ACV's 1 Operation Black Gold (61 page)

CHAPTER 66

The journey to the North Sea rig to pick up an amputee had gone past without event.  As we came past the gap the Americans had left for us I noticed sweat run down Mike’s face.  ‘Don’t even think about it Mike, we’ve already fucked them over twice.  They know who we are, Christ half the world does by now and there not going to let us away with it again, keep on going.’

He let out a deep breath and kept going.  I looked round at my friends; they were as resigned to their fates as I was, all except Davie Whitton who was still sleeping, the lucky sod.  I climbed up between Mike and Bruce and watched the radar screen myself.

‘If you see so much as a seagull fart I want to know Bruce.’

‘Got ye.’

I could see the American picket quite clearly and our rigs and the spare AWACS.

‘That’s us past the window.’  Mike stated flatly.

‘That should make them think.  If I’m right they should hit us between the McAllen and Osprey fields, that’s the widest stretch of water.’

As we approached the last rig in the McAllen field there was still no sign of them. 

‘Bruce?’

‘No Jim, we should have seen something by now.  If they do have VTOLS on that ship then they’ve left it too late to catch us.’

‘Maybe there hidden in the ground clutter.’

‘No, the seas too calm we have almost a 100% visibility.’

As we moved out into open water again I noticed something.  ‘Bruce is that spare AWAC’s keeping pace with us?’

‘Aye it is.’

‘Why.’  He shrugged.  Then I noticed something else.  ‘What’s that Bruce?’

‘Where?’

‘There the faint shadows.’

‘That’s a ghost image of ourselves.’

‘You sure?’

‘Yes.’

‘Switch on your own radar.’

‘They’ll just disappear.’

‘Humour me.’

He did and he was right.  ‘See.’

‘OK switch it off again.  They reappeared.  The tugging at my subconscious increased.  ‘Switch it on again.’

‘Why?’  He was beginning to get exasperated with me.

‘Do it.’  They disappeared again; fear began to slide in my guts.  ‘Right switch it off.’  They reappeared and the penny finally dropped.  ‘Shit, shit, shit, how could I be so fucking stupid, there aren’t any VTOLS out there that’s stealth fighters.’

Mike was getting angry now.  ‘We’ve been over this Jim we’re 100% sure there are no stealth fighters on the carrier.

‘There not from the carrier dickhead and that isn’t a spare AWAC’s up there it’s a refuelling tanker.’

‘What!’

‘They probably came in behind that squadron of fighters this morning and went straight to the tanker.’

‘It fits Mike,’ Gordon’s concerned voice came in over the radio.

‘Yes, oh shit, what do we do?’

I thought it over for a second, ‘reel the bastards in.’

‘Murison you’re mental,’ Gigs protested.

‘We’ve one chance at this Gigs, any minute now they’re going to creep right up behind us and shoot us out of the air wí their guns.  We’ve got to make them panic and come after us.  Maybe they’ll make a mistake.’

‘How?’  Mike almost shouted.

‘Bruce switch that thing of yours off and on a few more times, then boot it straight for the nearest rig, that should let them know we’re onto them.’

Mike began nodding his head, ‘yes, maybe we can make the fuckers overshoot, Gordon?’

‘I’m right with you Mike.’

‘Set you’re air to air for visual lock.’

‘Done.’

‘Let’s do it.’

Bruce switched his radar on and off again three times.  Mike and Gordon dropped their noses and opened the throttles; we picked up speed at a fantastic rate.

‘Whoa, here they come, I think.’

‘Bruce…’

‘Thirty miles, they’ve gone, no, yes.’

‘Anti-stealth procedures,’ Mike snapped.  The loadmasters strapped themselves to a harness opened the doors and hung themselves out.

‘Twenty miles and closing fast.’

‘Good, let’s go for the deck.’

‘Roger.’

‘Mike you’d better put in a contact report now.’

‘Would you like to do it Jim?’

‘No I’m too busy praying to gloat.’  Mike put in a normal contact report and received a quiet roger from Osprey.

‘Five miles, you sure they’ll go to guns Jim?’

‘Positive Bruce, missiles will give us enough time to put out a May Day, they can’t risk that and they’ll show up on everybody’s radar.’

‘Here they come,’ screamed our loadmaster.

‘Call it Alan.’

‘OK Mike, ready, ready, now.’

Mike threw us into a number of violent manoeuvres.  Alan was thrown in and crashed into me; we landed on the floor in a heap.  I almost panicked we seemed to turn upside down and Alan rolled off, I thought I was going to puke.  There was a screaming noise as if something had ripped free then a familiar thud.

‘Got the bastards,’ Gordon screamed with excitement and fear.

I struggled back up to my perch.  ‘What’s happening?’

‘We got them, one’s fucked off trailing smoke and there’s the other’s chute.’

‘Can we pick him up?’

‘What for?’

‘Evidence.’

‘Good point, Gordon you’re good at that.’

‘Roger.’

It took a good five minutes to pull the protesting pilot out of the water.  Mike sent in a report.

‘Oh, oh!’

‘What’s oh, oh?’  I leaned over Bruce’s shoulder.

‘They’ve sent in their combat air patrols to cut us off.  We’ll never reach a rig now, we’re fucked.’

‘What about to landwards.’

‘No they’ve drawn up tighter than a ducks arse over there, we’re trapped.’

‘Are we?  Mike how do you fancy finding out just how good you really are?  Ye see that four ships in the middle.’

The anxiety dropped from his face, his features became relaxed then calm.  ‘OK, Gordon attack pattern Oscar three.  Let’s go for their aft magazines.  We might be able to damage their engines and power relays to their weapons.’

I watched in fascination as Bruce punched up schematics of the ships and punched in the missiles targets with a light pen.  Then he tapped the screen with the pen and the ships he targeted turned green.  ‘All systems green.’  Reported Bruce.

‘All systems green,’ reported Gordon.

‘Roger attack pattern Oscar three.  Weapons free, execute, execute, execute.’

We swooped away from one another at right angles to the American fleet; a sudden manoeuvre sent us head on at them.  If they hadn’t been sure about our intentions, they were now.  Buzzers started screeching.  I pulled off the headphones and looked round, Davie was still sleeping, Buff smiled and shrugged.

The windows lit up as the fireflies were fired, then we lurched upwards as the main armament dropped away and kept on climbing straight up.  I slipped the head phones back on.  ‘They’re following, get ready, here they come, now.’  Bruce was screaming.  Mike flicked her over onto her back and we dropped like a stone.  My senses reeled.  Helicopters couldn’t fly upside down.  ‘They’re trying to follow.’  The angle of our descent changed, we levelled out at sea level and I mean sea level.

‘Splash down,’ Bruce whooped he really seemed to be enjoying himself now.

‘What’s going on?’  I almost choked on my words.

‘Just trying something new,’ Mike answered.

‘Like flying upside down?’

Now he was laughing.  ‘No we’ve been able to go inverted in these things since we got them.  When we pulled up the incoming missiles followed us.  When we went inverted, they overshot and followed us down right into the sea in an outside loop.

‘Eh, aye right, so what’s happening now; how’s the other team?’

‘We’re all fine,’ Gordon’s voice came through.

‘The ships?’

‘Well they’ve stopped firing at us.’  Bruce answered.  ‘We’re almost through their lines now uh oh.’

‘What?’  I felt my heart rate jump.

‘There’s damn near a squadron of fighters after us.’

‘Where the hell are ours?’  I growled.

‘We’re through their lines now.  Look at this.’  I could see what Bruce was pointing at; a line of dots had appeared on the screen moving twice as fast as anything else.

‘Our fighters?’

‘Let’s find out.’  Mike switched frequencies.

We listened to our fighters being vectored in to cut off the incoming enemy, and then listened to their excited chatter as they engaged them.  We got clean away and were diverted to General Morris’s temporary headquarters.  A ground crew was waiting to rearm and refuel the choppers.  The second we touched down they swarmed in, plugging things in and popping panels, the pride in their aircrews shone from their faces.

I managed to corner Mike.  ‘Did something break loose back there?’  I asked referring to the screaming noise I’d heard.

‘Oh that, no Jim,’ he grinned.  ‘That was just the noise a 30 mm rotating nose cannon makes when it’s fired at you.’

‘Oh, right, OK.’

General Morris was full of congratulations and praise.  The prisoner was stripped under guard.  His clothes were searched, rinsed, dried and handed back.  Davie Whitton was wakened long enough to reset his broken arm and administer a pain killing injection to the man who still wouldn’t talk to us.  He had even gone to the bother of ripping his nametag off while he was in the sea.  Then we waited for permission to fly home.

‘They seemed to go to an afá bother to take us out back their Jim, why?’  Ali asked.

‘Don’t know Ali, maybe somebody doesn't like us.’

‘You can say that again.’  General Morris sat down with us.  ‘They’re screaming blue murder out there, two of the ships you hit have sunk, one’s completely immobilized and the other’s limping home.  Their press are saying you’re the bad guys.’

‘Don’t they know about the stealth fighters and the pilot we’ve got?’  I asked.

‘Not yet, but they will shortly, your orders have come through.  You are to proceed to Edinburgh airport where you will be met by an ambulance for Mr Collins.  You will then escort the prisoner to the main terminal where intelligence will take him off your hands.’

‘Hold on the man’s injured.’  I protested.

‘Yes they know; they’re going to take him to a secure location where he’ll revive full medical attention.’

‘OK.’  I sensed there was more to it, but was too tired to argue.

CHAPTER 67

‘CV 9 you are clear to land in front of the terminal building.  Please land as close to the Ambulance as possible.’

‘CV 9 roger.’ 

‘CV 9, I have a gentleman here who claims to be your boss; he says to come in hot.  The airfield is clear of all other traffic, over.’

‘CV 9 Wilco out.’

I could hear the amusement in Mike’s voice.  ‘Did you hear that Gordon?’

‘Roger Mike do you think the old bastard will try and ground us for it again?’

‘You mean he’ll try and deny giving us permission?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Do you care?’

‘No.’

‘Let’s do it then, buckle up Gentlemen.’

I saw the manoeuvre later on TV and it looked as wild as it felt.  They came racing in across the field.  As they came level with the terminal building Mike flipped over the top of Gordon, Gordon mirrored his manoeuvre coming to rest in his original position, side by side they raced in.  At the last moment, they reared up like a pair of angry black stallions in a trace, their tail booms scraping the ground while a large dust cloud exploded against the terminal windows.  One reporter screaming about their tail rotors had rushed for safety.  But this was one of the first generation to use spare exhaust gases for directional stability.  They pulled back to a safe distance and put them down.

It was a rush anyway, even the amputee was grinning.  ‘Mad bastards,’ he mouthed.  Heat built up in the compartment as the engines wound down.  Alan opened the door to let it out.  When the rotors stopped, he waved over a couple of paramedics who were waiting with a stretcher.  We helped them with the patient.  The noise of the generators winding down was replaced by another noise.

‘What’s that?’  Asked Buff.

‘Don’t know.’  The amputee waved and we waved back, I decided to investigate the noise.  I was almost knocked off my feet by the roar.  There were hundreds of people standing on the terrace and the roof of the terminal.  I felt my jaw drop and clamped it firmly closed.  For a man who enjoyed solitude, it was my worst nightmare come true.  I didn’t know what the hell to do and for a long moment, I was frozen to the spot.

I decided to retreat; I nodded to the crowd and dragged my leaden legs back into the shadows of the dormant helicopter.  They went ape.  Abie was laughing his cunt off at me.  Mr. D’Ord appeared from somewhere and tried to shake my hand but I couldn’t let go of the helicopter.  I couldn’t unlock my jaw either.

‘What’s wrong with him?’  Mr. D’Ord asked the laughing Abie.

‘Look at him, that crowd’s got him absolutely petrified.’

He put his hand on my shoulder to placate me, and then quickly grabbed me as my legs gave way.

‘Oops.’  He propped me against the helicopter.

‘Can, can, can ye no get the rovers round here?’  I stuttered.

‘Um no I’m sorry.’

A roar of rage drowned out the noise of an incoming aircraft.  Gigs appeared with the prisoner.  ‘This is pish,’ he announced.  ‘I’m no taking him through that.’

‘Neither am I,’ I agreed with Gigs, a growing anger at the situation put me back on my feet.

‘I’m sorry Gentlemen, but the Americans are denying they jumped you and that your attack on their ships was completely unprovoked.  The Prime Minister announced a short time ago that you shot down one of the fighters and damaged another.  He also told the media you rescued one of the pilots.  You have to get him through that terminal.’

‘It’s disgusting.’  I growled.

‘I’m sorry it’s politics now.’

‘OK boys grab your gear and let’s get it over with.  Are you all right?’  I asked the pilot.  He just nodded.

The journey through the terminal was a nightmare, flashing cameras, newspapermen screaming questions, others hurtling abuse.  The police were having trouble keeping back the angry throng.  We were almost at the counter where Andrew was waiting when a man broke loose from the crowd.  I caught him under the chin with my rifle butt lifting him clean off his feet.

‘Back off,’ I roared into the shocked silence.  I noticed a fat reporter push himself a space, a tin of coke in his hand, the determined look on his face told me exactly what he was going to do.  I took three paces and rammed the Colt 45 into his left eye socket.  He froze in terror; his arm cocked back, sweat broke out and ran down his greasy face.  ‘Go on then ye fat fucker, throw it.’  I cocked back the hammer and he dropped the tin.  I pushed him back but a young man replaced him.

‘Hey he tried to kill you.’

‘Aye that’s right and he’s no the first and he’ll no be the last either.’  I stalked round facing them down.  ‘It’s his job to try and kill me as it’s mine to try and kill him, this isn’t a game, but it does have rules.  The very first rule state’s that, your enemy will dish out to you what you dish out to them and you can bet your boot’s his friends will be sitting back watching this display of barbarity.  Your stupidity is putting at risk my life those of my friends and every member of our armed forces.

This man is out of the fight; he gave his all, now he’s injured and hurting.  If we can give him the respect he deserves for that I’m bloody sure you can.’  I walked back round to the young man and fixed him with a stare.  ‘I would advise the younger generation to remember that, one day it could be you lying bleeding at his feet.’

I turned to the policeman who was attending the unconscious man.  ‘Drag that piece of shit out of our way.’  We made it to the counter without further incident.  I went through last slamming the counter down and following Andrew into the room behind.  An MP Corporal closed the door behind us.  I turned on Andrew.  ‘I want somebody’s balls for this; I have never been so fucking humiliated in my life.’

‘I’m sorry Jim.’

Davie had started to re-dress the pilot’s cuts and abrasions.

‘How is he?’  I asked.

‘He’ll be fine.’

Another MP addressed Andrew.  ‘Sir that call is coming through now.’

‘What call?’

‘That might not be such…’

A vid screen popped on, guess whom?  ‘Good afternoon Lt Murison.’

‘Ah, Mr. Grey.’

‘I believe I owe you an apology.’

‘Less me than a man over there.’  I pointed to the pilot.  ‘What the hell was that all about?’

‘We released word of your imminent arrival soon after you left Osprey, you’re national heroes now.  We, I thought it would be nice for you to receive a warm welcome home, unfortunately you ran into a little unforeseen trouble which, in turn caused a lot of political trouble.  This seemed to be the best solution to the problem, I had no idea things would turn nasty, I am sorry.’

‘I winna bother calling you Saddam then.’

‘Point taken Lt Murison it won’t happen again.’

‘Come over here you, our Prime Minister, President would like a quick word.’ 

The pilot came hesitantly to his feet and joined me by the vid screen.  When he recognized the Prime Minister, he cracked to attention.

‘Relax young man I’m not a soldier.  What’s your name?’  He still hesitated.

‘Well tell him damn it,’ I prompted.

‘Colonel George Mackenzie USA Air force Sir.’

‘A Mackenzie are you?’

‘Yes Sir.’

‘I can understand your hesitation Colonel; have you any family in Scotland?’

‘Not that I’m aware of Sir, but….’  He left the rest of the sentence unfinished.

‘Yes, I’m sure you won’t be the only one amongst your fellow countrymen to find themselves in your predicament in due course.  Please be assured neither they nor you will be treated any differently because of that.’

‘Thank you Sir…some of us had certain, reservations.’

‘Don’t worry about it Colonel.  However, that may not have seemed the case when you arrived, please accept my sincere apologies for that incident.  It was entirely my fault.  When you get home, which I am sure you will quite soon; please convey my apologies to your family.  Of course you do understand I’m not apologizing for your having being shot down?’

We received the flicker of a smile.  ‘Yes Sir, I do understand that, thank you.’  He stood back to attention and saluted the Prime Minister.

‘Lt Murison, this weekend I’m having a little tea party for the men who were on Osprey.  I would like to take the opportunity to extend a personal invitation to you and your men.’

‘I’m sure we’ll make it.’

‘Splendid, I’ll look forward to meeting all of you again.  Oh, one thing could you please leave that big knife of yours at home?’

‘Do you mean this one?’  I whipped it out.

‘Yes that would be it.’

‘Hedging your bets a little aren’t you?  Don’t worry I forgive you.’

‘Oh good, I have got rather attached to my nether regions.’  The screen clicked off to a general round of laughter.

I looked around for the hidden camera but was damned if I could see it.  The American pilot seemed mighty confused.  ‘Spit it out son.’

‘I, I just can’t believe you talked to your Prime Minister like that.’

‘How, I didna swear at him.’

‘No, nae this time Jim, you’re getting better at the diplomatic stuff.’  Buff kept the laughter going.

He seemed confused and slightly panicked.  ‘Relax,’ I told him.  ‘Welcome to a real democracy.’  I could see the shot slam home.