However, the Inuit’s leaving planted seeds of doubt that solidified within minutes of the assault on the American base, in which Tupilaq did not take part. When the Chinese stopped to deploy, he put his pack on the ground and sat against it, resting, and signaling this was as far as he went. The Chinese leader only glanced in his direction once. Tupilaq knew for certain that he was superfluous. Having led the Chinese to the American base, he didn’t doubt they could find their way back to the submarine. He left open the question of whether they intended to take him with them or if he would suffer the fate of the wounded soldier who had been dispatched when he couldn’t keep up with the rest of the men or get back to the coast.
As soon as the Chinese launched their assault, Tupilaq hoisted his pack onto his shoulders and walked away, never looking back. He didn’t know where he would go. He now regretted not following the Inuit. At least, the man might find his way to people who spoke Inuit or even farther west to Yupiks living near the western Inuits. However, Tupilaq didn’t believe he could find the Inuit. No matter his disdain, he recognized the man’s ability. If the Inuit didn’t want to be found or followed, it wouldn’t happen. Tupilaq’s only option was move south and wait for chance or fate to decide his future.
***
Hours earlier, the wolf pack had watched the line of humans from the den halfway up a scree-covered slope. The pack members looked to the leader for how to respond to this new occurrence. Never before had they seen this many humans, except for those at the place they avoided, the place with large creatures that roared and strange rocks with caves the humans lived in.
The leader’s mate crouched at the den’s entrance in reflexive defense of the recently born pups. She was the only breeding female in the pack and usually mated only with the leader, though occasionally with other males if she came in heat when the leader was away.
The intruders passed three hundred yards from the den, but they were in the valley floor and intent on travel. When the front of the column was at its closest approach, the leader’s eyes narrowed and his hackles rose. He recognized the two creatures in the lead. The pack had seen them before, living in a cave and often traveling to watch the place where many humans lived.
When the pack had first seen these two, one of them moved as if it belonged, but not the other. That one somehow signified danger in a manner neither the leader nor any other pack member understood. It was a creature out of place and did not belong here. It did not belong anywhere.
After the column passed, the leader led the pack to follow, vocalizing to his mate to stay at the den. The wolves did not always keep the column in view. They followed parallel, not behind.
An hour’s run from the humans’ place, sharp cracks echoed in the otherwise silent air. The members of the moving column scattered.
Hiding, the pack leader perceived. It was then that the leader saw the first human leave the others. It moved carefully as if evading danger. When the human was over a low hill, it broke into a run in the direction that the sun set. When the rest of the humans continued, they left several dead, as confirmed when the pack descended to check the bodies.
Danger lurked there. The humans dealt in death in ways the leader did not understand, but understanding was not necessary for the wolves to be cautious. The pack leader knew the column’s destination—that place where other humans lived. Instead of following again, the leader led the pack in a run over a ridgeline on a different route to a vantage point where the leader often observed at a distance.
There the pack waited, watching the place where the humans lived. When the column arrived, those humans separated into three groups and moved to surround the place, like the pack did when trying to scatter members of a big shaggy herd.
From that distance, the pack could hear more of the cracking sounds, so many more that at times the sounds merged. Were they fighting? If they were, the leader did not understand why. There were no prey animals of note living nearby, except for the one half-grown big shaggy that the pack sometimes saw there. Could it be a territorial dispute? There were other wolf packs in this land. Physical conflict between packs was rare and usually settled by threat displays or by the smaller pack withdrawing, although a lone interloping wolf might be killed by the territory’s pack.
The pack watched until the noises stopped, and the leader decided it was time to return to the den. Whatever was happening there was best left alone and kept at a distance. They were most of the way back to the den when the leader’s son issued a low growl. A single human headed in the same direction. In the low light, not quite darkness, the leader had missed seeing the human. It was a bad sign. His night vision was not as sharp as before. Although he was as strong as ever, signs of weakness could lead to a challenge from his son.
But not tonight. The lone human was the one that shouted danger, the one the pack might think of as a demon, if wolves had such a concept. Whatever the creature was, it would pass near the den, closer than had the column going in the other direction. It probably was not a danger to the pups, but their survival was a priority for the pack to flourish. This was also an opportunity for the leader to assert his control and strength, though he was not conscious of that influencing his decision.
With low vocalizations, the leader alerted the other pack members to the danger. The den must be protected. The danger must be stopped. In the dim light, they would move silently. The creature might not realize their presence until it was too late.
China
Zhang received the urgent summons while inspecting a new class of officer candidates. The training facility was only an hour’s drive from the Harbin Taiping International Airport, where a military plane waited. His location was not fortuitous. Six hours previous, he had sent a full report forward detailing what he knew of the Ellesmere mission. Thus, he was not surprised at either the emergency Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) meeting or his mandatory participation.
The inner workings of the PSC were not well known. It would be the first time he attended a meeting. Currently, the PSC had eight members from the twenty-five-member Politburo. In the past, the government’s major decisions initiated in the PSC, to be later ratified by the full Politburo and, if necessary, the Congress of the Communist Party of China. To secure his role and minimize alternative centers of power, President Ye had assumed control of both the military and the political centers of power.
Under other circumstances, Zhang might have worried not only about holding his position but also about his life after such a failure. However, Zhang had not risen to his position without being a skillful politician and planning for contingencies. In this case, he had been careful to be sure President Ye understood the complexities of the mission and was led to believe General Zhang had only supported the plan reluctantly after emphasizing the chances of failure balanced against long-term considerations.
Having made the final decision to proceed, President Ye was unlikely to cast blame too widely, although Zhang had been unable to gather information on which way the wind blew. He had learned that several PSC members had rushed to Beijing from other parts of China in the last few hours.
A helicopter waited for Zhang at the Beijing International Airport and flew him directly to Zhongnanhai, the government leadership complex. There, a major ushered him into Qinzheng Hall, where the Politburo held most of its meetings. The first two people he saw were Chunwang Liu and Zhen Han, the secretaries for the Chongqing and Guangdong regions. His guide pointed him to an empty chair between Yilin Chung, the top air force general, and Vice Premier Junru Luo.
The seating was Zhang’s first surprise. He had expected that he might be called in for questioning without being a meeting participant or perhaps might be in the room but not at the main table. He mentally searched for and could not find any way to interpret the situation. Two other seats of the table were occupied by a man he didn’t recognize and by Premier Shi Huang. The only two empty seats were soon filled when President Ye and Vice President Qiang Wen entered
through the same door as had Zhang.
Ye wasted no time, waving insolently to the already seated participants and speaking as soon as his buttocks hit his chair.
“After a briefing on the special operation being carried out on Ellesmere Island in far northern Canada. I regret to inform the Standing Committee of the mission’s failure.”
An uproar immediately ensued, as PSC members bombarded Ye with questions.
“Please, please, comrades, let me give you what we know so far. Then we will have something of a foundation to discuss which actions we will take.”
The noise subsided, with a low “I told you all how stupid this idea was,” from Chung.
Ye ignored the comment and referred to the sheets of paper in front of him. “According to the captain of our submarine that transported the special action unit to Ellesmere, he received several radio messages from a Major Peng, who commanded the mission. Radio communication was still impaired by the solar activity that we factored into the plan, but Peng got a few messages out. This prevented real-time updates on the mission, so the first indication of failure was the report from Major Peng that they had been discovered before reaching the secret American base.
“Major Peng decided to continue, rather than withdraw and return to the submarine. This was one of the options factored into the mission plan, with the decision left up to the commander on the scene. It is assumed Peng may have thought they were already too close to the base for an easy withdrawal and therefore he continued.
“Evidently, the American base was far more heavily defended than our intelligence indicated. The second message Major Peng got out was that during a battle at the American base, he lost three-quarters of his men and was unable to penetrate the secret section of the base. He withdrew with papers, computer drives, and five prisoners.”
“Three-quarters! That’s forty-five men!” blurted a shocked General Chung. “This was supposed to be an almost defenseless facility.”
“As I said, evidently our intelligence was faulty or more military was recently stationed at the base. Whatever happened, the attack failed after an intense engagement that resulted in heavy casualties for both our men and the facility.”
Secretary Han cycled several times through the five main Cantonese profanities collectively known as the “outstanding five in Cantonese.” Han was known for profanity-laced language when not in public. The other committee members and Ye tolerated the references to sexual activity and organs for almost a minute before Ye rapped the tabletop with his knuckles.
“Pardon, comrades,” said Han. “In times of extreme stress, I’m afraid the language my honored father used on other workers and his family comes out.” He paused, took a couple of deep breaths, and said, “And what of the survivors? No further word? Maybe what they bring back will salvage some of this.”
“Our monitoring of the Americans’ radio transmissions indicated air support was approaching. The submarine captain could not remain surfaced. His orders were to withdraw if threatened. That left the rest of the strike force isolated on Ellesmere. According to General Zhang, there was only one more message. It was short and broken up. Somehow they lost the prisoners. The last words were, ‘Our duty to the Party.’”
Ye pushed the folder in front of him away. “There was no further contact. We must assume all of the attack team members are now dead. Their orders were not to be taken alive. There has been no reaction as yet from the Americans.”
Vice Premier Han held up a hand but did not wait to be recognized. “Do we know how the Americans are going to react? The Canadians will huff and puff, but who cares about them? What will our answer be when this becomes public knowledge?”
Vice President Wen spoke up. “I think there is a good chance both the Americans and the Canadians will not take any direct action.”
“Please explain your reasoning, comrade,” said Secretary Liu.
“We were briefed on the range of scenarios for this operation. The worst case was exactly what has happened—failure to achieve the objectives and revealing to the Americans that we carried out the raid. The level of secrecy they were maintaining had several possible targets—ourselves and the Russians, of course, but also their own citizens. Our analyses could not distinguish where they put the relative weight, although our initial conclusions considered us to be the most likely target, with their own citizens a lesser emphasis. I submit that keeping quiet may be as important for internal political reasons. The American president is having difficulty getting Congress to pass legislation he campaigned on. Our analysis is that revealing the existence of the secret base could raise issues that would preclude success in this first year of his presidency and would doom his achieving accomplishments in his first term.”
“And how do you come to that conclusion?” asked Secretary Han.
“It has been about eighteen hours since our men were discovered on Ellesmere. There have been no public statements by either the Americans or the Canadians. There were apparently deployments of several American ground and air assets to unknown destinations on a time frame consistent with responding to the action. At least some of those assets have returned to their bases, with as yet no indication of their missions or where they went.
“We have also not received any communiqués from the Americans through either formal diplomatic or back-door channels. Most likely, they are still assessing what happened and deciding on a response.”
“And what is their most likely response?” said Han.
“The fact that the facility was far more heavily defended than we knew, even with an inside source, plus the speed and degree of military response, most likely tells us that indeed there is something at the site that is beyond the normal possibilities. If they announce what happened, the chances increase for a full or partial revelation of whatever they are keeping secret. There would simply be too many questions raised by the media and other politicians. If they want to keep the details secret from both us and the general public, the only strategy is not to acknowledge what happened.”
“But they do know it was us,” asserted General Chung. “I cannot believe they will pretend it never happened.”
“No, we can expect unofficial responses. Especially since we have to expect the possibility that at least a few of the mission team were captured.”
“I thought they were directed and trained not to let that happen,” Luo said angrily.
Ye looked at Zhang for a response.
“No amount of indoctrination, screening for commitment, or overt or indirect threats to family can completely prevent soldiers’ capture. Self-preservation can override all other issues at the critical moment. Plus, there may be wounded who are unable to kill themselves or there was not enough opportunity for their comrades to do it for them. A soldier can be rendered unconscious by an explosion or a wound. Whatever the cause, the Americans may have some of our people. Once they believe they have gotten all possible information from them, I’m sure we will hear about the conditions to have them returned to us.”
Vice Premier Luo, the oldest and most seasoned member of the Standing Committee, nodded and said, “Yes, they will demand some concession from us to both get our people back and prevent them from revealing our botched mission to the rest of the world. But if you are correct, the option of revealing the events will be a hollow threat.”
“That would be my assessment,” agreed Ye. “We will go through the usual façade of difficult negotiations, and in the end, we will reluctantly concede something that makes them think they won the negotiation. After all, we always have a few such issues active for such occasions. I think in this case it might be that we will agree to negotiate with the Philippines over the Spratley Islands. We will tell the Americans we are willing to discuss it, and they will pressure the Philippine government to enter negotiations. Naturally, that doesn’t mean we will ever retreat from claiming all of the South China Sea.”
“Fortunately, the Americans are so naïve,” said Wen.
“Nothing of consequence,” said Zhang. “We will claim that the mission’s orders came from General Haifeng Yuan of our marines at Zhanjiang in Guangdong Province. We can thank Comrade Secretary Han for suggesting General Yuan.”
Han looked disturbed. “At the time, I thought it was merely an unlikely contingency.”
“Nevertheless, General Yuan was our ‘cutout.’”
“Was?” asked Chung.
“As planned in case of a failure of this magnitude, General Yuan has already been arrested, tried for treason and crimes against the State, and executed, along with three members of his staff, plus Vice Admiral Zhong of our submarine forces and two members of his staff. Details of the charges, trials, and executions remain formally secret, due to security concerns, but we will eventually admit to the Americans that Yuan and Zhong acted without higher authorization and were executed for their treason. Naturally, the Americans will not believe us, but it will help defuse the crisis.”
“Still,” said Chung, “a shame to put dishonor on their names and families.”
“General Yuan remains a patriot,” said Ye. “He was dying of cancer and had only a few months to live. When apprised of the mission, he willingly volunteered his role with our assurances there would be no repercussions for his family and that I would personally see that his son, also a marine officer, would be advanced without prejudice. As for the other men, they were incompetents who would’ve been replaced soon anyway.”
Discussions continued for another hour, but the main conclusion was that China would wait for the American response.
Zach and Jill
Harbinger (The Janus Harbinger Book 1) Page 60