neither.
Bennett held out his hand. 'Hello, Devil.'
'Welcome home, Pirate.' Then Lawrence put his arms around Bennett's shoulders.
Bennett unwrapped himself and smiled grimly. 'Let's have a drink. '
The redhead said, 'I think even Allah would approve.'
Seated in Bennett' quarters, Lawrence filled him in on recent events. 'You wondered why the Saudis were including you in all the air force planning, remember? Well, I talked to Rajid and a couple of others from Class One. You know there are about five thousand princes in this country?' Bennett nodded. 'Well, we have our share flying F-20s. I guess it's still a case of not what you know but who you know that counts. Because it looks like our guys, the Saudi pilots, used some of their influence. After Handrah and Jauf were killed in the car bomb, our tigers told Saudi HQ they didn't want any more outsiders as squadron Cos. They wanted us, the IPs, to fill the gaps.'
Bennett showed interest. 'That could mean trouble in our relations with the Saudi Air Force.'
'That's what I thought,' Lawrence said. 'So I took it upon myself to propose a compromise, subject to your approval. Some of our sports are CO material-Rajid, Menaf, a couple of others from Class One. What say we recommend them for the slots?'
Bennett thought for a long moment. 'They probably will be okay with more experience. But if it comes to shooting… '
'Yeah, I know. But this seems a good way of us keeping an even strain with both sides. At least, it may be the best we can get. '
'You know, Ed, I didn't really know we had that kind of loyalty from these kids. I mean, I'm really pleased that's how they feel, but I'd have expected they'd want their own people.'
'I discussed it with Peter and Tim and some of the guys. You know what a philosopher Peter is. He says it makes sense. The oldest of our first pilots still aren't twenty-six. The youngest of the last graduating class are between twenty and twenty-one. Hell, we raised these studs from pups. I guess it's natural that they look to us for continued leadership.'
Lawrence poured more Jack Daniels over the ice in Bennett's cup. 'John, do you feel like talking about Claudia? I'm a pretty good listener.'
Bennett inhaled deeply and slowly let it out. He closed his eyes for a moment. 'Yeah, it might help.'
'Any idea who the shooters were?'
'The Saudis said both had Lebanese papers. That may or may not mean anything. Apparently one of them was a mercenary connected to a Christian militia outfit in Beirut years ago. I was told that a lot of those people went free-lance.'
'If they were Christian militia, that means Israeli support, doesn't it?'
'Yes. The Saudi investigators are convinced of it but they wouldn't discuss sources beyond the Beirut connection.'
'Wow. Then the timing means-'
'The timing probably means the Israelis have planned preemptive strikes against airfields in reach of their Jordanian positions. That's how I see it. Decapitate Tiger Force and follow up with attacks into northern Arabia. But there's just one thing wrong with that. '
'Yeah,' Lawrence interjected. 'They haven't hit us.'
'Right. And it's not like the Israelis to telegraph their punches.'
'So what do you think?'
'There's another theory that the Yemenis might have been behind it-a revenge thing. But I'm inclined to think it was Israel-maybe an unauthorized operation of some sort. There might have just been a slip-up and the assassins hit too early. One of the investigators said there's evidence they waited outside my hotel for most of the day, maybe expecting to hit me in the street. They might have gotten tired of waiting and decided to come in shooting. '
Lawrence said, 'What do you want to do about it, John?'
'I want to kill whoever's behind this. But I can't afford a vendetta.' He took off his shoes. 'I'm gonna turn in, take some sleeping pills, and get some rest. I'd like 001 ready for an I830 launch tomorrow. Can you set it up for me?'
'Sure thing. No problem.' He slapped Bennett on the shoulder.
'Goodnight, pardner.'
Walking to the operations office, Ed Lawrence knew exactly what his friend had in mind. 'He's got a world of hurt inside him,' the exec told Bear Barnes. 'Now he wants to take it upstairs and leave some of it there.'
Chapter 11
TEL AVIV, Sept.1-Israeli and Arab warplanes twice clashed over occupied Jordan today, in the largest Mideast air battle of recent years. As many as forty fighter jets may have been involved in the dogfights, resulting in the destruction of perhaps a dozen or more Syrian and Iraqi planes and an unspecified number of Israeli U.S.-built F-15s or F-16s.
Official accounts from Tel Aviv and Damascus were incomplete or contradictory, with no comment yet from Baghdad. However, military sources indicated that eight or nine Syrian MiGs were downed in the early-morning clash and four Iraqi jets about two hours later. Syrian spokesmen admitted that 'a number' of their planes had not returned from a reconnaissance sweep over eastern Jordan, but claimed destruction of 'several' Israeli warplanes. A carefully worded Israeli communique said that all its pilots were 'accounted for' after each combat.
Unconfirmed reports stated that crippled Iraqi French-built Mirage fighters landed across the border in Saudi Arabia. Sources said it is unlikely the Saudis granted permission for such emergency landings, given Riyadh's effort to remain uninvolved in heightened tensions since Israel occupied most of Jordan more than three years ago.
Today's action was the first direct clash between Israeli and Arab aircraft since Tel Aviv's move into Jordan.
That afternoon the instructor pilots seated in the briefing room were more subdued than usual. They had been called to the meeting on short notice, and several still wore flight suits from their training flights. Tim Ottman and Bear Barnes speculated that the Saudis wished to renew their contracts. Others, like Geoff Hampton and Brad Williamson, adopted a wait-and-see attitude.
Lawrence and Bennett strode down the aisle and took the stage.
There was immediate quiet in the room. Bennett asked that the doors be locked, though this had never been done before.
'Gentlemen, good afternoon. I'm sorry to call you here on such short notice-I intended to do some flying myself.' Bennett was dressed in his Nomex flight suit with the Tiger Force patch on the right side and the Tigershark patch sewn on one shoulder.
'Early this morning there were two large hassles over eastern Jordan. One involved Syrian MiG-23s and the other apparently had more MiGs plus Iraqi Mirages. We don't know the full story, but it seems to have been quite a shootout, with losses to the Israelis as well as the Arabs. It's suspected but not yet proven that Iranian pilots were involved in at least one of these incidents.'
A murmur ran through the room.
'Evidently the first combat was the result of Syrian overflights of Jordan to assess Israeli strength and dispositions. This has happened before, but has never been answered with such a hostile reaction. What makes this morning's events of interest to us is the fact that at least two Iraqi aircraft entered Saudi airspace to avoid pursuit by the Israelis. One Mirage was shot down barely on our side of the border. The other, already battle-damaged, landed without permission at one of our advanced fields.' He paused to allow the gravity of that news to sink in. ''This means we can expect attention from the Israelis almost anytime.'
Bennett had expected a vocal response to this news. Instead, there was dead silence.
