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interceptors were on the katsura radar, speeding towarddaedalus last known vector coordinates. it should only be amatter of time."in five minutes they will be within air ~ to ~ air range,"sokolov replied. he paused, then asked the questionweighing on his mind. "if he refuses to turn back, do youreatty want that vehicle blown from the skies?"now tanzan mino was thinking about the stealthcapabilities of the daedalus was the design good enough todefeat the mig ~ 3 i s pulse ~ doppler radar? he suddenly foundhimself wishing the plane hadnt been so well designed. thestupid soviets, of course, had no idea ~ yet ~ that it could justdisappear."he could be headed for alaskan air space. thats what thecomputer is projecting. you understand the ramificationsif this vehicle falls into the hands of the americans. "the soviet nodded gravely. that was, of course,unthinkable. there would be no going homethe huge flight helmet. as she watched, his open eyesgradually resumed their focus. then he snapped his headand looked around."shto . . . what happened?""i dont think you can handle heavy g ~ loads. youre weakfrom the wound, the tourniquiet."

he straigntened up, then glanced again at the altimeter.they were cruising at three hundred meters, smooth as silk.and they were burning six hundred pounds of jp ~ 7 asecond."nothing has gone the way i planned. " he rubbed at histemples, trying to clear the blood from his brain. "were justbuying a little breathing space now by staying down herei think the radar noise of the choppy sea, together with allour stealth capability, will keep us safe. but at this lowaltitude were using fuel almost as though we were dumpingit. if we continue to hold on the deck, weve got maybe halfan hours flying time left. ""if we gained altitude, " vance wondered, "could we stretch

it enough to make alaska?""probably, " androv replied. "if we took her above fiftythousand feet, we might have a chance.""then weve got no choice. the only solid ground betweenhere and the u.s. is the kurile islands, and theyre sovietterritory.""but if we did reach u.s. airspace, then what?" eva asked."wed have to identify ourselves. whos going to believe ourstory? nobody even knows this monster exists.""right, " he laughed. "a top ~ secret soviet hypersonic bombercomes cruising across the bering strait at sixty thousandfeet and into the usafs airspace. one hint of this thing andtheyd roll out the sams."

"maybe we could talk our way down. ""maybe.""theres no other choice. ""you are getting ahead of things, both of you, " androyinterrupted, staring at the screens on the wall. we stillhave to handle the interceptors from dolinsk. if we wentfor altitude wed show enough infrared signature to makeus an easy target during ascent. before we even reached twothousand meters, theyd have a lock on us. "vance glanced at the irwr. daedaluss infrared laser

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scanners were still tracking the wing of mig interceptors,now at twenty ~ two thousand feet and closing"it doesnt matter, " he said. "weve got to get off the decksoon, while we still have fuel. either that or well have toditch at sea. ""comrade vance, the daedalus is a marvelous platform, butwhen we go for altitude, were going to be vulnerable.theres no getting around it this vehicle was intended toperform best at the edge of space, not down here. ""all right, " he said slowly. "then why not take her there? usethe scramiets. we may be running out of jp ~ 7, but we havea load of liquid hydrogen. maybe this is the moment tofinally find out if his thing can burn it ""im ~ im afraid. after what happened when we pulled out ofthe power dive, im not sure i could handle the g ~ loadnecessary to power in the scramjets. " yuri paused. "the

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