The letters were going to take some time, so Buck, the president and two Secret Service agents climbed into the Baby Huey. It took several minutes to get her airborne, and with the president in the right seat again and the agents sitting in the comfortable chairs in the back, they aimed for Dover.

Thirty minutes later, with a strong tail-wind, Baby Huey landed close to Ghost Rider, which was already being refueled by a small, antiquated 3,000 gallon fuel tanker truck. It would take a long time to refuel the larger aircraft.

The general gave orders to refuel the helicopter first, and Buck was invited into the meeting with General Allen, the president and the Base Commander, General Ward. General Allen introduced everybody. “Mr. President, you wanted a meeting?” the general asked. They sat down, and cokes and fruit juice were brought in.

“I want to get involved with the food program and see what I can do out there. I’m not going to sit in the White House like a scared cat and do nothing. While you are organizing the country through our air bases, I would like to work with the guys down in North Carolina and get a distribution network operational.”

“I was hoping you would say that, sir,” the general responded with a smile on his face. “It would get rid of the need for protocol and you having to authorize everything I do, plus it would solve the need for that extra radio or satellite-phone system.”

“Yes, I was thinking about that, too,” the president responded. “If we are expecting a full-scale invasion in the near future, it doesn’t make sense to have the Commander-in-Chief sitting virtually unprotected in the White House like a sitting duck. They should have to work very hard to find me, don’t you think?”

“Totally agree,” answered General Allen. “Mike Ward, what do we have operational here? I’m hoping your oldest C-130, a C model I believe, could still be flyable and I’m sure you must have a helicopter or two in storage?”

“We are checking through the older models now, Pete,” the other general responded. “Every older aircraft is currently undergoing tests. We lost 17 aircraft on flight missions over New Year’s Eve, and I did not think to check the old stock until yesterday when we received your C-130 and the pilot’s message from Andrews. We are servicing one C-130C’s engines. She’s flyable but several of her electronic components are toast. We have servicemen currently working on bypassing them. We have another C-130A that is flyable, Pete—an old HC-130 tanker which could be operational by tomorrow and we are working on two Vietnam-era Bell helicopters right now.”

“I want the HC-130’s tanker engines fully inspected within 12 hours,” Pete Allen ordered. “Get all the maintenance men on her you can and get her to Hill AFB in Salt Lake in 18 hours. Get the helicopters and the other C-130 flown down to Andrews as soon as possible. I’m leaving ASAP and need the tanker. I’m flying to Japan with Ghost Rider. Also, Mike, please check the refueling rigs and make sure that her refueling line is compatible with Ghost Rider. I’m going to need the tanker to pump fuel into Ghost Rider over the Bering Sea.”

“You are taking these old birds over to Asia?” asked General Ward in shock.

“That’s right, Mike. I want two of the best and most experienced crews in that tanker and two more of your most experienced crews in Ghost Rider. I’ve done my homework. Ghost Rider has a range of 2,200 miles. I‘m going into Hill to refuel, then I’m heading up to McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington. I believe they have a couple of old C-130s over there as well. Then I’ll fly into Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage—that’s well within range from McChord. McChord might have a couple of old operational helicopters as well, but I haven’t been up there for a while. Elmendorf in Alaska should have cleared runways—they usually clear them 24/7 since they have so much snow.”

“So will Misawa Air Force Base in Japan where they should have bulldozers still working and something flyable. It’s a 3,200 mile flight into Misawa from Elmendorf. From Misawa, I plan to refuel and fly into our bases at either Osan or Kunshan in South Korea. The distance is only 900 miles from Misawa. The HC-130 tanker has a 4,500 mile range. If you take out 1,000 miles of fuel for Ghost Rider, that will give her 3,500 miles, and if I put a soft 1,000 gallon fuel-bladder into Ghost Rider, and there are several bladders at Elmendorf, both aircraft should make it into Japan. I believe that there is a still-operational AC-130 gunship at either Kunshan or Osan. Buck, by the way, I want to take Mr. Lee Wang with me on my mission. He needs to be at Hill AFB in 36 hours. Somebody will have to get him there by then.”

“Why the rush to Asia, Pete?” asked the president.

“Carlos believes that if we take out their satellite communication station on the other side, we could take over complete control of all their operational satellite hardware. If we capture or kill their mercenary squads over here and relieve them of their cell phones, we could be in control of global communications again, plus I will get the chance to blow their headquarters off the face of the earth. I want to take one of the captured cell phones with me, since I heard from Carlos on my way in, that they have captured several American satellite phones. That could give me direct satellite contact with you, Mr. President. Carlos is going to get as many of the systems working as he can. I will take one with me on my flight, since he thinks that by using the aircraft’s transponder for short intervals and using the aircraft as a massive antenna for the satellite phone, he can satellite-guide me across the Bering Strait into Japan, and then on to my target. I can also warn you, Mr. President, about any attack on our aircraft by Chinese fighters when I get there. If that happens, you can act accordingly with a missile strike.”

“How many cell phones did they capture?” asked Buck.

“They have three fully-operational and three broken ones. Carlos said that he and Lee Wang can repair the three broken ones. There were ten in total and they have four for spare parts,” the general replied. “Why?”

“Any extra spare parts could be built into the dead ones you Air Force guys use,” suggested Buck. “I know Carlos has a satellite phone. I bet he hasn’t thought of replacing the electronic parts in his phone. I’ll tell him when I get down there later today.”

“Good point, Buck,” smiled the general. “My plan is still in the making, but if I survive over Nanjing, Mr. President, I want to fly into Beijing and find out the truth—whether or not the Chinese government has anything to do with this catastrophe. Then I want to fly up to Moscow. I’m sure I can refuel in both cities, and if the Chinese Government is friendly, they can fuel us up and get me to the Russian border. Or I can go via India since there must be tons of unused jet fuel at all the world’s commercial airports. If I take my own tanker, I can refuel anywhere. If I come up against opposition forces, I can relay the information back to you.”

“That’s one hell of a trip in old C-130s,” stated General Ward, no so optimistic. “You are going to need a lot of luck to find little Japan in the middle of nowhere, on low fuel reserves and without modern navigation. How long are you expecting to fly around the world, Pete?”

“Only ten days, Mike,” laughed General Allen. “I want to get from Moscow, through to our base in Turkey. My biggest challenge at the moment is getting our troops back to the States—a million men and women. Lady Luck is going to have to show her face. I believe that we must try to thwart any attack on our mainland by the opposition as soon as we can—by either Zedong Electronics or the Chinese or Russian governments. I don’t know how they plan to do it, but they will need fully working naval ships and aircraft carriers to get to us, and when they do, we must try and capture what we can, fill them up with gas, and send them over to the Middle East to bring back our troops.”