The Extinction Code by Dean Crawford

Author:Dean Crawford [Crawford, Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Action & Adventure, Men's Adventure, Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Thriller & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction, Alien Invasion, First Contact, Genetic Engineering, Thriller, action, Adventure
Amazon: B01EWSGU72
Publisher: Fictum Ltd
Published: 2016-04-26T23:00:00+00:00

***

XXIII

‘Ten miles now.’

Lopez watched the altitude dial with a furtive expression as the Icon A5 climbed through veils of mist and light cloud gathering around the mountain peaks and spilling like white rivers down into the valleys below. Ethan leaned forward and switched on the pitot heat to avoid icing inside the aircraft’s sensitive instruments as he sought to maintain a track on the river far below.

‘There’s not a road in sight out here,’ Lopez said. ‘If we can’t take off again, we’ll be stuck out here for days.’

‘We need to be quick,’ Ethan agreed. ‘Once it heats up in the jungle the air won’t have enough density to get airborne again. I hope they’re ready for us down there.’

A dense swathe of cloud drifted by below them, and then Ethan glimpsed the river winding like a silvery serpent beneath the jungle canopy toward a deep chasm between two terrific mountain ranges cloaked in thick tropical forest.

‘Down there,’ he said and pointed ahead.

As they closed in on what looked like a fairly open stretch of water they glimpsed a sudden burst of what looked like blood spilling into the air. Ethan recognized the red stain for what it was, a smoke grenade marking the landing zone for him, something he’d seen many times in his service years in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ethan glanced at the terrain around them. He knew that the rising temperatures would send the air over the jungle up while the cold air from the mountain tops would plunge down, creating lethal vortexes of turbulent air close to the base of the mountains. But he knew that he also had to turn into the wind to land, which would be blowing in from the distant shore. He angled the Icon to pass to the south of the smoke marker, and his eye traced an imaginary line through the sky he would follow to descend and land on the river.

‘You’re overshooting,’ Lopez said as she leaned over to look at the smoke marker a thousand feet below them.

‘I know what I’m doing.’

‘I feel so reassured.’

Ethan banked the Icon over and felt the wings tremble and the fuselage gyrate as it hit the violent downdrafts sweeping across the mountain slopes toward the valley below. The engine strained as he allowed the aircraft to descend, turning slowly as the jungle loomed toward them until he lined up with the river and the turbulence died down.

‘Remind me not to do this again,’ Lopez said as she gripped her seat, her jaw clenched as they descended.

Ethan did not reply as he focused on the green surface of the river, which kinked left and right maybe a half mile ahead. The red smoke was drifting toward him in a listless cloud, revealing not much in the way of lift–generating headwind as the water began to race past them just a few feet away, tree limbs reaching out for the little aircraft as it skimmed the surface of the river at almost fifty knots.

Ethan pulled

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.