Pirate Alley by Coonts Stephen

Author:Coonts, Stephen [Coonts, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

EYL, SOMALIA

We were sitting on a small rise about a mile west of the Eyl airport. The hillock we were on only rose about fifteen feet above the plain, just enough to allow us to see over the brush to the two old hangars and a small building that looked as if it were sided with tin. That was probably the terminal.

We had the pickups parked behind the hill, out of sight of anyone there. Waist-high brush ran off in every direction. Behind us were the mountains, stark eroded desert mountains. Here on the coastal plain, the land was flat, but not rolling. The place reminded me of the Mojave, or perhaps Baja California.

From where I sat, using binoculars, I could see that there was some kind of draw between us and the flat place where they put the strip. Didn’t look as if they did a lot of earthmoving before they paved it. If it was paved. I assume so. Amazingly enough, this was Eyl International. Or Eyl Intergalactic, if aliens ever decide to visit.

Using a tripod to hold the 12-power binoculars, I slowly scanned everything in sight. After working behind us and to both sides, I began really examining the airport. Saw some people in a small tower near the terminal. No glass, just a pole tower maybe twenty feet high with a tin roof to shed sun and rain. I could just make out three figures … and a machine gun on a mount.

A pickup parked nearby with a machine gun in the bed. A technical. No, actually two of them. And a car. Maybe a sedan. No other vehicles. No signs of life around the hangars.

As I watched I became aware of a piston engine drone. Very faint at first, then growing gently in volume, a deep sound. Pleasant. Radial engines, sounded like, coming from the south.

I took the binoculars off the tripod and scanned the sky. Spotted it. A speck with wings. Low. I used the glasses.

“DC-3, I think,” I muttered to E.D., who was lying beside me smoking, scanning with his own binoculars.

In about a minute I was sure. I could see it clearly now, dancing in the binoculars. Yep. An old DC-3.

On final approach. It settled and landed on the runway, which was oriented north and south. Seemed like it would always have a crosswind, but I suppose that was the flattest layout, so that was where they put it. The plane eventually came to a stop and turned around on the north end of the runway, then taxied back to the terminal, where it parked and cut its engines.

The runway was a couple of miles from town, according to my satellite photos. The photos noted they had about five thousand feet of asphalt. Probably soft and crumbling, but sufficient for old prop jobs like the Douglas, which Grafton said came and went from Mombasa to Eyl, with a stop at Mogadishu, twice a week and return.

Air service.

I studied the photos, which had been annotated with contour maps.

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