The entire back of Zarazi’s head splattered on the door to Orazov’s office, and the nearly headless corpse of the Taliban chief dropped to the ground like a puppet whose strings had suddenly been cut.
That job done, there was only one mission left to accomplish before getting the hell out of here and making contact with the Russians: eliminate Jalaluddin Turabi and his men. Until Zarazi’s body was found, Orazov had plenty of authority to organize an attack mission. Once Zarazi was found dead, these quasi-Neanderthal Taliban fighters would search every square centimeter of the desert for him. But for now they would obey him, even to the point of executing an assault on their own patrol camp. Orazov had fooled Wakil Zarazi well enough that he was able to get almost as much authority as Turabi himself.
Finally, Jalaluddin Turabi was going to die.
“Kazoo, Devil flight up, base plus zero,” the lead F/A-18 Hornet pilot reported to the E-2C Hawkeye radar aircraft. The pair of Hornets from VMFA-232 “Red Devils,” Marine Air Group Twenty-four, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, had been on a predeployment workup at Fallon NAS in Nevada when they were given a great opportunity: chase some Air Force bombers around the training ranges. That was a deal no American fighter pilot would ever pass up.
“Roger, Devil flight,” the air-control officer aboard the Hawkeye replied. At the same time he was electronically passing the latest target information to both Hornets’ strike computers — the Hornets were still running radar-silent. One fast-moving target was to the southwest at about fifty miles, very low — less than a thousand feet above the high desert, trying to sneak past the Hornets by flying in fast between and parallel to the steep, rocky ridges that crisscrossed the Fallon ranges. By selecting the bogey with his target cursor, the lead Hornet pilot acknowledged the datalink and the vectors being received in the Hornets’ Data Display Indicators. The two Hornets remained in combat-spread formation, wingtip to wingtip, separated by about a mile so they could watch each other’s six.
It was definitely an unfair fight, especially with a Hawkeye in the mix, the Hornet pilots thought — the Air Force pukes didn’t have a chance.
At the right moment the lead Hornet pilot pushed his nose over to accelerate, waited until the range to the target decreased to about thirty miles, then flicked on his APG-73 attack radar. Immediately afterward the pilot got the last datalinked target-deconfliction message: That’s your bandit, cleared in hot. At the same time the pilot selected his AIM-120 AMRAAM radar-guided air-to-air missiles — making certain that the weapons themselves were safe — and watched as the fire-control system presented his missile-engagement envelopes and attack-solution vectors.
The target started a turn to the north — obviously his threat-warning receivers had picked up the Hornet’s radar impulses and the crew had finally reacted. The turn was not very sharp. The bomber decreased altitude, now flying about four hundred feet off the deck. No doubt they’re using terrain-following radar, the Hornet pilot surmised, but having all that granite right in front of their faces must still create big-time pucker factor. The bomber reversed direction — again it was a good healthy turn, but not a very aggressive one. Now the surrounding terrain made it difficult for the APG-73 to stay locked on, but after lining up again on the bandit and dialing in a little antenna-scan correction, the radar quickly reacquired, the target-indicator box locked on again, and an in range indication appeared on the heads-up display.
One last correction, just a slight one using a little rudder, and the flashing shoot indication appeared. Gotcha, fat boy, the Hornet pilot breathed. He checked one more time to be sure his master arm switch was safe — didn’t want to fire the real thing at the good guys — then placed his finger on the pistol trigger. “Devil Zero-one, Fox—”
“Bandit! Bandit! Pop-up target, one o’clock, four miles!” the air-intercept officer on the Hawkeye radar plane shouted on the frequency. Another aircraft had appeared out of nowhere and was right in front of him.
“Devil Zero-two engaging! Hard left break and dive, Woolly!” the pilot of the second Hornet called out. The leader had absolutely no choice. Before he could pull the trigger, he was forced to break off the attack. As he turned, he hoped the newcomer would follow him, which should put him right in his wingman’s gun sights. Where in hell did he come from?
But instead of turning hard right to pursue the leader, the bandit switched tactics — it rolled left, waited a few seconds, then turned right in a spectacular high-G climbing, twisting maneuver that placed the second Hornet right off his nose. There was no radio transmission. There didn’t need to be. He could see a tiny dark shape off his right wingtip, low, with a bright blinking strobe light on it — the newcomer “shooting” at him. He was in front of the guy for only less than two seconds, but in the dogfighting game that was an eternity.
“Devil leader, Devil Zero-two got waxed,” he radioed.
“No shit?” the leader replied incredulously. “What is it? The Air Farts didn’t say anything about fighter escorts.”
The second Hornet pilot tried to get a visual ID, but he couldn’t see it. “It must be small as hell. I can’t get a visual on it. I’m proceeding to the high CAP.”
“Rog. Kazoo, bogey dope.”
“Your bandit is at your two o’clock, twenty-two miles, low,” the air-intercept officer reported. “Your tail is clear. Negative radar on any other bogeys.”
The rest of the intercept was a piece of cake. Another lock-on, and this time he couldn’t miss. The bomber made a few more steep turns during the attack, but again nothing overly aggressive. Maybe a student crew?
Both sides went back to opposite sides of the range and tried the engagement again, this time with the second F/A-18 Hornet in the lead. The strange little bandit didn’t make another appearance, and the second Hornet claimed a kill just a few minutes later.
“Hey, Bobcat,” the lead Hornet pilot radioed after the exercise concluded, “how about a photo op?”
“Sure,” the bomber pilot replied. “You’re cleared in to close formation.” The Hawkeye air intercept officer gave the pilots a vector, and the two Hornets joined up on their quarry. It was an Air Force B-1 bomber, long and sleek, with its wings almost completely swept back along its fuselage.
“We’re going to tuck in tight and get some close shots, Bobcat.”
“Stand by,” the pilot said. “We’ve got our little friend rejoining us. He’s directly below us.”
“Say again?” But moments later they could see what he was talking about: A tiny aircraft, resembling a fat surfboard, suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It rose until it was directly underneath the bomber. The bomber’s bomb-bay doors opened, and a long basket thing appeared. The little aircraft scooted up inside the basket, which closed around it, and moments later it was gone — snatched up into the bomb bay. “That was very cool!” the lead Hornet pilot exclaimed. “Was that the thing that tagged my wingman?”
“Affirmative.”
“Shit, I was shot down by a robot,” the wingman said disgustedly. “That’s gonna cost me big time at the bar.”
“Stop by the Owl Club in Battle Mountain Friday nights at nine, and the first round’s on the Bobcats,” the pilot said. “Okay, Devils, you’re cleared in.”
“Devil flight moving in.”
As surprised as the Marine Corps pilots were about seeing a drone being recovered by a B-1 bomber, that was nothing compared to their next discovery. The Hornets moved in close enough to get a picture of the bomber’s pilots looking back at them…