Douglass pressed the mike button.
"Cairo, Triple Zero Four, say again your last transmission. You were garbled."
Cairo repeated the order.
There were a dozen B-17s and B-24s, and twice that many other transient aircraft on the parking line, but there was no sign of Canidy's B-25.
Fine taxied the B-17 to the end of the line, parked it in a line with another B-17, shut it down, and prepared the flight documents.
A gas truck, a brand-new General Motors semitrailer, stopped just off the taxiway in front of them, and a crew got off and began to unroll fueling hoses.
"I'll go see what's going on," Fine said, unstrapping his harness.
"I think we had better keep our passengers aboard."
Fine opened the access hatch and lowered himself through it. Douglass went through the bomb bay into the rear of the fuselage. The team was peering out the gun ports.
"Colonel?" Janos asked.
"Can we get off?"
"Not yet," Douglass said.
"Somebody fucked up. There's nobody here to meet us."
"That figures," Janos said.
It was already getting hot in the fuselage; Douglass felt sweat under his arms and on his forehead as he saw it pop out on Janos's face.
"Fuck it," he said.
"I don't see any point in melting. Get out, get in the shade of the wing, but don't stray off. And don't take anything with you."
He went to the side door in the fuselage and opened it, then waited until the last of the team had gotten out before getting out himself.
The team was gone when he got outside, and he saw that a Dodge ambulance had been backed up to the nose of the B-17. Normally, Dodge ambulance bodies had huge red crosses painted on their sides and roof; this one did not.
"You get to ride in front, Colonel," a voice called, and he saw a hand gesture toward the front of the vehicle.
Douglass walked to the ambulance and got in.
The driver was a sergeant, and Douglass had his mouth open to ask him where they were being taken when a familiar voice spoke.
"The shit's hitting the fan."
Douglass looked into the back of the ambulance. The narrow benches on each side were jammed with people, and one of them was It. Commander John "Canidy went into Hungary," Dolan went on.
"Jesus!" Douglass said, then: "How are you? There was word you had a terminal case of the GIs."
"I'm better," Dolan said.
"Where are we going?"
"They got a villa," Dolan said.
"Very nice, swimming pool and everything."
"Does anybody know why Dick went into Hungary?" Douglass asked.