World War III: Not How you Imagined, page 39
“Madame President, we’ve had some pretty good success with intercepting many of the North Koreans before they strike. It’s not enough, but they are easy to recognize as soon as they come into the open. And people have been reporting virtually any Asian they see as a North Korean. That’s a huge problem in itself—but the biggest problem is that the North Koreans have been silently positioning themselves across all fifty states for many years. How many are there? I wish I knew.”
“Well, I’ve got to do something! Anything is better than sitting behind that desk watching Americans be murdered and I can only sit on my hands. Let’s get General Johnson in here—we need to talk,” Dawson said.
Vetters suddenly felt his body stiffen as if he’d gone to bed a man of fifty-four years of age and woken an arthritic man of ninety. He knew she was beginning to entertain the idea of using nukes, and his physical reaction was visceral.
“Yes, I’ll of course do as you ask, but I know where your thinking is going. I understand it, but Madame President, once we open that can of worms, the entire equation changes for us. Not only in the near term, but for the duration of America’s existence,” Vetters said desperately.
The country’s first female president stood in the middle of the Oval Office staring at the floor. Her body language spoke as loudly as her words.
“Make the call, Ron.”
CHAPTER NINETY-FOUR
“We will not be able to defeat the US imperialists who boast of their technological superiority” . . . Kim II-Sung
NEW LEADERSHIP
“This is Ambassador Haley. To whom am I speaking?”
Of the two North Koreans, both of whom had taken years of courses in English as a second language, it was Woo-jin Roe that had the lesser accent, so it was he who spoke for his country.
“Mr. Ambassador, my name is Woo-jin Roe. I’m a cabinet member of the Supreme Peoples Assembly of North Korea. Thank you so much for taking our call. As you know, our government is in total disarray, and our country is on the brink of total ruin. We—that is, myself and my fellow cabinet member, Ye-jun Kan—have taken it upon ourselves to contact you in hope… a desperate hope that you’d consider utilizing our status within our political structure to accept the formal surrender of our nation,” said one of the two bravest men in North Korea.
Haley had thought about what would be offered when the Koreans that Rodriguez had spoken of finally did make contact. What they were offering reflected his most optimistic hopes.
“Sir, I want to thank you for having the courage and insight to make this very important call. Yours is the first contact from any official in North Korea since the beginning of hostilities. We’d be open to entertaining your suggestion, but there are many pieces to the puzzle that must fall into place before it can become meaningful,” said Haley.
“Yes, thank you for your kind understanding. And we too understand the predicament faced by all. We ask for your guidance on how to proceed toward a peaceful resolution.”
“What we really need is a clear understanding of your cabinet’s existing hierarchy. How many are alive? Who is the senior survivor? Are they open to discussing terms of surrender? If not, are either of you capable of assuming the leadership role?”
“Ambassador, the last formal meeting of the Executive branch was just before the United States launched its first attack with cruise missiles. Since then, most officials have gone into hiding and have remained incommunicado. Neither Ye-jun Kan nor myself know of the true condition of any other executives. I fear many may have died during attacks—there have been many deaths of North Koreans. It has been a difficult thing to experience,” answered the North Korean.
“Yes, your United Nations’ representative escaped the United States long ago, and we’ve asked that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to attempt to broker terms with your country. But until your call today, your country has been a silent island unto itself.”
“Sir, yes, we have feared that was the case. We are but two mid-level cabinet members who are greatly overstepping their bounds by contacting you. But as I said, we fear for the future of our country. Please guide us so that we may help bring this to an end.”
“I’ll need to confer with people that work at higher levels. Can you call me again in four hours?” asked Haley.
“Yes, yes, of course. We will be most happy to do so. We will be using a different phone, but we’ll call exactly four hours from now” answered Woo-jin Roe.
“Good. Oh, and when you call, you’ll need to be very open-minded, because there may be requirements that you’ll find difficult,” Haley said.
“We too have thought much of that possibility. You will find us available to bring this to an end,” said Woo-Jin Roe.
“In four hours, then,” Haley said, hanging up.
CHAPTER NINETY-FIVE
“The cautious seldom error” . . . Confucius
PRESIDENTIAL DECISIONS
President Dawson was not a superstitious person, but for some reason she’d taken to doing business from the couch on the west side of the Oval Office just as her former boss had done. She’d not been sleeping well of late and was taking a brief but much needed mid-morning power nap when Ron Vetters gently nudged her shoulder.
“Madame President, Ambassador Haley is on the phone from South Korea. You need to speak to him, ma’am,” Vetters said.
The president sat on the edge of the couch, allowing the sleep-induced dullness to leave her mind, and then walked over to her desk. Choosing the speakerphone, she answered the call from South Korea.
“Ambassador, you’re burning the late-night oil over there, I see,” said the president.
“Yes ma’am… always. But I’m calling because of a very interesting call I received from two mid-level cabinet members of the North Korean Executive branch,” said Haley.
“Really! What did they want?” asked a suddenly fully awake president Dawson.
“They want us to help them surrender their country,” said Haley.
The president was taken by surprise. It was such an unexpected topic that she forced herself to observe her five-second rule. If you don’t have an intelligent response on the tip of your tongue, say nothing for five seconds… and then speak only if an excellent thought comes to mind.
“Well, I’ll be damned. Is that what they’re down to? A couple of cabinet flunkies? Are we sure they’re legitimate? It would be salt in our wounds to be duped by another North Korean ruse,” said the President, breaking her own rule.
“It appears so, but these two seem smart, and clearly motivated. They’re scared to death that we’ll blow their country to kingdom come.”
“Well, they indeed may be smart, because I’ve been contemplating doing just that,” Dawson said flatly.
Haley felt his fingers get thick when he heard his country’s Commander in Chief imply the use of nuclear weapons. His fingers had always felt weird when something traumatic happened or was about to happen. He attributed the strange sensation to his childhood bout with epilepsy, thinking the thick-feeling fingers were a function of a mild transient brain seizure.
“Stay by your phone—your secure landline. I’m going to call in the secretary of state and get his advice on how we can empower those two cabinet members. Send Ron an email with their names, ranks in the political hierarchy, and whatever else you have, and we’ll do a quick background check. I’ll trust your judgment that they are not part of a ruse to draw us in where they can execute some kind of desperate mischief. Anyway, send the info to Ron and we’ll be calling you soon,” instructed the President.
“Yes Ma’am… I can’t guarantee their sincerity, only that they claim to want to cooperate. But I do get an honest feel from them. They’re calling me back in four hours. Will we have any news for them by then?
“Yes, we, you, will be ready.”
CHAPTER NINETY-SIX
“It is a blessing to die for a cause, because you can so easily die for nothing” . . . Andrew Young
ASHES TO ASHES
Laurent and Dole had not talked since the long mission debrief that took place at WRMMC after Laurent had recovered adequately to have full recall of the Three Mile Island events. When Laurent’s phone rang and he noticed it was Dole, he was happy to answer.
“Hey… what’s up?” Laurent asked goodheartedly.
“Henning is dead,” Dole said straightforwardly.
Laurent had a very strong mental constitution; he was hard to knock off of his emotional center, but learning of Henning’s death was no less shocking than that of Dr. Helen Connery. He again felt his gut roiling.
Barely able to summon the energy to ask, Laurent found his voice. “When… how?”
“This morning. He was on a training jump with five of his candidates and one of the guys slid over his back, lost lift, and fell into Henning, knocking him unconscious. Two guys chased him until they had to flare for landing, but even had they caught him there was little to nothing that they could have done.”
Dole understood why the line was silent; he too had been stunned into a mental null spot when he’d learned the news.
“Shit. When and where is the burial taking place?” Laurent asked.
“You knew Henning… he’s being cremated and he left no instructions about what to do with his ashes. His mom is still alive, but she’s an invalid in a nursing home. I guess we could take them to her, but I don’t know if that’s how Henning would have wanted his mom to spend her last days—staring at his ashes sitting on top of a nursing home windowsill.”
“Wow. I’m still trying to process this. Some people you just can’t imagine being dead. He was like fucking superman… it feels so wrong! And to be taken out by one of your own? Damn, the guy who hit him is going to need some couch time,” Laurent said.
“Yeah, wrong as hell, but I wanted you to hear it from me,” Dole said.
“Man. It’s been a hell of a few months,” Laurent said to a colleague who knew all to well how recent times had been.
“Yeah, it’s been real, all right. How are you doing?”
“I’m working with Dr. O’Hara on the Kim un do problem. She’s still living inside her own twisted little world. I’m not sure we’ll be able to crack her in time to bring anything to the table that will change the shit happening on the streets.”
“I know that you’d never do it, but just be careful to not let it slip that Henning is dead in earshot of that North Korean freak. I don’t want her having an iota of satisfaction about his death… or anything else.”
“Of course—hell no—she’ll never hear about it from anyone, ever!” Laurent promised his friend.
“Well, I’ve got to go out to the Monarch training facility and talk to the present batch of candidates. The one who hit Henning did have to be sedated. Fuck, what a mess,” Dole said dejectedly.
“Yeah, what a horrible loss. But one step at a time, I’m sure you’ll find the right words,” Laurent encouraged Dole.
“Hey, something for you to ponder. After this shitstorm is all over, don’t be surprised if they turn you into the new Henning,” Dole said.
The line was silent for a moment before Laurent replied, “Yeah, well, like I said, one step at a time, Gary. One step at a time.”
“Okay, I’ll keep you in the loop.”
“Roger that,” Laurent said with effort.
Dole hung up the phone, realizing that was only the second time Laurent had ever addressed him by his given name.
On Laurent’s side of the connection, he found tears running down his cheeks for the second time in as many months.
CHAPTER NINETY-SEVEN
“When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat” . . . Ronald Reagan
INVASION OR THE BOMB
General Johnson entered the Oval Office as the President was exiting the powder room. “Morning, General,” said President Dawson.
“Thank you, ma’am. Good morning to you, too” General Johnson replied.
Taking her seat on the north couch, Dawson indicated that the general should take a seat opposite her.
“General, I greeted you with the salutation ‘Morning’ because this is not a good one. Today I want to talk to you about our military options. It appears that our little ruse to convince the North Korean woman that we were getting close to taking drastic actions against her country did not yield the results hoped for by Sergeant Laurent and Dr. O’Hara. That now leaves us with two possible directions that we may go. One is to wipe one of their major cities off the face of the planet; the second is a ground invasion where we occupy their capital, Pyongyang,” said the president matter-of-factly.
Clearing his voice, General Johnson realized that she was on the verge of taking over decision making on how to prosecute the war. He also thought about the only times he’d ever discussed the nuclear option was at the War College and in a couple of think tank sessions he’d taken part in during that same academic timeframe. It felt completely different now that the conversation was real, and, that his audience was the president.
“Ma’am, because of the import of the action and how it will impact history, I’ll need you to be specific in your thinking. I’m assuming that you’re asking about our using some type of nuclear weapon to neutralize one of their cities.”
“I don’t know the science of nukes, and I don’t have a comprehensive familiarity with all of the weapons in our arsenal. So if there’s a device, or devices that, can accomplish what a mushroom cloud can but without the aftereffects, then I’m open to that option also.”
“Yes, ma’am. We have a large array of aerial delivery systems where between high explosives and incendiary devices, we can, over a period of a few days, reduce any of their cities to the same degree of devastation witnessed in the aftermath of Nagasaki or Hiroshima,” explained the general.
“And do you think we can accomplish this with minimal loss to our forces?”
“Yes, we now own the skies over North Korea. Any such action would be delivered exclusively from the air with a combination of missiles, along with guided and gravity bombs. A lot of them.”
“Okay. Now what about a ground invasion of their capital city? How would that be accomplished? And once implemented, how long would it take, and how long before you could make it happen?” asked the President.
“To answer your questions in reverse order, it could happen within one week, would take about two days to reach the capital, and it would involve about one hundred thousand troops. Our casualties would be minimal. They’re a defeated Army,” explained the general.
“Okay, General, thank you for the succinct explanations. I’ll need you to be ready for either option starting as soon as you can arrange it. You’ll keep me in the loop as to preparations. We’re going to bring this thing to an end. Plan A is the ground invasion. Plan B is undesirable, but I’ll still need you to be ready. You’ve done an amazing job with the prosecution of this war, General, but the decisions that will come next will have to come from me,” said the president.
Raising from the sofa, the president extended her hand. General Johnson stood soldier erect, accepting her hand, and both people enjoyed a pleasant exchange of respect and appreciation. For the second time since President Dawson had taken the oath of office, General Johnson was leaving the Oval Office feeling as if he was part of an exchange that would be talked about in future historical texts.
CHAPTER NINETY-EIGHT
“Find a Remedy” . . . Henry Ford
BREAKTHROUGH
The president’s phone rang twice before she pressed the speakerphone button.
“Yes, Sally?” she asked of her scheduling secretary.
“Ma’am, Sergeant Thomas Laurent is on line one. Do you want to take the call?
“Yes, thank you.”
Laurent would only call for one reason; they’d had a breakthrough with the North Korean, thought the president answering the call.
“Sergeant Laurent… how are your wounds healing?” asked the president.
“I’m getting better every day, ma’am, thank you for asking.”
“That’s excellent. We need men like you operating at full speed.”
“I’m anxious to rejoin my unit, but I’m calling with some good news. Dr. Falon O’Hara and I have been interrogating Kim un do for over eighty hours and I think we may have a breakthrough. We’ve been working on her doing shifts and Dr. Falon was exhausted and is sleeping now, otherwise she’d be making the call,” Laurent said.
“That’s a brutal schedule. Tell me what you’ve learned.”
“Combined with your fake Presidential broadcast, the effect of the pharmacological recipe prescribed by Falon—I mean Dr. O’Hara—and the relentless days-long barrage of circular questions, we think that she has revealed a phrase that may lead to turning off the sleepers.”
“Really? What is the phrase?”
“You’ll love this, Madame President. It demonstrates her boundless ego. The phrase is, ‘Kim un do says to stop’.
“That’s it? Like playing Simon Says?” asked the President.
“Exactly, ma’am. The rules are like those in Simon Says,” Laurent said, impressed that the president picked upon the connection that he and Dr. O’Hara didn’t make for several hours.
“You know, Sergeant, it fits right in with all the other craziness that’s been happening,” said the president.
“Yes, ma’am, it does,” agreed Laurent.
“Okay… how do you suggest I use it?”
