The Tiger and the Dragon

by Stephen Makk

“Return to the bay exit. Let’s see if there are any more coming out. Weaps, flood tubes three and four.”

  “Aye sir, reloading one and two Mk48.” The boat returned to the entrance and waited listening. Ten minutes went by.

  “Sir, Bellerophon’s approaching.” What’s this?

  The SSN drew alongside, it wasn’t long before Benson knew what was going on.

  “Sir they are trying to use their form of Getrurde.” This is an acoustic shortrange underwater phone.

  “Matching signals sir. Try now.” He picked up the handset.

  “Nathan?”

  “Yes, Frank what’s up?”

  “I got a call from Northwood, we’re to proceed to a specific location. Can you follow me?”

  “Ok Frank, lead on.” The connection was cut and Bellerophon followed by USS Stonewall Jackson proceeded to the southwest.

  Three hours later 15 miles off Hue Vietnam, Bellerophon stopped and came to periscope depth. Jackson did too. The Chief Engineer took advantage of the surface time to run the diesels to charge the batteries. Nathan looked at the monitor after running a 360 with the scope. The British boat had surfaced and flashed to him to do the same.

  “Trim for ascent, surface the boat, we will pick you up.”

  “Surface the boat Aye sir.”

  Nathan walked out on the predawn deck it would break soon already the sky to the east was becoming pale. Frank Pike sat in an inflatable, it pulled alongside, and he climbed in. The small boat pulled away. “Got a bit hot back there Nathan, I heard you drop two of them but there was a third explosion?”

  “Yeah, he tried for us but he hit poor Scooby one of our drones. God rest his soul.” Pike smiled, the Americans got so attached to these drones. They treated them almost like pet dogs.

  “Well here we are,” Pike held his hand out. Nathan hadn’t noticed, on the surface around 50 yards away was an SSN, low in the water its sail standing tall.

  Frank Pike nodded his head. “The Suffren, an SSN of the Marine Nationale, we’ve been invited to breakfast.” The two of them climbed down the inside sail ladder and stood on the companionway. There were greeted by a balding man with soft but intelligent brown eyes.

  “Welcome to Suffren, I am Captain Manaudou, we will take breakfast in the wardroom.” He spoke to a sailor, “Trois croissants confiture et café.”

  The three of them sat and had croissants, jam and coffee.

  After they’d finished the Frenchman placed the palms of his hands on the table.

  “Now to business, we are part of your squadron now,” said Manaudou.

  “Nathan has spent more time out here than any of us, so go ahead,” smiled Pike.

  Nathan looked around the table at his fellow commanders.

  “We divided their fleet, bringing part of it down this way to protect Hainan. We can ignore those now. The main threat is off Taichung City and western Taiwan. Gentlemen, our task is simple but difficult. We must destroy the People’s Liberation Army Navy invasion fleet.”

  Chapter 15

  May Hsin checked into a reasonable hotel in Beijing. She walked out into the city in her civvies, it was a bit chilly out there in the night. She stopped at an auto teller and took out her Huaxia Bankcard and withdrew the full amount allowed her. Her first port of call was a market mall where she bought a long dark blue coat with a hood. May had NSB contacts in the city and considered getting a pistol, but she thought it could be more trouble than it was worth. May did visit a stall selling knives. There where all manner of them, short, tiny, stupidly large and useful ones, the owner asked her what she wanted.

  “It’s for self-defence.”

  “We can help. I know a man who will provide lessons for ladies.”

  “I don’t need lessons, I lived in America, Chicago,” she made out she had a machine gun, “rat, tat, tat, tat.” He smiled. May knew they had all seen gangster movies and believed that Chicago was still like that today. She told him what she wanted. He pulled out a suitable knife and got out a scabbard from the back. They were both embossed with Korean script, south she knew by the quality. May took them and strapped the scabbard to her lower left leg covering it with her trousers. She paid him and tipped him, she left a grinning store owner. “James Bond.” He grinned. She smiled and left the market.

  She found a food market and took a meal at a table. Fabulous food, May downed a couple of stiff dark Rums. It would be a big day tomorrow.

  MAY WAS UP EARLY, SHE walked down the road among the hundreds of commuters, she wore the PLAN Lieutenant Commanders uniform covered by the new dark coat. She waited at the stop. A few minutes later a bus stopped, she climbed on, it was heading for the Haidian District to the northwest of the city centre. She got off at her stop and walked by the walls of the large compound of buildings at Xiyuan. MSS headquarters is in Beijing centre in the Dongcheng district, but this was the sharp end. May felt nervous, very nervous. This was, on the face of it, stupidity, but she knew it was the only way. She saw the entrance approaching further along the sidewalk, she took off the coat and discarded it. At the entrance, a large two lane opening in the wall she showed her MSS pass. The guard let her in. She knew the approximate direction, it was five streets down and turn right. There were others walking from building to building. She could have been in an office district in any Far Eastern city, instead here she was in the very Vipers nest she’d worked against for years. At the end of the short road was a two-story cream painted rendered building. A sign said Bureau 4, she guessed there was no point disguising its identity in here. She opened the glass doors and walked over to the receptionist.

  “Yes?”

  “Morning, she smiled, “I’m here to see Ling Shiming. He won’t be expecting me.”

  “Could I see your identity pass please?”

  May fished in her inside pocket and pulled out her NSB pass card her MSS pass and a USB memory stick. She placed them in front of the receptionist.

  The woman gasped. May had to smile.

  “Just a moment Miss Hsin.” She picked up the phone and said, “Code 8, reception.”

  “Just wait there someone will see you.” Shortly two men appeared.

  “Come this way please.” They collected her pass and the stick and led her down two corridors. A door was unlocked, and she was led inside the white walled room. There was a table in the centre, a long mirror to the left and several chairs. She noticed a stretcher like table on wheels with straps obviously for hands and leg restraints. A table with a telephone and a computer sat by the rear wall. It looked like a pretty standard interrogation room. There were similar at the NSB HQ in Taipei. The older man pointed for her to sit. He wore green rimmed glasses and sat opposite, the other younger man sat to his side. The older man looked at her passes. As he looked a smirk formed on his face.

  “What’s on the stick?”

  “You’ll have to take a look.” He passed the stick to the younger man who started up the PC. The older man just looked at her with a cold unflinching stare.

  “Here we are sir.” The screen showed several pictures of her in the grounds of the NSB headquarters with Director Chen Huo. There was also a short video of her walking with him.

  “I’m May Hsin, I’m a member of the NSB as you can see and I’m here to see Ling Shiming.”

  “And which Division are you with?”

  “Division one, international intelligence.” He raised his eyebrows.

  “So not Division two, the People’s Republic of China spies?” She shook her head.

  “Why are you here?”

  “As I said, to see Ling Shiming.”

  “Miss Hsin, you will wait here.” The two of them took the passes, the stick and left, locking the door behind them. She looked around the room, in front of her was obviously a one-way mirror, they’d be watching her now. I’ll bet they’re shocked, an NSB Officer’s not likely to have done this before. No wonder, they’d need to be as mad as me. Or as desperate.

  Sometime later over an hour May t
hought the door opened, the two men returned. The younger man carried a blanket.

  May, we have some questions to ask you. Stand up.” She stood, what was going on?

  “Take your clothes off.” She considered refusing but knew she’d be forced anyway. She took off her shoes, Uniform jacket, under shirt and trousers. May stood in her underwear. She stared at them in defiance.

  “The rest of them, all off,” said the man in green framed glasses. Bastards, she knew there was no point resisting they’d just force her.

  “Would you like me to do a striptease for you? You’d like it.” May forced a smile.

  “No, off now.” She took off her bra and panties and set them carefully on the table.

  “On the bed.” He pointed to the stretcher table with the hands and legs. She climbed on and lay back. The restraints were fastened. She tried her best not to think of her situation. Naked, under restraint with the MSS Officers in their secure compound. They wheeled the table back towards the wall. The young man dropped the blanket over her face. “What?” A tap was turned on, she hadn’t noticed that. Water was played over the blanket, soon soaked through. Water was trying to force its way into her mouth as they pushed the hose down around her mouth. She knew what it was, waterboarding, the bastards were trying to torture something from me. She held firm. It went on too for long, her chest heaved and shook, still the water came. They stopped and pulled the blanket away. She drew downdrafts of precious air.

  “Why are you here?”

  “To see Ling Shiming,” she gasped. The blanket was pushed onto her face and they started again. This time it went on longer she retched and swallowed some water. They stopped and asked her again. Five or six times it was repeated, she wretched and spit the water out. May coughed herself dry. They started again. She knew soon she’d say anything to stop them. They pulled back to let her cough and asked the same question and got the same answers. The two of them wheeled the stretcher table out of the room and down a corridor. A few passed by men and women, they all looked at her but said nothing. They left her outside while they entered a room. A few minutes later two men in rough working overalls with arms full of wood and tools came by, they stopped and looked at her nakedness, each with a leering stare. One of them set down the wood and started to feel her boobs and put a hand down between her legs and started to massage her. She felt helpless, she wanted to tell them to piss off but knew it would do no good.

  Just then the young man came out of the room and saw them.

  “You stop. On your way. Now.” He took her into the room, she was lifted off the wheeled frame but left on the table. A man and a woman pushed her into a tube, it looked like some form of CT or MRI scanner. It hummed and hooted and she was taken out. They wheeled her back to the first room. The older man looked down at her.

  “Those builders are nearby do you want me to bring them in here? You must be hungry, they may have something for you to eat?”

  She felt a flash of anger. “They fuck me, you fuck me. Who cares?” He smiled. The two of them left the room. At least it’s not that waterboarding again. May laid there for over an hour. She drifted off to sleep. A loud buzzer sounded and woke her. She sighed, it was the old sleep deprivation trick. Bastard is, it did eventually work.

  LING SHIMING WALKED into the darkened room. The level 3 MSS Officer with the green rimmed glasses led him to the window. There beyond the one-way glass lay the NSB Officer they’d told him about she lay naked on the table with her eyes closed as though she was sleeping. Young and attractive yes, but she’d had a rough time here he could tell.

  “She wants to see you is all she says, we’ve done a thorough waterboarding. She must be NSB, anybody else would have broken down. We looked up the Big Book database on the NSB section and we did get some confirmation that they do have an Officer with that name. It’s low level, so not fully confirmed. We have a picture of someone we think is her, amongst a group of people in a party at a barbeque in a park in Taipei. Some of them are known NSB, so it’s likely her, but the quality is so poor it’s unconvincing. We took her for a full body scan, she’s got no devices either bugging or explosive hidden in her body. We believe she’s clean sir.” Ling looked and wondered, why would an NSB Officer come into Xiyuan?

  Why would she ask for him? She’d know his name and that he was responsible for Taiwan intelligence. But why here? The NSB were no fools they could have made contact by other more remote means. He’d find out. “Feed her, clothe her, let her sleep in a warm bed for four hours and then bring her to me.”

  “Yes sir.”

  May was pushed until she awoke, they’d been treating her well for a change. Food, a warm shower, clothes and a bed. It had felt wonderful to sleep.

  The young man smiled down at her. “Come on, get up Miss Hsin. Get dressed, you’re going to see Ling Shiming.”

  THE FRENCH SSN SUFFREN.

  “SO, WE PLAN DE ATTACK on Chinese taskforce. Are we alone?” Captain Manaudou wore a look of concern.

  Nathan shook his head. “I think we’ll be able to call on ROC and US forces.” He grew uneasy. “Before we start. I don’t like to plan this sort of thing without someone from my boat. Could the inflatable go back to...”

  “No problem old chap, go on up on deck and tell Houseman what you want.”

  Nathan returned, they laid out the plan and constituents of the battlespace. Several minutes later the door opened, and Nikki Kaminski walked in.

  They stood, Manaudou took her hand and kissed it, “Welcome aboard Suffren, Mademoiselle Kaminski.” He read her uniformed chest ID.

  “Thank you.”

  “I’ll get some coffee,” he stepped outside and spoke to a crewman. Four coffees were brought in and served.

  She sat at the table, Nathan gave her a smile. “We were about to discuss and plan an attack on the PLAN Fleet off Taichung City. This is the disposition of forces as best we know.”

  The four of them planned a strike on the Fleet using their missiles and missiles dropped from air assets both ROC and US.

  “I’ll send our plans to the Puzzle place and COMSUBPAC when I get back aboard Jackson.”

  “One thing, said Nikki, “there’ll be a lot of Chinese troops on Taiwan looking to get out of there, if we’re successful. We’d be better off leaving their transports and landing ships alone and give them safe passage.”

  “Qui, it help with no prisoners or transporting men back,” said Manaudou.

  Pike grinned at them all. “Now gentlemen let’s bloody well get to it. We’re going to be getting into scrum with the Chinese boats after the missile launches, maybe before.

  Let’s coordinate our tactics.” Over time they came to a consensus, they were likely to be outnumbered so tactical surprise was key. Eventually Nikki, Frank and Nathan climbed the sail and got into the inflatable.

  BACK IN USS STONEWALL Jackson, Nathan went straight up to Lemineux and gave him details of what he wanted.

  “Can you do that?” Lemineux thought for a while.

  “Yes, I think so, I’ll need to patch through Pearl.”

  “Can you skip that, go direct?”

  “Possibly, yes probably. It depends on how cooperative they are.”

  “Thanks, try your best, patch it through to my cabin. Oh, and here are some documents for DOD and COMSUBPAC.”

  “I’ll see to that. Sir, you have this from COMSUBPAC.” He handed a slip over to Nathan.

  He read it with surprise and walked over to the XO Larry Sayers.

  “XO. Taiwan’s going to contact Beijing tonight and offer a solution.”

  Larry sighed. “Good luck with that.”

  Nathan walked aft and entered his cabin, lowered his bunk and climbed in.

  He was drifting off to sleep when the intercom buzzed.

  “Blake.”

  “Sir, I have an Admiral on the line for you. Patching him through.”

  “Hi Commander Nathan. You well, I know you fight now.”

  “Yes, that’s true
sir, you know me very well.” There was a laugh.

  “What can I do for you?”

  “Sir, I know this will be difficult but...”

  The Admiral listened and asked a few questions.

  “So, that is all you want?” Nathan could hear the grin.

  “Yes sir.”

  “Hai. We will be there. Use these codes for quicker communication.”

  Nathan took them down. “Arigatuo Admiral Nakata. Goodnight sir.”

  THAT NIGHT THE PRESIDENT of Taiwan contacted Beijing, proposing a ceasefire, pending the withdrawal of PLA forces from the island. The politburo was split, some would comply, and some wanted to carry on until the job was done. There was no consensus. The deadline passed without any communication being received.

  NATHAN AWOKE AND SAW the communique from COMSUBPAC on his monitor. At breakfast in the Galley he was joined by the XO.

  “Morning Larry. I got a message from Pearl. The Government of the PRC didn’t answer.”

  Larry grunted and gave him a faint smile.

  “Sheeeit. Then I guess the Black Swan has had enough, furled her wings and landed in the local creek?”

  “Yep.”

  Chapter 16

  Operation Black Swan.

  THE NEXT NIGHT ANDERSEN AFB Guam was teeming with activity, aircraft were being loaded with fuel and arms. Trucks of all kinds and tankers scurried about. Finally, the aprons and runway were clear. First to taxi out were B1-B Lancers, one by one they rolled down the long strip and climbed trailing two trails of flame into the night. Next it was the B2 Spirits’ turn, they left without so much drama but carried a deadly load.

  Rolling down the three-thousand-yard runway “Betty, Bang Bang” a laden B52 climbed away from RAAF Base Darwin, in Northern Australia. She was joined by “Eat this boys,” “Hard rain’s a comin,” and others, all headed north.