The girls had met Sara, the 40-ish beautiful brunette owner
and chief pilot of the fixed-base operation there in the office, among
the others. Our heroines and she had taken an immediate liking to
one another and that office meeting had evolved into a little party,
with food and drink already delivered - out of Lollypop - as they
talked about the war and such.
        Kit and Will joined them all inside, then Jess and Kit went
outside and sat down on one of the benches against the office wall
to check in with Pute. Chippy Boy gave them all the new news,
most significant being that Pope John Paul had come strongly on
board, making the WPG his only speech topic of late. He had also
been phoning any leaders with whom his influence counted about
it.
        Then Kit got a flash and called Griddy, who was back in
Copenhagen, and asked her if she would get the Eagle cleaned
spotless outside and in, Kit explaining that they needed all their
fingerprints erased, hoping they weren't too late. Grid said she
would get right on it.
        "Dam, how could I've forgotten that!" Code grumbled after
hanging up.
        "Cuz I wasn't thinkin'..." Jess offered her complicity, and
hugged and kissed him. "We'll be all right," she confidenced.
        They called Amelia, Allison, Aileen, Rachel and Doc Rob,
Frank and Trev (who were in Washington) just to say hello, then
the guys at Rockhead for "howdy's" and "hay's" and to relate their
recent DC 3 flying. They called Ria and Jul to share their love, then
reached all the "kids" in Washington. Flece joined them outside and
the girls finally called home. It was just that they felt extra good to
be alive and well and, well, doing something really good and wanted
to share what they could with everyone.
        People were gathering there at the office and out on the ramp.
They were mostly there for the flight back - the ambulatories, the
children and their parents or guardians and the old ones; but there
were more than the plane could take. Sara and others were seeing to
the folks and starting the selection process and were getting them on
board as soon as all the cargo was off and the jump seats put in.
Dawn was beginning to lighten the sky, so our guys had to "git".
        Kit told Jess and Flee where the bullets had struck as the three
of them walked together out to Lolly. Jess stopped their walk and
hugged both Felecia and Kit together saying, "I'm thankful we're all
OK...."
        Neither Kit nor Flece added anything, all three heads resting
against each other's, eyes closed, arms around each other. Then
they hugged hard and continued their walk to the ship.
        They greeted all their passengers after hopping up into the
Douglas, Kit helping the girls up from the tarmac, and kept the
greets up as they made their way up the aisle to the genital pit.
Gena was already up there checking things and Will was behind
them in the cabin, latching the door.
        They had a message in from Sundance when they checked
Puter after taking their seats. He was also in D.C. and was telling
them about the WPG contact with some guys flying medical
supplies and stuff into Sarajevo with their own funds and the
Execs' thinking that those were the same folks who had flown
computers into Asia: a girl named Jessy and others. Sunny told
them that the "E" was considering funding the flights and were
going to pay for more flights to join them.
        Jessy sent back a cryptic acknowledgement of the message
and they got back to getting out of there before too much light.
        They heard the latest information from Sara, who was
yelling up to Jess, our heroine sticking her head out her window
to hear. Sar was giving them the situation along their departure
route - suggesting that they stay close to the ground all the way
to the sea.
        They waved down to all their new friends, started the
Wright engines and headed out, getting the gogs and all back on,
and, in minutes, were flying the deck toward the Southwest,
everyone wary of bullets or worse. They made it unscathed to
the coast, though, then happily climbed for altitude over the
water and "kicked back" for the rest of the flight.

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