Turbulence (Stone Barrington #46)(72)
“Do you mean, it’s possible that it could be detonated?”
“Anything is possible,” Lance said. “We’ll know soon enough. Good luck.” He hung up.
Stone put the satphone into his pocket. He looked back toward the airfield. He couldn’t see the chopper’s running lights, but they wouldn’t be using them, in the circumstances. The sound of the rotor was getting louder.
“Philip,” Stone said, “how far is Salisbury Plain?”
“Not far,” the duke replied.
58
THE DUKE STARTED to put the windows up, but Stone stopped him. “I want to be able to hear the helicopter,” he said, placing his head near the open window. A rising pane caught his ear. “Ow!” Stone said.
“Sorry, but if there’s an explosion around here, wouldn’t you rather be behind armored glass?”
“You have a point,” Stone said, rubbing his ear. “But I can’t hear it now.”
“Hearing it won’t help,” the duke reminded him. “Avoiding it will.” He picked up a telephone. “As fast as you like, Herbert,” he said.
Herbert nodded and floored the Bentley.
A streak of light shot across the sky, and for a moment, Stone saw the helicopter by its light. It was turning left, toward them. “Copter at two o’clock,” he said.
“The fucker missed it!” the duke shouted. “What do they have up there, student pilots?”
“Their radar and the missile’s guidance system should have brought it down,” Stone said.
“That’s if it has a guidance system,” the duke said. “It may be a training missile, in which case it’s like shooting skeet: You have to swing through the target to lead it.”
“I hope the kid shoots skeet,” Stone muttered.
“I hope he’s got the chopper on his radarscope,” the duke said. “In fact, I hope he’s got radar.”
“If it’s a trainer, it would certainly have radar,” Stone replied. “What else would they train him on? I hope that kid saw the chopper turn left.”
Another missile streaked past them, on pretty much the same course.
“He did not see the chopper turn,” the duke said.
Stone dug out the satphone and called Lance.
“I’m very busy,” Lance said.
“Not as busy as we are. Are you within shouting distance of whoever’s controlling those two fighters?”
“Yes, and we have them on radar.”
“Do you have the helicopter on radar?”
“I . . . I’m unable to say.”
“Well, you might tell the controllers that two missiles have missed the thing, and it has turned left, toward the east. They might tell the other pilot that before he fires his missiles at nothing.”
“Hold on.” Lance began shouting at somebody, then he came back.
“They think the helicopter might have radar-avoiding paint.”
“It’s a fucking executive helicopter!” Stone shouted, in spite of himself. “A civilian chopper!”
“Perhaps it’s been altered for the occasion,” Lance said calmly.
“How many more missiles have the planes got?”
“Two more,” Lance replied. “They had expected to take out the chopper with the first. Gotta run.” He hung up.
“They’ve got two more missiles,” Stone said. “Herbert, can you see the chopper?”
“It just flew across my path, going in a westerly direction.”
“The chopper pilot is zigzagging,” Stone said.
“A smart pilot would expect that,” the duke ventured.
“A smart pilot would have already shot it down,” Stone replied.
Another missile streaked past the car.
“Closer!” the duke said.
“I don’t see any airplanes,” Stone said, looking out the window. “Why don’t they close on the chopper? If they can’t see it on radar, maybe their controller can.”
“Maybe not, if it has that paint,” Kelly said.
Another missile crossed the sky.
“It hit nothing,” Kelly said. “Now what?”
“They could ram it,” the duke said.
“If they could see it,” Stone replied.
Then another kind of streaks occurred.
“Tracers!” the duke cried. “They’re firing machine guns!”
“There’s another burst,” Stone said. “Surely, the chopper pilot can see the burning ship and won’t go there.” He called Lance again.
“What?”
“All four missiles missed,” Stone said.
“Don’t you think we know that?”
“They’re firing their machine guns now.”
“We know that, too!”
“Do you know that the chopper pilot can see the burning ship in the Channel?”
“How would you know that?”
“Because I can see the fucking thing, and I’m on the ground!” Stone shouted.
59
TWICE MORE THE HELICOPTER flew within sight of the Bentley, then disappeared into the darkness. The tracers always to seemed to be aimed at the wrong place.