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The cloud was thin here, drifting waves ofbank of cloud ood distance away It was cold, too; his face was chilled Heup ice if he went too hi--There

The other plane, closer and higher than he’d expected The other pilot spotted hi down on him, too close to avoid He didn’t try

‘Aye, wait for it, ye wee bugger,’ he ht on the stick One second, two, almost on him--and he buried the stick in his balls, jerked it hard left, turned neatly over, and went off in a long, looping series of barrel rolls that put hie

His radio crackled and he heard Paul Rakoczy chortling through his hairy nose

‘Kuroja mac! Where you learn that, you Scotch fker?’

‘At‘Buy me a drink, and I’ll teach it to ye’

A burst of static obscured the end of an obscene Polish re of farewell Ah, well Enough skylarking, then; back to the fking cameras

Jerry rolled his head, worked his shoulders and stretched as well as could be ed in the confines of a II’s cockpit--it had minor improvements over the Spitfire I, but roos for ice--no, that was all right--and turned farther inland

It was too soon to worry over it, but his right hand found the trigger that operated the caers twiddled anxiously over the buttons, checking, rechecking He was getting used to theers; he didn’t have the, either Tiny things, like typewriter keys, not the snug feel of the gun triggers

He’d had the left-handed ones only since yesterday; before that, he’d been flying a plane with the buttons on the right Much discussion with Flight and the MI6 button-boffin, whether it was better to stay with the right, as he’d had practice already, or change for the sake of his cack-handedness When they’d finally got round to asking him which he wanted, it had been too late in the day to fix it straight off So he’d been given a couple of hours’ extra flying tiht, there it was The bu fields of Northuht tear the countryside along it, separating north fro a piece of paper Bet the e, as he swooped down along the line of the ancient wall

The cameras made a loud clunk-clunk noise when they fired Clunk-clunk, clunk-clunk! Okay, sashay out, bank over, come down … clunk-clunk, clunk-clunk … He didn’t like the noise, not the sauns Made hiine … Aye, there it was cooal for the le, attached to Hadrian’s Wall like a snail on a leaf The old Roarrisons that guarded the wall Nothing left now but the outline of the foundation, but it , then dived and roared over it at an altitude ofrobots Pulled up sharp and hared off, circling high and fast, pulling out to run for the iain … and all the tiining what it would be like when the real day caht just going, but still enough to see clearly He’d circle, find an angle that would let him cross the whole camp and please God, one that would let hio in