Jack Ryan 8 - Debt of Honor (55 page)

“Total, about two thousand, mainly mechanics, radar controllers, loggies, that sort of thing. Maybe an airplane or two in transit, but not many of those. I have people checking now,” the Major replied. “How about the Navy?”

“We have people at Andersen on
Guam
, co-located with your base. The port, too, maybe a thousand people total. It's a lot smaller than it used to be.”
Jackson
lifted his secure phone and punched in the numbers for CINC-PAC. “Admiral Seaton? This is
Jackson
again. Anything else?”

“We can't raise anybody west of Midway, Rob. It's starting to look real.”

“How does this thing work?” Oreza asked.

“I hate to say this, but I'm not sure. I didn't bother reading the manual,” Burroughs admitted. The sat-phone was sitting on the coffee table, its antenna extended through the drill hole in the bottom of the mixing bowl, which was in turn sitting atop two piles of books. “I'm not sure if it broadcasts its position to the satellites periodically or not.” For which reason they felt it necessary to maintain the comical arrangement.

“You turn mine off by putting the antenna back down,” Isabel Oreza observed, causing two male heads to turn. “Or you can just take the batteries out, right?”

“Damn.” Burroughs managed to say it first, but not by much. He lifted the bowl off, put the little antenna back in its hole, then flipped off the battery cover and withdrew the two AAs. The phone was now completely off. “Ma'am, if you want to get into the master's program at
Sanford
, use me as a reference, okay?”

“Ladies and gentlemen.” Heads turned in the living room to see a smiling man in green fatigues. His English was letter-perfect. "I am General Tokikichi Arima of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces. Please allow me to explain what has happened today.

“First of all, let me assure you that there is no cause for alarm. There was an unfortunate shooting at the police substation adjacent to your parliament building, but the two police officers who were hurt in the exchange are both doing well in your local hospital. If you have heard rumors of violence or death, those rumors are not true,” the General assured the twenty-nine thousand citizens of
Saipan
.

“You probably want to know what has happened,” he went on. "Early today, forces under my command began arriving on
Saipan
and
Guam
. As you know from your history, and indeed as some of the older citizens on this island well remember, until 1944 the
Mariana Islands
were possessions of
Japan
. It may surprise some of you to know that since the court decision several years ago allowing Japanese citizens to purchase real estate in the islands, the majority of the land on
Saipan
and
Guam
is owned by my countrymen. You also know of our love and affection for these islands and the people who live here. We have invested billions of dollars here and created a renaissance in the local economy after years of shameful neglect by the American government. Therefore, we're not really strangers at all, are we?

"You probably also know that there have been great difficulties between
Japan
and
America
. Those difficulties have forced my country to rethink our defense priorities. We have, therefore, decided to reestablish our ownership of the
Mariana Islands
as a purely defensive measure to safeguard our own shores against possible American action. In other words, it is necessary for us to maintain defense forces here and therefore to bring the
Marianas
back into our country.

“Now.” General Arima smiled. "What does this mean to you, the citizens of
Saipan
?

“Really, it means nothing at all. All businesses will remain open. We, too, believe in free enterprise. You will continue to manage your own affairs through your own elected officials, with the additional benefit that you will have status as
Japan
's forty-eighth prefecture, with full parliamentary representation in the Diet. That is something you have not had as an American commonwealth—which is just another word for colony, isn't it? You will have dual citizenship rights. We will respect your culture and your language. Your freedom to travel will not be impeded. Your freedoms of speech, press, religion, and assembly will be the same as those enjoyed by all Japanese citizens, and totally identical with the civil rights you now enjoy. In short, nothing is going to change in your daily life at all.” Another charming smile.

“The truth of the matter is that you will greatly benefit from this change in government. As part of
Japan
, you will be part of the world's most vibrant and dynamic economy. Even more money will come to your island. You will see prosperity such as you have never dreamed of,” Arima assured his audience. "The only changes you will experience will be positive ones. On that you have my word and the word of my government.

"Perhaps you say that such words are easy to speak, and you are correct. Tomorrow you will see people on the streets and roads of
Saipan
, surveying, taking measurements, and interviewing local citizens. Our first important task will be to improve the roads and highways of your island, something neglected by the Americans. We want your advice on the best way to do this. In fact, we will welcome your help and participation in everything we do.

“Now,” Arima said, leaning forward somewhat, "I know that some among you will find these developments unwelcome, and I wish to apologize sincerely for that. We have no desire to harm anyone here, but you must understand that any attack upon one of my men or any Japanese citizen will be treated as a violation of the law. I am also responsible to take certain security measures to protect my troops and to bring this island into compliance with Japanese law.

“All firearms owned by private citizens on
Saipan
must be surrendered in the next few days. You may bring them into your local police stations. If you have a sales record for the guns, or if you can demonstrate their commercial value, we will pay you the fair cash value for them. Similarly, we must ask that any owners of 'ham' radios turn them over to us for a short period of time, and, please, not to use them until you do. Again, we will pay in cash the full value of your property, and in the case of the radios, when we return them to you, you may keep the money as a token of our thanks for your cooperation. Aside from that”—another smile—"you will hardly notice that we are here. My troops are under orders to treat everyone on this island as fellow citizens. If you experience or even see a single incident in which a Japanese soldier is impolite to a local citizen, I want you to come to my headquarters and report it. You see, our law applies to us, too.

“For the moment, please go about your normal lives.” A number came up on the screen. “If you have any specific questions, please call this number or feel free to come to my headquarters at your parliament building. We will be glad to help you in any way we can. Thank you for listening. Good night.”

“This message will be repeated every fifteen minutes on Channel Six, the public-access channel,” another voice said.

“Son of a bitch,” Oreza breathed.

“I wonder who their ad agency is,” Burroughs noted, going to punch the rewind button on the VCR.

“Can we believe it?” Isabel asked.

“Who knows? You have any guns?”

Portagee shook his head. “Nope. I don't even know if this rock has a registration law. Have to be crazy to take on soldiers anyway, right?”

“It makes it a lot easier for them if they don't have to watch their backs.” Burroughs started putting the batteries back in his sat-phone. “You have the number for that admiral?”

“
Jackson
.”

“Master Chief Oreza, sir. You got a tape machine running?”

“Yes, I do. What you got?”

“Well, sir, it's official,” Oreza reported dryly. “They just made the announcement on TV. We taped it. I'm turning the tape on now. I'll hold the phone right next to the speaker.”

General Tokikichi Arima,
Jackson
wrote down on a pad. He handed it to an Army sergeant. “Have the intel boys identify this name.”

“Yessir.” The sergeant vanished in an instant.

“Major!” Robby called next.

“Yes, Admiral?”

“The sound quality is pretty good. Have a copy of the tape run over to the spooks for voice-stress analysis. Next, I want a typed transcript ASAP ready to fax out to half a million places.”

“Right.”

For the rest of the time,
Jackson
just listened, an island of calm in a sea of madness, or so it seemed.

“That's it,” Oreza told him when it ended. “You want the call-in number, Admiral?”

“Not right now, no. Good job, Master Chief. Anything else to report?”

“The airplanes are still shuttling in. I counted fourteen since we talked last.”

“Okay.” Robby made the proper notes. “You feel like you're in any particular danger?”

“I don't see people running around with guns, Admiral. You notice they didn't say anything about American nationals on the island?”

“No, I didn't. Good point.” Ouch.

“I ain't real comfortable about this, sir.” Oreza gave him a quick reprise of the incident on his boat.

“I can't say that I blame you. Master Chief. Your country is working on the problem, okay?”

“You say so, Admiral. I'm shutting down for a while.”

“Fair enough. Hang in there,”
Jackson
ordered. It was a hollow directive, and both men knew it.

“Roger that. Out.”

Robby sat the phone back in the cradle. “Opinions?”

“You mean aside from, 'It's all fuckin' crazy'?” a staff officer inquired.

“It may be crazy to us, but it's sure as hell logical to somebody.” There was no sense in clobbering the officer for the statement,
Jackson
knew. It would take a bit more time before they really came to terms with the situation. “Does anybody not believe the information we have now?” He looked around. Seven officers were present, and people weren't selected for duty in the NMCC for their stupidity.

“It may be crazy, sir, but everything keeps coming down the same way. Every post we've tried to link with is off the air. They're all supposed to have duty officers, but nobody's answering the phone. Satellite links are down. We have four Air Force bases and an Army post off the air. It's real, sir.” The staffer redeemed herself with the follow-up.

“Anything from State? Any of the spook shops?”

“Nothing,” a colonel from J-2 replied. “I can give you a satellite pass over the
Marianas
in about an hour. I've already told NRO and I-TAC about the tasking and the priority.”

“KH-11?”

“Yes, sir, and all the cameras are up. Weather is clear. We'll get good overheads,” the intelligence officer assured him.

“No storm in the area yesterday?”

“Negative,” another officer said. “Ain't no reason for phone service to be out. They have Trans-Pac cable and satellite uplinks. I called the contractor that operates the dishes. They had no warning at all. They've been sending their own signals to their people, requesting information, no reply.”

Jackson
nodded. He'd waited this long only to get the confirmation he needed to take the next step.

“Okay, let's get a warning signal drafted, distribution to all the CINCs. Alert SecDef and the Chiefs. I'm calling the President now.”

•     •     •

“Dr. Ryan, NMCC on the STU with C
RITIC
traffic. Admiral Robert Jackson again.” The use of “C
RITIC
” caused heads to turn as Ryan lifted the secure phone.

“Robby, this is Jack. What's happening?” Everyone in the communications room saw the National Security Advisor turn pale. “Robby, are you serious?” He looked at the communications watch officer. “Where are we now?”

“Approaching
Goose
Bay
,
Labrador
, sir. About three hours out.”

“Get Special Agent d'Agustino up here, would you, please?” Ryan took his hand off the phone. “Robby, I need hard copy… okay… he's still asleep, I think. Give me thirty minutes to get organized here. Call me if you need me.”

Jack got out of his chair and made his way to the lav just aft of the flight deck. He managed to avoid looking in the mirror when he washed his hands. The Secret Service agent was waiting for him when he emerged.

“Not much sleep for you, eh?”

“Is the Boss up yet?”

“Sir, he left orders not to do that until we were an hour out. I just checked with the pilot and—”

“Kick him loose, Daga, right now. Then get Secretaries Hanson and Fiedler up. Arnie, too.”

“What's the matter, sir?”

“You'll be in there to hear it.” Ryan took the roll of fax paper off the secure machine and started reading. He looked up. “I'm not kidding, Daga. Right now.”

“Any danger to the President?”

“Let's assume that there is,” Jack replied. He thought for a second. “Where's the nearest fighter base, Lieutenant?”

The what? on her face was quite obvious. “Sir, there are F-15's at Otis on
Cape Cod
, and F-16s at
Burlington
,
Vermont
. Both are Air National Guard groups tasked to continental air defense.”

“You call them and tell them that the President would like to have some friends around ASAP.” The nice thing about talking to lieutenants was that they weren't used to asking why an order was given, even when there was no obvious reason for it. The same thing didn't apply to the Secret Service.

“Doc, if you need to do that, then I need to know, too, right now.”

“Yeah, Daga, I guess so.” Ryan tore off the top section of the thermal fax paper when he got to the second page of the transmission.

“Holy shit,” the agent thought aloud, handing it back. “I'll wake the President up. You need to tell the pilot. They do things a little differently at times like this.”

“Fair enough. Fifteen minutes, Daga, okay?”

“Yes, sir.” She headed down the circular stairs while Jack went forward to the flight deck.

“One-six-zero minutes to go, Dr. Ryan. Has been a long one, hasn't it?” the Colonel at the controls asked pleasantly. The smile faded instantly from his face.

It was mere chance that took them past the American Embassy. Maybe he'd just wanted to see the flag,
Clark
thought. It was always a pleasant sight in a foreign land, even if it did fly over a building designed by some bureaucrat with the artistic sense of—