The task was gruesome. A group of medics, under the control of two doctors, tried to piece bits of body to other bits of body. Many of the bodies were whole—the ones who had died from gunfire—but the unfortunates who had a mortar or shoulder rocket land close, or even hit by them, were nothing more than a pair of smoking boots.

Empty boots were placed in a line, some with parts in them and some without, and counted.

A complete search of the surrounding area was underway. A couple of hiding Chinese soldiers had been found, ferreted out, and marched over to help carry the wounded.

Twenty minutes later, the second C-130 took off with the first 30 wounded Chinese lying on stretchers. The third C-130 took off half an hour later with 90 dead bodies.

The first C-130 was already coming in to land several minutes after the third one had departed, and several more medical personnel exited with stretchers to carry the rest of the dead. This time, a forklift came out with a pallet of body bags, and the soldiers began to place a dead body, sometimes in several pieces, into each bag.

Within two hours of the beginning of the attack, 202 pairs of boots on and not on bodies were counted. The piles of non-recognizable parts were placed in body bags and placed in the next C-130.

The airport was safe, the battle was over, and all that remained was for the engineers and pallets to be flown out.

Major Patterson called General Allen. It had been three hours since his last call. He described the success of the mission to the General and reported he thought that there was a smaller pallet of around 120 boxes of satellite phones.

“Get a cell phone into the hands of as many Air Force base commanders in the country as you can, Patterson. This is your next mission. Use all available flying aircraft, from jets to helicopters for the next 48 hours only. You must have as many bases covered as possible by midnight on January 7th. Spread the aircraft usage around the country wisely. Double the air crews on all aircraft, which can get into the southern areas like Texas. Remember, Elmendorf in Alaska and Edwards in California already have phone contact. Start at McGuire, Andrews, and Bolling Air Force bases, work outwards, giving only one phone to base commanders. I want a unit each at Seymour Johnson and Pope ASAP. Give one to the commanders at Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune. I need one ASAP to Vice Admiral Rogers at the naval base in Norfolk. Get one to the president in North Carolina. I have two spare units and I will leave one in Japan and one at Osan in Korea.

“Patterson, I want to know exactly how many satellite phones we have within four hours. Get the information from the Chinese engineers. Then get a company of men to guard the Chinese engineers while we pair each one up with one of our own engineers. Treat them like gold-dust, get them everything they need, and then fly or drive them where they were meant to go and allow them to do the jobs they were flown in for. Try and borrow a couple of them to start repairing some of our fighters at Andrews and see if we can get a few of our aircraft operational again.”

“We have two weeks to defend our country. We believe the attack will be there in New York. I want every Air Force base commander that gets a radio to go to their closest Army, Marine and Naval bases and get an inventory list of fighting equipment that is operational now. I’m looking for trucks—any trucks—to drag howitzers up to New York. I’m looking for anything that can blow a high-explosive or armor-piercing shell through ship’s armor. I want 50,000 troops readied to move into New York in the next two weeks. Are you taking notes, Patterson?”

“Yes sir, I have you on speaker phone and two men writing your orders down,” the major replied.

“I want your five bulldozers to move across to La Guardia Airport and clean that runway, then get them into Teterboro and Newark. I want aircraft to be able to go in there within 24 to 36 hours. Get those Charlie engineers to turn on the lights and get heat into the terminals, or at least get one generator, or even truck engines generating power in all four airports.

“Patterson, I suggest you fuel up the only long-range aircraft we have left, the second HC-130 tanker, get two sets of flying crew aboard and at least 24 operational satellite phones, as well as half a dozen of the Chinese engineers who speak English, and a varied selection of spare electrical parts. Not enough to deplete reserves needed on the East Coast, but important parts to repair electrical components for getting heat and power into the bases, or hopefully getting some of our aircraft flying. Send the HC-130 out with somebody you can trust and start distributing the equipment. Leave one engineer, spare parts, and a phone with the commander at Hill, then give Vandenberg one engineer, parts, and three phones—two phones are for their neighbor bases. Deliver two phones to Travis, then fuel up and head over to Hawaii and deliver an engineer, spare parts, and one phone. Get that baby full of fuel there and head over to Anderson in Guam to deliver a few parts and one phone. Refuel and head to Yakota Air Force Base in Japan to deliver the same. Then, get two phones, one engineer, and parts into Kunshan in South Korea, one engineer and parts into Baghdad, and the same into Turkey. Fuel up and fly to Ramstein and then the Azores, leave a phone at each, and tell the pilots to get back to McGuire ASAP.”

“The number I’m giving you now is a number that can help them find their locations during daylight hours only. The codeword is ‘Carlos Lee.’ Tell the pilots to follow orders from Carlos Lee and they will get a pretty accurate location. Tell them never to answer the phone if the call is from the red number, which I assume will be on all the phones—that is the enemy. Remember, daylight only, so tell them not to get into a bad situation at night. The HC-130 has a 4,500 mile range but remind the pilots to use their fuel wisely. I want another situation report from you in 24 hours, Patterson. You have all Air Force personnel at your beck and call. I will need a copy of all the numbers, once you have set up which phone is going where. If you have any problems, call me on this number, but right now I need some sleep, we are six hours out in the middle of nowhere and I need to get to Misawa. Good luck!” And the general hung up.

Chapter 12

The Hit Squads

Strong Air Force base was up early the next morning, three hours before dawn. It was cold outside. The temperature was 24 degrees out, which was normal for January. Carlos and Lee had taken turns monitoring the cell phones and the feed coming off the satellites.

General Allen was on his way to Japan, an hour from Alaska when the airport woke up. The technical guys had refueled and rearmed the aircraft throughout the night. Carlos’ P-51 was still being worked on and would not fly that day. General Allen called and asked that the food distribution be put off for 48 hours as he needed civilian help communicating with Fort Bragg, Seymour Johnson and Camp Lejeune. He wanted exact numbers of vehicles and available troops and, if necessary, they needed to start walking to New York.

Preston asked Maggie and Staff Sergeant Perry to fly into Pope Field in one of the 172s and find out what the largest Army base in the country could supply as defensive protection. John and Technical Sergeant Matheson were to fly the Cessna 210 into Seymour Johnson, and Pam Wallace and another sergeant were to fly the second 172 into McClutcheon Field—the main Marine airfield in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

Martie had been pretty quiet that night after she arrived home. Preston congratulated her on a good job and she began to get back to normal. Sally had been relieved by a new group of pilots and they had taken off for McGuire as soon as she landed. Sally had been living in her aircraft for five solid days and needed a bath and some sleep.