“Got night vision visual,” Dimatta reported. “She’s lost a wing, the fuselage is breaking up, and she’s spinning in.”
“We lost our missile pursuit,” Munoz reported. McKenna killed the rockets and pulled Delta Blue onto her back at twenty-three thousand feet.
Looking up, he saw the flames rising from where Delta Green had interred herself in the jungle.
Chapter Twenty-One
“You sure you don’t wanna go to Singapore, compadre?”
“I’m sure, Tony. You and the others go ahead and take off.” McKenna peeled two hundred-dollar bills from a roll in his pocket and handed them to Munoz. “I’m buying the first round.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing,” Munoz said.
“Probably.”
Munoz shrugged and left the ready room. McKenna could hear the excited voices as they headed for the Learjet. He had given the whole squadron leave at the same time, for the first time.
The nuclear warheads at Soyuz Fifty had been recovered by Makos and were under control. A team of Kampuchean and United Nations inspectors were combing the jungle around the New World Base, hunting for the remains of the other two ICBMs.
There had been no word, one way or the other, from the Kampuchean government about the demolition of a residential compound in northern Phnom Penh. He didn’t expect to ever hear anything about it. Somebody somewhere was gathering up the remnants of the Shelepin financial empire.
He waited around for an hour after the Lear had departed, then got up and went out into the wet heat when he heard Mako Three put down.
Standing at the side of the huge hangar, he watched as she was towed inside. It took a few minutes to open her up and release the passenger.
Pearson descended to the concrete floor and McKenna crossed over to meet her.
“Welcome Earth-side, Colonel.”
“Hello, McKenna.”
“That’s all? Just hello McKenna?”
“General Brackman said to tell you that the Senate committee had restored his request for an additional MakoShark plus the funds to replace Delta Green. He expects the House to go along with it.”
“If General Brackman’s happy, I’m happy.”
“You look tired,” she said.
“Busy week.”
“You ought to take some R&R”
“Still got a job to do.”
“What’s that?”
“Overton said you were going to visit the hospital.”
“That’s right, I am.”
“You need a pilot,” he said.
“You?”
“Just the two of us.”
Her face seemed to soften a little.
“Off base,” he said.
“Way off base?”
“I made reservations in Bangkok.”
“Probably the cheapest hotel you could find,” she said. “It’s rated the best in the world.”
“Damn you, McKenna.”