by Chris Ryan
‘I don’t like it,’ Hector said immediately. ‘How do we know we can trust Hwan to deliver the correct message to the secret police? How do we know the authorities will believe him?’
– We can trust him, and he’ll be very convincing. Because when we’ve made it out of the country with Prospero, we offer the North Koreans a new deal. Their two spies in return for releasing Hwan’s parents, and letting Jerry and Elsa leave the country.
There was a heavy silence in the ops room.
‘Hold the line,’ Hector said. He muted the conversation and turned to Woody and Angel. The faces of all three Watchers were etched with concern.
‘She makes it sound easy,’ Angel said. There was a note of pride in her voice.
‘Too easy,’ Hector said. ‘A plan like that doesn’t just happen. It takes hours of planning. Days, even. Contingencies. Backup strategies.’
‘Do we have a better idea?’ Woody said tersely. ‘We just call the North Koreans, ’fess up and ask for our child spies back?’
‘They’d have a better chance of survival that way.’
‘You’re letting your relationship with Max cloud your thinking, Hector,’ Angel said.
‘That’s not true.’
‘If we hand those kids over to the North Koreans, they could be in prison – or worse – for the next twenty years.’
‘At least they’d still be alive,’ Hector said.
‘But would they want to be?’ Woody demanded. ‘Face it, Hector. That’s not an option. The way I see it, our choices are pretty limited. The cadets are scattered all around Pyongyang. Two of them are already incarcerated. They’ve no chance of getting to the emergency pick-up zone without help. Maybe this Hwan guy is the answer. People will do an awful lot to stop their families getting hurt.’
‘We don’t even know if his parents are still alive,’ Hector said.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Woody. ‘It’s the chance of seeing his mum and dad again that makes Hwan trustworthy.’
‘Too many things can go wrong,’ Hector countered. ‘A plan like that sounds okay when you say it. Actually doing it is a different matter.’
‘You’ve forgotten what it’s like to be young, Hector,’ Angel said. ‘It’s much easier to do things when you don’t know they’re impossible. That’s why the Special Forces Cadets are so valuable. You and I would think twice about a strategy like this. Those kids? They might just pull it off.’
‘Remember the lake,’ Woody said. ‘They worked together like a real team. And they were too strong for us. They’ve got the makings of a good unit, Hector. We need to give them the chance to prove themselves. And let’s face it, Lili’s suggestion is a classic military strategy: get the enemy looking in one direction while the interesting stuff is happening somewhere else.’
Hector bowed his head. He inhaled deeply, then he connected to the call again. ‘Tell Hwan we’ll offer his government the new deal as soon as you’re out of the country. And tell him that if we suspect him of double-crossing us at any point, the deal is off.’
– He won’t double-cross us. Trust me.
‘I don’t trust anyone,’ Hector said. ‘You’d be wise to do the same. RV at the emergency pick-up point at 04:00 hours.’
– That’s not enough time …
‘It’s the best we can do. The chopper has to return during the hours of darkness. Sunrise is at 06:00. If we leave it any later, we’ll be seen. RV at 04:00, not a second later. Is that understood?’
– Understood, said Lili.
– Understood, said Abby.
The line went dead. Hector turned to the others. ‘Get the stealth chopper prepared,’ he said. ‘I want it ready to go in two minutes. We’re cutting it fine as it is. Warn the Foreign Office that we’re about to breach North Korean airspace. And let’s make sure we get something out of it.’
‘Roger that,’ Woody and Angel said in unison.
‘Abby, can you still hear me? Abby?’
But nobody answered. If Lili wanted to speak to Abby again, she would have to dial her sat phone directly. She was about to do that when Hwan, who was watching Lili with an expression of great expectation, asked, ‘What did they say?’
‘They said okay.’ Lili looked around. ‘We need to get away from this railway track. Do you have a mobile phone?’
Hwan shook his head. ‘They took it away from me.’
‘Then we need a pay phone. Do they even have pay phones in Pyongyang?’
‘A few,’ Hwan said. ‘We cannot use them to call outside the country.’
‘We don’t need to. Where is the nearest one?’
Hwan pointed along the line towards the train station.
Lili shook her head. ‘It’s too public. Where else?’
Hwan thought for a moment. ‘I think there is one in a street near Taedong Bridge. There will not be many people there at this time of night.’
‘Okay,’ Lili said. ‘That’s where we’ll go. When we get there, you’re going to call your secret police contact. The one you told about us. Can you do that?’
Hwan nodded.
‘You tell him you’ve been abducted by me, Abby and Sami. By the three of us – that’s really important. Do you understand that?’
‘But they will not believe that you have allowed me to make a phone call.’
‘I’ll explain how we get round that in a minute. First I have to speak to Abby.’ She was about to dial the number when they heard voices. Shouts. She raised her binoculars and looked south along the railway line, back the way they’d come. She was dazzled by flashes of torchlight. People were on the track, searching for something. No prizes for guessing what. She thought she heard a dog barking.
Lili’s heart felt like it might stop.
‘Back over the fence!’ she hissed. But Hwan was staring at the torchlight too, and he seemed unable to move. Lili shook him by the arm.
‘Quickly! Hwan! Quickly!’
His attention snapped back. He looked at Lili in panic.
‘I’ll help you over again,’ she whispered. ‘But we have to do it now. That dog’s getting closer – can’t you hear it?’
He nodded, then faced the fence and grasped the links. Lili cupped her hands under his right foot and hoisted him up. Hwan scrambled inexpertly to the top of the fence then hauled himself over. This time he landed a little less heavily. He turned back to Lili, but his eyes widened and he pointed along the track. Lili saw what he was pointing at: two dogs, snarling, metres away and bolting in her direction.
She flung herself at the fence, arms stretched above her head. With a surge of adrenaline she pulled herself up, her arms straining to take her weight. Had she been half a second later, she would have been food for the dogs. As it was, they jumped, barked and snapped at her heels. A gasp escaped her as she struggled to pull herself up the fence, the wire cutting into the skin of her hands. She could hear the shouting getting louder and closer, but she didn’t dare turn her head. She was concentrating on scaling the fence and could only look up to ensure her next handhold was good.
The fence was shaking and rattling. The dogs were in a frenzy, snarling and scratching at the wire. Lili summoned all her strength to swing her legs over the top of the fence. She landed right next to Hwan. Only then did she check over her shoulder. She couldn’t see the people holding the torches because they were behind the light. But she could tell they were running towards her – and quickly. She jumped to her feet, pulled Hwan to his, and sprinted towards a clump of trees. Hidden among the thick trunks, her lungs burning, she turned to look back at the railway line.
The dogs were dancing and circling, still barking ferociously. They obviously had Lili and Hwan’s scent. Four or five men were shouting at them to be quiet and shining their torches through the railway fence towards the trees. Had they seen Lili and Hwan? Did they intend to follow?
Then she saw a couple of the torches pointing at the other side of the railway, as if their pursuers weren’t sure which way their quarry had escaped.
‘Did they see us?’ Hwan whispered.
‘I don’t know,’ said Lili. ‘Maybe. I think those dogs could follow our scent, if they had the chance. But they can’t get them over the fence.’
‘They could cut through,’ said Hwan.
Lili nodded grimly. She checked the time. 02:30 hours. Her stomach turned to ice. They only had an hour and a half to get to the pick-up zone.
‘How far is the payphone?’ she asked.
‘From here, about ten minutes. We have to go under the bridge and along the river. But we mustn’t run. If anybody sees us, they will know we are trying to escape from something. And then …’ He was clearly terrified at the prospect of what might happen.
‘Lead the way,’ Lili said. ‘And Hwan, remember, if this works you see your mum and dad very soon. But if it doesn’t …’
Hwan swallowed hard, nodded, and started to move through the trees towards the main road that ran alongside the river. Lili followed, clutching her sat phone in her sweaty hand. She had to a call to make, and she had to make it now.
16
The Call
‘We need to go. We only have an hour and a half. Come on! We need to go!’ Sami seemed desperate to re-enter the water. Abby agreed. Max and Lukas were only fifty metres away. A short swim, compared to what they’d already done. All Abby could think about was cutting through the hull of the boat to rescue them.
But something held her back. Sami was always quick to act. Sometimes too quick. Sometimes his emotions trumped everything else. It was a boy thing, she had often thought. Abby knew that sometimes there was time to stop and think. Now was one of those times. She was not moving to the water’s edge quite so quickly.
‘It’s going to be difficult to get to the pick-up zone, the old football stadium,’ she said. ‘We don’t know our way there, and as soon as the ship is scuttled, the place will be crawling with police and military …’
‘We can’t worry about that now,’ Sami said. He was ankle-deep in the river. ‘Who knows what they’re doing to Max and Lukas? They could be dead if we leave it any longer.’
‘They could also be dead if we mess this up,’ Abby replied. ‘And the same goes for the rest of us. Just … just hold on a minute. Let me think this through.’ And under her breath, she muttered, ‘I wish Angel was here.’
As she spoke, her sat phone rang. She answered it immediately. ‘Go ahead.’
– It’s me. Lili. She sounded out of breath.
‘Where are you?’
– I’m with Hwan. We’re making our way to a phone booth. Listen, you can’t enter the water yet.
‘Try telling that to Sami.’ He was knee-deep already.
– Put me on speaker phone.
Abby checked her surroundings. The river bank was deserted, but she wanted to be sure there was nobody around to overhear them. There was a line of trees just beyond the bank. She scanned it carefully for movement. There was nothing.
‘Sami,’ she hissed. ‘Get back here, quickly.’
With obvious reluctance, Sami trudged back out of the water as she put the phone on speaker.
‘Go ahead,’ she said.
– We haven’t made the call yet. Lili sounded like she was walking fast. We might have been spotted. We might have dogs after us.
‘Sounds like it’s going pretty well,’ Abby said.
– You can’t sink the barge yet. We have to wait until we’re sure the North Koreans believe Hwan’s story.
‘How are we ever going to know that?’ Abby asked.
– There are police cars all over the place near the hotel. I’m sure they’ll start heading north if they think that’s where they’re going to find us. We’ll see them doing it. But if they don’t believe Hwan, they’ll realise it’s a trick and that puts you in more danger. And if you sink the boat before we make the call, they’ll know Hwan’s lying. You’ve got to wait until I give you the go-ahead.
Abby looked at Sami. He was clearly torn.
‘She’s right, Sami,’ Abby said. ‘We have to wait.’
Sami was almost crying. ‘But what if they –’
‘We have to. Lili, we’re going to wait for your call. Make it quickly.’
There was no reply. The sat-phone screen faded as Lili hung up.
‘Come on,’ Abby said. ‘We’re too exposed here. Anyone can see us. Let’s get behind the treeline.’
Sami glanced back at the barge. Then he nodded. ‘It’s dangerous, what she’s doing,’ he said.
‘You know,’ Abby replied, ‘I’ve got a feeling we need to get used to that.’
Without another word, they gathered up their gear and headed for the trees.
Sweat ran uncomfortably down the nape of Lili’s neck. Her back prickled, as though somebody was watching her. As she and Hwan hurried along the main road, she kept checking over her shoulder. All she saw was an empty pavement. No military or police uniforms. No dogs. Somehow it failed to put her mind at rest. Glancing up, she saw a security camera on a lamppost. It was pointing on to the road itself, but she wondered how many hidden cameras they had passed. If anybody saw video footage of her and Hwan hurrying away from the railway, her plan wouldn’t work. But it would take time to review camera footage in detail. By then, they’d be gone.
The road took them along the north bank of the river. They were almost level with the hotel on its island. Across the water, Lili could still see the lights of police cars around the hotel. There was still activity there. It made her want to run, but Hwan had been right: running would be suspicious. So they kept close to the wall on the left of the pavement, where a shadow camouflaged them.
‘How much further?’ Lili whispered.
‘Not far now,’ Hwan said. He pointed ahead at another building. ‘The Pyongyang Hotel,’ he said. ‘Tourists do not stay there. Only government officials. The phone booth is just past that.’
‘Government officials?’ Lili said weakly. There was activity outside this second hotel. Cars approaching and leaving, despite the time, but nobody seemed to be getting in and out of them. The streets were otherwise completely empty. Lili and Hwan stood breathlessly at a T-junction. They had to cross the road, but they risked being seen by the people in the cars outside the hotel. Lili checked her watch. 02:40 hours. There was so little time.
‘We can’t wait,’ she said. ‘We have to cross. Hold my hand. People will think we’re a couple that way.’
Hwan agreed. His palm was wet and clammy, his grip weak. They looked straight ahead as they crossed the road, because staring at the vehicles outside this hotel would draw attention to themselves. When they reached the other side of the road, they unclasped their hands. Taedong Bridge was thirty metres ahead. The road led underneath the bridge, and they stopped there in the echoing darkness. Just beyond the bridge was a phone booth. They stared at it. Then Hwan turned to Lili.
‘What do I say?’ he asked.
Lili took a few seconds to get everything straight in her head. They might have been seen on the railway line, so she had to include that possible sighting in Hwan’s story.
‘Stick to the truth as closely as you can,’ she said. She knew the best lies were the ones that contained an element of truth. ‘Say I forced you out of the hotel at gunpoint. Say we escaped the island along the rail track. Tell them about the dogs. Tell them that Abby and Sami were waiting for us on the other side of the railway fence. That’s really important, Hwan. The authorities can’t know that Abby and Sami are preparing to rescue Max and Lukas. They need to think they’re with us. Do you get that?’
Hwan nodded silently.
‘Tell me a good place on the northern outskirts of Pyongyang where a helicopter could safely land to pick us up. It needs to be well out of the way of crowds and houses.’
Hwan made a helpless gesture. A gesture that said: what do I know of helicopters and landing zones?
‘Think, Hwan. Your parents’ lives depend on it.’
Hwan pinched his furrowed brow. ‘T
he old rice fields,’ he said. ‘There is a disused warehouse with a concrete area in the front for vehicles. It is about two miles from the city centre. I’m sure nobody will be there now.’
‘Good,’ Lili said. ‘You need to tell your secret police contact that we’re heading there. Say we’re taking you with us because we didn’t trust you not to go straight to the authorities but we weren’t brave enough to kill you.’
‘Are you brave enough to kill me?’ Hwan said.
Lili didn’t answer. ‘Tell them you managed to escape, and you ran straight to the nearest payphone to report what happened.’
‘But …’ Hwan was flustered, ‘they will come and find me. And then they will torture me so I tell them the truth.’
‘Are you a good actor, Hwan?’
‘No,’ he said.
‘Well, tonight you’d better be. When you’ve given them that information, you suddenly need to sound frightened. Say you can see us, that we’ve found you, that we’re running in your direction and we have a gun. Tell them to rescue you at the old rice fields. Then drop the phone and leave it hanging. They’ll think we’ve abducted you again.’
Hwan stared at her. ‘It will never work.’
‘That all depends on how convincing you are,’ Lili said. ‘I know if it was my mum and dad …’
‘Where are your parents?’ Hwan said.
‘They’re dead,’ Lili said quietly. ‘Believe me, I’d do anything to get them back. And I know you would too.’
Hwan breathed deeply. ‘You are harsh,’ he said. ‘But I think you are kind too.’ He fished a coin from his pocket. ‘I will do it.’
They peered out from under the bridge to check that they weren’t being observed. Lili could just hear a police siren, but it wasn’t close and they couldn’t see anybody. They hurried over to the phone booth. Hwan picked up the receiver with a trembling hand. Lili scoured the area for threats while Hwan dialled a number and inserted the coin.
Lili spoke four languages. Korean was not one of them, but as a linguist she understood the tone and inflexion of somebody’s voice, even without understanding the words they spoke. So it was with Hwan. As he started to speak, she could tell he sounded panicked and breathless. He jabbered, falling over his words as if he couldn’t get them out quickly enough. He sounded convincingly scared.