The People's Liberation Army was immediately granted permission to seize the renegade province of Taiwan before Taipei or Washington could implement a missile defense perimeter. The months of planning, stockpiling equipment and missiles, and staging warships, landing craft, airplanes, and soldiers was about to climax in the invasion of Taiwan.
Although China could seriously damage Taiwan, conventional wisdom concluded that Beijing didn't have the capability to make an opposed landing with amphibious forces. It would be even more difficult with American forces aiding Taipei.
Those logical conclusions were overlooked in Liu Fan-ding's fervor to rule Taiwan.
Scott was admiring the magnificent view of Victoria Harbor just before sunset when Jackie gently knocked. He rose from his chair, then walked to the door and opened it.
"They wouldn't give me a—"
"Here, I have a key for each of us."
"Thanks."
"How'd it go?"
"It went very well," she said with a great deal of exuberance. "It's an easy ship to fly. I can't believe how much power it has — it's like a rocket ship with rotor blades."
"Sounds like fun," Scott said, and motioned toward the sunset. "Not a bad view, huh?
"It's beautiful, absolutely incredible."
"You want to change and go out for dinner?"
"Actually, I'd prefer to have a quiet dinner in the hotel and then take a long, hot bath — just relax."
"That sounds like a plan."
"Did you get in touch with Hartwell?"
"Not yet."
"Well, I'll change into something more comfortable," she said, turning toward the bedroom. "We'll try Hartwell later."
"Hurry — maybe we can catch the sunset."
"Ninety seconds."
The airplane was over Arizona when President Macklin walked into the conference/briefing room. Hartwell Prost and Brett Shannon could see the anger in Macklin's eyes.
The latest intelligence reports painted a vivid picture of a dangerous flashpoint developing in the Taiwan Strait. From all indications, China was about to launch an invasion to capture Taiwan. U.S. forces and Taiwanese forces in the area were on high alert. Many of the Southeast Asian allies were diverting their warships to aid Taiwan.
SecDef Pete Adair and air force general Les Chalmers were on secure phones in the White House Situation Room.
Macklin sat down and punched the button for the remote speaker. "Pete, Les, can you hear me?"
"Yessir, Mr. President," they said at the same time.
"I've been over your plans and I completely agree with you. As soon as Beijing fires the first volley, I want to put a lid on this so fast they won't know what hit them — otherwise this could escalate completely out of control in a matter of hours."
"We have most of what we need in place," Pete Adair said, looking at the current status board. "And we have more assets en route."
"Excellent. Les?"
"Yes, sir."
"I don't want to leave us exposed anywhere else in the world, but I'd sure like to have as many bombers as you can spare."
"They're on the way, sir."
"Okay," Macklin said, glancing at the latest situation report from the Pentagon. "I'll see you in a couple of hours."
After a sumptuous dinner of Peking duck, Jackie soaked in a hot bubble bath for twenty minutes and then joined Scott in the living room.
"Feel better?"
"Like a new woman." She sat on the couch next to him. "Incidentally, the helo is on its way to Chengdu. If the weather holds, it will be there early in the morning."
"Good — at least something is going right."
"For a change."
"While you were soaking, I finally made contact with Hartwell they were over New Mexico."
"What's the latest?"
"Well, he seemed a little detached, but he said everything was set for tomorrow night."
"He probably has jet lag."
"Or major problems with China."
"Let's discuss the Mianyang op," she said. "What do you really think our chances will be — the probability factor?"
"It's going to be a long shot — at best."
"What's your main concern?"
"All the unknowns," he said with a frown. "In this type of situation, we're going to have to evaluate each step as we take it. If it doesn't look right, we call it off — that's it."
"No argument here," she said. "If either one of us feels uncomfortable — at any time — we get out of Dodge. Agreed?"
"That's the way I see it. No heroics this time, just common sense." She laughed. "That'll be the day."
General Les Chalmers and Pete Adair were waiting when the president entered the room, followed by Hartwell Prost and Brett Shannon. As usual, Macklin's Secret Service agents quietly left the room when he sat down at the large conference table.
"What do we know?" the president asked, looking at Adair. "It's imminent — they've telegraphed everything but the launch time."
"Brett, is there anything else diplomatically we can do — any way to shock Beijing into reality?"
"Sir, I've tried everything I can think of. Our folks have pleaded with everyone from Washington to Beijing."
Shannon took a deep breath and plunged on. "Mr. President, if you would personally contact Liu Fan-ding, we might have a chance of stopping this madness."
"I'll give it a try." Without hesitation, Macklin initiated the call and talked with three screeners before he was told the Chinese president was not available. Keeping his anger and disappointment to himself, the president placed the phone down.
"Well, gentlemen, they're determined to risk it all, and I'm determined to stop them in their tracks. We will not use any ambiguous language, and we'll stand by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979. Any questions?"
The room remained silent.
Chapter 27
The engines on the white Learjet 35A were still warm when Scott began his preflight walk-around. Although it arrived late from Shanghai, the freshly painted jet was in pristine condition.
Dressed in a stylish, conservative business suit, Scott monitored the refueling while Jackie checked the weather and filed an instrument flight plan to the Shuangliu Airport near Chengdu, China. She was attired in black slacks and shoes, white uniform shirt with four gold stripes on her shoulders, and gold wings above the breast pocket of her shirt.
When Jackie joined Scott at the entrance to the Learjet, she handed him the latest weather update. "The forecast says rain — lots of rain — in the Chengdu area for the next twelve hours or more."
"Great, just what we need."
She made her way to the copilot's seat while Dalton entered the jet and locked the cabin door.
"It looks like we're going to have to use the railroad plan," he said.
"I'm afraid so." She opened the large chart case and extracted the IFR en-route high-altitude charts and instrument approach plates for Shuangliu Airport. "There are four airports surrounding Chengdu, so we're going to have to be very careful — don't want to embarrass ourselves by landing at the wrong airport."
"I just hope we can understand the controllers."
"Unfortunately," she said with a smile, "Chinese isn't one of the languages I speak."
"Not to worry," Scott said, and handed her the checklist. "We'll make it up as we go — the old walk-in plan."
"Walk into the bank and then plan how you're going to rob it?"
"You have the gist of it."
A few minutes later, they taxied away from the Hong Kong Business Aviation Centre. Approaching the runway, she switched to the control-tower frequency and requested permission to take off.