Book 3 Chapter 62

            “I have to go back to Washington, ‘’ I said. “I have several emergencies,’’ I said as I was dressing. Given the time and the problem, I will not be back tonight. There was knocking on the door, an aide handed Jenny more notes.

            The one from Troy, ‘’necessary staff will be ready to leave in thirty minutes.’

The helicopter had already made one trip to the airport with staff. Myself and the final staff was to go next.  I was reading notes and updates the entire trip from the Island and the from Andrews. Three hours later I was walking from Marine one to the side door of the white house.

China, India were in a heavy artillery duel, the border that had been quiet for months because of a budding trade relationship was now on fire. As if that were not enough their neighbors were taking sides and noise about joining the fighting.

Pakistan and North Korea were adding nonsense into the fray, the situation was growing worse by the hour. Pakistan, India and China had activated their nuclear weapons and increased the alert level to a two -step protocol.  North Korea had followed four hours later.

The two- step protocol meant that two authorizations were all it took to launch missiles. Any misinformation or miscalculation could start a nuclear war that would be unstoppable.

Once multiple missiles were in the air with that short distances of the conflict it would be nearly impossible to stop them.

All the pentagon know -it all’s were to be here in two hours with the latest reports and intel. I was waiting on Frank for the CIA intel and their experts.

I had a big sixty- inch screen in the oval office; I pulled up a map of the region and studied it intensely, trying to familiarize myself with the disputed area where the shelling was going on.  Nothing stood out just rough mountainous terrain.

I changed the view to regional view and just looked around. First thing I noticed was that China was moving elements of its navy were leaving the southern south China sea going to the Bay of Bengal that would give them access to most of India. It was a tactic to intimidate and apply pressure for India to back down and end the artillery duel two thousand miles away.

It was interesting timing. When I was in the Philippines and the terrorist groups tried to kill me again; Philippine President Federman Romos and I along with the Intelligence came up with a solution to the territorial problem.

Even though the world court said otherwise China chose to ignore the world court’s ruling saying that a centuries old map said other -wise. China claimed every shoal, every sand bar, even coral beds. We had come up with a solution, to the Chinese claims that every shoal belonged to them.

Multiple countries were involved in the dispute. The hot spots were with the Philippines and Viet Nam. The Philippines had run a destroyer aground on the shoals years ago for their proof of ownership claim. They routine resupplied the men on it. The Chinese interfered with every resupply attempt. The destroyer built at the end of WW2 was disintegrating with age from tides and salt water salt water.

The ship yard had been working on the forms from a set of blue prints, not knowing what they were building. The were completed and already to loaded on ships.

The solution had to be assembled fast and now was the perfect time with the Chinese navy racing hard in the other direction. The solution was a steel framework built out of stainless steel. A big square with a braced adjustable leg on each corner. Similar to a table but just the frame work, heavy enough to take the punishment of the wind and the sea. Light enough to be put in place with heavy lift helicopters.

They were large enough that they would hold three specially modified shipping containers.

The frames and the empty shipping containers could be set in place with a heavy lift helicopter with some of the equipment already on them. Then men and heavy equipment placed on them. There were nine of the frames loaded on barges and twenty -seven of the shipping containers.

Three of the containers were set up with a light weight missile defensive and offensive systems and a small radar station. A much larger doppler radar was planned. One was setup to be cafeteria and several to be bunk houses. Another was to be a power station with generators and solar panels and fuel tanks.

There were holes cut for door- ways so men could travel between the three containers. There were provisions – attachments for gangways to tie all twenty-seven containers together. It was a well-planned and thought out, I figured it would take two days to assemble. Several of our assault landing ships were going to be the base for the helicopters and assembly crews.

The ships and barges carrying all the materials and hardware frames and containers had left the Subic Bay shipyard docks last night and be there tomorrow noon time. I ordered task force 11, one carrier and two more destroyers, two frigates from Guam to head that way in case there was issues that needed to be handled.

The Philippines now had the six destroyers operational that we had sold them from the mothball fleet.  They were going to the area in their first deployment after weeks of training. The situation was well covered now

I was part of the deal I had made with President Ramos to recover Clark field for the air force and Subic Bay navy base.  Another part of the deals that were made in the regional meeting was to help Viet Nam secure their claims on several shoals and islands that China was also claiming.

They had built the frame work from the same blue prints at one of their shipyards. They were being put into place tomorrow. Task force 12 was leaving Subic Bay to give their operation cover if needed and supply the helicopters for the heavy lifting.

Task force 12 consisted of two transport landing ships, one carrier, two destroyers and one frigate. Everything was covered. Once everything was in place those two countries could begin solidifying the installations by driving sheeting and pumping sand on territories the world court had ruled was theirs decades ago.

We weren’t finished though; General Ingram brought me in the progress reports from the Island rebuilding of former WW2 bases.

Tinian had been rebuilt; Guam had been expanded again both the air force and the navy base there. Saipan was nearly complete. More WW2 air bases on the Philippines were in the process of being rebuilt.

Midway Island that had been given the designation years ago as a wild life sanctuary was losing that protection. The paper work for that to happen was on my desk awaiting further review. The navy and air force was already loading materials and supplies to rebuild the base.

The first thing was to permanently remove and keep all the droves of scientist away. Then zillions of goony birds had to be euthanized and disposed of before anything could be done. The question was how?  With no natural predators they were now as thick as a shag carpet.

Work on Johnson Island was nearly complete. Sheeting had been driven tripling the size of the island and pumped full of sand and dead coral. The Seabees were there building quasit huts to give it a WW2 look. The quasit huts was a cover for all the other things that were top secret.

Barracks were being built inside some of the huts and of course there were mess halls, offices in others. Two were an armory for heavy weapons for close in support.

Google and other satellites companies had been ordered to block out a hundred square miles around Johnson Island, Midway Island, Tinian Island, Palau, to cover up secret construction from all the basement dwellers that thought were military analyst for social media clicks.

 A doppler radar station was being built on the West side of each Island. The plan was to put a westward box of over lapping radar across the pacific. Intelligence had broken, intercepted and spies had Chinese potential war planning.

The Department of Defense had decided that we needed the ability to see and counter terrain -sea hugging cruise missiles at maximum range possible. All the new doppler radars would do that providing extra time to respond. All those islands were going to have extensive anti -missile -missile complexes and Patriot five platforms installed.

We would have coverage of all the pacific from Alaska to Australia. Australia was working on things to complete the system on their end of the world. All of the military bases on the west coast would be getting improved doppler radar and all would be getting the new Patriot anti-missile batteries.

These would be the last line of defense for sub launched cruise missiles that might have gotten inside the new Asian defensive ring. The Asian defensive ring was a new expanded concept of a WW2 military plan for protection of the west coast of the United States.

The doppler would be obvious but quasit huts would cover the defensive nature of the rest of the rest of the installations. There was a lot of work to do and it was being done. It was a work in progress.

I was ready to go back to the Cay but it was not to be. I needed to stay in Washington until the Philippines and Viet Nam had completed the construction projects. The Navy was going to hang around in both areas for a couple of weeks doing training and other things. So, another day at least.

I wanted to be back to be with the girls because the next acquisition was happening tomorrow and another the day after.

The congressional critters found out I was back. Kitty had dozens of notes when I returned. Many were wanting rush meetings and photo-ops with the president.

At 1700 I had finished with all the congressional critters and ordered the Secret Service to end all entry into the white house. I did a VCATS with the girls and listened to the girls explain their day that had been filled with lawyers. 

Verizon’s stockholders, those that were being forced to sell their stock back to the JBG Thimble Shoals Pirates Bank Investment Corp, to make it a privately held company were furious. And then there were the unions.

Another thing that did not help was the Verizon corporate head quarters in New York was listed for sale in all the major real estate papers today.  It was a Tage mahal monstrosity in one of the highest real estate areas in New York City. It had one monstrosity of a tax bill to go with it. The sale was expected to take several years.  

I fully expected the out come of tomorrows stock holders meeting to end up with the same problems and the same with the one the following day. Marcy said they were prepared for whatever came. I wondered how many lawyers and corporate take-over specialist we now had working for us.

After a couple hours in the gym with a couple Secret Service and the Mossad ladies I went to bed. The big house was lonely.