May Day (The Erelong Trilogy Book II)

An Understanding

Murton closed the door of the meeting room.

Cameron was puzzled. Why wasn't he talking to Storm? He guessed Murton was about to cross-check their stories.

"Tell me why you lost your rank of captain?"

Cameron blinked in surprise. How the hell did he come by that information?

"You mean your sources didn't tell you?" Cameron asked. There was an edge in his voice.

Murton shook his head.

"I was on deployment in the Philippines," Cameron said. He scowled as he remembered that miserable jungle.

"Being busted down to Corporal was pretty severe. What did you do to deserve that?"

"I was given orders I refused to follow."

Murton waited for Cameron to continue. When the corporal didn't, he leaned closer. "I want to know the kind of man I am dealing with," he said.

Cameron folded his arms across his chest. "So do I."

"You need to be a little more forthcoming," Murton persisted.

"Let's just say, as a soldier and an officer, the safety of each member of my unit comes first. Next, is the safety of non-combatants. I can't tell you more."

"You are a principled man," Murton said with a tone of approval. "I mean before you are a soldier."

"I don't see it that way," Cameron replied.

"That's the way I see it," Murton said. "I am hoping while you were Captain you were given a reasonably high level of security clearance. Enough to help us—"

"I'm not giving away secrets I've sworn to keep," Cameron said, cutting Murton off. "Since you already have your sources, so why do you need me?"

Murton held up his hands. "Look, you know the news we get is extremely limited. I want to know what is going on overseas. Just a brief summary. Since we lost the internet earlier this year, we've had virtually no communication with our colleagues abroad. Now we need to gather what information we can on our own."

"You mean about the war?" Cameron asked.

"The war—and anything we consider important information," Murton said. "Anything that's being kept from the working class. I'm editor of our branch newspaper. It's my responsibility to inform the readers, and for that, I need facts I can trust."

Cameron shrugged. "I'll tell you what I know. What I can tell you."

"Good enough," Murton said. "Let's start with what happened on the Korean peninsula and go from there."

Cameron took a breath.

"Well, the US threatened North Korea with nuclear war if they didn't give up their nuclear program," Cameron began.

Murton waved his hand in the air. "That happened ages ago."

"After the threats, there were some pretty severe sanctions..."

Murton sighed. "We already know all the peace talks were reneged on."

"Pyongyang went ballistic in response to the last big war games. They struck several of the allied vessels with missiles launched from subs. The US responded with a missile attack that took out most of the North Korean naval installations.

"From there, things went predictably FUBAR. The regime targeted Seoul and Tokyo with a nuclear missile. Neither warhead exploded, but the radioactive contaminants rendered Seoul uninhabitable. Then, the North Koreans invaded the South. Chinese forces crossed the border into North Korea. Beijing claimed it was self-protection. China was faced with a huge inflow of refugees across the Tumen River."