Peacekeepers (1988) Read Online Free PDF Page B

waved a hand toward the screens as the displays on them blinked back and forth, showing scenes from dozens of locations around the world.
    "Got a family of mountain climbers trapped on Mt.Burgess up in the Yukon Territory. Satellite picked up their emergency signal." Kelly saw an infrared image of rugged mountainous country over the shoulder of Jan Van der Meer, one of the few monitors she knew by name.
    "And some loony terrorists" Robbie went on, pointing to another console down the line, "tried to hijack one of the nuclear submarines being decommissioned by the U.S.Navy in Connecticut."
    Kelly saw the submarine tied to a pier from a groundlevel view. Military police in polished steel helmets were leading a ragged gaggle of men and women, their faces smeared with camouflage paint, up the gangway and into a w^ting police van.
    "But the crisis is Eritrea," said Robert.
    "Not again," Kelly grumbled. "They've been farting around there for more than a year."
    Nodding tightly, Robert touched a button in the armrest of his high chair and pulled the pin mike of his headset down before his lips. "Jan, pick up the Eritrea situation, please."
    Van der Meer, a languid, laconic Dutchman whose uniform always seemed too big for him, looked over his shoulder almost shyly and nodded. With his deep-set eyes, hollow cheeks and bony face, he looked like a death's head beckoning. He tapped his keypad with a long slim finger, and his display screens showed ghostly images in infrared, taken from a reconnaissance satellite gliding in orbit over East Africa.
    It took Kelly a moment to identify the vague shapes and shadows. Tanks. And behind them, self-propelled artillery pieces. Threading their way in predawn darkness through the mountains along the border of Eritrea.
    "They're really going to attack?" Kelly asked, her voice suddenly high and squeaky, like a frightened little girl's.
    "If we let them," answered Robbie, quite serious now.
    "But they must know we'll throw everything we have at them!"
    Robert arched his brows, making his smooth young forehead wrinkle slightly. "I guess they think they can get away with it. Maybe they think we won't be able to react fast enough, or their friends in the African Bloc will prevent Geneva from acting at all. We've never had to stop a real shooting war; not yet."
    "Maybe they're bluffing," Kelly heard her voice saying.
    "Maybe they'll back down . . ."
    "Priority One from Geneva!" called Bailey, the black woman working station three. She was an American, from Los Angeles, tall and leggy and graceful enough to make Kelly ache with jealousy over her good looks and smooth cocoa-butter skin. She had almond-shaped eyes, too, dark and exotic. Kelly's eyes were plain dumb brown.
    Robert clamped a hand to his earphone. His eyes narrowed, then shifted to lock onto Kelly's.
    Nodding and whispering a response, he pushed the mike up and away, then said, "This is it, kid. Everybody up!"
    Kelly felt a surge of electricity bum through her: part fear, part excitement. The other pilots stirred, too.
    "I'm on my way," she said.
    But Robert had already shifted his mike down again and was calling through the station's intercom, "Pilots, man your planes. All pilots, man your planes."
    As Kelly dashed through the monitoring center's doors and out into the long central corridor, she thought she heard Robbie wishing her good luck. But she wasn't certain.
    Doesn't matter, she told herself, knowing it was a lie.
    The technicians backed away as Kelly slid into the cockpit and cast a swift professional glance at the instruments. On the screen in front of her she saw the little plane's snub nose, painted dead black, glinting in the predawn starlight.
    She clamped her comm set over her chopped-short red hair and listened to her mission briefing. There was no preflight checkout; the technicians did that and punched it into the flight computer. She swung the opaque canopy down and locked it shut, then took off into the darkness, getting her