“Bail out…”
“No missile lock…”
“Ahab is a terrorist,” Gushan shouted while moving to stay ahead of the security team. “He’s working with the Yellow Tigers.”
The name of the group was well-known. It stirred some interest, but by now the MPs had surrounded him. They tackled him to the floor.
Gushan didn’t resist. He shouted to Admiral Li instead. “Ahab gave them the laser off the American plane. The one you and I were trying to recover. He’s using it to stir up this fight. What else could be shooting our planes and missiles out of the sky?”
“Preposterous,” someone shouted.
“Get him out of here,” another member of the brass yelled.
Two hulking security men were now piled on top of Gushan. They held him down, pulling his arms back behind him and cuffing him. As they lifted him up, Gushan briefly caught sight of the board. The tracking lines showed the Chinese planes and missiles vanishing from radar long before they got into firing range. Farther off, the lines demarking the paths of at least two dozen American aircraft had ended mysteriously as well.
“Did our jets take out the American planes?” he grunted.
No answer.
The guards started hauling Gushan out of the room.
“If not us, then who?”
One of the guards jammed a baton into Gushan’s stomach to silence him. Gushan buckled and gasped for air. Still, he didn’t resist, keeping his focus on the generals. “What about the missiles?” he called out.
The men gathered in front of the large screen studied the things Gushan was referring to with new eyes. Chief among them was General Wei, Supreme Commander of the Eastern Theater for the PLAN.
As the man upon whom immediate decisions rested, Wei had felt particularly baffled by what he was seeing. The leading American planes were slow and performing oddly. Radar cross sections recognized them as “heavies.” Big jets. Possibly B-52s, but more likely cargo transports or even airliners. They had been flying erratically, changing course multiple times a few miles offshore, almost crashing into one another and then diving maniacally toward the coast.
The flight plan made little sense. Leading an attack with big, slow planes made even less. It had been suggested they might be carrying paratroopers, but two platoons of airborne soldiers wouldn’t last long in even the smallest Chinese hamlet.
The vanishing American interceptors were another mystery. They had been converging on the larger aircraft before disappearing from view.
“Super stealth,” someone had suggested, using the name of a rumored American technology that could turn any aircraft invisible at will.
Wei thought the idea far-fetched. But even if the Americans had such a system, there would be no reason to wait until they were halfway across the Strait to turn it on.
Radar had also confirmed the Americans launching missiles, but not so much as a single bottle rocket had landed anywhere in China. So many things about the airstrike seemed off, yet it was undeniably heading their way.
The door at the back of the great room banged open as the guards reached it with Gushan.
Wait,” the Supreme Commander ordered.
The guards stopped and propped Gushan up.
Wei turned to Admiral Li. “Is this laser weapon a reality? Could it do what we’ve seen here?”
Admiral Li nodded. “It was aboard the plane the Americans lost in the Arctic. It could very well be responsible for shooting down all these aircraft and missiles. But that doesn’t mean it’s not being flown by the Americans. If we sit back and let them eviscerate our forces…”
It was the same argument that had been going on for the last twenty minutes. Hundreds of aircraft were being readied to fly, missiles were being unlocked and prepared for launch, some at the invading aircraft, others at bigger targets.
The Supreme Commander faced a great dilemma. He almost had to retaliate at this point. But something felt off.
The voice of an aide called out an alert. “Remaining American aircraft turning back. Other than the two heavy jets, I detect no incursions into our airspace.”
The announcement gave Wei some breathing room. He turned to the board once more. “Their fighters are turning around,” he said. “But why, then, do these two jets push on?”
“Because one of them is being flown by the Yellow Tigers,” Gushan insisted. “And the other is controlled by a pair of Americans who are attempting to stop the Tigers from causing World War Three.”
