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Premier Liu sat at the conference table, the meeting with the Indians and the Americans was in another two hours.

"So, Admiral Zhou, what ships did we lose, how many of our sailors died, and why, most importantly why, were they off the coast of India?"

Admiral Zhou was tied to a chair, his face was swollen, his body was covered in bruises, he had been beaten nearly to death, but the best doctors in the People's Republic had restored him to consciousness. He stirred when he heard his name.

"Comrade Liu ..." he began, one of his guards slapped the back of his head.

"That nonsense is over, my dear Admiral Zhou. You and the old order are finished. The memory of that monster Mao and all of his minions is being erased, even as we speak. We are evacuating Tibet and returning that benighted land to its people. We are the Middle Kingdom, we have no need of conquests, we do not need to support the wealthy businessmen who suck the lifeblood from the people."

Zhou tried to sit up straight, as the guard went to hit him again, Liu shook her head. "There will be time for that later."

An aide in a naval uniform came into the conference room, carrying a rather thick folder. She took it and perused it for a few minutes, she noticed the look on Zhou's face as he saw the title of the folder, "Operation Dragon Lotus."

"So, we lost four ships out of the six you sent to interfere in the affairs of the Republic of India. Let me see here, ah yes, we lost the destroyer Xianyang, with 345 people aboard, only 295 of whom were crew. We also lost two frigates, the Huanggang and the Hebi, with 161 and 164 crewmen aboard. I see you sent two tankers with this little group, of which the Dong-You 635 was lost as well, her entire crew of 132 going down with her."

"Of course, many of the people lost were probably immolated in the first few moments of that Indian torpedo's warhead detonating. Fifteen kilotons, a small thing in terms of nuclear weapons, but enough to devastate a small convoy traveling in close order."

Zhou's shoulders sagged, his group had been betrayed, probably from within. It seemed that Liu knew more of this than had been reported to him.

"Premier Liu, how is it possible you know so much, that was all we sent ..."

Zhou grunted as the guard slapped his head again, harder this time so that Zhou saw stars spinning before his eyes.

"I suppose that you thought that the corvette Zhangjiakou and the other Fujian-class transport oil tanker Dong-You 638 might have escaped our notice and slipped into the Sri Lankan port of Colombo. But we have a man on the Zhangjiakou he reported in, to me, as soon as they made port. The future is here Zhou, not for you however, you are headed for the dustbin of history, as the Westerners say."

She nodded at the guard. Zhou was removed from the room and placed in a car which drove to the outskirts of Beijing. There was a garbage dump there, Zhou was dragged from the car, shot, and then left for the dogs and the rats.

Prime Minister Chetti looked tired and very bedraggled. President Nakagawa noticed immediately, as did his aide, Bill Aspinall. Neither man said a word though.

"Good morning, or should I say afternoon, Madam Prime Minister."

"Good morning to you, Mr. President. Please excuse the abrupt ending of our phone conversation yesterday. There was a terrorist attack on the Central Secretariat building which has been repelled. They managed to sever all of the communication lines there. We are calling from a nearby military base. Also, Premier Liu sends her regrets, she is still dealing with some internal turmoil and hopes to join the conference soon."

"I see," was all the President could offer.

"Excuse me, Madam Prime Minister, I'm Bill Aspinall, the President's Chief of Staff and ..."

"Ah, Mr. Aspinall, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. We have a rather thin file on you, but what is in it is impressive. What can I do for you?"

"I've sent a file to our ambassador there, we have some late breaking intel on those terrorists you mention. They are not who you think they are."

"Really? They are not Sikh separatists seeking to have their own country in Punjab?"

"No, Ma'am, we have information that they were Pakistanis."

Now it was the Prime Minister's turn to utter, "I see."

"Excuse us a moment, Mr. President." then the Zoom screen went blank.

"Again?" LCDR Josh Higgins, the President's naval liaison muttered.

Premier Liu's had the Zoom call up and ready, she could see that the Americans were online, but that the Indians were not. One of her aides moved to see if he could get the Indians on the line, she held up a hand to stop him. She waited.

Within minutes, the Indian Prime Minister came into the call.

"Ah, Premier Liu, my apologies for keeping you waiting, we had some information we needed to check on."

Liu smiled, she thought it odd that three Asians were sitting at this virtual conference, representing the three most powerful nations on the planet. She also thought that it was about time.

"Prime Minister Chetti, President Nakagawa, it is a pleasure to finally meet you both face-to-face, even if it is in a virtual sense."

The Indian Prime Minister smiled and nodded, Nakagawa kept his face under control, he nodded and said, "These are dangerous times, Madam Premier, we should meet and stay in constant touch over the next few days. As you both know, this was the first release of nuclear weapons since the last Russo-Ukrainian War, and ..."

"We all know the sad outcome of that, Mr. President." Premier Liu said. "Now about that, what information do you have, Prime Minister Chetti?"

"Very little at this time, the commander of the submarine, one Commander Ramdeep Singh Kharral, was a member of a separatist group. As were all of the senior officers aboard the Chakra."

"It all sounds so 'Hunt for Red October,' if you will pardon the suggestion, Prime Minister Chetti." Premier Liu had a slight smile on her face when she said that.

Prime Minister Chetti, listening to an aide, nodded, "I have not read this book, though my aide here has. Yes, it is rather like that, as I understand it. What's more, we believe that Kharral was working with a clique inside the Pakistani government. Cause trouble with China, while the central government here is dealing with that, the Pakistanis invade Kashmir. Then the Sikh separatists could perhaps peel Punjab away as well. It would leave my country very weakened."

"Apparently the Chinese ships your submarine destroyed were on a similar mission. My predecessors here in Beijing also had designs on Jammu and Kashmir. They sought to use Sri Lanka as a base to attack Indian shipping in the region. Again, with you distracted by Sri Lanka to the south and Punjab to the north, Chinese and Pakistani forces might indeed resort to an attempt on Jammu and Kashmir."

President Nakagawa spoke, "Premier Liu, I've just had a report that your government has extended an offer of autonomy, real autonomy, to Tibet, with a view towards Tibetan independence?"

Premier Liu's eyebrows went up in surprise, this new American President seemed very much on the ball. "Yes, Mr. President, I felt that China must concentrate on China, and not meddle in other people's affairs. So yes, Chinese forces are withdrawing from Tibet as we speak."

"That is good news, thank you for confiding in us, Madam Premier."

"Yes, thank you," the Indian Prime Minister did not look as pleased as the American President. She knew that those Chinese forces would probably redeploy to Xinjiang province, which bordered Jammu and Kashmir.

When the call ended, the participants were confident that further bloodshed, at least on the international stage, might be halted, for now.

For Premier Liu, she was nervous, there was still a clique within the military that was furious at giving up Tibet. The same clique had designs on Jammu and Kashmir as well. She had yet to get her own house in order. There were too many hotheads in her military for her to sleep well at night. She picked up her phone.

"Wang, execute Awakening Dragon." She listened for a moment.

"Correct, if the men surrender, they live. But the officers, well, I leave that to your discretion."

She realized that she had a lot of house cleaning to do before making any international commitments.

"Bill."

"Yes Sir?"

"Get the Pentagon on the line, I want to dial things back a bit from DEFCON 2, but I want our most deployable units ready to move at a moment's notice."

"Yes Sir?"

"Also, have we seen anything unusual across the Taiwan Straight in the last few days?"

"No Sir, since the Fujian went down, the Chinese have been very quiet. They've even pulled back their naval units in the South China Sea. Things are quiet around the Spratleys. It's making the Philippine government rather nervous. You know, 'things are quiet, yeah, too quiet.' I'd be nervous too."

Nakagawa thought for a minute, then asked Higgins, "Don't we have a carrier group scheduled to make a port call at Subic Bay?"

"Yes Sir, in two weeks."

"Get in touch with President Cayetano and get his thoughts on that group moving its visit up to, say, next week?"

LCDR Higgins thought for a moment, checked something on his phone, then answered, "The Reagan group can be there next week, if they haul ass."

"If the President of the Philippines agrees, make it happen."

President Nakagawa yawned, "I'm going to go put my head down for an hour or so, wake me if anything breaks."

Aspinall and Higgins answered at the same time, "Yes Sir."