The Long Night Box Set

by Kevin Partner

  They'd had no time to find and pack tents, though Janice had thrown Solly's gear into his backpack and brought it with her to the riverside in Williamsport where they'd made their desperate plan to chase Khaled down. So, for shelter, they had nothing more than an old tarpaulin they'd found in the back of the boat which they'd stretched between the thin trunks of four silver birch trees. Solly had rolled out a second, smaller tarpaulin that they now sat on, miserably gazing out at the dark river as dusk gave way to darkness.

  "This is stupid, isn't it?" Paulie said. "I mean, what chance do we have of catching up with him before he hands over the cylinder?"

  Solly nodded as he gripped his mug of coffee in both hands, welcome warmth spreading through his fingers. "Maybe, but, to be honest, I'd settle for getting my hands around that low-life's throat."

  "I know what you mean. After all, if we hunt him for long enough, we'll catch him. But will it be worth anything if we deal with Khaled after he's handed the cylinder over?"

  "Maybe not in the grand scheme, but it'll mean the world to me."

  Paulie leaned back against the trunk of a tree. "Me too."

  "Ah, come on guys," Bobby said, coming to sit alongside them. "Where's your positivity? We can catch this man. As soon as the sun comes up, we be gone. He not gonna be on the river at night and maybe he don't know we're after him, so he may have a little lie-in."

  "You were the one who said he might get away if we didn't carry on tonight," Paulie said.

  "Ah well, I'm a glass is half full kinda man. Like my friend Solly, here. A ray of sunshine."

  Solly grunted. "Funny, Bobby, very funny."

  Paulie took the wheel as they guided the boat out from under the bridge and headed into the deeper water. Bobby had woken them barely twenty minutes earlier when it was still dark and they'd fumbled around getting ready by flashlight, each taking turns to use the latrine hole Solly had dug the previous night. Honestly, of all the things he wouldn't have believed himself capable of, taking a dump in the woods was pretty high on the list, but there were no facilities on the little boat and he preferred squatting over a hole to hanging his butt out over the river.

  "Can you see well enough?" Solly called. To him, the world was still an almost uniform black with only the vaguest suggestion of shapes moving as the boat changed direction.

  "Just about," Paulie responded. She'd been elected as their first pilot of the day because she had the sharpest eyes, but Solly suspected she was steering largely using her peripheral vision as she kept moving her head exaggeratedly left and right rather than staring straight ahead.

  By luck or judgement, however, they hit nothing as they moved with the current and, soon enough, there was enough light for steering to become easy. Solly was trying to keep track of their progress as they went by spotting landmarks and working out which towns they were passing through or by. The rain of the previous day had seen the river swell a little and the current had picked up so the bank slid past them quickly. But they had no idea if they were gaining on their quarry; no idea, indeed, if he was even still ahead of them at all. Until Solly spotted something floating near the bank.

  "There!" he called to Bobby who was taking his turn at the wheel. Without a word, the boat swung around and headed for the bank.

  "What is it?" Paulie asked, squinting at the water.

  Solly didn't respond. Had he been mistaken? He'd thought he recognized something bobbing in the water. Yes, there it was. As Bobby brought the boat alongside, he reached down, fished it out and dropped it at his feet.

  He'd been correct. "This is the pack Alison was in," he said, his mood swinging from elation to dread. It proved that Khaled was still on the river, or had been recently, but how did it come to be there, and was Alison inside when it was thrown overboard?

  Bobby swung the boat away from the bank and toward the fast flowing center of the river.

  "Why would he throw the pack overboard?" Solly said to Paulie over the buzzing of the accelerating outboard motor. "It makes no sense."

  Paulie shrugged. "I don't know. Worst case scenario he was attacked and it was thrown overboard."

  "Who could attack someone on a river?"

  "Well, we're chasing him, why shouldn't someone else?"

  Solly settled back on the bench seat. "No, I don't buy it, but then I don't see why he would get rid of it, knowing that it might be seen by anyone following."

  "Unless he's completely lost his mind," Paulie said.

  Yes, that thought had occurred to Solly. Khaled had never struck Solly as the most stable of individuals, and if he threw the backpack overboard in a fit of madness, Alison was almost certainly inside. Her casing was probably waterproof, but they would have no chance of finding her on the riverbed so she'd be as good as gone.

  "Maybe he was just tryin' to lighten the load," Bobby called. "But I think the time for treading carefully has passed; time for Warp Factor Ten, Solly." Almost instantly, the noise from the outboard motor increased in intensity and it jumped forward.

  They saw no other clues that day and, when the light had almost completely gone, they pulled the boat into the bank at a place called Point of Rocks.

  Solly nudged Paulie who, after a brief snort, rolled over and sat up. "Bobby's gone!" he said.

  "What?" she said, suddenly alert as she twisted around before jumping to her feet.

  The boat was still there, but there was no sign of the Jamaican.

  "Where would he go?" Solly said. He ran up to a path behind where they'd slept and scanned left and right. A road bridge passed above him to cross the river here, but there was no movement anywhere that he could see.

  "Another mystery," Paulie said as he returned. "He's left his pack here. But come on, we need to get going. Give me five minutes to warm up some beans and dig a hole, then we can be off."

  They were in the boat and about to pull away when they heard Bobby's voice calling them. "Not so fast! I come bearing gifts."

  Solly could see him running down the path pushing a shopping cart. Inside it was a jerrican. Breathing a sigh of relief, Solly welcomed his friend back aboard.

  "Where have you been?"

  Bobby smiled. "I was going to wake you up, but you looked so peaceful. I was thinkin' that we could close the gap if we could keep the speed up, so I took the jerrycan and went lookin' for some gas. Found it too. And some folks."

  "There are people here? And they let you take fuel?" Paulie said, failing to hide the doubt in her voice.

  "Yes indeed, a nice Christian community. And I didn't take the gas, I traded for it."

  "What did you give them?"

  "My piece. I figured I had you two hot shots to take care of that side of tings. And besides, I got another in my pack."

  He heaved the jerrycan into the boat and then climbed on board. "And I got some more news, my friends. It just so happens that one of them folks I was talkin' to was fishing yesterday when he saw someone going by in a boat. Indian lookin' fella, he said, and he was talkin' to himself as he went by."

  "What time yesterday?"

  "About a hour before dark."

  "So, he's not that far ahead of us!" Solly said.

  Bobby smiled again, his gold tooth glinting as the sun rose. "And this fella said he will have to get off the river when it gets to the rapids, so we've gotta put our foot down, Solly old pal. We'll catch 'im yet!"

  Solly took Bobby's hand. "You're a hero."

  "And you thought I'd abandoned you."

  "Never again, my friend. Never again."

  Solly checked on the map and guessed that they'd reach the falls by mid afternoon at this rate. The pain of hope gripped him as he imagined catching Khaled, wresting the cylinder from him, and then seeing justice done.

  But they had no sight of him. The hours passed as they gazed out onto the river, straining for any sign of the boat they sought. As they went, the current picked up and then, quite suddenly, the river began to narrow.

  "There!" Paulie cried, pointin
g to the far bank.

  She was right. Khaled's boat had been drawn up to a concrete boat ramp. And a figure had jumped into the shallow water and was wading onto dry land.

  Bobby swung the boat around and headed for the shore. There was no point in trying to catch Khaled unawares as they could see nowhere else to land. No, it was now a flat out race. And Khaled was winning.

  He'd disappeared over the end of the ramp by the time they'd gotten close enough for Solly and Paulie to leap into the river while Bobby brought the boat to a stop.

  They ran up the slipway, weapons drawn, and then onto the level road at the top, looking for any sign of the direction Khaled had taken. There he was, scampering up a side lane. And then two figures in black uniforms jumped from behind a stone wall, assault rifles raised and pointing directly at Solly and Paulie. "Drop your weapons!"

  "Shoot them!" Khaled called. He'd turned to watch them. The two guards looked uncertainly at each other but didn't fire.

  "You nearly caught me, didn't you?" Khaled said. Then he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out Alison. Solly could see from here that she wasn't in her protective sheath.

  "You won't get away with this!" Solly said. It was a wretched cliché, but it was all he could think to say. He could just make out Alison's cyan eye as it roved around looking for the source of the voice.

  "Father?" she called.

  "I'm here."

  Khaled laughed hysterically. "Father? Are you insane? She's a machine!"

  There was a brief pause, then Alison screamed.

  Chapter 11

  They had their first close call outside the Holiday Inn Express in Yuma, Arizona. Su-Mi had donned her KPA uniform as soon as they'd entered this more urban area and they were on the hunt for a car with fuel. So far, they'd been lucky, covering the best part of three hundred miles without running into any trouble they couldn't handle. Mostly, they'd kept to desert roads and had gone entire days without seeing another living soul. If the North Koreans were massing for an invasion, Nathan and Su-Mi saw no sign of it.

  Their latest car, an ancient Toyota Land Cruiser, had finally given up the ghost as they were shadowing I-8 a few miles east of Yuma, so they'd decided to head into town to see if they could find another ride. Nathan figured their best bet was to check out the parking lots outside the short strip of hotels that ran alongside the interstate, and it was here that a sharp outburst of Korean brought them to a halt.

  They just had time to arrange themselves so that they could play their parts as two KPA soldiers ran out of the hotel, rifles in hand, and then stopped ten yards away, shouting at Su-Mi.

  Nathan thrust his hands in the air and watched as one of the two soldiers approached Su-Mi and, recognizing her rank insignia, saluted smartly. There was no mistaking the tone of doubt that lurked behind the surface respect as the man bobbed his head subserviently while glancing suspiciously at Nathan.

  After a few moments, the other guard joined them, standing close enough to listen to the discussion while keeping his gun pointed at Nathan, whose time with Su-Mi had not furnished him with enough Korean for him to keep track of what was being said.

  Su-Mi was putting on a good show. Nathan suspected she was as terrified as him, but she came across as a confident junior lieutenant addressing her inferiors and added just the right dash of disdain for their questions. But she was getting frustrated, he could see that. She flourished her KPA ID card but didn't hand it over since the officer it had been taken from, along with the uniform she wore, didn't look exactly like her.

  She gestured back at Nathan, no doubt relaying the cover story they'd agreed. He was a representative of the military government in Phoenix who was traveling to San Diego for negotiations with senior North Korean officials. Their transportation, according to the story, had been attacked by bandits and their escort had been killed, so Su-Mi had taken it upon herself to deliver the honored guest to his destination.

  Nathan could see the doubt in the faces of the two guards, and he was surprised that they didn't call their superiors out of the hotel. Unless they were here on their own. Good grief, were they so short-handed that they manned an important approach road with nothing more than a couple of privates with rifles?

  Then the mood suddenly changed. Their natural subservience was finally overcome by the abject terror of getting this decision wrong. One of the guards spun around to go back and, as his colleague turned to watch him, Su-Mi grabbed him and thrust her pistol into his back. Nathan had been ready. Though the first guard was now twenty yards away, Nathan was upon him by the time he turned to bring his rifle to bear. He grabbed the barrel and thrust it away, but the guard recovered faster than Nathan expected, bringing a knee up to connect with his ribs and knocking him sideways.

  Nathan grunted in pain as his hand slid on the concrete, but he rolled over instantly as the guard brought his gun around and tried to take aim. Nathan launched himself at the man and propelled him backwards, landing on top of him as the rifle landed with a hollow clatter. Before the man could move, he drew the knife from its ankle sheath and plunged it into the guard's chest before immediately getting up to avoid the fountain of blood.

  "Joesonghamnida," he said as the man writhed for a few moments, crying out in pain and fear before going still. "Sorry."

  Su-Mi and the other guard had watched, frozen, and there was no doubt about the horror on both their faces as Nathan picked up the rifle and walked back, red faced and panting.

  The remaining guard tensed, and his expression changed to one of terror as Nathan approached.

  "What do we do with him?" he said.

  "We don't kill him in cold blood," Su-Mi responded. "He's just doing his job."

  Nathan shrugged. "Agreed, though I wouldn't like to be in his boots if he reports this to his superiors."

  Su-Mi turned to the guard and asked him something in Korean. The man responded hesitantly.

  "He says they were due to be relieved in three days."

  "Okay then, we lock him up somewhere. But ask him one more question—does he have transport?"

  It was a Nissan Pathfinder in black with the logo of the PAK stuck on the side, but it had the desired effect, as Su-Mi and Nathan were able to pass unmolested through Yuma on I-8. The traffic increased as they approached the airport to the point where Nathan could almost imagine that the Long Night had never happened, except for the North Korean flags he saw on vehicles transporting soldiers and supplies in and out.

  Once past the airport, the traffic died down again but, over the hours, signs of life began to reassert themselves on the desert road. Trucks joined the interstate heading, it seemed, for San Diego. Most had no PAK logo, leading Nathan and Su-Mi to the reluctant conclusion that at least some locals were cooperating.

  "Can't blame them too much," Nathan said. "It's probably a case of work or die. I wonder if any form of government was set up here before the PAK came in? If not, it's easy to see why people would cooperate, if only to put food on the table."

  Su-Mi gave a quiet snort. "What happened to patriotism?"

  "Survival comes first, believe me," Nathan said.

  After another hour heading west, the traffic funneled into a single lane. "Checkpoint ahead," Su-Mi said, "Get your paperwork together and leave me to do the talking."

  "Funny," Nathan said, trying to keep his tone light.

  The checkpoint came into view as they crawled forward. The truck in front stopped and the driver got out of his cab at the direction of a PAK officer.

  Nathan watched as the officer examined the paperwork, becoming increasingly agitated as he checked his watch and pointed at something written on the form.

  "I guess the driver's running late," Nathan said as the driver pointed desperately at one of the wheels. "Maybe he had a blowout."

  Quite suddenly, the officer drew his fist back and felled the driver with a single blow. He gestured to two other soldiers who joined in giving the prone man a brutal beating.

  "Don't mov
e," Su-Mi hissed. "We can't help him."

  Nathan clenched his teeth as the beating went on. Eventually, the officer called a halt and the driver was hauled to his feet and he stood, swaying slightly, as he wiped the blood from his face. The soldiers manhandled him up into the cab and, seconds later, the truck pulled away and it was their turn.

  The officer's face appeared at the window, his initially suspicious expression changing to one of surprise as he spotted Su-Mi's rank insignia. He gave a curt salute and questioned her in Korean before addressing Nathan who sat in the passenger seat.

  "You are a representative of the decadent people of Phoenix, Arizona," he stated in excellent accented English.

  "I represent the government of Phoenix, yes," Nathan responded. He felt Su-Mi twitch beside him but had decided that he didn't want to appear weak or subservient to a man who was obviously a bully.

  "You have had quite an…ah…adventure. I am glad to see that Lieutenant Kyo was able to keep you safe on such an important diplomatic mission."

  "She has been invaluable," Nathan said, handing over his papers at a gesture from the officer.

  "Well, Mr. Wozniak," he said. Nathan had enjoyed the irony of the fact that he was using the ID of the man who'd betrayed him and unwittingly exposed the North Korean presence to the TLX. "We can't have any risk of any more…accidents. I have a truck going to New Pyongyang; you will go with it."

  Ice filled Nathan's guts as he saw the slight smile on the face of the officer. The man knew they were lying, at least by omission.

  "That's not necessary," Nathan said, trying to keep his voice steady. "I have complete confidence in the lieutenant."

  "Oh, so do I, Mr. Wozniak. Which is why she will accompany you. Once your account is corroborated, I am sure she will be in line for a decoration."

  Su-Mi began to protest in Korean, but she was cut short by the officer and the doors on both sides were torn open. Rough hands grabbed Nathan and pulled him out of the car. They took his weapons and marched him over to an olive colored military truck whose US Army logo had been scratched out. The back door was pulled open and he was forced up the steps until he was inside. Su-Mi followed, and their packs were tossed in after them before the doors were shut.