Текст книги "Retribution"

Автор книги: Dale Brown

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“Engine four is in the red,” said Sullivan.

“Take it offline,” said Englehardt.

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“Shutting down four.”

Englehardt backed off engine one himself. That left him one good power plant.

“Unidentified aircraft coming from the west,” said Rager.

“Two planes. Three hundred miles.”

Just what I need, thought Englehardt.

“Starship, we have two aircraft coming from the west.”

“On it, Bennett.”

“Feet are wet,” said Sergeant Daly at the surface radar, signaling that they were over water.

“Planes ID’d as Tomcats,” said Rager.

“Sullivan, contact those guys and let them know we’re on their side,” said Englehardt. “Then help me set up a course to the refuel. We’ve got a long way home.”

Northeastern Pakistan

0100

“MANY OF THE CIRCUITS ARE BURNED OUT, GENERAL. I cannot make it work as it was designed to. I simply don’t know enough.”

Abtin Fars stood up slowly. He was a tall, thin man well into his fifties; he wore glasses but clearly needed better ones, for he was constantly fiddling with them as he examined things.

“You are an expert, Abtin,” General Sattari told him gently. “You can fix anything.”

“Some things. This is beyond me.”

Abtin seemed pensive, and Sattari feared that the true problem here was not his lack of knowledge but his conscience. The general worried that he was withholding his knowledge because he did not want to arm a nuclear weapon.

“The intention is to use it against Dreamland,” said Sattari. “The American force that killed our people at Anhik.”

Abtin had been friends with several of the engineers and RETRIBUTION

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technicians slaughtered at Anhik when the Americans raided the laser project Sattari had started there. But no emotion registered on his face.

“A difficult problem,” said the engineer finally, ducking back to look at the warhead.

Sattari watched him work with his various instruments and tools. The general himself knew nothing about how to make the weapon work. It had taken considerable trouble and expense to locate Abtin; finding a replacement would be very difficult.

He could put a gun to the man’s head and order him to fix the bomb, but how could he be sure it would explode?

He had to be patient, but that was nearly impossible.

“I could put in a very simple device,” said Abtin finally, still bent over the warhead. “It would allow the weapon to detonate at a set time. There would be no fail-safe. Once set, it would explode. These circuits here,” added Abtin pointing, “these are good. But placing the new circuit in, there is a chance that it will accidentally initiate the explosion.”

“If you tell me what to do, then I will take the chance myself. You won’t have to. You can be far away.”

“With this device, General, it would take many hours to reach safety.” Abtin rose. “I’ll make a list for you. The items we need are easily obtained.”

Aboard the Abner Read

0110

“WE’RE ON STATION.”

Storm turned toward Eyes and nodded. The executive officer blinked and looked around the bridge apprehensively.

He seemed out of place, as if he were a gopher who’d popped up from underground and arrived in the middle of a wedding.

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“Say, Captain, do you have a minute?” Eyes asked.

Storm pointed in the direction of his cabin, which was reached through a door at the back of the bridge.

“You’re treating me like I’m the enemy,” Eyes told him after they reached Storm’s quarters. “I’m not.”

“No?”

“The order to stop trailing the Khan was Admiral Woods’s order, not mine.”

“You’re on his side.”

“I don’t take sides, Storm. I follow orders.”

“Damn it.” Storm pounded his desk. Since his “talk” with Admiral Woods, he’d kept his emotions bottled up and stayed mostly to himself. He’d said no more than was absolutely necessary, and to some extent managed to push his disappointment and anger away. Now it raged free in his chest, surging through his whole being. “I was so damn close,” he told Eyes.

“Close to what?”

“To sinking the damn Khan.”

“Storm, we crippled it. We sank the Shiva. The Shiva, Storm. Do you realize what we’ve accomplished?”

“It’s not enough!”

Eyes stared at him.

“It’s not enough,” repeated Storm, his voice closer to normal.

“Sure it is.”

Both men were silent for a moment.

“No destroyer has ever engaged an aircraft carrier in a one-on-one battle before,” said Eyes finally, his voice now almost a whisper. “This is what Pearl Harbor was for battleships. It’s a revolution.”

“It’s not enough, though,” said Storm.

“It should be, Captain. It should be.”

Storm stared at his executive officer. Eyes was a good man, an excellent first officer. But he didn’t understand—he didn’t have the ambition a truly great captain needed. He just RETRIBUTION

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didn’t understand.

But he was loyal. And Storm felt he owed him an explanation, or at least an attempt to explain.

“I can’t put into words what I feel,” Storm told him. “It’s just—I can’t.”

“Your men need you,” said Eyes. “They see you quiet, brooding, barely talking to them. Not leading them. They don’t know what’s going on. They need their captain.”

Storm frowned. He wanted to sink the Khan, to do what no one else had ever done. Having taken down one carrier, he wanted—needed—more.

But those victories were not necessarily who he was, just expressions of what he might achieve. Who he was went deeper than that. It was more important than a medal or a line in a history book that he’d never read. He wasn’t the snap in a sailor’s salute when he came on board, he was the look in the scared kid’s eyes when the bullets were flying and the young man needed something, someone, to believe in.

As Eyes was telling him.

“Dismissed,” Storm said sharply.

The executive officer frowned, then began to leave.

“Eyes?”

He turned back around.

“Thank you very much, my friend. I appreciate it.”

White House West Wing

1230, 18 January 1998

(0130, 19 January, Karachi)

“MR. BARCLAY, DO YOU EVER GO HOME? IT’S SUNDAY!”

Startled, Jed spun around to face his boss, National Security Advisor Philip Freeman.

“Um, but—”

“Just joking, Jed. How are we doing?”

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Jed gave him a quick update, starting with the newly located warheads and ending with the fact that the two Dreamland pilots—his cousin and cousin-in-law, though he didn’t mention this—were still missing.

“That’s too bad,” said Freeman. “I hope we find them.”

Jed nodded.

“Now that Samson is taking direct control of Dreamland,”

said Freeman, “are you worried about your role with the staff?”

“No, sir.”

“Good. You shouldn’t be. There are going to be a lot of changes at Dreamland due to the restructuring. It’s going to be a real command. The President—” Freeman caught himself. “Well, it’s the President’s decision. Things will work out. As for you, you’re still an important part of my team.

Frankly, I think we’ve been wasting some of your talents.

Dreamland has eaten up a lot of your time.”

“Um, yes, sir. Uh, th-th-thank you.”

Freeman reached into his jacket pocket and took out a business card. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way,”

he said, handing it to Jed.

“Um, OK.”

“This is a speech therapist. She’s the best. She helped my daughter. I want you to see her.”

Jed took the card. He tried to smile. He’d been to several professionals over the years. Some had helped for a brief time, most hadn’t.

“Um, thanks.”

“I’m going to make sure you keep your appointments,”

added Freeman. “And don’t worry about paying.”

“Uh—”

“A friend of yours who wishes to remain anonymous is footing the bill, not me. And I’m going to make sure you have time. The stutter is going to hold you back, Jed,” added Freeman. “It gives people the wrong impression. All right?”

“Um, y-y-yeah. OK. Thanks.”

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Diego Garcia

0130

“THIS IS BASTIAN,” DOG SAID WHEN HE REACHED THE COMmunications station in the Dreamland trailer. “What’s up, Danny?”

“Bad news, Colonel. The last warhead is missing. And Jennifer’s been hit, along with three of our Marines.”

Dog felt as if he’d been punched in the stomach.

“Tell me about the warhead,” he said. He struggled to keep his voice even.

“There were guerrillas nearby when we arrived,” Danny began. He explained what they’d found—that the tapes made it seem as if the guerrillas hadn’t been there long enough to get the weapon, and that they’d also taken a prisoner, though so far he hadn’t said much.

Dog questioned Danny about the warhead and what might have happened to it, even though it was obvious Danny didn’t know. Finally, he couldn’t think of any other questions, except the one he wished he didn’t have to ask.

“And Jennifer?” he said, biting his lip. “How bad—”

“She’s going to be OK, they think,” said Danny. “She got hit in the knee, but she’ll be OK.”

The rest of what Danny said didn’t register—she was going to be OK. That was the only information he wanted.

Danny mentioned the others who’d been wounded, the plan to get back to the base camp—none of it registered.

She’ll be OK.

Jennifer shouldn’t have been there in the first place, he thought. It was his fault. He should have ordered her home.

“You OK, Colonel?”

“I’m all right,” Dog told him. “Take care of your wounded.

And get back in one piece.”

“Absolutely.”

Dog closed the transmission. There was another one waiting to connect—Starship, aboard the Bennett.

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“Bastian.”

“Colonel, I think I heard a broadcast from Zen. I haven’t been able to get him back. We’re under fire,” added the pilot, almost as an afterthought.

“Give me the position.”

The Flighthawk and Bennett were considerably farther south than the crew members who had already been rescued. Was that an odd quirk in the radio waves? Or had Zen and Breanna parachuted out much farther south than anyone thought?

“Were you over the water?”

“The Flighthawk was. It was a faint signal, Colonel. I’m sorry I can’t be more definitive.”

“That’s OK. Are you guys all right?”

“Oh, yeah, Colonel. We’re great.”

“Take care of yourself. Dreamland trailer out.”

Dog switched over to the fleet liaison and told them he had important information about the search for his people. He was quickly relayed to one of the wing commanders aboard the Lincoln. The commander thanked him for the information—then told him it would be hours before they could respond.

“I know how important it is, Colonel,” the man said before Dog could protest. “Right now, though, we’re covering the evacuation of the warheads from the desert. The Indians are throwing everything they have in the air, and the Pakistanis and Chinese look like they’re going to respond. The warheads are our priority.”

“Switch me to Admiral Woods’s staff,” said Dog.

“If it were my people, I’d do the same thing,” the commander replied before making the connection.

The lieutenant who came on the line was considerably less sympathetic.

“The carrier cannot be in two places at one time. That position is nearly twelve hours from where we are. And the entire task force is needed to shelter the warheads and get them away safely. You have your own people involved,” said the lieutenant. “You don’t want us to abandon them.”

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“I’m not talking about abandoning them,” said Dog. “I’m talking about recovering two of my people.”

“I’m sympathetic,” said the lieutenant, sounding anything but. “For now, this is what we can do.”

Dog smacked the connection button, killing the line. He was about to call General Samson, then thought better of it.

From the remarks he’d heard Woods’s staff make earlier, Samson had even less influence with Tex Woods, who saw him as a rival for a future command appointment.

And the truth was, all Dog had was a single radio transmission, without a real location.

He laid out the paper map on the large table in the trailer’s common area. He plotted the point where the others had been picked up and where the Flighthawk heard the call. The area to the north had been searched. So it could be that Zen was even farther south, near the small islands off the Indian coast.

Maybe he could have the Cheli come south along the coast on its way back to Diego Garcia.

He got up and went to the communications area, located just behind the large open room.

“Things are hot down there,” Brad Sparks told him. “A couple of guys took hits. They’re going to evac any second.

We’ll shadow them to Base Camp One. A lot of action up here, Colonel.”

“Right. Stay with it.”

“Colonel, did you want something specific?”

“Just making sure everything is OK.”

“Hey, not a problem, Colonel. We were born ready.”

Dog checked back with the Bennett. “Englehardt, what’s your situation?”

“I’m down to one and a half engines, but clear of the Indian defenses.”

Dog listened soberly when Englehardt explained the extent of the Bennett’s damage. He figured they could make it back to Diego Garcia, but it would take an extremely long time.

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And maybe a little luck.

He wished he’d taken the plane himself.

“All right, Mike. I know you can do it.”

“Thanks, Colonel.”

Dog rose. If Zen’s transmission was going to be checked out, he’d have to do it himself.

VIII

Homecoming

Diego Garcia

0155, 19 January 1998

DOG HAD ONLY ONE AIRPLANE AT DIEGO GARCIA THAT WAS

both available and had sufficient range to get up to the area where the communication had been received– Quickmover, Dreamland’s MC-17.

Based on the McDonnell-Douglas Globemaster III C-17, Quickmover had been specially upgraded by the Dreamland design team to act as a front-line, combat cargo ship.

Equipped with state of the art avionics and locating gear that would allow the aircraft to drop supplies and paratroopers deep inside hostile territory, Quickmover had proven herself in combat several times. But she was still a cargo aircraft with no offensive capability; if things got nasty, her only option would be to run away. The ship would have virtually no chance of surviving a gauntlet like the one the Bennett had just gone through.

But that didn’t prevent the crew from volunteering for the mission as soon as Dog told them what was going on.

“Let’s get the hell in the air,” said Captain Harry “Whitey”

Golden, the pilot, when Dog told him about the transmission.

Whitey—his premature gray dome made the nickname a natural—spoke for the entire crew. The aircraft was airborne and winging north inside of twenty minutes.

As in a standard C-17, the flight crew worked on a deck at the front of the aircraft, sitting above the auditorium-size cargo area. Automation allowed the aircraft to operate with 330

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only three crewmen: a pilot, copilot, and combination load-master/crew chief.

Dog sat in one of the auxiliary crew seats, studying a set of paper maps of the western shore of India and trying to puzzle out what might have happened to the Levitow after its crew had bailed out. The first six members of the crew had been rescued about 160 miles west and twenty south of Vera-val; according to the copilot, the plane was flying due west at the time and the search had concentrated in that general area.

They’d widened the search, of course, but among the assumptions they’d made were that the plane had continued roughly on the course and that Zen and Breanna had gone out within two or three minutes of the others—reasonable guesses, especially as the plane had been descending rapidly before the others bailed.

But what if, right after the bulk of the crew bailed, the plane had turned back toward India or gone south, staying in the air for ten or even fifteen minutes longer before Zen and Breanna jumped?

The Megafortress’s computer was supposed to hold it on course, but Dog had seen firsthand how difficult the plane could be to steer with the holes torn in the skin when the ejection seats blew.

He drew a long box along the coast of India, extending nearly three hundred miles south from where the others had been found. Below the box, another hundred miles or so, were the Aminidivis islands.

Could they have made it that far south?

Probably not, he thought. But they would go over them anyway. He extended his box.

“Fly us up through here,” he told Whitey. “We’ll broadcast on the Guard band and listen on all of them.”

“Got it, Colonel.”

“If you get a radar warning from one of those SA-3 batteries along the coast, you get the hell west. Don’t stop, just go.”

“We’re well above them.”

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“You go west, you got me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Colonel, how long should we search?” asked the copilot, Sandra McGill.

“Until we find them or have to refuel,” said Dog. “Or until General Samson finds out where I am and has my head.”

Aboard Marine Osprey Angry Bear One, over northern India

0403

AS DANNY FREAH SAT BACK IN THE RACKLIKE BENCH OF THE

Marine Osprey, two thoughts filled his head: Man, am I tired.

Man, do we have a long way to go before I can get some rest.

His eyes started to droop. As he drifted toward sleep, he saw Dancer in front of him.

Out of uniform.

Way out of uniform.

Nice, he thought. Very nice.

Someone shook his leg.

“Yeah, what?” said Danny, sitting upright.

“Pilots want to talk to you, Captain,” said Gunny.

Danny got up and leaned into the cockpit.

“Troops are moving on both sides of the border near Base Camp One,” said the pilot. “They want us to go straight on to the Poughkeepsie. We’ll have to set up a refuel. Can you tell the Megafortress what’s going on while I work out the refueling details? We need to meet an Osprey from the Lincoln.”

“Not a problem.”

Brad Sparks was his usual overcaffeinated self, telling him the escort would be no problem. Danny next checked in with Sergeant Liu and the Whiplash detail back at the Base Camp; Liu told him tersely that things were under control

“but we’re moving triple time.”

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Clearly, the sergeant was still shaken by what had happened at the house, thought Danny. But he sounded a little better, or maybe just busier—the two sometimes went together.

The corpsman was checking on Jennifer when he snapped off the line.

“How’s she doin’?” Danny asked.

“She’s lost a good bunch of blood from that knee,” said the corpsman. “Like to get her treatment as soon as we can. Real soon.”

“We’re working on it.”

Aboard Dreamland Cheli,

over India

0440

CHEECH LONG’S NASAL DRAWL BROKE THE SILENCE.

“MiGs look like they’re taking an interest,” the radar officer told Sparks. “Changing course.”

“We’re ready,” said Sparks. “Keep watchin’ ’em.”

The MiGs were Indian MiG-21s, flying a little more than two hundred miles to the west—behind them now as they swung with the Osprey. Sparks decided the MiGs weren’t going to catch up; he’d save his missiles for planes that would.

“Spoon Rest radar,” said his copilot, Lieutenant Steve Micelli. “A hundred miles south.”

The radar indicated an SA-2 ground-to-air battery. Their present flight plan would keep them out of the missiles’

range.

“All sorts of goodies under the Christmas tree today, huh?”

said Sparks.

“Looks like somebody told them we were coming,” said Micelli.

“I think it was Cheech,” said Sparks. “He’s always looking for a fight.”

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“Had to be Cowboy,” Cheech retorted. “Those Flighthawk guys live for trouble.”

“You got a problem with that?” said Lieutenant Josh

“Cowboy” Plank.

“Negative, Cowboy,” said Sparks. “Just keep your Flighthawk juiced and loose.”

“Just remember I’m on your tail,” replied the Flighthawk pilot.

“Hard to forget.”

“Chinese J-8s, coming at us hard,” warned Cheech, his voice now serious. “Four planes. Two hundred miles. They’re doing Mach 2.”

“Micelli, target them with the Anacondas,” Sparks said.

“Not supposed to shoot until they threaten us,” answered the copilot.

“I interpret afterburners as a threat. Take the mothers out,”

said Sparks.

Aboard Dreamland MC-17 Quickmover

0453

COLONEL BASTIAN KEYED THE MICROPHONE AGAIN.

“Dreamland MC-17 Quickmover to Levitow crew. Come in, Major Stockard.”

He paused to listen. Something was scratching at the back of his throat, and he took another sip of the herbal tea the crew chief had brewed. Then he tried the broadcast again.

“Colonel, we have a surface ship in our search box,” said Whitey when Dog paused to listen for a response. “The Abner Read. Very northern end.”

“Ask them if they’ll help.”

“Already have.”

“And?”

“Captain Gale wants to talk to you.”

Dog punched into the circuit. “Bastian.”

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“Colonel, I understand you require assistance. What’s the status of your search?”

“Two crewmen are still missing,” said Dog. He told Storm about the radio transmission and briefly explained his theories about where the crew might have bailed.

“We’re inside your box. We’ll do what we can,” said Storm.

“Thanks. Bastian out.”

Aboard the Abner Read,

Indian Ocean

0500

STORM FROWNED AS THE LINE SNAPPED CLEAR. BASTIAN

had been abrupt as always, barely acknowledging his offer of help.

Some people were just social jerks, he thought.

It didn’t matter, though. This was their chance to get back in the game, if only a little. Anything was better than sitting at sea and twiddling their thumbs like a garbage scow waiting to sweep up the slops. The crew was starting to get bored: a disease worse than death, in Storm’s opinion.

“Eyes, I want to set up a thorough search for two downed Dreamlanders,” Storm said, switching over to his internal line. “The Werewolf, everything we’ve got.”

“Already working on it, Captain.”

Aboard Dreamland Cheli,

over India

0512

SPARKS THOUGHT THEY HAD THINGS PRETTY WELL COVERED.

The Anacondas were about sixty seconds from hitting the Chinese J-8s, and the SA-2 radar had turned itself off.

Then a mobile SA-3 battery turned on its radar and began directing it at the Marine Osprey.

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“Get Angry Bear out of there,” Sparks told his copilot, Micelli. “Flighthawk leader—yo, Cowboy, toast the SAMs.”

“SA-3 toast coming up.”

“More aircraft. No IDs,” said Cheech at the airborne radar. “Three, maybe four planes. Two hundred fifty miles, bearing—”

“What do you mean, ‘maybe four’?” snapped Sparks.

“Make it three. Things are getting a little hot here, Sparks,”

added the sergeant. For the first time since Sparks had worked with him, Cheech’s voice contained a note of stress.

“What are they?”

“Working on it. Tentatively, Sukhois. Su-27s.”

“Find out for sure and keep an eye on them.”

“Missile one has hit lead J-8,” said the copilot. “Bam!”

“I can do without the sound effects, Micelli.”

“Bam!” repeated the copilot, even louder. “Splash the second J-8. Kick ass.”

The crew’s banter level continued to edge up over the next few minutes, even as the threat board reddened with fighters and ground radars. No sooner had the Flighthawk taken out the radar for the SA-3s than a small dish radar for an ancient ZSU-23 lit up a few miles down the road. The ZSU-23 was a four-barreled cannon. Though old, it was hell on low-flying aircraft like the Osprey. While Cowboy got after it, Spark urged the pilot in the Osprey to get the hell out to sea.

“I’m moving,” said the Marine.

“Move faster,” said Sparks.

“You want to go like a bronco with a firecracker in its pa -

poose,” cut in Cowboy.

Micelli and Cheech heard the communication and started roaring.

“I’m glad you guys are having fun,” said Sparks. “Keep at it.”

“Tracking Indian Sukhois,” responded Cheech, his voice somewhat more serious. “Two hundred miles. Losing them.”

The Sukhois turned off, but two Chinese planes joined the fray, flying over Pakistan. These were MiG-31s, similar to 336

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the aircraft Colonel Bastian had encountered some days before. Sparks decided he would target them with Anacondas right away—and wasn’t surprised when they fired their own missiles, apparently radar homers, just as the first Anaconda left the bay.

“Launch the Quail,” he told Sparks, referring to the radar decoy.

“Still trying to get a lock on the second MiG,” replied the copilot.

“Well, lock the motherfucker and let’s go.”

“I’m working on it, Sparks. Relax.”

The pilot brought up the decoy screen and handled the Quail II himself. Similar in many respects to its Cold War era forebear, the Quail II had an artificial radar profile and could broadcast radio and radar signals similar to the Megafortress’s own. With the decoy launched, Sparks took a sharp turn away, making sure the bait was between him and the missiles.

“Foxfire One,” said Micelli finally. “Anaconda away.”

The missile ripped out from under the Cheli as if angry that it had been delayed.

“Why are you having so much trouble?” Sparks asked.

“You were one-two-three on the test range.”

“We ain’t on the freakin’ test range,” said Micelli. “The radar isn’t interfacing right. It’s getting hung up in the ident routine. I don’t know. Where’s Jen Gleason when you need her?”

“She’s in that Osprey we’re trying to protect,” said Sparks.

“So we better do a good job.”

An atoll off the Indian coast

Time and date unknown

WHAT WAS THAT SOUND? ZEN WONDERED. AN AIRPLANE?

If so, it was very far away—beyond his imagination. Beyond everything. He only existed on this tiny collection of rocks; he could not think beyond it.

An airplane.

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He picked the radio up mechanically, made sure it was set to broadcast, made sure the voice option was selected.

He should broadcast, shouldn’t he? That was his job, even though his life was here.

“Zen Stockard—” His voice broke. He stopped speaking for a few seconds. Could he imagine himself beyond these rocks? Was there another place to go?

“Zen Stockard to any aircraft. Any aircraft,” he repeated.

“Mayday. Mayday. Airman down … Pilot down … Mayday. Zen Stockard.”

He listened for the inevitable silence. But instead words came.

“Give me your location, Zen.”

Had he heard the voice yesterday, the day before, he would have laughed and answered with glee. He would have made a joke or said something grateful, or done one of a dozen other things.

Now he simply replied, “Colonel Bastian, I’m on a treeless atoll somewhere off the coast of India. I don’t have a GPS.”

“Roger that Zen. Jeff—Breanna? Is she with you?”

Zen glanced toward her, unsure what to say.

“Yes,” he managed finally.

“Thank God. Keep talking to me. Just keep talking. We’re going to find you. Keep talking so we can home in your signal.”

Was there anything to say?

Anything?

“Zen?”

“I guess I’m a little thirsty,” he said finally. “And hungry.

But mostly thirsty.”

Aboard Dreamland Cheli,

over India

0515

“ANGRY BEAR, CUT NINETY DEGREES,” SAID MICELLI, warning the Osprey of yet another ground battery. “Cut and stop. Shit. You got a zsu-zsu dead ahead.”

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“Get ’em, Cowboy,” said Sparks.

“Yeah, I’m on it,” said the Flighthawk pilot. “Take me two minutes.”

“Splash Chinese MiG One. Bam! ” said Micelli.

Sparks didn’t have time to celebrate with his copilot. He checked the radar warning indicator at the bottom of his dashboard. Another Spoon Rest radar—SA-2—was operating to the south, but they were well out of range.

“What’s the status of those Chinese missiles?” Sparks asked Micelli. “They still following us?”

“Sucking on the Hound Dog’s signal. Going east. Both of them,” said the copilot. “No threat. Anaconda missile has missed Bandit two, the Chinese MiG.”

“We missed?”

“Must’ve been the trouble locking. Both MiGs turned as soon as they launched. They’re not a threat.”

“No SA-3 battery here,” said Cowboy, guiding the Flighthawks. “What’s the story, dude?”

“You need to go two miles south,” said the ground radar operator.

“Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, my bad.”

“I need that refuel,” said the Marine pilot in Angry Bear.

“We’re going to get you there,” said Sparks. “You’re ten minutes away. Relax.”

“I have fifteen minutes of fuel, no reserves.”

“And you’re complaining?”

As soon as Cowboy started his run on the antiaircraft gun, Sparks told the Osprey to proceed. The area for the refueling rendezvous had been carefully plotted so it was far from any Indian or Pakistani radars. The tanker aircraft—another Osprey rigged for refueling—approached over southern Pakistan, sneaking away as its F/A-18 escorts tangled with a pair of Pakistani F-16s.

As the Flighthawk tracked back to cover Angry Bear, Sparks took the Megafortress west, checking the path to the ocean. With roughly two hundred miles to go, their best course was a beeline over the Rann of Kutch. There were RETRIBUTION

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several radar installations there, but only one missile site; Sparks had Micelli target it and was just about to give the order to fire when a fresh flight of Indian Mirage 2000s showed up on the radar to the south.

“Four of them,” announced Cheech. “Just coming in range—they’re at 35,000 feet.”

“I don’t think they’re going to be a problem if I hurry these Osprey guys up,” said Sparks.

“Where are those Navy jets?” said Micelli. “We’re supposed to have help.”

“They have their hands full,” said Sparks.

“We don’t need no effin’ Navy,” said Cheech.

“Keep your mind on your scope,” said Sparks.

“My eyes are there. That’s what’s important,” said Cheech.

Then his voice settled into a more serious, clipped tone. “Another aircraft coming off the field at Jamnagar.”

Jamnagar was a major military base on the Gulf of Kutch, less than a hundred miles south of their planned exit route.

“You have an ID?”

“Negative. Two engines—patrol type.”

“All right. Track him. Micelli, let’s get that missile site.”

They fired the Anaconda, then swung back toward the Ospreys. A fresh pair of Hornets from the Lincoln checked in, saying they were about ten minutes off. Sparks told them to concentrate on Jamnagar; he’d watch the Mirages.

“Another pack of MiGs,” added Cheech. “The Mirages are on afterburners. I have some other contacts. A hundred and fifty miles.”

“What the hell did they do, save up all their fuel just for us?” said Micelli.

“They’re bored from being grounded the last few days,”

said Cheech.

“All right, we’re going to have to deal with these guys,”

Sparks told them. “Who’s the biggest threat?”

“We have only three Anacondas left,” said Micelli.

“Well, you’ll just have to get a two-for-one shot,” Sparks replied. He pulled up the stick, taking the Megafortress up 340

DALE BROWN’S DREAMLAND

another 5,000 feet and aiming southward. He’d keep as much distance as possible between the Cheli and the Ospreys. Most likely the Mirage radars wouldn’t be able to see the rotor tilts after they tanked and would concentrate on him.