Interesting Developments ...

Source

The Type 92 armored personnel carrier sat in the middle of the road, flame and smoke were beginning to issue from the open hatches. The crew of the vehicle, those who had managed to escape, were lying dead in the road.

Outside of the building in which they had been captured, a small huddle of disheveled Chinese soldiers knelt on the ground, their hands behind their heads. Behind them were soldiers, from Premier Liu's force. They looked angry, the men kneeling in front of them looked extremely nervous. One of them, a very young looking man, was weeping, the tears streaming down his cheeks.

Premier Liu Guanyu was disgusted with herself, when they had come across the small roadblock she had thought to reason with those soldiers. There were only a few men visible, the main thing was the big Type 92 parked beside the road. It wasn't so much blocking the road as it was a threatening presence beside the road. She had dismounted from her vehicle and had walked towards the roadblock, her hands in the air, shouting her name. An officer had shot her when she was close enough.

She had dropped to her knees in the roadway, clutching her lower left side. She felt no pain at first, only shock that she had been shot. She had fallen over onto her side, assuming that her days were done. The roar of return fire from her own troops had been deafening.

The officer who had shot her had been torn to red ruin by a machine gun mounted on a truck. As the soldiers nearby stood in shock, an RPG¹ had destroyed the Type 92 APC. Any who resisted were shot down, there were men sleeping in the building, they had been rounded up and brought outside. All thought of resistance on their part had melted when one of Colonel Yan's men had shot a man climbing out of his bunk who had been reaching for his boots.

"Premier Liu!" She heard Colonel Kang's voice shouting for a medic.

The colonel reached her first, a medic shortly thereafter, as he went to examine her, she sat up. "I think I'm okay, it hurts but ..."

The medic gave her a dirty look and made her lay back down. His examination was brief, but thorough. "You will be alright, Madam Premier, the bullet went right through, touching nothing vital, but a few centimeters to the right and we would be burying you."

"Bandage me up, do what you must do, but get me on my feet."

Source

"And in further developments in the United States regarding the so-called Silver Dozen and the alleged murder of those individuals ..."

The lights went out suddenly, came back up, flickered briefly as the emergency generators tried to take up the load, then went off completely. The studio was lit only by battery-powered emergency lanterns.

"What, what happened, did any of that go out ..."

The news anchor seemed shocked that his measured, calm tones reporting the news would be interrupted by something as mundane as a power failure.

"Don't we have generators or something?" He asked the shadowy figures moving around who were obviously trying to rectify the situation.

The director spoke up, "We're working on things, Carl. Just stay calm, we should be back up shortly." Though in truth, the director was a little worried. Reports had come in earlier of a large crowd forming not two blocks from the station. He had people out there trying to determine what was going on. Something didn't feel right.

His cellphone chirped, "Yeah, what do you have?"

He listened, his face paled, then he spoke, "Get out of there, fast as you ..."

He heard shattering glass, he heard his man saying, "Hey you can't do that buddy, that equipment is ..." then the connection had been lost. When he tried to call back, it went straight to voicemail. What the hell was going on?

"Are we hearing anything from inside China?" The President asked, with a great deal of concern.

"Not really Sir, things in Beijing have gotten quiet again. There are still tanks in the streets but they're not shooting at anything, we had a report from the Russian ambassador to China that the people were fraternizing with the soldiers. The Russians believe that a local army commander tried to overthrow the new regime but that his own soldiers balked."

"How far can we trust the Russians on this?" Air Force General Macready asked the question which was on everyone's mind.

"Well, there's not much we can do either way. If the Russians are telling us the truth and they know something, then what? This is a Chinese problem, I see no need for U.S. involvement."

President Nakagawa turned to look at the speaker, Marine General Amos Wurther. "Good point General, your recommendation?"

President Nakagawa had appointed Wurther to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs after firing the Army general who had held the position briefly.

"We back off, we observe, we let the Chinese know that this is their problem to solve, we stay neutral." Wurther offered.

"I agree, what about India?"

The President held up his hand before anyone could answer, "Where is Admiral Whalen? Josh, any idea?"

LCDR Higgins shook his head, "Let me check with the duty desk."

Nakagawa nodded, then posed the question about India once more. As that discussion proceeded, LCDR Higgins was calling the Navy duty section.

"What do you mean he left? Do you know where?"

The petty officer on the other end of the line said, "He went to the Marine Barracks at 8th and I, said we needed more firepower around the President."

Higgins hung up then stared out the nearest window which looked out over the Pentagon courtyard and muttered, "Jesus, what now?"

The door to the studio slammed open just as the power came back on. Armed men wearing odd bits of uniform came into the studio.

"Hey, you can't just ..." one of the staffers protested. He stopped talking when he found himself staring down the barrel of a rifle.

One man strode to the center of the room and stopped, looking around he asked, in a calm voice, "Who's in charge here?"

The news director, Anthony Merrick, stood up, "I am, what do you want?"

"Not a thing, but we have some news for you, news you might find interesting after the garbage you've been spewing the last few days."

Merrick asked, "What could you possibly have that we ..."

"How about a videotape of Senator Franklin Hawthorne describing his plan to take over the government and restore what he liked to call 'The Power of Congress.' Would that interest you?"

Merrick didn't have to think twice, "We'll need to authenticate that but yeah, we'd be interested."

"Good, it's real eye opener."

"What's your name, what role ..."

"My name is unimportant, I have no role other than concerned citizen."

"I see, well then, let's look at your tape."

¹ Rocket Propelled Grenade