Invasion: China (Invasion America) (Volume 5) (38 page)

Like her, he watched the masses dig
ging trenches, a giant moat before Harbin. She halted. Tao stopped, and the enforcers clattered, their armor rattling as they, too, came to attention.

Under the shade of the bill of her hat, Shun Li observed the plain. Dirt flew everywhere from one hundred thousand shovels or more. The people of Harbin took turns digging tank
traps. The Americans came. Elsewhere in China and Mongolia, the Russians and German machines rolled over bloody Sino corpses. The people toiled here as soldiers and militiamen marched along the roads, advancing to meet the hated invaders.

Chairman
Hong and his generals kept the majority of the tanks back. They expended half-trained troops against the enemy, paving the route with flesh and blood. Meanwhile, East Lightning generals trained young men and women to fight a guerrilla war behind enemy lines. Among her various tasks, Shun Li goaded those generals to action.

Today, she had another task. First, however, she observed the people. According to the latest report, the Americans would be
before Harbin in six days, possibly five. Everything had to be ready by then. Before that, others were to wear the Americans down, slowing their rate of advance.

“Shun Li,” Tao said.

She glanced at the tiny man. He indicated a heavyset woman, a Militia major overseeing one section of tank traps.

“Yes?” Shun Li asked the keen-eyed man.

“I haven’t seen her work,” Tao said. “She just gives orders from the edge of the trench.”

“Ah,” Shun Li. “Good. Thank you.” She regarded her enforcers. Then she motioned them to follow her. They perked up like hungry beasts.

Shun Li sighed as she approached the major and the woman’s people. The Americans particularly frightened the masses. People had been listening to stories about the Americans for three years now. They were savages, barbarians, and had fought without mercy in North America. Now, the barbarians were in China to enact revenge.

Are we universally guilty
as a people for the nuclear weapons exploded in Oklahoma? Is that why everyone fears the Americans? The North Americans have a right to be angry with us
.

It didn’t matter
, though, these American rights. Shun Li had a task to perform. She must goad the people to hard work. Otherwise, the Americans and Russians would win the race to the city.

“What is your name, Major?” Shun Li asked in her coldest voice.

The Militia major turned around. The woman wore a bronze Red Star on her throat for bravery. As the major’s gaze took in Shun Li and the enforcers, the major’s lips quivered with fear.

“You know the orders,” Shun Li said. “
Everyone
digs, including the officers.”

“My b-back,” the major stammered. “It doesn’t allow me to—”

“There are no excuses,” Shun Li said. “Thus spoke Chairman Hong.”

Three of the enforcers stepped up, with their carbines aimed at the major.

Work stopped nearby and in moments, from farther out. Diggers peered out of their giant trenches, watching the tableau.

“Please, Guardian Inspector,” the major pleaded. “I would work
but—”

Shun Li raised her
right hand with its black pigskin glove.

The major fell
into agonized silence.

Once, Shun Li realized, she had delighted in such power. There had been a time when she loved to make people wilt in terror. That had been before she realized there was a price to pay for murder. Karma was an ancient principle. The Americans had a saying for it:
What goes around comes around
. She’d fled North America in order to flee her fate. She didn’t want to die like a dog, shot in the back of the head. She’d come to believe that human dignity meant something.

Whe
n did I ever come to believe in such nonsense?
What was man but for a collection of random atoms that happened to produce life? She was no different from a rock or a cow. No one cared if she smashed a rock or butchered a cow for steaks. Why did it matter then if she had this major slaughtered? The major’s death would compel harder work from those witnessing the brutality.

Shun Li
parted her lips to give the order. She had to kill the major. East Lightning operatives no doubt watched her and reported to Hong, or to one of Hong’s watchdogs. If she failed in such a basic task, it was unlikely the Chairman would recall her to her post of Police Minister. Without a powerful position to protect her…

The major’s dark eyes pleaded silently for life. Suddenly, Shun Li was disgusted with her
job. Why must she butcher people for Hong? Why couldn’t he do his own dirty work?

No, you’re doing
this to stay alive. Order her killed, and you will live
.

Shun Li wanted to mouth the words. As she tried, a terrible realization came upon her. This was her last chance. If she ordered the major’s death, she was doomed. The voice inside her sounded like her conscience, yet she knew it was something more.

Am I having a supernatural experience?
It might be possible, and that was even more frightening. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth—it was among the most ancient law of humanity.

“Please,” the major whispered.

Fear boiled up in Shun Li’s heart. She didn’t know the correct path. Closing her eyes, she tried to reason this through. Her mind wouldn’t respond, though. Maybe this was a heart thing, not a thinking thing.

“Dig,” Shun Li
told the major.

The woman’s
eyes flew open, and her mouth became slack. She couldn’t believe what Shun Li had just said.

One of the three enforcers looked back at her. His dark visor seemed like a camera linked to the Chairman’s study. Hong watched
her, and she knew he disapproved.

“Do we kill her?” the enforcer asked.

“No,” Shun Li said. “The major has just learned a valuable lesson. Everyone here has. Chairman Hong demands obedience. Yet there are times he knows when to grant mercy. But that mercy must be used for China’s glory.”

“Long live Chairman Hong!” the major shouted.

The major’s workers lifted their shovels, and they shouted in unison, “Long live Chairman Hong!”

“
The workers respect the major,” Tao whispered quietly.

In shock,
Shun Li stared at Tao. The little man was right.

“
You are very cunning,” Tao whispered. “I would not have thought of it—mercy as a manipulative tool. Now, I realize why the Chairman chose you as his Chief Guardian Inspector.”

Nodding, Shun Li realized
something she’d known before, but this magnified the truth in her eyes. People saw what they expected to see. Tao saw cunning in her mercy, because he never felt merciful. Perhaps the action
had
been cunning, but for her, it felt as if she might just survive this terrible war after all.

SONGHUA RIVER, HEILONGJIANG PROVINCE

Sometimes Stan wondered if he was real general material. He believed too strongly in the old adage:
Don’t ask your men to do anything you’re not willing to do yourself
.

A
modern general should be in the back so he could think serenely in peace, protected by his men. He shouldn’t be riding in the lead tank. Yet how could he order any Lee or IFV into the water if he didn’t try it first?

“Let’s do this,” Stan muttered to his driver over the link.

Stan stood in the Lee’s turret hatch, with the roaring sounds of light tanks behind him. The stars blazed overhead. It was a moonless night with a stiff wind. Too much of Manchuria had proved to develop a smoggy haze like Los Angeles. The Chinese still used thousands of tons of coal a day, letting the fumes flow into the atmosphere day and night. This evening, though, the sky seemed as clear as a Rocky Mountain evening.

The Songhua River was dark and eerie, shimmering with starlight in places, but swift and treacherous in others. Trees grew along the banks. In the near distance,
mountains towered.

Stan’s tank clanked toward the dark liquid. “Be ready to shut down the engine,” he said.

“Roger, sir,” the driver said over Stan’s headphones.

“I hope this works,” Stan muttered to himself.

“Me, too, sir,” the driver said.

“You weren’t supposed to hear that.”

“You mean you’re human after all, sir? You can worry about…about crazy stunts like this? Meaning no disrespect, sir.”

“I’m just a man
like you,” Stan said.

“No, sir, you’re the Professor, and you’re going to out
wit the entire Chinese Army. Who would have ever thought of doing this? The men are counting on you, sir.”

This time, Stan kept his comments
inside. With a final lurch, the Lee reached the sandy shore. The tracks churned, and then the glacis reached the water.

Stan clung to the
hatch’s sides. He recalled as a kid back in Alaska, his old man used to cross an underwater bridge during the spring melt. As a kid in the back of the jeep, Stan had been horrified. His dad had driven into the white-capped waters. Little Stan had bitten his lips so he wouldn’t shout with fear. Everywhere young Stan looked, water churned around the vehicle. Only after the jeep climbed the other bank had Stan begun breathing again. This was just like that, only worse. There was no bridge. They planned to float.

“Here we go,” Stan whispered.

The twenty-ton Lee with its Hellfire II barrel entered the river. The driver plowed on, and water slashed against the glacis, throwing up droplets to hit Stan in the cheeks.

He shut his eyes, but only for a moment. The engine went silen
t, and he felt the vibration as the electric drive took over. They turned the tracks in slow motion. It gave them a little motive power. Then Stan felt it. The light tank floated in the river. The water was less than three feet from his hatch. That was far too close. If the water became too choppy…

Stan twisted around. He watched the next tank enter the water. Even though starlight gave him some visibility, he slipped his night vision goggles over his eyes. As
his Lee crept upstream against the current, Stan witnessed tank after tank taking the plunge, following him.

The fifteenth
Lee sank, though. Stan watched in horror. The tank commander floated out of the hatch. Then masses of bubbles rose from the tank as river water gushed in. Why had the vehicle sunk?

“Get
the other crewmembers out of there!” Stan shouted. They did, but they lost the Lee for now. Hopefully, Army engineers could drag the vehicle out later. For this mission, it was as good as destroyed.

Soon, n
early eighty American light tanks and IFVs with their accompanying soldiers floated upstream along the Songhua. Stan had stained his face black. He’d ordered every tank commander to do likewise. They stood in their hatches just as he did in his. Now they floated past the enemy, hoping no one spotted them. It was an awful feeling to trust to stealth and do the unthinkable. One person spotting them could ruin the entire plan and ensure their destruction.

As Stan watched from the turret hatch, he recalled James Wolfe in 1759 at Quebec
City. The British and French fought for control of Canada back then. Wolfe had entered the Saint Lawrence River, floating upstream just as he did against the Chinese. Well, Wolfe had traveled in oceanic ships of the line, wooden sailing vessels. With 9,000 troops in his fleet, Wolfe spent two months before Quebec, looking for a way to land unopposed in order to defeat French General Montcalm. The enemy had 14,000 soldiers and some Indians to defend the almost impregnable fortress, standing high above the river. The British Admiral Saunders feared that his wooden ships might be caught in winter ice. As the weather turned cold, he finally threatened to leave. Wolfe had been distraught. He yearned for victory. Then some scouts found a footpath winding up steep cliffs just north of the city. On a night expedition, Wolfe sent one battalion of provincial rangers up the footpath, followed by four regular battalions. That had been 12 September 1759. By dawn, Wolfe’s 4800 soldiers were in battle line in front of Quebec City, on a piece of ground called the Plain of Abraham.

General Montcalm attacked
the British at once with 4500 soldiers, although he lacked cannons. The governor of Quebec refused to remove them from the seawalls. Both Wolfe and Montcalm died in the battle on the Plain of Abraham, but the British victory broke the back of French Canadian resistance. Quebec City surrendered on September 18.

Stan wondered if he could pull a Plains of Abraham victory here in Heilongjiang Province, Manchuria.
If he won, would he have to pay for it with his life? He hoped not. Shifting into a more comfortable position in the turret hatch, he continued to watch the river and its banks through his night-vision goggles.

G1011
EXPRESSWAY, HEILONGJIANG PROVINCE

In the dark, Jake Higgins prowled a cold battlefield. The fight had taken place several hours ago at dusk. Chinese IFVs and machine-gun armed jeeps had tried to ambush a fuel truck convoy.