“Since the weather report you gave me earlier said it has been sunny but cold since December 30th, the runway in Beijing should be clear enough for our 130s to get in. I will also communicate with the president as soon as we are over Chinese soil, and if I’m attacked and our aircraft are destroyed, three older but fully operational atomic missiles will be launched from our only working site in South Dakota. One is for the capital of North Korea, one for Shanghai, and one for Beijing. Three more are ready to defend the United States, or can be directed into Iran if need be. Pakistan, we believe can still retaliate, but we don’t expect trouble from their government.
An hour later, the meeting was done and it was time to leave. During the meeting, the loading of ammunition was underway with every available man filling the magazines of all three gunships. They had 400 rounds of 40mm for the three rapid-fire Bofors guns; their only protection from enemy aircraft.
Since Easy Girl had been in Asia for several years and mostly used as air cover for naval exercises, she had not received the 105mm howitzer modification. She did, however, have the older gunship gun installation—two sets of twin 20mm Gatling guns. These could put out heavy fire, and with the 105mm’s installed on Ghost Rider and Blue Moon, they had enough firepower to flatten a building, any building!
The Korean tally was 300 projectiles, which were loaded into the aircraft for the two howitzers—200 HE projectiles and 100 concrete piercing projectiles.
The gunships usually carried 100 105mm rounds each, but the grand total of 200 rounds per gunship, or 20 minutes of nonstop firing was a lot of explosive power for one building. It had to be enough, and General Allen chose the firing set-up command to be one concrete-piercing round and followed by two HE rounds, each filled with 5 pounds of TNT. His idea was to blow the building down from the roof, floor-by-floor, blowing holes through the concrete. The concrete piercing rounds would make craters through the floors of the buildings one-by-one and then they could send in the HE after that.
Twenty-thousand rounds for the four 20mm Gatling guns were loaded into Easy Girl—four times more than usual—as well as 100 rounds for her 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft cannon. Ten-thousand rounds were placed in the other two gunships, and 150 Bofors rounds were loaded into each for aircraft protection.
It had been dark for an hour when General Allen called Carlos. Carlos had just finished setting up the satellite equipment at McGuire. He had flown in and gotten four hours of sleep while Lee Wang got the equipment organized and started placing all the computers and the one satellite dish into their perfect configuration, which took a couple of hours. Lee then worked on connecting everything together and woke Carlos to continue. They were an hour from receiving their first new digital world photos when the general phoned.
“Carlos? Allen Key.”
“Hi, Pete,” replied Carlos. “We need another hour before I can get a picture. We have our picture of the United States on screen now, but I need time to set up the codes to reach into their satellite feed and receive their pictures. What is the weather like where you are?”
“Not good, Carlos. Light snow and it’s getting worse. Visibility is about 2,000 feet and closing in. I need to know if this storm is big enough to affect the area I need to get to, and from there I want to go north into their capital city, or with this storm will I have to return to Japan, or return to my last port of call? I’d hate to be lost up there without a place to go, but I must leave now and I want to attack as close to their midnight as possible. That will represent one week and 13 hours since their attack on us. I’m in trouble if this is a full-scale storm, but we have Mother Goose filled to the brim with fuel, and at worst she can give us 600 extra miles of flying time.
“Carlos, we have grown to three gunships so we now have four transponders. I have no option but to leave here ASAP and I want to try and get into the attack zone without transponders. We have Mrs. Wang, who has enjoyed her trip so far and I intend to get her back safely. I have a new phone number for you. The call sign is Whitelaw-base Osan-South Korea,” and the general gave the number to Carlos to redistribute.
“I’m leaving our meeting here and will call you again in 30 minutes once I get into Ghost Rider.” He did, and they talked again as the general got seated and checks were done, doors closed, and the four aircraft were made ready for flight again.
“Lee would like to say a few words with his wife. Is that possible?” asked Carlos when Pete called him back.
“As long as they speak in English so that I can understand, I’m happy to allow them to speak. Just explain to him that we need this to succeed as much as possible and all our safety depends on you guys getting us out of here. There were a lot of lights to our north as we came in earlier, and there are a lot of good soldiers being killed down there. We think that our men have about a week here before we will have to defend the base itself.”
“Pete, Lee has worked harder than I have in the last few hours and much of your safety has depended on his knowledge of their systems,” Carlos replied. “I’ll get him on the phone,” and he handed the phone to Lee.
“Harrow, Mr. Pete,” Lee said on the phone.
“Good evening to you, Lee,” replied the general.
“We are ready to go, sir,” stated the pilot.
“Let’s get out of here,” Pete replied to the pilot.
“Lee, here is your wife,” and he called Mrs. Wang forward to speak to her husband.
They spoke in rapid English for several minutes as the aircraft taxied to the southern end of the runway for take-off. Pete understood everything being said and he smiled as he heard Mrs. Wang going over the map of Nanjing that Lee was reminding her about. They completed their conversation as the engines began their take-off roar, and she handed the phone back, bowed, smiled, and nimbly ran back to her seat for take-off.
Within five minutes, the four aircraft were in the air and flying level at 900 feet above ground. They were able to do this with the infrared systems aboard the three gunships tracking their altitude, and the tanker cruised along behind them watching their directional changes with her radar on short-range mode. A direct route to Nanjing was fixed and they were in a loose formation with several hundred yards between each aircraft.
The general knew that with all the world’s satellite directional systems out of commission, the only real way left to find other aircraft in the night’s sky was by radar and heat scanners. They were far too close to a country that might have fully operational aircraft, but the radar screens were empty in all directions. Their flight to the coast of China over the Yellow Sea would take two hours, and many of the crew got more than an hour’s sleep, including General Allen himself.
He was awakened when the pilot told him that the radar screen showed them to be 100 miles off the China coast. The snow was gone and the stars could be seen peeking through intermittent clouds. There was a sliver of a moon that made the water sparkle beneath them.