grumbled something about me being “big, like ox make us slow,” but how that evened out because “blood of great war chief bring good luck.” That was the sort of thing that replaced complex aviation calculations when you were an orc. Because I was related to a rock star, it meant we could go faster.
Thinking about my brother gave me a twinge of guilt, and I promised myself again that I’d go visit him before the conference was over. With the blow his career had taken, he was reduced to working in Vegas, playing shows that would’ve been far below him a couple of years ago. The whole thing was my fault, and Mosh had been avoiding my calls. I was worried about him.
There was a sudden bang. I grabbed onto the overhead straps as the chopper lurched.
“What was that?” Holly asked, alarmed.
“No problem. No problem,” Skippy’s gravelly voice came over the intercom. “Tail rotor break.” He pronounced it row-tor .
“Break? What do you mean break? ”
“No…is good break. Skip mean…break in .”
“That sounds bad, Skippy!”
“No…The spirits that live in tail rotor…happy together now.”
“You said the spirits were happy before we flew last time!” Trip exclaimed.
“No. Engine spirits happy. Tail rotor spirits…not so much. Very angry tail rotor.”
“Last time I checked, you need a functioning tail rotor to fly a helicopter.”
“No. Not to fly. Only not to spin around. Like circle…Until hit ground. Explode!” Skippy made the horrible wheezing noise that passed for orc laughter. “But rotor happy now! Yay!”
“We’re so gonna die,” I muttered.
“No. No,” Skippy insisted. “Gretchen sacrifice chicken for us. Skip knew. Rotor spirits come ’round.”
Flying with Skippy had been a lot easier back before he was willing to talk to me so much. Now that we were part of the family and he’d opened up about his piloting and maintenance methods, it was frankly unnerving. But the rattling did seem to taper off a bit. Trip began to breathe again. Edward lifted one hand, extended his pointer and pinky fingers and threw the horns, then went back to his talk radio. Milo grinned. “See? Told you so! Orcs are great at fixing things…And I’ll admit, I did help a little.” He sounded rather proud of himself. “I sort of had to. Orcs think welding is black magic.”
And to think, Julie had been upset that Earl had wanted her on the jet, a new vehicle which was serviced by actual mechanics, not a thirty-year-old Soviet flying tank that had been out of service for the last year due to a terrible crash, kept together by a mystical orc, whose wife, the medicine woman, had shaken some chicken bones over it to pronounce it fixed. My poor wife.
Since Julie was our best shot with a rifle, she usually rode in the chopper anytime there might be a need for air cover. It was kind of odd that Earl had ordered her to go with him, but he’d seemed rather overprotective of her lately. Now that Earl had finally relented and told us the rest of the story about what had happened in Copper Lake, I thought I could understand why. He had filled in the rest of the details during the ride to the airport. Earl had been afraid to let anyone else know about Special Task Force Unicorn, but with Stricken showing himself to so many Hunters, the cat was out of the bag.
Why that cat had decided to let itself out was another question…
At least we knew why Earl had been extra sullen since he’d gotten back, with his girlfriend being drafted into a covert group of government-sponsored monsters doing who knew what. Earl wasn’t even able to contact her. He had to go to sleep each night without knowing if she was alive or dead. I’d be pissed off too. And now with Heather Kerkonen in danger, assuming Stricken was telling the truth, Earl had launched us on this mission for personal reasons. I was more than glad to go into harm’s way to help a friend, but ten million bucks was a very nice added incentive.
Once
Thinking about my brother gave me a twinge of guilt, and I promised myself again that I’d go visit him before the conference was over. With the blow his career had taken, he was reduced to working in Vegas, playing shows that would’ve been far below him a couple of years ago. The whole thing was my fault, and Mosh had been avoiding my calls. I was worried about him.
There was a sudden bang. I grabbed onto the overhead straps as the chopper lurched.
“What was that?” Holly asked, alarmed.
“No problem. No problem,” Skippy’s gravelly voice came over the intercom. “Tail rotor break.” He pronounced it row-tor .
“Break? What do you mean break? ”
“No…is good break. Skip mean…break in .”
“That sounds bad, Skippy!”
“No…The spirits that live in tail rotor…happy together now.”
“You said the spirits were happy before we flew last time!” Trip exclaimed.
“No. Engine spirits happy. Tail rotor spirits…not so much. Very angry tail rotor.”
“Last time I checked, you need a functioning tail rotor to fly a helicopter.”
“No. Not to fly. Only not to spin around. Like circle…Until hit ground. Explode!” Skippy made the horrible wheezing noise that passed for orc laughter. “But rotor happy now! Yay!”
“We’re so gonna die,” I muttered.
“No. No,” Skippy insisted. “Gretchen sacrifice chicken for us. Skip knew. Rotor spirits come ’round.”
Flying with Skippy had been a lot easier back before he was willing to talk to me so much. Now that we were part of the family and he’d opened up about his piloting and maintenance methods, it was frankly unnerving. But the rattling did seem to taper off a bit. Trip began to breathe again. Edward lifted one hand, extended his pointer and pinky fingers and threw the horns, then went back to his talk radio. Milo grinned. “See? Told you so! Orcs are great at fixing things…And I’ll admit, I did help a little.” He sounded rather proud of himself. “I sort of had to. Orcs think welding is black magic.”
And to think, Julie had been upset that Earl had wanted her on the jet, a new vehicle which was serviced by actual mechanics, not a thirty-year-old Soviet flying tank that had been out of service for the last year due to a terrible crash, kept together by a mystical orc, whose wife, the medicine woman, had shaken some chicken bones over it to pronounce it fixed. My poor wife.
Since Julie was our best shot with a rifle, she usually rode in the chopper anytime there might be a need for air cover. It was kind of odd that Earl had ordered her to go with him, but he’d seemed rather overprotective of her lately. Now that Earl had finally relented and told us the rest of the story about what had happened in Copper Lake, I thought I could understand why. He had filled in the rest of the details during the ride to the airport. Earl had been afraid to let anyone else know about Special Task Force Unicorn, but with Stricken showing himself to so many Hunters, the cat was out of the bag.
Why that cat had decided to let itself out was another question…
At least we knew why Earl had been extra sullen since he’d gotten back, with his girlfriend being drafted into a covert group of government-sponsored monsters doing who knew what. Earl wasn’t even able to contact her. He had to go to sleep each night without knowing if she was alive or dead. I’d be pissed off too. And now with Heather Kerkonen in danger, assuming Stricken was telling the truth, Earl had launched us on this mission for personal reasons. I was more than glad to go into harm’s way to help a friend, but ten million bucks was a very nice added incentive.
Once
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