<strong>HEINZ VON OBERAMMERGAU</strong><br/><br/>I filled and lit my pipe with a slight frown, raising an eyebrow at the Canadian.<strong>"180 miles Northeast?Very optimistic of Miss Lamarr. We should catch her in a few minutes once we're airborne. Care to join me, Captain McPherson? Our attack aircraft will be able to keep up with each other better. Take good care of Mr. Quinn, ladies. Give his plane one nasty look too many and it will probably burst into flames."</strong><br/><br/>The great blue airship was slowly chugging loose from its mooring, and trundled off gracefully into the sky to the northeast. I groaned as I got into my cockpit and saw another zeppelin pulling in to park at the tower. Leaving my canopy open for fresh air, I finished my pipe and studied the chart on my kneeboard, circling the area the Blue Ridge would be found. Finally, the tractor towed me to the end of the strip and Lamarr's lackey gave us some more orders. I checked the skyhook on my crate's back with some disdain; it seemed silly to fly a surplus 6 tons or so of freight around that could fly at 200 miles per hour on its own. Of course, the Vampire would come in handy as a gun turret if she wanted to fire a broadside at someone. I radioed dryly for clearance to take off, taking position behind the smaller and more fragile aircraft that would need less space to take off.<br/><br/><strong>"Control, this is Zebra Duke, requesting take off clearance, over."</strong><br/><br/>Inserting the cartridge engine starter into its slot, I flicked the ignition switch, firing the blank shotgun cartridge and spinning my engines to life. They idled as I waited for the red fighter in front of me to rocket into the air and moved the marker on my compass to about 040 degrees.<br/>