Threat Vector

was probably some telemarketer.

He read the name on the phone and his mood perked up instantly. “Hey, Ding.”

“Hey, John.”

“How’s it going?”

“Good. We got a lead on the Istanbul Drive.”

“Excellent.”

“Yeah, but still a lot of work ahead. You know how it is.”

Clark knew how it was. He felt incredibly out of the loop at the moment. “Yeah. Anything I can do to help?”

There was a pause on the other end.

“Anything, Ding,” Clark reiterated.

“John, this sucks, but I’m in a bind.”

“Say the word.”

“It’s JP. Patsy is in Pittsburgh till tomorrow and I’m heading up to BWI on my way to Hong Kong.”

A babysitter, Clark said to himself. Ding was calling him because he needed a babysitter. John recovered quickly and said, “I’ll pick him up from school. He’ll stay with us until Patsy gets back tomorrow.”

“I really appreciate it. We’ve got a lead but there is no time—”

“Not a problem at all. Found a new fishing hole that I’ve been wanting JP to check out with me.”

“That’s great, John.”

“You guys watch your backs in HK, you hear me?”

“Absolutely.”

THIRTY-THREE

President of the United States Jack Ryan opened his eyes, focused them quickly in the darkness, and found a man standing over him at his bedside.

This would startle the average person, but Ryan merely rubbed his eyes.

It was the night-duty officer, a uniformed member of the Air Force, in this case. He stood uncomfortably over Ryan, waiting for him to wake up.

Presidents are rarely woken because something so wonderful has happened that the night officer just had to pass it on, so Jack knew this would be bad news.

He did not know if the man had shaken him or called out to him. These guys always looked like they worried about imposing on the President’s sleep, no matter how many times Ryan told them he wanted to be made aware of important news and not to worry about something as inconsequential as a middle-of-the-night “shake and wake.”

He sat up as quickly as he could and grabbed his eyeglasses from the bedside table, and then he followed the night-duty officer out of the bedroom and into the West Sitting Hall. Both men moved silently so that they wouldn’t wake up Cathy. Jack knew she was a light sleeper, and their years in the White House were filled with his late-night rousings, which, more often than not, disturbed her sleep as well.

There were nightlights on the walls, but otherwise the hall was as dark as the master bedroom.

“What’s up, Carson?”

The Air Force officer spoke softly: “Mr. President, Secretary of Defense Burgess asked me to wake you and let you know that roughly three hours ago, Chinese PLA forces landed an engineering battalion as well as an element of combat troops in the Philippines’ Scarborough Shoal.”

Jack wished he were surprised by the act. “Was there resistance?”

“A Philippine coastal patrol boat, this according to the Chinese, fired on the landing craft. The vessel was sunk by a Chinese Luda-class destroyer. No word yet on casualties.”

Jack blew out a tired sigh. “All right. Tell SecDef to come on over; I’ll be in the Situation Room in thirty minutes.”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“I want Scott Adler, PACOM Jorgensen, Ambassador Li, DNI Foley either there in the meeting or attending via video-conference. And”—Ryan rubbed his eyes—“Sorry, Carson. Who am I forgetting?”

“Uh… the vice president, sir?”

Jack gave a quick nod in the low light of the Sitting Hall. “Thanks. Yeah, alert the veep.”

“Yes, sir.”

* * *

President Ryan sat at the conference table and took his first sip of what he knew would be many cups of coffee. The adjoining Situation Room was bustling, and the conference room had filled before he arrived.

Bob Burgess and several of his military minds from the Pentagon had just arrived. They all looked like they had been up all night. Mary Pat Foley was here as well. Arnie van Damm was in the room, but the commander of the Pacific Fleet, the vice president, and the secretary of state were out of town and attending remotely, though men and women from their offices stood along the walls.

“Bob,” Ryan said. “What’s the latest?”

“The Philippines say there were twenty-six sailors on the boat that sank. They are fishing some out of the water alive, but there will be fatalities. There are other Philippine warships in the area, but they are heavily outgunned and probably won’t engage the Chinese.”

“And Chinese troops are on Philippine soil?”

“Yes, sir. We have satellites overhead, and we’re collecting images. The engineering battalion will already be fortifying positions.”

“What do they want with the shoal? Is there any military objective at all, or is this about fishing rights?”

Mary Pat Foley said, “It’s simply to increase their footprint in the South China Sea. And to gauge reaction, Mr. President.”

“My reaction.”

“Indeed.”

President Ryan thought for a moment. He then said, “We need to send an immediate message, let them know we aren’t wringing our hands just watching their actions over there.”

Scott Adler spoke on the monitor across the room. “The submarine that made the call in Subic Bay a couple of weeks ago. The Chinese will claim that provocation had something to do with this.”

Jack said, “I do not believe for a moment that we are the ones driving this thing. Short of us opening fire on the Chinese, they are going to make their moves on their time frame.”

Adler said, “But we don’t want to fall into the trap of giving them an out. An excuse to inflame the situation.”

“Point taken, Scott, but no response is also an out. That will look like an all-clear from us. I’m not giving them an all-clear.”

Ryan looked to Burgess. “Suggestions, Bob?”

Bob turned to Admiral Jorgensen on the monitor. “Admiral, what assets are we prepared to move quickly into the area? Something to show them that we are serious?”

“The Ronald Reagan is in the East China Sea, heading up Carrier Strike Group Nine. We can move it and its elements west today. Put it off the coast of Taiwan by the end of the week.”

“I recommend against that,” said Adler.

Arnie van Damm seconded that motion. “I do, too. You’ve been getting hammered in the press for antagonizing the people who own our foreign debt.”

Ryan reacted angrily. “If Americans want to subjugate themselves to the Chinese, then they need to put somebody else in here to oversee that.” Jack ran his fingers through his gray hair as he calmed himself. He then said, “We aren’t going to war over the Scarborough Shoal. The Chinese know that. They will expect us to move carriers closer to our allies. We’ve done it before. Do it, Admiral. And make sure the carrier group has everything