“Well, Mr. President, I should think it will run about fifty of the one hundred fifty that we can definitely prove rape and murder. We can have the Army set up a temporary morgue and embalm the bodies and put them in wooden coffins and ship them back to relatives in Mexico, at least those that claim relatives. Many of them will likely deny any family whatsoever because of the shame of their crimes. We will probably wind up burying them here in the U.S. Alternatively, we can donate their bodies to medical science. Medical schools throughout the country could certainly use them in their anatomy classes. The Texas Attorney General wants their blood. He doesn’t care how it is done. He will go along with any suggestions we are to make. By the way, he sends his thanks to you for all the federal involvement and letting his folks be the leaders in the investigation and trial. He very much appreciates the efforts of the FBI, BATFE, and INS Border Patrol participation.”
“Does the Mexican government know how many we actually have and who they are, Hugh?”
“I don’t think so, Mr. President.”
“Good, then that is what we will do. The bodies will be donated to medical schools as John Does. Give the affected states first claims on the bodies. They might serve some useful function here in the good ol’ USA after all. Make it mass hanging so as not to distort any anatomical features except their necks. Get on with it.”
The Texas Attorney General ordered a gallows holding five prisoners at one time to be built in the desert adjacent to the holding compound, just meters away from the boundary of the Fort Bliss Reservation. He wanted the prisoners to see it, to think about it, and realize they were going to die on it. An agreement was struck between the Army, the State of Texas and the Bureau of Prisons. The Bureau of Prisons and the State of Texas would build a permanent facility in the desert to hold up to two hundred inmates for future contingencies. The Army would use its funds to maintain it once it was built and use it as an overflow facility for military installations in the southwest. It could be considered as an adjunct facility to that in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“Admiral Stark, order our naval forces to withdraw to their home port of San Diego or wherever on the west coast. Send it in the clear so there is no confusion for the Chinese. When the carriers get within range of a UC-21M Greyhound, put sealed orders on them informing them of the battle plan and their part in Operation Recovery. They will provide backup for the Marine Expeditionary Forces. Give the order to sink any Chinese submarines in the area. The new satellites will provide their precise location. I don’t want to have a single American ship torpedoed. If we have to strike the first blow at sea, so be it. We’re going to take back the Canal Zone. They can then pass the word to the other ships in their groups. We don’t want to tip our hand too soon to the Chinese, just in case they have cracked into our so-called secure internet transmissions. A quick review of our plans is in order for me. Run through it real quickly for me, General Craig.”
“Mr. Secretary, General Anderson has assumed overall command for this operation. We have made some changes since our initial plan; fine-tuned it, so to speak. General Shelton’s Air Force folks will be monitoring the radio traffic very closely from AWACS from the minute the carrier battle groups turn south, vectoring away from San Diego. General Leonard will attach two EA-6B Prowlers to General Shelton’s AWACS, one to each AWACS. The second there appears any indication that the Chinese are figuring out what we are up to, they will attempt to contact the mainland. The AWACS can directly communicate with the Prowlers and jam their broadcasts. General Anderson, your Rangers are ready?”
“Yes, sir, General Craig, they were born ready. They are itching to go. Many of them have figured it out and are having a hard time sitting still. I have never seen so many men sharpening their fighting knives at one time.”
General Craig continued, “Coordination and surprises will be the keys. It has to run like clockwork. We will set our timetables to the arrival of the forces from the Far East. We are going to seize everything at once, both ends and everything in the middle.
“The suspect warehouses in Balboa and Cristobal are the critical targets. That’s where the missiles will be located. We have to take them before the Chinese can launch. We will assume they can launch within fifteen minutes of receiving a launch order. Two Brigades of the 82nd Airborne Division will make a night drop into the Pacific terminal of Balboa and seize the warehouses there. The adjacent old Rodman Naval Base on the Pacific side will be the objective of the 23rd Marine Expeditionary Unit in an amphibious assault. They will provide reinforcements and take out any resistance from the Panamanian Defense Force and Chinese units in the town of Balboa.
“On the Atlantic side, the 26th MEU will assault Cristobal in support of a third Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division. We are using paratroopers to maximize the element of surprise. It will be a low-level flight group, five hundred feet off the deck, all the way from Fort Bragg in C-130s for these two airborne assaults. The 101st Airborne Division will be delivered to Howard Air Force Base on the Pacific side by massive airlift of Air Force C17s. I have ordered the 101st off border duty and ordered the reserves in place to hold down the fort in the desert. The 101st is martialing at Fort Bliss in El Paso as we speak. Things have really quieted down along the border, and I see no reason to maintain an active line division there.
“The 101st Airborne will assault and hold the air field. Our major concern is that it is going to require every Air Force Transport aircraft in the inventory. We are not aware of any enemy fighter or interceptor aircraft in the Canal Zone, but that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be any. Navy F-18F Hornets from the USS John C. Stennis will provide fighter coverage. One Marine airborne battalion will assault Ancon Hill where the old Quarry Heights Headquarters for SOUTHCOM used to be, while a second assaults the old Albrook Air Force Station. Galeta Island will be guarded by a battalion of Marines in a classic amphibious operation. Fort Sherman on the Atlantic side will be taken by Marines in a vertical assault from the USS Iwo Jima Assault Ship. The 101st Airborne will establish a holding facility for any Chinese and others that are taken prisoner at Howard Air Force Base. Army Rangers aboard ships will disembark at critical points along the entire length of the Canal. Navy SEALs will check all of the locks and dams. That’s it in a nutshell, Mr. Secretary.”
“Thank you, General. We received a report last night that the Chinese have DF-21A missiles in the warehouses at both ports. As we all know, these are cold launch missiles whose engines ignite in flight and can be launched very quickly. They can carry a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead for 1500 miles. They can reach any city in the United States. They are only thirty feet long and easily fit inside a standard ocean-going shipping container.”
“We will have helicopter gunships in support of the assault units, Mr. Secretary. If any missile comes rolling out of a warehouse, those ships can fill it with enough holes that they will never initiate launch.”
Chapter 38
The Chinese ambassador’s phone rang at 02:00 hours. It was Marge Talbott. She politely requested the presence of his Excellency Kuan Sheng to meet with the President and herself in precisely one hour at the White House. Groggy from sleep and a bit too much alcohol from the cocktail party earlier in the evening, he grumbled as he quickly showered and dressed. His sedan was waiting for him as he emerged from the Chinese Embassy. At 02:55, the sedan pulled up to the White House.
Johnny Whittaker escorted the Ambassador into the Oval Office where Marge Talbott, Jim Neville, Ralph Gardner and the President were drinking coffee and animatedly chatting. They all stood when Kuan Shang entered the room. Kuan Shang politely bowed to the President first and the others in turn without speaking.
Jason Thornton waved Kuan Shang into a chair with his hand and said, “I’m sorry to awaken you at this hour, Mr. Ambassador. I have some critical information for you that you will wish to communicate to your government as soon as possible, I am sure.”
Now fully awake, Kuan Sheng leaned forward in his chair, a furrow appeared in his brow, and he grasped both arms of his chair.
“As of this moment, Mr. Ambassador, we are launching an attack upon the Republic of Panama. Our objectives are the warehouses that house your missiles. We are aware of your submarines in the area. We have pinpointed them precisely, and I have given the order that if they open the outer doors of their torpedo tubes, they are to be immediately sunk. There is no recourse. Additionally, I have ordered all of our ICBMs to target each Chinese city on the coast as well as Peking, Darien, and a number of others. If you launch a single missile in our direction, attack a single American ship, you will launch a new phase of World War III. In effect, with our MIRVs, the design which you stole back in the 1990s, with six warheads per missile, we will obliterate your hopes of world domination and a modern China. You are probably not aware that instead of the original twenty-five kiloton weapons in each independent re-entry vehicle, due to miniaturization, we have upgraded them to one hundred-kiloton warheads. We do have a few with warheads in the megaton range for your larger cities.
“Look at me, Mr. Ambassador! I am not bluffing. I will order the destruction of your nation in the blink of an eye if China so much as twitches. Here is the position of all of your nuclear submarines capable of launching any kind of missile against United States territory as of one hour ago. You can confirm their positions when you communicate to your Government.” He handed Kuan Sheng a piece of paper with the names and locations of forty submarines listed.
Kuan Sheng took the paper very carefully and read down the list. He realized that he did not know the accuracy, but he recognized the names of many of the submarines. He looked up at Jason Thornton, then looked at the others in the room, but said nothing. They were as inscrutable as he was. Inwardly, he was absolutely seething. If the United States seized the missiles in Panama, it would reveal not only the state of their nuclear defenses and rocketry, but the massive biological weapons program.
“In addition, Mr. Ambassador, if there is a single outbreak of some exotic disease in the United States, be it against humans, our crops or domestic animals, we will retaliate. You are not the only one who knows how to genetically engineer viruses and bacteria. While President Richard Nixon ordered the destruction of our entire biological and chemical stocks in 1969, I have directed the appropriate institutions to initiate research into possible biological weapons once again. Offensive weapons, Mr. Ambassador, to retaliate against any nation that uses biological weapons against us. We both know that these pose a far greater threat in the long run than nuclear weapons. We will ensure that our own population, every man, woman, and child, is vaccinated against any biological weapons that we select for deployment. I will candidly admit that right now we have no such capability, so our response for the immediate future will be nuclear. I would prefer to avoid any environmental destruction such as we have recently witnessed on the Asian continent. I don’t know how accurate a nuclear winter scenario is, but it is something I would prefer not to risk. Therefore, I will proceed with such research on biological weapons and their defense as I deem necessary to protect our country through a balance of, shall I say, biological power?”
“As regards to your invasion of the Central Asian Republics, Southeast Asia, and of Africa, I can only say this. It is too late to stop you in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. You already own them. The west was not at all prepared for such an explosion of your conquests. I have communicated with the nations of Western Europe. That includes Russia. We agree that it is necessary for you to withdraw from Africa. It presents you with too much of an advantage to launch an attack on the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. Therefore, you must withdraw your forces from Africa. Your daily convoys of troops and supplies must cease within twenty-four hours. If they do not, we will engage you in submarine and other forms of naval warfare. We will first sink all your submarines that you have on picket duty in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. Then we will assault your convoys from the air, land and sea. Should you attempt retaliation against any nation participating in this coalition, of the naval and air forces conducting such interdiction, we will be forced to conclude that you desire to expand World War III into nuclear war. Therefore, I strongly urge your government to withdraw all your naval and land forces now on or in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.
“The government of Iran has suddenly seen the light. They are now actively seeking coalition partners with Europe and the United States. We are no longer the Great Satan. They now regard China as a re-incarnation of the feared Mongol Hordes of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. You have turned Islam, or what’s left of it, against you. Even the hordes of your Asian brethren in Indonesia and the Republic of the Philippines now regard you as a far greater threat to Islam than western democracy and their materialistic decadence.
“Russia is now seen as the front line of battle. What is left of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are scrambling to rebuild their ties with Russia and inviting western powers to build bases to ensure that there is no further encroachment on their territories. Indeed, they are asking the European Union, NATO and the United States to go to war with you on their lands. We will not engage you in a conventional war upon the Asian continent at this time. Rather, weapons of mass destruction are our only option. I cannot guarantee what the future holds; that depends a great deal upon you. You have eliminated hundreds of millions of the peoples of the Asian subcontinent, destroyed cultures foreign to your own, launched the destruction of nuclear wars, and earned the enmity of the world. As far as your being the manufacturing center of the world, that cannot be denied. If the rest of the world imposes tremendous tariffs on your goods and re-institutes manufacturing in their own countries, your economy could collapse in a relatively short time.
“Within twenty-four hours, the rest of the world will know of our invasion of Panama and what we have seized in your warehouses of the Hutchison-Whampoa and COSCO shipping companies. We will make the results public. We are taking journalists embedded in our forces into those warehouses for independent confirmation. The nations of Western Europe are having similar conversations with their ambassadors from China as I am having with you. The only difference is that they are not knowledgeable of our invasion of Panama at the moment. They will know it as soon as we are finished here.
“Your government has some hard choices to make, Mr. Ambassador, and precious little time in which to make them. If you do not withdraw as I have outlined, the United States Navy will initiate maritime war. All warships have already received their instructions to proceed into combat unless otherwise countermanded. That includes nuclear launch from our Ohio and Trident nuclear submarines. That is just in case you decide to try and take out the U.S. leadership, meaning myself and the rest of Washington, D.C. I pray that your government makes the right choices. Secretary Albright has a detailed list for you to ensure that you don’t overlook anything in your communications.”
Marge Albright handed the Ambassador a single sheet of double spaced typed paper.
“Do you have any questions, Mr. Ambassador?”
“No, Mr. President. I will immediately contact my government and inform them of what you have said.”
“My aide, Johnny Whittaker, will provide a tape recording of this conversation for you on your way out. In that case, Mr. Ambassador, I must apologize once again for disturbing your sleep. I hope that we can all sleep well, tonight and in the future. Good night, sir.”
Johnny Whittaker escorted the Ambassador into the foyer where he was handed the tape. Then he escorted the Ambassador back to his sedan. Whittaker noticed that Kuan Sheng was slightly trembling. He had never seen the man with a visible expression of being upset before.
“Marge, send our prepared communiqué to all our friends and acquaintances in Japan, the Middle East and Europe, as we planned. We’ll see what they have to say. I expect we will hear from most of them by 09:00 this morning. I am going to get some sleep. I suggest you all do as well. We’ll have a breakfast meeting at 09:00 to see what the responses are. Good night to all.”
Jason Thornton rose from his desk and went to bed, feeling better than he had since he won the election.
“American warships are immune from being searched and tolls paid. If that Panamanian pilot and his Chinese sidekick give you any crap, Captain, tell them to send the bill to the Department of the Navy, Washington, D.C. If they don’t buy that, you tell them they are going through the locks if you have to seize them and operate them yourself. You have the Marines aboard, and that’s no bull.” The US Navy transport ship carried a battalion of Rangers and ten SEAL Teams. They were allegedly en route to California to participate in amphibious war games. Each SEAL Team was assigned one set of the locks on Gatun Lake. Their mission was to check for underwater explosives on the gates and chains and then guard the locks at the hinges. Bravo Company, 1st Ranger Battalion would provide security for the remainder of the facilities: the electric locomotives, the tracks, the controls and the approaches to the locks. They would quietly slip over the side at 01:00 and carry out their missions.
The year of 1970 saw the highest number of transits through the Panama Canal. That year, 15,523 vessels passed through the Canal. Now, because of larger ships, the total was less than 10,000 vessels per year. Still, it is the second most critical waterway in the world. The Suez Canal ranks first, and the Malacca Straits ranks a close third. It saves the United States Navy, and all ocean going trade between the east and west coasts, and the Pacific Rim to the east coast of North America, over eight thousand extra sea miles when going around the Straits of Tierra del Fuego, often in very stormy seas.
