“In the past twenty-four hours we have seen major reversals in the potent assault on America’s infrastructure and business capabilities. While we are a long way from repairing the extreme damage perpetrated on us by the Chinese regime, with the help of American government and business experts, working together across the full spectrum of attacks executed against us, we will see this crisis through and put in place measures to ensure this never happens again.
“In the attack in China, many Americans lost their lives, and several more were captured by Chinese forces and are currently being held prisoner. Here in the United States, deaths and injuries from the loss of electrical power, the loss of communications services, and the disruption of transportation networks will take some time to calculate.
“Additionally, eight American military personnel were killed in the opening salvo of the operation against us perpetrated by the Chinese, when the American Reaper drone was hijacked two months ago and missiles were fired on our soldiers and our allies.
“I have told you about the loss of American life. The loss of life to the Taiwanese, the Indians, the Vietnamese, the Filipinos, and the Indonesians by Chinese aggression also plays a large role in measuring this calamity.
“America and its allies have suffered needlessly, and we are all angry. But we do not want war, we want peace. I have consulted with Secretary of Defense Robert Burgess and others at the Pentagon to find a way to resolve this crisis with China that will preserve lives, not cost lives.
“To that end, starting at dawn tomorrow, the United States Navy will begin a partial blockade of oil shipments to China entering the Strait of Malacca, the gateway from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea. China receives eighty percent of all its oil via this narrow waterway, and beginning tomorrow, we will restrict fifty percent of this oil.
“The leadership of China has an immediate choice to make. They can move their warships out of the South China Sea, remove their troops from the islands and shoals they occupied in the past month, and cease all centerline incursions in the Strait of Taiwan. As soon as they do this, the oil will once again flow unrestrained through the Strait of Malacca.
“On the other hand, if China continues to attack its neighbors, or launches an attack of any kind — land, sea, air, space, or cyber — on the United States of America, we will retaliate in kind, and we will shut off all of the oil to China through the Strait of Malacca.”
Ryan looked up from his text. His jaw stiffened. “All of it. Every last drop.”
He paused, then adjusted his glasses and glanced back down at his copy. “The United States has been a good friend and business partner to the People’s Republic of China for over forty years. We have had our differences, but we retain our respect for the good people of China.
“Our quarrel now is with elements in the People’s Liberation Army and the Communist Party of China. Clearly, we are not the only ones dissatisfied with the actions of the military’s leadership. Indeed, there are factions within the PLA who are not happy with the aggressive actions China has taken.
“A few hours ago in Beijing, the chairman of the Central Military Commission and chief architect of the coordinated attacks by China on its neighbors and the United States was assassinated. Early reports suggest members of his own military were involved in the attack on his motorcade. There could be no greater underscoring of the dissatisfaction with the military’s current path than the audacious killing of Chairman Su by his own men.
“President Wei has an important choice to make, and his choice will affect the lives of one-point-four billion Chinese. I call on President Wei to make the correct choice, cease all hostilities, call his military back to their bases, and work tirelessly to rectify the damage caused by China’s actions over the past few months.
“Thank you, and good night.”
Wei Zhen Lin sat at his desk, his palms down on the blotter, and he looked straight ahead.
The Politburo Standing Committee wanted his head. Clearly, Wei thought, they wanted Su’s head, but since Su was dead already, they were more than willing to destroy Wei as a substitute in order to channel their rage and distance themselves from the policies — economic, social, and military — that had failed so completely.
President Wei felt the stab of regret that Su had not just done what Wei had asked. With some saber rattling and bluster regarding the South China Sea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, Wei felt certain, he could have made the region happy to align itself with the strong economy and future prospects of the People’s Republic of China.
But no, Su wanted to have it all, to make a proper war out of it, to defeat the United States Navy and send it running for cover back home.
The man was a fool. Wei felt that, had he been chosen to lead the Central Military Commission, he would have done a better job than Su Ke Qiang.
But wishing things would have been different was a waste of time, and Wei had no time to waste.
He heard the heavy vehicles of the Ministry of Public Security outside his window. They had come to arrest him, just as they had done a few months earlier, except this time Su wouldn’t show up to save him.
With a heart full of anger, regret, and insolence at those who still did not understand him, President and General Secretary Wei Zhen Lin took his right hand off the blotter, wrapped it around the grip of the pistol, and then quickly put the weapon to the side of his head.
In the end, he made a mess of it. He flinched with the anticipation of the gun’s report, and the barrel jerked forward and down. He shot himself through the right cheekbone, and the bullet tore through his face, passing through his sinus cavity and exiting on the left side.
He fell onto the floor, grabbing at the indescribable pain, writhing around behind his desk, kicking over his chair and flailing in his own blood.
One of his eyes had filled with tears and blood, but the other remained clear, and through it he saw Fung standing over him, shocked and irresolute.
“Finish it!” he cried, but the words were unclear. The agony of the wound and the shame of rolling around on the floor of his office after failing such a simple task tore through his soul like the bullet had torn through his face.
“Finish it!” he yelled again, and again he knew he could not be understood.
Fung just stood above him.
“Please!”
Fung turned away, disappeared around the desk, and through his own screams and pleas Wei heard Fung shut the office door behind him.
It took the president four minutes to choke to death on his own blood.
EPILOGUE
China released the captured pilots after only three days, quietly putting them on chartered flights to Hong Kong, where they were picked up by DoD aircraft and flown home.
Brandon “Trash” White was back in Hong Kong already. He had spent the first day after his crash in a small apartment in Shenzhen with the masked American named Jack and the Asian CIA man who called himself Adam, and here he was visited by a doctor from Hong Kong whom Adam seemed to know. The man treated Trash’s wounds and prepared him for travel, and then, during the night, Jack and Trash crossed a river on a raft and then walked an hour through rice paddies before being picked up on the other side by Adam himself.
From there, Trash went to a Hong Kong hospital, where he was met by Defense Intelligence Agency personnel and ferried to Pearl Harbor. He would heal, and he would be back in the cockpit of the F/A-18 soon enough, although he imagined it would never again feel the same flying without Cheese as his flight lead.
John Clark, Domingo Chavez, Sam Driscoll, and Dominic Caruso spent nine days in Beijing, moving from safe
