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“Sure,” said Zen. “Hell, anything’s possible, at least until we see what we’re dealing with.”
“Well, hopefully that happens today. You coming with us?” Dog asked Stoner.
“I have some people to talk to here,” said Stoner. “Zen said he didn’t need me.”
“I got it covered.”
Zen and Stoner still weren’t getting along, although to their credit they hadn’t let whatever personal animosity was between them get in the way of the mission.
Yet.
Colonel Bastian checked his watch. It wasn’t quite seven-thirtyA.M.here, which would make it about 1530 or three-thirty in the afternoon the day before back home. He needed to check in with a whole roster of people back at Dreamland—Major Catsman, Ax, Da
He also wanted to give Je
“Are we set?” Zen asked.
Dog took another look at the map. It bothered him that he had an inexperienced man ru
The thing to do, Colonel Bastian realized, was to switch places with Alou. This way, if things got too hairy with the Chinese in the early going, he’d be there to take care of it.
Made sense. He ought to be the guy with his neck on the line.
“I’m going to take Pe
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“Your call, Colonel,” said Alou. “One way or the other’s fine with me.”
Dog nodded. Alou was typical of a certain type of officer common in the Air Force. Easygoing and generally quiet, they were pros who tended to do their jobs without much flash or complaint. They didn’t have the balls-out aggressive ma
“All right,” Dog said. “I have to go talk to the folks at home. I’ll see you in a half hour or so.”
Aboard the Dragon Prince, South China Sea
0806
CHENLOFANNgripped the side of the seat as the small helicopter pivoted toward the fantail of the trawler. The Messerschmidt-Bölkow-Blohm 108 settled into a hover about a foot and a half above the deck of the ship. Chen Lo Fa
The captain of the ship met Chen Lo Fa
Professor Ai met him at the door.
“Commander,” said the professor. Despite his age, his ma
“There is news?”
“Much,” said Ai. He explained what he had observed from the encounter between the communists and the Megafortress the day before.
“They are due in a few hours,” said Ai. “The Australians were checking a position with another ship. The communist dogs will react again. One of their patrols will come south. If their instruments are confused, an accident is inevitable,” Ai said. “If we use the repeater devices aboard the UAV to blind and confuse the mongrels, it may be possible—”
“An accident will not give us the provocation we need,” said Chen Lo Fa
“That will not be easy.”
“Whether it is easy or not, it will be done.”
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“Yes,” said Professor Ai.
Brunei IAP
1000
MACKSMITH THOUGHTBin Awg was a bit of a blowhard—albeit a rich one who didn’t mind spending his money—but his opinion changed the moment he stood under the nose of the Tu-16 Badger C.
At that moment, he became convinced that the prince was one of the most generous and wonderful human beings on the planet, with a co
A one-time member of the Aviatsiya Voe
When the loan period ended, a series of complicated financial dealings resulted in the plane being deeded to the Indonesian air force, which then put it up for sale as surplus material.
It was at that point that bin Awg had obtained it, and after considerable time and expense restored it to 1961 condition. Though technically part of the Brunei Air Force—it had military insignia—it was in fact one of the prince’s private airplanes, and not included in the regular chain of command or inventory.
The design of the Tu-16 dated to the early 1950s, and in fact some elements owed their origin to the Tu-4, a Russian knockoff of the American B-29 Superfortress, the famous aircraft that had helped win World War II. Though only a little more than half the size of a Megafortress, the plane was large—its wings spa
and an EB-52 with even more, though it rarely was configured with that much weight. The Tu-16 might be more favorably compared to a B-47, another Cold War veteran that served as a medium bomber in the American order of battle.)
Mack didn’t particularly like the Megafortress and had turned down an offer to become a pilot in the program. But that didn’t mean that he didn’t appreciate old birds, and standing beneath the Russian Cold War bomber, he felt something like love.
Lust, really, since Miss Kelly was coming along for the flight. She had a nice hourglass thing going on with khaki pants and a button-down shirt that might have been just a size too small.
“Look at those engines,” said Mack, belatedly turning away to pat the air intake cowling of the Mikulin RD-3M turbo. “This sucker is a serious hot rod.”
“It does look big,” said Miss Kelly doubtfully.
“Come on, let’s go up inside her,” said Mack.
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