Night Raid
The aircraft bounced through the turbulence. Lin Huaisheng glanced over the pilot's shoulder at the airspeed indicator: a pitiful 270 kilometres per hour. At least another hour to Gilgit. With nothing else to do, he found himself thinking about the air force group captain he had met briefly at the end of the runway a few days earlier. He noticed the liaison pilot's sleeve bore the insignia of No. 41 Squadron.1 Lin could not remember which squadron Sami belonged to; he recalled only a black spider on the man's patch. The Pakistan Air Force was very small; perhaps he could ask around. So he put the question to the pilot in the front seat. At the name Mohammed Sami, the pilot burst into delighted laughter, shaking the little Cessna so hard it rocked. Old Sami was a legend, he said. In Pakistan, even the army knew the name Mohammed Sami. He would bet Captain Saleem knew too. The answer startled Lin Huaisheng. He turned to face the expressionless Captain Saleem.
"He's right. Everyone knows Group Captain Sami," the captain said.
"He's an ace?"
"That goes without saying. But the group captain is famous for something else."
"Go on." Lin's curiosity was now fully aroused.
"In 1988, Sami shot down a Soviet MiG on the Afghan border.2 The pilot ejected and we took him prisoner. Nobody could have guessed at the time: that pilot is now the President of the Russian Federation."
"Is that true?" Lin could scarcely believe his ears. He knew the current Russian president could fly fighters, but he had never imagined the man had once been captured alive.
An hour later the aircraft wobbled its way into Gilgit airfield. Lin made a point of checking the far end of the strip. The Thunder was gone.
Group Captain Sami had long since flown back to Kamra and was already assigned to a new mission.
In response to the Indian ground forces' brazen infiltration, Air Headquarters had drawn up a fresh strike plan. The target was a newly discovered Indian Army position in the Kargil mountains. Over the preceding days, Indian troops had quietly constructed a helicopter landing zone in a valley on the western side of the Line of Control, stockpiling supplies and preparing to occupy the area permanently. Under the plan, the Pakistan Air Force would launch a series of diversionary redeployments around midnight to confuse the Indian Air Force and goad their short-legged forward fighters into the air, burning fuel in futile scrambles. The real attack would come at dawn. The first strike would be carried out by two F-16As from No. 9 Squadron,3 because only their day/night targeting pods4 could guide laser-designated Paveway bombs. Sami's No. 26 Squadron Thunders, lacking night-attack pods and precision-guided weapons, would serve as escort and backup strike element; his aircraft would carry four air-to-air missiles and two bombs, leaving the fuel margins uncomfortably tight. The group captain was not particularly concerned. Night missions, he felt, were safer. Those Su-30s he feared most had never once approached the combat zone after dark.
In the small hours, the diversionary aircraft began returning to base. Sami's aircraft 101 and a wingman slipped quietly off the runway and into the black sky. The pair flew east in silence under cover of darkness.
"Griffin, give me your position." Sitting in his cockpit, the group captain called repeatedly for the first strike element, which had launched from a different airfield. No clear reply came. The radio was full of chatter; other pilots from the covering groups, most of them coordinating with the ground for landing.
"Griffin, Black Spider is at the rendezvous. Where are you?"
Still nothing. The group captain grew anxious. The first wave had to be carried out by No. 9 Squadron's two F-16As, because only their targeting pods could guide the Paveways. His own Thunders could only deliver unguided bombs after dawn, in a low-altitude pass.
"Griffin still hasn't shown," the wingman said.
"Black Spider, this is Griffin flight. We're behind you."
"Griffin, close up. We have to reach the target before dawn."
"Is that you, Squadron Leader?" The voice on the radio sounded familiar. Perhaps Uhaq,5 an old subordinate; Sami had served in No. 9 Squadron in his younger days.
"You're late."
"Air-to-air refuelling held us up," Squadron Leader Uhaq said.
"You needed to refuel?"
"Better safe than sorry."
An unknown voice came over the radio: "Black Panther flight, be advised. Ground search radar has come active in your vicinity. Mark the position."
The unknown voice continued: "Cobra Two, check below and behind. Watch for SA-7s6 in the mountains."
These calls were plainly not addressed to Sami or Uhaq; the AWACS was alerting other aircraft nearby. After a bewildering sequence of redeployments, the four aircraft approached the Indian position at low altitude. The Indians had already used the helicopter landing zone to ferry large quantities of equipment and materiel to the Pakistani side, and not long before had sent a special forces team five kilometres beyond the border to destroy the wreckage of a Jaguar.7
"All units in the area of operations: two MiG-29s airborne from Adampur.8 They may approach the border." The AWACS continued. The threat sounded distant for now, but the group captain could not afford to be complacent. He knew the Indian Air Force was more aggressive now than at any time in memory, especially those matchless Su-30s.
"Descend to twelve hundred metres. Use the radio altimeter," Sami said.
"Copy," the wingman replied.
"We'll attack at first light. Then you go in," Uhaq said.
"I seem to recall telling you that I hate flying east after dawn. If their fighters get airborne, they'll have the sun behind them," Sami said.
"Don't worry. I'll be above you when you make your run," Uhaq said. His aircraft carried no bombs; he was tasked with defending the entire formation.
1. No. 41 Squadron (41中队): The liaison pilot's unit. The PAF's No. 41 Squadron operates transport and liaison aircraft; the Cessna 172 used to ferry Lin (see C10N7) is consistent with this role. ↩
2. The Russian president: Between 1986 and 1988, PAF F-16s shot down at least eight Soviet and Afghan aircraft that violated Pakistani airspace during the Soviet-Afghan War. No. 9 Squadron was credited with three of these kills (see C7N9). The novel fictionalises one of these encounters as involving a pilot who later became Russia's president; this is impossible in reality but functions as in-universe mythology, establishing Sami as a figure of almost legendary stature within the PAF. ↩
3. No. 9 Squadron "Griffins" / F-16A (第9中队 / F-16A): The PAF's most senior squadron, based at Mushaf (Sargodha). The F-16A is the older Block 15 variant, distinct from No. 5 Squadron's newer F-16C/D Block 52+ (see C1N10). The original text's use of "F-16A" specifically is consistent; No. 9 Squadron operated the earlier airframes. In Chapter 7, Hassan mentions Sami served in No. 9 Squadron, which this chapter confirms. ↩
4. Targeting pods and Paveways (蓝盾吊舱 / 铺路石): The Chinese 蓝盾 literally means "Blue Shield"; in context it refers to the Thomson-CSF ATLIS II laser designator pod, which was installed on PAF F-16s from 1987 onwards. The Paveway (铺路石, literally "paving stone") is a family of laser-guided bomb kits. The PAF's F-16s were the first in the world to carry the ATLIS II, enabling precision delivery of GBU-10/12 laser-guided bombs. ↩
5. Uhaq (乌哈克): The Chinese text alternates between 乌哈克 and 乌克哈; both render the same name. The character is a squadron leader with No. 9 Squadron and a former subordinate of Sami's from when Sami served with the Griffins earlier in his career. ↩
6. SA-7 (萨姆7): The 9K32 Strela-2, a man-portable infrared surface-to-air missile (NATO reporting name SA-7 Grail). Widely proliferated and used by insurgents and regular forces alike. Its infrared seeker tracks the target's heat signature, making it difficult to detect before launch. ↩
7. Jaguar wreckage: The same Jaguar destroyed by the Indian commando team in C10N4. The novel now confirms the Indian landing zone and the commando raid were part of the same forward infiltration operation. ↩
8. Adampur (亚当布尔): Adampur Air Force Station in Punjab, home to IAF MiG-29 squadrons (No. 47 "Black Archers" and No. 28 "First Supersonics") under Western Air Command. Located approximately 100 km from the Pakistani border, it is one of the IAF's most important forward-deployed bases. ↩