226 DALE BROWN

Powell pushed Cheetah's nose earthward and on the downside of the loop found himself lined up on DreamStar. He pushed on the right rudder to slew Cheetah's nose to the right . . . no time to get a radar lock . . . just squeeze the trigger, hoping for a lucky hit.

"Altitude," Patrick shouted. "Pull up."

went to max afterburner and hauled back on the stick with both hands. He was so fixed on the image of DreamStar dead in his sights that he ignored the rocks and trees rushing UP

at him. Then he had to roll hard left to fly behind DreamStar to avoid hitting him. After that hard turn Powell found himself perilously close to stall speed and had no choice but to roll wingslevel at max afterburner and wait until he had regained speed.

"Dammit," McLanahan shouted, "you had him, You could have nailed him-"

" This isn't no Cessna 152 we're fooling with, Patrick. He can turn and attack faster than we can. He could have launched a missile by now but he was only tracking us with guns-he never got off a missile-track signal. Maybe that means he doesn't have any missiles.

"Well, we're below half-ftiel right now. We need to tag him and head back or we'll be walking to Nevada."

started a right turn back toward DreamStar. "Safe radar missiles," he spoke into the voice-command computer. "Set attack mode infrared missile."

"Infrared missile selected, warning, one missile remaining.

"I got a visual on him," Powell said. He touched the voice-command button. "Attack radar standby. Infrared scanner operate. "

"Attack radar standby. Infrared scanner on. " Immediately the heat-seeking scanner locked onto DreamStar.

"He's just running," Powell said. "He's not jinking and jiv-ing anymore. " To the voice-command computer he ordered,

"Slave infrared missile to infrared scanner."

The Sidewinder missile's seeker-head followed the azimuth directions of Cheetah's scanner, but the missile did not indicate a lock-on. "We need to get in closer .

"No," McLanahan said. "His tail IR scanner has a greater range than our Sidewinder. Launch the Sidewinder in boresight mode-it should lock onto him after launch."

"It's worth a try." It was easier than before for Powell to align himself with DreamStar's tailpipe-Maraklov was indeed driving straight and level, accelerating as fast as possible. When he was aligned with DreamStar's rectangular exhaust Powell commanded: "Infrared missile boresight."

"Infrared missile boresight, caution, no target lock. " The missile would normally not launch unless it was tracking a target, but in boresight mode the missile could be launched straight ahead and the infrared seeker could attempt to lock onto a target while in flight; it also was a tricky technique used against slow-moving targets to hit them outside the missile's optimal range.

It was not reliable because of the missile-seeker's narrow field of view, but against hot targets that weren't maneuvering it was at least a valid attack.

Powell hit the command button. "Launch."

"Warning, radar target lock, seven o'clock.

McLanahan strained again to search behind Cheetah's twin tails. "TWo . . . no, four fighters, two flights of two, right behind us. I can't see what they are but they're coming on fast-"

"I gotta bredk it off, Patrick-"

"No, stay on him, nail him-"

But even then it was too late. DreamStar had picked up the same radar indications as Cheetah, and the advanced fighter had made a hard break to the right and an even harder one up and down to shake off the radar-lock by the advancing strangers. A boresight missile-launch was impossible.

"Infrared missiles to safe. Set attack-mode radar missiles,"

Powell ordered.

"Two jets going high, two coming in," McLanahan said. "I can't tell for sure but they look like . . . they're F-20s, Mexican F-20s . . . "

"Warning, radar target lock, six o'clock .

yanked the stick hard night to stay with DreamStar, but it had regained its lost speed and was pulling away, staying at boulder level.

"They're still with us," McLanahan said. "Can you get a shot off anyway?"

"I think so . . . here we go .

"Warning, radar missile lock. A missile was in flight, heading for them . . .

hit the voice-command button on his stick. "Chaff right."