by Andrew Watts
Henry scanned the class. David was still missing. It was very unusual for him. And worrisome to Henry. He had said that he was going to find out what was on the other side of the fence. Hopefully he was alright.
The conversation Henry was half-listening to was between two members of the Defense team, who were talking about how wired all of our military technology is today. He couldn’t remember their names. Henry was terrible with names.
The first guy worked as a Navy defense contractor out of Norfolk. He said, “So let me give you an example. A few years ago, one of our Navy warships bumped into a tanker as it was going through a strait. Just a little love tap—probably nothing compared to what a few missiles would do. But this little bump caused a ton of damage. Let me ask you something, do you have any idea how many cables and wires are in a Navy ship?”
The second guy shrugged.
“Thousands. That little bump from a tanker turned one of our most advanced warships into a floating barge real quick. The lights went out, its radar went black, and its guns couldn’t be fired. Think it could shoot a missile? Forget about it. Contractors had a field day, though. Huge maintenance job to fix it up. But my point is—you think that in World War Two, one of Henry J. Kaiser’s ships would have stopped being able to fight a battle because of one little bump against the hull? Hell no! You ever read about the Tin Cans? They took hits from the Japanese and kept on fighting. They had to. If one part of the ship gets destroyed, the rest can’t be affected. That’s what real sea combat is. It’s messy. Comms go down. Wires get cut. Those old World War Two ship drivers knew that. If one part of the ship got hit, the others had to keep on fighting. But today—it’s the wires, man. The wires are the problem.”
“The wires?”
“Yeah—there’s too many of ’em running all up and down the ships. Everything’s all interconnected, so that if one part goes out, another is affected. It’s just like what’s his name—Natesh—it’s just like he’s been sayin’. Our technology is our Achilles heel. I’m not even talking about what our Defense team came up with, the EMP tactics. I’m just talking about a regular shooting war. If one missile gets a hit on one of our warships, my guess is that the Chi-coms would just storm right through and finish the job. Because our ships would be dead in the water—lights out. All these years our politicians have been signing bigger and bigger contracts to add on weapon systems and radars and the latest computers...probably all made in their districts. Great! You got a floating high-tech boat that’s gonna be useless once the first round hits it in combat. Meanwhile, the Chinese don’t even have computers on a lot of their ships—that’s what the books say. How crazy is that? But you know what? All this time, we’ve been thinking that we’re the genius nation with the advanced technology and that they can’t achieve our level of sophistication. But I’m looking at these plans that we’re making and I’m starting to wonder—was this their strategy all along? Did they create ships and aircraft and tanks that would operate better in a low-tech environment as a strategy?”
The second guy grunted and shook his head.
“Because I start thinking that all this time, we’ve been thinking that they just don’t have the ability to create technology like we do. That they’re too poor or not advanced enough. Let me ask you something, who makes all of the iPhones in the world? China. You think that they aren’t advanced enough? You think they couldn’t computerize the shit out of their ships and tanks if they wanted to? I’m telling you, man, all these years I think the Chinese have been playing us. It’s been a strategy for them to create their military so that it isn’t reliant on technology. It’s lower cost that way. We spend all the money. They’ve got ten times the men. When the technology that we think is so advanced crashes from a computer virus or electromagnetic pulse, ten men beat one man. You know what I’m saying?”
Henry stayed still, casually looking at the two as they spoke. He glanced at the front of the classroom. It was past eight o’clock in the morning. In the four days that they had been here on the island, every meeting had started right on time. Henry watched as Lena, Natesh and the Major spoke in hushed voices at the front of the classroom. Something was going on. They were huddled close together and Natesh was frowning. Lena was speaking to him calmly. But her eyes looked at him with force. Henry knew a guy that always looked at people that way. He was a short, Italian guy—a boxer. He was a quiet guy, always looking up at people. He never blinked. Henry had once been at a bar where a few big drunken guys had made the mistake of underestimating the Italian. They’d regretted their mistake very much. Lena had this look. It was a hungry, confident look. Like she owned the world, or soon would.
Henry looked a few rows down and saw Brooke. He caught her eye and nodded down to Lena, Natesh, and the Major, as if to ask her what was going on. Brooke just shrugged. She mouthed to him, “Where’s David?” Henry had been wondering the same thing. It worried him. He shook his head. He didn’t know either.
Henry looked back over at the two guys that he’d been listening to. He said, “Hey, what were you guys talking about with EMP?”
The first guy said, “Huh? Oh, that’s one of the main parts of the Defense team’s plan. Lena and Major Combs gave us the idea. I mean, people were already talking about it. But Combs seemed to know a little more about the Chinese EMP capability. Did you know that they have shelters for their military that they’ve built to shield them from electromagnetic pulse? Apparently the Chinese have these air bases that have hangars built into huge caves. They are essentially turning mountains into large manmade bunkers. And it’s not just for aircraft—even their ships and submarines have these cave-like structures that they’ve been working on for the past few years. They build them into coastal mountain locations—I can’t imagine the cost. But these things are enormous—giant caverns big enough for ships and submarines to float into and dock. They must be stacked right next to each other two or three deep in there. But they dredge the water right from the canals up into the caves. US intelligence thinks that it’s to protect them from EMP in case they want to drop a few on their home court.”
Guy number two grunted.
Henry said, “What do you mean, drop them on their home court?”
The first guy said, “I mean like the South China Sea. Let’s say a US carrier strike group was over there. Or the Japanese Navy or Taiwanese or whoever. The Chinese could park all of their assets in those caves, launch a couple of dozen EMPs, and while all of our jets are crashing to the ground and our ships are blacked out with no electrical power, they can unleash their military on a bunch of sitting ducks.”
Henry said, “No shit? Well, how many caves can they really have? Does that really even work? And isn’t our military protected from electromagnetic pulse? I know the telecommunications companies I’ve worked with try to protect from it.”
The second guy spoke up and said, “From what the Major was saying, both the military and corporate assets are only protected up to a point. It’s all about cost. But the Chinese have apparently been developing very powerful EMP weapons that are able to overcome our hardened electronics equipment. From what the group was discussing yesterday, they stole most of the tech from us when they hacked in to Los Alamos.”
Henry said, “And this is what you guys are planning—or, you know, saying that you think China will do?”
The two nodded.
The first guy said, “That’s part of the plan. We think they would use EMP to get past all of the US military assets that are based in the Asia Pacific region. The plan is to detonate a lot of these EMP devices at lower altitudes…like thirty to forty miles above sea level—or was it kilometers—well, anyway, they detonate them close enough to US forces in the Pacific that it hurts them and minimizes damage to the Chinese mainland. That is the plan that we are writing up. It’s what we would do.”
Henry said, “So then what?”
As he spoke, he saw Natesh and the Major leave the stage and sit down in the front row of the cl
assroom. The audience went silent.
The second guy whispered over his response, “Then, they head east—a lot of them.” He looked at Henry knowingly.
Henry raised his eyebrows and looked back toward the front of the classroom.
Lena stood on the stage, upright and poised.
She said, “Good morning, everyone. First, I’d like to thank you for all of the hard work you’ve put in over the past week. The plans you all have put together have been remarkable. I’m amazed at the innovative thinking and new ideas that you have presented. You all have shown us that there are definitely some holes in national security that will need to be addressed.”
She looked at Major Combs. “Before I continue, Major, would you mind showing us the weather brief right now? I’ll continue when you’re done.”
“Yes, ma’am. Of course.” The Major rose, his crisp blues wrapped tight around his oversized waist. He walked up to the podium and read from his notes. “At twenty-three fifty-two last night our weather forecaster updated us on the latest track of what is now tropical cyclone number sixteen. It appears there is now a greater than ninety-five percent chance that we’ll be in the direct path of the storm, which is already starting to impact us. Winds are projected to be over sixty knots, with waves over twenty feet out at sea and eight to ten feet ashore. There will also be a slight storm surge of three to four feet.”
Major Combs looked up from his notes. He continued, looking at the members of the classroom, “The buildings that we are working and staying in are all high enough up and secure enough that this shouldn’t be a major safety concern. But we ask that you all stay inside unless you are conducting official business—so that means just going to eat or to the classroom. No horsing around here. Beginning at zero nine hundred today, the weather is really supposed to pick up. The bad stuff should all be over within about twelve hours. But it’s going to get a bit hairy during the day today. Because of this, there won’t be as much external support. No incoming plane today. We also may lose external satellite communication, so get any external information search requests in to Natesh and me by noon today. There is a small chance that we could lose communications for a bit longer. The computer link that we use has been known to go down in these storms. The wind might dislodge our satellite radar dishes. That is all.”
Lena nodded thanks to the Major and walked back in front of the stage. The Major sat back down.
She said, “With that information, we want to take some precautions. Because you all have overdelivered on the speed and quality of your plans, we have decided to pause on the individual teamwork and send a summary of where the combined group plan is today. I have spoken with Natesh and he has agreed to modify our schedule. Today you will all be in this classroom working on bringing together your individual group plans into one congealed script. We will then transmit that out by lunch at the latest. What we don’t want to happen is a scenario where we lose communications for a prolonged period of time and can’t get any of the great work that you all have completed to those that need it. We are on a tight timeline as is.”
Henry thought this didn’t really make sense, considering the unknowns of the supposed timeline, but he didn’t object. He also wasn’t sold on some satellite communication disruption causing them to totally change Natesh’s schedule. David’s concerns seemed more valid by the minute.
Lena said, “Alright, I would like to thank you once again. I’ll step aside so that you may all get to work. Natesh?”
Natesh stepped up on stage and Lena walked up to the back of the classroom. She stood in front of the large glass panoramic window, jotting notes down in her black leather book.
Natesh said, “Good morning, folks. Lena has asked us to make a change in our schedule. The weather is indeed moving in. Instead of breaking up into teams, today we’ll stay in one big group and create the integrated first draft outline for the Chinese attack.”
The door opened and David stumbled into the class. Ten minutes late. His hair was damp and he looked even more anxious than normal. Henry thought that he saw glistening on his forehead, like he had been running again. He looked upset. He wondered if he’d seen anything new that had spooked him this morning.
About half the eyes in the classroom shot over to him. He didn’t say anything. He just walked to the nearest seat and sat down. Henry tried to act casual as he peered behind to where Lena was standing. She was looking right at David. Then her eyes darted over to Henry and he looked away.
Natesh called up the team leaders for a quick huddle in the front of the class. Everyone else continued talking. Lena walked down the stairs and out the door. Once she left, David looked over at Henry. David was mouthing something to him, but he couldn’t make it out. Henry finally got what he was trying to say: we need to talk. Henry just nodded back and pointed at his watch, made a circle gesture, and then pointed to his notepad. Unofficial sign language was one of his specialties.
David looked back at him, confused. Class was starting. Henry would have to talk to him during the next break.
There were no official breaks given. People trickled out by themselves for the occasional trip to the bathroom, but Natesh was a slave driver this morning. He plowed the members of the Red Cell through plans, and wasn’t taking any shit from the usual argumentative characters. Henry wondered why Natesh was so hell-bent on speeding through this. Natesh had heard David’s story last night. Lena might not really be CIA. Natesh even had his own concerns about the Major. But he sure was doing a good job for Lena right now. Henry could see why he made the big bucks from all of these companies. Natesh was a thinker. He made connections and processed information faster than anyone Henry had ever met.
By a little after 11 a.m., the class had a comprehensive invasion outline written up. They’d worked for three hours straight. Major Combs captured it all in a presentation which was projected in front of the class. Henry had listened with growing alarm as the time dragged on. These were scary good invasion plans. If a country with China’s capability and resources really wanted to follow through, he didn’t want to think of what might happen. Every once in a while he looked over at David, whose face looked pale.
Tess asked, “So is this supposed to be a final version? This is our actual recommendation?”
Natesh shook his head and said, “No, Tess. Think of this as a first draft. But it will be a first draft with all of our plans integrated together. I realize it got a little messy today as we prioritized, but I appreciate everyone’s patience as we went. Today we have created the integrated holistic plans. Now we’ll go over them briefly and make sure they match up with the original objectives that we were given. Sorry for the pace. We will break for lunch in a few minutes. I will submit this to Lena now and we can split back up into teams this afternoon.”
It was a funny thing. While the twenty or so members of their group were probably horrified at the thought of any of these plans actually occurring, they were all so proud of the work they had done. Henry could see it in their eyes. Everyone was listening to Natesh speak so carefully, happy to hear that their contributions had created the optimized blueprint that could potentially destroy their country. They think they are helping to improve their country’s defenses, Henry reminded himself.
Their inner circle of David, Brooke, and Norman were quiet. None of them said a word in contribution during the morning session. They each stole nervous glances at each other but none of them had done anything to stop it. Why was that? Groupthink? Fear? David had seen something today, Henry could tell. Maybe the others were following his lead. And if what he had seen was enough for him to keep his mouth shut, then it was probably a good idea for Henry to do the same.
Henry wondered how Natesh did it, knowing what David had said about Bill. Natesh didn’t look nearly as comfortable as he had when speaking to everyone the day before. His voice carried well, but he spoke like he was under a lot of stress.
The Major was clicking through slides as they lined up the diff
erent pieces of the war plan. Henry read through the outline on the screen. The slide they were on showed some of the high-level initial activities by geography.
* * *
Phase 1
Iran
Assassination—incite anti-US fervor
Arabian Gulf City attack—destabilize region via Iranian military attack on Western targets and provide immediate demand for large-scale US presence in Arabian Gulf
US beltway & school attacks—enflame US and promote support for Iran-US war
Panama
Pre-stage Chinese subs
Secure Panama Canal Zone with Chinese ground troops (First-wave troop/cargo transport via retrofitted merchant vessels)
Establish large-scale troop transport and logistics supply chain to Panama Canal Zone (Post ARES, EMP Strikes)
* * *
Natesh said, “Team Psyops, your number one objective was to create an environment where the US populace would—eventually—be open to and accepting of a new government that the Chinese would eventually install after the fighting subsides. So we said that meant no nukes. We said it meant that we needed to have the US civilian population cut off from any modern communication and official media. We also said we would need to create a situation where the civilian population was in a sort of “disaster mode” to begin with, in order to…” Natesh was searching for the right words.
Dr. Creighton said, “…so that the American populace would be highly receptive to foreign aid and supplies. We intend to create a situation that makes Americans vulnerable and in need. They will not have access to normal supply chains for food and utilities. Thus they will be very happy when a solution shows up—in the form of a large-scale foreign aid program. We talked about China going in under the guise of a UN peacekeeping force. In addition to this, we are recommending that external and internal covert military operations take place that encourages both the US military and civilian population to focus their resources and anger on someone else. Like we said before, our suggestion is a combination of Iran and a large terrorist group—maybe ISIS, although I don’t think that their goals align. It shouldn’t matter, though. Never let the truth get in the way…”
