Cuba by Stephen Coonts Read Free Book Online Page B

as if
    he were in pain as Jake lifted the Tomcat into a
    loop.
    “War Ace One Oh Four, this is Sea Hawk.
    You have traffic to the northwest, one hundred miles,
    heading south at about 30,000.”
    “Roger, Sea Hawk.”,
    Coming down the back side of the loop, Jake turned
    to the northwest.
    STEPHEN COONTS
    “Admiral, I know you think I was loafing back
    hereea”…Toad said obsequiously, “but I had that guy
    on the scope. Honest! I was just gonna say something
    when that E-2 guy beat me to the switch.”
    “Sure, Toad. These things happen. If you’re
    going to nap, next time bring a pillow.”
    “This guy is coming south, like he’s out of some base in
    central Cuba, about our altitude. Heck of a
    coincidence, huh?”
    The F-14 had an optical camera mounted in the
    nose that was slaved to the radar cross-hairs.
    “Tell me when you see himea”…Jake murmured.
    “Be a couple miles yet. Let’s come right ten
    degrees just for grins and see what happens.”
    Jake again had the fighter on autopilot. He
    pushed the stick right, then leveled on the new
    course.
    At fifty miles Toad had the other airplane
    on the screen of his monitor. A silver
    airplane, fighter size, with the sun glinting off its
    skin. The electronic conntermeasures (Ecm)
    panel lit up as the F-14’s sensors picked
    up the emissions of the other plane’s radar.
    “A MiGo-29ea”…Jake said.
    “What’s he doing out here”…”…Toad wondered.
    “Same thing as we are. Out flying around seeing what
    is what.”
    “I thought th@lCubans had retired their
    MiGo-29’s. Couldn’t keep paying the bills on
    “em.”. “Well, at least one is still operational.”
    .
    Even as they watched, the MiGo altered course to the
    left so that he would have a chance to turn in behind the
    F-14 when their flight paths converged.
    Jake Grafton was suddenly sure he didn’t
    want the MiGo behind him. The Soviets
    specifically designed the MiGo-29 to be able
    to defeat the F-14, F-15, F-16 and
    FirstA-18 in close combat; it was,
    probably, the second-best fighter in the world (the
    best being the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker). Jake
    altered course so the two planes would converge
    head-on.
    What would the MiGo pilot do?
    If the Cuban pilot opened fire over the ocean,
    over a hundred miles from land, who would ever know?
    “Sea Hawk, One Oh Four, are you getting this
    on tape?”
    “Yes, sir. We’re recording.”
    “This bogey is a MiGo-29.”
    “Roger that. We’ve been tracking him for
    twenty-five minutes now.”
    The range was closing rapidly, but still Jake
    didn’t see the MiG. He looked at the target
    dot in the heads-up display, but the sky was huge and the
    Cuban fighter too far away, although it was almost as
    large as the F-14.
    The MiGo was about four miles away when
    Jake finally saw it, a winged silver glint that shot
    by just under his right wing. Jake Grafton disconnected
    the autopilot and slammed the stick over.
    He pulled carefully, cleanly, craned his head and
    braced himself with his left hand as he kept the turning
    MiGo in sight.
    The Cuban fighter rolled out of his turn heading
    north. Jake leveled out on a parallel course.
    Careful not to point his nose at the Cuban, Jake
    let the Tomcat drift closer on a converging
    course.
    When the planes were less than a hundred yards
    apart, he slowed the closure rate but kept moving
    in.
    Finally the two planes were in formation with their wingtips
    about twenty yards apart.
    “Look at that thing, would you”…”…Toad enthused. “Have you
    ever seen a more gorgeous airplane?”
    “I hear it’s a real dream machineea”…Jake
    agreed.
    “Oh, baby, the lines, the curves … The
    Russians sure know how to design flying
    machines.”
    “If this guy has to jump out of that thingea”…Jake
    asked Toad, “do you think Cuban
    Air-Sea Rescue is going to come pick him
    up?”
    “I doubt itea”…Toad replied. “And I suspect
    he knows that.”
    “He’s got a set of cojones on