The Third World War: A Terrifying Novel of Global Conflict

62

In one earpiece, Campbell listened to commentary from the Pentagon; in the other, he was on the intercom to the pilot. As they came in over the northern suburbs of Beijing, the SU-27 escorts peeled away. The pilot of the lead aircraft gave a thumbs-up.

'Good luck, Osprey,' he said in English, breaking radio silence. 'Hope to see you on the way out.'

'Identification of armoured vehicles in the diplomatic quarter,' came the voice from the Pentagon. 'Units outside the British and Japanese embassies are loyal to the Second Artillery Regiment. Unit unknown. Units at the US embassy belong to the Zhongnanhai presidential security detail.'

The Osprey, flying at only 300 feet, slowed as it approached the centre of Beijing. Strangely, the neon signs flashing on the top of the buildings were symbols of American capitalism. Campbell took in Kenwood, Ford and Motorola, before becoming distracted by a glow in a side street like a bonfire suspended above the ground. He punched in the GPS coordinates so he could get a closer look from the satellite imagery. As the image settled, he checked it against what he saw outside and realized that two bodies had been strung from lampposts and set on fire.

Further along, columns of military vehicles moved towards Tiananmen Square.

'What's that in Tiananmen Square?' he asked the Pentagon.

'Still checking, sir. We believe they are tanks and APCs loyal to the Second Artillery Unit.'

'Shit!' said Campbell to himself. 'Take her up,' he instructed the pilot.

He pulled on his night-vision helmet. The landscape of central Beijing was transformed into a deep transparent green.

Two lines of military vehicles faced each other in Tiananmen Square itself. A single tank blockaded the entrances to Zhongnanhai. Four more were at the steps of the Great Hall of the People.

'Head for the embassy, and switch to horizontal rotors,' Campbell instructed the pilot.

The pilot brought up the Osprey's nose and in ten seconds transformed it into a twin-engined helicopter. 'Keep her steady,' said Campbell. With the aircraft hovering, he pulled open the door to get a better sense of what was going on.

The US embassy itself appeared untouched. But it was surrounded by a civilian crowd. They were bundled up against the night cold, warming themselves at flaming braziers and encircling the compound. Converging on the embassy from two directions were six — possibly eight — armoured personnel carriers. The sky itself was clear of aircraft, indicating that the power struggle was confined to a few units within the army. The air force would swing once a victor emerged.

'Stay back,' Campbell instructed the pilot. 'And take her up.'

'Lazaro, Kozerski here.' A voice in his other earpiece.

'Go ahead,' said Campbell. The Osprey kept climbing. So far, the crowd hadn't noticed it and Campbell wanted to keep it that way. When he went in, it would be sharp and fast.

'Just the Secretary of State,' he said. 'We're watching the pictures here.'

'It could go any way.'

'Correct. And the President wants the Secretary of State out of the embassy before the marines have to begin defending it.'

'You talking to anyone?'

'Negative. Kozlov arranged your air cover. But I don't reckon anyone has control of what's down on the ground there.'

'Wheeled armoured vehicles,' said Campbell, 'approaching the embassy from two sides. Six in all, maybe eight. You got anything on that?'

'Type 90s. Nine troops in each, plus crew,' said the voice from the Pentagon. 'You could be looking at fifty to a hundred men against you.'

The armoured personnel carriers, sealed down, no commander in sight, stopped at the edge of the crowd.

'As soon as you are overhead,' said Kozerski, 'the Secretary of State will come out of the embassy building into the garden at the back of the building. She will be moving in the middle of a six-man marine unit. We'll leave it up to you how you get her into the Osprey. Once on board, head north and you'll pick up your SU-27 escort.'

The Osprey pilot gave a thumbs-up. Campbell clipped himself on to the winch.

The aircraft's nose dipped, but the pilot maintained altitude, bringing the Osprey directly over the embassy. From the corner of the compound, there was a flash from one of the armoured vehicles.

'7.62mm machine gun,' said the Pentagon. 'If they get serious, they'll use the 25mm cannon.'

The crowd scattered. The armoured vehicles pushed through, crushing some as they went, and drew up outside the gate.

The pilot brought the aircraft down rapidly. The navigator primed the Osprey's weapons. Cannon from the armoured car smashed into the compound wall. A guardhouse caught fire. A flare shot into the sky, lighting up the compound and the building.

The backs of the armoured vehicles opened. Commandos jumped out and fired scaling ropes at the walls.

'They're going in.' It wasn't Kozerski's voice, nor did it come from the Pentagon. Must have been another agency.

'Permission to defend the embassy?' The voice of the navigator, who could have cut down the Chinese troops.

'Denied.' Pierce's voice now, cutting across the line.

The Osprey was at fifty feet. The pilot slowed the descent. A searchlight beam swept across the compound, picked out Mary Newman, running across the garden, her marine escort surrounding her. It stayed on her. From somewhere from outside the wall came a sharp crack, and a marine fell. Campbell heard the shouting of orders and then the rhythmic thumping of a machine gun.

A marine sniper on the roof opened fire. The searchlight wobbled and went out. The pilot edged the Osprey down further. Even on rotor blades, the aircraft was never quite a helicopter. If the pilot descended too quickly without any forward speed the aircraft could roll and stall.

Campbell lowered himself down on the winch cable, unhooked himself from it and turned to fit it on to Newman. But she was being bundled back into the embassy building. A machine gun started up again in a series of five-round bursts that went on and on, breaking up the concrete in the courtyard and smashing ornaments in the garden.

Outside the wall was a scattering of single shots. From inside came flashes and sharper cracks from the marine guards.

Campbell could see Newman as a silhouetted shadow. He began to beckon her. But there was too much open ground. The beam of another searchlight cut across the lawn, wavering in the hand of a Chinese soldier on the wall, covered by withering fire directed towards the embassy building. An armoured vehicle broke through the gate. Campbell smelt the choking odour of tear gas. He watched Newman's silhouette shift slightly towards him, then a voice, louder even than the gunfire, called to her, and she disappeared into the darkness.

'I'm staying on the ground,' he told the pilot. 'Take her up. Take out the APCs. All six of them. Put a line of fire down on the wall. Then come back and get us.'

'Kozerski?' queried the pilot, referring to the White House orders.

'My authority overrules his,' snapped Campbell.

The roar of the Osprey engines created a cloud of dust from the massive 38-foot rotor blades, giving Campbell the cover he needed to run to the embassy building. The searchlight swept from side to side. Campbell pressed himself against the wall of the embassy, moving as far as possible into the building's shadow.

'Campbell?'

He turned. Mary Newman was sitting on the ground, ringed by marine guards. An armoured vehicle crawled towards them, knocking over the flagpole. The Stars and Stripes floated down, draping itself over the back. Just behind it, the embassy wall gave way and another armoured vehicle, covered in white concrete dust and other debris, appeared.

'Get back,' shouted Campbell.

The Osprey's weapons system opened up with a speed that surprised even Campbell. A ball of flame erupted against the lead armoured vehicle. Simultaneously, the vehicle which had broken through the wall was stopped. Four more air-to-surface missiles destroyed those outside the gates, while machine-gun fire cut down Chinese troops moving into the compound. As the Osprey turned, it dropped a flare to illuminate the terrain, then an air-burst canister of thick pink smoke, through which Campbell and Newman were to run.

Campbell grabbed hold of Newman's arm and pushed them both flat against the wall. She held his wrist so tightly that he felt her fingernails dig into his flesh. On the other side of the compound there was a mortar explosion. The Osprey was seventy-five feet off the ground and descending. Campbell ran, pulling Newman with him. He smelt burning. Another mortar. Then a third into the embassy itself.

It was too dangerous for the Osprey to land. It was as low as it could get. The back ramp was down. The winch cable swung back and forth, blown in the gale of the Osprey's intense rotor downwash. Campbell jumped and caught it. Newman stumbled towards him, and tripped. Campbell took her in his arms and lifted her into the harness.

Then a hand clasped him from behind, pulling him back. A Chinese soldier clung to Campbell's elbow with one hand and waved a pistol at him with the other. Campbell recognized the type. He was the man you sent out to kill, who did it well and enjoyed it, a good soldier, but slightly mad.

'Take her up,' said Campbell to the pilot. He let go of Newman, swinging in the harness. As the aircraft lifted, the soldier gained confidence. The orders must have been to take Campbell alive. He thrust the barrel of his gun into Campbell's chest.

Other soldiers were running towards him. Campbell took a hard look at his captor, then yelled out and knocked the soldier's gun up. Campbell fell to the ground, groped, plucked out the Browning, fired three shots into the soldier's head and neck and stumbled to his feet.

Machine-gun fire from the embassy building covered him from the pursuing Chinese soldiers. A smoke canister burst overhead and he heard the Osprey's rotor blades again. He jumped and caught the winch cable, clipping it on to his belt just as the pilot jerked him off the ground. Campbell crawled inside and suddenly, amid the judder of the fuselage and the noise of the engine, he felt warm and safe.

He lay back, feeling the surge of extra speed as the pilot tilted the rotors to fixed wing.

'You OK?' asked Newman, leaning over him. Due to the engine noise he could only read her lips.

'I'm fine,' he panted. He pushed himself up, unhooked two headsets and showed her how to fit one on.

'Pakistan launched again on India, and India has retaliated,' she said, looking not at Campbell but out of the window at the scenes below. 'Japan has hit Pyongyang with 20 kilotons,' she said. 'We're attacking across the DMZ into the north.'

Campbell, next to her, put his face to the window, too, and saw fires burning below. The higher they got, the more Chinese troops were in sight, converging on the centre of Beijing. The embassy was surrounded. How long did those inside have left to live?

The Osprey, built to carry twenty-four troops, appeared cruelly empty.