Dangerous Women Part 19

She marched to the flight line.

Inna ran after her. "Raisa, what's gotten into you?"

Her partner had asked that every hour for the last day, it seemed like. Raisa couldn't hide. And if she couldn't trust Inna, she couldn't trust anyone.

"David's missing in action," Raisa said, and kept walking.

She opened her mouth, properly shocked and pitying, as Pavel had done. "Oh-oh no. I'm so sorry."

"It's nothing. But I have to work twice as hard, right?"

They continued to their planes in silence.

Raisa's hands itched. They lay lightly on the stick, and she didn't have to do much to keep steady. The air was calm, and they-Inna, Katya, and Tamara were in the other fighters-were flying in a straight line, practically. But she wanted to shoot something. They weren't told who it was in the Li-2 they guarded, not that it would have mattered. But she imagined it might be Stalin himself. She wondered if she'd have the courage to radio to him, "Comrade, let me tell you about my brother ..." But the higher-ups wouldn't tap a flight of women pilots from the front to protect the premier. It wasn't him.

Not that their VIP needing guarding. Out here, the most dangerous thing she faced was the other pilots slipping out of formation and crashing into her. That would be embarra.s.sing.

Just before they'd left, the radio operator had brought news that Liliia had scored another kill. Six confirmed kills. The Germans seemed to be lining up for the privilege of being shot down by beautiful Liliia. And here Raisa was, miles and miles from battle, playing at guarding.

If she died in battle, heroically, with lots of witnesses, leaving behind an indisputable body, perhaps she might help recover David's reputation. If she were a hero-an ace, even-he could not be a traitor, right?

She stretched her legs and scratched her hair under her leather helmet. Another couple of hours and they'd land and get a hot meal. That was one consolation-they were flying their charge to a real base with real food, and they'd been promised a meal before they had to fly back to Voronezh. Raisa wondered if they'd be able to wrap some up to stuff in their pockets and take back with them.

Scanning the sky around her, out to the horizon, she didn't see so much as a goose in flight. The other planes-the bullet-shaped Yaks and the big Lisunov with its two wing-mounted engines and stocky frame-hummed around her, in a formation that was rather stately. It always amazed her, these great beasts of steel and grease soaring through the air, in impossible defiance of gravity. The world spread out below her, wide plains splotched in beige and green, trimmed by forests, cut through with the winding path of a creek. She could believe that nothing existed down there-a clean, new land, and she was queen of everything she could see, for hundreds and hundreds of miles. She sailed over it without effort. Then she'd spot a farm, rows of square fields that should have been green with the new growth of crops but instead held blackened craters and sc.r.a.ps of destroyed tanks.

If she focused on the sound of the engine, a comforting rattle that flowed through the skin of the fuselage around her, she wouldn't think so much about the rest of it. If she tipped her head back, she could watch blue sky pa.s.sing overhead and squint into the sun. The day was beautiful, and she had an urge to open her canopy and drink in the sky. The freezing wind would thrash her at this alt.i.tude, so she resisted. The c.o.c.kpit was warm and safe as an egg.

Something outside caught her eye. Far off, across the flat plain they soared over, to where sky met earth. Dark specks moving against the blue. They were unnatural-they flew too straight, too smoothly to be birds. They seemed far away, which meant they had to be big-hard to tell, without a point of reference. But several of them flew together in the unmistakable shape of airplanes in formation.

She turned on the radio channel. "Stepanova here. Ten o'clock, toward the horizon, do you see it?"

Inna answered. "Yes. Are those bombers?"

They were, Raisa thought. They had a heavy look about them, droning steadily on rather than racing. The formation was coming closer, but still not close enough to see if they had crosses or stars painted on them.

"Theirs or ours?" Katya said.

"I'll find out," Raisa said, banking out of formation and opening the throttle. She'd take a look, and if she saw that black cross, she'd fire.

A male voice intruded, the pilot of the Li-2. "Osipov here. Get back here, Stepanova!"

"But-"

"Return to formation!"

The planes were right there, it would just take a second to check- Inna came on the channel, pleading, "Raisa, you can't take them on your own!"

She could certainly try ...

Osipov said, "A squadron has been notified and will intercept the unknown flight. We're to continue on."

They couldn't stop her ... but they could charge her with disobeying orders once she landed, and that wouldn't help anyone. So she circled around and returned to formation. Litviak was probably getting to shoot someone today. Raisa frowned at her washed-out reflection in the canopy gla.s.s.

Dear Davidya: I promised to write you every day, so I continue to do so.

How are you this time? I hope you're well. Not sick, not hungry. We've taken to talking about eating the rats that swarm the dugouts here, but we haven't gotten to the point of actually trying it. Mostly because I think it would be far too much work for too little reward. The horrid beasts are as skinny as the rest of us. I'm not complaining, though. We've gotten some crates of canned goods-fruits, meat, milk-from an American supply drop and are savoring the windfall. It's like a taste of what we're fighting for, and what we can look forward to when this mess is all over. It was Inna who said that. Beautiful thought, yes? She keeps the whole battalion in good spirits all by herself.

I ought to warn you, I've written a letter to be sent to you in case I die. It's quite grotesque, and now you'll be terrified that every letter you get from me will be that one. Have you done that, written me a letter that I'll only read if you die? I haven't gotten one, which gives me hope.

I'm very grateful Nina isn't old enough to be on the front with us, or I'd be writing double the grotesque letters. I got a letter from her talking about what she'll do when she's old enough to come to the front, and she wants to fly like me and if she can't be a pilot she'll be a mechanic-my mechanic, even. She was very excited. I wrote her back the same day telling her the war will be over before she's old enough. I hope I'm right.

Love and kisses, Raisa Another week pa.s.sed with no news of David. Most likely he was dead. Officially, he had deserted, and Raisa supposed she had to consider that he actually had, except that that made no sense. Where would he go? Or maybe he was simply lost and hadn't made his way back to his regiment yet. She wanted to believe that.

Gridnev called her to the operations dugout, and she presented herself at his desk. A man, a stranger in a starched army uniform, stood with him.

The air commander was grim and stone-faced as he announced, "Stepanova, this is Captain Sofin." Then Gridnev left the room.

Raisa knew what was coming. Sofin put a file folder on the desk and sat behind it. He didn't invite her to sit.

She wasn't nervous, speaking to him. But she had to tamp down on a slow, tight anger.

"Your brother is David Ivanovich Stepanov?"

"Yes."

"Are you aware that he has been declared missing in action?"

She shouldn't have known, officially, but it was no good hiding it. "Yes, I am."

"Do you have any information regarding his whereabouts?"

Don't you have a war you ought to be fighting? she thought. "I a.s.sume he was killed. So many are, after all."

"You have received no communication from him?"

And what if he found all those letters she'd been writing him and thought them real? "None at all."

"I must tell you that if you receive any news of him at all, it's your duty to inform command."

"Yes, sir."

"We will be watching closely, Raisa Stepanova."

She wanted to leap across the table in the operations dugout and strangle the little man with the thin moustache. Barring that, she wanted to cry, but didn't. Her brother was dead, and they'd convicted him without evidence or trial.

What was she fighting for, again? Nina and her parents, and even Davidya. Certainly not this man.

He dismissed her without ever raising his gaze from the file folder he studied, and she left the dugout.

Gridnev stood right outside the door, lurking like a schoolboy, though a serious one who worried too much. No doubt he had heard everything. She wilted, blushing, face to the ground, like a kicked dog.

"You have a place here at the 586th, Stepanova. You always will."

She smiled a thanks but didn't trust her voice to say anything. Like observing that Gridnev would have little to say in the matter, in the end.

No, she had to earn her innocence. If she gathered enough kills, if she became an ace, they couldn't touch her, any more than they could tarnish the reputation of Liliia Litviak. If she became enough of a hero, she could even redeem David.

Winter ended, but that only meant the insects came out in force, mosquitoes and biting flies that left them all miserable and snappish. Rumors abounded that the Allied forces in Britain and America were planning a ma.s.sive invasion, that the Germans had a secret weapon they'd use to level Moscow and London. Living in a camp on the front, news was scarce. They got orders, not news, and could only follow those orders.

It made her tired.

"Stepanova, you all right?"

She'd parked her plane after flying a patrol, tracing a route along the front, searching for imminent attacks and troops on the move-perfectly routine, no Germans spotted. The motor had grumbled to stillness and the propeller had stopped turning long ago, but she remained in her c.o.c.kpit, just sitting. The thought of pulling herself, her bulky gear, her parachute, logbook, helmet, all the rest of it, out of the c.o.c.kpit and onto the wing left her feeling exhausted. She'd done this for months, and now, finally, she wasn't sure she had anything left. She couldn't read any numbers on the dials, no matter how much she blinked at the instrument panel.

"Stepanova!" Martya, her mechanic, called to her again, and Raisa shook herself awake.

"Yes, I'm fine, I'm coming." She slid open the canopy, gathered her things, and hauled herself over the edge.

Martya was waiting for her on the wing in shirt and overalls, sleeves rolled up, kerchief over her head. She couldn't have been more than twenty, but her hands were rough from years of working on engines.

"You look terrible," Martya said.

"Nothing a shot of vodka and a month in a feather bed won't fix," Raisa said, and the mechanic laughed.

"How's your fuel?"

"Low. You think she's burning more than she should?"

"Wouldn't surprise me. She's been working hard. I'll look her over."

"You're the best, Martya." The mechanic gave her a hand off the wing, and Raisa pulled her into a hug.

Martya said, "Are you sure you're all right?" Raisa didn't answer.

"Raisa!" That was Inna, walking over from her own plane, dragging her parachute with one arm, her helmet tucked under her other. "You all right?"

She wished people would stop asking that.

"Tired, I think," Martya answered for her. "You know what we need? A party or a dance or something. There are enough handsome boys around here to flirt with." She was right: the base was filled with male pilots, mechanics, and soldiers, and they were all dashing and handsome. The odds were certainly in the women's favor. Raisa hadn't really thought of it before.

Inna sighed. "Hard to think of flirting when you're getting bombed and shot at."

Martya leaned on the wing and looked wistful. "After the war, we'll be able to get dressed up. Wash our hair with real soap and go dancing."

"After the war. Yes," Inna said.

"After we win the war," Raisa said. "We won't be dancing much if the Fascists win."

They went quiet, and Raisa regretted saying anything. It was the unspoken a.s.sumption when people talked about "after the war": of course they'd win. If they lost, there wouldn't be an "after" at all.

Not that Raisa expected to make it that far.

Davidya: I've decided that I'd give up being a fighter ace if it meant we could both get through the war alive. Don't tell anyone I said that; I'd lose my reputation for being fierce, and for being hideously jealous of Liliia Litviak. If there's a G.o.d, maybe he'll hear me, and you'll come walking out of the wilderness, alive and well. Not dead and not a traitor. We'll go home, and Mama and Da and Nina will be well, and we can forget that any of this ever happened. That's my dream now.

I've still got that letter, the hideous one I wrote for you in case I die. I ought to burn it, since Inna doesn't have anyone to send it to now.

Your sister, Raisa An alarm came at dawn.

By reflex, she tumbled out of her cot, into trousers and shirt, coat and boots, grabbing gloves and helmet on the way out of the dugout. Inna was at her side, running toward the airstrip. Planes were already rumbling overhead-scouts returning from patrol.

Mechanics and armorers were at the planes-all of them. Refueling, running chains of ammunition into cannon and machine guns. This was big. Not just a sortie, but a battle.

There was Commander Gridnev addressing them right on the field. The mission: German heavy bombers had crossed the front. Fighters were being scrambled to intercept. He'd be flying this one himself, leading the first squadron. First squadron launched in ten minutes and would engage any fighters sent with the attack. Second squadron-the women's squadron-would launch in fifteen and stop the bombers.

The air filled with Yak fighters, the drone of their engines like the buzz of bees made large.

No time to think, only to do, as they'd done hundreds of times before. Martya helped Raisa into her c.o.c.kpit, slapped the canopy twice after closing it over her, then jumped off the wing to yank the chocks out from under the tires. A dozen Yaks lined up, taxiing from the flight line to wait their turn on the runway. One after another after another ...

Finally, Raisa's turn came, and she was airborne. It was a relief, being in the air again, where she could do something. Up here, when someone attacked, she could dodge. Not like being on the ground when the bombs fell. She'd rather have a stick in her hand, a trigger under her finger. It felt right.

Glancing back through the canopy, Raisa found Inna on her wing, right where she should be. Her friend gave her a broad salute, and Raisa waved back. Once the squadron was airborne, they settled into an echelon formation, following Gridnev's squadron up ahead. They'd all flown with Gridnev's men; they'd all had months to get used to each other. Men or women, didn't make a difference, and most men realized that sooner or later. Which was something of a revelation if she stopped to think about it. But no one had time to stop and think about it. All she needed to know was that Aleksei Borisov liked diving to the left and would loop above if he got into trouble; Sofia Mironova was a careful pilot and tended to hang back; Valentina Gushina was fast, very good in combat; Fedor Baurin had the keenest eyesight. He'd spot their target before anyone else.

The Yaks flew on in loose formation, ready to break and engage as soon as the target was sighted. Raisa scanned the skies in all directions, peering above and over her shoulders. The commander had the coordinates; he'd estimated twenty minutes until contact. They should be in sight of them any minute now ...

"There!" Baurin called over the radio. "One o'clock!"

Gridnev came on the channel. "Steady. Remain in formation."

She saw the enemy, sunlight flashing off canopies, airplanes suspended in the air. Hard to judge scale and distance; her own group was traveling fast enough that the enemy planes seemed to be standing still. But they were approaching, rapidly and inexorably.

While the heavy bombers continued on, straight and level, a handful of smaller planes broke off from the main group-a squadron of fighters as escort.

Well, this was going to be interesting.

On the commander's orders, they spread out and prepared to engage. Raisa opened the throttle and sped ahead, planning to overshoot the fighters entirely: Their goal was preventing those bombers from reaching their target. Her Yak dipped down, yawed to the left, roared onward.

A flight of Messerschmitts rocketed overhead. Gunfire sounded. Then they were gone.

Inna had followed her, and the bombers lay ahead of them, waiting. They had a short time to be as disruptive as they could before those Messers came back around, no matter how much the others were able to keep them occupied.

As soon as she was within range, she opened fire. The rattle from the cannon shook her fuselage. Nearby, another cannon fired; Raisa traced the smoke of the sh.e.l.ls from behind her toward the Junkers: Inna had fired as well.

The bombers dropped back. And the fighters caught up with her and Inna. Then chaos.

She watched for stars and crosses painted on the fuselages, marking friend or foe. They chased each other in three dimensions, until it was impossible to track them all, and she began to focus on avoiding collision. The Messers were torpedo shaped, sleek and nimble. Formidable. Both sets of pilots had had two years of war to gain experience. The fight would end only when one side or the other ran out of ammunition.

They had to bring down those bombers, if nothing else.