Nothing.
Paul Cesare had been keeping the President’s coffee mug filled and hot all this time, even though the President had only taken two or three sips in nearly twenty-four hours; now, he replaced the thick, white Navy galley mug of coffee with a mug of chicken soup. “Eat something, Mr. President,” Cesare said. “Get up and stretch…”
Taylor considered it, but the ringing of the White House phone glued him to the desk. Cesare picked it up, listened, then handed it right to the President. “Sir, it’s the Chinese Foreign Minister on the line from Beijing.”
Taylor would have loved to tell Zhou to piss off backwards, or tell him that, yes, we won’t bomb your ships anymore — hell, he wasn’t sure what he would tell Zhou. Instead, he motioned to Secretary of State Danahall to take the phone. They had already discussed in great detail exactly what was going to be said — now was the moment to start the drama…
The President turned to a separate no-voice phone to listen in while Danahall cleared his throat and said, “Secretary Danahall speaking.”
“Mr. Secretary, this is Zhou Ti Yanbing,” the Chinese Foreign Minister announced himself. “I thank you for taking my call, sir.”
“Do you have a message for us?”
“Yes, Mr. Secretary,” Zhou said. “Premier Cheung wishes to officially protest the unwarranted and brutal attack on the People’s Republic of China’s fleet in the southern Philippines. Premier Cheung demands to know if a state of war has been declared and whether Article Four of the Brussels Conference is hereby implemented.” Article Four dealt with the formal declaration of hostilities between nations, setting in motion all the legal and diplomatic formalities of war.
Taylor couldn’t believe it. He listened with a growing sense of fury and frustration. God, how he’d love to tell Zhou and Cheung to go to hell. Better yet, to bomb them back into the Stone Age. With that one nuclear explosion they had set off the most maddening and aggravating chain of events in his administration. And now the fuckers were demanding that the United States follow the letter of the law. The audacity…
He shook his head and took a deep breath. Even going on twenty-four hours without sleep, he knew, as much as he’d rather not, that rules had to be obeyed, protocol observed, words exchanged. He nodded for Secretary Danahall to continue…
Danahall took a deep breath and said calmly, “Please advise Premier Cheung that the government of the United States desires no direct communication with the government of the People’s Republic of China except to receive an offer of an immediate cease-fire and guaranteed promise to halt all military operations in the Philippines. Any official notification this government has with your government will be through the United Nations.”
“I understand the formal notification procedures, Mr. Secretary, and we will of course abide by them as well,” Zhou said in his polished, fluent English-Oriental accent. “My government has already delivered an official letter of protest to the Secretary General, and I trust Ambassador O’Day will contact you in short order. But any nation that embraces peace, freedom, and human rights would surely desire to begin negotiations to end all hostilities as soon as possible. You do not wish to fight a war, do you, Mr. Secretary? Will you simply make demands of us without opening any sort of dialogue?”
“We have no message or statements for your government, Mr. Foreign Secretary,” Danahall said resolutely, “except that we expect your guaranteed promise to withdraw all military forces from the Philippines immediately. Do you have a message for my government?”
There was a slight pause; then: “Mr. Secretary, please convey…”
And then the line went dead.
“You will not capitulate to the Americans!” Chinese High General Chin Po Zihong said as he grabbed the phone from the Foreign Minister’s hand. Several other members of Premier Cheung Yat Sing’s Cabinet shot to their feet in absolute shock. Premier Cheung himself remained impassive, his hands folded on his desk, watching the spectacle with a stone-cold, expressionless visage.
“How dare you disrupt a call to a foreign ministry like that!” Zhou shouted. “Explain yourself, Comrade General. You are violating a direct order from the Comrade Premier himself…”
“I am in charge of this military operation, Comrade Zhou,” General Chin said. “Any communications that involve it must go through myself. I have full authority—”
“You are out of line, General,” Zhou said angrily. “You were insane to begin this foolish military incursion, you were insane to place that criminal Admiral Yin in charge of an invasion force on Mindanao, and you are a fool to refuse to open a dialogue with the Americans.”
He turned and motioned to a stack of reports piled on a granite conference table nearby. “You have read these reports. Four destroyers have been sunk out there! Four destroyers! That is half of the destroyers assigned to Admiral Yin, and one-fourth of all the destroyers in the entire People’s Liberation Army Navy fleet! At first report, ten frigates and nearly thirty patrol boats were sunk or put out of commission as well. There is no report of casualties yet, but they must number in the thousands! This operation must be terminated immediately!”
“Impossible!” Chin shouted. “Out of the question. We are hours away from final victory, Zhou Ti Yanbing. The invasion has already begun, and the early indications are that there is no resistance…”
“No resistance? Four destroyers on the bottom of the Celebes Sea, and you say no resistance? You cannot hope to ever claim a victory in this debacle!”
“I was referring to rebel resistance in Davao,” General Chin said. “We expected heavy losses from the very beginning…”
“You told this government that we could expect twenty to thirty percent losses maximum throughout the duration of this conflict,” Zhou argued. “You did not say we would sustain thirty percent losses in three hours…!”
“The objective of the operation was to seize Samar International Airport and secure the island of Mindanao,” General Chin said. “This government authorized that operation — you authorized it as well, Comrade Zhou, with your affirmative vote. That objective is still within my reach. Loss figures have not been verified, and all my reports indicate that the objective can still be achieved in less than six hours. So far only the American Air Battle Force has been involved in this operation. They have sustained heavy losses as well, and even if they complete their raids we can still achieve total victory. Once Samar International Airport falls, not one single American aircraft will be able to approach within five hundred kilometers of the Philippines again…”
“It appears obvious to me, General, that even if you do take Samar International Airport, you have gained nothing,” Zhou said. “The losses we are experiencing are staggering. We must withdraw immediately or we will not have an army to land on Davao Airport when you finally take it — or should I add, if you take it.” Zhou turned to Premier Cheung, who had not said a word during the entire argument. “Comrade, I request, with all due respect, that General Chin’s operation be terminated and that we return—”