“So, why do you need me?”
“Admiral Ye, will you demonstrate?” Renard asked.
As Admiral Ye wiggled his thumb across a touch pad, a dot traced an arc on the chart and stopped eighty miles southeast of Keelung in the Japanese waters surrounding the island of Yonaguni.
“You will lead the Hai Ming submarine,” Renard said, “in a minefield egress operation. The Hai Ming is a licensed indigenous replica of the Scorpène class. You are quite familiar with it, as is your crew.”
“Minefield egress?” Jake asked. “You summoned me half way across the world for that?”
Renard met Jake’s stare and exhaled smoke.
“Will you excuse us, Admiral Ye?” he asked.
The chief of staff moved to Renard and spoke softly.
“I need that submarine on this operation — with or without Slate,” Ye said. “I prefer with him.”
“I will earn his commitment,” Renard said.
“He seems hesitant,” Ye said. “This is not how I remembered him.”
“I think I know the issue,” Renard said. “Can you get a video feed to his wife?”
“I need fifteen minutes.”
“Thank you,” Renard said.
Ye nodded and snapped a command in Mandarin. A sea of naval uniforms followed him through a door. Watch officers remained seated at consoles around the navigation chart where Renard enjoyed privacy with his protégé.
“I’ll get you time to speak to your wife.”
“I miss her,” Jake said. “How did you know?”
“Because you are still resisting who you are,” Renard said. “You pretend that you desire a simple bedroom community life, yet here you are.”
“I was forced.”
“You were nudged,” Renard said. “Rickets hardly applied pressure.”
“He didn’t have to. My wife and stepchildren are open targets. I can’t run anymore.”
Renard blew smoke.
“Somehow,” he said, “I suspect that you are here by your own volition.”
“I may be blindly trusting you,” Jake said.
“You’ve done so before.”
“But a mine egress operation? Driving a submarine through a minefield is suicide.”
“Of course,” Renard said. “But your submarine is already free of the minefield.”
“That wasn’t in Rickets’ briefing.”
“Taiwan and the United States don’t share all intelligence,” Renard said. “I’ll show you how you’re soon to shape the world.”
He turned the corner and grasped a handheld touchscreen. He tapped icons and nodded to the chart.
“After the prior episode of Chinese aggression, I advised Taiwan to establish a secret and submerged submarine pen free of contested waters.”
“No shit?”
“Indeed,” Renard said. “At the first indication that China was laying mines around Taiwan, a skeletal crew absconded with the Hai Ming.”
“Where?”
“Here, carved inside the Pengjia Islet.”
Renard tapped his controller and maneuvered a blue dot to the northeast of Keelung.
“There’s nothing there,” Jake said.
“Precisely. It’s so small that it’s invisible on this chart scale. It was little more than a lighthouse until, thanks to my foresight, it became a safe supply and repair haven for submarines.”
“You still haven’t said why you want me to lead a minefield egress operation.”
“The greatest threat to the stealth patrol craft will not be the mines themselves but the submarines awaiting them at the edge of the minefield.”
“Where’s the edge and how do you know?”
“China wisely announced the areas of exclusion to keep international shipping away,” Renard said. “They are making sure to limit this campaign to a civil affair.”
Jake raised his voice.
“It’s practically a world war.”
“In appearance only. Look more carefully at events.”
“Electromagnetic pulse attack over Seoul. Tanks rolling into Israel. North Koreans burrowing through tunnels across the DMZ. The Chinese Navy playing cat and mouse with Japan like the Cold War.”
“It’s a surgically crafted mélange of misdirection and puppetry designed for one aim — global acceptance of a Chinese military presence on its once-renegade province of Taiwan.”
“You see that as the sole outcome, through all this violence? How?”
“Observation, deduction, interpretation of Chinese language from diplomatic channels. They want a permanent force on the island. The rest is subterfuge.”
“What about Korea?”
“It was little political risk for them to instruct the North Koreans how to use a nuclear weapon at the proper yield and altitude over Seoul to cripple its electronic systems.”
“To what end?”
“For the Chinese, a distraction that consumes American attention. For the North Koreans, respect. No outsiders will risk boots on the ground for a peninsular affair, and a gesture of respect, be it a seat at a council or a lifting of a trade restriction, will earn a voluntary withdrawal of North Korean forces. Though both America and Japan must turn their attention to the peninsula, the outcome is already predicable.”
“And Israel?”
“Money and arms were given to her enemies who hope to take back a slice of Israel, but as history has proven, Israeli resolve will prevail. From the Chinese perspective, an American carrier strike group is consumed monitoring and supporting Israel.”
“What about Japan?”
Renard blew smoke.
“You said it yourself,” Renard said. “It’s a game of cat and mouse like the Cold War. The Chinese are violating no laws and intend no act of hostility, but American forces must watch Chinese assets that are harassing Japan.”
“And Taiwan is left alone.”
“Indeed,” he said. “With the magnitude of global stress, any nation who wishes to ally against China can meet its obligations and rightfully claim victory by returning everything else to the status quo, but Taiwan must remain at arm’s length.”
“The risk is too great to challenge China for Taiwan,” Jake said, “and the reward too small.”
“Precisely. Each ally will yield to the temptation to coin Taiwan as an internal affair. But financial markets will remain in turmoil for years, and…”
Renard hesitated and reflected upon his life’s greatest effort.
“And what?”
“I’ve worked too hard to let this happen. We both have.”
“Then what’s my goal?” Jake asked. “If it’s all settled, then what’s everyone fighting for here?”
“The permanent Chinese presence on Taiwan will vary between a complete and outright occupation and a symbolic outpost, depending who has the strongest position during the ceasefire negotiations. Your job is to assure it’s the latter.”
“By springing the stealth patrol craft free to protect incoming shipping from submarines and keeping Taiwan fueled for the fight?”
“Indeed.”
“You’re asking a lot from small patrol craft.”
“They have an advantage.”
“The hydrophone arrays. I get that. But that’s shitty targeting data at best for those little ships without sonar systems.”
“Agreed,” Renard said. “Except that I’ve armed them for limited use of tactical nuclear weapons.”
Jake raised an eyebrow.
“Seriously?”
“Picture a tactical barrage of small-yield depth charges launched in a pattern around the target. The crudest hint of a submarine’s presence yields its doom.”
“And the doom of any other submarine that’s nearby.”
“The weapons can be selectively armed based upon tighter targeting data and the location of friendly assets.”