April 3: The Middle of Nowhere

by Mackey Chandler

  There was no visible reaction from the man.

  "Please be advised there is a continuing hazard that the very same action may be taken with Beijing if we can't resolve this difference of opinion. Air travel to Beijing may be a hazard within the next day if I find it necessary to drop a large fusion device on the capital. I'd suggest not flying any closer to Beijing than the distance you care to be a two-hundred megaton device being activated. It's a shame really, I'm sorry to have to contemplate doing that. Would you post that advisory please?"

  The controller just stared at him like he had two heads. He somehow doubted he'd post such an advisory even if it was now framed as entirely within his proper concern. But maybe after he disconnected he'd forward it to someone who was not a fool. If such a person existed in the Chinese government.

  Gunny cracked up as soon as he disconnected. "I know it's not funny," he said wiping the tears running down his face, "but you embraced their insanity perfectly. I could never have done the perfect dead-pan delivery to parse it precisely as an air traffic problem. If you are going to communicate with insane people you have to sound insane," he concluded. "And if they are faking insanity now they have to wonder if you are playing the same game with them or are really as detached from reality as you both sounded."

  "They have to present as insane for political survival. It must be scary to hear somebody not under the party's thumb sound just as squirrely as their party comrades," April said.

  "Did I sound that irrational telling you how I was afraid to sneak a look behind the curtain of censorship while I was on active duty?" Gunny asked.

  "No, you sounded intimidated, but still calculating. These guys sound like they are broken. Like they honestly can't track what is real and what is theatre anymore," April told him.

  "Jon said he'll see what he can do," April said. "What do we do now?

  "Sit and wait on everybody else." Jeff said, frustrated.

  * * *

  Jon considered all his options. He might get a hearing from some because he'd been the voice of the Assembly last year for Home. But that seemed an excellent reason to him he should stay out of the public eye in Jeff's dispute. There was still the possibility Home would not get dragged into this. If he involved himself that seemed to shout to the world that Jeff and Home were the same. He had contacts in the USNA State Department. He might even get a message through to President Wiggen if he worded it right. He'd get a respectful audience with the Japanese and of course with the Tongans. But the truth was he didn't have any influence with any of them. He'd likely get a smug look of urban sophistication and a polite lecture on how things aren't done so crudely at a diplomatic level.

  If he still worked here he'd dump it on Eddie Persico. He'd sent Eddie to ISSII to fetch Dr. Singh back last year. He'd done a bang-up job of dealing with local conditions and recruiting support. With a little help he brought everybody home in one piece. Eddie insisted he was still available when he was needed. This seemed like an excellent time to test that.

  "Persico? Jeff has been trying to talk to the Chinese. They aren't at all interested in conversation. You familiar with what's going on? I was actually sort of surprised you weren't with all the rest of them at Singh's offices. You aren't having a spat with any of them are you? I can't keep up with stuff so you can't hint about anything, you have to tell me directly."

  "I'm getting along with everyone just fine. I decided that I didn't need to intrude into their private space if they didn't ask for me. It's already a mob in that tight cubic. I'm busy responding to all the market movements that nuking the crap out of the Chinese created. They can keep it from the public, but the market makers know. I've noticed they are very casual with who is in the camera view and it might be useful not to be too tightly associated with the events of the day."

  "Exactly. I was hoping to keep a little distance myself. Do you have time to give me a hand here and there, between all the market action?"

  "You want me to check in the next shuttle full of tourists for you?" Eddie quipped.

  "I was hoping maybe you retained some connections from your rescue mission last year. I've been asked to try to defuse the tension with the Chinese. Jeff is sitting with a bombardment mission held from activating on a ten minute cycle. If somebody foolishly harms him it times out and Beijing is gone. Given the size of the weapon they used to take out Jiuquan I'd expect the actual municipality of Beijing to be a literal crater. The surrounding whole province of Hebei would be wiped flush to the ground without a survivor not in a deep bunker. Now I don't give a rat's ass about the thieving old men running it, but the clueless innocent people, the Hidden City and museums and things that are a common cultural heritage of humanity I really hate to see vaporized."

  "Are any politicians sane?" Eddie asked.

  "None I've had the pleasure of knowing," Jon assured him. "Just as you were trying to distance yourself from the Earthie viewpoint I don't think it's a good thing to have them see me as Jeff's spox. I've already done that for Home and some people already think that whatever Jeff says is official Home policy. We really can't afford to create that false impression."

  "Yes, put that way I agree. It's not an advantage if it sends a false message. There is one contact I can think of that might have some leverage. I'll see what I can do and get back to you, today likely if I can do anything at all."

  * * *

  Eddie didn't even get a chance to say anything. Jan Hagen was slouched back in his chair with those hooded eyes that made him look half asleep. "My God, have things gone south that badly that you are calling me?" he blurted out.

  "Well you did give me an open invitation to ring you up, although I'm surprised you are still head of security over there. Isn't it supposed to rotate among the member nations?"

  "They're arguing about it. Seems I stuffed my successor out the airlock and they don't quite know what to do about that. Some of the silly heathens intimated it was a sign of moral turpitude. What else was I supposed to do?" he asked, hands spreading, like it was self evident.

  "So when my term expired for the Swiss and nobody really wanted to step up and do this awful job, they all agreed to let the Germans have a turn out of rotation and they appointed me. Perfectly reasonable, since I have dual citizenship. Efficient too. I'm here already. I just have to remember to have a more robustly German accent when I answer the com."

  "Have your relations, uh, smoothed out any with the Chinese?" Eddie hoped.

  "To a degree. They tend to stay in their cubic and when they do go out they go in groups of four or six and when they see me they get all twitchy. I don't think they can figure out when I sleep exactly to avoid running into me. That's a vast improvement over when you were here before. Remember how cheeky the little buggers would get back then?"

  "I'm afraid that wasn't the direction I was hoping for."

  "We just had a dead Chinese fellow turn up floating about outside in a rescue ball. Someone got really artistic killing him. I could tell by all the frowns and sideways glances they suspect I have to be involved somehow. They are so paranoid they think it ties me in that the fellow had a Swiss knife stuck in him. I don't even protest my innocence anymore. It falls on deaf ears." He leaned forward and looked at Eddie closely. "You know something about that! You squirmed. Now why didn't I figure out M3 was involved if I wasn't?" he asked. "Don't tell me this is about the hijacking? I've been waiting for a call from your Jon about that and he hasn't said a word. You'd think he'd wonder if we had any more information we didn't share, but he seems an incurious sort. No, not the hijacking, not directly. Your face said no."

  "Why even say anything?" Eddie asked. "I can just sit here and let you watch my face as you run through a hundred questions. You don't even need to make a verbal response to run through the software, that would just slow you down!"

  "Well, I am a pretty decent interrogator," Jan said immodestly, "and I wouldn't take up high-stakes poker for a living if I were you," he advised, careless of Eddie's feel
ings. "That dead fellow, he didn't mess with the Singhs or the Lewis clan did he? Ah…Okay. That explains that puzzle. The poor stupid bastard. No wonder he was so thoroughly dead."

  "I was actually hoping to talk about the Earth Chinese. You are aware our boy-wonder Jeff blew the Jiuquan launch center clean off the map?"

  "Yes, I'd hoped this wasn't about that, but I'm not surprised. I saw his manifesto on it. There was too much proprietary tech on the Eddie's Rascal and he destroyed it to deny it to them. Do I have that basically right?"

  "Yes, the Rascal didn't carry one of the secret weapons yet, but it had other Singh tech."

  "That lacked subtlety you know. You wiped out a city of over a million people to destroy that ship. Have you ever heard of the concept of a surgical strike?"

  "Are you familiar with when the US was testing nuclear weapons back in the 1950s?"

  "In a general way. They did it right out in the open atmosphere and caused an environmental mess, right? What has that got to do with anything?"

  "Yes and they blew a bunch of islands and atolls to hell and displaced the natives too. But the point I wanted to make was they were transitioning from pure fission bombs to fusion. They did a Castle series of tests and when they lit off Castle Bravo it was supposed to be about six megaton plus or minus and they got fifteen instead," Eddie explained.

  "Ah, so that's what happened with Jiuquan?" Jan guessed, running ahead. Nobody ever accused him of being slow.

  "Very much so. It appears he got well over two-hundred megaton. He was looking at fifty on the high side."

  "Well, that makes me feel better about him but I doubt it would impress the Chinese much."

  "I remember you said that networking was the only thing that kept the whole system from failing. Well, here's the situation. Jeff is sitting there waiting for a Chinese response. They won't talk to him. He has Beijing targeted and has to tell the computer every ten minutes not to wipe Beijing off the map. Jon told me it would fully crater Beijing and wipe the entire surrounding province to a parking lot. He's going to eventually take too long on a bathroom break or get tired and nod off, see something that looks like an attack, or just grow weary and say to hell with it and let the system activate. Is there any network fix for this bad of a mess?"

  "So he has two weapons? I'm surprised he could get enough fissionable material for one kernel. Is he getting the material off Earth? I wouldn't think the Rock has that much uranium if they processed the whole thing."

  "Jan, it's a pure fusion weapon. It doesn't need a fission kernel and I honestly have no idea how many weapons like this he has, except – more."

  "Damn, no way the other militia folks would restrain him from using them?"

  "This isn't a militia action, he's not even a member. The Home militia hasn't dropped a single weapon. Which incidentally means they have their full system on alert and undepleted by so much as a single rod. Drag them in and it doesn't get any better. These are from Singh's private system and I don't know if anybody has the codes and keys but him."

  "That seems, unstable. I can pass word along through third parties, but you understand, I'm not exactly viewed favorably by the Chinese myself. In fact I'm shocked they haven't made any serious effort to assassinate me. I don't know if they'll believe a word knowing it's from me."

  "Do try please. If it isn't stopped now I'm afraid it will get entirely out of hand. If he has to hit Beijing then what exactly is the incentive to stop again and wait for a response like he's doing now? Why not be done with it and drop your whole kit on them and remove them as an Earth power of any significance?"

  "That would take a lot of doing to set them back that hard. I'm not sure it can be done."

  "The person who passed this request along suggested a full bombardment would remove half their population and eighty percent of their industrial capacity. That's not factoring in if Jeff's mother or the militia get involved, just Jeff."

  "Do you mind if I reveal that about being a pure fusion weapon? That's rather a game changer. It the sort of a factoid that gives me some credit and will get their attention."

  "Nothing I said is secret. I'm going back to my people and try to get them to hold off and wait to see if you can talk sense to the Chinese. If there is a reasonable person somewhere in their command structure I suspect he doesn't even know he's sitting with a big gun held to his head. Their system is prejudiced against any report being made that doesn't comport with official party propaganda. It is a custom that just may kill them this time. Will you call me if you have any news?"

  "I may not get any real feedback before it is resolved. I certainly don't expect a formal call even if what I do works, but you have hi-res surveillance to direct the strikes don't you?"

  "I'd be shocked if he doesn't. We didn't talk about that."

  "Then optimize it to observe Beijing. I suspect if I can make anything happen you'll be able to see it unfold with your own eyes well before anyone talks about it."

  "I'll pass that back up the line. I'm away," Eddie added, disconnecting.

  * * *

  Jan made a short list of talking points in the corner of his screen. He'd have to tailor which he used to the agent and allow them to drag the rest out of him, picking up anything he could from them while he was at it. It was all well and good to save the world after all, but information was the currency in which he traded. No point in just giving it away.

  He called up a fellow in Australia who he knew leaked things to some of the people at Jane's. He assessed various weapons systems for their DOD, but his personal interest was anything that went BOOM. "Sean, Jan here," he said slouching back in his seat."Do you folks have any plume samples yet off that detonation in China? I have a rumor here, a source that has been spot on before, but this assertation seems a little out there. I'd like to have some physical confirmation before I give it too much credence. And if that craps out then all the rest he told me is suspect. Well show me yours and I'll show you mine," he offered…

  * * *

  "I can't stay awake indefinitely," Jeff protested. "I need a statement. A clear surrender on this one narrow issue that they will leave my mum and us alone. I was shifting our cam to look straight at Beijing anyway, but what am I supposed to be looking for?"

  "Jon didn't say, but Eddie clearly set some things in motion. He showed his ability last year when he got your dad and mum to the shuttle on ISSII. I'd give him as much time as he needs to work this," April pleaded.

  "Look, you're getting punchy already," she said. "This is exhausting. It's only a half G here. Let me get a pad and put it against the wall there. You can sleep right here and Heather and I will keep the system active. If anything happens we'll wake you right up, I promise."

  "There's an air mattress in the cupboard under the coffee maker right there. It's plenty good. I've used it before. Just don't get too rambunctious and I can sleep pretty easily, I think."

  April made him take his shoes off despite the fact they were little more than slippers. After he closed his eyes she dropped the lighting in steps to half. Pretty soon he was snoring.

  * * *

  The head of intelligence analysis associated with China's Space Service, Hu Jiankang didn't sit to a morning briefing like politicians. He got an hourly summary of hot events, insisting on a stack of flimsies, being from a poor background and raised using paper more than his peers and assistants. He knew they weren't going to disappear because there was a power blip, as had been much too common in his youth. He was handed the new batch by his assistant right on the hour mark without a word and started to read.

  Isotopic analysis of Jiuquan launch facility detonation plume: No traces of uranium or transuranic elements were present in the fallout plume consistent with normal nuclear weapon design. All traces of heavier elements are in the range expected from a detonation with the fireball touching the ground level. What small amounts of fissionable material were present are likely from the vaporization of weapons present in the launch facility stores
or on ready aircraft or space vessels. There is no corresponding presence of the expected fission products or short lived isotopes to show this material ever experienced a super-critical mass.

  Well, wasn't that interesting? He flipped to the second sheet.

  Agency in the News Intercept: The following video was posted to commercial news outlets in Europe and leaked past net censors to much of North America. The video appears to be actual footage of spacers attempting communication with Military Traffic Director Li Jintao. Analysis of the video finds no evidence the image was manipulated to match the audio track. In it Home resident Jeffery Singh asserts he will wage war on the People's Republic over his confiscated property. IMPORTANT NOTE: The site on which this was released is considered a parody site. It highlights the absurd and contrarian in the news. In the English idiom, dog bites man is not news, but man bites dog is a reversal of normality, so it is newsworthy or amusing. That is the sort of stories they boast of featuring.

  An analyst who talked down to him by explaining parody was likely to get bit himself. An individual threatening the People's Republic was ridiculous. But it behooves one to determine if in fact such an individual was an unbalanced raving madman, or an owner of ungodly large thermonuclear weapons. It was an important distinction. Jiankang sighed and covered his eyes briefly, feeling a headache coming on way too early in his shift. He ordered his assistant to bring him a pot of tea and an analgesic and continued.

  * * *

  Oliver Whitcomb, the British agent, traded his information on the American corn crop to the Chinese agent he only knew as Chen for figures on South African rhodium production. They discussed shopping lists for other data to exchange in the future. Chen informed him that next year North America intended to include the sugar beet crop data to the list of items not published for national security. He didn't ask a source.

  Business satisfied, they exchanged gossip over lunch. The food was Vietnamese, as was the bustling city outside the restaurant window. The Chinese fellow allowed he'd believe that 'T' the Japanese agent who disappeared from Hawaii was really dead when he saw a body laid out and could take DNA samples. The Brit couldn't fault that sentiment. He was deeply suspicious too.