Walters came back and waited to be recognized before speaking.
“What’s up, Rob?” said Grimes.
“The weight, sir,” the pilot said. “We’ll be climbing with a full load of fuel.”
Grimes frowned. “He’s right, Captain Halsey. We might not make it to the top with more than two on board.”
A man had quietly moved into a position behind President Frei’s right shoulder. Over six feet tall, he was likewise wearing a flight suit and carrying a black helmet.
Grimes pointed to him. “Were you thinking of bringing him along too, sir?”
Frei smiled and glanced over his shoulder. “This is my security guard, Alberto Mendosa. He is assigned to be with me at all times.”
“Commander Grimes is correct, Mr President,” said Halsey. “We can take you up, sir, but not to the top. For that kind of flight, with a full load of fuel, we can carry only two personnel. Helicopters don’t generally fly over 20,000 feet, you know.”
“Even this remarkable machine?” said Frei. “I must admit I am surprised.”
From the expression on the security guard’s face, he’d understood what they were saying and didn’t like it.
“Yes, sir, Mr President,” said Grimes, looking at Halsey. “With your permission, sir.”
Halsey nodded, and Grimes gazed into the President’s eyes. “Even with just one additional passenger our test might be compromised, but with two…”
Frei turned his head slightly to the right so his bodyguard knew he was being addressed as well. “I feel most secure with you and your pilot, Commander.”
“Thanks, sir,” said Grimes. “I’d like to try it with four on board, but Rob says it wouldn’t make the peaks.
Sooner or later we’ll have to try it with a full load, just in case of an anti-terrorist strike at high altitude — though I doubt that’ll ever become a reality.”
The President waited for him to explain further.
“I mean, sir, what the heck would a bunch of terrorists be doing camped out on a mountain peak? It’s not the friendliest of places. Cold, no air, real hard to get to. Our guess is that they — the terrorists — mountaineer to a high spot to set up a remote radio station. But they’re not there now.”
Frei nodded. “Your Captain Halsey has explained that to me, Commander. I understand. Our mountains, they are very beautiful but they are also very treacherous. Even the Moche — our native Indians — are not easily willing to climb them.”
Halsey laughed. “Then it’s settled, Commander?”
Grimes nodded. “Yes, sir, except that this is a test flight, not a routine mission, and any additional weight changes the parameters. What I mean, sir, is that there’s an additional element of risk.”
Grimes turned to face Walters, who was standing near the Gadfly, looking the craft over, flashlight in hand. “Did you hear that, Rob? Is that right?”
“Aye, sir.”
Halsey addressed the President. “You understand that two of those aboard have to be experienced pilots, in case…”
“Certainly, Captain. I understand most full y,” said Frei, smiling at Grimes.
A voice called from behind the Gadfly. “Fuel ed up.”
“Pile in, sir,” said Walters.
Grimes shrugged. “You have your choice, Mr President, the left or the right rear seat. I recommend the seat behind the copilot — the right. The view’s better.”
“View?” asked the President. “Will we see anything at nighttime?”
Halsey held his hand out to the chopper’s open door.
“I think you’ll be surprised by what you see, Mr President. Have a good flight.”
A minute later the two helicopters lifted off again, this time with their extra rotor vanes already extended for maximum lift. To impress the President, Grimes told Walters to switch to Stealth mode.
Walters could feel the additional weight dragging at the Gadfly. Only his mental calculations and his sense of decorum kept him from cursing aloud. He had but to turn his head to see the President of Chile.
Beside Walters, Grimes found himself in the unenviable position, as highest-ranking officer aboard the tiny craft, of being both diplomat and spokesman. What mattered more was that he was going to have to face questions whose answers not even the KGB and a set of dental tools could pry out of him. And he was utterly alone in this situation, cut off from even normal radio chatter. While Walters’s mind was buzzing with data, Grimes’s was conjuring expletives he hadn’t thought of in years.
Meanwhile President Frei was wondering why he’d ever agreed to this. It was nothing like he’d expected. Even laden with a full load of fuel, the chopper seemed to lift in the breeze of thermal updrafts rising from the remaining heat that had that day baked the valley below them. He could feel in the pit of his stomach uneasy memories of amusement parks and pony rides. He tried to get his mind off his innards by staring through his visor at the artificial scenery floating past the Gadfly’s long-range IR imager. The panorama it painted seemed to him like a religious vision, something a saint might see when rising to meet the Maker above. Frei had brought a rosary for good luck; now, his right hand thrust deep inside his pocket, he clutched it tightly. His left hand gripped a back strap of the pilot’s seat brace like a vice. The tiny Stealth bird rose steadily into the night. Finally they started to see big dark patches on the mountainside through the IR imager.
“Is that snow?” asked the President.
“Very good, sir,” said Grimes. “Are you comfortable?”
“A little bit,” answered Frei as he tried to adjust to the eerie sound of the cockpit intercom, the resonance of his own voice, and the thrumming of the chopper’s muffled engines. The sound of the Gadfly, added to the unearthly view that was passing before him and the unsettled feeling in his gut, was pushing him to a limit of experience he’d never imagined. He reminded himself that this was glorious technology in action. Blessing the privacy offered by the dark visor over his eyes, he shut them tightly.
“You will tell me, Commander, when we are over the top?”
“You’ll be able to see for yourself, sir.”
Grimes was hearing exactly what he hadn’t expected. Their passenger was experiencing sheer terror, and they were only halfway to the top.
“Pretty strange-looking display, Mr President. It took me a long time to get used to it. Well, actually, I’m not used to it. I just think of it as a day at Disneyland.”
Walters chuckled heartily. “G-2 is already alongside, sir.”
Grimes could see the second Gadfly rising to their left. It had taken off at least thirty seconds after G-1, to avoid the downdraught, but with its lighter load it had easily caught up with the leader.
“Do you see the other copter over to your left, sir?” he asked the President. “Quite a sight.”
“Si,” said Frei faintly.
Grimes listened to Frei’s breathing. What he heard scared him, and he wished he’d brought along a tranquilliser gun so he could put the President out of his misery.
A gust of wind lifted them rudely, and Frei let out a slight moan.
“Balls,” said Grimes softly as Walters struggled a moment with the stick. “Hold it as steady as you can, Rob. We don’t want to scramble any eggs.”
“Windy out there, sir,” said Walters cheerful y.
Finally the President asked the question Grimes had been dreading.
“How long before we land, Commander?”
“Not for forty minutes at least, sir,” said Grimes through clenched teeth.
Next came the second question he’d been dreading.
“Is there a… a receptacle… a bag…?”
“In the pouch on the back of my seat, sir,” said Grimes.