Taylor sighed before stepping through the stairwell’s door, “Hell, I’m still trying to figure the surrender terms part out, I haven’t thought about the actual execution of the mission.”
The two Chinese soldiers and the two Americans clanked down the metal staircase, everyone held their thoughts to themselves. Donna’s stomach tightened. What if Lindley is conscious? What if he remembers what happened to him? The drug experts at the CIA assured her that anyone so incapacitated by the drug would have a very difficult time recalling anything around the time of the injection. She hoped so, she could only wonder at what the Chinese would do to her if they knew that their highest mole in the U.S. government was disabled by a lowly CIA analyst.
Donna and the general were ushered into a well-lit room in the hotel’s basement. Other than six guards standing around the periphery, there was no one else in the room. The room only had one office-sized work desk and one chair, nothing else. The solitary desk in the middle of the room made the room look much larger than it really was. “I’d say the ‘negotiations’ are over General,” Donna said softly.
“We should have nuked the bas…” The door burst open. Two soldiers hurried in, followed by a man wearing large, dark sunglasses. “…tards,” Taylor finished a beat later.
The man — Donna now recognized him as the ‘negotiator’ from a few days before—slowly walked to the desk and sat down. A tall, muscular colonel followed stiffly three paces behind him. Another man, a captain, followed behind the colonel. Party representative Fu spoke in Mandarin, “I have a list of demands…”
Donna pulled out her microcassette recorder, “May I use this to avoid errors?” She asked in her own excellent Mandarin.
Fu looked up, not expecting to be interrupted so soon, “No!” He turned to a soldier, “Take that device from that woman!”
A soldier stepped forward and gruffly took Donna’s recorder.
“I will tell you what errors you make,” Fu hissed at the analyst. “Now then,” Fu comported himself, “Speaking for the People’s Republic of China, I have three demands.
“First, all United States armed forces personnel unlawfully on the Chinese sovereign soil of the province of Taiwan will cease hostilities as of 1800 hours Monday.
“Second, said forces will surrender to representatives of the Peoples Liberation Army by 0600 hours Tuesday morning.
“Third, the United States of America will recognize Taiwan as a province of the People’s Republic of China’s by converting their illegal diplomatic presence into consulates of the United States of America to the People’s Republic of China.” Fu looked up from his paper. The room was silent.
Donna saw Fu’s paper was hand written in large Chinese characters. She also noted an abrasion under Fu’s left eye that was partially covered with makeup. Donna began to worry that she would have to translate, and thus be virtually cut-off from the negotiations. The captain behind Fu took a step forward and repeated Fu’s words in very good English.
General Taylor’s ears flushed, but otherwise he held fast. Taylor cleared his throat, “We need safe passage into Taipei to visit the United States soldiers before we can act on your first two demands.”
The captain leaned over and translated Taylor’s comments. Fu cocked his head to listen. He nodded, started to speak, then stopped. Fu turned to Taylor and said in Mandarin, “Why only Taipei?”
Donna said under her breath, “They don’t know about the Marine evac.”
Taylor nodded and waited for the translation a second later. “We have personnel in Taipei who were stranded there when their aircraft sustained mid-flight damage during your surprise attack. We have no one else in Taiwan.”
“He’s not going to like this,” Donna said between her teeth.
The translator finished Taylor’s statement.
Fu spat sharply.
Donna said, “He called you a liar.”
She finished just as the translator enthusiastically yelled, “Liar!”
Taylor paused to let the room calm down a notch, “Our personnel who sought refuge from your unprovoked attack in international waters in the vicinity of Kaohsiung were evacuated several days ago. The United States has no military presence in southern Taiwan.”
Fu intently listened to his translator. His forehead wrinkled with thought. He said, almost smiling, “Ah, you mean the Marines retreated from the field before the face of a superior enemy?”
Taylor bridled at the translation and retorted, “I mean what I said: the United States has no military presence in southern Taiwan. We evacuated.”
After the translation, Fu snorted, “I’d say you abandoned your ally just like you did in 1975 in Vietnam after your defeat.”
“Touché,” Donna said softly, “He’s playing for the Asian audience and history and I’d say we’ve given him most of what he wanted.”
Donna’s comment overlapped the translator’s statement and Taylor took a moment to process both messages. Donna turned from Taylor and said in English, “We are authorized to act on your first two conditions. Your last condition will require consultations with our government. We also have concerns regarding the several thousand United States citizens in Taiwan. What do you wish to do?”
Fu listened, thought for a moment, then spoke through his translator, “You will act immediately on items one and two. After you have successfully executed these items, we will return to issue number three. Citizens of the United States engaged in lawful business activities will be unharmed and allowed to continue operations. We view this as nothing more than a civil disturbance. Business disruption is unfortunate, but should be minimized for the benefit of all sides. You will be contacted when we have arranged for your safe passage. You are dismissed.”
All the way back upstairs Donna unsuccessfully tried to think of ways to snatch victory from the dragon’s maw. The difficult part of her mission was only beginning.
Three neutron bombs and a crushing PLA armored assault on the dazed ROC survivors eliminated any threat of a Taiwanese counterattack on Saturday. By Sunday the PLA had complete freedom to maneuver on Taiwan. Instead of simply seizing terrain, they concentrated on annihilating their enemy’s army one unit at a time. This effort naturally carried them south, but at a speed dependent on the tactical requirement to find and overwhelm their foe.
Another benefit accrued to the PLA as welclass="underline" both Keelung and Deng Xiaoping International Airport were now free from enemy shelling. In addition to the increased flow of supplies, the Mainlanders shuttled in another 5,000 PAP paramilitaries from Fujian province as well as an additional mechanized infantry battalion from Guangdong.
The PLA’s supreme commander on Taiwan, General First Class Deng, was confident that hostilities would cease within ten days — two weeks at the most. The battle was won (as it was even before the fighting started according to the precepts of Sun Tzu), all that was left to do was to formally act out the pre-assigned roles of victor and vanquished.
Deng fully briefed Fu on the situation. In turn, Fu shared his own good news with Deng: the Americans had already begun their ignominious retreat from Taiwan.
Deng was only partially saddened that he would not soon have a chance to inflict the sting of defeat on the Americans. Fortunately, Deng was a strategic thinker, like Fu, he too understood the value to China of America’s retreat. Besides, he knew that, in time, he would again meet the Americans in battle.
The odd-shaped black bat winged jet taxied down the runway at the American air base on Okinawa. An impressive feat of Yankee engineering, the F-117A Stealth Fighter had its limitations. While it was nearly invisible to radar, it had to be operated at night to avoid visual detection; if spotted, it was very vulnerable, especially to enemy fighter aircraft. The F-117A was also poorly labeled. It was far from a fighter. Its primary purpose was as a tactical bomber and it was well suited for this role. The F-117A’s usual mission was to fly over heavily defended areas at night, dropping 2,000-pound laser-guided bombs on key targets. Tonight, however, this Stealth Fighter had a more unconventional mission to perform.