The man-made cement water drainage ditches on the airfield allowed Ford to maneuver to a viewing position in order to squirt his laser, too. Once in his concealed position, he laid face down on the ground and took out his smart phone. He turned it on, covering the dimly screen light with his hand. Ford checked for good cell tower coverage, then for a solid Peanut with a green light. No messages yet, so Ford laid down in the prone position and waited. The only thing he did was type the code word for a successful landing and sent it to Mark.
Mark: NATS.
The only other texting to Mark would be when Wu landed and they were ready to depart, and would transmit the codeword, METS.
The bright afternoon sun was far gone, but the very faint pink sunset was plenty of sunlight for them to perform their mission at altitude today. Wu and Liu had their test cards for the flight on their kneeboards, and were ready to taxi the jet for takeoff. Wu was not as reflective as he thought, but did take a moment to peek over to his left on the taxi to see the smoke dissipating on the clinic. Close call, he thought. Closest call ever.
It was custom in aviation, worldwide, that the pilot waves with the ground crew and maintenance who help them prepare for departure, usually in the form of a wave with a hand or salute. A simple gesture of thanks for the help in the departure. Wu and Liu did the customary wave to the team today, but also noticed a few hundred feet down the line and off to the side of the taxiway, sat a black, General Motors Cadillac CT6 sedan. It was the black Cadillac.
Standing out front, overweight, sloppy and cranky-looking, was Lieutenant General Chen, observing the aircraft he helped build, while always chasing, always clinging to the dream that the military and Party would select him for that 4th star. Chen stood with his aide, drinking coffee, the same coffee, hopefully, that Wu fixed for him. Liu waved at the General as they went by, performing the usual custom, but Wu did something very unusual. He taxied the aircraft on the yellow centerline, and instead of just passing Chen, Wu completely stopped the jet. Wu did not wave, and did not say anything. He stared Chen down, through his dark visor, giving him the ultimate poker face that demonstrated Wu had the upper hand. Wu shook his head ever so slowly, back and forth, thinking of what a piece of shit Chen was. Wu was glad to finally see the last of Chen, and get on with the land of baseball, mountain biking, unpolluted air, hot dogs, and clean beaches with boogie board waves. Chen stared back, and turned his head slightly sideways, wondering what Captain Wu Lee was up to. Wu released the brakes with the top of his feet on the pedals, and moved the throttles forward again as they continued with their taxi for takeoff.
Liu was completing his checklists on the right side of the cockpit, punching in the destination for Xining Caojiabao Airfield, when Wu realized he forgot to stage the engine wiring in the back of the jet for a simulated fire. The medical clinic crisis had distracted him. That’s a big issue, he said to himself. Shit. Will have to come up with something while airborne.
Wu looked to his left and right before getting on the runway. Once in position on the runway, he stopped the jet again by pressing the brakes on the top of the rudder pedals. He advanced the throttles to full power. “Let’s check the thrust to weight ratio today, Liu. Get ready to hit the clock for me. Here we go. Ready in three, two, one.” The plume of flame coming out the rear must be a specular sight, he thought, as he released his brakes and both pilots were pushed back in their seats with vigor and force. The airspeed built up quickly while they ran the jet down the runway. All four powerful engines were roaring.
“V1, Rotate,” Liu said, as Wu pulled back on the stick.
“Gear up. Flaps up,” Wu ordered, as the jet roared with thundering power.
Wu kept the aircraft close to the runway as he built up promptly built airspeed. The runway was long enough, and there were no obstacles to be concerned about off the departure end of the runway, so he kept it low while the gear and flaps came up. The Devil Dragon was designed so that once air was being forced into the other two ramjets, they did an autostart and produced enormous power immediately. This explained how Wu was able to scorch the jet across the deck, approaching 400 knots, in what was just seconds. Once they reached towards the end of the airport fence two and a half miles from start, Wu announced to Liu, “Stand-by to climb and hit the clock. Pulling G’s. NOW! TIME!”
Wu pulled back on the stick with his left hand, and the jet went vertical into the air climbing to the heavens.
“Tiiimmmmiinnng.” Liu announced, as he hit the digital stopwatch for timing on the dashboard, and struggled to talk as his body was pressed forcibly hard into the seat. Liu struggled to stay awake, preventing a pass out by performing the ‘HOOK’ maneuver. Wu wasn’t that far behind in his frail health state, and was barely able to perform the ‘HOOK’ breathing. The HOOK maneuver, a breathing technique, forced blood to the brain. They were looking for how many thousands of feet they could climb in a minute. The fastest climb rate was set by the American F-15C Eagle years ago, reaching more than 60,000 feet a minute. Wu wanted to beat that, so he thought, why not try today on his last flight?
The Devil Dragon wanted to climb. Her engine instruments looked good and in the green, and all other flight instruments looked ops normal. Wu had the jet at near 90 degrees nose up, and they continued to lean back in their seats like they were riding in the Space Shuttle Discovery.
“Fifteen seconds at 16,000 feet,” Liu announced.
Wu did the quick math and that was only about 64,000 feet a minute. He made sure the throttles were in full afterburner, giving the jet the extra kick of raw fuel being poured into the engines.
“Come on! Thirty seconds at 35,750 feet,” Liu said over the intercom.
Wu was pleased at the rate of climb now, and was sure he could beat the climb record. At this point, he wasn’t sure if the Americans could see him fly this skyrocket up like this, but he didn’t care either. This was pure fun. Wu did not know enough about their surveillance, and maybe would have cared in the past about certain countries, like the Russians, seeing him doing this maneuver so close to the border, but today, he didn’t give a hoot.
“Forty-five seconds at 52,250 feet. Go! Go!”
“Make sure… you make a note… of those… numbers,” Wu said, thinking so he could show Ford.
Wu tiled his head back a few degrees and since he was upside down, he could see the curvature of the earth and pink glow through the canopy. It was a stunning sight, one he had not seen before from this angle. He then looked straight out again, and started to see the sky fade from orange-yellow to blue-indigo to black. Wu reflected that this was most likely the last time he would have this view in his life, and at that moment, his never ending stomach pain, suddenly ceased to exist. Wu was at peace at this moment, in bliss. His entire life flashed before his mind’s eye, and he felt at harmony with his illness. It was a strange feeling that Wu had never felt before, and he was prepared. Wu was ready for what was to come, and was at peace.
“TIME! One minute at 71,400 feet,” Liu announced. “Nice. I’m pretty sure that is a record. Maybe we beat the F-15!”
Wu nodded, “Yeah.” He was leveling the jet now at 73,000 feet, and was already thinking of his dilemma of getting the jet over into Tianjin in the east. Think Lee! he thought, as he pulled back the throttles below full military power and only to about a third of the way forward. No need to burn up the fuel at the moment while running some after takeoff checklists.