"Maloney, Mack - Wingman 07 - Skyfire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maloney Mack)

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But now all of this clutter had been cleared away to make room for a passenger. It was Hunter's plan to be alone in that cockpit when he joined the assault on the mountainside castle.

But he didn't plan to leave alone.

Confident but anxious, Hunter ran his hands through his longish blond hair. There always was a certain amount of nerves before any military operation, but he couldn't remember ever being this jumpy. Sleep had been impossible the night before and the night before that. Instead, he passed the hours by going over the plan of attack from beginning to end, following it through, hundreds of times in his mind.

The key was tiniing. The air strike had to take place just as the combined American and Canadian assault force was beginning their ascent of the mountain. For the first several critical minutes, the assault force would be exposed as they climbed toward the fortress; their survival would depend entirely on the effectiveness of their air cover.

As he watched, the two Seaspray helicopters lifted off and turned westward. The two copters were piloted by his friends, the highly renowned Cobra brothers. Not really brothers, pilots Jesse Tyler and Bobby Crockett and their gunners Max Baxter and John-Boy Hobbs had gained both their fame and their nickname by flying deadly UH-I Cobra gunships.

For today's mission, Tyler and Company were leaving their familiar Cobras behind in favor of the Seasprays, and there was one very important reason for this: the Seasprays were almost totally silent.

Using these remarkable birds to their fullest advantage, the Cobra brothers hoped to get within a few hundred yards of the castle before they were noticed, thus maintaining the element of surprise until the last possible minute.

If their luck held, the Cobras would fly close in to the castle and launch the cannisters that were piled in the rear

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of each Seaspray. Those cannisters were filled with a powdery compound that when mixed with an accelerant became a unique crowd-control gas known as SX-551. In layman's terms it would probably be called "knockout gas."

According to St. Louie's spies, many of the soldiers holding the mountainside fortress were women. Enemies or not, the United American and Canadian commanders didn't relish the idea of killing a castle full of females. So they decided to try the knockout gas, which also increased their chances of capturing Devillian and Sandlake alive, as well as the many other notorious criminals known to be hiding in the castle.

But the strike force knew they wouldn't be able just to put everyone to sleep and waltz into the fortress unchallenged. St. Louie's spies also uncovered evidence that a sizeable group of incorporated mercenaries-known as the Guardians, Inc.-had joined the castle forces. The Guardians called themselves soldiers for hire but really were just killers for hire. Their ranks were of full cutthroats, murderers and Busted Wings, grounded air pirates who just couldn't get wanton killing-for-money out of their systems.

So in addition to the nonlethal knockout gas, the United American aircraft were packing plenty of deadly firepower as well. Both Seasprays were bristling with machine guns, and all of the fighters in the raiding party were equipped with air-to-surface missiles and nose cannons.

For their part, the ground troops were heavily armed with high-powered assault rifles of various designs, HE grenades, and even a few small rocket launchers.

Each soldier was also carrying a gas mask.

The two Seasprays vanished over the horizon and then ten tense, uneventful minutes passed. Finally, at exactly 0615, the Star fighters gunned their engines and rolled into position for takeoff. Piloting them were J.T. Twomey and Ben Wa, two of Hunter's closest friends. They had flown

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with him in the Thunderbirds before the Big War, and had served at his side throughout the United Americans' struggle to reclaim their continent. After Hunter, they were probably the most skilled fighter pilots in America.

Following the Starfighters into the sky were the two F-4's, also carrying some of Hunter's friends: the fighter team known as the Ace Wrecking Company, commanded by the bold and colorful Captain "Crunch" O'Malley and his partner, the somewhat enigmatic pilot known as Elvis Q. The rest of the pilots were volunteers from the UA's various air squadrons.

Within the preplanned time frame of exactly ninety-two seconds, all of the fighters were airborne. Hunter watched as the last Thunderchief disappeared in the western sky. Slowly, he climbed into the Harrier. He still had several minutes to kill and he knew they would pass slowly. For this unusual plan called for the raid on the castle to be underway before he arrived.

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Chapter Three

At the base of the mountain, still hidden in the edge of the forest, the soldiers of the combined assault force anxiously scanned the skies to the east for the first sign of the Seasprays. It was 0645.

Suddenly, the two helicopters appeared, not out on the horizon but directly overhead.