by Dale Brown
to the crews."
"I was hoping to do it sooner rather than later, Mr. Presi-
dent," Finegold said. "My staff tells me the bombers are
based out of Guam-if that's correct, perhaps we could see
them on our way out to talk with representatives of the Japa-
nese, Taiwanese, and Chinese governments."
The President subdued an exasperated sigh. Finegold knew
too much detailed information, details she could only get
through direct communication with very high-ranking sources.
He had hoped that Hale would be wrong about George Balboa
squawking to Finegold, but it seemed more and more likely
now.
"Very well, Senator. I'll see to it they're made available to
you or your staffers," the President said. "But I caution you
that the President is still the nation's diplomat. Although I
certainly grant that members of Congress can visit and meet
with any foreign leaders they choose, it is the-President who
makes foreign policy, negotiates treaties, and deals with mat-
ters of state. You carry much influence around the world, Sen-
ator Finegold, and your visit might be confused by foreign
leaders as an official government communication."
"We will make our intentions and the purpose of our visit
crystal clear, Mr. President," Finegold said testily, adding,
I ,but I thank you for the civics lesson." The temperature of
the Oval Office turned decidedly cooler just then. "May I ask
what response you intend to initiate in the wake of these so-
called Chinese attacks, made to look like Taiwanese attacks?
Will you retaliate against China?"
"I intend to rescue as many survivors as I can from the
disaster in the Formosa Strait," the President said, "and then
I intend to bring our ships and soldiers safely home. After that,
I haven't decided. But I do not intend to break diplomatic
FATAL TER RAI N 279
relations with China or mount any sort of retaliation."
"That's good to hear, Mr. President," Finegold said. "And
I hope you'd be so kind as to consult with Congress before
initiating any economic or military sanctions against China."
"Of course, if the opportunity presents itself," the President
replied. "Thank you for calling, Senator. Good night." He
hung up the phone before she could ask another question.
"The nerve of that witch!" he said half aloud. "Instructing
me on my duties and responsibilities to Congress!"
"You've got to be careful, Kevin," Jerrod Hale said.
"Don't go to the mat with her over the phone-you don't
know who's listening. If you want to chew her out or tell her
where to stuff her suggestions, get her out here to the White
House and then let her have it. Make her get dressed and haul
her tight narrow Nob Hill butt outside. You can then bring
several members of the House leadership over so you have a
nice big audience to watch her squirm."
"Thanks, Jer. I know all this-I just need reminding, when
the pressure's on," the President said. "All right. I want a
shot-up, stripped-down Megafortress on Guam to show the
senator-and I want all the rest of them off the island and into
hiding or chopped up into confetti as soon as possible. Get on
it."
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, BEIJING,
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
FRIDAY, 20 JUNE 1997, 0917 HOURS LOCAL
(THURSDAY, 19 JUNE 1997, 1817 HOURS ET)
"Under ordinary circumstances, Admiral Sun Ji Guoming, I
would be most inclined to offer you congratulations for a job
well done," Chinese president Jiang Zemin said coldly. Stand-
ing beside him was chief of staff of the People's Liberation
Army, General Chin Po Zihong. "But I cannot do so. Admiral,
you told me that you could bring down the entire pro-Western
alliance, enabling us to merely walk onto the Nationalist-held
islands without resistance. I have not seen this happen yet.
What I have seen is dozens of deaths of our comrades near
Hong Kong and our new carrier severely damaged by our own
280 DALE BROWN
hands, nearly a hundred deaths from the ferry attack near Que-
moy, nearly a dozen of our fighters shot down by the Nation-
alists without one loss of their own-and, worst of all, our
ambassador in Washington apologizing to the President of the
United States and to the world on the floor of the United
Nations for our actions!"
"You must have patience, Comrade President," Admiral
Sun replied. "Allow me to summarize our recent achieve-
ments." Jiang nodded, and Sun went on: "The United States
has removed two of its four warships from the Formosa Strait,
and its submarines have been pulled back even farther from
our ships and bases. The stealth bombers that the Americans
sent to spy on us and assist the rebels to attack us have been
discredited, exposed as aggressors, and soon will be com-
pletely removed from the region. The President of the United
States has been exposed and labeled an aggressor, almost on
a par with Saddarn Hussein or Moharnmar Quaddafi. He is
being investigated for ordering the stealth bombers to attack
Iran, and now he will be investigated for his secret undeclared
warlike actions against us in the Formosa Strait, using the for-
merly secret modified B-52 bombers. His own people fear and
distrust him-soon, his allies all over the world will fear and
distrust him as well.
"More importantly, now the United States and the Nation-
alists have been isolated by the world community-the world
sees them both as warmongers, willing to do anything to fur-
ther their own aims," Sun went on. "President Martindale will
find considerable difficulty in getting support from his con-
gress for his plans to support the Nationalists' drive for inde-
pendence. If we maintain the pressure and continue to open
up in front of the world media, the momentum will swing to
our side. Then Martindale may be forced to support our idea
for reunification with Taiwan by 2005. With Taiwan once
again isolated, even from the United States, it will be ready
for annexation at any time."
"That all sounds fine, Admiral," General Chin said. "But
we must still deal with the military realities here. The United
States is withdrawing two frigates, but with two frigates and
four submarines still in the area, they are still a very strong
military force in the Strait-and we lost a good percentage of
our fighters and bombers in that engagement."
It is as I have said, General," Admiral Sun said. "Our
FATAL TER RAI N 281
J-series fighters must not engage Nationalist F-16 fighters un-
less they have full radar coverage and enjoy at least a six-to-
one numerical advantage. In that fight, we had a three-to-one
advantage and fared poorly. We also did not count on the
American stealth bombers launching air-to-air missiles. The
H-6 bombers would have had better success if they had only
flown against the frigates' surface-to-air missiles or if th
e Na-
tionalists had been forced to divide their fighters to chase after
our bombers."
"Nonetheless, our losses were severe and swift," General
Chin said. "I find it impossible to imagine that this plan of
yours can still be accomplished when we lose forces to the
Americans like this."
"In fact, this proves the truth of my plan, General," Sun
argued. "Again we have shown that the Americans are diffi-
cult to defeat in a direct naval engagement, whether by air or
sea. But the unorthodox attack on the Americans proved suc-
cessful-we claimed two American Navy frigates, and we
leave the Nationalists and the Americans confused and reluc-
tant fighters in the Strait. The tide is beginning to turn for us,
Comrade General."
-Yo@ claimed that you could draw the American carriers
into the Strait, where they would be vulnerable-yet the clos-
est American carrier, the Independence, is apparently ready to
depart Japan, possibly to rendezvous with two other carriers
somewhere near Formosa, possibly in the Strait itself," Chin
observed. "They can still strike our coastal bases from their
carriers, and still enjoy air protection from the rebel air forces
on Taiwan."
"The Independence will never depart Japan, comrade," Ad-
miral Sun said grimly. "Its death is already being planned-
and with it, the death of the pro-Western Asian alliance as
well."
"I think it is about time you informed us of what you intend
to do, Admiral Sun," Chin said angrily. "It is obvious that
the level of aggression has greatly escalated. If you.intend on
throwing China into general war with the West, be so kind as
to let me know @o I can alert our regular military forces and
defend the motherland."
"It will not be necessary to mobilize the army, Comrade
General," Sun said with a smile. "The biggest naval disaster
since the Great War will occur, by our hands-and the world
282 DALE BROWN
will be rushing to China's aid, to protect us against the great
satan, the United States of America."
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, GUAM
THURSDAY, 19 JUNE 1997, 1444 HOURS LOCAL
(WEDNESDAY, 18 JUNE, 2344 HOURS ET)
"Do you realize what's happening?" Admiral George Balboa
exploded. "Do you have any idea what you've done?" The
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was seated at the con-
ference table in the Joint Chiefs Conference Center at the Pen-
tagon, but his voice was as sharp and as clear as if he were
right there in the base command post's battle staff room on
Guam. "Have you seen the news? That plane of yours is being
shown on TV all over the damned world, along with pictures
of your attack on that passenger ferry."
"We've seen it, Admiral," Patrick McLanahan said. He,
Brad Elliott, and the rest of the crew of the EB-52 Megafor-
tress involved in the recent skirmish in the Fon-nosa Strait near
Quemoy Island were participating in the secure videoconfer-
ence between the Pentagon and Andersen Air Force Base on
Guam. The base command post's battle staff room had been
sealed and curtained off, with guards posted outside. To Pat-
rick McLanahan, it was a little like closing the barn door after
all the horses had run away. The world now knew of the EB-52
Megafortress-why all the security now? "The pictures of us
were obviously taken by the MiG-25 Foxbats that intercepted
us. , ,
"What possible explanation can you offer the President for
what you've done?" Balboa asked.
"The Chinese set us up," McLanahan said confidently.
"We've compared notes with the crew aboard the James Dan-
iel, and we agree-that ferry was altered to make it look like
a warship."
"How in hell could they do that?"
"By towing that barge behind them," McLanahan replied,
"they made themselves look another one hundred and fifty
feet longer. "
"They were towing a garbage barge, for Christ's sake!"
FATAL T E R RAI N 283
Balboa retorted. "Thousands of those barges are being towed
around the Strait every week, and no.one's mistaken them for
warships before!"
"A garbage barge with steel radar-reflective walls, being
towed on a short rope very close to the ferry-and the barge
was fitted with an IFF interrogator," McLanahan reminded
him. "It was sending out identification interrogation signals
just like a warship. Why would a civilian vessel have. a Square
Head IFF on board?"
"That's such a lame excuse, McLanahan, that I'm embar-
rassed for you for making it," Balboa said. "An aviator with
your reputation making wild accusations like that to cover up
your own mistakes-it's pretty sad. You obviously picked up
a signal from someone else, or you mistook a standard marine
nav radar for an IFF.
"But even if it was an IFF, as you claim, why in hell did
you attack that ferry?" Balboa asked. "Even if that ferry really
was a Chinese cruiser-and you geniuses should know China
doesn't own any cruisers-you didn't have permission for any
weapon releases, let alone those Striker rocket bombs. Why
did you open fire?"
"As we explained in our report, Admiral, the Navy frigates
were under attack by rocket-powered torpedoes," McLanahan
said. "We have no defenses against torpedoes-our decoys or
jammers wouldn't have done any good. All our sensors indi-
cated that a Chinese warship had launched numerous Stallion
torpedoes at the frigates. The Duncan was a sitting duck for
another salvo. We had no choice but to return fire."
"Even though you didn't have permission, even though you
were not given a command."
"I had permission to launch," Jeff Denton interjected.
"What was that?" Balboa asked. McLanahan turned away
gorn the videoconference camera and glared at Denton to re-
main quiet. -%at did you say, Captain Denton?"
"Nothing."
"Repeat what you said, Captain, or I'll have you arrested
and thrown in the brig right now."
Denton looked at Elliott, then at McLanahan, who wore ex-
pressionless faces now-the bell could not be unrung. "Sir,
the frigates were under attack. "
"Who ordered you to launch, Captain?"
284 DALE BROWN
Denton paused, then lowered his eyes. "General Elliott,"
he said in a low voice.
"Repeat that last?"
"General Elliott," Denton blurted out. "Sir, we were under
attack by what we thought was a Chinese cruiser, by four
formations of Chinese fighters, and then by Foxbat fighters. I
was in the OSO's seat-1 controlled the Strikers."
"But it was Elliott who ordered you to launch, correct?"
"The Duncan was dead in the water, and the other frigate
was coming about to help it," Denton said excitedly. "Our
guys were going to get plastered. I knew we had to do some
thing. So when General Elliott ordered me to attack the cruiser,
I did. The computer
said it was a cruiser, Admiral. The com-
puter was running good."
"That's enough, Captain," Balboa said. "That's enough-
to file charges in federal court against General Elliott for crim-
inal misconduct. Maybe even murder in the second degree."
"What?" McLanahan shouted. "You've got to be joking,
Admiral! "
"You think that's funny, Mr. McLanahan? This is even bet-
ter-I'm going to file charges against you for the same thing.
You were the mission commander, and even though you had
Denton in the seat, you were responsible for his actions. And
because Cheshire, Atkins, Bruno, and Denton are all active-
dtity officers, I'm preferring charges against them under the
Uniform Code of Military Justice for disobeying a direct order,
for conduct unbecoming an officer, and for dereliction of
duty."
"George, I was expecting you'd try to get me thrown into
jail," Brad Elliott said with amazing calm, "but to threaten
any of these other outstanding individuals with a crime is be-
yond ridiculous-it's psychotic. If you carry through with this
stupid idea, you're the worst example of a leader that has ever
worn a uniform."
"I believe that honor has already fallen to you, Elliott,"
Balboa said. "And I'm not through yet. Because of your il-
legal, criminal actions, the entire Sky Masters, Inc.'s, Mega-
fortress project has been compromised, and it now falls upon
the government to clean up the mess. As employees, officers,
directors, and shareholders of the company, yours and Mr.
McLanahan's actions have implicated Sky Masters, Inc., in
your criminal activities as well. You can kiss any idea of a
FATAL TERRAIN 285
military service contract good-bye, I'll see to that. How would
it look to reward a company that started a nuclear exchange
and killed hundreds of 'civilians with a multimillion-dollar de-
fense contract?"
"George, the only persons you're going to harm are those
who believe in things like performance, value, integrity, and
honesty," Elliott said. "Obviously, you don't believe in any-
thing like that. Our hardware and our people did a good job.
You shouldn't punish a good company because you want to
