CHAPTER FOURTEEN
12:33 a.m. Alaska Daylight Time (4:33 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time)
The Skies Above the Bering Strait
Between Cape Dezhnev (Russia) and Cape Prince of Wales (Alaska)
“Almighty, Almighty, do you read me?”
The American F-18 Super Hornet screamed north across the sky, flying air patrol at the western edge of American airspace, just east of the International Date Line. To its right was Alaska and the good ol’ USA. To its left was Siberia and Mother Russia.
Inside the cone of the fighter jet, the sky was wide open. It was dark out here tonight. The plane was traveling just under nine hundred miles per hour.
Captain Walter “Wildman” Caples glanced at his radar.
He was fitted with a helmet, a flight suit, a g-suit, and on top of that a parachute harness and a survival vest.
