Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1
WASHINGTON, D.C., WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM

The Secretary of Defense cleared his throat. “Mr. President, with your permission, I’d also like to suggest we move some Fifth Fleet assets out of the Mediterranean and over to the Seventh Fleet in the Pacific.”

“We should consider positioning additional bombers in the region as well,” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs added.

The President studied the array of images displayed throughout the room. He had expected to be tested during his presidency, just not this soon—and not to such a degree.

Paul Porter was a two-term governor who had won election by playing to the best in Americans. He was an affable man in his early sixties. A tall, trim outdoorsman with a weather-beaten face, Porter looked as if he would have been just as at home leading fly-fishing trips in Montana as occupying the most powerful office in the world.

He was known for telling the truth, especially when it was hard. He never took the politically expedient route of only telling people the parts they wanted to hear. America could no longer afford to be given half the story.

Porter had campaigned on helping to bring about a brighter, more prosperous future for the nation. He had promised an America at peace with itself and the world. But those things, like anything worth having, would require work. The phrase we must act today in order to preserve tomorrow had become a hallmark of his speeches. He liked to paraphrase Founding Father Dr. Joseph Warren and remind Americans that the liberty of all future generations depended upon what they did today. It was an appropriate call to action, which, in light of what they had learned, had just taken on much deeper significance.

“First things first,” the President replied, flipping to the page he wanted in his briefing book. “Who’s our China expert here?”

All eyes shifted to the CIA’s senior China analyst, a woman named Stephanie Esposito. “I am, Mr. President,” she said, raising her hand. She was nervous. She had never briefed a president before.

“Agent Esposito, is it?”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“I understand you were quite insistent that this briefing include information on the Chinese concept of unrestricted warfare.”

“Yes, sir. I was.”

“Why?”

“Because I believe it is the single most important doctrine they’ve developed in the modern era. It informs everything they do, especially Snow Dragon.”

The President agreed. “For those in the room who aren’t familiar with unrestricted warfare, will you please explain what it is?”

“Yes, Mr. President,” Esposito replied. “China sees the United States as its number-one enemy. The defense minister, General Chi Quamyou, has stated that war with the United States is inevitable and can’t be avoided.

“At the same time, China understands that they can’t defeat the United States on the conventional battlefield. We’re too technologically advanced. But in the words of the People’s Liberation Army chief of staff, General Fu Haotian, the inferior can defeat the superior.

“It can only be done, though, by throwing out the rule book, which is actually what two very dangerous PLA colonels did back in the 1990s. By abandoning the traditional concept of warfare, Colonels Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui completely reinvented China’s view of warfare and of itself.”

“How so?”

“In their doctrine of unrestricted warfare, Liang and Xiangsui rejected the idea that China was required to meet the U.S. on any conventional battlefield. Why fight in a manner in which you know you’ll lose? Instead, the colonels proposed that China only fight battles they knew they could win.

“Merciless, unconventional attacks are at the very heart of their philosophy. In fact, Colonel Liang has been quoted as saying that the first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules. Anything goes. Bombs in movie theaters, collapsing America’s electrical grid, taking down the Internet, poisoning our food or water supplies, dirty bombs, chemical or biological attacks—nothing is beyond the pale in their new philosophy.

“It also gives China the edge. We’ll never see them coming. There won’t be mass troop mobilizations or anything like that. In fact, unrestricted warfare renders planes, soldiers, and tanks almost totally unnecessary in the traditional sense.”

“But someone still needs to carry out the attacks,” the President’s Chief of Staff interjected.

Esposito nodded. “Correct. While the PLA has millions of hackers who can mask the origin of their cyberattacks, physical attacks on the United States are different. That’s why Liang and Xiangsui advocated funding, equipping, and deploying third parties whenever possible. They singled out Muslim terrorists as an excellent proxy.”

Everyone around the table looked at one another.

“Understand that the key for China is to never be attached to any attack. A third party, that probably wouldn’t even know it was doing China’s bidding, affords China plausible deniability. The world would have a perfect bad guy to blame and China would be able to avoid any international repercussions. For any of our allies to take action, there would have to be rock-solid proof that China was behind the attack on the United States.”

“And even then,” the Vice President added, “some of our allies wouldn’t have the stomach for it. It’d be the start of World War III.”

“That’s what China is counting on,” Esposito replied.

The Director of Homeland Security shook his head. “I still can’t believe China would risk everything to attack us. What for?”

Esposito looked at the President, who nodded for her to respond.

“The Chinese are extremely deliberate and pragmatic,” she said. “They can see the writing before anyone else has even seen the wall. Mr. Director, they’re dying. Their air is polluted. Their water is polluted. They have cut down their timber and have mined all of their minerals. Less than 5 percent of China has arable land left suitable for agriculture. The investments they made in North Africa have been a complete bust. In fact, they’ve taken substantial losses. The mines there didn’t even produce a fraction of what they had projected.

“And during all this, China’s population has continued to expand while its economy has continued to slow. Every day, China experiences riots and mass social unrest that never makes it into international news. There’s not enough work in the cities and the peasants who return to the country are starving to death. In some desperate, lawless areas, reports of occultism and even cannibalism are starting to leak out. As conditions deteriorate, China, like North Korea, has become a hotbed of new, drug-resistant diseases that threaten the entire world. About which they routinely lie to WHO and other international health organizations.

“The Chinese know that it’s not daylight they’re seeing at the end of their tunnel. It’s a train heading right at them.”

“So their answer is to come steal our resources?”

“That’s just it. The Chinese don’t see it as stealing. They see it as surviving. Anything that assures China’s survival is not only acceptable, it’s imperative.”

“Even if it means war?”

Esposito nodded and the President thanked her. He then turned to the Director of National Intelligence. “Against that background, let’s address what the CIA learned in Hong Kong.”

“Thank you, Mr. President,” the DNI said as he turned toward the other members of the National Security Council. “As you all have been made aware, a CIA asset with access to high-ranking members within the People’s Liberation Army and China’s Ministry of State Security has learned of a potential attack on the United States, codenamed Snow Dragon.

“While the asset was not able to ascertain the date or methodology, the attack is believed to be imminent. The Chinese have projected a 90 percent fatality rate within one year, which leads us to believe we’re looking at something nuclear or biological in nature.”

“Missiles?” the Attorney General asked.

The DNI shook his head. “We don’t think so. According to the intelligence acquired by the CIA, the Chinese used a cutout named Ismail Kashgari from the Uighur region to approach an Al Qaeda fixer in Pakistan named Ahmad Yaqub. Our belief is that Yaqub was hired to staff the operation.”

“The Uighur area borders Afghanistan, doesn’t it?” asked the Director of Homeland Security. “Can’t we get to this Kashgari character?”

“He’s dead,” the DNI replied. “We believe the Chinese killed him to cover up their involvement.”

“What about Ahmad Yaqub? Can we get to him?”

“Yes,” replied the President. “We have actionable intelligence on Yaqub’s whereabouts. A mission plan is being developed as we speak.”

“Do we have any leads beyond this Ahmad Yaqub?” the Attorney General asked.

“There’s one more,” replied the DNI. “According to the CIA’s asset, the Chinese have been training some kind of special PLA detachment in North Korea.”

“What’s so special about it?” the Director of Homeland Security asked.

“We believe it is a landing force of some type, training to come in after the attack. As you can see on the screens, the area they are supposedly training in has been netted over. We can’t see what they’re up to. If we could get eyes on, we believe we might be able to learn more about the nature of the attack.”

“How would you go about that?”

“We’d insert a four-man SEAL reconnaissance and surveillance team,” the Secretary of Defense replied.

The Attorney General was a bit taken aback. “Into North Korea?”

He nodded.

Looking at the Secretary of State, the AG asked, “Where do you stand on all of this?”

The Secretary of State took a moment to collect his thoughts before speaking. “I stand with the President, but I have a couple of concerns.”

“Such as?”

“We’ve been able to confirm some of the intelligence the CIA received, but it’s still largely single-source. That’s dangerous. We don’t know if this is officially the People’s Republic of China at work. It could be a rogue element from somewhere within their intelligence service, the military, or even the Chinese Communist Party. We just don’t know.”

“Which is exactly why the North Korea and Ahmad Yaqub operations are necessary,” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs stated. “If it makes it easier, consider them fact-finding missions.”

“With guns and Spec Ops personnel.”

“These aren’t trips to Disneyland, Mr. Secretary.”

The Secretary of State took in a deep breath, puffed out his cheeks, and then slowly exhaled in exasperation. “My job is diplomacy and I’d prefer diplomatic channels, but the President is right. We can’t let the Chinese know we suspect them.”

All eyes shifted to Porter. As great as the risks were, the greatest risk lay in doing nothing. Both operations needed to go forward. There was no other course a responsible leader could choose to take.

Nodding to his Director of National Intelligence and Secretary of Defense, he said, “I’m green-lighting them.”

The men immediately reached for secure telephones.

“Blackbird is a go,” the Director of National Intelligence said into his.

Moments later, the Secretary of Defense’s call was answered. “We’re go for Operation Gold Dust,” he confirmed.

Blackbird and Gold Dust were codenames randomly created by the CIA and DoD for two missions that might save America from an unspeakable attack, or a deadly, all-out war.

After they had discussed what military assets could be repositioned without tipping their hand to the Chinese, the meeting was adjourned.

As his national security team filed out of the Situation Room, the President asked the Secretary of the Treasury to remain behind. There was an additional piece of intelligence the CIA had collected, but that had been excluded from the briefing.

Once they were alone, the President spoke. “Dennis, I want you to do something for me and you need to be very quiet about it.”