Tiger's Claw: A Novel

good guy and a great pilot and instructor, but if he thinks you’re not working hard enough, he’ll turn on you like a rabid werewolf. You do things his way, or else. You said you had some tough cadet instructors at the Air Force Academy? Tom Hoffman will be a hundred times tougher. He demands excellence in everything he gets involved with. You will train to nothing less than ATP flight standards the moment you step into any one of his planes, from a piston single to a twin jet. The minimum passing score on all his written tests is ninety percent, and on the emergency procedures bold-print items and reference speeds that have to be committed to memory his passing score is one hundred percent. Three failed written or flight test is cause for dismissal. The only reason he still works with me and lets me fly the jets is that I’m the boss and I pay the bills—he would have dismissed me from flying the Excaliburs months ago because I couldn’t hand-fly it within fifty feet of an assigned altitude. His cadres of instructors are just as tough.” Brad was silent again, and Patrick even thought he saw his son swallow nervously. “But we all work with him almost on a daily basis, and no one has tried to strangle the other, so we know it can work. You just do what you’ve been doing around here: work hard, keep your mouth shut and your ears open, pitch in, and strive for perfection.”

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, ZHONGNANHAI, BEIJING, PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

THAT SAME TIME

Foreign Minister Tang Ji entered President Zhou Qiang’s office to find the chief of the general staff of the People’s Liberation Army, Shang Jiang (Colonel General) Zu Kai, already waiting on him. Tang, a longtime foreign affairs official who had served three previous administrations, knew very well how great General Zu’s influence was with the president, and he was dismayed but not surprised to see him here before he was allowed to brief and speak with the president first. The feeling he immediately had was that the next decision had already been made. “Good evening, Comrade President, General,” he said, bowing to Zhou.

“You spoke with the American secretary of state, Kevich, Comrade Tang?” Zhou asked without preamble or without offering his foreign minister a seat.

“Yes, Comrade President,” Tang said, still standing. “The Americans are requesting that we not interfere with search-and-rescue operations for their surveillance plane in the South Sea, what they call the South China Sea.”

“I know what they call it, Tang,” Zhou spat. A longtime Chinese Communist Party Central Committee member and former president of a shipping company in Shanghai, Zhou Qiang was well educated in business but even more familiar with down-and-dirty Party politics. He wore dark business suits, Western-style shoes shined to a high polish, and preferred silk ties, gold wristwatches, and French cigarettes. He kept his hair dyed black despite being well over sixty years of age, and he even invested in contact lenses to avoid wearing glasses. “They would like to call it the ‘American Ignores China Once Again Sea.’ ” General Zu smiled at the remark. “You told Kevich that movement of Chinese forces in the South Sea is not subject to any foreign powers’ authority, yes?”

“I told Mr. Kevich that I would pass along his request to my superiors and return with their reply,” Tang said. “Kevich thanked me, reminded me that the lost aircraft contained classified information important to American national security, and asked if I understood the importance of cooperation in this matter. Kevich said that a ship or aircraft lost due to unknown circumstances is a highly grave and important matter for any nation and since America had search forces in the area that we should understand and respect their wishes.”

“He said all that, did he?” Zhou asked acidly. “They send a spy plane to snoop on us over the South Sea, which they know to be extremely vital to our national security and closely guarded by China, and then we should be cooperative when their spy plane goes down? Why were they not so cooperative when we ordered them not to continue eavesdropping over China’s eastern coast?”

“I told you, sir, the Americans do not care about cooperation or mutual respect—they want us to heel and do as ordered,” General Zu said. “No matter if they are a few mere hundred kilometers from our soil, they continue to order China around. Even now, they are sending an aircraft carrier battle group northward, and we believe they will send a second one soon.”

“They lost an important aircraft and a valuable crew, General,” Tang said. Tang appeared to be Zu’s complete opposite: he was tall and thin, almost fragile-looking. “They are understandably concerned. I know Secretary Kevich very well, and I believe him to be sincere, straightforward, and unthreatening. As is customary in maritime accidents involving foreign powers, China should offer assistance before approaching the crash site.”

“Is that so, Tang?” President Zhou asked. “You do not seem to be too offended that the Americans freely send their spy planes, ships, and submarines near our shores day after day. We lose more and more control over our own affairs every day. For all we know, the Americans staged this entire episode simply to give themselves justification to move their warships into the South Sea and harass our commercial shipping and monitor our military activities!”

“Down their own aircraft and kill their own soldiers?” Tang asked, disbelief thick in his voice. He glanced at Zu, who was watching Tang closely. “That is not credible, Comrade.”

“How do we know it was a spy plane?” Zhou asked. “General Zu says the Americans build their spy planes from civilian airliners and purposely do not use military markings on them so they cannot be differentiated from unarmed civilian planes.”

“I do not know about such things,” Tang said. “If it is true, we should condemn such practices in the strongest possible terms. But again, sir, why would the Americans bring down one of their own planes and kill their own sailors? They are free to send their warships through the South Sea at any . . .”

“That is the attitude I want terminated here, Comrade Tang, right now and forever!” Zhou interjected, jabbing a finger at Tang and then angrily rising to his feet. “The South Sea belongs to China, do you understand? It is not an international body of water that any nation, friend or foe, can traverse on a whim! Free navigation of the South Sea is possible only because China allows it!”

“Excuse me, Comrade President, but that is simply not the case,” Tang said. “Seven other nations have borders on the South Sea. Almost half the world’s shipping transits the South Sea every year. No nation can claim ownership of the South Sea.”

“There is over a thousand years of historical fact and scores of international agreements to back up China’s legitimate claims,” Zhou said. “Most of the countries that claim parts or islands in the South Sea did not even exist a thousand years ago—how can they claim ownership of something when they were not even there? And the Americans have absolutely no claim to expect free navigation through the South Sea, especially by spy planes, submarines armed with nuclear weapons, and warships carrying cruise missiles that can devastate our country from long distance.”

“Sir . . .”

“Tang, I am not saying China wishes to prevent any friendly nation from transiting the South Sea,” Zhou said. “But if any nation seeks to threaten China in any way via the South Sea, militarily or economically, we will take action.” He turned directly to Tang. “Kevich wants a reply from me, does he?” he snapped. “Tell him this: We may not have the military might of America—yet—but we will not be frightened away from our ancestral territories. You consider the South Sea international waters and free to do whatever you wish? I am telling you, America is wrong. The South Sea belongs to China—it has for millennia, and it always will.

“China wants nothing but peaceful commerce on the high seas and unfettered access to all the world’s oceans and ports,” Zhou went on. “We shall continue to allow free transit of the South Sea to all peaceful commerce. But warships and spy planes are another matter entirely. You fly your spy planes and sail your warships through our territory at your own peril. China will employ whatever weapons systems we feel necessary to match or exceed the military might of any interloping foreign power. That is all, Comrade Tang.” Tang bowed, keeping his eyes averted, and departed the president’s office.

“It is about time someone utters those words and takes that arrogant bastard Tang down a peg, Comrade Zhou,” General Zu said after Tang had departed.