Tipping Point: The War With China - the First Salvo (Dan Lenson Novels) (36 page)

Bad enough; but the next paragraph was worse. Not only had several Chinese been among the diplomats killed, but General Zhang had been wounded. Dan hadn’t even known the senior military leader had been at the conference.

3. (S/NF) NO ORGANIZED GROUP HAS YET ACCEPTED RESPONSIBILITY, THOUGH AL-QAEDA GROUPS BASED IN PAKISTAN MAY HAVE BEEN INVOLVED. CHINA AUTHORITIES HAVE DENOUNCED INDIA FOR FAILURE TO PROVIDE SECURITY, VIEWING ATTACK AS INDIAN PROVOCATION.

4. (S/NF) NATIONAL TECHNICAL MEANS INDICATE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA IS CONSIDERING MILITARY ACTION INVOLVING THOSE UNITS ALREADY MOBILIZED FOR EXERCISE QUOTE DIVINE WEAPON UNQUOTE ALONG WESTERN BORDER. GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN HAS WARNED ANY ATTACK WILL BE MET WITH QUOTE MAXIMUM FORCE UNQUOTE.

5. (S/NF) NSC HAS ORDERED US FORCES IN IO AREA TO COMBAT READINESS BUT DIRECTED TO WITHDRAW TO STANDOFF DISTANCES TO AVOID BEING DRAWN INTO INCIPIENT CONFLICT. EXCEPTIONS: USN USS SAVO ISLAND TASK GROUP AND SUBPAC INSHORE RECONNAISSANCE ASSETS, AND USAF RAINBOW, WHICH ARE SPECIFICALLY TASKED WITH MAINTAINING TABS ON INDIAN AND PAKISTANI GROUND MOVEMENTS AND THEATER STRIKE ASSETS. SPECIFIC ORDERS FOLLOW.

6. (S/NF) NRO AND NATIONAL TECHNICAL MEANS DEDICATED TO CENTCOM/PACFLT/IO AOR. INTEL SUPPORT IS BEING RAMPED UP FOR THIS REGION AND MORE ASSETS ARE BEING REFOCUSED ON BELLIGERENTS AND OTHER STATES THAT MIGHT TAKE ACTION ON CURRENT EVENTS. FOR SAVO TG AND OTHER FORWARD ISR ASSETS: ANY INDICATIONS OR WARNINGS OF ANY MOVEMENT OR ACTION BY ANY INDIAN OR PAKISTANI MILITARY ASSETS, ESPECIALLY THOSE INVOLVING POTENTIAL LAUNCH SITES OR MISSILE DEFENSE SITES, WILL BE FORWARDED IMMEDIATELY UPON DETECTION DIRECTLY TO WH SITROOM FLASH VIA STEL/SPINTCOM, IN ADDITION TO CURRENT THEATER NOTIFICATION PROTOCOLS. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO BE DISSEMINATED AS BECOMES AVAILABLE. SPECIFIC AMENDMENTS OR CHANGES TO CURRENT OPORDERS PASSED SEPCOR.

SECRET NOFORN

//BT

DECLAS OADR

He initialed the route sheet with the pen the radioman held out. Telling Branscombe quietly to set condition three, he went up to the bridge for a short conversation with “Stony” Stonecipher over the covered tactical net. He told
Mitscher
’s commander to open the distance between the ships, put his helo in the air, and increase his readiness against submarine, air, and cruise missile threats.

When he went back down to Combat, Cheryl was reading the same message at the command desk. Speculation and turnover briefings buzzed as the rest of the consoles manned up. The exec glanced up when he took his seat, then went back to reading, following each line with a clear-enameled fingernail.

Dan shivered, suddenly, deeply. He examined the large-screen display with a sinking feeling. Remembering the process Tuchman had outlined: domino toppling domino, preliminary mobilization, full mobilization, then declaration of war. Country after country dragged in. Sleepwalking, one after the other, into war. Please, God, not again … but it hadn’t happened since 1945 … maybe people had learned to step back from the brink. “Okay, Cheryl, what else should we be doing?”

“As I read this, we’re primarily an intel asset right now. Tasked to keep tabs and report back.”

“I read it that way too, but why station a TBMD-capable ship here for that?”

“Our Aegis picture, primarily, I guess. And our nice beefy cryppie assets.” She blinked, looking worried. “I don’t see this as anything …
personal
, Captain. They’re just tasking us based on our gear.”

Dan said, getting irritated, “I didn’t say it was ‘personal.’ Where’d you get that? I’m just saying,
Mitscher
could hold down the air picture. Why keep us here? And where are these additional orders they mention in para five?”

“I checked the LAN in case something got by ’em in Radio. Nothing there yet either.”

“TAO, air: fast movers, Indian, lifting off from Sirsa. Looks like Mirages and MiG-29s. Eight radars so far.”

Dan spun around to the air picture as symbols materialized. The TAO said, “Captain, from the CTs: lot of chatter in Hindi. Something big’s going up.”

Dan grabbed the radio handset. “Going out Fifth Fleet Secure. ComFifth Fleet, this is
Savo
Actual. Flash, flash, flash.
Savo
holds multiple fast movers, possibly Mirages and/or MiGs departing Sirsa. Evaluate as outbound raid. Composition eight. Also a spike in HF voice traffic. Over.”

The secure satcomm speaker squealed as the scrambler circuits synchronized.
“
Savo,
this is Fifth Fleet Ops-O. Admiral is en route to the watch floor. Do you have any further information?”

Dan started to key the handset to reply, but the electronic warfare watchstander shouted, “TAO, EW: Multiple airborne radars equating to Mirage F-1 and MiG-29 Strikers powering up over Halwara. Looks like six radars at this time.” Before he could key to pass that, another alert came in. Multiple fast movers were taking off from Bhatinda, too.

“
Savo,
this is Fleet. Did you copy my last? Over.”

Dan shook himself out of information overload, and keyed. “
Savo
Actual. Update follows. Designate flight from Sirsa, Raid 1. Raid 2 is outbound from Halwara, composition six. ELINT holds airborne Mirage F-1 and MiG radars. Raid 3 outbound from Bhatinda. No further information at this time. Over.” He glanced at Branscombe. “Get me a distance to the closest raid. I doubt they’re headed for us, but set condition one if they are.”

More squealing. Someone was calling them, but the circuit didn’t sync. Dan let it warble away as over the next few minutes heavy strike packages lifted off from two other Indian air bases as well.

Terranova, at the Aegis console, kept the readouts small, so Dan could keep his eye on the big picture as more and more aircraft rose and headed west. Data points winked into existence on the west side of the border as well. The track supervisor reported multiple aircraft taking off from Pakistani airbases.
“Shit, looks like the whole damn PAKAF is going airborne,
” she said over the net.

“TAO, EW: Multiple airborne search radars going active all over eastern Pakistan.”

CIC simmered at a low buzz. Dan leaned back, unable to come up with anything concrete he should be doing.
Savo
’s Standards had just enough range to reach the southernmost elements of the warring air forces, but he had no orders to take sides. Pakistan was still officially a U.S. ally, though drifting toward China. India and the U.S. had been edging closer, in the same incremental, continental-drift motion, but weren’t formally allied.

Staurulakis closed her terminal and stood. “On the bridge?”

“For now.” Dan didn’t want to stay down here, but this was where he ought to be.

He and Branscombe discussed splitting the watch, having
Savo
keep an eye on the Pakistani coast while
Mitscher
focused on India. They had to watch out for naval sorties, and any increased activity in coastal defense and naval airfields. If anything hostile to the task group were to develop, they’d see the first signs there.

Unless, of course, they’d been assigned to a sub. Either Indian or Pakistani … or worst of all possible cases, designated as a target to
both
submarine forces. Which might have something to do with the threat emitter. He wished he had
Pittsburgh
back. But Youngblood was far to the west, off Karachi, eavesdropping, with the tip of his sensor mast just barely exposed—the inshore surveillance the JCS message had mentioned. The carrier, of course, was far offshore, where any threat could be detected from hundreds of miles away.

While he was stuck here, sixty miles from a quickly escalating hot war. “Dave, how about you coordinate with the TAO on
Mitscher.
See how much overlap we can develop, and give me a recommendation.”

“Will do, sir.” Branscombe looked on edge. Dan hoped he could depend on him. Next in line was Amy Singhe, but she wasn’t yet totally qualified. And even if she had been, on paper, he didn’t feel absolutely comfortable giving her weapons-release authority in writing, which was what the CO had to do. Every time something happened, Amarpeet made herself the center of the fray. Good, she was aggressive … but that alone didn’t make a skipper confident about trusting his ship to her. She was smart … but that wasn’t all it took either. Bart Danenhower hadn’t been the sharpest knife in the drawer on
Horn,
and wasn’t the sharpest aboard
Savo,
but Dan trusted him. What the chief engineer said, got done. No drama. Just a smooth-running department … except of course for the fucking engine-controls back panel grounding issue.

“Captain?” Chief Toan, blinking at the large-screen displays. “If this is a bad time…”

“Hey, Sheriff. Yeah, things’re a little tense just now. Is it important?”

“Well, about the investigation.”

Dan looked at Branscombe; the TAO was on the line to his opposite number two miles away. “I guess, for a minute … what you got?”

“Well, I told you we had another suspect.”

“I remember. Got a pretty good idea, but want to tell me who?”

“The petty officer you brought aboard. The retired sonarman, I mean. How much you know about him?”

Dan sucked a breath. Not what he’d expected. “
Carpenter?
Uh, he worked for me at our last duty station. Are you saying you suspect
Rit
?”

“He’s been showing some pictures around that make us wonder about him.”

“What kind of pictures? Of what?”

Toan said, unwillingly, “Of young girls.”

Dan blinked, but believed it. All too readily. “Hard-core?”

“Well, no … topless … beaver shots … that kind of thing. Apparently he’s got a Polaroid collection. Some of ’em from a while ago, looks like.”

“And he’s showed it to somebody down there in Sonar.” Dan blew out. “Rit’s no angel, Chief. He’s gotten in trouble before, ashore. But I’ve never seen him be violent, or resort to force. Paying a couple hundred for a weekend shack-up, that’s more Rit’s style. Old Polaroids … you really see him as a suspect?”

The Vietnamese-American’s face was carefully neutral. “He owns a knife.”

“I gotta say, Chief, most of the sailors in the Navy own a knife. And all the boatswains have to carry one on the job. That make them suspects too?”

“We’re confining Shah because he had a knife.”

Dan shook his head, noting that fifteen of the Indian strike aircraft were closing on Masroor, a Pakistani strip near the coast. His order-of-battle information showed a suspected strike element of nuclear-capable Chinese-built A-5s based there. The callouts suggested that Masroor had a CAP aloft, identified as F-16s. As Aegis updated, they began clicking east as if to intercept. “Not exactly, Sheriff. I’m confining him because he was sniffing around Colón, by her own testimony, and because he
lied
to us about the knife. Lied sitting right in front of us, with it in his goddamn pocket.”

Toan lowered his voice still more, until it was all but lost in the background rush of the air-conditioning, the mumble of voices. “So … are you directing that Carpenter not be considered a suspect?”

Dan sucked a breath. “Chief, I gotta cut this short and get back on satcomm. If you say he’s a suspect, he’s a suspect. Don’t rule him out based on my say-so. But you’ve got to bring me more than some old snapshots. Has anyone checked out Peeples? The guy who was flipping off his female petty officer, before she died?”

“We’ve checked Peeples out. There doesn’t seem any reason to—”

“Captain, sorry to interrupt,” Branscombe put in. “You might want to look at CentCom chat.”

Dan excused himself, and Toan left. He logged in on the command desk terminal and scrolled up and down, gleaning, pausing to speed-read an appreciation by an Army colonel on the CentCom staff.

The ground invasion had started. Exercise Divine Weapon had left Indian armored forces already in forward positions. The orders to advance had come shortly after the first casualties were carried out of the Renaissance Mumbai.

To the colonel, it looked like the deep offensive Indian planners had practiced over and over: a blitzkrieg-type combined-arms assault that counted on surprise, air strikes, and massive conventional firepower to overwhelm the Pakistani army. Two gigantic armored spearheads were racing west, spring-loaded from their exercise positions. He thought the Indians would most likely try to reach the Indus River, at which point they would hook left and right to encircle and destroy the surrounded Pakistanis. The seized territory would be used to bargain for action against the militant groups that had attacked Mumbai. Meanwhile, air strikes would attempt to decapitate Pakistani command, control, and communications, in a replay of U.S. “shock and awe” on Baghdad.

The Indians envision it as a limited incursion for limited goals,
the colonel concluded.
But Islamabad may not see it that way.

Dan rubbed his face, and surfed. A SEAL team had recovered a Special Forces soldier held hostage in Afghanistan, but aside from that, the news from home was all bad. Wall Street trading was still closed. The crash had expanded to the banks. The president had closed them, a step not taken since 1933, and called an emergency meeting of the Federal Reserve.

Another cyberattack had corrupted the four central servers that processed transactions for the self-service automatic pumps at gas stations, halting truck and delivery service across the country. And a major fire had shut down a smokeless propellant plant in St. Marks, Florida, one of only two in the country and the one that supplied over 90 percent of the Army’s needs. St. Marks made not just powder for small-arms ammunition, but propellants for mortars, artillery, naval guns, and gas generators—like the ones in automobile air bags or, as it happened, in
Savo
’s missiles.

He sat motionless in the whirring, humming chill air as the hinges of the doors of Mars creaked and began to swing open. It wasn’t clear yet, with whom. But the United States, no less than India and Pakistan, was at war. It would be waged in the shadows, before flaring into open conflict.