He had wondered which one of those covered bodies had been the Marine he had killed. He knew it could have been him, maybe should have been him. Why that young man had chosen to go hand-to-hand was beyond him. That decision had cost him his life. And that was why he was in a body bag, laying out on the runway, instead of himself.
While relieved that he had made it, even if banged up a bit, he didn’t know what to feel. He was still angry about Cpl Holleran, angry that none of this had been necessary. And yes, he was confused as to why the Chinese were being treated so well. Oh, he wasn’t advocating torture or retaliation, but why were they going home, even before the Marines were to be evacuated, was beyond him. He knew this was coming from on high, but it still rankled him. Those “on high” hadn’t fought in this stinking jungle.
Getting a good meal and a good night’s sleep had done wonders for his mood, though. Now, he was a little more detached as he watched the Chinese load the big transport.
“So . . .” a soft voice said beside him.
He turned to see Analiza stepping up beside him.
“So,” he responded, realizing how dumb that sounded.
“It seems strange to see them just leaving like this, like they are going home from a tour.”
“I know what you mean,” he replied.
They stood together for awhile, neither saying anything.
“How’s your nose?” she asked, obviously searching for something to say.
He reached up to gingerly touch it before answering, “It hurts, and Doc says its probably broken, but there’s no serious damage. They’re going to look at it back on the ship.”
With his other scars, a crooked nose, courtesy of the kick to his face by the now dead Chinese Marine, was the least of his worries.
“So, you’ll be going back soon?” she asked.
Did he hear a hint of regret in the question?
“Yeah,” he looked at his watch before continuing, “in about two hours.”
They were quiet for a moment before they both blurted out “You know, the Philippines…” and “Can I . . .”
“Oh, sorry, you go first,” he told her.
“Well, pardon me if I’m a little forward, but the Philippines is a lovely place, not like here on Pagasa. If you ever want to come visit, well, I would be happy to be your tour guide,” she said in a rush, as if afraid she wouldn’t get it all out.
He realized that he would like that.
“I don’t know when I could,” he said, seeing her eyes fall in disappointment before he hurriedly added, “but I would be happy to come visit. Maybe when this deployment is over next year.”
She smiled in relief and moved closer to him as they turned their attention to the last of the Chinese to board the plane. He wondered if he should put his arm around her, but it didn’t seem right. Too much had happened here. He would keep in contact, and if things worked out, he would give it a shot. Until then, he still had his platoon to lead.
Chapter 39
Beijing
Things moved quickly in the Chinese government. This was not like the West where things could drag out over years of indecision. General Chen looked at the document he was carrying. He folded it back up and slid it into his uniform jacket. He felt it was his duty to deliver it.
Had it only been 6 days, he wondered?
The PLA Chief of Staff had to admit that he had been more than tempted to choose a different path last week, when the fate of the nation rested solely on his shoulders. He could have sided with the general secretary, the man who had just two days ago turned in his resignation for “health reasons.” He could have given General Li what he needed to succeed, and the People’s Republic might now be the premier power in the world. But at what cost? The Americans held that unenviable position at the moment, and look what it has done to their economy. They still spent more on defense than the rest of the world combined.
And he had been tempted to do what the members of the Politburo likely feared, to stage a coup. As a military man, he held a degree of contempt for his seniors, those who made the decisions for soldiers to follow but never once having worn a uniform. That temptation was quickly squashed, though. He didn’t want to become one of those whom he held in such low regard. And he knew he probably would be a poor leader. He knew the military, not agriculture, not diplomacy, not manufacturing and all the other things that made a country run.
In the end, despite his dislike of the politicians who wanted all of this to end, he knew what he had to do. He knew the Americans, NATO, and Russia feared the growing might of China, and they would not let this stand, especially the Americans. The cost to China would just be too high. Could they prevail? Possibly, but if they did, they would have destroyed their markets, the very people they needed to make China prosper.
The order to fire upon the Jinggan Shan had been perhaps the most difficult order he had ever given. Those were China’s brave sons, men who were doing their patriotic duty. They had been blameless in everything.
But the ever increasingly aggressive American rhetoric required a dramatic action to assure the Americans that this was a mistake. That ended up being the party line, that this was all a tragic mistake instigated by others. This had been an action against both China and the US. Muslim terrorists, probably based in the southern Philippines, had hacked into Chinese systems and given the wrong information, leading the Chinese to believe that the US had planned the entire thing out and were in fact the aggressors. It had all been part of a plan to pit the two super powers against each other.
Aided by a few Chinese criminals in high places, out for financial gain, they had taken control of a small number of Chinese assets, namely two ships. It had taken a particularly astute and dedicated PLA Air Force captain to uncover the truth.
Had the Americans bought the story? Most likely not. But they didn’t want war, either, and this gave them an out. The sinking of the Jinggan Shan provided the “punishment” to China, as would the coming announcement at the UN that the People’s Republic ceded any claims, now and in the future, to the Wanli Shitang.
Of course, there were the survivors of the force to be considered as well. The crew of the Changbai Shan had been fairly easy. They had never closed with the Americans nor the Taiwan Chinese. It was easy to give them the concocted account of events. For the soldiers and Marines on Thitu, however, this was a bit problematic. They had fought both the Filipinos and the Americans. To convince them that this was all a big mistake, that “terrorists” had created the situation, was a little more difficult, especially as the unit that had fired the Long Sword cruise missiles had neglected to remove the red star that showed to anyone who saw it whose missile it was. Without that, it could have been a terrorist missile that had sunk the ship. All the surviving soldiers and Marines had been transferred to a base in Xinjiang for “debriefing.” General Chen was confident that the new version of events would in fact soon become the ground truth.
The Politburo had authorized payments for all the Filipinos killed, most of them being in the C-130 that had been shot down, and to rebuild their town on Thitu… that is, Pagasa Island. But that was peanuts compared to perhaps the biggest loss of this entire debacle, that the Americans now knew of the Chinese ability to hack and even shut down systems. The entire American military was now undergoing “routine maintenance,” ferreting out every piece of equipment and every program where the Chinese had gained control. This was a huge loss, but as the largest exporter of military hardware, a loss that the Americans did not want to advertise that had happened. They would clean their own systems first, then slowly clean the systems of all their client states.
This loss was the reason why Sung Wenyan was still among the breathing. He was scum, to be sure, but scum with a talent. He would help the task force that would design new ways to hack the Americans and other nations. They had lost one avenue, so a new avenue would have to be built.
He reached the locked door, guarded by a lone soldier. The soldier sna
pped to attention, then turned to unlock the door. General Chen took off his cover and stepped inside.
General Li was sitting at the bare desk in the middle of the room, writing. A perfectly made bed was in back of him. At least his discipline hadn’t faltered.
General Li looked up at his entrance, then stood, coming to attention and saluting.
General Chen said nothing, but took the paper out of his pocket and handed it to him. General Li read it, no change of expression coming over his face. That was about what Chen had expected.
The paper was a simple receipt—for one round of ammunition. It was made out to General Li’s family. They owed the Chinese government five yuan, payable upon receipt.
General Li folded the paper and handed it back to the chief of staff.
“Thank you for being the one to let me know. Do I have time to finish the letter to my family?” he calmly asked as if nothing much was wrong.
“Yes, you have another hour or so. I will personally deliver any letters you write.”
“And the others?”
“Senior Captain Chou has received the same sentence, as has Commander Hung. No decision has been made yet for Admiral Hung. Your command center staff has been sentenced to prison for various lengths of time, excepting Sung Wenyan.”
That brought a rise to Li’s eyebrows. “Sung Wenyan? But…” he paused until understanding dawned on him. “Ah, his unique skills are probably needed.”
General Chen merely nodded.
“It is sad that someone like him will thrive, when the patriots receive a different future, or lack thereof, I should say.”
This was the closest General Li would come to a complaint, General Chen knew.
“And . . . ?” the question was left unsaid.
General Chen chose to respond to it. “The general secretary has decided to resign due to health concerns. The third-ranked vice deputy has also decided to resign. All signs point to Second-ranked Vice Premier Wang Jinping being appointed as the new general secretary.”
“Ah, the general secretary? I wasn’t sure if this all went that high.”
“Yes, well, the ex-general secretary. I’ll leave you now to finish your letters.”
General Li saluted his chief of staff, who returned the salute and turned to leave. General Li’s question stopped him, though.
“Why, General Chen? We could have succeeded.”
General Chen hesitated. He could just walk out, his duty done. Li had chosen, and chosen wrong. Now he would pay the price for that failure.
Without turning around, he simply said, “China will succeed. But this was not the way to do it. The cost would have been too high. China is bigger than you, than me, than the Politburo. It will last much longer than any of us, which will be evident to you personally in about an hour.”
With that, he knocked on the door, walking out after the guard opened it.
Ben dan, he thought as he started walking down the hallway.
Normally, when someone called someone else a “dumb egg,” it was with disdain. But this time, he used the term with a degree of sympathy. General Li was a good man. Good, but dumb. To think he could play politics with the masters was idiocy. He never should have assumed anything. Without direct, specific orders, he should never have planned even one move. He let his ego and nationalistic righteousness overcome common sense. As a general consequence, the nation had been harmed. As a personal consequence, his family received a bill for five yuan, the cost of one 7.62 mm round.
Chapter 40
Cebu, The Philippines
1st Lieutenant Peter Van Slyke watched the carousel, waiting for his bag to appear. He wasn’t sure what to expect. He had arrived in Manila the evening before, and the frantic pace of that mega-metropolis had beaten him down. He had been told by others to take only the official airport taxis, and as he got to his hotel near the US embassy in Ermita, he had been astonished at the filth and poverty that surrounded the Best Western. Inside, though, the hotel had been much nicer, so he never left, eating in the hotel restaurant before trying to get some sleep.
He had gotten up early, then taken the hotel car back to the airport where he caught the 8:05 Cebu Pacific flight to Cebu. The flight was different, to say the least. At one point, all the flight attendants had broken out into song and dance.
The plane reached Cebu in an hour, and Pete took in the blue, blue ocean as it came in to land on the small island just off the main island of Cebu itself. The plane landed with barely a jar and quickly taxied to the terminal.
Things seemed much more laid back in Cebu, and he immediately felt at ease. The weather was pleasantly warm, but he wished he had worn shorts instead of his Levis which were sticking a bit. He was just happy to be out of his uniform. He knew his haircut labeled him as a Marine, as the Filipino ticket checker back in Manila had greeted him with a “semper fi,” but with jeans and a polo shirt, he still felt the stress of the deployment slough away.
He had twelve more days of leave left to get rid of all the stress. He had visited Sgt McNamara back at the Wounded Warrior battalion on the first day of his post-deployment leave, marveling at how far he had come in his rehabilitation. The doctors gave the sergeant a good chance at a complete recovery. The second day of his leave had been taking the flight from San Diego to Manila. Now, his real leave was about to begin.
He had just spotted his seabag when he felt a light touch on his arm. He turned to see Analiza standing there, simply lovely in her white cotton blouse and tan shorts. He felt his heart miss a beat.
“Hi Peter, welcome to Cebu,” she told him, her face radiant.
Pete didn’t know what would come of his week-and-a-half in Cebu, but he was sure going to enjoy finding out.
Thank you for reading the three books of The Return of the Marines. I hope you enjoyed it. I would love to get your feedback, either in a review or through the website http://www.returnofthemarines.com.
Other books by the author:
Fiction
The Al Anbar Chronicles: First Marine Expeditionary Force--Iraq
Prisoner of Fallujah
Combat Corpsman
Sniper
The United Federation Marine Corps
Recruit
Sergeant
Lieutenant (Coming Soon)
To The Shores of Tripoli
Werewolf of Marines: Semper Lycanus
(Book 2: Coming January, 2015)
Wererat
Darwin’s Quest: The Search for the Ultimate Survivor
Non-Fiction
Exercise for a Longer Life
GLOSSARY
AO: Area of Operations
BAH: Basic Allowance for Housing
BM2: Boatswain’s Mate, 2nd Class
CDR: Commander
CO: Commanding Officer
CMC Central Military Commission (China)
Cpl: Corporal
CTF: Combined Task Force
ERSS: Expeditionary Resuscitative Surgical System
FAST: Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team
HE High Explosive
HEAA High Explosive Anti-Armor
HEDP High Explosive Dual Purpose (warhead)
IAR: Infantry Automatic Rifle
IO: Indian Ocean
LCAC: Landing Craft Air Cushion
LCDR: Lieutenant Commander
LCpl: Lance Corporal
LTC: Lieutenant Colonel (Army)
LtCol: Lieutenant Colonel
LZ: Landing Zone
MCMAP Marine Corps Martial Arts Program
MEU: Marine Expeditionary Unit
NCO: Non-Commissioned Officer
O-Club: Officers’ Club
OpsO: Operations Officer
PFC: Private First Class
PLA People’s Liberation Army (China)
Pvt: Private
RASP: Ranger Assessment & Selection Program
RHIB: Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat
ROC Republic of China (Taiwan)
ROE: Rules
of Engagement
RPG: Rocket-propelled Grenade
Sgt: Sergeant
SIGINT Signal Intelligence
SMAW Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon
SNCO: Staff Non-Commissioned Officer
SP Shore Patrol
SRAW Short-Range Assault Weapon
SOI: School of Infantry
SSgt: Staff Sergeant
STA: Surveillance and Target Acquisition
T/E: Table of Equipment
USAID: United States Agency for International Development
VA Veterans Administration
VBSS: Visit, board, search, and seizure
XO: Executive Officer
The Return of the Marines Trilogy Page 60
