"Then, let's go.
What're we waiting for?"
He put a hand on my arm.
"Sure I can't make you change your mind?"
I shook my head.
Seventeen million dollars was a lot of argument.
He raised his hands to his mouth, making a megaphone of them.
"Everybody off the ship except the flight crew."
Almost immediately, there was a silence in the yard as the engine shut off.
A few minutes later, the last of them came down the boarding flap.
A man stuck his head out of the small window in the pilot's cabin.
"Everybody off except the crew, Mr. Winthrop."
Amos and I walked up the flap into the plane, then up the small ladder from the cargo deck to the passenger cabin and on forward into the flight cabin.
Three young men were there. They looked at me curiously. They were still wearing the hard hats from the shipyard.
"This is your crew, Mr. Cord," Amos said formally. "On the right, Joe Gates, radioman. In the middle, Steve Jablonski, flight engineer starboard engines, one, three and five. On the left, Barry Gold, flight engineer port engines, two, four and six.
You don't have to worry about them. They're all Navy veterans and know their work."
We shook hands all around and I turned back to Amos.
"Where's the copilot and navigator?"
"Right here," Amos said.
"Where?"
"Me."
"What the hell- "
He grinned at me.
"You got anybody knows this baby better?
Besides, I been sleeping every night with her for more than half a year. Who's got a better right to get a piece of her first ride?"
I stared at him for a moment. Then I gave in.
I knew exactly how he felt. I felt the same way myself yesterday, when they wouldn't let me fly the jet.
I climbed up into the pilot's seat.
"Take your stations, men."
"Aye, aye, sir."
I grinned to myself.
They were Navy men, all right.
I picked up the check list on the clip board.
"Boarding ramp up," I said, reading.
A motor began to whine beneath me.
A moment later, a red light flashed on the panel in front of me and the motor cut off.
"Boarding ramp up, sir."
"Start engines one and two," I said, reaching forward and flicking down the switches that would let the flight engineers turn them over.
The big engines coughed and belched black smoke.
The propellers began to turn sluggishly, then the engines caught and the propellers settled into a smooth whine.
"Starboard engine one turning over, sir."
"Port engine two turning over, sir."
The next one on the check list was a new one for me.
I smiled to myself. This wasn't an airplane, it was really a Navy ship with wings.
"Cast off," I said.
From the seat to my right, Amos reached up and tripped the lever that released the tow lines.
Another red light flashed on the panel before me and I could feel The Centurion slide back into the water.
There was a slight backward dip as she settled in with a slight rocking motion. The faint sound of water slapping against her hull came up from beneath us.
I leaned forward and turned the wheel.
Slowly the big plane came about and started to move out toward the open bay.