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“We have no message or statements for your government, Mr. Foreign Secretary,” Danahall said resolutely, “except that we expect your guaranteed promise to withdraw all military forces from the Philippines immediately. Do you have a message for my government?”

There was a slight pause; then: “Mr. Secretary, please convey…”

And then the line went dead.

“You will not capitulate to the Americans!” Chinese High General Chin Po Zihong said as he grabbed the phone from the Foreign Minister’s hand. Several other members of Premier Cheung Yat Sing’s Cabinet shot to their feet in absolute shock. Premier Cheung himself remained impassive, his hands folded on his desk, watching the spectacle with a stone-cold, expressionless visage.

“How dare you disrupt a call to a foreign ministry like that!” Zhou shouted. “Explain yourself, Comrade General. You are violating a direct order from the Comrade Premier himself…”

“I am in charge of this military operation, Comrade Zhou,” General Chin said. “Any communications that involve it must go through myself. I have full authority—”

“You are out of line, General,” Zhou said angrily. “You were insane to begin this foolish military incursion, you were insane to place that criminal Admiral Yin in charge of an invasion force on Mindanao, and you are a fool to refuse to open a dialogue with the Americans.”

He turned and motioned to a stack of reports piled on a granite conference table nearby. “You have read these reports. Four destroyers have been sunk out there! Four destroyers! That is half of the destroyers assigned to Admiral Yin, and one-fourth of all the destroyers in the entire People’s Liberation Army Navy fleet! At first report, ten frigates and nearly thirty patrol boats were sunk or put out of commission as well. There is no report of casualties yet, but they must number in the thousands! This operation must be terminated immediately!”

“Impossible!” Chin shouted. “Out of the question. We are hours away from final victory, Zhou Ti Yanbing. The invasion has already begun, and the early indications are that there is no resistance…”

“No resistance? Four destroyers on the bottom of the

Celebes Sea, and you say no resistance? You cannot hope to ever claim a victory in this debacle!”

“I was referring to rebel resistance in Davao,” General Chin said. “We expected heavy losses from the very beginning…”

“You told this government that we could expect twenty to thirty percent losses maximum throughout the duration of this conflict,” Zhou argued. “You did not say we would sustain thirty percent losses in three hours…!”

“The objective of the operation was to seize Samar International Airport and secure the island of Mindanao,” General Chin said. “This government authorized that operation — you authorized it as well, Comrade Zhou, with your affirmative vote. That objective is still within my reach. Loss figures have not been verified, and all my reports indicate that the objective can still be achieved in less than six hours. So far only the American Air Battle Force has been involved in this operation. They have sustained heavy losses as well, and even if they complete their raids we can still achieve total victory. Once Samar International Airport falls, not one single American aircraft will be able to approach within five hundred kilometers of the Philippines again…”

“It appears obvious to me, General, that even if you do take Samar International Airport, you have gained nothing,” Zhou said. “The losses we are experiencing are staggering. We must withdraw immediately or we will not have an army to land on Davao Airport when you finally take it — or should I add, if you take it.” Zhou turned to Premier Cheung, who had not said a word during the entire argument. “Comrade, I request, with all due respect, that General Chin’s operation be terminated and that we return—”

"You cannot do this,” General Chin shouted. “You cannot abandon a military operation simply because of unverified reports of heavy losses in the first few hours of a battle.” To Premier Cheung, he said, “Comrade Premier, we know the Americans cannot mount a follow-on attack with the Air Battle Force — Admiral Yin estimates they are using two- thirds of their strength on this raid alone and are sustaining heavy losses. This is nothing more than a warning — the Americans want us to know that they are serious about the status of the Philippines.