by James Rosone
Once the introductions had been made, they got down to the business of trying to figure out how they were going to capture and question Peng An.
Chapter 13
United Nations
Geneva, Switzerland
“You said this plan would not lead to a conflict, and if it did, it would be over in a matter of days. We’re now entering our seventh week of this war! Do you know what this has done to my country?” shouted Prime Minister Martin of Canada through the video teleconference. The man was irate. His country was in the process of being systematically destroyed by the fighting raging across its borders.
Several others in the meeting all nodded their heads in agreement.
Johann could feel their glares, wrought with misgivings. They had blindly followed him down this path, and now it appeared like everything was in the process of falling apart.
“If the Chinese had held up their end of the bargain, we wouldn’t be in this predicament,” chided the French Foreign Minister.
“China has invaded the southern American border,” Foreign Minister Jiang shot back angrily. “I might also add that it was China who neutralized the American Navy in the Pacific and China who has suffered the wrath of American nuclear weapons, not France.”
“Your military was supposed to invade America in coordination with our northern force,” countered the Frenchman in his usual condescending manner. “Had you done that, the Americans would have crumbled under our combined weight. As it is, our northern force has been nearly defeated.”
Slapping the table hard, the Russian Foreign Minister shouted, “This war was supposed to stay conventional, not go nuclear!” He pointed his finger angrily at the Chinese delegation. “You were supposed to have attacked when our forces invaded. Our combined invasion should have toppled the government and destroyed their military. Instead, you got cold feet and waited a month. Then you thought you could get away with nuking Guam, Arizona, Oklahoma, and one of their carrier battle groups on top of using an EMP over Southern California, Hawaii, and Australia.
“At the start of the war, we had the American public divided and moving in our direction…China has somehow succeeded in uniting the vast majority of their country together. Now, not only are they fiercely fighting our forces in the north, but they are demanding vengeance on every nation involved in this war. China has lost this war for us all!”
Foreign Minister Jiang Yi glared at the Russian and the other members of the UN peacekeeping force as they all nodded in agreement to what he’d just said.
“I will remind you, China has suffered more than sixty million civilian and military casualties since the start of this war. None of your nations have suffered loss like ours.” Jiang paused for a second before chiding them further. “You Europeans and Russians are pathetic. Your nations have ranked among the top economies in the world, and yet your combined military force has been crushed by less than half of the American military in less than four weeks of combat.”
He shook his head in disgust. “No. It is you who are the weakest links in this grand coalition. You have lost the war all by yourselves. China will win this fight, and we will defeat America without you. We alone will bask in the spoils of this war, you pathetic weaklings. China shall laugh as the Americans rain bombs on your cities. China is done pandering to you.”
As soon as he finished his blistering speech, Jiang stood up and walked out of the room, followed closely by his aides.
“Come back to the table and let us talk things out,” Johann called out. A few others joined him in attempting to convince the Chinese Foreign Minister to stay, but those efforts were fruitless.
As Johann watched the door close behind the Chinese delegation, he was seething with anger inside.
How do the Russians and the French manage to ruin everything they touch? he wondered.
He turned to look at the remaining delegations of the UN peacekeeping force. He pulled his shoulders back to project as much confidence as humanly possible. “We need to reinforce our soldiers in Canada,” he commanded. “The weather is warming up, which will open up more ways for us to send supplies into Canada.”
The German Foreign Minister, who was also known as a war hawk, chimed in. “While I think it was foolish for the Chinese to use EMPs and nuclear weapons against the Americans, the one advantage they just gave us is stealth. The US lost a lot of its early warning radar systems and satellites during the attack, and while the Americans aren’t completely blind, there are now significant holes in their satellite and radar coverage. We need to exploit those holes and push as many supplies and reinforcements through them as we can.”
The Russian Foreign Minister uncrossed his arms. “Well, now that we control the American air base at Thule in Greenland, we can use that base as a midway point,” he offered. “I was told by General McKenzie that they have largely repaired the runways at Bagotville, Gandor, and Goose Bay air bases. We can begin airlifting soldiers to Thule and then land them at one of those three airfields.”
The Canadian PM joined the conversation via teleconference. “If you can get them to Gandor, we can use our fishing boats to ferry them across the Gulf of St. Lawrence.” He paused for a moment as if having seconds thoughts. Then looked pointedly at Johann. “If we aren’t able to secure some sort of victory against the Americans or slow their advance down on our border within the next few weeks, I believe we will need to strongly consider seeking terms to end this war.”
Johann nodded. He realized the man was right. This war had started out with a lot of optimism, but victory had slipped away from them. He sighed. Seeing the others look at him expectantly, Johann lifted his chin. “Then let’s work to slow the American advance and get our boys the reinforcements and supplies they need,” he announced.
*******
A couple of hours later, Johann sat in his office, rubbing his temples. He was getting another stress-induced headache.
Knock, knock.
Johann looked up and saw his old friend, Roberto Lamy, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization. The two of them had been friends now for more than three decades. They had originally met when they were graduate students at the London School of Economics many years ago. They’d managed to stay close friends as each of them rose through the corporate and political ranks.
He happily waved his friend in. “Come in, Roberto. It’s good to see you.”
“Likewise,” Roberto responded as he walked into the spacious office. As he got a little closer, he gently said, “You look tired, my friend.”
Johann nodded. The exhaustion he felt seemed to be draining the very life out of his body. “This job is more stressful than I thought it would be,” he admitted.
Roberto laughed softly. “You’re the first UN Secretary-General to try and wage a world war against the Americans. Did you think it would be easy?”
Johann sighed. “No, I thought this war would have been over with by now. The American president was supposed to have left office with his tail tucked between his legs. How did things go so wrong?” he lamented.
Roberto sat down on the couch next to the large window that overlooked Lake Geneva. “I heard there was a bit of a problem with the Chinese yesterday,” he remarked.
Johann joined his friend in staring at the view. He was still trying to figure out if Jiang was serious about the Chinese no longer going to be a part of the UN peacekeeping force. He hadn’t explicitly said they were withdrawing, but he wasn’t returning his calls right now either. “The Russians and the French pushed them a bit too far,” Johann offered. “I think they may pull out of our peacekeeping force.”
Roberto’s expression betrayed his concern. “You need to call Peng, then. He needs to talk with Jiang and Chen to make sure the Chinese continue to stick to the plan. Everything is riding on remaining a united front against the Americans.”
Johann shook his head in defeat. “No, you call him,” he insisted. “He’ll respond better to you than me right now.”
Johann decided it would be good to speak with someone who had a broader perspective on global affairs. “Economically, how is the world holding up right now?” he asked.
Now it was Roberto’s turn to sigh. “Not nearly as good as it should be. Losing access to the American market has been difficult for many nations. OPEC is under a lot of pressure from the Americans to not sell their oil and LNG to the member nations participating in this peacekeeping force. Fortunately, several OPEC members are also part of this force and have thus far kept the syndicate from giving in to the Americans. However, if the war starts to move decidedly in the Americans’ favor, that may change. They will remain neutral until they see who’s going to win.”
“How bad will things get if the war drags on a couple more months?”
Roberto grimaced. “It will be disastrous, Johann,” he insisted. “This war was never supposed to last two months. The global economy is on the brink right now. If it wasn’t for heavy defense spending in Europe and Russia and the Chinese propping things up, it might well have collapsed already.”
“It can’t be that bad,” Johann countered. “America isn’t the be-all, end-all to the world economy.”
“My friend, politics is your field, economics and trade is mine. The world has effectively lost half of its trading partners overnight. A twenty trillion-dollar economy just disappeared. That can’t be easily replaced. Look at your own home country, Germany. Daimler, BMW, and Volkswagen aren’t exactly shipping cars to America. Even their foreign plants in America are being converted to produce military equipment for this war, and if they don’t comply, they are being taken over by the government and handed over to Ford or General Motors to manage. If this conflict isn’t resolved in the next month, two months tops—Johann, we’ll be looking at a full worldwide economic collapse.”
*******
Fort Meade, Maryland
National Security Agency
“Got it!” announced one of the analysts excitedly.
“Excellent. Get it over to the crypto guys,” Deputy Director Tony Wildes ordered. “Once they’re done with it, send it directly to me. I’ll handle getting it translated and sent to the task force.”
Maybe we finally have our first major break, thought Tony.
He walked back to his office, picked up his secured phone, and placed a call down to Camp Perry. The phone rang twice. “Leah Riesling,” said the voice on the other end.
He smiled. “Leah, it’s Tony. I think we just caught the break we’ve been looking for.”
“Oh. Do tell,” she replied, the excitement clear in her voice.
“Peng An just received a call from Roberto Lamy, the Director-General of the WTO. The call lasted for roughly two and a half minutes. Roberto then made another call to Johann Behr at the UN, which lasted four minutes. Peng returned Roberto’s call later in the day, and they talked for another five minutes.”
“Wow, that is a lead,” remarked Leah. “Tell me we’re able to decrypt their conversations.”
“It’s with the crypto guys right now. Should have it decoded shortly. I wanted to give you a heads up of what’s coming your way.”
The two talked for a few more minutes before they ended the call. An hour later, Tony got the decrypted call and couldn’t believe what he read. They had their link—now they needed to figure out how to question one of them and find out who else was involved.
*******
Camp Perry
General Lancaster looked at the decoded transcript of the messages between the Director of the WTO, the Head of the Chinese Investment Bank, and the leader of the UN. He shook his head, unable to believe what he was reading. At least things were starting to make sense.
Lancaster turned to the senior NSA, CIA, and FBI liaison reps for Task Force Avenger, hands on his hips. “So, who do we snatch to question further, and how do we go about doing it?” he asked.
The CIA LNO leaned forward. “Well, I’d say we nab Peng, but even if we could grab him in Geneva, we’d never be able to get him out of the country. Plus, the Swiss are pretty damn good at tracking people down inside their borders. I hate to say it, but if we want to grab him, we have to get him outside of Europe and China.”
The group talked over some of the options of carrying out a snatch-and-grab operation in Geneva. It wasn’t sounding very optimistic. Finally, Ashley said, “Why don’t we grab Roberto? He’ll be a much easier target than Peng, and we can probably get just as much information from him.”
There was a moment of silence as they all mulled that over. Leah countered, “We’d still have the problem of grabbing him in Geneva.”
Ashley shook her head. “No. Roberto’s family lives in the Leblon neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. We could engineer a family emergency that requires him to have to fly back home. When he arrives in-country, we snatch him there.”
“What would require him to have to fly all the way back to Brazil?” asked Lancaster, left eyebrow raised skeptically.
“Let me have until dinner to come up with something. I know the legal attaché in Brasilia. Let me place a call down to him and get some ideas.”
The group agreed to meet again just before dinner. They’d formulate their plan then and start moving people to get in place.
Chapter 14
Battle of Chicago
March 5, 2021
Calumet City, Illinois
River Oaks Center
Lieutenant General Hugh Ridgeway stood next to the JLTV and waited for the action to start. He watched the sunrise; at least the view was beautiful. Plus, a warm front was moving through the area. The temperatures were moving from the fifties to the low sixties.
“Here they come,” announced a soldier who’d been sitting up in the turret of the JLTV looking through a pair of field glasses.
General Ridgeway looked at his watch. They were a few minutes late.
Two Dutch Fenneks stopped roughly twenty meters in front of them, a white flag affixed to each of their antennas. A second after the vehicles stopped, a German general walked toward them, accompanied by a Dutch colonel. Behind them were two men wearing American military uniforms, modified by CDF name tapes and a UN patch on their shoulders.
Ridgeway held up his hand, letting the men know they had come close enough. He didn’t fully trust them.
“Thank you for agreeing to speak with me under a flag of truce. I’m Lieutenant General Ridgeway, Commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps,” he announced.
“I’m Major General Hans Vollmer, Commander of Division Schnelle Kräfte. This is my Dutch counterpart,” the German said as he nodded toward his compatriot.
Apparently not wanting to be left out, the two civilians introduced themselves as the Illinois and Wisconsin Civil Defense Force commanders. Once the introductions had been made, the group stood there for a moment, sizing each other up. The German and Dutch soldiers looked over Ridgeway’s shoulder into the shopping center parking lot—they clearly caught a glimpse of the armored force being assembled.
“General Vollmer, your division has fought hard and achieved many victories, but this war needs to end,” Ridgeway insisted. “You’re now cut off from your supply lines and routes of retreat to Canada. When our forces left Michigan at the start of the war, we declared the major cities open cities to spare them destruction and keep the people living in them from being killed. Sadly, your force has not done the same during your retreat—many thousands of civilians have been killed as a consequence. My corps is assembled and ready to finish you off. I am asking you to accept my offer of surrender and to save the lives of your men and the lives of tens of thousands of civilians.”
The German quickly replied, “I have not been authorized to surrender. Furthermore, my orders by my government are to turn every town and city into a fortress to slow your advance and bleed your corps dry.”
“You don’t care that thousands of civilians are going to die in
the process?” Ridgeway asked incredulously.
The German sighed. “I don’t want to kill civilians any more than you do, but sadly, they are caught in the middle, and there is little I can do. I have my orders, and you have yours.”
General Ridgeway was growing angry at the callousness this foreign invader was showing toward his fellow Americans. “General, if your division surrenders now, they will be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention. However, if you choose to turn these cities into meat grinders and intentionally place civilians in harm’s way, I will instruct my men that any German or Dutch soldier that is captured is to be executed. We won’t take any prisoners. There won’t be a single person left alive from your division when this war is over. Surely you can see you are losing this war. At this point, you should be trying to figure out how you can keep as many of your soldiers alive so they can return home to their families.”
“You would execute prisoners?” the German exclaimed, aghast at the very thought.
“I’d kill them myself if you intend on making my soldiers fight you in the city of Chicago. You’re placing the lives of civilians in harm’s way for no reason. You think I won’t have your soldiers executed for that? This is your last chance to surrender, General. If you want to take a few hours to consult with your commanders and think about it, you may, but at 1800 hours tonight, I start my offensive. I’ll be issuing orders for all German and Dutch soldiers to be executed if they are captured.”
With nothing further to discuss, the Americans got back in their vehicle and left. They’d give the Germans a bit of time to stew on what he had said and hope they’d come to their senses.
*******
“General Tibbets, I made the offer to the German commander,” Ridgeway explained. “He seems intent on having his remaining force fight it out in the city of Chicago. Sir, if he does that, it’s going to result in thousands of civilians getting killed—not to mention the destruction of huge swaths of the city. How do you want me to proceed?”
