Impossible (Fuzed Trilogy Book 3)

by David E Stevens

  “This jet’s designed to carry 19 people and four and a half tons of fuel. We got three and less than a ton of gas.” He shrugs. “It could work.”

  Tim yells back to Sheri, “May want to strap in tightly.”

  On the tower frequency, Josh uses his Australian accent. “Aircraft on approach, abort your landing.” With that, he rolls onto the runway, lifting a wheel as he makes the sharp turn to align the jet. Before he’s pointed down the runway, he firewalls the throttles. The jet accelerates briskly.

  Not surprisingly, the tower tells him that he isn’t cleared for takeoff.

  He sees security vehicles paralleling him on the taxiway, and says, “Déjà vu.” Still below takeoff speed and rapidly running out of runway, he adds, “At least there aren’t any hills at the end of the runway.”

  Shaking his head, Tim says, “Because there’s a lake!”

  As the jet hits the runway’s asphalt overrun, Josh drops the flaps for extra lift and pulls the yoke back. With a stall warning alarm, the Gulfstream shudders. The jet settles and the wheels clip the tops of the lake waves as he retracts the landing gear.

  They accelerate and he raises the flaps. Climbing only to 100 feet above the water, he switches off the jet’s exterior lights and IFF and then dims the cockpit. He can see clearly on the moonlit night with his exceptional night vision.

  Gently banking toward the north, he looks over at Tim.

  Tim is staring straight ahead with a death grip on his armrests.

  Josh says, “We should be below their radar, but we need to figure out where to go. Can’t file to a normal airport now. The authorities will be looking for this jet.” He looks at the fuel gauge and throttles back. “And we don’t have much fuel, especially if we stay low like this.”

  With a couple deep breaths, Tim finally says, “How far can we go?”

  Josh looks at the fuel flow and does a quick calculation. “Maybe 700 klicks.”

  Tim nods. “I may have an idea.”

  “Ok, which way should I start heading?”

  “Northwest.” Tim pulls out his tablet and calls up the map mode. He studies it for a few minutes and then says, “I know of a—”

  He’s interrupted by a loud warbling tone.

  Josh looks at the jet’s ECM panel and says, “We got company. Someone on our nose just locked us up with a fire-control radar.”

  Within seconds, a jet coming from the opposite direction flies right down their left side.

  Sheri yells from the back, “What the hell was that!”

  Josh shakes his head in surprise. “I think that was a … Mig-21?”

  Tim says, “They scrambled the Turkish Air Force after us!”

  Josh shakes his head again. “No. They fly F-16s. They never flew Migs. That was a 1960s vintage Soviet fighter.”

  “Then who are they?”

  The warbling tone starts again but this time the indicator points behind them.

  “Don’t know but they’re not friendly.”

  Josh flips on the Electronic Counter Measures and arms the chaff and flare dispenser. The warbling tone goes up in pitch and tempo. Josh yells, “Missile inbound! Hang on!”

  The world once again shifts to slow motion. He pushes the throttles all the way forward, pulls the nose up and rolls the jet almost 90 degrees. Yanking back on the yoke, they’re pushed down in their seats as he pulls as many Gs as the jet can do. He feels the Gulfstream buffeting as he hits the chaff and flare dispenser. Seconds later, they see a flash and hear a boom off their right side. Josh rolls back level and heads for the northern shoreline

  Sheri yells, “Woohoo, they missed!”

  “The flare decoyed the older generation heat-seeking missile. Their old radars suck at low altitude. Need to get down into ground clutter.” Josh descends to 20 feet above the water.

  Tim silently clenches the armrests, looking pale.

  With his exceptional vision, Josh sees that the northwest side of the lake is a smoother unpopulated shoreline that transitions into hills and mountains. He heads for it.

  The missile warning goes to high warble again.

  He takes the jet to a half a wingspan above the water and hits the chaff and flares.

  They see another flash as the missile strikes the water and explodes behind them, but this time they hear a ‘tinking’ sound as if gravel is hitting the bottom of the jet.

  Josh calmly says, “That was too close. His radar missiles are useless this low and he probably just expended his last heat seekers. Which means, all he has left—”

  Water kicks up in front of them from a short cannon salvo.

  “…is his gun.” Josh takes a deep breath and focuses on not hitting the water. He quietly adds, “He has to drop his nose to get us in the cross hairs. At this altitude, he can only get off a few rounds without flying into the water.” He finishes to himself, “Unfortunately, it only takes one.”

  Josh maintains his ludicrously low altitude as they approach the shoreline. It’s a game of chicken to see if the Mig has the gonads to follow. At the last second, Josh pulls the nose up to hug the rising terrain.

  Cannon rounds mixed with burning orange tracers strike the hillside in front of them.

  As they top the ridgeline, Josh rolls the jet upside down. Still inverted, he pulls the nose toward the ground to follow the slope down the other side of the hill.

  The Mig, trying to get a shot, overshoots and appears in front of them.

  Seeing the fighter bank left toward them, Josh rolls upright and banks hard right. Completely focused, he takes the Gulfstream down to less than a wingspan off the desert and pushes it as fast as it will go.

  The radar warning tone is silent.

  After a couple minutes, Josh takes a long, deep breath. He climbs to 200 feet and throttles back. “I think we lost him. That old Mig can fly circles around us but their ancient radar sucks. If they lose sight, they can’t pick us up in the ground clutter.”

  From the back, Sheri yells, “That was awesome! Way better than a roller coaster, especially when we were upside down!”

  Tim, jaw clenched and still looking pale, turns around and just stares at his wife. Facing forward, he sits still for a few more seconds breathing deeply, and then pulls his tablet out. He points to the displayed map. “There’s an old abandoned airfield near Kirnati, Georgia, that we used during the Russian invasion of Tskhinvali. It’s pretty mountainous but we can follow the Chorokhi River that crosses the border. I have some contacts in that area that can help.”

  “Sounds good. With our little tussle, we burned a lot of gas.” He glances at the fuel gauge. “May have just enough fuel to make it.” He also notes that pressure is dropping on one of the two hydraulic circuits but doesn’t share it with Tim.

  After an hour of flying at night through mountains and canyons, they reach the river that crosses the Turkish-Georgian border.

  Tim says, “They’re a little sensitive near the border after Turkey snatched some of their territory … but that might work to our advantage.”

  Josh slows down and follows the river at low altitude. They have no problem crossing the border, but he tells Tim, “Hope this field’s close. We’re on fumes.”

  Tim says, “There!”

  Josh looks and then frowns. “Where?”

  Less confident, Tim says, “Right there.”

  “That’s not a runway, that’s a field.”

  “It was a runway.”

  Josh blows out a lung full of air. He taps an indicator and says, “Well, the landing gear won’t come down anyway, probably fragged by that last missile. I’m going to grease it in on the river and plant it on the shoreline.”

  Tim frowns. “Didn’t you try to do that in Columbia?”

  “Nope. I was just the copilot, but,” he smiles, “I’ve watched the movie, Sully, twice.”

  Tim gives him an unenthusiastic, “Great.”

  Josh drops the flaps and slows the jet down to its minimum landing speed. With almost no fuel, the
Gulfstream flies very slow and handles well.

  He makes a pass to make sure there isn’t a waterfall or other obstruction at the other end. The river is shallow with plenty of round river gravel on both sides. Circling back, he makes his approach.

  He descends as gently as he can and just kisses the river with the jet’s belly. The slim business jet hydroplanes as he keeps the wings level. Finally, the jet settles into the water and just before the wing tip falls, they hit a gravel sandbar. It makes a terrible scraping sound and decelerates them quickly. Moving the same speed as a car on a freeway, the Gulfstream’s weight finally causes the jet to plow through the stones. Sliding sideways, it crunches to a stop.

  Tim nods. “Nice.”

  Josh kills the engines and in the relatively quiet says, “Connecting flight information can be found on the monitors inside the terminal.”

  Tim and Sheri unstrap and quickly grab critical items. They throw them into duffel bags as Josh opens the hatch.

  Stepping down onto the gravel bed, Josh looks around. It’s dark and heavily forested on both sides of the river. There’s a cool breeze blowing from upstream and it’s surprisingly quiet. The only sound he hears is the wind in the treetops, the gently rushing river and a soft metallic clinking from the cooling turbine blades.

  Tim points to the forest’s edge. “Head over there toward the road.” He turns and tosses something back into the jet and adds, “Quickly!”

  They’re only a few minutes away when they hear a muffled explosion and see the beautiful Gulfstream in flames.

  As they jog toward the road, they hear the jet explode behind them and see the reflection off the clouds.

  34

  GEORGIA

  An old truck stops along the road near a bend in the river. Tim leaves the woods and walks up to the driver’s side window. They talk briefly and Josh sees them shaking hands. Tim then signals to Sheri and Josh to join him.

  He introduces them to Sergi Hilvanica and tells them to jump in the back of the truck. After a short ride, they’re deposited into the center of Batumi at the hotel Mgzavrebi.

  Exhausted, they check in to a suite with two rooms and collapse in bed.

  The next morning, they gather for breakfast.

  Sheri says, “Ok, what exactly were they doing in the factory?”

  Josh frowns. “It was weird. They were transplanting the innards of the stolen plutonium-powered tracking capsules into bigger capsules. Then they were re-boxing them along with the nano-drones for shipment.”

  “Why?”

  Josh and Tim shrug. “We don’t know.”

  “Where are they shipping them?”

  Josh shakes his head and says to his phone, “Jen, what did you find on the laptop and phone?”

  “I downloaded all the files but they’re encrypted.”

  Tim says, “I thought you could crack encryption.”

  “I could, but after The Great Tech Out, one of the projects they asked me to help them with was creating stronger encryption. I showed them how to do quantum key encryption, and it’s becoming the new standard. Without knowing the key, it’s almost impossible to break.”

  Tim asked, “Didn’t you put a back door into the system?”

  “No. That would be unethical.”

  Josh and Sheri simultaneously give Tim a menacing frown.

  Tim corrects, “I meant for diagnostic purposes.”

  “It isn’t needed because with the key we can ensure the data is accurately encrypted and decrypted.”

  Josh asks, “You said almost impossible?”

  “With enough processing power and some creativity, any code can be broken, but I’ll have to borrow a significant portion of the world’s computer processing power and memory to do it, and that could take weeks. However, they didn’t use quantum encryption for all the graphics in the documents, and I should be able to decode the pictures pretty soon. That will also help me crack the code on the text.”

  Josh pauses. “Jen, we’ve been teaching you that no one’s above the law and there are procedures that we must follow to protect rights. We’ll make sure there are proper warrants before you release it to anyone but can you start working on the decryption now?”

  “Don’t worry, Josh, I learned my lesson about unintended consequences, but if there’s anything I find that could harm those that I love, that’s my first priority.”

  “Thanks Jen.” He pauses. “What do we know about the Solak Company?”

  Jen says, “It’s privately owned and has been a family business for over 100 years. It’s in the process of being transferred to the fourth generation. The family is known for many charitable activities. The only recent news article is several years old. It just mentions a tragedy with one of the heirs who died in an accident. I can’t find anything negative about the business or family, or anything that might link them to a terrorist group.”

  Josh frowns. “Hard to imagine they’re not aware that a corner of their factory is building plutonium-powered assassination capsules. Jen, any way we can find out where they’re shipping these things?”

  Sheri says, “They’re probably not using FedEx.”

  Jen says, “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Josh looks at Tim and Sheri. “We’ve got to get this information back to Meadows and Turan.”

  Frowning, Tim says, “If they managed to implant one of these in Davidson, we have to assume Turan and Meadows have been implanted too. And if they can monitor them with nano-drones, telling them could sign their death warrant.”

  Josh says, “I have an advantage; I can hear the nano-drones.”

  “Yeah, if they’re flying, but what if they’re just sitting somewhere in their office watching you. You can’t hear them.”

  Sheri says, “We need technical expertise. Jessica Lee could figure out how to locate and maybe jam the drones.”

  Josh nods. “But there’s a chance she might have been implanted as well, particularly, after she accepted the position as the President’s Science Advisor.”

  Sheri frowns. “We’re getting paranoid aren’t we? They can’t implant everyone.”

  “Josh’s right, we have to be careful. Fortunately, we don’t have to contact her directly. We can connect with Greg first.”

  Josh nods. “Hey Jen, does Greg still have the encrypted text app on his phone?”

  “No, he dropped his phone in the toilet again, but I can reload it on his new phone.”

  “Please do.”

  Tim pulls a satchel from one of the bags. “First, we need to get back into the U.S.” Opening it, he hands Sheri and Josh passports and IDs. “And this was my first career.”

  Josh nods but asks, “How do we avoid the nano-drones?” Sheri says, “I own an Air Stream trailer.”

  Josh gives her a puzzled look.

  She smiles confidently. “The outside skin is made of aluminum.”

  Josh slaps his forehead. “Of course, the metal skin can be turned into a Faraday cage and block the radio signals used to control the nano-drones.”

  Sheri grins. “Don’t have to modify it. My prepper husband already did.”

  35

  JESSICA

  The 30-foot Air Stream trailer is lavishly equipped and comfortable. Although the metal skin prevents nano-drones from being operated inside, eyes or cameras can still look in through the windows, so they keep the shades drawn.

  Responding to Josh’s text, Greg meets them in Virginia at an RV Park. Josh opens the door and invites him in. As soon as the door is shut, Tim and Sheri come out of the bedroom.

  When Greg sees Tim, he just says, “Hi Tim.”

  Frowning, Josh says, “Thought you’d be a bit more surprised.”

  Greg shakes his head. “Nope. I’ve ridden with Tim. There’s no way he’d die in a car accident. Besides, you supposedly died and showed up again, so I figured Tim would too. James Bond never dies.”

  Tim and Josh look at each other and shrug as Sheri gives him a hug.

  After br
inging him up to speed while eating hamburgers and shakes, Greg starts reading the nano-drone specs.

  Finally, Greg says, “I’m a software guy.” He shakes his head. “These things are so tiny they have to be hardwired with custom designed chips. We need Jessica. She’s the hardware genius.”

  Tim nods. “We agree. There’s a slight chance she might be targeted for monitoring too. We’ll need you to come up with a reasonable excuse to get her here where we can ensure she’s not trackable.”

  Sheri adds, “But first, Greg, we need to make sure you haven’t been implanted.” She takes him into the trailer’s bedroom.

  After a half hour, they come back out and Sheri says, “I think he’s clean, but Josh, with your amazing vision, I’d like you to take a look at a couple spots.”

  Josh checks his neck and scalp where Sheri points and confirms he’s clean.”

  A few hours later, Jessica follows Greg to the RV. From inside, they can hear her say, “Are you serious? You better not have bought this damn thing!”

  When she’s inside, Greg points at Tim and Sheri, and says, “Ta da!”

  Jessica stops dead in her tracks and her jaw falls open.

  After hugs and another round of explanations, Jessica finally says, “Here we go again.”

  Sheri says, “Unfortunately, there’s a slight chance you could have been implanted with a tracking chip like Josh and Tim. We need to check you out too. We’ve all been through it.”

  Sheri takes her into the bedroom.

  After a minute, Josh hears Sheri say, “Josh, come in here a minute.”

  Jessica’s down to her underwear and Josh once again marvels at her lack of self-consciousness.

  Sheri says, “Show her where your chip is.”

  He holds out his hand.

  Sheri points at the top of his hand. “You can’t see it without a magnifying glass, but if you rub the skin on the hand between your fingers you’ll feel it.”

  Jessica feels the top of his hand and then rubs each of her hands. “I don’t feel anything.” She holds her hands out to Josh.