Balance of Power by Huston James W

Author:Huston, James W. [Huston, James W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thriller, Politics, Adventure
ISBN: 9780061803192
Amazon: 0061803197
Goodreads: 10441656
Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
Published: 1998-05-20T07:00:00+00:00

Admiral Billings looked at his staff as he drank his coffee. Dillon sat at the other end of the table. The admiral looked at his aide across the room and called to him, “Drano, get Lieutenant Commander Walker up here, ASAP. I want to get an answer back to this message right now. Mr. Dillon, I would like you here during the discussion in case you have anything to add.”

Dillon raised his eyebrows. “Yes, sir.”

The phone rang and the aide picked it up. “Admiral, it’s CAG. He says he must speak to you—it’s urgent.” The admiral walked to the coffee table. His aide handed him the phone.

“Admiral Billings,” he said and then listened. The rest of the officers in the room watched his face as it changed from its usual immovability to concern and then anger.

“When?” he asked casually. “Any doubt about where it came from? When are they due to arrive? Do you have an on-site commander? Okay. Keep me posted.” Billings put the phone down too hard and returned to the table. Still standing, he picked up the silver coffee pitcher and poured the steaming black coffee into his cup. He set the coffee pitcher down with a thud and looked at his staff.

“We just lost one of our F-14s. C0 of VF-143.” There were stunned looks and controlled gasps.

The chief of staff, Captain Black, finally spoke. “What happened?”

“TARPS run over Bunaya. Apparently got a SAM up the ass. They don’t…” The phone rang again.

The admiral’s aide picked up, nodded, and said, “One minute.” He turned to the admiral. “It’s CAG again.”

Billings rose and received the phone. “What?” he asked. “What?” he said again, incredulous. “How is that possible? Are you sure? Okay. Give me hard identification as soon as possible.”

He turned again. “Looks like it was a South African SAM.”

Beth Louwsma was the most surprised. “Excuse me?” she said. “South African? How do they know that, sir?”

“Apparently the EA-6B was airborne and picked up the fire-control radar. They finally categorized the signal as an SAHV-3. Never got a launch indication, so they don’t think that’s what got them.”

Commander Louwsma spoke quickly. “Admiral, South Africa has an infrared version of that same missile, the SAHV-IR.” She gritted her teeth as she realized the failure of the entire intelligence community to pick up on this transfer of surface-to-air missile technology to terrorists or whoever these people were. “They might have tried the Vietnam trick—light up an airplane in front with a radar SAM and shoot from behind with infrared so that he never sees it coming.”

Billings glanced at her and didn’t respond.

“Did they get the crew?”

The admiral shook his head. “No, another airplane saw two good chutes and is the on-scene commander. He hasn’t heard from them yet. They’re twenty-five miles west of the island, which is one hundred fifty miles from here. They haven’t seen anybody come off the island to get them yet.”

The chief of staff nearly shouted his concern. “You think those guys would go after them?”

“It’s certainly a possibility.

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