One-Way Ride
Five men were in the airplane. It should have held only four, but one of them was small enough--though not really light enough--to ride in the tiny cargo area behind the rear seat.
The plane circled above the treetops before settling down on the improvised landing strip near where an old car had been parked. Four of the men got out of the plane, while the pilot stayed aboard. He shut off the engine and prepared to wait. The others got into the car. The short guy rode in the back seat, next to another man who seemed to be the boss. The boss held a gun on one of the other men, who got into the front seat on the passenger side. The fourth man drove. He put the car in gear and it disappeared down a dirt road into the woods. Somebody was going for a one-way ride.
The pilot pushed the airplane to a spot where he could see things a little better. He then listened to the sound of the car as it rolled through the woods. Soon the sound faded away. The one-way ride would soon be over.
In the car, the passenger in the front seat was nervous. He had every right to be. He was only moments away from death. The dirt road through the woods was little more than a fire trail. Soon, however, the car came to a fork. "Take the left," said the boss. A moment later, the car entered a clearing. "Stop over there," said the boss.
Having a pilot's license was about the only good thing about life in the mob. It made one too valuable to lose on risky missions, unless flying was involved. The pilot had smuggled lots of stuff: drugs, slot machines, race horses, and people, for instance. Now, he had flown a couple of mid-level henchmen to the point where one of them would liquidate one of the other men in the car.
He thought he heard a noise. What was it? Oh, yes, the car had stopped in a clearing perhaps half a mile away. The pilot pulled out his binoculars and watched three of the men get out. The driver stayed at the wheel. The short guy and the man with the gun appeared to be arguing. The man with the gun pointed it at the third man, and they started walking into the woods. The short guy got back in the car. The pilot couldn't see what they were doing. They were probably talking about the impending execution of the third guy.
The pilot put his hand under his seat and pushed a button. There was a puff of smoke where the car had been. A couple of seconds later, he heard the sound of an explosion. He started the plane up and taxied over to the improvised landing strip. He revved the engine up and rolled the craft down the runway. It took off and cleared the treetops, leaving the smoking wreck of the car and its occupants to be found by someone else.
The men walking in the woods heard the explosion. They turned to look back at the car, but they were too far away to see anything. The man with the gun pulled it up and fired a bullet into the brain of the other, who fell over onto the ground. The second bullet was the coup de grace. The other man walked out of the woods toward the main highway. He threw the gun away before getting to the road.
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