by Bob Mayer
But now, Pak realized, he had to brief Kim. They were committed, and there was definitely no turning back. And, for the first time, he felt they had a chance to succeed.
“We are on our way to a rendezvous with a ship—the Am Nok Gang—that will pick us up off the coast. We will determine the exact location of pickup when we reach the shore and can establish radio contact with the vessel. The frequency to make contact is 62.32. Our call sign is Tiger; theirs is Wolf.
“We will load aboard the ship and immediately head for our target. It will take us an estimated four more days of sailing to reach the target.”
“Which is?” Kim pressed. He knew of the Am Nok Gang. It was one of two dozen merchant ships the North Koreans used for infiltration purposes while maintaining a facade of legitimate maritime operations.
“Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.”
Kim blinked. “The Seventh Fleet!”
Pak gave a weary smile. “We are not to destroy the target, at least not at first. The plan is that the mere threat will allow our government to blackmail the U. S. government to do, or perhaps I should say not do, two things. One is not to deploy their reinforcing units to South Korea in the face of higher levels of readiness. The second is not to use nuclear weapons once the border has been breached.”
Kim thought about it. “Do you believe that the United States would accede to such blackmail?”
Pak shrugged. “The United States stood still when a handful of their citizens were taken hostage. The threat of tens of thousands of people killed in a nuclear explosion might make them change their mind and question the worth of their allegiance to the South. They blinked when they suspected we had nuclear weapons. Even if it doesn’t cause them to do as we wish, destroying their facilities at Pearl Harbor—now that Subic Bay is closed—will greatly reduce their ability to project forces into the Pacific.”
“But how are we supposed to smuggle this bomb into Hawaii? How are we supposed to hide, especially once the threat is made?”
“According to the operations plan, that is up to our initiative. As you know, the Am Nok Gang has high-speed infiltration craft in its hold. If we can get close enough to the Hawaiian Islands, we can make it.
“We do have an advantage: the Americans do not know we have the bomb. They will think the explosion at the base was an accident and that both the bombs were destroyed and the news people killed. They will not be looking for us until we are already in position.”
“Then how will they believe we have the one bomb?”
“Once we are in position, our government will give them the PAL code that arms the bomb, along with its serial number. They will believe that.”
Kim leaned back on the rocking bench and regarded his commander. “We are going to invade the South?”
Pak nodded. “I would assume they are already mobilizing to do so.
“Do they really think we can succeed?”
“We have so far,” Pak answered evenly.
Kim shook his head. “But it is a long way from here to Hawaii. And then—”
“I know,” Pak cut off his XO. “I know all that. But it is too late to question anything. We must do as ordered.”
ETERNITY BASE, ANTARCTICA
“What about radiation?” Conner asked. The crater that had been Eternity Base lay two hundred feet away. The edges of the crater were jagged, and Conner had no desire to get any closer.
Riley was tightening the straps on his rucksack. “We escaped the initial radiation because of the shielding of the reactor room. Residual is already up in the atmosphere and will follow the winds. We’re all right.” Finished with his pack, Riley checked the others, making sure they were ready to go.
Go where was the key question, Conner realized. She’d been so happy to make it out of that dark hole that she’d thought of little else. Now, with the wind lashing her face and the cold seeping into her bones, she wondered what the plan was.
Riley handed her a small backpack. “Let’s see if the plane might have escaped the blast.” He pointed at the white fog on the other side of the crater. “We’ll walk around.”
“But none of us can fly,” Devlin protested.
“I’m not thinking of flying,” Riley replied. “I want to see if the radio is still intact. It’s most likely the EMP has destroyed its circuits, but it’s worth taking a look.” He glanced at the three of them. “Are you ready?”
With two nods of agreement and a blank look from Devlin, they set out. It took fifteen minutes to circumnavigate the crater with a good two hundred yards of safety margin. Conner was surprised at how easy it was to walk on the ice. A thin layer of snow covered the ice cap, and she felt as though she was just sliding along, the brittle snow barely covering the toes of her boots. The problem was the wind and the snow that blew with it. She had to keep her head bowed and the hood of the parka pulled in close. She was walking like that when she bumped into Riley’s back.
“Shit,” he was saying. “They blew the goddamn plane. Either that or the bomb blast did this. Either way it doesn’t matter.”
Conner lifted the edge of her hood. There was little to indicate that a plane had been here. Scattered pieces of metal littered the ice.
“Where now?” she asked.
Riley didn’t say a word; it was Devlin who answered. ‘The nearest base is Russkaya, about seventy miles to the northeast.”
“Let’s get going, then,” Conner said.
“No.” At first Conner didn’t believe her ears. But Riley repeated himself, turning to face the three of them. “No. We go after them.”
“After who?” Devlin asked, but Conner already knew the answer.
“The Koreans.”
“But how?” Conner asked. “We don’t know which way they’ve gone.”
Riley considered that for a few seconds. Conner wondered what thoughts were running through his head. His advice and actions so far were the reason they were still alive. Whatever he was going to say, they owed it to him to listen.
“They’re heading for the coast,” Riley finally answered.
“How do you know that?” Conner asked.
“Because it’s their only option. They couldn’t have landed a plane in that storm.” He pointed at the ground. “And that’s the direction their tracks go.”
Conner turned and saw the tread marks leading off to the north.
“But they’re probably very far ahead of us,” Devlin protested. “And they’ve got a vehicle.”
Riley agreed. “They must have taken one or two of the over-snow vehicles from the storage shed. They’re certainly not pulling that bomb with manpower. They have a big head start and are moving much faster than we can on foot. Nevertheless, we need to go after them.”
“What do you mean ‘need’?” Devlin asked.
Conner found it interesting that Riley and Devlin now seemed to have switched camps. She was uncertain about her own feelings. She was so happy simply to have survived that she found it hard to focus on the future.
“They’ve already shown they are willing to use the bomb. We have to assume they have the other one. It’s up to us to stop them.” Riley was resolute.
“You didn’t want to stop them before!” Devlin shouted. “Maybe none of this would have happened if you’d listened to me.”
“We couldn’t do anything before,” Riley said. “I miscalculated—I didn’t think they’d use one of the bombs here, and I didn’t think they could get away. Now that I know they actually have a chance of getting away, I have to do everything I can to try and stop them.”
Devlin turned away. He seemed defeated. Riley looked steadily at Conner. “How do you feel? The three of you could stay here. The weather seems a little better. I’m sure there’ll be someone flying out here in the next twenty-four hours.”
Conner felt like curling up in a little ball and blocking this whole crazy week out of her life, but she knew that wasn’t possible. Reality was here in the form of a chilling wind and a gaping crater in the ice. T
his was not the time or place to stand around debating things. Besides, it was not in her nature to stay behind and wait.
Sammy had been listening quietly to the conversation and now she stepped to Riley’s side. “I’m with you.”
Devlin waved his arms, gesturing at the terrain around them. “It’s crazy. We could pass a quarter mile away from them and miss them. And what will we do if we find them?”
“We stop them,” Riley answered, slinging the rifle over his shoulder.
Devlin looked into Conner’s eyes. “I say we stay here. If we go wandering around on the ice cap, we might never make it out alive, whether we run into the Koreans or not. The blast had to be picked up. People will come to investigate once the weather clears.”
Riley put on his pack. “Make your decision now.”
“Conner, please stay here,” Devlin pleaded.
Conner picked up her pack. What Riley had said down in the reactor was right. She had helped cause all this. She looked at her sister, then at Devlin. “We need to try, Devlin.”
Devlin reluctantly shouldered his pack.
Riley’s voice was flat. “All right. We go after them. But you three have to listen to me and do what I say without asking questions. This is my area of expertise.”
They all nodded.
Riley pointed. “This way.” With long strides he was off into the blowing snow, Sammy at his side, Conner and Devlin falling in behind.
Chapter 26
PENTAGON, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA
General Morris rubbed his forehead as Hodges came into the situation room. His conversation with the president had not gone well. The secretary of defense was on his way back from the West Coast to take over the operation, but in the meantime the monkey was on Morris’s back.
“What is it?” he demanded as Hodges took a seat across from him. He was trying not to slay the bearer again, but it was difficult.
“We have the serial numbers on the two bombs, sir. They were on the aircraft carrier Enterprise in 1970. Both bombs were loaded on the wings of an A-7 Corsair, which was lost overboard during a typhoon and never recovered.”
Morris felt the pounding in his head grow stronger. “Where?”
“In the Pacific, to the east of the Philippines.”
“Were they really lost or was that a cover?”
“Our data says they were really lost.”
“So how the hell did they end up at this place?” Morris demanded. “Who recovered them?”
“I assume the same person who built the base, sir,” Hodges replied. “Anyone who could support that could also support the undersea recovery of the bombs.”
“Anything from your two guests?”
“Not yet, sir, but we’ll get something. We’re close. From what we’ve received so far, I would say that it appears Eternity Base was a privately funded enterprise using government support.”
Morris closed his eyes. He didn’t doubt that for a moment. Billions of dollars a year were spent by the government on various secret projects. Who was to say that some influential civilian couldn’t do the same thing, especially if that civilian had the proper connections in the military industrial complex. “I want a name.”
“Yes, sir.”
Morris opened his eyes as an imposing figure in a medal-bedecked uniform stomped into the room.
Morris stood. “General Kolstov. Welcome.”
The Russian general wasted no time on a greeting. “I understand there is a problem. A nuclear one.”
Since the president had informed the Kremlin of the source of the nuclear explosion, a liaison officer from the embassy representing all of the countries of the former Soviet Union had been assigned to the Pentagon to follow the situation. It was part of the nuclear disarmament and control treaty that both countries had signed the previous year. Any incident involving nuclear weapons was to be monitored by both countries to ensure there would be no confusion or misunderstanding that might lead to unfortunate consequences.
Morris wasn’t sure which he hated worse—having a civilian superior riding herd on him or the presence of General Kolstov in the Pentagon war room. Still, he had to admit that the provision was a good idea. He knew that if his people had picked up an unknown nuclear explosion in Antarctica and the Russians had reported it as an accident—an accident that had no logical explanation—he’d sure as shit want to have someone sitting in on their investigation. Morris wasn’t sure he’d buy a story of two bombs lost overboard and suddenly reappearing at a mysterious base. He wasn’t sure General Kolstov was going to buy it either.
SOUTH PACIFIC
The merchant ship Am Nok Gang cruised south at a steady twenty knots. The captain stalked the bridge, unable to sleep. He watched as an iceberg, long ago spotted by his lookouts and radar, slipped by a mile from the port bow, the constant sunlight reflecting off its slopes.
This was insanity, the captain knew, but he dared not say it. The political officer’s cabin was next to his, and that man, not the captain, held the ultimate control over the ship. They’d received the order from
Pyongyang less than twenty-four hours ago, and there had never been any question but to obey.
The captain shook his head. The fools! How could he pick up someone off the coast of Antarctica? Obviously no one had bothered to look up the facts. The ice pack surrounded Antarctica the year round, giving up slightly to the sea in the summer but never allowing open water to reach the coast. The captain knew the history of these waters. He’d spent thirty-two years of his life in Antarctic waters on the annual whale hunts. North Korea was one of the few rogue nations that still ignored the international outcry against the ravages of the hunt.
The captain knew that Capt. James Cook, the first to sail around Antarctica, from 1773 to 1775, had never once spotted land, the ice pack keeping him well out of landfall. The first party ever to land on Antarctica and spend the winter had not succeeded until well over a century later, in 1895. And in the century since, men in ships had been able to accomplish little more in these vicious seas.
But now, now, the idiots in Pyongyang wanted him to pick up people off the coast of Antarctica! The captain silently laughed to himself—as if a simple command could make it happen. He would see what the political officer had to say when they hit the ice pack in the morning. Maybe he would order the ship to fly over the ice! Whoever was to be picked up would have to come to them, not the other way around.
The captain twisted his head and peered into the distance as the lookout phoned in another iceberg off the port bow. The false dawn of the time piece was a long way off.
FORD MOUNTAIN RANGE, ANTARCTICA
The SUSV stuttered, pivoting to the right and not moving forward. Pak grabbed the dashboard and turned a quizzical look to his driver. “What is wrong?”
“I don’t know, sir. It is not responding.”
“Stop.” Pak zipped up his coat and then opened his door. He climbed down to the snow. The answer stared him in the face. The track on the right side was gone. Pak peered back. It was thirty feet to the rear, laid out in the snow like a long, thick metal snake. One of the linchpins holding it together had snapped in the bitter cold.
Kim joined him. “What now, sir?”
Pak’s reply was terse. “We walk.”
Kim didn’t question. He rapped on the door to the rear cargo compartment and yelled in his instructions. Ho and Lee began unloading the gear. Sun left the driver’s seat and joined them around the sled. They unhooked the tow rope and rigged it to be pulled by men.
Kim used his last satchel charge on the SUSV. The party moved out to the north, all the men straining in the harness. Twenty minutes out a sharp crack from behind told of the destruction of the vehicle.
*****
Riley was channeling his anger into his legs, pumping steadily as the miles flowed beneath them. The anger had started smoldering low in his gut from the minute he’d seen the bullet holes in the soldier’s back at the base of the stairs. Then when Devlin
had raced down the shaft and told them that Kerns and Vickers were dead, it had piled more fuel on the fire. The last two shots had really ignited it. He’d been on the other side of this kind of ruthlessness before, but it had been for a better cause. Or at least he’d thought it had been a better cause.
Riley was more than willing to go on without rest, but he knew that wasn’t smart. His plan was to halt the party every fifty minutes for ten minutes of rest. Every other hour, he would break out his small stove and cook up something hot—soup or coffee. They would go slower that way, but in the long run they would cover more miles. Years of experience in Special Forces, marching with the merciless weight of a rucksack on his back, had taught him that it was the long haul that counted.
They continued to follow the tracks in the snow: two treads and a deep impression in the middle. Occasionally the trail would disappear, covered by blown snow, but it was easy to pick up again. The Koreans were heading due north as directly as the terrain would allow. Riley didn’t permit himself to dwell on the fact that they were probably moving two to three times faster than he was.
*****
“Does the sun shine all the time?” Kim asked as the five men huddled together next to the large sled, trying to share some warmth during the short break Pak gave them every so often.
Pak looked up. The storm had lessened two hours previously, and visibility had increased to almost a mile. “We will have no night.” Pak’s best estimate was that they were less than five miles from the coast. The only map he had was one he had torn out of a world atlas stolen from a schoolroom prior to their departure from Angola. It was totally useless for navigating. He was offsetting his compass based on the map’s notation of magnetic south, but he wasn’t confident that he was taking the quickest possible route.
Pak’s main goal was to head north—as best he could tell—and also stay on the lowest possible ground, skirting around mountains. Despite the bomb’s weight, the sled pulled easily behind the five men—as long as they were on level ground. They’d just spent the past forty-five minutes traversing back and forth—getting the sled up and over a large foothill—making only two hundred horizontal meters in the process.