The Treasure of Lei Fong Wu

Chapter Sixty-Eight

DELTA TEAM LEADER -25:55

Wash paused as he closed the console back up. It had struck him, finally.

This was the stupidest gorram idea he’d had. Ever.

The reasoning behind it was sound. How do you cross four thousand miles of naked, unforgiving Black with no engines? The answer was on his wings.

Each of the missiles he had left in their racks was a multi-purpose tactical model, designed to do a variety of missions within a limited scope. They weren’t configured for atomics, chemicals or EMP – all those types of ordinance required specially designed vehicles. They were standard High Explosive charges. But they could be configured for a long, sneaky run at a target from a distance, using up every ounce of their fuel before they exploded . . . or they could be shot at a bad guy only a few hundred yards away.

Or they could be shot into position and detonated at a particular time with a timer.

That last element was the important one. Because between the two missiles, they had a substantial amount of propellant thrust available, thrust he could use. Thrust he needed desperately.

His tinkering in the ordinance console had resulted in the override of safety protocols, which ordinarily wouldn’t allow the missile’s engine to fire while it was still secured to the wing – a sensible precaution. But now the engines would engage while still attached, lending both powerful motors to the cause. By Wash’s calculations, it would take about four minutes to burn through the fuel, but the thrust would be enough to move the inert bulk of the Marauder up to a respectable speed.

Once the mass was in motion, it would stay in motion, thanks to Sir Isaac Newton, and the resulting momentum would, theoretically, push the ship into a trajectory close enough to the Sun Tzu’s docking port to use the maneuvering thrusters to dock. By his calculations, it would only take a little over three hours to traverse the distance.

The only problem was that the warh