"Lover At Last" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ward, J.R.)

Given the popping sounds that followed, John and Blay were shooting back, so Qhuinn sat up a little higher and glanced at the rows of instruments. He figured the one with the little gas tank was what he was looking for.

Quarter of the tanks left. And the shit in there was probably half condensation.

This was a really bad idea.

тАЬGet him in here!тАЭ Qhuinn yelled, sizing up the empty, flat field to the left.

Rhage was on it, throwing Zsadist into the airplane with all the gentleness of a longshoreman. The Brother landed in a crumpled pile, but at least he was cursingтАФwhich meant he was with it enough to feel pain.

Qhuinn didnтАЩt wait for any door-shutting bullcrap. He released the foot brake, hit the accelerator, and prayed they didnтАЩt skid out in the snowтАФ

Half the glass windshield shattered in front of him, the bullet that did the damage ricocheting around the cockpit, the whiff! from the seat next to him suggesting the headrest had caught the slug. Which was better than his arm. Or skull.

The only good news was that the plane seemed ready to get the hell out of there, too, that rusty-ass engine spinning the prop at a dead run like the POS knew getting off the ground was the sole way to safety. Out the side windows, the landscape started striping by, and he oriented the middle of the тАЬrunwayтАЭ by keeping the two sets of trees equidistant.

тАЬHold on,тАЭ he yelled over the din.

Wind was ripping into the cockpit like there was an industrial fan filling up the space where the pane of glass had been, but it wasnтАЩt like he was planning on going high enough to require pressurization.

At this point, he just wanted to clear the forest up ahead.

тАЬCome on, baby, you can do itтАжcome onтАж.тАЭ

He had the throttle down flat, and he had to tell his arm to ease offтАФthere was no more juice to be had, but breaking the goddamn thing was guaranteed to fuck them even harder.

The din got louder and louder.

Trees moved faster and faster.

The bumps became more and more violent, until his teeth were clapping together, and he became convinced one or both of the wings were going to unhinge and fall by the wayside.

Figuring there was no time to waste, Qhuinn pulled back as hard as he could on the steering wheel, gripping the thing tightly, as if that could somehow be translated to the body of the plane and keep it all togetherтАФ

Something fell from the ceiling and fluttered back in ZтАЩs direction.

Map? OwnerтАЩs manual? Who the fuck knew.

Man, those trees at the far end were getting close.

Qhuinn pulled even more, in spite of the fact that the wheel was as far toward him as it could goтАФwhich was a crying shame, because they were out of runway and still not off the groundтАФ

Scraping sounds raked down the belly of the plane, as if underbrush were reaching up and trying to grab onto the steel plating.

And still those trees were even closer.

His first thought as he stared death in the face was that he was never going to meet his daughter. At least not on this side of the Fade.

His second and final was that he couldnтАЩt believe heтАЩd never told Blay he loved him. In all the minutes and hours and nights of his life, in all the words heтАЩd spoken to the male over the years theyтАЩd known each other, heтАЩd only ever pushed him away.