Tetsuo stood inside, shaking hands with Chase as he entered. “Glad you made it out okay. We were worried about you.” He raised his eyebrows. “Whoa. Buddy, you smell.”
“Yeah, well. Wasn’t my idea to go in the field for a couple weeks.”
“Everything go okay?”
“Got a bit rough at the end. Listen, I need to get information up the chain as soon as possible.”
Tetsuo handed him a corded phone connected to the trailer’s secure communications network. Within minutes, Chase was speaking with members of the SILVERSMITH team while Tetsuo listened in.
Susan’s voice sounded strained. It was late at night there in Langley. “Let’s hear your report.”
Chase gave her the summary of events over the past week. He started with the most crucial information — China was indeed planning to attack the United States. Per GIANT’s verbal communication, the time of the attack could be as soon as today. He didn’t yet know what data he had transferred in the small data device.
Upon hearing this, General Schwartz interrupted. “Excuse me one moment. I’m going to put out an emergency message to our forces. I want to make sure I have the relevant information. Is there anything else he said?”
“He said that the entire Pacific was in play and emphasized that Guam and Hawaii would be among the first hit.”
“Did he get information on where the Chinese special operations teams were headed? What are their targets? Are they really going to the US? Were they going to Guam and Hawaii?”
“I don’t know. That was all he said.”
“How is that possible? Our confidence on Chinese positions is lower than normal, but it isn’t that bad,” someone on the phone said. Chase didn’t recognize the voice.
“I don’t know,” answered Chase.
More voices began offering explanations. Chase thought he heard someone say something about “missing group of merchants, and a recently activated group of Chinese surface ships.”
Susan said, “Gentlemen, please. General, I think it would be appropriate to include the Hawaii and Guam information in your message. And I don’t think we should wait any longer to send it.”
“Just sent to the folks that manage the emergency warning messages out to the military,” replied the general. “When we’re done here, I’ll go down the hall and double-check that there weren’t any issues. But all our military units and government partners should get that broadcast within minutes.”
Susan said, “Chase, what else can you tell us?”
He continued recounting the details of his mission, from his insertion and reconnaissance of the PLA special operations training, to GIANT’s arrival and death. When he told them that GIANT had perished, everyone was silent. Tetsuo looked away. GIANT was his agent, and he was visibly upset.
Susan said, “Our techs just got the downloaded files from the device that GIANT passed you. They tell me it is an audio recording, with no other data. We’re going to listen to it on our side with our China analysts. Chase, Tetsuo, we’ll call you back in thirty minutes after we finish our initial review.”
The screen went dark.
Chase looked at Tetsuo. “Sorry about your man.”
Tetsuo nodded. “Thanks,” he sighed, then said, “Hey, your brother said to say hi. I was working with him in Tokyo. Nice guy.” Tetsuo filled Chase in on everything that had transpired with Natesh.
“He’s working for you now?”
“Yup.”
“No kidding.” Chase rubbed his chin. “Seems a little odd, don’t you think? Them sending him to Tokyo right as all this is going down.”
“Yeah. I’m with you. We’ve had discussions about that. But so far, the information he’s given us has checked out. So he appears to be a reliable source. And those are getting hard to come by.”
Chase said, “Anywhere I can shower around here while we’re waiting?”
“Yeah, actually. There are locker rooms in the back of the hangar. We threw your stuff in one of them. It’s unlocked, but it has your name on it.”
“Awesome. Thanks, man. I’ll be right back.”
Chase hit the showers and was back in ten minutes. He was still exhausted but felt a million times better after getting two weeks’ worth of dirt and grime off him. He went back through security and reentered the secure CIA trailer.
“They just sent me an email,” Tetsuo said. “They’re calling us back now.”
The light on the phone flickered and the words “call connecting” appeared on the digital readout. Then Susan’s voice. “Chase, Tetsuo, it was an audio recording. GIANT recorded himself speaking for the first five minutes, and then he recorded a conversation between him and what we assume were some of the officers at the camp. We just had it translated, and our analysts are all in agreement. They were training special operations teams to come to America. Some type of strategic attack with mortars. We aren’t sure what the target was.”
Chase said, “We saw those teams training. But they left the base just before GIANT arrived.”
Susan said, “That was two days ago, correct?”
“Correct. That’s when they started leaving. They all left over the past forty-eight hours.”
“Then we should assume that they are all about to enter the United States, if they aren’t here already. We’ve alerted the FBI and Homeland Security to be on the lookout for groups of people entering the country that match their description.”
General Schwartz spoke up. “Gentlemen, regarding GIANT’s warning that the attacks are imminent, and the idea that the Chinese would attack Guam and Hawaii in a first strike — we were discussing that here, and we just don’t see it. There aren’t any obvious PLA Navy movements towards Hawaii or Guam. The only thing we have is a group of missing merchant ships, but we expect them to be located shortly.”
“Don’t forget the carrier group…”
“True, but the carrier group is still near the Philippines.”
“That’s correct.”
Chase felt like they were thinking out loud as they spoke. He also got the distinct feeling that they were panicked. That they felt like they were behind the eight ball. Which they very well might be.
General Schwartz continued, “That being said, if one or both of those locations — Guam and Hawaii — were to fall to the Chinese, that could be devastating to America’s long-term success in a Pacific war. Both of those islands are of tremendous strategic importance. If they fell, it would be extremely difficult to support Western Pacific operations with air assets, given Korea and Japan’s close proximity to China.”
Susan said, “Tetsuo, you’ve been asking Natesh to get an update on the position of the special Chinese merchant ships. Any progress there?”
“I was due to meet with him tomorrow night.”
“We need that information now. Our thinking here is that whatever is on those merchants must be related to an initial attack. Office of Naval Intelligence has told us that Chinese submarine activity has picked up in a big way. But it’s those merchants that we’re concerned about. Without satellite tracking, we need a way to locate them. Please get back to Japan. Contact Natesh, find out if he—”
The call went dead, and the lights in the trailer went out.
“What the hell?”
“Who turned the lights out?”
Chase heard a series of dull rumbles in the distance. Explosions.
The Chinese military has many islands in the Pacific — most notably the Spratley Islands, which have been developed from mere sandbars into static ocean-based military bases, complete with radars, air defense missiles, and surface-to-surface missile batteries. They also contain runways and fuel that can extend the range of land-based fighters and other military aircraft.