Surrounded by Secret Service agents, the group entered the dining lodge and then settled in Macklin's private office, which doubled as a conference room. Fresh coffee, orange juice, tomato juice, and warm pastries awaited the men and Maria while they made themselves comfortable for the early morning meeting.
A former Green Beret captain, Pete Adair had been born on a small farm in the Oklahoma Panhandle. Adair's boundless enthusiasm was contagious at the White House and at the Pentagon. His folksy personality was appealing to military personnel, but that wasn't all they liked about him; they considered him a man of integrity and honesty. He was extremely knowledgeable about military affairs, and they knew he fought hard to provide the very best in pay and equipment for the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines. He even pounded home the need to keep the U.S. Coast Guard on par with the other services, even though they were officially outside his area of responsibility.
"Well, gentlemen, what can you tell me about this Chinese cargo ship, the. " Macklin paused.
"Chiang Hai-ch'eng,"Hartwell Prost offered, then continued as he opened his briefcase and methodically spread papers before him on the table. "Mr. President, we've had some very interesting developments in the last few hours."
Macklin reached for his coffee. "As I've been told."
"The Chiang Hai-ch'eng departed from Long Beach en route to Fuzhou, People's Republic of China, on the same day we lost the F-18 Hornet from Abe Lincoln."
The president sat upright, almost spilling his coffee on his khaki slacks. "The same day? Are you sure?"
"Yes, sir," Prost said. "Seven hours and ten minutes prior to the incident — it's a matter of record."
"Do we know where it was when the other planes went down?"
"We aren't sure, but we know the Chiang Hai-ch 'engchanged destinations en route to Fuzhou and sailed to Niigata, Japan." Prost adjusted his new reading glasses. "Niigata, which is located at the mouth of the Shinano River, is the leading port on the Sea of Japan."
"When did it leave Niigata?"
"Late in the morning the same day the Japanese AWACS went down in the Sea of Japan atnight."
"Are you positive — absolutely positive?"
"Yes, sir. We have computer records from the port authority, tapes of radio conversations with the Chiang Hai-ch'eng, and more than a dozen eyewitnesses who watched the ship get under way."
"I'll be damned. What do we know about the Cobra Ball crash?"
"We have unimpeachable evidence that the Chinese cargo ship Xiamen Express left Singapore for Madras, India, four days prior to the downing of the Cobra Ball, Eagle Rock One-One."
"And?"
"The Xiamen Express arrived in Madras early in the afternoon on the day following the crash of Eagle Rock One-One."
"The speed-distance equation," General Chalmers quietly interjected, "suggests that the Chinese ship would have been in the immediate vicinity of the Cobra Ball when the flight crew reported the suspicious object."
"What about our B-2 bomber?"
"Our people are working on it," Prost said. "The tanker crew is being debriefed as we speak."
"Any possible Chinese connection — anything suspicious about the crash of the bomber?"
"We don't know at this point. However, we believe that another Chinese ship may have been involved in the F/A-18 crash in the Strait of Taiwan, and the Chinese airliner that—"
"China Xinjiang Airlines," Adair volunteered.
"— that crashed into the Yellow Sea near Lianyungang, China. The Deng ju-shan, a new state-of-the-art freighter, sailed from Ho Chi Minh City to Qingdao, about a week before the F/A-18 went down. It would have been in the general area of the Kitty Hawk battle group at the time the Hornet was lost, and it arrived in Qingdao the day after the Chinese airliner went down seventy-five miles south of Qingdao."
The president hunched his shoulders and absently set his coffee cup on his desk. "Let me make sure I understand what you're telling me."
"Yes, sir."
"Are you saying we can forget about these mysterious sightings and concentrate on the Chinese ships?"
"At this stage I wouldn't rule out anything. The information we have was generated by analyzing thousands of voyage itineraries of ships from all nations and from every region on the planet. It looks very suspicious to me, but we can't be certain."
Macklin sat back and rubbed his chin. "But the preponderance of evidence points toward the Chinese, right?"
"On the surface, yes. However, we could be chasing coincidences, anomalies, the supernatural, who knows?"
The president turned his attention to Adair and Chalmers. "What about our military options? What's the easiest and fastest way to find out for sure what's on those Chinese cargo ships?"
General Chalmers deferred to the secretary of defense.
"There isn't any easy way," Pete Adair admitted. "Considering the growing tension between Beijing and Taipei, and Beijing and Washington, we're on the verge of open hostilities in the Taiwan. Strait, not to mention the fact that the Red Chinese are the gatekeepers of the Panama Canal."
Adair paused and faced the president. "The last thing we want to do is forcefully stop and search a Chinese ship in international waters."
"What about the CIA?" Macklin asked. "Couldn't we somehow manage to infiltrate, to smuggle someone on board one of those ships while it's in port? Is that a possibility?"
Everyone turned to Prost. "Gentlemen, from what our operatives are telling us, these particular ships are very heavily guarded."
"Which makes my point," the president said.
Prost continued. "According to my sources, the ships are carrying their own specialized security teams. We wouldn't stand a chance of boarding one, unless we came up with an invisible agent."
Irritated and frustrated, Macklin waved his hand. "Let's go back to the Chinese airliner. Why would they down one of their own planes on a domestic flight? It doesn't make sense to me."
Hartwell was about to offer a hypothetical opinion when an aide stepped into the office.
"Mr. Prost, you have an urgent call on the secure line."
After an early breakfast with Major General Grunewald and Lieutenant Colonel Warrington, Jackie and Scott thanked the colonel for his hospitality and returned with the general to his office. They retrieved their luggage, flight gear, and helmets, and then headed to the flight line to load their belongings into one of Greg O'-Donnell's Learjet 35As.
While Scott completed a detailed preflight of the exterior of the jet, Jackie entered the cockpit and settled into the right seat. A squad of four SEALs boarded next, followed by Scott.
A few minutes later the jet was wheels-in-the-well and climbing to its assigned altitude. Out of Flight Level 270, Lear N960BL was cleared direct to Centennial Airport, Denver, Colorado. The well-equipped Learjet was a delight to fly, and Scott felt very comfortable in the snug cockpit.
After ascending to Flight Level 350, Scott leveled the jet and Jackie assumed control of the Lear. Scott briefed MCPO D. R. Slocum, the leader of the SEALs. Together comprising one-half of a normal eight-man squad, each SEAL was armed with either a Heckler & Koch P9S 9mm automatic pistol or a Smith & Wesson .357 revolver. The latter provided an immediate stopping punch to a determined assailant.
Six Heckler & Koch MP5 compact submachine guns were on board for additional firepower in close-quarters combat. Two of the submachine guns were for Scott and Jackie. As a last resort, the SEALs had a handheld M60 machine gun for platoon-level fire support.