Before she could hand him the credentials, two loud phuts went off beside her head. She whirled around. Tang held a big silenced pistol, with smoke curling from the barrel. Outside the car, the East Lightning officer crumpled onto the cement.
Three doors opened and the Lion Guardsmen boiled out. Shun Li watched in amazement. East Lightning officers also watched for just a moment. That moment proved too long for them. The Lion Guardsman killed each of the security officers. They gut-shot most, so the officers clutched their stomachs. Then they blew away the faces.
At Tang’s orders, the Lion Guardsmen dragged the officers into the shack.
“Make the call,” Tang told her.
Shaking from surprise, Shun Li climbed out of the car and went to the guard shack. With trembling hands, she patched herself through to the next checkpoint.
“Be confident,” Tang whispered. “You have the Chairman’s complete backing.”
This is the play of my life, she realized. It had been some time now, but she resumed the arrogance of a Guardian Inspector in North America. She spoke to the officer in charge of the next checkpoint.
“Do you recognize this badge?” she asked. She spoke via a screen and held up the Leader’s personal badge of unique design.
The East Lightning officer on the screen scowled at her.
“Check the badge’s authenticity against your secret roster,” she ordered.
The officer did so, and he appeared surprised. “It is genuine?” he asked.
“You know it is,” she said. “But check the code eleven points of confirmation just to make sure.”
He typed and read something on a split screen. He appeared even more surprised, and he lost some of his angry arrogance. He bowed his head to her. “How can I be of service, sir?”
Either the East Lightning officer was a superb actor or Xiao’s coup plans hadn’t reached the lower ranked operatives. She would have been amazed if most of them did know. Xiao seemingly worked with the Army. The secret police and the military were natural enemies and they were seldom in agreement. It was more than likely he worked with only a few of the highest ranked officers and in secrecy.
She explained the situation to the guard officer, and she saw the operative’s nervousness, but he nodded once again.
“Be ready for us,” she said. After signing off, she turned to Tang. “Let’s go.”
The Lion Guardsmen piled into the blocky car. They passed the next checkpoints, and ten minutes later, Shun Li was amazed to find herself marching down the long corridors toward Xiao Yang’s office. Behind followed seven high-ranking East Lightning officers. They were wary and kept glancing at each other. On two different occasions, an East Lightning officer had phoned the number Shun Li gave him. The man listened to Chairman Hong telling him that Shun Li had full authority to do as she saw fit.
It worked so far. The great test approached.
The group turned the corner to Xiao Yang’s office.
“The Police Minister has cameras,” one of the East Lightning officers said.
“Break down the door,” Tang ordered the lead Lion Guardsmen.
Two of the big men sprinted, building up speed. They didn’t try the handle. The first guardsman launched himself at the door, bashing against it with his shoulder. Splintering sounds followed, but the door held. The second Lion Guardsman did the same thing. The door crashed inward.
The three other Lion Guardsmen rushed through the door and fanned out. Xiao Yang was on the phone. He looked up in what might have been surprise. The ceiling lights shined in the lenses of his glasses, giving him an inhuman quality. Even so, Shun Li was slow in drawing her pistol.
Tang drew his heavy revolver. He’d unscrewed the silencer some time ago. The gun barked three times and the magazine must have held exploding bullets. Xiao’s head shattered and the body blew backward, crumpling onto the floor behind the desk.
As one, the five Lion Guardsmen whirled around, aiming their guns at the East Lightning officers. Shun Li opened her mouth to calm everyone. The guns roared until the East Lightning officers lay dead and twisted on the carpet.
Shocked, Shun Li turned to Tang. He faced her, with his gun aimed at her belly.
“Am I next?” she whispered.
Tang shook his head. “Chairman Hong instructed me to purge the leadership. I have done so. Now, it is time for you to grab the reins of the Police Ministry. We will remain with you for a few days, until you feel yourself sufficiently in control.”
She stepped close to him so only he could hear. “Do you love me, Tang?”
The big man hesitated. “I serve China, Shun Li. I cannot love anything else. But I have enjoyed our times together.”
“I see.” And she thought she did. The barracuda had survived the killer whale and great white shark. Now it was time to become something more than a barracuda or she would end up like Xiao Yang.
She went to the former Police Minister’s desk, deciding her first order of business was to search for secret documents. She wanted to find everything Xiao had pertaining to the Denver Behemoth Manufacturing Plant.
-14-
Phase II, Continued
From Military History: Past to Present, by Vance Holbrook:
Invasion of Midwestern America, Phase II, 2039-2040
2039, December 2-10. Breakthrough. The Americans and Canadians achieved operational surprise against the Aggressor forces along the Platte River in Nebraska. In a bold tank assault, Army Group Washington burst between PAA Third Front and SAF First Front and drove to Colorado Springs. The Americans encircled the bulk of Third Front and fought off the initial Chinese and Brazilian counterattacks.
2039-2040, December 10-January 3. The Pocket Tightens. In the bitter winter weather, the Americans and Canadians continued to repulse every Chinese and Brazilian effort to break through to the trapped troops of Third Front. Giant air battles occurred as the Chinese attempted a vast airlift of supplies. American tac-lasers and growing SAM belts soon made the air operation too costly to continue.
To the east, Fourth Front pulled back in a fighting withdrawal. The Americans attacked out of St. Louis but were unsuccessful in trapping Fourth Front as they had done to Third Front.
2040, January 3-February 22. Marshal Gang takes over. After a swift political rearrangement, Hong relinquished direct military oversight of the North American Invasion. The Ruling Committee entrusted the position to Marshal Gang, formerly of First Front. Gang became the Commander-in-Chief of North America.
The last efforts to relieve the shrinking pocket holding Third Front failed. Using the Allied preoccupation with Third Front, Marshal Gang instituted the Great Pull Back.
In carefully arranged moves, which became the trademark of Gang’s oversight, the Aggressors successfully withdrew to the New Mexico-Oklahoma-Arkansas Line. There, Gang began to rebuild the weakened forces, pumping reinforcements into the tired divisions.
Renewed anti-guerrilla and partisan hunting campaigns proved the Aggressor intention of continuing the invasion assault come summer.
COMMENT. Chancellor Kleist’s offer and acceptance of GD neutrality allowed the Americans to make one of the greatest comebacks in history. Excessive Chinese aggressiveness and by exhausting their formations in the winter cold proved costly for both the Pan-Asian Alliance and to a lesser degree for the South American Federation. When the starving Third Front surrendered on March 15, over one million Pan-Asian Alliance soldiers marched into captivity. Hundreds of thousands had already died in the bitter winter battles. Perhaps no other coalition could have endured such staggering losses and continued to believe in ultimate victory. It was a testimony to Chinese tenacity and the lure of the productive American heartland in a world increasingly on the brink of worldwide Ice Age starvation.