Shadows of Steel by Dale Brown

Author:Dale Brown [Brown, Dale]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Espionage, Modern fiction, Crime & Thriller, Patrick (Fictitious character), McLanahan, Espionage & spy thriller
ISBN: 9780006498469
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Published: 2010-01-14T12:00:00+00:00

"Bearing now two-three-zero, last reported range from us eighty-five kilometers and closing..."

"What!" Pasdaran Major Admiral Akbar Tufayli shouted. That jarring pain was suddenly back in his jaw, tripled in intensity.

The newcomers were over the Trudal Coast--from the direction of the United Arab Emirates! Was this another GCC attack? "What speed, what altitude?"

"Multiple contacts... three, perhaps four formations, speed five hundred, altitude ten K meters and descending."

Major Admiral Akbar Tufayli, commander of the Khomeini battle group and nominal commander of the carrier air group, swung on his absolutely flabbergasted chief of staff, Brigadier General Mohammed Badi. "The threat has been eliminated, you say? Those radar contacts are on an attack profile, Badi! Those are UAE attack planes, and they are attacking Bandar Abbas and this battle group!"

"It is... it is unbelievable, sir!" Badi stammered. "The UAE pilots or their British mercenaries do not have the skill to perform night attacks against maritime targets!" Like many Middle East countries, the United Arab Emirates hired pilots from all over the world to fly their attack planes--but no skilled attack pilot would ever consent to fly a suicide mission such as this!

"They have no guided weapons, only gravity bombs and the cannon!

Surely they know they will be chopped into pieces long before they get within range to drop their bombs?"

"That is, if we successfully stop them!" Tufayli cried. "Engage at longest possible range! Then launch the alert fighters! I want each and every GCC fighter destroyed and the wreckage strewn across the coastal plain for all those reporters to photograph! I want to demonstrate the power of this battle group to the entire damned world, right now, tonight!"

"Hostile aircraft turning!" The Khomeini's radar operator screamed over the intercom. General Tufayli made a mental note to tell his section chief to brief his men to remain calmer on the intercom--the operator's voice had gone up at least one octave in the past few minutes as the unidentified attack planes closed in.

"Range sixty kilometers, decreasing slowly, altitude now below two thousand meters.

Heavy jamming detected."

"They appear to be heading for Bandar Abbas," Badi observed, "but they could turn in our direction at any moment. No report on what type of weapon they are using."

"We must assume they have standoff weapons--unless they try a low-altitude suicide bombing run," Tufayli said. He stared out the observation windows at the Khomeini's flight deck. "How much longer on the interceptor launch?"

"Just a few minutes, sir."

"Damn you, Badi, I want air cover up as soon as possible to chase down those attackers! I want those fighters airborne now!"

"Yes, sir," Badi acknowledged. Badi could do nothing but pick up a phone and tell the air operations commander to speed up the launch.

Tufayli watched as crews raced for the rescue helicopters on deck forward of the island superstructure. The rescue helicopters always launched before the fighters, and took up stations beside and behind the carrier, ready to provide search-and-rescue services in case a fighter had to ditch after takeoff. "If any of those attackers

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