Firefox

'The aircraft appeared to be carrying some kind of drone tail-unit which detached and ignited.' There was a pause, then: 'The Mig-31, sir, wasn't destroyed as far as they can tell. It was already over all radar horizons before the contact time of the missiles, but the captain is not prepared to verify positive contact.' The code-operator looked directly at Vladirnirov. 'He would like clarification of the type and capability of the aircraft that he attempted to destroy, sir.'

Vladimirov's head spun round, so that his eyes stared into the grey, slatey surfaces of those of the Soviet leader. The words of challenge and contempt which were rising to his lips died in his mind. He said nothing. The face that confronted him was implacable, and all the righteous indignation that O.C. 'Wolfpack' felt was squashed, buried. He could not throw his career away, not so lightly as that, in heaping his recriminations upon the First Secretary. Instead, he snapped at the code-operator.

'Secrecy must be maintained. Thank him for the job he — attempted to do, and order him to stand by for further instructions.'

'Sir!'

The keys of the encoding-console clicked almost at once. The disguised mimicry of the First Secretary's maxim concerning security was the furthest Vladirnirov felt he could allow himself to go. The recognition made him ashamed. Then he dismissed the feeling.

'What do you intend to do now, Vladimirov?' the First Secretary asked him, his mouth a straight line, his eyes completely without expression. In that face, in that moment, Vladimirov saw the truth of power in the Soviet Union, saw the heart of the cadres and coteries that were contained within the Kremlin. Because the First Secretary was able to put the blame for failure upon others, then the failure itself was no longer important. If Vladimirov were dismissed, disgraced for the loss of Mig-31, that would be all that would matter. This man before him cared nothing for the realities of the situation, only for the personal politics of his own survival.

Vladimirov was sickened, rather than frightened. With selflessness in extremity taught as one of the virtues of the military caste to which his family had belonged for generations, he gave no thought to his own survival or success. Yet the Mig-31 must not be lost to the Americans,' thrown away.

'I–I shall order all available units into the area of the Riga, First Secretary,' he managed to say in a level voice, from which he carefully excluded any trace of anger, or bitterness.

'And — what will they do?' Andropov asked with contempt.

Kutuzov came to his rescue. Perhaps he, too, had been sickened by what he had silently witnessed in the War Command Centre, or perhaps he sensed the tension in Vladimirov and intended to help save his career for him. Whatever, the old man's bravery as he spoke with contempt to the Chairman of the Committee for State Security made Vladimirov warm towards him.

'They, as you put it, Chairman, will make every effort to recover the Mig-31 that your poor security in Moscow and at Bilyarsk allowed to be successfully stolen by one man — one single American!' The whisper from the ruined throat carried clearly to every ear in the room, the tone of the voice imprinting itself on every consciousness. The Chairman of the KGB flushed, two points of colour on the parchment-toned skin over the cheek bones. The smile, cynical and aloof, disappeared from his face.

Vladimirov transferred his gaze to the First Secretary's face. The Soviet leader appeared disconcerted, as if reminded of painful realities. He said, as if somehow to make amends without actual apology:

'Mihail Ilyich — I know that you will do all you can. But — what is it that you propose to do, with the whole of the Red Banner Northern Fleet and most of 'Wolf-pack', northern sector, at your disposal?' The voice was calm, almost gentle — mollifying.

Kutuzov turned his gaze to Vladimirov, nodded, as if at some secret understanding, and then Vladimirov said: 'The first priority, First Secretary, is to order the take-off of the Mig.' The First Secretary turned back to the small window, as if prompted by the calculated priority the O.C. 'Wolfpack' had placed on his own pet surmise.

'Of course,' he said. 'Pass the order to the Tower.' The order was transmitted by one of the radio-operators. Still keeping his gaze on the runway through the window, he said: 'And — next?'

Vladimirov looked down at the map in front of him, revealing the bright, isolated points of light in the wastes of the Barents Sea, north to the permanent pack.

'Order the Riga and her submarine escorts to alter course, and head north in the wake of the Mig at all possible speed.'

Over the clicks of the encoding-console, Vladimirov heard the First Secretary mutter: 'Good.' Already it appeared, the man's huge complacency was returning. Vladimirov had noted it often before, in his dealings with those who governed his country, the anodyne that could be found in action.

He looked down at the map, ignoring the broad back of the First Secretary in the grey suit, the fabric stretched across the powerful shoulders; Were he a less elevated individual, he thought, it might be possible to draw comfort from that rigid stance, that overbearing impression of strength.

'Scramble the Polar Search squadrons immediately,' he ordered. He watched the leonine head nod in approval, saw the shoulders settle comfortably. Surface craft, he thought. 'Order the missile destroyers Otlitnyi and Slavny to proceed with all possible speed to the predicted landfall of the Mig on the permanent pack.

'Sir.'

'The three 'V'-type submarines to proceed at once on courses to the same landfall reference.'

'Sir.'

Vladimirov paused. Faintly through the fuselage of the Tupolev, he heard the whine of engines running up. The Mig, cleared from the Tower, was preparing for take-off. He did not cross to the tiny window as he heard the engines increase in volume as the Mig raced down the runway. Instead, he watched the shoulders of the First Secretary and the slight, hopeful tilt of the head. There was a blur from the runway beyond the window, and then the unmistakable sound of a jet aircraft pulling away from the field in a steep climb. For a moment, the First Secretary remained at the window, as if deep in contemplation, then he turned back into the room, and Vladimirov noticed the slight smile on his face.

* * *

The distance to the transmitter of the homing-signal still crying from the 'Deaf Aid' registered as ninety-two miles. The fuel-gauges registered empty. Gant was flying on little more than fresh air, and he knew it. It was time — and it might already be too late — to go into a zoom climb and begin the long glide to the contact-point with the refuelling-tanker.

The more he considered the problem, the more Gant became convinced that such a glide was his only chance. He had to go as high as possible, and then hope that he would leave himself enough fuel for the tricky and delicate task of matching speeds with the tanker-aircraft, and coupling to the fuel-umbilical trailing behind the tanker. Not once had he considered that the tanker might be some kind of surface craft. It could not be a carrier — the USN would not dare put a huge and vulnerable target like that into the Barents Sea. Unlike Vladimirov, he knew that the Americans had developed no carrier-sub.

Therefore, he was going to have to refuel in the air. He knew the Firefox's predecessor, the Mig-25 Foxbat, had established an absolute altitude record of almost 119,000 feet, and that the Firefox was intended as being capable of a greater performance. And, in the present atmospheric conditions, at two-and-a-half miles for every thousand feet of height, he could easily reach the tanker, if he could only pull the Firefox up to an altitude of perhaps forty or more thousand feet.

Yet he had to take a terrible risk. He still had to have plenty of height when he made the rendezvous, and sufficient fuel left for the final manoeuvres.

The fuel-tanks of the Firefox had to be almost empty — had to be, he told himself. It was one aspect of the aircraft with which he was not familiar. Though he had asked Baranovich, the electronics engineer had been unable to help him.

The engines, at his crawling speed across the grey, ice-littered sea, still operated without hesitation. Yet he could take no further risk. The automatic emergency tanks must have cut in by that time, and he had no idea of the extra range they would give him but he suspected it wouldn't be sufficient to take him to the contact-point.

He pushed the throttles forward, and pulled back on the column. The nose of the Firefox lifted and he accelerated, watching the altimeter begin to climb, steadily at first, and then more and more rapidly as he increased the thrust of the two huge turbojets. He seemed not to breathe, not once during the minute-and-a-half of climb. The pale, spring blue of the sky began to deepen as he climbed.