Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 06 (5 page)

 
          
“Twenty
seconds to impact,” the tech reported. “Uh . . . sir, should we lock on one of
the target barges now? ”

 
          
“Captain,
if you dare question my actions ever again, you will be commanding a garbage
detail in
Inner
Mongolia
province
by tomorrow night,” Sun Ji Guoming said in a low voice. “As far as you are
aware, I locked the missile warhead’s targeting sensor on the primary target
barge, and you saw it lock on perfectly as expected. Is that clear, Captain?”

           
“Yes,
sir,"
the technician responded. He watched in horror as the
war-head careened down out of the sky, faster and faster, never wavering— it
had held lock all the way until it passed below datalink coverage. The last
thing they saw on the TV monitor was the broad, flat roofline of the barracks
building. Even if the warhead started to drift, which it didn’t, the warhead
would not have missed that building full of sleeping soldiers. The warhead had
no explosive charge on board, only concrete ballast to simulate a 300-pound
high-explosive warhead, but such a large object smashing home at over 900 miles
an hour was going to do major damage even without a major explosion. The
devastation would be catastrophic—and the rebel Nationalists would never know
what hit them.

 
          
“Excellent
test, comrades, excellent,” Admiral Sun announced. “Secure all stations.” He
remembered the urgent message from Beijing just then, and fished the
messageform out of his flight suit pocket and read as he continued, “Section
leaders, I expect full reports on any difficulties to me before we land. Pilot,
let us head back to base and—”

 
          
He
stopped, dumbfounded, as he read. No,
no,
this was impossible!

 
          
“Cancel
that last order, pilot,” Sun shouted. “All available speed to Juidongshan naval
base. What is our time en route?”

 
          
“Stand
by, sir,” the pilot responded. Sun was in a daze as the pilot, copilot, and
flight engineer pulled out charts and started computing the new flight planning
information. The three officers looked at each other nervously; then the pilot
turned to the navy admiral lower class and said, “Sir, the naval base at
Juidongshan does not have a runway long enough to accommodate this aircraft.
The closest base that can safely accommodate us is
Shantou
, ETE, five-zero minutes. We can have a
helicopter standing by to take you to Juidongshan, ETE—”

 
          
“Pilot,
I did not ask you to fly to
Shantou
,” Sun said angrily. “Are the runways and taxiways at Juidongshan
stressed to take this aircraft?”

           
The copilot looked up the
information in the airman’s flight supplement manual and replied, “Yes, sir,
the runways can handle us at minimum gross weight. The taxiways and ramp areas
are limited to thirty thousand pounds, so—”

           
“That is all I need,” Sun said. “I
do not need you to park this plane— I only require that you drop me off. You
can dump fuel as you begin your approach to get down to emergency-landing fuel
weight.”

 
          
“But,
sir, the runway is made for only liaison aircraft and helicopters,” the flight
engineer said. “It is only five thousand feet long! Even with only minimum fuel
to reach
Shantou
, our safe takeoff roll will exceed the
runway available by—”

 
          
“Lieutenant,
I do not care if this plane becomes a permanent fixture at Juidongshan—I want
to be on the ground at Juidongshan in less than a hour. If I am not in a car
and on my way to headquarters in that time, the next destination you will be
landing at will be a security ice cave in
Tibet
. Now,
go!”

PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY NAVY
EASTERN FLEET (
TAIWAN
OPERATIONS) HEADQUARTERS, JUIDONGSHAN NAVAL BASE,

FUJIAN
PROVINCE
,
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF
CHINA

SUNDAY, 18 MAY 19 97, 2316
HOURS LOCAL (
17
MAY, 1416
HOURS ET)

           
“Greetings to you, Comrade Admiral
Sun Ji Guoming,” General Major Qian Shugeng, the elderly deputy commander for
plans of the Military Command Headquarters Targeting Taiwan, said in a low,
gravelly voice. “It is a pleasure to present our operational plans to you on
behalf of the general staff. I will now turn the briefing over to my young
deputy, Colonel Lieutenant Ai Peijian. Colonel Peijian has been most helpful in
preparing this briefing for you. He is one of our hardest workers and a true
and loyal son of the Party.”

 
          
The
nearly eighty-year-old general officer waved a withered hand to tonight’s
briefer, Colonel Lieutenant Ai Peijian—“young” in his case meant about age
fifty-five—who moved to his feet and bowed respectfully. “Welcome, comrade, to
our status briefing regarding our standing war plans for the glorious
pacification and reunification with the rebel Nationalist Chinese on the
island
of
Taiwan
. Before I begin in detail, I am happy to
report that our plans are in perfect order and await only the command from our
Paramount Leader to execute the war plan. In less than one week, we can destroy
the Nationalists’ defenses, capture the Nationalist president and his key
advisors and Kuomintang leadership, and start the process of reunification
under the Communist Party of China.”

 
          
“That
will be for me and Comrade General Chin to decide, Colonel,” Sun said,
impatiently waving a hand for the briefing to begin.

 
          
Just
two minutes into the briefing, Sun knew that not much had been changed—this was
the same briefing he had been given every two weeks for the past year now. This
military committee—the Operations and Plans Committee, part of the Military
Command Headquarters Targeting Taiwan, or MCHTT, based here in Juidongshan—was
in charge of continually revising the war plans drawn up by the Central
Military Commission, Chinas main military command body, for the initial attack,
invasion, occupation, and subjugation of the rebel Chinese Nationalist
government on the island of Formosa. Every two weeks, the MCHTT was required to
brief the Central Military Commission or its designated representative—that had
been Admiral Sun Ji Guoming for quite some time now—on any changes to the war
plan made because of force or command changes on either side.

 
          
But
it was a farce, typical of the huge, bloated People’s Liberation Army
bureaucracy, Sun thought. No member of the lowly MCHTT would dare make any
substantive changes in the war plans drawn up by the Central Military
Commission—that would be an act tantamount to treason. Colonel Ai was the
commanding officer of the planning division of the MCHTT, but he was such a
junior officer that if he worked in Sun’s office of the chief of staff, his day
would be spent mostly making tea and emptying wastebaskets for all the middle-
and upper-class flag officers there. If the Central Military Committee wanted
any changes made as to how
Taiwan
was to be “reunited” with the mainland, the
CMC would tell the chief of staff, who would tell Sun, who would tell the MCHTT
to make the changes. That process might take six months—six months spent by
each bureaucrat in order to make sure that his superior wasn’t trying to screw
him, each bureaucrat making sure that the orders made him look good if it
worked and made someone else look bad if it didn’t work.

 
          
The
initial thrust of the attack on the
island
of
Formosa
was to destroy the island’s thick air and
coastal security units from long range. Seven fixed bases and ten mobile
presurveyed launch points in east- central
China
were programmed to launch up to twenty Dong
Feng
-15
intermediate- and short-range
missiles each on Taiwanese targets per day, that was one hundred and fifty to
three hundred missiles per day, an incredible bombardment. The attacks were
programmed to last as long as a month, but of course would be halted right
before the amphibious invasion began, or upon the rebel’s unconditional
surrender. The high- explosive missile attacks would be followed by tactical
air strikes to mop up any surviving targets, escorted by waves of fighters to
ensure air superiority and to fight off an expected counterattack by Taiwanese
air forces. An amphibious invasion was deemed unnecessary—the thought being
that loyal Communists on Taiwan would rise up, throw off their Nationalist
oppressors, and welcome the People’s Liberation Army ashore peacefully—but the
aircraft carrier
Mao Zedong,
formerly
the Russian carrier
Varyag
and for a
short time the Iranian carrier
Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini,
and its battle group would be used to ferry troops and
supplies ashore if necessary, while providing air cover against any resistance.

 
          
“Hold
please, Colonel,” Sun finally said. “You show the employment of seventy-five
DF-15 missiles on Longtian to launch against Taoyuan and Hsinchu Air Bases on
Taiwan
.”

 
          
“Yes,
sir . . . ?”

 
          
“Yet
I was briefed two days ago that there has been extensive flooding on Longtian
peninsula and that the base and city are not fully repaired,” Sun went on
angrily. “The undamaged missiles were removed and sent to
Fuzhou
. What forces are covering Longtian’s
targets while their missiles are evacuated?”

 
          
Colonel
Ai seemed stunned at Sun’s question. “The evacuation was merely precautionary,
sir,” he responded. “We expect the missiles to be back at their presurveyed
launch points in just a few days. ...”

 
          
“But
then you are in fact telling me that Taoyuan and Hsinchu are not really at risk
right
now”
Sun insisted. “You are saying—”

 
          
“Comrade
Admiral, Longtian covers the initial bombardment of Taoyuan and Hsinchu,”
General Lieutenant Qian said in a loud, irritated voice. “Colonel Ai, continue
the briefing—”

 
          
“But,
sir, I just said there are no missiles at Longtian,” Sun interrupted. Although
Qian was senior to Sun, they were both of equal rank and authority, and it was
certainly within Suns purview to question anything in this briefing. He turned
to Colonel Ai and asked, “Did you bother to move any bombers from the interior or
from the north to cover those targets? Zeguo Air Base can perhaps handle twenty
or thirty B-6 bombers;
Hangzhou
and
Fuzhou
might be able to handle thirty each as
well. One hundred bombers might be able to cover those two Nationalist cities
until the DF-15s can be replaced at Longtian. You might be able to get a number
of Q-5s to cover the targets, but it might take a hundred and fifty or more,
depending on the status of
Taiwan
’s Tien Kung-2 antiaircraft missile
deployment that was scheduled for this month at Hsinchu. But the weather is
getting a bit better, so the Q-5s might have a good chance.” Sun paused,
regarding Ai. He still looked absolutely petrified with confusion, his eyes
shifting back and forth from Sun to Qian. “Are you getting any of this, Comrade
Colonel?”

 
          
“Yes,
sir,” Ai said, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as if he were choking on
his own tongue. But a warning glare from General Qian got his attention, and he
pressed on: “Ah ... yes, as I was saying, Longtian’s DF-15 missiles will destroy
the air defense bases at Taoyuan and Hsinchu, with secondary targets at Taipei
and Lung Tan available when intelligence reports the destruction of these two
air facilities—”

 
          
“Comrade
Colonel, are you listening to what I am saying?” Sun interjected angrily. “You
cannot destroy any air bases with weapons you do not have. Now, I have told you
that there are no missiles at Longtian, and I have suggested using bombers or
attack planes to cover Taoyuan and Hsinchu until the missiles are operational
again. Why do you continue to brief outdated information?”