Suddenly, the vehicle jerked to a stop. His security detail quickly fanned out, ensuring there were no potential threats before they opened the door to his armored vehicle and ushered him toward the entrance of the underground complex. The cool November air greeted him, along with the smells of fall. As he surveyed the base of the mountain he was about to enter, President Xi observed that the leaves had fully changed colors, and many of them had started to carpet the ground in a beautiful collage. Standing erect, Xi took in a deep breath, wanting to enjoy the air outside before he went underground.
“They’re waiting for us,” one of his guards prompted him. They didn’t like him appearing in public or standing out in the open for very long. They were paranoid that the Allies would somehow spot him and attempt to kill him.
Nodding slightly, Xi followed his security detail. They led him to a small gift shop and café that sat nestled up against the bottom of the mountain. The busy park nearby was frequented by the residents of Beijing, so this café acted as the perfect cover for the intricate command center that lay beneath the natural earthen fortress.
Xi walked in the entrance followed by his detail, and they escorted him down the hallway toward the kitchen in the back. Once there, they moved to a storage room in the back, where a secret entrance was located. There were two other entrances to the facility, but they were both located at other, more prominent and well-known military facilities used for radar and communications. The Chinese had done their best to make sure that the Americans had only known about those official entrances. That way, if a bomb actually did attack them there, it would have little chance of actually penetrating to the depth needed to get at the complex itself.
Once inside the tunnel, the entourage headed down the corridor until they reached a large service elevator. One of the guards entered a randomized code, then placed his hand on a biometric scanner before placing his eye against another biometric device that scanned and compared his iris image with the image on file. Once all of these checks had been completed and verified, the elevator activated and began its journey from the bunker below up to meet them.
A few minutes went by as they waited, then a soft ding sounded, and the door opened. A handful of additional heavily armed soldiers greeted them at the door, startling Xi’s security detail, who pointed their guns at the men.
“We’re just here to verify who you are and that you have authorization to be here,” the soldiers explained. When President Xi’s guards lowered their weapons, the soldiers saw the president. They quickly waved off the standard secondary biometric verifications they normally would have performed on each person entering the elevator.
Xi calmly walked to the center of the spacious elevator, and his security detail and the soldiers filled in the space around him. Xi felt that this was a rather cavernous elevator considering the secretive nature of its location. It wasn’t like this was a major supply elevator — but then again, with few entrances and exits in and out of the facility, he suspected they made heavy use of each to ferry in the massive amount of supplies needed to sustain such an operation.
When the door opened, Xi’s security detail led the way to the central operations room while the soldiers resumed their guard positions at the elevator entrance. Upon entering the operations room, Xi saw a flurry of activity. Soldiers and civilian contractors scurried around the facility, getting it ready to take over operations of the war from the central command center in the bowels of the Ministry of National Defense HQ in the August First Building.
“General Yang isn’t messing around,” thought Xi. He realized the general was planning on the Americans going after China in retaliation for their use of nuclear weapons.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi walked up to him with a broad smile on his face. “Mr. President, it’s good to see you. Come this way.” He gestured for Xi to follow him past the operations center to a large meeting room where many of the CMC generals and other senior cabinet officials were milling about, talking amongst themselves and fixing their tea and food that one of the chefs from the kitchen had just brought in.
Turning to look at Xi, Wang commented, “I’m so glad General Yang has come around to your initial proposal about using our nuclear weapons. I truly believe this is going to turn the war around for us and finally bring the Allies to the negotiating table.”
Laughing before he replied, Xi said, “You mean your proposal to use nuclear weapons, don’t you?”
Wang raised an eyebrow at the reference but smiled as he replied, “I think we all know there isn’t really an alternative if we want to end this war without a complete surrender.”
“Have the Americans broken through our defenses in the Jinzhou District yet? The last report I received before I went to sleep last night was that they were making another large push.”
Wang shook his head. “No, not yet. Believe it or not, they still haven’t made it past the Great Wall. They’ve been somewhat reluctant in blowing new holes through it, so they’ve been largely focused on trying to air-assault forces across it and behind our lines, in hopes of getting us to give up the defensive line.”
Since Xi had liquidated many of his senior staff a few months ago, along with most of the senior generals who had previously been running the Central Military Committee, Minister Wang had taken it upon himself to be as up-to-date as possible on what was happening with the war.
“I wonder if he’s positioning himself to take over if I die,” mused President Xi. China didn’t have a formal line of ascension, and Xi knew that Wang was not particularly fond of General Yang.
As the two of them entered the briefing room, Xi surveyed everyone present. The conversations quickly ended in deference to his presence. Right away, he noticed the absence of one key figure, his Sun Zu — General Yang was not present. Turning to one of Yang’s deputies, he inquired, “Where is General Yang?”
The colonel looked a bit nervous. He had obviously been asked the question a few times by the other men in the room. “I just spoke with General Yang about ten minutes ago. He said he was delayed in leaving the August First Building.”
Xi crinkled his brow at the news; he had hoped to get this briefing going so they could get the ball rolling. It sickened him to think about using nuclear weapons on their home soil, but he couldn’t think of any other way to destroy the Allied armies steamrolling their way across the country.
“Did he say what the delay was or when he’ll be here?”
The deputy nodded. “Yes, Mr. President,” he answered. “There was an Allied bombing raid hitting the capital just prior to your arrival. He wanted to wait until the enemy bombers had left before he ventured out of the bunker to head here. He told me to let you know that he’d be approximately ninety minutes late, but that General Liang could proceed with the brief in his absence. General Yang said it was more important that everyone get secured here in the mountain before we released the weapons.”
“Well I’m glad someone is making sure the military and government are safe before this attack happens,” Xi thought. The Americans would surely come after them.
“OK, then tell General Liang to proceed. We have a lot of information to go over,” Xi said. Then he moved to take his seat and indicated that the others should as well.
“Sorry about the traffic, General. Perhaps we should have taken one of the helicopters,” said Captain Cho, his head of security. Then he chided the driver for letting them get boxed into the traffic gridlock.