Luger had been strapping himself into his ejection seat in the downstairs compartment, but had stopped when he realized how ridiculous the idea of trying to launch the Megafortress seemed right now-not much use in strapping in if there was no way the plane would ever get off the ground-so he laid the straps aside.

There was a gaping hole in the downstairs crew compartment big enough that he could see footprints in the snow outside. Just a few hours earlier his right leg had been in back of that jagged hole. For the first time since arriving at the Russian base, Luger surveyed the damage on his leg-and felt his stomach turn at the sight. Even heavily wrapped in bandages from the first-aid kit, he could feel his kneecap gone, see the limb twisted and his right foot pointing at an unnatural angle. The leg had frozen into an unrecognizable stick, thanks to both the windblast inflight and then spending several hours in freezing temperatures outside.

He was probably going to lose the leg or, at best, be crippled for life. Most of the navigation equipment was damaged or in reset, and the weapons were probably shut down. Were they kidding themselves, or what?

Luger's partner, Captain Patrick McLanahan, had finished helping Lieutenant General Elliott and the two women crew members up the ladder and was going to strap into the seat beside Luger when copilot Lieutenant Colonel John Ormack called McLanahan upstairs.

Ormack had kept one engine running while they had refueled the Megafortress, and incredibly had started engine number five just a few minutes ago. The contaminated fuel was causing tremendous explosions in each engine during ignition, but amazingly the engines kept running. Now more engines were starting. Luger thought McLanahan was probably acting as copilot with Elliott incapacitated. He put on his headphones to block out the bangs and screams of the engines. He could hear Ormack and McLanahan on the interphone.

"If we start a firefight here . ." Ormack said.

"We may not have any choice," McLanahan replied.

Maybe we are going to fight it out, Luger thought. But with what? Half the crew was injured, the plane was shot to hell, they were surrounded by Soviet militiamen

"He wants us to shut down," Luger heard Ormack say over inter-phone. "Patrick, we're running out of time. .

There were several loud bangs on both wings this time and the Old Dog began to buck and rumble as if its insides had been seized by a coughing fit. Down in the lower deck of the Megafortress, alone and shot up and half frozen, Luger felt useless to the crew who needed him the most. But they were continuing the engine start, and Luger realized Ormack and McLanahan weren't giving up. They were going to get the Megafortress in the air or die trying. He smiled. Good old McLanahan. A real give-ashit crew dog who was giving the finger to the Russians in their own backyard. If you're gonna fight, this was the way to do it.