General Shen, De-ming gave the order. The first three vehicles were infantry fighting vehicles, behind which came two Chinese built Russian style T-80 tanks and three trucks filled with light infantry. These were acting as the point vehicles, traveling a kilometer ahead of the main column. Behind them stretched a hundred trucks carrying infantry, tents, extra clothing, food and ammunition. Truck mounted anti-aircraft missile batteries, free rocket over ground launchers on flatbed trucks, quad mounts of heavy 12.7 mm machine guns on light trucks, radar trucks searched the skies as they moved, communications trucks monitored radio traffic, and self-contained galley trucks already began preparing the next meal in cooking containers clamped shut. Already cool winds were blowing, and a light snow fell two days earlier. They drove out of Huocheng, in Sinkiang, headed west. Tanker trucks were interspersed in the column, carrying either diesel fuel or water. When freezing weather set in, pumps and heaters would circulate the water in the tankers to prevent freezing. The vehicles maintained strict discipline, one hundred meters between each vehicle. Engineering battalions with road graders, bulldozers, and recovery vehicles were in each column to clear avalanches, landslides, and roadblocks. Bridging equipment would enable crossing raging mountain rivers where bridges were destroyed.

In the past five years, the market for goose down from China had become more and more expensive, as the military preparations absorbed greater and greater amounts to manufacture down clothing. State of the art synthetics produced in massive quantities also went into the manufacture of tremendous numbers of winter garments, sleeping bags, gloves, hats, and tent liners.

A similar column departed Kashi, approximately four hundred miles to the south. One hour later, an identical column departed behind each of those two columns. Behind that column came another, and another and another. Each column was task organized for its specific mission. The lead columns out of Huocheng had as the first objective the road net around Almaty, the capitol of Kazakhstan. The Kashi columns followed the Wulu-Kyzylsu River road west. Their first major objective was to cut the road net around Dushanbe, the capitol in the center of Tajikistan. All of the villages in the valley were destroyed as the Chinese columns passed. Homes and barns were searched for food stuffs and then burned. Livestock was shot and eviscerated on the spot by the mobile abattoirs, then hung in refrigerated trucks if not immediately prepared for consumption in the galleys. When one segment of the column stopped to conduct search and destroy or foraging activities, the remainder of the column simply left them the assigned light infantry company for security and moved ahead.

“The launch went well, Mr. President. We have three satellites now orbiting over the region, and everybody in the world knows what is going on over there.”

Evening television broadcasts on the daily news now came from the several satellites of different nations. The French and Germans had rushed commercial satellites into orbit as well as the United States. Commercial companies always seemed one step ahead of governments in employing the latest technology. Broad band digital satellites launched by private companies in Japan were in place two weeks after the nuclear blinding. Apparently, some of the international satellite companies kept spare satellites on hand, or were ready to launch new models by an act of accidental timing. International satellite companies offered varying commentaries with their television broadcasts. All of them showed the tremendous devastation now, not only of Korea, but of India and Pakistan, from the nuclear exchanges. The effects of fallout were not visible to the television camera of Big Eye, but experts made their comments anyway. A couple of the networks dug out archival films from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings that ended World War II. They showed the tremendous number of humans burned and with radiation sickness. They pointed to increases in cancer deaths, and medical experts were rolled out by the dozen to explain how radiation sickness reduced the body’s ability to fight normal infections and how the more rapidly dividing cells were damaged. The damage to the intestinal tract, the respiratory tract, the germinal layer of the skin, the thyroid glands, and lymphatic tissue were all demonstrated time and again. The medical community seemed determined to scare the hell out of the rest of the world.

A few brave, or perhaps ignorant, or too ambitious for their own good, or perhaps uncaring for their own health, reporters from half a dozen countries were now on the ground in southern Korea. They reported with glaring detail the burned landscape, the masses of the dead, the destroyed cities and towns. They broadcast Geiger-Mueller counter readings on a daily basis as they advanced northward with the South Korean Army. They also reported that the surviving South Korean forces were now advancing steadily and making good progress. Inchon was retaken. Seoul was being retaken. Neither side had elected to strike Seoul with nuclear weapons. It was simply too rich a prize with its manufacturing capabilities and being the intellectual center of South Korea. South Korean battalions on their own initiative were bypassing Seoul, moving towards Uijongbu to cut off the retreating North Koreans. South Korean units in the Taebok Mountains were playing havoc with the retreating North Koreans. They did not repeat McArthur’s mistake in late 1950 of leaving units and stragglers, often up to battalion size, in their rear to harass their lines of communication. North Koreans were systematically hunted down and killed. Each valley was cleared of North Koreans before moving to the next. Several journalists suggested in every daily report that massive aid, food, shelter, construction supplies, fuel, medicines, and construction machinery, would be necessary if the survivors of the war were to survive the coming winter. As in all wars, it is the civilians that suffer the most.

Street combat in Seoul resulted in thousands of North Korean prisoners. Many small groups of captives were herded into deserted sections of the city and executed without remorse. Everyone was hungry, and South Korean soldiers who had lost families, friends and comrades-in-arms saw no reason to feed those who had done everything possible to destroy their homes and their peninsula. Officers, in particular, often suffered cruel deaths, as they were tortured for information before dying. A few conscripts were fortunate enough to fall into the hands of sympathetic ROK soldiers who treated them as Prisoners of War and placed them in temporary POW compounds. Most South Koreans felt nothing but a deep, unabiding hatred for their northern brothers as a result of the treachery inflicted upon their people.

Captain Koon’s little band had grown into a full-sized company as more and more sections, squads, and even civilian volunteers joined him. In the short period of three months, his reputation had grown, and he expanded his operations over the entire district. He promoted Sergeant Park to Lieutenant Park and made him a platoon leader of fifty men and women. Now, he moved northward, harassing the retreating North Koreans. Major Bradley gave Captain Koon his major’s insignia and told him he deserved a promotion. The two men had formed the bond of combat. Bradley became more or less his adjutant, an executive officer, and second in command. Now reasonably conversant in Korean through what amounted to deep immersion, Bradley sometimes led platoon-sized raids as diversions while Captain Koon conducted larger hit and run operations.

Tremendous road traffic at night was picked up by Big Eye in Sinkiang. Ed McCluskey informed everyone at their tri-weekly briefing the following Monday morning.

“It appears to us that the Chinese are massing troops all along their western borders. This would tie in with the road and rail construction they have been building for many years. Those water catchment areas, the underground reservoirs they claimed were for agricultural development, the large hangar type buildings they constructed all along the road net, these huge nightly convoys, the massive truck fleet they built over the years, all support invasion.”

“Marge, a couple of months ago, last spring, one of your analysts predicted this. What was her name, Starns, no Stearns, wasn’t it? On Wednesday’s meeting, bring her in. She deserves to be in on this. She called it right, she should get the credit. She probably has better ideas than any of us regarding their objectives and what our responses should be.”

Feeling somewhat humiliated, Marge Talbott glumly mumbled, “I’ll have her here, Mr. President. I’ll give her a call and get her here right now. She is only a few blocks away.”

Ed McCluskey gave what he called a rough estimate of the forces being moved westward. He reported on the southward movement of Chinese forces through Southeast Asia. Smoke from hundreds, if not thousands, of fires of varying size obscured detail from the television cameras of the satellites. It appeared the Chinese were advancing through Vietnam at the rate of three to five kilometers a day. Slower advances seemed the norm in the more mountainous westward areas of Laos and Cambodia. There, two to three kilometers a day were the average. In areas behind the Chinese lines, where smoke did not obscure the view, the landscape was devastated. The earth appeared blackened, with nothing left of small towns and villages. Roads clogged with Vietnamese moving south to escape the Chinese were broadcast worldwide. It was reminiscent of the Koreans fleeing south from the onslaught of the north in 1950 and the opening days of the Korean War of 2021.

“Mr. President, President Vassily Chernikov is on the secure phone for you.”

“Thank you, Peggy.” Jason Thornton picked up the phone. “Good morning, Vassily, or should I say good afternoon, Moscow time.”

“And a good day to you, Jason. I am sure you know why I am calling. Your satellites have no doubt observed the massive Chinese movements.”

“Yes, Vassily, we have. I find it most disturbing. First, they mass along the Indian border, and then they mass in western Sinkiang. I am told that convoy after convoy is on the move. I don’t have any firm figures on how many, but it must be several million if those trucks are full of troops, according to our analysts.”

“I’m afraid your analysts are right, Jason. That’s what ours say as well. I am relatively confident that they are headed into Kazakhstan, possibly Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan as well, although I don’t know why anyone in their right mind would attack through those mountains this time of year. The logic there escapes me. We have received a memorandum from China through their ambassador here. I had it sent to you via secure fax a few moments ago. Your office should have it by now. It sounds very ominous to me. Our news broadcasts last night picked up on the Chinese movements, and our people are very nervous today. What actions are you going to take, if any?”

“A good question, Vassily. I will discuss it with my cabinet at our meeting right now. It might just be that one analyst was right. They might be after Caspian Sea Basin oil. Do you suppose they intend to pick up the pieces of India and Pakistan along the way?”

“I would not at all be surprised, given the world food situation. There is nothing to stop them from doing so short of all-out nuclear war. If they go through Pakistan, they could sweep northward through Afghanistan and have two massive pincer movements on the east bank of the Caspian. They will have the rice bowl of Southeast Asia and those of Bangladesh and India, now depopulated. Further, the fallout from the Indian-Pakistan exchange seems to be of no concern to them. I don’t know what they are telling their armies. It certainly has us concerned.”

“Do you think they really have the manpower, or rather, can field that much manpower to accomplish that?”

“Jason, I think they do. What if they decide to go into Iran, and Iraq? From there the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia are next door. They could control the world’s oil supply if they do.”

“If they do cross the line, Vassily, and go into the Confederation of Independent States, what will Russia do?”

“That, Jason, is the major debate going on here. Frankly, our military is very limited unless we go nuclear. That would add even more to the threat of radiation from fallout. With current wind directions, we would contaminate much of ourselves. We could take out much of them, but do we strike only when they are in CIS, especially if they disburse as they most likely will? What would be the result if we hit them in their homeland where they are massed? I am afraid it would be a nuclear holocaust of World War III, Jason. A true nuclear winter might ensue.”

“Vassily, you have given me much food for thought. Give my regards to your lovely wife, and we will certainly hash this out from our perspective.”

“One other thing, we have decided to supply small arms to our old friends and enemies alike. We are going to provide weapons to the members of the Confederation of Independent States, Afghanistan, and perhaps Pakistan. Thank you, Jason, for the regards to my wife, and the same to you.”

Roberta Stearns entered the room, and Margaret Talbott moved her chair a little to make room at the table for the chair that Johnny Withers was attempting to fit in.

“Well Ms. Stearns, welcome to our staff meeting this fine Wednesday morning.”

“Thank you, Mr. President; it is a privilege to be here.”

“I’ve invited you because of your excellent assessment of Chinese intentions which you shared with us a few months ago. Now, the Chinese are halfway down the Malayan Peninsula and appear to be massing in the west. Do you have any idea as to what they are up to?”

“Mr. President, I still contend that their major objective is Caspian Sea Basin oil. The thrust through Southeast Asia is, in my opinion, to gain the rice growing areas of that region for themselves. I anticipate they will colonize the entire peninsula. Whether or not they will strike east or west from there remains to be seen. I would not be surprised for them to do so. From the information Secretary McCluskey has provided me, I would suspect they will. It appears they are massing along the Sino-Indian border to move southward into India. After the devastation India and Pakistan inflicted upon one another, both would be easy pickings. That would provide China with the massive river valleys such as the Indus and Ganges and the Indo-Gangian Plain with their rice and other grain producing areas. Also, the northern Indian plain with its wheat crops would make a lot of sense to me. They could practice genocide and be complete masters of those states, expanding them as Chinese territory. In any case, India, Pakistan, and really, Bangladesh, are eliminated as competition for food. With the seizure of the eastern aspects of the Central Asian Republics, they have, or will gain control of tremendous water sources for hydroelectric power. While not as rich in oil or natural gas, there are some modestly valuable mineral deposits in each of them. One thing I have not been provided are estimates of the size of the troops massing in the west, so I can’t project for certain just how far they intend to go.”

“Ms. Stearns, I’m moving you over to the CIA as an analyst. From now on, you’re working for Ed McCluskey. What grade are you?”

“I’m a GS-11, Mr. President.”

“Now you are a GS-13, and Ed will find a place for you on his immediate staff. I want you to concentrate on this Chinese puzzle. That might rankle some feathers, but I don’t care about that. I want talent in positions where it can be the most effective. Come to these briefings every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for discussions of the Chinese situation. Congratulations, Ms. Stearns.”

“Thank you, Mr. President. I’m very flattered and grateful. One other point I would like to make, Mr. President.”

“Proceed, Ms. Stearns,” said Thornton with a smile.

“It is just possible, very unlikely from the way things are shaping up right now, but we should not overlook the possibility of an invasion of Taiwan at the same time.”

“Jim, from a military perspective, what do the Joint Chiefs say? Do they have any idea as to the ultimate objective of the Chinese?”

“The Chiefs are pretty much unanimous, Mr. President. They all think the Chinese are going for the Persian Gulf as a minimum. If they go into Pakistan and Afghanistan, and there is every indication they will, they will have Iran right next door, be on the Arabian Sea, and could choke off the Gulf.”

“Ed, what do your folks think?”

“They are all in pretty much in agreement, and in agreement with Jim’s people. They all think the target is the Gulf.”

“Well then, the big question comes, what is our response? Opinions?”

Everyone glanced around the room at all the other cabinet ministers and attendees. It was what everyone thought but no one wanted to suggest.

In the next briefing, Roger McCall announced they were preparing for the worst and let the press speculate about that. Intentions soon became apparent. Jason Thornton made no secret that he ordered all remaining intercontinental ballistic missiles restored. In a carefully leaked and planned scenario, missile silos were filmed being inspected and tested. Warheads were removed from storage and replaced on aged Minuteman III missiles being re-installed in the silos. A flurry of such activity occurred in missile silos all over Montana, North and South Dakota, and Nebraska. It was déjà vu, a return to the Cold War days with the strategy of MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction. A public announcement to the world declared that our satellites were off limits. Any further attacks on them would be considered an act of war and result in ICBM launches with nuclear warheads. It would not be a limited attack but all-out destruction of the attacking country. The only question was at whom they would be aimed. That remained unstated, but most presumed it was China. Television journalists repeatedly stood outside the fenced silos before the television cameras and asked, “At whom are these aimed, and who has aimed theirs at the United States?”

China filed a protest through their ambassador, with the concern that China was their target. The Chinese ambassador was most sincere. He had not been informed by his own government, as the Japanese envoys to the United States were not informed of the impending attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, of the true situation. He knew from the daily news coverage, however, what his government was doing. The American response was anticipated, and the appropriate counter response was already in place. President Thornton repeatedly asked the ambassador why China was attacking its neighbors. The response was always the same.

“China is settling its territorial disputes once and for all. We have no desire to intimidate anyone, merely to claim for China that which is China’s.” When asked about the massive troop movements into western China, why, and where they were going, the ambassador denied all knowledge of any such troop movements. He did not have the knowledge, but he had an intuitive, gut wrenching feeling the reports were true, and his country just might provoke a war with the United States. He felt Jason Thornton was being pushed more than he would admit.

Anti-war protestors marched in the streets in many of America’s larger cities. The television broadcasts depicted riots reminiscent of the 1960’s over American involvement in Vietnam. The American public was almost hysterical that war was coming to the United States, or that the United States would take war to Asia. Senator Kennely was particularly vitriolic against the administration. All over Europe, similar demonstrations formed, declaring that the American President was a trigger-happy idiot. The citizens of France were particularly concerned that Jason Thornton would launch a nuclear holocaust.

Experts from various institutions, academics, retired military personnel, physician radiologists, climatologists, physicists, and so on, were all recruited by the media networks for their testimony. They claimed that the millions of tons of ash would circle the globe, reducing the amount of sunlight filtering to the earth. This would change crop and agricultural patterns, the glaciers would expand, warm areas would cool as the temperature dropped an average of perhaps as much as five degrees Celsius or more. Ports and harbors would be affected as the shorelines receded due to massive increases in the amount of sea ice and polar ice caps. They predicted whole regions of Asia would be uninhabitable for centuries. They expressed the opinion that the ozone layer was dramatically damaged. It would take decades, if not centuries, for the ozone layer to be restored. This would be an additional, possibly synergistic, effect, resulting in higher rates of cancers, particularly of the skin. Children would be most vulnerable to radiation sickness, as multiplying cells are most seriously affected. Some so-called authorities recommended that people should consider taking Vitamin D supplements, get more artificial sunlight, and guard their thyroid glands; milk supplies should be closely monitored for Iodine131 and Strontium 90. The former concentrates in the thyroid gland and the latter replaces calcium in bone deposition. People should spend as little time outdoors as possible until assured that the majority of fallout had occurred and be washed from the surface of the earth by rains. One obstetrician on CNN recommended that couples delay starting or increasing their families, as they predicted a higher rate of spontaneous abortions, fetal anomalies, fetal deaths, premature births and deformed children.