Katherine had one hundred seconds before she hit the ground. The plane was light, but without power and controls, it was just a lump of carbon fiber with a two ton sensor pack weight on its belly. She had been in worse situations, and her calm demeanor and training overrode the irrational behavior that human fear of imminent death can initiate. She shut down all the systems, rebooted the avionics and restarted the engines. While the engines warmed up the avionics began to kick in. She was at four thousand feet breaking cloud cover and the expanding immense layers of green rushing up towards her, filled the cockpit windshield.
She pulled the stick and the plane moved into a shallower dive, buying time. Now the aircraft was gliding, or falling with style as her favorite movie character would say. The engines came back online at two thousand feet and she began to gain altitude, away from the anomaly. The radio clicked, Katherine forgot her headset was still on, ‘Come in ROBBIE.’
‘Still here Debra. Just. Lost all power over that anomaly. Going back for a more careful look. Call you in ten minutes.’
‘Ok so whatever this is knocks you out of the sky and you go back?’
‘Hey Debra, been in worse spots. Remember that landing in Baghdad?’
In 2006 Katherine was working out of the former International airport in Baghdad. Then as in other conflicts, helicopters at low level were vulnerable to rocket propelled grenades. Aimed at the tail rotor, a direct hit causes loss of flight stability and usually a forced landing. The Apache was vulnerable to close quarter attack from multiple positions, so when she was on patrol, and two handheld unguided anti-tank weapons were fired at her, she could only deal with one threat. Her nose mounted chain gun linked to her helmet turned and fired at the first position, the 30mm cannon shredded the perpetrators. She turned to fire on the second position. A third shot hit the tail rotor from behind.
Alarms sounded in the cockpit, small arms fire struck the resilient armour. While Katherine’s co-pilot fired on the positions, she attempted to leave the threat area, while calling into base and her wingman.
Within thirty seconds they had made a low altitude forced landing just a mile away, the nose of the aircraft pointing up, the tail dug into the ground. The chain gun was still operating, and despite being injured, the co-pilot managed to open fire on a pair of technical attacked from the front. The M230 gun using high explosive shells annihilated the insurgent vehicles, and deterred any others from approach, until the power failed. Katherine was trying to free her co-pilot from his seat, when a smaller group on foot attempted to outflank the now inoperative chain gun.
Katherine heard them cock their weapons, took her co-pilots M9 and her own, clicked the safeties off discreetly, and used the body of the Apache for cover. She bent down, to minimise the dust from her foot falls and peered under the tail. Shadows of her assailants cast ahead of them, betrayed their positions. In order for them to get her, they would have to come around the downed aircraft, most likely avoiding the menacing chain gun.
The tail of the aircraft still smoked from the RPG round impact, and provided limited cover. She moved down the aircraft, to get the jump on the group, their numbers unknown to her. She could hear their second-hand boots crunching on the sandy gravel. Heart rate increasing, eyes squinting through the smoke.
Three rifles poked through the haze, their owners looked towards the cockpit. She shot all three at less than six feet away, moved backwards, to change position. A second wave of men came at her though the smoke, firing on her previous position, bullets ricocheted off the armour and buried themselves in the dirt. She fired again, hitting two in the chest and the third in the face, he screamed and ran at her, the next shot firing up through his mouth into his brain, the top of his head exploding. She could not hear the remaining force retreating, the gunfire still causing her ears to ring, and then the familiar and welcome chopping sound of another Apache. She covered her ears, just as its chain gun spread fire and death throughout the remaining insurgents.
She returned to her co-pilot who was unconscious, holstered her weapon and dragged him out of the cockpit, using all her adrenaline to pick him up and carry him towards the waiting Humvee. The Marines on board obviously impressed. As she left the area, the explosion as her Apache was destroyed by her sister ship rattled the side panels of the vehicle. The US Army left nothing behind for scavengers.
‘You okay Ma’am?’
‘Yeah fine, just another day at the office right?’
‘Where to?’
‘This was my last patrol, due to fly home tomorrow.’
‘Saw what you did there. They say marines come in two breeds, Rottweiler’s or Dobermans, big and mean, or skinny and mean. I think you would be a Doberman if you were a Marine, and not just an Army pilot.’
‘You complimenting me Marine?’
‘Yes Ma’am. That a Texas accent?’
‘Yeah, I’m from Fort Worth, you?’
‘Dallas, but haven’t seen it in months, I miss the sun and dirt without the bullets.’
‘Me too Marine. Me too.’
Katherine’s reminiscing was broken by an image coming up on her monitor as the computer interpreted the masses of data. It was only a rough first image, but Katherine clearly recognized a perfect circle, submerged underneath a lake.
SIX
Katherine did not want to inform base camp by radio of her find, the data needed to be double checked, she did not want to be humiliated again, after all, ‘You are only a pilot’ as Laurent had once commented during one of his infamous rages. Katherine would have punched him out given half a chance; instead she went back to her plane and flew. It always calmed her, above and away from the dirt. Her readings from her Geovisualization equipment and Magnetometer were conclusive. She could not wait to return and show Laurent she was more than just a pilot.
Between Katherine landing on the makeshift airstrip on the farmland near the mouth of the Cayapas River and travelling the short distance by canoe to the base camp, it had become dark. The insects hunting, always out between five and seven, mainly for her she felt, the insect repellent did not put the bugs off attempting an easy meal of her fair skin.
The camp was simple but effective, all structures raised on stilts to deal with the changing water levels, and to keep them safe, plastic bin lids attempting to reduce the snake intrusions from below. Laurent was in his hut reviewing the day’s finds, Katherine secured the canoe, climbed the ladder to the walkway. She did not call Laurent, but went over to the many research assistants drinking beer on the walkway next to the kitchen.
‘I have found something, I think, and I want you to look over it first.’
The group was unusually silent. The youngest and most precocious Evelyn spoke first, ‘Would you not want Mr. Laurent to review your find first?’
Katherine smiled, ‘And if I a mere pilot were wrong I would never hear the end of it, so could you?’
Katherine’s no nonsense approach, and good nature won over most people she met, it had served her well in the male dominated pilot environment.
The group led by Evelyn moved to a large monitor, Katherine handed over a portable hard drive. Seamlessly and with well-practiced finesse, Evelyn ran the readings and images through their software, and she began to smile after only a few minutes.
‘What Evelyn? What is it?’
‘You are right it is something, and I really want to see the look on Laurent’s face.’
‘But it is just an impact crater; I have found them before, but never with a magnetic source at the centre.’