Sky vs. Spies

Fiction by Frank Knebel

As always, thanks to Jeb and the Editorial Broad

Chapter 1

“Please, Uncle Sky! I want to help too!”

     The young blonde put the most entreating expression she could muster onto her pretty face. It was an expression, she knew, that her uncle found difficult to resist.

     “No, Copper,” he said calmly but firmly. “This is something that you just can’t be a part of. It’s not really up to me, so you can stop the begging.”

     A look of near-agony spontaneously replaced the look of calculated pleading on her features.

     “But you know how much help I can be to you! I can fly the Hummingbird almost as well as you can. I can ride, and I can shoot, and I can follow trails, and I ---“

     “Can stop anytime now,” replied Sky Ryder with a little smile. “It’s a matter of clearance as far as the Air Force is concerned. You don’t have one and I do, and I couldn’t get you one even if I asked them. And besides…”

     He hesitated.

     His shapely niece folded her arms across her chest (which her close-fitting checkered western shirt showed was very female in its outlines) and cocked her head to one side.

     “You think it might be too dangerous for a girl!” she finished.

     “For a young woman,” corrected Sky. “Anyone who voted last fall is now a woman in my book. And I won’t have any idea if this will be dangerous until I hear what it is.”

     He looked at his wristwatch.

     “Captain Atkins is due here in a few minutes, honey. It would probably be better if you were out of the house well before that, so why don’t you just take that list of chores out to Merrill?”

     Copper did not reply. She frowned thoughtfully and dropped into an armchair. It was apparent that her resistance to Sky’s suggestion would be the passive type.

     “Atkins,” she murmured. “Atkins. Where have I heard that name before? Another of you’re old service buddies, I’ll bet.”

     “Wrong. Captain Atkins’ war service was mostly getting her high school classmates to collect scrap metal.”

     Copper’s jaw dropped.

     “Her war service? You mean that Captain Atkins is a woman?”

     Sky Ryder gave a slight grimace at his slip.

     “You’re getting me out of here so you can meet with some woman on a top secret matter?” Copper continued. “What makes her more able to keep a secret than me?”

     “Well just for starters, she’s a captain in the Air Force and you’re not. She has a clearance for secret material and you don’t. And General Wheeler trusts her with just about anything. So for all those reasons, plus the fact that she told me that whatever it is we’re going to talk about needs to be kept secret, I’m asking you as nicely as I can to just accept that you can’t be involved in this.”

     Copper folded her arms again and resumed her pouting. Sky watched her for a moment with a look of patient amusement on his face. He loved his independent-minded and somewhat willful niece and was generally glad to have her assist him in anything he did, but he had to remain firm in this matter.

     Before either of them could say anything more, they heard a car engine slowing outside the front door and the sound of tires braking on the gravel between the highway and the gate. Sky stepped to the screen door and peered out into the late spring sunlight. Forgetting all about maintaining an icy exterior, Copper rose and stood beside him.

     The car that had drawn up to their front gate was a rather plain looking, two-year-old white sedan with two women in the front seat. Copper stood on tiptoes and craned her neck for a better look.

     “It’s just a plain old car!” she said with some surprise.

     Sky looked at her with a little smile.

     “Did you expect it to be marked ‘For Top Secret Air Force Use Only’?”

     Though the girl rolled her eyes at him, she could not help smiling back.

     “Oh, Uncle Sky!”

     The car had stopped in the shade of one of the sturdy cottonwood trees that lined the highway in front of the ranch. Both doors opened and the two women, both in Air Force uniforms, got out of the car. The driver had three stripes on her sleeve, and she now went around the car to confer with her passenger. The sergeant was a short blonde of about thirty whose ripe, womanly curves were barely contained by her light blue Class A uniform. Her knee-length, close fitting skirt showed attractive legs, and her slightly round face, though hardly movie star gorgeous, was pretty and well made up. The uniformed woman emerging from the other side of the car was an even more pleasing contrast. She was tall and slender, though the fit of her jacket and skirt plainly indicated a good bust size, a trim waist, and shapely hips and legs. Her dark brown hair was cut just above her shirt collar and was gently curled at the ends, neatly framing a long, aristocratic face with intelligent brown eyes. Her look and graceful exit from the car suggested a woman who was used to being photographed upon her arrival at exclusive East Coast society events. She reached into the back seat and took out a small attaché case which she held as she spoke in a low voice to her driver

     Copper watched her closely.

     “She’s an Air Force captain?” the girl exclaimed.

     Sky was smiling dreamily.

     “Quite a sight, isn’t she?”

     “Should I summon the footman to help her inside and ring for tea?” Copper asked sarcastically.

     The remark jolted Sky from his reverie.

     “No, you don’t need to ‘ring for tea.’ I’ll introduce you to Julie, I mean Captain Atkins, then you can excuse yourself to go see Fred with that list.”

     She glared sullenly at her uncle, but knew that protests would be useless.

     “All right, Uncle Sky.”

     He regarded his niece affectionately.

     “And don’t worry. I’ll see that she doesn’t talk me into marrying her, at least until you get back.”

     Copper smiled in spite of herself.

     “See that you don’t!” she said trying to sound commanding.

     “At least I’m not greeting her in my tuxedo,” he added jokingly.

     She laughed again before turning to their visitors. The sergeant remained by the car standing in the shade. The dark-haired woman walked toward the house. As she stepped into the sun, Copper could see the two silver bars indicating the rank of a captain on her shoulders and her cap. The woman was smiling pleasantly at them as she approached.

     “Hello, Sky,” she called in a melodious voice as she reached for the handle of the screen door.

     Sky swung the door open for her and took the extended hand in his own.

     “Hi, Julie. It’s good to see you again.”

     Copper could not help noticing that after a perfunctory shake or two their hands remained clasped for a moment before letting go. Even when their hands were no longer touching, they seemed to be making some kind of contact with their eyes. The expression in Sky’s eyes Copper could read as barely hidden delight. Since Captain Atkins was a stranger Copper was not so sure about her, but her womanly instincts told Copper that there was something between the two.

     Sky put a hand at the back of the officer’s shoulder and gently turned her toward Copper.

     “Julie, I’d like you to meet my niece, Coppelia.”

     Captain Atkins smiled at Copper and put out her hand again.

     “And I know that everyone calls you Copper,” she said, taking the girl’s hand. “You must call me Julie.”

     The attractive brunette’s warm smile and the unexpectedly friendly familiarity were such that Copper, as she often did, momentarily forgot her possessiveness and jealousy. She smiled in return and shook the officer’s hand.

     “It’s a pleasure Captain--- I mean, Julie. Are you really an aide to a general?”

     The girl’s eyes had widened slightly as she asked the question, as though stunned that such an important person could be treating her as an equal.

     “I sure am,” Julie replied. “He has only one star right now, but we think there’ll be another coming along in a few months.”

     “It’s hard to think of people calling Bud Wheeler ‘general’ or even ‘sir’ when I think of the guy I knew back during the war,” said Sky.

     Julie turned to him with a twinkle in her eye.

     “Yeah, he’s told some of us about all the dives you two closed in those days.”

     Copper turned to Sky, her eyes even wider now.

     “Uncle Sky!” the girl scolded.

     “There’s no need to get into all that now,” Sky said hurriedly. “You have to get that list out to our foreman, remember?”

     “Oh, a few more minutes won’t hurt anything, Sky,” said Copper.

     Julie gave Sky an amused look.

     “Of course not, Sky. We’d like a little time to get acquainted.”

     Noticing Julie’s twinkle, Sky retained his good humor.

     “But this is important Air Force business, isn’t it Captain? Shouldn’t we get down to it right away?”

     Copper looked at him in surprise.

     “ ‘Captain’? My, aren’t we formal all of a sudden? You know, I think that… ”

     She stopped when she saw that they were regarding each other with affectionate amusement. Julie turned to her.

     “He’s right, Copper. This is an important assignment from the Air Force, and it’s really for his ears only.”

     Copper’s face fell. Julie reached over and took the girl’s hand.

     “But I’ll be in town for a while, so we’ll have plenty of time for girl talk.”

     The younger woman brightened.

     “Well, all right. Where’d I leave that list now?”

     “On the coffee table,” said Sky.

     Copper picked up the list. After shaking hands with Julie again she headed for the door but stopped just before pushing open the screen. She turned back with an arched eyebrow.

     “Now, are you two sure that you won’t need a chaperone?” she asked, smiling coyly.

     Julie covered her mouth with her hand to stifle her giggle as she looked at Sky.

     “We’re sure,” Sky said patiently. “Get on with it, young lady.”

     Copper smiled wider and pushed the screen door open. Sky and Julie strolled over to one of the windows and watched her go to the corral and lead her pinto pony out to the yard. As she mounted, Copper noticed them at the window. With a final wave, she trotted off to the north.

     Captain Julie Atkins turned and looked up at Sky.

     “Copper’s quite a young lady, Sky. You’ve done a very good job raising her. I hope it’s been worth giving up your career for her.”

     “The Navy seems to have done all right without my services,” Sky said. “They can always find more pilots, but a young girl gets only one chance to grow up.”

     “A lot of kids do fine being service brats. Copper probably could have made it too.”

     Sky smiled ruefully.

     “Maybe if she’d been born into being a service brat I’d have tried it. But she was eleven and used to another way of life when my brother and his wife died. I didn’t want to make it any harder on her than it already was. And I’ve had a great time raising her.”

     She smiled knowingly.

     “She’s a very attractive girl too. There must be a lot of young men in her life. I hope she knows what girls need to know.”

     He raised an eyebrow.

     “And what is it that girls need to know?”

     “Oh. I’m not talking about just the physical things, Sky. I know you’d be able to deal with that.”

     She raised an eyebrow too.

     “You certainly know enough about girls,” she continued. “What I’m talking about are things like making smart choices in life. Like not leaving college to join the Army Air Force and losing her head completely over some handsome pilot she meets, only to have him walk out of her life a couple years later.”

     “Copper went to college for a while,” Sky answered calmly. “But she decided that she wanted a life of adventure more than being a student just now. Besides, I’ve heard that girls who leave college for adventure can finish college later and go on to very successful lives and careers.”

     She continued to look at him earnestly.

     “That’s true. But there’s always something that seems to be missing.”

     There was a pause as they looked at one another. Julie finally looked down.

     “But I suppose things are different now,” she said. “After all there’s no war now.”

     “Only a cold one,” Sky said softly.

     Julie took a breath and looked up. She smiled slightly and assumed a bright and efficient manner.

     “And that’s why I’m here today, Sky. The Air Force would like your help on a bit of touchy business.”

     Sky took Julie’s change to a down-to-business manner as a chance to offer her some iced tea. She accepted gratefully. He went to the kitchen and returned with two glasses. He extended one of them to her, gesturing for her to take a seat on the couch.

     “Should I ask your sergeant if she’d like one too?” he asked.

     “”That shouldn’t be necessary,” Julie said as she sat. “I think Connie has a cooler full of Cokes and ice on the floor in the back seat. She’s probably enjoying one right now.”

     Sky looked out the front door. As Julie had predicted, the comely sergeant was leaning her back against the car as she sipped a bottle of the soft drink.

     “You know her pretty well,” he said with a grin as he crossed to take a seat beside her.

     “She’s been with me for three years now. Connie Wade has a weakness for Coca-Cola and maybe for fancy chocolates too, but I know I can count on her whatever happens. And she knows how and when to keep her mouth shut.”

     She looked seriously at Sky.

     “And this is one of those times, Sky. Do you remember the flap about the so-called flying saucer that crashed in New Mexico about ten years ago?”

     Sky furrowed his brow.

     “You mean that Roswell thing?”

     Julie nodded.

     “Exactly. Well, you probably know that those people didn’t find a flying saucer, but it was something that we didn’t want anyone to know about. It was actually a top-secret program to check on Russian nuclear testing.”

     Sky nodded.

     “Project Mogul,” he said. “They used balloons that looked like the ones for weather monitoring.”

     Julie looked at him in surprise. She cocked an eyebrow and smiled.

     “Is there anything we do that you don’t know about?”

     Sky shrugged.

     “I don’t believe in visitors from other planets. But when all that happened I did some checking with a couple of old friends---“

     “Including Bud?”

     Sky nodded.

     “Including Bud. Of course, I haven’t broadcast what it really was. And I’m sure that under the circumstances the Air Force doesn’t care if folks think that it might have been Martians at that.”

     “Not really, but you should have seen some of the nut cases that came out of the woodwork.” She shook her head at the memory. “Thank God we’ve finally heard the last of it!”

     Sky chuckled as she opened her attaché case and drew out a map.

     “And officially the Project has ended, since we now have other ways of keeping an eye on our Russian friends.”

     “Spy planes,” said Sky. “Especially the one based in Japan that---“

     Julie held up a hand to stop him, shaking her head once again.

     “Maybe you should be in charge of briefing the President, when you can take time out from feeding the cattle, that is. Anyway, the project isn’t quite ended. We still launch a balloon every now and then just in case that some things aren’t detected in other ways. One of them came down last week somewhere near or maybe even on your ranch, we think.”

     Sky raised his eyebrows.

     “Your retrieval boys must be pretty good to have picked it up without anyone here knowing about it.”

     “That’s just it, Sky. We haven’t found it yet. They’re all equipped with a transponder to send out a radio signal so they can be picked up. Apparently, this one malfunctioned. And not only that, but we have reason to believe that agents in the pay of the other side are looking for it to try to create some kind of international incident.”

     Sky whistled.

     “You think they could make much out of this? To me, it seems pretty small stuff to try to make into a major incident.”

     “We don’t know if they really could, but we’d rather be the ones to find the balloon and its information just to be sure. We’ve searched several locations near here where it might have gone down and come up empty. Your place was next on the list, so I thought I’d come over and try to enlist your cooperation.”

     “And you’ve got it. I take it that all these other searches were secret.”

     She nodded.

     “No official vehicles or uniformed personnel. In your case, what could be more natural for a ranch owner to fly over his own property?”

     Sky grinned at her.

     “Very clever. No one should suspect a thing.”

The stocky, mustachioed man raised his binoculars again and peered at the ranch house. His tall, lean, ferret-faced companion waited a moment before asking:

     “See anything?”

     The husky man lowered the glasses.

     “Nah. The Captain’s still inside talking to Ryder.” He smiled knowingly at the other man. “That cute little driver of hers is waiting in the yard drinking a Coke. Think she’d share one with you?”

     The lean man grinned.

     “She sure is a hot one, that sergeant of hers.”

     “Well you may get a chance to drink one of her Cokes and have a little fun with her if things work out.”

     The two men lay near the top of a rocky formation perhaps a half mile away, across the road from Sky’s ranch. They wore work pants and shirts but their city style hats looked out of place in the land of ranchers and farmers. The lean man raised himself on his elbow to look more closely at the ranch house.

     “I think they’re comin’ out!” he said.

     “Keep your voice down, will ya!” the husky man whispered. “Sound can travel a long way out here. Let’s keep an eye on ‘em.”

     A woman’s voice came from the hand held radio the man had laid beside them.

     “Rowlands. Rowlands, come in. What do you have to report?”

     The man handed the field glasses to his partner and took up the radio.

     “The lady captain and Ryder just came out of the house. Wait a minute.”

“Sergeant, Mr. Ryder and I are going for a little flight around his ranch so I can get some kind of idea of what the place looks like. We shouldn’t be gone too long.”

     She looked questioningly at Sky.

     “About an hour, I’d guess,” he told the sergeant.

     “You can just wait here for us.”

     “Very good ma’am,” replied the sergeant.

     “And you’re welcome to use anything you need in the house while we’re gone,” said Sky. He looked meaningfully at her. “Any room at all.”

     She smiled and stifled a giggle.

     “I’ll probably have to take you up on that in a few minutes. Thank you, sir.”

     They both smiled at her as they walked toward the landing strip behind the ranch house.

Rowlands squinted into the distance.

     “What’re they doin’?”

     “Looks like they’re headin’ for where he keeps the plane.”

     Rowlands pressed the button on his transmitter.

     “Looks like the captain and Ryder are goin’ for a little plane ride.”

     He released the button and listened.

     “Excellent!” said the woman’s voice. “I’ll send Carson and Hammer to help. You know what to do?”

     “Of course. It’ll be a cinch.”

     The radio went silent. Rowlands looked at his partner.

     “Let’s get back to the car. We’ve got work to do.”

     The lean man was studying the house as Sky’s Cessna Bobcat T-50 took off. He lowered the glasses and the two scurried down from their perch.

     “It’ll be real easy now,” said the lean man.

     Rowlands looked at him questioningly.

     “The sergeant just went in the house.”

     Rowlands grinned.

     “If it’s for what I think, we can really catch her with her pants down. Let’s go!”

As Copper Ryder rode back toward the house, she could see the plane climb and head to the southwest. The girl wondered what was going on, and why she, who had helped Sky with so many of his adventures, now had to be left out. Copper regarded herself as quite an amateur detective, even if Sky had had to rescue her a couple of times. Well, more than a couple of times, if she were totally honest. But the important thing was that Copper had discovered enough that the villains had had to capture her to keep her from spoiling their plans. She had merely been unlucky that they were still around when Copper had found them out.

     Unconsciously, the girl’s lower lip had begun to protrude. It was so unfair, she thought. And now one of Sky’s old flames, a very hot flame if the girl were any judge, had come back from the past to work on a case with Sky. It was true that Julie had treated her quite well, but was the woman simply playing up to her so that she might get her hooks into Sky more easily? And now Copper could see that three more cars were pulled up to the house. Who else was here? It was odd that Captain Atkins sergeant was no longer standing by their car.

     Copper left her pony in the corral and headed toward the front door. There were no visible occupants, the woman sergeant or anyone else from any of the parked cars around. As Copper climbed the porch steps, she could hear sounds of movement from inside the house. Then there was a man’s voice answered by another.

     “Who’s here now?” the girl wondered. “More Air Force people or the Secret Service?”

     Without calling out, she opened the front door. The girl’s first thought was that a cyclone had hit the room while she was gone. The furniture had been moved away from the walls as though someone had looked behind every piece and the couch and chair cushions had been pulled out and strewn on the floor. Copper recognized Captain Atkins’ briefcase lying wide open on the coffee table, its contents scattered about. As Copper gaped at the sight a man stepped out of Sky’s room heading across the hallway. He turned and saw Copper.

     “Hey, Rowlands!” he called surprise written all over his hard, rather ugly face. “We got company!”

     Copper turned to run back out the front door only to collide with a woman who now stood in the doorway. She was tall and dark, her smooth hair pulled tightly back over her head. Her face was attractive, but cold looking. An ominous smile, gleaming white teeth visible between her bright red lips, spread over her face. Her right hand grabbed Copper’s left wrist.

     “Well, well,” she said. “A pretty little visitor’s come to our party. A not very welcome one, I’m afraid.”

     “Let me go!” demanded the girl. “I’m no visitor; I live here. You’re the ones who aren’t welcome. You’d better get out of here while you can.”

     The woman laughed.

     “Or you’ll what, my dear?” She turned the girl and gave her a push. The ugly man had been joined by a tall, lean one and a husky man with a mustache. “Tie her up with the other one.”

     “Come on, you,” said the husky man, grabbing her by the hand. “Don’t give us any trouble.”

     The lean man took her other arm.

     “Let me go!” Copper yelled. “You just wait ‘til my Uncle Sky gets hold of you.”

     “I’m paralyzed with fear,” the lean man said as they hustled her into her room.

     The two of them dragged her into her own bedroom. Copper was amazed to see the blond sergeant sitting on her bed. Her uniform skirt and jacket were gone. Clad in only her uniform shirt, half-slip and underwear, she sat looking wide eyed at Copper over a wide band of cloth that covered her mouth and lower face. The band had been drawn tightly enough that Copper could see that it held a wad of cloth in the woman’s mouth. The woman’s legs were bound at her ankles and just above her knees, and her arms were drawn behind her back with several bands of cord passing around her arms and body. She squealed in alarm when she saw Copper in the grip of the men.

     The husky man pulled Copper’s arms behind her back and began tying her wrists with rope. The lean man was smiling unpleasantly as he searched her dresser drawers. When her turned back to her, she saw that he was wadding a couple of her handkerchiefs in his hand. Before she could protest, he jammed the wad into her mouth. She struggled, trying to avoid the gag, but her hands were now tied and the husky man held her firmly. The lean man continued to smile as he held his hand over her mouth to keep the wad inside.

     “Be patient. This won’t take a minute now.”

     “Come on, Klee,” said the other man. “We haven’t got all day.”

     The lean man drew a long scarf from one of Copper’s drawers.

     “I just want to enjoy myself.”

     Obviously relishing every second, he drew the scarf into a tight band and pressed it against the wadding in Copper’s mouth. He pulled the two ends tightly across her face and passed them to his partner. The husky man drew them behind her head and tied a secure knot.

     “Sit down.” he ordered, pressing the girl’s shoulder roughly.

     She sat down beside the lingerie-clad sergeant. The two men bound her ankles and knees as they had the other woman’s. Then they wrapped several coils about her arms and body to further trap her hands behind her.

     “There,” said the husky man. “That ought to hold her. Come on. We’ve got work to do.”

     He left the room with a purposeful stride. The lean man stopped at the doorframe and looked back. The unsettling grin remained on his face.

     “Now don’t go away, girls. I won’t be long.”

     The husky man’s voice came from down the hall.

     “Klee! Let’s get moving!”

     The lean man looked in the direction of the voice, then back to the women. He gave a brief chuckle, then left.

     Copper writhed uselessly in her bonds. She looked at the sergeant who was squirming in her own bonds. The sergeant looked at Copper, then shook her head. It was no use.

     “Sky’ll get us out of this,” thought Copper desperately. “He just has to get us out of this!”