“You queried them?” asked Micelli.
“Computer did and it confirmed.”
“Bullshit. Try it again.”
“We’re too far right now. You think it’s going to be different?”
“All right boys, settle down,” said Sparks. “Flighthawk leader — yo, Cowboy, I want you to rustle on over there and scout those aircraft out. We’ll take the
“Roger that,
The Osprey’s heavy rotor wash pushed Danny Freah downward as he waited for the aircraft to get close enough so he could attach the lifting chain. Liu treaded water near him, pushed the spray from his face while rubbing his face so hard Danny thought he was going to poke his eyeballs out.
Unlike their Whiplash-issue diving gear, the borrowed Navy sets didn’t have radios. A spotter stood on the shoreline, radioing to the pilot of the Osprey, who was also relying on two crewmen in the rear to help guide him.
His first attempt was way off, the chain closer to the shore than to them. As the Osprey moved sideways, the chain began to swing like a pendulum. Danny made a swipe, only to have the heavy strap at the bottom smack the back of his hand so hard he thought for a moment he’d broken a bone.
Liu lunged at it, grabbing the loop and wrapping his body around it. The Osprey’s momentum pushed him several feet through the water. Danny seized him as he began to twirl around, pulling him to a stop.
“This is almost funny!” yelled Danny.
The roar of the V-22’s engines overhead made it impossible to hear if Liu replied. Danny let go of him and, his hand still hurting, plunged beneath the water and retrieved the harness lead from the warhead a few feet below. They hooked the lines together, then swam backward to get out of the way.
As they did, Liu disappeared beneath the roiling surface of the lake. Danny glanced to his right, getting his bearings, then looked back, expecting to see Liu. But he wasn’t there.
He stared, waiting for his sergeant to reappear. Three or four seconds passed, then ten, then twenty.
Where was he?
If it was god’s will that the baby and her family die, thought Liu, what is His will now? If I just let myself sink beneath the waves, will He let me drown?
Pushed under by the rotor wash, Liu let his body drift down, toward the smooth rocks and shadows he’d seen before, toward the ghost that he knew waited here.
How easy it was to just let go, to just give up and die.
He took his breather away from his face. Almost immediately his lungs began to scream for water.
Liu drifted, expecting the baby to appear. He closed his eyes, then opened them. There were shapes in the water, strange shapes, but he recognized them all — the warhead being lifted, Captain Freah’s feet in the distance, some of the metal casing to the missile that they’d discarded earlier.
No ghosts. No easy way out.
If he stayed underwater until his lungs burst, then he would never know why it had happened. He would never know if it was part of another plan, if it was meant to push him toward something or if God had merely extracted some awful toll and wanted him as a witness to His power.
Did he really want to know?
Yes, answered Liu, pushing back to the surface.
Jennifer started to trot toward the warhead as the Marine Osprey set it down on the beach.
“The Chinese are coming,” she told Danny, explaining what Dog had told her.
“All right. We’ll pack it into the Osprey and take it back to Base Camp One.”
“We have to make it safe first,” she said.
“That’ll take far too long. There’s a plane full of Chinese paratroopers on the way,” said Danny. “No. I’ll do it in the Osprey.”
“You’re crazy.”
“We have to get out of here.”
“I’ll safe it,” said Jennifer.
“In the Osprey,” said Danny, kicking off his flippers.
Not having an alternative, Jennifer nodded.
According to colonel Bastian’s sitrep display, the three aircraft approaching the warhead recovery area included one Sukhoi fighter and two Xian Y-14 transports. The Y-14s were Chinese versions of the Russian An-24 “Curl,” military transport aircraft that he guessed were carrying paratroopers.
The screen also showed that the
But that’s why the
“
“Hey, Colonel. We have one bandit, two bogies heading in.”
“What do you mean bogies?” Dog said, cutting him off. The slang term meant that the aircraft were unidentified;
“bandits” were airplanes that were ID’d as bad guys, as these should have been. “Those are Xian Y-14 transports.”
“Computer is disagreeing with you there, Colonel. We’re showing them as Fokker F27s. Cowboy is on his way to check it out. I’m going to handle the other Sukhoi.”
Experience alone told Dog that the IDs were wrong; civilian transports did not travel in twos, much less behind a fighter escort.
“You’re not in position to make an intercept on that Sukhoi, let alone the transports.”
“We will be in five minutes.”
“Too long. I’ve got them,” said Dog. “Swing back toward the recovery area.”
“Colonel—”
“Swing back toward the recovery area.”
“Yes, sir.”
Starship pulled up the view from the underside camera of
“Flighthawk leader, I need you to intercept those two Chinese transports,” said Dog over the interphone. “You see them?”
“On it, Colonel.”
Starship checked the sitrep, discovering that the airplanes were less than seventy miles away. He pulled back on his stick, automatically taking
“The
Starship touched the talk button for his mike, allowing him to give a voice command to the computer. “Trail
“What do you want to do with that Sukhoi?” Starship asked.
“That’s mine. You concentrate on the transports.”
