by Dale Brown
path, but kept Cheetah coming down and flew between the
two parked aircraft on the ramp. The hangar was the only thing
in front of them now, with the cavernous doors looking like huge
gaping jaws ready to devour them.
Cheetah. There was no mistaking it-the huge F-15 fighter with
the big unmistakable foreplanes, the thundering twin engines,
twin tails to match, broad wings. It was continuing its tight turn
at an impossibly low altitude, barely above treetop level. In a
few seconds it would turn perpendicular to the runway heading
right for the main part of the base . . .
Maraklov looked down the flight line toward the hangars.
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 297
What he saw made him break out in a run. Men and equipment
were pouring out of the hangar where DreamStar was parked
and they were leaving the hangar doors wide open.
"How bad do you want DreamStar, Colonel?"
McLanahan took his eyes off the recon pod control panel and
glanced at the forward cockpit in surprise. "What?"
Cheetah was aimed directly for the center of the open doors,
and they were skimming the runway and parking ramp with less
than two thousand feet to go to the hangar. said, "I got
Cheetah on hard autopilot, Patrick. You punch us out, and bye-
bye DreamStar.
"You mean crash Cheetah into that hangar?"
One thousand feet to go. "Now's the chance, friend. You
start evening up for Wendy, Old Dog right here, right now. It'll
look like an accident during an authorized mission . . . "
Five hundred feet to go. The hangar doors towered above
them. They could see men lying on the ramp, soldiers shooting
in their direction, trucks and service vehicles taking off in all
directions. They could see access doors open on DreamStar,
tools lying on the hangar floor, even puddles of fluid. The cam-
era pod was whirring away, broadcasting its information to
HAWC headquarters.
Their immediate mission was finished. The Russians had
DreamStar, no question about it-they apparently were in the
process of dismantling it, in preparation for sending it back to
Russia. Cheetah was a preproduction aircraft-the Air Force was
in the process of building thousands of them. They would not
be sacrificing anything important, and would be keeping one-of-
a-kind DreamStar out of the hands of the Russians . . .
Maraklov yelled at the guards to close the doors but it was too
late. Cheetah was on top of him before he could run twenty
steps, and the quiet, deadly hiss of the shock wave approaching
him made him dive for the tarmac . . .
Incredible . . . Cheetah was going to hit. DreamStar was go-
ing to be destroyed . . .
"Standing by for ejection Powell told his commander. It
was now or never . . .
"No.
298 DALE BROWN
Less than one hundred feet from the hangar door JC. Powell
yanked Cheetah on its tail and threw in full afterburner. It cleared
the hangar roof by only a few feet-Powell and McLanahan
could feel the unearthly rumble of metal beneath their feet as the
sonic wave pounded the tin roof. kept the climb in for a
few more seconds, then rolled inverted, pulled the nose to the
horizon, rolled upright and leveled off.
"Get us out of here, sir, " said.
"Right turn heading zero-one-zero, " McLanahan said evenly.
"Keep it on the deck. Ten minutes to the Honduras border."
They flew on in silence until McLanahan reported that they
were crossing the border. There were some MiG-29 pursuers
detected, but they were far behind them by the time they had
reported in to Tegucigalpa Air Defense Control, and an entire
flight of six Honduran F-16 fighters was scrambled to turn them
away. ordered the voice-recognition computer to activate
the IFF identification radios, then started a shallow climb at best-
range power and turned northward toward home.
The roar of Cheetah's twin engines didn't subside in Maraklov's
head for several minutes, until it was gradually replaced by the
sound of sirens wailing up and down the flight line. Slowly he
rose to his feet and surveyed the scene around him.
To his surprise, everything seemed relatively intact-Cheetah
had not been carrying a bomb on its centerline station, as Mar-
aklov had thought, or else some major malfunction had kept it
from releasing. But from the quick glimpse he got, it looked
more like a camera pod than a bomb. Cheetah, it seemed, had
come to take pictures. Well, they definitely got what they
wanted. They had caught everyone off guard, with DreamStar
unprotected and vulnerable.
It had to be JC. Powell flying Cheetah. Several pilots at
Dreamland were checked out on Cheetah, but only Powell would
be crazy enough to fly it so close to the ground and so close to
the hangar. Any other pilot would have been happy with a hun-
dred, even fifty feet above ground. Not Powell.
For a moment it appeared that whoever was flying Cheetah
was going to kamikaze himself right into DreamStar's hangar.
Cheetah and DreamStar gone together9 Maybe not such a bad
ending. But how different was his situation as it was? With
DreamStar gone and out of his control, his career was surely at
I pp--
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 299
an end. There was no good future for him in the Soviet Union-
he would be like a tiger, caged for the rest of his life, hunted
by the U. and distrusted or worse at "home. " He would never
be closer to Brazil or Paraguay than he was right now.
And DreamStar was still safe-though for how long, now that
the Americans knew where it was? No choice but to play out
this hand and see how the cards fell. Somehow the photographic
attack on Sebaco gave him some hope-maybe, just maybe,
DreamStar would fly again. And with the right man at the con-
trols.
It wasn't until they had completed their final air-refueling over
the Gulf that felt confident enough to approach the subject:
"We could have had them, boss," he said. "You could have
done it."
McLanahan had said nothing the entire flight, except the curt,
monotone checklist of responses required of him. But this time
he spoke up. "I know that."
"The ACES seat would have blown us clear of the impact.
We could have made it out."
"Maybe.
"Why didn't you punch us out?"
"I don't know why. Maybe I thought it wasn't my job to
waste Cheetah. Maybe I think we still have a chance to get
DrearnStar back. Maybe I thought it was a dumb idea all on its
own. We are still alive, we haven't been captured by the Rus-
sians, Cheetah is in one piece and we've accomplished our mis-
sion. So if you can stand it, let's leave it at that."
Sebaco Airbase, Nicaragua
"Where were your air-defense forces, General?" Maraklov said
to General Tret'yak as the commander of the KGB airbase came
over to the hangar.
"Ahstarozhna, tovarisch Polkovnik. Calm yourself, was any
-
one hurt, was there damage?"
"Do you know what that was, General? It was an American
fighter. It was carrying a camera pod or some kind of recon-
naissance unit-but it could have just as easily been carrying a
two-thousand-pound bomb. We'd all be dead now if it was."
300 DALE BROWN
"I said calm yourself, Colonel. Our air-defense forces were
dispatched in response to an intrusion northeast of here near the
Nicaraguan nadar site at Puerto Cabezas. Our interceptors de-
stroyed two unmanned drones heading back out to sea. Obvi-
ously they were part of this attack, used to draw away our defense
forces while this fighter staged its pass. "
"Well, the lightbulb has finally come on," Maraklov said.
Tret'yak obviously did not understand, but Maraklov's tone of
voice was clear. "While your interceptors were being suckered
away you left DreamStar wide open for attack. Here's another
news flash for you, General-they'll be back. They no doubt
transmitted those pictures to Washington, and they're being an-
alyzed right now. You can expect a second wave of fighters in
a few hours-and this time they won't just be carrying cameras.
I know them. You have. four MiG-29 fighters to counter a whole
squadron of F-15 or F/A-18 fighter-bombers-"
"We will be ready for them, I assure you-"
"Never mind assurances, DreamStar is too vulnerable. We're
in real danger of losing it. After all I've done to get it here. It
will take your workers another twelve hours to finish the refit,
plus who knows how many to get her ready to fly."
"
We can transfer forces from Managua to Sebaco and other
coastal bases to provide longer-range coverage-"
"You're talking about the damned Nicaraguan air force as if
it was a real defensive force. " Judging by the expression on
Tret'yak's face, Maraklov could tell the Soviet general agreed
with him. "They might be good for providing a way for the
Americans to deplete their missiles, but if you rely on the Nic-
araguans to defend Sebaco . . . "
He did not need to finish the sentence-Tret'yak had finished
it for him. They had MiG-29 fighters at Sebaco because Tret'yak
did not trust the Nicaraguans to protect it. It would be a tactical
nightmare to bring Nicaraguan pilots to Sebaco. Few of them
spoke Russian, few spoke English, and few had trained for longer
than a month or two with their Russian counterparts. Maraklov
was right-they were good for little more than target practice for
the Americans.
"I understand, Colonel," Tret'yak said, "but if an attack
comes we must deal with it with the resources we have. I will
contact my headquarters and request additional defensive forces
from Cuba. Perhaps some diplomatic pressure can be applied as
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 301
well. Meanwhile, the refit of the aircraft will proceed. I will call
in all shifts to increase our pace."
KGB Headquarters, Dzerzhinsky Square, Moscow
Friday, 19 June 1996, 1858 EET (1058 EDT)
Viktor Kalinin crumpled the dispatch in his hand. His senior
aide, Kevi Molokov, stood by as the KGB chief swiveled in his
chair and stared at a map of Central America that had been set
up near his desk. "The Americans have just flown an F- 15 fighter
bomber aircraft over the exact spot where the experimental air-
craft is being stored. Tret'yak believes the Americans now have
detailed, incontrovertible evidence that their aircraft is in Nica-
ragua. Tret'yak ends his message with an observation from Mar-
aklov that the Americans may attack at any time."
"Sir, I think General Tret'yak is overreacting," Molokov said.
"The United States will not take direct military action."
"You seem so sure. Yet they sent an F-15 fighter right into
the Nicaraguan and General Tret'yak's forces."
"That was foreseeable, sir. I would have expected a high-
altitude reconnaissance aircraft, such as their SR-71 or TR-1
aircraft, but I am sure they did that for show. If they were really
serious about retrieving their aircraft, they have a carrier in
Puerto Rico that could have been moved into the area by now.
That carrier is still in port. They could have sent a squadron of
fighter-bombers to destroy the aircraft on the ground, but they
sent one aircraft, apparently only to take photographs. If they
were going to mount an offensive it would have followed im-
mediately. "
"I almost wish the damn plane had been bombed," Kalinin
said. "The XF-34 is slipping out of our grasp, Kevi. It's fortu-
nate that the American government is denying the entire inci-
dent-no pressure on our government has been applied yet.
Yet . . .
"We need Maraklov to fly the plane out of Nicaragua before
real pressure begins," Molokov said. "Once the aircraft is in
our hands we can control events."
"But I can't stand by waiting for the dam to burst," Kalinin
said, slapping the table with the palm of his hand. "I want a
302 DALE BROWN
way to stop an American offensive before it begins. Never mind
that you think they're not going to start one. "
"That would mean exposing the Central Committee," Mo-
lokov said. "Only they can initiate any direct dealings with the
American government. "
Kalinin paused, considering his aide's words. "We just may be
able to bypass the Central Committee. To a degree, at least . . . "
"I am sure it is possible, sir, but can you take that chance?
It would mean a major breach of procedure-"
"It's time to reach out," Kalinin said cryptically. "Be sure I
have two secure communications lines open all evening."
"Yes, sir, they are open now. But who can you possibly con-
tact that has the authority to act in so little time?"
- This government's golden boy. He is in a perfect position
to influence the Americans. Whether he will cooperate with us
depends-if he has any skeletons in his closet. I believe a call
from KGB headquarters will be enough to get his attention. It is
time to see if this star performer also has reason for a guilty
conscience.
The White House Conference Room
Friday, 19 June 1996, 1605 EDT
General Elliott watched as the President, Deborah O'Day, Wil-
bur Curtis, William Stuart and Richard Benson viewed the replay
of Cheetah's sortie over Nicaragua. He had had an opportunity
to see the tape as it was received via satellite from Dreamland
after decoding, and it reminded Elliott of films shot from the
first car on a roller-coaster. The viewers were twisting and
squirming in their seats as it unfolded.
"This is the forward view," Elliott explained, "as the aircraft
approached Sebaco. The F-15 is under attack from an SA-10
surface-to-air missile site. There-you can just barely see the
missile as it misses." The huge missile could be seen easily,
and Elliott watched the viewers cringe and even move to the left
as the missile shot by, missing by only a few
yards.
'The aircraft is now approaching Sebaco. As you can see,
the base is not very large but its facilities are extensive. Here-
you can see an anti-aircraft gun emplacement that we have iden-
tified as an older version of the standard S-60 air-defense weapon.
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 303
Our aircraft has come up on the base so fast there wasn't enough
time for the Soviets to get this S-60 into position. Both the
SA-10 and S-60 are fairly old systems. The Soviets throw noth-
ing awa
Y.
The scene shifted to a side-looking image, with forests and
hills going by in a blur. "This imagery has been slowed down
fifty percent-we'll slow it down even more in a moment. Our
aircraft is at Mach one-about seven hundred eighty miles an
hour." The trees thinned out as the first few signs of the runway
environment came into view, but the most spectacular sight was
the buildings and other structures racing by-all towering over
the F-15. Elliott slowed the imagery down by half again as he
continued:
"We are now looking out the left-side camera of the F-15, at
the rows of hangars and buildings just off the flight line at Se-
baco. We will replay the image without magnification at first.
Here-take a look at this hangar."
Even without increased magnification the sight was obvious-
it was the XF-34 parked inside the hangar. "It's unmistakable-
this is DreamStar. Notice the forward-swept wings, the canards
with the trailing edges pointing downward, the chin intake, the
slanted vertical stabilizers. This is what the crew saw on their
first pass. Now I'll let the film go for the rest of the pass."
In normal speed the scene suddenly swung down out of view,
revealing only sky and treetops-mostly treetops, since the fighter
was still very low. The scene then shifted back to the forward
camera, and Elliott could see Benson grabbing his chair's arm-
rests as treetops skittered past the bottom half of the screen. The
image then centered on the hangar again-and remained centered
on it. They did not see the top of the hangar. The field of view
was centered precisely on the aircraft inside. Their eyes widened