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As if to bind his commitment, one of the Chinese special forces tea antiaircraftover the stern At less than two hundred yards it was i systee and blasted it off Horizontal control was lost and the craft spun crazily in circles before falling into the river and sinking out of sight, but not before the two crewle clear

The e were not as lucky The nextfla into the dark current of the river, their grave swept clean by the seething wake from the ship's propellers

During the death and destruction, Hung-chang and the Chinese fighting force were unaware of the low-pitched buzzing sound approaching from upriver Nor did any of thely hid the stars in the night sky Every eye was turned toward theon running the gauntlet of devastating fire they kneas about to ravage them

Captain Hung-chang spoke quietly into the ship's phone to the engine rooines"

42

TEN MINUTES EARLIER, from a schoolyard a block froht sky After donning helmets and harnesses, they strapped small motors that were mounted on backpacks across their shoulders Next, they hooked into a thirty-foot-wide canopy with over fifty suspension lines spread on the turf and started their little three-horsepower engines that were about the same size as those used on power mowers and chainsaws For stealth, the exhaustsound The propellers, looking more like the wide blades on a fan and encased behind a wire cage so as not to entangle their lines, bit the air After Pitt and Giordino ran a few steps, the thrust of the motors took over, the 230-square-foot canopies inflated and the two men lifted into the sky

Except for wearing a steel helmet and a body-are Aser across his chest Pitt elected his battle-scarred Colt automatic Heavier weapons would have ines in the air There were other considerations as well Their e in coain control of the ship The Ar

Too late, only after they were in the air, did they see the Army helicopters shot out of the sky

Less than an hour after the United States bypassed New Orleans, Pitt and Giordino ne's old army buddy and commander of the National Guard of Louisiana, at the Guard Headquarters in Baton Rouge, the state capital of Louisiana He had strictly forbidden Pitt and Giordino to accouineers on the scene faeable enough to take control of the wheelhouse and stop the ship before it reached Bayou Goula

"This is an Ar the knuckles of one hand into the palm of the other For a , confident and buoyant He was about the saht paunch at the waist that coe "There et hurt, and certainly not you, Mr Pitt, not the son of a United States senator I don't need the hassle If my men can't stop the ship, I'll order them to run it ashore"

"Is that your only plan after the ship is secured?" asked Pitt

"How else do you stop a vessel the size of the E?"

"The length of the United States is e Unless someone stands at the helm who kno to coo out of control and swing broadside across the channel before ra both bow and stern into the riverbanks-a barrier that would effectively block all barge traffic for months"

"Sorry, gentleapped white teeth "Only after the ship has been secured will I allow you and Mr Giordino to be airlifted aboard Then you can do your thing and bring that monster to a quick halt and anchor her before she becomes a menace to river traffic"

"If it's all the same to you, General," said Pitt without warements to come aboard"