"William W Johnstone - Ashes 22 - Chaos in the Ashes (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Johnstone William W)

"They have SAMs, they have SAMs," Corrie said, as

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soon as the pilots' words crackled through her headphones.

"Any planes hit?" Ben asked.

"Negative. No hits."

The souped-up version of the old P-51, now called the P-51E, which made
up a large part of Ben's air force, usually came in right on the deck,
rendering SAMs all but useless against them. The pilots came in so low,
by the time the SAM was readied and fired, the planes were gone and out
of range, flying at about 550 mph, tops. The pilots seemed to thrive on
the danger of it, which did not come as any surprise to Ben. He thought
all combat pilots to be half nuts anyway.

It would have amazed Ben to learn that most combat pilots thought
themselves to be a hell of a lot safer where they were than where Ben
was, and they thought Ben was half bonkers for taking the chances he
took on the ground.

"Corrie, have we received any further word on President Blanton's
condition?"

"Negative, boss."

"His staff?"

"Only that first confirmation that most of them were killed during the
first hours of looting. It was rumored that a few got away. But that's
still just a rumor."

Ben knew that Mike Richards had gotten a few people into the Charleston
area. They had reported back that the city was a shambles. The looters
and other equally vile and worthless street slime had gone crazy when
all order had broken down.

"We'll call that a dead city," Ben had said, after hearing the dismal
news about the sacking of the nation's capital. "When we rebuild the
capital, it won't be there.

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William W.Johnstone

If I have anything to say about the rebuilding, and I strongly suspect I