again.
Elliott glanced at Deborah O'Day, who, to his surprise,
seemed to be wearing a confident expression. What did she
know? After that tirade, the President wasn't going to-
"General Elliott." The President was pointing at the chart.
"I want another option for those pilots. Six to seven hours over-
water in a single-seat fighter is too much, especially if they have
to keep it up for days. What else have you got?"
Elliott stepped quickly to the chart, finding the place he wanted
and putting a finger on it. "I'm afraid there are few other op-
tions, sir. In the eastern Caribbean we have landing rights only
in Puerto Rico and Grenada, and possibly in Montserrat or An-
guilla, but it still requires long overwater periods. It's worse in
the western Caribbean. There are several other coastal airfields
in Honduras, including Puerto Lempira here, thirty miles north
of the Nicaraguan border, but they've been abandoned by the
military and probably aren't secure. I wouldn't recommend land-
ing fighters there-the drug traffickers control the area better than
the militia. Honduras has a small island, the Santanilla, between
Honduras and the Cayman Islands, but their airfield is very small.
Nine U. fighters and their support teams would quickly over-
whelm the place. La Cieba is the best option-"
"Maybe not," Deborah O'Day said. "General Elliott, you've
already mentioned the Cayman Islands. Your assessment of that
government's response to a request for landing rights may be a
bit premature. Sir, I'd like to follow up on this. Allow General
Elliott's fighters to take up their stations in the Caribbean. We
can get pennission from Honduras for landing rights in La Cieba.
While the planes are airborne I'll get permission from the Cay-
man Islands and the Brits, to land and service our fighters. The
Navy goes in there all the time-I don't think a few fighters will
bother them too much. I'll work on landing rights in Montserrat
too. "
"I don't like this," the President said. "We're risking dozens
of lives to guard against a breach of a legitimate deal with the
Soviets. But like Reagan once said, 'Trust, but cut the cards.'
All right, the operation is approved, General Elliott. Provided
318 DALE BROWN
that we get landing rights in the Cayman Islands and Montserrat.
If we don't get authorization, your western fighters will refuel
with their tanker, recover in Honduras for crew rest, then return
to Panama, and the eastern fighters will stay in Puerto Rico. I'm
not going to authorize extended overwater patrols. If they're
allowed to recover in Georgetown on Grand Cayman, or Ply-
mouth on Montserrat, I want no more than four-hour patrols
over-water. I'll reserve judgment about follow-on naval opera-
tions until I get a briefing from the Navy. Understood? " Curtis
and Elliott quickly said it was.
"Brief your pilots that I want no interference with normal air
traffic in the area," the President said. "It's probably full of
high-speed jets. I don't want your people scaring any airliners
or, much worse, pulling the trigger on the wrong target. Is that
clear? "
"Absolutely, sir," Curtis replied.
"I'll be on board the AWACS and take on-scene control of
the situation," Elliott said.
"I've heard that one before. Wilbur, I want briefings every
hour once this thing kicks off, beginning first thing in the morn-
ing. And be prepared to stand down your fighters if we get the
right answer back from the Soviets."
"Yes, sir."
The President stood and walked out of the conference room
without another word. Deborah O'Day went up to Elliott, a smile
on her face.
"Thanks for the assist," Elliott said quietly.
She stepped closer. "You owe me one, Bradley Elliott. And
I expect prompt repayment, in full."
Elliott studied her bright eyes, nodded.
' 'Plan on your fighters recovering in the Cayman Islands,"
she said. "The deputy governor of the Caymans happens to be
an old family friend. I hope you can bring a two-seat fighter
with you-he and members of his family will probably ask for
a ride. He's a nut about fighters."
"I doubt this mission will turn out to be a joy-ride," Elliott
said, and shut up as Wilbur Curtis joined them and they all
walked down the hall from the Oval Office to O'Day's office.
Major Preston served coffee as the three took seats.
"
"We need to get our staffs together and fine-tune this thing,
Curtis said. "Briefing the Old Man is one thing-getting two
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 319
squadrons of interceptors together for an extended deployment
is another." He looked at Elliott. "Problem, Brad?"
"Something doesn't make sense. " Elliott walked over to a
large map of the southern United States and Central America.
"Between naval units normally on-station and our airbase in
Puerto Rico, we've got the eastern Caribbean covered pretty
well right now. It's the western Caribbean where we don't have
enough coverage. Yet we're assuming the Russians would fly
DreamStar east toward Russia."
"Naturally," Curtis replied. "Where else?"
He pointed at the map. "Cuba. Cuba is only six hundred
miles from Sebaco. Once DreamStar is in Cuba . . . hell, it
might as well be in Russia. We couldn't touch it there. Cuba is
no Nicaragua . . . "
"But why put those external tanks on DreaniStar? " O'Day
asked. "Why spend the extra time to bother?"
"I think they still intend to fly it to Russia," Elliott said. "But
we caught them red-handed preparing for a long flight. They
know we can close off the eastern Caribbean. For now, Cuba is
a more logical destination. "
"It doesn't make sense to go to Cuba, Brad," Curtis insisted.
"Sure, they can protect it better, but Cuba is right on our back
doorstep. We have round-the-clock surveillance on Cuba. If we
could get the President to buy off on it, we could blockade that
island by sea and air. DreamStar could never get out. Besides,
we saw those extra tanks on DreamStar. Why would they waste
the time putting those things on if they only intended to take it
to Cuba?"
"I disagree with your assessment of Cuba's security," Elliott
said. "We don't have the same military superiority we did back
in the sixties-a cordon would be much more difficult. And I
think the Russians realize that we aren't going to use a lot of
military force to get DreaniStar back. This is an election year-
they figure Taylor won't hang it out over one fighter. " He paused,
then rapped his knuckles on the long, thin island south of Flor-
ida. "Nope, I'm convinced-they'll take DreaniStar to Cuba
instead of flying it east."
"What you're saying doesn't make sense, Brad," Curtis ar-
gued. "I think we should concentrate our forces on the southern
and eastern Caribbean. It would be stupid to fly to Cuba-that
wouldn't
get them anywhere."
320 DAIE BROWN
Elliott was silent for a few moments, then: "All right, sir.
But we've got the eastern Caribbean covered pretty well - I'll take
command of the western task force."
"The Old Man expects you to take the east."
"I only told him I'd be airborne in an AWACS-1 didn't say
which one. I'll be in real-time contact with the eastern forces at
all times from the AWACS out of Honduras. I'll bet my pension
they try to pull a fast one on us."
"Let me assure you, Brad," Curtis said, "you are betting
your pension on this one."
The Consulate of the Soviet Socialist Republics,
Washington, D.
Friday, 19 June 1996, 2015 EDT (Saturday, 0415 EE7)
The voice and data-scrambler system was experiencing severe
distortion from solar-flare activity, but the elation in the KGB
chief's voice was obvious.
"That is very good news," Kalinin said. He was sitting in
the Kremlin communications center in Moscow, sipping tea and
waiting impatiently for his aide, Molokov, to finish buttering a
plate of pirozhoks, his favorite small turnover pastries, with fruit
and creme fillings. "The Americans are obviously anxious to
avoid an embarrassing conflict so close to their national elec-
tions.
"The Americans may have extended their waiting period,
comrade Kalinin," Vilizherchev said from Washington, sipping
a snifter of brandy, "but they have certainly not relented. They
are expecting a message from Moscow in no more than twelve
hours agreeing not to move their aircraft out of Sebaco and
agreeing to turn the aircraft over to them in five days. If you do
not comply they have well-supported and vocal elements of their
military that are ready to invade Sebaco and take their property
back. They're led by General Bradley Elliott of their air force - "
"Elliott . . . a paper tiger, an anachronism," Kalinin said.
"Too hawkish for the current government. I estimate he will be
forced to retire soon. After all, we removed the XF-34 from his
base. "
"Elliott was at the White House tonight," Vilizherchev said.
"Apparently he was the one who staged the overflight at Sebaco
I-
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 321
today. If he has fallen from grace in the eyes of Taylor's gov-
ernment, they are hiding it very well."
"Don't worry about Elliott--
"I am not worried about him," Vilizherchev said. "I am
concerned about you, sir. On your behalf I agreed to take their
message to my government. The Americans are expecting a re-
ply. But I sense that you are unconcerned about any possible
agreements and that you plan to take that aircraft out of Nica-
ragua regardless of any tentative agreements . . ."
"You will be vindicated in this, Sergei," Kalinin said. "The
aircraft will be gone from Nicaragua long before the Americans
expect a reply from the Kremlin. The KGB will accept the re-
sponsibility for the aircraft, and you can tell the Americans that
the rotten KGB ignored your agreement and acted on their own.
There's nothing they can do once we have the aircraft except
protest. And they will get their aircraft back-after we finish
studying it, of course. I understand it is a fabulous machine. "
"I agree, it must be a fantastic machine," Vilizherchev said,
"because I believe the United States will retaliate in ways other
than just protest." There was a pause, with both men listening
to the crackles and snaps of solar-generated electrons interfering
with the satellite transmission. Then: "About my report to the
Foreign Minister . . . "
" Delay it for twenty-four hours."
Vilizherchev had been expecting this. "That is impossible,"
he said. "I went to the White House. I spoke with the President.
I left the Consulate at night without escort, without leaving an
itinerary or contact log. What shall I report-I went on a drive
around Washington to see the sights? What if someone in the
White House mentions my visit to someone in Moscow and they
find out I did not report it? What if this whole incident ends up
in the newspapers-the media is behind every lamppost in this
city. "
"Calm yourself," Kalinin said. "The missing report will not
surface for at least twenty-four hours, perhaps more. By then
this incident will be concluded and I will explain everything to
the General Secretary and the Politburo."
"I expect it," Vilizherchev said. "Unauthorized contact with
the American government by a member of our government is
still punishable, as you know, by life at hard labor. I have a
desire to retire to warmer climates than Siberia."
322 DALE BROWN
Kalinin broke the connection without replying. The signal, in
any case, was deteriorating rapidly; so was Vilizhervchev's re-
solve. He was not a stupid man but he had not been in govern-
ment long enough to represent a danger to Kalinin's power.
Unless everything came completely unraveled, Vilizherchev
could be trusted to keep silent-after all, having the director of
the KGB as a co-conspirator was not such a bad position.
But now it was up to Maraklov to get that aircraft safely out
of Nicaragua. All of their futures now rode on him.
Saturday, 20 June 1996, 0-451 CDT
Andrei Maraklov awoke to bedlam. Dozens of faults were being
reported to him at once, ranging in severity from complete sys-
tem short-circuits to oil leaks. But the familiar rush of power
and energy that always accompanied a successful interface with
ANTARES was a welcome feeling, in spite of the faults being
reported.
DrearnStar had undergone a major transfon-nation. Her newest
additions were two large cigar-shaped stainless-steel fuel tanks,
one suspended under each wing. Two of the four weapon hard-
points on each wing were combined to hold the Lluyka tank's
pylon; that, plus the size of the tanks themselves, left DrearnStar
with the capability to carry only two missiles instead of eight.
Inside each tank pylon, the fuel tank's pressurization line was
spliced to the wing tank's bleed air-pressurization system, which
allowed fuel to flow from the tanks and feed the engines before
wing-tank fuel was used. The hardpoint's jettison-circuitry was
spliced into jettison-squibs in the pylon, which would blow the
pylon off the win
There was no time to test the aerodynamic qualities of the fuel
tank with DrearnStar-no, way to determine if DreamStar could
even fly with the tanks installed. The tanks could fail to feed
properly, feed unevenly, rupture the wing tanks, hit the aircraft
on jettison, or flutter so badly that even a normal takeoff would
result in a crash. There just was no time to test it. The flight
would have to go as scheduled in spite of the risks.
DreamStar's anterior fins were replaced, and the aircraft put
back together as best they could after being partially dismantled
DAY OF
THE CHEETAH 323
shortly after landing. The plan was to use DreamStar's own self-
diagnostic computer routines to check the aircraft and direct the
aircraft maintenance technicians to the problems.
As always, Maraklov activated the radios first. "How do you
read, General? "
General Tret'yak stared at Musi Zaykov as the machinelike
words came over his headphone. He keyed his microphone: -Kto
dyela ? "
"This is Maraklov, General."
"Colonel, are you all right? Your voice sounds different."
"My voice is altered by computer. I don't think I can speak
in Russian. I have several faults that need inspection. The most
serious is a left primary-bus short-circuit. The technicians will
have to open the left number-four access panel. The bus-module
is on the center electronics rack. I will deactivate the system
when the panel is open."
"Azhidan'yah, " Tret'yak said. "Wait, Colonel, I do not un-
derstand you." There was a slight pause as Tret'yak passed the
headphones to Zaykov.
"Andrei? "
"Yes, Musi.
Zaykov stared in surprise when she heard the voice. "Andrei,
is that you . . . ? "
"No time to talk," Maraklov said. "Relay these instructions
exactly to the chief of maintenance. I can't start my engine until
this problem is corrected."
Zaykov copied Maraklov's instructions down on a clipboard,
read them back to verify them, then gave the clipboard to the
chief of aircraft maintenance. He read the instructions several
times, then finally called to his assistant to get someone to begin
removing the left access panel.
"They are removing the wrong panel," the computer-
synthesized voice told Zaykov. Musi called to the workers to
stop, then directed them to the correct panel. She had to repeat
the instructions to the assistant crew chief, who told the crew
chief, who issued the same orders back down the chain to the
workers. They did not begin the job of removing the fasteners
until told by their superior.
"Left primary bus-power is off," Maraklov said after issuing
the mental command to redirect the power from the external