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Blackhawk wanted badly to pursue them. He hated letting Killer Shark escape. But a glance at his fuel gauges told him they were getting close to the point of no return. "That's it," he said over the radio, "let's head for home."
In the briefing room on Blackhawk Island, photographs from the recon cameras in Andre's plane covered the large table in the center of the room. Blackhawk pointed at one. "There, that's what the OSS intelligence said we might find." The photo showed a huge tunnel cut into a mountainside. Two sets of railroad tracks led out of the tunnel. On the tracks, a massive, wheeled platform bore a craft unlike any they'd ever seen. A huge, delta winged ship stood on its tail. It dwarfed the ant-like human figures visible on the platform below it. A second, smaller delta winged craft stood on the platform. It appeared to be attached piggyback fashion to the larger ship.
"The Nazis have really kept a tight lid on this," Blackhawk said. "The OSS has only a few vague reports from the Norwegian resistance. This is the first photograph anyone on our side has seen. However, I think this photo matches up well with a top-secret Nazi project our own intelligence network discovered. It's called Project Silver Storm. The objective of Silver Storm is a rocket-powered bomber that will leave the atmosphere and circle the Earth. It can drop an atomic bomb on any city on the planet. They could destroy New York or Washington and there'd be no way to stop them."
"Yumpin' yiminy," Olaf said, "vud they dare? The Americans vud bomb Berlin in retaliation, and then all of Germany. Ever since the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Manchester, the two sides have been afraid to use the bomb again. Vy vud the Germans upset the balance now?"
"The situation has changed, at least in the Nazis' view. They're fielding more jet fighters ever day in French bases. That let's them hit Allied bombers before they get to Germany. And now they're bringing the new Me 263 rocket powered interceptor on line. It doesn't blow up on every other take-off or landing like the Me 163 does, and it carries enough fuel for fifteen minutes of powered flight at combat altitude. It's so fast, even our P-80s won't have a chance of catching it. The Nazis seem to think they'll knock down any bomber before it reaches Germany. They're probably wrong, but remember who's making the decisions. We can't count on Hitler acting rationally."
Blackhawk examined the photo with a magnifying glass. "See these large hoses leading from the tunnel to the transporter?" he said. "I bet those are for fuel, and if they are fueling, then they mean to fly it soon. They wouldn't let it sit around with full tanks very long, too much risk of an explosion. We have to act fast."
"Sacre!" Andre exclaimed. "Zen why did I shoot eet with zee camera instead of shooting eet with zee machine guns?"
"Because," Blackhawk answered, "if we destroyed it, the Germans would just build another and we still wouldn't know anything about it. No, men, we aren't going to blow it up, we're going to steal it!"
Twilight washed out the colors of the B-26 Martin Marauder medium bomber warming up on Blackhawk Island's runway, but its dark red and blue paint job could still be made out. It was a livery used earlier in the war on their Grumman Skyrockets. It was a scheme well suited for night missions.
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