Jean-Paul’s Rafale rocketed between the two jets and his jet signature vanished in their combined jet stream. The missiles on his tail lost lock and searched for another heat signature, finding the other planes in an instant. The two men had only a moment to pull apart from each other as blind fate chose one of them and the four missiles reassigned their trajectories to meet him.

The Typhoon erupted in a blaze of fury as four simultaneous explosions tore it to shreds. Wings flying apart as the fuselage disintegrated in white-hot flame.

But as Jean-Paul then pulled up, he followed the precise trajectory Lord Mantil’s own computer would have chosen for him, and the double agent was waiting for him. Jean-Paul saw the broken jet an instant before the other pilot’s course fell across his own and registered the threat in a flash. Machine reactions taking control, he rolled his plane but Lord Mantil was already firing, emptying the last of his Gatling gun’s belts into the flicking silhouette of Jean-Paul.

The bullets clawed along the Rafale’s left engine and wing, and the plane’s advanced computer systems instantly shut down the torn left thruster, cutting off its fuel supply before it killed the entire plane. Lord Mantil was allowed a second of pleasure at the hit before another radar lock found him, and this time Lightning One’s pilot was immediate in her response. She fired two of her latest generation, fighter-killing missiles at close range and every tactical option Lord Mantil saw told him he was doomed. Without hesitation, Lord Mantil literally ripped his own seat out of his plane and catapulted himself clear in the fraction of a second before the missiles flew up his jet stream, fucking his plane’s engine with two hundred pounds of explosive fury.

He was just clear when the missiles struck, and he felt more than saw the explosion as it drove him outward. His tactical options gone, his part in this contest over, Lord Mantil began his long hard fall to Earth with a tinge of regret. He had enjoyed piloting the jet, and he had enjoyed firing on Agent Jean-Paul Merard. He hoped it would not be the last chance he had to bring his vengeance to bear on the man, or the rest of his remaining colleagues for that matter.

For his part, Jean-Paul was far from done. The desperate maneuver by the mysterious F-16 had significantly reduced his Rafale’s power, and the damage to his left wing would affect his maneuverability severely as well, but he was still in the fight. Lightning One was climbing to take the height advantage from him, but worse than that he could not see Balbuzard One on his radar at all anymore.