motto. Can you imagine what will happen once he breaks into a major metropolitan area like San Francisco? Sir, we must use whatever means necessary to stop the Chinese.”
“We’re doing everything we can,” Sims said.
Director Levin turned to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
“Well, Mr. President,” General Alan said, “we haven’t done
The transformation to the President amazed Anna. His eyes hardened and his shoulders straightened. “What are you talking about?”
General Alan hesitated.
Levin spoke up. “Mr. President, we have a spy deep in the Chinese military. What we’re suggesting might well expose the spy. Yet for one operation, we can likely gain their IFF encryption key.”
Anna tapped her scroll and typed “IFF.” Ah, it meant, “Identify Friend or Foe.” She speed-read the text. It was a command and control feature—an interrogation system—to identify aircraft, vehicles, soldiers and sometimes missiles as friendly. The system could not identify someone as hostile, just friendly if the IFF transponder returned a coded reply correctly once a beam had interrogated it. The military used IFF systems so they knew which vehicles, planes and sometimes missiles belonged to them and which they needed verbal or visual recognition. Ah, sometimes, friendly aircraft failed to respond correctly because of battle damage, equipment failure, loss of the encryption keys or the wrong encryption keys. Terrain-hugging missiles and aircraft often had trouble responding to line-of-sight microwave IFF systems.
“What does any of that mean to us?” Sims asked.
“That if we’re clever, sir,” Levin said, “we can sneak several missiles among the Chinese.”
“Ballistic missiles?” Sims asked.
“No, sir,” Levin said, “cruise missiles.”
The President drummed his fingers on the conference table. “I take it these are nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.”
“Yes, sir.”
“By the terms of the Non-Nuclear Use Treaty, we no longer deploy battlefield nuclear weapons,” Sims said. “It would take time to ready nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and bring them near enough so they had a chance of landing among the enemy.”
“I realize that, Mr. President,” Levin said.
“Is this your plan?” Sims asked General Alan.
“Not altogether, sir,” Alan said, “although I have approved of what the Director is suggesting.”
“It sounds to me that there’s more to your plan,” Sims said, “something you haven’t told me yet.”
The CIA Director and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs traded glances.
“The spy is my doing,” Levin said. “There is also a specially constructed submersible belonging to the US Navy. The commander of the submersible is a deep-dweller and he has sat out the battle, inching closer to the Chinese these past two days. He possesses three cruise missiles, sir, each of them with a nuclear warhead. It is a suicide mission, of that there is no doubt. The submersible is fragile, constructed out of carbon fiber.”
“Meaning it’s practically invisible to enemy sonar,” General Alan said.
“The drug cartels used to use earlier models to smuggle their product into the U.S.,” Levin explained. “Ours is a far more advanced model.”
“Keep talking,” the President said.
“There’s little more to say, sir,” Levin said. “The captain brings his submersible near the surface as we launch a heavy, land-based missile assault against the Chinese position. As we’ve seen in Southern California, they will counter-fire. Some of their missiles will surely be launched from ships offshore dedicated to that task. We know that’s Chinese naval doctrine. As the Chinese counter-fire, our captain targets his cruise missiles. Because of the spy, those cruise missiles will carry the latest Chinese IFF encryption key. That means the Chinese will leave the missiles alone. If a few officers wonder about them, they’ll think of the missiles as more counter-fire. Once the cruise missiles strike—”
“What do you envision as their target?” Sims asked.
“Clearly, Mr. President,” Levin said, “the target should be Santa Cruz port and the waiting troopships. Almost the entire Chinese naval infantry allotment is out there for the taking, but it will need a nuclear attack to destroy them.”
“Target an American city?” the President asked coldly.
“This is war, sir. Sometimes, there are no good solutions but only those that will work.”
“No!” Sims said. “It is diabolical and I refuse to listen to any more of this.”
“Begging your pardon, Mr. President,” Alan said, “I don’t believe we have any other choice. Believe me, if we fail to halt the Chinese, they will continue advancing and will end up destroying far more American cities than we’re planning to now. We’re trading one city at this time to save hundreds of others later.”
“And what will the Chinese do in response to our nuclear attack?” Sims asked. “Ms. Chen, what do you think?”
Anna could feel the hostile gazes drilling her. What could she say? If she agreed, she might be helping to start nuclear annihilation. If she disagreed, they would say she didn’t want to see Chinese soldiers die.
“Maybe we could target the Chinese carriers,” she said, temporizing.
“We don’t know where those are,” General Alan said frostily. “And the Chinese are much more alert to any attacks committed against their precious carriers than against anything else.”
It was time to speak her mind. “Sir,” Anna said, “I loathe the idea of using nuclear weapons. I am utterly opposed to the idea. It might be the end of everything if we go nuclear in so blatant a fashion.”
“We will be striking one of our own cities,” Levin said. “How can the Chinese fault us for that? They have already helped terrorists use a nuclear weapon on us. They are in no position to act as our moral superiors.”
“We must hit the Chinese now, sir,” General Alan said. “If we pass this opportunity by, it could be the end of California. We might have to write off Army Group SoCal.”
Sims shook his head. “We cannot afford its loss.”
“Then we have no option in Santa Cruz,” Alan said.
“Our reinforcements—”
“Likely won’t make it fast enough, sir,” Alan said. “I’m sorry, but I truly believe this is the only option. We should be thankful we have it. Now we must exploit it while the opportunity exists.”
Sims turned away. Once more, he shook his head. “I… I don’t know what to do. I gave my solemn word on this.”
“Let us do it, sir,” Levin said.
Sims stared at the white-haired CIA Director.
Anna’s heart went out to the President. It was such a terrible burden. If they failed here, would it be the end of everything a few years down the line?
“Do it,” Sims whispered. “Launch your secret plan. We cannot let the Chinese pour troops through the delta region.”
Captain John Winthrop sat straight in his command chair. It hurt the small of his back to do it. Ever since receiving his orders, his back muscles had begun to cramp. But he’d be damned if he would slouch.
He had a crew of three, each of them a technician helping to keep the little carbon fiber sub intact. For the past three weeks, the small submarine had waited on the bottom of the ocean. For the past two days, it had crept toward Monterey Bay. Now it was in position and the latest buoy sent to the surface had relayed the message.
Captain Winthrop stared at the panels and screens without seeing them. He had volunteered for this assignment, so had each of his three crewmembers.
They had three cruise missiles, old Tomahawk cruise missiles ready in the launch tubes. The old United States Navy was gone, but not the old spirit of attack.
“Six minutes and counting, Captain.”
Winthrop acknowledged the words by a simple nod. Soon, now,
