Warshot (The Hunter Killer Series Book 6) Don Keith (red seas under red skies TXT) 📖

Nothing very enlightening about Dongsha, though. Mostly just reports of a lot of ordnance being expended over an insignificant little island since the initial fisticuffs between the submarines and destroyer.

“So where do we fit in? The US, the Navy, the SEALs?”

“Not so fast, my impetuous friend,” Li Min Zhou cautioned, but again with a smile. “Please, allow me to continue. As I warned you, this is a very complicated game populated with many significant players. You should be aware that I have many contacts, some of them at the highest levels in the Party. As you are aware, these politicians are a very corrupt group. Maybe even more so than your own political elite. Both groups tend to posture and preen in public, but in their greed for ultimate power, they are deadly and dangerous in private, their blind ambition making them rotten to the very core.”

The high-flying jet bounced a bit as it hit some minor turbulence. Jim Ward winced as it kicked off pain in his side. Li Min Zhou’s champagne flute skittered across the little table and crashed on the carpeted deck. She did not seem to notice either his wince or the spilt wine. And her face held no trace of a smile now.

“My sources tell me that two rather minor functionaries are in a snit with each other as they both try to clamber up the ladder of power within the military. One is named Soo Be Xian, someone you have likely never heard of. Few in the US have. I am certain, though, that your father knows plenty about him. Your godfather, Tom Donnegan, too. Soo is the Vice Deputy to the Minister of National Defense. That would be roughly equivalent to your Secretary of Defense, though with much less public profile since he was not subject to Senate approval as your president’s cabinet members are. He is strongly allied with the People’s Liberation Army and is working to raise his level of influence by fomenting some kind of border conflict. You received your little boo-boo in one of his attempts to start another Vietnamese border war. He may be lacking in mental acuity, but he is utterly ruthless. That and his determination to gain power make him very, very dangerous.”

Li Min Zhou shivered noticeably. Ward assumed it was in reaction to this Soo Be Xian’s threat to peace. Only in part. As she described the man’s position and goals, she was also remembering the man’s clumsy attack on her at a National Day party only a couple of years ago. Now, for the first time, she shared her story with someone else.

She told Jim of how the fat little politician had positively slobbered over her as he drunkenly tried to force his hand up her dress when he caught her alone in a coat closet. She had managed to subdue him, put him on his back on the floor, and in a way that, in his drunkenness, would leave him to believe he had slipped and fallen. She could easily have killed the bastard. But she had since managed to never be alone anywhere with the vice deputy, despite his many attempts to corner her.

“However, be assured that Soo Be Xian is not the real threat. At least not regarding this situation,” Li continued. “That honor belongs to the second functionary, Yon Ba Deng. He is the Assistant Vice Deputy to the Minister of National Defense for Naval Matters. Ostensibly, that makes him Soo Be Xian’s underling. But again, all is not as it appears when it comes to Party politics. Yon is roughly the Secretary of the Navy for China, but he also holds the same title within the Communist Party. Soo Be Xian does not have that advantage. Yon Ba Deng is every bit as ruthless, but he is far more intelligent and cunning. And that, my SEAL friend, makes him infinitely more dangerous.”

“I assume he has never attacked you in a coat closet,” Ward said.

“No. Though he has a wife and several mistresses, I know his primary appetite is for power. Infinite power. And now he believes he has a golden path to that very thing.”

She looked out the window at the darkening sky for a long few minutes. Jim Ward wondered if that was all she intended to share with him for now. He was about to prompt her to go on when she turned from the window, again looking directly at him with those dark, intense eyes.

“This is where the plot thickens, Jim. The fighting on Dongsha bears the stamp of Soo Be Xian. It was not well planned and clumsily initiated. It points a dagger directly at Yon Ba Deng. However, that is just too obvious to be believed. Yon Ba Deng would never use submarines that can easily be traced right back to him. So, I am convinced that the dagger is actually a boomerang, and it is ultimately aimed at Soo Be Xian.”

“So, Soo Be Xian is actually our target in this?” Ward asked, a questioning look on his face. The champagne, the pain meds, or the twists and turns she was taking him through were making Li’s story even more difficult to follow.

Li Min Zhou chuckled dryly and reached for the glass of wine. Only then did she realize it had slid off the table. She went on anyway.

“Again, my wounded American friend, remember that in Asia very few things are as they appear. It is often difficult to explain to westerners the ways of our world so that they might better understand. That has created difficulties between our cultures for centuries, you know. Politically and personally. But that is why you, of all people, might be of such great value to us.”

Jim Ward was not sure he heard the last statement correctly.

“Excuse me?”

“Your paper for the Naval Academy class in Chinese military history, senior year, Captain Caldwell’s class. ‘Politics and Military Promotions Within the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and Navy Submarine Force Since