“The aircraft carrier?”
“Yes.”
“If he’s indeed sending a carrier,” Renard said, “then that will lend credence to the speculation that the mainland is preparing to ambush it.”
“I’ve requested an audience with him. We’ll be connected soon.”
Ye aimed his fingers at a monitor on his wall.
“How much of your newfound data are you willing to share with him?” Renard asked.
“It will depend on his demeanor,” Ye said. “If he is candid, I will be candid.”
“What’s the status of the Kilo?”
“Scuttled. Prior to sunrise.”
“Silently?”
“All doors and hatches were open on the way down,” Ye said. “So, it was done as quietly as such a thing can be.”
“Have you sent a bogus signal to the mainland pretending to come from the Kilo?”
“Yes,” Ye said. “We sent a situational report stating that the other two ships — a Song and a Ming—were destroyed by tactical nuclear warheads and that only two patrol craft had been sunk.”
“You sent the message from the doomed Kilo itself?”
“Yes, and we received a standard reply. We later intercepted orders telling the Kilo to continue on its mission with respect to the American carrier.”
As Renard’s mind teased him with scenarios based upon knowing the mainland’s plans, one of Admiral Ye’s staff appeared on the monitor. After Ye held a brief exchange of words, Admiral Brody appeared.
“Good evening Admiral Brody,” Ye said.
“Good morning Admiral Ye,” Brody said. “I see you’ve ushered in the tactical nuclear age.”
“As promised.”
“How is the fallout?”
“Minimal and confined to the sea, as expected.”
“You requested my time, Admiral Ye,” Brody said. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m curious about your plans of sending your naval power near my homeland.”
“I always share my plans with you as a courtesy,” Brody said. “At least when I deem it relevant.”
“Would you deem it relevant to tell me if you were sending the Reagan strike group from Hawaii?”
Brody frowned.
“I can send the Reagan strike group anywhere I want without telling anyone, as long as I honor international boundaries. But you didn’t call me to discuss hypotheticals, Admiral Ye. What are you getting at?”
“There’s a lot of water between Hawaii and my homeland,” Ye said. “You may think you can move a carrier strike group in secrecy, and normally you can. However, you’ve been defeated in areas where you didn’t know you had vulnerabilities.”
“I’m not following.”
“The mainland has studied your personality and your tendencies,” Ye said. “They believed with enough fervor that you would be an aggressor, no matter what policy the president or his cabinet chose. They predicted that you would send major resources to the region.”
“Even if they were right, how is that a defeat?”
“They’re defeating you in cyberspace,” Ye said. “They have access to your communication network, and they know that you’re sending the Reagan strike group here, along with an amphibious landing force.”
“If your intent is to make accusations, we have little else to discuss.”
Ye stood, withdrew a note card from his breast pocket, and walked to the monitor. He raised the card to the camera eye.
“I have intercepted intelligence from the mainland that the Reagan is roughly here, at these coordinates.”
“This would prove nothing, even if it were accurate.”
Ye moved to his desk, lifted a pile of papers, and returned to the monitor.
“Then perhaps this does,” he said.
As he raised the papers, Brody’s face became ashen.
“Those are my orders to the Reagan strike group. Where the hell did you get those?”
“We forced a mainland Kilo-class submarine to surface,” Ye said. “This came from the commanding officer’s safe. Also on that submarine was a plan for a multi-submarine wolf pack attack against the Reagan.”
“They wouldn’t succeed. They wouldn’t risk an act of open war.”
“Submarines only, Admiral Brody,” Ye said. “Plausible denial of participation.”
“Plausible denial? Who else would possibly be held accountable?”
“North Korea. We found North Korean weapons on the Kilo, and a North Korean submarine is involved.”
“We tracked a surfaced Romeo-class submarine through the East China Sea,” Brody said.
“We heard it pass over our hydrophone array,” Ye said.
“So, are you suggesting that I back off and let you stick with your plan of securing the Philippine Sea with an underwater hydrophone system and a squadron of nuclear-armed patrol craft? Just because of a few submarines and cyber-hackers.”
“Yes,” Ye said.
“No!” Renard said.
Ye returned to his desk, sat, and appeared quizzical.
“I was wondering why you were so quiet,” Brody said.
“Now that we’ve established an understanding, I thought we may now discuss how to make use of this knowledge from the captured Kilo.”
“I’m listening, Renard,” Brody said.
“The mainland doesn’t know that we have this information, and they don’t know yet that they’ve lost their Kilo. Nor to do they know the Hai Ming survived the attack at its submarine pen. I recommend that the Hai Ming masquerade as the Kilo and continue on the mission per the mainland’s plans.”
“You would use the Reagan as bait?” Brody asked.
“Why not?” Renard said. “We have every advantage, and its fate in absence of this conversation would be no better than any plan I can concoct. Better to be bait in an encounter of our own design than to be the unwitting victim of an ambush.”
“I could use a different form of communications to send the Reagan a different way,” Brody said. “But, if I continue with the status quo, what’s the upside?”
Brody’s interest encouraged Renard. He sensed appreciation for having exposed the ambush.
“You will use disinformation that resembles the truth enough to set a believable trap but differs from the truth enough to protect your assets.”
“I get it,” Brody said. “There are many ways we could go with that approach.”
“If you will permit me to run my thoughts by Admrial Ye, we will soon share with you a plan to destroy every mainland submarine east of Taiwan, set the Chinese fleet back ten years, sanitize the Philippine Sea for the American fleet to steam at will, and take a towering upper hand for negotiating cessation of these hostilities.”
Brody nodded.
“That’s interesting,” he said. “But what if I’m hesitant to risk the Reagan?”
“Don’t worry, Admiral Brody,” Renard said. “My plans will address that concern, and I’m apparently on a run of good luck in this region of the world.”
CHAPTER 25
As he deplaned in Los Angeles International Airport, Jake questioned his haste in seeking redemption with Renard. He selected Los Angeles for its direct flights to Tokyo, and the terminal served as his purgatory pending sentencing from his French judge.