Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 03 (41 page)

           
“This is most unexpected, Comrade
Premier,” Leing said, finally regaining control over his numbed senses. “It is
a most attractive offer. Naturally, I assume there is a condition to this transfer?”
Of course there was—and Leing finally realized what it might be. . . .

           
“You are correct, Comrade
Ambassador,” the interpreter said for Foreign Minister Zhou. “Although we
freely admit that an adjustment to the turbulent situation in the
Nansha
Island
chain meant that this action was far
overdue:

           
“We realize that a vote will be
forthcoming when the Association of South East Asian Nations meet in
Singapore
and the question of our occupation of the
Philippines
is brought forward. We have tried to assure
all countries involved in this situation that our involvement was requested by
the Philippine government and that we are acting in strict accordance with
international law; however, we realize that outside, non-Communist sympathizers
will attempt to undermine our efforts to restore peace to the region.
China
has not been offered an opportunity to
voice our side of the matter, which precludes any sort of fair and equitable
resolution of this incident.

           
“We are therefore asking that when
the vote is called, the Vietnamese vote against any ASEAN resolutions to
interfere in the
Philippines
, and that you urge other nations in ASEAN
to vote against any resolution as well. Since a unanimous vote is necessary for
ASEAN to take military action or impose severe economic embargos, your action
would postpone any serious consequences.

           
“In addition, if you agree to assist
us militarily in defending our right to remain in the
Philippines
, the Republic of China will propose a
similar lease agreement to the
Republic
of
Vietnam
for the western group of the islands known
as the Crescent Group in the
Xinsha
Islands
archipelago.”

           
The offer was astounding.
China
was in effect offering the Vietnamese a
controlling position to the entire
South China Sea
in exchange for cooperation in its operation in the
Philippines
. In terms of value and strategic
importance, it was not an equitable trade—the Philippines was by far a much
brighter gem than the Spratlys or the Paracels—but by establishing offshore
bases, Vietnam would once again be able to build a blue-water navy and exert
its will in Southeast Asia. It could finally be able to counter the growing
democratic-oligarchic influence of the Moslem nations of
Indonesia
,
Malaysia
,
Singapore
, and
Brunei
by being able to effectively operate naval
and merchant fleets far from home ports.

           
“I do not see how such an action can
be construed as anything else than conspiracy and duplicity,” Ambassador Leing
said. Premier Cheung’s face was impassive, but Leing measured the government’s
reaction in General Chin’s face—it was obvious the warlord didn’t enjoy taking
any lip from a Vietnamese politician. “But the return of our territorial
islands of Dao Quan Mueng Bang and Dao Phran-Binh would be of immense pleasure
and gratification to my government.”

           
The ploy worked. Instead of calling
the contested islands by their Chinese names, Leing used the ancestral
Vietnamese names—Dao Quan Mueng Bang for the Spratlys, Dao Phran-Binh for the
Paracels—and those names infuriated General Chin, who launched into a furious
tirade, first at Leing and then at Premier Cheung.

           
“He says that this is a crazy idea,
that it will never be, that
Vietnam
cannot be allowed to take . . .” his
interpreter quickly responded. “He is now telling me to be silent or he will
cut off my ... my penis, and stuff it in my . . . General Chin is very angry,
Comrade Ambassador. Perhaps we should leave . . .”

           
“No,” Leing said in Vietnamese in a
low voice. “There is obviously a power struggle going on here. We must be
witness to it before we can take this proposal to
Hanoi
.”

           
“We will take nothing if we are
dead!”

           
“Keep your comments to yourself and
tell me what they are saying,” Leing hissed.

           
“The Premier is telling Chin to be
silent... Chin is saying to the Foreign Minister that he will not agree to
release the Spratlys to
Vietnam
... the Premier repeats his order for
silence.” The last order seemed to stick; General Chin stopped his bellowing
and was content for the moment to shift his weight impatiently from foot to
foot and glare at Leing.

           
The Premier spoke up. “Please
deliver this request to your government with all speed and confidentiality. We
await your reply.”

Andersen AFB,
Guam
,

Thursday, 29 September 1994,
1334 hours local (
28
September, 0034
Hours
Washington
time)

           
“Man—living in
Arkansas
, I thought I knew what humidity felt like,”
Jon Masters had said. “
Guam
has
Blytheville
beat six ways to none.” Those were Masters’
first words when he stepped off his converted DC-10 airliner onto the tarmac at
Andersen Air Force Base in
Guam
.
Everything he touched felt clammy—the railing on the portable stairs, the
concrete parking apron, everything. Breathing became a conscious activity, and
things like long pants and underwear became serious personal liabilities.

           
General Brad Elliott had to agree.
Although he had spent some months in Guam during the Vietnam War, flying B-52D
and -G bombers from Guam over twenty-five hundred miles one-way on bombing
missions, he never got accustomed to the oppressive humidity on the tiny
tropical island, which felt like 100 percent every hour of every day. The daily
three
P.M.
thunderstorms did nothing
to improve conditions—in fact, it felt even worse, as if one were drowning in
oceans one could not see, only feel.

           
Guam
had been the linchpin of American military
presence in the Pacific since the Spanish-American War of 1898. The Japanese
invaded
Guam
on
December 7, 1941
, at the same time that
Pearl Harbor
was being bombed, but they were ousted in
1944 after days of heavy American bombing, and the militarization of
Guam
began.

           
Of the three B-29, B-36, and B-47
bomber bases built on
Guam
from 1944 to 1950, the largest, Andersen
Air Force Base—first known simply as North Field—remained. Andersen Air Force
Base was a vast, stark facility on
Guam
’s
northern shore that, although reduced to a small fraction of its recent size
and relatively quiet, still echoed with the ghosts of missions past. Dominating
the base were Andersen’s twin two-mile-long runways.

           
Surrounding the runways, including
the “infield” between the parallel runways, were concrete parking stubs big
enough for B-52s. During the height of the Vietnam War, during Operation Bullet
Shot in 1972, over one hundred and fifty bombers were parked here. The B-52s
participated in the massive Arc Light, Young Tiger, and Linebacker bombing
missions between 1965 and 1973.

           
By 1990 the Air Force had removed
all the permanently assigned B-52 bombers and KC-135 tankers from Andersen, and
the base transitioned to caretaker status of the 633rd Air Base Wing of the
Pacific Air Forces.

           
But Elliott and Masters knew it
would become an important base of operations again.

           
Masters had already launched two
ALARM boosters while still over the
United States
. The young scientist and engineer couldn’t
believe his NIRTSats were being used in an actual operation that was part of
America
’s response to a nuclear explosion. What
better endorsement could Sky Masters, Inc., ask for than from the
U.S.
government in a crisis situation? .

           
Unfortunately, his other Sky Masters
colleagues had been less than enthusiastic. After General Curtis of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff had given the go-ahead, the government presented Masters with a
request for six satellites and two boosters ASAP—a contract worth $300 million.
It was all on a handshake and letter of intent, and Helen Kaddiri, as a board
member, was especially vocal about taking satellites contracted for by other
buyers and selling them to the government. Masters had had to do some hard
lobbying, but the board—even Kaddiri—finally agreed.

           
Still, it put the ALARM booster
program to its most grueling test, but it was the process that Jon Masters had
originally devised the system to accomplish: twelve hours from the go-ahead,
two space boosters were launched that inserted two completely different
satellite constellations into low Earth orbit—not just single satellites, but
multiple, interconnected strings of small, highly sophisticated satellites. .

           
Thankfully, both launches went off
perfectly, all the satellites’ buses were inserted into the proper orbit, and
one by one the skies were “seeded” with tiny Sky Masters, Inc., spacecraft. By
the time Masters had landed his DC-10 back at his base in
Arkansas
, loaded the plane with the equipment he
needed for the SAC STRATFOR team, and then flown on to
Guam
, all of his NIRTSats were in their proper
orbits and reporting fully functional. The recon satellites were in nearly
circular 415-nautical-mile equatorial orbits; the communications satellites
were in lower 200-mile orbits inclined 40 degrees to the equator so they could
download their data directly to continental
U.S.
ground stations as well as to facilities on
Guam
.

           
Masters was betting everything on
this mission—and he was also betting that while he was away Helen Kaddiri would
probably try to position herself for a corporate coup d’etat. He’d been
expecting it for some time. He shrugged, realizing he’d have to deal with that
later.

           
Masters’ DC-10, with its distinctive
red, white, and blue
SKY MASTERS
emblem
on the sides, was parked just outside the hangar next to the north apron, which
was perched atop the five-hundred-foot cliff on
Guam
’s north shore.

           
Masters and General Brad Elliott,
who’d flown in with Masters on the DC-10, met newly appointed SAC STRATFOR
commander Major General Rat Stone, his aide^ Colonel Michael Krieg, and Colonel
Anthony Fusco, who was the commander of the 633rd Air Base Wing. Elliott was
there to observe Masters’ gear in action, in person. If they were going to be
using it at HAWC, he wanted to see it up close.

           
Introductions were made all around,
and after everyone mentioned the humidity, they were taken by military van— in
a sudden downpour no less—to the MAC terminal, where a Guamanian customs
officer, assisted by a MAC security guard in full combat rig and carrying an
M-16 rifle, checked their customs declaration forms and inspected their hand-
carried items.

           
After that, General Stone turned to
Masters. “What I’d like is to get your gear in place as soon as possible,”
Stone said. “I’ve got an EC-135 communications plane and the recon planes
available, so I can use DSCS to collect reconnaissance data, but I don’t like
sending those planes so far over water unless we get a better idea on what the
situation is over there. The sooner we can get your system working, the better.”
The Defense Satellite Communications System, or DSCS, was the current global
voice and data communications system in operation; the system’s drawback was
that it could relay signals only from ground station to ground station and
could not link aircraft. An EC-135 communications plane could act as a
pseudo-ground station and could relay signals from another aircraft via DSCS to
a ground station, but that meant orbiting the EC-135 near the first aircraft—
which meant sending another important aircraft thousands of miles offshore and
exposing it to possible enemy action, which in turn meant assigning additional
fighters and tankers to support it.

           
“That’s what I'm here for, General,”
Jon Masters said. “With the NIRTSats in place, we can talk with your AWACS and
reconnaissance planes directly. When my computer complex is set up, we can get
their radar pictures and they’ll be able to receive our PACER SKY pictures.”
Jon grinned. “It’s gonna be awesome. Once we get the rest of the birds tied in,
you’ll have dozens of planes tied together and linked to Andersen. You’ll hear
a guy on some B-52 sneeze three thousand miles away just as clearly as if he
were sitting right beside you, and you can say ‘gesundheit’ a second later—and
while he’s wiping his nose, you can lay his crosshairs on a target for him. Too
much!”

           
Stone turned and smiled at Elliott,
who returned his amused grin. The officers and the young scientist piled into
the heavy air-conditioned blue Air Force van, and they headed back out on
Perimeter Road
.

           
Jon asked, “I understand your first
reconnaissance sortie will take off in a few hours?”

           
Stone nodded. “It’s about four
hours’ flying time from here to the
Philippines
for the RC-135 and AWACS planes; about
three hours for the EC-135. They arrive on station in the
Celebes Sea
about
midnight
. They stay on station for four hours, then
head on back. They RTB about
eight
A.M.
”

           
“So
my crew can have the plane about
nine
A.M.
?”

           
“That’s right. You said installing
your PACER SKY gear will take less than five hours, which is good because
maintenance needs to get the aircraft ready to go at
four
P.M.
That gives you a little leeway, but not much.”

           
“It’ll be plenty,” Masters assured
him.

           
“Great.” Stone turned to Fusco and
said, “Take a swing past the south apron and let’s see what’s going on, Tony.”
They drove south along the flight line road, past an E-3C AWACS radar plane
with its distinctive thirty-foot-roto- dome atop its fuselage; another
camouflaged Boeing 707 aircraft with no distinctive marking except for two
canoeshaped fairings on the underside of the fuselage behind the nose gear and
rows of antennae atop the fuselage; and another Boeing 707 aircraft painted
white over gray, with a refueling boom on the tail and a large, complex antenna
array on the top of the fuselage. There were also two McDonnell-Douglas DC-10
aircraft modified as aerial refueling tankers in dark green and white
camouflage nearby, and another two Boeing 707s also modified as tankers in
standard light gray livery. Crates and crew members from Sky Masters, Inc.,
were already congregating around the planes, talking with Air Force maintenance
crews.

           
“Quite a collection of planes out
here,” Masters exclaimed. “I recognize the AWACS plane and the KC-10 and KC-135
tankers, but what are the other 707s?”

           
“The dark gray one is an RC-135X
radar reconnaissance plane,” Stone explained. “The fairings you see house the
multi-mode radars with the inverse synthetic aperture and pulse-Doppler
systems, which we’ll use to map out ship and troop locations; it can also slave
its radar to radiation-detection sensors to map out locations of search,
acquisition, fire control, and missile uplink transmitters, and in an emergency
we can arm it with antiradar missiles. I believe you’ll be installing a PACER
SKY set and your communications complex on him so he can receive your PACER SKY
data and transmit his data directly here.

           
“The other is one of SAC’s EC-135L
radio relay aircraft. We’ll be using him on the first few missions to make sure
we get a good feed from the recon planes.” He paused for a moment, then said,
“This is a good way of conducting strategic reconnaissance. Lots of planes,
lots of crew dogs, not much sleep. Frankly ... I still trust this method. No
offense, Doctor Masters.”

           
“None taken,” Jon said. “I’m sure
the crews will enjoy the tropical weather, because they won’t be doing much
flying. My NIRTSats’ll work just fine.”

           
The commander of the Strategic Air
Command STRATFOR gave the young scientist an amused nod. This guy’s got
confidence, Stone had to admit. He wasn’t afraid to place his trust in this
high-tech crap, although none of it had ever been tested in fast-changing,
demanding combat conditions. Unfortunately, it was cockiness like this that
usually got such operations in big trouble.