The Chase

The first sign of trouble occurred when Moretti, who had 20/15 vision, saw the outline of what he knew was a low-flying M-35 Hind on the horizon. “That’s a military helicopter,” the ex-Ranger said, pointing to it. Although it took a few seconds because no one had better than 20/20 vision, everyone eventually saw the outline of the Russian-built helicopter. “Didn’t you say a military helicopter shot down your floatplane?” Han Li asked. “A Black Hawk. That’s a Hind, which has even greater firepower,” Cray answered, holding tightly onto his fiancé in the fast-moving craft. “How far to Leticia?” “Thirty miles,” McGough answered, looking at the numbers on his Garmin GPS receiver. “That means we’re close to the Colombian border. Let’s hope the Hind is on patrol,” Bonaquist stated as the helicopter rapidly approached. “What the …?” Moretti said, seeing a burst of rockets streaking towards them from one of the helicopter’s underwing pods. He pulled back the power to idle. Moments later, the rockets impacted the water where the Zodiac would have been if he had maintained his course and speed. He again pushed the throttles to the max. “Those are either S-8 or S-13 unguided rockets. They’re point and shoot,” Cray said. “There’s more in those pods,” Bonaquist volunteered. “Forget about the rockets,” Cray countered. “Worry about the twin 23mm cannons in the front. They’re deadly-effective within a mile.” “You know a lot about this helicopter,” Sanders said. “The Russians sold these to our adversaries, and they were always hammering us in the Middle East.” “I encountered Hinds in both Iraq and Afghanistan,” McGough volunteered. “Once those guns get within range, they’ll shred this boat.” “What’s the range of our guns?” Sanders asked, looking at the MP5 submachine guns the team carried. “One-fifth of the twin 23mm cannons on that beast.” “Damn.” The Hind pilot didn’t waste any more rockets. Instead, he maneuvered his aircraft fifty feet over the jungle canopy and closed the distance to the Zodiac to eight hundred yards. He took his time getting into position because he was six hundred yards beyond the range of small arms fire. Therefore, with each of his two cannons firing at a rate of three thousand six hundred rounds a minute, it would only take a quick pull of the trigger to rip the Zodiac and everyone inside to pieces. Swinging his cannons to starboard, the pilot pointed them toward the fast-moving craft, which was zip-zagging across the water. He viewed this maneuver as meaningless because he could walk the massive stream of bullets, which traveled at three thousand two hundred fifteen feet per second, across the water until they struck the boat. Game over. “By your command,” he said to Vilar. “Kill them.”