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“I want to find a way to send some assistance to South Korea,” the President demanded. “What’s the best way? Arthur? Admiral? Let’s hear it.”

“Sir, we’ve got the George Washington in the Pacific, just a day or two from its operations area in the Philippine Sea,” Balboa said. “If we can get the Japanese to allow our supply ships to move out of their harbors, we can bring in the Washington to begin air ops against North Korea.”

“But that’s the problem, Admiral — Japan won’t allow us to move any ammunition supply ships out of their harbors,” Chastain said. “We’ve got food and fuel from Japan, but just a trickle of ammunition and spare parts. The Washington would be good for combat operations for about two weeks, and then it runs short. ” He turned to the President: “The best option would be to bring in more carriers, sir. With three carriers in the Philippine Sea and East China Sea area, we could-conduct reduced-level offensive air ops against North Korea, and perhaps have a limited holding force should China decide to attack. With four carriers, we could conduct full-scale air ops against North Korea or China, and do a holding force against anyone else trying to hit us from the side.”

“Four carriers,” the President muttered. “As many as we had in the Persian Gulf War, but without the nearby supply bases.”

“We run the risk of having too few carriers available in case things blow up in the Middle East,” Philip Freeman interjected.

“We’ve got plenty of assets, General Freeman,” Balboa argued.

“Lincoln would have to stay in the Arabian Sea to keep her eye on whatever the Iranians might do, now that they’ve captured one of our subs and might not give it back — and it might be better to bring another carrier out of the Med to reinforce her, or send more land-based planes from the States to Saudi,” Freeman explained. “So we cancel Lincolns planned rotation and send Carl Vinson in to work with Washington. That’s two. We’d then have to send Kitty Hawk out of the Indian Ocean to reinforce Vinson and Washington until we can get Nimitz under way from Alameda. A fourth carrier would have to come from the Atlantic Fleet.”

“I count two carriers that we can place on North Korea’s front doorstep in two days, three within a week, and four in a month — so far, I don’t see a big problem here,” Balboa said. “The carrier crews are ready to get into action — they want revenge for the attack on Lincoln earlier this year by Iran, the death of the Independence, and now for the attack on Guam. This is shaping up to be a carrier war, sir,” Balboa said with a touch of barely disguised glee in his voice and eyes. “Let the boys go out and kick some butt. ”

“It’s a lot of carriers within range of China’s missiles,” Freeman pointed out.

“We can take care of China and her missiles,” Balboa said confidently. At that moment, one of Balboa’s military aides entered the Oval Office, stepped over to the admiral, whispered in his ear, then departed again.

“Seems like you have visitors, Mr. President,” Balboa said. “Air Force chief of staff Hayes, Shaw from Air Combat Command, and Samson from Eighth Air Force. They probably want to pitch another hackneyed bomber idea to you. I heard rumblings from General Hayes that Samson was kicked off the Combined Task Force in Strategic Command because he was resisting putting ‘his’ bombers on nuclear alert.”

“Fm not thrilled about keeping them on alert either,” the President said bitterly. “But I don’t want to talk with them. Those three screwed up big-time with how they handled the Megafortress project. Elliott, McLanahan, Masters, all their weapons, and one of the Megafortresses are missing after they apparently steal the planes, ignoring my orders, and now Finegold and her committees are on my ass because they think I was hiding them.” The anger was evident on the President’s face — but Philip Freeman detected something else. A twinge of sadness, perhaps? “Now we’ve lost all the Megafortresses with the rest of Andersen Air Force Base. You handle them the way you see fit, George. That’s your chain of command.”

“Yes, sir,” Balboa said happily. He shot a smug, satisfied glance to Philip Freeman, who had engineered the whole bomber thing behind his back all these past months, but he had stepped out of the Oval Office. Freeman had been shot down just as surely as Samson and his precious bombers had been.

“Get the carriers moving towards the Philippine Sea, and we’ll see what Jiang has to say to me,” the President ordered. “Jeffrey, stay in contact with Qian, keep the pressure on.”

“Yes, Mr. President,” Secretary of State Hartman replied.

“Jerrod, call the Leadership, set up a meeting for us later tonight so we can discuss what to do about China,” the President said. “I might have to compromise with Finegold on Taiwan, but Taiwan can take a backseat for now — I want a united front beside me when I go on TV and tell the American people about what the hell happened to Guam.”

At that moment, Philip Freeman walked into the Oval Office, strode right up to the President, and handed him a note. President Martindale gulped, swallowing hard, then dropped the note on his desk in surprise. “Get them in here, now” the President said to Freeman.

"What?” Balboa retorted. “You mean Hayes, Shaw, and Samson? You’re going to talk to those three? Why? I thought you were going to leave them to me, sir?”

“McLanahan, Elliott, his crew, his plane — they’re alive,” the President said. “They were the ones who staged the attacks against China, against the coastal air defense bases and the bomber base. They led the last remaining Taiwanese fighter-bombers in to attack China’s invasion force.”

“That’s impossible! ” Balboa shouted. “Where-are they? How could they possibly still be operating?”

“They’re flying out of an underground base on Taiwan,” the President said. “An underground air base!”

“That’s bullshit… er, I’m sorry, Mr. President, but I’ve never heard of any such thing,” Balboa said.

“Admiral, McLanahan and Elliott flew their Megafortress bomber right up into central China,” Philip Freeman said. “If what General Samson says is true — and we’ll confirm it with satellite imagery — they may have knocked out a third of China’s long-range-bomber fleet in one night. We shouldn’t be questioning this development — we should be discussing how to turn this unexpected windfall to our best advantage.”

“I told you about Elliott, Mr. President,” Balboa said angrily. “I told you he was a loose cannon. It was this unauthorized attack that prompted China to launch their ICBM attack on Guam. Elliott’s responsible for this disaster!”

“What Elliott and McLanahan are responsible for is getting our asses moving and making things happen, rather than sitting around and waiting for things to happen,” the President said. The President was now ignoring his Joint Chiefs chairman. “Get them in here,” he told Freeman with a broad, hopeful smile on his face. “They survived, dammit — they survive d!

OVER THE EAST CHINA SEA, NORTH OF TAIWAN
FRIDAY, 27 JUNE 1997, 2012 HOURS LOCAL (THURSDAY, 26 JUNE, 0912 HOURS ET)