"Come on."
"Jackie, if you'll take the time to think about this, it isn't crazy.
The Pentagon and the CIA are convinced that the Red Chinese, with the help of Soviet scientists, have developed an antisatellite laser that could cripple the U.S. military's orbiting reconnaissance spacecraft."
She nodded. "It's probably like the MIRACL chemical laser — the vintage mid-infrared advanced chemical laser."
"That's right, but the Chicoms may have come up with something much more powerful. Something that can fire a laser beam hundreds of miles into space and obliterate our spies in the sky, the space station, or even a space shuttle — who knows?"
Jackie glanced at him. "If they can do that, it seems like hitting a rocket or an airplane would be relatively easy."
"Sure — look at our breakthrough in directed-energy weapons. The future belongs to DEW, and they're making great strides at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson and at Lockheed Martin."
"But that's a system using an airborne laser in a radar-like function to foil SAMs and air-to-air missiles — send them off course."
"I'm just looking at the concept," Scott said. "A laser can be pointed down to jam or destroy something as easily as it can be directed upward. If the Chinese do have the capability to hit our re-con satellites and space shuttles, we're facing an eventual war in the heavens. The same with our desire to control the ultimate high ground. When we deploy a whiz-bang weapon to protect our interests in orbit, it will trigger an arms race in space and eventually lead to a war with somebody."
"just like the seventeen hundreds."
He looked at her. "What?"
"We had to form a navy to protect our interests on the high seas. And that led to a number of famous sea battles over the years."
"Yeah, and space will be the battle zone of the future."
"Well, that's the future. At the present time we don't know what the Chinese really have or what they plan to do."
"Correct. That's why we're going to have spacecraft and reconnaissance planes eyeballing everything within a five-hundred-mile radius of our carrier. If there's an airborne laser or surface laser out there, we want evidence of the platform — the mother ship or whatever we find."
"I still don't like the idea."
"Jackie, we're going to be using an unmanned, brightly lighted Fox-4 as a drone — piece of cake."
" That's the upside?"
"What better target than a remotely piloted Phantom to draw fire from whatever it is we're up against?"
Jackie slowly shook her head. "What if it, whatever it is we're trolling for, targets us instead of the drone — blows us out of the sky?"
"Our Harrier is going to be blacked out and offset about two hundred yards. We won't be visible."
"Let me try this again. What if it targets us?"
"That should be obvious. We jump out — jettison the airplane."
"And if we don't have time?"
"Everyone who has witnessed these encounters says the same thing. The 'bogey' plays with the target before any—"
"Before it turns them into crispy critters."
"Jackie, there are a lot of tools of manipulation and deception that make potential enemies hear, see, and believe things that don't actually exist. Our job is to find out what's going on and who's behind it."
He glanced at the dark clouds and turned to her. "I get the distinct impression that you're not uninhibitedly enthusiastic about the Phantom mission."
"What gave you that idea?"
"You know" — he paused and then gave her a sidelong glance "you don't have to do this with me."
"Don't be ridiculous. Who else could you get to operate the camera and video equipment?"
"Well, that could be a problem."
She ignored him. "Besides, after the other dumb things I've seen you get away with, I'm convinced God isn't going to let anything happen to you."
Scott laughed and then maneuvered the Ferrari into traffic on the notorious Capital Beltway. "New subject?"
"Sure."
"Are we positive the man we saw at the Grant Hotel was Chinese?"
"I can't swear he was, but that was my impression."
Scott reflected on the encounter. I glanced at him only once or twice. "You mentioned the passenger," Jackie said quietly. "The Oriental man in the white Mazda."
"Yes."
"Was he Chinese?"
"I don't know," Scott said, trying to remember the details. "He could've been Japanese for all I know."
"What was your first thought?"
"Chinese, but I saw his face for only a split second." They locked eyes momentarily before Scott spoke. "Where are you going with this?"
"I'm just thinking about all these strange encounters. A Hornet goes down off southern California, a Cobra Ball. down in the Bay of Bengal, another Hornet down in the Strait of Taiwan, and a B-2 downed near Guam."
"Do you think the Chicoms or Japanese are behind these encounters?" Scott asked.
"That's always a possibility. Except for the incident off the coast of California, the other planes were lost — attacked is a better description — in an area of the world with a lot of chilly relationships."
"True." A flash of lightning caught his eye. "The steady growth of the Chinese military is an ongoing crisis for Washington — the jitters over the eventual clash between China and Taiwan."
"Yeah, and the prowling dragon isn't going to ask Washington for permission."
"Not on your life."
She hesitated a few seconds. "Do you think China's burgeoning economy might keep Beijing from invading Taiwan?"
"No, unless China breaks out in a flurry of democracy — about as likely as an orangutan piloting the space shuttle."
Scott exited the beltway and turned toward their home in Georgetown. "In the last twelve years, China has increased military spending by more than three hundred percent. That buys a lot, including three Russian-made Sovremmennyy-class destroyers equipped with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles — antiship missiles that travel at twice the speed of sound. That's raising the stakes very high in the Taiwan Strait."
Scott glanced at Jackie. "Wait until Taiwan takes delivery of our Aegis-class destroyers. They could defend the island against China's medium-range missiles."
"Yeah, that could trigger a harsh response."
The entire sky had turned black as Scott watched the first few drops of rain splatter on the Ferrari's freshly waxed hood. "Beijing may think we're too involved in our war against terrorism to respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan."
A brilliant flash of lightning and a booming clap of thunder signaled the beginning of a downpour.
Jackie watched the rain stream across the window. "Yeah, that's the big one. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, an assault on the island would be tantamount to the Chinese attacking the United States."
She thought about the scenario. "Do you think Beijing would really be crazy enough to test us over a renegade province?"
"Who knows? America and China are at another crossroads in history. In 1992, China's National People's Congress passed a law asserting ownership of the Spratlys, the Senkakus, the Paracels, and Taiwan. The Chicoms may feel like it's time to recover the territories lost during the bainiande ciru."
"The what?"
"The century of shame."
Her voice became flatter. "When I think about it, Beijing has shown an increased willingness to take risks."
"Well, we've been treating the regime with kid gloves, and Beijing just keeps slapping us in the face — like holding twenty-four of our military personnel eleven days after the Chinese pilot slammed into our recon plane. Accommodating the Chinese leaders isn't going to prevent a military clash."
"Bull's-eye." She half turned in her seat to face Scott. "After our past policy of appeasement, I'm afraid we're going to have an armed conflict with China at some point. It just seems inevitable."