INVASION USA (Book 2) - The Battle For New York (16 page)

The general thanked the two ladies for their reports and asked First Sergeant Perry to give his situation report on the defense structure for this potential attack scenario.

“Mr. President, Mr. Ambassador, General Allen,” Sergeant Perry began. “We have set up a perimeter around this field that is ready to hold off an ambitious attack. We have completed our ambush scenario along the 300-foot dirt road leading to the asphalt feeder road, and have changed it slightly since our initial ideas this morning. The men have made and painted a simple wooden airport sign with an arrow pointing to the entrance of the airport—the way we want them to come in. This is to make sure they drive into our ambush. We have a wall of sandbags across the dirt road 50 feet before the gate entrance to this property. This is to make sure that any incoming vehicles will have to stop. There are no vehicles allowed in or out except Mr. Joe and Mr. David. They turn left any way and one of David’s two armored cars has been placed further down the road, 250 feet behind the barrier. Our latest scenario takes the entrance gate out of the ambush. The armored ferret is behind a double wall of sandbags to protect it from any shoulder-operated missiles. It is positioned where the lights of any incoming vehicles will light up the barricade, but leave the armored car in the darkness behind the barricade, if they decide to attack before dawn. After dawn, we will review the ambush zone and make the barricade across the road the main focus point. If they open fire at the barricade, we will know that they aren’t friendly and fire back. The barricade is 3-foot high and made of a triple line of sandbags behind the turned-over dining tables we brought from Seymour Johnson.”

Sergeant Perry paused to fish some notes out of his pocket to make sure he had the information listed correctly. “The barrier will be manned by 20 soldiers with M4s and a machine gun on either side in the shallow drainage ditches, again protected by sandbags and camouflaged with heavy brush. There is no way around the barricade, and the 200 feet of road where any enemy vehicles would need to stop is fully visible from the fire tower. A third and fourth machine gun has been placed on the fire tower, which will be invisible before dawn, but unfortunately very visible in the daylight. Two small 2-inch mortars have been placed 200 yards inside the wired perimeter and are ready to fire into the ambush point. My plan is that there will be three to four men in civilian clothes with hunting rifles ‘guarding’ the barricade. I want the barricade to look like a bunch of farmers protecting their road from visitors, so we have hidden any forms of military presence as best we can. As soon as the men see the lights of vehicles, they will get behind the sandbags and shout to anyone to stop. That is when we expect action. The men will be surrounded by Air Force troops along the barricade with automatic carbines.”

“Last, we cannot allow the ambushers to retreat. Carlos has explained that the first items we must find are the communications devices they are using. He thinks that they are small satellite cell phones. So, we have set up a first retreat kill zone in the trees the other side of the entrance on the feeder road. Thanks to Mr. Joe and Mr. David, we have enough mobile radios for all groups and the commanders of each section to be in radio contact throughout the fight. The attack armament for the retreating ambushes is the second rat patrol jeep facing down the short piece of road from the trees on the other side of the feeder road. Again, we have placed sandbags around it for protection. The two machine guns will wreack havoc on any retreating enemy.

“A mile north and south on the feeder road, I have placed a platoon of 30 men who are to stay hidden in the forest until any convoy passes, and then they will close down the road and shoot anybody who runs into them with two mortars and machine guns. In the forest to the east of the feeder road, and dug in to protect themselves from friendly fire, are another dozen troops, spaced out every 100 feet with night goggles. Their job is to bring down anybody escaping through the forest. My last ambush position is one flanking ambush squad of 12 men who are behind sandbags, and are facing towards the ambush road area, and inside the perimeter fence. The perimeter fence is 20 yards from the road—a little closer than I would like if the mortars land short, but their job is to kill the ambushers from the side and to make sure our perimeter is not breached. That ends my report.”

“How strong is your barrier at the front of the road?” David asked.

“We have considered what would be the worst armaments that potential ambushers can carry in small vehicles,” replied the first sergeant. “The worst they could have are shoulder rocket launchers like an RPG, then rifle grenades, and machine guns. If they have anything more, then we could consider them a suicide squad. Our men have been issued with gas masks if the attackers are wearing them upon entry, Mr. David. We are hoping that our forward troops on the feeder road using night binoculars and infrared scopes can tell us their exact numbers and whether they are wearing any protective equipment. That should tell us their intentions.”

“And this is complete and all the men are in position?” asked the general.

“Yes, sir. The men have camouflage gear, there is no snow at the moment, they have rations to last 24 hours, and apart from Mr. Joe, Mr. David, and me, we are ready for action.”

“Could they have mortars and decide to shell us from outside the one mile radius?” asked Preston.

“They could, sir, but anything that big couldn’t fit in a Suburban or Explorer,” Sergeant Perry answered. “The attackers might have small mortars, but I believe that our troops, from three angles, will be fast enough to keep them from setting up any mortars or tri-pod machine guns. I think that shoulder rocket launchers are the best bet, and we have several troops at the front barricade and on the sides of the ambush zone ready with flares. The flares are quick-action, low-level flares that will light up the scene within seconds. The men in the forest have sniper rifles with night scopes, as well as the men on both sides of the feeder road. I believe nobody can escape, sir.”

The General nodded, thanked the man, and Sergeant Perry asked to leave to complete final checks.

Preston noticed that one of David’s mobile radios had been placed to one side of the podium and it suddenly squawked a message calling Pete.

“Ghost Rider to Pete!”

“What’s up Ghost Rider?” Pete Allen replied, walking over to the radio and picking up the microphone.

“We have a visual of the ten vehicles moving through the middle of downtown Raleigh. We have seen several civilians go out to meet them and it looks like the men in the vehicles shoot to kill. There are several dead bodies on the streets they have been traveling. There is heavy civilian population in this area. Do you want us to take them out?”

“Negative,” the general replied. “We are prepared for their arrival.”

“They seem to have disappeared into what I think is an underground parking area. No, they have come out the other side. They are still all together in a convoy. Another person has been shot and several civilians are running for cover. They have gone into another building and we have lost sight of them. I don’t believe they can hear us— the wind is gusting down the streets about 20 to 25 miles an hour from the north and we are south of them. We are in a holding pattern and will keep watching. Over.”

“Let us know if you get visual again. Out,” replied the general. “We still have time. I would like Carlos’ friend Lee Wang to come up and tell us his complete story. Mr. Wang, you have 20 minutes and this, Mr. President and all of you, is going to blow you away!”

For the full 20 minutes, Lee told them his whole story, from his degrees obtained in China, to the first day he met the cleaner, to Zedong Electronics in Nanjing and its new building. He described the special private island belonging to Zedong Electronics across the river from Shanghai where they lived and were taught how to be Americans, and then how he dissected the small electronic part for a Toyota engine’s computer system. He explained his job in America, and how he got into private companies to steal, copy or describe new inventions about to go to market. It was necessary for Zedong Electronics to get this information so they could produce cheaper parts for the world to buy. He then explained how Zedong Electronics had so many different departments and virtually took over the world’s manufacturing of every electronic part and/or unit. He explained his duty to Zedong Electronics for his daughter’s education. He had worked at Microsoft, Qualcomm, Intel, Acer, IBM and Apple—twenty-five years of work. He thought that he was doing good work, so that the electronics giant would be successful for China and its people, and would bring China into the forefront of the world, and that his work would mean a better life for all Chinese. He never realized, until the termination squads started killing all the operatives like him, that something was wrong.

Lee Wang finally explained about meeting Carlos, hearing from friends about the danger they were all in, and the attack on him and his family. He said that he and his family were lucky to be alive, and then he sat down.

General Allen asked Carlos to come up and explain what he and Lee Wang had completed in Salt Lake City. Carlos introduced himself and his qualifications and got straight down to business.

“Lee Wang did not tell you that Zedong Electronics have the only three still-working satellites covering the globe for communications. These hit squads, or whatever you want to call them, are being ordered around through the use of these satellites. Lee and I sourced communications going both ways from the United States and Western Europe into the area around Nanjing, China. If we still had an Air Force, the headquarters of Zedong Electronics would be the first building to be taken out. If we could do so, it would destroy their whole communication set up. We cannot do it from space.”

For the next several minutes, Carlos told the audience about the Navistar P—a secret project spearheaded by the Air Force in the 1980s. Because it was sent into space such a long time ago, as well as being subject to simpler computer communications using DOS, he and Lee found older computers to communicate with it. Carlos explained how it had been lost and that he had found it by mistake. “Through the satellite, we can now see the United States as well as a sea boundary. I will be working to increase our range out to a 500-mile boundary, but remember the digital footage is antiquated and the screens we can use are also antiquated. The zoom on the camera lenses is only treble magnification, which means the further we send her out, the less detail we can see. Currently, we could see a large ship enter the viewing area 200 miles out to sea. One thing I did see, moments before we packed up to come down the mountain, was a large storm over Canada and northern areas. It’s a bad one and it is flowing south out of the Arctic. We rode in on it and these winds are the result of the arctic blast, as the weather men used to call it. I would hate to be north of here. It’s getting very cold up there.”

Carlos paused for a moment and looked over at the man, he now called friend. “To continue, Lee Wang should be complimented on his willingness and ability to help us in our time of need. Through the satellite communication relays from Navistar P, we have found three areas of space where communications are being transmitted, to and from. Unfortunately, Navistar P should have been armed with lasers and then we could, like in a James Bond movie, blast their communications satellites out of the sky. However, in the 1970s when this thing was being designed, lasers were only just being researched.

“So, with television trucks and their satellite-feed systems juiced into simple television screens, again from the 70s, we think we can set up a range of communication tools across the country. A large national system will take several weeks and that is not most important yet. The current pictures from space will be our first alert of any attacks on the United States—any long-range aircraft headed our way, etc. We need every television truck, every Hughes two-way communication dishes that are placed on homes or businesses, every working pre-1985 computer, every two-way radio that works, and every old television set we can find to carry out this project. Lastly, any old civilian camcorders or film cameras will give you visual as well as audio communications. Within a week, we hope to have communications with several military bases in the country and might have some troops ready for repelling insurgents.”

“Great work, guys,” applauded the president. “It seems that we are going forward after all, and it was well worth my visit.”

“Thank you, Mr. President. And thanks to all these guys who have worked nonstop since the beginning of this year—three days ago,” applauded General Allen, getting up to stand next to Carlos.

“I know that for most of us, it already feels like a month, but let me conclude this meeting with MY report. So far, thanks to these guys here, we have radio communication with Andrews AFB, Edwards AFB, Hill AFB, and our own Strong Air Force Base right here, pun intended. We will not install our temporary Air Force sign at the front entrance on the main road until our soon-to-arrive visitors have been dealt with. So far, we have four C-130s flying, we have three fully operational F-4s now at Andrews. We will have several more C-130s operational in a day or two, most stationed at Hill in Salt Lake City and Edwards in California. Another HC-130 tanker should be operational in Yuma, and I‘m heading down there tomorrow. As far as more flyable aircraft, two Hueys that have been in museums until now are being made operational at Andrews. A lot of you know that we have over 50 air force bases here in the United States. Several of the bases on what we would call the front line have only the most modern equipment, so I will visit them last. Tomorrow, I’m flying the president back to Washington, and then I will be spending three days continuously visiting bases to find anything I can that is flyable.”

The general looked over at Sally and Jennifer. “Captains Powers and Watkins will be coming north with me tomorrow. We will fly in formation back to Andrews. Once we repel this attack, that I believe will happen tomorrow morning, I can concentrate on getting a big defense force together. Since I know all my bases and museums well, I believe that we could end up with a dozen C-130s, of which three are fuel tankers. I know there are another dozen or so helicopters around. I must find them as well as several other types of aircraft. As Carlos reported, our current aircraft could give us a long arm into Asia to take out the enemy’s headquarters. Now, whether or not all of China is involved, I don’t know. If it is, and their Air Force is operational, the boys and I would not return from such a mission. If only Zedong Electronics is the enemy, and the Chinese Air Force is grounded, then we’ll have a chance to blow their headquarters apart, and the HC-130 tankers can refuel us and get us back to friendly soil. This mission should take about a week.