Any Instructions? (5/5) By Denis Price

(1/5), (2/5), (3/5), (4/5), (5/5).

The search was a short one, suddenly a voice, 'I've found him, I've found him' from another listener. Put on loudspeaker the high clear voice of the Soviet pilot could be heard giving his position, height and distance from the American. The Russians and their satellites guarded their airspace jealously and incursions were swiftly dealt with. It was land or be brought down.

The Russian pilot was receiving instructions from his ground controller, this was to be a classic ground controlled intercept, the listeners had listened to hundreds being practised, and this one was for real. The minutes ticked by with both frequencies remaining silent. Straining to hear the American voice, he knew the silence could be good news. The American would obviously keep his transmissions to a minimum.

He'd stopped sending status reports after making initial contact and would be attempting to conserve everything, energy, fuel, even his life. On the other hand silence could mean the worst. The aircraft had two engines, if it was flying on one, trying to get back into NATO airspace; the strain could've been too much. His speculation had just reached the stage where optimism was creeping back, after all they'd heard nothing from the Russian frequency, when the high pitched voice of the interceptor pilot screamed excitedly, 'I see him, I see him, a big one, two engines and American markings'.

He looked at all the faces in the room; the American Sergeant took his hat off and wiped his shining forehead with his sleeve. The black officer with an unlit cigarette in his mouth clicked his thumb constantly on a useless lighter finally throwing the cigarette to the floor. The British officers, looking uncomfortable began to whisper to each other.

Of his own volition and in an attempt to will the American to speak, he was about to search the frequency when the cool detached voice of the pilot pre-empted him, 'We won't make home, he wants me to land, any instructions?' The silence from the American ground controller was deafening. Sat motionless at his position he wanted to shout, 'Answer you bastards you can hear him'. The cool voice asked again, 'Any instructions?' There was no response. The Soviet frequency was becoming difficult to follow. The ground controller was arguing with the interceptor pilot. The whole monitoring room reverberated with the sound of angry Russian voices.

The Soviet ground controller with an eye to a diplomatic incident and the bonus of capturing sophisticated electronic equipment wanted the American forced down.

The interceptor pilot wanted a kill, probably his first, insisting that the American had refused to comply and that he was low on fuel and had to act quickly or lose his target. They knew in the monitoring room that the argument was over. The monitoring room clock ticked like hammer blows as The Russian pilot recited the litany of a missile attack, closing in on his crippled victim. Then they heard it, heard many times on exercise but this time for real, the triumphant scream of a Russian screaming 'Launch!' The room was silent; several seconds passed, like hours, then like a feather floating softly to earth a calm detached voice emerged faintly through the ether. 'We're burning, we're going down'.

With an emptiness in his stomach the listener turned to look at the others. He guessed their thoughts. So this is what we do, we prey on our own. It was the System of course, but not his, not any more. The silence was broken. 'Anybody gotta light?' said an American voice.

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