In the Kantei’s situation room, the Japanese were on their feet cheering, clapping, laughing at the flaming wreckage of the breaking hulk until Tanaka threw two fists in the air and shouted, “Banzai!” Several others echoed him back. Tanaka threw his arms into the air and shouted again and again, “Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!”
Everyone else in the room joined him in chorus, throwing up their arms, joyously crazed.
Everyone except Myers.
She still sat in her chair staring at the video screen, incredulous.
SEVENTY
The following morning, Pearce and Myers sat alone in the embassy’s secured conference room. The ambassador was making preparations for Secretary Wheeler’s arrival in a few hours. President Lane appeared on the large VTC screen on the far wall.
“Glad you’re back safe and sound, Troy. Congratulations on a job well done. It couldn’t have been easy for you.”
Pearce nodded his thanks. “Nor you.” He hid a yawn behind a closed fist. He hadn’t slept or bathed in nearly three days.
Lane rubbed his face. Dark circles under his eyes, too. “It was the hardest damn decision of my life.”
“Regrets?”
“None.”
“Was this the plan all along?” There was an edge in Myers’s voice. “I feel like I’ve been played.”
“No,” Lane insisted. “Our plan never changed. The goal was always to steal the Wu-14’s software to determine whether or not it was operational.”
“But you don’t ‘accidentally’ gain control of a sophisticated system like that,” Myers said.
Pearce reached for the coffee carafe on the table in front of him. “I had Ian write up the software. I figured once we were in there, we might as well get everything out of it we could, including operational control.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Myers asked.
“Wasn’t sure you’d approve,” Pearce said. Poured two cups.
“Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think.”
Pearce handed her a cup. “Maybe not.”
“You took a helluva risk, David,” Myers said. “Why didn’t you just have Troy dump it in the ocean?” She took a sip of coffee.
Lane stiffened. Didn’t expect to be getting the third degree from the former president. “Admiral Ji and Vice Chairman Feng were hell-bent on grabbing the Senkakus. Even if we’d dropped the Wu-14 into the ocean, they still would’ve invaded Japanese territorial waters. Then I would have had to commit the George Washington into battle. Despite the Sixth Fleet’s superiority on paper, the truth is that in war you can never be certain of outcomes. I had to choose between risking American lives or taking Chinese ones. The choice was clear.”
“Doesn’t that put blood on your hands?” Myers asked.
“Already had that problem long before I got elected. Besides, keeping my hands clean isn’t part of the job description, best as I can recall.” He didn’t mention it was actually Pearce who had used the Japanese submarine as a remote mission-control station, personally steering the hypersonic warhead into the deck of the doomed carrier.
“It’s a bloody business, all the way around,” Pearce said into his cup. “Better them than our guys.”
“Agreed,” Myers finally admitted. She studied Pearce’s face. The lines around his eyes had deepened.
“By appearing to have knocked out their own aircraft carrier, the Chinese military is now discredited with the Politburo, and so is their adventurism. Feng’s, too, for that matter. And the North Koreans can’t be feeling very confident about their old ally. They’ve already withdrawn their MIRV from the launching pad and put it back in storage.”
“The Chinese don’t know we did it?” Myers frowned with disbelief.
“I reminded President Sun that the Liaoning was an old Ukrainian design and that the same government that built the Chernobyl nuclear power plant built his carrier. Maybe the turbines were defective. Maybe they caused a fire that led to a catastrophic munitions explosion. It’s happened before.”
“And he believed you?” Myers asked.
Lane smiled. “President Sun was quick to accept that explanation — a way to save face. But he asked us not to report it. I agreed. So has Prime Minister Ito. Officially, the sinking never happened. Informally, we all agreed the loss of the Liaoning was an unfortunate tragedy and a national embarrassment that President Sun would rather not discuss.”
“But he doesn’t really believe your story, does he?”
Lane shrugged. “Sun suspects we did it, I’m sure, or the Japanese. Possibly even the Taiwanese. But what incentive does he have to point a finger at anybody? We’ve done him a huge favor by taking out his two biggest political opponents. And the last thing he needs is a full-scale shooting war with us. Officially, we’ve denied any involvement. He also knows we immediately launched rescue operations, along with the Japanese, and made emergency arrangements for Chinese aircraft to land at Japanese and Taiwanese bases. A gesture of goodwill and, I believe, the beginning of a new strategic partnership. I’m flying out to Beijing in five days for an official state visit, just as soon as Gaby and her team can make all the arrangements.”
“Politics,” Pearce grunted.
“Yes, politics,” Lane said. “Feng and Ji were Sun’s two biggest political threats, but not anymore. Now they’re at the bottom of the East China Sea or in chains on their way to a secret prison somewhere, along with a half dozen other senior conspirators. And the other CMC vice chairman, General Chen, put a bullet in his brain last night. We’ve just handed President Sun a clear path to the military and anticorruption reforms he so desperately wanted.”
“At the cost of thousands of Chinese sailors’ lives,” Myers said.
“The Chinese shot the bullet; we just moved the target,” Pearce said.
“If Ji hadn’t launched the Wu-14, those Chinese sailors would still be alive — unless he would’ve pressed his luck and forced us to attack. Then a lot more people on both sides would’ve died,” Lane said. “Sun could’ve stopped Ji and Feng before they set out to sea. If anybody else is to blame for this, it’s him, not us, and he knows it. That’s why he won’t make too big of a stink about all of this, no matter his personal suspicions. Otherwise, he hands his political enemies the club they need to beat him to death with.”
Myers sighed, still on the fence. She wasn’t certain she would’ve made the same call Lane did had she been in his shoes. But then again, she’d never been in combat. Men like Lane and Pearce survived by making life-and-death decisions in the blink of an eye. Even if she couldn’t fully understand his decision, she knew he made it because he thought it was in the best interests of his country and the uniformed men and women who served it. Lane would always put his country before his own political career or even his reputation. That’s why she had backed him in his bid for the presidency to begin with. It was a tough call in a split second and he made it for the right reasons. In the end, that was good enough for her.
“What’s the purpose of the state visit, if I may ask?” Myers said.
“In exchange for deep cuts in his military spending, we’re prepared to make new security arrangements in the region. Joint naval cooperation to keep the sea-lanes open, that sort of thing. Of course, pushing through Sun’s anticorruption reforms is even more important. China’s long-term viability as a stable growing democracy is in our vital strategic interest.”
“What about Mao Island?”
“Ito says they can keep it, so long as all revenues from the drilling operations are evenly divided. He’ll be joining us in Beijing, too. We have a few surprises.” Lane leaned forward. “It would be great if the two of you could join us. None of this would’ve been possible without both of you.”