by T I WADE
The letters were going to take some time, so Buck, the president and two Secret Service agents climbed into the Baby Huey. It took several minutes to get her airborne, and with the president in the right seat again and the agents sitting in the comfortable chairs in the back, they aimed for Dover.
Thirty minutes later, with a strong tail-wind, Baby Huey landed close to Ghost Rider, which was already being refueled by a small, antiquated 3,000 gallon fuel tanker truck. It would take a long time to refuel the larger aircraft.
The general gave orders to refuel the helicopter first, and Buck was invited into the meeting with General Allen, the president and the Base Commander, General Ward. General Allen introduced everybody. “Mr. President, you wanted a meeting?” the general asked. They sat down, and cokes and fruit juice were brought in.
“I want to get involved with the food program and see what I can do out there. I’m not going to sit in the White House like a scared cat and do nothing. While you are organizing the country through our air bases, I would like to work with the guys down in North Carolina and get a distribution network operational.”
“I was hoping you would say that, sir,” the general responded with a smile on his face. “It would get rid of the need for protocol and you having to authorize everything I do, plus it would solve the need for that extra radio or satellite-phone system.”
“Yes, I was thinking about that, too,” the president responded. “If we are expecting a full-scale invasion in the near future, it doesn’t make sense to have the Commander-in-Chief sitting virtually unprotected in the White House like a sitting duck. They should have to work very hard to find me, don’t you think?”
“Totally agree,” answered General Allen. “Mike Ward, what do we have operational here? I’m hoping your oldest C-130, a C model I believe, could still be flyable and I’m sure you must have a helicopter or two in storage?”
“We are checking through the older models now, Pete,” the other general responded. “Every older aircraft is currently undergoing tests. We lost 17 aircraft on flight missions over New Year’s Eve, and I did not think to check the old stock until yesterday when we received your C-130 and the pilot’s message from Andrews. We are servicing one C-130C’s engines. She’s flyable but several of her electronic components are toast. We have servicemen currently working on bypassing them. We have another C-130A that is flyable, Pete—an old HC-130 tanker which could be operational by tomorrow and we are working on two Vietnam-era Bell helicopters right now.”
“I want the HC-130’s tanker engines fully inspected within 12 hours,” Pete Allen ordered. “Get all the maintenance men on her you can and get her to Hill AFB in Salt Lake in 18 hours. Get the helicopters and the other C-130 flown down to Andrews as soon as possible. I’m leaving ASAP and need the tanker. I’m flying to Japan with Ghost Rider. Also, Mike, please check the refueling rigs and make sure that her refueling line is compatible with Ghost Rider. I’m going to need the tanker to pump fuel into Ghost Rider over the Bering Sea.”
“You are taking these old birds over to Asia?” asked General Ward in shock.
“That’s right, Mike. I want two of the best and most experienced crews in that tanker and two more of your most experienced crews in Ghost Rider. I’ve done my homework. Ghost Rider has a range of 2,200 miles. I‘m going into Hill to refuel, then I’m heading up to McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington. I believe they have a couple of old C-130s over there as well. Then I’ll fly into Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage—that’s well within range from McChord. McChord might have a couple of old operational helicopters as well, but I haven’t been up there for a while. Elmendorf in Alaska should have cleared runways—they usually clear them 24/7 since they have so much snow.”
“So will Misawa Air Force Base in Japan where they should have bulldozers still working and something flyable. It’s a 3,200 mile flight into Misawa from Elmendorf. From Misawa, I plan to refuel and fly into our bases at either Osan or Kunshan in South Korea. The distance is only 900 miles from Misawa. The HC-130 tanker has a 4,500 mile range. If you take out 1,000 miles of fuel for Ghost Rider, that will give her 3,500 miles, and if I put a soft 1,000 gallon fuel-bladder into Ghost Rider, and there are several bladders at Elmendorf, both aircraft should make it into Japan. I believe that there is a still-operational AC-130 gunship at either Kunshan or Osan. Buck, by the way, I want to take Mr. Lee Wang with me on my mission. He needs to be at Hill AFB in 36 hours. Somebody will have to get him there by then.”
“Why the rush to Asia, Pete?” asked the president.
“Carlos believes that if we take out their satellite communication station on the other side, we could take over complete control of all their operational satellite hardware. If we capture or kill their mercenary squads over here and relieve them of their cell phones, we could be in control of global communications again, plus I will get the chance to blow their headquarters off the face of the earth. I want to take one of the captured cell phones with me, since I heard from Carlos on my way in, that they have captured several American satellite phones. That could give me direct satellite contact with you, Mr. President. Carlos is going to get as many of the systems working as he can. I will take one with me on my flight, since he thinks that by using the aircraft’s transponder for short intervals and using the aircraft as a massive antenna for the satellite phone, he can satellite-guide me across the Bering Strait into Japan, and then on to my target. I can also warn you, Mr. President, about any attack on our aircraft by Chinese fighters when I get there. If that happens, you can act accordingly with a missile strike.”
“How many cell phones did they capture?” asked Buck.
“They have three fully-operational and three broken ones. Carlos said that he and Lee Wang can repair the three broken ones. There were ten in total and they have four for spare parts,” the general replied. “Why?”
“Any extra spare parts could be built into the dead ones you Air Force guys use,” suggested Buck. “I know Carlos has a satellite phone. I bet he hasn’t thought of replacing the electronic parts in his phone. I’ll tell him when I get down there later today.”
“Good point, Buck,” smiled the general. “My plan is still in the making, but if I survive over Nanjing, Mr. President, I want to fly into Beijing and find out the truth—whether or not the Chinese government has anything to do with this catastrophe. Then I want to fly up to Moscow. I’m sure I can refuel in both cities, and if the Chinese Government is friendly, they can fuel us up and get me to the Russian border. Or I can go via India since there must be tons of unused jet fuel at all the world’s commercial airports. If I take my own tanker, I can refuel anywhere. If I come up against opposition forces, I can relay the information back to you.”
“That’s one hell of a trip in old C-130s,” stated General Ward, no so optimistic. “You are going to need a lot of luck to find little Japan in the middle of nowhere, on low fuel reserves and without modern navigation. How long are you expecting to fly around the world, Pete?”
“Only ten days, Mike,” laughed General Allen. “I want to get from Moscow, through to our base in Turkey. My biggest challenge at the moment is getting our troops back to the States—a million men and women. Lady Luck is going to have to show her face. I believe that we must try to thwart any attack on our mainland by the opposition as soon as we can—by either Zedong Electronics or the Chinese or Russian governments. I don’t know how they plan to do it, but they will need fully working naval ships and aircraft carriers to get to us, and when they do, we must try and capture what we can, fill them up with gas, and send them over to the Middle East to bring back our troops.”
“South Korea should be okay, and our troops should survive in Europe, but with no back-up vehicles or protection in the Middle East and Africa, those guys have only a few weeks or months at most. I can’t do much here against the weather at the moment. You guys can start a food distribution system with a civilian air force and workforce, but over there I must find massive ships to
bring back our men and women. First, I want to know who we are dealing with, and I believe that any attack on the United States will be caught by Carlos and Navistar P in time to prepare. I’m hoping I can get back in time to see the action—I will be returning via our base on the Azores, just within range of Andrews.”
*****
The boardroom on the 30th floor was busy. On Z-Day 4, the full membership of 16 men was in their seats. Once again, it was time for reports. The room had only one other man waiting to speak—the chief technical officer from the satellite communications department, one floor below. The chairman rose and gestured for silence.
“Before I get to my latest report, Comrades, I would like our specialist from downstairs, as well as Comrade Wang to give their reports on our first major attack on foreign soil.” He pointed to the technical officer.
“Comrades,” the gentleman started. “Comrade Wang and I have been in contact with our termination squads in America. It took a couple of hours, as it seems the battle was long and hard. We lost communications with them for over three hours. From the communications side, we are now up and running again and I will let you know of any news. Comrade Wang has the rest of the report.” He bowed and left the room.
“Comrade Chairman and fellow Comrades, I have excellent news from America,” Comrade Mo Wang smiled to the room, even though his gut was signaling to him that something wasn’t quite right. “We had a two-hour battle with Americans at the small airport in North Carolina. It was an unimportant and small air base and it seems that there was a platoon of 30 American soldiers guarding the propeller-driven aircraft. This caused our Comrades a bit of a problem and we unfortunately lost half of our brave men to the Americans. On the positive side, our men killed everybody there including all the American soldiers, as well as 20 pilots, several civilian and their families—a remarkable feat. Our squad commanders were brave and fought well, but many lost their lives in the attack.”
“If our commanders are dead, Comrade Wang, who are we communicating with?” asked the chairman.
“A young man I know well,” replied the stressed Wang. “A man I personally recruited, and even though I haven’t spoken to him for 30 years, I recognized his voice. I have given him command of the remaining troops and told him to stay at the base until I get authorization from you to send more troops to take over command from him. He stated that they are still seeing several small civilian aircraft around Raleigh and believe that the city’s international airport could be another place that has a group of aircraft. I have ordered him to go and take a look and told him that we would send in more squads to deal with any enemy problems before they are needed in New York and Washington.
“And this man is dependable?” asked the chairman. “I want him to remain close by that Raleigh airport until we get more squads in. It sounds like this area is full of civilian aircraft. I believe it may be due to the massive storm over the northern states. I will assume that these aircraft flew south and are congregating at this airport south of the storm. It is in our favor, as we could potentially destroy all of the remaining aircraft in one battle and then move our squads north to meet us in New York. Comrade Wang, send the 50 termination squads from the southern American border area to this Raleigh airport, and check with our technical staff downstairs to see if there has been any transponder movement around this city. They must destroy everything they see in this area! Once this problem is dealt with, then order our squads to move north.”
“We only have two and a half weeks before our arrival and we need all three major airports ready for our airborne troops, and with American aviation fuel flowing, to get our 30 747-400ERs and five Airbus 380s back to China. Thank you and well done Comrade Wang. I knew America wouldn’t be easy to invade and I’m sure we are going to deal with more problems before we can call North America our own. Wang, I want the rest of our East Coast termination squads in New York to get to the JFK airport on time. They will inspect and start up the six bulldozers we have hidden in the rented warehouse. The squads must be there 24 hours ahead of our aircraft, as planned. They must first clear the main runway at JFK and meet our incoming men and troops at the airport. And remind them, comrade, they have a ton of salt and the six bulldozers to do the job.”
Comrade Mo Wang sat down, his mind spinning. He had recognized that voice on the satellite radio, but something was telling him that it sounded different. Maybe his memory was vague but he had a notion that the voice didn’t belong to the man who had identified himself as Bo Lee Tang.
“We will now hear the latest report on troop readiness, food ships, and aircraft. Comrade Rhu, please,” ordered the chairman as the door closed behind Mo Wang.
“Thank you Comrade Chairman,” started Rhu. “All plans are ready for our invasion, Comrades. You are all to be ready to depart here in three days. We sail out of Shanghai harbor with five of our container cargo ships. Each of the five of our most modern container ships owned by our shipping company, China Shipping Lines, holds 9,600 containers of food. Each container has been packed with 1,800 meal packs and each meal pack holds enough basic food to feed one person for a week. Our first shipment will be 60 million food packs, and is expected to supply the northern area of the East Coast of America for three months. We have new, red Chinese passports printed for 15 million women and children. They are to be handed to male children under ten years old only. Any male children over that age will be terminated. Each new Communist citizen will be given four weeks of food, which should get them through the middle of the winter, or at least to when our container ships return. Our Boeing 747-400 aircraft is due to leave Shanghai for America tomorrow. The 747 will be taking 100 electrical engineers into New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. They will be protected by our Special Forces flying with them—over 200 of them— as well as our squads already there. The engineer’s first job is to get the airport’s fuel tanks back online and get road transport from our termination squads into La Guardia and Newark Airports. There, they will get the two airports ready for our arrival.”
“After the airports are operational, they will move into New York harbor and work on getting the large harbor cranes around the New York Global Terminal operational so we can unload the five container ships when they arrive. A second Boeing 747 aircraft is full of the needed electrical parts to get the American machinery working again. This aircraft, a 747 transporter, does not have the extended range of the first aircraft and is currently in a secret location much closer to New York than the others and will join the first aircraft once it gets into U.S. airspace. The 747 transporter will operate in and out from that secret location. The transporter will also have four large generators on board to help with fuel delivery, and the aircraft has been modified to unload itself without ground assistance. Our termination squads have been given orders to get enough vehicles for the transportation of these 300 men around the three airports and harbor areas, which hopefully have little or no damage. Both 747s will be emptied and refueled as quickly as possible, and then return to their bases. Any questions so far?”
There were none.
“Twenty-four hours before our arrival, our entire fleet of 35 commercial aircraft will fly 20,000 Red Army troops into New York. These troops are to take control of the airports, the entire area between the three airports and then the harbor area to protect our entrance from any American forces still hiding in the New York area. Our flotilla of five naval and five container ships will reach and grandly enter New York Harbor. Gentlemen, great news, we will be sailing through the Panama Canal, which has been captured and is currently fully operational and guarded by our forces. Again, any questions?”
Again, there were none.
“One week after we have captured New York, our second armada of five container ships will leave Shanghai Harbor and take seven days to sail to Los Angeles. Before they arrive, the same engineers will be flown across America from New York to Los Angeles to set up the airports and harbor area there. Everything is working according to
plan, and we have ten days to take control of the East Coast before our invasion of the West Coast begins. We will reside on our new aircraft carrier, and she will be protected by our two attack cruisers and two destroyers. We will not be backed up by submarines, as had been planned. Unfortunately, our own government purchased the submarine satellite-communications electronic parts we produced for the rest of the world without our knowledge, and the entire Chinese fleet of submarines is now useless. They, unfortunately, were too stupid to listen to our warnings. We have tested our six warships, our fleet of ten container ships, the 30 747s, and the five Airbuses, and they are all fully operational.” He sat down.
After the meeting ended, Comrade Wang was in the communications room trying to raise his new squad leader in North Carolina. He had already spoken to the commander of the 50 termination squads currently in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and they were getting ready to move east. He could not get hold of the new man, and his sixth sense was eating at him as the engineer was finally successful and got a very bad connection.
“Is that you, Bo Lee Tang?” the engineer called over the radio telephone in front of him.
“I can’t hear you well, we have a bad connection. This is Bo Lee Tang,” said the faint voice on the other side. “We are burying our comrades.”
“Tell him to hurry up and get to the Raleigh airport,” Comrade Wang told the engineer in front of him. “Tell him he has Comrade Deng’s 50 squads coming in. They should be there in two days.” The message was relayed.
“We need many squads?” asked the man at the other end.
“Fifty squads are coming, and Comrade Deng will take command when he gets there, Bo Lee Tang,” stated Comrade Wang, taking over the microphone from the engineer. “Once Comrade Deng has destroyed the Raleigh airport, you are all to go north. I have told Deng that he will take you with him. You need to be at the airport and harbor area within one week to prepare for our arrival.”
