Mr. Scott hung up and buried his face in his hands. He inhaled deeply, gathered his strength and faced Donna, all but forgetting Jack Benson. “Donna, that was our desk at NORAD, the PRC just detonated at least one nuclear device over Taiwan. We’re getting indications that a couple of civilian satellites in LEO (Low Earth Orbit) over the Asia-Pacific region have been damaged or destroyed. Probably a low Earth orbit EMP attack. By the way, the Pentagon wants you down at the NMCC (the National Military Command Center) ASAP. The Joint Chiefs’ office asked for you by name. They want someone with a solid handle on the Chinese to provide immediate on-the-spot crisis management assistance.”
Donna looked devastated, “I’m sorry I failed sir. I didn’t provide enough warning. I…”
Mr. Scott put up his hand and said, “Donna, Donna! Don’t beat yourself up! You’re the only one in the building who called it. You can’t help it we were so blinded by the official policy of engagement, appeasement, whatever, that we didn’t want to see it coming.” He looked at Benson. His tone shifted to gentle encouragement, “Besides, you’ve got a job to do and you’re obviously better suited for it than anyone else around here. I’ll call for a car. Donna looked up, she had started to cry but was recovering quickly. She had a job to do and the future of her nation was in the balance.
22
Blocking the Eagle
The Panama Canal had been a key part of American defense plans for an entire century. All U.S. fighting ships were designed to be just thin enough to transit the canal. Aside from its obvious economic benefits, the canal provided the U.S. Navy with crucial strategic mobility. Without the canal, shifting naval power from the Atlantic to the Pacific and vice versa would take two added weeks as the ships had to head south to transit the Drake Passage.
It had been many years since the Canal Zone was American territory. Now, it was no longer home to American troops either. In fact, a Hong Kong-based Chinese company had purchased key commercial concessions in the former Canal Zone — in effect, China now ran the canal that the United States had dug almost 100 years before.
Regardless of the canal’s status, it was very vulnerable to sabotage. On Friday evening, only an hour after China’s attack on Taiwan, a large, but aging ship from China’s COSCO line weighed anchor and entered the Miraflores Locks just outside of Panama City.
A Panamanian official inspected the ship. But a $2,000 cash bribe kept him from being too curious.
The freighter was carrying ammonium nitrate. Tens of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel from the ship’s fuel bunkers had been sprayed into the cargo hold two days before. A PLA special operations demolition team placed thousands of pounds of explosives on top of the now 25,000-ton fertilizer bomb. They then covered the explosives with drums of sand to direct the blast downward.
Once in the locks the demolition team set the timers on the explosives. The first device to detonate was an incendiary bomb in the engine room. Its flames quickly engulfed the compartment, trapping three crewmembers. This “accident” was to provide the barest of cover to throw the Americans off and conceal the enormous magnitude of the coordination involved in the Chinese attack.
With the fire out of control, the demolition team spread panic and warned the crew to abandon ship. Climbing down ropes, 29 merchant crewmen and demolition team members escaped from the doomed ship. The sailors stayed on the concrete casing of the lock, close to their vessel. The ten-member demolition team ran hundreds of meters away to the top of a small tree-covered hill. Panamanian security thought it odd but simply marked it up to fear — the smoking ship gave them bigger and more immediate concerns to deal with.
The explosives detonated with perfect timing. The shock wave heated and compressed the mixture of fertilizer and diesel. This action allowed the rapid release of the stored chemical energy in the mixture. In less than a second, almost 10,000 tons of explosive fuel had released its fury, unharnessing the equivalent of a two-kiloton nuclear bomb.
The lock the ship rested in was the first casualty. The lock’s towering but hollow steel doors, with their internal piping and valves, blew out like pieces of aluminum foil. This itself would not have presented a huge problem as the Canal Authority had spare lock doors as well as a second lock channel for opposing traffic just 60 feet away. Unfortunately, the massive fertilizer bomb had a more ambitious purpose than simply cutting the Panama Canal’s traffic in half for a few days. The true target of the assault was the lock’s concrete casing. The explosion shattered the casing, rupturing the water lines that power the canal’s hydraulics. It also destroyed the rails upon which the diesel train engines worked as tugs to pull the ships along the lock system. The huge shock wave continued to propagate through the concrete and earth, seeking voids and weak spots. When the wave reached the empty lock for Pacific-bound traffic it collapsed the concrete wall into the lock. The Panama Canal would be shut down for many, many months.
With the exception of the demolition team members, every witness to the “accident” died in the explosion. The demolition team, deaf and bleeding at the nose and ears from the concussive overpressure, straggled into the outskirts of Panama City. They soon found their safe house. They cleaned up and changed their clothes. Within an hour they transferred to another safe house. They were prepared to remain out of sight for a very long time.
23
Build-up
Fu Zemin loved irony. Here he was, a Communist Party official, flying in as a conqueror to an airport named after a man who dedicated his career to fighting Communists. Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport was an hour away from Zhangzhou by way of the twin turboprop Y-7 he was aboard. Fu knew the ROC air force had to be substantially destroyed before someone of his stature would be allowed to make the flight over, but that still didn’t make him feel entirely comfortable flying in a small, slow airplane.
Just prior to leaving, a liaison from PLA Military Intelligence boarded the aircraft. The officer presented his papers to Fu. “Comrade Fu, I am Major General Wei. My job is to keep you current on the strategic and operational situation. The Party leadership believes your assessments will be of greater utility to them if you are kept informed.”
Fu felt the surge of pride and power well up within him. He had his own general of intelligence to brief him—now that was prestige. “Please, General Wei, be seated and tell me what you know about our efforts.”
“Sir, my information is only,” the general glanced at his watch, “15 minutes old.” It was 10:30 AM. “Sir, I understand you read the briefing packet that gave you a detailed understanding of the strategic situation?”
“Yes.”
“So then, I will concentrate on the recent operational details.” The general was obviously used to briefing VIPs. He was completely at ease.
“Comrade Fu, first, the enemy overview. Prior to our electro-magnetic attack, the ROC ground forces were estimated to be at 50 percent effective manning levels due to the genetically engineered flu virus we introduced on the island 11 days ago. The electro-magnetic attack should result in a further erosion of their military effectiveness through degraded command, control and communications ability. We destroyed 40 to 60 % of the ROC Air Force. And we estimate ROC Navy losses to be in excess of 60 %.”
“What about the American flotilla at the south end of the Straits?” Fu demanded.
“We have no word on them. We warned them not to enter the Taiwan Strait. We currently have no specific information on them, their location or their condition.”
“The moment you hear anything about the Americans, I want to know.”