Ice Station - Matthew Reilly [181]
Solid cliffs of ice were turned instantly to powder as every side of the iceberg containing Wilkes Ice Station and the underground cavern blew out with the blast wave.
The blast wave shot underwater, vaporising everything in its path, creating huge waves of water that expanded out from the coast, rocking the massive icebergs that lined the cliffs as if they were a child’s bath toys. Truth be told, it wasn’t a large nuclear blast – three kilotons with a blast radius of half a kilometre. But then again, there really was no such thing as a small nuclear explosion.
But it wasn’t over yet.
Suddenly, a monstrous black mushroom cloud began to form, shooting up into the air at incredible speed, chasing after the Silhouette as it shot skyward.
Schofield went vertical, tried to outrun the burgeoning mushroom cloud. The mushroom cloud rushed upward. The Silhouette screamed into the sky, its engines roaring, and just as the mushroom cloud began to engulf it, the cloud peaked and the Silhouette shot up and away to safety.
Schofield banked the plane sharply and headed out to sea.
The Silhouette shot across the ocean, heading north. It was dark, eternal twilight. The gargantuan mushroom cloud had just dipped below the horizon to the south of the big black plane.
Schofield found the autopilot, engaged it, then he went back into the missile bay to check on Gant.
‘How is she?’ he asked Renshaw. Gant was lying on the floor of the missile bay, looking seriously pale. Her skin was clammy, her eyes were closed.
‘She’s lost a lot of blood,’ Renshaw said. ‘We have to get her to a hospital fast.’
At that moment, Gant’s eyes popped open. ‘Did we win?’ she asked.
Schofield and Renshaw both looked down at her. Schofield smiled. ‘Yes, Libby, we won. How are you feeling?’
‘Terrible.’ She lay back, shut her eyes again.
Schofield sighed. Where could he take her? A ship would be the best option but which –
The Wasp. Romeo had said that the USS Wasp was out here somewhere. It was Jack Walsh’s ship. A Marine ship. It would be safe.
Schofield was about to hurry back to the cockpit when suddenly he saw the diary sticking out of Gant’s breast pocket.
He grabbed it and headed forward into the cockpit.
Once he was seated in the pilot’s chair, Schofield keyed the Silhouette’s radio. ‘USS Wasp. USS Wasp. This is Scarecrow. I repeat, this is Scarecrow. Do you copy?’
There was no reply.
Schofield tried again. No reply. He looked down at the diary in his hands. It had some looseleaf sheets of paper folded inside it. Gant must have found some documents and put them in the diary.
Schofield grabbed one of the loose sheets. It read:
DESIGN PARAMETERS FOR THE B-7A SILHOUETTE
The Principal desires an attack aircraft with total electronic and conventional invisibility, STOVL capabilities through a retrograde thruster system, and multiple-launch BVR medium-to-long-range (200 nm) air-to-air/air-to-ground missile launch capabilities as expressed in the tender lodged by General Aeronautics Inc and Entertech Ltd in response to the Principal’s Invitation to Tender No. 456-771-7A, dated 2 January 1977.
Schofield translated the jargon: ‘STOVL’ was Short-Take-Off/Vertical-Landing; ‘BVR’ stood for Beyond Visual Range, which meant missiles that could be fired at targets – and be expected to hit those targets – at extremely long range. ‘Electronic invisibility’ meant invisibility to radar, or stealth. But what the hell was ‘conventional invisibility’?
Schofield flicked to the next sheet. It looked like a page out of Entertech Ltd’s tender. It read:
THE ENTERTECH EDGE
The B-7A Silhouette benefits from Entertech Ltd’s experience in the field of electronic countermeasures. Invisibility to radar – or ‘stealth’ – is accomplished in many ways: with radar absorbent paint, minimal radar cross-sections, or with a sharply angled fuselage design as was done with the F-117A stealth fighter. But conventional invisibility is more difficult to accomplish, and so far, it has remained unattainable. Until now.
Entertech Ltd has developed a system whereby