Page 10 of Flight of Dreams

“As much as one man can know another from a few pleasant conversations.”

“He thinks highly of you.”

“I think not.”

This takes her aback. “Oh?”

For the first time since he entered the promenade Colonel Erdmann grins. He turns to face her. “It will take more than one Maybach 12 to get me talking, Frau Adelt. I would hope Leonhard gives me more credit than that.”

“So you heard our conversation?”

He shrugs. “I pay attention.”

Observant and clever. Gertrud mentally recalculates her plan of attack. “Alas, I am responsible for that poor estimate. Forgive me? I tend to assume the Luftwaffe recruits only one kind of man.”

He gives a lopsided grin. Waits for the punch line.

“Libertines.”

“Guilty as charged.”

She takes his laughter as a small victory and extends her hand with a smile. “Gertrud Adelt.”

“Fritz Erdmann.” He grasps her hand. Shakes it. “I see that you and Leonhard are very well matched.”

Gertrud opens her mouth to answer but is interrupted by the return of her husband.

“I’ll be damned if I wasn’t going to get it right the second time around.” Leonhard joins them at the window carrying three frosted glasses containing ice chips and a murky citrine liquid. The look he gives Gertrud is a mixture of astonishment and respect. He hands one of the glasses to the colonel. “You will join us for dinner? Unless my wife has revealed too much of her impetuous nature.”

Gertrud takes a tiny sip of the Maybach 12 and can almost feel her hair blow back. The drink is everything, all at once, and she has an immediate appreciation for its reputation. She can taste the kirsch and the Benedictine in equal parts, along with a good dry gin, and something else she can’t identify. “He means I’m an acquired taste.”

“On the contrary, Liebchen,” Leonhard says. “It didn’t take me long at all. One kiss, if I recall correctly.”

The colonel is clearly enjoying their banter. “This may come as a surprise to you, Frau Adelt, but I prefer women who speak and drink freely.”

“Why would that surprise me?”

“It’s not the sort of thing you admit in polite society.”

“Oh, I’m hardly polite.”

“Neither is my wife.”

Gertrud can’t help but look at the rectangular hangar across the tarmac. She’s trying to find the right thing to say when the colonel speaks again.

“Dorothea would have liked you very much.”

“I would be honored to meet her. Perhaps when we return to Frankfurt?”

She offers her drink in toast, but he only clinks her glass halfheartedly. “Perhaps.”

THE NAVIGATOR

“She’s down there,” Willy Speck says when Max enters the radio room. He gives a pointed nod at the ladder that leads down to the control car.

“Who?”

“Your girl.”