“Why would he do such a thing, and how do we know you are telling the truth?” asked one engineer.
“I have family in Beijing,” stated another, and Lee put his hand up for silence.
“We control the three satellites owned by Zedong Electronics,” continued Lee. “I’m sure some of you worked on them, or knew somebody who worked on them. Our commander, who was running our defense against Chairman Chunqiao’s attacks, was killed in Beijing. He had flown in to deliver satellite phones to the Chinese government so that they could communicate with America as well as Russia. He had just left Beijing International Airport when the first missile exploded. We could see the explosions on the satellite feed, but we had not mastered the satellite control codes at the time. There is a fourth nuclear missile in Harbin and Comrade Mo Wang told me yesterday that it is aimed at Shanghai and is meant to destroy Shanghai once the chairman has flown all his troops out of the Shanghai Pudong Airport. As you have seen, the American Air Force went into Pudong a couple of days ago and stole some of the chairman’s Air China aircraft so that America can begin to fly its troops back from all the wars they were involved with before this crisis. Many of you saw these aircraft fly into the three New York airports yesterday, and they are due in here again today with another 6,000 American troops out of Iraq. We know all about the attack here in New York next week, and we are preparing to destroy the leaders of Zedong Electronics before they destroy the rest of the world. How many of you come from the Shanghai area?” Most of the engineers raised their hands.
“You may thank the United States Air Force, my friend Carlos Rodriquez,” he added pointing to Carlos, “and me, because that fourth atomic bomb destined for Shanghai next week will not reach Shanghai. It will be redirected out to sea and destroy itself. For the rest of you who had family in the destroyed areas, I’m sorry for your loss and you may thank the chairman yourself when he arrives in America. You have two choices, and if you decide to become Americans, the president will forgive you. I will now let him explain.” Lee returned to his seat and the room was silent as the U.S. President came forward.
“Good Day. I know that you are the best in your fields,” the President started. “What Mr. Wang has told you is the truth. We have our own atomic weapons ready to fire on my command and we have the satellite, or shall I say satellites to guide them anywhere in the world we want. America has not unleashed a weapon of mass destruction to kill civilians since the Second World War, but the chairman of your country unleashed three of them minutes apart to kill his own people. This man needs to be stopped. Look what he has done to the world! He has taken humanity back 100 years and you could say that the world has gone back into a new form of the Dark Ages. Now you must each make a choice. You can either stay under guard and continue to be a prisoner of war, or you can help us fight this monster and begin to get the world working again. So far, we believe that it’s possible that two billion people have died worldwide and certainly another billion or two are going to die before we can get our planet back on track.”
“I promise you that once we have secured the destruction of Chairman Wang Chunqiao and his accomplices, we will fly you back to China to look for your families and bring them back to the United States. He cannot explode his fourth nuclear missile over Shanghai anymore. If you would like to stay there, you will have that choice, but the United States of America blames China and its people for this catastrophe and we will not look at China as a friend for many generations to come. We will probably never do business with China again. Now, make your choices and come and help us design and develop a new country and a new world. Hopefully we can learn to live in peace again and I hope that this destruction of our civilization is a turning point toward a better world.” The President left a totally silent room.
Now it was time for Colonel Patterson to complete General Allen’s plan for fending off the invasion force. Lee Wang was put in charge of discussing the engineers’ options with each of them, helped by his wife and daughter as well as Majors Wong and Chong. Baby Huey took off to fly north with the president on board, as well as one Secret Service agent, Colonel Patterson, Preston, Carlos, Vice Admiral Rogers, and the McGuire base commander. The weather was clear but cold, and several thermoses of coffee and snacks had been put on board for the flight over New York harbor.
Colonel Grady and his long convoy were doing well and would arrive within 36 hours. The biggest problem was the massive increase of starving people around the four airports. Over 100 troops were doling out a week’s supply of rations per person at each airport, and the 747 transporter was working nonstop to empty Seymour Johnson of supplies. The lone aircraft managed a flight into each airport once every 24 hours and 10,000 people per airport were receiving two week’s worth of rations every day and told not to come back because there was going to be a massive battle around the airports, on the highways, and in the harbor.
Each civilian was given a print-out telling them that this food supply was all they would receive until February, and not to come back or they could find themselves in a middle of a war zone. The note stated emphatically that they were not to go anywhere near the ground around New York Harbor, or they could be shot on sight by either side.
“I’m wondering if the enemy might only fly into Newark, now that they have fewer aircraft to fly in,” Preston mentioned to Colonel Patterson as they flew over Newark, which was the closest airport to the harbor area.
“I wouldn’t disregard JFK,” replied the colonel. “They flew into JFK before, and if you look at a map it’s only about a 20-mile hike to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, which is the only entrance and a strategic defensive location. The general wanted the area around the bridge to be packed full of howitzers and troops on either side, but not on top of the bridge.”
“Why?” asked the president. “We have several trucks of explosives about to head to the bridge. If all else fails, we can blow it up and topple it onto the aircraft carrier and hopefully a few more of the military vessels—either to destroy them or stop them from escaping out to sea.”
“Destroy the Verrazano Narrows Bridge?” reacted Preston.
“The weight of the bridge should just about cut through the aircraft carrier, or at least sink it,” Colonel Patterson replied. “General Allen thought that it was a small price to pay for the destruction of the ships that are really going to be a problem. Carlos and I talked a little earlier. We do not have a GPS system good enough to launch our sophisticated missiles at these ships. They have massive amounts of hard armor and their defense systems, even without using their GPS missile directional systems, are still a force to be reckoned with. Some of their fast-action big guns and 50mm cannons can wreak havoc on our troops. Most of our old battle guns will be wiped out in seconds by dozens of their rapid fire guns.
“Why don’t we take them out with a nuclear missile before they get here?” asked the president.
“You just say the word, sir, and it will be done—just as soon as Carlos can pinpoint them on his computer screen,” the colonel said enthusiastically. “However, that also destroys the food ships and could be the death sentence for a million or more Americans who will starve to death without it. We don’t have enough food right now, and maybe those five container ships will only feed New York and maybe Washington for a couple of weeks, but the general’s main dilemma was whether to destroy the food ships and lose food for a million people, or whether to risk losing a couple thousand troops and hopefully obtain control of the attack.
“Also, the long-distance benefit of having these ships is that these ships may be the only large ships left in the world. If Los Angeles is to get another five of these container ships full of food in two week’s time, then these five ships heading for New York would not get back in time to reload. That means that there must be five more ships sitting in Shanghai Harbor. That’s why he hasn’t blown up his main airport and harbor. I have thought about Shanghai for much of the day. If he is now moving his troops into Harbin, we can assume that the troop numbers at the airport and harbor in Shanghai are being depleted, which gives us the chance to go in and capture anything he has there. I bet they are also full of unprotected fuel ready to supply Los Angeles with food.”