reins of the Police Ministry. We will remain with you for a few days, until you feel yourself sufficiently in control.”
She stepped close to him so only he could hear. “Do you love me, Tang?”
The big man hesitated. “I serve China, Shun Li. I cannot love anything else. But I have enjoyed our times together.”
“I see.” And she thought she did. The barracuda had survived the killer whale and great white shark. Now it was time to become something more than a barracuda or she would end up like Xiao Yang.
She went to the former Police Minister’s desk, deciding her first order of business was to search for secret documents. She wanted to find everything Xiao had pertaining to the Denver Behemoth Manufacturing Plant.
-14-
Phase II, Continued
From Military History: Past to Present, by Vance Holbrook:
Invasion of Midwestern America, Phase II, 2039-2040
2039, December 2-10. Breakthrough. The Americans and Canadians achieved operational surprise against the Aggressor forces along the Platte River in Nebraska. In a bold tank assault, Army Group Washington burst between PAA Third Front and SAF First Front and drove to Colorado Springs. The Americans encircled the bulk of Third Front and fought off the initial Chinese and Brazilian counterattacks.
2039-2040, December 10-January 3. The Pocket Tightens. In the bitter winter weather, the Americans and Canadians continued to repulse every Chinese and Brazilian effort to break through to the trapped troops of Third Front. Giant air battles occurred as the Chinese attempted a vast airlift of supplies. American tac-lasers and growing SAM belts soon made the air operation too costly to continue.
To the east, Fourth Front pulled back in a fighting withdrawal. The Americans attacked out of St. Louis but were unsuccessful in trapping Fourth Front as they had done to Third Front.
2040, January 3-February 22. Marshal Gang takes over. After a swift political rearrangement, Hong relinquished direct military oversight of the North American Invasion. The Ruling Committee entrusted the position to Marshal Gang, formerly of First Front. Gang became the Commander-in-Chief of North America.
The last efforts to relieve the shrinking pocket holding Third Front failed. Using the Allied preoccupation with Third Front, Marshal Gang instituted the Great Pull Back.
In carefully arranged moves, which became the trademark of Gang’s oversight, the Aggressors successfully withdrew to the New Mexico-Oklahoma-Arkansas Line. There, Gang began to rebuild the weakened forces, pumping reinforcements into the tired divisions.
Renewed anti-guerrilla and partisan hunting campaigns proved the Aggressor intention of continuing the invasion assault come summer.
COMMENT. Chancellor Kleist’s offer and acceptance of GD neutrality allowed the Americans to make one of the greatest comebacks in history. Excessive Chinese aggressiveness and by exhausting their formations in the winter cold proved costly for both the Pan-Asian Alliance and to a lesser degree for the South American Federation. When the starving Third Front surrendered on March 15, over one million Pan-Asian Alliance soldiers marched into captivity. Hundreds of thousands had already died in the bitter winter battles. Perhaps no other coalition could have endured such staggering losses and continued to believe in ultimate victory. It was a testimony to Chinese tenacity and the lure of the productive American heartland in a world increasingly on the brink of worldwide Ice Age starvation.
MONTREAL, QUEBEC
John Red Cloud sat on a bench in a cold winter park in Montreal. The slates of the bench pressed against his back, as did a nub or rounded bolt of iron. The city was no longer Montreal, Canada, but Montreal of the nation of Quebec, a full member of the German Dominion.
An arctic wind blew through the park, whipping up icy particles and causing empty playground swings to ease back and forth. John didn’t shiver. He wore a thick parka with the fur-lined hood up and a thick pair of mittens. Still, when the gusts howled loudest, it felt as if someone shoved him in the back.
He thought about the news this morning. The last Chinese soldier in the embattled pocket around Cheyenne had surrendered to the Americans. That was historic. The Americans had obviously seized the opportunity given them. The Rocky Mountain victory should have brought an end to the war. That it hadn’t yet meant something important.
John sighed. He had a feeling he knew what that significance meant. He had not only read about Cheyenne on the blogs, but about the new Rationing Law that the Germans had so kindly inflicted upon the Quebecers. It was the second intrusive law the foreigners from across the Atlantic Ocean had forced on the new nation.