Wind Raker - Book IV of The Order of the Air (17 page)

The door of the room opened again, and he carefully didn’t look up as Jerry switched off the overhead light and made his way back to the bed, setting his crutches within easy reach. “You were hard on the boys this morning.”

Jerry’s breath caught for an instant, but he finished arranging himself in bed, tucking his stump under the sheet so that there was at least the illusion of a whole leg. “Yeah. I suppose I was.”

“Someone you knew?” Willi was careful to keep his eyes on the notebook.

“A guy I served with.”

“Your lover?” This time Willi did glance at him, and was relieved to see only regret, not pain.

“No. Just a friend.” Jerry lay back on his pillow, one arm under his head. “I missed the rest of the story when I stomped out. Tell me about the —
Wind Raker
, was it?”

“Yes.” Willi put his notebook carefully away, and turned out his own light. In the soft and rain-swept dark, it was easier to believe the stories, to tell them without judgment or embellishment. “
Wind Raker
was one of the Yung-Lo Emperor’s treasure fleet, but its Admiral Chou Hsian was an important official of the Lingtai, the Terrace of Spirits — that was the department of the Imperial bureaucracy that was responsible for astrology and astronomy and geomancy. It was supposed to predict the future for the Emperor’s benefit, though their records are most useful as observations of natural phenomena. Chou Hsian and
Wind Raker
were supposed to find the place where the world began.”

“The navel of the world,” Jerry said softly.

“Just so.” Willi nodded. “
Wind Raker
sailed with the fleet for three days, and then turned away to the east and was never seen again. That is all the story there is.”

“No one ever went looking for them?”

“The Yung-Lo Emperor was an usurper, and throughout his reign he faced tremendous opposition from the Confucian scholars — despite being willing to torture and kill them wholesale to gain their cooperation. When he died, the Hung-hsi Emperor and then the Hsuan-te Emperor both decided that the fleets were a waste of money. The great admiral Cheng Ho was out of favor. There was no one left who could demand another mission.”

“And that’s what we’re looking for here?” Jerry sounded half asleep already, and Willi settled beside him.

“This is not the navel of the world.”

Chapter Seven

I
t took two full days for the rain to stop, days of bored children confined to the house with only the radio and Miss Lee to keep the adults from being utterly overwhelmed. At least Miss Lee didn’t seem to mind the rain and was perfectly happy to bundle the boys up in slickers she’d borrowed from various cousins and march them off on adventures, which did something to use up Douglas’s boundless energy. Alma was less sure it did much for Jimmy, but she didn’t think it would hurt, and he was painfully well-behaved with Miss Lee. He was fretting about his father, she guessed. He was old enough to understand that they’d been abandoned. Dora and Merilee got along like sisters, though, and she was guiltily glad of a day or two to play mother.

On the third day, she woke to early sunlight and sat up eagerly, Lewis stirring beside her, only to hear the rush of wind through the palms beside the house. She slipped out of bed to peer out the curtain, swallowing her disappointment at the sight of the bending trees. With that wind, they wouldn’t be flying today, not even if it was clear.

“It’s not raining,” Lewis said sleepily, propping himself up on one elbow to check his watch.

“It’s really windy,” Alma answered, reaching for her dressing gown. She shrugged it on and padded through the living room and out onto the lanai. Maybe it wouldn’t be so windy in the harbor — but, no, she could see the whitecaps on the water from here and she sighed as Lewis came up beside her. “Not today either. Even if Finch has finished the installation.”

“No.” He put his arms around her, resting his chin on her shoulder, stubbled cheek against her own. “But tomorrow for sure.”

“Yes.” She leaned back against him, enjoying the chance to be close and quiet. “What time is it? I didn’t look.”

“A little after seven.”

She sighed wistfully, and he tightened his hold for a moment, reading her mind. “Mrs. Fong will be here any minute. And then the girls will be up.”

“And everyone else.” The bougainvillea was between them and the street, and Alma turned into his arms, kissing him thoroughly. “Tonight?”

“It’s a date,” he answered, and the sound of a car making its way up the hill sent them back inside.

Alma called the hangar as soon as it opened, suppressing a sigh as Finch told her what she’d already suspected.

“Look on the bright side, Mrs. Segura, we’ve got a full day to get the engines broken in. No need to rush it.”

“I suppose.” Alma straightened her spine. “We’ll come down anyway, do some systems familiarization — if that won’t get in your way.”

“No, not at all.”

“Would you call Miss Lauder and ask her to come in? I don’t seem to have her number.” And that, Alma thought, she would need to remedy.

There was a moment of hesitation, so brief she almost didn’t notice it, and then Finch said, “Sure, Mrs. Segura. I’ll give her a call.”

They made it down to the hangar in good time, the wind whipping around them as they crossed from the car to the shelter of the doorway. Alma smoothed her hair back into order, thinking that this must be one reason Lily wore a scarf all the time. She nodded to Finch’s foreman, Henry Kiliki, and he gave her a half salute.

“Morning, Mrs. Segura. I’ll let the boss know you’re here.”

“Thanks.” Alma’s eyes were already on the Catalina, the engine cowlings showing signs of the recent installation. If the earlier reports were right, the bigger engines should make the Cat a lot less touchy. She wasn’t bad now, but extra power would give her pilots a much better margin in adverse conditions — in weather like today, in fact. She glanced around the hangar, seeing the newly familiar faces of Finch’s crew, but there was no sign of Lily. Already on board? But, no, the hatch was still closed, the gangplank lying on the dock. She turned at Finch’s approach, unable to hide a frown. “Good morning, Mr. Finch. Miss Lauder’s not here yet?”

He hesitated, just for an instant, then gave an almost theatrical shrug. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Segura, I couldn’t get hold of her. But I’m sure we can work without her. It’ll give Mr. Segura a chance to get used to the controls.”

Did you call her at all? Alma wondered. She couldn’t say it, not out loud, but she let her skepticism show, and Finch’s color deepened. “I suppose we can. She’s on salary, Mr. Finch?”

He looked even more uncomfortable. “I believe so.”

Alma nodded. As long as Lily wasn’t being paid hourly, she wasn’t being cheated, and her absence gave Alma a chance to figure out what was really going on here. “Then let’s get started. Mitch, if you and Lewis would start the checklist, I’d like a quick word with Mr. Finch.”

“Sure thing,” Mitch said easily, and he and Lewis moved toward the plane. Alma took a couple of steps toward the workshops, drawing Finch out of earshot of his men.

“What’s the problem with Lily Lauder?” She’d discovered that sometimes the best way to get an answer was simply to ask. Even when people gasped and sputtered and denied anything was wrong, the way they did was almost as good as an actual answer.

Finch made a face. “You’re from the mainland. I thought you’d have heard.”

Alma shook her head. “We’re based out of Colorado, not California. What’s the problem?”

“She’s — the men think she’s bad luck. A jinx. A Jonah.”

“The men?”

Finch wouldn’t meet her eyes. “You’ve seen how things go wrong when she’s around. It’s not normal.”

“You’re sure this isn’t because your guys don’t like working with a woman?”

Finch looked up then, his expression faintly hurt. “Hell, no. They don’t give you any trouble, do they? And they didn’t have a problem with her until things started going wrong.”

“What exactly are you talking about?” Alma asked.

“Just a lot of little things, but more than there should be. One right after another, and no let up. The condensers wouldn’t work right, the float switch kept sticking, the entire electrical went out for no good reason the first time she set foot in the cockpit —“ Finch stopped, shrugging. “Ask anybody. That’s why the rest of the first team walked. They weren’t going to stick with her.”

“I thought a couple of them got work with the Navy,” Alma said sharply.

“Ok, yeah, Danby did, but the others went back to the mainland.”

Alma considered that. On balance, she was inclined to discount the other team entirely: with Gilchrist coming in, they would have known they weren’t going to get any more work out of it. Odlum knew the only position they couldn’t easily fill was flight engineer, so keeping Lily on made sense, and clearly he thought she was worth the trouble. He might like to hire women when he could, but he wasn’t going to risk his plane’s trials for it. On the other hand — on the other hand, there was whatever Lewis was sensing, and there was the way she’d frozen on their first flight. If she’d done that one too many times, and the stuck float switch and maybe the condensers might be explained that way, then that would be enough to give her a bad name. Add the story about the crash, and you had a jinx. But that didn’t explain Lewis’s feeling, or the reading he’d done.

“Look, Mrs. Segura,” Finch said, “I really don’t mean to tell you your business. And if I’m out of line, I apologize. But Miss Lauder is a problem. Ok, maybe there’s no such thing as a Jonah, but the guys believe it, and that right there is reason enough to get rid of her. I’m sure Mr. Segura can do the job, or I can give you the name of at least three more guys who could take over if you’d rather.”

Alma shook her head, swallowing a snippy retort. “I think I’ll stick with the person Floyd hired for now, thanks.” She hoped that put him in his place — but, she reminded herself, he had meant well. “Let’s get on with the breaking in.”

“Whatever you say, Mrs. Segura,” he answered, and she made her way to the plane.

By the end of the day, she was sweaty and exhausted and her ears were ringing from the constant noise of the engines, but she was beginning to think she understood the Catalina. She let Mitch drive them back to the bungalow, and claimed the tub for a quick bath before supper. Clean and refreshed, she made her way back to the lanai, only to find Lewis and Dora there ahead of her. There were a pair of mai tais on the table beside him, and he was teaching Dora to twirl, lifting her hand and coaching her to spin while she giggled madly.

Alma collected her drink and dropped into the chair beside him with a sigh of satisfaction. “That was a good day’s work.”

“It was. No, honey, that’s Daddy’s drink.”

Dora stopped reaching for the mai tai and held up her hand. “Again!”

Lewis twirled her, then caught her up and settled her on his lap. “Mitch and I heard a few things from the guys in the shop.”

“That Lily’s a jinx?” Alma asked, and he nodded.

“You don’t sound surprised.”

“Well, neither did you. But, no, Finch told me. He wanted me to fire her, hire somebody the shop crew would find easier to work with.”

“You said no.”

Alma nodded. “But — I couldn’t help noticing we didn’t have a single mechanical problem all day.”

“I noticed that, too.”

“So’d I,” Mitch said, coming onto the porch. Dora slid off Lewis’s lap with a happy shriek, and flung herself at Mitch’s knees. He swung her up into the air, making her laugh. “And how’s Dora-belle? How’s my pretty Dora? Is it Isadora?”

Careful.
Alma swallowed the word, knowing Mitch was the best judge of what he could and couldn’t do, but she couldn’t help worrying. Rupture would always be a risk, Gil had said, and she hated to see him take chances. “What do you think, Mitch?”

“I don’t believe in jinxes, as a rule,” Mitch said, setting Dora down. She scrambled across to Alma, who took her into her lap. Her hair smelled of coconut, and Alma decided not to ask why. “There’s usually something a lot simpler going on.”

“But?” Alma looked up at him, and saw him shrug.

“I honestly don’t know.”

The door opened, and Stasi came out to join them, fanning herself. “Dinner’s in ten minutes. The boys set the table, and I’ve sent them to wash up —“

“What do you think about this jinx business?” Alma asked, and Stasi stopped abruptly.

“People can do terrible things to themselves that way, darling. You know that.”

Lewis stirred slightly. “I’ve seen it happen the other way, when I was wild-catting. There was a kid who just couldn’t seem to get it right, and pretty soon everybody said that everything that went wrong was his fault. And most of the time it was.”

“You said she froze,” Mitch said.

“She did.” Lewis nodded. “And —“ He lowered his voice slightly, though the boys couldn’t have heard unless they were right in the doorway with Stasi. “There’s the reading I did. I do think there’s something wrong here.”

“What do you want to do about it?” Mitch asked, looking straight at Alma.

She sighed. That was the question, of course, the one she’d been wrestling with since they got back to the bungalow. Should she fire Lily, or let it go a little longer and see if they could figure out what was actually going on? “Let’s let it ride for now,” she said. “Floyd thinks well of her, and he’s got an eye for talent. And she’s got the time in the plane.”

Mitch nodded. “Suits me.”

“Just keep your eyes open, darlings,” Stasi said, and disappeared back into the house.

“I fully intend to,” Alma answered, and saw Lewis nod.

"H
appy birthday Dora!" Dora looked momentarily stunned as the flash of Mitch's camera went off and Alma put the big frosted white cake in front of her.

"It's for you!" Alma said, bending over smiling. "You're two."

"Two!" Dora yelled and made a grab for the top of the cake, coming away with a fistful of frosting.