inviting target for enemy spy subs, then laying out the net and
hoping that an unwary, complacent sub captain sailed into it.
A louder volley 'of laughter erupted when the American
news showed three old fishermen in their dilapidated old boat,
which the Iranian Navy had allowed into the patrol area, their
dirty canvas trousers pulled down around their ankles and their
bare asses hanging over the side of the junk, defecating into
the Strait of Hormuz next to the American submarine. CNN
also showed people of all ages throwing buckets of trash and
sewage onto the captured sub, burning American flags and
4hen tossing them into the Strait. A piece of video even cap-
tured a brief glimpse of an antenna buoy that had broken loose
from the American sub when the depth-charge attack had be-
gun, and retrieved by a small motorboat with young children
at the helm. The children circled the area, scanning the water
with flashlights and torches to try to find more souvenirs.
"Excellent, excellent!" President Jiang shouted, clapping
and smiling like a schoolboy at a football match. "I am almost
embarrassed for the American president and his submarine
ailors! He must be the laughingstock of the entire world!"
382 DALE BROWN
He received congratulations and acknowledgments from sev-
eral Politburo and CMC members, then stepped over to Ad-
miral Sun. "What do you think the Iranians will do with their
American captives, Admiral?"
"I have already been in contact with the Iranian military's
chief of staff," Sun replied, rather wistfully. "The crew will
be tried as spies, and their vessel held. It is quite a catch for
them, and it is perfect payback for what the United States did
to the aircraft carrier Khomeini when it was in their hands. In
time, the crew and the vessel will probably be released, but
not until the Iranians have examined and photographed every
square centimeter of that submarine."
"You seem disappointed, comrade," Jiang said. "Their vi-
olation of international law is obvious to all. Should they not
be made to pay for their crime?"
"I believe they are paying more severely now than anything
the Iranians could possibly do to them," Sun said. "Destroy-
ing a helpless, hapless submarine and its crew would be cruel,
and the Iranians would lose face in the eyes of the world. Sun-
tzu tells us that to attack the enemy's tao is more hurtful than
attacking his armies. I respectfully suggested that the Ameri-
cans be released, but I do not think the Iranians will listen to
MY suggestion. Perhaps if you could call the Ayatollah Kha-
menei directly, he might listen to you." China and Iran had
forged a strong new military alliance in the past few months,
and the level of cooperation between the two nations had
grown rapidly despite the severe damage the aircraft carrier
Khomeini, now the Mao Zedong, had sustained while in Ira-
nian hands.
"Very well-I shall do as you suggest, Comrade Admiral,'
Jiang said, with a smile. "I will of course issue a communique
demanding an explanation from President Martindale as to
why his submarine was so far into Iranian waters."
"May I suggest you follow up the communique with a live
televised address on CNN or the British international news
network, demanding an apology?" Sun added. "Nothing galls
the American people more than to be forced to offer an apol-
ogy, especially to an Asian or to one from the Middle East-
both are seen as far inferior races. It will help to solidify the
opposition to President Martindale's military and foreign af-
fairs policies."
"Very good-I shall instruct my staff to do as you sug-
FATAL TER RAI N 383
gested," Jiang said happily. He turned to accept the congrat-
ulations of more high-level Party members, then turned back
to Sun and asked, "So. What is the next step, Admiral?"
"My task is nearly complete, Comrade President," Sun
said. "My objective was to eliminate the United States as a
threat to Zhonggua and to pave the way for us to retake For-
President Jiang looked startled. "Your task ... isfinished?"
he asked incredulously. "But we have not retaken any terri-
tory, and the armies of the world are on heightened alert
against us."
"General Chin and the People's Liberation Army may re-
take any of the rebel-held islands at his leisure," Admiral Sun
said casually. "There is none to oppose him now. But I sug-
gest we do nothing but offer overtures of peace, friendship,
and reunification to everyone-I predict our loyal brothers on
Formosa will choose to be reunited with us very soon. The
limination of the rebel Nationalists' major weapons of war,
and the erosion of the Western alliance structure in Asia,
means that the Nationalists are defenseless. They can choose
reunification ... or death."
"But what about the Americans, Comrade Admiral?" Jiang
asked. "Will we not soon face the wrath of the American
military? Certainly the threat from them has not yet dimin-
ished?"
"The United States dares not attack us now-they are in
the wrong, and will be forever chastised throughtout the world
if they attack," Sun said confidently. "The North Korean Peo-
ple's Army is massing on the demilitarized zone and will prob-
ably attack, and now the Iranians have captured proof of
additional American aggression against them, so the conflict
in the Persian Gulf may threaten to reignite. These conflicts
will occupy all of America's attention-Taiwan is not as se-
rious a concern to the United States compared to Korea or the
Persian Gulf."
'.'You are obviously correct," a Politburo member com-
mented, "because the United States does not directly threaten
China as yet. They have their nuclear missiles and bombers
on alert, but even their lawmakers are opposed to their de-
ployment and urge negotiations. They may even sponsor leg-
islation to kill President Martindale's attempt to recognize the
384 DALE BROWN
rebel Nationalist government's independence, and support re-
unification."
"We do not know what will happen in Washington, com-
rade," Sun Ji Guoming said. "But all in all, it does not matter.
America is confused and splintered, and it has confused and
fractured its Asian alliances as well. It can no longer oppose
us.'
"But what about the invasion of Quemoy?" Jiang asked.
"Our troops are restless as medieval warhorses, biting at the
bit and ready to honor themselves in battle. Why not begin the
attack now?"
"Is there still a danger of radiation or fallout from the sur-
face-to-air missile attack?" one of the Politburo members
asked. "Is this why you do not begin the invasion?"
"It is not because of radiation, comrade," Sun replied. "We
do not invade because we do not need to invade."
"Wh
at ... ?"
"Sun-tzu teaches us that victory is best achieved by attack-
ing, an enemy 's tao instead of its armies or cities," Sun ex-
plained. "We have three hundred thousand troops stationed
around Quemoy Bay, ready to begin the assault. We may take
the island and capture nearly fifty thousand rebel troops any-
time we wish. So we have already won the battle, comrades.
With the tip of our sword touching the rebels' chest, we do
not need to thrust it into their heart to prove our domination
or power. The rebels have been defeated, but it would be better
for them to surrender to us. I expect to receive terms of sur-
render at any moment."
OVER THE FORMOSA STRAIT, NEAR XIAMEN,
FuilAN PROVINCE, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
THAT SAME TIME
The attack began with a single AIM-120 Scorpion missile
launch, but it was the deadliest-because it downed the Chi-
nese Ilyushin-76 airborne radar plane stationed over the For-
mosa Strait near Quanzhou, which was monitoring all air
traffic between Fuzhou and Shantou, the vital Chinese military
bases opposite Formosa. The EB-52 Megafortress was thirty
FATAL T E R R AI N 385
miles away, flying just a hundred feet above the sea, tracking
the 11-76 with its 360-degree radar array on the dorsal fuselage
fairing; the Scorpion air-to-air missile hit the fuselage of the
II-76 squarely at the right wing root, shearing off the wing and
sending the Russian-built plane and its twenty-two crew mem-
bers spiraling into the Formosa Strait. Within seconds, almost
all of the Chinese military's long-range surveillance capability
had been eliminated.
It was David Luger's first kill after returning to the Mega-
fortress's crew; and if he hadn't been so busy finding and
lining up more targets, he would have stood up and whooped
for joy. But the mission, and the killing, had just begun.
Because of the completely unknown performance capabili-
ties taking off from the Republic of China's Kai-Shan under-
ground airfield complex, the Megafortress was lightly loaded
for this mission. Each of the two rotary launchers in the bomb
bay contained four Wolverine cruise missiles and two Striker
attack missiles, the configuration mixed so the attacks could
continue even if one launcher was damaged or had malfunc-
tioned. The Megafortress also carried one Striker attack missile
on each wing weapon pod, along with four AIM-120 Scorpion
air-to-air missiles in each pod-there were no Stinger airmine
rockets in the tail cannon. The weapon load was a full 12,000
pounds under normal mission capacity. To save even more
weight, no fuel was carried in the fuselage tanks, except the
lowest amount necessary to stay within the weight and balance
center-of-gravity envelope, which saved an additional 50,000
pounds.
"Crew, stand by for bomb-bay missile launch," Patrick
McLanahan announced. "Quadruple Wolverine missile
launch. Radar coming on ... radar stand by." McLanahan
took a thirty-second satellite update for the navigation corn-
puters, in order to tighten down the accuracy of the system as
much as possible prior to launch. Then he checked the accu-
racy of the nav computers by taking a three-second attack ra-
dar fix and then comparing where the aiming crosshairs lay on
the stored radar image. When McLanahan moved the cros-
shairs onto the exact preprograrnmed spot, the difference be-
tween the radar fix and the nav computers was only fifty-seven
feet. He decided to accept the satellite fix.
"Launch point fix in, bomb doors coming open." He
386 DALE BROWN
clicked on the voice command switch: "Commit Wolverine
attack. "
WARNING, MISSILE ATTACK 11-4MATED, the computer replied,
and automatically entered a launch hold until the order could
be verified.
"Commit Wolverine attack," McLanahan repeated to verify
the order.
LAUNCH COMMIT, WARNING, BOMB DOORS OPEN, the com-
puter's female voice responded. The Megafortress's bomb
doors slid inside the fuselage, and the forward rotary launcher
in the bomb bay released the first AGM-177 Wolverine cruise
missile. In eight-second volleys, three more Wolverine missiles
dropped clear of the bomb bay, two total from each of the
forward and aft rotary launchers. The missiles glided in a shal-
low descent as their flight computers sampled the air mass and
did a microsecond flight-control check, exercising hundreds of
tiny microhydraulic actuators built into the skin, then ignited
their turbojet engines, throttled up to full power, and sped off
toward their targets. As they began their 500-mile-per-hour
flight, they downloaded navigation data from the GPS navi-
gation satellite constellation and adjusted course, following the
flight plan transferred to their computers from the Megafor-
tress.
All four Wolverine missiles carried SEAD, or Suppression
of Enemy Air Defense, packages in its sensor bay and three
internal munitions bays. The missiles' sensor section contained
combination infrared and radar-homing sensors, which would
lock onto an enemy radar, then slave an infrared sensor onto
the vehicle or building carrying the radar, and send targeting
data to the missile's navigation computer. Two munitions corn-
Partments contained a total of eighteen anti-vehicle "skeets,"
and one weapon bay contained twelve Sky Masters ADM-151
decoy devices. The Wolverines had a preprogrammed flight
plan based on Jon Masters's NIRTSat satellite data showing
where some known garrisoned road-mobile SA-5 surface-to-
air missile (SAM) sites, Honggi-2 SAM sites, and heavy an-
tiaircraft artillery sites were located.
When the missiles flew within the estimated lethal range of
the mobile SAM sites, the Wolverine missiles ejected a decoy
glider. The decoys were tiny gliders with a specially designed
shape, and contained tiny transmitters that made each glider
appear as big as a full-size fighter-to a Chinese SAM radar
FATAL TER RAI N 387
operator scanning the skies for enemy aircraft, the decoys
made it appear as if an enemy attacker had suddenly appeared
out of nowhere right on top of them. When the SAM site
operators activated their target-tracking radars to try to shoot
down the "attacker," the seeker head in the Wolverine missile
detected the signal and locked onto the location of the emitter,
then used that new position plus its satellite navigation system
fix to update its flight plan.
The Wolverine cruised over the target location and seeded
the area with anti-vehicle skeets. Each skeet had a canister that
contained infrared sensors and several copper rods. The can-
ister would spin as it was ejected from the Wolverine missile.
When the infrared sensors detected a vehicle-size target below,
it would detonate a small explosive charge that would instantly
melt the copper rod and s
hoot it at the target. The high-speed
slug of molten copper was powerful enough to penetrate the
thin steel of heavy trucks or light tanks. Each skeet could fire
several slugs at once in all directions, sometimes shooting sev-
eral slugs into one vehicle.
The Wolverine missile would fly its preprogrammed flight
plan, cruising over the area, dropping decoys, and then drop-
ping skeets over any SAM sites detected. Each Wolverine Mis-
sile had the capability of destroying dozens of targets on its
flight, so with four Wolverine cruise missiles operating in a
thirty-by-thirty-mile target box, almost a thousand targets were
instantly at risk. The skeets worked their devastating magic
with gruesome efficiency. Not only were surface-to-air missile
sites at risk, but any hot vehicles within a hundred yards of
the skeets were likely targets-troop carriers, transports, sup-
ply trucks, even small buildings, anything with a warm core.
Once a copper slug burned through the outer layer of its target,
it had cooled sufficiently so that the second hard surface it hit
caused the slug to break apart instead of burning through. For
most targets, this meant that the copper slug first penetrated
inside a passenger or crew compartment of a vehicle, rico-
cheted off a second hard surface, then instantly turned into
thousands of bits of bulledike projectiles that bounced around
inside, shredding anything in its path.
The results of the Wolverine missile's deadly flight was ev-
ident to the crew of the Megafortress as they approached the
Chinese coastline. Off in the darkened distance, they could see
numerous patches of bright red flashes as the skeets went off,
388 DALE BROWN
followed seconds later by bright yellow or white flashes as a
truck, tank, or other vehicle was hit and destroyed. Many times
they saw spectacular secondary explosions, as a skeet activated
over a missile or antiaircraft artillery site, causing missiles to
explode or entire ammunition magazines to cook off. After
each Wolverine missile's deadly cargo was expended, the mis-