Dragon Strike -- A Novel of the Coming War with China (Future History Book 1)

by Humphrey Hawksley

  United States Embassy officials met Overhalt near the circular central information desk. On the way down the wide corridor to the Arrivals Hall, he saw the officers in meetings in the First-class Lounge. There was an echoing sound of army boots and weapons, of a country going to war. The Immigration and Customs desks were unmanned. Crews of armoured personnel carriers stood vigil where hotel cars and taxis had been only a week earlier. There were military checkpoints on both sides of the airport expressway into Beijing. The Embassy's Lincoln Continental slowed at each one and was let through. A squadron of Chinese fighter aircraft took off and screamed overhead to go to war against Japan in the Yellow and East China Seas.

  The South China Sea

  Local time: 1015 Thursday 22 February 2001

  GMT: 0215 Thursday 22 February 2001

  The British and Commonwealth task force led by HMS Ark Royal was having to defend itself, mainly from China's guerrilla-style submarine warfare. The Ark Royal and her escort vessels were caught in a network of Romeo and Ming submarines patrolling the Spratly Islands in boxed-off areas. Each submarine commander was under orders to attack any vessel which came into his zone of control. The diesel-electric submarines waited very quietly for the targets to approach them. The Ark Royal's captain wrote in his diary that it was like being on a jungle patrol where the enemy was hidden in the undergrowth and a sniper could attack at any time.

  `I was reminded of films about guerrilla jungle warfare. The only difference is that we were in the open sea, with blue skies and a clear horizon. It was frighteningly empty, but we knew the enemy was in the waters beneath us. We were aware it wouldn't mind losing three or ten vessels to our one. Our opponents were Mao's barefoot submariners. We were NATO's digital navy. We found some of them. But mostly they hid like snipers, mocking our technology. It was only when we detected the streak of the torpedo that we knew we were under attack. And by then, it was often too late. When it was over I felt obliged, as a naval officer, to salute their courage and daring.'

  The first ship to be attacked was HMS Liverpool. A torpedo exploded 3 metres under the hull. The blast destroyed the engine room, killing twenty-three men. Then there was a direct hit astern. Another five men died with the initial impact. Seventeen more were dead by the time the ship sank. Half an hour later the crew of the attack submarine HMS Triumph avoided a salvo of three Chinese torpedoes. The commander at first speeded up, then turned away and slowed down. His decisions were partly based on guesswork that the Chinese torpedoes would be of the same type that had sunk the USS Peleliu and would not change course with countermeasures. Minutes later he was given a firing solution for the Romeo which was destroyed with one Spearfish wire-guided torpedo. Merlin helicopters from the Ark Royal hit another submarine using sonobuoys and a Stingray torpedo. HMAS Rankin, the Australian Collins class submarine, was the only vessel able to play the Chinese submarines at their own game. By adopting the Chinese tactics and waiting silently, sometimes on the bottom, the Collins commander was able to pick off two more of the enemy, giving him the highest hit rate of any submariner since the Second World War. He returned to the Darwin Naval Base a hero.

  Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

  Local time: 1900 Wednesday 21 February 2001

  GMT: 0300 Thursday 22 February 2001

  There was no official announcement from the White House, Pentagon, or State Department, but within an hour of the satellite photographs arriving on the President's desk, CNN broke the story of an imminent nuclear strike. The network, which had been running rolling news, abandoned even the existing schedules. Rival networks followed and soon every channel was a mix of analysts' comment and live contributions from correspondents across America. The impact was chilling. Discussions swiftly moved from the threat of China, to the threat within the United States itself. Speculation began on the ability of the security forces to keep control, and then shifted to the impact on the medical system, communications, transport, and banking.

  `Are you telling us that if a nuclear bomb hits America, the government infrastructure will be unable to handle it?' asked one anchor.

  `I am telling you,' replied the commentator, `that people had better make sure they have money, enough food in the cupboard, a full tank of gas, an up-to-date first-aid kit and the view that no one will look after their families except themselves.'

  No one was sure what sparked the riots, but that was the most likely broadcast. The first looting officially linked to Operation Dragonstrike was on a delicatessen in Hollywood. One witness said she thought it was a drive-by shooting and took cover in an alleyway two blocks from the shop. The attackers shot down the ground-to-ceiling window with automatic weapons and a pump-action rifle. Then they backed a station wagon onto the pavement and loaded the food into the back. They sped off, firing their weapons into the air. Police logged the time as 1917. By midnight, hospitals, gas stations, and supermarkets throughout the country were being ransacked.

  The White House, Washington, DC

  Local time: 2230 Wednesday 21 February 2001

  GMT: 0330 Thursday 22 February 2001

  Mr Jiang Hua, the Chinese Ambassador, was a man of great dignity and never tired of reminding people of it. He swept into the Oval Office, apologized for being held up in traffic, and mentioned nothing about being called to the White House at such a late hour. His composure remained unruffled even when the President, abandoning diplomatic courtesy, confronted him. `What in God's name does your government think it is doing?' he began. He threw the folder containing the photographic intelligence on the coffee table before the Ambassador.

  Everyone in the room was standing. The Ambassador remained silent for almost half a minute, then replied: `I have no idea what you are talking about, Mr President.'

  The President gave a blunt response. `Don't play dumb, Ambassador. These photographs show Chinese missiles being prepared for a strike on the United States.'

  The Ambassador shuffled his feet. `I have been instructed to inform you that the government of China is prepared for every eventuality. May I point out that the United States has brazenly supported the splittist activities of rebellious groups acting against the Chinese people? You have sold sophisticated weapons to our enemies and given sanctuary to those trying to overthrow our government. Therefore it is necessary, resolutely and forcefully necessary, to hit back at these rude acts of interference, subversion, and extortion by the American hegemonists. The officers and men of all ground, naval, and air units are ready to take orders from Comrade Wang Feng and the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee.'

  `Mr Ambassador, I suggest you go back to your Embassy and tell President Wang to stand those missiles down. On the first sign of a launch, we will obliterate China.'

  SSBN HMS Vengeance, Chukchi Sea, Arctic Circle

  Local time: 1645 Wednesday 21 February 2001

  GMT: 0345 Thursday 22 February 2001

  The commander of the Vanguard class strategic missile submarine HMS Vengeance received his orders to prepare for a nuclear launch from an extra-low-frequency radio message which penetrated the ice cap under which he was patrolling. Any target in the northern hemisphere was in range from these waters around the North Pole, where Soviet and NATO submarines used to gather in a crowded cat and mouse game during the Cold War. HMS Vengeance operated with the luxury of knowing that no Chinese submarine was there now. They had no ability to go under the ice and the submariners had no substantive cold-water training. HMS Vengeance was being guarded by the Trafalgar class attack submarine HMS Trenchant, whose sonar operators had been keeping watch on a Russian Typhoon class strategic missile submarine and an Akula class attack submarine. The Akula followed HMS Vengeance as it moved to prepare for the launch. In the control room, the computer automatically still listed Russian vessels as hostile.

  Within an hour the commander had found the polynya or clear water surrounded by ice through which he could launch the Trident 11 (D5) missiles. Every action he took was verified with his Weapons
Engineer: they held separate keys which would initiate the launch. Each missile had a three-stage solid-fuel rocket and carried eight MIRVs with 100 kiloton warheads. The launch could be detected by Chinese satellites fifteen seconds before it happened, with an increased swell and generation of white water around the submerged submarine as the torpedo chamber doors opened. At four seconds to launch the sea would begin heaving violently. Then a rumbling sound would begin as if there was a huge thunderclap. All around, the sea would turn into a turbulent pitch and roll, and in a mixture of spray, fire, and froth the missile would rise out of the sea and turn towards its target 5,000 kilometres away.

  The first missile was programmed to hit Desired Ground Zero One in Beijing. During the Cold War, DGZ-1, the precise spot where the first nuclear warhead would explode, was Lenin's mausoleum in Red Square. In China, DGZ-1 was the mausoleum of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square at the coordinates of 116g 23 35 East (longitude) and 39g 53 58 North (latitude). In the same salvo the south section of Zhongnanhai would be destroyed at 116g 22 40 North (longitude), and 39g 54 25 East (latitude); and the Party's secret grain supply on Tiancun Lu, west Beijing, 116g 14 50 North (longitude) and 39g 55 45 East (latitude).

  The target coordinates had been programmed into the missile computers in code. Not even the men who pressed the launch buttons knew where they were heading.

  To keep the Russian submarine at a safe distance, the commander of HMS Trenchant made clear the British presence by cycling his main vents and blowing out his sewage tanks. The Akula commander replied by sending out a ripple transmission through his Shark Gill sonar. Russia was watching but not interfering. Close to the surface, HMS Vengeance trailed a very-low-frequency wire. The crew waited for orders to fire.

  US Space Command Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado

  Local time: 2100 Wednesday 21 February 2001

  GMT: 0400 Thursday 22 February 2001

  Signals from every available strategic recce and intelligence satellite were drawn into the US Space Command Center. Sensors were monitored in the NAVSTAR nuclear detonation detection system satellites. Data from ballistic-missile early-warning systems at Thule in Greenland and Fylingdales Moor in the United Kingdom was watched second by second. Radar crews were put on high alert in stations in Turkey, Italy, Diego Garcia, and across the United States. The special Pave Paws phased-array radar in Massachusetts, Georgia, Texas, and California tracked objects more than 5,000 kilometres away. Other detection and tracking radars were in operation on Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, British Ascension Island in the Atlantic, Antigua in the Caribbean, and at the Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

  Like HMS Vengeance, commanders of the American strategic missile submarines of the Ohio class USS Nebraska and USS Louisiana in the northern and southern Pacific and the USS Rhode Island under the polar ice cap were given orders to prepare for a Trident launch. In Turkey, Italy, Guam, and Japan, American B2 Stealth bombers were being fitted with guided nuclear bombs. In the two American carrier groups, Tomahawk cruise missiles, mostly with 200 kiloton warheads, were being prepared for firing. In the deserts of central America, technicians made ready the Peacekeeper and Minuteman III intercontinental missiles in their 25 metre deep concrete and steel silos, capped with retractable steel covers. The silos were at least 6 kilometres apart to minimize the damage of a direct hit. The regional control centre was 18 kilometres away and the crew of the National Emergency Air-Borne Command Post patrolled the skies in case it had to take over. Both the Minutemen and Peacekeepers carried 331 kiloton W-78 nuclear warheads and could hit targets nearly 12,000 kilometres away. The Peacekeeper, with ten individual warheads and a computer system which could make two million simultaneous calculations a second, had taken over from the Minuteman as the ICBM programme's first-line defence. As America and Europe braced for a nuclear war with China, missiles were programmed to hit the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Chengdu, Harbin, and Shenyang. Guangdong was not targeted because of possible fallout onto Hong Kong. Xiamen and Fuzhou escaped because of their proximity to Taiwan. The North Sea Fleet headquarters at Qingdao, the East Sea Fleet at Ningbo, and the South Sea Fleet at Zhanjiang were to be destroyed together with the air and submarine bases on Hainan Island. Other specific targets were the naval academies at Dalian and Qingdao, the Engineering College at Wuhan, and the Nanjing Naval Staff College.

  The aim of the strike was to destroy the People's Liberation Army and the Chinese Communist Party.

  Tokyo

  Local time: 1330 Thursday 22 February 2001

  GMT: 0430 Thursday 22 February 2001

  Japanese television channels illustrated the tests with colourful graphics. Clusters of people gathered around the windows of television shops on their way back from work. The huge screens in the airport and bus and underground stations showed the firing of four medium-range ballistic missiles from Okinawa and four Chinese made Tomahawk-style terrain-following cruise missiles from the Kongou class destroyers Myoko and Kirishima which were 1,000 kilometres further south in the South China Sea. Two cruise and two ballistic missiles landed 3 kilometres off the Chinese coast at Tianjin, the port city only 120 kilometres from Beijing. Another ballistic missile hit the sea just outside the southern naval base of Zhanjiang and the fourth fell at the mouth of the Yangtse River near Shanghai. A cruise missile landed off the coast near the Yulin airbase on Hainan Island and the final one was targeted on waters around Xiamen, the thriving port city across the straits from Taiwan. None carried warheads. Television commentators aided by more graphics explained how the missile tests coupled with the nuclear explosion confirmed that Japan was now a global military power. The sheer numbers of warheads Japan was able to fire against the enemy meant that some would get through and there would be no protection. People all over Japan celebrated through the day. There was no criticism of the tests by Western powers.

  United States Embassy, Beijing

  Local time: 1300 Thursday 22 February 2001

  GMT: 0500 Thursday 22 February 2001

  The engine of the Ambassador's Lincoln Continental was running, with the heater warming the interior for Reece Overhalt on his journey to the Foreign Ministry. But the driver walked to the wrought-iron gate to confirm that the noise he was hearing from the narrow tree-lined Xiu Shui Street in Beijing's diplomatic district was a demonstration of students. He had seen nothing like this in China since the Cultural Revolution thirty years earlier. For many of the locally employed Embassy staff, who came out to the Embassy compound to watch, the chanting revived horrific memories of the Maoist-controlled violence which killed so many of their friends and relatives. The compound of lawns and tall green maple and fir trees began to fill up with people, both Americans and Chinese standing side by side in silence as the marchers came closer. The building itself was protected by concrete anti-missile and grenade barricades. The Marine Sergeant posted extra men inside the gate. A small queue of people lining up to get into the Embassy dispersed. Foreign shoppers from the nearby markets hurried away.

  The leaders of the demonstration were from Beijing People's University, the spiritual home of the Chinese Communist Party. They had spread out throughout the Jianguomennei area, sealing off roads leading to many of the main embassies. Many wore red bandannas. Others were dressed in blue Maoist suits. Some kept their Western-style jeans. They laid bicycles down as blockades. Students began running, many shaking their fists and screaming as if in a frenzy. Shoulder high, they carried effigies of the Western and Japanese leaders, some made of plaster, some of cardboard and plywood. Outside the American Embassy they doused the plaster effigy of James Bradlay with petrol and set it alight. They stretched the American flag between stepladders until it was taut, then slashed it with knives before lighting it. One student, dressed like Uncle Sam in Stars and Stripes, was pulled forward. They hung a sign around his neck which read: `I am a traitor to the people.' They put a cylindrical dunce's cap on his head, then knelt him down just feet away fr
om the Marine guard on the gate. They pushed his head forward, pulled his arms up behind his back, then pretended to kick, slap, and taunt him. The Embassy compound was now surrounded. One by one students stepped out in front of the crowd to denounce America. There were similar displays of Chinese wrath outside the other embassies which had opposed Operation Dragonstrike. Just a few hundred metres away, the British Embassy and Ambassador's residence were sealed off. Firecrackers were thrown over the gates. On the fringes of the diplomatic area, which adjoined the main tourist district of Beijing, armed and uniformed troops from the Central Guard Regiment were on patrol, ensuring that no one interfered. The Xinhua (New China) News Agency called it a `spontaneous outpouring of anger'.

  Reece Overhalt was already half an hour late for his meeting with Jamie Song when he got through on the telephone. The Foreign Minister was careful in his explanation. The only hint that the demonstration was out of his control came when he said: `The timing is unfortunate for our business discussions.'

  Overhalt was familiar with Chinese nuances. But he had already decided to play the part of the Western cultural idiot. He believed bluntness was the most effective way to send a message via the Ministry of State Security's telephone tapping agents. `Jamie, we've got submarines with firing solutions ready to go. If we so much as see a tweak of launch preparation from your missiles, you, I, and those students are going to get fried.'