North Cape

Teleman studied the new data for several seconds, then punched the program tab that recorded the new flight plan segment, modifying the original, and fed it to Flight Control. Immediately, the, A-17 lifted for altitude, climbing swiftly on its turbofans to eight thousand feet. If warranted, he would return to complete the original low-level flight after checking out the threatening artillery piece. The 210-mm gun was one of the largest artillery pieces in the world. It was capable of throwing a three-thousand-pound shell a distance of forty-two miles. Originally, a similar artillery piece had been designed by the United States Army in 1953, as a nuclear cannon for tactical uses in the event of a war in Europe. The Soviets had immediately retaliated with their own version. But as short and intermediate-range ballistic missiles improved in size, accuracy, and transportability, the cumbersome gun had been discarded. Obviously the Soviets had discarded at least one of theirs to the Red Chinese, probably in the late 195os when everything, at least outwardly, was still sweetness and light between Russia and China. Now the Chinese appeared to be using the cannon against their one-time benefactors. But, as the instructions pointed out, they had not used a nuclear shell — or if they did, it had failed to explode. Teleman's job was to verify the possibility that a nuclear shell might have failed or else find out what they were shooting that required such an effort and such a large caliber weapon. "Great," he muttered aloud. Ten minutes later Teleman passed over the muddy city of Kuldja and the frozen Ili River. He turned inland for a brief moment to bring the aircraft to the head of the pass, and then swung into a tight sub-sonic orbit again. A ground control map flew across the scope matching his ground speed. At the proper moment Teleman began the long, twenty-fivemile swing onto a — heading of 353° N and bent to check the surveillance radar. The screen was blank except for scattered blips above him, indicating the presence of high ice-cloud formations. Interested, he shifted to Weather Surveillance and asked for a readout on the ice cover. The panel indicated that it was building quickly to a solid cover above 175,000 feet and gradually extending eastward to cover all of Central Asia. At the moment, it was solid — solid that is to radar, but invisible to the eye — between the Kirghiz SSR — Tadzhik SSR border to the south and the Urals to the east. He instructed Weather Surveillance to continue monitoring the cover and flipped back to the surveillance radar. Teleman then cranked the image outward, extending it to its full 1600-mile diameter. There on the western quadrant, four blips were rising, probably from the base at Alma Alta. The interceptors were well inside the Soviet border and did not appear too interested in anything other than patrolling for Chinese aircraft. They were down on the deck at less than ten thousand feet. East, there was little activity except for what appeared to be cargo aircraft on the Chinese side. He spotted a long line of heavy-cargo planes, escorted by fighters, coming in from China proper. Teleman checked once more on the four Soviet interceptors, watching for a long moment as they completed the formation and turned north and east. They appeared to be flying sub-sonic-as a border patrol would. But if they turned east still further and crossed the border, they would bear watching. To be on the safe side he fed data to the computer and ordered it to keep tracking. Then he turned his attention back to the ground control map.

He was now almost directly over the location of the cannon emplacement. The new flight plan called for two passes, one at forty thousand feet to survey the countryside and, if he could manage it safely, a second lower pass over the impact area for closeups. The altitude was left up to him. Teleman looked pained — that was their polite way of telling him to get right down on the deck if he could. To make the fastest possible approach with the least amount of time over the target area, he resumed manual control and fell off fifty miles to the east. He would make a quick pass straight down the valley and pull up hard to eighty, thousand feet. The pass should carry him over both the cannon site and the impact site with less than one full minute spent below sixty thousand feet. The second pass he would worry about later.