I'm no spring chicken either, General. I know there's some things you can't do a damn thing about.'he two looked at each other a moment, then Elliott struggled back into his seat. By the time he refastened his harness buckle, he was near total exhaustion.
Abruptly Ormack ordered Angelina back to her seat as he took a firm grip on the yoke and pushed the Old Dog down once again.
'On the double. We're under attack.'
Angelina half-crawled, half-ran back down the narrow aisle to her seat and began strapping herself in. Wendy was studying her video threat display. Every few moments she glanced at the countermeasures receiver set, waiting for the computer positively to identify the new signals and plot their direction from the Megafortress.
As Angelina plugged in her headset she heard Wendy report: 'Golf-band search only.'
'Position?'
'No clock position yet.'
'High terrain, ten miles,' from Luger. 'Slight climb to clear it.'
'Take fifteen degrees right,' McLanahan directed, leaning over in his seat and studying Luger's tiny.five-inch display 'Looks clear in that direction at this altitude We can't afford to do any more climbs.'
Ormack turned the control yoke in a ten degree-bank turn to the right.
Luger asked. 'We can 'Clear of terrain for twenty miles,' les.
turn back to track at this altitude in five mi 'Tork?'
'Signal strength increasing slightly but not as fast as I thought.
Rough guess would be the MiG-25s or -31s out of Ossora, Airfield.
Probably converging on our tail at high altitude.
'The 3 Is are their — it'll be the Foxbat-Es,' Angelina said.
front-line fighters. They'll send the 25s with external tanks out r position and let the us out-then report you to find us-or draw Foxhounds have us-' 'Wendy,' McLanahan broke in, 'can you tell if they find us?'
'I should be able to see a change in their-' She stopped ignals rapidly abruptly, staring at the large video screen. The s e signals just went to began to change — 'Missile alert. One of the tracking mode — ' u said-' 'But I thought yo ndy asked. 'They can't be locked 'They're too faraway,' We on. Their signal isn't strong enough. 'Confused by the sudden threat signals and the responding increase in thrust as Ormack pushed up the power, Wendy hurriedly rechecked her receivers and indicators. All self-tested normal.
SILE LAUNCH indicator blinked on her panel. At the same time a repeater warning light blinked on the front instrument panel in the cockpit.
ced. 'Clear for evasive 'Missile launch,' Ormack announ maneuvers?'
'Clear left and right, ten miles,' Luger called out.
'C'mon, Tork, get with it,' Ormack asked. 'Which way''
1; 'It can't be, they're… they're bluffing, wait…
'Pereira. 'Ormack was over the edge. 'Find those damn fighters.'
Before Wendy could answer, Angelina had turned ADIATE.Since there was her tail Scorpion tracking radar to R no azimuth information from Wendy's receiver Angelina began a complete rear-hemisphere sweep behind the Megafortress.
'I don't understand A red MIS 'Nothin Angelina reported after several sweeps. '№ 9 in targets for thirty miles.'
'They're bluffing,' Wendy repeated, sounding surer of herself now. She reached across the defensive compartment and grabbed Angelina's denim jacket. Angelina was still searching her rectangular scope for the fighters.
'They wanted us to turn on our radars,' Wendy asked. 'They couldn't find us down here so they're faking a lock-on. Stop.'
'Angelina, shut down,' McLanahan said.'if you haven't AN seen them by now, shut down. 'Angelina put her radar to STANDBY 'Damn Wendy whispered as she studied the video threat receiver. 'Back to search radar… signal strength increasing-' An inverted 'V' airplane symbol appeared at the bottom of Wendy's countermeasure receiver scope.
'Fighter at six o clock!' A second 'V' appeared. 'Second fighter, both at six o'clock.
With Ormack having already throttled to military power, the the roar of the eight turbofan engines was deafening sound was amplified as it vibrated off the mountains barely three hundred feet beneath them.
'He's still at extreme detection range,' Wendy reported.
'He can't shoot at us down here.'
'Scorpions are ready, Angelina said.
'How far until the computer can start driving the auto Pilot?' Ormack asked.
'Still a hundred miles,' McLanahan told him.
'We might not make it that long-':'VHF transmissions,' Wendy called out.
'Shut them down,' Ormack told her. 'They'll report our position. 'But Wendy was already adjusting her jammers, matching the frequency marker of the jammers with the wavy oscilloscope-like radio transmissions.
' Narrow-scan tracking signals,' she asked. 'Sweeping around us…
his computer can't find us so it looks like he's searching manually 'High terrain, twelve o'clock, seven miles,' Luger reported.
'Pretty deep canyon on all sides,' McLanahan added quickly. 'Better climb over this one. Slow climb.'
Ormack slowly pulled back on the yoke and began a gentle two hundred foot-per-minute climb.
'Clearing terrain on either side,' Luger asked. 'Five degrees left.'
Ormack nudged the Old Dog to the left. 'Looks like 1I be clear of terrain for thirty miles after this last ridge.
we Level off. This is a good altitude, ridge crossing in ten seconds 'Signal strength decreasing,' Wendy asked. 'He's still trying manual track but he's falling behind.'
'Coming up on the ridge 'Looks like the fighter behind us lost us 'Cresting the ridge now In the dim cockpit Ormack could just make out the sno wcovered ridge line they had just crossed, the mountains harply to a white- covered valley below. 'Hey,' dropping off s he said, 'it looks pretty flat out-' A thunderous explosion echoed just outside Elliott's canopy.
Ormack caught a glimpse of two dark streaks against the hazy stars.
The shock wave hit the Old Dog's nose like a giant invisible hand.
'We nearly had a midair with two of them,' Ormack said, and pushed the Old Dog's nose down to the snow- covered plain below, watching the radar altimeter and canopy windows. He leveled the aircraft at two hundred feet. 'Terrain-following autopilot reengaged, slaved to the radar altimeter. Set to two hundred feet.
'Clear of terrain for thirty miles,' Luger reported.
'The two fighters are turning,' Wendy asked. 'Infrared tracker has one of them… going high… stabilizing-' A large red MLD light blinked rapidly on Ormack's threat repeater lights.
'Missile launch detection, infrared missile launch,' Wendy broke in.
'Break right…'
Ormack lurched the Old Dog into a furious dodge to the right, steered the huge bomber past the maximum thirty degrees of bank. The autopilot, slaved to the now failed radar altimeter, immediately commanded a two-G max climb. That climb command, with the Old Dog now in a forty degree bank to the right, increased the G load on the bomber and tightened the turn.
Simultaneously with the 'break' call, Wendy popped two high-intensity flares from the Megafortress' left ejectors. The flares were shot a hundred yards from the bomber and burned hotter and moved slower than the Old Dog. They lowered themselves slowly to the snow-packed ground with tiny streamers as the Megafortress turned hard in the opposite direction.
The fury of the turn shook up Elliott, but he had the presence of mind to watch the altimeters before reaching for the ejection trigger in each armrest. He was scanning the engine instruments, making sure the roar echoing in his confused head was coming from all eight turbofans.
Out of the front cockpit window he spotted two fiery streaks of light flashing past the windscreen and exploding in the valley below.
'Engine instruments okay, John,' Elliott reported to Ormack who looked in amazement at the man, barely
