If these idiots ever found out, Chin thought grimly to himself, that I ordered Yin to use nuclear weapons to destroy Davao, they would certainly not be applauding — they would be calling for my execution. Sun and the rest of Yin’s surviving flag staff would have to be bribed, exiled, or killed to ensure their silence, but that was an easy matter. General Chin Po Zihong’s power, his authority, were still safe… and with the blissfully ignorant best wishes of the government raining down upon him, Chin began to plot his revenge on Jose Trujillo Samar and on the Americans who had razed his forces so badly.
Yes, revenge…
It was daylight by the time Patrick McLanahan and Henry Cobb crawled out of their damaged B-2 stealth bomber into the already warm, humid tropical air. It seemed ten times stickier than usual — but to the two crew members, it felt like heaven.
The flight back from the Philippines was quiet, despite the damage they had sustained. The autopilot, electronic flight- control computers, and electronic stability systems were useless, and the mission commander’s side controls were inoperable, so the two crewmen took turns in the pilot’s seat — McClanahan flew the straight and level portions while Cobb napped, and Cobb flew the air-refueling hookups that they received every thirty minutes because of fuel leakage and the long overwater legs. The crew then spent another hour orbiting Guam while two-seat F-16 fighters with engineers and maintenance crews on board examined the damage to the flight controls and landing gear. Exhausted but riding yet another adrenaline rush, Cobb overrode all suggestions to eject and attempts to get more opinions from Stateside, and he made a picture-perfect landing at Andersen’s left runway. Somehow the damaged left landing gear held, and the Black Knight bomber was shut down at the north end of the runway, surrounded by fire crews.
Although McLanahan and Cobb climbed out of the plane on their own power, because of the observed damage to the Black Knight they were settled into gurneys and transported to a massive green tent set up near the flight line that acted as a triage center for returning crews. Doctors found Henry Cobb’s pulse and blood pressure sky-high, so he was ordered into a separate tent where crews that were well enough could be debriefed by intelligence officers while under a doctor’s care; that was when General Elliott found him and McLanahan shortly after he was taken there.
“Henry, Patrick, damn your hide, good to have you back,” Elliott said, giving his officers a hearty handshake and a pat on the shoulder. “Terrific landing, Henry. How do you two feel? You look okay. Henry, how do
“I’m fine, General, just fine,” Cobb replied. “I’m in adrenaline withdrawal, that’s all. I’m too old for this shit, sir.”
“I think half the base is on an adrenaline high, watching you bring that B-2 in,” Elliott said. “I think the cheer that went up could be heard in China.” He looked at McLanahan and smiled a knowing smile. “You brought back another bent bird, Patrick. This time the commendation will be public — nothing red-jacketed this time. For both of you.”
“I’d be happy if we could just finish this thing and go home,” the navigator said. “So what kind of losses are we looking at?”
“We’ve taken some serious hits,” Elliott admitted. “Sorry to tell you this, but we lost John Cochran’s Megafortress. A BUFF saw them go down. They couldn’t see chutes in the darkness, although they heard plenty of emergency locator beacons. The crew is still listed as missing.” Along with Major Kelvin Carter, Lieutenant Colonel John Cochran was one of the High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center’s pioneers in the application of the strategic battleship escort concept; they had all worked very closely together for many months. “His was the only HAWC crew to go down. His crew got six confirmed kills, though. Every Megafortress got at least three — an incredibly awesome display.”
“I hope they find him,” Patrick said. “How about the rest?”
Elliott took a deep breath. “Five B-52s, one B-l, one B-2,” he said in a quiet voice, his face hard and somber. “No confirmed KIAs, though.”
“And how goes the war?”
