“Time check.”
“They have two more minutes.”
She looked out at the aircraft carrier. This was the most dangerous part. They were flying very low and close to the Jiaolong-class ship. The aircraft carrier was a few miles away, but surely the Chinese sailors aboard the Liaoning would realize what was happening when they saw four American helicopters circling the ship off their starboard beam. The Chinese on nearby ships would have seen the rockets slam into the bridge and antiaircraft weapon. The Jiaolong would have sent out a distress signal. They might have seen the American assault team fast-roping onto the deck, perhaps witnessing gunfire and explosions, if they were using binoculars or magnification on their external cameras.
But would they be able to do anything about it?
The American mission planners had calculated that the Jiaolong-class ship was so critical to the success of the Chinese fleet, they would not order their antiaircraft weapons to fire at the American helicopters while they were close to the vessel, as they would be too afraid of damaging the Jiaolong technology. So, Victoria and the others kept damn close to the ship. But the Chinese wouldn’t just sit on their thumbs.
Plug said, “Contact nine o’clock. Level. Factor. That Chinese helicopter is headed over here. Shit. Another one just took off from the carrier and is turning this way.”
“Both aircraft in sight.”
The SEAL team commander’s voice came over the radio. “Magnum One, mission complete, ready for extraction.”
Victoria gave clicks of her UHF trigger switch in reply.
The MH-60 Sierra helicopters, which had been circling the other Romeo one hundred feet below Victoria’s holding pattern, now repositioned themselves onto the flight decks. The assault teams were sprinting up the steps and piling into the helicopter cabins. They were almost ready…
“Hey, Boss, the sniper wants you to get him a shot at one of those helicopters headed this way.”
She realized what he was trying to do. The sniper was on her side, and it would be easier if she was flying. Victoria said, “Roger, I have the controls.”
“You have the controls.”
She took the stick and turned sharply to the left. She looked first off to her left side to make sure she had all three friendly helicopters in sight. One was orbiting the Jiaolong ship low and slow. The other two were still on the flight decks, taking the special operations team into their cabins.
“Those helicopters are pretty far away,” Plug said, looking at the two Chinese helicopters that were now bearing down on them.
“Yes, they are.” But they were closing fast.
The aircrewman said, “He says to just keep the bearing straight.”
Victoria checked her fuel and then quickly looked away. The numbers made her want to puke. They were going to be out of fuel or get shot down here in a few minutes. What the hell, they would go out in style.
She yanked back on the cyclic with her right hand and lowered the collective power lever with her left. The nose of her helicopter pitched up, and they slowed rapidly. The aircraft started shaking, a ferocious rattle that grew worse as she lifted in power and pulled them into a hover one hundred and fifty feet over the water. This was going to destroy her fuel consumption rate. But as she leveled off and smoothed out… it would give the sniper a good shot.
The sniper didn’t wait for her permission.
Crack. Crack.
Crack. Crack.
The closest Chinese helicopter was about a quarter mile away. If Victoria had been closer, she would have seen that the Chinese pilots had both been killed by .50-caliber bullets. The nose of the Chinese aircraft pitched down and it flew itself into the water. The second helicopter was a few hundred yards behind the first. It circled the downed aircraft when her door gunner began firing his own .50-caliber. This one was a GAU-16 machine gun. Hundreds of rounds fired at the remaining Chinese helicopter, tracers tearing through the cockpit and airframe. Victoria watched out her window as the Chinese aircraft began yawing rapidly out of control. One of the .50-caliber sniper rounds had torn through the tail rotor control line. It was in the water within seconds.
“Magnum one, three and four are off deck, outbound heading zero-four-five.”
Victoria nosed over her aircraft to pick up speed and began following the two Sierras. The other Romeo helicopter formed up on her left wing as she dropped to twenty-five feet of altitude.
“Magnum one, the SEAL commander wants to confirm that you are clear of the ship.”
“Affirm.”
“Detonating.”
On board the Jiaolong-class ship, three separate explosive charges detonated simultaneously. Two were located at the base of the radar towers. The giant metallic monolith structures collapsed under their own weight in a haze of gray smoke and fire.
The third explosion was near the ship’s main fuel tank. The explosive used had been specially chosen to ignite the hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel on board.
The resulting explosion was catastrophic. The fireball rose over five hundred feet into the air, sending containers and metallic fragments in all directions. The shockwave from the explosion cracked some of the glass windows on the aircraft carrier one mile away.
The Jiaolong had been destroyed.
David and Chase Manning sat in forward seating of the CIA’s Gulfstream aircraft as it flew towards Eglin Air Force Base. Lena was under guard, handcuffed and sitting in the rear of the cabin.
Susan was reading over reports, out of earshot of the two brothers.
From his seat, Chase could see Lena’s face. She wore a look of satisfaction. Of someone who knew that their sacrifice was a worthy one.
Chase shook his head as he whispered to his brother, “She did what she came here to do.”
David turned to look back at Lena. She had turned to look out the window. “No, she didn’t,” he whispered. They hadn’t been flying long, and this was the first real chance the brothers had to speak in private.
Chase said, “What are you talking about?”
“She came here to send information back to Jinshan.”
“Right.”
David said, “Information that was crucial to their war effort.”
“Yeah. Exactly. And she transmitted it out to them.”
Susan let out a yelp of delight from the front of the cabin. The brothers turned towards her. She waved them over.
Chase and David left their seats and went to sit next to her. Other than Lena and the guards in the rear, the plane was empty, but Susan still spoke in hushed tones.
“General Schwartz just sent word. The Jiaolong-class ship has been sunk.”
Chase’s head spun. He looked at Susan and David. “What happened?”
David ignored him. “Any word on the assault team?”
“No. We won’t know about that for a while, I think. The battle is still in progress.”
David said, “What course did they take?”
Susan gave him a knowing grin. “They shifted east. The Chinese fleet will be passing within sight of the Johnston Atoll.”
Chase shook his head. “I don’t understand. I thought this black hole weapon we were developing wasn’t ready yet?”
David clasped his hands together, speaking rapidly. “That puts them right at…”
Susan nodded. “Exactly.”
Chase said, “Could somebody tell me what the hell you two are talking about?”
David said, “Can I tell him?”
Susan looked at her watch. She paused in thought and then nodded. “Sure.”
David turned to his brother. “When we met to go over ways to counter the Chinese Jiaolong technology, we got an idea—”
Susan said, “David got an idea. A beautiful, brilliant idea.”