Shock of War
Authors: Larry Bond
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Contents
Tables: Commodity Prices, Average February Temperatures
Forge Books by Larry Bond and Jim DeFelice
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The term “global warming” is as misleading as it is inaccurate. True, the overall temperature of the earth as measured by annual average readings will rise. But averages tell us next to nothing. A shortening of a rainy season by two weeks in a given area might be reflected by an increase in the average annual temperature of only a third of a degree. But the impact on the water supplyâand thus the growing seasonâwould be considerably higher.
Paradoxically, rapid climate change may bring much lower temperatures in many places. It should also be noted that some changes may well benefit people in the affected areas, at least temporarily, by extending growing seasons, negating weather extremes, or having some other unpredictable effect.
Unfortunately, the sensationalistic term, combined with the slow evolution of the effects prior to the crisis point, will make it hard to convince the general population of the true danger.
âInt. Soc. of Environmental Scientists report
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Major Characters
United States
Josh MacArthur, scientist
Mara Duncan, CIA officer
Peter Lucas, CIA chief of station, Bangkok/Southeast Asia
Major Zeus Murphy, former SF captain, adviser to Vietnam People's Army
Lieutenant Ric Kerfer, SEAL Team platoon commander
President George Chester Greene
CIA Director Peter Frost
National Security Adviser Walter Jackson
China
Lieutenant Jing Yo, commander, First Commando Detachment
Colonel Li Sun, Commando Regiment commander, executive officer Task Force #1
Premier Cho Lai
Vietnam
Premier Lein Thap
General Minh Trung, head of the Vietnam People's Army
February 2014
Personal Chronicle: Looking Back to 2014 â¦
Markus:
In the late winter of 2014, your uncle Josh had stunned the world by appearing at the United Nations in New York City, telling the world how he had seen Chinese soldiers slaughter his scientific team and dozens of Vietnamese peasants. He brought back video and pictures. They were horrible imagesâlittle children dead, a nursing mother ⦠I feel sick when I think of them. The images are burned into my brain.
But even with this evidence, the people of the world were not convinced that the Chinese were a great threat that had to be stopped. Their leader, Premier Cho Lai, was an evil man, but he was very clever. He plotted to undermine the evidence that your uncle had brought back. And to kill him and the people who helped him escape.
But that was just our own personal tragedy.
The whole world teetered on the brink of war. Far away in Southeast Asia, Vietnam was about to be overrun. A few ships from the American Navy, and a handful of advisers from the Army, were all that stood in the way.â¦
Lies
1
Beijing
Premier Cho Lai
watched
the American on the video screen dispassionately, willing himself to study the man and what he said with the mind of a scientist and observer. The American's message was one of venom, directed at Cho and his people, the Chinese country, and especially the Chinese army. It made Cho boil with anger and lust for vengeance. He wanted with all his heart to punch his hand through the video screen, to smash itâor better, to punch through the screen and somehow take this Josh MacArthur by his skinny, blotchy neck and strangle him. Cho could almost feel the boy's thorax collapsing beneath his hands.
Boy.
That was what he was. Not a scientist, not a manâa boy. A rodent. Scum.
No one would take him seriously if not for the images he'd brought back. They flashed on the screen as the scum's voice continued to speak. The Chinese translation played across the bottom of the screen, but Cho had no need for it; he spoke English reasonably well, and in any event the images themselves told the story.
All of his careful planning to make the invasion look as if the Vietnamese had instigated the war was threatened by this scum. It mattered nothing to VietnamâVietnam would be crushed no matter what the world thought. China needed its rice and oil, and it would have it.
But this threatened the next step. For Cho knew that his country's appetite was insatiable. The people who thronged the streets of Beijing not far from his compound were desperately short of food. Keeping them satisfied was an impossible task.
Impossible for anyone but him. The last two governments had toppled in rapid succession, each lasting less then two short months thanks to food riots and dissension. Cho had used the unrest to maneuver himself to power, promising to end the disturbances. He would remain in power only as long as he could keep that promise. It was not that he had any enemiesâthe most prominent had met unfortunate accidents over the past few months, or else been exposed in corruption trials, or, in a few cases, bought off with timely appointments outside the country. But as his own rise had shown, it was not the prominent one who had to fear in the chaos of the moment; it was the obscure. Cho had risen from a job as lieutenant governor for agriculture in the parched western provinces. Two years before, no one in Beijing would even have known his name. Now they bowed to him.
As the world would.
But first, this danger must be dealt with. America, the world, must not be brought into the conflict. The giant must not be wakened, until it was too late for it to stop the inevitable momentum of Chinese conquest.
Cho snapped off the video. He had seen enough.
2
Hainan Island, China
Major Zeus Murphy
tried
not to look too conspicuous as he walked down the concourse toward his flight. In theory, he had nothing to fear: the United States and China were not at war, and while his U.S. passport had caused a few seconds of hesitation at the security gate, the check of his baggage had been perfunctory at best. But theory and reality did not always mesh, especially in this case: the war between China and Vietnam had greatly strained relations between the two countries, and even in the best times Chinese customs officials and local police were not exactly known for being evenhanded when dealing with citizens from other countries.
And in this case, Zeus had a little extra to fear: he had just led a guerilla operation against the Chinese naval fleet gathered in the harbor, hopefully preventing it from launching an attack against the Vietnamese.
He could see the red glow of distant flames reflecting in the dark glass of the passageway as he walked toward the gate. Too much time had passed for the fire to be on one of the boats they had blown up; Zeus suspected instead it was due to friendly fire, panic set off by the supposed attack of Vietnamese submarines on the landing ships that were gathered in the port.
All for the better.
A television screen hung on the wall near the gate ahead. Zeus slowed down to get a look. In the U.S., it would be set to a local or all-news station; by now it would be carrying live feeds from the attack, breathless correspondents warning of the coming apocalypse. Here it showed some sort of Chinese soap opera, or maybe a reality show; he couldn't quite tell and didn't want to make himself too conspicuous by stopping.