Wingman (32 page)

Talk about mind over matter, Hunter thought.

The Mid-Ak soldiers quickly did the same as their officer thumbed them back into the APC.

"Get that smelly piece of shit out of here, pronto!" he screamed at Russ and Stitch as the APC belched a cloud of black smoke and lurched away. "I don't want it here when I come back this way."

"Try our best," Russ said, with a smile and a wave.

Once the vehicle was out of sight, Russ and Stitch climbed back inside the Stallion to a muted round of applause from the strike force.

"Pig grease?" Hunter asked them, smiting. "What the hell is pig grease?"

"Beats the shit out of me," Russ shrugged, settling back down on his seat. "Closest I've ever been to a pig is eating bacon and eggs."

As the sun began to set, anticipation began to rise aboard the chopper. Each man checked his black combat jump suit for ammo, hand grenades and the other necessities of hand-to-hand combat. Hunter looked around the interior of the craft. The assault troops were ready, helmets on, faces blackened, guns loaded. The chopper crew was ready, the pilot rechecking his instruments, the copilot fine-tuning the radar, the gunners lovingly patting their muzzles and testing their computer terminals.

Hunter checked the sun, then gave a thumbs-up signal to the pilot. The mighty rotors on the chopper began to turn, slowly at first, then gaining momentum. Soon, they were a blur of speed. The helicopter started to shake slightly, then whine as the engine came up to speed.

Hunter shook each man's hand then nodded to the pilot. The chopper jerked once, then slowly ascended into the air.

Twenty miles off the coast of Boston, the two smaller Cobra gunships were streaking inland. They passed several ships who paid them no mind. Soon the outline of the city was visible. The sun was setting down in back of the skyscrapers which marked the downtown. At the entrance to the harbor proper. Cousin One waved to his partner and peeled off toward the skyscrapers. Cobra two stayed over the water, soon picking up the twists and turns of the Mystic River tributary which connected the city to the Atlantic Ocean. Up ahead, using his infrared view-scope in the twinkling light of twilight, he could see his target-a large, orange fuel tank with the letters BOSTON

GAS fading on its side. A ship was docked close by, its igloo-like compartments marking it as a LNG tanker. He thought he could make out an East European flag flying above it. "All the better," he smiled, as he pushed his MISSILE WAITING button on the fire control panel.

Meanwhile the other Cobra was up and over the city, heading for the Government Building. The square, 52-story bluish structure that still had the name of its former owners-Prudential-painted on its peak. Below, the Cobra Brother could see the streetlights of the city burning away, some traffic on the roads, mostly military, and a few people ambling down the main streets. There were SAM sites located throughout the area, as well as AA guns. But amazingly enough, no one paid any attention to his bright red chopper as it made its way across the sky above the city.

He put the Cobra into a wide orbit high above the Government Building and waited.

It didn't take long until he saw the familiar Sea Stallion heading toward him. A blink of the Stallion's landing lights was the signal he needed. He armed his TOW missiles and fired a short, test burst of his cannons. The waiting was over.

Hunter was squeezed into the cockpit of the big chopper as it approached the helipad atop the skyscraper. There was a token force of guards out on the roof. Hunter could see the charred remains of the rooftop communication shack that Jones had ordered destroyed the day the 'Aks first moved on Boston. Fifty-two stories below, he could see several Huey gunships, parked on the plaza next to the building. His memory of blasting the Mid-Aks' main helicopter force at Otis raced through his mind. "Must have missed a couple," he thought.

The Stallion was now hovering above the helipad, the Mid-Ak guards looking on impassively. Choppers probably touched down and took off from the building several times a day. There was no central flight control. Helicopters just came and went. The guards looked on the Stallion as just another visitor-although, as helicopters go, a fairly grubby one.

The Stallion brazenly set down. The assault troops were up and ready, fingers on triggers, eyes on the helipad door which they knew led down to the interior of the building. A Mid-Ak guard ducked as he ran over to the side of the chopper. Hunter slid the cargo door back. The soldier, expecting to see an interior as unkempt as the exterior of the craft, stood dumbfounded for an instant as he took in the banks of blinking computer lights, the three Gatling guns poised at the chopper windows and the 25 heavily armed Troopers bracing to leap out of the aircraft.

"What the hell is going on here . . ." the guard said, reaching for his pistol.

They were the last words he ever spoke. The nearest trooper pointed his M-16 at the man's forehead and squeezed off a shot. The guard's head exploded like a bloody egg.

"This is it!" Hunter said as he was the first to jump off the chopper. The other guards still looked confused as the assault Troopers poured off the Stallion The 'Aks were cut down before they ever knew what was going on, the racket of the Stallion's blades and engine drowning out the noise of the assault team's rifles.

In a matter of seconds, the top of the roof was clear of Mid-Aks. The entire strike force was off the ship and most were gathered around the door which led down into the building. Others were at pre-determined station points around the roof, serving as lookouts. Off to the left, Hunter could see Cobra Brother II sweeping in to strafe the street below.

The strike force stood frozen, looking to him for the signal to move. He looked at his watch.

"5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... now!" One second later, the sky to the north of them opened up. It appeared as if a geyser of bright red, fiery blood had suddenly boiled up from the nearby river and splattered to all sides. The sounds of the explosion came next, an incredible booming noise. A shock wave hit the building that very nearly knocked some of the Troopers off their feet. Holding on in the hurricane-like wind, they strained to watch a huge mushroom of fire shoot straight up into the sky. The whole building shook as if it would crumble. The city was suddenly lit again as if it were high noon.

"Holy Christ!" Hunter whispered. Obviously, Cobra Brother II had fulfilled his mission.

"Go! Go! Go!" Hunter heard himself yelling and it was no sooner said than done.

The helipad door was blown open and the strike force was pouring inside. Below, the Cobra I started his first strafing run. Hunter could hear the confusion begin in the street as he followed the Troopers through the door.

Digger Foxx fell off his bed when the LNG tank six miles away went up. He was one of the captured ZAP pilots who had spent the last seven months locked in the same room, an office-like affair located on the 48th floor. He had heard the helicopter come in, but had paid it no mind. Choppers were constantly shuttling 'Ak officials on and off the top of the building. This one sounded no different. He had just pushed aside the evening's slop of a meal and was drifting off to sleep when the gas explosion occurred.

He quickly picked himself up off the floor and wiped a cut that had opened on his forehead. The building seemed to be swaying. He looked out the window only to see the blinding flash of the LNG going up. He was certain it was a nuclear bomb and he expected in the next moment to be swept away in the winds of the atomic blast. Good!

he thought. At least I'll take all of these fucking 'Aks with me.

Suddenly, the door burst open. Digger expected either to see a Mid-Ak executioner or the Grim Reaper. Instead, the face in the door was familiar.

"Hunter!" Foxx yelled. "What the hell . . . ?"

"Digger, old boy," Hunter said, smiting. "We've come to spring you."

Then he was gone. Foxx could see the corridor was filled with heavily armed, black suited soldiers. He could hear gunfire further down the hall, and the noise of doors being broken down.

A trooper stopped at his door long enough to yell to him: "Get your ass up to the roof, pal!"

Foxx didn't have to be told twice. He was out the door and bounding up the steps in a matter of seconds.

On the street below, Mid-Ak functionaries and soldiers were hugging for cover as the bright red Cobra gunship turned to make another strafing past. Cobra Brother I had already destroyed six troop trucks and one of the Huey gunships parked in the building's plaza. His missiles spent, he zoomed back down to street level and pulled a lever simply labeled FIRE. The front of the insect-like Cobra grew a long flickering tongue of flame. He slowed the ship up to a hover and, spinning in a tight, quick 360-degree circle, he set everything and everyone in range on fire.

He lifted himself out of the circle of fire and roared off, turned and returned to puncture the street with cannon fire again. The Cobra made six passes before anyone started shooting back.

Mid-Ak soldiers inside the Government Building recovered from the initial shock and started flooding up to the top floors. They were met by the assault force at the 47th floor lobby and a fierce gun battle broke out. Most of the pilots were released by this time-20 in all-plus some of the monkeys and MPs that were being held. The rescued were herded up to the helipad and packed aboard the waiting Sea Stallion.

Hunter was everywhere during the firefight. Shooting it out with the 'Aks in the 47th floor lobby, helping the wounded to the upper stories, even breaking out a window to shoot at a surprised 'Ak gun crew on the building next door.

By now Mid-Ak forces on the outside were starting to react. Antiaircraft crews were unlocking their guns, thinking that with the intensity of the flame from the gas explosion and the strafing of the Cobra, that a full scale air raid was under way. The gun crews, two located on a skyscraper directly across the street from the Government House, began opening up at random, shooting at what they thought were aircraft passing over. When they realized they were shooting at ghosts they turned their attention to the hand-to-hand fighting that was raging on the top floors of the Government Building and clearly visible through the windows of the building.

The officer of one of the gun crews realized that the helicopter with its engine running on top of the building wasn't a Mid-Ak aircraft at all. He ordered his crew to turn the gun around and start blasting away. Other gunners were now also keying in on the top of the building. Two searchlights went up, their lazing beams highlighting the huge Sea Stallion chopper.

The gun crew officer was certain that his crew would zero in on the intruding chopper and blast it off the top of the building. But he heard a strange whirring noise behind him. When he turned to look, he was staring down the barrel of a flame tube on the nose of the Cobra gunship. He saw a spit of flame leap out of the muzzle then was aware that his clothes and those of his gun crew were suddenly engulfed in flames. He could clearly see the face of the helicopter pilot. It looked grim, fierce, determined.

The next instant, he felt the sensation of his face melting away. There was no pain.

He passed from life to death so quickly, his nerve endings were dispatched before the sensory messages reached the brain. A moment later he was little more than a pile of cinders blowing high above the streets of Boston.

The assault force located and freed the remaining ZAP monkeys and MPs. Then, their work done, the Troopers started slowly moving back up toward the roof. Explosive experts left behind powerful delayed reaction bombs in their wake. All of the pilots and liberated prisoners were soon aboard the Stallion. Hunter would be glad later that he supercharged the engines, as there were nearly 80 people jammed into the Stallion's cabin.

Meanwhile, the Wingman and a force of six troopers were holding off a large force of Mid-Aks on the observation deck of the building. The deck was lit by ultra-violet light, giving a dark spooky feeling to the place. Tracer bullets flew back and forth as Hunter's small group pinned down the 'Aks with a continuous stream of fire. It was only when he was certain that all the prisoners were free and aboard the Stallion that he began moving up toward the roof himself.

The second Cobra had sped to the scene and was now adding fire to the conflagration that was the street below. Both small ships weaved back and forth, taking out AA guns that threatened the Sea Stallion, while continually strafing anything that moved near the Government Building.

Hunter finally reached the top floor, flipped his last grenade down the stairwell and bolted out onto the roof. The Sea Stallion was hovering by this time, Troopers in the doorway were waving him along.. The side gunners were blasting away with their M61

cannons at the Mid-Ak gun positions on the roofs around the Government Building. Bullets seemed to be flying everywhere as Hunter zigzagged across the helipad toward the chopper.

Suddenly, out of the night, yet another helicopter appeared. It was a Huey troop carrier, ferrying troops to the scene of the action. Its pilot, already committed to landing, was attempting to set the chopper down on the helipad just next to where the Sea Stallion hovered waiting to take off.

Someone aboard the Stallion pushed a button and all three of the GE Galling guns locked onto the Mid-Ak chopper. Another button was pushed just as the first Mid-Ak troops were jumping off the Huey even as it was still five feet above the helipad. The Gatling guns opened up with their strange, buzzing sound and instantly cut the Huey into two sections. Half the ship came crashing down onto the helipad, its rotor spinning wildly, chopping up the troops that had just leaped from the stricken craft. The tail section of the Huey, its rear stabilizing propeller still swirling, went flying off the side of the building, plunging along its side and into a crowd of Mid-Ak troops below.