Operation Southern Cross - 02 Read Free Page A

helicopters coming on board. Eliot signed off by saying he would explain it all later.
    The Lexington was about to take part in a very strange charade. Inside of five minutes, the skeleton crew had to make the old bird farm look like it was an active, working, powerful super-carrier.
    The lives of the people on the Special Ops helicopters depended on it.
     
     
    IT WAS NOW 0115 HOURS. BY THE TIME ELIOT REACHED the bridge, all of the Lex ’s exterior lights had been turned on. This in addition to the three hundred or so crew members who had appeared on deck with flashlights, trouble lanterns, flares and even green luminescent break sticks. It was an amazing sight. The collection of lights created a glow that reflected off the warm waters of the western Caribbean and bounced back up at the ship again. Never did Eliot think the old Lex would look this good again.
    But there was little time to admire the light show. Off to the south, he saw another light. At turns yellow and orange, it was coming straight for them. Eliot stood transfixed for a moment, eyes glued to this thing. It was getting bigger, brighter by the second.
    It took a few moments before he realized that this was a helicopter heading their way. A large two-rotor Chinook.
    And it was on fire.
    Jeesuz Christ…
    Though the Lex was sailing bare bones, it did have a fire team. Eliot blew his air horn into the intercom a second time, then ordered the ship’s fire fighters to start laying foam from the mid-deck to the bow. But even as the words were coming out of his mouth, he knew there would not be enough time for this. The burning copter was just seconds away from crashing into them.
    The sailors on the deck had spotted it by now too. At least the lights on the Lex were glowing bright enough for the copters’ pilots to see where they were going. The question was, could they make it to the deck before the flames caused their copter to explode?
    Damn, Eliot whispered. This is going to be close .
    The Chinook seemed to be moving at an incredible speed, for a large double-bladed heavy lifter, that is. But just as it reached a point about a hundred feet off the carrier’s bow, its pilots performed a maneuver equivalent to slamming on the brakes. The helicopter’s chin suddenly went nearly straight up in the air, yet the aircraft continued moving forward. Once its rear wheels were over the bow, the pilots pushed the actuator down and the big Chinook slammed onto the deck. It bounced once, then came down hard again, blowing all of its tires, exactly what the pilots wanted to do. Flat tires made it more unlikely the copter would roll off the side of the ship.
    The crew of the Lex didn’t need an air-horn message this time. They ran en masse toward the fiery crash. Regular sailors, officers, the guys in fire gear—they all reached the copter’s wreckage at the same time and began pulling people out. Wisely, someone aboard the Chinook had doused the passengers with the aircraft’s fire extinguishers before it slammed in. People were coming out of the wreckage stunned, wet with foam and sizzling but still alive.
    Eliot was down on the deck by this time, out of breath but aiding in the rescue. Just because people were actually getting out of the wreck didn’t mean the fire had gone out. Flames had fully engulfed the rear of the big copter by now and were quickly moving toward its midsection. When a team of sailors in fire gear arrived with water hoses, Eliot directed them to the rear of the copter, ordering them to lay water on it until they got everyone out of the burning craft.
    Then Eliot returned to the front hatch of the Chinook and resumed helping pull people out. One of his NCOs used his head and drove the ship’s only deck tractor up to the front of the copter, smashing the Chinook’s cockpit windows, and allowing the flight crew to crawl out to safety through the broken glass.
    “Sixteen!” both pilots were yelling as they came out headfirst, their boots on