Tiger's Claw

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, GUAM

THAT SAME TIME

“What the hell is it, Nash?” Warner “Cutlass” Cuthbert shouted as he trotted into the battle staff area. The alert siren was wailing outside. “What’s the alert?”

“AWACS reports they made contact with what appears to be twelve Chinese H-6 bombers, heading east toward Guam,” Lieutenant Colonel Nash Hartzell responded. “Four of them appear to be tankers. The other eight are each armed with six large missiles under their wings. They also report that the tankers were each refueling four fighters believed to be Chinese J-20s. Four fighters broke off from the formation and appear to be heading for the AWACS. Six other fighters are pursuing the Raptors.”

“Holy Jesus,” Cutlass breathed. “Scramble the alert fighters and . . .”

And at that moment, all the lights in the command center went out, and the siren outside stopped. “A power outage? Now? The weather is clear and a million!” Cutlass exclaimed. He picked up the telephone—dead. “What the hell is this?” He pulled a portable radio from a holster on his belt. “Security tower two, this is Alpha. What do you see?”

“Power’s out all over the place, sir,” the sergeant stationed on one of the security towers near the front gate replied. A moment later the emergency lights in the command center came on, followed a few moments after that with more lights coming on when the diesel-fired emergency generator finally kicked on. “Lights are out in town too. Front gate is secure.”

“Tell the flight-line security teams that we’re going to launch everything we have,” Cutlass said. “I want positive ID on anyone who steps on the flight line, but get the aircrews and crew chiefs to their planes as quickly as you can.”

“Got it, sir.”

Patrick McLanahan trotted into the command center, followed by Bradley, both in flight suits. A few moments later Ed Gleason, Sondra Eddington, Tom Hoffman, and several other Excalibur crewmembers came in as well. “What’s going on, Cutlass?” Patrick asked.

“We’ve got Chinese bombers inbound, Chinese fighters going after our AWACS, and right in the middle of it we lose power and phones,” Cutlass said. Their faces went blank in absolute disbelief. Cutlass found walkie-talkies and gave them out. “I need you guys to run out to the flight line and get the munitions loading crews away from the other Excaliburs. As soon as the munitions crews are clear, form a crew and get an Excalibur airborne. We’ll launch as many Excaliburs as we can.”

Patrick turned to Brad. “You stay here, Brad,” he said.

“Heck no,” Brad said. “I’m going with you!”

“It’s too dangerous,” Patrick said. “This is not a ferry flight.”

“And it’s not a combat mission either—it’s an evacuation,” Brad said. “I’m going.” Patrick was going to argue, but others were hurrying all around him, and he nodded and ran outside, with Brad right behind him. They piled into the back of a six-pack pickup truck just in time before the driver sped off.