Chapter 24

Sunday

It’s a good thing I woke up just before 0600. I’d barely finished with my shower when General Conklin commed me. “Thanks for the updates to the nav computers,” he said. “Did you find anything else, besides two girls?” he teased.

I explained about the military base, about the newly trained soldiers used as guards, noting the elite troops were hiding and waiting. I also explained about the old subway tunnel that led to the college. He agreed that feigning an attack against the hotel to drive the rats into the tunnel where we could capture them was a good idea. That way, we wouldn’t have to fight our way into the building and up each floor. Many of the other units had liked my idea of extra reconnaissance and had also left yesterday.

He informed me that the mother had an abscessed tooth and the infection had gotten into her blood. The tooth had been fixed and she was being treated for the infection. He sent the paperwork to my computer for my signature. I signed and returned it, so they were now officially my dependents. He also told me that Heng, the son, had been worried because his sixteenth birthday was only a month away and he would have been required to report for military service.

Then the General blew my mind. The Russians had begun moving three massive columns of their troops towards China. While there was activity at the air bases, it didn’t look like they planned to have flights leaving today. His guess was that Russia planned to cross the border into China Monday and would start flights of fighters and bombers to support the invasion and would then start sending cargo planes with additional troops and equipment.

Still cloaked, we went out and scanned the area around the hotels. Back at the house, we finalized our plan for tomorrow. The rest of our units had arrived while we were out, so we showed them around the area to familiarize them with it beyond what they saw on the nav screen. We found several abandoned warehouses and used two of them to house everyone for the night.

We reviewed our plan for Monday and gave assignments to each squad. As much as I wanted to be involved, Cortez and the other officers made it quite clear that they wanted me “upstairs” where I could keep an eye on things and warn them of any problems, surprises, or last second changes.

Monday

We were out of the warehouse just after sunrise, eagerly anticipating the battle later this morning. The General warned everyone that the Russians would reach the Chinese border late this afternoon and there was an increase in activity at the main Russian airbases.

I had a timer running to alert me at 0930. No sooner had I shut it off than Second Lieutenant Cortez began a roll call of each team, making sure they were in position. Good thing each sled was linked to a laser communication satellite. Otherwise, that much radio traffic would have been detected by a junior high school class.

General Conklin obviously got confirmation from each location that everyone was prepared. “Standby for a report from Lima Juliet,” he commed, the phrase meant as a five-minute warning. Thankfully, it didn’t mean that I had to say anything. Just knowing that I was responsible for the invasion beginning today made me nervous. Still, that harmonic feeling was humming away deep inside me. I said a quick prayer, asking for help to keep my head clear and my moral compass true.

The beeping started with sixty seconds to go, one beep every ten seconds until the final ten-second countdown. Everyone else was getting ready to launch the assault but I’d been busy for the last two hours, checking and rechecking everything. I’d checked the nearby military base and the elite troops at the college. The legislative session had commenced half an hour ago. All the offices of the State Council on the floor above were occupied so it looked like we had everyone here except five members of the legislature who were missing since only 226 members were in attendance.

“First wave go,” Cortez commed everyone. I’d already verified that our troops were in position and had made sure they were aware of the positions of snipers hiding on a dozen rooftops in the area. The snipers and the rooftop guards on the three hotels were the initial targets, as were the Chinese troops crisscrossing the city on their grav sleds at two hundred meters.

At the nearby military base, when the first wave started, all communications were jammed, even the laser links. The commanders and the communication room were seized, and the helicopters sabotaged by locking cables around the rotors. More sleds stood ready to “discourage” anyone trying to leave the base or to access any of the weapons on base.

“Wave 2, go,” Cortez commed. Everyone on our side could hear the coms so they knew that the attack was progressing. The outside guards at the hotels were next to fall, as well as anyone else wearing a Chinese military uniform. Seeing them collapse caused the guards manning the security checkpoint inside the hotel lobby to hit an alarm. Panic ensued inside the lobby of the primary hotel and quickly spread throughout the hotel and to the residents inside the other two hotels.

“Wave three, go,” Cortez commed. A dozen men on grav sleds used automatic rifles and shot out the glass across the front of the three hotels to make it seem like a full-blown assault on the hotels. Six more fired into the penthouse suite of the primary hotel where the elite forces were donning armor or reaching for their weapons. One grav sled crashed through the front doors and then headed down the wide stairs leading from street level to the active subway. A couple of well-placed shots shorted out the power so the subway stopped running, trapping the government employees and the gathering family members of the legislators inside the regular subway station.

The legislators rushed down the stairs to the abandoned subway station while the State Council members ran for the three escape chutes that let them quickly slide all the way down to the sub-basement. I noted that several members of the State Council grabbed heavy, carbon fiber and composite briefcases and sent them down the chute first.

I also watched the Chinese elite troops rushing towards the abandoned subway tunnel at the college, intending to make their way downtown. The Green Berets were stationed at the college to tranq the Chinese elite forces as they headed for the tunnel. In a situation like this, they didn’t have to specifically highlight each target on the targeting computer. They just had to target anything moving in a specific area.

I was surprised at how quickly most of the people in the primary hotel had evacuated. All that remained behind were lower-level flunkies who were busy running documents through shredders and into burners to destroy them.

The “escape” by the State Council members was laughable. Despite their impressively quick slide down to the sublevel, they’d obviously not thought through trying to carry two or more heavy cases of precious metals and jewels on their grav sleds. No one had rope or anything they could use to hold the suitcases. One man tried strapping three suitcases together with his belt, which immediately broke under the heavy weight.

All the legislators had boarded grav sleds and departed the station before the first of the Council members gave up trying to take all their wealth. One member left everything behind but one suitcase, which he set across his lap, wincing due to the heavy weight as he did. Others eventually followed his lead, escaping with a single suitcase of treasure and leaving everything else behind.

Their escape didn’t last long, however. Four SEAL fire teams and four Raider strike teams had breached the primary hotel, securing the ground floor and the subfloors, as well as the roof. For now, the Raiders simply held the first floor and the lower levels. Two SEAL fire teams entered the tunnel the rats were using to escape. They had managed to ride their grav sleds through the hotel’s wide corridors. They continued by crashing through the “housekeeping” closet that hid the entrance to the tunnel leading to the abandoned platform. Once there, they followed the fleeing legislators and State Council members, trapping them between themselves and the Green Berets blocking the other end.

More Green Berets had positioned themselves just inside the entrance of the abandoned tunnel at the college end to prevent any of the elite Chinese troops from reaching it. Two teams of SEALs with several Chinese-speaking members headed for the platform where the family members and concubines of the legislators and Council members were now stranded, and panicking.

Almost two hundred of the RCC grav sleds Don had sent were circling above the hotel waiting for the family members to be sent to the surface where they could be picked up and transported to Forward Base Papa. I had four sleds drop their crates and the pod for wounded and continue through the hotel to the now-empty loading platform in the abandoned station. They were to retrieve the suitcases full of loot left behind by the escaping Council members and load them on their sled tenders.

Other RCC grav sleds began picking up the Chinese elite troops that had been tranqed at the college and on rooftops. At the college, two of the men would park their grav sleds. A third grav sled was arranged so it was between the two parked sleds. Two men stripped the unconscious Chinese troops of all weapons and ammo, storing it inside the crates of a different sled. When the two crates were full of unconscious troops, they were closed and locked, and the sled headed for Forward Base Papa. Another sled cycled in, and the men continued loading weapons and unconscious bodies.

The politicians were unpleasantly surprised when they arrived at what they thought would be their secret underground bunker. They had expected to hide for a few days to a few weeks with a handful of them sneaking out of the city each night on their fusion-powered grav sleds. If much of the country was still in Chinese hands, they would rendezvous at the next city they had chosen as a capital. Otherwise, they would try to escape to Russia, the closest thing they had to an ally.

Instead, they made the last turn before reaching the hidden door to their bunker and found American troops awaiting them. The ones towards the rear tried to retreat, finding the SEAL teams following right behind them.

At 1127, Cortez made the announcement that sent excited chills down my spine. “Forward Base Papa, this is Lima Juliet 1 reporting that our primary objective is secure. Our top-ranking targets are all secure and only five lower-ranking targets are unaccounted for. The city is quiet and the damage minimal. No friendly casualties. I say again, no friendly casualties, and very few enemy casualties to report.”

“Roger Lima Juliet 1, damn fine job by everyone,” Conklin replied. Even over the radio, I could hear both the emotion and the excitement in his voice. “Proceed to make the announcement,” he said, authorizing me to make my broadcast to the Chinese public as the Son of Demon Dragon.

Eric hurried to meet me from where he’d been covering the attack at the college where the elite Chinese troops had been stationed. He was quickly ready to record and broadcast. Everything that happened up to this point had involved cloaked grav sleds that we didn’t want to advertise. He was so excited that he had to use a small tripod mounted on his grav sled to hold the cameras still.

We began with a shot of me flying over the city as a dragon and then swooping down the street in front of the hotel, spewing fire down the middle of the street. After turning around, I landed beyond the dying flames, about thirty meters from the first camera. I morphed into the two-legged Dragon as I walked away from my cloaked sled. The dragon was visible even when the rest of the sled remained cloaked because the dragon hologram was projected beyond the cloaking. Hence, nobody saw the sled as I walked away from it, and it then rose up three meters.

Entering the hotel, I switched from the hologram projector on my sled tender to a smaller one in my backpack. I made my way to the big conference room where the legislature met and made my way to the desk reserved for the Premier when he met with the legislature. All the legislators and State Council members had been secured with quick cuffs and returned to the room. Our troops had them kneeling on the tables in front of the chair that they used to sit in.

As worried as they were about their capture, their worry turned to outright terror when my two-legged dragon persona entered the room. I walked to the Premier’s seat but remained standing before addressing another camera Eric had installed right before I entered. “People of China, I am the Son of Demon Dragon, come to finish what my father began. The capital has fallen. The government kneels before me,” I said as Eric panned a different camera showing the captive government leaders. Any who tried to hide their face had a soldier behind them grab their hair and lift their head so their face could be seen.

“I offer peace to the people of China. Turn your back on the military if they intend to challenge me. Any troops who hear my voice should revolt against their officers if those officers wish to continue fighting. Fight me and die. If you still intend to fight me, you know where to find me. Lay down your weapons and surrender or come for me and die. I will eat your flesh slowly so that you take days to die. I will only spare those who surrender. You alone must decide what you want to do.”

While Eric followed me, recording, I left the room and went back outside. There, the image morphed back into the twenty-five-meter-long dragon as I climbed back on my grav sled, rising from the ground as the hologram wings began flapping. Eric climbed aboard his grav sled and followed me as I flew to the nearby military base. Flying high above the base, I played the highly amplified recording of a dragon roaring in challenge, one loud enough to be heard several klicks away. Making sure that my shields were on, I swooped low over the base, bathing their tanks with the enhanced dragon fire and adding 40 mm exclamation marks to each tank with the cannon.

When I swooped over a large group of recruits, I was stunned by their reaction. Every one of them threw down their weapon and knelt, bowing until their forehead touched the ground.

I headed back to the city and to the main hotel. By the time I returned, hundreds of people had filled the street in front of the hotel. They cheered when I landed and morphed into a two-legged dragon. They gasped in surprise when I morphed into myself, and then cheered even louder. In just the short time that I had been at the military base, several people had even fashioned crude replicas of a star-filled American flag and were waving them.

Sensing no danger, and with the camera still running, I walked across to the people and touched the hands shoved towards me. Several mothers shoved their baby at me, so I took them and gave each one a kiss on the forehead. My luck with children held and even the cranky kids quieted right down when I held them.

Then, everything went to shit as first one, and then a second young woman pledged themselves to me, insisting on serving me as a Mistress of the Dragon. To keep it from getting completely out of hand, I agreed, but announced that I wouldn’t accept any additional mistresses. I told the rest of the young women to find a brave Chinese soldier when he returned home and to become a good wife for him. I told them that since there were far more women than men in China now, they would have to accept second and even third wives for the men who were good providers and treated their wives well.

It took me more than two hours to greet everyone as the crowd seemed to grow by the minute. I finally headed back to the hotel, exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally, despite having done little so far.

Entering the hotel, I realized that, despite the huge mess we had made, the damage was mostly superficial. I wasn’t sure what the top floor looked like, where their elite troops had been stationed, but most of the rest of the damage was to the lobby and to the stone front of the building. The employees hadn’t been allowed to evacuate and already had the broken glass cleaned up and the marble floors swept and mopped. Surprisingly, aside from one minor scrape, the floor had escaped unscathed.

Electricians were busy replacing or repairing light fixtures. Every employee who saw me bowed. One of the bellhops hurried over to show me to “my” room. Evidently, they had cleaned out the suite the Premier had stayed in and had it ready for me. I wasn’t even aware that I had a room. I also surmised that the Raiders had cleared each floor of the hotel since I could see them with my expanded consciousness. Two were stationed on each floor, one on either side of the elevators.

I already knew what the suite looked like, having “visited” it mentally several times while doing my recon. I was surprised that it wasn’t being used as our local HQ since it was twice the size of the next biggest suite.

I continued to watch everything around me as the bellhop guided us to the elevator and to the 44th floor, where another surprise awaited me. General Conklin was here, busy setting up a headquarters in the suite right across from mine. He was getting situation reports from the other units and locations involved while his XO directed the people who were setting up his headquarters.

When the elevator doors opened on the 44th floor, there were Marine guards on each side of the door and two more across from the elevator. They grinned when they saw it was me. “Start in room 442,” one of them said, motioning to the door of Conklin’s office.

I asked the bellhop to take Wei and Jia, the two girls, to my suite and tried to hand him a small gold coin as a tip. He refused politely, explaining that it was his honor to show us to our suite. I knocked on the door across the hall. “Enter,” someone called out. When they saw it was me, they pointed to the hastily assembled cubicle that was Conklin’s office.

“There you are,” he said happily. “All but three of the provincial capitals capitulated without a fight. Two of the three that wanted a fight gave up within half an hour. The final one finally surrendered a few minutes ago. Aside from two separate battalion-sized units, it looks like most of their military did what you said and laid down their weapons. We have reports of Chinese officers being killed by their own troops. Hell, after watching your video, I was ready to surrender,” he laughed.

“The Russian columns of armor and troop transports, each ten klicks long tried to breach the borders, even though we’d flagged them with American flags. One headed for Ürümqi, the provincial capital of Xinjiang Province, although they tried to capture the border city of Horgos on the way. Our troops helped defend the city while remaining cloaked. They disabled all the Russian armor and transports that were still inside Russia, chasing the remaining troops into China by firing at them each time they turned back towards Russia. They captured tanks, armored personnel carriers, armored fighting vehicles, and trucks filled with soldiers, weapons, ammunition, and other supplies. They used the sleds to carry any abandoned vehicles still inside Russia into China,” he laughed.

“The second column of Russian troops went through the Bakhtu border crossing headed first for Tacheng, eighteen klicks inside Chinese territory. We captured the entire column of armor and trucks. Their target was the northern part of Xinjiang Province where there’s lots of oil, as well as reports of numerous undeveloped mineral resources. Including the troops we herded across the border into China, we captured more than sixty thousand Russian troops in each of those two attacks.

“Their third column headed towards Ulan Bator trying to capture Mongolia. We stopped it just after the tail end of the column entered Mongolia. The Russian government is screaming and pitching a hissy fit because their attack didn’t work this time. They’re also a little put out because more than six hundred of their cargo planes, bombers, and fighters suddenly developed terminal engine trouble. One engine in each of those planes disintegrated, sending shrapnel through the wing and fuselage. Hundreds of their pilots, crew, and flight crews were injured or killed. They’re sure we’re responsible, but they don’t know how and can’t prove it,” he laughed.

One of his aides knocked and stuck his head inside the open door. “Thirty minutes,” he said, and the General nodded.

“You should get cleaned up and put on a clean uniform. We have VIPs arriving in half an hour,” he said. “By the way, the Secretary of Defense told me to thank you and tell you this was the best idea ever,” he chuckled, having heard how hard I had to fight just to get my idea heard.

The ladies were excited when I made it to my suite. I would have to ask General Conklin why I rated the bigger suite. I would have been happy with a single room lower in the hotel. The ladies were disappointed when I told them I had to shower and dress in clean clothing to meet important people, but I quickly had four extra hands helping undress me. Before I did, however, I commed the desk in the lobby and explained that I needed clothing for the girls, something fancy enough to greet important American visitors. I asked them to send someone up to the room with several choices of nice clothing for the two girls and asked to have them wait in the living room of the suite.

Despite some tomfoolery in the shower, we managed to dress and make it back across the hall before the “guests” arrived. The new clothing I just bought for them made the girls even more amorous.

When I asked him about the suites, General Conklin laughed. Evidently, the hotel was adamant that the Son of Demon Dragon would stay in their finest suite. They didn’t dare risk offending me by offering less than their best.

In my still-functioning extended awareness, I noted one of the Talon aircraft approaching and then landing on the roof. Surprised that the roof held the weight, I looked closer and saw that it was hovering a couple centimeters off the roof.

I was more surprised at one of the passengers: the President. Her two sons, as well as seven Secret Service agents accompanied her. “I would have brought my white dress suit if I’d known the President was coming here,” I commented.

“How ... never mind,” Conklin laughed. “You must drive everyone crazy at Christmas since you can tell what everything is,” he laughed.

“Actually, I learned not to peek because it ruins the surprise. Someone put thought and effort into the present and it’s rude of me to take away their enjoyment when they surprise me.”

We exited the room to meet the guests at the elevator and I saw Eric off to one side filming. When the President reached the guarded elevator door on the roof, the four Marines snapped a crisp salute. The President shook their hands and thanked them for their service before entering the elevator.

When the elevator doors opened on our floor, everyone but the two girls saluted the President, even as Secret Service agents swarmed out of the elevator. Wei and Jia tried to blend into the dark wood paneling behind us.

The President shook hands with General Conklin and then with me. “Gentlemen, on behalf of the people of the United States and China, I thank you for your bold plan and for executing it so effectively. Tonight will be the first night in a long time that the mothers in our two countries will be able to sleep without worrying about their sons and many of their daughters having to face the horrors of war.”

Since she gave no appearance of leaving immediately, and I doubted that Conklin’s office was an appropriate destination, I led the way to my suite. The Secret Service agents swept into the room, finally motioning the rest of us inside.

Wei and Jia hurried into the kitchen where Wei began pulling out glasses and the different drinks available. Jia started cutting up the fresh fruit from the baskets that had been arranged on the breakfast counter. They both worked under the intense scrutiny of two Secret Service agents.