As Major James watched missile battery 19/78 dropping back into its normal routine, he reflected that crises could take more forms than purely military ones.
Chapter Three First Plays
First Class Cabin, Cloudliner “Apsaras” On Don Muang Final Approach
Landing was the part of the flight Sir Martyn Sharpe enjoyed most. From his seat on the upper deck he could watch the six pusher engines powering back while the flaps extended. There was something about the mechanism that extended the flaps that fascinated him. The Cloudliner was a great aircraft, the first of the really modern airliners but it was too slow. It was being phased out now, next year Air India was getting its new eight-jet Boeing 707s. They would cut hours off the flight to Bangkok. That was good for it was a trip he was making more often these days. But he really would miss the gentle comfort of the Cloudliner.
When the Americans had dismantled the Air Bridge after World War Two, many of the C-99s had been sold, in truth almost given, to civilian operators. With their huge cargo and passenger capacity they had revolutionized air travel. When he was a child, Sir Martyn had dreamed of, one day, traveling somewhere by air. The Cloudliner had made air travel so cheap it was now commonplace. The children on this flight seemed mightily unimpressed by the experience.
The other thing he liked about this part of a flight was the feeling of dropping in on the country below. Underneath his aircraft, he could see the green cross-work of fields, divided by hard-top roads and canals. Every year, a few more roads, a few less canals. Fewer long-tailed boats, more trucks and motor scooters. This was a familiar feature now, all three countries in the Triple Alliance were developing fast, industrializing as quickly as their infrastructure allowed. They were dropping quickly, he could see a child sitting on a buffalo wave at the aircraft and felt the wings rock slightly in acknowledgement. Then, he felt the thump as the wheels went down. They were passing over the airport perimeter and ....
The pilot was good as well; he'd settled the big bird down with no more than a gentle tap. The upper deck of the Cloudliner was high enough for him to get a good view over Don Muang airport. Far over to the right was the military sections, Sir Martyn could see the line of brand-new F-105B Thunderchief bombers parked over there. Sir Martyn knew that the USAF had changed the specs on the F-105, introducing an all-weather attack system but making the more-limited B-model obsolescent before it was delivered. The Thais had moved in and bought the entire B-model production run, over 75 aircraft, at a bargain-basement price. Obsolete for the USAF they may be but they were the best fighter-bombers in the region.
There were more new military aircraft around, he couldn't see them but he knew some of Thailand's new F-104As were on hotpad alert somewhere around here. They were a more controversial purchase, Sir Martyn's Indian Air Force advisor had hard things to say about the Starfighter. Sir Martyn envied the Royal Thai Air Force, India's air force was too large and its responsibilities too varied to allow them to adopt the same policy of quality over quantity. The RTAF was on its third generation of jets while the Indian Air Force still had some piston-engined aircraft in operational service. That was a thought, perhaps India could buy the F-84Fs the RTAF was withdrawing from service?
The front passenger exit was opening. In the old days, they'd have had to go down steps and walk across the concrete in order to enter the airport terminal. Now, there were big, bus-like vehicles that had an elevating passenger section. It would lift up, the passengers would enter and it would drop down before driving over to the terminal. It was rumored that the next thing in airport design would be a tunnel that extended to the aircraft from the terminal itself,
“Sir Martyn, Sir Eric?” A young Thai officer had entered from the service bus. “Please come with me.” He led them out into the bus and it dropped them quickly to ground level. There was a large white limousine waiting, as he got in, Sir Martyn saw the box-like passenger cabin lifting back up for the rest of the first class passengers. “The Ambassador has asked me to bring you straight to her office prior to taking you to your residence here. She apologizes for troubling you after your long flight but we have little time and much to do.”
Sir Martyn looked out the window. When he had first come here, almost twelve years ago, the city had been a sleepy quiet place, shaded by trees and crisscrossed by canals. Now, the canals were being filled in to make way for roads and the trees were being cut down. There were small business and machine shops setting up all over. Banks too, the banking sector here was growing by leaps and bounds as the country became the clearing house for trade and financial dealings outside the China-Japan block.
There was a price being paid for progress, the character of the city was being lost, it was becoming like every other large city everywhere. The traffic was getting bad as well now, there were too many motor scooters, too many cars, too many trucks. But over there? Sir Martyn nudged Sir Eric and pointed. Across the road, an elephant was making its stately way down the street. Bangkok was still Bangkok.
The limousine pulled through the gates of a building and stopped. It was a large, square building built around a courtyard that still had trees and a small lake with a fountain. Their guide took them in and up in an elevator to the top floor. As they stepped out, The Ambassador was waiting for them. To his surprise, Sir Martyn saw she was wearing an Army uniform with a Colonel's rank insignia and a pistol strapped to one hip.
“Welcome, my friends. Thank you Captain, you may leave now. I will not be requiring you for the rest of the day. If you have no other duties, you are dismissed. Sir Martyn, Sir Eric, please come to my office.”
The Ambassador led them in to a large, airy office. From up here, the sound of traffic was muted and the air was cool. A large ceiling fan made for a pleasant current of air around the room. The Ambassador fixed drinks, Sir Martyn noting that she knew exactly what to serve and how, and settled down behind her desk , “Gentlemen, it appears that our original fears were correct. Over the last few weeks we have been gaining an improved picture of Masanobu Tsuji's movements and plans. The overall situation is a little less obscure than it was when we first met but there are still many holes to fill in.
“Firstly, we were correct in our hypothesis that we are seeing the start of a wide-spread attempt to begin insurgencies across this region. There are a number of factors playing into this, some of which may be beneficial to us, others present a serious danger. Burma is the primary arena for this offensive. The Japanese have been infiltrating large numbers of agitators; cadres the theorists call them, into the area. Some are Japanese military personnel who have been trained in insurgency theory, others are Burmese nationalists, or communists, or simply mercenaries.
“Whoever they are, they are moving around the villages, trying to stir up discord between the local people and the authorities. That effort is spilling over into our northern provinces. Some here claim that this may be an accident, they believe that the cadres, who are not very skilled, simply stray outside the area of operations. But the consensus is that a part of Masanobu Tsuji's plan is to start an insurgency here, to act as a diversion and prevent us acting against the developing insurgency in Burma.
“We have taken steps against this possibility already. As you know, there are large numbers of Vietnamese refugees seeking protection in our country. Many of these are Viet Minh veterans. As the refugees arrive in our territory, we are filtering out the most skilled and senior of the Viet Minh veterans and asking them to assist us by moving to villages in the insurgent-threatened areas. This is already working well, these are skilled insurgents themselves and they know what to look for and how to counter the activities.”