Read Ketty Jay 04 - The Ace of Skulls for Free Online

was in some kind of trouble. Nobody else knew either. ‘Might be,’ he said neutrally.
    ‘Artis Pinn the pilot? The man who beat Gidley Sleen in that race at the Rushes? Who brought his craft down out of the sky with no engines and lived to tell about it?’
    Ashua felt Harkins go tense next to her.
    ‘Yeah!’ said Pinn, brightly. ‘Yeah, that was me!’
    ‘We’d be honoured if you’d come join us for an ale,’ the other drunkard gasped.
    Pinn beamed, his tiny eyes almost disappearing in his chubby cheeks. ‘Why not?’ he said magnanimously. He squeezed his short, round body from out behind the table. ‘ ’Scuse me, everyone,’ he said. ‘Some fans want to say hello.’ He disappeared into the sweat and heat and murk.
    Ashua turned to Harkins. His narrow, hangdog face had gone a strange shade of purple.
    ‘Didn’t you do that, not Pinn?’ she asked him.
    ‘ Yes! ’ Harkins fairly screamed it, before his voice wobbled back to normal pitch. ‘Yes, that was me! But I . . . I had to fly under his name . . . It was . . . I mean . . .’
    Harkins gave up speaking. He looked like he was about to strangle on his own neck veins.
    ‘Why didn’t you stand up for yourself, then?’ Ashua asked.
    ‘Oho!’ said Crake, who’d been watching with wine-addled amusement over the rim of his cup. ‘Now that’s quite a question to ask our Mr Harkins.’
    ‘I . . . you . . . I mean . . . It’s not as simple as that, now, is it?’ The ears of his battered pilot’s cap flapped about his unshaven cheeks as he waved about in agitation.
    ‘Why not?’
    He seemed stumped. ‘It’s . . . er . . . I don’t know! I just can’t! I never could, alright?’
    ‘He never could,’ Crake agreed, nodding sagely.
    Ashua blew out her lips to show what she thought of that. ‘How’d he get to be such a good pilot when he’s such a chickenshit?’
    ‘I’m not a chickenshit!’ said Harkins.
    ‘You sort of are,’ Crake commiserated, and took another mouthful of wine.
    ‘Yeah,’ said Ashua. ‘What about that time when Pinn burped behind you and you jumped so high you fell down the stairs in the cargo hold?’ Crake had broken apart laughing before she was halfway through the sentence.
    ‘But he pushed me!’ Harkins whined, a protest so pathetic that nobody believed it now or then.
    ‘ I heard,’ said Ashua, then took a gulp of rum because she’d momentarily forgotten what she’d heard. ‘ I heard that you were a pilot for the Navy in both Aerium Wars. That you shot down dozens of Sammies. Didn’t you?’
    ‘It was different then,’ Harkins mumbled.
    ‘How was it different?’ Ashua asked. The Ketty Jay ’s crew were usually a closemouthed lot, but she was drunk enough to be nosy.
    Harkins squirmed. He didn’t like to be on the spot. ‘I . . . er . . . it’s . . . well, I suppose . . .’
    ‘Come on, it must be something ,’ she said. ‘What was different back then? What did life in the Navy have that life on the Ketty Jay doesn’t?’ She tried to think of the most obvious thing. ‘Discipline?’ she guessed.
    Crake snapped his fingers and pointed at her. ‘Discipline,’ he said, as if she’d just solved a puzzle.
    ‘Discipline . . .’ Harkins said thoughtfully. ‘Er . . . yes, actually. I mean . . . you know, getting up at the same time every day, I sort of liked that. Train with your squad, everybody together. Nobody in the spotlight, nobody better than anyone else.’ A little smile broke out on his face. ‘And people like Pinn . . . They’d never let someone like him in. I mean, they would at first , but the sergeant would knock all that stupid cockiness out of him. He’d stick to formation or he’d be cleaning latrines! Back then we were a team; you cheered your teammates on instead of trying to steal all the glory. And when you were out there on a mission together, I mean, they had your life in their hands, and you had theirs in yours, and it was . . . I don’t know, it was just . . .’