“Anyone else?” he asked.
Sara and Erika took off running around the corner, away from the madness.
Safeco Field, Seattle, WA, 1407 Pacific Daylight Time
Captain Ma Gang walked into the PA booth along with three of his soldiers. He was in no hurry, as he knew no one was leaving the stadium; they had brought locks and chains and had secured the entire facility. Nor was anyone making a cell phone call to alert the police or their friends to their problem. He had seen several people trying to make calls, frustration on their faces. The cell phone jammer appeared to be doing its job.
He looked out of the press box at the view of the stadium. The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day at the ballpark. In fact, it was far too nice a day to have so many empty seats. As he was walking in, he had heard it announced that there were 18,145 people in attendance. With a seating capacity of over 47, 000, they had hoped for more hostages than that, but the Seattle Mariners remained mired in their decades long slump (they hadn’t won the division since 2001) and attendance was low, even for a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Still, over 18,000 people were going to get a little more than they bargained for today.
M.V. Oosterdam, Pier 91, Port of Seattle, Seattle, WA, 1408 Pacific Daylight Time
The cruise should have left an hour ago, but the Holland America ship M.V. Oosterdam, still sat on the west side of Pier 91 due to some mechanical difficulties that had prevented the ship from getting underway. In light of several mishaps in recent years, where cruise liners had experienced malfunctions at sea that turned ugly (and resulted in ridiculously high numbers of lawsuits that still hadn’t cleared the court system), the cruise ship’s Captain had decided to stay pier-side while the crew worked to fix it. The passengers had been told that it was a minor malfunction that would only delay them a short time, although it would not affect their itinerary in any way. The ship was holding a ‘Pre-Sail Party’ at the Sea View Pool on the Lido Deck, with free cocktails as a way of keeping tempers in check. Jack and his wife Janet had decided to stay in their cabin and have a drink there; not only did they not feel the urge to fight their way through the crush of people seeking free booze, they were able to have a drink in their cabin, courtesy of the ship’s Captain. When they arrived, there were already two bottles of the ship’s signature Chardonnay chilling in an ice bucket, with a note to welcome the senator and his family aboard. “It’s good to be king,” the senator had thought at the time.
Jack knew that his children didn’t mind missing out on the party; they were in the cabin next door to his, preparing to go to sea by texting all of their friends while they still could. Jack wondered what they’d do without their cell phone connectivity during the cruise, but then chuckled as he thought about the grief he could give them over their expected withdrawal symptoms. Having refreshed their glasses, Jack and Janet stepped out onto the balcony of their suite. As they surveyed the port area, Jack noticed armed men in uniforms coming off the freighter on the east side of the pier and spreading out over the pier at a run. As Jack saw some of them starting to come onboard the ship, he determined that this was some sort of Homeland Security drill. In the last round of budget talks before he left Washington, D.C. for the cruise, he had signed a bill that cut government funding to several agencies; the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with all of its inefficiencies, was one of the organizations that bore the brunt of the cuts. It would be just like the Director of DHS to put together an impromptu drill, he thought, just to inconvenience the senator as a result.
More than a bit annoyed that no one had briefed him on the drill, Jack decided to go down to the cruise ship’s gangway to see what was going on. “Janet, stay here with the kids,” he directed. “I’m going to go see what those Homeland Security assholes are doing to delay our cruise even further.” His wife knew there was no love lost between Jack and the director, although sometimes she wondered if Jack didn’t take things a little too personally for his own good.
USS Shoup (DDG-86), Everett Naval Station, WA, 1409 Pacific Daylight Time
The Commanding Officer of the USS Shoup, Commander Jane Wiggins, stepped onto the bridge of the USS Shoup to find three Chinese sailors pointing pistols at her watchstanders. “What the hell is going on here?” she asked.
“It is quite simple,” said their leader, who CDR Wiggins saw was a Grade 6 Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO 6), the PRC Navy’s senior enlisted rank, similar to the U.S. Navy’s Master Chief Petty Officer. “My name is Hu Yan, and we have taken over your ship. Now, we have no desire to hurt or kill any of your sailors, but if you do not do exactly as I say, we will kill as many as we need to make our point.”
“I’m not sure that three of you can hold the ship,” CDR Wiggins said. “You may be able to kill a few of us, but my men and women will overpower you in short order.”
“While that may indeed be true,” said the NCO 6, “there are more of us aboard than what you see here. We left another of our group at the entrance to your ship, and I just saw some more of our friends arrive.” While the Shoup’s CO had been talking, Hu had seen four black vans driving down the pier toward the ship. “I don’t feel that we need to tell you how many are aboard, but you can be sure that the ones that just got here are heavily armed, and we have enough onboard to do the job.”
“What is it that you want from us?” asked CDR Wiggins.
“Easy,” said the NCO 6. “All you have to do is leave.”
USS Ford (FFG-54), Everett Naval Station, WA, 1410 Pacific Daylight Time
The group of sailors led by CDR MacGuinness and PLAN LT Sun reached the bridge of the USS Ford. Although the group had started out with seven people when it left the quarterdeck, it had grown to ten by the time it made it to the bridge. As the group came across American sailors along the way, they had also been grabbed and forced to come to the bridge. While four of the PLAN sailors covered the other four Americans with their rifles, LT Sun spoke with CDR MacGuinness.
“CDR MacGuinness, I have no desire to be melodramatic like your American movies, but we can either do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is that you get on the ship’s intercom and tell your people to leave the ship. How you do that is up to you. From the time that you start talking, your people will have five minutes to exit the ship. Anyone that we find onboard after that will be shot. Not wounded, not captured, but shot dead. Their deaths will be on your head.” He looked out the bridge window. “Now, in case you get any delusions of resisting, I think you ought to know that another couple of squads of heavily armed Special Forces soldiers just came onboard from those vans that just pulled up.” He pulled CDR MacGuinness to the window so that he could see the last of the men coming onboard in full combat gear.
“That is the easy way,” he continued. “You talk, everyone leaves, and no one has to die. The hard way is, if you refuse, we kill you, right here, right now, and then go about the ship, exterminating everyone as we go. The end result is the same for us, although a lot more bloody for you. In the end, though, we will take over this ship.” He smiled at the commanding officer. “So, which way is it going to be?”
“What am I supposed to tell my sailors?” CDR MacGuinness asked, trying to stall for time.
“As I said,” answered LT Sun, “I don’t care what you tell them. The truth would probably work as well as any story you can concoct.” He looked at the Americans’ name tags. “Tell them that we have taken over the ship, and that if they don’t leave it immediately, Chinese sailors will shoot you, LT Musselman and the three other sailors we have on the bridge. Please also let them know that, while we will let everyone off the ship that leaves in the next five minutes, anyone that we see with a weapon will be shot on sight, as well as anyone remaining after the five minutes is over.”
Stepping over to LT Musselman, he put the barrel of his pistol next to LT Musselman’s temple. “Your five minutes starts now,” he said, looking at his watch. “You’d better hurry.”
CDR MacGuinness was ou
t of time and options. He picked up the microphone for the ship’s intercom system and began talking.
M.V. Oosterdam, Pier 91, Port of Seattle, Seattle, WA, 1411 Pacific Daylight Time
Senator Jack Turner arrived at the gangway of the Oosterdam to see a sailor in a foreign uniform pointing a strange looking rifle at the Holland America staff assembled there. Most of them had their hands in the air. “What’s going on here?” he asked in his most officious and aristocratic voice. “Why wasn’t I told that there was going to be an exercise today?”
“This is no exercise,” said a man behind him. “We are taking over this ship.” As Jack turned, he could see that this man was also in a foreign uniform, but had on some kind of officer’s insignia. He also had one of the weird rifles in his hands and a pistol in a holster at his side.
“That’s preposterous!” scoffed Jack. “As if a foreign country could come onto American soil and capture a fully loaded cruise liner. That’s preposterous, I say. I know this is just another Homeland Security drill, and one that is directed at me because I voted to cut your funding.”
“You are mistaken,” said the officer. “Now, get back over with the group over there.” He used the muzzle of the rifle to indicate the Holland America staff.
“I will certainly NOT!” cried Jack. “I’m Senator Jack Turner! I’m tired of this shit, and I don’t like your attitude.” Stepping toward the officer, he said, “Now give me your badge number. I’ll make sure you never work for the federal government ever again.” He reached toward the officer to take his gun. To his surprise, the officer reversed the weapon, taking hold of it by the carrying handle on top, and swung it at him, with the butt of the rifle impacting his temple. Jack folded like a marionette whose strings had been cut, unconscious.
The demonstration had served its point. As the officer looked back to the Holland America staff, he saw that all of them now held their hands up. “Anyone else want to see if this is indeed a drill?” he asked. He paused a minute, contemplating what he had just heard. “Did he say that he was a senator?” he asked the staff. A couple of them nodded their heads.
“Good,” said the officer. He looked at two of his men. “Why don’t you take one of the boat’s staff and see if you can round up the rest of the senator’s family? When you find them, take them and the senator back aboard the Erawan and give them to Major Chin, with my compliments.”
USS Shoup (DDG-86), Everett Naval Station, WA, 1415 Pacific Daylight Time
The Commanding Officer and the sailors from the bridge filed off of the USS Shoup to find the rest of the crew milling about on the pier under the watchful eyes of four Special Forces soldiers. The Commanding Officer of the USS Shoup, Commander Jane Wiggins, asked, “What’s going on here? You said we’d all be allowed to leave.”
“And indeed you will be allowed to leave,” said Hu Yan, the Grade 6 NCO, who had followed them off of the ship. “But first, we need three volunteers to show us how to use the radar systems.”
“And if we decline?” asked the CO.
“That would be most unfortunate,” he replied, “and we would probably be forced to start shooting your sailors until we found someone that could help us.” He looked back up at the ship. “We would probably start with them.”
Looking back at the ship, the CO could see three of her young, female sailors standing next to the rail on the side of the ship. She could also see three Chinese soldiers standing behind them with pistols to the young women’s heads. The sailors looked scared, and at least two of them had tears running down their cheeks. She didn’t know what the soldiers had told her sailors, but it had obviously had a big effect on them.
“You wouldn’t!” the CO said. “That violates all of the rules of warfare.”
“Unfortunately, we would,” he said, “and yes, that would indeed make me a criminal under international law. You are welcome to lodge a complaint with the International Criminal Court if you ever get a chance to talk to them. None of that, though, is going to change what happens here over the next few hours. Now, would you be able to find someone that can show us how to use the ship’s radar, or do we need to start shooting people?”
The CO paused, and all three of the Chinese soldiers cocked the hammers on their pistols. One of the female sailors started whimpering. “OK,” said the CO. “Take the guns off of my sailors. We’ll help you.”
“I thought you might.”
Softball Fields, Everett Naval Station, WA, 1417 Pacific Daylight Time
In the end, the softball game came down less to the bat of LT Espinosa or Petty Officer Davis than it did to the actions of a couple of 13-year old girls.
The Chinese team had the lead 10-9 going into the bottom of the seventh, and final, inning, having scored two runs in the top of the inning to reclaim the lead. Both pitchers were starting to labor, and the quality of the game had gone a little downhill after Commander Gao left. In fact, both runners that scored in the top of the inning had made it onto base by walking and were helped along by an error on the Shoup’s third baseman.
The team from the Shoup might have been down on the scoreboard, but they were by no means out of the game. They only needed one run to tie and two to win, which was well within their reach, as the top of their lineup, including their two big hitters, were up to bat.
Morale soared as the first hitter in their batting order walked. It was just as quickly crushed when the second hitter drilled a line drive at the second baseman, who deftly caught the ball and threw it to first. The runner didn’t make it back in time and was thrown out for the double play.
The team from the Shoup was down to its final out, but had Petty Officer Davis up next, followed by LT Espinosa. The Chinese had seen enough of those two, though, and intentionally walked both of them on four pitches each. The XO of the Shoup, LCDR Ernie Griffin, exhorted his sailors to remember their ship’s motto, “Through Perseverance Comes Victory” and pull out the win. Looking scared and not up to the moment, their #5 hitter went up to bat. He had one hit in his four at bats but also had two strikeouts on the day.
Looking up at her father, the XO, Adrienne Griffin said, “You know what we need, dad? We need a cheer. That always picks people up!” Adrienne had been a softball player for seven of her thirteen years, and her teams always did cheers to get each other fired up. Along with her friend Abby, they started a song at the top of their lungs:
“There was a little froggy, who sat up on a log,
He rooted for the other team, he had no sense at all!
He fell into the water, and bumped his little head,
And when he came back up again, this is what he said!”
The pitcher, not ready for the loud cheer, threw low. Ball one.
“Go, go go, go you mighty Shoup-ers!
Go, go go, go you mighty Shoup-ers!
Go! Fight! Win! Until the very, very, end!
And then he fell back in again!”
More people joined in. Looking annoyed, the Chinese pitcher threw high. Ball two. The other game had ended and the players from the Ford drifted over to see the score. Joining in, they helped sing it even louder the second time through.
“There was a little froggy, who sat up on a log,
He rooted for the other team, he had no sense at all!
He fell into the water, and bumped his little head,
And when he came back up again, this is what he said!”
Completely off his game now, the pitcher threw behind the hitter. The catcher kept it from going to the backstop, but the runners advanced to second and third. Ball three.
“Go, go go, go you mighty Shoup-ers!
Go, go go, go you mighty Shoup-ers!
Go! Fight! Win! Until the very, very, end!
And then he fell back in again!”
The ball bounced six inches in front of the plate. Ball four and the bases were loaded. Unfortunately, though, that brought up Ensign Patrick Allen, who had struck out three times so far and grounded out weakly to th
e first baseman in his other at bat. Things looked grim. “Next song!” yelled Adrienne. She and Abby sang:
“Swing that bat and bash that ball, honey, honey!
Swing that bat and bash that ball, baby! Na, na, na
Swing that bat and bash that ball, round the bases, Yee-Haw!
Honey, I’ll meet you at home!”
The pitcher had adjusted to the noise and threw the ball better this time. Ensign Allen gave a half swing, missing it by six inches. Not good. The girls sang louder, joined by a large portion of the crowd.
“Swing that bat and bash that ball, honey, honey!
Swing that bat and bash that ball, baby! Na, na, na
Swing that bat and bash that ball, round the bases, Yee-Haw!
Honey, I’ll meet you at home!
One more time!”
Ensign Allen swung weakly again, missing it by even more. The girls and the rest of the fans just sang louder.
“Swing that bat and bash that ball, honey, honey!
Swing that bat and bash that ball, baby!
Swing that bat and bash that ball, round the bases, Yee-Haw!
Honey, I’ll meet you at home!”
Ensign Allen stepped back into the batter’s box, looking determined. Another ball came down the middle; this time he swung with all his might and hit it, driving the ball just over a leaping shortstop. The centerfielder was moving on the swing, though, and cut the ball off from going through the gap. He came up throwing. Petty Officer Davis had already scored, and LT Espinosa had no intention of stopping at third, even though the base coach held up his hands to hold him there. LT Espinosa knew it was all or nothing and kept churning for home. The relay at shortstop was perfect, and the throw reached home at the same time as the diving LT Espinosa. The catcher’s glove came down and tagged LT Espinosa on the shoulder. The ump looked down and saw that his hands were already on home plate. “He’s safe! Shoup wins!” the umpire yelled.
Red Tide: The Chinese Invasion of Seattle (Occupied Seattle Book 1) Page 14