All the late nights, the emotions of so many lives depending on her, were finally taking their toll. Tyler got up and closed her door, so no one else who might just happen to be walking by her office would see her like this. Everyone had a breaking point, and there was no need for more people to be involved in hers. He walked around her desk and knelt down next to her, putting his arm around her shoulders. Then he just let her cry.
When she appeared to be all cried out, he pulled back and looked up at her. “You’re the strongest woman I know, Katelyn, but even the most stoic person needs a shoulder to cry on from time to time. This has been tough, Kate. I know the casualties are really high and it’s starting to get to you. But know that if you hadn’t developed this cyber code and penetrated their communications system, the casualties would probably be ten times higher. You’ve saved tens of thousands of lives, Kate — just remember that when you get discouraged.”
She wiped her face with a tissue and nodded.
Tyler waited for her as she reached for her purse and hurriedly fixed the mascara that had smeared across her cheeks. Then he pushed, “Now, let’s figure this out. If we used our program to pump out President Hung’s message, how long could we do it for, and how wide could we spread her message? How could we shape it to help end the war? That needs to be our goal now.”
Her mind churned.
“I need to look at the code again. I’d like to wargame out the various types of responses we’d get from their cyberwarfare group as well. We need to figure out how long we’d have before they found out what we were doing and shut us down. We also need to figure out, if they shut us down, will they have to shut down the entire communication system or will they find a way to lock us out? I don’t want to bring this idea up to the director or the White House without having gone over the viability of it,” she replied.
“I was thinking about that very problem, Kate. I’m not sure they can lock us out. Remember, we built that code into the firmware of the UAVs. They’d be forced to go back to the old-fashioned radio systems, but we can easily jam those.” Tyler drained the rest of his coffee.
Katelyn rubbed her temples. “If the PLA did that, then their entire country would be open to our broadcasting President Hung’s message directly across the AM and FM bands, wouldn’t it?” she asked. “I mean, if they wanted to jam the signal, they could, but they’d be jamming their own communications as well, right?” She hoped this was an accurate assessment — radio communications was not her specialty.
A devilish grin spread across Tyler’s face. “I like where you’re going with this,” he responded. “Now, I’m no radio expert myself, but I think we could find a few guys who are. From what I understand, the PLA has a pretty firm grasp on jamming that kind of stuff right now. As long as they’re operating their communications system on the UAV platform, the AM/FM radio waves aren’t important — they don’t need them or use them. But if we take the UAV platform away from them, they’ll have to switch back to the older systems.”
The two of them talked for a little while before they called the rest of their little cadre of cyber coders and hackers into the conference room. They wanted to start hashing over the scenarios immediately. They also sent a request to the director’s office to get them some AM/FM radio specialists ASAP. They needed to talk with some commercial and military radio and TV broadcasting specialists to see how they could capitalize on this plan if they did move forward with it.
Ambassador Max Bryant was growing frustrated with these social media gurus and Hollywood types, constantly trying to make suggestions to President Hung Hui-ju on how to craft a better, more compelling message for the weekly broadcasts she had been creating since recapturing Taiwan. While the messages were helping to lift the spirits of the Taiwanese people, they appeared to be having very little effect on the people living on the mainland. Even in the captured areas of the PRC, where the Allies controlled the airways, most Chinese communists were just not connecting with her. They still viewed her as a puppet of the West and saw the Allies as invaders, not liberators.
Seeing that they still had a few more minutes until the tech gurus arrived, Ambassador Bryant turned to President Hung. “Madam President, if you could produce just one video, give one message to the people on the mainland, what would it be? How would you convince them to either turn on the communist government or demand an end to the bloodshed?” he asked matter-of-factly.
President Hung was a bit taken aback by the question.
“She probably thought she’d already been doing that with these weekly addresses,” Ambassador Bryant thought as he waited for her to say something.
“Mr. Ambassador, are you trying to tell me these messages are not working?” she finally managed to say.
Bryant sighed; he knew he needed to be delicate in his response. He didn’t want to offend her. He personally knew President Xi of China, but that personal relationship hadn’t been enough to keep the US and China from going to war, nor had it been able to put a stop to this madness.
Looking the Taiwanese President in the eye, he replied, “No, Ma’am, they’re not.”
Her mouth opened slightly with the shock of such a blunt reply.
“I’m not sure what your advisors have been telling you, or what the CIA or military advisors have said, but even in the occupied territories, the average citizens are not warming up to your messages or pleas for peace,” Ambassador Bryant explained. “In northern China, nearly two hundred million people live in the occupied territory. Your weekly messages are played across every medium possible, yet the people still view you as a puppet of the West, not the rightful leader of a unified China. That has to change. If we can’t convince even these people, who by all accounts are now living in a freer society, then I’m not sure how we’re going to get the rest of the country to accept you. They have to believe living under your leadership is better for them and their children than a continued life under the communist dictatorship of President Xi.”
President Hung thought about that for a moment, then nodded in acceptance. “Perhaps you’re right. Maybe I’ve been listening to too many suggestions from others. How do you think I should approach this?” she asked.
“I think you need to speak from the heart. Outline a vision for a unified China — one that sees all people prosper and not just the politically connected. Talk economics with them; tell them about how you want to clean up the air pollution across the country, how you want to diversify the country’s economy, so all of the jobs aren’t concentrated in the major cities. Talk about things you know the communists are not addressing. Talk about how people should be free to express their own opinions without fear of being blackballed by the government, or worship the God of their choosing,” he said.
Bryant was tired of the same old drab messages the political advisors kept telling her to focus on. They just weren’t working. Something else needed to be tried, and soon. As the Allies gobbled up more of the country, they needed a more effective message than what the political consultants and tech gurus had been coming up with.
President Hung called her secretary to tell him to cancel her meetings for the rest of the day. She wanted to spend a few more hours with Ambassador Bryant and see if they could craft a better message.
President Foss sat back in the oversized leather chair as he digested the proposed plan from his Senior Cyberwarfare Advisor, Katelyn Mackie. Turning to his Secretary of Defense, he asked, “What are your thoughts on this, Jim? Is this worth the risk?”