Eagle in the Sky - Smith Wilbur - Страница 44

• Предыдущая
• 44/90
• Следующая

starboard quarter .  As David pushed the stick fully forward and left he

kicked on full left rudder, ducking under the blast of cannon fire, and

the Mirage went down in a spiralling dive.  The blood which gravity had

sucked from his head was now flung upwards through his body, filling his

head and his vision with bright redness, the red-out of inverted

gravitational force.  A vein in his nose popped under the pressure and

suddenly his oxygen mask was filled with a flood of warm choking blood.

The Russian was after him, following him into the dive, lining him up

for his second burst.

David screamed with the metallic salty taste of blood in his mouth and

hauled back on the stick with all his strength, the nose came up and

over, climbing out of the dive, and again the blood drained from his

head going from red-out to black-out in the fraction of a second and be

saw the Russian following him up, drawn up by the ploy.  At the top

David kicked it out in a breakaway roll.  It caught the Russian, he was

one-hundredth of a second slow in countering and he swung giddily

through David's gunsight, an almost impossible deflection shot that

sluiced cannon fire wildly across the sky, spraying it like water from a

garden hose.  The MIG was in David's sights for perhaps one-tenth of a

second, but in that time David saw a flash of light, a bright wink of it

below the pilot's canopy, and then David rolled and turned out, coming

around hard and finding the Russian still hanging in the circuit, but

losing air space, swaying out with a feather of white vapour streaming

back from below his cockpit canopy.

I've hit him, David exulted, and his fear was gone, become anger again,

a fierce triumphant anger.  He took the Mirage up in another soaring

yo-yo and this time the MIG could not hold station on him and David

flickrolled off the top and came out with the Russian centred in his

gunsight.

He fired a one-second burst and saw the incendiary shells lace in and

burst in quick little stabbing stars in the silver fuselage of the MIG.

The Russian came out of his turn, in a gentle dive, flying straight, no

longer taking evasive action, probably dead at his controls, and David

sat on his tail, and settled the pipper of his gunsight.

He fired another one-second burst and the MIG began to break up.  Small

unidentifiable pieces of wreckage flew back at David, but the Russian

stayed with his machine.

Again David hit him with a two-second burst, and now the MIG's nose sank

until she was in a vertical dive still under full power and she went

down like a silver javelin.  David could not follow her without tearing

off his own wings.  He pulled out and watched the Russian fly into the

earth at a speed that must have exceeded mach 2_ He burst like a bomb in

a tall tower of dust and smoke that stood for long seconds on the brown

plains of Syria.

David shut down his afterburners and looked to his fuel gauges.  They

were all showing only a narrow strip above the empty notch, and David

realized that the last screaming dive after the MIG had taken him

down'to an altitude of five thousand, he was over enemy territory and

too low, much too low.

Expending precious fuel he came around on a westerly heading and went to

interception speed, climbing swiftly out of range of flak and searching

the heavens about him for sign of either Joe or the other MIGs, although

he guessed that the Syrians were either with Allah in the garden of the

Houris, or back home with mother by this time.  Bright Lance Two, this

is leader.  Do you read me? 'Leader, this is Two, Joe's voice answered

him immediately.  have you visual.  In the name of God, get out of

there!  What is my position?  We are fifty miles within Syrian

territory, our course for base is 2 5 O How did you go?  I took out one

of mine.  The other one ran for it, after that I was too busy keeping an

eye on you David blinked his eyes and was surprised to find that sweat

was pouring down his forehead from under his helmet and his mask was

stick and sticky with blood from his nose-bleed.  His arms and shoulders

still ached, and he felt drLmken and light-headed from the effects of

gravity and combat and his hands on the control column were shaky and

weak.

I got two he said, two of the swines, one for Debra, and one for Hannah.

Shut up, Davey, Joe's voice was stiff with tension.  Concentrate on

getting out of here.  You are within range of both flak and ground

missiles.  Light your tail - and let's go.

Negative, David answered him.  I'm low on fuel.

Where are you?

Six o'clock high at 25, 000.  'As he answered, Joe sat up in his seat,

leaning forward against his shoulder straps to watch the tiny wedge

shape of David's machine far below.  it was climbing slowly up to meet

him, slowly too slowly, and low, too low.  David was vulnerable and Joe

was afraid for him, frowning heavily into his face mask and searching

restlessly, sweeping heaven and earth for the first hint of danger.  Two

minutes would see them clear, but they would be two long, slow minutes.

He almost missed the first missile.  The ground crew must have allowed

David to overfly their launch pad before they put it up in pursuit, for

Joe picked up its vapour trail as it streaked in from behind David,

closing rapidly with him.

Missile, break left, Joe yelled into his mask.  Go!  Go!

Go!  and he saw David begin his turn instantly, steeply, side-stepping

the sizzling attack of the missile.

It's lost you!  Joe called, as the missile continued its crazy career

through space, beginning to yaw from side to side as it hunted for a

target and at last bursting in self -destruction.

Keep going, Davey, Joe encouraged him, but keep awake, there will be

more.  They both saw the next one leave the ground from its camouflaged

vehicle.  There was a nest of them on a rocky ridge above a sun-blasted

plain.  The Serpent slid off the rock and lifted into the sky, climbing

rapidly towards David's little machine.

Light your tail, Joe told him, and wait for it!  He watched the missile

boring in, converging with dazzling speed on David's Mirage.

Break right!  Go!  Go!  Go!  Joe yelled and David twisted violently

aside.  Again the Serpent slid past him, over-shooting, but this time

not losing contact and coming around to attack again, its seekers locked

to David's machine.

He's still on you, Joe was screaming now.  Go for the sun, Davey.  Try

for the sun, and the Mirage pointed its nose at the great blazing orb

that burned above the mountain ranges of dark cloud.  The Serpent

followed him upwards, hunting him with the dreadful singlemindedness of

the automaton.  He's on to you, Davey.  Flip out now!  Go!  Go!  Go!

David flicked the Mirage out of her vertical climb, and fell like a

stone, while the Serpent fastened its attention upon the vast infra-red

output from the sun and streaked on towards it, losing the Mirage.

You've lost it.  Get out, Davey, get out!  Joe pleaded with him, but for

the moment the Mirage was helpless.

In her desperate climb for the sun she had lost manoeuvring speed and

was wallowing clumsily now.  It would be many seconds before she became

agile and lithe once more, and by then it would be too late, for Joe saw

the third missile become airborne and dart upwards on its feather of

flame and smoke aiming at David's Mirage.

Joe did not consciously realise what he was going to do until he had

• Предыдущая
• 44/90
• Следующая