It was a front row seat to history, and to the results of their work. They tried to remain out of the way, sitting in the back of the room. Dozens of men and women from various military and intelligence organizations typed on terminals and spoke into headsets.
A senior enlisted Air Force woman wearing a headset called out, “Chinese aircraft are taking off in large numbers from their bases in Venezuela and Colombia.”
Susan and the operations officer next to her nodded, acknowledging the update. On the large digital map display, dozens of red air tracks began appearing, their speed vectors stretching north.
Susan said, “Do they have any indication of the American air tracks to the north?”
“Negative. We think not yet, anyway. They’re still pretty far off. Won’t show up on organic Chinese radar planes for another hour or so.”
Henry leaned over to David. “What are they talking about?”
David said, “You are starting to hear about some of the other missions that we planned. You were in one compartmentalized team whose job was to help us gain access to the Chinese satellite network. It was crucial, but we were also working on several other programs that, when combined, should bear significant fruit.”
Henry motioned toward the screen. “And those blue symbols up top…those are one of your programs?”
David nodded. “Remember during the Chinese submarine attack, how a lot of news agencies were immediately showing footage of our military bases under fire?”
“Of course. Some idiots with cell phone cameras gave it to the news, who put out vital intelligence. They showed all of our destroyed ships and aircraft.”
David didn’t blink. “We distributed them. Those videos were staged. Produced by some very talented folks — who, interestingly enough, used to work in Hollywood and now work for the CIA. You’re familiar with the term Deep Fakes?”
“Of course. It’s when they use modern technology to manipulate videos to show something false. The Chinese used it during the opening stages of the war. They put out a false video on all of our major news networks showing our president announcing that he was nuking China.”
“That’s right. They wanted to confuse us. And to trick the world into believing that the United States launched nuclear missiles at North Korea. But in actuality, China did that. Chinese submarines fired on North Korea, and then China convinced the world it was us. That gave them enormous political leverage.”
Henry said, “So you are saying that the submarine attack on our bases…that was faked? By us? And that all of those videos that went out over the news…those were…”
“Created by us. Delivered to the US media by anonymous assets. Once the videos were picked up by the global media, where we had no authority, the US government officially demanded that US media organizations stop showing the false attack imagery. This further solidified its veracity, in the eyes of any foreign intelligence operatives.”
Henry said, “So what actually happened?”
“We closed off access to all of those bases. The night of the attack, we flew as many of those jets as possible to a few remote airfields in Canada for safekeeping. With only limited ISR capability, the Chinese — and the Russians, for that matter — can’t look at everything. From our agents in China and Russia, we knew both countries were spending all of their resources scouring every inch of US air bases. They saw what we wanted them to see. Destroyed decoys mostly. We sank one ship on purpose. A few aircraft. We needed to make it look real. But with the increased security around our bases, we were able to minimize the cameras. We covered our ships with scaffolding and fake damage. Every so often, we would leak images to suspected Chinese agents operating in the US. Susan is still running some Chinese agents.”
“Are you supposed to be telling me this?”
David shrugged, looking at the digital map. The red aircraft were separating into groups, some heading west over Central America and others north toward the approaching American fleet. “All of our cards are on the table now.”
Henry shook his head. “So, let me get this straight. We have a full-strength US Navy Atlantic fleet and a healthy Air Force headed into battle, and the Chinese don’t know about it? Am I understanding that correctly?”
“They’ll know about it soon.” David smiled.
“But what about Russia?”
“What about them?”
“Wouldn’t they tell China that they didn’t launch the attack? Wouldn’t they deny involvement?”
“They did deny it.”
“Yeah, but… that was like a non-denial denial, right? Weren’t they winking at China when they denied it?”
David said, “We have some people who helped with the winking.”
“Holy shit.” Henry frowned. “Wait. I’m still missing something. The hypersonic weapons.”
“Ah, yes.”
“You used the Chinese’s own hypersonic weapons to inflict massive damages on their own ships…”
David pointed to the screen showing live drone video of smoking Chinese tank formations. “And some of their ground assets in Central America…”
“Right.”
“But…”
“But why did you need Rojas at all, then? You’ve been trying to get access to his technology for months now. If you were planning to just hijack the Chinese hypersonic weapons, why did you need to make your own? Or was that fake too, just to throw the Chinese off track?”
David shook his head. “Oh, no. Henry, there are a few ways to manage the navigation of long-range weaponry. I mean really-long-range weaponry. Like intercontinental ballistic missiles. The inertial navigation systems inside ICBMs cost a ton of money and take a very long time to make. If you are trying to build up a fleet of hypersonic weapons, and you can use GPS targeting data instead, it’s much more efficient to do so.”
“Which is what the Chinese did?”
“Yes. They went for the quicker, cheaper, and more vulnerable option, using their supposedly secure satellite technology to guide their weapons. But the American military, like it always has, went for the higher-cost, higher-quality option. The hypersonic weapons we have been working on aren’t short- or medium-range cruise missiles. We already have those. But we felt we needed something that could achieve a prompt global strike on demand while not relying on a satellite network that could be hacked.”
“Our ICBMs…that’s why you had all the Air Force missile men locked away by themselves, and why Rojas went to STRATCOM?”
David nodded as Susan walked up to them. “He’s sharp.”
David said, “We used the reliable weapons we already had. Our ICBMs have inertial guidance systems that are incredibly accurate. They have to be. If the Russians launched a nuclear attack, one of the first things they would do is take out our GPS networks. We’ve been training for this for decades.”
“But our ICBMs are nuclear weapons…”
“They were nuclear weapons. The Air Force has been working on its hypersonic glide vehicles for years. One of the variants was designed to be a direct substitute for all of our ICBM warheads.”
Henry’s eyes flickered back and forth as he thought. “So, you took out our nuclear warheads? We have no nukes?”
“A lot fewer, that’s for sure. But don’t tell anyone…” He winked.
“And you replaced them with hypersonic glide vehicles…”
“Right. Our HGVs are now installed in our intercontinental ballistic missiles. A reliable, pre-existing way to get them in orbit and on a programmable trajectory of our choosing.”