Medusa's Child by Nance John J

Author:Nance, John J. [Nance, John J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thriller, Adventure, Science Fiction, Mystery
ISBN: 9780312962456
Amazon: 0312962452
Goodreads: 262982
Publisher: St. Martin's
Published: 1997-01-20T08:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

ABOARD SCOTAIR 50—6:26 P.M. EDT

Jerry Christian had finished his portion of the before-landing check and swiveled his seat to the forward position when Scott leaned toward him suddenly.

“I hate to have you do this, Jerry, but I’ve gotta know something. Go back and take another look at that thing. See if you can find any way they could penetrate the shell without drilling or using a welding torch. I didn’t see any seams or any panels, other than the one we opened.”

“Most of it is inside that crate,” Jerry replied.

“I know. Hurry. I need your best guess.”

“Why, Scott?”

“No time to explain. Just do it, please!”

Jerry tossed his seat belts aside and disappeared through the cockpit door as the three-engine jetliner settled onto a five-mile final approach, the winds and turbulence rocking it slightly as the speed settled down to a relatively sedate one hundred seventy knots.

I just assumed they would have all the answers, Scott chided himself. I just assumed they’d have the experts. I might’ve just assumed myself into a corner here, and they’re about to screw this up!

“Gear down, landing check, flaps twenty-five,” Doc intoned. Scott reached over and lowered the landing gear handle before remembering the previous unsafe indication on the gear doors.

“Doc, we forgot the gear indication …” Scott began.

A sudden lurch and muffled crunching sound echoed through the cockpit. Both pilots looked at the gear indicators. The nose and right main were showing a green light apiece, indicating down and locked.

The left main gear was showing red.

“Oh jeez,” Doc said. “I forgot about that. We must have really damaged it back there at Pax River.”

“Why don’t we retract and re-extend it, Doc?”

“Hold it!” Doc said. “That could make things worse. How about those fighters out there? Could they take a look at it?”

Scott nodded. “Good idea. Where are those F-16’s?”

“They’ve broken off to the right.”

Scott dialed the air-to-air frequency in the UHF radio once again and keyed the microphone.

“F-16 flight from ScotAir Fifty. You guys still there?”

The voice of the lead pilot came back immediately.

“Roger, ScotAir. Go ahead.”

“We’ve got an unsafe gear indication on our left main. Could you come under and take a look at it? We’ll level off here and do a low approach to the runway, straight ahead at a thousand feet.”

The F-16 lead pilot agreed and began maneuvering to the left as Doc leveled the Boeing at a thousand feet and Scott informed Seymour tower what they were going to do.

Scott could see the F-16 move in from the right and disappear behind them. Thirty seconds ticked by before the lead fighter pilot’s voice came over the radio.

“Okay, ScotAir, your left main gear appears to be undamaged and appears to be in the same position as the right one. Your left landing gear door, the one attached to the left main gear, looks like a big dog’s been chewing on it. The bottom edge is broken and ragged, and it’s partially hanging from its mounting.”

“We’ve got two larger doors on the belly.

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.