Each walked toward his respective admiral. When Casher stepped up his boss, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Commander Admiral Howard “Cactus” Clark, a career fighter pilot, he and Louise Clark were in conversation with the First Lady of Hawaii. She was talking about her recent “harrowing” flight to Maui when, after takeoff, her plane experienced a minor malfunction and had to return to Honolulu. Clark, gracious and patient with the chatterbox, smiled as she held forth while Louise gushed with her about the bravery she had exhibited when facing such “danger.”
Casher whispered in Clark’s ear. “Sir.”
Clark excused himself and stepped away with his EA. “Thanks for rescuing me, Richie!”
“Admiral, Cape Esperance is transiting in the SCS and is off course. Seventh Fleet has called them, but the ship doesn’t answer.”
Clark furrowed his brow. “When?”
“About thirty minutes ago, around 1430 local time. Paul and I just got word; he’s over there informing Admiral Maitland.” Clark glanced over to see for himself.
“Where?”
“They were passing Scarborough Shoal when they took a sudden turn to the west and sped up, then went all-stop. They won’t answer, and PRC aircraft are in the vicinity.”
Just then Casher’s phone rang, and he looked at the screen. “This is Japan, sir.” Clark nodded as his EA answered.
“Captain Casher.”
“Ritchie, Mike Capstaff aboard Blue Ridge.”
“Hey, Mike, what’s up out there?”
“We’ve got trouble. Looks like Cape Esperance was slimed by the Chinese close aboard Scarborough. Probable nerve agent. An ensign is the senior surviving officer, and we’re talking to her now. The ship is dead in the water.”
“Senior surviving officer?” an incredulous Casher asked.
“Yeah, it’s bad… She reports most of the crew are dead, including the CO.”
Casher looked up at the intense face of his admiral, who was trying to discern what was going on. He said goodbye to Capstaff and gave his report.
“Holy shit,” Clark muttered as he turned to the happy gathering. Cocktails in hand, they were enjoying each other’s company. Knowing this could be the last fun evening for everyone for a while, he took charge.
“Okay, let’s get Maitland and the component commanders out of here and up to Camp Smith. But first, call Washington: Pentagon, then State.”
Casher said, “Yes, sir,” and punched in the numbers, while Clark found his flag aide across the crowd and gave him the two-finger “run-up” signal. The aide then turned to summon their black Suburban to the driveway. Clark returned to the ladies and said his goodbyes for the evening. He gave Louise a peck on her lips as he departed, holding her gaze for a moment before he turned. After thirty years of marriage to a naval officer, she knew something bad had just happened somewhere.
Clark’s subordinate four-stars also excused themselves with polite smiles and entered their staff vehicles. Inside, aides connected them with their staffs as the drivers set out on the 20-minute drive to Camp Smith. Cape Esperance had been attacked by the Chinese with a biological nerve agent. The ship was under the control of an ensign with what amounted to a skeleton crew — about 30 survivors accounted for, a mere 10 percent of the crew — and some of them were near death.
“My God,” Clark murmured as he learned the news, his face a mixture of sorrow and horror at what this meant for the families — and for the United States.
The nearest combatant was the guided-missile destroyer USS Koelsch off the northern tip of Luzon, over 400 miles away, which meant over 12 hours away. Seventh Fleet had already ordered it to rush to the aid of stricken Cape Esperance at best speed; an all-night transit for an early morning rendezvous. But what were they steaming toward?
Aircraft could get there faster, of course, and P-8’s scrambled from Kadena and Guam to at least shadow the wounded cruiser and report Chinese movements. However, the largest and most powerful warship the Seventh Fleet possessed was the aircraft carrier John Adams, with Carrier Air Wing Ten aboard, at the moment riding at anchor in Hong Kong. Clark could imagine the Joint Staff having a collective aneurism when they were reminded of that. It was 0130 on the east coast. He needed to give orders and contact Washington.
“Get me SECDEF, now. And get John Adams underway, now,” Clark said to his staff. Deep in thought as he considered possible options, Clark saw nothing of the cityscape of Honolulu as the SUV passed through the streets. Depending on how this started, full-scale war with China was one of the options. The driver, sensing trouble, stepped on the gas.
At People’s Liberation Army Headquarters, the report from the south was troubling.
A Y-8Q patrol aircraft of the People’s Liberation Army (Navy) was tracking an American Ticonderoga class cruiser as it steamed past Scarborough Shoal on an approved south-north transit. Their job was to report to the Southern Theater Command headquarters if the American warship deviated from course and speed. Radar and EW sensor operators in the propeller-driven aircraft noted with alarm the sharp turn and increased speed of the “enemy” vessel — now heading for the mainland — and reported it at once to the regional PLA(N) headquarters at Zhanjiang. Within minutes, this news was forwarded up the chain to the PLA command center in Beijing. Watch Officers in both the PLA and the U.S. Navy were unsure about what they were witnessing, and, depending on where they sat, interpreted the reports with dismay or alarm.
The midafternoon smog cast a gray pallor over Beijing to match the mood of the city. The tremors from the world financial earthquake of the previous decade were still felt in China, which was struggling to revive the export-based economy which had fueled breathtaking economic growth for the previous two decades. It was grinding to a halt and Party leaders could see it coming, hoping more than planning for a turnaround with tectonic scale global economic forces they could barely influence despite their top-down commands to huge state-run enterprises. It was due to the freedom of the free enterprise system Chairman Deng cited in his “one country, two systems” construct that he initiated in the 1980s, that began in Hong Kong, that survived Tiananmen, and that delivered astonishing growth in the 1990s and 2000s that no one could have imagined. In and around the cities, a burgeoning middle class was born, a class of hundreds of millions that consumed goods and purchased homes and cars. Gainful employment was required of all, and with the export economy slowing, jobs were becoming harder for the state to deliver. What with lower wages for existing jobs, coupled with tighter credit and decades of population control measures that were not delivering the results officials expected, domestic pressures were rising. On the international front, China’s military expansion and its dismissal of many international sea and air protocols alarmed not only its neighbors but other world powers, led by the United States.
Watch Officers took the report from the south. An American cruiser transiting the Chinese territorial waters of the South China Sea, with no warning, veered hard left and accelerated toward the mainland only 400 miles away. This unprovoked deviation caused apprehension at each level of the chain, and excited Duty Officers forwarded this news in a frantic rush. Along the way amplifying mis-information was added: the Americans had trained their fire control radars on unsuspecting Chinese vessels, and their combat helicopters were operating in violation of the rules of innocent passage. When it reached Beijing, shocked staff officers sent the report of the hostile American action to the office of PLA Vice Chairman Marshal Dong Li.