“Ten minutes, his office.”
He pressed the button. “Thanks, Judy.” Ten minutes. It took almost that long to walk there inside the Pentagon.
“Where is this, exactly?” the Secretary of Defense asked.
“Northern edge of Manchuria, on a large plateau in the Greater Khingan Range.”
“Do we know why the Chinese are building this new facility?”
I think I know exactly why, Billingsly thought. But I can’t tell him. “No current intel on that at this point, Sir, but we’re looking into it.”
“Estimated capability?”
“No idea yet, but it looks like it may be on a par with our new facility, and you know what that is capable of doing.” He doesn’t appear to suspect anything. That’s a plus.
“Hmm…” the Secretary of Defense replied. “Let me know as soon as you get a verified size of the facility.”
“Yes, Sir,” Billingsly replied. “We can’t allow them to complete this facility, Sir.”
“Can’t allow is an ambitious term, Admiral. What do you have in mind? Something short of declaring war on China, I hope.”
“There just has to be a way, Sir.”
“Any fault lines near the place?”
“No Sir. I already checked that out. The plateau is solid rock. Honestly, Sir, they couldn’t have picked a better spot for it.”
“Could the Russians be of any help to us with this?”
“Doubtful, Sir, first of all the Russians don’t even have any roads in the area. It’s pretty isolated. Secondly, with the political climate, the Russians would be more likely to help the Chinese rather than us.”
“Had to ask,” the Secretary of Defense replied.
“We could use the weather to at least slow them down, Sir.”
“If they are this aware of the technology, wouldn’t that likely piss ‘em off?”
It probably would, Billingsly thought, but at this point, what have I got to lose? “Don’t know, Sir, but it could buy us some important time to respond to this threat.”
The Secretary of Defense drummed his fingers on his desk. “Use your own judgment, Admiral, but keep me updated on any changes.”
“Yes, Sir.” So far, so good. Billingsly thought.
When he returned to his office he composed an order for the new facility in Alaska, now known as the Active Aural Antenna Array, or A4. The standard working procedure was to have the computer encrypt the message and send it by FAX. Once received, the A4 facility would decrypt and implement the order, then shred and burn the order along with all of the other classified material that went through the place on a daily basis. Just as before, no record would remain of anything that came from the Deputy Director of Covert Operations. Weather modification was used regularly to help cover covert military operations all over the globe. Storms and heavy rain drove people indoors, making it the perfect weather for Special Forces missions.
CHAPTER 13
Two days later, Guang Xi was running his calculations and working with Junior General Fong. They had settled on a low level mini-nuke that could be adapted for deployment through a torpedo tube.
“How many of these will we need?” Fong asked.
“Thirty-five,” Guang Xi answered. “That places them a little over 18 ¼ miles apart. The timing will be critical, so it will need to be set at the time the mine is deployed to adjust for variations in distance and depth along the fault line.”
“And who is going to do that calculation?”
“I am,” Guang Xi stated.
“You realize that with the level of American technology and their underwater hydrophones, the probability of completing this mission is very low?”
“The Americans ended the life I had when they caused that earthquake. Look at me. I’m disfigured, disabled and alone. The life I had is gone. The only thing I want now is revenge, and nothing will please me more than to bring it to America personally.”
“As you wish,” Fong said with a slight bow. “I will make the arrangements.”
Dr. Huang entered the room. “Dr. Zheng is supervising the construction of the new facility in northern Manchuria. He says it has been raining there every day.”
“The Americans?” Guang Xi asked, looking over at Fong.
“Yes,” Fong answered. “All they can do now is make it rain. If they use anything more than that, we will make sure every country in the world knows that they attacked us without provocation. Politically there is little else they can do.”
Guang Xi turned to Dr. Huang. “Have you found out anything else about Meili?”
Dr. Huang hung his head. “I’m afraid she has moved back to Yantai to be with her family.”
Of course she has. Guang Xi looked at Fong, who simply nodded.
“And what is your plan?” Dr. Huang asked.
“We set the first device here, at the triple junction off the coast of California, which is generally unstable anyway. That will trigger the San Andreas Fault as well as the Cascadia Subduction Fault. Without close inspection, it will look like the San Andreas Fault triggered the Subduction Zone.” Guang Xi explained.
“How long will it take to place the mines?” Dr. Huang asked.
“Silent running speed of the submarine is limited to 8 knots,” Fong said.
“Which leaves us about 68 and a half hours to place all of the mines, and another 3 hours to get out of the zone.” Guang Xi added.
Dr. Huang turned to Fong. “Are there enough of these weapons available?”
“More than enough.”
“And if everything goes as planned?” Dr. Huang asked.
“The subduction zone quake will be somewhere between a 9.0 and a 9.5 magnitude,” Guang Xi stated. “The four major cities of Portland, Oregon, Seattle, and Olympia, Washington and Vancouver, will sustain extensive damage as will more inland cities, such as Eugene, and Salem, Oregon. The tsunami generated will approach 100 feet in height, and will inundate all of the lower lying land and river valleys up to eighty miles inland.”
“The seismic signature?” Dr. Huang inquired.
“Will look completely natural,” Guang Xi replied. “The explosive spikes will be small enough that they will be absorbed into the spreading and expanding subduction zone quake. They will be indistinguishable from natural sticking points and the random release of pent-up energy accumulated over the last 300 years.”
“What effect will the water depth and pressure have on the devices?” Fong asked.
“I’ve taken that into consideration,” Guang Xi said. “The devices, according to Dr. Zheng, operate by the violent compression of Plutonium, generated by shaped charges within a hardened steel shell. The 750 pound per square inch pressure of the water depth will add slightly to the explosive force of the shaped charges, making the compression more efficient, and the yield slightly higher than normal.”
“Radiation?” Dr. Huang questioned.
“At that depth, the detonation will not reach the surface,” Guang Xi replied, “but the uplift from the explosions should add significantly to the height of the tsunami. The radiation will gradually dissipate into the surrounding water over a period of two to four weeks. By the time the Americans recover from the earthquake and the tsunami, all evidence of what we did will be gone.”
“Will the leaders of America know this has been done to them deliberately?” Dr. Huang asked.
“Some will figure it out,” Fong replied. “Those who ordered the earthquake attack on us will realize what we have done. We want them to know. With our new facility in operation, no one will dare to attack us again. This is the whole point of what we are doing — so this will never happen to us again. America will finally have met its superior in the world, and it will change the standing of China forever.”