It was tantamount to a declaration of war on Japan, and Abrams was all too aware that the United States was a defensive partner of that nation.
She sighed, reaching for her coffee; saw her fingers trembling, and withdrew the hand.
Could she risk thousands of US servicemen and women on a promise made to a foreign country over a string of uninhabited rocks? China hadn’t invaded the mainland itself; and it wasn’t even China, not really. It was just one lone madman who’d bullied and intimated enough other people to follow him that he was now in charge — temporarily at least.
But then what message would non-action send to the world at large, both to America’s allies, and her enemies? She would be seen as a nation that welched on her commitments, it would cause her allies to mistrust her and her enemies to grow bolder.
But was it worth going to war over?
She realized that Toshikatsu had been talking all this time, and began to listen once more.
‘So what is your answer?’ the fearful voice demanded. ‘Are you behind us? Are you with us?’
But now she had heard him, she still couldn’t answer; she just didn’t know what to say.
Cole watched as President Abrams struggled to come to terms with what she was hearing. He knew what it was; Wu had decided to take the Senkakus early. It was a good strategy, to act while everyone was still reeling from the change in government, before other nations could regroup and start to plan their own counter-strategies.
But Cole had an unshakeable faith in Ellen Abrams’ leadership, ever since he had first met her as a senator on a fact-finding tour of Iraq. She was straight-talking, conscientious and passionate, with a huge set of figurative brass balls. She’d given the green light for Force One, after all.
‘Yes,’ he heard his president say to Toshikatsu, ‘you have my word that we will do our best.’ With that, she put down the telephone and looked straight at Cole.
‘You asked me how long we have,’ she said. ‘Well, there’s your answer — Wu is already going into action. And that means that you have to, too.’
6
General — now Paramount Leader of the People’s Republic of China — Wu De stood at the banks of computer monitors and electronic surveillance equipment, his huge smile almost hidden beneath his drooping mustache.
It’s working, he thought happily. It’s really working.
His glorious nation — the cradle of civilization, the bringer of culture to the barbarous outside world — had finally re-taken the Diaoyu Islands, land that should never have been taken away in the first place. A wrong had been corrected, and he was pleased with the results of his first actions.
It wasn’t that re-taking the islands was a major military triumph; they were poorly protected, and resistance was near nonexistent. But his country had never before had the will to take back what was rightfully hers. China — or at least the cowards and soft-bellied worms of the Communist Party — had for too many years been content to be bullied by other nations, holding their hands out for scraps to be tossed their way, never free to assert their rightful dominance over their own domains.
But that was about to change; in fact, it already was changing, under his own leadership. He watched the drone surveillance footage of the East China Sea on the monitors in front of him, deep in the bowels of the communist party’s ‘war room’ hidden beneath the traditional architecture of the government buildings of the Zhongnonhai, and was gratified by what he saw.
Chinese ships patrolling the waters of the Diaoyu Islands, just as it should be. He already had companies — many of which he had a controlling stake in — ready and waiting to exploit the waters for their untapped oil reserves.
On another monitor, he could see the stricken US aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, listing helplessly in the water. Unable to move; unable to escape. Over four thousand US servicemen and women, held hostage.
At the start, he feared he had been wrong about President Abrams, and about Americans in general. He had thought them to be soft, unwilling to risk the lives of their fellow citizens for any reason. But when this thing had begun, he’d worried that perhaps he had misjudged the situation — what if Abrams retaliated instantly? What if she launched missile strikes? What if she was willing to sacrifice the Ford, and sent in the rest of the navy and air force in an immediate counter-attack? He hadn’t been sure he could have responded effectively so soon; his control over the mechanics of government had still not been entirely in place, and America might just have had a chance.
But in the end, Abrams had not acted, and the United States had lost its chance.
Now all they could do was stand by and watch in mute witness as China reasserted herself fully onto the world stage, to take her rightful position as the supreme nation of earth.
The US Navy had pulled back out of the East China Sea, just as Wu had ordered; the loss of face suffered by America would be enormous. Would it be enough to encourage Abrams to strike back?
Wu realized it would be a possibility; but Abrams hadn’t acted before, and she would probably fail to do so now. She probably just hoped that nature would take its course, and Wu’s new government would fall of its own accord. But Wu was going to make sure that this didn’t happen, and was confident that he had enough resources, enough support across the country’s vast provinces, that he would stay in power indefinitely.
Wu wondered if Abrams or her many advisors had any inkling that the re-taking of the Diaoyu Islands was only the start. His grin spread ever wider as he realized that they probably had no idea — no idea whatsoever — what his ultimate plans were.
And he was looking forward very much to the next phase.
‘But why the hell aren’t they doing anything?’ asked Jean Archambault, Petty Officer 3rd Class. ‘Are they just going to leave us here forever?’
Captain Sam Meadows had called the meeting, and almost the entire crew of the USS Gerald R. Ford was now gathered together on the mess deck, crammed in shoulder to shoulder, every man and woman wanting answers.
Meadows was just as angry as the rest of the crew, but knew that he had to handle the situation wisely — it would do no good whatsoever if there was a mutiny on board the ship. And although the US Navy prided itself on its discipline, and had never experienced such a mutiny aboard one of its vessels, Meadows knew that there was always a first time for everything, and he would be damned if he was going to let it happen on a ship under his command.
And so when the first signs of discontent had emerged, reported to him by his junior officers — and caused in large part by the loss of fresh water — he had decided to stamp it out immediately by calling a meeting and getting everybody’s heads screwed on right.
While it was true that Admiral Charles Decker was the man in overall command of the Ford carrier group, Meadows was in the driver’s seat of the lead ship, and the men and women who worked here were his men and women. Meadows had therefore taken point on this meeting, wanting the crew to see a familiar face before them, willing to answer their questions. Or at least try to, anyway.
The only trouble was, he didn’t really have any answers. The questions he was being asked were the same ones he, Decker, and the rest of the senior officers had discussed, and the same ones Decker had asked of the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the president of the United States herself. And the answers had been less than satisfactory.