“DON’T STOP. DON’T STOP. GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE! TAKEOFF!” Ford yelled to Wu.
The throttles were pushed forward at that instant because the jet leapt forward like sprinters at a track meet. Ford and Liu rolled together to the back of the cockpit. This is my only chance Ford figured. He quickly stood up faster than Liu could, and briskly began stomping on Liu’s face with his boots, then kicked him in the stomach. Ford knew they were on the takeoff roll and had to be only 15 or 20 seconds away from being airborne. Ford kicked him in the face again, then bent down. Ford took another punch to his face, but he took it in order to roll Liu. This is it, Ford figured. Ford was bent down to roll him… and he did… Ford pushed and rolled Liu towards the opening in the cockpit floor, with every intention of shoving him down and dropping him from the Devil Dragon. Liu was nearly completely outside the cockpit hatch, hanging on to the last rung of the cockpit ladder with his left hand. They were scorching down the runway now, and the side to side motion nearly stopped, as they had to be nearly close to lifting off.
Ford, looking down at Liu, saw that his flight suit was now caught and hung up on the hatch and was ripped pretty well. Ford moved his eyes from the ripped flight suit, and saw that Liu was still clinging on to the ladder with his one hand. Ford, in a final effort to get rid of Liu, stomped on his fingers with all his might, vengeance and body weight. Liu finally let go, and slammed hard onto the runway in his underwear, and the Devil Dragon continued rapidly on its takeoff run. His flight suit had completely ripped right off as Liu fell, caught on the cockpit ladder, and it remained with Devil Dragon just flapping in the slipstream. Ford reeled the flight suit inside the aircraft, closed the hinged hatch quickly, and locked it.
“Wu, we’re good. Let’s go! Let’s go!” Ford told him.
Just as Ford started to sit and buckle into the co-pilot’s seat, the runway lights turned on, most likely from the air traffic control tower. It was still hard for them to see a flat black, fast moving aircraft, but nevertheless, it was possible.
“Ford… ahh, two things,” Wu said, struggling to breathe. “Ahh… I’m hit in the leg. Liu shot me in the left thigh, up here by the knee, and… I, ehhh, I am and bleeding pretty good. Need you to fly. Second. This runway is active now, and an Air China 747–200 is coming straight at us to land….”
“Push those throttles up, Wu. Come on,” Ford excitedly said to Wu.
“If we use afterburner, we’ll light up this place like a shopping mall.”
“Wu, if you don’t, we’re going to collide. We will die. That 747 can’t see us, but we can see him. I’ve got the controls!”
Ford pushed up the throttles past military power and into afterburner, and they could see the glow of the flame on the ground next to them in blue and orange. Immediately, the jet lurched forward with immense power and built up immediate airspeed.
“What’s V1 speed, Wu? Takeoff speed… rotate speed? I need it now!”
“Pull back at 145 knots. 145. You’ll have plenty of power now to make that 747. Now! Right over her. Go vertical from….there,” Wu said, breathing heavy, wincing in pain. Ford felt terrible for Wu and wanted to help him, but he had to fly in order to save both their lives and the mission.
“NOW! ROTATE!” Wu yelled.
Ford yanked back on the center stick and the Devil Dragon leapt into the air, flying right at and then over the Air China 747 on its landing roll. The large 747 couldn’t have stopped if they wanted to, due to their slow speed and size.
“WHHHHOOOO-HOOOOO!” Ford yelled, as they cleared the 747 and went straight up like a volcano.
Down below and out of sight, the 747, landing at over 500,000 lbs., rolled down the runway, making a normal landing. During its landing, the Boeing 747 main gear rolled right over Liu killing him instantly. No rumble or jolt was felt by the passengers, nor the crew, and the crush of the large Boeing jet nearly cut Liu in two lengthwise and flattened him. His face and his hands would never be recognized. Later during an investigation, the conclusion was that he may have been a stowaway and was hiding inside the wheel well of the landing gear. Since Liu left his helmet inside the Devil Dragon, and they flew sanitized without a wallet, dog tags, or identification, the mystery man would not be identified. For a while, that is. All that would be identified in the short-term was an old pair of standard issue Army boots.
Ford brought the jet up to 19,000 feet, completing an immelmann maneuver. The half-loop followed by a half-roll on top, helped them rapidly reverse the direction of flight. Ford pulled back the throttles out of afterburner for a while, as he did not want to make too much of spectacle. He reached down to remove something he was sitting on, and moved his hand around under his butt. Ford pulled out another cell phone. Must be co-pilot’s phone he’d figured, and threw it over on to a small shelf on his right.
“Wu, this thing have autopilot?”
“Yes. Yes, rotate that… dial up there to your desired altitude,” as Wu pointed to the round, black dial on top of the dash. “Flip this lever here to turn it on. Then, ahh, set the heading for… wait, where is your aircraft carrier?”
Ford had to think for a moment, as there was a tremendous amount going on. He looked at Wu’s moving map. “We need to go southeast. Way southeast, at least another 1,150 miles to Naha, Okinawa, then another 250 miles past there….hope we have the fuel for it. Yes?”
Wu glanced down at the fuel gauges and saw something different he had not seen before. He tapped the window of the glass, but nothing happened.
“Ford. One of those bullets must have hit the fuel tank because we are leaking fuel from tank number 4.” Wu was struggling. “Let’s, ahh,” coughing, “let’s climb up to about 60 or 70,000 feet and use altitude to our advantage. Just spin your dial up there, and we’ll climb right up” Wu instructed Ford, and Ford did it.
“Wu, if we can go higher, let’s do it. We’ll be in your Chinese missile range if your Air Force wanted to shoot us down. If you can get 70,000 feet, we’d have the speed and height advantage against your missiles and fighters,” Ford said.
“Ford, no one can see us. No one can chase us. There’s no flight plan on file with the air traffic controllers. Any fighters that wanted to come up here would flame out. Between our special fuel, and the stealth design, and the speeds, we’re hidden.”
Ford was troubled right away about two things. First was getting shot down, as history was full of countries shooting down surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. Gary Francis Powers and his U-2 over the Soviet Union came to mind, Ford thought. Second, he wasn’t sure how bad the fuel leak would be, but was a bit apprehensive because if he couldn’t get on the ship during the first landing try, called a pass, he wanted the option to go around. Even a third time was a helpful option, so that he could bring Devil Dragon on the deck in the best and safest way possible.
Wu looked at the moving map display, and pointed. “Set the waypoint for where you want us to go with this little joystick. Ship is down here, past Okinawa? Yes?” Wu asked.
“Yeah, about 250 miles southeast of Okinawa,” Ford answered. “Here, wrap this bandanna around your leg. Will help stop the bleeding. How bad are you?”