April 3: The Middle of Nowhere (20 page)

"Why even say anything?" Eddie asked. "I can just sit here and let you watch my face as you run through a hundred questions. You don't even need to make a verbal response to run through the software, that would just slow you down!"

"Well, I am a pretty decent interrogator," Jan said immodestly, "and I wouldn't take up high-stakes poker for a living if I were you," he advised, careless of Eddie's feelings. "That dead fellow, he didn't mess with the Singhs or the Lewis clan did he? Ah…Okay. That explains that puzzle. The poor stupid bastard. No wonder he was so
thoroughly
dead."

"I was actually hoping to talk about the
Earth
Chinese. You are aware our boy-wonder Jeff blew the Jiuquan launch center clean off the map?"

"Yes, I'd hoped this wasn't about that, but I'm not surprised. I saw his manifesto on it. There was too much proprietary tech on the
Eddie's Rascal
and he destroyed it to deny it to them. Do I have that basically right?"

"Yes, the
Rascal
didn't carry one of the secret weapons yet, but it had other Singh tech."

"That lacked subtlety you know. You wiped out a city of over a million people to destroy that ship. Have you ever heard of the concept of a
surgical strike
?"

"Are you familiar with when the US was testing nuclear weapons back in the 1950s?"

"In a general way. They did it right out in the open atmosphere and caused an environmental mess, right? What has that got to do with anything?"

"Yes and they blew a bunch of islands and atolls to hell and displaced the natives too. But the point I wanted to make was they were transitioning from pure fission bombs to fusion. They did a Castle series of tests and when they lit off Castle Bravo it was supposed to be about six megaton plus or minus and they got fifteen instead," Eddie explained.

"Ah, so that's what happened with Jiuquan?" Jan guessed, running ahead. Nobody ever accused him of being slow.

"Very much so. It appears he got well over two-hundred megaton. He was looking at fifty on the high side."

"Well, that makes
me
feel better about him but I doubt it would impress the Chinese much."

"I remember you said that networking was the only thing that kept the whole system from failing. Well, here's the situation. Jeff is sitting there waiting for a Chinese response. They won't talk to him. He has Beijing targeted and has to tell the computer every ten minutes
not
to wipe Beijing off the map. Jon told me it would fully crater Beijing and wipe the entire surrounding province  to a parking lot. He's going to eventually take too long on a bathroom break or get tired and nod off, see something that looks like an attack, or just grow weary and say to hell with it and let the system activate. Is there any network fix for this bad of a mess?"

"So he has two weapons? I'm surprised he could get enough fissionable material for one kernel. Is he getting the material off Earth? I wouldn't think the Rock has that much uranium if they processed the whole thing."

"Jan, it's a pure fusion weapon. It doesn't
need
a fission kernel and I honestly have no idea
how
many weapons like this he has, except – more."

"Damn, no way the other militia folks would restrain him from using them?"

"This isn't a militia action, he's not even a member. The Home militia hasn't dropped a single weapon. Which incidentally means they have their full system on alert and undepleted by so much as a single rod. Drag them in and it doesn't get any better. These are from Singh's private system and I don't know if anybody has the codes and keys but him."

"That seems, unstable. I can pass word along through third parties, but you understand, I'm not exactly viewed favorably by the Chinese myself. In fact I'm shocked they haven't made any serious effort to assassinate me. I don't know if they'll believe a word knowing it's from me."

"Do
try
please. If it isn't stopped now I'm afraid it will get entirely out of hand. If he has to hit Beijing then what exactly is the incentive to stop again and wait for a response like he's doing now? Why not be done with it and drop your whole kit on them and remove them as an Earth power of any significance?"

"That would take a lot of doing to set them back that hard. I'm not sure it can be done."

"The person who passed this request along suggested a full bombardment would remove half their population and eighty percent of their industrial capacity. That's not factoring in if Jeff's mother or the militia get involved, just Jeff."

"Do you mind if I reveal that about being a pure fusion weapon? That's rather a game changer. It the sort of a factoid that gives me some credit and will get their attention."

"Nothing I said is secret. I'm going back to my people and try to get them to hold off and wait to see if you can talk sense to the Chinese. If there is a reasonable person somewhere in their command structure I suspect he doesn't even know he's sitting with a big gun held to his head. Their system is prejudiced against any report being made that doesn't comport with official party propaganda. It is a custom that just may kill them this time. Will you call me if you have any news?"

"I may not get any real feedback before it is resolved. I certainly don't expect a formal call even if what I do works, but you have hi-res surveillance to direct the strikes don't you?"

"I'd be shocked if he doesn't. We didn't talk about that."

"Then optimize it to observe Beijing. I suspect if I can make anything happen you'll be able to
see
it unfold with your own eyes well before anyone talks about it."

"I'll pass that back up the line. I'm away," Eddie added, disconnecting.

* * *

Jan made a short list of talking points in the corner of his screen. He'd have to tailor which he used to the agent and allow them to drag the rest out of him, picking up anything he could from them while he was at it. It was all well and good to save the world after all, but information was the currency in which he traded. No point in just
giving
it away.

He called up a fellow in Australia who he knew leaked things to some of the people at Jane's. He assessed various weapons systems for their DOD, but his personal interest was anything that went BOOM. "Sean, Jan here," he said slouching back in his seat."Do you folks have any plume samples yet off that detonation in China? I have a rumor here, a source that has been spot on before, but this assertation seems a little out there. I'd like to have some physical confirmation before I give it too much credence. And if that craps out then all the rest he told me is suspect. Well show me yours and I'll show you mine," he offered…

* * *

"I can't stay awake indefinitely," Jeff protested. "I need a statement. A clear surrender on this one narrow issue that they will leave my mum and us alone. I was shifting our cam to look straight at Beijing anyway, but what am I supposed to be looking for?"

"Jon didn't say, but Eddie clearly set some things in motion. He showed his ability last year when he got your dad and mum to the shuttle on ISSII. I'd give him as much time as he needs to work this," April pleaded.

"Look, you're getting punchy already," she said. "This is exhausting. It's only a half G here. Let me get a pad and put it against the wall there. You can sleep right here and Heather and I will keep the system active. If anything happens we'll wake you right up, I promise."

"There's an air mattress in the cupboard under the coffee maker right there. It's plenty good. I've used it before. Just don't get too rambunctious and I can sleep pretty easily, I think."

April made him take his shoes off despite the fact they were little more than slippers. After he closed his eyes she dropped the lighting in steps to half. Pretty soon he was snoring.

* * *

The head of intelligence analysis associated with China's Space Service, Hu Jiankang  didn't sit to a morning briefing like politicians. He got an hourly summary of hot events, insisting on a stack of flimsies, being from a poor background and raised using paper more than his peers and assistants. He knew they weren't going to disappear because there was a power blip, as had been much too common in his youth. He was handed the new batch by his assistant  right on the hour mark without a word and started to read.

Isotopic analysis of  Jiuquan launch facility detonation plume: No traces of uranium or transuranic elements were present in the fallout plume consistent with normal nuclear weapon design. All traces of heavier elements are in the range expected from a detonation with the fireball touching the ground level. What small amounts of fissionable material were present are likely from the vaporization of weapons present in the launch facility stores or on ready aircraft or space vessels. There is no corresponding presence of the expected fission products or short lived isotopes to show this material ever experienced a super-critical mass.

Well, wasn't that interesting? He flipped to the second sheet.

Agency in the News Intercept: The following video was posted to commercial news outlets in Europe and leaked past net censors to much of North America. The video appears to be actual footage of spacers attempting communication with Military Traffic Director Li Jintao. Analysis of the video finds no evidence the image was manipulated to match the audio track. In it Home resident Jeffery Singh asserts he will wage war on the People's Republic over his confiscated property. IMPORTANT NOTE: The site on which this was released is considered a parody site. It highlights the absurd and contrarian in the news. In the English idiom, dog bites man is not news, but man bites dog is a reversal of normality, so it is newsworthy or amusing. That is the sort of stories they boast of featuring.

An analyst who talked down to him by explaining parody was likely to get bit himself. An individual threatening the People's Republic
was
ridiculous. But it behooves one to determine if in fact such an individual was an unbalanced raving madman, or an owner of ungodly large thermonuclear weapons. It was an important distinction. Jiankang sighed and covered his eyes briefly, feeling a headache coming on way too early in his shift. He ordered his assistant to bring him a pot of tea and an analgesic and continued.

* * *

Oliver Whitcomb, the British agent, traded his information on the American corn crop to the Chinese agent he only knew as Chen for figures on South African rhodium production. They discussed shopping lists for other data to exchange in the future. Chen informed him that next year North America intended to include the sugar beet crop data to the list of items not published for national security. He didn't ask a source.

Business satisfied, they exchanged gossip over lunch. The food was Vietnamese, as was the bustling city outside the restaurant window. The Chinese fellow allowed he'd believe that 'T' the Japanese agent who disappeared from Hawaii was really dead when he saw a body laid out and could take DNA samples. The Brit couldn't fault that sentiment. He was deeply suspicious too.

"You know old man, it's none of my business, but if you have family in the Beijing area I'd get them far away as fast as I could."

"Well sure, I should send them back to our ancestral village to help with the rice harvest. It would teach the kids why I spent the last thirty years getting as far from that hole as possible."

"There have to be other safe havens, or a vacation of some sort, but what I'm hearing is Beijing is liable to get the same treatment as Jiuquan if you fellows so much as look funny at the Singh clan up on Home."

"Jiuquan? My agency network has not mentioned anything in connection with Jiuquan. The city or the spaceport?" he inquired.

"The port is gone but the city was somewhere around eighty or ninety percent destroyed too. Seems they landed a small vessel there that was confiscated from the Singhs of Home when it was docked at ISSII. It was seized on the basis of educational theft. The designer publicly
said
in a news release he'd destroy it rather than let them keep it. But nobody had any idea he'd use a rather large thermonuclear weapon to destroy it. It seemed a bit of overkill to destroy one very small spaceship."

"Pull the other one. Anything that big would be on the screen there," he said pointing at the big screen behind the bar with a continuous news feed.

"Silly me," the Brit smiled. "I forgot how transparent the People's Republic has become after the Cleansing Winds campaign swept away so much error back, what has it been? A decade now?"

"Show me some hard evidence and I'll allow the news might be held back temporarily to avoid too great a shock or panic. Especially if it is an ongoing problem being dealt with."

"That's exactly the point. It is ongoing and nobody in my shop has any idea how it's going to shake out. Here, take a look at this," he offered sliding his hand com across the table. "This is the sat view of Jiuquan Launch Center the day before and then late yesterday after the lofted debris blew away."

The grim faced fellow toggled back and forth between the two images. Only the shape of the land on the fringes still matched. He opened his own com and called someone.

"Wei? Would you please humor me and call your brother who works at the Jiuquan facility and ask what the weather is like there
right now
?" he blinked rather rapidly. "I see. Did they give any indication when service would be restored? No that's all thank you."

"He tried to call his brother yesterday evening and got an automated message that they had a disruption in service and to please not keep trying the circuits as it interfered with repairs."

He looked at the image on the Brit's pad again and entered another call. "My dear, I entirely forgot to ask you to take my blue jacket to the cleaners before I left. Would you do that so it is clean when I come home? Yes, I'm
quite
certain
it was the blue one. It got all smelly at that awful party last week with the Korean fellows sucking down those cheap cigars. Thank you, give my love to the children when you put them to bed too. Bye."