The general paused a moment and then spoke quickly, his mind resolving to action, “Major Duranda, get things under control there and make sure that news of this does not go any further than is absolutely necessary. Radio, get me a closed link to the squadron commander on Pelishar One. Mission command, I want another squadron in the air, stat and en route to their position. Under no circumstances is that plane to leave Pakistani airspace in one piece.”

The radio operator acknowledged and the general’s face creased in focused anger. Time to find out who the hell was flying that plane.

Chapter 58: Showdown

Shahim’s acute hearing registered the flick as the fixed link to the squadron leader was broken, and started to wonder why that had happened. They were fast approaching zero hour for the next detonation and his advanced eyes could see the blue streak of Jack and Martin’s latest missile in the distance, even as his radar picked up the supersonic missile as another green blip on his increasingly crowded screen.

At this point there was no reason for the squadron leader to drop off comms, not at such a critical juncture, unless he was talking on a closed loop with Command Central. He twitched as his radar started to show a slight shift in the formation. The squadron leader was starting to drop back from his position at the bottom of their 12,000-foot-high stack, and he was climbing as he did so.

Shit.

Shahim needed to see what was going on. The plane’s radar was more effective than his eyes over long distances, but at close range he trusted his robotic eyes more, despite the darkness. Without shifting his plane’s position in the formation, he gently teased the stick to the right and his plane rolled smoothly, the horizon spinning in front of him, and with his head bent backward, his eyes panned the air behind and below him to pick out the blue flare of the squadron leader’s jet as it fell out of formation. In the momentary blur as his plane spun, his powerful vision zoomed in on the other pilot, thousands of feet below, and saw the man looking up at him. Shahim could see the other man’s lips moving as he stared up at Shahim’s plane.

They know, he thought.

* * *

“I see him, Command Central, wait, he just rolled his plane. Wow, that was tight.” Squadron Leader Anish Nagaraja whistled silently as he watched the maneuver. To spin that tightly without breaking formation was difficult, and required extraordinary precision. “This is no amateur, Central, he knows what he’s doing.”