Pryce nodded. “Thank you, Secretary Abrams. Admiral McWilliams?” She acknowledged the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Stanley McWilliams was white haired, a rail-thin runner, almost ascetic in his appearance. He pissed her off to no end on some days. But the man was a soldier who hated war. That meant a lot in her book.

“The Chinese may have lost most of their internal comms,” he said. “But they have enough. Their fleet has delivered ultimatums to our ships that we’re to quit the East China Sea and South China Sea or be fired upon. There’ve been provocations, boats coming inside the exclusion zones of our carriers. Most worryingly, NRO satellite imagery shows that their shore-based anti-ship missile systems have been armed. Those are a major threat to our fleet elements in the area. If they launch, we can’t guarantee we’ll stop all the warheads. We could lose carriers.”

“Our ships are in international waters,” Bernard Stevens, the Secretary of Defense, spoke up, looking around the National Security Council table. “We can’t give in to bullying. We have first strike capability against those missiles. We may have no choice but to take them out proactively.” His eyes ended on the President.

Stockton said nothing for a moment. Then, “Pryce, what’s your view?”

Well, at least he still asked her opinion.

“We have to put ourselves in the position of the Chinese,” she said. “They’re panicking. They have a domestic catastrophe on their hands. They see our ships in an aggressive posture, that heightens tensions further.” She paused. “Mr President, you said the Chinese President accused us of undermining their state censors. What if they really believe we’re behind their domestic unrest? They link the two, conclude that this is all part of a plan on our part to bring their government down.” She spread her hands. “What would we do in their shoes?”

“I agree with Dr Pryce,” Admiral McWilliams said. “Their home situation – the breakdown of their comms, everything else – has the Chinese on a hair trigger. A shooting war isn’t the goal. We’d be wise to take action to calm them down.”

Bernard Stevens shook his head. “No,” the Secretary of Defense said. “Our ships are only there because the Chinese assassinated a member of this government. Remember that? They started this provocation. All the rest – the accusations – are a smoke screen. They’re blowing smoke to get us to back off. And these are international waters. If we let the Chinese bully us out of there, what does that tell our allies and the world?”