Project Black Rock

Part 10: Duel over the Atlantic

Ye-jun No was furious over the news from his spies that Alexandr Slanovicz had eluded them. By the time they had managed to free themselves from their bonds their quarry had flown the coop, literally.

"You know what you have to do!" Ye-Jun radioed back.

Hidden off shore, disguised as an old barge train, which it actually was, the Koreans had secreted a makeshift aircraft carrier in the waters near Albania. The vessel had been the means to bring the espionage agents into the country to watch over Master Spy when he had left Korea. As a measure of last resort, they had also snuck an old Mig-27 fighter aircraft on board the improvised flat top. It was armed with machine guns and a cannon, but didn't have any anti-aircraft missiles. The old former Soviet Union cold war era fighter had limited supersonic abilities, but it was quite maneuverable at subsonic speeds.

Mike handed Master Spy the bag containing a change of clothes. "Here, go make yourself look like an American" he told his former nemesis. The park was empty and dark so Slanovicz didn't need to look for cover for modesty. He quickly donned the pants, shirt, shoes and jacket that Mike had provided him.

"You got my size close enough." Slanovicz said. "It fits me well."

"Yeah, that it does." Mike laughed. He cracked open Supercar's cargo bay and removed two good sized cylinders.
"Ochanomizu sent these for you, Atom."

Astro smiled "That would be my fuel supply." He said. "I can use a topping off. That will give me the energy I need to follow you across the ocean."

Astro stripped down to his red boots and dark shorts. He opened his chest panel and inserted the refueling hose and emptied the two tanks that Mike had given him. Master Spy watched and then gasped, "You're a robot?"

"That I am." Astro said. "No way for you not to find that out now."

Astro threw the two empty tanks in a nearby garbage dumpster. He then took the single thin suitcase that he had allowed Slanovicz to pack, and stowed it in supercar. Mike looked down at the gauges on Supercar's control panel. "The trip over here took quite a bit of our fuel. Until we meet that refueling tanker over the Atlantic, I'm going to have to keep her well under Mach 1. It's going to be slow going for a while.

The KC-135 Stratotanker sat on the runway at the Mildenhall RAF facility, taking on fuel. The crew wondered about the orders to drain some of the tanks and have them refilled with a special mixture. They were told they'd be refueling a top secret aircraft over the Atlantic. Thanks to some unexpected bad weather the cargo plane carrying the special fuel arrived late, delaying their departure.

"I hope the pilot of the aircraft we're supposed to refuel has been notified" the KC-135's co-pilot muttered as he and the captain quickly ran though their checklist.

Mike was already airborne with Astro following behind him. They reached the refueling point, but there was no sign of the tanker. "I've got about 45 minutes of fuel remaining, if I maintain minimum speed." Mike radioed to Astro. "I've been trying to contact the tanker on the radio, but so far, no luck."

As he said that, the military band radio broke squelch and a voice was heard.
"Superbird, this is gas can. We're a bit behind schedule, should be at the rendezvous point in twenty minutes."

Mike hit his push to talk switch, "Roger, gas can, this is superbird. That's cutting is a bit short, I'll be running on fumes by the time you get here."

"Roger that, we'll see about coaxing some more speed out of the old bird."

The slight delay in Mike's flight plan worked to the Korean's advantage Supercar was a small, stealthy target, but the KC-135 had a large radar signature. The pilot of the Mig-27 spotted the KC-135 and barely noticed supercar hooking up to the refueling boom. The Mig kept his distance, his orders were to intercept supercar and force her to ditch. A surface ship would then take Slanovicz captive. He'd wait until the KC-135 was gone, the last thing he wanted to do was provoke the US Air Force into scrambling a squadron of Eagles after him.

"Thank's for the service!" Mike radioed the boom operator in the tail of the KC-135.

"We aim to please!" the KC-135 crew member replied. "OK, captain, we can return to base now."

The KC-135 retracted the refueling boom and banked sharply to the right. Mike saluted them with a quick wing waggle, which the lumbering tanker returned.

Suddenly a hail of tracer bullets whizzed past supercar. Mike quickly turned and saw the Mig-27 that fired them. The Mig flew along side supercar and it's pilot motioned downward toward the sea.

"The Koreans!" Master Spy yelled. "They're still after me! Do something!"

"Supercar is unarmed." Mike said, "I can try to out run them, but they might get lucky with a cannon shot." He activated a secret beacon transmitter to send a distress signal on a frequency that Astro was listening in on.

If Supercar was stealthy enough to be almost impossible to see on the Mig's radar, Astro was positively invisible. Mike pushed his aircraft into a high G climb, supercar slowly approached Mach 1. The Mig quickly followed. The cold war Russian built aircraft couldn't climb as fast as supercar, but it kept in range. The Korean pilot fired some more tracer rounds, not yet trying to shoot down his target, but to convince its pilot that he would be shot down if he didn't comply.

Suddenly the Mig shuddered in flight, and veered off to the left of its intended flight. It's pilot couldn't figure out what had suddenly knocked his aircraft off course, the feelings in the controls were nothing like any cross wind he'd ever encountered.

If he had been able to see completely behind his aircraft, he would have been shocked to discover the cause of his inability to control it. Astro had both hands on his rudder and had smashed it over to one side.

Supercar quickly out distanced the Mig which was now on a course 90 degrees to his port side. Astro released his grip on the aircraft and flew ahead of it. As he passed the Mig's cockpit, he extended his right hand and flipped the Korean the bird.

The angry Mig pilot brought the nose of his aircraft to bear on Astro. With the flying robot in his sights, he pulled the triggers on his cannons.

Astro saw the shells coming his way and easily ducked under their path to avoid them.

"OK, if you want to fight, I'll put and end to it!" Astro muttered under his breath.

His left arm morphed into cannon mode and he fired one quick burst through the Mig's port wing, removing its control surfaces. The pilot fought with his aircraft which was now bucking like a wild horse. The plane entered a flat spin and started downward toward the water below. Astro watched as a parachute appeared as the pilot escaped from the doomed plane.

"OK Mike you can relax." Astro radioed to supercar. "I splashed him."

"Is the pilot alright?" Mike asked.

"A bit wet, but he'll be OK." Astro replied. "I saw him hit the silk"

Ye-jun No received two messages through the computer network. The first one was from the ship off shore from Albania reporting the failure of the mission to capture Slanovicz, who had gotten away. The second was from Kim Jong-un himself. No feared what his supreme leader had in store for him, but the message was actually a mild surprise. The news from Pyongyang was that a delivery of rocket fuel, diverted from the missile test facility was on its way to him. It was suggested that his engineers adapt their equipment to make use of it for Mastercar, and continue with the project. That was one of the options he'd rejected earlier, but now realized he had no choice. The engineers working on Mastercar had been confident they could make use of the military rocket fuel, though the performance might suffer slightly. Very well, he'd give orders to proceed along those lines. He had the dictator's approval on it at least.

After the encounter with the Korean Mig, the rest of the trip was uneventful. Supercar set down at Edwards AFB in the high desert where a contingent from Air Force intelligence were waiting. Alexandr Slanovicz was quickly escorted over to a waiting staff car which drove away as part of a convoy leaving Mike Mercury and Astro standing there.

"That was some welcome!" Mike stammered. He looked around himself, but the intelligence personnel had clearly ignored supercar, its pilot, and its escort. In the distance a cloud of dust could be seen at the very far end of the runway, which was really a very long road in the desert. After a few minutes the outline of a Humvee could be made out, and soon the vehicle stopped. General Hayes emerged from the all terrain vehicle.

"Thank's for your assistance, Mr. Mercury." He said. "And of course your's as well Atom. General Hammond asked me to meet you, he'll be here tomorrow on the next flight out of Japan. Supercar will be loaded onto a flatbed truck and taken to a secure hangar, the two of you will be provided lodging here on the base. Hopefully by tomorrow we'll get some answers out of your friend Master Spy. Right now, he's being made comfortable at a facility where he can be watched, and well guarded."

Early the next morning a military staff car waited in front of the barracks that Mike Mercury had been given accommodations in for the night. Mike had slept well in the room which was probably reserved for officers rather than enlisted men. He woke, showered, shaved, and dressed. Only then did he notice the automobile waiting outside for him.

"I hope I haven't kept you waiting long," he told the driver.

"Doesn't matter." his chauffeur replied. "You're more punctual than some of the brass around here anyway."

Mike was driven to what he assumed was a security compound, possibly a brig. The driver stopped the large car and escorted him to the door. Once inside he saw that General Hammond had already arrived. Despite having probably flown most of the night, the General appeared to be wide awake and ready for anything.

"Good morning Mr. Mercury." Hammond said. "Please join me in a bit of breakfast."

The General led Mike over to a buffet table set up along the side of the large area in the building's lobby where a continental breakfast was waiting. Mike poured himself some coffee, and helped himself to some fruit and toast.

"What have you guys done with Master Spy?" Mike asked.

"He's been kept here on ice." The General said. "We gave him a comfortable bed, and a decent dinner. By now he should have also been offered whatever he felt like having for breakfast. He's been in a locked room all night, without any windows for his safety and our peace of mind."

"A gilded cage?" Mike asked.

"You might call it that." Hammond said looking at his watch. "Come along, I'll take you to him. You're going to help us debrief Mr. Slanovicz."

They entered a windowless office room. The furniture consisted of large, well stuffed chairs, and a massive wooden conference table. Master Spy's considerable bulk filled one of the larger office chairs, he sat at one end of the table with a large mug of coffee in front of him.

"You've kept me waiting for some time!" he complained.

"I hope you slept well Mr. Slanovicz" the General said. "was your breakfast to your liking?"

"It was acceptable." Master Spy said. "Now as to my terms."

"First we require you to produce the missing documents on supercar's rocket fuel." General Hammond told him. "After that, we want to know everything that transpired between you and the Koreans. Once we have the information that you've promised us, we'll talk about payment. Our government agrees in principle with your requests, within reason."

"Very well." Master Spy answered.

"I'd like to know how you were able to hid the information on the rocket fuel formula that you stole from Black Rock from the Koreans." Mike said.

"Sometimes the best hiding places are the most obvious." Slanovicz laughed. "They strip searched me, they probed me, and finally decided I hadn't hidden it on me. They went though my belongings, and looked everywhere on line that I'd been. The did find some booby traps I'd left for them, false leads that went nowhere."

"So where is it?" Mike asked.

"Very close to me." Master Spy laughed. "I recorded the information on a micro dot. The chemical formula, and the steps to produce it were reduced to the bare minimum, and encrypted via steganography."

"So where is this microdot?" The General asked.

"Do you have a plastic surgeon on your staff?" the crafty Albanian asked. "You'll need his services to remove this mole on the back of my head."

Mike moved in closer to examine the skin on the back of the old man's head. Just where his head met his neck, there was a patch of hair, under which was a thick mole.

"You had the micro dot implanted under your skin disguised as a mole?" Mike asked.

"Yes, looks convincing enough doesn't it?

"You're lucky the Koreans didn't decide to cut you open." the General told him.

"They didn't know what they were looking for." Slanovicz told them. "And my doctor friend did a good job, didn't he?"

"Very well then." Hammond said. "From here we take you to the base hospital. We have a doctor on staff that can remove your mole without leaving you with a scar. We'll talk some more later once I have the micro dot."