For the full 20 minutes, Lee told them his whole story, from his degrees obtained in China, to the first day he met the cleaner, to Zedong Electronics in Nanjing and its new building. He described the special private island belonging to Zedong Electronics across the river from Shanghai where they lived and were taught how to be Americans, and then how he dissected the small electronic part for a Toyota engine’s computer system. He explained his job in America, and how he got into private companies to steal, copy or describe new inventions about to go to market. It was necessary for Zedong Electronics to get this information so they could produce cheaper parts for the world to buy. He then explained how Zedong Electronics had so many different departments and virtually took over the world’s manufacturing of every electronic part and/or unit. He explained his duty to Zedong Electronics for his daughter’s education. He had worked at Microsoft, Qualcomm, Intel, Acer, IBM and Apple—twenty-five years of work. He thought that he was doing good work, so that the electronics giant would be successful for China and its people, and would bring China into the forefront of the world, and that his work would mean a better life for all Chinese. He never realized, until the termination squads started killing all the operatives like him, that something was wrong.

Lee Wang finally explained about meeting Carlos, hearing from friends about the danger they were all in, and the attack on him and his family. He said that he and his family were lucky to be alive, and then he sat down.

General Allen asked Carlos to come up and explain what he and Lee Wang had completed in Salt Lake City. Carlos introduced himself and his qualifications and got straight down to business.

“Lee Wang did not tell you that Zedong Electronics have the only three still-working satellites covering the globe for communications. These hit squads, or whatever you want to call them, are being ordered around through the use of these satellites. Lee and I sourced communications going both ways from the United States and Western Europe into the area around Nanjing, China. If we still had an Air Force, the headquarters of Zedong Electronics would be the first building to be taken out. If we could do so, it would destroy their whole communication set up. We cannot do it from space.”

For the next several minutes, Carlos told the audience about the Navistar P—a secret project spearheaded by the Air Force in the 1980s. Because it was sent into space such a long time ago, as well as being subject to simpler computer communications using DOS, he and Lee found older computers to communicate with it. Carlos explained how it had been lost and that he had found it by mistake. “Through the satellite, we can now see the United States as well as a sea boundary. I will be working to increase our range out to a 500-mile boundary, but remember the digital footage is antiquated and the screens we can use are also antiquated. The zoom on the camera lenses is only treble magnification, which means the further we send her out, the less detail we can see. Currently, we could see a large ship enter the viewing area 200 miles out to sea. One thing I did see, moments before we packed up to come down the mountain, was a large storm over Canada and northern areas. It’s a bad one and it is flowing south out of the Arctic. We rode in on it and these winds are the result of the arctic blast, as the weather men used to call it. I would hate to be north of here. It’s getting very cold up there.”

Carlos paused for a moment and looked over at the man, he now called friend. “To continue, Lee Wang should be complimented on his willingness and ability to help us in our time of need. Through the satellite communication relays from Navistar P, we have found three areas of space where communications are being transmitted, to and from. Unfortunately, Navistar P should have been armed with lasers and then we could, like in a James Bond movie, blast their communications satellites out of the sky. However, in the 1970s when this thing was being designed, lasers were only just being researched.

“So, with television trucks and their satellite-feed systems juiced into simple television screens, again from the 70s, we think we can set up a range of communication tools across the country. A large national system will take several weeks and that is not most important yet. The current pictures from space will be our first alert of any attacks on the United States—any long-range aircraft headed our way, etc. We need every television truck, every Hughes two-way communication dishes that are placed on homes or businesses, every working pre-1985 computer, every two-way radio that works, and every old television set we can find to carry out this project. Lastly, any old civilian camcorders or film cameras will give you visual as well as audio communications. Within a week, we hope to have communications with several military bases in the country and might have some troops ready for repelling insurgents.”

“Great work, guys,” applauded the president. “It seems that we are going forward after all, and it was well worth my visit.”

“Thank you, Mr. President. And thanks to all these guys who have worked nonstop since the beginning of this year—three days ago,” applauded General Allen, getting up to stand next to Carlos.

“I know that for most of us, it already feels like a month, but let me conclude this meeting with MY report. So far, thanks to these guys here, we have radio communication with Andrews AFB, Edwards AFB, Hill AFB, and our own Strong Air Force Base right here, pun intended. We will not install our temporary Air Force sign at the front entrance on the main road until our soon-to-arrive visitors have been dealt with. So far, we have four C-130s flying, we have three fully operational F-4s now at Andrews. We will have several more C-130s operational in a day or two, most stationed at Hill in Salt Lake City and Edwards in California. Another HC-130 tanker should be operational in Yuma, and I‘m heading down there tomorrow. As far as more flyable aircraft, two Hueys that have been in museums until now are being made operational at Andrews. A lot of you know that we have over 50 air force bases here in the United States. Several of the bases on what we would call the front line have only the most modern equipment, so I will visit them last. Tomorrow, I’m flying the president back to Washington, and then I will be spending three days continuously visiting bases to find anything I can that is flyable.”

The general looked over at Sally and Jennifer. “Captains Powers and Watkins will be coming north with me tomorrow. We will fly in formation back to Andrews. Once we repel this attack, that I believe will happen tomorrow morning, I can concentrate on getting a big defense force together. Since I know all my bases and museums well, I believe that we could end up with a dozen C-130s, of which three are fuel tankers. I know there are another dozen or so helicopters around. I must find them as well as several other types of aircraft. As Carlos reported, our current aircraft could give us a long arm into Asia to take out the enemy’s headquarters. Now, whether or not all of China is involved, I don’t know. If it is, and their Air Force is operational, the boys and I would not return from such a mission. If only Zedong Electronics is the enemy, and the Chinese Air Force is grounded, then we’ll have a chance to blow their headquarters apart, and the HC-130 tankers can refuel us and get us back to friendly soil. This mission should take about a week.

“Here on U.S. soil, we have the three F-4s as our first line of defense or attack. They can still be refueled in-flight with one of our Vietnam-era HC-130 fuel tankers. Our second line of attack or defense will be the three P-51 Mustangs and the P-38 Lightning. All four of these aircraft can be fitted with 500-pound bombs, and their .50-caliber machine guns are fully operational. The P-38 can carry two 1,000 pounders—she has pylons that we can modify and fit two sidewinder missiles on each wing, and all her cannon and machine guns are operational. Behind the second line, are the three Huey helicopters, which we can arm with four air-to-ground rockets and a 20mm Minigun each, if needed. It is not a lot, but it’s a start.