by Andrew Watts
Bill Stanley was a defense contractor who lived in Nevada. He had retired from the Air Force more than a decade ago, and had a wife and two grown boys. He worked on drones and “a few jets that you wouldn’t believe existed if I told you.” David learned that Bill commuted to work every day on a US Air Force Boeing 767. He would drive to Las Vegas’s McCarran International Airport, then fly to what was once known as Area 51. They joked about UFOs and aliens, and then realized that nothing was very funny now that World War Three might be on the horizon. Bill spent most of his time working on the long-range satellite communications to and from high-tech US military aircraft and drones.
Henry Glickstein was a self-proclaimed “maker” and telecommunications guru who had worked for several of the big-tech companies. The entire time they spoke, he never stopped smiling or walking around the plane’s cabin inspecting every element. He had designed data farms and overseen the layout of fiber optic networks for a living, and gave David the impression that he was a workaholic; an engineer who couldn’t stop trying to solve whatever problem lay in front of him. He was a jokester, but a competent and driven one. It was like his mind was moving so fast that he had to throw in a few one-liners every so often so he didn’t get bored.
They were each astonished to hear David’s story of being kidnapped. Their invitations had been markedly different. As with Brooke, a single person in their chain of command had contacted the two men just twenty-four hours earlier. They each had been sold on the importance of the mysterious project. They had been told not to discuss it with anyone, and to pack for several weeks.
They hadn’t understood why the secrecy was so important, but all of them had complied with the request. David had been surprised that they’d all gone so willingly, without knowing more. Each of the three had trusted the manager who had approached them. And they felt a sense of duty to participate in what was deemed a crucial project. The two men hadn’t known about the connection to a possible Chinese invasion.
David and Brooke told them. They were floored. Most of the plane ride was spent talking about different scenarios for why China would do something like this. The more David thought about it, the more he realized how hard it was going to be for Americans to believe something like this could really happen. Americans were comfortable. Human beings were reactive, not proactive, when they were comfortable. It was hard to get people to prepare for a hurricane if they hadn’t been hit in recent years. And that’s exactly what this was: an approaching storm of monumental proportions. A world war hadn’t happened in David’s lifetime. Would people prepare for the storm? Or would they watch the news reports from their couches in disbelief, waiting for a resolution?
The briefs the flight attendant handed out gave them little new information. They were to be consultants to the US government in a Red Cell. According to the document, Red Cells were used by the CIA to “think outside the box about a full range of relevant analytic issues.” Whatever that meant. Each consultant was to provide the team with insights and critical knowledge from their individual area of expertise. When the group finished reading, they had more questions than answers. The second half of the flight was once again used for sleeping.
Unlike the first plane, the shades on this plane’s windows were sealed shut. Security protocol, the flight attendant had told them. It wasn’t until they landed and opened the doors that they saw natural light again. It was late afternoon at their destination. David wondered how many time zones they had passed through. The door to the jet opened and revealed bright blue skies and an inrush of thick, tropical air.
The group’s tired eyes were wide as they looked around at their landing spot. There was ocean everywhere. It reminded David of one of those old World War Two island air bases built in the middle of the Pacific. It was tiny, as islands go—or air bases, for that matter. They could only see about half of the island before it curved around into the sea. The runway looked like it barely fit, surrounded by dark black sandy beaches and turquoise waters on three sides. On the other side of the runway was a set of four concrete structures that were separated from tropical rainforest by a tall barbed-wire fence. The dense green vegetation rose higher and higher up along a towering jungle-covered mountain.
Today was arrival day for several groups of consultants. Another jet taxied back out to the runway. It looked identical to the aircraft they had come in on. David watched that jet’s group of passengers carrying their bags up the sandy path to the buildings. The flight attendant directed his group to do the same.
David and his new companions grabbed their things and followed suit. When they reached the buildings, they were shown to their quarters by an Air Force Major in his summer blues.
“Name?” he asked as David approached.
“David Manning.”
“Manning. Yup. Room 214. Up the stairs. Here’s your key. Throw your stuff in your room. Please meet at the Classroom in one hour. It’s the big building up on the hill with the large glass windows that overlook the runway.”
“Got it. Thanks.” David wanted to ask the Major a million questions, but the others were checking in and he decided to wait. It sounded like they were to get an in-brief in another hour.
An hour later, David sat admiring the swaying palms and clear blue sea through the panoramic windows of the large amphitheater-style classroom. He had showered and shaved using items from the duffel bag Tom had provided. It felt good, but he was still exhausted from the trip.
He thought about his wife and daughters. Lindsay was probably in tears. God, he hoped she would forgive him for this. If this was all really happening, he didn’t see how he had a choice. David wondered why he kept thinking like that. As if this might not be real. Was it the magnitude of a war with China? Or was it something else that caused him to feel uncomfortable?
The setting sun created a painting of bright oranges and deep purples over the water. However, none of them knew exactly which body of water it was. David thought it had to be the South Pacific based on the time of flight and climate. But if that was true, why take them here, so far away?
The room was filled with curious men and women from a variety of places. Some wore power suits. Some had crew cuts and wore military fatigues. Still others had on skinny jeans with fitted tees. David gathered from several informal introductions that their backgrounds were as diverse as their looks suggested. There were computer programmers and scientists, engineers and psychologists, military officers and policy analysts. All were well educated and incredibly bright. David counted twenty of them in all. Like Henry and Bill, each had been told that their purpose there had something to do with a very important national security project. But that was all they had been told before flying to the island. It seemed that Tom was the one recruiter who had spilled the beans. David’s friends from his plane had already started to spread the word that this was about China, creating quite a bit of excitement.
The chatter hushed as a tall and very attractive Asian woman walked to the center of the classroom’s lowered stage. She wore black slacks and a sleeveless silk shirt. She looked out at the members of the audience and they looked back at her, silenced.
She said, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Red Cell. There are two reasons that you are here. First, to piece together what we collectively know about a planned Chinese attack on the United States.”
The statement drew a mix of shock and disbelief. A few shouted questions, but the woman held out her hands for silence.
She continued, “I know this is hard for most of you to believe. But I assure you it is real. I ask that you hold all of your questions until the end. I believe I will cover a lot of them right now, and we will be providing a lot of amplifying details into the night. But I say again, we have reason to believe that China is planning to attack the United States in some type of large-scale military operation within the next twelve to eighteen months.”
Shouts erupted from the room and, again, the woman held out her palms until people quiete
d down. David found her calm and confidence remarkable. “We’ll answer all questions in due time. The second reason you are all here is to actually develop plans for China to attack the United States. I know this sounds ludicrous at first, but hear me out. That is the main objective of a Red Cell. Because we don’t know exactly what the enemy will do, we want to be prepared for what they could do. Over the next three weeks, you will have no communication with the outside world. You will work from early in the morning until late at night. And it will be crucially important work.”
She walked off the stage as she spoke. She stepped up the tiered levels of the classroom, careful to make eye contact with everyone in the room.
“We want you to collaborate and innovate. Do what you do best—find solutions to challenging problems. Each of you has been chosen because you are one of the top minds in your field. This is a highly selective program. You each have been handpicked for a certain relevant skill set. You should be proud of the service that you will perform for your country, although it will not be something that you can ever put on a resume.”
David watched as she marched back down the stairs and stood on the lower stage. She had perfect posture, tanned skin, and great muscle tone. She was very tall. He figured she must be five foot eleven. And she spoke with a captivating charisma that made it hard to take his eyes off her.
“Many of you had top secret clearances with our government or the military prior to arriving. Those of you who did not have been rushed an interim clearance. Normally that can take a year or more. But this was an exceptional case…and we’ve done our homework. Everyone has been quickly but fully vetted. When I’m done here, you will all file in to the next room to sign some admin papers, including a nondisclosure agreement. Nothing that goes on here will ever be made public. These sessions are classified at the highest level.”
She stood completely still. Every pause seemed to signify the importance of what she was saying.
“Secrecy is not our only priority. We want the work here to be of the very best quality. It must be. You have authority from the highest levels of our government to share any and all knowledge gained from your prior work experience in order to ensure that we take every possible consideration into account on this project. You will all be free to discuss anything with each other, regardless of classification level, to achieve our ultimate goal of protecting the United States.”
David noticed some of the people sitting in the seats around the classroom raise their heads a little higher. They were proud to have been chosen for something that was deemed so important. A few squirmed at the idea of sharing classified information in an unfamiliar setting.
“My name,” the woman said, “is Lena Chou. I am normally one of the CIA’s clandestine operations officers. Here on this island, however, I represent a joint task force that includes, among others, the NSA, CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, all branches of the military, and several other agencies…even DARPA. That’s right, the geeks that invented the Internet.”
Lena gave a bright smile that lit up the room. There were nervous chuckles in the audience.
“I will be the supervisor of this Red Cell for the next three weeks. I’ve done this twice before. In past Red Cells, we’ve used people like you from very creative and diverse fields to help build mock attack scenarios. We have even used authors of techno thrillers to help us create fictional terrorist attack plots. While we don’t have any authors here this time, we are trying something new. Natesh Chaudry is the CEO of a consulting firm located in Silicon Valley. Natesh, would you like to say anything?”
A young man who couldn’t have been past his late twenties stood up from his seat in the back row. He wore stylish jeans and a collared Lacoste shirt.
He said, “Hello, guys, I’m Natesh. I am glad to meet all of you. I just arrived here today like you. Also like you, I didn’t know where I was going or what exactly this was about. Lena gave me a little bit of a preview about thirty minutes ago. Needless to say, I’m still in shock. Probably like a lot of you. But I’m glad that I’m getting the opportunity to contribute to something so important.”
David thought this young man looked like he was out of his league. He seemed nervous. David didn’t blame him. Still, he spoke with an easygoing tone that made him instantly trustworthy.
Natesh continued, “Like Lena said, my team and I work in California with a variety of companies. We help some of the top firms in the world increase their level of innovation in new products and services. Normally I bring members of my team with me. Due to the sensitive nature of this project, it’s just me here this time. To put it simply, I’m an idea guy. I’ve built my company by helping other companies create winning ideas. I have been brought in to act as a moderator during the sessions. I plan to break us up into teams for much of the time, and I’ll float between stations. Sometimes, if the conversation goes to one of my areas of expertise, I’ll offer insights. Honestly, while I don’t have much expertise in the invasion department”—Natesh was half-laughing in disbelief as he said that—“I’m a strategist at my core. I think you’ll find that I can help connect some of your insights in ways that will make our overarching ideas more powerful.”
The classroom smiled with a tense politeness. David could tell from their expressions that people were just beginning to wrap their minds around what was going on.
Natesh said, “Please use your area of expertise where it is helpful, but be flexible and open to new ideas. Try not to say ‘that won’t work’ too much. Use the people around you to find out new ways that it can work. Think about the links from one activity to another. Try to help figure out all of the possible connections and solutions. I will help out with this more as we go. Thanks, and I look forward to working with you all.”
Lena said, “Thank you, Natesh. Today, we’ll go over what we, as representatives of our country, know to be true right now. Our big-picture goal for week one is to identify potential vulnerabilities. The goal of week two is to plan out how to best take action to capitalize on those vulnerabilities.”
A deep voice from the back of the room spoke up. “Are we going to be planning the actual defenses too?”
Lena looked up and cocked her head. She spoke with the effortless rhythm of someone who had done a thousand public speaking events. “Could you please state your name and your background?”
The man cleared his throat. “Sure. Sorry. My name is Bill Stanley. I’m a defense contractor. I work on satellite connections to drones and reconnaissance aircraft. And I’m retired Air Force.”
Lena said, “Excellent. Mr. Stanley, welcome to the island and thank you for your service. To answer your question, we want you to help build out a potential Chinese attack plan with your knowledge of what the expected American response would look like. We want you to plan around that as if you are really trying to win the war for the Chinese. Some of you have actually worked on counterterrorism plans. Some of you have worked on plans to counter “what-if” scenarios…like if North Korea invaded the South or if China invaded Taiwan. But ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be different.”
She clicked a remote control in her hand and a large flat-screen monitor in the front of the room went from a black screen to a map of the Pacific Rim.
“The short answer to Mr. Stanley’s question is no. We are not here to plan our nation’s defense. Some of you might have good ideas about this and could even be considered experts…but that isn’t why you are here. We want you to play the bad guy. If we brought you into this project to plan the defense also, you’d be thinking of problems at the same time you would be thinking of solutions, and you wouldn’t be as good at creating attack plans. At least, that’s what our psychologists have told us.” She gave a nod to the grey-haired man in the second row, who nodded back. Apparently, he was a psychologist.
She clicked on the remote and the screen changed to a black map of the United States with a bunch of different-sized blue dots scattered throughout.
“Anyone
know what this is?” she asked.
“Those look like where our bases are,” Bill responded.
“That’s right.” She clicked on the button again and images of ships, tanks, soldiers, and aircraft popped up next to each of the bases with numbers next to them. “And what’s this?”
“That’s our order of battle,” someone said from the back.
“Correct,” Lena said. “Does everyone know what that means?”
There were a lot of heads shaking no. “An order of battle is essentially how many of each type of weapon or fighting asset we have. Let’s look at a few statistics.”
She clicked again and a grid popped up.
“What are your takeaways here?” Lena asked.
David watched from the back of the class. He remained quiet, never one to like speaking up in a classroom setting.
A young man in jeans sitting in the front row said, “It looks to me like we’d kick China’s butt in a fight because our air superiority would probably blow everything else up before China could do any damage.”
Lena said, “Okay. Now let’s look at a different set of numbers.”
“Thoughts?” Lena asked.
Someone whistled. David knew it was a mismatch. Everyone knew how big China was. But if it really came to a land war…those numbers were a bit scary.
Natesh said, “That’s a lot of manpower. And a lot of production capability when compared to the US.”
One of the uniformed military officers said, “Okay, Lena, this is great. But it’s not like China can drive right over and attack us rifleman against rifleman. That’s just not the way warfare works anymore. The militaries would clash in the air and across the Pacific before it ever came to that. And I know for a fact that we have a pretty serious technological advantage over most of the Chinese platforms.”