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cockpit. He felt exposed, vulnerable, indefensible. If that jet door opened
now, he was a dead man.
He heard nothing above him, saw nothing beside him. Mac stepped out from under
the plane and headed directly in front of it. He kept imagining he heard
movement behind him the engines roaring to life, footsteps from the cabin to
the door, the door opening, weapons firing.
He prayed urgently as he strode along, "Lord, save me!"
Immediately he felt as if God's hands were upon him, and he barely felt his
feet on the ground. "o you of little faith, why do you doubt?"
The voice was clear as crystal, but the walkie talkie was off and
George had his engines roaring. Mac broke into a trot, then a run. Every step
sounded like a gunshot. Hannah was lowering the door when he got there, and he
leaped in.
"Flyin' or backseat drivin' ? " George said, unstrapping as if ready to take
the copilot's chair.
"Here is fine," Mac said. "I don't think I could ride a bike right now."
Chang was relieved to hear from Rayford and eager to meet Naomi even if only
on line. He was tempted to scold her for scaring him, and so decided to wait
until the next day to try to make contact. Meanwhile, he
checked in on Mac and his team, fearing the worst despite all the praying that
had been going on.
Mac answered his phone, sounding exhausted.
"I need to meet this Michael someday," Chang said, after hearing the story.
"You guys get all the fun."
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"I could use a little less fun, frankly," Mac said. "And you might as well
know, Sebastian here doesn't call him Michael anymore. Calls him Roger."
"Roger ? "
"Says he told him he assumed he was Michael, and the guy said, 'Roger."'
"So Stefanich and those guys are just sitting on the runway with a wounded
plane?"
"Yeah, and they're gonna need some repair work before they can take off
again."
"Why didn't they shoot you?"
"I thought you could find out. What was going on in that cockpit when I
strolled out from underneath, unarmed? "
"I'll let you know."
Within half an hour the rest of the Tribulation Force had heard the good news
out of Greece, and Chang had paved the way for
George to land south of Rome for the refuel. They were on their own for
getting back to the safe house without going through
Kankakee, Illinois, and without arousing more suspicion. That should be the
easiest part of their ordeal.
When Chang was finally able to hack back into the Ptolemais GC
system and find transmissions between the plane and the Kozani
tower, he could
only shake his head. The pilot had reported seeing the plane at the end of the
runway, putting down, and seeing a car approaching. But at the same tine Chang
figured Michael had instructed George to turn on his landing lights, the pilot
reported a light so blinding that "we have lost visual contact with the plane
and the auto. "
A few minutes later the pilot reported being struck by what, he did not know.
His jet was being jostled and the front end lifted, but no one aboard could
take his hands from his eyes because of the intense light. They heard shooting
and feared for their lives, heard one of their tires blow, and shut down the
engines.
In essence they sat in fear, unable to peek out of the cockpit for the next
several minutes, until they heard the plane thunder past them and rise.
Chang listened as they finally ventured out, shoulder radios left on, weapons
ordered at the ready, only to find their damaged plane, wounded landing gear,
flat tire, beat up squad car, and an
Uzi on the runway. Only now they were being rescued by a fleet of
GC in cars, who reported that others had picked up the injured officers at the
side of the road on the way. They were being treated for severe burns they
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claimed were caused by a ray gun.
It was still a couple of hours before Ming was to leave San Diego for the Far
East. Chang was finally finished with his night's work. He dropped into bed,
spent. How strange, he thought, to feel so pivotal and indispensable and then
discover that the entire success of an operation
was out of his hands. In fact, he had been out of commission when
God worked his miracles.
There were victims to grieve, martyrs to praise, and much work ahead. Chang
didn't know how long he could evade detection. He was willing to hang in and
work in the office during the day, doing his real work after hours, for as
long as God chose to protect him.
Rayford stirred at dawn's first light, amazed he had been able to sleep at [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]