narrower target than he’d hoped for.
But the thing was still over five hundred feet long, a target almost
indecently difficult to miss.
Triple-A filled the sky, rocking the Intruder violently. Something
struck the plane’s nose, but he held the stick steady. A little bit
more …
The release pipper hit the bottom of the screen, and Willis squeezed the
pickle. Five-hundred-pound bombs bump-bump-bumped clear of the
Intruder’s belly, spilling into the air in a deadly rain.
1324 hours
Near Polyamyy, Russia
Rivera had a perfect view of the attack, the huge Ballistic-missile sub
turning ponderously into the Polyamyy channel, the Intruder sweeping
down from the north through a sky suddenly crowded with antiaircraft and
missile fire.
Bombs cascaded from the A-6’s belly. One … two … three struck the
water close alongside of the Typhoon’s nose, raising towering gouts of
water that cascaded back across the submarine’s deck in a white
avalanche. Then a five-hundred-pound bomb struck the Typhoon’s sail
squarely where its rounded foot met the forward deck. The detonation
erupted in an orange fireball that preceded the sound of the explosion
by several seconds … then another bomb struck, and another, opening a
gash in the Typhoon’s flank next to the sail and peeling back the outer
hull like a flat slab of clay. More detonations in the water … and
another on target, this one far aft, close by the wing-like thrust of
the huge fin. Thunder echoed back from the far hills.
A final, cataclysmic blast, this one from the open hatch just in front
of the torn-open sail. White flame gouted straight up into the air as
though bursting from the throat of an exploding volcano.
Secondaries! Rivera thought. Something had touched off the missile’s
solid-fuel core- Oh, Blessed Virgin Mary, the missile must have already
been fired when the first bomb hit, rupturing the ICBM’s hull, or maybe
a five-hundred-pounder had dropped right down the open hatch.
The explosion engulfed half of the Typhoon, rupturing its double hull,
flinging burning debris hundreds of feet into the air. The shock wave
raced out across the water and surged against the base of the cliff. The
sound struck Rivera, an impact that staggered him back a step and sucked
the wind from his lungs. Another blast, this one farther forward as
another missile ruptured and exploded. For a terrified instant, Rivera
wondered if a nuke had been set off, but the multiple explosions were
nothing more than the violent detonation of SS-N-20 solid-fuel cores.
Flames raced out across the surface of the water.
1324 hours
Intruder 504
Over the Kola Inlet
“Wheeee-oh!” Sunshine called, and her gloved left hand slapped down hard
on Willis’s thigh. “Way to go! Way to go!”
The Intruder lurched again and Willis barely recovered. Glancing
quickly back over his left shoulder, he saw the entire breadth of the
Polyamyy Inlet filled with orange fire.
The RAW light flashed–the Radar Acquisition Warning. “We’re being
tracked.”
“Do you see it?”
“Negative! I can’t see a damned thing but explosions!”
“Dump chaff!”
In the last instant, Willis saw the missile, streaking up from the
forward deck of an Udaloy destroyer moored across from Polyamyy. He
pulled the stick to the left as hard as it would go …
The explosion slammed the Intruder in the right side with a roar like
thunder. The canopy beside Sunshine’s head crazed to a frosty white,
and a roaring sound filled the cockpit. Sunshine slumped to the left,
her helmet thumping against Willis’s arm. Blood sprayed across Willis,
scarlet droplets splattering his windshield, his instruments, and his
flight suit.
“Sunshine!” he yelled, half turning, trying to support her while
continuing to fly the Intruder. “Sunshine!”
1325 hours
Tomcat 202, Shotgun 2/1
Over the Kola Inlet
Batman saw the SAM from the destroyer detonate alongside the Intruder,
but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. He’d plunged
into the furball and taken down two MiGs in quick succession, but then a
Fulcrum had dropped out of the sky like a hawk with talons extended.
Tracers drifted past the left side of his canopy and he jinked right,
then jinked left again, unable to break the MiG’s lock on his tail.