Three Alpha Romeo

Randall scratched at his beard and rolled his eyes. Holden laughed even harder.

“He doesn’t have a pilot’s license. He’s self-taught.”

Marcus sat up a little straighter in his seat and made the sign of the cross. It could’ve been real, it could’ve been he was only joking. It was hilarious either way.

“Randall stole just about everything he’s ever flown,” Holden went on.

“Borrowed,” Randall corrected.

“It’s not borrowing if you land it in a different place,” Holden pointed out. “Shit, he even stole a train once.”

“Again, borrowed,” countered Randall. The aircraft’s nose dipped a few degrees as he twisted to look into the back seat. “I didn’t steal that train,” he added confidentially, “they always knew where it was. I just… drove it for a little while.”

“All by yourself,” laughed Holden.

Randall shrugged and said nothing.

“At night,” Holden pushed. “On the wrong tracks.”

“Okay, okay…”

“I heard somewhere you were OTH,” said Marcus. “That true?”

I saw Randall’s shoulders go tight. His body language changed a little.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Other than Honorable discharge.”

“He had that wiped from his record too,” Holden jumped in. “One of his superiors had it changed to General under Honorable Conditions.”

“I prefer to call it a ‘mutual discharge’,” Randall called back.

“That sounds disgusting.”

The guys laughed, and Randall cackled into the mic. “Whatever, man. It was like a breakup, anyway. The Navy and I were finally just done with each other.”

“You went out because you stole some aircraft?” asked Marcus.

“No,” answered Holden. “He’s out because he failed two psych evals.” Randall made the ‘OK’ symbol with one hand, over his shoulder. Holden saw it and corrected himself. “I’m sorry, three psych evals.”

Marcus folded his arms across his chest in a gesture of solidarity. “Sorry man. That sucks.”

“Don’t be sorry,” said Holden. “He failed half his evals on entry, and they let him in anyway. They knew exactly what were they were getting into bed with.”

“Then why was he even—”

“Because he’s the best in the fucking world at what he does,” said Holden proudly. He reached forward and clapped his partner hard on the shoulder. “And the Navy knows it.”

I watched Randall carefully and saw him blush — actually blush — under the praise. It made me feel warm. Fuzzy. To know that as much as the two of them constantly needled each other, there was a solid foundation of brotherhood there, too.

Brotherhood… and an underlying respect.

“I’m putting her down soon,” Randall said over our headsets. “Get everything together so we can move out quickly.”

My stomach dropped as we descended through the cloudless sky, and Holden squeezed my hand. I smiled back at him happily.

“All good?” he asked. “Did you manage to get some rest?”