Wings of Steele - Destination Unknown (Book 1) by Jeffrey Burger Page A

The two Hornets quickly
closed the gap, approaching the B25 from behind and above. Ten
minutes passed.

    ■ ■ ■

    Maria
stuck her head into the cockpit between Jack and Brian. "I've
been getting
a tremendous amount of interference on the scope and nav systems,
but there seems to be a weather front ahea..." It was at that
moment she glanced up and gazed through the moisture streaked
cockpit windshield. "Saint Mary..." she whispered, "it's
even bigger than I thought..." She realized they were headed
straight for it, which made a chill run through her body. She rubbed
the goose bumps off her arms. "You're not going through that,
are you?" It was more of a statement than a question.
    Jack
never fond of discussing his decisions once he'd made them,
especially when he
was unsure of the outcome himself. "You got a better idea?"
    "Going around
it ,
immediately comes to mind!" she said, waving her
hand expressively.
    Not
that he was truly pissed, but his voice and composure turned to a
controlled calm,
he spoke in a low, controlled voice. " Well. ..
thanks to yo ur
fucking buddy Paulo and the keystone cops, we had to make a hot
exit ,
not to mention changing routes. We don't have the fuel to go around it."
    Brian
remained silent, he knew better than to intervene. Besides, Jack
was right, if not for her, they wouldn't be in this mess... or would
they? He decided, he would have to think on that some more. Maria
returned silently to the navigator's table, tears of frustration burning
in her eyes. She hated to cry and fought her emotions. Right then
she hated him. She cut herself off in mid thought, wiping the tears
from her eyes to focus on the radar screen. At the age of
twenty-five, she still hadn't learned to fully control her emotions.
    " JAAACK !"
The scream took him by surprise, a quick glance told him the
copilot too. The frantic girl stumbled over the dog as she scrambled
back through the cockpit opening. "Jack..." she was
breathless and as white as a ghost, "two bogies, moving fast!"
    Bogies?
The thought that flashed through his mind was that it was a military
term... He decided he didn't have time for contemplation right now
and put the thought aside. "Where?"
he fired at her.
    "Directly
behind and high, about two thousand feet up, twenty miles out
and closing."
    "What
do we do?" asked Brian, jumping in.
    "I
don't know..." he turned back to Maria. "How fast?"
    She
shook her head, "Real fast! About triple our speed!"
    "That's
around Mach One! Shit, shit, shit!" he said in a growl,
pounding his
fist on the control yoke. "They gotta' be military, damn!"
    "Kinda
rules out runnin' huh?"
    Jack
looked at Brian. "Yeah, I would think so, unless you have a jet
engine hidden up your sleeve."
    Brian
shrugged. “Think they're ours?”
    Steele
shook his head, “Doesn't matter whose they are, it's still
probably bad news for us...”
    Maria
went back to the scope. She was having a hard time reading the
radar because of the distortion on the screen from the storm. "The
scope... I can't find them... Wait! There they are. They're about a
mile out, they're just pacing us now... damn this interference!"
She tried to adjust her avionics. "Sorry, I just lost them
again."
    "See
if you can tell what they are, or who they are." Jack
envisioned being
shot down without warning, and if that was the case, he preferred to
go down fighting, no matter how futile the effort. "Ok, don't
panic, we still don't know what they want," he said, rubbing
his chin in thought. "Maybe they're just curious... I hope."

    ■ ■ ■

    They
could see it now, quite clearly in fact. There was no mistaking
that twin tail section. They had found the B25.
    "Ok
Mad Dog, reduce speed I want to hang back here for a bit."
    "Roger,
Pappy." Mike eased the throttle back to stay in formation with
his wing leader.
    Smiley
switched frequencies. "Blue One to STC, we have a positive
visual contact with the B25."
    "STC...
Roger that, Blue One. Good job. Proceed with caution, we will