It was a long twenty-six minutes. Kai was so concerned about the alarm bells ringing in his head that he called several members of the day shift into the command module, including Seeker. He quickly filled her in as she checked her sensors and computers for any sign of malfunction. “All our equipment is fine, sir,” she reported. “We’re picking up UAV imagery from the Gulf of Aden, but nothing farther south. That’s not right.”
“Any contact from that Chinese convoy of ships heading to Tanzania?”
“No, sir,” she replied after checking the CTF status messages, “but the rest of the Combined Task Force is staying away from that convoy because the Chinese have all three of their ships and a couple planes guarding it-in fact, there are five Chinese ships in the area right now because they were in the process of patrol changeover. There are two destroyers, two frigates, and a supply ship escorting that convoy.”
“Pretty good timing-all that firepower arriving exactly when the convoy did.”
“It could explain the week delay in Pakistan,” Seeker offered. “Wait a week and get twice as many escorts.”
“Maybe. But I hate guessing and assuming.” He had to wait another two minutes until the TacSat-3 flew over where they expected the Chinese convoy to be. “Put in a call to the CTF-HOA operations center and ask them to-”
“Look!” Seeker exclaimed. The TacSat-3 hadn’t reached the proper viewing area off the coast of Kenya yet, but it didn’t need to…because the eleven-ship Chinese convoy was about forty miles off the coast of Mogadishu, Somalia! “That looks like the Chinese cargo-ship convoy! What are they doing so close to Mogadishu? They couldn’t all have been hijacked!”
“I’m no Marine, but if I didn’t know better, I’d say that was an amphibious invasion,” Kai said. “Get Camp Lemonier on the line, fast!”
“Nauert, AFRICOM, secure,” the NCOIC of AFRICOM responded after Seeker made the secure connection.
“Raydon, Space Defense Force, secure. Sergeant Major, are you getting reports from off the coast of Mogadishu?”
“We’ve had reported UAV datalink disruptions, so overflights in that area are grounded for now, sir,” the NCOIC of U.S. Africa Command in Ethiopia replied. “We’ve got several task-force ships and patrol aircraft in the area, but they’ve reported ops-normal for the past couple hours. We were going to launch a patrol plane to cover the area until we figured out what’s going on, but the Chinese say they’ll handle it. Why?”
“Are the task-force ships and aircraft in that area all Chinese?”
“Affirmative. What’s going on, General?”
“We just downloaded a TacSat-3 image of the area,” Kai explained. “TacSat is a small purpose-built satellite, launched just a couple days ago to help surveil the East Africa region. It operates on a discreet datalink frequency- you can’t get the imagery until we’re networked together.” He thought for a moment, then added, “And the Chinese might not have known about it, since it was launched recently and they don’t have access to it, so they couldn’t have had a chance to jam its datalink.”
“I’m not following you, sir.”
“Sergeant Major, we’ve detected eleven Chinese ships, including four warships, less than forty-five miles from Mogadishu, heading west at eleven knots. It looks like the Chinese convoy and the task-force ships guarding it are all heading straight for Mogadishu.”
Kai was very surprised at the sergeant major’s rather muted reaction-he said simply, “Please stand by, sir,” and the line went dead. “Alert Space Command and Air Force,” Kai said, “and put out a general warning to all MAJCOM headquarters in the clear, reporting a line of warships off the coast of Mogadishu heading west.”
A few moments later, General Thomas Greene, commander of U.S. Africa Command, came on the line himself. “Greene, AFRICOM, secure,” he said breathlessly, as if he had run a very long distance to answer the phone. “Raydon?”
“Raydon, Space Defense Force-”
“I don’t give a damn who you are!” Greene thundered. “Did you tell my sergeant major there was a convoy of Chinese warships heading for Mogadishu?”
“Affirmative, sir. I just put out a warning to Space Command and-”
“Who the hell do you think you are spouting off with that nonsense?” Greene cried. “I’m looking at the CTF reconnaissance reports, and there’s nothing out there! You’d better goddamned explain yourself, and quick!”
“Sir, you have no reconnaissance reports from the area because all of the patrol planes were grounded due to radio interference and poor datalink,” Kai explained. “The only other CTF vessels out there are Chinese, and they’re reporting ops-normal-because they are engineering this whole diversion.”
“What diversion?”
“Whatever the Chinese are up to, sir, they’ve managed to blank out all reconnaissance in the area, turn the convoy west, and are closing on Mogadishu,” Kai said.
“If there’s this big blackout like you said, how can you see it?”
“We used a small tactical satellite launched just days ago, which operates differently from other reconnaissance assets,” Kai said. “I think the Chinese didn’t know about it, or couldn’t do anything about it if they did. We just spotted the convoy minutes ago.”
“I want to see those pictures, now!”
“I’m going to have to route them to you through Space Command, since you’re not on our network. That’ll take a bit-”
“‘Not on your network’? What in hell does that mean?”
“It means my higher headquarters has to give you the pictures-I can’t do it directly,” Kai said. “But until then, may I suggest you get some eyes up there to verify this sighting, sir. If the Chinese are still jamming all transmissions in the area, they may have to-”
“I don’t need your suggestions, Raydon!” Greene shouted. “I want those pictures, and I want them now! And don’t be blabbing about this contact to anyone except your bosses until I get it confirmed! That’s an order!” And the connection went dead.
OFFICE OF THE PREMIER, BEIJING, CHINA
THAT SAME TIME
“You asked me to notify you when China is about to act,” Premier Zhou Qiang spoke.
“This Operation Lightning you messaged us about earlier?” asked Russia president Igor Truznyev, speaking on the secure direct “hotline” between each president’s office.
“Yes. It is under way. We have another mission under way as well. A clever officer in our Strategic Defense Forces corps calls it Operation Zu-qiu-Operation Soccer, what the Americans call ‘football.’”
“May I inquire as to what you intend to do with this Operation Soccer?”
“You will learn more soon, Mr. President,” Zhou said. “But I will tell you this: We shall see how the Americans take a kick.”
“Very clever.”
“We anticipate that Operation Lightning will be on station for seven days,” Zhou said, “after which time they will cycle in to Aden for refueling and replenishment.”
“We will be ready.”
“Very well. It is nice to be working with Russia again, Mr. President.”
“I would feel better about our new relationship if you would give me more details about this Operation Soccer,” Truznyev said.
“It is merely another attempt to dissuade President Gardner from expanding this space-weapon constellation,” Zhou said. “You will detect more shortly. Oh, and Mr. President?”
“Yes?”
“Please disregard any launch warnings coming from central Myanmar. Classify it as a petroleum plant explosion and fire.” He terminated the connection, then dialed another number on a different secure phone. “Minister Zung, you may give the order to proceed with Operation Zu-qiu.”
