But Cobb held the nose up, kept the airspeed right on the edge of initial buffet to stall, and kept the climb going. Moments later, Patrick noticed that the shells were exploding well below them. As he looked down, he could see a blanket of fireworks below them as tracers and exploding shells lit up the night sky. Cobb began to decrease his climb rate at twenty thousand feet, but he kept the throttle in full military power and kept climbing at five thousand feet per minute until they passed forty thousand feet. The destroyer to the south of them tried one missile launch on them, but the B-2’s jammers and laser countermeasures system reported that the missile never approached within lethal range. As they climbed, the red radar dome shrunk until it was a tiny inverted teacup well behind them.
Patrick looked over at his aircraft commander. Cobb had returned to his typical flying position — oxygen mask on, hands on stick and throttles, staring straight ahead, unmoving as a rock. Patrick turned the cockpit lights up a bit so he could do a careful cockpit check to investigate for damage — except for a few popped circuit breakers, he found nothing.
As he swept his tiny red-lens flashlight across his partner, he could see that the only evidence there was that Henry Cobb had just saved their butts from crashing in a huge fireball in the Philippine Sea was a tiny trickle of sweat dripping from the edge of his oxygen mask. But save them he did.
“Cabin check complete,” Patrick reported. Then: “Thanks, Henry.” The only acknowledgment he got was two clicks on the interphone button.
“We had better start talking about a peaceful settlement to all this, Mr. Ambassador,” Secretary of State Dennis Danahall said, “or things will surely go out of control.”
The Deputy Charge d’affaires of the People’s Republic of China’s embassy, Tang Shou Dian, serenely folded his hands on his lap as he regarded the three American government officials before him: Secretary of State Danahall, National Security Advisor Kellogg, and the President’s Chief of Staff, Paul Cesare, along with interpreters and confidential secretaries. The ambassador had brought an assistant and interpreter as well; because the ambassador’s “assistant” was a known Chinese intelligence operative, Secret Service agents were posted outside the office and in the anteroom to Kellogg’s office.
“I would be pleased to promptly report any requests or proposals to my government, Mr. Danahall,” Tang said without his interpreter. The interpreter would bend forward and speak in Tang’s assistant’s ear as if she were translating for him, but everyone knew he spoke and understood English very well.
“These are not proposals or requests, Mr. Ambassador,” Frank Kellogg said. “These are statements of policy. The United States will regard any further aggressive acts on the island of Mindanao as hostile acts against the United States, and we will respond accordingly to counter the threat, including the use of military force. That is the message we want to convey to your government.”
“That message was made very clear by your President’s television announcement yesterday,” Tang said. “As we indicated in our response, the Teguina government has stated that Jose Samar has no authority to conduct foreign policy or dictate military terms anywhere in the Philippines, including Mindanao or the separate southern state. Therefore, Samar’s words have no meaning and your position is illegal and completely without merit.”
“The Philippine constitution granted Samar’s state the right of self-defense,” Danahall pointed out. “Samar is completely within his powers to delegate that responsibility.” “That is a matter for the United Nations to decide,” Tang said. “They should be allowed to deliberate the matter.”
“We agree,” Danahall said. “But the survival of the autonomous government of Jose Samar is in the best interest of the United States, and the position and strength of Chinese forces threaten their survival. Will the Chinese military agree to cease all hostile actions and pull its forces back until the matter of Mindanao sovereignty is decided?”
“I think that would be an important consideration,” Tang said, “except for Jose Samar’s rebel forces. President Teguina maintains, and my government agrees, that a ceasefire will only allow the rebels to consolidate their position and stage more and deadlier attacks on innocent citizens. We have tried to negotiate with Samar, with no success — we have even sent envoys to Guam to attempt to talk with Samar there. He will not speak with us. He ties our hands…”
“Your military forces are much more powerful than his,” Kellogg observed. “You have nearly a hundred warships in the south Philippines alone; your forces outnumber his ten to one. It’s reasonable to assume he’s afraid of being crushed to death by the sheer size of your forces.”
