Phred had his eyes on the death bearing planes behind him, waiting in a frozen shock for the sound of guns spitting fiery doom. The angry sounds of machine guns sounded…but it wasn't the Furies'. Tracer rounds slammed into the Furies from Phred's three o' clock. The Furies, taken by surprise, had little choice but to break off Phred's tail.
Phred found that the Top Hats were just as confused as he was.
"What the hell?" cried Twitch, "My starboard wing is all shot to…"
"Shut up and keep flying Twitch!" Shouted the female pilot, "They're coming around for another pass!"
"We'd better pull of this guy's backside before ours gets shot to sh…"
"What did I tell you about shuttin' up?"
Three red and white planes charged towards the retreating Furies. Phred thought they bore an insignia of what looked like taro cards on their wings. As if to clear up any doubt as to their identity, a new voice came up on the radio. "Attention Top Hats, this is Nathan Zachary of the fortune hunters. Break off your attack on this civilian aircraft."
"Well, well, well," Replied Devro, "If it isn't Nathan Zachary, 'gentleman' air-pirate. How lucky we must be to entertain such noble company." There was laughter in the background. "Unfortunately Zachary, I can't seem to see how this is any of your damn business," Devro's voice dropped to a growl, "Go play hero somewhere else."
"I'm not going to tell you again Cooper. Break off now or you'll be plucking your pilots from the sides of the Rockies."
"I think you put that statement in reverse, Zachary." Growled Devro. "Ok boys, the Fortune Hunters want to play too. Decimate them, but leave Zachary for me."
Phred kept his plane heading away from the zep and checked his throttle. It was already at full. He prayed that the Devro would just forget him.
"Hey Boss, what about the runt?" asked Twitch
"We'll deal with him later after we clip these buzzards' wings."
Phred could hardly believe it. This was his chance. While the Top Hats were busy with the Fortune Hunters his little crop duster could be over the border into some other nation and home free. He'd be untraceable as the homing beeper unit would run out of power eventually. He breathed a sigh of relief as the zeppelin begin to get smaller in his rear windscreen. In a few minutes everything would be just a bad memory. The zep was just a silhouette now, just a dark patch against the clouds. Phred should have been feeling better but something wasn't right. Even ifhe made it out of this sorry situation to forget it, he wouldn't be able to even pretend to forget the fact that he had left three planes against the full force of the Top Hats. He would never know what would become of the guys that risked their necks for someone they didn't even know.
Phred sighed and pulled up on the stick. The altimeter's hand began to circle clockwise, ticking off altitude being slowly gained. Phred might not be and ace, but there was a darn good chance he could out think Cooper and his thugs…he hoped.