Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

204 JEFF EDWARDS
people in the world who would attack the presidential jet if given the
chance, and the pilots might be forced to take evasive maneuvers with
little or no warning.
As long as the captain of the aircraft kept the “Fasten Seat Belts” light
turned off, anyone else on the plane was free to sit without buckling in.
This was a minor source of irritation to Frank, but as one of the pilots had
once pointed out, the president’s safety was a matter of immediate national
security. The lives of the president’s staff and the press corps, as valuable
as they were, could not be considered a national security issue.
Of course, the president could have ignored the safety guidelines.
Many presidents had. But there were too many people who spent their
lives trying to protect him—too many whose jobs and training would
require them to sacrifice their own lives in order to save his. He owed it to
them to do what he could to protect himself. And that meant, among other
things, fastening his seat belt even when he didn’t feel like it.
He gave the belt an extra tug. It was a nice seat belt, as seat belts went.
Like every one on the plane, the buckle was embossed with the
presidential seal.
Satisfied that he had done his tiny part to comply with the safety
protocols, the president looked up at the small group of people on the
opposite side of the briefing table.
National Security Advisor Gregory Brenthoven sat directly across from
him, flanked on the left by White House Chief of Staff Veronica Doyle,
and on the right by Undersecretary of State Lawrence Mitchell.
The president leaned forward and rested his arms on the briefing table.
“Let’s start with China.”
Brenthoven glanced at his notebook. “Both sides have stepped up their
military air presence over the Taiwan Strait, sir. About three o’clock this
morning local time, a pair of Taiwanese Mirage 2000s made simulated
attack passes on three Chinese J-10s. Nobody actually launched, and none
of the aircraft crossed the invisible line down the middle of the strait, but
they traded lock-ons with their fire control radars and generally crowded
the hell out of each other.”
“Playing chicken?”
“That’s all it is so far, Mr. President,” Brenthoven said. “But both
sides are flying about three times as many sorties as usual, and they all
appear to be carrying full wartime weapon load-outs. Having that much
military hardware flying around creates a lot of opportunities for mistakes.
This could turn into a shoot-out in about a split-second.”
The president looked at Undersecretary Mitchell. “Larry, your boss has
been back and forth between Taipei and Beijing about a dozen times