Fear was quickly replacing the high he’d felt for the last few hours, and Caulfield could sense that the demons were back. They were haunting him again, telling him he was no good, telling him he had no place working for the president of the United States, telling him it was better to sleep, forever, and put all the horrors of the world behind him.
Caulfield excused himself from a staff meeting and wandered past the conference room where the president was meeting with his war cabinet.
“Can I help you, Mr. Caulfield?” Special Agent Coehlo asked, standing post outside the conference room door.
“Just checking to see if the president needs me,” Caulfield lied.
“He hasn’t said anything to me,” Coelho replied.
“Fine,” Caulfield said. “I’m going to the men’s room if he needs me.”
Coelho nodded and Caulfield headed around the corner and glanced down a side hallway. No one was there. He had a clear shot. He grabbed his briefcase, moved as quickly as he could without drawing attention to himself, and slipped into the bathroom. He could hear the voice of his older brother, Derek, telling him no, begging him not to. But it didn’t matter. He wasn’t listening. He desperately needed another hit. He needed it now. His brother didn’t understand. He never had. He never would.
Secretary Trainor tried to refocus the conversation.
“Mr. President,” he began, “with all due respect, most of these generals have been talking about a scenario in which there was already a shooting war over Taiwan under way and we intervened militarily. It’s saber rattling, sir, not a serious threat to annihilate four American cities, much less hundreds of them.”
“Yesterday, honestly, I might have agreed with you,” the president said. “Today I’m not so sure. How many countries could have pulled off an operation like this? India, Pakistan, North Korea, and China, right?”
Trainor agreed, as did James and Briggs.
“Is there any evidence to suggest the Indians are involved?”
“No, sir,” Trainor said.
“Islamabad?”
“No.”
“What about Pyongyang?” the president asked, referring to the capital of North Korea, a country once described by one of his predecessors as a member of the “Axis of Evil.”
“Not to my knowledge, sir.”
“Then we’re running out of suspects, aren’t we?” the president noted. “Lee, isn’t it true that Homeland Security has been concerned for years about the Chinese using their shipping companies to aid and abet terrorist groups?”
James reluctantly agreed, and when the president asked for specifics, he noted that the Chinese Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), as just one example, had once been singled out by the U.S. House Task Force on Terrorism for presenting itself “as a commercial entity” when it was “actually an arm of the Chinese military establishment,” providing “services to the logistics and transportation arms of the PLA’s navy and air force.” In 1996, James recalled, citing the task force’s report, “U.S. Customs agents confiscated over 2,000 assault weapons that were being smuggled into the United States aboard COSCO ships.” More recently, he added, COSCO ships had been caught smuggling other weapons, drugs, and even illegal aliens.
What’s more, James noted, the task force found that “COSCO ships serve as a vehicle for the transportation of strategic material to allies of the PRC in support of their strategic programs — development of ballistic missiles, nuclear weapons, chemical and biological weapons.” Just as troubling, “COSCO not only carries military and strategic cargoes from the PRC and North Korea to such countries as Pakistan, Iran, and Syria — but also carries strategic items and materials illegally purchased in Western Europe to these countries while concealing the ultimate destination.”
“The Chinese even tried to buy the port at Long Beach back in the nineties, right?” the president noted.
“Actually they were trying to lease it, sir, but yes.”
“When was that?”
“Around 1996 and ’97, Mr. President.”
“And Clinton supported that deal at the time, did he not?”
“At first, he did, sir,” James explained. “But to be fair, once more facts became known about how China was using its shipping companies for military and terrorist purposes, Congress passed a law preventing the lease from going through.”
“Did Clinton sign it?”
“Yes, sir.”
Oaks paused briefly, then said, “Look, you and I both know in the past several decades, China has become a clear and present danger to the United States. They’re working feverishly to become a world military power. They’ve stolen classified designs for at least seven of our latest thermonuclear warheads. They’ve stolen the design of our neutron bomb. They’ve been caught stealing other classified information on American nuclear weapons systems from all our top research labs — Los Alamos, Sandia, Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge — you name it. They’ve used their container ships in the past to smuggle weapons targeted at the U.S. They’ve been ratcheting up their rhetoric against us. And then last summer, of course, I agreed to that arms deal with Taiwan. The CIA warned me at the time the deal could backfire. As I recall, you were a little concerned yourself, Burt.”
Trainor nodded.
“Then, just three months ago,” the president continued, “Danny Tracker over at CIA warned me of a growing clique of generals inside the Chinese air force arguing Beijing had to move against Taipei before those weapons systems were delivered and installed. When is the first shipment scheduled to arrive in Taipei?”
“Next month, Mr. President,” Trainor admitted.
“My point exactly,” Oaks said. “Which raises the question, what if the Chinese leadership in Beijing concluded that they were running out of time, that they had to strike now or lose Taiwan forever?”
The room went completely silent as everyone realized the magnitude of what the new commander in chief was contemplating.
“Burt, how many nuclear weapons does China currently possess?”
“Our latest assessment says about four hundred, Mr. President,” Trainor said. “Roughly 250 are strategic warheads for intercontinental ballistic missiles. Another 150 or so are tactical nukes — battlefield nukes — typically mounted on short- to medium-range missiles.”
“Like the ones someone just fired at us?” Oaks asked.
“Theoretically, yes, Mr. President,” Trainor confirmed. “The last CIA assessment about six months ago put the number of Chinese nukes aimed at the U.S. at between 150 and 200.”
“About half of all the nukes they have?” the president asked.
“Yes, sir,” Trainor said, “give or take.”
The president looked up from his notes. “What did Mao once say? ‘Every Communist must grasp the truth: political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.’”
Again there was silence.
“You’ve got twenty-four hours, gentlemen,” the president concluded. “By this time tomorrow, I want a detailed plan for a full-scale nuclear retaliation against China. I can’t tell you if I’m going to use it, but I’ll tell you one thing: somebody’s going to pay for this, and soon.”
35
Bennett’s satellite phone began to ring again.
This time, he had no doubt who it was. He took a deep breath and, after four rings, finally picked up.
“Hello? This is Jon.”
“You’ve been expecting my call,” said the voice at the other end, once again electronically disguised.
“You told me something terrible was about to happen,” Bennett said.
“Now you know I’m telling the truth.”
“The only way you could have known those attacks were coming was if you were complicit in them,” Bennett charged.