by D F Capps
Diane’s cockpit hit the water with the front edge down. The impact drove the capsule as deep as forty feet under the water. Thirty seconds later they bobbed to the surface.
“Ry, you okay?”
“Maybe. We have sea water pouring into the cockpit. We’re going to sink!”
He sounded panicky.
“You think it was worth it to take down one of the transports?” she asked, trying to get his mind off the flooding cockpit.
“Yep. I just wish we knew how many more got in before we got there.”
Ryan seemed to be refocusing his attention away from panic.
“Yeah,” Diane replied softly. “If this was the Zeta Grey invasion force, we’re going to find out soon enough.”
Diane was knee deep in sea water as the capsule dipped to the front. Ryan released his harness and moved around in the back of the cockpit capsule moaning and grunting with every breath.
“What are you doing?”
She turned her head to look at him. He was facing the back of the cockpit. “According to the tech manual, we have a small inflatable raft down in here, somewhere.”
Her eyebrows rose. “We do?”
He grunted again. “That’s what it said. Didn’t you read the manual?”
She scoffed. “I read the flight parts, not the rest of it.”
He groaned after he hit his head on the canopy. “Well it was in there.”
He grunted as he reached behind his seat.
“You remember exactly where it’s stowed?”
He strained as he reached deeper behind the seat.
“Not exactly, but it’s either under or behind my seat.” He pulled his arm free. “Well, it’s not behind the seat.”
“You sure it’s still there after the last round of improvements?”
He reached under his seat. “You know, they could have improved the fighter to the point where the inflatable raft is no longer there.”
She grimaced. “That would figure. The most advanced fighter craft on the planet and we can’t find the life raft.”
She and Ryan were both breathing heavily.
“We’re sinking. You find the raft yet?” Diane asked.
He shook his head. “No. It’s not here.”
Diane unbuckled her harness and looked back at Ryan. His disappointment over the missing raft was clear in his pained facial expression.
“Let me guess—you can’t swim,” she said.
He didn’t answer.
“In the Navy, they made sure everyone could swim. They had classes.”
“Yeah, well, they had classes in the Marines, too. I was just never that good at it, and that was a while ago, you know?”
She reached back and gripped his right arm. “Ryan, I’ve got you. I’m not going to let you drown, okay?”
He looked back at her and nodded. He just didn’t look convinced.
Ryan activated the release mechanism. The canopy unscrewed and opened as more sea water poured in from the front. They pushed free as the capsule sank beneath the waves and disappeared into the depths below. For a few minutes the flight suits easily kept them afloat, but slowly the sea water seeped into the collar and began filling the suit, which got heavier as they started to float lower in the water.
“We’re going to drown! We have to get out of our suits!” Ryan shouted.
Diane thought back to her training at Annapolis.
“Yeah . . . no. We take the suit off, but we use it as a floatation device.”
Ryan shook his head. “It’s too heavy, it’ll drag us down.”
She spoke as calmly as she could. “It’ll be fine, Ry. Trust me.”
They took their flight suits off and resealed them where the zipper was located. They scooped air into the legs of the suit to use them as a V-shaped floatation system. It felt good to Diane to get out of the hot suit. The sea water was warm and refreshing by comparison, but she knew that seventy-eight degree water was still twenty degrees below body temperature. At some point hypothermia would set in.
“We need to stay close to conserve body heat,” she said.
He was looking away from her. “I don’t think that’s going to matter.”
She frowned. She thought he would want to be close to her. “Why?”
He pointed across the rolling moonlit waves to a fin breaking the surface of the water fifty yards away.
“At least it’s only one shark. It could be worse,” she said.
Ryan used his right arm and paddled away from her.
“Ry, what are you doing?”
The shark slowly circled, closing in. “It’s curious,” Diane said. “Don’t move. Maybe it’ll go away.”
Ryan turned and yelled, “I’m bleeding, Jink, I want you as far away from what’s going to happen as you can get.”
Now she felt panic rising in her chest. “Ry . . . No!”
Ryan continued to paddle farther away. “Stay away! I mean it. Stay away!”
She stayed still as the shark came within three feet of her. The shark drifted by, moved away, and came back. It brushed against her. It was all she could do to not scream in panic. The shark drifted away from her, but still circled Ryan at about twenty feet away.
* * *
I’ve got to keep it away from her, Ryan thought. He paddled harder to draw the shark farther away from Jink.
The shark fin cut through the top of the water as it followed the blood trail straight to him. Panic filled his chest. He held his helmet firmly in his right hand as the shark charged at him. His left shoulder was bleeding, making it the shark’s primary target. He pushed the helmet against the shark’s mouth, turning in the water, forcing the vicious thing off to the side. It circled and took another run at him.
The shark pushed straight into him. Ryan punched it in the nose with the helmet. The shark whipped its head from side to side, trying to get past the helmet. It was all Ryan could do to keep the helmet between him and the shark. The force of the attack propelled Ryan back in the water. He reached out with his left hand and dug his thumb into the shark’s eye. The shark whipped to the side, slashing into Ryan’s left arm with its razor-sharp teeth. He yelled out in pain.
* * *
Diane was so focused on the shark attack that she almost didn’t hear the dull thump of distant helicopter blades. The Navy chopper slowly approached, its searchlight sweeping the rolling sea from side to side. As Ryan continued to struggle with the shark, the deafening pulse of the blades flared the water into a swirling maelstrom and the brilliant searchlight lit up the water around her. She pointed to Ryan.
* * *
It was difficult enough for Ryan to see the shark in the moonlight. Now, with the swirling water around him, he lost track of where the shark was. He spun around, looking, but no fin was in sight. The searchlight lit up the ocean around him. He looked down into the water. There, coming up from twenty feet below him, was the shark. Ryan pulled his legs up into a ball as the shark lunged at him. He held the helmet in both hands and thrust it into the gaping rows of triangular teeth. The force of the impact threw him up, nearly out of the water, and spun him around. His helmet was yanked away as it became wedged in the shark’s mouth. Ryan fell out of the V-shaped legs of the inflated flight suit, and plunged down into the water.
The searchlight turned the water a pale light green. A shadow moved above him in the glow. He moved deeper in the water as he tried to get away. Something grabbed his arm and turned him around. The mouthpiece of a scuba set was thrust into his mouth and a blast of air filled his lungs. He turned to face a Navy rescue diver in the water with him.
As they broke the surface, Ryan shouted, “There’s a shark! Jink, where is she? Is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” the rescue diver said. “I put D2 shark repellant in the water. The shark is gone.”
Ryan desperately looked around him, trying to locate Jink. He couldn’t see her.
“Where is she?” he shouted.
The rescue diver hooked a
harness around him and snapped the lift cable in place.
As he was hauled up into the air, the chopper swung over until the searchlight was centered on Jink. She was alive. That’s all that mattered to him. She was alive.
* * *
Once Diane was lifted aboard the chopper they moved over to pick up Nikolaev and his RIO. A Navy corpsman cut Ryan’s blood-soaked uniform off of his chest and examined the wounds. He sprinkled a powder into the gashes on Ryan’s arm and his shoulder to stop the bleeding and wrapped the wounds with gauze. The corpsman went on to check the rest of them for injuries. He looked at the uniforms and the strange patch on the shoulder, but he didn’t say anything. When he saw Nikolaev’s name in Russian Cyrillic above the right pocket, he turned and stared at Diane.
“It’s okay,” she said, “he’s with us.”
The corpsman looked at the Lieutenant Commander insignia on her uniform and nodded.
“If you say so, ma’am.”
She held her eyes firmly on the corpsman. “I do. He’s with us.”
The corpsman wrapped each person pulled from the sea in a blanket as they headed back. The chopper landed on the rear deck of a destroyer. A Navy commander came out to greet them as they climbed out of the helicopter.
“I’m Commander Snyder,” he said as he shook hands with Diane. “Come on inside and get some food and hot coffee. I have orders from the president to get you back to land on the first available high-speed transport. I’ve got a doc on board who can stitch up your injured man. We’ll fly you back to the carrier as soon as we’re in range, ma’am. Until then all of you are invited to enjoy our hospitality.”
“Which carrier?” Diane asked.
“Ma’am?” he asked as he turned to face her.
“Which aircraft carrier are we going to?”
He grinned. “That would be the Ronald Reagan, ma’am, out of San Diego.”
Chapter 57
What are the chances of not meeting someone I know? Diane wondered as the transport helicopter made its final approach to the Ronald Reagan. She watched carefully out the window as the chopper hovered briefly and then settled down on the flight deck. She breathed out quickly and momentarily closed her eyes as she recognized Commander Chase standing there, fists on his hips, waiting for them.
God, this is awkward.
When the door slid open, she hopped out, and walked straight over to Chase.
“Zadanski,” he said as he looked her uniform over.
“Sir, I . . .”
Commander Chase’s expression hardened as Nikolaev came to a stop next to her.
“Consorting with Russians? What the hell is going on, Zadanski?”
She shook her head. “Sir, it’s need to know. I can’t really explain beyond that.”
Anger flared in his face. “Follow me.”
Commander Chase turned, walked briskly to the door in the superstructure at the edge of the flight deck, and up two flights of stairs to his office. As they entered, Chase pointed to the two chairs opposite his desk.
“Sit.”
Diane and Nikolaev sat as instructed.
“Sir, I can’t really explain this to you. It’s highly classified and compartmentalized.”
He shook his head and breathed out hard. “You’re going to have to give me more than that, Zadanski, otherwise I don’t know when we are going to have a high-speed transport available to get you back to the States. You understand what I’m saying?”
She looked down at the floor. “Yes, sir.” Her mind scrambled for a way to explain why they were there. “We work directly for the president. Again, it’s strictly need-to-know, sir.”
Commander Chase tipped back in his chair. “I’m aware of President Andrews’s orders. I need to know something about what’s going on before I allocate my resources. I see that it’s lieutenant commander now.”
Is that what he’s upset about? My promotion?
“Yes, sir, it’s critically important that we get back as soon as possible. Our national security is at stake.”
He just sat there and stared at her for what seemed like an eternity.
“That’s a convenient excuse, Zadanski. I’ve used it several times myself. I might be able to get the resources you need in a matter of a few minutes, or it could take several hours. I need to be convinced, so spill it.”
She glanced at Nikolaev and then back to Commander Chase.
“It can’t go any further than you, sir,” Diane said. “I need your word.”
He nodded. “Done.”
She took a deep breath, then said, “Sir, in all of your experience as a pilot and a Commanding Officer have you ever seen or encountered a UFO?”
His expression darkened.
“We don’t report those, for obvious reasons.”
She nodded. “Have you ever seen how they can turn at right angles and accelerate to tremendous speeds?”
He didn’t seem to like where the conversation was headed. “Your point being?”
He crossed his arms over his chest.
“They’re actually very dangerous, sir. Just because you can’t get close to them in an F/A-18 Super Hornet doesn’t mean they’re not hostile. They don’t shoot at you because they don’t have to, sir. It’s just easier for them to fly away.”
Commander Chase leaned forward and put his hands flat on his desk. “And you know this because . . . ?”
She leaned back, uncomfortable with the situation.
“I’ve shot down around twenty of them. I’ve also had two of our fighter craft shot out from under me, sir.”
Commander Chase appeared clearly shaken by the news. “We’re at war? You have a fighter craft that can shoot down UFOs?”
Finally, I’m getting through, she thought.
“Yes, sir. Our new fighter craft makes an F/A-18 Super Hornet look like a bicycle with cardboard wings on it. I’m Commanding Officer of an advanced squadron out of the United States. Senior Lieutenant Nikolaev, here, commands another squadron out of Russia, and a third squadron is forming up in China. It’s a fight to the death, sir, and we really need to get back—right now.”
Commander Chase picked up the phone on his desk, pushed a button, and said into it, “I need a V-22 Osprey, fully fueled and on the flight deck, right away.” He hung up the phone. “Thank you, Zadanski. I always wondered if your talent would ever be fully utilized. I’m satisfied now that it is.”
He stood and extended his hand to Nikolaev.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Senior Lieutenant. I’ve been informed that two Russian fighters will be here within the next two hours to take you and your RIO back home. Don’t let her down. She’s very special.”
Nikolaev stood at full attention. “I know that, sir. She has our full respect.”
Chase finished shaking Nikolaev’s hand and then turned to Diane.
“Zadanski . . . I hardly know what to say. You make me so proud. I . . .”
“Thank you, sir. It means a lot to me.” She shook his hand and smiled. “We really have to go, sir.”
He nodded sadly. “Of course.”
She led Nikolaev through the maze of corridors to the flight deck.
“Do you think he will keep our secret?” he asked.
“Yep. It’s ingrained in military plots to never talk about UFOs. It’ll be fine.”
Nikolaev smiled. “Until we meet again, as you say, in the wild blue yonder.”
They shook hands and she walked over to the waiting Osprey.
Yeah, she thought, if we manage to stay alive that long.
Chapter 58
Sean’s head was feeling stuffed with new information to the point where he needed some air. He strolled out the back of the guest ranch to the corral and barn that housed the horses. He put his right foot on the lower railing and rested his arms on the top of the corral fence, staring into the distance.
“Can I help you?”
The difference between the man’s western drawl and Sean’s own New York accent m
ade him smile.
“No, just thinking.”
He turned to face the man.
“Well there’s enough room for plenty of that out here. If I can do somethin’ for ya, just say so.”
Sean nodded.
The ranch hand turned away.
“You know,” Sean said. “I’ve got kind of a crazy question, if you don’t mind.”
The ranch hand turned around.
“You ever heard of animal mutilations?”
The man stared at him.
“Ever seen a UFO?”
The man walked over to Sean. “You with the government?”
“No. The New York Times, actually.”
The ranch hand looked around.
“ ’Cause I reported some of that stuff years ago. Got a visit from some men in black suits: Made it clear I didn’t see anythin’. I’ve kept my mouth shut. I don’t want them comin’ back.”
Sean nodded. “I understand. I wouldn’t want them coming back either. So . . . off the record, totally anonymous, what do you know?”
The man stepped closer.
“Seen both. Lost three horses over the last five years. Dangdest thing I ever saw. Clean round cut, no blood.”
Sean tipped his head slightly to the side. “Genitals?”
The man nodded. “Yep. Seen some eyes and other organs taken, too.”
This was consistent with what Sean had read. “Dent in the ground, like they were dropped from the air?”
The man stopped and stared at Sean. “You know an awful lot for a stranger. Who are you, really?”
Sean showed him his New York Times press ID and said, “I’m investigating a story. A friend told me to come out here so I could see for myself.”
The man looked around at the sky. “Well, if you’re looking for UFOs, you’ve come to the right place. We see ‘em every night, dartin’ around in the sky. Come on out tonight about an hour after dark. You’ll see ’em.”
