Dragonfire (39 page)

Military Headquarters, Western Hills, China

Local time: 1030 Tuesday 8 May 2007
GMT: 0230 Tuesday 8 May 2007

‘We have successfully
taken Pei-kan,’ said Leung. ‘Heavy shelling has been going for twenty minutes from Kinmen. We are exchanging fire. Taiwanese
aircraft have attacked our base at Shantou, but our air defences are holding up well. The new Sector Operations Centres are taking individual control of their areas of defence through the
integrated national defence system. Each sector is bringing in its own over the horizon and missile early-warning data and is directing our planes in the air. It is working far better than we
expected.’

‘Prime Minister Wada of Japan is on the line,’ said an assistant to President Tao, who seemed hesitant before finally saying he would not take the call. It was the fifth time the
Japanese Prime Minister had tried to talk directly to the Chinese president.

‘Detection of Indian missiles being prepared for launch.’

All eyes looked up at the real-time screen, blurred but showing the distinctive shape from a satellite photograph of an Indian missile out of cover on a mobile launcher.

‘The Agni,’ said Leung. ‘Where is it?’

‘Eastern air command, Shillong.’ The coordinates were given. ‘From Tezu. Target range: Lanzhou, Xian, Chengdu, Chonqing, Wuhan, Guangzhou.’

‘Take it out,’ said Leung, without consulting President Tao, who nodded, knowing that power was slipping away and events were overtaking him. Leung dictated the order: ‘Xining.
Second Artillery. Unit 80306. Datong, Delingha and Da Qaidam launch bases. Range approximately 1,600 kilometres. Use the DF-21, low 200 kilometre trajectory to counter anti-missile defence
system.’

Foreign Ministry, Beijing, China

Local time: 1045 Tuesday 8 May 2007
GMT: 0245 Tuesday 8 May 2007

By coincidence, Jamie
Song was meeting Reece Overhalt when Japanese Ambassador Kazuo Nishimura insisted on an audience in a remarkably obstinate and un-Japanese manner.
Overhalt and Nishimura had spoken barely an hour earlier, when Overhalt heard of Japan’s plans to move in on the Taiwan Straits, and was now in the middle of relaying it to Jamie Song.

Song asked Nishimura in. The two television sets were both on with the volume low, but audible, showing BBC World and CNN, the pictures lagging behind events by only a few minutes. On the screen
was the damaged facade of the Parliament building. Members staggering out, their clothes torn, some bleeding, and emergency vehicles arriving inside the complex.

‘Foreign Minister, I insist you urge your President to speak to Prime Minister Wada. It is a great insult for him to ignore my Prime Minister’s calls.’

Jamie Song shrugged. It was only mid-morning but he was sharing a malt whisky with Reece Overhalt. He offered a glass to Nishimura, who refused. ‘Ambassador, the decisions are being made
at our military headquarters in the Western Hills. In peacetime China, the tapestry of trade, diplomacy, commerce, politics and the military rumble along jostling for position with each other in
the big picture. But in wartime, every voice is dampened except for that of the military. We are now in wartime. I imagine that the man in control of China is not President Tao, but General Leung.
This might last just the morning, or it might last for ever. I have no idea.’

Song hadn’t bothered to offer Nishimura a seat. The ambassador sat down uninvited. ‘Prime Minister Wada has made a decision to send Japanese forces to the Straits of
Taiwan.’

‘So Reece was saying. Personally, I think it is a mistake.’

‘But your actions have been intolerable. They cannot be accepted in modern Asia.’

‘I don’t think so. Our territory was invaded by Indian troops, our oil supplies threatened by Indian warships, our naval base attacked by British forces, and Taiwan has chosen this
very moment to make a declaration of independence. Tell me, Ambassador, what would you do in our situation? Just let it all happen? Give Tibet to India? Hand over our naval bases to the British?
Let India control shipping in the Indian Ocean? Welcome Taiwan’s separation from the Motherland?’

‘There are channels. The United Nations.’

‘What we call closing the door after the horse has bolted,’ growled Overhalt.

‘If you continue, you will become isolated by the international community,’ said Nishimura. ‘As I said, your actions are unacceptable.’

Jamie Song stood up. He was unshaven, his eyes were bloodshot and he clearly had not slept properly for several days. ‘Get out!’ he shouted. ‘What right has Japan to tell us
that our actions are unacceptable? What right have you to dictate levels of morality to me after slaughtering Chinese people and other Asians with impunity!’ Song moved so quickly towards
Nishimura that Reece Overhalt was also on his feet, ready to intervene. Song stopped half a metre away from the Japanese Ambassador and gripped his arm. ‘Don’t threaten China.
Don’t try to humiliate her. Don’t boast about Indian–Japanese solidarity. Your country carried out the most horrendous atrocities and then rose up to try to claim the mantle of
Asian power again. It will not happen. China will not let it happen. We will see this through to the end, believe me, and whatever decisions are being made now in the Western Hills, I, as a Chinese
citizen, will support them without hesitation.’

When Nishimura had scuttled away, Song sank back down into his chair, looking at the television scenes of devastation from Taipei.

‘Jamie, what do you think Leung will do?’ asked Overhalt softly.

‘Remember what Mao said? “The Chinese people will never be slaves again.” We’ll see it through, Reece. Even if it means the destruction of China.’

BBC Television Centre, London

Local time: 0330 Tuesday 8 May 2007

Robin Sutcliffe, the
head of BBC Newsgathering, was woken at home. Fifteen minutes later a car was waiting to take him to work. He had packed an overnight bag. The call
had come from the BBC’s Chief Political Adviser, who herself was woken up by a call from the Home Office. The Home Office was reacting on advice passed through John Stopping’s Joint
Intelligence Committee, which had cleared the decision to alert the BBC with the Prime Minister.

Sutcliffe walked straight over to the horseshoe desk of banked television and computer screens on the first floor newsroom, the nerve centre of his department. He told the News Organizer and the
Foreign Duty Editor to help arrange a core team to move immediately to Wood Norton, a manor house and country estate in the Cotswolds owned by BBC Resources and used mainly for hosting
conferences.

Two correspondents who were working overnight in the Foreign Affairs Unit and for BBC News 24 were seconded, together with editors from Radio News bulletins and World Service Television.
Sutcliffe insisted that the presenters, two each for radio and television, came from mainstream news, and not from the more controversial current affairs programmes such as
Newsnight
or the
5 Live chat shows. Luckily a long-serving presenter from the
Today
programme had just walked into the building. Radio Four’s morning bulletin newsreader was also there. The television
presenters were taken from News 24 and World Service. Attempts were made to bring in a senior
Nine O’Clock News
presenter, but he did not arrive in time.

Sutcliffe was grateful for the BBC’s shambolic but effective policy of retaining experienced staff. The faces and voices assigned to break news in times of crisis were more or less
interchangeable. Sutcliffe telephoned the News Editor, who was his direct deputy, and asked him to come into Television Centre because he was opening up Wood Norton.

The Home Office had explained that a Chinese nuclear strike on a civilian population centre in India could not be ruled out in the next twenty-four hours. It was hoped the conflict could be
contained. But the Home Secretary thought Wood Norton should be made ready just in case Television Centre in Wood Lane and Bush House in the Aldwych had to be closed down.

The Wood Norton bunker was hewn into a hillside close to the manor house. It was built at the beginning of the Cold War in the 1950s, and while other Cold War facilities in Britain were
mothballed or sold off the BBC retained its ultimate crisis headquarters. As broadcasting equipment modernized and BBC studios were re-equipped, so was Wood Norton. It had been installed with the
latest BBC computer network and digital video and audio links. It had the ability to take satellite picture feeds from and conduct live interviews with anywhere in the world.

Sutcliffe’s core team was dropped off by coach at the manor house. Even though it was the middle of the night, there was still activity because the manor was hosting a special visit for
fans of the radio serial
The Archers
, which was set in the area. The guests were breakfasting early to catch the Cotswold dawn. Sutcliffe led the team down a winding, woodland path. The
massive metal door had already been opened by the caretaker, who had switched on the air conditioning and cleared away some of the mustiness. It reminded the older members of staff of the old
Broadcasting House, drab but efficient, decorated with tough, institutional carpets and gloss grey paint on the walls.

The bunker was built on two floors, with a newsroom of about 180 square metres, off which ran two radio studios and one which had been converted to television. The camera backdrop was the BBC
logo and the Union flag. Suggestions that there be a picture of the Houses of Parliament or another national symbol were rejected on the grounds that it might give a false impression. The BBC had
to make it clear that it was not on the air from the banks of the River Thames. A second television studio had been set up in the newsroom itself, along the lines of the designs for News 24 and
World at Television Centre.

On the lower level was a canteen, a dormitory which could sleep sixty staff, and at the far end a decontamination centre for those who might be affected by nuclear fallout. As they entered, each
person was given an NBC suit, with syringes for the antidote to a chemical weapons attack, Fullers powder to decontaminate their own suit and a monitor to measure radio activity. For the first
half-hour there was a cacophony of sound around the newsrooms as computer links were set up, the satellite desk was briefed, and the most senior correspondents in the field were told confidentially
that they might suddenly be on air not to Television Centre, but to Wood Norton. The team had not been trained specifically for this situation, but once in, they settled down to their jobs as if
they were back in London.

‘At 0700, we will begin running dummy programming alongside the output from London,’ Sutcliffe told the first bunker editorial meeting. ‘Television and radio will have one
channel each, BBC 1 and Radio 4. We will package material here and until we actually take over the presenters will substitute reporters here for the lives they would do with correspondents in the
field. If we suddenly have to stop transmissions from Television Centre, it is imperative that the switch is unflustered, calm and without panic. Those few seconds will do everything to guide the
national mood. At some stage, if war does break out, the government may take over editorial control. It is written in the charter. It is the law. Don’t let’s have any complaints about
it. We hope to get a relief team down within twenty-four hours. Until then, we’re on our own.’

The Situation Room, The White House, Washington, DC

Local time: 0100 Tuesday 8 May 2007
GMT: 0600 Tuesday 8 May 2007

‘Yes, Mr President,
Jamie Song told me personally that they would see it through to the end, even if it meant the destruction of China,’ said Reece Overhalt
on the secure line from the Embassy in Beijing. ‘He quoted from Mao about never being slaves again.’

‘Will President Tao take my call, for God’s sake?’

‘He’s not in control, sir. The military is running China for the foreseeable future. As a personal friend, Song has promised me unrestricted access to his office unless we actually
get as far as breaking off relations. If you look at it as the spectrum of Chinese politics, Song is at one end, our end, Leung is at the other, and President Tao is somewhere in the middle. Tao is
at least in the bunker and I suspect he is keeping in touch with Song. So use me as the conduit and I’m pretty sure Song will get the message through.’

‘Chinese missile launch,’ Tom Bloodworth spoke in a precise, and relaxed manner, like an airline pilot addressing passengers about the flight path. ‘Three missiles from
separate launch sites in Xining area.’

‘The Chinese have launched,’ said Hastings to Overhalt. ‘A base at Xining.’

‘That’s the site suspected of being used for India,’ said Overhalt. ‘The DF-21 site.’

‘Second tranche launch,’ said Bloodworth. ‘Kunming area in Yunnan. Waiting for precise identification.’

No one spoke. They knew Bloodworth would have the details within seconds.

‘Chuxiong, as I thought. Brigade headquarters from Unit 80303. DF-21s again. The Chinese have five ballistic missiles in the air. Xining launch is flying at low trajectory, 95 miles.
Chuxiong, waiting for reading. Seem to be heading for 220 miles altitude.’

‘Mr President,’ said Overhalt, ‘I’ll stay on the line.’

‘Less than four minutes to first impact,’ said Bloodworth. ‘Target area appears to be Tezu on the far eastern tip. This is a pre-emptive strike. Tezu was the base for the
Indian missile launch which we stopped a few minutes ago.’

‘So you mean their satellites had the same real-time imagery?’ said Hastings.

‘And they’re going for Shillong. That’s the Eastern Command HQ. Tezu comes under it.’

‘They must have, sir. This is not a random action. Their missile sites are prepared and programmed to targets.’

‘With our damn stolen technology. Reece, you still there?’

‘Yes, Mr President.’

‘Stay on the line until we ascertain what they’re hitting and how hard. If it’s a conventional strike against an Indian missile base, it’ll be hard for us to complain. I
don’t like it but it seems to me to be a legitimate act of war. What we’ll be needing from them, however, is a pledge that they will not go nuclear against India and that their missiles
are not targeted against the United States.’