Invasion: Alaska (18 page)

“Warriors are good in a war, but they are trouble during peace. If I were going to raid Greenland, I would choose you. But if we’re to keep men confined in close quarters here, you would be my second to last choice.”

“Is that right?”

“Murphy would be the first to go,” Red Cloud said. “He stinks of even more trouble than you do. My decision here has nothing to do with the fact that we were enemies once. You fought well in Quebec. But I will not keep a warrior like you in my combat team.” Red Cloud regarded him. “The mechanics are working on the plane’s engine, overhauling it. Once it is ready, I am sending you two back to Dead Horse.”

“What about my contract?” Paul asked. He felt numb, defeated once more.

“You broke your word. I can terminate your contract at anytime, and it is my will to do so now.”

Paul stared into those pitiless eyes. He wanted to be angry. He wanted to get up and
do
something. Cheri had sounded desperate over the phone. She and Mikey needed the money.

“Listen…” Paul said, searching for the right words. He’d never been good at this and he felt so numb, so defeated. He didn’t know how to kiss butt and he didn’t want to start with some French-Canadian Algonquian. He turned away from those knowing eyes. “Listen,” he said roughly. “I…ah fought against you once, right.”

“I have said as much. You were a worthy foe.”

“Yeah, I’m glad to hear it.” Paul shook his head without looking at the Algonquian. This was so demeaning. “That isn’t what I wanted to say. I…I have a wife and kid back home.”

“The records say you are divorced,” Red Cloud told him, as he indicted the computer.

“Right, right, that’s right,” Paul said. “But I’m helping her make payments, make rent. My boy—”

“Mike Kavanagh,” Red Cloud said.

“I call him Mikey,” Paul said. “He needs…he needs—damnit! This is hard for me. I don’t know the right words. I’m too quick with my fists sometimes. My temper hasn’t been any good since Quebec. I don’t know how—” Paul’s lips firmed and he glared at Red Cloud. “I’m asking for another chance. I’m not asking because I deserve it. I probably don’t. I know I’m trouble, but let me work here until I can send them money. They really need it. I don’t care about myself, but, but…do you have any kids?”

“The Marines killed them during the war,” Red Cloud said.

Paul noted the hard eyes, the mask-like Algonquian features. Red Cloud reminded him of the Wild West photographs of Geronimo and Sitting Bull.

“I’m sorry they died,” Paul said.

Red Cloud just stared at him.

“That’s it then, huh?”

“You will work until the plane is ready. You will check the outer perimeter ice or you will not eat.”

The anger had left Paul. Had Marines really slain Red Cloud’s kids?
War sucks
. Sometimes life wasn’t that great either. He’d lost another job and he was stuck up here so he couldn’t even try to get another one, no matter how rotten it was. How was Cheri supposed to make rent? What would Mikey think about his dad now?

Paul stood up. “I get it, and I don’t blame you.”

“Go,” Red Cloud said. “Your presence wearies me, and I am already too tired.”

Paul realized he’d been screwed from the start. Stuck in the North Pole with a Marine-hating Algonquian for a boss—it couldn’t get any worse than that.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Anna Chen arrived in her West Wing cubicle exhausted. She’d been up until four a.m. last night, reading the latest CIA reports and comparing them with her own sources of information concerning the People’s Republic of China.

Something had caught her eye yesterday, making sleep nearly impossible as she kept churning over what it meant. It was a speech by the Agricultural Minister, Jian Shihong. He had spoken in Tiananmen Square for the Tea Ceremony commemorating the dead lost during Taiwan’s reunification with the mainland. Two things intrigued her about the event. One, the ailing Chairman had appeared on stage with the Agricultural Minister. Anna had spent two hours examining every photo and recording she could showing the Chairman during the Tea Ceremony. He seldom appeared in public these days, and reports of his failing health were rampant. On stage, he’d sat very straight, as if it were difficult for him to do so. During Jian Shihong’s speech, the Chairman had sat even straighter. The old man’s eyes had seemed to shine during one part of the speech especially. That was the second thing that had intrigued Anna: the Agricultural Minister’s commentary on Cheng Ho.

She was familiar with the Chinese eunuch. During the Ming Dynasty of Renaissance times, Cheng Ho had often been referred to as the Admiral of the Triple Treasure or the Three-Jewel Eunuch. He first set out on his voyages during the reign of Ming Emperor Yung Lo. The seven grand expeditions occurred from 1405 to 1422. During the same time, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal was sending his ships inching down the west coast of Africa in tiny caravels.

With his fleet, Cheng Ho sailed beyond the China Sea and around the Indian Ocean. He reached the east coast of Africa and voyaged as far as the tip of the Dark Continent. Unlike Prince Henry’s small flotillas with their leaky ships, Cheng Ho possessed monstrous vessels. The largest, the Treasure Ship, boasted nine masts, had been four hundred and forty-four feet long, with a beam of one hundred and eighty feet. It had airtight bulkheads to prevent leakage or fire from spreading and a gigantic rudder.

The grandest expedition had employed thirty-seven thousand soldiers, scholars and sailors and had been composed of three hundred and seventeen ships. It had also been uniquely Chinese in outlook. These expeditions hadn’t sailed in conquest, but in peace, displaying the splendor and power of the new Ming Dynasty. It had shown the greatness of the Middle Kingdom—China considered itself as the center of the world. Cheng Ho had also gathered curios for the emperor and his court and had given gifts of massive proportion to those he’d visited. His generosity had shown the greatness of China, and that it needed nothing from the outer reaches of the world. The most excellent of the curios taken back to Beijing had been a giraffe from Africa.

In Chinese belief of that time, when Heaven smiled on the Emperor because of his excellent rule, it radiated cosmic forces of good will. This surplus energy helped create creatures like dragons and
k’i-lin
. The
k’i-lin
, a type of Chinese unicorn, had the ‘body of a deer and the tail of an ox.’ It only ate herbs and harmed no living creature. To the Chinese, the giraffe they discovered in the Bengal king’s zoo fit this description. Cheng Ho had soon learned that the giraffe was called a
girin
in its native country. To his ear and those around him that had sounded very much like
k’i-lin
, confirming his belief
.
When they brought the giraffe back to China, people were amazed, and they agreed that this was a sign of Heaven’s favor and showed the goodness of the Middle Kingdom.

These voyages were a marvel, and they’d shown that China had possessed superior technology as compared to Europe at the time. However, there had been political forces at work that had strangled the naval expeditions.

The two forces vying for power were the emperor’s eunuchs or courtiers and the mandarins, the bureaucrats that ran the country. The eunuchs or
castrati
had gained their power because of their nearness to the emperor. No one but eunuchs or the emperor and his sons were allowed in the palace among the emperor’s many wives and concubines. Therefore, the eunuchs not only intimately understood what interested the emperor, but they could whisper suggestions to him at any time. Over time, this had led to their political rise.

During the voyages, the eunuchs were in the assent. Gradually, however, the mandarins regained their customary control. In 1433, the emperor—under mandarin guidance—had issued the first of many edicts that enforced the Grand Withdrawal.

Chinese reclusiveness was an old story. It stemmed from the belief that China was the Middle Kingdom and that it needed nothing from the outer barbaric world. The Great Wall of China was a symptom of this. So was the Great Withdrawal as the edicts inflicted increasingly savage punishments on Chinese who ventured aboard. These edicts also imposed a marine withdrawal, and soon it was a crime to build a ship with more than one mast.

China lost its chance to discover Europe and stamp its civilization on the world. Instead, the grasping Europeans discovered China. That had partly happened because China had withdrawn from its own greatness. It had also happened because the Europeans had desired a thousand new things like pepper, silk and gold wherever they could get it. It had pulled the Europeans to all corners of the world.

Jian Shihong had spoken about these things in Tiananmen Square. He’d bewailed the lost chance of bringing peace and civilization to a barbaric world during Cheng Ho’s time. He’d spoken about China’s present greatness and how she owed it to herself to make sure the Middle Kingdom didn’t abandon its own welfare because of the barbarism practiced elsewhere. China must spread its civilization everywhere in these dangerous nuclear times. Fortunately, China had the Chairman to guide them through the treacherous waters of this glacial era. If others would hoard food, China would have to take matters into their own hands. Cheng Ho had freely given to the world. Now it was the world’s turn to give to China. If they would not give, China would rouse itself to act. On this, everyone present must assure themselves that the Chairman would do what was needed.

There had been more of the same. At the end of the increasingly passionate speech, the Agricultural Minister had turned to the Chairman, kneeling before him and bowing like a eunuch of old.

The masses had erupted with wild clapping and cheering, while the Chinese national anthem had been blared over the loudspeakers.

As she sipped her morning tea, thinking about the speech, Anna sat up in sudden wonder. She turned on the computer and brought up the video of Tiananmen Square. Using zoom, she carefully scanned the people on stage with the Chairman and Jian Shihong. After the third scan, Anna concluded that Deng Fong was nowhere to be found with them. Quickly, she brought up old Tea Ceremonies commemorating the dead of the Taiwan reunification. Each time, Deng Fong had delivered the speech. In some, the Chairman was present, but not in others.

“Something has happened,” Anna whispered to herself. What did she know about Jian Shihong? He was young, ambitious and driven, a youth of fifty-six sitting on the Ruling Committee of the Politburo. He also ran the failed Agricultural Ministry.

In Sydney, Deng Fong had wished to trade oil for grain.

Anna studied old notes. Deng had handpicked Jian for the post. Then she recalled a counter CIA brief. It took her a full ten minutes to find it. This analyst believed that Deng wished to torpedo Jian by stationing him in a post that couldn’t succeed. With the new glaciation, how could any Chinese no matter how gifted hope to increase crop yields?

Was there a hidden power play in progress?

Thinking deeply, Anna took the elevator to the cafeteria and refilled her cup with herbal tea. When she returned to her cubicle, she read CIA and DIA reports concerning China’s latest military moves. Then she used a special program to search the Black Files the NSA sent to the President’s Priority Cell.

Anna’s pulse quickened as she read a paragraph concerning a regiment of T-66 multi-turreted tanks. They’d been driven onto special cargo ships. Those were Army tanks, not Chinese naval infantry vehicles. Why were the Army’s latest T-66s taking part in the naval exercise?

Anna’s palms felt moist. She turned off her computer and stared at the dead screen. She saw her reflection and shook her head. She didn’t want to do this, but Anna Chen found herself standing. Taking a deep breath, Anna headed for the bathroom. She needed to speak with Colin Green, the National Security Advisor. The usual way was to first speak with the Third Assistant and gain an appointment. Anna had the terrible feeling that it might already be too late.

Thinking that, she broke into a run, and caused several people to look up and stare at her in surprise. It made her queasy, them looking at her, but she kept running until she hit the bathroom door and hurried inside.

Soon, Anna came out and made her way across the West Wing to the National Security Advisor’s office. She walked inside and cleared her throat.

The National Security Advisor’s secretary looked up. “Oh my,” the man said. “Anna Chen?” he asked.

Anna tried to smile, but failed. She felt uneasy and self-conscious. In the bathroom, she’d tightened her shapeless dress with a belt, cinching it around her waist. She’d undone the bun and brushed the hair to her shoulders, scrubbed off the makeup hiding her smooth skin and had even taken off the thick glasses.

“You’re beautiful,” the secretary said.

Anna wanted to groan. She hated those words, and it made her blurt, “I need to speak with Colin Green—please.”

The secretary kept staring at Anna.

“Is he here?” Anna asked.

“Pardon?”

“The National Security Advisor—”

The door opened as Colin Green stepped out. He’d served in the Air Force for the first twenty years after college. He was brisk, of middle height and the former Senator of California, his influence helping Clark carry the State in his first bid for the Presidency. Green grinned upon sight of Anna. He wore an Armani suit and had short cut, prematurely gray hair. He was known for his extravagant style.