time at Serbientlov, who was standing wringing his hat in his hands in front of Vjarelskiv's desk.
'This is nonsense, Serbientlov,' the constable asked. 'You bring me tales of armed attackers at the base-two men and a woman… What did they steal?Your precious Chinese chopsticks?Are you sure you didn't dream up the whole story?
'This is no joke, tovarisch, ' Sergei asked. 'If we don't hurry they'll get away.'
'With what?A snow plow?Your noodles?'
'They commandeered a fuel truck, and… and they had explosives.
They threatened to blow up everything. The whole base. You have to do something-' 'Your story gets taller every moment, Serbientlov,' the constable said. He leaned back into his chair, fixing Sergei with an icy stare. 'Are you sure this is not a… shall we say, a falling-out of thieves?'
Sergei fidgeted uncomfortably but managed to sound indignant.
'Thieves?You are not accusing me, tovarisch?The only thieves here are the ones out-' 'Stop it, Serbientlov. The little empire you've built at the base is well-known, at least to the citizens in the area.
You use more diesel in four months than the whole Soviet navy uses in a year, supposedly for your fleet of plows but the streets and runways are always clogged with snow and you feed your gut with Chinese noodles and real coffee. 'Vjarelskiv threw his grain beverage into a garbage can.
'Now I'm busy, so you'll-' 'Chief Constable, I demand that you send a unit out to investigate. That's your job. You convinced the Far East Defense Force that for a price you could handle any security vroblems at the base during the winter. They wouldn't be to happy to learn that fifty thousand liters of fuel that you supposed to be protecting have vanished- The constable stood and grabbed Serbientlov by the colllar.
'You maggot. You dare to threaten me?I'll throw your body into one of your snowdrifts where they won't find it till summer But as e watched the caretaker wilt under his tirade the chief constable also knew that the old man had already destroyed his own career and could take his along with him. 'All right, I'll send a patrol out-' 'An armed unit,' Serbientlov asked. 'I want-' 'What you want is irrelevant.
I won't have my men wind up in a fight with your pirates. Now get out of my sight. 'He pushed Serbientlov toward the door, watched him scramble away, then turned to his intercom. 'Sergeant, take a Patrol-wait, take a squad with the halftrack out with Serbientlov to the base. Have him show you where he saw his so-called robbers. If you find anyone, bring him back to me. If you don't find evidence of robbery, bring Serbientlov back to me-in a set of CUffs.
'God, it's freezing up there,' McLanahan said as he ran into Elliott near the cab of the tanker truck, trying to warm his hands. He'd been obliged to switch places with Angelina on top of the Old Dog…
after almost an hour of pumping kerosene in the bitter Siberian cold he had lost feeling in hands and feet. 'Fifty thousand liters of fuel-kerosene should be enough to make it.
I'll feel better when we're out of here. 'Elliott's voice came in weak, barely audible grunts. Instantly McLanahan forgot his own cold, reached into Elliott's pockets and extracted the survival radio.
'Ormack, this is McLanahan.
General Elliott is almost unconscious out here.'
'Copy,' Ormack asked. 'We got enough-all body tanks are full. I've started putting fuel into the leaking mains. Get the general inside, then start wrapping things up down there.'
'Roger. 'McLanahan shoved the radio into his own pocket, then took hold of Elliott's jacket and started to pull him out of the tanker.
'Let's go, General. 'McLanahan half-walked, half-carried him to the belly hatch, then called up to Wendy, who ran down and helped Elliott up the ladder to the upper deck, then over to his seat in the cockpit.
'Wendy, push in all the vent-control knobs at the left side station downstairs,' McLanahan asked. 'It'll pump all the heat to the upper deck. I'll get Angelina and Dave.'
McLanahan ran back outside. Angelina called to him, 'I'
In not getting any more.'
'We're packing up,' he said over the whine of the idling number — four engine. 'I'll help you button up in a minute. 'He 4 searched and found Luger near the left wingtip. He had just wrestled a big piece of hanging fibersteel skin off what remained of the left wingtip.
'Dave, we're done refueling. Let's go.'
Two local militiamen in long, gray-green greatcoats, black fur caps and carrying forty-year-old bolt-action rifles came into the caretaker's office, made a quick check of the small flightfine building, hurried outside.
The squad leader called out to the halftrack. Sergeant Gazetii waved them back inside and turned on Serbientlov.
'There is no one here, caretaker. I would not like to be in your shoes when Comrade Chief Constable Vjarelskiv gets his hands on you.'
Sweat broke out on Serbientlov's face despite the bitter cold of the early morning. 'They were here… I swear-' 'Show me this fuel tank and the truck, caretaker,' Gazetii said. The halftrack rumbled down the road paralleling the deserted.snow-choked flightline and taxiway. A few minutes later they had pulled to a stop outside the fence surrounding the large white tank.
'This is the tank?' Gareth said emerging from the steel interior of the armored haiftrack. 'A tank of heating oil?What would your terrorists want with a tank full of heating oil?'
'I don't know,' Serbientlov said in exasperation. 'But they forced me at gunpoint to fill the tank truck. I narrowly escaped with my life.
They had three guards on me and… a couple machine guns, but I escaped' Comrade Sergeant. 'One of the militiamen pointed to tracks in the deep snow.
Gazetii studied them carefully.
'Fairly fresh And then, he heard it… the fused roar of a jet aircraft engine in the distance. He turned to Serbientlov. 'Is that an aircraft?I didn't know you had aircraft here this time of year?'
Serbientlov listened, then blanched. 'But we don't have a aircraft here.it… it must be the terrorists… English terrorists.
Gazetii waved his men back into the halftrack and directed them down the flightline toward the noise.
Angelina had just slipped off the Old Dog's right wingtip to the roof of the Zadiv panel truck. McLanahan was back on top of the Old Dog's fuselage just behind the ejection-hatch cover scraping snow and dirt off the center- wing-tank fuel cap a: replacing the cap. Luger, half-dragging his right leg, was pulling the fuel hose back toward the tanker truck.
Wendy had jumped out the belly hatch of the Old Dog to look for her fellow-crewmembers when she saw a large, square vehicle roll to a stop just around the end of one of the hangars surrounding their parking spot.
Her heart stopped. It was a Russian armored vehicle, with a Russian soldier sitting behind a shielded gun- mount.
'Patrick…'Wendy pointed her finger at the vehicle. 'Over there 'Yanimnogah simye,' Gazetii swore as the halftrack driver stomped on the brakes. 'Shto etah?' What he and the other saw in the dim three-month-long twilight was a huge, black unearthly winged creature with a long pointed nose and large ungainly wings.
'Etaht samalyot?' one of the militiamen asked. 'I've net seen a plane like that before.'
'It has no markings, no insignia,' another asked. 'It must be some kind of experimental aircraft 'That's it,' Serbientlov insisted.
'That's their plane, that's the plane that that the terrorists almost forced me into.
You've got to stop them. Destroy it-' 'Control yourself, Serbientlov.
' Gazetii jumped out of the half-track. 'What if it's one of our experimental aircraft?We have them, you know. Corporal, contact Chief Constable Vjarelskiv. Tell him we have an unidentified aircraft parked on the center parking ramp on the base. I am going to talk to the crew. Everyone else stay here.
Luger tossed the hose as far as he could away from the Old Dog's wheels. 'Pat, Angelina. We've got us some company.'
Angelina had already heard Wendy's warning and spotted the half-track.
She quickly climbed down off the Zadiv and sprinted for the Old Dog's belly-hatch. McLanahan screwed the tank cap closed, then slid down the fuselage to the right wing. When he saw a Russian soldier emerging from the half track he slid across the wing to the leading edge between the two engine nacelles, shimmied over the edge and dropped to the snow.
