Joe guessed that was one way to look at it. If both planes went full lawn dart mode, the rest of Ahab’s plot would be foiled. It was something, though Joe wouldn’t necessarily call it a win.
As they passed through five thousand feet, another alarm went off, but neither Kurt nor Joe bothered to look for the source. With the aircraft shaking almost uncontrollably, they passed through four thousand and on down.
Saber One grew closer and closer until it filled the windshield. And then, with a suddenness that suggested the plane had been yanked skyward by a giant string, it vanished from sight. Its tail-heavy condition had allowed it to flip the nose skyward with surprising agility.
Its pilot had had enough.
Joe followed suit, figuring this was their chance. He grunted as he pulled back on the control column. The old plane shuddered, threatening to break apart. Its wings leveled quickly, but even then its momentum continued to carry it downward like a car hydroplaning toward a guardrail.
With agonizing sluggishness, the descent slowed and then stopped. They were flying at a height of two or three hundred feet now, and heading directly for the spine of a jagged hill, which threatened to cut the plane in half.
Joe rolled the wings to the right, flipping the plane onto its side for a brief second. The belly of the aircraft missed the mountaintops like a matador avoiding the horns of an angry bull. Joe snapped thewing back down and continued on, trying once more to cut under Ahab’s plane.
Though it had pulled out of the crash dive, Saber One had still come down to the deck, just at a more controlled pace. It was now racing along at an absurdly low altitude.
Joe chased it once more, locking in behind it as both planes thundered across the undulating hills, heading overland across the Chinese countryside.
“No more room to get under him now,” Joe said dejectedly. “Not sure we can catch him, either. At least we’ve brought him down from the stratosphere. At this altitude, the laser might have an unobstructed range of ten to twenty miles. And that’s if a mountain doesn’t pop up in the way. They can’t hit the premier’s plane from here.”
“One small victory,” Kurt said.
The data link chirped, a message popped up. It came from Rudi.Our jets are turning back. Chinese forces mobilizing nationwide. No response to attempted contact. President asks that you do what you can.
It was a second victory, Kurt thought. Or part of one. Though the Chinese mobilization could turn it all into a defeat, and they still had to prevent Ahab from wiping out the Chinese air force or pivoting to whatever alternate target he and the Yellow Tigers deemed worthy of destruction.
“Stay in behind him,” Kurt said. “I’m going to rattle his cage.”
Chapter 68
Aboard Saber One, Ahab fumed at the disruptions to his plan. He seethed at being thrown around the cockpit as the pilot whipped the big plane about. The near fatal nosedive had ended only as he’d ordered the pilot to pull up. The premier’s plane was now out of range.
He wondered to himself how his plan had gone so far off the rails.
As if in an answer to his question the cockpit radio squawked for all of them to hear. A confident, cocky, and irritating voice came over the airwaves and through the speakers.
“That was a fun ride,” Kurt Austin’s unmistakable tone announced. “But it’s over now. Time to get off the roller coaster.”
Ahab was as shocked to hear Austin’s voice as Kurt had been to hear and see Ahab on the video aboard the C-17.
“Despite wanting to shoot you out of the sky,” Austin continued, “our Air Force turned back before they crossed into Chinese airspace. Which means your future is to die at the hands of the Chinese or end up as their prisoners.”
Listening to Austin, Ahab slammed his fist on the panel in frontof him. The screens around him flickered and blinked. “How could this be?”
The rage he felt was uncontrollable. Austin had found him again. Was hunting him again. And though Ahab was in possession of the most powerful weapon on earth, he still could not strike Austin down.
“To the Yellow Tigers,” Austin continued. “I understand your desire to defend your island, but this will not help. You might as well turn around and head for Taipei, unless you prefer the idea of Chinese prison over one in Taiwan.”
Chen looked at Ahab with an expression that suggested defeat. Finding no solace in Ahab’s angry face, he looked past Ahab to the weapons specialist. “Any sign of the premier’s aircraft?”
The specialist had been watching the radar. “It was there for a second. But we dove too quickly.”
Chen looked at their benefactor. “The American is right,” he said. “We’ve failed. We should turn back.”
“No,” Ahab snapped. The feeling of being trapped in his own scheme was almost too much to bear. He needed a way out. A way to reignite the fire.
“The premier may be out of our reach,” he said, “but the high command will still be gathered at the control hub. If Saber Two won’t take it out, we can. A thousand videos of an American aircraft destroying their station will be impossible to deny. The Chinese people will never believe it wasn’t American treachery. Survivors in the high command will demand retribution. The premier will be afraid of looking weak. We can still light the fire.”
“We can do great damage to the aboveground buildings,” Chen said. “But the laser will not be effective against the hardened bunker.”
