It wasn't hard for Mitchell to stay awake, despite his exhaustion. Shivering saw to that. The Chinese air activity was continuing. He wasn't sure he would be able to tell if an American aircraft was inbound until it just about landed. He looked over at Olinski to make sure that he was still monitoring the radio. Olinski had the little plug from the FM radio in his ear and was holding it in place with his good hand. He saw the captain's glance and gave him a negative shake of the head. Mitchell quickly scanned the others in the party. Comsky was peering into the dark woods, pulling security. Hoffman was scanning the pickup zone. C.J. appeared to be unconscious.
Mitchell checked the glowing hands on his watch: 2:14 local. He was tempted to pick up and start moving now. Even if a helicopter was inbound, they wouldn't be foolish enough to come in with all the air activity. They hadn't thought of this when they'd made the diversion plan. Now it was too late. An inbound helicopter was sure to be spotted.
Tugur's presence had finally made things start functioning in the division forward headquarters. The report of the unidentified helicopter reached him only four minutes after it was called in. It was another piece of the puzzle falling into place. Things were beginning to make sense. The firing had probably been a diversion.
Tugur immediately called General Yang at Shenyang and quickly updated him. "We've got an unidentified helicopter inbound. It's only about ten minutes out from where the troops are fighting. I've already diverted all the Z-9s to try and intercept. We need some air force jets down here just in case."
Yang concurred. "I'll call the airfield here and get them moving. You must stop that helicopter. Force it down if you can. If not, shoot it down. I'll get back to you. Out here."
The AWACS's large rotodome continued to track 579 as it flew through the Changbai foothills. Colonel Ehrlich watched as the helicopter wove its way through the terrain. It was about ten minutes' flying time from all the Chinese activity. Whoever was flying that thing sure had balls— it was flying right into a hornets' nest.
One hundred and twenty miles to the west of the coast, Ehrlich also had the four F-16s out of Misawa circling. And somewhere out there, screaming toward the coast at more than a thousand miles an hour, was Wildcard. Ehrlich was in radio communication with the aircraft if he needed to talk to them, but radio silence was the standard operating procedure for Wildcard. Its orders were to take up a position twenty miles off the North Korean coast near Najin and be prepared for further instructions. Ehrlich didn't know what was going on, but things were going to get hot real soon.
Chong discerned the enemy soldiers first. He gripped Riley on the arm and pointed. Riley stopped and squinted into the darkness. There were ten of them, seven hundred meters away and heading downslope. The Chinese were spread out, weapons at the ready, with twenty meters between each man. Riley looked around quickly. About a hundred meters ahead of them was a small knoll of boulders rising slightly above the rest of the ground. He pointed it out to Chong. "We'll make our stand there."
Junior Lieutenant Baibang started guiding the Z-9s toward the inbound helicopter. He had two Z-9s coming down from the mountains out of the north. He gave them an intercept path directly toward the intruder. Three others were lifting off out of Yanji. The sixth Z-9 from the 3d Aviation Regiment was unable to fly because of maintenance problems. Baibang gave two of the three out of Yanji an intercept vector straight down the river. The third he gave an easterly approach, just in case the unidentified aircraft turned and ran for the border.
The inbound intruder was flying at about eighty knots. The Z-9s could easily beat that in a flat run at altitude. Baibang glanced at the clock. The two out of the mountains should intercept in eight minutes if all factors stayed the same.
Even as he finished giving instructions, a new voice came over his radio. "Yanji Control, this is Tiger Flight leader. We are four J-7s just lifted off and heading your way. Request approach and intercept information. Over."
"We've got four fast movers lifting off out of Shenyang, sir." Ehrlich swore. "This thing's getting out of control. They must have picked up the Blackhawk on local radar." He turned and looked across the cabin to the bank of equipment and the operators sitting in front of it. "Do you have any emitters down there?"
A young air force technician turned from the screens toward the colonel. "Yes, sir. I've got a dual emitter located in Yanji—820 megahertz 280 pulse, and 890 megahertz 650 pulse. From the signal wavelength, I'd say it's close to a P-15 Flatface early-warning radar. A little off. Probably a Chinese copy."
Ehrlich turned back to his side of the plane. "How long till the fast movers are in the area near the Blackhawk?"
The analyst next to the radar operator quickly calculated. "Twelve minutes, sir."
"All right. Relay the data to Wildcard and the F-16s. Bring the F-16s in to fifty miles off the coast. How long until Wildcard is on station?"
"Twenty-five minutes."
"Get me General Gunston on the line."
"Start calling, Colin."
Lassiter keyed the FM radio with his right foot. He read from the note attached to his knee pad. "Duncer, Drager, Dirtie, Dwinki, Doinke, Dopple, this is exfiltration helicopter. Over." He waited a second and then repeated the message, again using the mission code names of all the members of Team 3 left behind.
Mitchell saw Olinski start abruptly. "What have you got?" he hissed.
Olinski shook his head as he strained to listen. Then he nodded vigorously. He grabbed the small radio and pressed the send button. "Exfiltration helicopter, this is Dopple. I say again, this is Dopple. We are awaiting your arrival at agreed-upon location. It will be marked with infrared strobe. I say again, infrared strobe. What is your ETA? Over."
"Roger, Dopple. We are five minutes out. Mark pickup zone in three, and stay on the net. We're going to need to load fast. Over."
"Roger, exfil aircraft. What type of aircraft are you? Over."
"Blackhawk. We'll land facing east. Over."
"Roger, facing east. We'll be ready. We've got five pax. One on stretcher. Over."
"Roger, five pax, one of which is on a stretcher. Listen up — we've got internal tanks on board. The front two are empty now and held in place with 550 cord. You're going to need to cut the 550 cord and dump the two tanks as soon as we land. We've got only the two pilots on board and can't help. Over."
"Roger. Cut out two front internal tanks. We'll be ready. Over."
"ETA five minutes. Over."
Olinski turned to the other members of Team 3, all of whom had been listening to his end of the conversation. "We've got a Blackhawk five minutes out. Sir, you need to mark the pickup zone in three minutes. Comsky and Hoffman, get ready to bring me out. When we get to the bird we need to cut out the front two internal fuel tanks and throw them off. They're held in with 550 cord."
Mitchell pulled out his strobe. Fatigue and the cold were forgotten. He turned to Comsky. "Get C.J. awake. I'm going out into the field to mark the PZ." Mitchell started moving out as Comsky shook the pilot. C.J. painfully became conscious.
"Let's go, man. Our ride's coming. There's a bird inbound."
Riley and Chong settled in among the boulders on the crest of the small knoll and watched the Chinese squad approach in the moonlight. They were only two hundred meters away now, moving slowly toward them. Riley whispered to Chong. "Another fifty meters and we start firing. You work our right to left. I'll start our left to right."
Chong checked his machine gun and ensured that he had a round in the chamber and that the hundred-round drum magazine was seated properly. Riley laid out two more ten-round magazines for his SVD next to his left hand, where he held the stock of the rifle, for quicker reloading. He unhooked his M79 grenade launcher from his vest and removed the flechette round, replacing it with a 40mm high-explosive round. He put the launcher down next to him. They were ready.