Chapter 21

Two hours later and they were making the final approach to the airport supporting the Commemorative Flight Museum.

Below them they could see an array of vintage aircraft ranging from diminutive scout planes to a massive Convair B-36 Peacemaker bomber, the only flyable one in the world, all parked on a hardstand and ready to be flown.

The four men had their faces pressed to their windows to see the impressive collection, the largest privately owned collection of military aircraft in the world.

Eduardo was heard to sigh and mutter, "Someday, we hope to have as impressive a collection in Brazil."

Quickly regaining their seats, they hastily buckled in and braced them selves for the landing which went off without a hitch.

The emergency ground vehicles that had quickly lined up alongside the runway for safety's sake, quickly returned to their stations, their services not being needed at this time.

With the seaplane guided into position and parked, Roger shut off the engines and as they whirled to a stop, Roger and crew let out a collective sigh of relief.

They had done it, they had retrieved the Martin Mariner, in spite of having to reassemble it and getting attacked by hired thugs who managed to wound Pedro during the fight.

In spite of having to land it on a crowded Gatun Lake while dodging huge cargo ships and small watercraft, then spending nearly a week cleaning carburetors and filtering bad Avgas 100 to get out of there.

The four of them grinned hugely at each other and began laughing at their good fortune.

Exiting the bulky seaplane, they were greeted by the museum director himself, a tall, robust man wearing a pair of Raybans and a white Stetson hat.

With him was a pair of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms inspectors, well armed with clip boards and paperwork.

He grinned at them and said in a booming voice, "Well gawd damn! Ya did it! Y'all really did it!"

He extended a massive hand and said, "Tom Sanders, Colonel, U.S. Air Force, retired and no, I'm not related to the chicken colonel, before you ask!"

Roger grinned back and retorted as he shook hands with the former Colonel Sanders, "That's good, because I like the other guy's chicken better!"

Tom Sanders laughed and said, "I prefer steak myself!"

Roger turned to his crew and introduced them, "Tom, I want you to meet the gang of four." He pointed at each of them and said, "Henri DuValliere, French air force reservist and good guy in a pinch!"

Henri nodded, "Pedro Tovar, former pilot Brazilian air force, drug enforcement pilot, he knows these old birds."

Pedro grinned, "And lastly, Eduardo Castillo, former chief mechanic, Brazilian air force, drug enforcement agency, he fixes these old birds."

Tom grinned and shook hands with each of them.

Pedro flinched slightly when he shook hands with Tom and Tom asked, "Are you okay?"

Pedro smiled at him and replied, "We had a little 'discussion' with some thugs hired by a local drug lord who wanted this plane. During our little 'chat' I caught a nine millimeter bullet in my left shoulder. Fortunately, I am right handed!"

Tom grinned and roared with laughter, "Y'all weren't kiddin' when y'said this was a bender of a tale!"

"Now, back to business." Tom said, he glanced at the two BATF agents and said to Roger, "You mentioned you had a number of .50 caliber machine guns and you would like to sell or trade them for work on this here aircraft."

Roger nodded in reply and Tom continued, "These fine gentlemen are going to take temporary custody of the machine guns in question and hold them until we can verify that they were not stolen."

Roger smiled and opened up the bulky manila envelope he had with him.

Rummaging around inside for a few moments, he pulled out some papers and handed them to the BATF agents with the comment, "This is a list of all the items included in the sale of this aircraft to our museum. You will see the machine guns are listed and described as being preserved in cosmoline."

The senior agent looked closely at the paperwork and commented, "Going by the serial numbers written down here, these guns were all built during WW2 and not likely to have been stolen."

He smiled at them and said, "We'll still check them out, just to keep our jobs, but these things are museum pieces and probably worth twice as much as the newer .50's."

Tom grinned and said, "Well now, it looks like your bargaining chip just got bigger! Let's see what the FAA has to say..."

Roger laughed and remarked, "This plane is not FAA certified, we left in a hurry and didn't wait around for a certification, we just took off and hoped for the best!"

Tom chuckled and remarked, "The fact that you got it here, tells me it's probably gonna pass the certification process."

The two agents entered the bulky aircraft and began opening up the machine gun storage containers and checking serial numbers.

While they were doing that Tom and Roger sat down and talked shop.

Tom began with, "I did agree to look this plane over and consider trading two of my reserve Curtiss-Wright 3350's for your machine guns and two Wright Cyclone 2600's. I assume that we will be doing the engine upgrades which will involve changing the cowlings as well?" Roger replied, "That's pretty much the gist of it, yes. Now Eduardo was involved with a planned engine upgrade to the 3350 engines and has all the notes and feasibility studies they had performed before the program was cancelled by a general with too much time on his hands."

Tom grinned and remarked drily, "I find it strangely comforting to know that my beloved air force, is not the only one afflicted with too many generals with time on their hands."

He looked thoughtful and asked, "This Eduardo, he worked on large piston engined aircraft you say?"

Roger nodded in reply and said, "He was the Brazilian equivalent of a chief warrant officer specializing in aircraft engine maintenance. He was working for the TAM Aereo Museo keeping their fleet aloft."

Tom looked impressed and remarked, "I've heard of them, they're a good museum. We've traded a few planes in the past."

Roger smiled and said, "You might want to consider hiring him to help out with the engine upgrades, it will save you guys a lot of headaches and time."

Tom grinned and replied, "I plan on talking to him about his experience. Many of the mechanics who worked on this stuff when it was new, are getting on in years and a younger man with similar experience will find work real easy, if he's interested."

"I think he'll be interested, Brazil's a little too hot for him right now and if he has a good job prospect up here, he'll want to stay here."

So, what else you got?" asked Tom. "Well, we have several powered machine gun turrets we won't be using and a bunch of period avionics we won't need with a modern GPS and satellite connection in their places." replied Roger.

"We figure taking out the turrets, the radar and the associated electronics will save a bunch of weight, possibly a couple of tons or more."

Tom looked thoughtful and remarked, "I can use all that stuff for restoration projects or trading with other air museums...Okay, I'll do it!"

He rose at the same time Roger did and they closed the deal with a handshake. "You'll have to leave the plane here until it's ready and in the meantime, I'm gonna put it on display!" Roger laughed and replied, "I expect you to!"

Tom went to speak at length with both Pedro and Eduardo while Roger called Rachel.

She answered quickly, "Please tell me you're all okay! I swear I've aged ten years these last few weeks."

Roger replied quite cheerfully, "Well then, I have good news. We are here in Texas, we landed about two hours ago and the Commemorative Flight Museum accepted our proposal to make a trade and...They will be doing the work."

Roger quickly moved the phone away from his ear while a loud "Wooo Hoooo!" blared from it.

He grinned and asked, "I take it you like it?"

Rachel laughed and replied, That's the best news I've heard since we got tangled up in this whole thing. Now, I want you to call that girl of yours right now, while I call my boss and tell him the good news."

Roger grinned and replied, "Yes, ma'am!" Then he called Freya.

"Hi sweetie, I've got great news!" he began. "Yoo're here in th' states?"

"Yep! We landed about two hours ago and we're here in Texas at the Commemorative Flight Museum. They've agreed to go over the plane and make sure everything is in good condition before we take it home with us."

"How soon afore ye come tae get me?" she asked.

"Hopefully in another day or so, I did everything I set out to do and now, I just have to catch a flight up to Canada to get you." he replied, then added, "As soon as we get back, I'm taking you to get some fresh ramen!"

Freya laughed and replied, "Then Ah willnae eat fer a coupla days, so's Ah will be verra hungry!"

Roger chuckled and gleefully retorted, "As much as you eat, I'd hardly notice a difference! I'll be seeing you soon sweetie, bye now."

"Guid bye tae ye too."

With his head still feeling a little fuzzy from the night before and their celebrating the retrieval of the Martin Mariner with a steak dinner and a lot of booze.

Roger boarded the Canadair flight to Vancouver, Canada.

Shortly after take off when the cabin lights indicated it was safe to unbuckle and move about the cabin, he asked the flight attendant for a pillow and a blanket.

When the attendant returned and handed him the items, the attendant said with a smile, "If you like, I can move you to a quieter area, so you'll be relatively undisturbed."

Roger grinned at him and replied, "That would be greatly appreciated!"

He rose from his seat and followed the attendant further back in the plane to where there was an empty row of seats.

Folding away the armrests to make a bench and settling into place, Roger smiled at the attendant and said, "This will be perfect, thank you!"

The attendant grinned at him and replied, "I know a weary traveler when I see one, working here, I see this all the time."

Roger chuckled and remarked, "Weary is hardly the word for it, I've spent the last month and a half retrieving a world war two seaplane from Brazil. It took over a week just to fly it to Texas because we had to set it down on Gatun Lake to fix the carburetors because of the bad gas we got in Trinidad."

Visibly impressed, the attendant said, "Woah, my granddad flew a PBY during the Pacific campaign patrolling for Japanese submarines. He had quite a few stories to tell!"

He grinned at Roger and said a cheery, "Enjoy your flight!" and left Roger to become reacquainted with sleep.

The soft chiming of the in cabin message board advising the passengers to prepare for landing, roused Roger from a very pleasant dream.

One where he was strolling along a tropical beach with a towering Norse goddess by his side.

As she vanished along with the rest of his dream, Roger straightened up and buckled in for the landing.

After a routine landing and exiting the plane, he retrieved his overnight bag and headed for the Canadair Customer service counter.

The smiling counter person said brightly, "How may I help you?"

Roger smiled at her and replied, "I would like to commend a flight attendant for a job well done."

He showed her the boarding pass and she handed him a form to fill out.

Roger took a few minutes to write down his comments about his flight experience and handed it back to her while saying, "I just wanted to express my appreciation for his going that extra step. I was really tired and his helping me get that muchly needed sleep is greatly appreciated."

She smiled very brightly and said cheerfully, "I will relay this along and thank you very much for choosing Canadair for your travel needs!"

Roger grinned at her and headed for Canadian customs with his I.D. and passport in hand.

The Canadian customs agents smiled and practically waved him through.

From there he went to a regional airline and booked a flight to Bella Coola airport where he would get a lift to Ape Lake and meet up with Freya.

While waiting for his flight he called Freya, she answered her phone rather quickly, "Hi!" she began, "Ur ye comin' tae Canada yet?"

Roger smiled and replied, "I'm actually here in Vancouver and getting ready to fly up to Bella Coola airport, we leave in about an hour."

He heard Freya exclaim to someone else, "He's haur awreddy, he's doon in Vancoover an' gettin' ready tae fly up haur! Ah need tae gie me things aw packed up an' ready."

She got back to him and asked, "Ur ye comin' up tae uir hoose?"

"I can stay a couple of days, I don't want to just show up and say, 'okay , I'll just be taking your daughter back now, thank you!' I oughtta at least hoist a tankard or two of your great uncle's ale just to be polite!" replied Roger.

Freya mused, "It's a two day walk tae th' wee town we trade wi', if we leave right noo. Yoo'll huvtae wait fer us a coupla days or sae."

Roger interjected, "I can arrange for a helicopter ride to the lake if you like, that'll save you all a bunch of walking."

"Yes, we woods loch 'at verra much!" enthused Freya.

"I thought you'd like the idea, I'll make the arrangements!" Replied Roger with a grin.

The flight from Vancouver to Bella Coola took little more than an hour and once there, Roger went to the floatplane service based there as there was no helicopter service available. When he asked to be flown to Ape Lake, the owner looked at him over his bi-focals and remarked, "It's none'a my business but, I don't see any fishing or camping gear..."

Roger smiled and replied, "I'm meeting someone up there, they're expecting me."

"Okay...Will you be wanting a pick up?"

"Yes, after two days and I'll be bringing someone out with me along with some luggage."

The owner jotted down a couple of notes and commented, "I can pick you all back up in two days at three o'clock. I'm not flying after dark up there, too many things to run into!"

Roger grinned at him and replied, "I wouldn't expect you to, I'm a pilot myself and I know the risks involved."

The man smiled and asked, "Got any floatplane experience? I could use an extra pilot!" Roger laughed and replied, "I just got through flying a Martin Mariner up from Brazil. Making an emergency landing on Gatun Lake was no picnic, what with all the cargo ships and smaller watercraft out there."

The owner grinned at him and remarked, "So you're the guy I heard about, they have the plane down there in Texas now, don't they?"

"Yep, they're gonna do an engine upgrade and airworthyness certification."

The owner gaped and blurted out, "You flew that thing without certifying it first?"

Roger shrugged and replied, "We were in kind of a hurry and had to skip the formalities part."

The owner chuckled and said, "I've always wanted to meet a certifiable pilot, now I can say I have!"