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.’ Well, the ghosts weren’t a mystery any more, were they? They belonged to the bastards who had blown Davidson out of the sky and shot her down, whoever they were.She’d practiced ejecting before, but she’d never had to eject from a Typhoon in the midst of a battle…she cursed her own weakness as she tried to stand up.Her legs refused to cooperate and she stumbled before grasping the proffered hand gratefully.“I…thank you,” she managed.Normally, a pilot bailing out of an aircraft would have been tracked by ground-based radar stations and a SAR helicopter dispatched from the nearest base.Now, she had the unpleasant feeling that the rest of the RAF had more important things to worry about than a single Typhoon pilot.The explosions she’d seen as she drifted down to the field suggested that the entire country was under attack.“Do you have a mobile phone?”“I tried to call an ambulance when I saw your parachute,” the farmer said.He looked older than her father, but there was a toughness around him that reminded her of the RAF Regiment soldiers who guarded the RAF’s airbases.His face was tanned by the sun.“There’s no signal at all.”Somehow, Alex wasn't surprised.The unknowns – whoever they were – had to have taken out the communications satellites, as well as jamming ordinary radio frequencies.There was no reason why they couldn't jam mobile phones as well.She cursed under her breath as she realised that she wasn't entirely sure where she was, or how to report in to whatever remained of her unit.The country was at war and she had enlisted to defend it.She needed to return to the base.And that might be impossible.“I can take you down to the farm,” the farmer offered.He held out a calloused hand.“My name’s Giles, Giles Smith.I own the land about here.”“Alex,” Alex offered, as they shook hands.“I didn't mean to land on your farm.”“Don’t worry about it,” the farmer said.He frowned, for a long moment.“I don’t suppose you know what those flashes I saw in the distance were?”Alex filled him in on what little she knew as they walked down towards the farmhouse.It was a neat little building, surrounded by a field of sheep and cows, almost like something from a bygone era.She would have been charmed if she hadn't been so worried about the situation – and the smell from the fields.The people who suggested that humanity should abandon technology and go back to the land had never smelled the countryside.She was happy with air conditioning and filtering.Inside, she allowed the farmer’s wife to give her a cup of tea while she tried to call the base.The telephone line buzzed and clicked alarmingly, and then went dead, without even a dial tone.At Smith’s suggestion, she tried the internet and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the farmhouse had broadband.Smith explained, when she asked, that the farmhouse often played host to young people and they all demanded internet access.“And the wife likes watching streaming video from London,” he added with a wink.“I know better than to get in her way.”Alex smiled as she tried to access MILNET through the internet connection.It should have accepted her password and allowed her access, but the link seemed to keep dropping out, as if some of the network nodes were malfunctioning.The unknown enemy had launched their attack without being detected, at least until it was far too late.There was no reason why they couldn't have launched a cyber-attack as well and taken out most of the military’s secure network.The pilots had briefed that that was supposed to be impossible, but the unknowns had done far too much that should also have been impossible.Finally, the system blinked up a warning; enemy troops in London and several other cities.Alex stared at the screen, not quite believing her eyes.How could anyone have simply landed in London? Where the hell was the rest of the RAF? The thought – the thought that she had been trying to avoid – floated back to the surface of her mind.She’d been blown out of the sky, along with her wingman [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]