The Nemesis Program

Chapter Forty-Seven

It had been a blur of space and time. The sun was clear of the treetops and already burning hot as the plane took off, carrying on board every drop of fuel the little airfield had to offer. ‘It’ll be enough,’ Ben told himself. ‘More than enough.’

By mid-morning they’d left the southern shores of India behind them and were striking out across the Bay of Bengal and the vast waters of another sparkling blue-green ocean. Children waved and smiled up at the roaring aircraft from fishing boats on the white sandy beaches of Sri Lanka, the last land that Ben and Roberta would see until they raised the west coast of Sumatra hours later.

As the last leg of the journey unrolled, lulled by the unwavering rumble of the twin engines, the constant monitoring of their course, speed and altitude, the cloudless sky like a vast aquamarine dome up above and the presence of Roberta at his side, Ben caught himself more than once almost forgetting what they were heading towards. It felt strangely as if the two of them could stay up here forever, just flying aimlessly across clear, warm oceans that would never end. It wasn’t happiness — his troubles were never far beneath the surface — but it was the nearest he’d come to it for what seemed like a long time.

It wasn’t until soon after midday, as the first glimpse of Sumatra’s tropical landscape appeared on the horizon, that Ben’s easy state of mind was broken and reality bit.

There was no warning of the fighters’ approach until they were right there with them. A pair of F16s, with Indonesian Air Force markings and bristling with armament: they drew level either side of the ST-1, throttled off and boxed it in, dwarfing the little white turboprop like a sparrow flanked by two dragons. From the cockpit window Ben could clearly see the masked face of the fighter pilot to starboard, and the strong heat haze from the jets. As a show of intimidating strength, it was highly effective.

‘Ben!’ Roberta turned to him in alarm. But he made no reply, as he was already attending to the radio. The harsh authoritarian voice in his headset changed to English after a few moments, but he’d already got the gist.

‘What are they saying?’ Roberta asked, wide-eyed.

‘They’ve demanded that we verify our authority to enter Indonesian airspace. If we can’t do that in the next minute or two, they’re going to force us to land.’

‘Land? Where?’ Roberta peered anxiously at the approaching island coastline. Beyond the fringe of beaches lay a vast tangle of tropical forest. ‘They can’t do this,’ she said, biting her lip. ‘Can they?’

‘They can do whatever they want, Roberta. Like blow us out of the sky if they decide we’re hostile.’ The tinny voice in Ben’s ear was barking furiously: ‘If you do not comply with our instructions we will employ lethal force. Repeat. We will employ lethal force.’ And Ben believed it implicitly. The briefest of touches on the trigger of a rotary machine cannon, and the ST-1 would be instantly diced into tiny fragments and plummet to a watery grave along with its three occupants.

‘What are we going to do?’ Roberta gasped.

‘It’s not as if we can outrun them,’ he told her calmly. ‘These things can shift at over Mach 2 and are just about the most nimble thing in the sky. And I wouldn’t bet on outgunning them, either.’ He sighed, pursed his lips and pressed the talk button on his radio. ‘Copy. This is Sierra Indigo four-two-nine-oh. Happy to comply with instructions. Changing course. Please state rerouted destination. Over.’

‘You will follow this escort to air force command base at Pekanbaru,’ came the order over the radio. ‘Remain with escort. Do not deviate course. Repeat. Do not deviate or we will shoot.’

‘You made your point succinctly, boys,’ Ben said. He pressed the talk button. ‘Copy that. Lead the way.’

The Sumatra coast was streaking towards them, growing larger each moment. The fighters altered course a couple of degrees to port and Ben reluctantly followed suit. There was simply no other choice.

‘What happens when we reach the base?’ Roberta asked, frowning.

‘That depends on the forbearance of our fellow man,’ Ben said. ‘They might let us go with an arse toasting. Or they might arrest us.’

‘The weapons,’ she said, turning pale.

He nodded. ‘They won’t take too kindly to those. If we hit some cloud, might be a sensible idea to dump them overboard while the fighter pilots aren’t looking.’ Ben scanned the horizon. As far as the eye could see the sky was perfectly clear. Shit, he said inwardly.

‘Isn’t there anything we can do to get away?’

‘We could jump out mid-air,’ Ben said.

Roberta turned another shade paler. ‘This isn’t good, is it?’

‘It’s not ideal,’ Ben said.

Daniel appeared in the cabin doorway, his face mottled and his jaw hanging open. ‘There are two military fighters outside,’ he blurted.

‘Wondered if that’d get your attention,’ Ben said. But he had other things on his mind than Daniel right now. Glancing at the instruments, his mouth went dry. ‘Roberta, look up Pekanbaru air base for me on the computer, will you?’

Roberta turned to the keyboard and started tapping. ‘How’d you spell that? Hold on, got it.’

‘Okay, now feed the coordinates through to the main system so I can set a fresh course.’ Moments later, the gadgetry showed up the data on the panel in front of him.

‘We may have a problem,’ he said.

Roberta gulped. ‘Uh, I thought we already had a problem.’

‘That was the old problem of what would happen when we reached the air command base,’ he said. ‘This is the new problem of what’s going to happen before we get there.’

‘Before?’ she said, puzzled.

‘We left India with just enough fuel to get to Medan,’ Ben said. ‘But Pekanbaru is two hundred miles further inland. We can’t go that far.’

She blinked. ‘What happens then?’

‘The plane can’t stay up without fuel,’ he said, looking at her.

‘You mean … we’re going to crash?’

Ben clenched his jaw. ‘Only if they don’t shoot us down first.’