“Yeah, Captain?”
“You want to get below and do your software MAGIC on our birds?”
“You bet.” He knew the way, and in three minutes was at the computer terminal which handled that task.
“Hey, Doc,” Senior Chief Leek said, sitting down next to him. “All ready? I’m supposed to help.”
“Okay, you can watch, I suppose.” The only problem was that it was a clunky system, about as user-friendly as a chain saw, but as Leek had told him a week before, this was the flower of 1975 technology, back when an Apple-II with 64K of RAM was the cat’s own ass. Now he had more computing power in his wristwatch. Each missile had to be upgraded separately, and each was a seven-step process.
“Hey, wait a minute,” Gregory objected. The screen wasn’t right.
“Doc, we loaded six Block-IVD. The other two are stock SM-2 ER Block IIIC radar-homers. What can I tell you, Cap’n Blandy’s conservative.”
“So I only do the upgrade on holes one through six?”
“No, do ’em all. It’ll just ignore the changes you made to the infrared homing code. The chips on the birds can handle the extra code, no sweat, right, Mr. Olson?”
“Correct, Senior Chief,” Lieutenant Olson confirmed. “The missiles are current technology even if the computer system isn’t. It probably costs more to make missile seeker-heads with current technology that can talk to this old kludge than it would to buy a new Gateway to upgrade the whole system, not to mention having a more reliable system overall, but you’ll have to talk to NAVSEA about that.”
“Who?” Gregory asked.
“Naval Sea Systems Command. They’re the technical geniuses who won’t put stabilizers on these cruisers. They think it’s good for us to puke in a seaway.”
“Feathermerchants,” Leek explained. “Navy’s full of ’em—on land, anyway.” The ship heeled strongly to starboard.
“Cap’n’s in a hurry, ain’t he?” Gregory observed. Gettysburg was making a full-speed right-angle turn to port.
“Well, SACLANT said it’s the SecDef’s idea. I guess that makes it important,” Mr. Olson told their guest.
“I think this is imprudent,” Fang told them all. “Why is that?” Luo asked.
“Is fueling the missiles necessary? Is there not a danger of provocation?”
“I suppose this is a technical matter,” Qian said. “As I recall, once you fuel them, you cannot keep them fueled for more than—what? Twelve hours?”
The technocrat caught the Defense Minister off guard with that question. He didn’t know the answer. “I will have to consult with Second Artillery for that,” he admitted.
“So, then, you will not prepare them for launch until we have a chance to consider the matter?” Qian asked.
“Why—of course not,” Luo promised.
“And so the real problem is, how do we tell the people what has transpired in Siberia?”
“The people will believe what we tell them to believe!” Luo said yet again.
“Comrades,” Qian said, struggling to keep his voice reasonable, “we cannot conceal the rising of the sun. Neither can we conceal the loss of our rail-transport system. Nor can we conceal the large-scale loss of life. Every soldier has parents, and when enough of them realize their son is lost, they will speak of it, and the word will get out. We must face facts here. It is better, I think, to tell the people that there is a major battle going on, and there has been loss of life. To proclaim that we are winning when we may not be is dangerous for all of us.”
“You say the people will rise up?” Tong Jie asked.
“No, but I say there could be dissatisfaction and unrest, and it is in our collective interest to avoid that, is it not?” Qian asked the assembly.
“How will adverse information get out?” Luo asked.
“It frequently does,” Qian told them. “We can prepare for it, and mitigate the effect of adverse information, or we can try to withstand it. The former offers mild embarrassment to us. The latter, if it fails, could be more serious.”
“The TV will show what we wish them to show, and the people will see nothing else. Besides, General Peng and his army group are advancing even as we speak.”
“What do they call it?”
“This one’s Grace Kelly. The other two are Marilyn Monroe and—can’t remember,” General Moore said. “Anyway, they named ’em for movie stars.”
“And how do they transmit?”
“The Dark Star uploads directly to a communications satellite, encrypted, of course, and we distribute it out of Fort Belvoir.”
“So, we can send it out any way we want?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay, Ed, the Chinese are telling their people what?”
“They started off by saying the Russians committed a border intrusion and they counterattacked. They’re also saying that they’re kicking Ivan’s ass.”
“Well, that’s not true, and it’ll be especially untrue when they reach the Russian stop-line. That Bondarenko guy’s really played his cards beautifully. They’re pretty strung out. We’ve chopped their supply line for fair, and they’re heading into a real motherfucker of an ambush,” the DCI told them. “How about it, General?”
“The Chinese just don’t know what’s ahead of them. You know, out at the NTC we keep teaching people that he who wins the reconnaissance battle wins the war. The Russians know what’s happening. The Chinese do not. My God, this Dark Star has really exceeded our expectations.”
“It’s some shiny new toy, Mickey,” Jackson agreed. “Like going to a Vegas casino when you’re able to read the cards halfway through the deck. You just can’t hardly lose this way.”
The President leaned forward. “You know, one of the reasons we took it on the chin with Vietnam is how the people got to see the war every night on Huntley-Brinkley. How will it affect the Chinese if their people see the war the same way, but live this time?”
“The battle that’s coming? It’ll shake them up a lot,” Ed Foley thought. “But how do we—oh, oh, yeah … Holy shit, Jack, are you serious?”
“Can we do it?” Ryan asked.
“Technically? It’s child’s play. My only beef is that it really lets people know one of our capabilities. This is sensitive stuff, I mean, right up there with the performance of our reconnaissance satellites. It’s not the sort of thing you just let out.”
“Why not? Hell, couldn’t some university duplicate the optics?” the President asked. I
“Well, yeah, I guess. The imagery systems are good, but they’re T not all that new a development, except some of the thermal systems, but even so—”
“Ed, let’s say we can shock them into stopping the war. How many lives would it save?”
“Quite a few,” the DCI admitted. “Thousands. Maybe tens of thousands.”
“Including some of our people?”
“Yes, Jack, including some of ours.”
“And from a technical point of view, it’s really child’s play?”
“Yes, it’s not technically demanding at all.”
“Then turn the children loose, Ed. Right now,” Ryan ordered.
“Yes, Mr. President.”
C H A P T E R – 59
Loss of Control
With the death of General Peng, command of 34th Shock Army devolved to Major General Ge Li, CG also of 302nd Armored. His first task was to get himself clear, and this he did, ordering his tank off the long gun-range slope while one of the surviving reconnaissance tracks recovered Peng’s body. All of those tracked vehicles also pulled back, as Ge figured his first task was to determine what had happened, rather then to avenge the death of his army commander. It took him twenty minutes to motor back to his own command section, where he had a command track identical to the one Peng had driven about in. He needed the radios, since he knew the field phones were down, for whatever reason he didn’t know.
“I need to talk to Marshal Luo,” he said over the command frequency, which was relayed back to Beijing via several repeater stations. It took another ten minutes because the Defense Minister, he was told, was in a Politburo meeting. Finally, the familiar voice came over the radio.
“This is Marshal Luo.”
“This is Major General Ge Li, commanding Three-On-Second Armored. General Peng Xi-Wang is dead,” he announced.
“What happened?”
“He went forward to join the reconnaissance section to see the front, and he was killed by a sniper bullet. The recon section ran into a small ambush, looked like a single Russian personnel carrier. I drove it off with my own tank,” Ge went on. It was fairly true, and it seemed like the sort of thing he was supposed to say.
“I see. What is the overall situation?” the Defense Minister asked.
“Thirty-fourth Shock Army is advancing—well, it was. I paused the advance to reorganize the command group. I request instructions Comrade Minister.”
“You will advance and capture the Russian gold mine, secure it, and then continue north for the oil field.”
“Very well, Comrade Minister, but I must advise you that Twenty-ninth Army, right behind us, sustained a serious attack an hour ago, and was reportedly badly hit.”