have been purchased from Ivana Keptrova.’
‘No,’ said bin Awg.
‘No?’ said Mack, surprised by how quickly he had responded.
‘I asked her, and she gave me her word of honor.’
An arms dealer who gave her word of honor – Mack couldn’t decide whether that was quaint or naive. Ivana was a semi-official representative of the Russian government – she claimed to work for the Kremlin but seemed to be under no one’s direct control – and had arranged for several sales of naval equipment to Brunei. She’d also helped bin Awg buy old Cold War hardware and parts. McKenna, who’d worked for her, thought it unlikely she had supplied the Sukhois, but Mack refused to rule it out.
‘Maybe we can use this with Washington to get the F-15s,’ he said. ‘Their main argument was that there was no threat, right? Well, with a couple of Su-27s next door, you can shoot that argument down right away.’
‘The F-15s are going to be denied,’ said bin Awg.
Mack felt as if two of the legs of his chair had just been sawed off.
‘We have heard unofficially,’ added the prince. ‘The sultan is rethinking our arrangements.’
‘Totally denied?’ asked Mack.
‘We may be able to get F/A-18s. But now there are questions about the fiscal outlay.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Mack.
‘They are very expensive.’
‘Are you saying we’re not adding aircraft?’
‘Oh, no, no, no, Mr Minister. I’m not saying that at all. We of course are adding aircraft. Of course. Two more Megafortresses, some interceptors as well, as soon as it can be arranged. But the F/A-18s are not free, and the air force requires a great deal. I’m sure you agree.’
‘We need planes.’
‘Yes,’ said bin Awg. ‘We will get them. Eventually.’
‘Eventually better be pretty soon,’ said Mack.
‘Time moves more slowly in Brunei than in America, Mack. You must learn to relax.’
‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ said Mack, picking at his lunch.
There were more problems to deal with when Mack got back to his office in the capital: the maintenance section had used its last spare part for the A-37B radios; the next one that broke would be out of action until replacement parts arrived in six to eight weeks.
‘You can’t just cannibalize them?’ Mack asked Brown, the officer in charge of the aircraft. ‘We have four that are stuck in the hangars permanently.’
‘We already have,’ said Brown.
‘What parts are you talking about?’ asked McKenna, who’d been standing near the door to Mack’s office waiting to come in to see him.
Brown explained, adding that he had been working on getting the parts ordered for weeks. McKenna waved her hand.
‘There’s a shop in Manila where you can get the radios if you want. Frankly, you can upgrade the whole avionics suite for just about the same price,’ she said.
Brown stammered something about protocols. McKenna shrugged.
‘You have anything else, Brown?’ Mack asked.
He shook his head.
‘Good. We get the jet fuel?’
‘Working on it.’
‘Well, work harder,’ said Mack.
Brown nodded, apologized, then left.
‘Why don’t we just buy off the civilian suppliers?’ asked McKenna.
‘Damned if I know,’ confessed Mack. ‘There’s a whole bureaucracy dedicated to making sure I can’t get what I need.’
‘The civilian suppliers are cheaper than the fuel Brown’s been getting.’
‘How do you know?’
She smiled. ‘It’s coming through the government, right?’
‘Yeah, we have some sort of contract or something.’
‘You’re pretty naive, Mack.’
‘What do you mean?’
McKenna explained that certain citizens have interests in certain businesses, which the old administration of the air force had been involved with.
‘Not crooked, exactly,’ she said. ‘Just a lot of back-slapping.’
‘So they want to be paid off now, is that it?’ Mack asked.
McKenna laughed. ‘What they want is for you to leave. You’re an outsider, Mack. They want you out of here. They’ll do what they can to make you look bad.’
Mack felt his face getting hot. ‘That’s a pretty dumb game. Dangerous.’
McKenna shrugged. ‘You can take care of most of them.’
‘How?’
‘Cut their balls off.’
‘Thanks.’
‘It’s easier than you think,’ she said. She pulled up a chair.
‘What do I do?’
‘Find another supplier. Then suddenly they’ll have plenty of fuel for sale.’
‘You know of one?’
‘I might be able to find some fuel, if you’re not too particular about where it comes from.’
‘All I’m particular about is if it works.’
‘It’ll work.’
‘That why you came in?’
‘Actually, no. I had an idea on how to flush those Sukhois out, if they’re there.’
‘I’m listening.’
‘Requires practicing some air-to-air refueling between the Dragonflies and EB-52.’
‘Forget it, then. None of these guys are good enough to fly an A-37 Dragonfly behind the Megafortress. It kicks off some very wicked wind shears. It took a while for the computers to figure out how to do it with a Flighthawk.’
‘I could do it. If someone who knew what he was doing was flying the Megafortress.’
Mack
