'Very low-power radar signals. Much too low to see us.
Nothing from Petropavlovsk radar. Lots of U.H.F and VHF radio transmissions, though.'
'But none of it on GUARD any more, I'll bet,' Ormack asked. 'They know we can monitor GUARD.'
'Which means they're no longer interested in rescue,' Elliott said.
'No more Mister Nice-Guy. 'He thought for a moment. 'Time to the coast, Dave?'
'Twelve Minutes,' Luger said, checking the computer readouts.
'I feel exposed down here,' Elliott asked. 'I feel everyone can see us.
I can't wait to get back into the dirt.'
'I'd expect company long before that,' Ormack asked. 'I'd expect a fighter sweep of the area along our projected track line, then a second flight on the landward side.'
'What altitude you figure the fighters will come in?' Elliott asked.
'If they have the resources-and I'll bet they do-it'll be a high-cap, low-cap arrangement. The lowest might be five thousand feet. More likely, eight to ten thousand. High-ca will be up around thirty thousand.
'How's the fuel situation?'
'Worse than I thought,' Ormack told him. 'I've just put the fuel management system back to automatic. The early descet had little effect on the curve, but the tip gear we're dragging just sucking our gas up. I have us at least five thousand belo, the revised fuel curve.'
'Every pound of gas is critical now,' Elliott asked. 'Patric' can we cut off any points on your flight plan'?Cut this corner a bit?'
'Risky,' McLanahan said, studying his chart. 'We can head for the next point on the flight plan. It'll save us about five minutes or so, but it'll put us closer to a small town on the coastline. I wanted to avoid this town by at least ten miles, we cut the corner, we almost overfly it.''Ten minutes worth of fuel is a drop in the bucket,' high altitude, bucket,' Ormack asked. 'Down here 'Is that town defended?'
Elliott asked. 'Any airfield there?Naval docks?'
'I don't know,' McLanahan asked. 'There's no detail like that on the charts I'm using.'
'We'll have to risk it,' Elliott asked. 'The faster we get bac over land, the better I'll feel. Call up the next point, Patrick McLanahan punched up the new destination number on his keyboard, verified the coordinates with his penciled notes in the margin of his makeshift chart and displayed the destination. The pilot's heading bug shifted thirty degrees more to the right The Old Dog banked right in response.
'Landfall in six minutes,' Luger said.
'Stay on watch, everyone,' Elliott asked. 'Stay on watch.
'They're launching the whole goddamned Russian Eastern Defense Command,' Beech said. He was sitting in dire command of the intelligence section; Markham and Capt. Jacobs, captain of the Lawrence, were on the bridge.
'The son of a bitch couldn't have picked a worse place this side of the Caspian Sea to disappear off Russian radar Markham told Jacobs.
'Directly between Petropavlovsk and seven nuclear submarines in the pens to the south, z Kavaznya to the north.
'But how did he go off their radar?' Jacobs asked, studying the slides Markham's group had prepared of the situation. 'I thought a mosquito couldn't get through their radar coverage.'
'We're not sure, Captain.
More than likely, the guy crashed or ditched. Right from the beginning it sounded like the guy was having navigation problems.'
'Navigation problems don't make planes ditch,' Jacobs asked. 'If he had a catastrophic emergency, enough to cause navigation or flight control problems, why the hell didn't he declare an emergency?The Russians would've helped him I've seen them do it before. 'I don't know, sir.
He may have panicked. 'Markham got up and pointed at the chart.
'Radar coverage is sort of skimpy around here, too,' he said, as much to himself as to Jacobs.
'Petropavlovsk radar coverage doesn't quite extend this far north, but Beringa's radar does cover this entire gap.'
Jacobs was about to say something but was interrupted by Beech on the intercom.
a 'Captain, message from PVO Strany, Far East Command headquarters, to all units. In the clear. Uncoded.'
'I'm surprised they didn't read part of it in English,' Jacobs said.
'What are they saying?'
'Air Defense Emergency declared for the area. General orders for deploying searching fighters in the area. Complete closing of Soviet airspace.'
'Send it, Markham asked. 'Direct CINCPAC via JCS.
Priority One.
'Yes, sir.'
Jacobs studied the chart closer, finally picked up a pair of dividers lying on the console near his seat.
'We use two hundred and fifty nautical miles for Center radars, right?'
Yes, sir,' Markham asked. 'Standard line-of-sight-ranging.
A bit more, depending on altitude.
'But you don't have a big circle around Beringa,' Jacobs noted, measuring the lines around the islands that composed the Russian members of the Aleutian chain.
'They don't have a Center radar,' Markham said, his excitement rising.
'They have shorter-range, low-altitude I capable radar. Approach control radar.'
Jacobs measured a two hundred and fifty mile circle from Petropavlovsk.
The circle barely intersected the radar circle from Beringa.
'They overlap 'But there's a gap,' Markham said, pointing at the chart.
'They overlap, but there's still incomplete coverage. If you avoid this circle-', — he's out of range. 'Jacobs stabbed the chart excitedly and looked at Markham. 'And Petropavlovsk won't see him if- 'If he's low level. Below five or six thousand feet, he gets lost in the background radar clutter, even over water.
'Wait a minute. 'Jacobs held up a hand. 'You said this guy was a tanker.
'He had a tanker call sign,' Markham said, checking his notes.
'Lantern four-five Fox. Out of Elmendorf. But he had no flight plan, and Elmendorf reports no four-five Fox.'
'So he's not a tanker. Then what?'
'A low-altitude penetrator?' Markham muttered.
'A bomber?' he knew exactly where to go. Exactly. How else 'It seems would he know about the gaps in radar coverage?' spotted by that recon jet.'
Markham nodded. 'But… he surpris 'Got his fingers caught in the cookie jar, maybe?'
Markham shook his head. 'Spotted by a recon plane, he… he turns around before they figure out he's headed inland-' Jacobs said.
wizard Kavaznya 'And he's disappeared again, going in the back way.'
'Goddamn,' Jacobs muttered. 'Why me?Why now') sir,' Markham reminded the captain, 'None of our communications on this entire boat are completely secure, second-guessing him. 'If we blow the whistle-' 'Why the hell doesn't anybody tell us what's going on?
Well, it's too late now anyway. The whole Far East Command is after him. He won't get far.'
'So what do we do?'
Jacobs shook his head. 'We do nothing. Nothing we can do.
That guy, whoever he is, is all on his own.
Elliott jerked himself out of his reverie. He hadn't been 'Four minutes to coast-in,' Dave Luger announced.
sleeping-he couldn't really remember the last time he had.dbut he had been in some sort of daydream ever since descending to low level.
Now his eyes were locked onto the dim glow of the small Russian town they were approaching.
The tiny town, too small to have a name on Luger's generalpurpose navigation chart, appeared as a
