Sky Masters

by Dale Brown

  the more he realized it was the loss of the B-2 that bothered him the

  most. Yes, it was horrible that they'd lost six B-52 crew members, and

  the F-14 Tomcat aviators, and the sailors from the USS Ranger. But he'd

  always thought of the B-2 as. . . almost invincible. For the kind of

  money and research that had gone into those planes, they should have

  been. And yet, as he more than anyone knew, nothing was ever certain in

  life. Nothing. Paul Cesare had been keeping the President's coffee mug

  filled and hot all this time, even though the President had only taken

  two or three sips in nearly twenty-four hours; now, he replaced the

  thick, white Navy galley mug of coffee with a mug of chicken soup. "Eat

  something, Mr. President, " Cesare said. "Get up and stretch . Taylor

  considered it, but the ringing of the White House phone glued him to the

  desk. Cesare picked it up, listened, then handed it right to the

  President. "Sir, it's the Chinese Foreign Minister on the line from

  Beijing." Taylor would have loved to tell Zhou to piss off backwards, or

  tell him that, yes, we won't bomb your ships anymore-hell, he wasn't

  sure what he would tell Zhou. Instead, he motioned to Secretary of

  State Danahall to take the phone. They had already discussed in great

  detail exactly what was going to be said-now was the moment to start the

  drama. The President turned to a separate no-voice phone to listen in

  while Danahall cleared his throat and said, "Secretary Danahall

  speaking."

  "Mr. Secretary, this is Zhou Ti Yanbing, " the Chinese For eign

  Minister announced himself. "I thank you for taking my call, sir." "Do

  you have a message for us?"

  "Yes, Mr. Secretary, " Zhou said. "Premier Cheung wishes to officially

  protest the unwarranted and brutal attack on the People's Republic of

  China's fleet in the southern Philippines. Premier Cheung demands to

  know if a state of war has been declared and whether Article Four of the

  Brussels Conference is hereby implemented." Article Four dealt with the

  formal declaration of hostilities between nations, setting in motion all

  the legal and diplomatic formalities of war. Taylor couldn't believe it.

  He listened with a growing sense of fury and frustration. God, how he'd

  love to tell Zhou and Cheung to go to hell. Better yet, to bomb them

  back into the Stone Age. With that one nuclear explosion they had set

  off the most maddening and aggravating chain of events in his

  administration. And now the fuckers were demanding that the United

  States follow the letter of the law. The audacity. . He shook his head

  and took a deep breath. Even going on twenty-four hours without sleep,

  he knew, as much as he'd rather not, that rules had to be obeyed,

  protocol observed, words exchanged. He nodded for Secretary Danahall to

  continue... Danahall took a deep breath and said calmly, "Please advise

  Premier Cheung that the government of the United States desires no

  direct communication with the government of the People's Republic of

  China except to receive an offer of an immediate cease-fire and

  guaranteed promise to halt all military operations in the Philippines.

  Any official notification this government has with your government will

  be through the United Nations."

  "I understand the formal notification procedures, Mr. Secretary, and we

  will of course abide by them as well, " Zhou said in his polished,

  fluent English-Oriental accent. "My government has already delivered an

  official letter of protest to the Secretary General, and I trust

  Ambassador O'Day will contact you in short order. But any nation that

  embraces peace, freedom, and human rights would surely desire to begin

  negotia tions to end all hostilities as soon as possible. You do not

  wish to fight a war, do you, Mr. Secretary? Will you simply make

  demands of us without opening any sort of dialogue?"

  "We have no message or statements for your government, Mr. Foreign

  Secretary, Danahall said resolutely, "except that we expect your

  guaranteed promise to withdraw all military forces from the Philippines

  immediately. Do you have a message for my government?" There was a

  slight pause; then: "Mr. Secretary, please conAnd then the line went

  dead. THE PRESIDENTIAL RESIDENCE, BEIJING PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

  MONDAY, 10 OCTOBER 1994, 0231 HRS. LOCAL "You will not capitulate to

  the Americans!" Chinese High General Chin Po Zihong said as he grabbed

  the phone from the Foreign Minister's hand. Several other members of

  Premier Cheung Yat Sing's Cabinet shot to their feet in absolute shock.

  Premier Cheung himself remained impassive, his hands folded on his desk,

  watching the spectacle with a stone-cold, expressionless visage. "How

  dare you disrupt a call to a foreign ministry like that!" Zhou shouted.

  "Explain yourself, Comrade General. You are violating a direct order

  from the Comrade Premier himself..."

  "I am in charge of this military operation, Comrade Zhou, " General Chin

  said. "Any communications that involve it must go through myself. I

  have full authority-"

  "You are out of line, General, " Zhou said angrily. "You were insane to

  begin this foolish military incursion, you were insane to place that

  criminal Admiral Yin in charge of an invasion force on Mindanao, and you

  are a fool to refuse to open a dialogue with the Americans." He turned

  and motioned to a stack of reports piled on a granite conference table

  nearby. "You have read these reports. Four destroyers have been sunk

  out there! Four destroy ers! That is half of the destroyers assigned

  to Admiral Yin, and one-fourth of all the destroyers in the entire

  People's Liberation Army Navy fleet! At first report, ten frigates and

  nearly thirty patrol boats were sunk or put out of commission as well.

  There is no report of casualties yet, but they must number in the

  thousands! This operation must be terminated immediately!"

  "Impossible!" Chin shouted. "Out of the question. We are hours away

  from final victory, Zhou Ti Yanbing. The invasion has already begun,

  and the early indications are that there is no resistance "No

  resistance? Four destroyers on the bottom of the Celebes Sea, and you

  say no resistance? You cannot hope to ever claim a victory in this

  debacle!"

  "I was referring to rebel resistance in Davao, " General Chin said. "We

  expected heavy losses from the very begin....... "You told this

  government that we could expect twenty to thirty percent losses maximum

  throughout the duration of this conflict, " Zhou argued. "You did not

  say we would sustain thirty percent losses in three hours "The objective

  of the operation was to seize Samar International Airport and secure the

  island of Mindanao, " General Chin said. "This government authorized

  that operation-you authorized it as well, Comrade Zhou, with your

  affirmative vote. That objective is still within my reach. Loss

  figures have not been verified, and all my reports indicate that the

  objective can still be achieved in less than six hours. So far only the

  American Air Battle Force has been involved in this operation. They have
<
br />   sustained heavy losses as well, and even if they complete their raids we

  can still achieve total victory. Once Samar International Airport

  falls, not one single American aircraft will be able to approach within

  five hundred kilometers of the Philippines again... "It appears obvious

  to me, General, that even if you do take Samar International Airport,

  you have gained nothing, " Zhou said. "The losses we are experiencing

  are staggering. We must withdraw immediately or we will not have an

  army to land on Davao Airport when you finally take it-or should I add,

  if you take it." Zhou turned to Premier Cheung, who had not said a word

  during the entire argument. "Comrade, I request, with all due respect,

  that General Chin's operation be terminated and that we return-"

  "You cannot do this, " General Chin shouted. "You cannot abandon a

  military operation simply because of unverified reports of heavy losses

  in the first few hours of a battle." To Premier Cheung, he said,

  "Comrade Premier, we know the Americans cannot mount a follow-on attack

  with the Air Battle Force-Admiral Yin estimates they are using

  two-thirds of their strength on this raid alone and are sustaining heavy

  losses. This is nothing more than a warning-the Americans want us to

  know that they are serious about the status of the Philippines. "But if

  we back out now, we have no claim to make for Palawan, Mindanao, or the

  Spratly Islands whatsoever. If we take Davao and secure Mindanao, we

  can negotiate for favorable terms. The Americans might even be forced

  to disengage if their losses are heavy enough and if both world and

  popular opinion turns against them, and then we begin our consolidation

  of the Philippines under Chinese stewardship." He lowered his voice,

  stared the Premier straight in the eyes, and said, "I can guarantee you

  a victory, Comrade Premier. If I am stopped, I can guarantee you only

  embarrassment and defeat." After several long moments, the aged Cheung

  rose, assisted by two bodyguards. In a low, creaking voice, he said,

  "You can guarantee nothing, General Chin, but death and destruction.

  However, for your sake, I hope you can inflict more on the enemy than he

  does on us. I will require updates every thirty minutes."

  "Yes, Comrade Premier, " Chin said, bowing. "Be assured, we will see

  victory today." Cheung ignored Chin's boasting. To his Foreign

  Minister, Cheung said, "Comrade Zhou, I will speak with you for a

  moment." Chin was not invited in on the brief discussion. Cheung said

  a few words to Zhou, who bowed deeply and hurried off. Chin was left

  alone with his thoughts. The Americans were doing incredible damage to

  his fleet in the south Philippines, Chin thought grimly. There was a

  very real possibility that he could lose this conflict-if the American

  bombers managed to sweep across to the landing ships, every last one of

  the Marines landing near Davao could be wiped out. He would be

  completely disgraced. He could not allow a defeat in Davao... Zhou

  criticized him for putting Admiral Yin Po L'un in charge of the

  invasion, but suddenly a fearsome thought occurred to General Chin that

  Admiral Yin might provide a way out of this mess. The question was: was

  Admiral Yin really insane enough to do it? He stepped quickly out of the

  Premier's office suites and directly to the palace communications center

  to put through an urgent call to Admiral Yin on the destroyer Hong Lung.

  The answer to his question: yes, Yin was that crazy. ANDERSEN AIR FORCE

  BASE, GUAM "General, we got the satellite picture back!" Jon Masters

  said. Generals Stone, Elliott, Harbaugh, and the rest of the Joint Task

  Force staff crowded around the reactivated high-definition computer

  screen. It showed the entire Davao Gulf area in extraordinary detail,

  with IFF data blocks on every American aircraft, and computer-generated

  data blocks on the Chinese vessels. "Great, Jon, just great, " Stone

  said. The staff studied the board for several moments. "We're going to

  have to divide the screen up between the staff and prepare a summary of

  the Chinese ships that are still out there. We'll have to make a

  decision about the second wave pretty soon." After checking that the

  individual consoles were working out properly, Stone assigned each staff

  member a section of the Davao, Celebes Sea, and Philippine Sea areas to

  search for Chinese ships. "Looks like the southern packages are coming

  off the target, the eastern packages are over the target, and the

  northern packages are two minutes out, " Calvin Jarrell summarized. "The

  southern group got hit pretty hard... the eastern group looks almost

  intact. . . God, the northern planes are taking a beating from that

  one ship right there near the airport."

  "It'll take awhile to see which ships have been hit or not, " Masters

  said, "but several are showing zero velocity-we can probably assume

  those were struck. Luckily we've still got memorized satellite data, so

  we can retrace a ship's movements along with our aircraft and determine

  whether or not someone hit it." Elliott called Stone over to his console

  after only a few minutes. "I think you better see this, Rat Killer, " he

  said. There were two large vessels and three smaller escort vessels in

  a small group, farther west than the main battle group. "Obviously

  reinforcements, " Elliott said. "But the ISAR radar report that Cobb and

  McLanahan got for us said something about this group... As Stone

  watched, Elliott zoomed in on the group of five vessels, zoomed in on

  the largest one in the group, then switched to an ISAR view of the ship.

  Using ISAR, or inverse synthetic aperture radar, mode, the motion of the

  ship itself as well as the motion of the satellite created a very

  high-definition three-dimensional view of the vessel, which when run

  through a computer's stored catalog of ships could yield the identity of

  the ship itself. And when they found out, Stone muttered a curse to

  himself. "Hong Lung, " he said. "They're sailing Hong Lung itself back

  into battle . "General Stone, " one of the battle staff communications

  officers said. "Sir... the base operator received an urgent phone

  call-from the embassy in Manila." The officers turned to face the

  communications officer-they could tell from the man's voice that

  something was happening. "What is it?"

  "Sir... the embassy got a call from an officer who identified himself

  as a member of the Fleet Admiral's Staff of the Chinese People's

  Liberation Army Navy South Philippines Task Force. He advises us that

  Admiral Yin Po L'un, the Fleet Admiral, has ordered that the city of

  Davao be attacked and destroyed with nuclear weapons if the American

  bombers do not withdraw immediately."

  "What?" Everyone in the command post was on their feet. "That was the

  ship... the guy... that launched the antiship nuclear missile . . .

  wasn't it?" Masters asked Stone. No one replied, but the answer was

  clear. "It's a bluff, " Cal Jarrel said resolutely. "The message origin

  was verified, sir, " the communications officer reported. "Came directly

  from the Premier's offices themselves t
hrough military channels. The

  State Department is notifying the White House now. "Back up that call

  with one of our own, Stone ordered. "Get the President on the line for

  me immediately."

  "Can he do it?" Elliott asked. "Can his missiles attack ground

  targets?"

  "Easily, and with pretty good precision, " Stone replied. "The Fei

  Lung-9 has a range of almost two hundred kilometers-that's over a

  hundred nautical miles. It was originally a mobile land-based missile,

  modified for shipboard use. "You can't take this seriously, " Jarrel

  protested. "We were expecting something like this. The next call that

  comes in will say that the Chinese will launch a sea-launched ballistic

  missile on Guam or Hong Kong or Okinawa if we don't withdraw." But

  faces were still grave-they were taking the threat very seriously.

  Jarrel said, "There's nothing we can do anyway-the planes are over their

  targets now. In three minutes the B- Is will go over the target."

  "We can withdraw them, " Harbaugh said. "That's crazy, Tom. "Look at

  the board, Cal, " Harbaugh said. "Your boys have done enough damage

  already. What's the big deal if we abort the northern strike group?"

  "The big deal is, the Chinese Marines will make it on the beach, "

  Jarrel argued. "We would have used all the other bombers for nothing...

  we will have lost all those other crews for nothing."

  "We can't take the chance that he'll do it, " Harbaugh said. "He'll wipe

  out a bunch of his own guys, won't he?" Masters asked. "If they're

  already wiped out by the Air Battle Force, he might not care." "Order a

  strike by the Tomahawk cruise missiles again, " Elliott said. "What's

  the range from the Wisconsin group to the Hong Lung?" But the

  measurement was quickly made and verified-it was over six hundred miles.

  The Tomahawk cruise missile crews would need at least thirty minutes to

  program a new strike, and then the missiles would take at least an hour

  to fly that distance. "We can order one of the bombers to attack the

  Hong Lung, " Harbaugh said. "They can withhold a couple weapons, head

  south, and attack. We can use a couple of the B-1s in the northern