"Maloney, Mack - Wingman 02 - The Circle War UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maloney Mack)

where, horribly cut up. Some missing arms, legs, heads. They were in really bad shape. So bad even the timber wolves wouldn't eat them. Just like the guardsmen, we couldn't bury them, so we burned them instead."

Vogel paused for a drink from his coffee cup.

"Then we flew back to the outpost," he went on. "By that time, our guys had found the rest of the guardsmen. Or what was left of them. They were all thrown into a pile about a half mile from the place. They were also badly cut up Чno arms, heads. Dis-embowelments.

"We burned them, too. Then it started snowing, so we had to pull out."

Jones took a healthy swig from his whiskey-laced coffee.

"Any of your guys see any tracks out there, lieutenant, horses or otherwise?" the general asked.

"No sir," Vogel answered. "But, like I said, it was starting to snow pretty hard. Anything would have been covered up."

Jones thought for a moment, then turned to Hunter. "Raiders, Hawk?" he asked.

"Could be," Hunter answered. "But I doubt it. Too messy. The ones we've dealt with like to come in quietly and fade away. The less commotion for them, the better."

"Could be someone new to the neighborhood," Dozer said, speaking for the first time.

"Anything is possible, I guess," Hunter said, swigging his own laced coffee.

"Well this beats the shit out of me," Jones said, refilling his cup with both Java and booze. "Okay,

27

Hawk, your turn."

Hunter turned back to the frozen video frame.

"As you all know, this is the video I shot the other day," he began. "For my own peace of mind, I'm glad to say that it does show something was out there."

He pushed a button and the video started rolling. It began as Hunter's U-2 descended through the storm clouds and into the blizzard-swept valley. The heat sources could clearly be seen at the end of the fuzzy outline of the gorge.

As the U-2 drew closer, the heat source started to become defined. Soon it was clear the heat was coming from many separate shapes. The two lines of fighters, plus the igloo building and the radar dish came into view. Then, two figures could be seen, the heat sensitive video giving them the look of garish red ghosts. Two more figures could be seen running out into the snow and aiming a SAM launcher at the jet.

Then, just as the camera passed over its closest to the jet fighters, Hunter hit the video's SLO-MO button. He zoomed in on the image. Sure enough, everyone could see the side of a bluish jet, with the unmistakable red star with yellow boarder emblem of the Soviet Union.

"Now that's the best image that we have so far," Hunter told the group, freezing the frame on the video. "We have some guys at the photo recon lab working on it with computer enhancement. But it's a slow process. So they tell me it will still be a few days before we can reach any conclusions on what type of Soviet jet we're dealing with here."

Jones looked at the screen and then spoke the

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words that were on everyone's lips: "Amazing," he said.

The meeting broke up after a short time later. Hunter and Dozer saw Jones back to his airplane. The General would return to his PAAC San Diego base and brief his top officers there. But before he left, both he and Hunter agreed that the incidents that were discussed at the meeting should all be considered top secret for the time being.

After Jones's airplane took off, Hunter and Dozer retreated to the base bar for the first of several rounds of drinks.