Executive Intent

Representatives from the president’s national security adviser, secretary of defense, State Department, attorney general, Central Intelligence Agency, and other federal departments got to their feet when Vice President Phoenix entered his conference room. “Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, thanks for being here,” he said. He took a few minutes to shake hands and exchange pleasantries with the panel members. They were all young assistant deputy directors or lower rank-this panel didn’t rate any higher-ranked representatives. Phoenix took his seat at the head of the table, and the others took their seats as well. “Our goal today is to finish the draft of the revised National Space Policy and prepare it for review, and my goal is to get a draft in the president’s hand by the time he returns from his West Coast campaign swing. But before we begin: Any thoughts about the Chinese attacks in Yemen?”

“I think it’s still too early to tell for sure, sir,” the representative from the State Department, Annette Douglass, the highest-ranking member of the panel, said. “I understand the Security Council met about it early this morning, but I haven’t heard the outcome.”

“They authorized Russia to set up security at the port in Aden until the Chinese could remove their casualties,” Phoenix said. “Then China is going to lead a multinational investigation, including FBI and NCIS.”

“They must believe it was Islamist terrorists, maybe some sort of retaliation for Chinese attacks in Somalia,” Douglass said. “It fits. Yemen has been battling al-Qaeda-related insurgents for years. With Russians on the ground, things should quiet down quickly.”

“Let’s hope so,” the vice president said. He cast his eyes around the conference table. “Anybody else?” No one answered. “It might be a little early to say for sure, but I think it’s a little suspicious myself.” His eyes rested on the youngest member of the panel, the representative from the CIA, who seemed to perk up a bit at the vice president’s remark. “Mr. Dobson? Something?”

Tim Dobson looked a little disheveled and rumpled; his tie was a lot off center, and his dark hair was tousled a bit too much to be considered stylish, but Phoenix always found the young CIA assistant deputy director’s views insightful and his breadth of knowledge amazing. “Uh…yes, sir, there’s a few things I found fishy, too, sir.”

“Like what?”

“The…uh, the Chinese casualty count.”

“What was it…twelve?”

“Reportedly went up to twenty-one, sir,” Dobson said.

“Seem low to you?”

“Yes, sir,” Dobson said. “The ship was hit in the right rear quarter in the engineering spaces, close to crew quarters and a chow hall. Late afternoon, day shift on their way for the evening meal, brand-new port of call, and helicopter resupply ongoing-I would have expected more men on deck, more casualties.”

“Interesting,” Phoenix mused. “What else?”

“The ship itself,” Dobson said. “The Wuxi was one of the oldest Jianghu-2-class frigates in China ’s fleet-almost forty years old. It was in poor repair and had never been away from Chinese home waters before-in fact, it had spent most of the last five years in port, not even making any routine patrols. On more than one occasion it had been observed being towed by an oceangoing tug that had accompanied the Zhenyuan battle group-it had to go into Aden Harbor for refueling because its steering mechanism was too sloppy to attempt underway refueling that the rest of the task force was practicing. The rest of the Zhenyuan group is made up of much more modern designs.” Dobson was talking faster as he started to get excited about voicing his observations-apparently few others at Langley were willing to listen to him. “But all of a sudden there it is, thousands of miles from home.”

“So what?” the national security adviser’s representative asked. “The Chinese wanted to put together this task force. Maybe that ship was the best available.”

“What are you saying, Tim?” the vice president asked. “That it was old and expendable?”

“Yes, sir,” Dobson said confidently. “It was sacrificed.”

“Why?”

“To give China the excuse it needed to bomb the city,” Dobson said very matter-of-factly, as if he had calculated this theory aeons ago.

“That’s nuts,” Douglass muttered.

“ China ’s version of the Gulf of Tonkin incident?” the vice president asked. The two supposed attacks on American destroyers by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin in what was then North Vietnam prompted the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in the U.S. Congress in 1964, authorizing President Johnson to take any steps necessary to protect Southeast Asian nations from Communist aggression-it became the main justification for expanded U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The second of the two torpedo-boat attacks was later proved not to have occurred.

“Exactly, sir,” Dobson said. “We already wondered about how the Chinese could have put that air raid on so soon after the Wuxi was hit-”

“We know that the Zhenyuan was already doing exercises with its air wing at the time.”