Blackout by Nance John J

Author:Nance, John J. [Nance, John J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Adventure, Crime
ISBN: 9780330481915
Amazon: 0330481916
Goodreads: 44128
Publisher: Pan Books
Published: 2000-02-01T08:00:00+00:00

chapter 25

DA NANG AIRPORT, VIETNAM

NOVEMBER 13—DAY TWO

4:45 P.M. LOCAL/0945 ZULU

The helicopter carrying Kat Bronsky flew over the western border of the former American air base at Da Nang and slowed for a landing. With both of the sliding side doors open, Kat and her interpreter had spent the twenty-minute flight in a fruitless search for the survivors, but the failure merely reinforced her suspicion that they were probably headed west, and running for their lives. The pilot touched down in front of a shabby servicing facility on a decaying concrete ramp that held several small aircraft, a scattering of military helicopters, and one luxury business jet, the latter looking decidedly out of place.

Curious, Kat thought, looking at the jet and not recognizing its form at first. I wouldn’t have expected to find a corporate jet.… She leaned slightly out the door for a better view, blinking against the windblast, and read the jet’s registration number: N22Z.

Oh my God!

It was the Bombardier Global Express from Hong Kong.

I was right. They were here. No, she corrected herself, they are here! Now what? she asked herself as the rotor slowed. The pilot was looking back at her, but Kat was suddenly too off balance to give a normal response. She struggled not to show her confusion and smiled at him, flashing a sophomoric thumbs-up sign.

“What you want to do?” the Vietnamese major asked.

“Ah … after you refuel, could you just wait here for me?” Kat asked. “We’ll need to go back up and keep searching until dark.”

The major nodded, but Kat’s attention had already shifted back to the $40 million world-girdling Global Express, which sat by itself on the ramp with its doors closed. There was a figure walking around the nose of the jet, a lone Vietnamese soldier standing guard duty with an AK-47.

Kat stepped carefully from the Huey and walked around the rear of the helicopter, taking care to keep out of sight while she pulled out her satellite phone. It would be almost midnight in Washington. She’d memorized Jake Rhoades’s home number and punched it in, listening to it ring after only a few seconds, expecting Jake or his wife to sound cross at getting such a late call.

Jake himself answered, and she could hear him yawn on the other end as they exchanged quick hellos.

“What do you have, Kat?”

“A very scary discovery here in Da Nang!” she said, keeping her voice low. “I’m looking at that Bombardier Global Express, November-Two-Two-Zulu.”

She could hear Jake sit up in bed and whistle. “Whoa!”

“Jake, the crash scene about nine miles from here is predictably horrible. Over two hundred people were obliterated—shredded—in the breakup as the seven-forty-seven slammed into the ridge.”

“No survivors, then?”

She cautioned herself to breathe and slow down. Her voice was sounding shaky and unprofessional. “Ah, that’s the point. I’m told no one has been found alive, but I’ve found very convincing evidence at the scene, around the remains of the cockpit and upper first-class cabin, that at least five or six

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