“You might want to come in sooner rather than later,” Jonathan said. “Somebody took out a power station in Taiwan. Cooke wants us in her office.”
In twenty minutes, Kyra was in her truck, driving east far too fast to be safe.
“We’re still not sure how the Chinese did it,” Cooke said without preamble. As a general rule, she didn’t call analysts to her office like this, but yesterday’s conversation with Jonathan had left her wanting to see him again even if she couldn’t talk about what was really on her mind. It was a selfish impulse, unprofessional, but she’d caved anyway.
Cooke laid the satellite imagery on the table and Kyra picked up one of the photographs. The picture, high-resolution infrared, showed a large crater in fine detail with fires still burning around the perimeter. Severed electrical lines arced on the ground.
“You’re assuming it was the PLA,” Jonathan said.
“Is there any chance it was an industrial accident?” Kyra asked.
“I wish,” Cooke said. “We’ve got some SCADA experts coming in, but I’m pretty sure there’s nothing in a power plant that would produce a blast pattern like that. And it would be one amazing coincidence, given the timing.”
“It’s just the one location?” Jonathan asked.
“NSA hasn’t reported any other attacks on the electrical grid,” Cooke confirmed. “And one was enough. I’m told that the Tashan Power Plant was the big one. When Taipower brought that one online, they shut down smaller plants at Tai-Wu, Luguang, and Chuangjiang to cut costs. I bet they’re regretting that now.”
“No doubt,” Jonathan observed.
“That’s a big hole,” Kyra said. “Airstrike?”
“The Office of Naval Intelligence says the radar track for Chinese military aircraft and ballistic missiles was negative,” Cooke said. “The only aircraft in the area were Taiwanese commercial and Air Force. All of the PLA MIGs were way outside the missile envelope.”
“It could have been the work of a sapper team,” Jonathan suggested. “Only God and Tian know how many infiltrators the Chinese have in Taipei. Semtex or C-four maybe, but they’d need plenty of it to make a hole that size. That crater must be ten feet deep. Too much material to carry in by hand.”
“Car bomb?” Cooke asked.
Jonathan shrugged. “Doesn’t seem like something a SpecOps team would do, does it? Maybe if it was fifth columnists. Amateurs tend to overestimate explosive yields. The question is whether the PLA would trust this kind of job to fifth columnists alone.” His expression suggested he didn’t believe that particular option. “Anything else?”
“Cable from State Department,” Cooke said. The CIA director extracted a report from a manila folder. “The ambassador met with the Chinese president.”
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
TEXT
SUBJECT: MEETING OF US AMBASSADOR WITH PRC PRESIDENT TIAN KAI REGARDING ARRESTS OF PRC NATIONALS IN TAIPEI
CLASSIFIED BY: AIDAN DUNNE, AMBASSADOR PRC
1. (S//NF) PRIOR TO MEETING WITH PRC PRESIDENT TIAN KAI, AMBASSADOR WITNESSED SEVERAL PRESENT AND FORMER PRC OFFICIALS FINISH A CONSULTATION WITH TIAN, INCLUDING:
HU JINTAO, FORMER PRC PRESIDENT, FORMER CMC CHAIRMAN
XI JIABAO, CHAIRMAN, STANDING COMMITTEE, NATIONAL PEOPLE’S CONGRESS
ZHANG DEMING, CMC VICE CHAIRMAN, MINISTER OF NATIONAL DEFENSE
WU SHAOSHI, DIRECTOR, COMMISSION ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INDUSTRY FOR NATIONAL DEFENSE (COSTIND)
The list of names went on for a half page. “The guy’s got a good memory,” Kyra said.
“Who’d’ve thought diplomats could be so observant?” Cooke said. “I guess it helps with the job. Check out the last few paragraphs. Good stuff in there.”
Kyra turned the page.
7. (S//NF) TIAN ADMITTED THAT THE PRC NATIONALS DETAINED BY TAIWAN’S NATIONAL SECURITY BUREAU ARE MSS OFFICERS, BUT DECLINED TO IDENTIFY ANY BY NAME. HE ALSO STATED THAT BECAUSE TAIWAN IS A PRC TERRITORY UNDER THE “ONE CHINA” DOCTRINE, THE MSS OFFICERS WERE OPERATING LEGALLY IN TAIPEI. TIAN ALSO DENIES THAT ANY ARRESTED CIVILIANS WERE MSS ASSETS.
8. (S//NF) TIAN ANNOUNCED THAT HE WOULD DELIVER A TELEVISED SPEECH WITHIN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS TO DENOUNCE THE ARRESTS AND DEMAND THE EXTRADITION OF PRC NATIONALS AND TO CALL FOR RENEWED NEGOTIATIONS TO RESOLVE THE FINAL STATUS OF TAIWAN.
9. (S//NF) AMBASSADOR OFFERED U.S. ASSISTANCE IN NEGOTIATING A DIPLOMATIC RESOLUTION. TIAN DECLINED AND SAID THAT POTUS COULD BE HELPFUL BY NOT DEPLOYING USN ASSETS TO INTERVENE, STATING, “YOU CERTAINLY MUST CARE MORE FOR YOUR AIRCRAFT CARRIERS THAN FOR TAIPEI.” TIAN DELIVERED HIS PREPARED REMARKS (ATTACHED) TO AMBASSADOR FOR REVIEW.
Kyra handed the stapled sheets to Jonathan. “Only a diplomat can make a threat sound like he’s actually worried for the enemy.”
“Heads of state don’t make jokes about sinking another country’s ships,” Jonathan said. He stared at the sheet for a moment, then dropped it and moved to Cooke’s classified computer and began typing.
“It could be a psychological game,” Kyra observed. She rubbed her forehead. The Vicodin had done its job with admirable efficiency. “Would the president refuse to send in a carrier battle group if he thought the PLA could sink it?”
Cooke considered the question for a few moments, tapping her finger on the table. “I played in a war game at the Naval War College a few years ago, when I was still in the service,” she finally said. “The red team’s first move was to launch every cruise missile they had at the Navy blue team’s carrier. The computer judged that they sank the ship. Control stopped the game, restarted the match, resurrected the carrier, and refused to give the red team their missiles back. They said the game wasn’t worth playing if the carrier wasn’t present. Draw your own conclusions.”
“Were you trying to embarrass the game masters?” Kyra asked.
“Ask him,” Cooke said, nodding her head at Burke.
“I might have suggested that tactic,” Jonathan said. “Hoping that we never lose a carrier is poor strategy.”
“Wait,” Kyra said. “The two of you—”
“First time we met,” Cooke confirmed. “Jon here was an observer, sitting in with the red team. At least he was supposed to just be observing.”
“Observing is boring,” Jonathan said. “I don’t handle boredom well.”
“I can believe that,” Kyra said. “What would it take to replace a lost carrier?”
“Five years and thirteen billion dollars, minimum,” Jonathan told her. “And a dead president liked by the Navy to name it after.”
“Cute,” Kyra replied. “So how are the Chinese going to kill a carrier?”
“Shashoujian,” Jonathan said, pronouncing each syllable slowly.
“What?” Both women asked the question at the same time.
“Shashoujian,” he said again. “The closest English translation is ‘assassin’s mace.’ In Chinese lore, it’s a small weapon that a soldier in ancient times could hide in his robes to mortally strike an enemy to end a fight before it started. It’s also an umbrella label for a series of PLA weapons projects, most of which haven’t produced anything. The technologies have been pretty exotic — laser guns, high-power microwaves, real Star Wars — type stuff. Some of it sounds more like propaganda than serious weapons research.”
Kyra studied Jonathan’s face. “You already have a link,” she realized.
Jonathan held out the State cable. “The people listed as being in Tian’s office are all members of the Nine Nine Eight State Security Project Leading Group, which is one of the groups overseeing Assassin’s Mace research. And there’s no record of any other committee with the same membership.”