The Shooters (Presidential Agent 4)

"Big Bad Wolf off."

"Big Bad Wolf. Commo check."

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

"Big Bad Wolf. M-Minute in ten. Engage computer on my bong."

"Bong."

This was far from the first time Castillo had flown an assault mission using the technique known informally as "flying the needles." But it would be the first when he would not actually be flying from the pilot's seat of one-usually the lead-helicopter.

I'm not flying. The "kids" are.

Colin was right about that. I haven't flown a Huey for a long time.

I am no longer Hotshot Charley, the Boy Wonder.

This is no time for me to fuck it up by thinking I am.

Castillo knew that the destination coordinates and the desired time of arrival-in this case, six hundred seconds from his bong setting order-had been all fed into computers aboard the Hueys. The computers would make the necessary computations and convert them to signals that activated indicator pointers-the "needles"-on the compass, the radar altimeter, and the ground speed indicator.

By keeping each helicopter's compass and its altitude and ground speed indicator's pointers lined up precisely with the computer-generated data-continuously making adjustments en route-as many as ten helicopters can arrive simultaneously (within two to three seconds) on target from several directions.

In our case-Big Bad Wolf and Red Riding Hood One, Two, and Three-from three different directions.

Making this damned difficult and complicated, and requiring pilots of extraordinary skill and great experience to carry it off.

And these "kids"-these Army aviators of the 160th-are the world's best damn chopper jockeys.

At M-Minute less three seconds, Red Riding Hood One popped up from its nap of the earth altitude east of the target and rose to one hundred feet above the ground.

There were faint lights visible within the compound beneath Red Riding Hood One.

At M-Minute, what looked like an orange ribbon flashed down to the ground from the opened side door of the helicopter. It lasted about ten seconds, and then Red Riding Hood One made a steep turn and left the area.

The orange ribbon had come from a Dillon Aero M134D 7.62mm "weapon system" mounted on a pintle in the helicopter. This weapon is patterned after the Gatling gun, a multiple-barrel weapon that was developed just in time for Private Tiffany of the jewelry firm Tiffany amp; Company and of the First United States Volunteer Cavalry, to buy several from the Colt people with his own money and in 1899 take them to Cuba, where he put them to use assisting Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt in chasing the Spaniards off San Juan Hill.

The M134D-with six rotating barrels like the original Gatling, but ones electrically powered rather than hand-cranked-on Red Riding Hood One was fed by a 4,400-round magazine that could empty in just over sixty seconds.

In the ten seconds the weapon did fire, it sent from Red Riding Hood

One almost seven hundred 168-grain bullets into a corrugated steel shed that contained a nearly new Cummins diesel-powered one-hundred-fifty-kilowatt generator. This caused the generator to malfunction-and the lights in the compound to go black.

A moment later, the diesel fuel in the tank behind the shed burst into flame.

Several moments after that, the electric lights of the compound flickered back on as an automatic system fired up the backup generator, an identical Cummins.

This coincided with the arrival of Red Riding Hood Two from the north at M-Minute plus five seconds.

And again there was an orange ribbon coming from the sky.

And again somewhere around seven hundred bullets flowed down, these striking the shed housing the backup generator-and causing the generator to malfunction, its fuel supply to ignite, and the lights in the compound to go out again.

As Red Riding Hood Two left the immediate area, Red Riding Hood Three and Big Bad Wolf appeared from the south.