Tess Gerritsen - Double Impact

NEVER SAY DIE

Copyright 1992 by Tess Gerritsen

NO WAY BACK

Copyright 2003 by Debra Webb

1970

Laos-North Vietnam border

THIRTY MILES OUT of Muong Sam, they saw the first tracers slash the sky.

Pilot William Wild Bill Maitland felt the DeHavilland Twin Otter buck like a filly as they took a hit somewhere back in the fuselage. He pulled into a climb, instinctively opting for the safety of altitude. As the misty mountains dropped away beneath them, a new round of tracers streaked past, splattering the cockpit with flak.

Damn it, Kozy. Youre bad luck, Maitland muttered to his copilot. Seems like every time we go up together, I taste lead.

Kozlowski went right on chomping his wad of bubble gum. Whats to worry? he drawled, nodding at the shattered windshield. Missed ya by at least two inches.

Try one inch.

Big difference.

One extra inch can make a hell of a lot of difference.

Kozy laughed and looked out the window. Yeah, thats what my wife tells me.

The door to the cockpit swung open. Valdez, the cargo kicker, his shoulders bulky with a parachute pack, stuck his head in. What the hells goin on any- He froze as another tracer spiraled past.

Got us some mighty big mosquitoes out there, Kozlowski said and blew a huge pink bubble.

What was that? asked Valdez. AK-47?

Looks more like.57-millimeter, said Maitland.

They didnt say nothin about no.57s. What kind of briefing did we get, anyway?

Kozlowski shrugged. Only the best your tax dollars can buy.

Hows our cargo holding up? Maitland asked. Pants still dry?

Valdez leaned forward and confided, Man, we got us one weird passenger back there.

So whats new? Kozlowski said.

I mean, this ones really strange. Got flak flyin all round and he doesnt bat an eye. Just sits there like hes floatin on some lily pond. You should see the medallion hes got round his neck. Gotta weigh at least a kilo.

Come on, said Kozlowski.

Im tellin you, Kozy, hes got a kilo of gold hangin around that fat little neck of his. Who is he?

Some Lao VIP, said Maitland.

That all they told you?

Im just the delivery boy. Dont need to know any more than that. Maitland leveled the DeHavilland off at eight thousand feet. Glancing back through the open cockpit doorway, he caught sight of their lone passenger sitting placidly among the jumble of supply crates. In the dim cabin, the Laos face gleamed like burnished mahogany. His eyes were closed, and his lips were moving silently. In prayer? wondered Maitland. Yes, the man was definitely one of their more interesting cargoes.

Not that Maitland hadnt carried strange passengers before. In his ten years with Air America, hed transported German shepherds and generals, gibbons and girlfriends. And hed fly them anywhere they had to go. If hell had a landing strip, he liked to say, hed take them there-as long as they had a ticket. Anything, anytime, anywhere, was the rule at Air America.

Song Ma River, said Kozlowski, glancing down through the fingers of mist at the lush jungle floor. Lot of cover. If they got any more.57s in place, were gonna have us a hard landing.

Gonna be a hard landing anyhow, said Maitland, taking stock of the velvety green ridges on either side of them. The valley was narrow; hed have to swoop in fast and low. It was a hellishly short landing strip, nothing but a pin scratch in the jungle, and there was always the chance of an unreported gun emplacement. But the orders were to drop the Lao VIP, whoever he was, just inside North Vietnamese territory. No return pickup had been scheduled; it sounded to Maitland like a one-way trip to oblivion.

Heading down in a minute, he called over his shoulder to Valdez. Get the passenger ready. Hes gonna have to hit the ground running.

He says that crate goes with him.

What? I didnt hear anything about a crate.

They loaded it on at the last minute. Right after we took on supplies for Nam Tha. Pretty heavy sucker. I might need some help.

Kozlowski resignedly unbuckled his seatbelt. Okay, he said with a sigh. But remember, I dont get paid for kickin crates.

Maitland laughed. What the hell do you get paid for?

Oh, lots of things, Kozlowski said lazily, ducking past Valdez and through the cockpit door. Eatin. Sleepin. Tellin dirty jokes-

His last words were cut off by a deafening blast that shattered Maitlands eardrums. The explosion sent Kozlowski-or what was left of Kozlowski-flying backward into the cockpit. Blood spattered the control panel, obscuring the altimeter dial. But Maitland didnt need the altimeter to tell him they were going down fast.

Kozy! screamed Valdez, staring down at the remains of the copilot. Kozy!

His words were almost lost in the howling maelstrom of wind. The DeHavilland shuddered, a wounded bird fighting to stay aloft. Maitland, wrestling with the controls, knew immediately that hed lost hydraulics. The best he could hope for was a belly flop on the jungle canopy.

He glanced back to survey the damage and saw, through a swirling cloud of debris, the bloodied body of the Lao passenger, thrown against the crates. He also saw sunlight shining through oddly twisted steel, glimpsed blue sky and clouds where the cargo door should have been. What the hell? Had the blast come from inside the plane?

He screamed to Valdez, Bail out!

The cargo kicker didnt respond; he was still staring in horror at Kozlowski.

Maitland gave him a shove. Get the hell out of here!

Valdez at last reacted. He stumbled out of the cockpit and into the morass of broken crates and rent metal. At the gaping cargo door he paused. Maitland? he yelled over the winds shriek.

Their gazes met, and in that split second, they knew. They both knew. It was the last time theyd see each other alive.

Ill be out! Maitland shouted. Go!

Valdez backed up a few steps. Then he launched himself out the cargo door.

Maitland didnt glance back to see if Valdezs parachute had opened; he had other things to worry about.

The plane was sputtering into a dive.

Even as he reached for his harness release, he knew his luck had run out. He had neither the time nor the altitude to struggle into his parachute. Hed never believed in wearing one anyway. Strapping it on was like admitting you didnt trust your skill as a pilot, and Maitland knew-everyone knew-that he was the best.

Calmly he refastened his harness and grasped the controls. Through the shattered cockpit window he watched the jungle floor, lush and green and heartwrenchingly beautiful, swoop up to meet him. Somehow hed always known it would end this way: the wind whistling through his crippled plane, the ground rushing toward him, his hands gripping the controls. This time he wouldnt be walking away

It was startling, this sudden recognition of his own mortality. An astonishing thought. Im going to die.

And astonishment was exactly what he felt as the DeHavilland sliced into the treetops.

Vientiane, Laos

AT 1900 HOURS THE REPORT came in that Air America Flight 5078 had vanished.

In the Operations Room of the U.S. Army Liaison, Colonel Joseph Kistner and his colleagues from Central and Defense Intelligence greeted the news with shocked silence. Had their operation, so carefully conceived, so vital to U.S. interests, met with disaster?

Colonel Kistner immediately demanded confirmation.

The command at Air America provided the details. Flight 5078, due in Nam Tha at 1500 hours, had never arrived. A search of the presumed flight path-carried on until darkness intervened-had revealed no sign of wreckage. But flak had been reported heavy near the border, and.57-millimeter gun emplacements were noted just out of Muong Sam. To make things worse, the terrain was mountainous, the weather unpredictable and the number of alternative nonhostile landing strips limited.