My stomach turned to ice as I quickly tried to figure out who it could be. Several Lafayette members were still on the road back from their targets in the northern part of the country.
"The terrorist we captured is an American who committed a number of atrocities against Chinese citizens in Taiwan when he was a member of the rogue American splinter group calling itself the Knights."
McCormick, then. Christ, we just rescued him and now —
"This terrorist, Thaman Gurung, a Gurkha with ties to Tibetan extremists, must be brought to justice. A UN investigation concluded that he should be tried for international war crimes, and so we shall try him right here in Beijing at the High People's Court.
"Make no mistake: we will interrogate Gurung thoroughly and hunt down the rest of his terrorist cell before they can slaughter more innocents. And we will not waver until Taiwan, the nest of terrorists and rebels, is pacified and reintegrated into the People's Republic of China."
Twenty minutes later, every member of the Lafayette Initiative, except McCormick, who was still en route from his targets outside Beijing, gathered to discuss the Chinese President's speech.
Fei began. "The pilot assassinations have badly hurt the PLAAF. They don't have enough pilots to fly the J-10's, and it will be at least a few weeks until they can train their Su-30 and -27 pilots to take over. Even then, the J-10 pilots were their best and brightest. The new pilots will be raw, inexperienced.
"With the Chinese air force this weak, it's only a matter of time before the U.S. gains control of the skies over the Taiwan Strait and stops Chinese ships from crossing. Once that happens, Chinese land forces in Taiwan will be cut off from resupply.
"The Chinese are faced with two options: one, withdraw from Taiwan in defeat."
Volodya interjected dryly, "Doesn't much sound like the President of the PRC would like that one." Scattered chuckles greeted his observation.
Fei continued. "Two, go on the offensive immediately and try to finish off Taiwan before the Americans can cut off the resupply shipments from China."
Dietrich said evenly, "I know which option I would choose."
Fei nodded. "Our intelligence people think the PLA will launch its massive offensive across our Mountain Line very soon. With the U.S. flying in troops and equipment, breaching our lines is only going to get more difficult."
Dietrich asked, "How soon?"
Fei shrugged. "The Taiwanese air force attacks probably disorganized their forces a bit. Say, a day before they can be ready."
Douglas added his own question. "How much can they throw at the Mountain Line?"
In a flat voice, Fei answered, "They've been building up strength continuously since the first day of the invasion. Our best guess is they've accumulated something like a half million soldiers, a couple thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, maybe another thousand mobile rocket launcher and assorted antiaircraft systems."
Volodya interjected, "So, about four times more soldiers than the U.S. used to invade Iraq."
Fei nodded. "And about five times what we can muster on Taiwan to hold the Mountain Line."
I took up the discussion. "So, we have to figure out what targets to hit to maximize our impact on the battle. Dietrich, any ideas?"
Dietrich thought aloud. "After the Knight's assassination of Marshal Deng, I doubt the Chinese will put any senior generals where we could get to them. So hitting their command and control centers is out unless Captain Fei's friends tell us about a target of opportunity."
Douglas opined, "The battle of the Mountain Line will not be quickly won by either side. It's going to be like the Battle of Kursk in World War Two, a maelstrom of tanks, soldiers, and airplanes.”
Dietrich finished Douglas's argument. “So we should keep our focus on the supply lines, yes. Captain Fei, surely the Taiwanese military has some targets in mind that would be worth our attention.”
With a slight grin, Fei answered, “Yes. In fact, you might say they have been planning on it. The raids by the Taiwanese air force a few hours ago did substantial damage to the PLA stores of ammunition and fuel. The PLA is going to have to surge more supplies forward to the front lines before the big offensive can start.
“Most of what they bring over is offloaded in Taichung harbor on the western side of Taiwan. They captured the harbor facilities there nearly intact in the first hour of the invasion. There are a number of other major harbors on Taiwan, but getting any of the other harbors up to speed would require time that the Chinese don't have. So, for the purposes of this coming battle, Taichung is the Chinese logistical choke point.
“The PLA is not stupid, of course. They have heavily fortified Taichung. It is immune from air attack and there's no way into the harbor itself from the water. But there's a container ship in Quanzhou harbor loading up on ammunition right this minute. Tomorrow evening, it will be departing for Taichung. High command wants us to capture the ship while it's en route, sneak it into Taichung harbor, then blow it up near the port facilities.”
Douglas noted, “PLA forces on Taiwan would be facing a logistical nightmare on the eve of the biggest battle of the war.”
“Precisely. A Pelican is even now en route with a stealth motorboat we can use to approach the ammunition ship while it's in the Strait. We would need to leave tomorrow afternoon in order to get sufficiently ahead of the ship so that we can intercept it—”
The front door opened, startling everyone in the room. McCormick stormed in, anger visible in his face and the way he strode in, eyes locked on me. “Gurung's alive. You heard the Chinese President's speech. I'm going to get him out.”
Chapter 15
For a moment, no one knew how to respond to McCormick's announcement. Then, Volodya answered, “It's a trap, sergeant. You think the Chinese President usually holds a trial for a prisoner of war like Gurung? And announces where the trial's being held?”
Volodya shook his head. “I'll bet that when Fei's comrades in Taiwanese intelligence look into the question, they find Gurung's prison inside of five minutes. Christ, the Chinese might as well put up a big fucking neon sign: 'Clay McCormick, come to this location so we can kill you.'”
McCormick said nothing, tacitly conceding the point. After a moment, he said, “I will not leave Gurung behind. He was in my unit; he's my responsibility. I'll go alone if I have to.”
Volodya sighed. “The decisive battle of the war is coming and you want to piss away our time trying to spring one soldier out of a Chinese prison, out of an obvious trap that was tailor made to put us out of commission.”
McCormick looked straight at me. “Mr. Cortez, you heard the speech. The Lafayette Initiative looks like a bunch of thugs and terrorists. Wouldn't you rather the Initiative be remembered for the people it saved?”
I responded, “Sergeant McCormick, I may be a businessman, but I am not so easily swayed by public relations considerations. I want to win the war. If I just wanted to do things that looked good, I would have donated a couple million dollars to the Red Cross instead of bringing all these people here.”
Dietrich spoke up hesitatingly. “I may have a solution.”
Douglas urged on, “Well, go on, what is it, lad?”
As if anticipating objections before he even said what the plan was, Dietrich explained, “There is a way we could quietly achieve the release of Corporal Gurung without making the matter public.”
Annoyed, I said, “Tell us the damn idea already.”
Dietrich's plan, in addition to being precisely the kind of amoral brilliance that Douglas had promised when we took him on, dovetailed nicely with the timetable for the next operation the Taiwanese high command wanted us to take on. That mission could not begin for another day, and so we had about thirty hours to try Dietrich's gambit.