“ETA seven minutes.”
“Cover us while we go in. When we’re on the ground and secured, break off and investigate the intruder.”
“Roger,” the gunship pilot acknowledged.
* * *
“Radar interrogation signature,” Casey announced, eyes on his console screens. “They’ve picked us up.”
“It had to happen,” Kieran said neutrally. Then, to the screen showing Trevany at the expedition’s camp, “What’s happening at Troy?”
“We’re not sure. Gottfried isn’t behaving. Its vision’s out, and it seems to have started wandering. Rudi’s having trouble trying to control it. He thinks one of those missiles might have damaged something.”
Just what they needed, Kieran thought. Suddenly, no eyes at the center of where everything seemed to be happening.
“From radar, the two blips that were together are going down,” Harry Quong said. “Losing them . . . they’re going under my horizon. Looks like they’re landing.”
“Confirmed,” Casey said, in the Angel, in front of Kieran and Mahom.
“What’s that gunship doing?” Kieran asked tensely.
“Climbing, turning . . . oh shit. Coming this way, chief. They’re checking us out.”
Kieran bit his lip, thinking frantically. “Head east,” he told Leppo. “Lead them away from Hamil’s camp. They don’t need to know about that.”
The Angel veered away, but the gunship rose, accelerating onto an interception course. Leppo turned away again. The gunship pursued.
“They’re closing,” Leppo said, consulting a readout.
“Weapon designator scanning!” Casey shouted. “Christ, they’re not fooling!”
“Use your ECM,” Mahom called from behind.
Casey flipped switches feverishly. “Already am . . . Lock on! Pod ejected. Break! Break!” Leppo threw the Angel into a sickening downward turn; an instant later, a plasma bolt flashed by, hissing pink and violet streamers. The Angel climbed; the gunship twisted ten miles back to follow. “They’re lining up for a missile launch,” Casey said.
“You have rear-firing missiles, right?” Kieran said. He had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but the opposition weren’t giving much choice.
“Arming and activating now,” Casey said. “Target acquisition . . . Steady up, baby. That’s it. . . .”
The two craft dipped to go into a high-speed, hide-and-seek chase among the peaks and ravines of the Martian landscape. It was a game of nerves not unlike an old-time pistol duel. Cracking first and missing would let the other close for a virtually clean shot. Kieran had no measure of how skilled Leppo and Casey were. Against a professional military crew, he didn’t care to guess the chances. He felt his throat going dry but said nothing. There was little he could contribute now.
Then Casey threw out another decoy pod, gambling on the momentary confusion it would cause, and announced, “Firing!”
But nothing happened. Instead, a tattoo of malfunction lights appeared on the c-com and flight engineer panels; at the same instant, Kieran felt the limpness in the craft’s responses that came with flight systems losing power. Desperately, Leppo pancaked into a flat, lifeless glide, summoning enough thrust at the last moment to just clear a line of low crags ahead.
“It’s that voltage compensator!” Casey yelled at Leppo. “I told you the boost suppressor needed more smoothing.”
“And I’m telling you it tested out ok—”
Mahom cut in, “Would you two please talk about that later? We’re sitting ducks.”
Which was true. Mustering maybe half power, the Angel clawed its way upward into clear sky. Behind it, the gunship closed for an easy kill. A warning of target designator transmission locking on sounded from Casey’s console. Throttling back to little above stall speed, Leppo ejected a crimson distress flare and flipped his mike to the universal emergency band. “Mayday, mayday. Okay, you’ve got us cold. Our power and weapons are out. We’re dead in the water here. Will follow instructions.”
A gloating voice replied. “Well, that’s too bad. I guess it just ain’t your day. You should have stayed home.”
Casey’s face was dripping perspiration. Leppo looked back at Kieran in a wordless appeal for help. Kieran did the only thing he could. Tilting the cockpit video pickup to point at himself, he looked into it squarely. “Maybe you should check with your bosses before you do anything hasty,” he said. “Yes, recognize me? I’m the person you want. You’ve probably found out already that there’s nobody down there at the camp. I’m all you’ve got. Lose us, and you’ll never know where the money went.”