Another ding. And the door opened.
Chase and Tetsuo both moved towards the opening elevator door, their weapons pointed forward.
Natesh’s corpse lay inside, a scarlet bloodstain on his chest.
Tetsuo ran over to him, checking his pulse. “He’s dead. Let’s check up on the second floor, where it stopped.” He pressed the emergency hold button on the elevator. Then Tetsuo and Chase raced up the stairs to the second floor.
They searched for thirty minutes before they called in more CIA help to investigate the room and area surrounding the hotel. But Lena, and Natesh’s laptop, were nowhere to be found.
Lin Yu watched as another commercial aircraft landed on the runway. It was strange, seeing them fly in one after the other, unload their passengers right on the flight line — no terminal or anything. Then they would get refueled and take off again immediately. Everything was so fast.
Lin Yu had never been to a big commercial airport, but he had seen them in movies. And he was pretty sure that the occupants of the aircraft weren’t marched off to a tent city in a field, only a few miles from the runway.
Then again, how many commercial planes were filled with Chinese soldiers, flying across the ocean?
He was a changed person now. He knew that it was propaganda they had been pouring on him for the last two weeks, during his crash-course boot camp. He knew it, but it didn’t matter.
Lin Yu had heard and seen enough of what the Americans had done that he believed his instructors. He has been brainwashed to hate Americans — and to detest religion, any religion. The Americans only wanted to kill Chinese. They hated everything that his people stood for. He believed that now. And a part of him was amazed at how quickly the transformation had occurred.
He sat in his tent, cleaning his weapon, tired and ready to sleep. The kid in the rack next to him asked, “What do you think will happen tomorrow? Will we start the invasion?”
Lin Yu just laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
He shook his head. “The invasion has already begun. We’re here.”
“Where?”
“America.”
“I thought we were in Siberia. To get ready? Then we fly to America soon after?”
“That was just some bullshit they put out. They wanted to throw the Americans off in case they found out.”
“But how did the planes get over the United States without being detected or shot down?”
“They used electromagnetic pulse weapons. And they had special forces units who destroyed some radars or anti-aircraft missiles. We didn’t go over America much anyway. We were over Canada for the most part, until just before landing.”
“How do you know all that?”
“I work in the operations department. This is America. More planes will come in all night long. Tomorrow we will likely push south and begin splitting the country in two. They will bring more of us in each day.”
40
Admiral Manning sat at the head of the Ford Carrier Strike Group conference table, the room filled with staff officers. These were the war planners. The men and women who worked tirelessly day and night to fit each length of the chain together. The ones who would gladly give their lives in defense of the United Sates. Who gave up holidays with family, who missed the births of their children and sacrificed time and again over long deployments.
They had just been battle-tested and won.
Six Chinese merchant ships, fitted with storage containers filled with missiles, had been sunk by a combination of ship and air power from the Ford Strike Group. Four Chinese submarines in the water space surrounding the Hawaiian Islands had also been sunk by American fast-attack subs. The Chinese surprise attack on Hawaii had been completely rebuked.
SAG-131—the surface action group that Admiral Manning had dispatched to Guam — had turned a surprise Chinese air strike from catastrophe to minor victory. While the runways and air defense sites on Guam were damaged, they could be repaired quickly. And the ample US air assets on Guam were unharmed. They would be crucial in an American military response in the Western Pacific.
And there would need to be a response. For Hawaii and Guam were some of the few American success stories during the day.
“Proceed with the brief,” said Admiral Manning.
His intelligence officer nodded. “Sir, over the past twelve hours, our normal collection and dissemination of intelligence has ground to a halt. There has been some type of cyberattack on the continental US infrastructure, we know that. But we also suspect that some of the undersea cables that connect Internet and telecommunications across the Atlantic and Pacific have also been cut. The Chinese have begun launching anti-satellite weapons to shoot down our recently launched satellites that we have up, as well as the classified ones we didn’t think they knew about. In short, sir, the flow of intelligence is not what we’re used to getting. But we do know a few things…”
He continued painting the picture that Admiral Manning had already picked up bits and pieces of from the conversation he’d had with the commander of the Pacific Fleet moments ago. But he let him continue — this brief wasn’t just for Admiral Manning. Everyone needed the information.
Nuclear explosions had been detected in North Korea. While the military had not confirmed it through official channels, news reports had stated that the American president had ordered the attack, a retaliation for North Korea invading South Korea. That seemed ludicrous to Admiral Manning. No sane US president would give that order, but that was the information they were getting. But good news sources were hard to come by today. Much of the United States had been attacked by EMP weapons. Only a day after the war had begun, the fog was still thick.
China had attacked US military assets in Japan, Diego Garcia, Guam, the Philippines, Australia, and South Korea. Taiwan was also being hit hard. The attacks farther from the Chinese mainland had been carried out mostly by submarine-launched cruise missiles. Japanese, Taiwanese, and South Korean targets had been hit mostly by land-launched missiles and Chinese bombers.
“Sir, we really don’t know the results of the Chinese attacks on Western Pacific allied nations yet. But we do have unconfirmed reports that both US aircraft carriers in the region have been sunk.”
A few people gasped. Someone cursed. Most of the attendees had clenched jaws, choosing to remain silent.
Admiral Manning listened for another fifteen minutes while the intelligence brief went on. When it was finished, he stood up, and the room stood at attention.
“We are once again a nation at war. If not for our victories at Guam and Hawaii, I fear that we would be at a great disadvantage. We should be thankful for what we have, and mourn those we have lost.” He clenched his jaw, and he took a few deep breaths out of his nose.
Then he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, stay vigilant. This fight has just begun.”
From the Author:
Hello Readers. This is Andrew Watts. I began my career as a US Navy pilot. Today I’m a USA TODAY bestselling author. Hopefully, you have enjoyed my work.
What’s next? I think you’ll be excited.
Follow this link to see a sneak peek of the next book in The War Planners series:
Get a sneak peek at War Planners #5 HERE
http://andrewwattsauthor.com/wp-4-connect/
About the Author
Andrew Watts graduated from the US Naval Academy in 2003 and served as a naval officer and helicopter pilot until 2013. During that time, he flew counter-narcotic missions in the Eastern Pacific and counter-piracy missions off the Horn of Africa. He was a flight instructor in Pensacola, FL, and helped to run ship and flight operations while embarked on a nuclear aircraft carrier deployed in the Middle East.