Dutch Courage by Elizabeth Darrell

people.’
    Jerry Lang took up the account again. ‘When Sam was bringing the second man across, gunfire burst from one of the buildings, bullets raking the ground just ahead of them. Joe Binney, their air door gunner, set up return fire on bastards well hidden. Rounds flew back and forth while Sam continued bringing the wounded across. The third guy was then hit in the leg and collapsed, but Sam hauled him up and appeared totally unconcerned with the danger of what he was doing.’
    â€˜He’s a large, hefty guy,’ said Baz with an appreciative shake of his head. ‘Even after half-carrying four men, he threw out some packs of water and supplies on board to allow for the weight of an additional passenger to the normal three. Tossed it out as it were lightweight stuff. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. He was like a man gone beserk.’
    â€˜Yet he flew the Lynx back to Kandahar single-handed,’ prompted Max, who had read the newspaper accounts.
    â€˜Andy, in the left-hand seat, was nearest to the snipers,’ Jerry explained. ‘He was unlucky to be hit as they left the ground. Made a mess of his hand. Two fingers all but severed. So Sam took control. Andy passed out from loss of blood before they reached base.’
    â€˜They all survived, although two needed serious medical care. The guy whose legs and arms were badly burned, and the one with a smashed kneecap. We always collect our wounded, and the dead, because these people don’t recognize the rules of engagement,’ Baz put in emphatically, ‘but what Sam did was exceptional. He was captured in Sierra Leone, then subjected to mental torture and humiliation before escaping. He and the other captives have no doubt they’d have been killed eventually. Sam had been married three months earlier; Margot was pregnant. He swears her fear for him led to the miscarriage. He has a fierce hatred of captivity or any form of helplessness in the hands of an enemy. I’m sure that’s what drove him to do what he did.’
    Tom made a point. ‘Yet you believe last night’s assault was to punish him for his daring rescue.’
    They both looked uncomfortable. ‘We didn’t say that.’
    â€˜You suggested retribution for his co-pilot’s injury, which might end his career as air crew,’ Max reminded them.
    Baz looked even more uncomfortable. ‘Look, Sam’s a real team player through and through, never acts solo.’
    â€˜Except . . .’ Lang hesitated.
    â€˜Yes?’ Tom prompted.
    â€˜It’s nothing really . . . but he seems to be pushing himself to the limits lately. It’s as if he’s trying to prove something. Crazy! What’s left to prove?’

Five
    â€˜ O ur bleeding squadron hero?’ said the pugnacious corporal. ‘Yeah, I’ve flown as his air door gunner once or twice.’
    â€˜Not regularly?’ asked Phil Piercey, satisfied by the obvious disparagement in the man’s response. Piercey mistrusted heroes, feeling instinctively that they were too good to be true. When they were also physically attractive all his hackles rose in a desire to expose a serious flaw. He sensed that Corporal Fleet was about to oblige in that respect. He was wrong.
    â€˜We like working with the same pilots whenever we can. Means we have a good understanding. It’s important when RPGs are flying around.’
    Having no experience of rocket-propelled grenades flying around him, Piercey glossed over that. ‘You didn’t have that understanding with Lieutenant Collier?’
    Fleet shrugged. ‘Some of the cockpit guys are prima donnas. Fancy theirselves. When all’s said and done we’re a team. They need the guy with the gun as much as he needs them.’
    â€˜You’re saying Collier throws his weight around; treats his crew as subordinates?’
    â€˜Nah, I’m not saying that,’ came the