Sky Masters полностью

“ ‘The Chinese claim they launched a small defense force of fighters, which managed to drive the bombers away. They claim four Chinese fighters were downed and two American fighters were shot down…’” Cesare read ahead, then added, “ ‘No mention of the strike against the Ranger, except that American warships also threatened several Filipino coastal towns with bombers and rocket attacks, and that an unarmed Chinese supply ship carrying medicine and food to Filipino refugees in western Mindanao came under attack by an American bomber. They go on to charge that the United States is trying to retake the Philippines by force and blames us again for the nuclear-weapon detonation near Palawan and for threatening the world with thermonuclear chaos.’ ” “Those bastards,” the President grumbled angrily. Then, almost as an afterthought, he turned to Curtis: “We did not have any B-52s involved in this mission over the Celebes Sea, did we, General?”

“Absolutely not, sir. We have no bombers of any size stationed in Diego Garcia, Australia, Japan, or anywhere west of Guam…”

“Could it have been someone else? The Australians? Brunei? Vietnam? Australia has F-111 bombers, right…?”

“Unlikely, sir. Our AWACS radar plane picked up no other aircraft in the area…”

“What about ground forces? It wasn’t a Marine or special operations attack? Anything like that?”

“Nothing authorized by me or any of my staff, sir,” Curtis said. His mind began running through a multitude of other possibilities — mercenaries, a rogue combat unit, perhaps even the downed Tomcat crews blowing things up to mask their escape — but he quickly discarded each one. “Sir, it’s an obvious propaganda story. When the CIA investigates the story, they’ll discover it wasn’t a bomber attack — they’ll probably find there was no attack at all. The Chinese released the story because of its propaganda value — they want to be the first to complain, because it shifts blame on the other party.”

The President had also discarded all other possibilities, for his face became darker and angrier by the second. “Those bastards,” he muttered. “They attack our unarmed reconnaissance aircraft and an aircraft carrier, then claim we’re trying to start a war. And even if we admit that the Ranger was attacked by Chinese antiship missiles, it makes us look even worse — we’re going to get blamed for trying to start a war, then criticized for not doing a good job of it. Bastards…”

The President fell silent, as did the rest of the Council. This was the turning point, Curtis thought grimly: this was the point at which all presidents facing a conflict had to decide whether to explore more peaceful, less hazardous options, or go ahead with preparing for battle. Like his famous relative, this President wanted to avoid a conflict — he would do almost anything to avoid going to war, or even doing something that might threaten war. It was simply not in his nature.

But he had sixty dead sailors and two damaged warships to think about as well. When the American people learned about this incident, which was bound to happen at any minute, what would they say? Would they expect a military response? Would they understand if the President of the United States still tried to pursue a peaceful solution?

“Mr. President, I’m ready to brief you at any time on WINTER HAMMER…”

“General, I can’t consider sending in more bombers and fighters now, ” the President said angrily. “I’m supposed to stand up in front of the American people and deny that we sent bombers to attack the Philippines — and then the press learns of all those bombers sitting over there on Guam? I look bad enough as it is.”

“We can disprove each and every accusation by the Chinese,” Curtis said. “We can prove we had unarmed reconnaissance planes up there, not bombers, and that the Chinese fighters attacked first. We can also prove that the Ranger was hundreds of miles from the Philippines and no threat to any coastal towns or Chinese positions, and that their antiship missile attack on the fleet was unprovoked.” But the President seemed distant, worried, unreachable. “You don’t have to submit to this blackmail, sir. We’ve got dozens of options…

“I know, I know… He paused, his gaze scanning his advisers arranged around him, although it was obvious he didn’t notice any of them — it was his way of making tough decisions. He made another glance at Thomas Preston, who was grim-faced but remained silent. The President was alone with his decision:

“I know I’m being too cautious, Wilbur, but you’ve got to understand,” he said, “I need cooperation with the other countries in the region before I commit American troops to fight the Chinese. The world is touchier than a warm bottle of nitroglycerin right now. If I send your bombers and fighters into the Philippines to square off against the Chinese, I need to make sure that the American people realize we’ve exhausted every possible option first…”