“That’s because there’s more to my life than a CRT screen and a case of Milky Way Us,” Amanda replied smugly.
“Aaah! Fa’ sure, if I wanted to be insulted, I’d get Mckelsie to teach me ballet,” the blond Intel moaned, rolling over onto her back. “I’m down there in Raven’s Roost, twenty five hours a day, trying to outguess a billion and a quarter moody Chinese, and I’m still underappreciated. Everybody hates me. Nobody loves me. I think I’ll go eat worms.”
“Ban appetit.” Amanda stretched and straightened her leotard sheathed legs. “Oh, we appreciate you, Chris. According to Admiral Tallman, Fleet Intelligence seems to be very pleased with how Operation Uriah is shaking down. So am I, for that matter. Give yourself an Atta girl, first class.”
“I’d rather have something else.”
“Such as?”
Chris rolled back over onto her stomach. “Give me Shanghai for my birthday, Mommy.”
Something in her voice indicated that she had shifted from casual banter to something more serious.
Amanda cocked an eyebrow “What do you mean?”
“I want a chance to take a look in at Shanghai. A long, close look.”
“Have you seen something?”
“It’s not so much what I’m seeing as what I’m not seeing,” Christine replied, a calculating look coming to her gray-blue eyes. “Something odd has been happening around Shanghai for the past couple of weeks. Can we get secure for a few minutes?”
“Sure,” Amanda replied, looping her towel around her shoulders.
They got to their feet and left the gym. Moving forward a few frames, they paused in an empty section of the corridor adjacent to the number two Vertical Launch System. “Okay, what have you got?”
Christine shot a quick glance both up and down the passageway, verifying that no one else was within hearing range. “It’s sort of like in those old jungle-adventure movies, Captain,” she began. “You know, the ones where the dauntless hero comments about things being too quiet. Well, all of a sudden, the Shanghai Operations Area is getting way too quiet.”
“Specifics?”
“Shanghai is the largest transport and communications terminal the Communists have left on the coast,” Christine replied, leaning back against the bulkhead. “They’ve got everything there — dockage, marshaling yards, warehousing. The facilities are fairly up to date, undamaged by the war, and not operating at anywhere near peak capacity. Yet they’re channeling troop and supply convoys around the Shanghai terminus.
“Shanghai has the most extensive air-basing complex south of Shenyang, and yet they haven’t staged a thing out of there since we arrived off the coast. It’s the natural command and logistics center for the campaign against the Nationalist invasion, and yet the Communist Signal Intelligence load out of Shanghai has been dropping steadily. Things that should be happening in Shanghai, aren’t. The place is be coming an operational desert.”
“Could it be a disbursement? Maybe they’re afraid of a Nationalist counter strike.”
“Uh-uh, Boss Ma’am. Shanghai is also one of the most heavily defended positions the Reds have. The Nationalist Air Force hasn’t even attempted to penetrate the city’s airspace.”
Amanda leaned back as well, bracing herself against the corridor grab rail.
“All right, what do you think is going on?” she asked, intrigued.
“I think the Communists are overreacting. I think that they’re up to something in Shanghai and that they’re bending over backwards trying not to attract attention to the area.”
“What do you think they’re up to?”
“Frankly, I haven’t got the faintest idea. But, whatever it is, it has got to be pretty fraggin’ big to justify shutting down one of the largest cities in China. That’s why I want to take that long, close look.”
“What’s your definition of long and close?”
“I’d like at least a couple of hours of loiter time right off the minefields at the mouth of the Yangtze estuary. Long enough to get a good cross section of the tactical Elint environment. I’d also like to see if I could tap into the sidelobe of their local telecommunications net. While we’re about it, we could also chart those minefield perimeters out a little better.”
“The Red Chinese would probably consider our lurking around just oft their primary defense line more than a little provocative, Chris.”
“Probably,” Christine nodded, “but only if they catch us. I’ve been talking with Fleet meteorology, and they say that a mild storm front will be moving in across the Chinese coast from the south within twenty four hours. Good stealth weather.
“Also, tomorrow night, there is going to be an unavoidable gap in our theater recon coverage. For several hours during the late evening and early morning, we won’t have a satellite in position to cover the Shanghai area. If the Reds are up to something, this would be a natural window of opportunity for them to go about doing their dirty deeds. And if we were right outside listening at the keyhole—”
“Yes, I see what you’re getting at. Have you bounced this off Fleet Intelligence yet?”
“I’ve sent in a preliminary situation estimate and I’ve talked to some of the Flag Intels over on the Big E. They’re willing to concede that there might be an atypical pattern developing, but they think that we need to further monitor the situation before making any kind of call on it. Well, that’s what I want to do. I want to monitor this real close.”
Amanda lightly bit her lower lip in an old habitual reaction to deep thought. If Chris said something was going on in Shanghai, then there was, Amanda had no doubt about that. The question was, would this probe be worth the risk to her ship, her crew, and the crisis situation as a whole?
Of course, there was the easy out. She could put together a situational update and mission proposal and kick it upstairs to NAVSPECFORCE. They could make the judgment call. But then, the concerns of one comparatively junior intelligence officer might not carry much weight, even with Amanda’s strongest endorsement.
On the other hand, she could make the call herself. She’d wanted an independent command and she’d gotten one. She could interpret this operation as being within the mission parameters she had been given. If something went wrong, though, there would be no one in the whole world to take the blame but herself.
To hell with it. She had bragged about never having been caught. She wanted to dance on the edge one more time.
“Okay, Chris. Let’s do it. Draw up a set of mission intents and requirements, we’ll run it through an Operations Group this evening.”
“Yes!” The Intel lifted her fists in exaltation. Amanda smiled and reached for the CD player.
“This doesn’t come for free, though, Chris. In return, I want us to go back to the gym and put at least another half hour in on your modern improvisational before we call it quits for the day.”
“Ahh!” Christine moaned and slid limply down the bulkhead to the deck. “Nobody loves me!”
18
Professor Djinn Yi lifted the delicate porcelain cup of green tea from the tray offered to him. As he always did at such moments, he acknowledged the dichotomy of the experience. There was the pain that had been with him since the day a Maoist thug had smashed his knuckles with a steel bar. But then, there was also the gratitude that his hand still worked at all. He nodded to the silent serving man and joined with Secretary Duan of the Foreign Ministry in taking a first sip of the hot beverage.
“It goes well,” the Ministry man said after a moment. “Reports from all fronts indicate success. Our forces continue to hold the beach head stable, while yours have commenced their march north.”