Red Bull

fourteen

THERE ARE A FEW MOMENTS of complete radio silence.

We hear Payback yell, "Not that fast Rooster!" It looks like Rooster has finally gotten his head back in the game, and plays catch up.

I laughed as I followed Maverick through the canyon, and hoped that we would make it to the target before our enemies did. They weren't kidding when they said we were at the technological disadvantage for once in the entire navy's career.

"Red Bull, watch your head," Maverick said calmly, as he angled his plane to fly underneath a bridge.

I steered us sideways, snow trickling down from the sides of the bridge, before turning back to normal as we moved past it.

I look up ahead, and it was the mountain. Maverick starts the climb, and I follow, trying to see through the snow that kicks up behind him.

We make it over, and invert our planes in order to stay as close as possible to the ground.

"Bob! Laser status!" Maverick says, as we get closer to the target.

"Laser locked! Prepare to fire!" Bob says, and my finger givers over the trigger.

"Firing!" Maverick says, and hits the target perfectly. I fire at the same time, and we open up the shaft for Rooster, Payback, and Fanboy to deliver the final blow.

We behind ascending up the mountain, so steeply, we're practically going straight up. My vision begins to blur, and then go black. I feel my fingers slipping off of my central flight stick, and it's a fight to stay awake.

Come on Red Bull. Don't do it for you, do it for Bob. You gotta make it out of here alive.

If I survive, I have to tell Bob how I feel about him. You owe it to him and myself. Besides, only Coyote was bound by his promise to me to take my secret to the grave, but I wasn't. Besides, rejection would be better than dying and taking the secret to my grave.

I shake my head, and force myself not to give into G-LOC. I follow Maverick, and soon enough, we've made it over the canyon, and we even out.

The SAMs immediately begin firing, and we've made it to Coffin's Corner.

I deploy counter measures, with Bob yelling off where the missile are coming from, when Maverick calls out, "Dagger Two status!"

Rooster announced, "Almost there. Fanboy, where's my laser?"

"I can't find the missile lock! Dead eye! Dead eye!" Fanboy panicked.

"There's no time, I'm dropping blind. Bombs away." Rooster yells.

Oh gosh. I could only hope for the best, because if we could barely hit it with our lasers in training, I don't know how Rooster was going to hit it by eyeballing it.

We hold our breaths in suspense, as the missiles are in the air, approaching the target. Mission Control announces, "Confirmed target hit."

Rooster, Payback, and Fanboy climb up the mountain, as Maverick and I fly away from promised death.

Every SAM site we pass, more and more heat seeking missiles launch, and we are forced to be on the defensive.