ac who was kneeling a couple of yards behind them asked: 'What's

happening?"

'I'm not sure,' said Steve. He had been trying to interpret the

gestures that accompanied the heated exchange between Jodi and the

pilots. 'They seem to have run into some kind of problem."

'Hope it's not serious." Cadillac swung round and caught the eye of

one of the Kojak braves who was positioned deeper in the woods, some

fifty yards to his left. Cadillac raised his left hand and brought it

down with a swift chopping motion.

The Kojak brave acknowledged his signal and placed his fingers together

in front of his mouth. The shrill terror-stricken cry of a small

animal caught in the jaws of a sharp-toothed predator pierced the

silence for a brief instant. Not loud, but chilling.

Startled by the sound, Steve rolled over onto his side.

'Jeer! What the hell was that?"

Cadillac moved back alongside them. 'Some poor creature about to come

to a sticky end, I imagine. Could I, uhh...?"

'Sure." Steve placed the 'scope in the Mute's outstretched palm.

As Ruddock ran back with the two securing straps, the air around Gus's

Skyhawk was pierced by a quite different, but equally chilling sound.

Zzzzzzwheeeeee!

Gus ducked instinctively. 'What the fu--?" Zzzzzzwheeeeee! Something

else flew past them then - Zzzzzzvhikkk! Zzzzzzzwhokkk.t Two crossbow

bolts hit the Skyhawk. The first passed straight through the port tail

fin and kept on going. The second entered the nose, just missing

Ruddock on the way in, and came to rest with six inches of the sharp

end sticking out the other side right where Gus White was standing.

Gus leapt away like he'd been electrocuted. 'Hoh-lee SHIT!" He pulled

his gun out and dived for cover.

Ruddock joined him. 'Can you see 'em!? Can you see 'em!? Where the

hell are they!?"

Jodi knelt down beside them. 'Don't panic, boys.

They're a long way away."

'How can you tell!?"

'Because those guys don't usually miss. If they were close, that bolt

would have skewered all three of us."

Jodi sighted along the embedded crossbow bolt and pulled out her

handset. 'Blue Four this is Snow Bird.

May Day. We're under crossbow attack by unknown number of hostiles.

Estimate range one thousand yards from our position. Watch my red for

bearing. Over!"

Jodi tossed the handset to Gus and hurriedly loaded a red flare into

the fat-barrelled pistol. Resting her hands on the top of the fuselage

above the bolt, she fired the flare towards the distant line of

trees.

The range was not one thousand yards but one thousand three hundred and

twenty-five. She had gone out there with Brickman and the others to

lay the false trail during the night and she had mechanically counted

the paces on the way back.

And the red flare was aimed directly towards the point where she had

last seen them. Jodi could not even begin to guess what had gone wrong

but there was nothing she could do to protect Brickman now. If the

lump-heads he'd opted to run with had decided to get into a shooting

match it was a simple case of Them and Us.

Zzzzzzwhonkk! A crossbow bolt sped in from a different direction and

bounced off the open canopy of Gus's Skyhawk. Ruddock, who was tying

the extra straps to the pair on the buddy frame, ducked and swore, but

kept his fingers busy.

'See that!" shouted Gus. 'Came from over there!" He thumbed the

handset. 'Blue Four, this is Ground Hog One. We got incoming fire

from hostiles at one o'clock as well as our eleven! What are you

waiting for!? Go get the suckers!"

'We're on our way, Ground Hog. Blue Four out."

'Jodi fired a second red flare towards the right hand end of the

treeline as the four circling planes split into two pairs and dived

towards their invisible targets.

Ruddock grabbed her shoulder. 'Get over to my ship and pull down the