“We’ve got the authorization you need, sir,” Curtis said. “Second Vice President Samar.”
“Samar? What does he have to do with this….?” President Taylor asked…
“Samar is a legitimate head of the government, sir,” Curtis said. “He is also the governor of the Commonwealth of Mindanao, which is virtually a republic of its own. His designated representative has formally requested assistance from the United States. That’s the legal spark we need to move.” Danahall sniffed aloud and shook his head. “That’s not even close to the truth, General…”
“It doesn’t have to be the absolute truth, Dennis,” Curtis pointed out. “We’re not talking about a court case here — we’re looking for justification to act, and we have it…”
“Unless Samar is dead,” the Vice President said, “in which case Teguina retains control of the government and becomes de facto governor of Mindanao…”
“Then we go in and rescue Samar,” Curtis said. “Ambassador O’Day was given information on how to contact Samar — we’ll arrange for a special-operations group to go in and get him out so he can make an announcement to the world that he is resisting the Chinese.”
“But we need to be in a better position to react when we get Samar out, sir,” Curtis said to the President. “Sir, you have to order the Air Battle Force into Guam and the Marines to deploy into the Philippine Sea, and have them prepare for action. If we wait too long, Samar’s militia will collapse and Mindanao will fall — and then nothing short of a nuclear war
The President thought about this, scanning the. faces around him; then, to General Curtis: “Okay, Wilbur, you got the green light. Get the Air Battle Force moving to Andersen as quickly as possible. You’re also authorized to deploy the Army and Marine Pre-positioned Forces as you outlined earlier, and the destroyers and cruiser you mentioned before can go on standby with their Tomahawk cruise missiles. I want no offensive operations to begin without my specific approval. I want a full briefing on WINTER HAMMER within the hour, here… Paul, get the ‘leadership’ together for the briefing, and try to get as many of the allies notified as possible.”
“And the B-2 bombers that are part of the Air Battle Force…?”
The President scowled his displeasure at the question, but replied, “That’s up to you and your people. It’s bad enough I’m ordering bombers and cruise missiles into the area — I might as well get all the protests packed into one order. If the crews have been training with your Air Battle Force and if they know their shit, you’re authorized to send them.”
The only warmth United States Navy Lieutenant Commander Paul “Cowboy” Bowman had felt in two days came from a tiny burning white fuel tablet about the size of a quarter. He had lit the tablet with a match from a waterproof container, placed the fuel tablet in a small palm-sized aluminum cookstove from his survival kit, then folded a sheet of an old Tagalog-language magazine cover into the shallow pan — he had lost the original metal cup long ago during their mad races through the Mindanao jungles — filled it with brackish water, and set it on the stove.
To Second Vice President Jose Trujillo Samar’s surprise, the paper pan did not burn. “Why does the paper not burn, Bowman?” Samar asked.
“Dunno,” Bowman replied. “Too cool, I guess.” He dumped a packet of soup mix into the water and began stirring it with a twig. This whole trip was actually too cool, Bowman thought. The escort mission for the Air Force, the dogfights with the Chinks, getting his ass shot down, splashing down in some unheard-of sea thousands of miles from home and hundreds of miles from his carrier — at night, no less — being chased through the swamps and jungles of the Philippines, running from Chinese infantry patrols, losing his RIO.
And to top everything off, here he was with the Second Vice President of the Philippines, a man who was legally the President of the country, but was, in reality, on the run from his First Vice President.
