The Devil's Playground

by Michael Reagan

placed on standby to support their comrades in defending the mainland. At the same time, he continued to send messages through Rob to his friend, Parker in order to keep the dialogue flowing directly, thus bypassing Young all together. His mind shifted to recent events.

  The Chinese annexation of the Diayou Islands had been an unexpected bonus as far as he was concerned, as it had only made the objectives of Humble Servant easier to obtain because the Korean population, without any prodding by his assets were, to his delight, demanding closer links with China and wanted the Americans out of Korea over their abandoning Korea to support the interests of the Japanese.

  Unfortunately, Young's recent actions would make this difficult to achieve.

  He reflected on Young for a second. He was proving to be a worthy adversary. His political play at trying to split the new Russo-China Alliance by threatening to put boots on the ground in Turkmenistan was clever, for he never doubted for one moment that standing committee of China, knowing they would likely be next if they didn't vacate the islands, would not want a military confrontation that would threaten their trade agreements around the world. Nor did he believe that Putin would wish to engage in a direct military action trying to protect his allies in Turkmenistan without an election to validate their puppet.

  "Yes," he thought. "Using a smaller military action as an example of the Administration resolve was indeed clever!"

  A young man of about thirty entered the room. O motioned for him to seat while he deliberated on the fact whether he needed to run a counter intelligence operation to undermine Young's position or not. The Russians and the Chinese had all underestimated Young and as a consequence were now beginning to pay the price politically. O determined that he would not fall into the same trap.

  He refocused his gaze on the man. A former Commando in the North Korean Special Operation Force (NKSOF) that used to consist of specially equipped and trained military units that performed military, political, or psychological operations but was now earning a living as a security guard in Japan and under a false identity running a special collection of 'sleeper agents' for him.

  "Captain, you have been selected for a task that will bring great honor to all of Korea," said O using his former rank before he began briefing him on his mission.

  For his entry into Japan via Hong Kong, as direct flights between Beijing and Tokyo had been suspended since the annexation, Thomas had used his British Passport.

  Notwithstanding, having been the public face of the crisis right up to the moment the Liancourt Rocks were annexed, even he was surprised when it appeared that the young passport control officer manning the desk at Osaka International Airport had no idea who he was as he stamped his passport with loud thud while both he and Mikhail had in turn moved through passport control having used a commercial flight for the first time in years, just as any tourist or businessperson would do.

  "And there's me thinking we were going to get problems!" said Mikhail as they wandered out to get a taxi together to take them to the Hilton Hotel.

  Thomas smiled.

  "You're only moaning because you've gotten soft in your old age from flying around on private jets!" teased Thomas with wry smile only to be interrupted by a young Japanese lady.

  "Thomas-San," said the pretty girl, who Thomas thought had to be in her mid-twenties.

  Immediately Thomas and Mikhail were on their guard. Humor was instantly forgotten.

  "Mr. O sent me," said the lady before handing him a letter with his name handwritten on it and wax seal on it. As Thomas took it he immediately recognized the seal and the handwriting as belonging to O's hand. He cautiously opened it then read it.

  "He doesn't trust emails," she said by way of explanation to Mikhail as he threat assessed her.

  Mikhail smiled but didn't comment.

  The message in O's flowing handwriting was a simple instruction to Thomas that the girl who was called Yuri would look after him while in Japan and he could trust her with any task. She was his to command.

  Thomas looked at her one time, then said, "It appears we are in your trusted hands, Miss Yuri," with a twinkle.

  Following the girl to a dark blue BMW X6 that Mikhail immediately assessed by the way it was set on the ground when both men got in the vehicle was armored, and muttered as much to Thomas. It was only when they were once inside the 4x4 vehicle that the girl turned around from the front seat spoke again to them.

  "Mr. O has instructed me to look after you during your stay in Osaka! If you need anything please don't hesitate to ask," she said with a look that implied more.

  On any other occasion Thomas might have taken her up on her offer. Today though his mind was firmly focused on the task he had been asked to carry out on O's behalf. So instead he asked, "When do I meet with Katamaya- San?"

  "I will contact you once Yorijo-San has agreed to a meeting," she said without hesitation.

  "Oh Mikhail-San," she said warmly with a beaming smile, "Mr. O told me to give you this," handing over rucksack to the Israeli bodyguard who promptly opened it and immediately smiled.

  "What a nice man," he said, handing Thomas a Glock pistol with a holster while keeping a weapon for himself.

  "Mr. O always looks after his guests!" said the smiling girl before turning around on the front seat to motion the driver to move off.

  42

  Tokyo / Beijing / East China Sea

  Between 1953 and reunification over 300,000 former North Koreans had defected from their country. During that time most of them found their way either through Russia or China but all had shared a common bond: the desire for a better life.

  Mun In-Guk had appeared to be one of those people yet he wasn't. Given his mission in his late twenties by the late Wonsu O he had first made his way to Russia then via Thailand before he finally arrived in Japan only to promptly disappear into Osaka as one of the city's many illegal workers.

  Taking the identity of a Japanese man who had been kidnapped by Office 39 and forcibly sent to the North to act as a forced schoolteacher in their illegal program, the new Kanta Kubo had left Osaka and journeyed to Tokyo to become a sleeper agent along with fifty other men that he had never met or even knew but like him had all been trained and waited for this moment for their entire lives.

  A plan devised many years ago by Wonsu O that had Mun and his "hidden" colleagues scattered around Japan's thirty LNG import terminals that are all located around Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya ready to pounce if needed. The Humble Servant team had reactivated them the moment Reunification happened.

  Using his trusted status as a cleaner, Mun walked slowly down the corridor past the security office. Nobody noticed him because he had worked there for over twenty-five years.

  "Moments ago there was massive explosion, accompanied by a pink raging fire seen from miles away, at the LNG plant," reported the pretty anchor from her studio in Tokyo. "The same thing is being reported up and down the country," she continued, trying to look professional but nevertheless failing.

  Thomas was sat watching the reports with Mikhail in the bedroom of the Hilton.

  The television reports across the board were all saying that every one of the Japan's gas terminals were now in flames. It didn't take a genius to work out who was behind the attacks but nevertheless Mikhail said it aloud.

  "The Koreans!" He shook his head, fully aware what the most likely response of Japanese would be.

  Thomas grimly nodded.

  "Even O can't stop a hurricane," he said looking at his watch.

  "The question is though what will the Americans do?" Thomas asked, pouring them both a large shot of Black Label from the mini bar. He forgot to include the Chinese.

  In the underground command office of the Committee the discussion continued to rage.

  "If Japan attacks the Korean mainland the political goodwill of Parker will be forced into a corner," countered the stressed Premier with the ulcers in his stomach from the excessive amount of tea he had drunk o
ver the last two days forcing the bile into his mouth while he fought off the growing consensus to sink the American aircraft carrier that was poised to retake the Diayou Islands.

  "The landscape for a re-annexation of the islands will fade away," reinforced the Vice Premier, taking the Premier's side in the debate.

  "We do not believe this to be the case," responded Jiang joining the fray for the first time since originally presenting the plan to take the islands.

  "We knew there would be a response when we annexed the islands so we must continue hold our nerve," he started and countered, "Parker has no need to turn from his path because he doesn't need to return Congress to authorize military action as the mandate to do so is covered by their Treaty with the Japanese."

  "Okazaki is not a fool!" injected the Chief of Staff angrily, referring to the Japanese Prime Minister. "He will wait until the islands have been retaken by the Americans before he orders a direct strike on Korea!" the man declared dismissively to the rest of China's standing committee with a look of displeasure over the Premier's continued refusal to allow a vote on the matter.

  "By then it will be too late and we will look weak in the eyes of the world," he added forcibly.

  The Premier cracked his neck. He rubbed his eyes. He was losing control of the Standing Committee. Argument after argument was finally taking its toll on those all assembled in the bunker and he could see that tempers were now at a boiling point.

  On one side the 'doves', led by himself, were advocating a wait and see approach; on the other side the 'hawks' now being led by Jiang and the PLA Chief of Staff, were using all of China's SIGINTEL resources to convince the doubters and very effectively to demand a preemptive strike on the American carrier that was on the edge of the exclusion zone. That was apparently was only hours away from preparing an invasion to retake the islands.

  Although the attack and the crippling of Japan's gas facilities by the Koreans, despite Hong's denials had forced the Japanese Prime Minister into a corner, it was not lost on everybody in the room that by using anti-Korean fever over the last twenty-four hours that it appeared Okzaki now had enough momentum in his cabinet to justify a strike on the Korean mainland. A synopsis that only been reinforced by the sudden resignation of the Foreign Minister in the last few hours. Because of this Jiang and his allies had put forward a motion to order the Submarine Captain to sink the carrier at worst or better, cripple it. Unfortunately even the Premier had to admit that their argument was sound. If they didn't act now, China's position as the dominant power in the Far East would be seriously diminished. So with nowhere to go, with a heavy sigh the Premier ordered the vote.

  The United States hasn't lost a carrier since Japanese dive-bombers sank the U.S.S. Hornet in 1942 because despite the array of impressive protection that surrounds the U.S. Carriers, they are much easier to disable than to sink. This is because they have thousands of watertight compartments.

  In recent years a typical bomb or torpedo would have lacked the punch to send such a big ship to the bottom, nevertheless the sinking of one represents a huge propaganda prize for a nation if they do, as the complete loss of a carrier not only devastates military capability but morale of a nation as well. It was because of this that Chinese submariners since early 2000 had focused their efforts on the U.S. carriers collective point of vulnerability.

  The weapon and tactics the Chinese Navy had come up with was the latest variant of the 'Shkval,' meaning 'Squall' in English. Essentially an underwater anti-ship missile designed for use by nuclear-powered submarines against large surface ships such as aircraft carriers and aided by a rocket-assisted propeller, it had been specially adapted to deliver a top speed of three-hundred-miles per hour and a maximum range of nine nautical miles.

  Using a high-pressure stream of bubbles from its nose and skin to coat the torpedo in a thin layer of gas to form a local envelope of super-cavitating bubbles to achieve low drag, and then linking up with the Yaogan 14 satellite that was painting the carrier from above to guide the torpedo, it was six times faster than any Torpedo the American Navy was currently aware of. However what made the weapon different was its Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) that it delivered the moment the torpedo hit the carrier.

  Which as it embedded itself into the hull it would then interact with the 'neurological networks' of the aircraft carrier's C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) systems and render the C4ISR network of the air carrier nonoperational. Thus making it a sitting duck in the water for the second wave of torpedoes launched ten seconds after the first one.

  Like their sisters, these torpedoes were also variants of the Svkhal and guided by the "mother" in the sky that was painting the carrier from in space using hypersonic glide vehicle technology. Unlike their sister, they carried 450 kg of impact and proximity fuses and would hit the carrier at the Forecastle (the front where the crew lives), Amidship (the middle) and the Stern (the end) at the same time, rendering the carrier powerless from attack from the air.

  On the confirmation that the weapons systems were on-line and operational by the young sailor manning the terminal, the Captain gave the order to launch.

  The 31st MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) is the U.S. Marine Corps' only continuously forward-deployed division.

  Colonel James "Buick" Shea, a tough bluff Irish-American from New York City, the commanding officer of the 1,894 men and women that made up the unit assigned to the U.S.S. Bonhomme Richard was standing by the side of a large map being projected onto the large screen on the wall of the briefing room deep within the aircraft carrier, briefing the officers under his command of their objectives.

  "Gentleman in your packets that are being uploaded to your laptops is each of your objectives. Singtel indicates that the Chinese have placed a total of 350 troops on each of the three main islands," he said without pausing. "They have also annexed the Japanese radar surveillance station on Yonaguni with anti-Ship capability. Apollo's objective is to paint this facility the moment Richard enters the exclusion zone," he said, referring to the FORCE RECON Company led by twenty-seven-year-old Captain Brian "Caddy" Bliss using the terminology to indicate the guiding of laser for drones into a target and the nickname for the carrier.

  The young Captain raised his hand. The Colonel nodded, giving him permission to speak.

  "What about the POWs?" he asked referring to the Japanese coastguard officers who were being used by the Chinese as human shields.

  The Colonel nodded grimly at the young officer, but he never got a chance to answer him as the briefing room went completely black.

  "What the fuck!"

  Five seconds later, over the collective murmurs of "get the lights" and "fucking squids," the derogatory term that Marines used for Sailors, three loud eardrum-shattering explosions ripped through the length and breadth of the carrier, quickly followed by an intense wall of heat and flames. The explosion funneled through the U.S.S. Richard Bonhomme's narrow corridors to the blood curling sounds of the screams of men and women as their flesh burned.

  43

  The White House

  "Mr. President, we must respond," demanded Young, acting in his role as the deputy to the commander-in-chief on the National Command Authority (NCA) the term used by the Department of Defense of the United States of America to refer to the ultimate lawful source of military orders after they had just been informed of the attack on their task force.

  "This is act of aggression must be answered with the full force of the United States of America-our honor demands it!"

  The President wanted to scream. He didn't need to be told that by anybody. Let alone by a man he considered a traitor. His anger boiled over.

  "This is all you're fucking fault!" he vented at Young.

  "I am sorry, Mr. President?" answered a startled looking Young.

  "You heard me," Parker said his gaze firmly fixed on the Secretary of State.

  Yet knowing this wasn't
the time to call him out though Parker promptly turned his gaze to that of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

  "What are my non-nuclear options?" Parker asked the Five-Star General.

  "To protect Longstreet from being sunk we need to destroy all nearby air capability," he answered referring to the U.S. codename of the carrier before turning to his colleague Admiral Jean Robertson, America's first female member of the Joint Chiefs and the Chief of Naval Operations to take over the briefing from him.

  The fifty-year-old former submarine Captain and her nation's youngest ever Joint Chief nodded at her more senior colleague's introduction.

  "China has about 180 fighter jets in the Nanjing Military Region, they all are capable of reaching Longstreet, which is currently listing about 400 miles away from the nearest Chinese air base on the continent," the blonde blue eyed Admiral confirmed. "These are a mixture of Su-27s, Su-30s, J-10s and J-11 aircraft and consist of 36 jets in each base," she said looking at the large map on the flat screen television on the wall showing the locations. "We currently have eight Ohio class submarines in the area and they have the capability to deliver a non-nuclear air-sea strike plan against the mainland." She paused. "But it will take us two days to bring more assets into the area to deny China free access to nearby waters."

  It was the National Security Advisor's turn to speak up.

  "We need only to threaten a war at sea, Mr. President," he said before going on to explain that by optimizing the surface fleet to counter China should be enough to enforce a trade blockade that the Ambassador to the United Nations was currently lobbying for with the European Union.

  "The main combatants would be our Ohio's threatening destruction of all Chinese warships and commercial vessels in the China Seas at will. The destruction threshold indicates that a forty percent kill ratio of the vessels PLA Navy will be delivered in one operation. That includes the Liaoning which is at port in Quindao," he added referring to China's carrier.

  "An eye for an eye and more so, Mr. President," offered the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

  "How many casualties?" the President asked.

  "At least ten thousand," answered the Admiral.

  The President didn't say anything. He knew with all the eyes of the room and his nation on him this wasn't the time for indecision, but he needed time to think.

  "Get the Secretary of the Treasury on the squawk box," he ordered. "We will need to close Wall Street and freeze Chinese assets in America the moment the operations begin."

  "Yes, Mr. President."

  Then taking a deep breath and a sip of water he refocused his thoughts towards that of the sailors America had just lost.

  "What the latest report on our casualties Admiral Robertson?"

  "Four hundred," she answered sadly.

  The President