm leaving without you!" 'For chrissakes! I'm comin'!" Kelso started to clamber out of the underground store.

Jodi began a stumbling run up the track that led up through the dunes and on to the strip. Kelso knelt down with his back to her and raked a few more packs into the second zipper bag. When Jodi had disappeared from view, he reached down into the waistband of his tunic and pulled out Side-Winder's handset.

'Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. This is Rat-Catcher. Rat-Catcher to all Mother stations. Does anyone read me?

Over."

A crackle of static. 'Rat-Catcher. This is Sky-Bucket Three. We have your Mayday five by five. Activate your Find and Fix channel for Search and Rescue or state nature of emergency. Over."

Kelso ran back across the gra.s.s with the bulging zipper bag perched on his shoulder. Steve and Clearwater sat beneath the closed canopy, helmeted, strapped in and ready to go. Kelso gave them the thumbs-up sign, then threw his bag of goodies into the cargo hold alongside the sleeping Cadillac and slammed the hatch shut. Jodi was in the pilot's seat. 'Move over!" Jodi gritted her teeth and changed places. 'Where the h.e.l.l'ye you been?"

'I'm here, aren't I? Gimme a break!" Kelso gunned the motor and ran quickly through the take-off checks as Jodi read them off the idiot board. They saw Steve turn his aircraft and taxi to the end of the gra.s.s strip. Kelso followed, drawing up at an angle beside him. He pulled on the helmet that BLACKWELL, B. had left in the c.o.c.kpit.

The pilots had left the plane-to-plane channel switched on.

Steve's voice came through the earphones. 'This is Big Open Airways, Flight One, ready to roll. How about you?"

'A-OK,' said Kelso. 'Let's burn the hay."

Steve looked across at Clearwater and gave her hand a rea.s.suring squeeze. 'Frightened?"

'No,' her smile was composed, enigmatic. 'I always knew that one day we would fly away together."

Steve selected fifteen degrees of flap, opened the throttle wide and released the brakes. The Sky-Rider dipped down on its nose-wheel as it surged forward, then settled back and was soon skimming over the gra.s.s and out across the water. The eastern horizon had now turned golden yellow. Steve looked over his shoulder and saw the second Sky-Rider following him in a climbing turn to the west. For the first time in a long time he felt truly happy.

Some thirty minutes after the two Sky-Riders had left the strip at Long Point, a second pair came skimming in over the water from the south.

They landed without making a circuit of the strip, and rolled to a stop close by the three immobilised mexicans.

The first pilot to reach them was carrying a special MX first-aid case.

Opening it up, he took out a pack of pre-filled hypodermic syringes and gave each man an injection. It was the antidote to the crippling effects of the nerve gas and enabled a victim to recover fully within half an hour.

Eventually, Side-Winder and the two men tagged as BLACKWELL, B. and RITCHIE, K. were helped to their feet and, after a lot of coughing and spitting, took in healing draughts of fresh air.

'Boy,' breathed Side-Winder. 'That stuff,s a real killer."

He reached inside his tunic and found the empty sake flask. Ho, ho...

Big joke. He tossed it away. What the runaways didn't know was that AMEXICO would have the last laugh.

The second pilot returned to his machine and spoke over an open UHF link to an orbiting signals aircraft.

'Sky-Bucket Three to Cloud-Cover. Message for Mother.