'Go ahead, Icepack. Urgently need strip alert support.'
Sands searched his memory. 'I recognize that voice.
Where?' He keyed the microphone. 'Genesis, say type of aircraft and souls on board.
'Unable, Icepack.'
'Son of a bitch,' Sands said half-aloud. 'What's going on?
Damn… thatvoice. 'Hethoughtquickly 'Gethold of Anchorage Center, find out where this guy came from.
'Already did that, Colonel,' the NCO told him. 'Nothing.
No squawk. Not even radar contact. He's been outside the ADIZ until now.'
'Then screw him,' Sands asked. 'This sounds too fishy. We due for an air defense test or something?' Falls shook his head. Sands grimaced and keyed the microphone. 'Genesis.
strip alert support is not authorized without proper authentication.
Unless you identify yourself, you'll have to swim back. Elliott looked preoccupied as Ormack said, 'What do we do now, we've only got-' 'Sands!' Elliott suddenly blurted out. 'Eddie Sands!That sorry son of a bitch. They stuck his ass in Shemya. 'Elliott keyed his microphone.
'We are unable to authenticate… scum-maggot.
Sands paled as if he had seen a ghost. Slowly he brought the microphone to his lips.
Falls glared at his wing commander as if he had been slapped in the face. Sands angrily jammed the mike button down. 'Say again, Genesis.'
'You heard me, slime-worm,' Elliott shot back. 'Unable to authenticate.
To Falls' immense surprise, a hint of a smile began to creep across Sands' face.
'Genesis,' Sands said carefully, the smile still working its way across the pudgy face of the Shemya wing commander.
'Once more. Is this for real?'
'Affirmative… dirt bag. 'Aboard the Megafortress, Ormack looked befuddled.
'What… T' 'He'll have the tanker airborne in five minutes,' Elliott told Ormack, relaxing in his ejection seat. 'Crew, prepare for refueling. 'Sands dropped the microphone into Falls' lap.
'Has the strip alert crew called in?'
'No, sir, I expect them any-' p his 'Call the vice commander,' Sands said, zipping u parka. 'Tell him he's got the store. Put me on the strip alert flight orders. Notify Reynolds that I'm coming aboard for his emergency refueling.'
Faster than any of his men had ever seen the pudgy commander move, Sands was out the door. Falls' partner looked baffled as the full-bird colonel sped down the hallway and into the subzero cold outside.
'What the hell?'
'Don't ask me, Bill,' Falls said.
'What about the old standard operating procedures?'
Falls thought a moment. 'We follow them, even if the colonel doesn't.
Notify the interceptor squadron on alert. Tell them the KC-10 is taking off in support of emergency refueling, but that the aircraft they'll be rendezvousing with is unidentified. The unidentified aircraft is not considered hostile but it has refused or is somehow unable to establish contact with any civilian or military agency.
'Got it. 'The NCO picked up the phone and dialed as rapidly as he could.
McLanahan was announcing: 'Eleven o'clock, seventy miles. 'Over the newly assigned U.H.F command post frequency they were using as the air refueling frequency, he said, 'Icepack one-oh-one, Genesis has radar contact at seventy miles at your two o'clock position.'
The pilot of Icepack 101, the KC-10 tanker from Shemya, looked to Colonel Sands, who was sitting in the I.P jumpseat between himself and his KC-10's co-pilot.
'A new voice,' the pilot, Joe Reynolds remarked. 'Sounds like a nav if I ever heard one. I thought there was only one survivor on board?'
'Radar contact at seventy miles?' Sands echoed. 'Maybe not as helpless as they said they were.':'Do we keep on going?' Reynolds asked.
'We keep on going,' Sands told him. 'I recognize a voice on board.
Precontact check complete,' Ormack said aboard the Old Dog. 'All external lights are off right now.'
'Good,' Elliott said.
Just then Wendy Tork reported, 'I've got search radar contact at eleven o'clock.'
'That's the tanker,' McLanahan said. Wendy checked the c Oscillos ope-like frequency pattern on the frequency video display.
'Confirmed,' she said.
McLanahan flipped on a switch marked BEACON on his manual tuning radar control panel, checking that the radar frequency remained on the preset 'doghouse' beacon frequenCy range. The tiny dot representing the tanker on his radar changed into a line of six tiny rectangles in a one-two-three dot pattern. 'I've got his beacon. 'He switched to interplane.
'One-oh-one, contact your beacon. Beacon to standby.'
The six-dot pattern disappeared. 'Go back to operate. II The pattern reappeared.
'Positive ID, our eleven o'clock, sixty-five miles.'
'Check on air-to-air TACAN, ' the pilot aboard Icepack IO 1 acknowledged. The mileage on the air-to-air TACAN receiver.
the two aircraft, slowh which gave the distance between filed 11 clicked down.
'What do you hope to find, sir?' Reynolds asked the wing commander alongside him.
'I don't know,' Sands told him, 'but I wouldn't want to miss whatever it is.'
'But who are these guys?They don't sound like they're in trouble to me-' sound like they're in trouble, Sands shook his head. 'They but not like they've told us. We had to launch-but we don I have to rendezvous with them.'
'Then what-' 'I'm up here to investigate, Joe. Gather information.
But I'd be breaking a dozen rules if I allowed this aircraft to join with an unidentified aircraft. If we'd refused to launch they'c have disappeared forever. No, we'll head toward them. But instead of turning we're going to buzz right past this joker.'
'And then?''And then we'll let them escort them back to the Shemya.
'The interceptors?Are they up there'' 'If I know Falls it's the first thing he did after we took off,' Sands said.ey said fifteen minutes.'
'But what about their gas?''It's been fifteen minutes right about now,' Sands said checking his watch. 'Do those guys sound like they're abou to fall into the ocean?Someone's screwing with us, Joe Nobody does that with me. We'll lead these guys back to the base, then find out what the hell's going on.'
'Inside sixty miles,' McLanahan reported, switching his radar back into search-while-track mode.
'Copy,' Elliott asked. 'Ready, Wendy?Angelina?'
'Ready,' Angelina said.
'All set, General,' Wendy told him, 'but I don't see the other ones yet.'
'Believe me, they're coming,' Elliott asked. 'Hit 'em wit just a little at first. When he switches over, blot 'em out.'
'Will do.
'Sixty miles,' McLanahan called out to the tanker. Part of his transmission was interrupted by a high-pitched squeal.
Sands winced and fumbled for his volume control knob 'Genesis, you have a loud squeal on your radio,' Ashlethe KC-10s co-pilot, called out.
'Copy,' McLanahan replied. His transmission was almo completely blotted out by noise. 'Switching radios. 'McLanahan waited a few moments, then said, 'How do you copy no% Icepack?'
The noise was almost unbearable. 'Genesis, this is Icepack Your radios seem to be malfunctioning. Do you have FM or VHF capability?'
'Roger,' Elliott asked. 'Switching to VHF now.'interphone he said, 'Okay, Wendy. Shut 'em out.'
Wendy smiled and flicked a transmitter switch to MAX carefully checking the frequency video display.
'This is Icepack on VHF air refueling freq,' Ashley saic 'How copy?'
