“Lin Yu! Get out here!”
“Yes, Sergeant.” He flung open his door and jogged over.
Another white man was being walked out of the building at gunpoint. Two PLA soldiers behind him. “The rest of the building is clear,” one of the soldiers said in Mandarin.
The sergeant said, “Lin Yu, tell them we need them to begin unlocking twenty-two of their vehicles, and providing us with the keys. We want four-wheel-drive vehicles and will need them to be fueled up.”
Lin Yu nodded and translated into English.
The first man who had been taken outside listened and looked like he understood. He seemed to be the one in charge. He pointed towards the building. “I’ll need to get my codes. They all have locks on the cars. I’ll need to get the codes…”
Lin Yu explained this to his sergeant, who nodded. Two minutes later, the portly American was fumbling with the lock pad combination on the first vehicle. When the code didn’t work, it made a beeping noise. He looked up. “I think the codes may have changed.”
Lin Yu said, “What does this mean?”
“Headquarters might have changed them. They can do that. They must have changed the codes. So I can’t unlock them anymore. The keys are in these little lockboxes. But if my codes don’t work, we can’t get them.”
Lin Yu translated this to his sergeant, who frowned. “Tell him to try again.”
Lin Yu relayed the order in English, and they got the same result. The American man was shivering in his button-down shirt, rubbing his hands together to keep warm. He said, “It’s still not working. There’s nothing I can do.” Lin Yu translated this to his sergeant.
In the distance, a police siren began to wail.
One of the special forces soldiers came over. “What’s the problem?” The sergeant explained. The special forces soldier called over the other two Americans. He raised his rifle and shot the black woman in the chest. The man next to her howled and began to rush them. The soldier fired two more shots into the approaching man and he went down. His head imploded.
Lin Yu felt bile coming up and turned away, trying to catch his breath. When he looked up again, he saw that the American man who had been claiming the locks wouldn’t work had wet his pants. His fingers shaking, he typed in the code on the lock and it opened, revealing a key fob. The special forces soldier took it and unlocked the vehicle, checking that it would start without problem. He then checked the fuel and said, “This one is good. Twenty-one more.”
Moments later, a single American police cruiser appeared on the lot. The Chinese special forces troops had been listening to the siren get closer, and they were ready. Two of the soldiers were positioned in an L-shape, ready to ambush the police. They fired into the police cruiser from less than ten meters away. As soon as the vehicle came onto the property, its windows were filled with bullet holes. Then they moved quickly through the wreckage, ensuring their targets were killed, and looking for any valuable communications equipment or weapons.
Fifteen minutes later, the Chinese had twenty-five vehicles fueled up and ready to go. They sent three of the vehicles with one driver each back to the PLA company campsite. They returned with a total of twenty men. Enough to drive all of the cars.
Lin Yu’s sergeant shot the American man in the back of the head before they departed. The sight haunted Lin Yu as he sat in his sergeant’s passenger seat on the way back to the company camp. The sergeant didn’t say a word.
The company operations officer called Lin Yu into the farmhouse when they returned to help him mark up some of the paper charts before they left. As he worked, Lin Yu overheard the company commander, the operations officer, and the special forces team leader discussing what lay ahead.
“…we will move out within the hour…”
“…will the explosive ordnance experts be there when we arrive?”
“Yes, sir. Those teams have been pre-positioned and told what to expect.”
“And we won’t get any further aerial reinforcements? Is that what you are hearing?”
“That is correct, sir. We were able to deploy a single regiment. The other planes were not able to make it.”
“What happened to them? Never mind. It doesn’t matter. The Americans will be recovering from the EMP attacks. We must move quickly.”
“Will the South Sword Team accompany us south?”
“For now.”
Lin Yu finished rolling up the charts as the PLA special forces men left the farmhouse. Twenty minutes later, his entire company had stowed their gear in their recently acquired American vehicles and were headed south on the highway.
Lin Yu gazed out the window as they drove through the vast countryside. He tried to imagine a day where he could enjoy this beauty without seeing the faces of those he had just helped to kill.
15
Chase landed at Naval Air Station North Island at just after 1300 local time. They had a short layover in Honolulu, but Chase wasn’t allowed off the airport. He had gone into the FBO building and listened to people talk about the EMP attacks and the war. But accurate news and information were hard to come by. Everything was gossip. Now back on mainland USA, Chase wondered what he would find.
The government jet taxied up to base ops, where it came to a stop and shut down. The ladder was lowered, and two escorts awaited. One for the diplomats, the other for him.
“Chase Manning?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Name’s Pat. Hop in.” Pat wore a desert nylon shirt with no name tags or patches, save an American flag on his shoulder.
Chase threw his bag in the back and sat in the passenger seat of a blue government sedan. Pat drove them off the flight line at base ops towards the buildings where the SEAL teams were located.
Chase said, “You know where they’re putting me?”
“You’ll be with SEAL Team Five. We leave tonight.”
“For where?”
Pat looked over at him. “The Midwest. That’s all we know so far.”
“For what?”
“Hunting.”
Chase was puzzled but figured that when he needed to know more, they’d tell him. Pat turned out to be a chief. He’d been with the Teams for nearly fifteen years. Deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq more times than Chase. He seemed like a decent guy.
They entered the building Chase recognized from the early days of his training. He’d been stationed mostly on the East Coast, so he hadn’t seen Coronado much after BUD/S. The culture was slightly different on each team. But they were all very tight crews. Hardened eyes studied him as he entered the unit’s spaces.
“You can have this locker. Jake over there will get you geared up. The CO wants to see you now.”
Chase dropped his bag in the locker room. He nodded politely to the other members of the team on his way out.
“Guy smells like officer. You an officer, man?”
Chase said, “Guilty.”
“Great. Just what we need around here, another fucking officer.”
Pat said, “Shut up, Jones.” He looked at Chase. “You can ignore him. Everyone else does.”
Chase shrugged, a mild-mannered smile on his face.
Pat marched him down the hall and entered an open area where two female secretaries were working behind desks. Behind them stood a closed wooden door.
“Afternoon, Mary. CO in?”
“He said for you to go on in with Mr. Manning when you arrived.”
“Thanks.”
Pat nodded for Chase to follow and knocked on the door, opening it as he did. Three men sat in the office. All were wearing green fatigues. Two were commanders, the other a master chief.
Pat said, “Sir, this is Chase Manning. I’m sorry, sir, is it Lieutenant or…”
Chase shrugged. “I guess it’s technically Lieutenant Commander now. Reserves. But I haven’t drilled in…”