Drop Zone: An Action-Packed Spider Shepherd SAS Novella (Spider Shepherd: SAS Book 3) by Stephen Leather

Author:Stephen Leather [Leather, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Shepherd and his team transferred by Puma helicopter to Lakenheath and boarded the C141. While the rest of them settled themselves in the back, Shepherd went forward to brief the captain, who looked more than a little nonplussed at being given orders by an NCO who would normally have been well below him in the military pecking order. ‘Okay Captain, here’s the plan,’ Shepherd said, handing him the co-ordinates for the drop zone in the Caprivi Strip. ‘You need to book a circular training flight from Lakenheath to South Africa and back. Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town, any will do; it doesn’t really matter which airport because we’re not going to arrive there anyway. You’ll obviously need a double dose of mid-air refuelling to extend your range enough beyond the normal maximum of 3,000 miles. When we’re over the Southern Atlantic, you will claim that there is an in-flight “pressurisation problem” and obtain permission from Air Traffic Control to drop to low level and divert from the planned route to sort out the problem. You will then descend to low level - 300 feet - make the covert ULL drop over the Caprivi Strip and then, telling Air Traffic that you have only partially resolved the problem. You’ll get permission to divert to the Cape Verde Islands and you’ll then wait there until we RV with you.’

The Captain looked dubious. ‘Ascension Island is much closer to the drop zone.’

Shepherd nodded. ‘It is, but it’s a military airfield and any op that has not been processed through the military hierarchy there will almost certainly be shut down by the base commanders, whereas Cape Verde Island is a civilian airport with a heavy traffic of tourist flights, so one more aircraft landing and taking off won’t attract any particular attention.’

‘And what are we supposed to do in Cape Verde while we’re waiting for you?’

Shepherd’s look suggested he was getting more than a little weary of the Captain’s objections. ‘Whatever the hell you like. As I said, it’s a tourist area, so you can stay in a nice hotel, eat some expensive meals at Uncle Sam’s expense, sunbathe, windsurf or take a pedalo round the bay if you want, just so long as you’re refuelled and ready to fly at any time at two hours’ notice. Oh, and one more thing: I need one of your crew to fit a compass by the exit door we’re going to jump from.’

The pilot shook his head. ‘There’ll be no need for that, I can tell you the bearing over the intercom just before you jump.’

‘Thanks but you’ll be busy enough flying the aircraft at ultra low level without having to worry about that as well, so we’ll do it ourselves,’ Shepherd said, determined to make sure he had an absolutely precise compass bearing to help him RV with the rest of the patrol after the drop, and unwilling to trust the pilot to supply it for him..

Before they took off from Lakenheath, two of the

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