Armageddon

Near Labi, southern Brunei

2340

Da

“Yo, get into the trees on the other side,” Da

“We’re almost ready,” replied Je

“Put it in auto mode,” said Da

“I can’t until it’s at a thousand feet.”

“Just let it go”

“Sixty seconds,” protested the scientist.

“Boston,” said Da

“Urn, yes, sir, if you say so.”

The sergeant physically picked up the scientist and began dragging her off the road.

“EB-52 Indianapolis to Whiplash leader,” said Major Alou. “Da

“We’re working on it,” said Da

But as they started, gunfire raked the highway and the ridge. The guerillas were now on both sides of the road; Da

“I don’t know if we’re going to make it to that ravine,” Da

“Acknowledged. Hold on,” added Alou.

Da

“Da

“Sounds like a great idea if you can get them into the right location,” Da

“That’s what I was thinking.”

In the air, approaching Labi

2344

McKe

“You see that?” she asked Captain Seyed, who was flying as her wingman.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“All right. Follow him into the target. Once the flare ignites I’ll come in and give them a good thrashing.”

Lacking high-tech night-vision gear and GPS locators, McKe

McKe

“Commander, you’re on fire,” said Seyed.

Shit, thought McKe

The helicopter, meanwhile, had swooped in about a half-mile away to pick up the Whiplash ground team. As she passed by it, she saw the shadow of the mountain rising quickly in front of her. McKe

“Listen, Seyed, I don’t know that I’m going to make it very far from here,” she told her wingman.

“You’re on fire!”

“I don’t doubt it,” she said as another mountain loomed ahead.

DANNY COULD SEE THE AIRCRAFT FLAMING IN THE SKY AS their helicopter took off.

“We better follow her,” he told the pilot. “See if we can pick her up”

STARSHIP WATCHED AS THE FRONT OF THE DRAGONFLY CAME apart. It didn’t look like an explosion—it was more like a sneeze and then a disintegration, with the plane separating into large chunks. He steadied the Nighthawk and waited, watching the sky nearby.

“Got a chute!” he said finally. “Got a chute. Good chute. I’ll feed you a GPS coordinate.”

FOR ALL HER EXPERIENCE, MCKENNA HAD NEVER ACTUALLY hit the silk from the pilot’s seat. She had taken a grand total of six jumps for training purposes, including two jumps at night; none compared in any way to this.

The seat pushed her out of the doomed plane with the loudest sound she had ever heard in her life, except for the time her cousin exploded a cherry bomb in her aunt’s bathroom. She flew straight into the darkness, soaring into the black night on what seemed like an unending trip. And then, just as she thought she’d reach orbit, something grabbed the top of her chest and yanked her backward, pulling her along as if from the back of a freight train.

Whoa, she thought. This might be pretty cool if it weren’t so dark and weird.

Somewhere in the back corner of her brain was a long lecture on the intricacies of a night-time ejection, instructions on the importance of checking the chute to make sure it had opened properly, tips on controlling the descent, some pointers on how to hold your body and the pros and cons of giving yourself a pep talk as you fell. But McKe

“Well, that was fun,” she said to herself, reaching for her knife.

THE LADS GOT A GOOD IMAGE OF THE PARACHUTE TWISTED around the top of the trees, beaming it back through the Dreamland network and down via satellite to Da

“There’s a spot where you can put us down over there,” Da

“Terrain’s rough back to that tree,” said the pilot. “If you have to take her out with a stretcher you’re going to have a hell of a time.”