"Brown, Dale - Fatal Terrain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Dale)

FATAL TE R RAI N 17
head, but such a large object smashing home at over 900 miles
an hour was going to do major damage even without a major
explosion. The devastation would be catastrophic-and the
rebel Nationalists would never know what hit them.
"Excellent test, comrades, excellent," Admiral Sun an-
nounced. "Secure all stations." He remembered the urgent
message from Beijing just then, and fished the messageform
out of his flight suit pocket and read as he continued, "Section
leaders, I expect full reports on any difficulties to me before
we land. Pilot, let us head back to base and--
He stopped dumbfounded, as he read. No, no, this was ini-
possible!
"Cancel that last order, pilot," Sun shouted. "All available
speed to Juidongshan naval base. What is our time en route?"
"Stand by, sir," the pilot responded. Sun was in a daze as
the pilot copilot, and flight engineer pulled out charts and
started computing the new flight planning information. The
three officers looked at each other nervously; then the pilot
turned to the navy admiral lower class and said, "Sir, the naval
base at Juidongshan does not have a runway long enough to
accommodate this aircraft. The closest base that can safely
accommodate us is Shantou, ETE, five-zero minutes. We can
have a helicopter standing by to take you to Juidongshan,
ETE--
"Pilot, I did not ask you to fly to Shantou," Sun said an-
grily. "Are the runways and taxiways at Juidongshan stressed

to take this aircraft?"
The copilot looked up the information in the airman's flight
supplement manual id replied, "Yes, sir, the runways can
an
handle us at minimum gross weight. The taxiways and ramp
areas are limited to thirty thousand pounds, so-"
"That is all I need," Sun said. "I do not need you to park
this plane-I only require that you drop me off. You can dump
fuel as you begin your approach to get down to emergency-
landing fuel weight."
"But, sir, the runway is made for only liaison aircraft and
helicopters," the flight engineer said. "It is only five thousand
feet long! Even with only minimum fuel to reach Shantou, our
safe takeoff roll will exceed the runway available by-"
"Lieutenant, I do not care if this plane becomes a permanent
fixture at Juidongshan-I want to be on the ground at Jui-
dongshan in less than a hour. If I am not in a car and on my




18 DALE BROWN