Magical Mechanications Read Online Free Page B

You are less than optimistic about the outcome, but you want to make certain whomever you send in knows what they are signing up for.”
    “You lost friends at Gallipoli?” Hemsworth asked.
    “Very perceptive, Major.”
    “As are you, Lieutenant. You are exactly right. We did not want to risk another operation based purely on intelligence we could not confirm. Then, two weeks ago—as luck would have it—you did.”
    “We will lose this war if we do not take control of the skies,” Barnswallow said, his color a bit closer to normal but his dander still up. “This Fokker could tip the scales in favor of Jerry, and we cannot have that.”
    “And we intend,” Hemsworth said, pointing into the hangar, “to make sure you have what you need to face the Big Bad Wolf without fear.”
    The sight of the plane nearly made her faint. It looked as if it were a Sopwith Camel, but with slight differences in the design. The wings, instead of reaching straight out, were angled back by five degrees or so. Underneath the fuselage, there was mounted a fat cylinder that appeared to be directly connected to the plane’s powerful engine. The twin machine guns mounted on the fuselage was thrilling to see, but also equally thrilling were the small turrets mounted on either side of the tail section.
    “Lieutenant Quinn,” Barnswallow said, “this is the Sopwith Hornet, a prototype of our own. The engine is based on the electric motor with range extender that the Avro Five-ten-As utilized in their service.”
    “The armament is similar to the Camel in that you have two synchronized Vickers in a fixed, forward-firing position,” Hemsworth offered, “but you also have the two defensive measures on the tail of the Hornet.”
    “Defensive measures?” Scarlett asked.
    “It looks like a smoke screen of some description,” Tink called from the plane. Of course she was already going over the beastie, looking to see where she could make her own improvements. “The other canon, I’ve not quite figured out what they fire.”
    “Flares,” Hemsworth said. “They are intended to distract or even blind your opponents. One time use only, though.”
    Scarlett shook her head. “With all these additions and that”—her head cut back and forth along the wing—“whatever this is, will it get in the air?”
    “I assure you, Lieutenant,” Hemsworth said, his smile wide and proud, “this will not only stay in the air but it will make quick work of anything that tries to take you out of the air.”
    Scarlett turned around to face the two officers. “Including the Big Bad Wolf?”
    “That is the problem we are facing at present,” Barnswallow said. “We have hard intelligence and your testimony corroborating it. In the Hornet, you have a fighting chance against the Big Bad Wolf, but the Fokker prototype we are led to believe is the superior aircraft. It’s going to be your skills against hers.”
    “Get into Germany, meet your operative, come back with the plans of this Fokker aircraft. Just like that?”
    “Just like that,” Hemsworth said. “We can give you a few days to get used to her before taking her behind enemy lines.”
    “No time like the present, Red!” Tink called. “Let’s fire her up!” 
    Scarlett could feel someone standing next to her. It was Hemsworth, and she suddenly realized how tall the major was. He looked down at her with a mischievous grin plastered across his face.
    “This nickname of yours,” he said, looking down at her, “it suits you.”
    “Does it now?”
    “Quite,” and then he winked. Scarlett did not care for how her knees suddenly felt uncertain. “Little Red.”
    Height jokes? This mission was getting better and better by the second.
     
    Entr'acte
    This was not the Halle she grew up in. This was not the Germany she knew. She did not want to die in such a place so sad, so barren. Outside her cottage windows, Elsa once saw the Hallerbos standing along her village borders, tall and imposing