Life as a New Hire Ch. 35

Well, ...

A) The Khanate was currently winning the war. It was slowly sinking into the monetary minds that the Khanate would last at least six months, if not longer. You can roll over Certificates of Deposit (the original CD's) that fast. Those financing Khanate War Bonds wouldn't have to roll them out at 'pennies on the dollar'.

B) Harsh fact; for those who economically and/or militarily opposed the People's Republic of China, every dollar ($), Euro (€), or Yen (also ¥) devoted to assisting the Khanate would cost the PLA/PLAAF/PLAN four or five times that amount to defeat. By its very existence, the Khanate was forcing the PRC to invest a far larger chunk of their (now shrinking) GNP into their defense budget and rebuilding their war-battered infrastructure.

Face it, the Khanate could slap a JDAM on a Russian made FAB-500 for around $30,000. Four of those would shatter a multi-million dollar dam in one minute. When you started tacking on the cost of automotive/rail bridges and tunnels, that bill ballooned terribly fast. Then you could add the lost revenue from the trade network disruptions. All for $120,000.

C) The Khanate started with a sizeable piece of the world's 'Oil and Natural Gas Reserves' pie as well as sizeable critical mineral supplies to boot. You could combine that with the fact that the sections of China she'd overrun held nearly a third of the Chinese oil fields and capacity. Those fields they hadn't snatched up, they'd bombed. Many of those were in Manchuria.

That meant the commodities the Khanate had to sell were earning them more money. If the Khanate did succeed, they could make good on their debt and then some. To solidify that deathly specter, Iran announced they were preparing to send twice as much oil by the end of July to China as they had in all of June - all at inflated prices, of course. Iran would make up their domestic petroleum shortfalls by purchasing the slightly less expensive Khanate oil. Woot, revenue for the Khanate.

D) Geopolitically, the Khanate, if it survived, would transform Asia. A week ago, Asia was dominated by two global powers (China and Russia) and two 'also ran's (India and Pakistan) with a slowly waning US presence. Regionally, India and Pakistan had wasted a huge amount of their potential on wars (with each other and China) and dealing with religious strife.

Russia had been rebuilding itself since its sudden experimental plunge into Free Market Capitalism and Democracy in the 1990's. She was getting stronger, even as the lives of her dissidents became more arduous. To the outside world, China appeared to be a titanic, monolithic state...where the life of dissidents was equally unfortunate.

Along came the Khanate and, for the US and the strongest European states, this was a global chance to regain some of their fading influence and polish their prestige on the world stage. For Taiwan (ROC), Vietnam and Japan, it was a chance to buy some much needed breathing room against the rising threat of the Chinese Colossus. There was no ignoring the rumblings of a much anticipated (by some) creation of this Islamic Super-state either.

That's how.

China had been about to become the World's largest economy. When the northern ports came under aerial attack, the exports the Chinese treasury relied on slowed down. Imports, especially oil and natural gas deliveries, were becoming cripplingly more expensive and under constant threat.

While I was having my chat with the Colonel of the 61st, a fully-loaded Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) tanker about to dock at the port of Guangzhou (Canton for us ignorant Westerners) struck three mines. It was a stupendously ill-fated contact. You might as well have dropped a nuke on the city. Buildings a kilometer away were flattened. The fire departments, medical facilities and civil authorities were completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of the disaster.

The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)'s frigate Huaihua (PN-566), augmenting the harbor's air defenses, was close enough to the vessel when it exploded that the warship capsized. A Chinese Coast Guard cutter in the vicinity also caught fire. The flames and the resulting secondary explosions doomed that ship as well.

The People's Republic of China began screaming about the latest Khanate atrocity. An hour later, an oil tanker in the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan (East China Sea), the world's busiest sea transport center, erupted in an incendiary series of detonations. Suspiciously numerous and abnormal catastrophic failures cascaded through the petrochemical refinery and cargo container areas, setting two dozen square kilometers of the dock area ablaze.

This time, the authorities caught two of what appeared to be a gang of saboteurs. Before they could be questioned, both women took their own lives by overdosing on opiates they had hidden 'inside' their persons. A group calling itself 'The True Chinese Resistance' took credit for both attacks. The outside world only found out about this a few hours later from multiple internet uploads from Kuala Lumpur.

For those in the know, death by surgically implanted opiates was the preferred method of suicide by Black Lotus members of the 9 Clans. In the embryotic New World Order, Katrina Love, my boss, relayed that information to Federal Prosecutor Javiera Castello. Within minutes, MI-6 and the CIA were in the loop. There was a spy network operating on the Chinese mainland that those two could access.

There was a price for the cooperation of the Black Lotus. An hour after Javiera and Katrina called Japan, an Amazon diplomat in Nagasaki requested the Ninja set up a meeting between their Chinese sectarians and members of the Amazons, British and US intelligence services. The cost for this favor was rather odd.

In Okinawa, a small, ancient Secret Society dating back to the 16th century and the Ryukyu Kingdom, wanted something that only the US Marines stationed on that island could provide. For this favor, the Okinawans would join the Ninja in their struggle to regain control of the Nipponese Underworld, expelling the agents of the Seven Pillars of Heaven and the traitorous Ninja family they had subverted.

The Ninja would be able to keep the money spigot flowing to the Black Lotus and the Black Lotus would keep the Americans and British up to date on the internal disruptions and dissent the war was causing the PRC. By that convoluted logic, the US and UK weren't 'really' committing espionage on the Chinese mainland. The world kept turning.

End World News

(Echoes beyond battle)

"Cáel?" a voice said over the phone. Tiger Lily had roused me from a trance by handing it to me. I didn't sleep that much anymore.

"Hana?" I mumbled. "It has to be...way early where you are. Is anything wrong?"

"No, I'm fine. Rumor has it you were in a firefight," she countered.

"Ya...yes," I replied.

"I was told that one of your bodyguards died," she tentatively explored my mood.

"Yeah. Her name was Charlotte. I wasn't involved in the majority of the fighting. I let the Romanians carry most of the weight," I lied.

The whispers and looks my two constant 24th Mountain Troop guardians gave me told me one of them understood English and they knew I was lying. I mouthed 'fiancé' in Romanian as an explanation to them. More whispers.

"Buffy says you are lying," Hana accused me. That was bad - Buffy and being caught in a lie.

"What did she say?" I groaned.

"She says you were in the thick of the fighting," Hana stated.

"That's not really true. As I said, the Romanians took the brunt of the action. I sort of observed the fight as it developed and helped out where I could," I evaded.

"She says you are lying again," Hana snorted. Oh, Buffy hadn't just informed Hana what was going on, she was also present.

"May I talk to her, please," I requested. Rustling noises came across the airwaves.

"Buffy," I spoke first. "Don't tell Hana what I really do. She doesn't understand."

"No, you listen to me," Buffy fought back. "She needs to know the generalities of what you do. Lying to her will only ruin your marriage." Not what I expected. Buffy was almost endorsing my matrimony. Then there was a pause. "Cáel, Charlotte was SD (Security Detail - the Amazon Elite). They are all volunteers and they want to fight for the Host.

None of them want to die, yet if they perish, they want to do it in battle against our enemies. I imagine you are hurting right now. I want you to know that no one holds her death against you. Had you been attempting something truly stupid, everyone knows Rachel would have stopped you. We are Amazons and warfare is what we do.

In war, people die and from what I read of Rachel's report, Charlotte killed at least two people and died saving Vincent's life. It was the best death any member of the SD can ask for. Got that?" Buffy drove her point home.

"That doesn't help," I answered.

"I know it doesn't right now," Buffy softened. "In time, it will make more sense. That you mourn for her makes you all the more worthy of being an Amazon."

"I need to send in some sort of a report, don't I?" I sighed.

"Yes. You are our Chief Diplomat now, as well as Head of House Ishara and in contact with allied agencies," Buffy reminded me.

"Fine. You are right. St. Marie and Katrina need to look over what I've figure out to date. It is real important news." The current leader, St. Marie, the Golden Mare, and Katrina Love, my boss, head of Executive Services at Havenstone and their Spymaster.

Oh, I wasn't going to tell them the whole truth about me and Grandpa Alal. Unlike Pamela, my 'sisters' would kill me in a heartbeat to significantly reduce the threat to the Host that his/my existence presented.

"Yes you do," Buffy's voice soothed me. "And Cáel..."

"Yes?"

"40 days, Bitch," she teased me. Mother-fucker.

"Screw you," I snorted. She was trying to make me happy and succeeding. "I'm going to let Aya win," I taunted her.

"Aya is too young to compete," Buffy scoffed.

"She's small. I'll smuggle her inside the hunting grounds in my backpack," I chortled. "They'll never see it coming." Pause.

"Your secret is safe with me," Buffy became soothing once more. She'd relayed her emotional messages and could now let me off the hook. "Here is Hana."

"Cáel, are you going to keep lying to me?" my fiancé asked.

"Yes, but only when I think I can get away with it," I answered.

"Sigh," she vocalized. "Meet me in Rome?"

"Huh?"

"I'm going to be in Rome this evening on my way to the Khanate," she told me.

"Oh!" I grunted. "I almost forgot. I got you two bodyguards. Where do you want them to meet you?"

"Astana. That's my next stop," she replied. "Are they any good?"

"First time on the job. Normally they are hired assassins," I joked, "but they are very good at it."

"I feel safer already," she joked back with me. "Rome?"

"I'll see what I can do," was all I could really say at the moment.

"Ms. Chalmers will be with me," she slipped a test in on me.

"Libra?"

"Yes. She says she wants to get involved, so she's coming along as my back-up assistant Gunga Din in case things get dicey," she added on.

"Wow...that's something I didn't expect," I mused. "I would have gone with 'Kim', except that could get confusing. If I can make it to Rome, it will be to see you, Hana."

"Is there anything you want me to pass on to her?" Hana asked.

"Yes, tell her to wear that turquoise thong. She'll know the one," I got smarmy.

"You really are a reprehensible human being," she chuckled. "Does anyone tell you that?"

"A surprisingly large number of people - mostly women," I confessed. Pause.

"If I've done things that have made your life more difficult, I apologize," she said softly.

"You have," I said in dour tone. "We are working so well together, everyone thinks I've already got a life-partner. It is cramping my 'Playa' image."

"Oh...keep up that Playboy attitude and I'm going to make you behave. Desiree suggested a shock collar," Hana showed some faux-outrage. She was also getting to know my crowd...

"I don't think I have enough turtle-necks," I snorted.

"Your neck isn't what is going to be wrapped around," she retorted.

"You are not encouraging me to abandon my dangerous lifestyle, I'll have you know," I sighed in far better spirits than I'd started this conversation in.

"No need to worry about it. Buffy informs me you'd kill yourself in a libido-induced act of auto-erotic-electrocution," she yawned. "No collar for you, I guess."

"Thanks for the call, Hana...and Buffy," I said. "Get some sleep. I need to check up on my people. I'll call you when I know what my plans will look like."

"Good night, Cáel," she yawned again. That was that for now. We hung up.

"Virginia wanted you to know they are flying Vincent out to Ramstein Air Force base in Germany in two hours," Tiger Lily told me.

"Is he in any shape for me to see him before he goes?" I stood up.

"Sure," she nodded. She handed me my windbreaker. Even in summer, Transylvanian mornings could be chilly. As we exited the room my small group had used as a bivouac, the sounds of the Romanian military base surrounded us. Rachel and Wiesława were sleeping. From my last report, Mona was still working beside the Romanian hospital staff.

I had been told that NATO was also flying in supplies and medical personnel. I supposed that they were arriving by now. I'd also been told the less critically wounded had been moved to neighboring hospitals in this and other counties. The Jandarmeria Română (Romania's paramilitary police force) had taken over the hunt and the foot work of the investigation. The military units were returning to their barracks - there had been no declaration of Martial Law.

From the perspective of the various national and foreign intelligence services, me and mine had best get the Hell out of Dodge as well. They'd want me to come back in a few weeks, once the Romanians had sorted out the legalities of what had transpired at the ruins.

It was personally depressing to see I didn't need to worry about personal protection without my Amazons. Besides Tiger Lily, I had one each of the US Rangers, the British Paratroopers, the Romanian 24th and the Spetsnaz. It appeared that the 24th itself had adopted me and sent their own Special Forces home. The trip to the hospital was sad. We had to park way down the street due to the official traffic: the wounded going out, the dead headed to coroners and supplies coming in.

Our Romanian trooper quick-stepped it up to the woman in charge of Jandarmeria Română's outer cordon of guardians. She knew who I was. Still, she double-checked our ID's before letting us inside. I didn't have to ask the harried receptionist were Vincent was. He had inherited two of my Rangers as his personal security, so my guy knew the way.

Vincent looked like re-tenderized road-kill. Some of that had to do with the antiseptic they scrubbed him with when they operated. His right calf was in a cast - his tibia, fibula and heel had taken the brunt of a grenade's explosion. Even with his Romanian heavy vest, bullets had crushed his right collar bone and shoulder socket.

As a final indignity, he'd take a rifle butt to the left side of his head. That ear was swathed in bandages and he couldn't see out of his left eye. I prayed there was no permanent damage.

"Hey kid," he mumbled. "They told me we won." Multiple comebacks came to mind.

"We did. Two are still at large. We captured a few and killed the rest," I answered.

"Charlotte...she's dead, isn't she?" he rasped. They had removed his breathing tube a half hour earlier and still had an oxygen tube going up his nose.

"She's dead. We found her near you," I told him the truth.

"She saved my life," he murmured. "I was pretty sure I'd bought it when I emptied the shotgun."

I was going for my pistol when this son of a bitch appeared out of nowhere. I was prone. He unloaded on the Romanian about a meter away - emptied the last of the magazine. Before I could bring my gun up, he smashed me in the head. I reflexively shot him in the foot. He screamed. Someone blew his head off the...I saw Charlotte kneeling beside me for a few seconds, firing in three directions.

She...I thought...she was yanked back. It must have been the bullets hitting her," he ended in a whisper. "Does she have family I can talk with, when I get back?" He meant the States.

"I'll relay your request," I put my hand over his. "Are your daughters being contacted?"

"I'm sure Javiera will send some people around. Don't worry about me," his grin was more a grimace.

"How did everyone else do?" he cleared his throat.

"Mona is still doing her medic thing...going on half a day now," I began. "Selena, Rachel, Pamela and Chaz are fine. Saku got battered, but she insists she's walking-wounded. "Virginia..."

"She stopped by about a half an hour ago. I was pretty groggy," he then coughed. "The kid is upset that she wasn't around to save Charlotte and me. Don't let her beat herself up about that."

"No more beatings - got it," I tried some levity. He grinned/grimaced again. He had to be on some serious pain-killers. "Tiger Lily," I looked behind me, "is right there, watching over me."

"Riki, Odette, Wiesława and Delilah are fine. No one showed up with questions and guns - just guns," I snorted. "Politically, this is a shit-storm. I am afraid I shat on Riki's boss...because I was cranky by the time I got around to him."

"How are the Romanians handling it? If their losses elsewhere were like what we faced on the ridge..." he muttered.

"Worse. The blocking force had over a hundred casualties, Vincent," I told him.

"Hmmm...then you were right to call in the Army, Cáel," he struggled to squeeze my hand. "Police would have been wiped out. I've never seen so much firepower. I'm sorry our guys died, but the civil authorities would have died and lost."

"People keep telling me I've done the right thing...and I think I'm beginning to understand what they mean. I've got to accept that it could have been far worse," I nodded. "I've got to get past the faces of the dead and think about what comes next. This isn't over."

"Correct, Cáel," Vincent couldn't even nod in his current state. "Pick up the pieces, figure what their next move is - like you did here. We both know this goes far beyond any type of terrorist conspiracy our government has seen before. Javiera is on the ball. Your Ms. Love seems to have her mind in the game as well. The United States is better off working with you. I'm sure of that now," he ground out through the residual pain.

"It is not just Charlotte. Men like Colour Sgt. Tomorrow wouldn't follow just anyone into battle. So Cáel, don't waste your time knowing you are not the best man for this job," he grunted, stressing his point. "What matters is that you were the man on the spot when this began and you've got to see it through, no matter what."

"You don't fight the war with the army you want," I recited.

"You fight the war with the army you have," Vincent completed. "By the way, pass a message on to Pamela for me."

"Sure."

"Tell her she didn't have to go so easy on me. I would have understood," he dry chuckled.

"No problem," I smiled. "I'll tell her 'you knew' and she'll do all the translating on her own." Two medical technicians showed up, ready to move Vincent to the airport. They were in a hurry, had a backlog of critical tasks to accomplish and I was selfish to stick around. I gave Vincent's hand one more squeeze. The tech's closed in and my people withdrew.

No one who owned a piece of me was demanding that I be somewhere doing something I didn't want to do, so I migrated to several tents they'd set up in one of the parking lots. The emergency room was the center of the Romanian/NATO triage efforts. Three seriously wounded Jandarmeria were being brought in as I was walking around the outside of the hospitals main building.