CARRIER 2: VIPER STRIKE By Keith Douglass

pursuit. Repeat, break off and RTB.”

Return to base? Bayerly shook himself. He was sorely tempted to fire.

But no, his career was in a tailspin already. A stunt like that would

make him crash and burn for sure.

“Shit!” Bayerly snapped. Savagely, he yanked back on the stick, hauling

the F-14 vertical as he cut in his afterburners and clawed for the sky.

The MiG continued to race toward the north, dwindling into the haze on

the horizon. At ten thousand feet Bayerly leveled off, bringing the

Tomcat around to a southerly heading. He could see Magruder’s plane

loitering in the distance, Wayne and Costello circling beyond that. The

realization that he’d pursued the enemy MiG miles into Burmese territory

hit him like an icy wave.

Quickly, he checked the sky around his Tomcat, but it was empty of

hostile aircraft.

“Where’s the guy on our tail?”

“Tombstone brushed him off, man,” Stratton said. The RIO sounded

shaken.

“That bandit’s heading out of Dodge at Mach 1.”

Bayerly groaned inwardly. Magruder again. That made it worse. He

pushed the throttles forward, going to buster.

The air battle, such as it was, had ended.

1411 hours, 14 January

Tomcat 201

“Cowboy Leader, Sharpshooter.” Tombstone was angry. Bayerly had

deliberately violated the ROEs on two points … three if you counted

mixing it up with the intruder aircraft in the first place. “What the

hell were you playing at?”

“Get off my six, Magruder,” Bayerly’s voice replied. “I’m not in the

mood.” A short string of profanity followed, harsh and biting.

“Whoa there, don’t go ballistic on us, Made It,” Tombstone said. “You’re

way out of line!”

“Tell it to your damned uncle, hero,” Bayerly snapped. The words

carried suppressed fury, and his voice nearly broke. “I’ve had it with

all of you bastards!”

Tombstone opened his mouth to deliver a burning reply, then stopped.

Something was riding the other aviator, and until Tombstone knew what it

was, he wasn’t going to push. He didn’t know Bayerly that well, but he

could tell that the man was on edge, more than could be explained by

post-combat jitters.

The CO of the VF-97 War Eagles was a big, bluff man given to occasional

bursts of temper, but he was a competent pilot. He wouldn’t have been

given a squadron skipper’s slot if he wasn’t.

In any case, the other skipper was not under his command, and the

tactical frequency was not the place to chew out another pilot. The

whole matter would have to rest until they got back to the carrier.

Then the voice of the Air Officer back aboard Jefferson broke in on the

tactical net. “This is Homeplate. Ninety-nine aircraft, RTB. I say

again, ninety-nine aircraft, RTB.”

The radio call “ninety-nine aircraft” referred to all of the carrier’s

airborne planes. “That’s it,” Batman said. “They’re calling us back to

the bird farm.”

That wasn’t surprising, Tombstone thought. Not after the incident he’d

just witnessed, an incident tracked on the Hawkeye’s long-range radar.

Bayerly was not going to need his report to get himself hung.

But the man’s attitude still puzzled Tombstone. Crossing a border in

hot pursuit of a MiG he could understand. In combat, nothing existed

save your plane and your opponent’s plane, and the adrenaline rush of

battle could wipe everything else from your mind.

It was the acid … the pain in Bayerly’s voice that bothered him, that

and the crack about his uncle. Made It had seemed withdrawn for the

past few weeks, worried presumably, by something he’d not shared with

the other men in the wing. For the first time, Tombstone wondered if

the other aviator’s personal problems were interfering with his flying.

Navy aviators joked about living on the edge, referring to that wild mix

of speed, bravado, and arrogance which characterized the life of the

typical fighter pilot … at least in the perceptions of Hollywood and

the public.

They did not talk about going past the edge, about losing the

self-assurance which alone let them put their lives on the line day

after day, week after week.

Had Bayerly just lost it? With a trap coming up, they might all be

about to find out.

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