Within twenty minutes, all Su-27s had either been shot down or had retreated. Two Su-27s ditched before they could reach friendly land. The Chinese had provided no tanker in-flight refuelling support. The Americans lost two Tomcats and the Hornet which attacked the SAM site. Several Tomcats had to be air-refuelled on the way home. Another Tomcat was damaged so that it could not land on the aircraft carrier; the crew ejected and the aircraft ditched alongside. They were picked up unharmed by the duty rescue helicopter. The Tomcat squadron leader, who himself had shot down an enemy plane and shared another kill, said caustically: `I guess it shows it don't matter how good your aircraft is if you are not trained to fly it properly and don't have the back-up.'
1,200 kilometres to the south, the Nimitz carrier group entered the conflict area through the Balabac Straits. With the same combination of Tomcats and Hornets, the American aircraft first sank the Luhu class destroyer Haribing, already hit at the beginning of the conflict by Vietnamese torpedoes. After returning to the carrier, another squadron took off to destroy the Chinese positions on Mischief Reef. There was no resistance.
French Dassault Rafale multi-role fighters headed for the Spratly Islands, flying from Ho Chi Minh City where they had arrived from Europe only hours earlier. They shot down three lumbering Chinese air-refuelling aircraft and picked off four Su-27s which were still heavy as they were on their way to give air support to the Chinese navy. For the second time in the Dragonstrike war, Vietnamese aircraft took off from Cambodia and Laos. From Vientiane, refuelling at Vinh on the north-east Vietnamese coast, they struck the Chinese naval base on Hainan Island 800 kilometres away. From the Laotian royal capital of Luang Prabang, they attacked PLA land troops positioned in the northern border area.
HMS Ark Royal carrier group left Bruneian waters to lay claim to the most dangerous waters in the South China Sea. The British warships sailed due north to the heart of the Spratly Island group, where the sea was shallow and the Chinese Ming and Romeo submarines were known to be lying in wait. During the Cold War anti-submarine warfare had become a British speciality, so in Asia as it joined forces again with the Americans, Britain took on the same task. But before reaching the area, news came of a failed American attack on the air and naval base at Terumbi Layang-layang. Since its capture from Malaysia, the Chinese had flown in their most sophisticated radar and anti-aircraft systems, together with more than twenty Su-27 fighters and Fencer ground-attack aircraft. Western intelligence had failed to detect the extent of the defences there. In a first wave, three Tomcats and four Hornets were shot down. The Americans were unable to put up a second attack immediately because of the rescheduling of other commitments and the repair of battle damage on some aircraft. Also the rescheduling of aircraft maintenance programmes from peacetime to wartime was still underway. Nevertheless plans began for a massive airstrike when they were ready. The airbase gave China a formidable power projection throughout the South China Sea, equivalent to having its own aircraft carrier, which could cause enormous Allied casualties. Meanwhile, Britain was asked if commandos from the Special Boat Squadron on board HMS Albion could help disable the Chinese defences there.
5,000 kilometres to the east in the Western Pacific, the Chinese Xia class type 092 nuclear-powered submarine was being tracked by the Seawolf class USS Connecticut. The Xia was travelling at 6 knots, 20 metres below the surface. It was more than a month since she had left China. She had only received three instructions and each time she was to maintain her course towards the Eastern Pacific. When the USS Peleliu was attacked, the Xia was more than 2,000 kilometres east of the Marianas Islands and 1,000 kilometres north of the Marshall Islands. Although both island groups were technically independent, they were regarded by the Pentagon as American soil. The closest landfall was Wake Island, an American airbase in the middle of nowhere. This part of the Pacific was an empty and lonely piece of ocean, so remote that the environmental outcry caused by what the commander of the USS Connecticut was about to do soon subsided.
He was 360 metres deep and undetected by the Xia. He released two Mk48 ADCAP torpedoes. After the initiation phase at 55 knots, they increased speed to 70 knots. They took one minute and eighteen seconds to hit the Xia. Almost instantaneously, the hull collapsed from the explosions and as it sank below 300 metres, it was crushed by the pressure, killing all 104 men on board.
The Pentagon statement explained that the nuclear reactor, sealed in its own pressure chamber, was built to withstand the destruction of the submarine. The twelve nuclear warheads could travel hundreds of thousands of metres out of the atmosphere and back again. They were sturdy enough to remain intact on the seabed of the Pacific Ocean without leaking. The Chinese submarine was already within striking distance of American territory. With another four days' sailing, she could have targeted Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, with a nuclear missile.
The telephone rang twice before Reece Overhalt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Boeing, picked it up. His PA told him it was Jamie Song on the line from Beijing. Song and Overhalt had been at Harvard together thirty years ago. Both had lived at Elliot House, where their rooms were across the hall from one another. Overhalt had been watching Boeing's share price sag all morning. A big selling order out of Hong Kong had spooked investors in Europe and now the US as well. Overhalt had ordered an immediate inquiry into who had been behind the selling, but he knew the search would probably end with a $2 nominee company in the British Virgin Islands and no one would be any the wiser. He waited as Song's secretary put the call through to the Chinese Foreign Minister.
There was warmth, tempered with a certain wariness, as the two went through the pleasantries.
`How's Betty?' said Song.
`Fine, fine… and Helen? Is she well?' enquired Overhalt, wondering quite what Song was aiming at.
`I'll get straight to the point, Reece,' Song said. `We think it might be helpful in the current circumstances if you paid a visit to Beijing. You are an old friend of China and we think you might be able to help us work through our current problems. You can tell by the way I am talking, openly like that, that this is a serious request. We can guarantee confidentiality; I assure you we would not seek to make propaganda out of you being here.'
Overhalt was nonplussed. At his level in corporate America he was used to meeting Presidents and Prime Ministers, but he was a cautious man; above all he was a company man. As he ruminated Song cut in. `Reece, I know what you must be thinking. Don't answer now. Think about it. Call me, say, in three hours?'
The President was briefing a delegation of state governors when the call from Overhalt's office came in. The President and Overhalt had known each other since they were undergraduates at Harvard. It was at Harvard where they met Jamie Song, who was there attending a post-graduate fellowship in international affairs.