by Dale Brown
called himself a general had to be insane-wasn't the entire country
filled with so-called revolutionaries, peasants who would carry the
revolution's flag long enough to get a better-looking woman or a few
extra dollars before heading off into the jungle? It would be an insult
to throw in with this character. "Tell him I wish to have my officers
taken to the Hong Lung immediately, " Admiral Yin ordered at Tran. "I
request that the men be returned to their ships as soon as possible.
Tell him we fully support his revolution, but my first responsibility is
to the members of my flotilla. Humor him. Tell him anything as long as
we are freed and helped back to the ship." Tran nodded and began to
speak with di Silva, slowly at first, but soon he was rambling on and
on, his speech becoming less formal and more flowery-he really seemed to
be laying it on thicker and thicker, and di Silva was eating it up. A
few mo ments later, with di Silva wearing a firm but rather dejected
expression, the two men were bowing deeply and smiling to each other.
"General di Silva says he admires your sense of duty, " Tran reported
with a sense of relief. "He has agreed to help us back to the ship and
organize the surviving officers." Yin put on his best smile and
extended a hand, and di Silva accepted as if Yin had just offered him
the Crown Jewels. "Tell him he should be held up as a shining example
of the great leaders of Communism-and any other drivel you think he will
be impressed by, " Yin said impatiently. "Then ask him to bring the
senior officers in here immediately so that I can organize-" There was a
sudden flurry of voices coming from the hallway, and a wave of people
pushed their way into Yin's room. Several of them had small automatic
weapons and wore earpieces-Secret Service agents, most likely, or
Presidential Guards, Yin thought. Well, the Chinese Admiral thought, he
was right all along; his room was bugged, and as soon as the Philippine
intelligence agents realized that he was not going to cooperate and try
to enlist the aid of the Philippine General in trying to escape or
overthrow the country, he was going to be captured like any other enemy
of the state and hauled away to prison. ... The wall of onlookers and
guards parted suddenly, revealing a tall, young, handsome man with fair
features, a thin dark mustache, and carefully coiffured dark hair.
Doctors and nurses were staring at him as if they were looking at a god
from Heaven, while the security guards were now gently pushing them
away. General di Silva spoke at length to the man, who seemed to be
very good friends with him. The man then stepped up to Yin's bed, his
hands crossed before him, smiled pleasantly at Commander Tran, then said
in rather good Chinese, "Welcome, Admiral." Yin was clearly impressed.
"Thank you, sir. Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?"
"I am First Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines, Daniel
Francisco Teguina. Admiral Yin Po L'un, I welcome you to Palawan." The
First Vice President! Yin exclaimed to himself. Well, things were
getting very interesting-if he was who he claimed. "So. Am I to be
your prisoner, Comrade Vice President?"
"No, " Teguina replied, struggling through Yin's sentence and struggling
to compose a reply. "You are my guest and are to be welcomed."
"As a conquering hero?" Teguina made a sideways glance at the receding
wall of people around the bed-none were within hearing range, and
probably did not understand Chinese in any case-then at di Silva, and
then back at Yin. "If you have the strength, Admiral, we will speak of
it, " Teguina replied. "I will speak of nothing until I am reunited with
my officers and receive report from them on the status of the men under
my command, " Yin said. His words were obviously too much for Teguina,
who shook his head, and Yin motioned for Tran to translate. "You will
have what you wish, Admiral Yin, " Teguina said. He smiled evenly.
"Then, we will speak of the future of the Philippines-and of our
future." JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF CONFERENCE CENTER, THE PENTAGON
WEDNESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 1994, 0730 HOURS LOCAL eral Wilbur Curtis and
the other Joint Chiefs of Staff ~ wenere seated around the triangular
table in their Pentagon conference room, the Tank, listening to Navy
Captain Rebecca Rodgers give her morning briefing. Since the nuclear
device had been detonated, things had still not cleared up. If
anything, save for the fact that no other devices had gone off, the
situation was worse. "The Chinese government continues to deny any
knowledge or claim any responsibility for the nuclear blast, " Rodgers 1
told the assembly. "The official announcement from Beijing stated that
People's Liberation Army Navy Forces came under sustained and unprovoked
attack by Philippine naval and air forces, and that an F-4E attacked
their flagship in the vicinity of ground zero before the blast. They
claim that the attack was a retaliation by President Mikaso for the
patrol action against the so-called illegal oil-drilling platform in the
Spratly Island neutral zone. The Premier denies that Chinese warships
carry nuclear devices, but they do point to the presence of nuclear
weapons at several former American bases in the Philippines..."
"That's bull, " General Falmouth of the Air Force retorted. "We took
all special weapons out of the Philippines years ago. "I know, Bill, I
know, " Curtis said. "We've got inspection records from the United
Nations and from the Soviet START Treaty inspection teams to verify
it-the President will authorize disclosure of those inspection reports
soon. Let Captain Rodgers finish." Captain Rodgers continued. "ASEAN,
the Association of South East Asian Nations-the Philippines, Brunei,
Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and most recently Vietnam, who
are, in effect, a counter-Chinese economic and military coalition-have
not made a comment on the disaster. But they are meeting tomorrow in
Singapore in emergency session to discuss the issue." While the Joint
Chiefs weren't surprised at China's denial of launching the warhead,
they were surprised how readily others in power, namely the President
and his advisers, were willing-for the time being-to accept it. Whatever
was going on, and whoever was behind it, one thing Curtis knew without a
doubt was that the situation was going to escalate. In fact, it seemed
to have already . Captain Rodgers, standing at the end of the triangle
behind the podium, kept going. She informed the Joint Chiefs that in
accordance with the 1991 START Treaty, the Soviet Union had activated
six mobile ICBM battalions in Central Asia, a response to the United
States' DEFCON Three status. Along the Chinese and Mongolia borders,
the Soviet Union had activated four missile battalions, equaling forty
missiles, and were generating nuclear-capable forces at four bomber
bases in south-central Russia. Although eleven hundred other known
main, reserve, dispersal, rail-mobile ICBM, and crosscountry road-mobile
ICBM sites were under manual or satellite surveillance, it didn't
appear
that the USSR was gearing up for a major counteroffensive-at least with
long-range nuclear forces. Rodgers switched to an enlarged chart of the
mainland of China. "The source of continuing tensions in the past
forty-eight hours continues to be the buildup of Chinese tactical forces
in deployments along the Mongolian and Soviet border, " Rodgers said.
"This is being done, according to the Chinese, as a response to the
Soviet buildup." General Curtis and the others listened as Captain
Rodgers rattled off the Chinese deployment numbers: nineteen total
active divisions, four reserve divisions, four hundred thousand troops
along a two-thousand-mile front in the north and northcentral provinces.
The units included twenty-one infantry divisions, seven mechanized
divisions, one heavy missile division, four air defense divisions .
There was an uneasy rustle among the Joint Chiefs. Captain Rodgers was
talking about a force that was almost as large as America's and the
Soviet Union's combined. General Curtis was shaking his head.
Thirty-three divisions-over one-half of China's ground forces and
one-third of their total military, and what had the President of the
United States given him? Two aircraft carrier groups and the STRATFOR.
Worse, the President later cut Curtis and the Joint Chiefs out of the
loop by insisting that Admiral Stoval, the Commander in Chief of Pacific
Command, who was responsible for the carrier task force moving to the
South China Sea, report to Thomas Preston, the Defense Secretary,
through the National Security Council. That left Curtis not only
seething, but in a rather embarrassing position with the other Joint
Chiefs, who knew what the President had done. Rodgers switched her
electronic screen to a zoomed-in view of the South China Sea region.
Specifically, the Spratly Island chain. "The Chinese are moving half
their fleet into the area, Curtis observed with some alarm. The other
Joint Chiefs murmured in agreement. Captain, I want to know what ships
they're moving in there and why. I also want a letter from State
spelling out precisely what the Philippine government has authorized the
Chinese Army Navy to do. This makes me pretty damned uneasy. "Well, it
should, " Chief of Naval Operations Randolph Cunningham grumbled. "We
don't have diddly in the area and the damn Chinese know it. They set
off a nuke, then rush in and claim it's a major threat to their
sovereignty. They're taking over the South China Sea faster than you
can blink-and we're just sitting here. This is bullshit." It certainly
was, but what could Curtis do? He answered his own question thirty
minutes later, after the briefing, when he got back to his office. His
aide, Colonel Wyatt, entered and said, "Sir, you have a scrambled phone
call from CINCSAC-General Tyler. He says it's a conference call."
"Conference call? With who?"
"General Brad Elliott and a Doctor Jon Masters . Elliott? A smile came
across Curtis' face. He took a sip of the coffee Wyatt had just brought
in. He hadn't seen Elliott in months, even though he was one of his
favorites. Elliott had had some up and down times-first as Deputy
Commander of SAC, then as Director of HAWC, then as head of the
government s Border Security, only to be fired and bounced back to HAWC,
again. And Masters?. . . Of Sky Masters, Inc.? The NIRTSats? Curtis
took the phone call. After pleasantries were exchanged all around,
Elliott and Tyler got right to the point: "General Curtis, we need
clearance on something we think we're going to need down in the
Philippines." Curtis' ears picked up. "Go on. "We want to deploy the
NIRTSat recon system that Doctor Masters has built, with a few of my
Megafortress escort bombers that are out at the Strategic Warfare
Center. We also want some on a few of the RC- 1355 that'll be deployed
for STRATFOR. We need your blessing, though." Curtis thought about the
briefing he'd just come out of. Two carriers in the face of a possible
Chinese land-grab. The President had authorized STRATFOR into position
on Guam. They'd have to be ready. "Doctor Masters, " Curtis said, "you
can really put that reconnaissance system on tactical aircraft?"
"You bet I can, General, " Masters said over the pop of the scrambled
line. "We can make the Megafortress the most high-tech flying machine
this side of Star Trek."
"Plus I've got a B-2 Black Knight bomber equipped the same way, except
with even more surprises, " Elliott said. "They've all been tearing up
the Air Battle Force in exercises out at Jarrel's SWC, and if we have to
go out against the Chinese in the Philippines, I think you'll want them
out there." Curtis smiled. "Do it, you old warhorse. You just made my
day." THE PRESIDENT S RESIDENCE, MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES THURSDAY, 29
SEPTEMBER 1994, 2212 HOURS LOCAL (28 SEPTEMBER, 0912 WASHINGTON TIME)
Daniel Teguina was ushered into President Mikaso's residence by a
Philippine Presidential Guard, then left alone in front of the door to
Mikaso's office. Teguina straightened his tie and his shoulders,
cleared his throat quietly, then knocked on the door. After receiving a
curt "Come, " he entered. Teguina paced before the small desk in the
center of the room and stood impatiently as Mikaso continued to work on
something. Everything in this room was small, understated, almost
peasantlike-Mikaso kept this office spartan, with only a few native wall
hangings, simple wood furnishings, and bookcases crammed with every type
of book, written in several languages. It was here that Mikaso did his
best work, as productive as a monk in solitude. Look at him, Teguina
thought. An old man trying to act as if he is in control. Teguina
wanted to laugh out loud at the absurdity of the scene. Since the
nuclear explosion in the Palawan Strait there had been a panic
throughout the islands. Here in Manila rioting had broken out, troops
were in the streets trying to restore order, and the presidential palace
had been besieged by protests from thousands of citizens and rebel
troops-troops, he smiled inwardly, who were loyal to him. No, things
were definitely not in control, no matter what this old man wanted to
believe, and if Daniel Teguina had anything to do with it, they would
continue to spin into chaos. "What is your report, Daniel?" Mikaso
finally said. Teguina squinted at Mikaso, feeling anger flush into his
temples. Mikaso was dressed in a brown suit, with a miniature
Philippine Badge of Honor pinned to his lapel. Teguina knew that the
sight of that badge on television made many Filipinos proud-it was the
highest honor the military could pay to a civilian. Teguina had never
even been considered for such an award. "I have nothing to report, " he
said lamely. "You have spent two days in Palawan, with almost no
communication with my staff the entire time, " Mikaso said. "Yet I see
editorials and articles in the newspaper, condemning the United States
and the military for releasing the nuclear weapon and praising the
Republic of China's navy for its relief efforts. I have been told
/> nothing officially-communications are still disrupted in and out of
Palawan. Do you have a report for me?"
"I was not aware that I was required to "I have learned that you have
ordered New Armed Forces personnel in Puerto Princesa to surrender to
the provincial police, and the airfields there and at Buenavista to be
shut down, " Mikaso interrupted. "I hear reports that say that Chinese
patrol boats were seen in ports throughout Palawan, including Puerto
Princesa, Buenavista, Teneguiban, and Araceli, and that Chinese vessels
patrol the Cuyo West Pass and even the Mindoro Strait. I hear the
screams in the streets outside, saying that you accuse me of being a
traitor to our country. Are these reports true?"
"The Philippine Navy is severely crippled, sir, " Teguina replied. "The
Chinese patrol boats were graciously loaned to provincial police
officers in an effort to restore order to the province-"
"Is the Army assisting the provincial police in restoring order?"
"No, Mr. President, " Teguina sniffed. "According to my research and
the reports I received, it was an American B43 bomb that exploded off
the coast of Palawan; the experts I consulted said that the weapon was
old and thankfully did not produce a full yield." Teguina knew enough
about nuclear bombs to know that it takes a smaller nuclear explosion to
trigger the main explosion; this obscure factoid made the lie even
easier. "The Chinese vessels were attacked without provocation by a
Philippine Air Force F-4 fighter-bomber carrying this American nuclear
weapon. The jet fighter crew, who was working for the American Central
Intelligence Agency, de stroyed a Chinese ship, along with several
Philippine ships, during the attack. "Because I am not sure as yet
exactly who is responsible for the unprovoked attack on those Chinese
vessels, 1 thought it best to turn all local police and military
functions over to the provincial police and to curtail all military
operations until an investigation is completed."
"General di Silva is in command of the Palawan defense forces?" Mikaso
asked. He registered surprise for a moment, then relaxed and studied
