Nerve Center (36 page)

“Stay on course,” he told Rap.

“Gal.”

She was trying to sabotage him, though. Chris was trying to raise Southern Command.

Why?

He was being paranoid. They were trying to find a tanker.

“Bree,” he said, flipping on the interphone. “Listen. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

“We’re on course, Major,” she said sharply. “Brazilian border in zero-six minutes.”

The Boeing disappeared again. He jumped back in Hawk Three, skimming along the rugged terrain. The 777 needed a good-sized runway to land; it ought to be easy to spot.

Nothing.

Flight of F-5Es approaching from the east. FAB interceptors, Brazilian Air Force. Approximately fifty miles away, they were most likely patrolling the border, looking for smugglers. They weren’t quite on an intercept, but would draw within five miles in three minutes. Their APQ-153 radars could detect a standard fighter at about twenty miles; the Megafortress and her brood would be invisible to the radar until well within visual distance.

The 777, on the other hand, ought to be on their screens already.

“Rap, there’s a group of FAB F-5’s flying near their border to the east of us. They’re about fifty miles away. What do you think about hailing them to see if they’ve spotted Kevin?”

“Gal,” she snapped, still plenty pissed.

Breanna was right about the fuel. Maybe they could use the base of the F-5’s.

If Bastian approved. They’d have to get his okay. Breanna was right about that.

The Boeing flitted into the corner of the radar plot. He’d turned ten degrees north.

Where was he going?

BREANNA TOLD CHRIS TO GIVE THE FAB FLIGHT THE Boeing’s course even though they did not immediately acknowledge.

“Maybe they don’t speak English,” said Chris when they still didn’t respond.

“You speak Spanish?”

“Portuguese,” he said. “No. Hold on.” He leaned to one side, putting both hands over his helmet as if that might somehow make the transmission clearer. “Repeat?” he asked.

“What’s up?” Breanna asked.

“F-5’s are challenging us,” Chris told her. He turned toward the multi-use display at the far right of his dash. “Shit. They’re trying to tickle the ident gear.”

“Activate it. Standard mode,” said Breanna. The Megafortress’s friend-or-foe identifier could be manipulated from the dash. Standard mode presented Gal as a B-52G.

“Still not acknowledging. Ten miles off, nine, eight,” said Chris. “Should be within visual range, but I can’t pick up any lights.”

“Can they see us?” Breanna asked.

“I think it’d be kind of hard, even with this bright moon,” said Chris. “But they know we’re here. They’re correcting, maybe coming on our radio signal. I’m going to try and hail them again.”

Breanna started to answer, but Chris cut her off. “Shit—they’re charging their weapons. Shit—I think those idiots think we’re Hawkmother. They want to shoot us down.”

Aboard Hawkmother
Over Northwestern Brazil
7 March, 2220 local (1820 Dreamland)

“YOU WERE RIGHT, CAPTAIN,” THE F-5E PILOT TOLD Madrone. “We have the B-52 in range. He has two escorts.”

A B-52? The plane must actually be a Megafortress, with two Flighthawks.

So Jeff had finally shown his true colors.

“Shoot him down,” Madrone said. “Ignore the escorts—they are unarmed.”

“Captain?”

“Ignore them. They’ll flail at you but they won’t strike.”

“Understood.”

Aboard Galatica
7 March, 2223

ZEN SLAMMED THE FLIGHTHAWKS AROUND, CURSING himself for concentrating so hard on finding the Boeing that he had left their flanks uncovered. There was no reason for the damn Brazilians to attack—but here they were, pedals to the metal, slashing in.

He tucked Hawk Four into a dive as she came out of her turn, building back her momentum. C3 took Three in trail as he slammed forward, trying to get between the Tigers and Galatica. He had no shells in his cannon, but he activated the targeting radars anyway, figuring that even the limited avionics in the F-5Es would realize they were being cued for a shot.

Hopefully, that would make the pilots break off, or at least concentrate on the U/MFs.

Of course, it might only make them mad. The lead plane didn’t seem to be turning, even though Jeff was homing in on his nose.

THE NEED TO STAY CLOSE TO THE FLIGHTHAWKS CUT down on Breanna’s options, and her fuel situation would make a rip-roaring climb to sixty thousand feet a Pyrrhic victory. Besides, they’d never outrun the Brazilians’ missiles.

“Their weapons are charged!” warned Chris. “Still not acknowledging our hails.”

“Trying to wave them off,” said Zen.

“Hang with me, Hawk Leader,” she said, punching the plane into a sharp roll as the first two-ship of Tiger IIs came on.

“They’re going to send the second wave onto our tails as we turn,” warned Chris.

If Gal had been armed, that would have been fatal for the Tiger IIs—the Megafortress’s Stinger air mines would have turned them into flying spaghetti. But with no weapons and no diversionary flares, Breanna had only her wits and the EB-52’s ability to zig in the air going for her.

She flailed left as one of the Tiger IIs closed to range for a heat-seeker. The Megafortress wallowed a little, held back by the trim flaps that compensated for T/APY’s rotation momentum.

“Power down the T/APY,” she told Chris.

“Powering down.”

“Shit!”

Breanna looked up to see the nose of an F-5E looming in her windscreen. She plunged right, trying to swirl into a controlled roll, but briefly lost the plane as the wings inverted.

“Missiles in the air,” said Chris.

His voice was so calm she knew they were going to get hit
.

IF EITHER OF THE HAWKS HAD BEEN CARRYING ammunition, Zen would have made short work of all four F-5’s. But the pilots seemed to know that he was unarmed, and paid no attention to him even as he dove for them. Hawk Three closed on one of the F-5Es as it spun toward the rear of the Megafortress. He saw its cannon begin to flash, and pushed Three close enough to break the cockpit glass in two, slamming his stick with a flare of body English to hold on to the Flighthawk. The Brazilian plane pirouetted away, breaking up: C3 said Hawk Three had not suffered any damage.

As he swung toward the F-5E’s wing mate, Zen was pitched sideways by gravity. Breanna swirled the EB-52 into a hard spin trying to escape a fresh attack.

“Tell them we’re not Madrone,” Zen said.

“I’m fucking trying,” said Chris.

Aboard Hawkmother
7 March, 2230

HAWK ONE’S SYNTHETIC RADAR FEED FILLED THE center of his mind. Madrone watched a God’s-eye view of the battle ten miles away from 65,000 feet.

He was a god, wasn’t he? That’s why they wanted to stop him.

Missiles flared toward the big black plane. It would be over soon.

Kevin felt a twinge in his stomach, then lost the vision, his body plummeting toward the mountains below. He’d slipped out of Theta.

Aboard Galatica
7 March, 2230

BREANNA PUSHED LEFT, THEN RIGHT, THEN LEFT, nearly warping the flaps and ailerons with her maneuvers. As she whipped back right she popped the leading-edge tabs, working them like air brakes to slam the big plane downward like a pregnant whale. Her wings flipped over, the stress on the spars so great the entire plane groaned. Rap cleaned the controls and grabbed the throttle, goosing it to the max a second before jerking the stick upward.

The acrobatics worked. The first missile sailed past, wide of its target. A second and third missile whipped past, the latter detonating on default about a hundred yards away.

A fourth was so thoroughly confused, it too exploded—unfortunately about twelve feet from the plane. Hot shards of metal ripped through Gal’s fuselage, shorting some of the electronics and damaging the control surfaces on the right wing.

But it was the cannonfire of the F-5E Rap had lost track of that almost did them in. The first she knew of the close-quarter attack was a low thump behind her. Then she felt like someone was hitting the seat with a baseball bat.

The Boeing slid sideways. Bree fought it, saw the enemy’s tracers blazing across the sky, felt Gal rolling on her wing. “I have it,” she told Chris.

“Yup,” he said, broadcasting a general Mayday on the Guard frequency.

THE F-5Es SWARMED ON THE MEGAFORTRESS. ZEN pushed Three closer, nudging the throttle as the four planes dove. Another six were within two miles, homing in on the scent of blood.

With a cannon, they’d all be dead meat.

“Proximity alert,”
flashed on the screen, C3 warning that he was within a hundred feet of the F-5E.

Jeff watched helplessly as the Brazilian lit his cannon. Tracers blazed across the EB-52’s tail section, gouging a large hole in the fin. Zen could feel the shock behind him.

For a brief moment, the chromium sun that had been part of his ANTARES metaphor returned. He felt a flash of heat and anger. Then he put his finger on the throttle slider, accelerating Hawk Four into the midsection of the Brazilian fighter.

THE SHOCK WAVE OF THE EXPLOSION HAD AN ODD effect on Galatica, actually helping Breanna stabilize her in level flight. Even so, there was no question that they were badly damaged. The emergency screens lit on the multi-use displays, and the computer flashed a warning on the HUD saying they had only forty-percent power capability in engines one and four.

“At least it’s symmetrical,” said Chris dryly.

The Megafortress’s twin-tailplane, which extended like a V at the rear of the plane, had been severely damaged. Breanna nudged the plane into a very gentle bank, testing her control.

“F-5’s have backed off. Zen got one,” said Chris. “He rammed it.”

“Hawk Leader?”

“I’m here, Bree. You guys okay?”

“For now,” she told him. “Can you give me a visual on our damage? Start with the tail.”

“Yeah.”

The image snapped into the screen on her lower left panel, which was preset to accept the Hawk feed.

“Looks like a half-eaten waffle,” said Chris. It was an apt description; much of the skin had been blown or burned off, leaving the honeycombed carbon-fiber guts exposed.

“We’re stable. I can turn somewhat,” Breanna told her husband. “We have to land ASAP, though. We’ve lost fuel, and we weren’t exactly full to begin with.”

“Your call,” said Zen.

“Boa Vista’s a hundred miles northwest,” said Chris.

“I don’t know.” Breanna began banking in that direction anyway.

“Okay,” said Chris, working the maps.

The plane bucked sharply.

“Fuel problem,” said the copilot, punching his instruments. “Management panel won’t come up for me.”

“I have it. Find us a landing strip—even a highway at this point.”

“Got an FAB strip five miles south of us. Primitive at best.”

“Jeff, there’s a strip at the edge of the jungle five miles south of here. Can you check it out?”

“Done.”

It didn’t much matter how long the strip was—they might not even make it that far. Two tanks had been shot out; the Boeing’s automated fuel-management system had isolated the tanks, but apparently they were leaking somewhere in the feed lines as well. As Bree stabilized the engines, the monitor warned she was dry.

She thought of saying something to Jeff—maybe apologizing for not accepting his apology before. But the words didn’t come and there was too much to do, keeping the plane steady.

“One of the fuel bags the system shut off sealed,” reported Chris. “I’m trying to get it back on line manually.”

“Give it a try.”

“How long did you say that strip was?” Zen asked. “Less than twelve hundred,” said Chris.

“Try five thousand,” said Jeff. “It’s long, level, and concrete.”

“Give me a vector,” Bree said.

“You’re nearly dead on. It’s hidden by the ridges there. Sharp drop. Check the low-light feed.”

The runway looked brand-new. Everything else—a few buildings, two hangars—looked ramshackle, even from Four’s orbit at five thousand feet. An old propeller transport sat off the ramp.

“No tower that 1 can raise,” said Chris. “Trying Guard. Trying everything.”

“There are people there,” said Zen.

“We’re landing one way or the other. We’re on final,” she added as the moonlit runway suddenly came into view over the mountain.

She blew a tire as they landed, probably because it had been damaged during the attack. Chris struggled with the crosswind readings at the last minute, and Breanna lost engine one completely when she applied reverse thrust, but she still managed to hold the runway. A wide ramp sat at the far end; she felt her body starting to collapse as she headed for it.

“So, what happens now?” Chris asked.

“We call home,” said Breanna.

“The question is, why did the F-5’s attack?”

“The country’s in the middle of a crisis,” said Jeff on the interphone. He landed the Flighthawk and taxied behind them. “There’s been a military coup.”

“Just what we need,” said Breanna.

“Shooting at us still doesn’t make sense,” said Chris. “Unless they thought we were on the other side.”

“Which side is the other side, though?” said Bree.

A jeep waited ahead. A soldier stood in the rear, waving at them.

“Looks like he’s smiling,” said Chris. “What do you think? Pop out and have a chat?”

“Think he’ll speak English?” asked Bree.

“Got me.”

“Those fuckers tried to shoot us down,” said Jeff.

“It wasn’t exactly these guys,” said Breanna. “Doesn’t look to me like the F-5’s came from this base. No support facilities.”

“We’re going to have to talk to them sooner or later,” said Chris. “It’s not like we’re at war with Brazil.”

“No?” said Jeff sarcastically.

The men in the jeep jumped out, waving and smiling. They weren’t carrying weapons.