lated body. And Elliott now was describing the two operatives
almost perfectly. Vilizherchev decided he had been caught in a
neatly arranged trap. To use the American vernacular-he'd been
set up.
But, again according to Kalinin, a trace of the mortars used
in the attack should have revealed that they were Belgian in
origin, not Soviet. They had never been consigned to anyone
remotely connected with Russia until they were turned over to
the two operatives by a dealer in the Dominican Republic days
before the operation was to begin . . . Unless there'd been a
terrific foul-up, Elliott was just talking to provoke him into re-
acting, showing his hand . . .
"I would like to see your report on those men and those weap-
ons," Vilizherchev said.
"And we would like to see Kenneth James," Elliott said.
"It can be arranged very soon. I have been in contact with-"
"And I want the modification process discontinued on the
aircraft," Elliott added.
"Modification?"
Elliott hit one button on the remote control he held in his
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 311
hand. The digital videotape cued itself to the preprogrammed
point and the screen flared to life, showing the last clear image
of DreamStar taken from Cheetah. The picture clearly showed
access panels open, the fuel tanks in position under DreamStar's
wings, and jacks supporting DreamStar in position. Vilizherchev
studied the image.
"Thank you, sir, for verifying that it was an American aircraft
that violated our restricted airspace," Vilizherchev said.
"Thank you for verifying that you have the aircraft and that
you are in fact destroying something that is not your property,"
Elliott shot back.
The film was a surprise as well-Kalinin had not mentioned
anything about a reconnaissance film of such detail. "The air-
craft was heavily armed when it arrived at our airbase. Since it
is obviously an unusual aircraft with systems and devices un-
known to us, a thorough examination was necessary to verify
that the aircraft posed no threat to our people. Otherwise, im-
mediate disposal would have been called for."
"I'll be happy to supply you with personnel to ensure that the
aircraft is safe," Elliott said quickly.
"That will not be necessary. Our technicians are well quali-
fied to- II
"The bottom line is that the aircraft is not your property, it
belongs to the U. We want it back immediately."
"I'm afraid that's impossible, General," Vilizherchev said,
surprised that the President or one of his advisers wasn't step-
ping in. He turned away from Elliott and back to the President.
"I trust you understand, sir, that a complete investigation must
be conducted. The aircraft is material evidence in that investi-
gation. We simply can't release it until the investigation has
been completed."
Silence. Elliott was being left to carry the ball, for the mo-
ment. "That sounds like a dodge to me, Mr. Ambassador,"
Elliott said.
Vilizherchev's cool was wearing thin. "We have procedures
that must be followed in serious matters such as this, just as you
do. Let me assure this distinguished gathering that at the end of
our investigation all property belonging to the United States will
be returned- "
"Including James?" Deborah O'Day said.
312 DALE BROWN
"If he chooses to live in the Soviet Union, he will probably
be allowed, just as you-"
"You still expect us to believe that James isn't a Russian
spy?" Elliott said angrily.
"That's enough, General Elliott," the President said, decid-
ing the two had played out as much as was useful. "Mr. Am-
bassador, do you have any other message from. your
government? "
the overflight of our base in Nicaragua, and we understand why
you shot down our supply helicopter in Mexico. But I have tried
to assure you that this aircraft intruded on our territory without
our knowledge and that, we must conduct an investigation to
determine the facts. We expect no interference while this inves-
tigation is underway. We ask only for your patience. But we
cannot, of course, tolerate any hostile or coercive acts. I remind
you again that it was your aircraft and your pilot that intruded
on our base and our ally's sovereign borders. You must at least
recognize our right to determine the truth."
President Taylor moved forward in his chair, leaned on the
conference table. "Now you give this message to the General
Secretary, Mr. Vilizherchev. I don't like threats, however dip-
lomatically put. I don't like being told what to do, especially by
someone who has our property. You are in no position to make
demands on us."
Elliott was encouraged by these opening remarks, but they
stopped quickly as the President continued: "I do, however,
understand your request for a period of time to conduct an in-
vestigation and I will allow it .
Elliott rushed in. "Mr. President
". . . On one condition, Mr. Ambassador," the President
went on, looking at Elliott out of the comer of his eye. "If your
government guarantees me that the aircraft you hold will not be
moved out of its present location, we will take no action against
you for a period of five days. After that time we will take im-
mediate steps to recover our property, including the use of naval,
marine, and air forces. Clear, Mr. Ambassador?"
Vilizherchev paused. It was incredible-Kalinin apparently had
actually got something right this tiny. The Americans did not
want to precipitate a war over this aircraft. The other stuff was
It
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 313
face-saving "I will need to confer with my government
about your proposal, sir. "
"Agreed. But the five-day timetable starts now. if we do not
have our aircraft back in five days, we'll go in and get it. I'll
expect your government's reply in the morning. Good night, Mr.
Vilizherchev." Vilizhe'rchev stood, made a polite but impatient
bow to the President, and left. Cesare showed himout.
"Mr. President," Elliott said, "you can't give them five days.
We can't afford to give them five hours."
"General Elliott, if I can get the Soviets to agree to keep
DreamStar in the western hemisphere, and avoid hostilities at
the same time, I consider that an accomplishment. Considering
the situation I've been placed in." He rubbed his eyes irritably,
then pounded the armrest of his chair. "I've considered a mili-
tary action each time you've presented your arguments, Brad,
each time, and I always come back to this: we would lose the
aircraft, the Russians would score a major propaganda coup and
it would be political suicide for this administration. That's even
supposing that we destroyed the thing on the ground. If we lost
some of our soldiers or flyers in the pr
ocess, or failed to destroy
the aircraft, it would look even worse for us. A military response
is just a no-win situation."
"Sir, we've proved that the Soviets are planning to fly
DreamStar out of Nicaragua. Just because we've heard from Vil-
izherchev doesn't mean that they've changed their minds. They
can make a deal with us and then go right ahead with their plans.
We need to act, Mr. President."
Elliott, the President thought, was relentless. Twenty-four
hours earlier this guy was on the edge of a dishonorable dis-
charge. Tonight he was interrupting senior Cabinet members,
calling a credentialed ambassador a liar, and trying to negotiate
with the President of the United States. Still, or maybe because
of all that, and despite Benson's warning, he was starting to
respect, maybe even like, this veteran Air Force officer. But the
man was too ready to hit out with military force. He had no
conception of the political realities involved. Generals rarely did.
"I have to disagree, General, at least for now. Brad, the truth
here is that we have few realistic options. I just feel the reper-
cussions of an offensive against the Russians would be far worse
than the loss of this aircraft, no matter how advanced it is. Let's
at least wait to see what their reaction to my proposal is."
r
314 DALE BROWN
"I'm not suggesting an offensive, sir. My concern right now
is that they'll go ahead with their plans to take DreamStar out
of Nicaragua-that this visit by Vilizherchev was just a smoke-
screen to get us to relax and drop any plans to retake DreamStar.
While we wait for a response from the Soviets, DreamStar could
be on its way to Russia, and then we would have no recourse
except to begin negotiations all over again. That could drag
for weeks, even months-as long as it took to export the XF-
one could interrupt, Elliott continued: "I have a plan, sir, to set
up a very small-scale air cordon in the Caribbean-very small,
unobtrusive, easily managed but effective. The plan revolves
around one AWACS radar plane based out of San Juan, with
fighter escort, to cover the eastern Caribbean, and one AWACS
operating overwater out of Honduras to cover the northern and
western Caribbean. "
"Why couldn't DrearriStar just blast its way out like it blasted
its way into Nicaragua, General? " Stuart asked. "You said thi
XF-34 can fly rings around any other fighter in our inventory. @f
we put a radar plane and a few fighters right in its way, what Is
to stop it ' from shooting them down?"
"If the Soviets fit those external tanks to DreamStar, she won't
be in nearly as good condition to fight," Elliott said. He sounded
more optimistic than he felt-he was in the realm of pure spec-
ulation now. "DreamStar's wings weren't designed for external
fuel tanks. My guess is that a small interceptor group can defeat
DreamStar in this situation-at least the odds would be nearly
even . . . "
"But your plan still calls for an armed response," Stuart said.
"You're trying to force this government into a confrontation
with the Russians. How many times does the President need to
say no to you, General? "
"If DrearnStar stays in Nicaragua, sir, there won't be a con-
frontation, " Air Force Secretary Wilbur Curtis spoke up. "Our
interceptor task force will be on just another Caribbean training
flight. If DreamStar tries to break out, then the Russians will
have violated our arrangement and demonstrated a cynical un-
willingness to resolve this matter-" he turned to the President-
"in which case, in my opinion, it justifies a much stronger
response from us . .. - "
The President leaned back in his chair, massaged his forehead
34's technology to their development bureaus .
Before any-
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 315
and stared at the chart of Central America. Exhaustion and strain
made the colors in the chart begin to dance before his eyes.
"What forces do we have in the area?" he asked.
Elliott was already flipping to the page in his notes in antici-
pation. "Sir, the forces are essentially in place right now to
cover the eastern Caribbean. We can step up interceptor activity
to identify all low-flying high-speed aircraft that we detect. As
for the northern and western Caribbean, that will be tougher.
We should be able to arrange a fighter drag into the area in six
to eight hours-"
"A what? 'I
"A fighter drag, a deployment. Nine fighters from Howard
Air Force Base in the Canal Zone would deploy to our garrison
staging base at La Cieba on the Honduras north coast. Three
aircraft would go on station over the Caribbean immediately with
the AWACS bird and a tanker, with the rest rotating in shifts.
It may be possible to get support from the Cayman Islands for
landing rights, but I'm anticipating difficulties with them allow-
ing armed American aircraft to land there so I've planned this
without the Cayman Islands."
The President was impressed that Elliott had already planned
this mission in such detail. Still . . .
"This would continue until we could bring up naval support
from New Orleans or the eastern Caribbean, either of which
would take approximately forty-eight hours to reach the area,"
Elliott pressed on. "The best we've got available is the carrier
Theodore Roosevelt, which is deployed north of Puerto Rico on
a training cruise. She can be in position in about two days.
CVN-73 George Washington is the better choice, but she's in
port in New Orleans and may take several days to deploy. Air-
craft would be armed with short- and medium-range air-to-air
missiles as well as long-range fuel tanks. They would intercept
any aircraft within range and visually identify each one. If they
become overloaded with targets, priority would be given to high-
speed, high-altitude aircraft. Although it's possible for DreamStar
to make the flight at almost any speed and almost any altitude,
the enormous distance he has to go would suggest he'd have to
conserve as much fuel as possible, and that means high altitude
and as little high-lift, low-speed flying as possible . . . Our pil-
ot's orders would be . . . and this hurts . . . to destroy DreamStar
and any other hostile aircraft that may be escorting her that en-
316 DAIE BROWN
gage our aircraft. But if possible they would try to harass or
divert DreamStar toward a forced water landing."
Elliott finally stopped his headlong briefing, then glanced at
Secretary of the Air Force Curtis. Curtis nodded to Elliott and
said to the President: "Sir, I'm recommending adoption of this
plan. It's low profile and at least the Air Force's part is easily
implemented. We'll need to confer with Navy and the rest of
the Joint Chiefs on the deployment of a carrier group, but I'm
afraid this situation warrants an immediate go-ahead on the first
phase. "
The
President looked skeptical as he studied the chart. "How
much danger will it be to our pilots?" he said, pointing to the
map. "It looks like they'll be overwater for a long time."
Elliott nodded. "Unfortunately, that's true, sir. The fighters
will have to cover eighteen-thousand square miles of open ocean.
Tanker support can keep them in the air for as long as necessary,
we'll rotate another flight and another tanker in to take over
every four hours."
"Six-hour missions for them, refuelings every hour, plus the
strain of visually identifying and possibly going into combat on
each intercept they make," Curtis summarized. "And all of it
overwater-not exactly a fighter pilot's favorite place to be."
"Sounds like you're trying to talk me out of it, Wilbur," the
President said wryly. He held up a hand as the Secretary of the
Air Force began to speak. "I know, I know, you're just hitting
me with the worst. Well, I think it's a lousy plan, gentlemen."
Curtis and Elliott felt their hearts drop.
"You'd be placing those pilots in great jeopardy because you
don't trust the Russians to keep their word in this thing. You act
like Stalin or Khrushchev is still in charge there." He did not try
to curb his temper; exhaustion, tension, concern and frustration
had all built to a point he had to let loose. "And all to stop one
aircraft and one pilot from possibly being flown out of Nicara-
gua, and all because you two failed to uncover a Soviet agent in
your own organizations. No. You're asking me to place more
men's lives at risk because of your screwups. You're asking
me to put this presidency in jeopardy to satisfy your need for
revenge. "
The President swiveled his chair around and stared at the Cen-
tral American chart. Secretary of Defense Stuart had trouble hid-
ing his satisfaction-there was little doubt that he was going to
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 317
enjoy being Taylor's hatchet man when the order came down to
get rid of Elliott and Curtis. Cesare had motioned in a young
steward with a pot of coffee, quietly telling him to keep the
President's cup far out of reach in case his temper exploded