“That’s what I counted,” replied the now Colonel Patterson. “I assume they had 30 passenger 747s, but we already have one and now they have only 15 or 16 of the passenger 747s left plus the five Airbuses. I know the Israelis filled one up with over a thousand passengers at one time, but they were women and children. I think that they could get at least 500 fully armed troops into each one and over 600 in the Airbuses. If they are going to send in troops to JFK, then now they can only fly in a maximum of 12,000 troops on any one flight instead of 20,000.”
“I hope they still come over,” replied the general. “I want the remainder of those aircraft. But I’ll call the president and let him know that we can start transferring a minimum of 6,000+ troops back to the States per day now, until we acquire some more aircraft.
At least we can get all our men back within eight months. Colonel Patterson, you and Majors Wong and Chong will now set up a trap at JFK and the other airports around New York after Major Chong flies you guys into McGuire in about 15 hours. You will have to refuel at Elmendorf in Alaska. I believe that we have 11 days left to set up a plan to capture their troops and get the rest of their aircraft. Remember guys, this is our whole American air transportation for many years to come and I felt really bad blowing up those aircraft. But, I needed to create a diversion and I just hope the fire did not spread to any of the other aircraft, but we will see in a few weeks. I’m off to Beijing and then Turkey and Iraq to work on getting our troops home. If anything happens to me, Patterson, I want to give you the rest of my battle plan and will do so on my flight into Beijing. I’m going in to Beijing in Ghost Rider alone. I have set the others on a course for Omsk and then Turkey, and I don’t want to take any other aircraft with me. For some reason, I have a weird feeling that there could be a something wrong in Beijing. If there isn’t, then I’ll see you in Turkey and I’m sure tired of travelling. I’ll call you in a few minutes, but need to chat with Carlos first. Out.”
Chapter 15
The Beginning of the End
Over a period of days, and with another few inches of snow and negative temperatures, the three New York airports were made ready for arrivals and departures. The C-130s worked nonstop out of McGuire, Andrews, Seymour Johnson, and Pope Field, bringing in troops, supplies, electrical equipment, and necessary food for the ever-growing number of civilians collecting food each day around the airport’s outer-perimeter fences.
Six radio-transmitting beacons had been modified so far, transported and activated. Three of the beacons were now working at JFK, La Guardia and Newark. The next three were slightly south at McGuire, Andrews, and Seymour Johnson, and the seventh radio beacon was being installed at Preston’s airfield.
The single large incoming Air China 747 was the first to have modern directional technology available again— descending from 37,000 feet and using the frequencies located on the radios from as far as 900 miles out over the North Atlantic. She landed back at JFK 24 hours after leaving on her first flight for Incirlik Air Force Base to pick up American soldiers. The 747 landed with 650 tired and dirty American soldiers aboard.
They were immediately moved into one of the three modified JFK terminals ready with beds to house 1,000 troops per terminal. The turnaround on the jumbo jet took six hours; she was refueled, prepared, and left empty for her second trip—this time nonstop into Baghdad over 3,600 miles away. She could complete a return trip in a 24-hour window and could refuel in Germany if there was no fuel available in Iraq, or make the entire trip without refueling at all.
Beds, bedding, generators, porta-potties, rations, and clothing were being flown into the three New York airports on a 24-hour basis with every aircraft not assigned to food distribution. Unfortunately, the rations would not be enough to feed the rapidly growing civilian population around the fences as well as the military soldiers, but the transporter piloted by Captain Wong and an extremely tired crew arrived at McGuire on the ninth day; it was off-loaded, refueled, and reloaded with 100,000 meals. The aircraft, with a fresh crew on board, was flown the short distance into JFK. The 747 transporter could lift as much as all the C-130s together and the 130s were rediverted into other bases once the food supplies became low at McGuire.
Nobody knew the exact date of the attack on New York Harbor— Zedong Electronics hadn’t made it official yet—but Carlos and his 30-year old computer could see any attacking sea force as soon as the ships came into view. The Chinese satellites were much higher up. They did not have telephoto or zoom camera lenses and he tried as hard as he could but he could not see any ships on the screens from their far more modern digital download footage. The view from Navistar P was far better, and he believed that he could see a large ship sail into the 175-mile view around the United States.
Carlos had brought the satellite 100 miles lower over the United States to get a better view, and he tried hard to see the incoming 747, but it was still too small for such an old screen. None of the American aircraft used their transponders in case they could still be seen from wherever the Zedong Electronics personnel were viewing the screens. He did not know that the blowing up of the building in Nanjing had made the enemy virtually blind. Nobody on that side had thought to upgrade any of the satellite receiving equipment on the ships and the pictures they were seeing were about the same quality Carlos was viewing.
The Chinese electricians had always expected to have a direct HD-feed in from headquarters, but now they relied on the lesser quality equipment aboard the naval ships by pointing their dishes at the nearest satellite location. They had also lost control of the three satellites. Lee Wang and Carlos now controlled them after cracking the communication codes imbedded in them.
Once the main communication from the Headquarters buildings had been terminated as a result of General Allen’s bombardment, the three-satellite system in space had asked for continued control directions. And, after two days of work, Carlos and Lee had finally cracked the codes to take over control of the satellites.
New York Harbor hadn’t been repaired yet. The 200 engineers were still working on getting the airports ready, but there was a growing operation to the south. Dozens of old bulldozers from all the naval bases between Norfolk, Virginia and New York were beginning to clear the scrap metal of broken trucks and cars off I-95.
General Allen had met with Vice Admiral Rogers twice since the beginning of the year, and just before the general’s trip around the world. The vice admiral, a little embarrassed about how few ships the U.S. Navy could get operational, had offered up his Navy Seals and any naval motorized vehicles he could get mobile. The Norfolk Naval Station started work immediately, and had already cleared 20 miles of the northbound strip of I-95 highway beginning on the southern Virginia border. He had also communicated with several of the Naval bases further north, and a dozen northbound clearance operations started on the 8th day of the year to open the vehicle supply route from the south.
This was going to help the convoys like Colonel Grady, now leaving Fort Bragg and stopping next in Apex, North Carolina. Preston was in for a shock—he had a couple of visitors coming to visit.
*****
The President of the United States was helping out as much as he was allowed to by his bodyguards in the business of distributing food in the neighboring states. The only aircraft he was allowed to catch a ride in was Lady Dandy, currently on her third flight into a small town of 2,000 people just across the North Carolina border in Tennessee.