Barracuda: Final Bearing

“Listen to me and listen good.” Donchez clicked his remote angrily, and the map returned to an overhead view of the Far East. The new nation of Greater Manchuria, shown in blue, faced Japan across the Sea of Japan, the blue giant extending from North Korea north to the Sea of Okhotsk far north of Japan’s Hokkaido Island. The northern island in Japan’s chain, the disputed island of Sakhalin that had been Russian territory, was now part of Greater Manchuria. Greater Manchuria also included what had once been called Manchuria, a part of northeast China and far east Russia, but was now known as Greater Manchuria since it also comprised the Russian territory fronting the Sea of Japan, the slice of land once called Sikhote Alin, as far south as Vladivostok, now renamed Artom.

Greater Manchuria was a state the size of Mexico hovering off Japan’s west coast. Immediately south of Greater Manchuria the state of East China, color-coded white, extended from North Korea south along the coastline to Vietnam, the strip of land 1000 miles wide, the larger country of West China in red still three-quarters the size of the former communist China had been before East China and Greater Manchuria had split off. The screen zoomed in on Greater Manchuria, to the capital city of Changashan, then came down in satellite’s-eye-view of the city center to the Presidential Palace. The image froze and bled into the face of President Len Pei Poom, who looked startlingly young to be the dictator of the new nation. He wore an officer’s cap and a dark military uniform, but otherwise looked ordinary, someone who wouldn’t be looked at twice on the street.

“Len Pei Poom, Greater Manchuria’s president, and his new republic are getting on a lot of nerves lately. I don’t know if you knew this,” Donchez said, reaching into his humidor and offering Pacino a Havana cigar, “since somehow we’ve been able to keep it from the press, but we’ve been bankrolling Greater Manchuria through Israel for the last five months.”

“Why?” Pacino asked, taking the flame from Donchez’s lighter.

“I thought we were tight with East China since they broke off from the reds, and the East Chinese aren’t too friendly with Len now.”

Donchez lit his own cigar.

“We want to maintain ties to East China, and Russia, and the Greater Manchurians. The balance of power is crucial to our interests in Asia. We don’t want one big power there bullying everyone else and turning eastward toward us. Japan was weakened by the trade war, but now we see them building up their military, and now that Greater Manchuria is established, the Japanese see Greater Manchuria as a threat. Let me put it to you like this — Japan’s aggressiveness and military hardware are the gasoline. Greater Manchuria, as a perceived threat to Japan, is the firewood. If we get a spark, we are in trouble.”

“Wait a minute, why would Japan see Greater Manchuria as a threat?”

“Same reason they hated Korea. It’s based on geography, politics, national psychology. Japan is highly xenophobic — they’ve always been distrustful of outsiders. And now this Len character surfaces, unites this nation right across the pond from Japan, and the Japanese are worried.”

“That he’ll invade Japan? Greater Manchuria’s a land power, not a sea power. Len doesn’t even own a canoe, that I know about. And he has his hands full with East and West China and Russia. What would he care about Japan?”

“The question is, what does Tokyo think of his intentions toward Japan? And it’s more concrete than that. Did you know about the possibility of Len having nuclear weapons?”

“I read some of the speculation in the papers, but nukes have been illegal for years in Asia. I don’t believe in ghosts or nuclear weapons in Asia.”

“Leach of CIA thinks there are. Not ghosts, missiles. In Greater Manchuria. Leach was certain that the only way Len in Greater Manchuria was able to break off from the Russians and the East Chinese was by discovering a cache of nucleartipped SS-34 missiles. We were ordered by the president to find out. We found nothing. I concluded that Len had no nukes, but Len did manage to keep the wolves at bay with not much of an army. How?”

“I hope you have an answer to that question, Dick.”

“Mikey, I think I made a mistake. I think Len does have nukes.

And I think Japan, already threatened by the very idea of Greater Manchuria, knows about it. That’s the match that’s going to set Asia on fire. And it could involve us. Scenario Orange.”

“Back up, Dick. Why do you think Len has nukes?”

“Yesterday, just as I was telling Warner’s cabinet that Len didn’t have nukes, we picked up a flurry of transmissions. We broke them all.”

The screen moved closer to Greater Manchuria, descending toward the terrain like a spacecraft returning to earth, the view closing in on Lake Ozero Chanka, a sixty-mile-wide lake set inland by a hundred miles.