Day of the Cheetah

by Dale Brown

  lated body. And Elliott now was describing the two operatives

  almost perfectly. Vilizherchev decided he had been caught in a

  neatly arranged trap. To use the American vernacular-he'd been

  set up.

  But, again according to Kalinin, a trace of the mortars used

  in the attack should have revealed that they were Belgian in

  origin, not Soviet. They had never been consigned to anyone

  remotely connected with Russia until they were turned over to

  the two operatives by a dealer in the Dominican Republic days

  before the operation was to begin . . . Unless there'd been a

  terrific foul-up, Elliott was just talking to provoke him into re-

  acting, showing his hand . . .

  "I would like to see your report on those men and those weap-

  ons," Vilizherchev said.

  "And we would like to see Kenneth James," Elliott said.

  "It can be arranged very soon. I have been in contact with-"

  "And I want the modification process discontinued on the

  aircraft," Elliott added.

  "Modification?"

  Elliott hit one button on the remote control he held in his

  DAY OF THE CHEETAH 311

  hand. The digital videotape cued itself to the preprogrammed

  point and the screen flared to life, showing the last clear image

  of DreamStar taken from Cheetah. The picture clearly showed

  access panels open, the fuel tanks in position under DreamStar's

  wings, and jacks supporting DreamStar in position. Vilizherchev

  studied the image.

  "Thank you, sir, for verifying that it was an American aircraft

  that violated our restricted airspace," Vilizherchev said.

  "Thank you for verifying that you have the aircraft and that

  you are in fact destroying something that is not your property,"

  Elliott shot back.

  The film was a surprise as well-Kalinin had not mentioned

  anything about a reconnaissance film of such detail. "The air-

  craft was heavily armed when it arrived at our airbase. Since it

  is obviously an unusual aircraft with systems and devices un-

  known to us, a thorough examination was necessary to verify

  that the aircraft posed no threat to our people. Otherwise, im-

  mediate disposal would have been called for."

  "I'll be happy to supply you with personnel to ensure that the

  aircraft is safe," Elliott said quickly.

  "That will not be necessary. Our technicians are well quali-

  fied to- II

  "The bottom line is that the aircraft is not your property, it

  belongs to the U. We want it back immediately."

  "I'm afraid that's impossible, General," Vilizherchev said,

  surprised that the President or one of his advisers wasn't step-

  ping in. He turned away from Elliott and back to the President.

  "I trust you understand, sir, that a complete investigation must

  be conducted. The aircraft is material evidence in that investi-

  gation. We simply can't release it until the investigation has

  been completed."

  Silence. Elliott was being left to carry the ball, for the mo-

  ment. "That sounds like a dodge to me, Mr. Ambassador,"

  Elliott said.

  Vilizherchev's cool was wearing thin. "We have procedures

  that must be followed in serious matters such as this, just as you

  do. Let me assure this distinguished gathering that at the end of

  our investigation all property belonging to the United States will

  be returned- "

  "Including James?" Deborah O'Day said.

  312 DALE BROWN

  "If he chooses to live in the Soviet Union, he will probably

  be allowed, just as you-"

  "You still expect us to believe that James isn't a Russian

  spy?" Elliott said angrily.

  "That's enough, General Elliott," the President said, decid-

  ing the two had played out as much as was useful. "Mr. Am-

  bassador, do you have any other message from. your

  government? "

  "Only this, sir. My government understands your reasons for

  the overflight of our base in Nicaragua, and we understand why

  you shot down our supply helicopter in Mexico. But I have tried

  to assure you that this aircraft intruded on our territory without

  our knowledge and that, we must conduct an investigation to

  determine the facts. We expect no interference while this inves-

  tigation is underway. We ask only for your patience. But we

  cannot, of course, tolerate any hostile or coercive acts. I remind

  you again that it was your aircraft and your pilot that intruded

  on our base and our ally's sovereign borders. You must at least

  recognize our right to determine the truth."

  President Taylor moved forward in his chair, leaned on the

  conference table. "Now you give this message to the General

  Secretary, Mr. Vilizherchev. I don't like threats, however dip-

  lomatically put. I don't like being told what to do, especially by

  someone who has our property. You are in no position to make

  demands on us."

  Elliott was encouraged by these opening remarks, but they

  stopped quickly as the President continued: "I do, however,

  understand your request for a period of time to conduct an in-

  vestigation and I will allow it .

  Elliott rushed in. "Mr. President

  ". . . On one condition, Mr. Ambassador," the President

  went on, looking at Elliott out of the comer of his eye. "If your

  government guarantees me that the aircraft you hold will not be

  moved out of its present location, we will take no action against

  you for a period of five days. After that time we will take im-

  mediate steps to recover our property, including the use of naval,

  marine, and air forces. Clear, Mr. Ambassador?"

  Vilizherchev paused. It was incredible-Kalinin apparently had

  actually got something right this tiny. The Americans did not

  want to precipitate a war over this aircraft. The other stuff was

  It

  DAY OF THE CHEETAH 313

  face-saving "I will need to confer with my government

  about your proposal, sir. "

  "Agreed. But the five-day timetable starts now. if we do not

  have our aircraft back in five days, we'll go in and get it. I'll

  expect your government's reply in the morning. Good night, Mr.

  Vilizherchev." Vilizhe'rchev stood, made a polite but impatient

  bow to the President, and left. Cesare showed himout.

  "Mr. President," Elliott said, "you can't give them five days.

  We can't afford to give them five hours."

  "General Elliott, if I can get the Soviets to agree to keep

  DreamStar in the western hemisphere, and avoid hostilities at

  the same time, I consider that an accomplishment. Considering

  the situation I've been placed in." He rubbed his eyes irritably,

  then pounded the armrest of his chair. "I've considered a mili-

  tary action each time you've presented your arguments, Brad,

  each time, and I always come back to this: we would lose the

  aircraft, the Russians would score a major propaganda coup and

  it would be political suicide for this administration. That's even

  supposing that we destroyed the thing on the ground. If we lost

  some of our soldiers or flyers in the pr
ocess, or failed to destroy

  the aircraft, it would look even worse for us. A military response

  is just a no-win situation."

  "Sir, we've proved that the Soviets are planning to fly

  DreamStar out of Nicaragua. Just because we've heard from Vil-

  izherchev doesn't mean that they've changed their minds. They

  can make a deal with us and then go right ahead with their plans.

  We need to act, Mr. President."

  Elliott, the President thought, was relentless. Twenty-four

  hours earlier this guy was on the edge of a dishonorable dis-

  charge. Tonight he was interrupting senior Cabinet members,

  calling a credentialed ambassador a liar, and trying to negotiate

  with the President of the United States. Still, or maybe because

  of all that, and despite Benson's warning, he was starting to

  respect, maybe even like, this veteran Air Force officer. But the

  man was too ready to hit out with military force. He had no

  conception of the political realities involved. Generals rarely did.

  "I have to disagree, General, at least for now. Brad, the truth

  here is that we have few realistic options. I just feel the reper-

  cussions of an offensive against the Russians would be far worse

  than the loss of this aircraft, no matter how advanced it is. Let's

  at least wait to see what their reaction to my proposal is."

  r

  314 DALE BROWN

  "I'm not suggesting an offensive, sir. My concern right now

  is that they'll go ahead with their plans to take DreamStar out

  of Nicaragua-that this visit by Vilizherchev was just a smoke-

  screen to get us to relax and drop any plans to retake DreamStar.

  While we wait for a response from the Soviets, DreamStar could

  be on its way to Russia, and then we would have no recourse

  except to begin negotiations all over again. That could drag

  for weeks, even months-as long as it took to export the XF-

  one could interrupt, Elliott continued: "I have a plan, sir, to set

  up a very small-scale air cordon in the Caribbean-very small,

  unobtrusive, easily managed but effective. The plan revolves

  around one AWACS radar plane based out of San Juan, with

  fighter escort, to cover the eastern Caribbean, and one AWACS

  operating overwater out of Honduras to cover the northern and

  western Caribbean. "

  "Why couldn't DrearriStar just blast its way out like it blasted

  its way into Nicaragua, General? " Stuart asked. "You said thi

  XF-34 can fly rings around any other fighter in our inventory. @f

  we put a radar plane and a few fighters right in its way, what Is

  to stop it ' from shooting them down?"

  "If the Soviets fit those external tanks to DreamStar, she won't

  be in nearly as good condition to fight," Elliott said. He sounded

  more optimistic than he felt-he was in the realm of pure spec-

  ulation now. "DreamStar's wings weren't designed for external

  fuel tanks. My guess is that a small interceptor group can defeat

  DreamStar in this situation-at least the odds would be nearly

  even . . . "

  "But your plan still calls for an armed response," Stuart said.

  "You're trying to force this government into a confrontation

  with the Russians. How many times does the President need to

  say no to you, General? "

  "If DrearnStar stays in Nicaragua, sir, there won't be a con-

  frontation, " Air Force Secretary Wilbur Curtis spoke up. "Our

  interceptor task force will be on just another Caribbean training

  flight. If DreamStar tries to break out, then the Russians will

  have violated our arrangement and demonstrated a cynical un-

  willingness to resolve this matter-" he turned to the President-

  "in which case, in my opinion, it justifies a much stronger

  response from us . .. - "

  The President leaned back in his chair, massaged his forehead

  34's technology to their development bureaus .

  Before any-

  DAY OF THE CHEETAH 315

  and stared at the chart of Central America. Exhaustion and strain

  made the colors in the chart begin to dance before his eyes.

  "What forces do we have in the area?" he asked.

  Elliott was already flipping to the page in his notes in antici-

  pation. "Sir, the forces are essentially in place right now to

  cover the eastern Caribbean. We can step up interceptor activity

  to identify all low-flying high-speed aircraft that we detect. As

  for the northern and western Caribbean, that will be tougher.

  We should be able to arrange a fighter drag into the area in six

  to eight hours-"

  "A what? 'I

  "A fighter drag, a deployment. Nine fighters from Howard

  Air Force Base in the Canal Zone would deploy to our garrison

  staging base at La Cieba on the Honduras north coast. Three

  aircraft would go on station over the Caribbean immediately with

  the AWACS bird and a tanker, with the rest rotating in shifts.

  It may be possible to get support from the Cayman Islands for

  landing rights, but I'm anticipating difficulties with them allow-

  ing armed American aircraft to land there so I've planned this

  without the Cayman Islands."

  The President was impressed that Elliott had already planned

  this mission in such detail. Still . . .

  "This would continue until we could bring up naval support

  from New Orleans or the eastern Caribbean, either of which

  would take approximately forty-eight hours to reach the area,"

  Elliott pressed on. "The best we've got available is the carrier

  Theodore Roosevelt, which is deployed north of Puerto Rico on

  a training cruise. She can be in position in about two days.

  CVN-73 George Washington is the better choice, but she's in

  port in New Orleans and may take several days to deploy. Air-

  craft would be armed with short- and medium-range air-to-air

  missiles as well as long-range fuel tanks. They would intercept

  any aircraft within range and visually identify each one. If they

  become overloaded with targets, priority would be given to high-

  speed, high-altitude aircraft. Although it's possible for DreamStar

  to make the flight at almost any speed and almost any altitude,

  the enormous distance he has to go would suggest he'd have to

  conserve as much fuel as possible, and that means high altitude

  and as little high-lift, low-speed flying as possible . . . Our pil-

  ot's orders would be . . . and this hurts . . . to destroy DreamStar

  and any other hostile aircraft that may be escorting her that en-

  316 DAIE BROWN

  gage our aircraft. But if possible they would try to harass or

  divert DreamStar toward a forced water landing."

  Elliott finally stopped his headlong briefing, then glanced at

  Secretary of the Air Force Curtis. Curtis nodded to Elliott and

  said to the President: "Sir, I'm recommending adoption of this

  plan. It's low profile and at least the Air Force's part is easily

  implemented. We'll need to confer with Navy and the rest of

  the Joint Chiefs on the deployment of a carrier group, but I'm

  afraid this situation warrants an immediate go-ahead on the first

  phase. "

  The
President looked skeptical as he studied the chart. "How

  much danger will it be to our pilots?" he said, pointing to the

  map. "It looks like they'll be overwater for a long time."

  Elliott nodded. "Unfortunately, that's true, sir. The fighters

  will have to cover eighteen-thousand square miles of open ocean.

  Tanker support can keep them in the air for as long as necessary,

  we'll rotate another flight and another tanker in to take over

  every four hours."

  "Six-hour missions for them, refuelings every hour, plus the

  strain of visually identifying and possibly going into combat on

  each intercept they make," Curtis summarized. "And all of it

  overwater-not exactly a fighter pilot's favorite place to be."

  "Sounds like you're trying to talk me out of it, Wilbur," the

  President said wryly. He held up a hand as the Secretary of the

  Air Force began to speak. "I know, I know, you're just hitting

  me with the worst. Well, I think it's a lousy plan, gentlemen."

  Curtis and Elliott felt their hearts drop.

  "You'd be placing those pilots in great jeopardy because you

  don't trust the Russians to keep their word in this thing. You act

  like Stalin or Khrushchev is still in charge there." He did not try

  to curb his temper; exhaustion, tension, concern and frustration

  had all built to a point he had to let loose. "And all to stop one

  aircraft and one pilot from possibly being flown out of Nicara-

  gua, and all because you two failed to uncover a Soviet agent in

  your own organizations. No. You're asking me to place more

  men's lives at risk because of your screwups. You're asking

  me to put this presidency in jeopardy to satisfy your need for

  revenge. "

  The President swiveled his chair around and stared at the Cen-

  tral American chart. Secretary of Defense Stuart had trouble hid-

  ing his satisfaction-there was little doubt that he was going to

  DAY OF THE CHEETAH 317

  enjoy being Taylor's hatchet man when the order came down to

  get rid of Elliott and Curtis. Cesare had motioned in a young

  steward with a pot of coffee, quietly telling him to keep the

  President's cup far out of reach in case his temper exploded