Vanished Behind Enemy Lines (Capt. Cyndi Stafford Series Book 3) by Dan Stratman

Author:Dan Stratman [Stratman, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

1710 hours, MST

Once all the necessary approvals had been received, the tower supervisor keyed his mic and said, “Shadow 12, unrestricted climb to flight level five-zero-zero approved, maintain runway heading, cleared for takeoff runway two-one right.” Drawing from his long tenure as an Air Force air traffic controller, he understood that things were about to get very busy for Cyndi. To eliminate one distraction as she rocketed skyward, the controller finished his transmission with “Switch to Albuquerque Center now on 126.45.”

Cyndi read back his instructions word-for-word to avoid any misunderstandings then thanked him for his help. With all of the prerequisites squared away, she slammed the throttle into afterburner.

Cyndi got airborne then scooped up the landing gear. She leveled off only ten feet above the pavement. She wasn’t trying to impress her fellow fighter jocks. Cyndi had learned during advanced aerodynamics class that staying one wingspan or less above a hard surface reduces the induced drag generated by the wing.

Less drag meant faster acceleration.

And as any jet pilot knows, more acceleration means more fun.

By the time she reached the end of the ten-thousand-foot runway, Cyndi was screaming along at over 350 knots. She yanked back on the stick. Counter-rotating swirls of dust were blasted skyward on each side of the runway. When the horizon was perpendicular to her flight path, Cyndi relaxed the back pressure on the stick. Seconds later, she punched through a thin cloud layer and was rewarded with a bright, clear blue sky.

Passing forty thousand feet, Cyndi gradually pushed the stick forward to prevent overshooting her target altitude. Her arching flight path resulted in a temporary feeling of weightlessness. Despite being strapped in, Cyndi’s body levitated up off her ejection seat. Dust on top of the glareshield began to float.

I’m definitely doing that again, Cyndi thought, as she leveled off fifty thousand feet above the mere mortals below who’d never get a chance to experience such unbridled exhilaration.

An upper-level high-pressure area had anchored itself over Southern California, causing a dip in the jet stream over Arizona. Just like she’d been briefed, a one-hundred-knot wind roaring out of the north helped Cyndi arrive at the boundary of the SELLS 1 MOA rapidly.

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