by Dale Brown
as you know. We have arranged tanker and fighter support for
Maraklov over the Atlantic, well away from commercial air-
traffic routes or ground-based radar sites. The force will continue
north, steering well clear of known or detected naval vessels.
We can expect support from Mauritania and Algeria and we can
land for crew rest and replenishment in Algiers in northern Al-
geria or Tamanrasset in southern Algeria. After that I believe it
will not be too difficult to penetrate the relatively weak NATO
southern flank or the eastern Mediterranean area and recover into
Tbilisi or Odessa."
The General Secretary appeared to be only half listening.
"You seem to be very confident of success, Kalinin. You were
confident about the ease at which you would get this aircraft to
Cuba. Yet this aircraft is still in Nicaragua."
"I realize that this will be a difficult mission," Kalinin said.
"Maraklov must fly his aircraft nine thousand kilometers, pre-
pared at any moment to defend himself against the Americans'
most advanced fighters, both land- and sea-based. Yet this is the
fighter that can do it, sir. This XF-34 fighter has already fought
its way out of the United States and survived a large coordinated
assault against it. We must have this aircraft. Much of the bal-
ance of power between the Soviet Union and the United States
depends on it."
"I suspect you are overstating the case, Kalinin" al-
though for you it is crucial, he added to himself "We have
already lost five aircraft and had our ambassador declared non
grata. I can't accept much more.
He turned away from Kalinin, considering the options . . . It
would be a coup for both of them, he thought, if the fighter
could be brought to Russia. And they would give it back, but
only after all possible information on the machine was obtained
and a suitable trade arranged.
Should the mission fail, Kalinin, his chief rival for power,
would be ousted, an irritating memory, taking with him the blame
for the incident. Should Kalinin succeed, his strength and au-
thority in the government would surely increase, but enough for
a takeover? He doubted it, but he would need to be very, very
vigilant ...
"What will you require?" the General Secretary asked.
"Because of the time involved, sir, very little," Kalinin said.
"Authorization for another Ilyushin-76 radar plane, another IU-76
tanker aircraft, six MiG-29 aircraft with our pilots from Cuba,
and landing rights and defense arrangements with Trinidad and
Tobago, Mauritartia, Algeria, Libya and Syria. These forces to
be placed under my authority for the next seventy-two hours."
The General Secretary shook his head. " 'Very little,' you
say, Kalinin?" He turned to the chief of staff. "Marshal Cher-
kov, can these be provided in so short a time?"
Marshal Boris Cherkov, one of the oldest members of the
General Secretary's senior staff, pondered the question so long
and without any apparent reaction that for a moment Kalinin and
some of the others thought he was asleep. Then: "I trust young
Comrade Kalinin has investigated. the source of the 11yushin
aircraft and the fighters? From Cuba, I understand?"
"Yes, sir. There are a total of two II-76 radar planes at Ha-
vana, four "-76 tankers and twenty-one MiG-29 fighter air-
craft.
Cherkov nodded. "It seems he has his aircraft. Obtaining
landing rights from any of these nations mentioned will not be
a problem. Obtaining mutual-defense operations will be virtually
impossible without days of precise planning-half the govern-
ment of Trinidad and Tobago is on holiday, and it sometimes
takes a whole day for our embassy to contact anyone in Mauri-
tania's government. Besides, none of these nations has any ap-
preciable air or naval forces. I would not expect any resistance
to your operation from these nations, but neither would I expect
any assistance.
Kalinin nodded. He had hoped these governments would ex-
clude American fighters from their airspace while allowing Rus-
sian fighters to land, but obviously that wasn't to be. "Never
mind," he said. "Permission to cross their airspace and landing
rights for our jets will be enough."
"As for the radar aircraft, tanker and fighters," Cherkov went
on, "that must be your decision. The forces are available. Of
382 DALE BROWN
course, if the Americans launch some sort of attack against Cuba
in retaliation, then those aircraft would be needed for defense . . . "
Kalinin was pleased. He had thought Cherkov, a close ally
of the General Secretary, was going to raise a lot more prob-
lems . . .
"However," Cherkov said, as if on cue, "I feel I must object
to this operation." The bastard did not let him down, Kalinin
thought grimly.
"It is extremely dangerous to provoke the Americans in-their
own 'backyard.' Remember the Cuban missile crisis and that
fool Khrushchev. We could invite retaliation and open conflict
in an area of the world where we are hardly dominant-"
"The U. is in no position to retaliate," Kalinin said angrily.
"If I had decided to put the aircraft on an ocean-going vessel or
even a transport plane, I will admit the danger of attack in those
cases would be high. If we were holding the fighter in place for
some sort of trade, there would be danger of attack by the Amer-
icans. But the fighter is a moving target. The Americans will not
blindly lash out and attack unless they know precisely where the
aircraft is located. Besides, they are not in good standing with
most of Latin America .
Cherkov's hands shook with emphasis. "Nicaragua is hardly
an ideal safe haven. Your base at Sebaco, is a prime target-you
must feel the same way, judging by the haste with which you
want to fly the fighter out of there. I expect Sebaco will come
under attack. It is an isolated base, obviously not part of the
Nicaraguan an-ned forces, and now nearly unprotected. The
President can call it a 'communist-terrorist headquarters,' a ral-
lying cry for most Americans. If I were Secretary Stuart or
General Kane, I would order an attack on Sebaco immediately.
"Then it is even more urgent that the fighter be moved with-
out delay," Kalinin said. "It's too late for talking about what
should have been done. I have instructed Colonel Maraklov, the
XF-34's pilot, to do everything in his power to see that the air-
craft survives. I want to order him to fly the aircraft to the Soviet
Union, and I want to provide him with all available military
support. If we hesitate, we are, as you say, inviting defeat. If
we act now, we can be successful . . - "
There was silence around the conference table. The General
Secretary stared at Kalinin, and from across the table Kalinin
forced himself to return the General Secretary's icy stare with
one as determined and convincing as he could manage. He was
sure that the General Secre
tary was trying to think days and
weeks ahead, assessing possible consequences of defeat and fail-
ure for both of them. But he also realized that the General Sec-
retary really had no choice-to back away from this operation
now, when the Americans had given them such a lengthy chance
to recover and regroup, would show indecision and timidness.
Over time that lack of initiative could be translated into political
weakness, which would mean a further loosening of his tenuous
grasp on the reins of power.
"Very well," the General Secretary said, "you are authorized
to requisition and command the forces you have outlined to bring
this aircraft home. But understand, I am not convinced that this
one fighter is worth a major confrontation with the U., no
matter how advanced it may be. Be prepared to terminate your
operation and obey the orders of the Kollegiya should you be so
ordered. Am I clearly understood?
"Yes, sir," Kalinin said automatically. The General Secre-
tary had relented, as Kalinin expected. His caveat was pro forma,
face-saving.
Vladimir Kalinin's rise to power had begun.
Over the Caribbean Sea
Sunday, 21. June 1996, 2100 CDT
"Tegucigalpa Control, Sun Devil Three-Two is with you at flight
level one-eight zero, position one-zero-zero nautical miles north
of La Cieba. Over."
The Honduran military radar operator checked his display and
quickly located the data block, then the primary radar return
belonging to the American aircraft one hundred miles north of
the military airbase on the north coast of Honduras. He cross-
checked the information with the newcomer's flight plan. The
aircraft, he knew from the flight plan, was a modified
McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 belonging to the U. Air Force-
that would explain the very large radar return even at this dis-
tance.
Satisfied, he replied in thick Latino-accented English, "Sun
Devil Three-Two, this is Tegucigalpa Control, radar contact.
Clear to intercept and track airway Bravo eight-eight-one until
384 DALE BROWN
overhead Goloson Airport, then follow airway alpha seven-five-
forty to Toncontin International, maintain flight level one-eight-
zero. Over."
The copilot of the KC-10 Extender tanker from the 161st Air
Refueling Group, the very same group unlucky enough to get
involved with all these "questionable" (for which read techni-
cally illegal) missions into Central America, checked the clear-
ance with his computer flight plan and nodded to his pilot-it
was the clearance he had been expecting. "Sun Devil Three-
Two, roger. Out."
The pilot switched over to the scrambled number-two radio.
"Storm Zero Two, we're in contact with Tegucigalpa. Cleared
on course."
"Roger, Mike," JC. Powell replied. "Right on time."
The KC-10's copilot said, "You expected something else?"
McLanahan scanned outside Cheetah's bubble canopy at the
huge gray-green tanker, a massive, shadowy figure in the grow-
ing twilight. The tanker aircraft was on its third mission for
him and in almost as many days-they had gotten to know
each other very well during their videophone flight-planning ses-
sions. Although Tegucigalpa and all the other Central American
radar operators only knew of a single aircraft on this flight plan,
there were actually two-McLanahan was borrowing the tactic
the Russians had used the morning before to try to get DreamStar
to Cuba. The two aircraft were sticking tightly together in order
to merge their radar returns.
Cheetah was right on the tanker's left wingtip. She was car-
rying two conformal FAST PACK fuel tanks for added range, and
she was armed with four AIM-120 Scorpion missiles in serni-
recessed wells along the underside of the ftiselage, four AIM-132
infrared homing dogfighting missiles on wing pylons, and five
hundred rounds of ammunition for the twenty-millimeter can-
non. Cheetah also carried a combination infrared and laser
seeker-scanner under the nose that could provide initial steering
signals for the AIM-120 missiles without using any telltale emis-
sions from the attack radar.
It was armed and ready for a preemptive strike against the
KGB base at Sebaco. The mission was to retaliate against the
theft of DreamStar and the Soviet reneging on the deal struck
between Moscow and Washington. It was also to try to flush out
DrearnStar and engage it in one last aerial battle. Better a dead
bird than in Soviet hands to copy ...
But Cheetah was on this mission only if DrearnStar or other
high-performance fighters challenged the strike aircraft. The
original plan proposed by General Elliott had Cheetah armed as
both an air-to-air and air-to-ground fighter, but surprisingly
had vetoed the idea-surprising because Powell rarely backed
away from a challenge, and because he was an excellent air-to-
mud pilot. He had argued that Cheetah would be too heavily
loaded down if it had to carry any bulky iron bombs or compli-
cated laser-infrared target designators. He recognized the real
possibility that the Russians would use DrearnStar to defend Se-
baco against attack, and he wanted to be ready with all the power
and maneuverability he could get. If DrearnStar was going to
launch, he wanted to be right there on top of him.
There was a surprise third party on the satellite conference
call involved with planning the strike mission, a project director
from HAWC. He had been silent most of the conversation, until
LC. had voiced his objections. Then he had stepped in, pre-
senting his options and his estimates for success. In short order
his proposals had been approved by General Elliott, and less
than an hour later approved by the Secretary of the Air Force.
This fight had become personal-it was as if the President and
the DOD had agreed to let the men and women of HAWC deal
with the traitor from their own ranks, because that was how they
thought of him-as Ken James, not a Soviet man named Mar-
aklov. There were more concrete reasons, of course: The unit
was cloaked in secrecy, with fewer persons involved who could
alert the media or enemy agents; they commanded the most high-
tech weapons in the American military arsenal; and, especially
during the recent events, were able to generate a strike sortie
faster than an active-duty military unit.
The two men in Cheetah's cockpit were quiet. concen-
trated on maintaining close fingertip formation with the KC-10,
and McLanahan checked and rechecked his equipment and
watched the setting sun dipping behind the low Maya Mountains
near the. coast of Belize off the right side of the fighter. The Islas
de la Bahia island chain was off to the left, with tiny lights
twinkling in the growing Caribbean twilight. It was a pleasant,
romantic sight-until the view of those tranquil islands was ob-
scured by the row of AIM-132 missiles slung under Cheetah's
wings, the missile's large foreplanes slicing the Isla de Roatan
neatly in half.
"How are you doing back there, sir?" Powell asked, finally
breaking the strained silence. "You're quiet."
"I'm okay."
"Radio's free. Want to call back to the command post again?"
"No, not right now. " Since leaving Drearriland earlier that
afternoon he had made one UHF radio phone-patch back to
HAWC's command post to ask about Wendy. She was, they
told him, undergoing laser surgery to remove areas of scarred
and damaged tissue in her lungs. The last word he had gotten
was that they were searching for possible donors for a single
lung transplant. Only a few hundred of these transplants had
been done in the United States in the past few years, and only a
handful of recipients were still alive.
- She'll be okay," said.
Patrick said nothing.
silence again as they approached the Honduras coastline and
the tiny city of La Cieba came into view. Then asked,
"You figure we'll run into James up here?"
"You mean Maraklov. "
"Still can't help thinking of him as Ken James."
"By any other name he's still a murderer. I don't think of
him as a Russian or an American or even as a person. I won't
have any trouble pulling the trigger on him."
According to General Elliott's plan, Cheetah was meant to go
up against DreamStar, to engage with missiles from long range,
close, engage at medium range with missiles, and if necessary
close and engage with guns.
"Ken . . . Maraklov seems like he's still on top of his game,"
said. "He scared the hell out of those F-16 Air National
Guard guys. Faked one with a missile shot, follows him in a
horizontal climb, then hoses him while the F-16 descends on
him. He busted up one other guy-"
"I don't want to talk about him."
But that wasn't altogether true-in reality, McLanahan was,
in a way, fascinated by him. Not just because of the amazingly
successful espionage operation that he had managed all these
years, but because of what sort of person was out here. He was a
Russian, a Soviet agent-he must have been worried about being