The Bear and the Dragon - Tom Clancy [491]
The technocrat caught the Defense Minister off guard with that question. He didn't know the answer. "I will have to consult with Second Artillery for that," he admitted.
"So, then, you will not prepare them for launch until we have a chance to consider the matter?" Qian asked.
"Why—of course not," Luo promised.
"And so the real problem is, how do we tell the people what has transpired in Siberia?"
"The people will believe what we tell them to believe!" Luo said yet again.
"Comrades," Qian said, struggling to keep his voice reasonable, "we cannot conceal the rising of the sun. Neither can we conceal the loss of our rail-transport system. Nor can we conceal the large-scale loss of life. Every soldier has parents, and when enough of them realize their son is lost, they will speak of it, and the word will get out. We must face facts here. It is better, I think, to tell the people that there is a major battle going on, and there has been loss of life. To proclaim that we are winning when we may not be is dangerous for all of us."
"You say the people will rise up?" Tong Jie asked.
"No, but I say there could be dissatisfaction and unrest, and it is in our collective interest to avoid that, is it not?" Qian asked the assembly.
"How will adverse information get out?" Luo asked.
"It frequently does," Qian told them. "We can prepare for it, and mitigate the effect of adverse information, or we can try to withstand it. The former offers mild embarrassment to us. The latter, if it fails, could be more serious."
"The TV will show what we wish them to show, and the people will see nothing else. Besides, General Peng and his army group are advancing even as we speak."
"What do they call it?"
"This one's Grace Kelly. The other two are Marilyn Monroe and—can't remember," General Moore said. "Anyway, they named 'em for movie stars."
"And how do they transmit?"
"The Dark Star uploads directly to a communications satellite, encrypted, of course, and we distribute it out of Fort Belvoir."
"So, we can send it out any way we want?"
"Yes, sir."
"Okay, Ed, the Chinese are telling their people what?"
"They started off by saying the Russians committed a border intrusion and they counterattacked. They're also saying that they're kicking Ivan's ass."
"Well, that's not true, and it'll be especially untrue when they reach the Russian stop-line. That Bondarenko guy's really played his cards beautifully. They're pretty strung out. We've chopped their supply line for fair, and they're heading into a real motherfucker of an ambush," the DCI told them. "How about it, General?"
"The Chinese just don't know what's ahead of them. You know, out at the NTC we keep teaching people that he who wins the reconnaissance battle wins the war. The Russians know what's happening. The Chinese do not. My God, this Dark Star has really exceeded our expectations."
"It's some shiny new toy, Mickey," Jackson agreed. "Like going to a Vegas casino when you're able to read the cards halfway through the deck. You just can't hardly lose this way."
The President leaned forward. "You know, one of the reasons we took it on the chin with Vietnam is how the people got to see the war every night on Huntley-Brinkley. How will it affect the Chinese if their people see the war the same way, but live this time?"
"The battle that's coming? It'll shake them up a lot," Ed Foley thought. "But how do we—oh, oh, yeah … Holy shit, Jack, are you serious?"
"Can we do it?" Ryan asked.
"Technically? It's child's play. My only beef is that it really lets people know one of our capabilities. This is sensitive stuff, I mean, right up there with the performance of our reconnaissance satellites. It's not the sort of thing you just let out."
"Why not? Hell, couldn't some university duplicate the optics?" the President asked. I
"Well, yeah, I guess. The imagery systems are good, but they're not all that new a development, except some of the thermal systems, but even so—"
"Ed, let's say we can shock them into stopping the war. How