Marshal Timoshenko was halfway into a turn to port when the HARM plunged
from the clouds, cleaving through the air with a whistling shriek, and
exploded inside the antenna’s focus. The main radar dish was completely
destroyed. Fragments sprayed across the deck, killing or wounding several
crewmen, and showered into the water on either side of the cruiser. Shrapnel
ripped like a shotgun blast through the Head Lights array mounted atop the
bridge forward of the Top Sail, temporarily, at least, putting it out of
action. With both air-search and missile-fire control down, the Timoshenko
was blind. It had other radars still active, but specialized for navigation
or as fire control for 57-mm guns.
Captain First Rank Petr Shelepin immediately ordered the Timoshenko to
come right, to the northwest. For a critical few minutes, until the Yumashev
could get into position, the Soyuz was naked to the American attack.
0620 hours Zulu (0720 hours Zone)
Viking 700
Over the Norwegian Sea
Hunter could see the carrier now, a gray cliff looming above the horizon,
it seemed, a mountain of metal now less than ten miles distant.
“Say, Hunter,” his B/N said. “Time to boogie-”
“I think you’re right, Spock,” he said, his voice touched with awe. How
had they gotten so close?
“Threat warning.”
“Fire chaff! We’re out of here!” He brought the stick over, turning
sharply. He saw the carrier slide to starboard. Beyond, he could see the
towering pyramid of a capital ship’s superstructure.
The missile slammed into the Viking’s right wing. Plexiglass shattered
and a shrieking wind filled the cockpit. He felt his control going, but they
were low, low …
“Eject! Eject!” he yelled. Spock sat beside him, head down. Was he-
He yanked the ejection handle and the canopy dissolved in smoke and flame. It
seemed to take forever for the rockets beneath his seat to fire. When they
did, it was with a savage jolt. Then he was weightless, falling through
absolute silence.
His chute deployed with a savage yank to his harness. Spock! Where was
Spock? He looked around, twisting beneath the parachute shrouds, but he could
not see his B/N. He saw the tail of the S-3, though, several hundred yards
away, already sticking straight up out of the water and going down.
Hunter did not have time to watch. His boots hit the water with another
jarring shock. Training took over, survival school and countless hours spent
in classrooms and in swimming pools, learning how to land in water and get
free of the parachute before it dragged you under. He grasped the beaded
loops at the waist of his life jacket, yanking them out and down. With a
hiss, the jacket inflated, the stiff collar chaffing at his neck. Clumsily,
he fumbled under water for the Koch fittings that secured the parachute
shrouds to his harness. His mask filled with water and he pulled it free,
gulping down great gasps of clean, cold air.
He was numb with shock. It took him several more moments to realize what
had happened. He’d been shot down … he’d ejected … he was alive.
Alive and adrift in the middle of the Soviet task force.
At least no one was shooting at him now. His life raft, attached to his
ejection seat when he’d punched out, had inflated automatically and was
drifting nearby, moored to him by a line. Grimly, hand over hand, he began to
pull himself toward it.
0619 hours Zulu (0719 hours Zone)
Tomcat 200, “Viper One”
Over the Norwegian Sea
Coyote had stuck with the Intruders most of the way to the target. As
the range dropped to twelve miles, the four Intruders of Dealer Flight had
split up, taking widely spaced attack positions to further confuse the already
hard-pressed Soviet air-search and fire-control radar networks.
Now, he and Trapper had taken position wing-and-wing behind Dealer
Leader, Intruder 502, behind and above the Intruder as it began its attack
run.
“Uh-oh,” Teejay called over the ICS. “Bad news, Boss. We’ve got some
mean-lookin’ dudes coming in on our five, and they look pissed!”
Damn. The Soviet MiGs and Sukhois must have broken past Batman’s TACCAP
defense. “Okay. Whatcha got?”
“I make it two bogies at two-zero-five, coming in at Mach one-point-five.