the break. Once the enemy pilot was committed, he slammed the stick
back to the right, at the same time pulling back on the throttles and
cutting in the flaps. The maneuver, a split-S, was designed to force
the pursuing plane to overshoot.
“No good, Stoney!” Dixie said. “He’s still back there!”
Tombstone brought the stick back left again, waited for the MiG to
commit … then boosted to full military power and pulled into a climb,
rolling inverted at the top of a short climb, then dropping toward where
the bandit should have overshot.
“No good again! He’s still coming’!”
Damn! This guy was too good.
“He’s got lock!” Dixie called. “He’s going for launch!”
Tombstone heard the tone of a radar lock. He went into another climb
and kept pushing. “Hit the chaff, Dixie!” he yelled.
“Launch! Launch!”
“Keep punching out chaff!” He held the Tomcat’s climb, then dropped
into inverted level flight. “Where is it?”
“Still coming! There it goes!”
He saw the missile pass astern of the Tomcat, a white streak scratched
vertically into the sky. He caught only a glimpse of the missile
itself, a pencil balanced on orange flame. Quickly, Tombstone pulled a
half roll, then started climbing again. The MiG was still climbing,
sticking to his six with a grim and deadly determination.
“Keep an eye on him, Dixie,” Tombstone said. He eased the throttles
back, cutting power. The Tomcat slowed, still climbing. At one hundred
fifty knots the wings slid forward and the plane began shimmying,
threatening a stall.
“Gettin’ close, Tombstone! Range one thousand.”
“A little more …”
“Shit, I think he’s going’ for guns, Stoney!”
“A little more …”
The Tomcat hung at the peak of the climb. The port engine coughed and
the stall warning light flared. Tombstone let the Tomcat fall onto its
side, kicking in rudders and flaps as the F-14 fell sideways, then slid
into a tight vertical reverse.
The MiG pilot was good … no question there. But Tombstone was
capitalizing on the advantages in maneuverability the F-14 had over the
MiG-21. His pursuer couldn’t match that turn in a MiG-21, not without
stalling out or falling out of control.
The Tomcat was plunging earthward now. Tombstone watched the MiG swell
until it filled his HUD. He flashed past head to head, picking up speed
rapidly. In that frozen-instant of passage, Tombstone saw the MiG
climbing past him, the number 612 prominent in red on the nose.
The MiG that had eluded him earlier … and downed Price and Zig-Zag.
As soon as he was past, he brought the stick back and cut in his
afterburners. G-forces pressed him down in his ejection seat, draining
the blood from his brain and threatening him with unconsciousness. Then
he was hard into a right break, twisting his head back in an attempt to
locate his opponent.
“Where is he, Dixie? Do you see him?”
“One-two-zero, Stoney. Three o’clock high.”
There he was. Tombstone held the turn, climbing slightly now, rising
under the other plane. The MiG driver was trying to turn inside
Tombstone’s break, but the Tomcat’s position was perfect.
One Sidewinder left. Tombstone got the lock and triggered the launch.
“Fox two!”
The missile arced away toward the enemy plane, drawing closer … closer
… No! The MiG was twisting away, scattering dazzling pinpoints of
light in its wake. Tombstone watched as his last Sidewinder curved
away, uselessly following a flare.
“Let him go, Tombstone! We’re almost bingo fuel, man! We don’t have
the gas!”
“Just a moment more!” At full military power he closed the gap between
the Tomcat and the MiG.
“We’re out of missiles, Tombstone.”
“Switching to guns.” He thumbed the selector switch on his stick. The
concentric rings of the M61 target reticle appeared on his HUD. The MiG
was turning again, trying to break right. Tombstone anticipated the
turn, leading the MiG by a generous margin. They crowded in closer …
closer …
He brought his thumb down on the firing switch. The F-14’s
four-barreled Gatling cut loose with a buzzsaw shriek, pumping out 20-mm
shells at the rate of one hundred per second. The MiG was jinking, the
pilot throwing the delta-winged aircraft back and forth, up and down,