'Do you have sufficient forces to protect your interests in that region?'
'Minister, I am not a military expert, and I cannot comment on that,' Adler replied. That was entirely true, but a man in a position of strength would probably have said something else.
'It would be a great misfortune if you cannot,' Zhang observed.
It might have been fun to inquire about the PRC's position on the matter, but the answer would have been neutral and meaningless. Nor would they have said anything about the presence of the Eisenhower battle group, now flying patrols over the 'international waters' of the Formosa Strait. The trick was to make them say anything at all.
'The world situation occasionally requires reexamina-tion of one's position on many things, and one must sometimes think carefully about one's friendships,' Adler tried. It lay on the table for half a minute.
'We have been friends since your President Nixon first courageously came here,' the Foreign Minister said after reflection. 'And we remain so, despite the occasional misunderstanding.'
'That is good to hear, Minister. We have a saying about friendship in time of need.' Okay, think about that one. Maybe the news reports are true. Maybe your friend Daryaei will succeed. The bait dangled for another fifteen seconds.
'Really, our only area of permanent discord is America's position on what your President inadvertently called the 'two Chinas. If only this could be regularized…,' the Minister mused.
'Well, as I told you, the President was trying to express himself to reporters in a confusing situation.'
'And we are to disregard it?'
'America continues to feel that a peaceful solution to this provincial dispute serves the interests of all parties.' That was status quo ante, a position established by a strong, confident America whom China would not challenge openly.
'Peace is always preferable to conflict,' Zhang said. 'But how long must we show such great forbearance? These recent events have only served to illustrate the central problem.'
A very small push, Adler noted: 'I understand your frustration, but we all know that patience is the most valuable of virtues.'
'At some point, patience becomes indulgence.' The Foreign Minister reached for his tea. 'A helpful word from America would be most gratefully received.'
'You ask that we alter our policy somewhat?' SecState wondered if Zhang would speak again after altering the course of the conversation ever so slightly.
'Merely that you see the logic of the situation. It would make the friendship of our two nations far more substantial, and it is, after all, a minor issue to countries such as ours.'
'I see,' Adler replied. And he did. It was certain now. He congratulated himself for making them tip their hand. The next call on this would have to be made in Washington, assuming they had the time there for something other than a shooting war.
THE 10TH ACR crossed back into Saudi territory at 0330L. The Buffalo Cav was now spread in a line thirty miles across. In another hour, they would be astride the UIR army's supply line, having gotten here without any notice. The force was moving faster now, almost thirty miles in an hour. His lead elements had found a few patrol and internal-security units in UIR territory, mainly single vehicles which had been dispatched immediately upon sighting. There would be more now, as soon as they hit the next road. It would be MP units at first—whatever the enemy called them—used for traffic control. There had to be a lot of fuel rolling down the road to KKMC, and that was the first mission of the Buffalo Soldiers.
SECOND BRIGADE OF the Immortals had been under fire for nearly an hour, when orders came to go forward, and the armored vehicles of the former Iranian armored division moved with a will. The two-star in command was in back of the flanking 3rd Brigade now, listening rather than talking, wondering about and thankful for the absence of American air power. Corps artillery had arrived and set up without firing to reveal its presence. They might not last long, but he wanted the benefit of their presence. The opposing force could hardly be as much as a full brigade on this side of the highway, and he had double that—and even if he did face a complete brigade, then his Iraqi comrades on the far side would loop around to support him, as he would for them if he found a clear field. Over the radio, on the move in order to prevent being attacked by artillery or helicopters, he exhorted his commanders to press the attack, as he followed on in an open-topped command vehicle. Now, if his enemy would just sit still in the positions they'd held successfully for the first attack, he would see about things….
LOBO PASSED PHASE-LINE MANASSAS twenty minutes late, to the quiet anger of Colonel Eddington, who thought
that he'd allowed ample time for the maneuver. But that damned criminal lawyer—a redundancy, he'd joked more than once—commanding HOOTOWL was well forward again, covering the right while his battalion XO took the left, calling fire but not taking any shots of his own.
'WoLFPACK-Six, this is HooT-Six, over.'
'SIX-ACTUAL, HOOT,' Eddington replied.
'They're coming on, sir, two brigades on line, packed in pretty close, advancing over phase-line HIGHPOINT right now.'
'How close are you, Colonel?'
'Three thousand. I am pulling my people back now.' They had designated safe-travel lanes for that. HOOT hoped that everybody remembered where they were. The redeployment would take them east, to screen the right edge of the flanking battalion task force.
'Okay, clear the field, counselor.'
'Roger that, Professor Eddington. HOOTOWL is flying,' the misplaced lawyer replied. 'Out.' In a minute he told his driver to see how fast he could go in the dark. It was something the NASCAR fan was just as pleased as hell to demonstrate.
The same report arrived four minutes later from the left. His one brigade was facing four. It was time to narrow those odds some. His artillery battalion shifted fire. His tank and Bradley commanders started sweeping the horizon for movement, and the three mechanized battalions started rolling forward to meet their enemy on the move. Company and platoon commanders checked their lines for proper interval. The battalion commander was in his own command tank on the left side of the line. The S-3 operations officer backed up the right. As usual, the Bradleys were slightly back on the fifty-four Abrams tanks, their mission to sweep the field for infantry and support vehicles.
The falling artillery was common shell, and now VT proximity, to make life very hard on tanks with open hatches and people dumb enough to be in the open. Nobody thought of armored knights. The battlefield was too dispersed for that. It was more like a naval battle fought on a sandy, rocky sea which was every bit as hostile to human life as the conventional kind, and about to become more so. Eddington stayed with WHITEFANG, which was essentially an advancing reserve force, as it became clear that the enemy was advancing on both flanks, and leaving the center with a screening force, if anything.
'Contact,' a platoon leader called on his company net. 'I have enemy armored vehicles at five thousand meters.' He checked his IVIS display to confirm, again, that there were no friendlies out there. Good. HOOTOWL was clear. There was only a Red Force to his front.
THE MOON WAS up now, less than a quarter of a waning moon, but it lit up the land enough for the lead Immortals to see movement on their visible horizon. The men of 2nd Brigade, furious at the pounding they'd taken in their wait to advance, were loaded up. Some of them had laser rangefinders, which showed targets at nearly double their effective range. That word, too, went up the line, and back down came orders to increase speed, the quicker to close the distance and get out of the indirect fire that had to stop soon. Gunners centered on targets that were still too far away, in anticipation of that changing in two minutes or less. They felt their mounts speed up, heard the words of their tank commanders to stand by. There were enough targets to count now, and the opposing numbers were not impressive. They had the advantage. They must have, the Immortals all thought.
But why were the Americans advancing toward them?
'COMMENCE FIRING AT four thousand meters,' the company commander told his crews. The Abrams tanks were spread nearly five hundred meters apart in two staggered lines, covering a lot of ground for one mounted battalion. The TCs mainly kept their heads up and out of the vehicles for the approach phase, then ducked down to activate their own fire-control systems.
'I'm on one,' one gunner told his TC. 'T-80, identified, range forty-two-fifty.'
