Lieutenant Colonel Ramadutta cleared his flight with Jamnagar Tower and set his fighter on a south-southwesterly course.
For Ramadutta, the coming battle would be a chance at recovering some measure of his pride. The near-encounter with (he American Tomcat in the dark night sky thirty-five hours before had left him shaken, questioning his own abilities as one of India’s elite pilot corps. In his last encounter, he’d run. Nothing had been said officially, but the knowledge that his failure could have led to the destruction of several Indian Jaguars during their successful strike against the American supply ships had left him with a burning shame . . . and a need to clear his honor, before his family, his comrades, and himself.
When his squadron, what was left of it, had been transferred back to Jamnagar the evening before, he’d wondered if he was going to be able to fly again.
As fighters and strike planes scrambled, he knew the answer. He would face his fear . . . and the American enemy in the skies above India.
His mission this time, the mission of his squadron, was to protect the Indian naval and air force strike aircraft that were deploying to attack the American and Soviet squadrons. But it would be more than that. He knew, beyond any doubt, that within minutes he would again be engaged in single combat.
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KerthDouglass
He was having difficulty sorting out his own fiercely intertwined emotions-determination, fear, shame. . . .
But more than anything else, Lieutenant Colonel Munir Ramadutta was angry.
0812 hours, 26 March
Admiral Vaughn was angry, and he didn’t know how much longer he could control it. He raised his fist, shaking it under the nose of a startled Soviet Chief of Staff.
“You Commie son of a bitch!” he shouted. Heads turned throughout the Aegis cruiser’s command center. “If this damned alliance is going to amount to anything, Captain, then you people had better get off your asses and into the air, don’t you think?”
“Please, Admiral,” Captain First Rank Sharov said. “I have no authority.”
“Then get some authority, damn it! You’re in touch with your carrier now?”
* ‘Da, Admiral. But the necessary permission from Moskva . . .” He shrugged helplessly. “We have received no orders.”
Vaughn stopped himself, took a deep breath, then swallowed. He allowed his voice to drop, to become dangerous. “Son, if you don’t clear things so that Kremlin can start launching planes and help defend this so-called joint task force . . .”He paused once more and licked his lips. When he spoke again, it was with a blast of raw fury that forced the Russian back a step. “I’m going to open fire on your fucking fleet myself! ‘ ‘
“I … will see what is to be done, Admiral.”
“Do it! Get out of my sight and don’t show yourself until you have some aircraft in the sky doing their part!” He whirled as an American lieutenant cleared his throat at his back. “What the hell do you want?”
“Sir! The Indian aircraft seem to be making their move.”
Until now, the armada tiiat had been rising from airfields from Okha to Bombay had simply been gathering, waiting and
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circling beyond Jefferson’s air defense zone like a flock of buzzards.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes, sir. We have an estimated twelve strike aircraft— probably Jaguars—crossing into our outer defense zone south of Okha. We have ten more out of Jamnagar, big ones, possibly old Canberras. Range is now eighty miles.”
“What about the Sea Harriers?”
“They’ve engaged with our BARCAP thirty to fifty miles southeast of the Jefferson. No news yet.”
“Okay,” Vaughn said. He wiped his face with his hand and was surprised at how cold it felt. “Okay. How’s the Jeff doing?”
“Ten Tomcats are aloft now, sir, and they’re continuing launch operations from their waist cats. That’s in addition to two Hawkeyes, four Prowlers, two tankers, and a couple of ASW Vikings.”
“Good, good.” But it wasn’t good. He hoped the people in Jefferson’s CATCC knew what the hell they were doing. With feat many planes in the sky, keeping them all fueled was going to be a bitch with only two working catapults.