Conflagration

Looking the Part

The next morning, after making breakfast, Erin went to the far corner of the little shack and pulled the makeshift privacy curtain closed behind herself. Now, for the first time in days, she put her Noémie pilot's uniform on. It felt strange wearing pants again. Only now that she was no longer wearing the dress did she realize how used she'd gotten these past few days to its several meters of fabric. Her uniform pants now felt paradoxically liberating and restricting at the same time. She pinned her wings and her nametag over her breast pockets, straightened the epaulettes on her shoulders, and tied her Aviators' Guild tie. She put her shoulder holster on, even though her gun had been taken away. It was as close as she could get to completing the look of a "real Darklands pilot." She even shined her shoes as well as she could without any actual shoe polish. Whatever that stupid pirate, Col. Raith, wanted with her, she would show him what a professional was. She was a Journeyman Airman with the Aviators' Guild and a hardpointer captain for Noémie Charter Services. She was going to look the part.

By the time she emerged from behind the curtain, Matty had already arrived to escort them down to the steam barge. He was sitting next to Lyssa at Sister Judith's small table sipping a cup of coffee. Only then did it occur to Erin that the poor, foolish Matty might actually have a crush on Lyssa. She wondered if he knew that Lyssa was a lesbian.

Lyssa, already dressed in her grease-stained Noémie mechanic's coveralls, let out a long whistle as Erin emerged from behind the curtain. "Lookin' sharp, captain," Lyssa said.

"Thanks."

* * *

Everyone on the platform was staring expectantly to the south. Erin followed their gaze and looked toward the southern end of the valley. The lake looked placid with barely a wave in the early morning light as it stretched away into the distance. The wall of peaks along the valley's eastern edge were now fully bathed in morning light and even from several kilometers away Erin could see that the town of Pilgrim's Rest was coming to life.

She looked back to the south. Everyone was anticipating the imminent arrival of the plane carrying Col. Raith. As they stood there watching, it occurred to Erin that it would be pretty stupid for Raith to announce when he would be arriving and from what direction. Erin had met Raith and she was convinced he was a psychopathic warlord, but he hadn't struck her has stupid. Either he was lying about the time he was arriving or the direction.

Erin looked around her. Every set of eyes on the platform was staring southward. And Erin put it together. She looked to the north mere seconds before it happened. A single plane, one of the Third Law fighters, was approaching at extreme speed from the north. It was skimming the lake's surface mere meters above the water. The plane seemed to make no sound as it approached. That fact, coupled with the compression wave she saw moving aft along its fuselage told Erin that the plane was approaching at nearly the speed of the sound. She quickly raised her hands to cover her ears and took a deep breath, intending to shout a warning. But before she could shout, the approaching fighter broke the sound barrier as it passed less than a hundred meters away from the platform. Most of the people on the platform never expected the massive sonic

BOOM!

until it hit them.

And "hit" was the right word for it. Erin had heard sonic booms before, but never one from so close. She felt the sound more than she heard it. It was like a bomb going off. It reverberated through her thoracic cavity and pulsated through her bones. She felt like the platform beneath her feet had dropped away briefly and she had to struggle to stay on her feet.

Several of the mercenaries fell to the deck, by accident or by finely tuned soldiers' experience, Erin couldn't tell. Every person with a rifle trained their weapon in the direction from which the sound had come, but by the time the veteran mercenaries could even turn and raise their rifles, the now-supersonic fighter was gone, several kilometers to the south and moving even farther out of range every second. As the initial impact of the boom passed, its echo bounced back and forth between the mountains on either side of the valley. The echoes crossed the lake and then crossed it again until they blended together to become one long, constant rumble like rolling thunder. Finally, after several tense seconds, the rumble faded and a cheer rose up from the mercenaries all over the platform.

Erin understood what they were cheering. It could only be Maj. Tolbert. She made eye contact with Lyssa across the platform. Lyssa shook her head.

Erin noticed the look of worry in Lyssa's eyes. For all of Lyssa's bravado, Erin knew she was afraid of Maj. Tolbert.