First Knights

Nancy Berman and Noah Dudley

Charlie's style had always been of her own creation, and her style of aerial combat was no exception. Although she had done well during training, she could never resist the urge to improvise. "I'm working on improvements," she said to Norm.

"Well, don't improve yourself out of the sky, alright? This isn't a game, Charlie."

Now, as she and the squadron headed for their first combat, she instinctively grasped the inequities between her craft and those of her opponents, and devised a daring strategy far outside the imaginations of most air marshals, her comrades, or the city planners of the Pueblo de Los Angeles.

In short, it was completely insane.

The enemy raiders had not heard the approaching planes over the noise of their own rotors. They were more concerned with operating a large airship in the close quarters of a metropolitan downtown area without alerting their quarry of their presence. Almost grazing the tops of Broadway's newest office buildings, they prepared to move out over the street and drop down into the crowds, paralyzing traffic on the city's main thoroughfare as they pursued their murderous agenda. However, their plan did not include a maniac aviator screaming up Broadway right between the buildings!

Still several blocks away, Charlie focused all her attention on maintaining equal space between her wingtips and the brick buildings on either side. Frequently she had to dip her wings to one side or the other to avoid a fatal collision with a sign, a street lamp, or an awning. At her speed the slightest contact could be fatal--something she had not appreciated until she had pulled up on her throttle within seconds of smashing into 17th Street.

"Oh, look, Jimmy!" she giggled with more confidence than she felt. "The new spring fashions are in!"

His answer was lost to the ages. The crowds below her were gaping, unaware of the danger ahead, but the sight of her plane was enough to send them scurrying for shelter like ants. Charlie sent up a short, silent prayer of thanks. If she ended up in the street at least she wouldn't take any innocent bystanders with her...

Up ahead the Sky Slavers hovered uncertainly. "C'mon, you jerks," Charlie screamed, "get out of here! Crazy aviatrix on the road!" The plan was to spook the crowds away and send the Sky Slavers running for cover--while the rest of the squadron tailed them at a safe distance, all the way back to their base.

Suddenly the Slavers moved--the wrong way! Hesitating too long, there was no time for them to rise and flee; instead they dropped toward the ground and the panicked crowds. Charlie was close enough now to watch in horror as they poked their Tommy guns out of the gyro windows and began to fire into the crowd!

"Oh no!" she screamed. "Not again!" Unable to use her own weapons for fear of the bystanders, Charlie could only pull up and fly over, expecting every moment to hear the staccato rattle of bullets through her own fuselage--or feel them burning into her body.

"Charlie!" Jimmy radioed from behind. "It's all right! They're only firing into the street! Nobody's hurt!"

She felt a cold flood of relief wash over her body. Commanding the trembling in her hands to stop while she rolled over, she began another, less dangerous, pass over downtown.

"They're sending us a message," she called back. "They'll spare the civilians if we let them go. Follow me." Gaining altitude, she began to circle widely with Jimmy directly opposite her. Her own message was equally clear to the Sky Slavers: if they did not live up to their part of the implied bargain, two high-flying hawks would attack. What they did not know was that Charlie had arranged her other "hawks" high above all over town.

Apparently the Slavers got the message; they lifted up over the buildings, heading back the way they came. Charlie smiled. She could almost feel their eyes upon her. Wouldn't they be surprised when they found out they'd been outfoxed and outflown by a woman!

"Run, my little Sky Slavers!" she said, as much for Jimmy's benefit as for her targets. "Run back to your little hole so we can flush you out!"

"Y'know," Jimmy came back, "if I were them, I'd be wondering why we let them go. I mean, in a straight line, we're a lot faster than they are. Why wouldn't we just follow them until they leave town, then shoot them down and leave them for the cops?"

Charlie gulped. In the heat of battle she hadn't had a chance to think that far ahead. Well, there was only one hope for it...

"Lady Hawk to little chickadees," she barked into her radio. Around the circuit, pilots craned their necks to stare at each other in amazement. "Change of plans, boys. Jimmy and I are going in again. We've got to make it look good so they don't suspect a set-up. Nobody else interfere!"

Several hundred yards away, Jimmy Vega moaned. "Madre de dios, if I ever get away from this madwoman, I'm going back to church. I swear!" But in the finest tradition, he followed his leader back into battle.

The autogyros were headed north into the Hollywood Hills, where they could use the rugged terrain to their advantage. Rising and falling along the hills they cut down the pursuit planes' speed advantage, but they also, Charlie quickly saw, boxed themselves in. Framed against barren hillsides, they made perfect targets without vulnerable and innocent backdrops.

Charlie bit her lip in concentration. The trouble was, she didn't want to shoot them down -- she wanted to chase them off so she could have them followed. In boxing themselves in, they had boxed her in as well. She might not get this chance again--did she stick with the original plan or go for the seemingly-sure kill?

Swooping in low, they buzzed the autogyros, which answered with gunfire at the oncoming planes. Sparse as the surrounding houses were, those flying bullets were going to kill someone sooner or later and probably sooner.

"Jimmy! This isn't working! We've got to take them down! Try to disable them! We want them alive!"

Covering his microphone, Jimmy grated a few choice Spanish phrases about the changeability of women, shifted his attention to his own guns, and then his eyes kept going. Less than a mile to the northeast four black dots were quickly resolving into frightening shapes.

"Another change of plans for you, Charlie! We've got company!"

Already the first of the enemy fighters was beginning his power dive, the others spreading out to contain the two below. The autogyros below split to opposite sides of the canyon, ready to provide strafing fire. There was no way out...

...except where Charlie was concerned. Already gaining altitude, she gunned her engine and flew straight into the face of the foe! Guns blazing, Jimmy Vega was right behind!

Caught off-guard and without his wingman, the lead Sky Slaver veered off, dodging bullets. His comrades drew together again, forming a wall of aerial pirates. Charlie veered toward a bank of clouds, but two more pirates emerged right in front of her!

"We can't run for it!" Charlie yelled. "They've cut us off!" She rolled and veered, but the raiders were better trained and worked like border collies, forcing her back toward Jimmy and the first four planes. She could see her wingman futilely trying to break the cordon. Suddenly her attention was caught by the sound of bullets ripping through her fuselage scant inches away. She wrenched the stick into a suicidal loop and tried to bring her guns to bear. It was no use, she could hear one on her tail. She shouted something to Jimmy that later she shouldn't remember.

Jimmy's response was lost in the sudden roar of engines and bullets as the Sky Slaver behind her exploded into a thousand pieces! All about her their planes were streaking away with eight beautiful, familiar shapes in hot pursuit!

Twin shouts of joy and relief split the air as the Sky Slavers were driven back into the clouds.

"We thought you were going to grab all the fun, Charlie," Phil Sutro radioed. "I guess we were wrong."

"Well, you didn't follow orders, but you're a knight in shining armor, Phil," she told him sincerely. "You all are."

"That's us," Phil replied jauntily. "A bunch of Hollywood knights. Let's get back home while our horses can still run."

"After weeks of living in a hangar, I'd almost forgotten what civilization was like." Tom Hadley was fully aware that having Charlie on his arm was drawing attention, however discretely displayed. He turned slowly, ostensibly to admire the church's vaulted ceiling but secretly so he could show off his escort to the most people.

"It was very kind of Phil to invite us all to his brother's wedding," Charlie murmured noncommittally. A member of the Sutro family did not marry every day, particularly in the socially-developing southern half of Hollywood, and this was an important occasion. To be frank, she would have preferred Jimmy as her escort, but she dreaded the teasing the rest of the squadron would have given him. Since the incident in the Hollywood Hills, the remarks had quieted, but she did not want to fire them up again.

"I'm not familiar with the local families down here," Tom confessed, turning his attention back to her at last. "Do you know this Anderson girl?"

"A little bit," Charlie said. "She's a couple of years younger than I am, but we were in school at the same time. Have you seen any pictures of her? She's exquisite."

Tom laughed. "Oh, now you tell me. Does she have any sisters?"

Charlie turned on him with an arch look. Tom colored instantly.

"Hey, a guy's gotta look out... Charlie, I'm sorry! I didn't think this--I mean, I thought--you and Jimmy..." he trailed off as Charlie withdrew her arm and moved away from him.

"I'll be back in a while, Tom," Charlie said in a low voice. She quietly gathered her wrap and purse, and left him there. Once outside, she took a deep breath of cold ocean air. The church, located in Santa Monica, overlooked the beach, and she decided to walk down there. She had plenty of time to be back before the wedding--they always started late anyway--and she needed to clear her head.

"'You and Jimmy,'" Tom had said. She and Jimmy--what? That was the question. He was a great wingman, and a good friend, but...Charlie's contact with Mexicans was pretty much limited to the domestic staff on her father's sprawling estate. What would her father say? She got angry with herself - at this point, did it really matter what he said?

There were a couple of people on the beach, and as she drew closer she saw one was the bride, resplendent in white, her blond hair shining in the sun. The older man with her must be her father. They were watching the ocean together, a last private moment before their special relationship was forever altered.

Charlie stepped back into a spot where she wouldn't be seen. All she wanted to do was look out over the sea herself, not interrupt their time together. She grinned to herself; at least she knew they couldn't start the wedding while the bride was out here...

A wind suddenly sprang up, hard enough to pull the hat from her head and stagger the two people near the water. The terrible sound was familiar. Charlie looked up and smothered a shriek. She tried to shout but couldn't be heard over the roar of the autogyro. She headed back to the church at a dead run, hoping there was time...

"Tom!" she gasped as she ran into him in the doorway. "The Sky Slavers! They've kidnapped the bride!"