“Odd, what do you make of it?”

“We don’t have anything but wild guesses right now, Mr. President. We told one of our people over there to start sniffing around and see what he can find out. The Port Authority Traffic Management Office said, ‘We have noticed about a fifteen percent drop in Chinese ships coming into our ports on both coasts over the last five or six weeks.’ That would tie in with their ships staying in home ports, but why, they don’t know either.”

“Thanks, Admiral. For your information, the folks on the Hill are yakking at each other, and the protestors are already marching outside the gates up here. See you after lunch.” Jason Thornton hung up the phone.

At 11:30, Marge Talbott called again. “The South Korean ambassador just left my office. He hasn’t received any official word from Seoul yet, but on his own he is putting out feelers about possible military support from us. He fully realizes that our departure from South Korea was a mistake. Both the government and the people never dreamed the North would invade again. He has less of a clear picture than we do as to how the invasion is going.”

“What did you tell him, Marge?”

“Nothing concrete, that it is being discussed in the White House and Congress. I told him that the only immediate option was that if you used your authority under the War Powers Act there could be any kind of an immediate response. That immediate response wouldn’t come for several weeks at the earliest. It might require deliberation by Congress, with a vote to go to war to do it according to our Constitution. I told him I could not say what, when, or how it would go. He left a very disappointed and anxious man.”

“Good job, Marge. I don’t know myself how all of this will fall out. I am still troubled by Dr. Stearns’s concept. I’ll see you at our 14:00 hours meeting.” Thornton put down the phone and leaned back in his chair. “What in God’s name should our response be?”

14:00 Hours, White House War Room

At 13:45, the cars began arriving at the underground entrance to the White House as the Joint Chiefs began arriving from the Pentagon and the Department Secretaries who are members of the National Security Council from their offices. Everyone was seated by 13:55 when Jason Thornton came in. In previous meetings, the President indicated that no one should stand in these meetings when he entered. Jim Neville, the SECDEF, had arrived, having been briefed en route over a secure net by his staff.

“Ok, folks, let’s get started. Jim, what do you have from your end?”

“Well, Mr. President, the North is still moving south, albeit a lot slower. Twenty-two hours post attack, the South has suffered considerable attrition of its air forces. The ground forces are retreating more slowly, making it far more costly to the north. The Pusan area air bases are still down, suffering repeated attacks; their air reserves are doing well, however, with old F-4 Phantoms in the ground attack role. They are hitting the North Korean columns really hard and have launched several strikes north of the Thirty-Eighth parallel into the North with good results. A couple of them even made it up to strike in Pyong Yang. They did pretty good, albeit the strike was small. They hit their Pentagon, so to speak, and Kim, Jong-uns’ palace. We don’t think they got him, as he went on television and radio an hour after the strike and said he wasn’t injured at all and that it was an example of South Korean aggression.

“The Taiwanese have established a picket line of Aegis destroyers in the Formosa Strait. All Taiwanese forces are on full alert. We haven’t detected any movement or unusual activity on the part of the Chinese so far.

“Admiral Stark tells me the carrier battle groups are making good time, and one will be standing by in less than twenty-four hours. He has ordered them to take up stations one hundred and fifty miles off the Korean peninsula. We will have one on each side and one on the southern tip in two days. We had a couple of planes destroyed at the Seoul International Airport. Our game plan was to evacuate our embassy people with those. They are now cut off. Secretary Talbott might have more on them.”

“Marge?’

“We didn’t get our people out, Mr. President. We did hear from them, however, on their satellite phones. They destroyed all of the communications gear and files in our embassy to prevent them from falling into the North’s hands. We couldn’t let them have such an intelligence windfall. They have joined the throngs flocking south along jammed highways, blending in with the South Korean civilian population.”

“Marge, I want those people who stayed behind and destroyed all those records and communications gear decorated. Write them up. If they get out, I want to personally decorate them in the rose garden. Sometimes our statesmen don’t get the recognition they deserve. What else do you have?”

“We have heard from the Australians, Mr. President. They say we can use the training areas we utilized in World War II as staging bases if we decide to go in. They will not provide troops, logistical support outside their home country, or military support at this time. They are waiting to see what the other Commonwealth nations do.

“I have also heard from the Japanese. They are still debating what role they should play in all this. They have tremendous investments in South Korea they want to salvage, but they don’t want to send any troops according to their unchanged constitution. They are leaning towards the perspective that a united Korea will be easier to deal with in the future. Of course, they are counting on the South winning. I’m not sure they realize that means the South going north clear to the Yalu and cleaning house. They can’t seem to make up their minds about our use of our former bases in Okinawa. Worse, they haven’t debated what their picture is on the role of China, if any, is in this affair.”

“Jim, generals and admirals, put your heads together. How quickly can we move substantial ground forces to Hawaii and Guam as forward staging areas? I mean whole divisions. I want the 82nd and the 101st on Guam as quickly as possible. Air transport them. I realize that the helicopters of the 101st will have to be moved later by ship. Then I want the remainder of the Eighteenth Airborne Corps, the 1st Infantry Division, the 10th Mountain Division, and whatever is left at Fort Hood, TX, moved to Hawaii as quickly as possible. We won’t wait for the Japanese or Philippines to make up their minds. It will be more costly to do this. It could also be that we will get some answers while they are en route, and we will then be able move them directly to Okinawa and our old Philippine bases. Get that ball rolling this afternoon. Start moving our air assets in the same direction. Our emphasis will be on tactical air, air superiority and ground attack. Our F-22 Raptors cost us sixty million dollars apiece and our Joint Strike Fighters forty million. It is time to make them pay for themselves. Whether we go in or not, we will certainly give the North Koreans reason to pause and think. General Shelton, I hate to say this, but do what you have to do to get tanker support for mid-air refueling.

“General Anderson, with the 101st Air Assault scattered along the Mexican border, why not just gather them up and head for Los Angeles or San Diego as ports of debarkation?”

“Can do, Mr. President. What about those Army National Guard units that are supplementing them in border duty?”

“How many are we talking about, how soon can we get them into the system? Do they require anything else in terms of support that the 101st Air Assault has and they don’t?”

“We have a reserve division and multiple National Guard battalions, mostly from the southwest, doing that duty. We can’t ship them all at once, Mr. President. In fact, it will take a couple of weeks to get task organized, line up the transportation assets, and issue basic supplies. I suggest we give them two weeks leave at home to prepare, and then move them to Los Angeles for overseas movement.”

“Make it happen, General.”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“General Leonard, I am not going to use your Marines as cannon fodder on a holding mission until the major forces arrive. When, and if, we go in, we will do it en mass, not piecemeal. That much about military strategy I know.”

“Roger, Homeland Security. What are we doing here?”

“Well, Mr. President, I have raised the alert level to yellow just for public awareness. I don’t really expect any kind of sabotage or anything until, or if, we declare our intent to support South Korea. I don’t think they want to do anything that we would consider an act of war first. Besides, they would lose tremendous propaganda value by being the aggressor. They certainly don’t want to give us any excuse, like “Remember the Maine!”

“This might sound a little stupid, Roger, but if it hasn’t been done, I want you to prioritize possible terrorist targets by category and by location. In other words, what are our most vulnerable and our most valuable assets, and where we stand on protecting them? For example, our power grid, our communications system, our transportation system, especially broken down into subcategories such as rail, air, road net, waterways with our dams and locks, and so on. Outline it, so putting things into subcategories applied to all aspects and categories. Put your staff on it today. I want a thorough study, rather than quick and dirty. I won’t put a time limit on it, but I don’t want it to drag out, either. If any agency gives you any resistance, tell them to call me. If that doesn’t get you positive response and support, you call me, and we’ll get it straightened out in a hurry.

“Fred, work with Roger, will you? I wouldn’t be surprised if you FBI folks haven’t already done this, or at least a lot of it. Don’t hold any information back that his staff feels that he needs.”

Fred Gateway, the new Director of the FBI, merely nodded his assent.

“It is impossible to keep a news blackout on our mobilization efforts, so we will neither deny nor confirm them. Let the media have their frenzy. Maybe it will just add to North Korea’s angst.

“Ed, what does the CIA have? Anything at all on China’s reaction to all of this? I have a very bad feeling about this.”

“No, Mr. President. None of our folks in China have given us any indication of Chinese mobilization or anything other than detached interest by the Chinese leadership. It might be that China, tired of supporting North Korea, just might let them dig their own grave.”

“Marge, through official channels, try and find out what the Chinese reaction to all of this is.”

“Already have, Mr. President. I faxed our folks in Peking over a secure line early this morning, after you expressed interested in Ms. Stearns’s theory. I don’t have any response at this time. I am hoping to hear something by close of business, so to speak, today.”

Jason Thornton smiled. He liked people who could think and act ahead. So, he thought, we have an official line and the CIA boys both working to see what China is thinking. Hope to hell it is nothing drastic.

“Anybody have anything else they want to bring up? Oh, one more thing, Ed, have your CIA boys in China find out why all those commercial freighters or whatever ships are being held in China’s ports.”

“Yes, Mr. President, I’ll get that out via our Peking boys.” Ed McCluskey was the Director of Central Intelligence. In that role, he ran the Central Intelligence Agency.

The President rolled the pencil around on the table in front of him. “I find Ms. Stearns’s concept very disconcerting. It really bothers me. I can’t believe that the North Koreans would not do this without Peking’s blessing, or at least acquiescence. It is very disturbing that the Chinese just might be backing this play as a diversion for taking Taiwan or something else.”

“One thing, Mr. President. How are we going to pay for this, shall I say, limited mobilization?”, asked Marge.

I’ll have one of our supporters in each of the House and Senate introduce legislation for limited emergency funding. I don’t know, or even how to estimate, how much what we just decided will cost. I’ll have the number crunchers from the Office of Management and Budget get with your staffs. Try and have the figures by 12:00 tomorrow. Is that a feasible time limit for something quick and dirty but still be in the ballpark?”

All nodded in the affirmative.

“I’ll have our supporters in both Houses of Congress in for coffee and give them the numbers late tomorrow afternoon. Any other related issues that we need to talk about right now?”

“No, Mr. President,” was unanimously voiced.

“Then let’s go to work. Thanks to all.” The President scooted back his chair and left the room. Robert Lee was waiting outside the war room door for his charge.

“Mr. President, the Russian President, Vassily Chernikof, is on the line.”

“Thanks, Marge, put him through. Funny he didn’t call on the red line. Guess he didn’t think it was a hot enough issue.” Jason Thornton picked up the phone.

“Good day, Vassily. I appreciate your call, and I will get right to the point. What is Russia’s perspective of the difficulties on the Korean peninsula?”