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  Song continued his walk clockwise around the room. He stopped at each of the twelve workstations to check on the performance of his men. Satisfied that his frigate was operating properly as it escorted its convoy of two Saudi supertankers, he nodded to Commander Fang, his executive officer, and stepped outside and lit a cigarette. The morning November air in the Red Sea was crisp and cool—nothing like the balmy humid weather he had experienced when the tanker escort task force had first arrived on patrol in the region. The task force consisted only of three ships—two frigates and an oiler. He stood on a balcony that traversed the sides and rear of the bridge deck. From his position, he had almost a 360-degree view of the ship. He looked down at the rows of missile blast doors on the main deck and then farther up toward the bow until he found the 76mm Cannon. To the east, he had a clear view of the rocky brown coast of Eretria. The distant landmass to the west was the hills of Yemen. The reason he chose this moment to inspect the bridge and CIC was because the ship was at a heightened state of readiness. In only a few miles, the ship would enter the tightest part of the strait, where the shipping channel was only two miles wide and the distance between the coasts of Yemen and Eritrea were less than thirty miles apart.

  Two Saudi oil tankers had been attacked and badly damaged by Houthi missiles only six months earlier. The Bab Al Mandab Strait was the most dangerous waterway in the world. Protecting the Chinese oil supply was the reason a rotating Chinese Naval Task Force routinely escorted Saudi oil through the dangerous strait. Captain Song lit a second cigarette and scanned forward with a pair of binoculars. It took a few moments, but he was able to locate the two black eleven-meter unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) bobbing in the water a mile to his front. The USVs were mine detectors. Each had a sonar system designed to find subsurface mines and alert the convoy prior to exposing the frigate to danger.

  Content with the situation, he stubbed his cigarette out against the railing and re-entered the CIC. Song took his seat at the con in the center of the CIC. He put on his headset and leaned back in his comfortable captain’s chair. Displayed on the wall in front of him was a large radar screen depicting the location of the convoy overlaying a naval chart. Two parallel icons of the USVs leading the convoy south through the narrow strait showed as blue diamonds. North of his position, he could see the black circular icons representing the two Liberian registered supertankers filled with Saudi oil. The supertankers were trailing his frigate which was represented in the center of the screen as a solid blue circle. Closer to the Yemeni coast, the radar displayed a picket line of Saudi and UAE patrol boats that made up the allied blockade designed to prevent supplies from reaching Houthi forces in Yemen.

  “Two unidentified surface vectors approaching from the east,” he heard his first officer say over the headset.

  “Issue a verbal warning to change course,” Song instructed.

  “Make that six unidentified surface vectors approaching from the east. Range, six kilometers, speed thirty knots.”

  “Engage with the cannon if they get within two thousand meters,” Song ordered.

  “Two missile tracks inbound!” The targeting officer’s alarmed voice shouted into his headset.

  “Fire missiles; engage countermeasures,” Song ordered in a calm, steady voice.

  Four HQ-16 missiles burst from the front deck and, at supersonic speed, raced to intercept the Houthi-launched cruise missiles. The 76mm cannon began to rapid fire, pumping out a round every five seconds. Moments later the whirring burp of the AK-630 30mm rotary cannon filled the CIC.

  “Missiles destroyed,” the Weapons Officer reported.

  “The trail tanker has been hit,” the First Officer Reported.

  “What hit the tanker?” the Captain asked.

  “Two more missiles inbound,” the First Officer interrupted.

  “Fire missiles,” ordered the Captain.

  Four more HQ-16 missiles exploded from the honeycomb blast doors on the front deck.

  An explosion shook the ship. The aluminum and composite hull was instantly breached midship. A second explosion went off in the stern and the ship began to fill with smoke. The ship instantly began to list to port and the lights flickered inside the CIC.

  “Missiles destroyed, two more missiles inbound, firing,” said the weapons officer in a panicked voice.

  Four more HQ-16 shot into the sky from the badly damaged frigate. Unlike the previous missiles that after launch quickly turned into a flatter, more horizontal trajectory to intercept the low flying cruise missiles, these medium-range surface-to-air missiles continued straight up. The missiles were locked onto the radar signature of a much larger and higher target. The missiles sped high into the sky in pursuit of a pair of American F-18 Super Hornets that had been observing the action from what they thought was a safe altitude and distance. The Super Hornets were twenty-five thousand feet above the wounded frigate and ten miles South.

  As soon as the radar from the frigate locked onto the Super Hornets, they took immediate evasive action. When they received the launch warning of a SAM missile in the air, the two Navy fighter jets triggered their countermeasures. The first HQ-16 detonated on a decoy. The second missile’s semi-active radar homing seeker found a firm lock on the trail F-18 and, despite the best efforts of the pilot, the 70-kilogram warhead exploded within feet of the jet fighter and turned it into a fireball, instantly killing both crew members. The remaining two missiles fell harmlessly into the sea when they failed to acquire a target.

  The surviving Super Hornet retaliated with an AMRAAM missile. The anti-ship missile followed the radar signature guiding the HQ-16 missiles. The AMRAAM hit the damaged Frigate directly in the center of the bridge, instantly killing the captain and all of the personnel inside the CIC and bridge. The Chinese frigate was fully engulfed in flames as it slowly sank to the bottom of the Red Sea.

  The second Chinese frigate from the same Task Force was monitoring the situation one hundred nautical miles to the southeast in the Gulf of Aden. It tracked the surviving American Super Hornet on its return to the Aircraft Carrier, USS Harry Truman. As soon as the Super Hornet got within range of its HQ-16 air defense missiles, the Chinese frigate launched a volley of four missiles. The action took place more than one hundred miles from the Truman but was well within the protective umbrella of the Carrier Strike Group. The air crew of the F-18 Super Hornet parachuted to safety after it was badly damaged by fragments from an exploding HQ-16. Before the two pilots ever hit the water, the Chinese frigate that launched the attack was simultaneously engaged and destroyed by a guided-missile destroyer and a Super Hornet flying close air patrol above the Carrier Strike Group.

  Chapter 3

  Eleuthera, Bahamas

  I was at my desk doing paperwork when my cell rang. It was Mike, so I answered.

  “I’m on final approach to Governors Harbour. Can you pick me up?”

  “Sure, be there in ten,” I said, grateful to put some distance between me and my upcoming tax bill.

  I went downstairs and walked out the front door. I looked down at the driveway from the front stairs and noticed my Tahoe was missing; Cheryl must have taken it into town. I went back in and found the keys to her Carrera. I had to practically fold myself to get my 6’5” frame into the tiny silver sports car. Fortunately, the Governors Harbour Airport is only a short drive north from my beach house.

  I found Mike standing outside the small white terminal building and pulled up in front of him.

  “What’s this, a mid-life crisis?” he asked.

  “Cheryl took my truck; just be glad you don’t have to fit any luggage into this thing.”

  “At least it’s a convertible; otherwise you’d have to stick your head through the sunroof and drive it like a clown car.”

  “It’s better than walking. Are you hungry or do you want to get straight down to business?”

  “Business, but let’s wait until we get to your office.”

  “Fine,” I said.

  �
��When’s the last time you did a sweep of your office?”

  “A couple of days ago.”

  “That’ll have to be good enough.”

  I turned left off Banks Road and onto the white brick driveway of my house. I pressed the gate opener and the black wrought iron gates parted, allowing me to drive the remaining five hundred yards to the garage. I parked the car inside the garage and led Mike up the back stairs to my office on the third floor. Mike waited until Maria, the housekeeper, served us coffee before getting down to the purpose of his visit. My office takes up the entire third floor and it has a great view because it’s high enough to see the Caribbean and the Atlantic over the trees if you look west and east respectively. We moved to the seating area next to the picture window overlooking the Atlantic. I was on the couch and Mike was in the lounger, catty-corner to me. He leaned forward and placed a laptop on the coffee table and then turned it on and unlocked it. He faced the laptop, so we could both see the screen, and then he leaned back in the heavy recliner.

  “What do you know about the incident with the Chinese off the coast of Yemen?” he asked.

  “Just what’s in the papers. Last week the Houthis attacked a Saudi tanker convoy escorted by a Chinese frigate in the BAM strait. One of the Saudi oil tankers was badly damaged, and a Chinese frigate was sunk.”

  “All of that’s true, but there’s more to the story. We had two Super Hornets on patrol above the action. They were from the Truman Carrier Strike Group that was a couple of days from finishing up a deployment to the region. After it was hit and badly damaged by the Houthis, the Chinese guided missile frigate locked on and engaged both of our fighters. We don’t know why they targeted our fighters when they were under attack by a Houthi surface threat. Anyway, we lost one fighter in the initial missile salvo. A second Super Hornet was able to evade the missile attack and then delivered the fatal shot to the frigate.”

  “Tensions are already very high between the US and China over trade; I can’t imagine how the Chinese reacted to us sinking a frigate.”

  “Badly, they reacted very badly, and it gets worse. The Chinese maintain a permanent escort task force in the Gulf of Aden. They keep two guided missile frigates and an oiler on station to keep the waterway open to protect their energy supply. While the first frigate was escorting the oil tankers from the Red Sea through the BAM straight to the Gulf of Aden, the second Chinese frigate was positioned southeast in the Gulf of Aden. The second Chinese frigate followed the action and then shot down the surviving Super Hornet as it was returning to the Truman. At that point, the Truman Carrier Strike Group intervened and sank the Chinese frigate. Two of the Super Hornet pilots survived and two were killed. The Chinese lost two of their most modern frigates along with more than two hundred and fifty sailors.”

  “I can’t believe none of this has been in the news.”

  “Some of it’s already out, the rest is about to be. Initially, both sides tried to keep a lid on it. The Chinese to save face, the US, to buy some time while we sought out a way to ease the tensions.”

  “What’s changed?”

  “The Chinese have escalated. Yesterday, they shot down two of our reconnaissance planes over the South China Sea. The American death toll is now at thirteen.”

  “What’s going to happen next?”

  “Before any of these incidents occurred, the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group set off on a deployment to the South China Sea to conduct a freedom of navigation (FON) exercise. The Lincoln is still in the middle of the Pacific, but the Chinese have made it clear that if the Lincoln enters their territorial waters in the South China Sea, they’ll sink it.”

  “The FON is going into the disputed areas?”

  “Almost all of the South China Sea is a disputed area. The Chinese territorial claim is outrageous. The nine-mile boundary the Chinese claim as their waters has already been ruled against by the UN. The Chinese claim is basically the entire SCS minus the 12-mile territorial waters of the other countries.”

  “It’s hard to believe the Chinese could sink an American Carrier Group. Last I checked, they only had one aircraft carrier and that one had a ski lift runway because they can’t figure out how to build a catapult.”

  “It’s not that they can’t figure out how to build a catapult—I’m sure they stole those designs years ago. It has to do with the engine power on their jets.”

  “Why is the US afraid of a Navy with only one half-assed aircraft carrier?”

  “They may only have one carrier that holds less than a third of the aircraft that a US carrier does and takes forever to launch and recover. But what they do have is three fixed aircraft carriers with three-thousand-meter runways that more than do the job.”

  “What’s a fixed aircraft carrier?”

  “The Chinese have constructed naval bases with airfields on the reef islands. Three of the islands—Fiery Cross, Subi, and Mischief—have airfields with more than fifty fighter jets apiece. The remaining four bases service surface ships, unmanned surface vehicles, and submarines. All are fortified and have robust air defenses. The Chinese forces arrayed in the SCS could easily swarm and defeat a US Carrier Strike Group.”

  “Why is the Lincoln going into the SCS then?”

  “The FON was planned before the escalation in hostilities. If the US fails to follow through, it would be very bad. Once we back down to China, every partner we have in Asia will know we’re no longer with them. Taiwan, Japan, Korea, the Philippines; we can’t abandon our obligations.”

  “The plan is to start World War III instead?”

  “That’s the rub; we don’t want to do that either. Which brings me to why I’m here.”

  “I don’t do diplomacy. I thought you knew that.”

  “I do know that. I have a mission for you that is much more within your skill set,” Mike said as he reached over and opened a file on the laptop.

  “What am I looking at?”

  “This is Operation Zhang Ha—that’s Chinese for Rising Sea, which is what the Chinese call the South China Sea.”

  “What’s on the video file?”

  “It’s a computer simulation of a man-made tsunami. Those South China Sea bases that are giving us so much trouble are only a few feet above sea level. You’re going to unleash a thirty-foot wave that’s going to sweep the jets and the air defenses off the three island airbases and turn them back into sand bars.”

  “How does exploding a nuclear bomb underwater not start World War III?”

  “It won’t take a nuke. It can be done with conventional explosives and it won’t be detectable as an explosion because the explosion is going to be drowned out by the earthquake you’re going to set off. Just watch the simulation,” Mike said, as he hit the play icon.

  The video showed a map of the South China Sea. The simulation highlighted Palawan Island, the Philippines, and then west of the island it showed a fault line under the sea. The fault was labeled Wa-Nu and it identified it as a strike-slip fault line. Next, the simulation showed the positioning of explosives across a ten-mile section of the fault. The explosives were placed past the edge of the continental shelf where the water becomes very deep in an area called the Palawan Trench. The cartoon-like simulation showed the explosives detonating and then depicted a section of the shelf falling into the Palawan Trench. A small ripple appeared on the surface of the sea. The ripple moved west toward a cluster of man-made islands; the two highlighted were Fiery Cross Reef and Hughes Reef. The wave traveled hundreds of miles and then the simulation showed a side shot as the wave neared the islands, grew to a height of thirty feet, and crashed over the islands. The wave was followed by two more, smaller waves with the same effect.

  “What about the damage to civilians?” I asked.

  “It’s going to take over an hour for the wave to reach the target. Tsunami warnings will be issued and, in the few occupied islands in the area, the people will get to high ground and the US will assist them to rebuild. The reef islands will be completely dest
royed. The Chinese will have time to prepare; they may even launch their aircraft and ships and that’s fine. All we care about is that after the wave hits, they won’t have any usable airfields.”

  “And the villain will be a natural disaster and not the USA.”

  “Exactly.”

  We spent the rest of the afternoon going over the logistics and the technical details of the explosive emplacement and detonation. I took Mike back to his waiting jet and made it back home before Cheryl arrived. She found me up in my office.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “I just booked a flight for both of us to Paphos.”

  “Why, what’s up?”

  “Mike came this afternoon. We have a new mission.”

  “Doing what?” she asked.

  “We’re going to start an earthquake that will create a tsunami and wipe out the Chinese Naval Bases in the South China Sea.”

  “Is that all?”

  “Yeah, we need to leave first thing tomorrow morning. I’m just putting in some gear requests to the guys in Cyprus, so they can be ready when we arrive. Mike already sent the mission-critical equipment.”

  “What about the innocent people? Is this tsunami going to kill innocent people?”

  “According to Mike, the South China Sea tsunami early warning system will kick in and nobody will get hurt.”

  “How are you getting to the South China Sea? Are you going to take the boat?”

  “Yeah, we’re going to take the Sam Houston. We’re going to false flag the yacht as a treasure hunter from Singapore.”

  “Am I coming?”

  “Of course, we’ll take the whole team.”

  “How long is this going to take?”

  “We’ll be operating between the Spratly Islands and Palawan Island, right in the middle of the disputed boundary between China and the Philippines. It’s a little over twenty-five hundred nautical miles from Cyprus. That’s going to take a week and a half, depending on how long we have to wait to get through the Suez.”