CHAPTER FORTY ONE
12:15 a.m. Beijing Time (12:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time)
Central Military Commission
August 1st Building, Ministry of National Defense
Beijing, China
“The attack could come at any time.”
Xi Wengbo sat at the head of the large oval conference table in the meeting room of the Central Military Commission. Perhaps thirty people sat around the table with him, and another hundred fifty in seating that lined the outer rim of the room. Of the many people in attendance, it was understood that few were empowered to speak.
Xi was a slight man with prematurely thinning hair and glasses. His eye doctor had recently confided to him that his vision was failing—a defect that ran among males in his family, and for which nothing could be done. He was only thirty-six now, and he co
