Chapter 3
PART 3:
At headquarters, every screen locked onto Riley’s feed.
Officers stood frozen around the command table.
Commander Elias Grant stared at the live map with his hand pressed against his headset.
“Overlord to all units,” he said, voice suddenly lower. “Hold position.”
A technician looked up.
“Sir?”
Grant did not blink.
“All units, hold position… Reaper is engaging.”
Back in the canyon, Talon One saw Riley nose down instead of retreating.
His laughter faded.
“She’s not running?”
Riley keyed her mic.
This time, everyone heard the smile in her voice.
“Gentlemen… you picked the wrong woman.”
Then she pushed the Apache into the canyon.
The lock tone screamed.
Stone walls rose on both sides of her like the jaws of a giant.
The six fighters dove after her.
For the first ten seconds, everyone thought Riley had made a fatal mistake.
The canyon was too narrow.
Too jagged.
Too unpredictable.
But Riley knew something they did not.
She knew that canyon.
Her father had flown it years before during a classified rescue mission.
He had mapped every bend.
Every shadow.
Every impossible turn.
And when Riley was sixteen, he made her fly it again and again in a simulator until her hands ached.
“Speed is not the only weapon,” he had said. “Terrain is a weapon.”
Talon One came in first.
Too fast.
Too proud.
Riley dipped the Apache under an overhang.
His missile streaked past her tail and slammed into the canyon wall.
Rock exploded.
Dust filled the air.
One enemy fighter disappeared into the cloud and came out blind.
He clipped a stone ridge.
His wing tore away.
The pilot screamed once before ejecting into the open desert.
May you like
One soldier below shouted, “She got one!”
Read Part 4 to see how Riley turned six fighters into scattered targets.
