"My question is, do we go or cancel? The book says cancel." He paused, gave a sly smile that went unappreciated by the black-suited warriors, then continued: "My gut says we go for it! But since it's your asses on the firing line, I wanted to hear from you."

"I need to see the radar plots," Fell said. A technician came up a few moments later and delivered several large sheets of paper, each with different four-color screen dumps of the digitized radar picture from the AWACS radar plane. Fell examined them briefly, then handed them over to Watanabe, who began correlating the radar targets with his mission chart. "Any idea what aircraft they have at Liepaja other than the patrol and supply choppers?" Fell asked. "Any fixed-wing stuff? Any of the attack planes or helicopters from that squadron in Kaliningrad move north into Latvia?"

"Still the same info," White replied. "Light-patrol, medium-search and rescue, medium-troop, and heavy-cargo helicopters only." He referred to the screen dump. "Maybe a twin-engine liaison plane shuttling between Riga, Liepaja, and Vilnius, but no armed fixed-wings from Liepaja East. No apparent increase in numbers which might signify a reinforcement of the garrison already there. Except for that one chopper, it's business as usual out there. Vainode is a large Soviet fighter base, thirty miles east, but we haven't seen much activity from there except in daylight hours."

Fell gave a sarcastic snort. "Yeah, right. Business as usual-meaning ten thousand troops, a spy ship, several gunboats, and thirty choppers within ten miles of the target zone." Fell looked over at Watanabe. "Got all those targets plotted, Marty?"

"Plotted and laid in the mission computer," Watanabe replied, handing the printouts to Gunny Lobato for him and his men to peruse. The CV-22'5 advanced AN/AMC-641

computer would warn the crew of any known enemy positions and would use the multimode radar to update

that information during the flight; during withdrawal it would plot a best-guess evasion route out of the area and offer suggestions for safe escape-and-evasion routes in case they were shot down. Watanabe looked at his watch. "We need to start pulling out on deck if we want to recover before first light."

"I take it you vote 'go,' " Fell said dryly. Watanabe nodded and began strapping himself in.

Fell turned to Lobato. "Gunny?"

"Walk in the park," the dark Marine said quietly. "We go."

"We go, then," Fell said. "Turn us loose, Colonel."

"One last sweep of the area and you're on your way," White said, stepping out of the CV-22

PAVE HAMMER. "Good hunting, gents. See you in a few." White stood and watched as the Marine assault team loaded aboard the CV-22, the aft pressure-chamber access doors were opened, and the aircraft was winched out of the chamber onto the helicopter pad.

White headed back to the bridge as the CV-22's on-board auxiliary power system was started.

By the time White made his way back onto the bridge, the CV-22 had begun its transformation from a wadded-up puzzle into a flying machine. The rear-engine nacelle swiveled until it was horizontal, allowing it to clear its stowed position between the twin tail rudders; then the entire wing began to swivel from its stowed position parallel to the fuselage into its normal perpendicular position. As the wing moved into position, the aft-engine nacelle swiveled vertically into position and, like the petals of a rose, the rotors began to unstow themselves on each wingtip nacelle. By the time the wing was in flight position, the rotors were extended to their full thirty-eight-foot diameter and the engines were being started.