Executive Intent

“That’s their new heavy-lift booster, the Long March-5, sir,” Vista said. “It’s an enlarged Long March-3 rocket with four solid-fuel motors strapped to the outside. It can haul twenty-five tons into low Earth orbit, fifteen tons to geosynchronous orbit, or ten tons to the moon-not quite Saturn-5 class, but still impressive. The Chinese have already a

“ China is really going full throttle on their space program, aren’t they?” Vice President Phoenix remarked.

“Let’s talk about our own space program-namely, Armstrong and those weapon garages,” the president interjected. “Get Page and that general in here.” A few moments later, A

“Mr. President, I didn’t try to conceal anything,” Banderas said. “We revealed everything in our budgets and research plans.” He glanced at Secretary of Defense Turner. “I briefed SECDEF myself on every aspect of Kingfisher.”

“Miller?”

“I’d have to check my records, sir,” Turner said uneasily. “Kingfisher I recognize. I remember something last year about a successful test of a space-launched surface-attack weapon, but I didn’t know it had been deployed as part of the space-based antiballistic-missile system.”

“I recall getting a briefing, Mr. President,” Phoenix said. Gardner ignored the remark.

“Mr. President, it was a successful employment,” A

“Dr. Page, I’ll get to you in a second,” the president said, holding up a hand. “Secretary Banderas, I feel as if I’ve been deceived. I’ve got to explain to the world what we did in Pakistan, and I don’t know enough about these space weapons to do that. That’s my fault and my problem. The question is: What do we do from here?”

“Mr. President, I recommend accelerating deployment of the full Kingfisher constellation,” Banderas said. “They proved they work. We were lucky we had a weapon platform in position to strike. Now that the world understands what we have, they can time their strikes to take advantage of coverage gaps. We need to fill those gaps as quickly as possible.”

“Do you read the papers, Mr. Secretary?” the president asked irritably. “Do you watch the news? Pakistan is accusing us of attacking them with a conventionally armed intercontinental ballistic missile! We killed dozens of civilians. Pictures of that crater are being shown on TV every hour of every day. And I can’t tell the world that we stopped a Pakistani missile attack- India and probably Russia would attack in a heartbeat.”

“Sir, all of the nations in the region are manipulating the events in this incident to suit their own political agenda,” Banderas said.

“ China has a space tracking facility in Karachi, and Pakistan has dozens of long-range radars; India and Russia have them, too, in India. They all know Pakistan launched a ballistic missile at India and that we intercepted it, but that hasn’t hit the news yet.”

“What’s your point, Mr. Secretary?”

“My point is, sir, that we can’t respond to international criticism and fear because people aren’t being told the whole truth,” Banderas went on. “The only thing we can do is make the system completely operational and respond to the next emergency as appropriate.”

“And you don’t feel this will cause a new arms race?”

“Sir, the race is already on,” Banderas said. He motioned to Kai Raydon, who opened a folder and dropped a photograph on the conference table before the president. “Does that look familiar, sir?”

President Gardner glanced at it, then nodded and slid the photo to his national security adviser. “They look like the missile shelters on Hainan Island in China,” he said.

“They are missile shelters for DF-21 missiles, sir-but they’re located in Karachi, Pakistan, not China,” Kai said. “We photographed them just a few hours ago. It looks like China is deploying DF-21s and probably KT-3 antisatellite missiles in Pakistan.”

“That’s ridiculous,” National Security Adviser Conrad Carlyle said. “ China deploying missiles designed to attack American warships-in Pakistan, an American ally?”

“ China is a Pakistani ally, too, Mr. Director, as you know,” Banderas said. “We’ve been drifting apart from Pakistan for quite some time, since Predator drone sorties were stepped up in the Afghan-Pakistan border region, and at the same time China has been increasing economic and military aid to Pakistan.”

“We’re sca

“Again, they can build all the launchpads they want-we’ll have to keep track of them and make a plan to take them out if necessary,” the president said. Kai noticed the uncomfortable set of the vice president’s jaw-obviously he didn’t agree with that tactic. “Making this situation even more complicated was the attack from space. Why should the Chinese give up their missiles while we have orbiting killer meteoroids?”

“Sir, it’s obvious China has been working on deploying these DF-21s and KT-3s around the world for quite some time-probably since we first started inserting the interceptor garages into orbit,” Banderas said. “Now those things are out in the open, possibly with nuclear warheads. And remember, sir, that the DF-21 is at first a surface-to-surface missile as well as an antiship and antisatellite one-from Hainan Island they can reach as far as Guam and Okinawa and hit all of the transit routes between the Pacific and Indian oceans. The only weapon system we have right now to hit those launchers in a timely ma

“I think a sea-launched cruise missile could do the job adequately as well, Sal-let’s not lose perspective here, okay?” the president said. “I know you’re an air-and space-power advocate, but let’s not forget the big picture.” He turned to Secretary of State Barbeau. “Stacy…”

She smiled and held up a hand. “I know, sir, I know…back to Beijing.”

“I need to learn more about what the Chinese intend to do with these DF-21s,” the president said. “I’m not going to force the issue or demand removal-yet-but I want to get a statement from them.”

“I think I know what they’ll say: It’s to protect vital Chinese shipping lanes and the free flow of commerce around the world,” Barbeau said. “They’ll openly cite Somali and Philippine pirates; less overtly, they’ll say that American domination of the world’s oceans is a threat.”

“Get it firsthand, and then we’ll hold their feet to the fire,” Gardner said.

“Yes, Mr. President,” she said, taking that opportunity to look Raydon up and down again. He did the same to her, but more discreetly.

The president turned to A

“Mr. President, it’s not my intention to shake anything up,” A