Behind his visor Paul’s eyes narrowed to slits. The Chinese had slaughtered Greater Los Angeles. The orders to do that came from here, from Marshal Nung. It was time for this Nung to taste what he had given everyone else.
“Let’s see how you like them apples,” Paul muttered.
He was up. He heard thudding footfalls and flicked his head to the side. Romo ran near. Donovan was close behind. Good, good, it was good to die with your friends.
“Ready?” Paul shouted.
“Si!”
“Let’s rock and roll, baby!” Donovan roared, reverting perhaps to his Viking ancestry.
Paul increased speed, reaching the blasted door first. He grabbed a grenade, armed and hurled it through. This was his private, portable artillery. It burst. Paul used his foot and bashed the door, forcing it further open. He leaped inside. A Chinese guard groaned from on the floor. Paul shot him. Another whipped around a corner. Paul shot him, too, in the face.
The handful of commandos started down the bunker, firing, tossing grenades, creating mayhem. Then four Chinese guards began firing at them from the bottom concrete stairs.
Paul was out of grenades. Donovan shrugged, suggesting they trust their body armor to see them through. Instead Romo slithered forward on his belly, the grim nozzle aimed forward. Flame spit from the nozzle in a long line. It reached down the stairs and began to burn. Chinese soldiers screamed in agony.
“It works every time,” Romo said.
“Our target is down there,” Paul said. He tore an empty magazine from the submachine gun and slapped in a fresh one. “Ready?”
Romo squirted another terrible line of fire. A blaze crackled down there. Smoke began to billow.
Picking himself off the floor, Paul charged down the stairs. The smell of cooked pork assaulted his nostrils. He knew the awful fact that humans smelled like pork when they cooked.
Kavanagh raced past the dying guards. He cut down another man and then he burst into what had to be the command chamber. It held a large computer table and more stations than he could count. Some of the personnel had backed away. Others fired at him with handguns, but they were small caliber weapons.
Paul fired back, cutting down the First Front High Command. Bullets spanged off his body armor, and kinetic force caused him to stagger back. One bullet smashed through and singed his cheek, creating a bloody furrow. None sank into his flesh to kill him.
A blazing line of liquid fire arched toward the enemy and Chinese officers began to burn and scream hideously. Smoke chugged and the stench was wicked. More bullets ripped into them, and mercifully they went down.
“Is he here?” Donovan shouted.
Paul flung out a spent magazine. This butchery made him sick. It felt wrong. Yet he rammed another magazine in and continued to do his duty. He was here to kill, to try to end the conflict by eliminating the mastermind behind the relentless orgy of destruction that the Chinese committed upon America.
-14-
Conference
Jian Hong paced restlessly in his study. The room was on the third floor of his palace in the middle of Mao Square.
He could not believe the news. Marshal Shin Nung was dead, slaughtered in his headquarters like a pig. American commandos had burst into the bunker during a particularly savage cruise missile assault. If the reports were true, Nung had burned to death beyond easy recognition. A dentist had identified the marshal through his dental records.
It was this burning to death that troubled Jian.
A knock sounded, and the door swung open. A secretary poked her head in. “Leader, Police Minister Xiao is here to see you.”
“Yes, yes, let him enter.”
The secretary retreated and Xiao entered. It was very late and behind his thick glasses, Xiao’s eyes were puffy. The Police Minister must have already been asleep.
“Have you heard the news?” Jian asked.
Xiao nodded even as he swayed slightly.
“Sit, sit,” Jian said. “You look like you’re about to tumble over.”
Xiao pulled out a chair and sat down.
“The Americans have apparently slain Marshal Nung.”
“It is startling,” Xiao said.
Jian laughed mirthlessly. “It is more than startling. I find it impossible.”
“Leader?”
“These so-called commandos burned Nung to death beyond recognition.”
Xiao blinked several times and nodded hesitantly.
“It is obvious,” Jian said. “This is a staged event.”
“By whom, Leader?”
“That is why I have summoned you. This piece of treachery will not stand. I want to know how such an attack against my chosen marshal could succeed in the center of a heavily guarded headquarters.”
Xiao seemed awake now, and he appeared to choose his words with care. “Are we certain someone among us did this? Perhaps the Americans really—”
Jian laughed harshly. “Do not be naïve, Xiao. Treacherous and cunning enemies surround us. I suspect Deng Fong. Yet if that is true, it means his hooks have sunk into those in the Army. Marshal Kao would have to be complicit in this. Normally, I would not believe it, but I know that he loathes Marshal Nung.”
“I’m sure you are right, Leader,” Xiao hastened to say. “But it seems incredible Kao would help slaughter Marshal Gang.”
“Ah! That was the second piece of evidence that showed me the truth of the matter. Marshal Gang survived the so-called commando raid.”
“How?”
“He wasn’t in the bunker, but in his quarters. He sustained injuries from the cruise missile assault, but they were minor and he is otherwise fit. And listen to this. Kao has already contacted me and suggested that Marshal Gang assume responsibility for the First Front. He was too eager, too ready in this.”
The Police Minister squinted and soon began to nod. “I’m beginning to think you are right, Leader. There are too many coincidences. And you say Nung was burned to death? Why do you believe that is important?”
“We know the depth of Kao’s hatred for him. The burning shows spite. It is Kao’s fingerprint on the assassination.”
Xiao stood and straightened his uniform. “Leader, this is a grave matter.”
“Yes, yes, finally you’re awake. My enemies—our enemies—are making their move against us even as we wage war.”
“It is diabolical.”
“I have learned a valuable lesson concerning these matters,” Jian said. “One must strike first. Well, our enemies have secretly struck against us by chopping at one of the roots of our military high command. Perhaps they believed this blow would frighten me into inaction. Or maybe they thought I was too dull to see this for what it was. No! I’m neither dull-witted nor frightened. Instead, they have roused me to swift action. Tell me, Xiao. Are your flying squads ready?”
“Once you give me the code word, Leader, I can have them knocking on doors in fifteen minutes.”
Clasping his hands behind him, intertwining his fingers so he could feel his knuckles, Jian began to pace. “It is a bold thing we plan. It frightens me, this step. But we cannot wait for our enemies to finish their strike against us.” He whirled on Xiao. “Arrest Marshal Kao and arrest Foreign Minister Deng Fong before dawn.”
“The Foreign Minister has powerful bodyguards,” Xiao said.
“If you cannot do this, tell me.”
The Police Minister straightened. “I can do it, Leader. May I ask one thing?”
“Speak!”
“Arresting Deng Fong might bring repercussions with the German Dominion. They trust him. This could also cause division in our Pan-Asian Alliance.”