“I’m fine, Mr. President,” McLanahan said, shaking hands and receiving a brotherly clasp on the shoulder. “I’m glad to see you, and very glad to see you here, where you belong.”
“Sometimes I wish I was back in the Vice President’s office, working with troops like you — lots of power but no responsibility,” Martin-dale said, rather wearily. “How’s your wife? Wendy, right? Doing well, I hope.”
“She’s well, thanks.”
“Shit hot. It’s a miracle, after her accident. Congrats.” Martindale knew all about the aerial duel between Wendy McLanahan in the original EB-52 Megafortress and the thought-controlled fighter that had been piloted by the Russian deep-cover spy Kenneth Francis James. “And thank you for what you and Tiger Jamieson did over Iran and the Persian Gulf. You averted a major world oil crisis, and possibly another Desert Storm. Job well done.”
“I hope we get a chance to talk about the recent cuts in the bomber force, sir,” McLanahan said. “Speaking as a concerned and knowledgeable individual and not just as a defense contractor, I have some ideas about the bomber force structure that you should know. ”
“You will get a chance to talk about it, I promise,” the President said. “You’ve earned that right. Just keep in mind, the cuts were made long before I came into office, and the money has already been spent on the back end. But we’ll talk about all this later. I’ve heard some good things about what you and this young man here have been doing.” The President shook hands with Jon Masters. “Good to see you too, Dr. Masters. I’m looking forward to you naming a satellite after me soon. Make it a good one, okay?”
“The new space-based surveillance and targeting satellite needs a name,” Masters said with a boyish grin. “At the risk of being accused of out-and-out brown-nosing the President of the United States, I wonder if I should skip Taylor and Clinton and go right to Martindale?” They all laughed — the answer to that one was obvious.
“General, good to see you again,” the President said as he shook hands with the big three-star general. “I know I haven’t had time to thank you for all the hard work you did getting Colonel McLanahan here back in the air for that Iranian mission. Your work was instrumental in averting a certain disaster in the Persian Gulf. We were very impressed with the proposal you wrote concerning this Taiwan reconnaissance/strike mission.”
“Thank you, sir,” Samson responded. “I understand you’re getting a lot of political heat for the things we did. You don’t have to take the fall for this alone, sir.”
“I do, I will, and I’ll survive, Terrill,” the President said. “Unless the opposition wants to suspend the Constitution, I’m on solid ground. You worry about the mission we’re thinking about sending your boys on, I’ll worry about the Democrats.” His weak smile told Samson that he was more than just a little concerned about the political pressure he was under. _
“Jerrod’s going to call me to go to that American Bar Association dinner thing in about thirty minutes, so let’s get to it.” The President steered the three newcomers over to places around the coffee table in front of the big Resolute desk in the Oval Office. “Ellen, gents, I think you all know Air Force Lieutenant General Terrill Samson, commander of Eighth Air Force and bomber guru. Let me introduce Dr. Jonathan Colin Masters, boy genius, defense contractor, and reportedly the smarter younger brother of Merlin the Magician. And this is ace bombardier Patrick McLanahan. He and I have some stories that will curl your toes, if they ever declassify them. You’ll never guess how close to the brink we’ve been together, and how often we’ve been there.” The Presidential advisors, except Philip Freeman, mumbled hellos and little else.
“Here’s what’s going on, boys,” the President began, taking his seat at the head of the circle, with Vice President Whiting beside him. “A few weeks ago, the intelligence wonks said the PRC is massing a naval task force at Juidongshan, of about forty ships, mostly small combatants but a few large destroyers and frigates. The press reported it as minor ship movements associated with Reunification Day celebrations. We believe the ships have some other purpose. Meanwhile, the aircraft carrier Mao Zedong moved into Hong Kong Harbor, supposedly also participating in the Reunification Day stuff — but then we learned it lifted anchor. Phil, bring us up to speed.”
“In a nutshell, sir: that task force is getting bigger, and the carrier’s on the way to join them,” Philip Freeman began. “Estimated size of the PRC task force right now is fifty-seven ships, including six Luda-class guided-missile destroyers and twelve Jianghu-class frigates. Lots of support ships for surface forces and submarines. The carrier Mao has departed Hong Kong and is heading north along the coast, apparently to join the Juidongshan task force. The Mao is being escorted by four Luda- class destroyers, among others, so the PLAN has almost all of their operational destroyers involved in this task force.
“Along with the naval task force, we’ve noted increased activity at eleven army bases and ten air force and naval air bases within six hundred miles of Taipei, Taiwan. We’re watching a gradual activation of rocket artillery units at the army bases, with M-9 and M-l 1 ballistic missiles. We’re estimating at least two hundred attack planes, one hundred fighters, and fifty long-range bombers on line, each capable of carrying one or two large anti-ship cruise missiles… or nuclear weapons.”
There was a muted “Oh, shit” from someone in the Oval Office. “Run down the nuclear-capable forces for us, Phil,” the President asked somberly.
“China’s main nuclear threat comes from land-based mobile missiles,” Freeman said, reciting data completely from memory. “The Chinese have approximately one hundred mobile medium-range nuclear missiles, each of which can carry multiple reentry warheads, plus approximately one hundred mobile short-range single-warhead nuclear missiles similar to Scuds, and a total of twelve intercontinental-range missiles. A few of these units have been moved east arrayed against forces in the Pacific, although most are still set against Russian and Indian forces in the southwest or north. Only two nuclear-capable subs in the Chinese fleet; the Navy keeps very good track of both of them when they put to sea, which is not very often. The H-6 bombers are all nuclear capable, but with gravity bombs only — so far, the Chinese seem to have no nuclear-capable air-launched cruise missiles. The bombers are not considered a threat against a full-up American carrier or surface action group.
“With the addition of the Mao carrier, however, we can expect the addition of nuclear-capable anti-ship missiles, particularly the SS-N-12 Granit,” Freeman concluded. “Supersonic, over two-hundred-mile range, big warhead, radar-guided — a real threat if it gets past the outer and middle ring of air defense in the carrier battle group. The Sukhoi- 27 or -33 fighters deployed on the carrier can presumably deliver nuclear gravity bombs, too.”
“Chance of the Chinese using nukes for whatever they got in mind? ”
“Until the Philippine conflict in 1994, it was considered low,” Freeman replied. “The Chinese have always disavowed first use of special weapons — nuclear, chemical, and biological. But China used a tactical nuclear weapon against Philippine naval forces in 1994, and threatened to use them again in March of 1996 if Taiwan held their presidential elections and declared independence from the mainland. They even mentioned military retaliation against the United States if we should interfere, and refused to deny that they were in essence threatening to use nuclear weapons against the United States.
“The attacks of course never materialized. We always thought it was mere rhetoric, but… I think it would be irresponsible to dismiss any country threatening to use nuclear weapons. China has an advanced nuclear development program, including neutron, fractional orbital bombardment systems, tactical, battlefield, man-portable, and multi-megaton weapons.”