The Devil Wears Wings

by Harry Whittington

  "I don't have to listen to you. You want it now?"

  "Sure. Why not? You think I got some insane need to stick around and see what happens to you-or her?" I waited, watching him. I could look into his eyes, but they were flat now, something had gone out of them. "Come on, Coates. Get your kicks. Kill me, Coates. Come on, you strange-looking bastard. You going to kill me? Do it now. Get your kicks."

  I raged at him, watching him sweat. He twitched, stirring, and then, suddenly making a strangled noise in his throat, he lifted the gun away from Judy's spine. I reacted with him, making one fluid motion of it. I sent the plane abruptly up and over so the whole thing shook and wailed. Judy didn't make a sound, but Coates screamed, toppling off balance. I fought the controls with one hand, bringing the plane around and level, and with the other I brought the wrench up from the floor, over my head and down into Coates' face. He didn't flinch. He took it, across the nose, across the forehead. The sound of metal crushing bone was sickening. I heard the roar of the gun and then the impact drove me hard against the door of the plane.

  I brought the wrench down again. I could not see Coates. I couldn't hear him and I couldn't feel anything. But after what seemed an eternity, I heard Judy yelling at me and my eyes cleared and the earth was spinning and whirling upward toward us.

  "Buz," she cried. "Oh, Buz, you're hurt."

  I shook my head, trying to clear the red mist that fogged my vision. I worked the controls, watching the earth until it flattened out and the little plane went into a long even glide. It took everything I had ever learned to put the Cessna back to earth. We went down swiftly, but it all seemed to be happening very slowly. It took an eternity and then the wheels touched down and I laughed because we were nowhere near a runway. When I laughed, I tasted blood. I lifted my head and stared across the field. The police cars were racing toward us. I was thinking: they got me. The ground bastards got me. I glanced at Coates, flopped back, unconscious, his face bloody, but somehow looking no more outlandish than usual. He was the ground bastard who really pulled me down and showed me I was no better than he was. I didn't move. Finally the plane rolled to a stop and I cut the engine.

  I said, "Judy, why don't you get out of here?"

  "Oh, Buz."

  "Go on. Get to hell out of here."

  "I love you, Buz. I'll always love you."

  "Get out."

  She smiled, a twisted little smile full of tears. She leaned over and kissed my cheek, very gently. At least, I hardly felt it.

  "All right, Buz. All right, darling."

  She went away, opened the door, and was gone.

  I didn't move. In the interminable distance, I saw the police cars racing across the field toward me. I tried to laugh, but I couldn't. They always won in the end, didn't they?

  From far away I heard the scream of a siren, and I smiled to myself, thinking, I'll have to tell Greenie that I can't make that job in South America. I can never go down there as his equal now…

  But then I put the whole thing out of my mind. After all, you can't have everything. Can you?