Chapter 29

Washington, D.C.

Saturday, January 16, 5:08 pm Washington time
Sunday, January 17, 6:08 am China time
Saturday, January 16, 1008 hours Zulu

The NSA operator tasked with watching traffic coming out of China pushed a button and activated a connection with her supervisor.

"Yes?" Drake Singletary, the Far East Coordinator said.

"Sir, nothing coming out of Shanghai. Nothing at all. I know they had a power outage last night, but then it came back at 5:06 our time. Now the internet connections are up, but they are silent. Not even normal node-to-node traffic. It's like they don't even want to be in the net."

"Roger, advise of any updates," he replied.

Soon he got reports that all the internet nodes coming from China were in a similar state. Even the connections to Russia were non-operational.

He picked up the red phone that would connect him with the National Security Director's office.

"Yes?" said Lt. Colonel Mendez, the duty officer at NSA.

"China has gone silent as of 1008 hours Zulu," said Singletary. "All internet connections, incoming and outgoing. Nothing. We have no idea why."

"Thank you. Advise any changes," Mendez replied, hanging up.

It was just another drop in the bucket. The President and DNS (Director of National Security) were already on the way. POTUS got there first.

"Update?" said the President when he entered the Situation Room.

"The North Korean missile launched at 1000 hours Zulu, and changed course three minutes into flight. It is now headed directly for Shanghai, China. As of two minutes ago, five minutes after the course change, all internet traffic from and to China went offline – completely dark," said Lt. Colonel Mendez.

The DNS came in, followed by the President's Chief of Staff and the liaison officer from the Joint Chiefs. The Vice-President was in Boulder, getting ready for his daughter's wedding tomorrow. The Secretary of Defense was on the way, and the Secretary of State was in Geneva at a Middle East Peace Conference.

"Let's move up to DEFCON 2 in South Korea, other Far East and Pacific forces at DEFCON 3," said POTUS. "Atlantic, NATO, Mediterranean and CentCom at DEFCON 4." The Joint Chiefs liaison officer got on the phone immediately. "And get Richard and Ellie on the phone." He meant VP Richard Ellison and SecState Eleanor Johns.

"Mr. President?" asked DNS Mel Rockport. He had just come in and heard only the order to move up the DEFCON status.

"The North Koreans have launched a missile and it's coming in on Shanghai," said POTUS. "Get the rest of what we have from Colonel Mendez."

Mendez had an ear to two different phones at the moment, but managed to update his boss.

The President had his private cell phone out and was dialing.

"Yo!" said IO in answer to the first ring.

"Do you have anything about China?" POTUS asked.

"Just that they're offline as of a few minutes ago," IO responded. In actual fact, the abiological entity that called herself 'Io' was responsible for the outage. She was trying to keep Chaing contained. 'IO, ' as that person was known to the President, had lied.

"Can you get me in touch with Chesterfield?"

"Not at the moment," further lied IO. "I will put some effort into that, if you want."

"Not necessary. If you learn anything, please let me know," POTUS said, shutting down the link. He turned to the Joint Chiefs liaison. "Can you get me a location on the Missouri, right now, please." That person reactivated his secure phone.

The men and women in the Situation Room looked at each other. The clock ticked off the seconds. Two and a half minutes went by when the Joint Chiefs liaison activated the video feed at the far end of the room.

The Secretary of the Navy and an Admiral were there. "Mr. President, you were asking about the Missouri?"

"Right," said POTUS. "Where is she right now?"

"Is something wrong, sir?" said SecNav.

"Where is the Missouri?" the President repeated. "RIGHT NOW?"

"Sir," said the Admiral, "last report shows the Missouri in Chinese territorial waters near Shanghai. An undefined mission on Presidential authority, sir. That was at 0600 hours local time. That would be about ten minutes ago, now."

"Try and raise her on the low frequency underwater comm. Keep it under wraps, for now. Out." POTUS ran his hand from his forehead to his chin. He looked around the room. SecDef was just coming in, and the remote VP and SecState were on-line now. "I need about 10 minutes with just cabinet officers in the room, please."

The room cleared quickly as staff members filed out; SecState asked for a pause while her staff exited the room in Geneva.

"About three days ago," President Wentworth said, "I authorized a clandestine operation to exfiltrate the senior Chinese computer expert from Shanghai. The Missouri was tasked to pick them up in Chinese waters."