Delta Green - страница 30
Halfway down the runway, with the MakoShark still moving too fast, the emergency vehicles roared onto the runway alongside him, but quickly fell behind.
He was standing on the brakes now, the MakoShark’s path straightening as she slowed.
Easing off the reverse thrust of the right engine to maintain his line.
Drifting to the right side of the runway.
And rolling off the concrete onto the hard-baked soil of Borneo.
And slithering to a stop.
Dust boiled the air around them.
The scream of the left turbojet countering the thrust of the rocket motor threatened to deafen him. He killed the starboard jet engine.
“Come on, people,” Munoz urged.
Several seconds later, red foam trucks and blue pickups came sliding up beside them, spilling firemen and mechanics dressed in silver heat-resistant suits.
Vitaly Sheremetevo looked up from his desk when he heard the tap on the door frame.
Corporal Petrovsky, his secretary, said, “Colonel Volontov has arrived, General.”
“Send him in, Corporal.”
Sheremetevo took off his reading glasses and rubbed his eyes as Volontov entered the office and came to attention.
“At ease, Pyotr Mikhailovich. Please have a chair.”
Colonel Pyotr Mikhailovich Volontov was almost 180 centimeters tall, slim, blond, and blue-eyed. Hard angles in the planes of his face reflected the overhead fluorescent lights. He was an intelligent man, and he did not often concede to impetuous authority. He was based in St. Petersburg (once Leningrad) and commanded the 5th Interceptor Wing, comprised of Mikoyan MiG-29s and the two Mako aerospace craft. Sheremetevo had adopted the man early in his career and protected him occasionally when he had balked at ridiculous orders and had come close to insubordination.
“I came as soon as I could, General”
“I appreciate that,” Sheremetevo said. He considered taking a walk along the parade ground for this conversation, but reminded himself that his office had been swept for eavesdropping devices that morning. Electronic eavesdropping had been a constant under the old Soviet regime, but he had yet to discover similar tactics used by the Commonwealth members. The jockeying for power among republic presidents and politicians remained the focus of the political arena for the time being. The military chiefs were currently more concerned with walking the tightropes strung between the republics — and keeping the payrolls coming in — than with risking their own power bases within the air force and army.
He told Volontov about Colonel Pearson’s request.
“She wishes to have the names of the men who have trained in the Mako?”
“Yes.”
“For what purpose, General?”
“That was not revealed to me, and I have not bothered guessing at it. Our last report to the United Nations stated that the Makos were being utilized solely for support of the Soyuz Fifty space station, and that we retain one craft on the ground until the other has returned from space. Is that not so, Colonel?”
“That is correct, in addition to their training roles,” Volontov said. “In fact, both are on the ground now while we await a shipment of fuel pellets.”
“And the status of the space station?”
“Operations are going quite well, General. There are seventeen scientific experiments under way at the moment. We have three men permanently assigned, and next month, we will embark our first female member of the station crew.”
Sheremetevo nodded thoughtfully. He had not fully supported the training schedule for the woman, but Volontov had been impressed by some female pilot of McKenna’s squadron and had insisted upon a trial period for a woman.
“How many pilots have washed out of your program?” he asked the colonel.
Volontov closed his eyes, thinking. “Without the records available, I estimate that we have trained thirty-two or thirty-three. I know that nine have qualified. All excellent pilots, General.”
“That is above a twenty-five per cent qualification rate,” Sheremetevo said. “General Brackman would be impressed, I think, since the Americans only qualify twelve per cent of their pilot candidates”