liked to hear.” Stone decided against injecting his own reservations about Teguina into the discussion, but remembered all too well the look in Teguina’s eye that last day at Clark. “I still don’t get it, ” Tyler said with rising exasperation. “Why would Mikaso suffer by having the Chinese explode a nuke near Palawan?” Just as Stone was about to answer, the poll was completed and the situation briefing began. Five minutes later, the briefing concluded with no mention of the Chinese destroyer or its weaponry. Space Command or the Defense Intelligence Agency refused to comment on the origin of the explosion. Fine-Tyler would tell them himself. “General-Tyler at SAC, ” Tyler said, interrupting the Space Command briefer. “My staff expert here has possibly determined the origin of that nuclear detonation.” There was a bit of a pause, then: “Go ahead, SAC.”
“China. Satellite imagery confirmed their presence in the area, and my expert reports that the Chinese ships seen in the satellite imagery carry nuclear weapons “Defense Intelligence here, ” a voice chimed in. “We have no information of any Chinese vessels carrying nuclear weapons in the South China Sea. In fact the idea is ludicrous.” Tyler clicked on the intercom to Stone. “You sure of your data, Rat Killer?”
“Positive, General, ” Stone said. “My intelligence may be a few weeks old, but it’s reliable.” The intercom clicked off, then on, and this time Stone could hear the entire conversation on the network. “My expert maintains that the Chinese vessel in the satellite imagery we’ve just received carries nuclear-tipped antiship missiles. The vessel is a Chinese destroyer, the Ho ng Lung, which is the flagship of a large patrol fleet that operates in the Spratly Islands.”
“JCS copies, SAC, ” came the reply after a few moments: the reply came from the chairman himself, General Curtis, and he seemed curiously unsurprised at the revelation. “What is the current status of your units at this time, General Tyler?”
“Sir, I’m showing one hundred percent of the force fully mission ready, ” Tyler said, checking the connectivity readout of all his SAC units on the big board. The force is currently under posture four, under my authority. However, please be aware that the current SlOP OPLAN has no contingencies for operations against China or in the east Asian region. We hold no Chinese targets at risk.”
“Understood, ” Curtis replied. “It may be premature to declare an A-hour, however. We will defer that decision for the NCA when we call the Charlie conference.”
“Discharge of nuclear weapons automatically invokes at least a DEFCON Three level, ” Tyler said. “I recommend we proceed with that. Undoubtedly the Russians and the Chinese will respond by increasing their readiness levels as well; we should take the first step and then re-evaluate the situation.” “We’d have time for a discussion about contingency planning at a later time, ” General Curtis said. “Right now I want recommendations for the NCA as to the status of our deterrent forces.”
“SAC recommends DEFCON Three, posture four, ” Tyler said. “Forces concurs, ” General Jackson, commander of the Army Forces Command, said. As the largest single military command, the Army needed the most time to generate its units to go on a wartime footing and therefore had an equal say in whether a higher readiness state should be declared. “COMSUBFLT concurs, ” Admiral Towland, commander of strategic nuclear submarines, added. There was a slight pause, followed by a cryptic “Stand by” from General Curtis. Tyler found his palms moist and clammy. He rubbed them on his warmup-suit pants to dry them. The Chairman of the JCS came back on: “All units, this is RENEGADE. Implement DEFCON Three. Posture will be no higher than that implemented by DEFCON Three. Stand by.” A few moments later, a warbling tone was heard over Tyler’s headset and through the interphone system. The DEFCON lights above the big board changed from “4” to “3” and all of the Command Center status lights changed to red Top Secret indications. The Joint Chiefs of Staff communications center had assembled a coded message and broadcast it to all of the major commands. When received in the Essential Elements section, the message was decoded, checked, and the checklist for that order run immediately. “What do we got, Audrey?” Tyler asked. “DEFCON Three, posture three, ” the SAC senior controller replied. “No A-hour specified. Time-control clock start in five… four… three… two… one… now.” Just then, the second event-timer above the big board started counting. “Message acknowledged to JCS, checked and verified, standing by for retransmit.”
“Retransmit, ” Tyler ordered. The message ordering an increased state of readiness would now be sent to all SAC alert units in the United States. The DEFCON change would also affect nuclear-capable Tactical Air Command units in Europe and Asia, all of the Navy’s ballistic missile submarines, and the Sixth and Eighth Armies in Europe and Korea, which were some of the few Army units with deployed nuclear weapons. After acknowledgment messages were received from all the major military commands, General Curtis said to the poll participators: “I will convene a Charlie conference as soon as possible. Have a breakdown of the pre-planned options for this contingency, along with your further recommendations. RENEGADE out.” The connection was then terminated. “So what do we do now?” Stone asked. “Run the checklists, ” Tyler said. “It’s not unlike flying a fighter-we follow the checklist and it generally keeps us out of trouble.” A yellow light flashed on the telephone beside Tyler. “Well, here we go.” He sighed. Before he picked up the phone, he turned and requested that iced tea be brought for him and Stone. “This is going to take awhile, ” he predicted. “We do it a little bass-ackwards, but it usually works. “Curtis does a Charlie conference to direct each service branch to review the pre-planned contingency OPLANS, and the JCS decides which one to run. Then Curtis’ll go to the President and SECDEF face-to-face and make his pitch. The President usually signs off on the plan just to get the ball rolling-then, when his Cabinet, the Congress, and the press find out, shit hits the fan. But that’s not our concern.”
“Where do you need me?” Stone asked. “Right with me, Rat Killer, ” Tyler replied. “You’re my resident Philippine expert. We built a new Philippine contingency plan when Clark closed, but I’ll need you to look it over, tell me if it’s still valid in the face of what the Chinese have out there.”
“I’m ready, ” Stone said. “Is there any time to get out of these sweats, though? I’m not sure the staff will be able to work closely with me if I stink like an old pair of sneakers.”
“Don’t worry about it, ” Tyler said, a grim smile on his face. “Before long, everyone here will be just as nervous and sweaty as you are-except it won’t be from exercise, it’ll be from good ol’ fear.” THE MALACANANG PRESIDENTIAL PALACE MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES SAME TIME Philippine First Vice President Daniel Teguina paced restlessly as he, the Second Vice President Samar, and the Cabinet awaited the arrival of President Mikaso in the presidential conference chamber. Everyone was tense and worried. A few were terrified. All had rushed to the presidential palace immediately after being advised of the disaster in Palawan. Finally, President Arturo Mikaso entered the conference chamber. Unlike the others gathered, who were dressed casually, Mikaso was in a dark-gray business suit, polished shoes, and a tie. His appearance was so crisp that a few wondered silently if he hadn’t just dressed. “Gentlemen…” Mikaso said, his old body moving as quickly as it could into the room. “Please take your seats.” The elder statesman stiffly took his at the center of the oblong maple conference table and the other Cabinet members immediately sat down. “As you know, a terrible tragedy has occurred, ” Mikaso began. “Less than thirty minutes ago, a patrol task force from this country was attacked by a large Chinese naval patrol off the coast of Palawan.” The Cabinet members exchanged looks of complete shock. They’d been advised of a major sea disaster, but given no details. Murmurs went around the room. Teguina immediately spoke up. “A Chinese naval patrol? Judging by the state of our naval force, I assume we were beaten badly?” Mikaso nodded sadly. “We were indeed. We’ve suffered serious losses-“
“Naturally, ” Teguina interrupted. “What do we have to fight with? Outdated, expensive, useless American equipment that we were suckered into buying.” Mikaso glared at Teguina. “Daniel, now is hardly the time for editorializing. There are far more serious considerations at hand.” Mikaso looked at the men gathered in the room and said, “Gentlemen, the worst part of this confrontation, which involved two of our F-4E fighters, was that the Chinese launched a nuclear missile against our force.” Gasps went around the table, followed by immediate cries of outrage which echoed off the walls of the conference room. Everyone was talking at once until Mikaso rapped his knuckles on the table. “This has not been confirmed by us yet, ” Mikaso said, “but the detonation was detected by American and Japanese monitoring stations.” Again everyone started talking at once, their voices reaching a crescendo of questions of concern: What about the fallout? The food and water supplies? How could the Chinese have justified a nuclear-tipped missile? Did it mean this was a prelude to a full-scale invasion? Question piled upon question. Mikaso tried to calm them down. “We have no definite reports of an invasion, ” Mikaso said, “although the Chinese warships are in Ulugan Bay on Palawan, being guarded by our Army.”
“But how did this happen?” demanded Second Vice President J~~e Samar. “Civilized nations don’t just set off nukes!” Mikaso nodded in agreement. “One would think. However, this was a battle between our forces and theirs. They ventured into the neutral zone, were going to attack a drilling platform, and we opened fire.”
“What was a drilling platform doing there anyway?” Teguina asked, even though he knew. “Those islands are not for exploration or drilling. The Chinese have long considered that their territory, even though we don’t. Why
