CARRIER 2: VIPER STRIKE By Keith Douglass

Colonel Kriangsak was captured or dead.

No matter, really. Hsiao had other contacts among the dissident

officers, and the important thing was the destabilization of the That

government. When the government fell, Hsiao’s men would step in. One

way or another, Hsiao Kuoping would rule this country before the month

was out.

All that remained was to defeat the That military forces now closing on

this remote and otherwise insignificant air base.

Hsiao picked up a briefcase containing maps and reports and left the

office. He had some further surprises to discuss with Colonel Wu.

The Thais thought they had him in a trap. Soon he would show them that

it was possible for the trappers themselves to be trapped.

CHAPTER 24

0636 hours, 21 January

Tomcat 216, over Central Thailand

“Eagle Two, this is Homeplate,” CAG’s voice said over Batman’s headset.

“The brass has a question for you.”

“Uh … roger, Homeplate,” Batman replied. Now what in the world …?

“Do you know someone named Phya Nin?”

The question startled Batman. “That’s affirmative, Homeplate.” Hell,

he’d told them all about her during his debriefing. What more did they

want to know? And why?

“What do you know about her, Two-one-six?”

He thought a moment. “Uh … I’m not sure I understand the question,

Homeplate. She’s a sergeant in the Karen National Army of Liberation.

The 12th KNLA Brigade.” He’d told them that in his debriefing too.

“Roger that, Two-one-six. Can she be trusted? Over.”

Trusted? “Absolutely, Homeplate. Are you in contact with her?”

“Two-one-six, stand by.”

He listened to static for a long moment. What the hell was going on?

Below his Tomcat, the land spread out flat and green, a patchwork quilt

of rice paddies and farmland. The squadron was about halfway to its

destination. It looked peaceful down there. Indeed the fighting which

had torn at Thailand’s social fabric for the past weeks had not touched

this, the real Thailand, where the smoggy sprawl of Bangkok was as alien

as the surface of Mars. From ten thousand feet, Batman could see the

six-laned intrusion of Route 1 following the Chao Phraya north from the

capital, but the countryside itself looked as it must have looked for

centuries, remote and untouched.

It reminded him of the jungle in the north and of the girl who claimed

that the Karens with God outnumbered their enemies.

“What was that all about, Batman?” Kingsly asked from the back seat, his

soft Tennessee drawl pronounced over the ICS.

“Beats me, Ramrod.”

Kingsly laughed. “Sounds to me like they want to know more about your

gook girlfriend.”

“Can that ‘gook’ shit!” Batman snapped. His anger surprised him. He

remembered his own references to gooks a few days before, and the memory

burned.

“Well sure, man,” Ramrod said, startled at Batman’s reaction. “Anything

you say.”

“Ninety-nine aircraft, ninety-nine aircraft,” another voice said over

the radio. “This is Victor Four Delta traffic control. Proceed to

Point Lima and orbit. Squadron commanders acknowledge, over.”

There was a stunned silence, then Batman heard Tombstone responding for

Eagle. Then the tactical channel crackled with questions and

speculations by other men in the squadron.

“What’s gotten into them back there, Nightmare?”

“Damfino, Shooter.”

“Another crap-out, guys. Didn’t I tell you? Another fuckin’

crap-out.”

“That’s enough, people,” Tombstone’s voice came over the chatter. “Radio

discipline. Keep the channel clear.”

Batman couldn’t help connecting the questions about Phya with the sudden

change in orders, but what did it mean? In the Navy, the gods of

Higher Authority rarely told the guys in the trenches what was going on.

He looked out the cockpit again. He could just barely make out the

specks of vehicles crawling along the highway. More distinct were the

toy-shapes of several helicopters pacing their own shadows as they flew

north, parallel to the Tomcats’ course but rapidly falling behind. Those

were probably troop transports, possibly some of the helos on loan from

the Marines to the Thais for the ground attack on U Feng. Possibly, he

decided, something had gone wrong with that end of the operation, and

the alpha strike was being held up to coordinate with them better.

Batman just hoped that someone remembered that the alpha strike was

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