Free Beyond all Limits by J. T. Brannan Page B

knew that the Japanese government had posted extra officers on the uninhabited islands, in case uninvited visitors should want to land there. But they had expected small recon vessels, not the entire Chinese Navy.
    It was tantamount to a declaration of war on Japan, and Abrams was all too aware that the United States was a defensive partner of that nation.
    She sighed, reaching for her coffee; saw her fingers trembling, and withdrew the hand.
    Could she risk thousands of US servicemen and women on a promise made to a foreign country over a string of uninhabited rocks? China hadn’t invaded the mainland itself; and it wasn’t even China, not really. It was just one lone madman who’d bullied and intimated enough other people to follow him that he was now in charge – temporarily at least.
    But then what message would non-action send to the world at large, both to America’s allies, and her enemies? She would be seen as a nation that welched on her commitments, it would cause her allies to mistrust her and her enemies to grow bolder.
    But was it worth going to war over?
    She realized that Toshikatsu had been talking all this time, and began to listen once more.
    ‘So what is your answer?’ the fearful voice demanded. ‘Are you behind us? Are you with us?’
    But now she had heard him, she still couldn’t answer; she just didn’t know what to say.
     
    Cole watched as President Abrams struggled to come to terms with what she was hearing. He knew what it was; Wu had decided to take the Senkakus early. It was a good strategy, to act while everyone was still reeling from the change in government, before other nations could regroup and start to plan their own counter-strategies.
    But Cole had an unshakeable faith in Ellen Abrams’ leadership, ever since he had first met her as a senator on a fact-finding tour of Iraq. She was straight-talking, conscientious and passionate, with a huge set of figurative brass balls. She’d given the green light for Force One, after all.
    ‘Yes,’ he heard his president say to Toshikatsu, ‘you have my word that we will do our best.’ With that, she put down the telephone and looked straight at Cole.
    ‘You asked me how long we have,’ she said. ‘Well, there’s your answer – Wu is already going into action. And that means that you have to, too.’

6
    General – now Paramount Leader of the People’s Republic of China – Wu De stood at the banks of computer monitors and electronic surveillance equipment, his huge smile almost hidden beneath his drooping mustache.
    It’s working, he thought happily. It’s really working.
    His glorious nation – the cradle of civilization, the bringer of culture to the barbarous outside world – had finally re-taken the Diaoyu Islands, land that should never have been taken away in the first place. A wrong had been corrected, and he was pleased with the results of his first actions.
    It wasn’t that re-taking the islands was a major military triumph; they were poorly protected, and resistance was near nonexistent. But his country had never before had the will to take back what was rightfully hers. China – or at least the cowards and soft-bellied worms of the Communist Party – had for too many years been content to be bullied by other nations, holding their hands out for scraps to be tossed their way, never free to assert their rightful dominance over their own domains.
    But that was about to change; in fact, it already was changing, under his own leadership. He watched the drone surveillance footage of the East China Sea on the monitors in front of him, deep in the bowels of the communist party’s ‘war room’ hidden beneath the traditional architecture of the government buildings of the Zhongnonhai, and was gratified by what he saw.
    Chinese ships patrolling the waters of the Diaoyu Islands, just as it should be. He already had companies – many of which he had a controlling stake in – ready and waiting to exploit the waters for