Ice Station - Matthew Reilly [171]
Six hundred. Seven hundred.
Eight –
And then suddenly Schofield saw it.
‘All right, let go!’ he yelled.
The others immediately let go of the falling metal catwalk. They hovered in the water as the catwalk dis-appeared into the gloom beneath them.
Schofield swam over to the ice wall.
A large, round hole had been burrowed into it. It looked like a tunnel of some sort, a tunnel that descended into inky darkness.
Wendy swam up alongside Schofield and disappeared inside the dark tunnel. She popped out again several seconds later.
Schofield hesitated.
Renshaw must have seen the doubt in his eyes. ‘What choice do we have?’ he said.
‘Right,’ Schofield said, pulling out his flashlight. He clicked it on. Then he kicked with his feet and swam into the tunnel.
The tunnel was narrow, and it meandered steeply downwards. Schofield swam in the lead, with Kirsty behind him and Renshaw bringing up the rear. Since they were swimming downwards, they made swift progress. They just allowed the lead weights on their weight-belts to pull them down.
Schofield swam cautiously. It was quiet here, like a tomb . . .
And then suddenly, Wendy whipped past him from behind and darted off down the tunnel in front of him.
Schofield looked at his depth gauge.
They had reached a thousand feet.
Dive time was twelve minutes.
‘Bigbird, this is Blue Leader. Target is now in missile range. I repeat. Target is now in missile range. Preparing to launch AMRAAM missiles.’
‘You may fire when ready, Blue Leader.’
‘Thank you, Bigbird. All right, people. I have missile lock. Missile bay is open. Target appears to be unaware of our presence. Okay. This is Blue Leader, Fox One. . . fire!’
The squadron leader jammed down on his trigger.
At that moment, a long, sleek AIM-120 AMRAAM missile slid out from the missile bay of the F-22 and shot forward after its prey.
The British fighter saw the missile on its scopes straight away.
The greatest problem for stealth aircraft is that although an aircraft itself may be invisible to radar, any missiles hanging from its wings will not be invisible. Hence, all stealth aircraft like the F-22, the F-117A stealth fighter and the B-2A stealth bomber carry their missiles internally.
Unfortunately, however, as soon as a missile is fired, it will be seen instantly on radar. Which meant that the moment the F-22 launched its AMRAAM missile at the E-2000 over the horizon, the British plane saw the missile on its scopes.
The British pilot gave himself one minute at the most.
‘General Barnaby! General Barnaby! Report!’
There was no reply.
Which was strange, because Brigadier-General Barnaby knew that this time – 2200 hours to 2225 hours – was a designated contact time, one of only two times a break in the solar flare would permit radio contact. Barnaby had reported in at 1930, another designated contact time, right on schedule.
The British pilot tried the secondary frequency. Still no luck. He tried to hail Nero, Barnaby’s second in command.
Still no luck.
‘General Barnaby! This is Backstop. I am under attack! I repeat, I am under attack! If you do not answer me in the next thirty seconds, I will have to assume that you are dead and pursuant to your orders, I will have no choice but to fire upon the station.’
The British pilot looked at his missile light – it was blinking. He had already preset the co-ordinates of Wilkes Ice Station into the guidance computer of his AGM-88/HLN cruise missile.
The designator letters on the missile said it all.
‘AGM’ stood for air-to-ground missile; ‘H’ for high speed; and ‘L’ for long range. ‘N’ however, had a special meaning.
It stood for nuclear.
Thirty seconds expired. Still no word from Barnaby.
‘General Barnaby! This is Backstop! I am launching the eraser . . . now!’ The British pilot hit his trigger and a split second later, the nuclear-tipped cruise missile attached to the end of his wing streaked away from his plane.
The missile only just got away, for a bare two seconds later – just as the British pilot was reaching for his ejection lever – the American AMRAAM missile