Brilliant New Light (Chance Lyon military adventure series Book 3)

by Van Torrey

  General Rhee Jo-khi sat uneasily in his chair, knowing that this moment would arrive sooner or later. General Kim, more accustom to the intrigues of rogue operators plotting behind the backs of superiors to whom they theoretically owed allegiance, was trying to connect the dots and stay at least one step ahead of General Fhang. All he had to go on was Fhang’s version of his meeting with the Foreign Minister. His experience with the General had shown him to be light on the details when it came to orders or explanations. Something was definitely missing here, thought Kim.

  Both Rhee and Kim were quite sure that there could be no active element currently under control of the Reconnaissance Bureau or the People’s Army who could have carried out this act, so the obvious explanation was that it was a rogue operation meant to undermine the regime of General Fhang, or possibly something dreamed up by the South Koreans to make it look like a North Korean-directed act of terror. An even more insidious scenario could be that this was done under the joint aegis of the United States and the South Koreans to be the pretext of an attack by the Americans on North Korea. The Americans were nearly as cunning as their British brothers when it came to stealthy matters of active warlike espionage.

  General Rhee was quick to argue this was no rogue operation by DPRK assets and made the leap to suggest subterfuge on the part of South Korea. “Their strategy, General Fhang, would be to get the Americans to do the dirty work for them, giving our South Korean brothers a clean and easy road to Pyongyang. This is what they have always wanted,” assured Rhee with confidence.

  As for General Kim, his agile mind was processing this in real time. He felt Rhee was being too glib and overly simplistic in his analysis of the situation. Kim silently dismissed the idea of some collusion between the United States and South Korea that would have produced so many innocent casualties. No, it most certainly was not that evil - or that risky, he thought. Everything points to an inside job here, as the American saying went. The more I think about it, everything points to General Rhee’s involvement, Kim reasoned shrewdly. If Koreans were, in fact, involved in the cruise ship attack, it would have been a perfect application of the sleeper cell scenario described to me recently by the Chong family servant, Mr. Cho. But when I went to speak with General Rhee about this possibility he assured me this possibility had been investigated and found to be baseless. Someone is lying in this respect.

  The meeting ended with General Fhang angrily admonishing Generals Kim and Rhee to use their power and prestige to go through the ranks of all current Army commanders and Reconnaissance Bureau leaders to determine if there was any suspicion of there being rogue operators on the loose taking actions that were counter to the goals, strategy and leadership of the Brilliant New Light. “We must root this out at all costs,” demanded Fhang. “We will meet again tomorrow about this, and I demand answers!”

  General Rhee was cowed by the anger and intensity displayed by General Fhang and said nothing, but Kim, rational and courageous as he was, spoke up to General Fhang. “Sir, some of the men we may speak to outrank both General Rhee and myself. They may be reluctant to speak with either or both of us, based on that fact.”

  Fhang picked up his phone and spoke a few words to whoever answered. In five minutes a secretary entered his office with two typewritten letters which he read and then scrawled his signature. He shoved the documents in front of Kim and Rhee to read.

  It is my direct command that you answer all questions put to you by General Rhee and/or General Kim about a matter of internal security. Failure to do so honestly and completely will result in your removal from your position and additional disciplinary procedures from which there will be no appeal.

  General Fhang Jhai

  To General Rhee, this letter was an instrument to protect him from future retribution from those who might be irritated by such impertinence from a junior officer. However, for Kim, such a letter was pure gold.

  *

  Once again a simple memo with no letterhead and no signature was placed on Marilyn Mitchell’s desk by her Administrative Assistant.

  TO: DCI

  FORM: DDI

  1430 HRS

  FLASH TRAFFIC GAMMA. URGENT REQUEST. MEET

  SOONEST?

  END.

  At fifteen-hundred hours Director Mitchell and her two deputies were meeting in a secure area at Langley to discuss a coded message from General Kim.

  “Director Mitchell, we have just received a request from Gamma requesting if there is anything new in our investigation. This must mean General Fhang is aware that North Koreans have been implicated in the attack, probably by the visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister, and the crap has hit the fan internally in Pyongyang.”

  Director Mitchell discussed this with her two deputies for several moments and then made her move. “Reply, “No, but stay on it at your end.” This will tell him that we still don’t have answers to the questions that Secretary Randolph put to the Foreign Minister.”

  *

  A Navy SEAL element from SEAL Team One out of San Diego had put down on the deck of the USS Ronald Reagan complete with two Zodiacs, and ten Navy SEALs. As their Black Hawk helicopters were being refueled, the team leader, Lieutenant R.C. ‘Rocky’ Blankenship and Senior Chief Petty Officer Nate Block were whisked to Captain Ferguson’s quarters by the Reagan’s Air Boss, Commander Mike Monroe. “Good evening gentlemen. Here’s the latest on the boat supposedly carrying our Cuban friend Mario,” greeted Captain Ferguson. “The boat left a coastal town south of Belize City two hours ago. We waited until it got into open water to start tracking it with a drone. It’s proceeding south at twenty knots in relatively calm seas. We’re getting a real-time video feed from the drone in the Combat Information Center. There’s a half moon, so our optics are giving us a clear shot. Our job is to support you any way we can so you can do your takedown. How do you see this going down, Lieutenant?” asked Ferguson.

  “Sir, this is a pretty straight forward op for us, but we could use a little of your fast-mover support to get their attention. Something like Mach 1 across their bow at about a hundred feet off the deck. Two or three passes like that should get their attention and slow them down. Then, an AH-1Z gunship hovering off their bow should keep her in place and be a fire suppressor, while our Black Hawks drop the two slinged Zodiacs off the stern of the boat. My SEALs will drop from the Hawks and swim to the Zodiacs. One will be the assault boat while the other is the security boat. The assault team will board the yacht, I.D. Mario from the photo detail we have and remove him from the boat. We’ll sling him up to the Hawk equipped with the extra fuel pods and take him to the safe house in El Salvador where the FBI contractors are. I’ll have two of my guys on board the transfer bird for extra security.” “Sounds like a plan, Lieutenant,” commented Ferguson. “Commander Monroe will coordinate his fast-movers with your chopper pilots so you all get there time-on-target. “I’ll guarantee you something Lieutenant, there’s nothing like an F35C going by your boat at Mach 1 and a hundred feet off the deck to get your attention. The second one will have those guys shitting their pants!”

  Two hours later, the chartered yacht carrying Mario was sitting dead in the water one-hundred-seventy-five miles south of Belize with her crew on deck, kneeling, with hands clasped behind their necks. “Which one of you assholes is Mario?” asked Senior Chief Block. Just make it easy and the rest of you can go back to cruising...after we get a DNA swab, that is.” Block’s request was met with silence from the crew.

  Block waited for a moment before asking again. Then one of them said, “I am Senor. There is no sense of placing the rest of these men in danger, I am Mario. This must be very important to stop us in mid-ocean like this. I am a diplomat and demand immunity,” he said.

  Block was unimpressed as he replied, “The only immunity you’re getting is from this boat ride. You’re going to change your mode of transportation, Senor...and your destination.”

  *

  Three hours later Mario was at an American FB
I safe-house in El Salvador being introduced to two Americans who looked like they were all business. “Mario, I’m sure you remember your old colleague, Mr. Yim,” said Chance Lyon, as the Korean and the Cuban looked at each other with astonishment. “Now, let’s get down to business.”

  *

  The FBI safe house was actually a compound of buildings on two acres of property on the outskirts of San Salvador between the city and the ocean. The American Embassy in San Salvador leased this space from the Salvadoran government as an annex, which allowed certain American diplomatic officials to travel back and forth to the compound from the Embassy freely, without restrictions. Salvadoran officials allowed helicopters to land and take off from the compound with no customs enforcement as long as the Embassy certified each flight to be for routine diplomatic business. The Salvadoran officials were under no illusions about the fact American DEA and FBI personnel came and went, using the site as a law enforcement center against America’s never-ending war on drugs in Latin America. The Americans paid a hefty price for the privilege of conducting their business from the site with no interference from the government. It was well understood that much of this rental income from the United States never made it into the Salvadoran public treasury.

  Lyon and Olyphant quickly separated Mario and Yim after their hasty reconciliation. Lyon thought it useful both men knew the other was in the hands of the Americans so there could be no doubt information was being extracted from both of them at the same time. This would decrease the motivation of both captives to withhold information from their questioners. In addition, Lyon had told both men privately the other person had been offered financial and “future lifestyle” incentives to answer the questions put to them factually and completely. “If you lie to me, or withhold substantive matters of truth, things will break bad for you,” he told them. Lyon even evoked the old SEAL maxim he had learned in his early BUDs training, “It pays to be a winner”, hoping this would be a motivator for the men to give up resistance and simply tell the truth. In reality, it didn’t make any long term difference, as both men were ultimately bound for a long sabbatical at Supermax in Colorado.

  *

  Prior to the capture of Yim and Mario, Chance Lyon had conferred by encrypted sat phone with FBI Director Wheatley and the CIA’s Deputy Director for Intelligence about the strategy for interrogating the two captives. Dealing with people with strategic information would be on a somewhat more intellectual level that extracting scraps of questionable intel from an underling such as Detainee Number One, who was still incarcerated in the brig of the USS Reagan.

  After the two captives were separated Lyon and Olyphant started questioning Yim.

  “Mr. Yim, you know we are going to get the information we want one way or the other. We know you were sent here on a mission to set up a terrorist cell in the USA for the purpose of committing an act of terror against citizens of the United States. Who was the person who set this plan in motion and sent you and your friends to America via Cuba?”

  “What will you give me if I tell you what you want to know?”

  “I can’t promise you anything beyond being treated humanely and living in a safe environment, Yim. You and your men were responsible for killing and maiming many innocent victims on the cruise ship. You will have to pay for your crimes with American justice. If you tell me what I want to know, you will be sent to a place that is controlled by Americans in accordance with American standards of prisoner treatment,” replied Chance Lyon evenly.

  “Where are we now?” asked Yim.

  “We are not in America, and you are subject only to my standards of treatment under these circumstances. I want answers now,” Chance concluded.

  “What if I don’t tell you anything more? Are you going to torture me?

  “Mr. Yim, look at your situation realistically. You have nothing going for you. You are a stateless person, you don’t know where you are, you have no way of escaping, you have no support, and you must rely on me and my associate here for your very existence. I can make your life easy, or I can make it extremely difficult. It is your choice. I’ll return in one hour.”

  Chance and Olyphant locked Yim in the bare room with only a chair and a liter of bottled water and headed off to the other side of the compound to interview Mario.

  Mario was far more sophisticated than Yim and very realistic about his situation. He knew he had few, if any, options. Even if Cuba and the North Koreans knew he was missing and in the hands of the Americans, he had no value as a bargaining chip. They would not insist on his return, as there was no ongoing dialogue between the United States and either of those countries. He and Yim were alone and at the mercy of these two Americans in some unknown place. Mario also knew that he was not simply a person of interest, as there had been too great an effort by the U.S. authorities in tracking him down and apprehending him. Someone with knowledge of the operation had ratted him and Yim out. Faced with these realities, Mario decided to make a deal. “If I tell you what you want, will you isolate me from the Muslims and other Arabs in Guantanamo?” he asked. At least I will be back in Cuba, he reasoned, albeit a captive. Perhaps there I will have hope of eventually being repatriated. Besides the Castro brothers and their failed revolution won’t live forever.

  It didn’t take more than two days for Lyon and Olyphant to learn important basic facts from Mario, corroborated in general terms by Yim. The Compassionate Leader’s now dead aunt, the head of the North Korean Reconnaissance Bureau, who had been purged and replaced by General Fhang’s now dead brother, had conceived, planned, financed, and set into action the operation that had eventually placed Yim and his entourage of North Korean thugs into Miami. Their express purpose was to commit a terrorist act aimed at killing Americans. All of this activity took place a few months prior to the coup d’état and General Fhang’s rise to power. With the head of the Reconnaissance Bureau being purged in the immediate aftermath of the coup, the only other official in Fhang’s inner circle who knew of the existence of the terrorist cell was General Rhee Jo-khi. The plan was so compartmentalized within the complex bureaucracy of the Reconnaissance Bureau that once the cell was in place in Miami, it was to go ahead, controlled only by Mario, unless he received specific instructions to stand-down from the original head of the Reconnaissance Bureau himself. Hearing no such order, Mario considered the operation a go. For reasons known only to him, perhaps as a get-out-of-jail-free card in case he became personally threatened by General Fhang, General Rhee apparently had not disclosed the operational plot to General Fhang. Mario reasoned General Fhang was being accused of a terrorist act for which he was clearly responsible, but of which he had no direct knowledge.

  Lyon and Olyphant meticulously made video recordings of the interrogations of Yim and Mario that clearly showed they were not under duress and were volunteering the intelligence. Later, after receiving the raw video from Lyon, U.S. intelligence analysts would edit out the portion of Mario’s testimony indicating General Rhee’s knowledge of the plot for the copies that might be shown to others. The original video, containing Mario’s indictment of General Rhee, might be an ace-in-the-hole to be played later in this drama. Lyon’s and Olyphant’s identity as interrogators was disguised for their future security.

  *

  Director Clayton Wheatley, DNI Raymond Rollins, and Philip Johnson met with President Rachel Hunter in the Oval Office. “Ms. President,” Wheatley began, “we have the results of the interrogations of the North Korean and the Cuban handler you saw yesterday. They speak for themselves. The evidence is clear this was a plot hatched and conducted from the top down by the DPRK. The two short-term questions are what do we do with this evidence to best confront the DPRK leadership about the facts surrounding this event, and what do we do with the three captives?”

  “I’ve given considerable thought to both of these issues, gentlemen and, in reverse order, here is my thinking. The only safe and logical place for the captives is Guantanamo. I have ordered the Army to
prepare four separate, segregated quarters for the captives at Camp Delta. They are to arrive at night and will be totally segregated from the other detainees there. The three we have in custody in El Salvador and on the Reagan will be taken there by FBI escort now. When the wounded detainee is well enough, he will go there as well. They will be in solitary confinement and have no contact with any other prisoner. The MP detail guarding these people will be segregated from the MPs guarding the other prisoners. This could be an intermediate destination. If they ever come to trial in the U.S. and are convicted, I think Supermax might be the final stop.”

  “I assume now means immediately,” Wheatley responded.

  “That’s correct, Clayton. Get them off your contractor’s hands. Keep those two contractors on alert. We may have other needs for them soon. They seem to get exceptional results for us in a timely manner,” Hunter commented.

  Rachel Hunter continued. “Now for the visual evidence of the interrogations. Since Secretary Randolph and Ambassador Bledsoe met with the Chinese Foreign Minister about this previously, I think it would be appropriate for Ambassador Bledsoe to present this evidence to Minister Yang personally and leave him a copy. The Chinese may do with it what they think is necessary and appropriate considering their relationship with the DPRK. I want to avoid suggesting to them that they peddle our papers for us.”

  “So how do we make sure the North Korean leadership gets the message?” asked Ray Rollins.

  “Ray, do you remember the Delagarde family, the bankers, in Zurich?”

  “Yes, of course,” he replied with a smile.

  “Well the Swiss have a legation in Pyongyang, not exactly a plum assignment for the sophisticated and urbane Swiss, I would guess. I’m sure Rene Delagarde can use his influence to get a copy of this audiovisual evidence into the hands of the minister there and ask him to make sure that General Fhang gets a copy. That’s as close to FedEx as we’re going to get, gentlemen”