"How sure are we that they are disarmed?" Tong persisted.

"If they have ballistic arms, they've concealed it from everyone," Tan Deshi told them all. Then he shook his head decisively. "No, they have no more."

"And that gives us an advantage, doesn't it?" Zhong asked, with a ghoulish smile.

USS Gettysburg was alongside the floating pier in the York River. Once the warheads for Trident missiles had been stored here, and there must still have been some awaiting dismantlement, because there were Marines to be seen, and only Marines were entrusted to guard the Navy's nuclear weapons. But none of those were on the pier. No, the trucks that rolled out from the weapons depot were carrying long, square cross-sectioned boxes that contained SM-2 ER Block-IVD surface-to-air missiles. When the trucks got to the cruiser, a traveling crane lifted them up to the foredeck of the ship, where, with the a.s.sistance of some strongbacked sailors, the boxes were rapidly lowered into the vertical launch cells of the forward missile launcher. It took about four minutes per box, Gregory saw, with the captain pacing his wheelhouse all the while. Gregory knew why. He had an order to take his cruiser right to Washington, D.C., and the order had the word "expedite" on it. Evidently, "expedite" was a word with special meaning for the United States Navy, like having your wife call for you from the baby's room at two in the morning. The tenth box was duly lowered, and the crane swung clear of the ship.

"Mr. Richardson," Captain Blandy said to the Officer of the Deck.

"Yes, sir," the lieutenant answered.

"Let's get under way."

Gregory walked out on the bridge wing to watch. The Special Sea Detail cast off the six-inch hawsers, and scarcely had they fallen clear of the cleats on the main deck when the cruiser's auxiliary power unit started pushing the ten thousand tons of gray steel away from the floating pier. And the ship was for sure in a hurry. She was not fifteen feet away when the main engines started turning, and less than a minute after that, Gregory heard the WHOOSH of the four jet-turbines taking a big gulp of air, and he could feel the ship accelerate for the Chesapeake Bay, almost like being on a city transit bus.

"Dr. Gregory?" Captain Blandy had stuck his head out the pilothouse door.

"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 a.s.s. Now he had more computing power in his wrist.w.a.tch. 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 seekerheads 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 a.s.sembly.

"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 embarra.s.sment 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 a.s.s."

"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 motherf.u.c.ker 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 G.o.d, 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 s.h.i.t, 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? h.e.l.l, couldn't some university duplicate the optics?" the President asked.

"Well, yeah, I guess. The imagery systems are good, but they're 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."

CHAPTER 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 than 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-Oh-Second Armored. General Peng Xi-w.a.n.g 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."

"How badly?"

"I do not know. Reports are sketchy, but it doesn't sound good."

"What sort of attack was it?"

"An air attack, origin unknown. As I said, reports are very sketchy at this time. Twenty-ninth seems very disorganized at the moment," Ge reported.

"Very well. You will continue the attack. Forty-third Army is behind Twenty-ninth and will support you. Watch your left flank-"

"I know of the reports of Russian units to my west," Ge said. "I will orient a mechanized division to deal with that, but . . ."

"But what?" Luo asked.

"But, Comrade Marshal, we have no reconnaissance information on what lies before us. I need such information in order to advance safely."

"You will find your safety in advancing rapidly into enemy territory and destroying whatever formations you find," Luo told him forcefully. "Continue your advance!"

"By your command, Comrade Minister." There wasn't much else he could say to that.

"Report back to me as necessary."

"I will do that," Ge promised.

"Very well. Out." Static replaced the voice.

"You heard him," Ge said to Colonel Wa Cheng-gong, whom he'd just inherited as army operations officer. "Now what, Colonel?"

"We continue the advance, Comrade General."

Ge nodded to the logic of the situation. "Give the order."

It took hold four minutes later, when the radio commands filtered down to battalion level and the units started moving.

They didn't need reconnaissance information now, Colonel Wa reasoned. They knew that there had to be some light Russian units just beyond the ridgeline where Peng had met his foolish death. Didn't I warn him? Wa raged to himself. Didn't Ge warn him? For a general to die in battle was not unexpected. But to die from a single bullet fired by some lone rifleman was worse than foolish. Thirty years of training and experience wasted, lost to a single rifleman!

There they go again," Major Tucker said, seeing the plume of diesel exhaust followed by the lurching of numerous armored vehicles. "About six kilometers from your first line of tanks."

"A pity we can't get one of these terminals to Sinyavskiy," Bondarenko said.

"Not that many of them, sir," Tucker told him. "Sun Microsystems is still building them for us."

That was General Ge Li," Luo told the Politburo. "We've had some bad luck. General Peng is dead, killed by a sniper bullet, I just learned."