The admiral shook his head. “I’m afraid that would be hard to do at this time. Not without alerting my superiors, which we don’t want to do yet.”
Jinshan said, “What kind of people do you need?”
“They can be unskilled,” Natesh said. “Educated, preferably. And able bodies. We can teach them what they need to do, but I need workers who can help to participate and manage supply chain and logistics work.”
Lena said, “What about Junxun?”
The admiral frowned. “What about it?”
“Could we send some of them? Call it training?”
“If you will excuse me saying so, that doesn’t seem like a good idea. It would be very unusual to send students like this away. Junxun is supposed to be held during the summer. It is still wintertime. And Junxun is normally held at local schools or military bases. What would we tell the students and their parents? There would be much complaining, I think.”
Lena said, “We already have a way of hiding the movement of our military assets from our leadership, do we not?”
The admiral again looked at Jinshan. “We do.”
“We could enact a special Junxun during the winter months, and say that we are flying them to the Red Cell island,” Lena said. “That would allow us to switch the flight to where we really need them, would it not?”
Jinshan nodded. “Yes, that could work. By the time the complaints get serious, we will have come to an agreement with our political and military leadership on the way ahead. But this personnel transfer will ensure that we are ready for our large military movements across the Pacific when the war begins in earnest.”
“What of the Americans on the Red Cell island?” Lena asked.
Jinshan took a sip of tea. “Are you still able to get information from the Americans that you consider helpful?”
“Yes.”
“Then keep them where they are. My men on the island can oversee them now.”
Lena nodded.
Natesh said, “I apologize, but I’m confused. What is Junxun?”
10
Li stood at attention next to her classmates. Most were older. But while she was only seventeen, she had also just graduated from secondary school. Her stellar marks and off-the-charts scores on aptitude tests had helped her gain early acceptance into one of China’s most prestigious universities a year early. It didn’t hurt that her father was a colonel in the PLA.
Like all incoming university students, Li was expected to participate in the two-week military indoctrination course known as Junxun. Each summer in China, over seven million students gathered at their schools or at a nearby military base. Students were taught by members of the People’s Liberation Army how to march, salute, and perform basic military drills. There were different levels of rigor at the various training sites. Most students considered it a rite of passage. A patriotic boot camp.
Li was in her third week of Junxun, and she had several more to go. While she had started out at her local high school, the military drill instructor there had picked her out as an overachiever right away.
Always a gifted runner, she had lapped the fastest of her male classmates in the five-thousand-meter race, and her academic test scores were all perfect. That too, had raised eyebrows.
So after the first week at her hometown location, they had plucked her out of her class and sent her to a special Junxun location near the city. Guangzhou in the summertime was sweltering. When she got off the bus, she quickly learned that she was the only girl in her class. And the boys were all gifted. The military men who trained them here carried clipboards, marking down notes on each student as they went through the training.
This Junxun was not a two-week summer camp. It was something very different. The boys — and they were all boys, aside from her — were much bigger and leaner. They didn’t joke around in class, and each had an intense look about him.
On the first day at the Guangzhou camp, there were over one hundred of them. Those numbers were whittled down fast. The physical activity picked up and many of them couldn’t take it.
Their instructors woke them up each day before dawn to start physical training. Push-ups and other calisthenics. Long, arduous runs. They attended classes during the day and got tested each afternoon on what they retained. The classes were a mix of military recognition and academic aptitude. Those who did not score above a ninety percent on any given test were sent home.
Most quit. After the first week, there were only forty of them. The ones who were still here at the completion of camp would be promised entry into a special government program. If they could make it that long. No one was told what that program was, but they all wanted to be chosen.
Now they stood at attention in the hot gymnasium.
“Li!”
The instructor, a short, red-faced man, liked to yell in her ear.
“Yes, Sergeant?” she answered.
“Step forward and put on the boxing gloves and headgear.”
“Yes, Sergeant.”
She raced forward, throwing the smelly equipment on over her head and hands. She took a mouth guard and washed it off in the sink, then scurried to the center mat.
Today was her first day of live hand-to-hand combat training. They had been taught technique for the past three days but hadn’t actually fought each other yet. As with most new endeavors, Li had mastered it right away. The PLA sergeant who taught the class tried not to show favoritism, but he was clearly thrilled at how much promise Li showed.
The instructor called on another pupil to face her on the mat. She could feel all the students’ eyes on her, wanting to see what would happen to the girl who embarrassed them on the track and in the classroom.
Her classmates treated her differently. Some respected her for her exceptional ability. But most showed disdain. She deemed their attitudes a product of jealousy or sexism. Many of them teased her at meals. During exercise, some gawked at her body, the sweat causing her clothes to cling tight.
Her chosen opponent walked out onto the mat in front of her. His name was Fang. He was one of the ones who called her names. Not to her face. In whispers, in the cafeteria. Out of earshot of most of the military instructors.
One of the military instructors, however, was quite aware of her treatment. A lieutenant in the People’s Liberation Army. One of the heads of this camp.
It was this lieutenant, by the name of Lin, who began causing her real problems. He saw what the boys were doing by making fun of her, and instead of stopping it, he actually encouraged it. Perhaps he didn’t think she deserved to be there with the rest of them. Perhaps he knew her father from the military and didn’t like him. Whatever the reason, Lieutenant Lin and his favorite student, Fang, made Li’s life a living hell.
Lunch earlier that day had started like any other. She sat at her table, alone. A group of boys, including Fang, sat at the next table. Fang had used a derogatory term for female genitalia and nodded in her direction. The other boys laughed. She had pretended not to hear it.
Now he smiled. She knew a little English and thought his name appropriate. He had the smile of a wolf. He was a bully. She had dealt with bullies before. She tried to ignore him, but that wasn’t going to work here.
They had hand-to-hand combat class after lunch. In the gym. When she arrived, she glanced at the rows of her male classmates. Their eyes were alive with excitement, their fists clenched and legs locked at attention. She fell in line in the back row, wondering why everyone was so quiet.
She darted a glance behind the rows of students and saw something she didn’t expect. Two of the instructors were speaking with a man in a suit. One of the instructors was Lieutenant Lin. The man was nodding and listening. The instructors were pointing at her and making gestures. The man in the suit was looking at his notepad and made a face that implied he approved. Lieutenant Lin shook his head vigorously, frowning and speaking to the man in the suit. Li realized that the man was watching her and she quickly faced front.