TSUNAMI STORM (5 page)

Beijing, China

A week later, Guang Xi, wrapped in a white hooded robe that covered his chest and his head, was lifted into a wheelchair. Dr. Huang supervised his transport to the Government Administration Building where they waited in a small room off the main hallway.

“Who will be here?” Guang Xi asked.

“Premier Li Qijing requested the meeting, so I presume he will be here. I am uncertain beyond that.” Dr. Huang replied.

Guang Xi’s stomach tightened and his breathing became shallow. “What am I supposed to say?”

“I don’t know,” Dr. Huang answered. “Just be open and honest.”

The door opened and several large men entered the room, closed the door and looked around. Apparently satisfied, one of them opened the door again. An older man walked in. He was of medium height and build and wore an expensive suit and silk red-striped tie. His hair was solid black and brushed back. Dr. Huang quickly stood erect and placed his hand on Guang Xi’s shoulder. Guang Xi attempted to stand but the older man shook his head and motioned for Guang Xi to remain seated.

“Premier Li Qijing,” Dr. Huang said, “this is Guang Xi.”

The Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China bowed slightly and looked into the eyes of Guang Xi. “I have heard a great deal about you,” the Premier said. “I am glad to finally meet you.”

“Premier, it is my great honor to be here and be of service to you,” Guang Xi replied, wondering if he was being too personal.

The door opened again and a second man entered the small room. This man was tall, solidly built and wore an Army General’s uniform. Guang Xi noted the applets on his shoulders; they were yellow and gold striped with five gold stars in a circle.

The Premier turned to face the General. “General, this is Guang Xi.” Turning back, the Premier completed the introduction, “Guang Xi, this is General Special Class Hu Jiang Xi, Commander of the People’s Liberation Army.” The General bowed slightly.

Guang Xi opened his mouth to speak, but his mind froze, unable to form any words.

The General smiled. “May I have a look at your injuries?”

Guang Xi nervously nodded in response. The General stepped forward, knelt down, and gently pulled back the hood from the white robe, and then carefully opened the front of the robe. He quickly examined Guang Xi’s new skin and lack of ears. He tenderly replaced Guang Xi’s robe and looked him straight in the eyes.

“You are a true hero of the People’s Republic of China. You are the only eye witness to the cause of the 8.0 Magnitude earthquake that claimed the lives of almost 70,000 people. Are you certain that the curtain of light you saw is the primary cause of the earthquake?”

Guang Xi glanced up at Dr. Huang, who simply nodded in return. “I have studied the Longmenshan Fault for some time now,” Guang Xi said. “Normally there is some seismic activity that precedes an earthquake of this size, including some electromagnetic activity, which we were monitoring. None of that was present. I am confident that the electromagnetic energy that formed the curtain of light over the fault is the sole cause of the earthquake, and the source of that energy was the American Military facility in Alaska.”

General Hu Jiang Xi nodded slowly, stood up and faced Dr. Huang. “I understand the technology to do this is secret and generally unknown?”

“Very much so,” Dr. Huang replied. “We became aware of it only because Guang Xi was there and survived. Without his knowledge of science, we still wouldn’t know.”

The General turned toward Premier Li Qijing. “I think you’re right. This changes everything. We have to build and demonstrate our own weapon. Only then will we be in a position to stop another attack such as this from happening again.”

“I also think your point of not being able to trust the Americans is well taken. We don’t know what else they are capable of doing,” the Premier said. “Having their people inside our country presents an unacceptable risk.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and punched in a number. “This decision will affect China financially. I’m bringing in Minister Hu Gao Chen of the Ministry of Commerce.”

The General didn’t speak again until the Minister arrived. Within a minute there was a knock on the door and Minister Chen entered.

“We are going to implement the plan you and I discussed about removing the Americans from our country,” the Premier said to Minister Chen. “Do you have the figures on the financial impact this will have on China’s economy?”

“Yes,” Minister Chen replied. “It will cause a recession in our economy. Many of our people will be out of work. If we had some major government project with which to employ our people, the impact would be minimized.”

“That I think we can supply,” the Premier replied.

“We have confirmed that China has been intentionally attacked,” the General said, “We cannot let this go without a military response.”

“But it must be done in a way that the people who ordered the attack on us will understand, but the general public will not be aware of what we have done. We must be very careful about the international perception of this event. The reprisal must be as covert as America’s original attack on us,” the Premier replied.

“Agreed,” the General said. “But what I don’t understand is why America attacked us in the first place.”

“That we may never know,” Premier Li replied.

Minister Chen suddenly had a puzzled look on his face.

The General turned to Guang Xi and Dr. Huang. “Will you help us formulate a plan for the reprisal?”

“Yes,” Guang Xi said firmly.

Dr. Huang reluctantly nodded.

“Then we will secure the necessary authorization from the Central Committee,” the Premier said. “Let the General know when you have a plan.”

“Wait a minute,” Minister Chen said suddenly. “I may know why China was attacked.”

* * *

Dr. Huang brought Guang Xi to the Peking University Earth Sciences Lab along with Dr. Zheng and Junior General Fong.

“General Hu Jiang Xi wants to know exactly how we can duplicate, or better yet, improve on the technology that was used against us,” Fong said. “He knows, in broad concepts, how the technology works, but we need specifics if we are to build our own weapon.”

“Yes, yes,” Dr. Huang replied. “But two terajoules of electromagnetic energy is more power than the United States generates in all of its cities combined. How can that much energy be created in one place?”

“Do you know how much energy is released in one lightning strike?” Dr. Zheng asked.

“No,” Dr. Huang replied.

“On average, 10 million Joules,” Dr. Zheng said. “If you were to generate that kind of power in a machine, you would need a generator capable of generating 10,000 megawatts.”

“And we’re looking at something 200,000 times that size,” Dr. Huang said. “It can’t be done.”

“No, no,” Fong said. “If I get what Dr. Zheng is leading us to, you don’t have to
generate
that much power, you just have to direct it, right?”

“Exactly,” Dr. Zheng replied. “How much energy was released by the 8.0 Magnitude earthquake in Sichuan Province?”

Dr. Huang thought for a moment. “Sixty three petajoules, that’s… 6.3 times ten to the sixteenth power.”

“And what amount of energy triggered that release?” Dr. Zheng asked.

“Two Terajoules.”

“And the ratio between the two?”

“Thirty thousand to one,” Guang Xi answered. “Approximately.”

“And what if you had access to a generator that produced not only thousands, but millions of times that amount of power?” Dr. Zheng asked.

“There’s no such machine on earth that can generate that kind of power,” Dr. Huang said.

“Sure there is,” Dr. Zheng replied. “You’re standing on it.”

Everyone held a blank expression on his face as he stared back at Dr. Zheng. Suddenly Guang Xi smiled. “The earth,” Guang Xi replied. “The planet generates that much power.”

“Precisely,” Dr. Zheng said. “I’ve been involved in China’s High Frequency Active Aural Research Project, which was fashioned after the American HAARP facility in Gakona, Alaska. We actually have the technology to do what the Americans have done, just not on the same scale that they are using.”

“China has built the largest dam in the world,” Fong said. “We can certainly build the largest HAARP facility.”

“Yes, we can,” Dr. Zheng replied. “The technology is based on a phased antenna array. What that means is that if we apply radio frequency energy to a system of antennas all at the same time, the projected energy goes straight up and spreads out as it travels. By sending the radio frequency to the antenna system in a tightly controlled sequence instead of all at once, we can control the direction of the energy. This sequence is referred to as phasing, so the antenna array becomes a phased antenna array, which is capable of generating a radio frequency energy beam in any direction. By using a large antenna array, like the Americans have, in addition to directing the energy beam, the phasing can start at the outside of the array and work its way to the center, which focuses the beam on a specific spot rather than allowing the beam to spread out as it would naturally.

“The process is actually two-fold. First it heats a section of the upper region of the ionosphere to form a concave reflector, then it creates fluctuations in the electrojet, and aims those fluctuations at the reflector, which in turn focuses that power at a specific place on the surface of the planet. The directed and focused energy is the weapon.”

“The electrojet?” Guang Xi asked.

“The electrojet is composed of particles streaming into both the north and south magnetic poles of the earth from outer space. This is the actual source of the power. Our current HAARP facility can form the reflector in the ionosphere, but we need something a thousand times stronger to direct the energy from the electrojet into the reflector and on to a target,” Dr. Zheng said.

“And this is what the Americans have done?” Guang Xi asked.

“Yes,” Fong replied. “Here is the infra-red satellite image showing the heat generated in the new Alaska facility during the time immediately preceding the Sichuan earthquake.”

“Oh my,” Dr. Huang said, “this is a very large operation.”

“Yes, it is,” Fong replied. “The original project had only 180 phased array antennas. As you can see, the new facility is profoundly larger.”

“This is what burned me?” Guang Xi asked. “And destroyed my life?”

“Yes,” Dr. Zheng replied.

“Then I say we build a bigger one, and use it against America,” Guang Xi said.

“We can do that,” Fong replied, “with the consent of the Central Committee. But the real question is how do we punish America for what they have done without being blamed for doing so?”

“We could use the new technology to create a giant storm over America,” Guang Xi suggested.

“It took the Americans years of practice to understand exactly how the atmosphere reacted to each nuance of what they did to the Ionosphere and the electrojet,” Fong said. “We can’t go into this blindly.”

“Fong is right,” Dr. Zheng replied. “We are a long away from being able to create something on that scale with the weather. Planetary weather is a dynamic and constantly changing system. If you change one thing, something else is modified to restore balance. By creating a large storm in one place, we may cause a drought in another place as the planetary weather system rebalances itself.”

“So, we create a drought,” Guang Xi said. “We still accomplish our goal of punishing our enemy.”

“And if the drought happens here in China, and we starve our own people?” Dr. Huang replied. “Then what?”

Guang Xi exhaled strongly and looked down at the floor. “This isn’t so simple, is it?”

“Nor is it an easy thing to do,” Fong said.

“Could we create a moderately strong storm without risking a major backlash in the weather?” Guang Xi asked.

“Theoretically, yes,” Dr. Zheng admitted. “But the length of time we modify the ionosphere is also a significant factor in the rebalancing of the weather system.”

“So how long could we theoretically create a storm without a major backlash in the weather?” Dr. Huang asked.

“Five to seven days,” Fong replied. “That is what we have learned from monitoring what the Americans have been doing.”

“And how long does it take to create, say, a Category 5 storm?” Guang Xi asked.

“Again, from our monitoring of the Americans, 14 to 15 days.” Fong replied.

“So creating a large storm is out,” Dr. Huang replied.

“Not necessarily,” Fong answered. “It can still be used in conjunction with something else. We can get to a Category 3 storm in five to seven days if that is part of another plan.”

“So what else can we do?” Guang Xi asked.

“Can this new technology be used to trigger a volcanic eruption?” Dr. Huang asked.

“Theoretically, yes,” Dr. Zheng replied. “But again, we – ”

“I know, I know,” Guang Xi interjected. “We need more experience with the technology to use it at that level.”

“It seems our best option is to focus on what we know best,” Dr. Huang said.