General Chen raised his voice, making a decision. “Reallocate our targets. Defeat the American naval fleet. But make sure we also destroy the land-based air defense threats. Our second wave relies upon this.”
Lena watched as the general’s command was relayed among a handful of officers in the command center. They communicated the information in different ways. Via voice, wearing high-tech headsets that transferred the information directly to Admiral Song’s combat information center. And via secure chat messages being transmitted to missile battery commanders, the PLA Air Force commanders preparing their jets to launch from South America, and the ship and submarine commanders of Admiral Song’s fleet.
All of these communications would transit through the multi-billion-dollar constellation of Chinese mini-satellites recently launched from the South China Sea.
But first, the commands and associated targeting data made a quick stop in Fort Meade, where they received instant analysis.
And a few modifications.
David and Henry watched from the Silversmith operations center as an NSA tech provided them with the play-by-play from his computer.
“The NSA has received updated command information from Beijing. GPS overlays and distance corrections are being uploaded into the Chinese targeting and navigational computers.”
Henry leaned over to David and said, “Can you tell me now?”
David shook his head. “Not yet.”
The NSA tech said, “The PLA Navy and Air Force datalink and GPS are now controlled by Fort Meade.”
A muffled cheer from several of the workstations. Everyone in the room was monitoring their consoles with rapt attention, watching secure messages travel back and forth from various ultra-secret command centers in the United States. The war had given the best American computer programmers a great incentive to work for the NSA. No one was going to get rich creating the next social network during World War Three. But the same drive and ingenuity that built Silicon Valley was put to work in other ways. The NSA and other American agencies recruited and trained these men and women to become lethal cyber warriors.
Now came the payoff.
An Air Force technical sergeant rotated in his swivel chair and announced to the group, “The first Chinese hypersonic missiles are launching from Venezuela now.”
Henry said, “So this is it, right? The attack is starting?”
Outside the building, an air raid siren began wailing.
Henry looked nervous. “Should we seek shelter?”
David kept watching the digital display that showed locations of ships and aircraft. Very few air tracks were flying yet. Some Chinese radar planes, and a modest combat air patrol. No American aircraft had launched.
Then several red air tracks appeared over Venezuela, each with a velocity vector jutting out from its center. The length of that vector symbolized its speed. These were the first of the Chinese hypersonic cruise missiles. Their speed vectors quickly lengthened until they spanned the Caribbean.
“Holy hell,” David said, looking at them. “That’s at least twenty, and they’re just getting started. This had better work.”
Henry said, “If it doesn’t, we should probably listen to that air raid siren and seek shelter.”
“If it doesn’t, we won’t have enough time.”
“Will you tell me now?”
David looked at him. “Fine. What do you want to know?”
“Start with the hypersonic weapons.”
David continued watching the digital air tracks as he spoke. “After the scientist, Rojas, was captured by the Chinese, we realized that even in the best-case scenario, both the US and the Chinese were going to have the Rojas hypersonic technology. But we could choose to differentiate how we used it. The Chinese had a distinct advantage with their mass satellite launch capability. We wanted them to be overly reliant on that capability. We’ve been grooming them to believe it was effective for the past year. Lulling them into a false sense of security. But as you know from your work, that network wasn’t secure.”
Susan walked over. “Is this an unauthorized briefing?”
David said, “You said he could come in here.”
Susan shrugged. “At this point, what does it matter? Win or lose, everyone will know what we did tomorrow.”
Henry said, “So the Chinese satellite communication and datalink…”
David said, “That was a major advantage for the Chinese in all of the battles they’ve fought over the past year. We let them think that their superior anti-satellite capability was shooting down our own satellites. But we let them. We purposely made it easier for them to do. We allowed them to become overconfident, and now they are. The PLA linked their biggest, most important weapons systems into a satellite network. But with your code, we now control it. We can now read their communications. The NSA has hundreds of personnel who have been working nonstop on how to offset the digital navigation and targeting data the Chinese are using. We now control their targeting.”
Admiral Song stood in the ship’s combat information center. One of his best officers had just reported more errors showing up in their satellite communications and datalink network.
“Admiral, our ships are preparing to launch cruise missiles on land-based targets. During their pre-launch checks, they have detected severe inaccuracies. But they were ordered to launch anyway.”
“What were the inaccuracies?”
“They think the GPS targeting data is wrong.”
A gasp from some of his men caused Admiral Song to turn around. One of the video monitors showed the nearby escort ships. Destroyers and frigates.
One of the destroyers looked like it had been cut in half.
The ship’s bow and stern were jutting out of the water at odd angles while the area amidships sank below the sea.
The sailors in combat began shouting.
Then the screen flashed white. When the image returned, a second ship was hit, a geyser of whitish-gray seawater rising up hundreds of feet from its center.
Admiral Song felt a chill run down his spine.
The junior officer next to him yelled, “Sir, the missile commander has issued an alert! We are under attack from our own hypersonic missiles.”
A hundred miles away, the Chinese missile battery had just finished launching several dozen hypersonic cruise missiles. They reached Mach six within seconds, and took mere minutes to travel north over the Caribbean and reach their targets. Both before launch and during their flight, the missiles received updates from the constellation of Chinese mini-satellites now orbiting the earth. From ground control stations in Venezuela, Chinese missile men eagerly watched their screens. The missiles had been programmed to destroy American land and sea targets. Error messages began appearing on the Chinese ground control station computers immediately after launch. But there was nothing they could do.
The hypersonic cruise missile that hit Admiral Song’s escorts was supposed to destroy US Army air defense radars near the Everglades.
It was approximately 942 nautical miles off target.
Or just twenty-five feet, if you were one of the programmers sitting in the NSA’s ultra-secure operations center in Fort Meade.
On board Admiral Song’s Jiaolong-class ship, the room suddenly went dark as a missile tore through the center of the superstructure. Admiral Song felt the floor sink and then rise upward again, collapsing everyone to the floor, breaking bones and knocking several unconscious.
When the dim emergency lights illuminated the room, he couldn’t hear anything. But he could see sailors scrambling around inoperative computer terminals. Sparks spewed from an open gash in the electrical wiring on the bulkhead. A sickening feeling washed over the admiral as the deck began pitching up at a steeper and steeper angle.