Strike Zone

They failed to now. In fact, the more he stared, the further those days became, faded pages from a discarded book.

Chen Lo Fann had failed in his mission to provoke a war between China and India. The weight of that failure sat heavily on him, blocks of iron pressing him from every direction. Fann might believe in the endless surging of the universe, but it offered little consolation, for he must now face the one man he loved and feared above all others, and admit his failure.

Time passed; he did not note it.

One of Chen Lee’s secretaries stood before him. Without saying anything, Chen Lo Fann rose and followed the man through the hallway to the office where Chen Lee waited.

The old man stood gazing out the window. Taipei sat in the distance, a dirty gem in the rough land the old man had helped make prosperous. The old clock in the corner of the office ticked, slowly counting to itself as Chen Lo Fann waited for his grandfather to speak.

‘Your mission failed,’ said Chen Lee finally.

‘Yes, Grandfather,’ said Fann.

‘History is a terrible force,’ said the older man, still looking through the window. ‘It cares for no individual. It is like the ocean wave in that way. And yet it can be turned.’

Chen Lo Fann gazed at the back of his grandfather’s white head. The old man had given him many lessons here, allowed him to watch and listen. Fann’s education in America was nothing compared to those lessons.

‘I have a second plan,’ said Chen Lo Fann. ‘The ASEAN exercises can be disrupted.’

Chen Lee had clearly thought of this already, because he answered without his usual pause to consider.

‘Simply disrupting them will not be enough. An attack must be provoked.’

‘If the Americans participate,’ said Chen Lo Fann, ‘I will succeed.’

The old man said nothing. Chen Lo Fann realized he had made the same promise in the matter of war between the communists and India.

‘If the meeting is not canceled, we shall have to take graver action,’ said Chen Lee. ‘Be prepared.’

He turned back to the window.

‘Yes, Grandfather,’ said Chen Lo Fann. He bowed, then left the room.

Dreamland Commander’s Office 2050

Zen rolled himself inside the office, surprised to find that everyone else was already there. Stoner had started the brief on the mission without him.

Zen banged against an empty chair getting in; no one seemed to notice.

‘Major Stockard can give you the hard details,’ said Stoner, nodding toward him. ‘Basically, we get their attention by flying near their territory, and then make like we’re testing a new weapon. The weapon is just a Hellfire missile with an ELF transmitter, but it’s different enough to attract attention. So if the clone is a spy plane, it’ll be worth checking out. You want to take over, Zen?’

‘You’re doing fine.’

Stoner ticked off a list of areas to probe, starting with China and then moving to Vietnam – it was possible the Russians were using that country as a base. The ASEAN exercises were taking place about two hundred miles to the east of northern Vietnam.

‘We’re going to locate in Brunei,’ interrupted Colonel Bastian. ‘I realize it’ll be a haul, but the facilities are first-rate. There’s no doubt about that,’ said the colonel.

Dog added by way of explanation that Dreamland would be fulfilling a secondary diplomatic mission by being located in Brunei. It was clear to Zen that Dog didn’t particularly like that part of the assignment, but he soldiered on with it, noting that the kingdom was constructing a new military air base near the international airport in the capital. The facilities would be made available to Dreamland, carte blanche. The sultan was rolling out the red carpet, a gracious host.

‘The State Department is sending a babysitter,’ added the colonel. ‘There’s some protocol crap we have to deal with. It won’t get in your way, I promise.’

The colonel ran down a tentative schedule on deployment – first thing tomorrow morning.

Really first thing: 0400.

Everyone in the room was used to dealing with rapid deployments, but 0400 was going to be tight, and Zen watched the concern rise on Major Alou’s face. Alou, who would be in charge of the Megafortresses, had to round up full crews for two aircraft, get support people in place, move supplies, fuel.

‘Major Alou, problem?’ asked Dog.

‘What the hell language do they speak in Brunei, anyway?’

Everyone laughed.

‘Malay and English,’ said Stoner. ‘You’ll be able to get by very well with English.’

‘Zen, problem?’ asked Dog, turning to him. ‘I know you were looking for a deployment next week.’

Zen shrugged. He’d already told two of his best Flighthawk trainee pilots to stand by. Rounding up the maintainers and other technical people would be a pain – but not particularly out of the ordinary. Most of the key people wore pagers when they were off campus, for just such a contingency.

‘We can do it,’ said Zen. ‘We just have to hustle.’

‘I know it’s impossibly short notice, but those are our orders,’ said Dog. ‘I’m going on the mission myself, and will serve as one of the Megafortress pilots. Major Catsman will stay here and take care of the farm. Questions?’

The colonel paused for his usual quarter of a second before slapping his hand on the desk and rising.

‘Let’s do it, then.’

‘Colonel, what’s the story with Jennifer Gleason?’ asked Major Alou. ‘Is she under arrest or something?’

‘Jennifer?’ said Zen, taken by surprise.

Dog turned to Danny Freah.

‘Jen is being questioned about possible security violations,’ said Danny.

‘What violations?’ asked Zen.

‘I can’t get into details,’ said Danny. ‘Look, my advice for everyone is to simply cooperate and answer whatever questions that come up. It’s just an informal inquiry, not an investigation.’

‘That’s bullshit,’ said Zen. He turned to Dog. ‘Jennifer? A spy? Shit.’

Dog started to say something, but Danny interrupted. ‘Colonel Bastian can’t comment on anything in any way that would be considered prejudicial.’

‘That’s bullshit,’ said Zen.

Dog put up his hand. ‘All right. Obviously, because of what we do we’re under special scrutiny. All of us, not just Jennifer.’

‘I wanted her along to handle the computers and whatnot,’ said Zen. Technical staff often accompanied the Dreamland team on missions, even those in combat zones.