White Jade

Chapter Fifty-Four

"Sir…" Hogan was looking at Nick and the others.

"Just put him on the speaker, Kevin."

"Yes, sir."

"Mister President." The voice quality was good. Zhang spoke in Chinese, with simultaneous translation on his end. Rice gestured to Selena, pointed to an earpiece lying by a pen and pad on the end of his desk and indicated she should pick it up. He flipped a switch on his desk. China could not hear him.

"Selena, you speak the language. Listen and tell me if the translation is correct. Listen for anything that might help me understand this man."

She picked up the earpiece. Rice activated the phone.

"President Zhang. What can I do for you?"

"Mister President, there have been some events here. We do not wish to have these events, ah, misunderstood. I am calling to let you know our situation."

"Our satellites show unusual military movements. Some of my advisors are quite disturbed. Tell me, Mister President, should I feel disturbed?"

"No, no, not at all. We are merely conducting exercises. There is no cause for you to be alarmed. We have had a problem with one of our senior commanders, but it has been resolved."

Selena was scribbling on a piece of paper. Nick took it and handed it to the President.

Stressed, she had written. Used idiom associated with desire to placate without admitting wrong-doing.

"What was the nature of the problem?"

"It is unimportant, now."

"Mister President, there has been an attack on our country. We believe one of your ranking officers is responsible. If this proves to be true, there will be serious consequences for our nations."

"This cannot be true! Who is suspected?"

"Your General Yang."

There was a pause. Everyone watched Rice.

"Mister President." The voice on the speaker phone was flat, metallic. "Coincidentally, General Yang is the senior officer I mentioned earlier. He has been removed from command for promoting reactionary policies. If he has initiated attacks against your country it was without our knowledge or compliance."

"All that is well and good, Mister President, but it will not be enough." Rice allowed anger to creep into his voice. "Perhaps you can persuade General Yang to reveal how he accomplished his vicious and unprovoked actions. Our people are upset and angry. I assure you, President Zhang, if your government had anything to do with these events, consequences will be severe. Do I make myself clear?"

There was a rapid burst of Chinese in the background, several people talking at once. Selena scribbled.

Great concern. Someone arguing for a full war alert. Zhang is nervous. Someone saying he should tell you the truth.

After a moment the President of China came back on the line.

"President Rice. I will be candid. General Yang has been arrested for attempting to install himself as the new leader of our country. He admitted initiating attacks against you. We were unaware of these plans. We deeply regret that harm has come to your people. We have not yet had time to question him to determine more."

Scribble, scribble. Sounds like telling the truth.

"A coup?"

"Yes. We uncovered his plot to take power and were prepared for it. Yang did not succeed in taking control of our military installations."

Wilson gasped, a sound like she was choking on her own bile.

Rice tapped his fingers on his leg. "What about Luoyang?"

"Ah, Luoyang is being resolved as we speak. Should preparations for a launch be detected, we will prevent it. Mister President, we will not allow missiles to be launched under any circumstances. Please believe me. The missiles are equipped with a self-destruct system. We are prepared to destroy them if necessary."

General Holden reached for his pager. With an apologetic nod toward Rice, he stood and walked to the side of the room and took out his phone. Nick watched him go rigid.

"That is satisfactory, Mister President. We will monitor Luoyang quite closely. If we detect preparations to launch we will be forced to take appropriate counter measures. I sincerely hope it does not come to that."

"Mister President, any aggressive action toward our country would be very badly received here and met with strong response. I assure you, we have no hostile intentions."

"President Zhang, I appreciate your…"

General Holden interrupted. He still held his phone.

"Sir, the silos at Luoyang have been activated and the mobile platforms are emerging from the tunnels. They're getting ready to launch."

Rice looked at him. "You are certain."

"Yes, sir. Their launch sequence has begun."

"General, go to DEFCON1, but hold at Fail Safe."

Holden spoke again into his phone. Rice paused. He said, "President Zhang. I have just been informed that your missiles are being readied. We are now at the edge. You must take action, immediately."

Carter held his breath. Over the speaker, there was a confusing sound of many people speaking at once in Beijing and an angry command. The noise stopped. The voices of Zhang and his translator came through the speaker.

"Mister President. Our forces are entering the base at Luoyang as we speak. We can deactivate the missiles with codes sent from here. Please wait a moment."

Selena wrote. Zhang telling someone to send deactivation codes. They are raising their defense level. They may be panicking.

Zhang continued. "It will take seconds, Mister President. Please, let us not make a mistake."

Rice said, "If missiles are launched, we will be forced to retaliate, President Zhang. I am being deliberately blunt. You must stop this."

There was more excited conversation in the background. Selena wrote. Radio codes ineffective. They can't shut the missiles down from there. He's ordering an air strike on the base.

"President Rice." Zhang's voice was strained. "We are unable to disable the missiles by radio. We are taking other measures. Our planes will be in the air. If needed, we will launch our ABMs to intercept. I repeat, we have no hostile intention. Please do not misinterpret these actions. This is not an attack. We do not wish for war."

Everyone waited for Rice's response. He stood and everyone rose with him.

"President Zhang. I am now moving to my command center, where I will monitor your activities. I will call." He hung up the phone.

"Sir," General Holden said. "Marine One is standing by. You should remove yourself to Weather Mountain." Weather Mountain was an underground command center and fallout shelter for high civilian officials, near the town of Bluemont in West Virginia. It was forty-five minutes away.

Rice looked at him. "No, General. Even if we got there, you know as well as I do that it may not be adequate. We're going to KNEECAP. Send the Vice-President and the Cabinet to West Virginia."

"Yes, sir." KNEECAP was designation for Air Force One as an airborne command center in the event of war. Rice could stay up for three days, if needed, with refueling. Then the engines would fail. He'd have to set down before that, if there was any place left to land.

Rice said, "How much time until launch, General?"

"They're starting cold, sir. The DF-5s need to be fueled. Perhaps an hour or a little longer. Once they lift off, then another twenty minutes or more to impact on the West Coast, thirty minutes here, unless we can intercept. The DF-31s are a different matter. Once the mobile launchers are in place, a matter of minutes to fire."

"Can we intercept?"

"Not all of them. The AEGIS system around the Ronald Reagan can get some of them. Some of the Alaska ground based missiles will probably be effective. Sir…" He looked at his watch.

"Yes, General, I know." He turned to Harker. "You're welcome to remain here in the White House shelter, if you wish."

What he didn't say was that it wouldn't make much difference where they were if war began.

"Thank you, Mister President."

Rice strode from the room. Hogan and General Holden followed, with the Secretary of State and Wilson.

The team stood in the Oval Office and looked at each other. Ronnie looked down at the Presidential Seal on the rug.

"Might as well have a picture of Ground Zero on it. The White House doesn't seem like a real good bet at the moment," Ronnie said. "I wish I was back on the Rez."

"Let's go back to the Project," Harker said. "It's as good a place as any to watch the end of the world."