The parked buses were no accident.
Whoever planned security for the embassy was ready to keep anyone with a car bomb well away from the building itself.
In the end, a military court would need to conclude that excessively doing my job before I officially departed was against the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).
As long I didn't cause any major damage, or hurt anyone, I didn't see how a panel of officers would justify that verdict. Most likely, they'd be satisfied to drum me out of the Army with a less than satisfactory discharge for my aggro moves.
At the pedestrian entrance Seoul Metro Police officers in black and neon yellow uniform coats required proper identification. Queried visit purposes.
More police officers stood or paced every 20 feet around the perimeter. Bored, yet professional.
Additional polite police patrolled the opposite sides of the surrounding streets.
If an attacker made it past the exterior wall and into the courtyard, steel security screens protected the bottom two floors. Overkill for a peaceful city like Seoul, but I couldn't fault the security design.
Vertical three foot concrete pillars protected the walk-in entrance from vehicle attacks. A green glass dome kept rain off the waiting crowd.
The embassy's American flag flapped in the winter wind atop a 40' pole in the courtyard. Scattered external climate control units illustrated the hierarchy. No heat nor AC for your office showed less pull.
Antennas and satellite dishes dominated the roof-line eight stories up. Peeked above edge railing designed to prevent falling deaths, accidental or otherwise.
As long as Michelle loaned me the CIA's RFID scanner, I wouldn't have to break in to borrow it.
If I did, it'd be from the sky. A flat roof surrounded by walls doesn't protect you from above.
But then, I'm more paranoid than anyone else I know about physical security. I looked for potential vulnerabilities everywhere, especially noticing places vulnerable to car bombs.
A car bomb killed my parents.
Shortly, I planned to use my security analysis to infiltrate a military lab for real, rather than just help defend it. Was that justified? Would I stand condemned? Used my family legacy in the attack?
If I didn't prove the lab vulnerable, an enemy might take advantage of their problems. Problems we could've fixed if I'd followed through on my plans tonight.
Other families might die. More collateral damage.
As a United States Army officer, I owed a duty to those families.
I'd be responsible for whatever happened because I chose to prove my platoon's report was correct. Couldn't blame the foolishness of Captain Rhee or Major Williams for my decision.
Across the street, Michelle waited for me outside the embassy employee entrance. I couldn't help comparing her slender beauty to the Korean demonstrators surrounding me.
She lit up as I walked past the rows of chairs, probably happy to see a familiar face in the sea of Koreans.
I stopped just to stare. To capture this moment in my mind. After this weekend I might not be in Korea for long.
Might not see Michelle for a while.
Stepped back. Created the perfect framing. Kicked the side of a chair someone had set up behind me.
Tripped.
Collapsed across three wooden folding chairs. Knocked them over like bowling pins. Scattered destruction in a circle around me.
Ruined the friendly demonstrators' work.
They probably thought a uniformed giant had invaded. I wanted to crawl up into a ball and somehow roll away unnoticed.
Michelle ran across the street, ignoring stopped traffic, to see if I was okay.
Mostly just my ego was bruised. I stood and brushed water and ice off.
Volunteers in long sleeve blue shirts under puffy jackets surrounded me. Wouldn't let me fix the chairs I'd knocked asunder.
Insisted I leave immediately.
At least their peace and reunification organization wouldn't be out of business anytime soon.
Knowing when to advance in a retrograde manner, I fled with Michelle.
Wasn't sure what else to do, but pretend it hadn't happened. "Taking the subway home? We can walk back and talk on the way."
"Sure." She patted her black leather purse, as if to check for something. "Let's go."
We walked toward Gwanghwamun station. The wide plaza stretching from King Sejong's statue to the subway entrance split the road in half.
I pushed the pace through the thickening crowd. Dodged furry boots and flying scarf ends.
Michelle kept up.
Wasn't currently pouring from the sky, so everyone had their space-sucking umbrellas tucked away. Michelle had long enough legs and the track running muscle memory to go quickly when she needed to.
Helped to anticipate and navigate that we could both see above everyone else's heads.
We reached a clearer stretch of the walkway near a line of dormant fountains embedded in the concrete ground. A statue of an admiral wore what looked like Samurai armor. I guess nobody wanted to take the risk of the water turning on in the cold.
I extended my arm. "I can carry the scanner."
She didn't hand it over right away. "What do you need it for, anyway? You sounded rushed before."
After the chair incident, I didn't really want to get into my dressing down from the CO.
"Probably better you don't know much. Then you can't catch any heat if this goes wrong."
"Nothing illegal?"
"Of course not, but bureaucratically a few people won't be happy."
She wrinkled up her forehead for a moment as we walked. "You don't need trouble either."
"Michelle, this is important."
She went silent for a full thirty seconds. Highly unusual.
Sighed. Handed over the scanner and its USB cable. "Hope you know what you're doing. You know you can talk to me. Really wish you would."
"Better for you to have deniability on this one."
Didn't seem to believe me, because she went quiet for another minute as we dodged around a strip of hibernating grass.
"Sounds like a throw of the dice. You have your Red Team involved?"
"Not this time."
"Use your team. You're a nice guy, Sam, but you take too much responsibility on yourself. Go out on too many limbs. They get cut off sometimes, you know?" She smiled. "I can't always be there to get you on the next plane out of town."
"Sometimes you have to just get things done yourself and if a tree falls in the woods, a tree falls in the woods. Maybe nobody but the lumberjacks will notice."
"Are you okay?"
I wondered if the skit reference was deliberate. With a grin, I gave her a sing-songy "I work all night and I sleep all day."
She laughed. "At least you don't wear women's clothing, like those Brits."
We walked down steps into the subway station. Stood staring at each other between wide white pillars halfway between the two platforms designated for the opposite directions we needed to travel.
Korean architecture involved lots of rounded edges, especially where the ceiling met the subway walls. Both sets of glass safety doors were closed, no trains visible on the far side.
The locals nearby gave the American giants a clear circle.
Maybe it was just me. I put on my serious face again. "You should at least know Captain Rhee from the lab lodged an official protest about my report. You'll hear the scuttlebutt on the private news network about how Major Williams responded, but it wasn't pretty."
She cocked her head. "He stood up for you?"
I shook mine. "Not exactly. More stood me up in front of the firing squad."
"Ouch."
"Exactly. Gotta bail. Have someone to catch up with, but won't damage your baby." Tucked the scanner/transmitter into a cargo pocket.
My subway train arrived.
"Sam, we've developed a high-level source in the DPRK government. Don't know all the details, but it'l
l probably turn into something. Something soon, on the north side of the DMZ.
"So don't get yourself kicked out of the country. Don't want to miss out on this one."
The glass safety doors opened. A sea of demonstration attendees in matching shirts and puffy coats crowded out from the train cars. Normally I'd drag more details out of her, but had no time for this.
"Let me get through tonight, first."
"Don't take too many risks. Do the smart thing."
"Always."
"No, you usually do things in a smart way, but you also tend to do the principled, stubborn thing, which is occasionally the dumb thing."
Okay, she maybe had me pegged, there. I just shook my head before hustling away.
She blew me a kiss as I looked back from the train window.
Odd. Probably a sarcastic send-off for my non-response. I waved. No hard feelings.
Carrying the right tools, the lab infiltration would work out just fine.
What could possibly go wrong?
* * *
All the neon hurt Kwon's eyes. Didn't the South need these resources for all the cars he'd seen?
Storefront signs lit up central Seoul.
Towering office skyscrapers rose behind the storefronts; windows lit up despite the hour growing later.
Surely this wealthy city's inhabitants must keep the rest of the South dirt poor, stealing all their energy and other resources well beyond those due to central government officials.
Twenty more minutes of Stro's driving through the crowded streets of Seoul and they arrived at a loading dock off an alley.
The rear entrance to their target; an enormous secret facility, like a giant warehouse, taking up most of a city block. A sheltered alcove led between the bumper-high dock and the wide steel back door.
Stro backed their truck up to the loading dock. Pushed the engine shut off button. The diesel pistons rumbled to a halt.
Kwon opened his door.
As planned, four of the five soldiers in the back jumped down. Set up a casual perimeter watch, just some Army guys taking a smoke break.
The fifth, his communications sergeant, carried a black duffel bag from the rear up to the passenger door. He held up a mobile phone, issued for use in Seoul. "Shall I transmit the next checkpoint, sir?"
Pleasant to work with competent soldiers, unlike those in his last platoon, conscripts he could tell just wanted to finish their duty and get back to their regular life.
Now his team was the elite of the North Korean People's Army. Easy to trust. "Proceed, then pass out the radios."
His com sergeant pushed send twice, transmitting prepared text messages to two numbers.
Their Security Forces contact would forward their milestone check-in message to Deputy Minister Meon and pass back any changed orders. The second message confirmed their arrival to their lab contact. That message would trigger a sequence of events to get them into the lab.
Kwon nodded to Stro. "Let's go."
Stro hopped out of the cab on the driver's side. Organized the other men with quick, curt, commands.
Had them don their plate carriers. Equip them with reloads, grenades, and their other tactical gear. Personally, Kwon preferred a mag panel, placing a row of pistol reloads in front of his chest for a little extra protection.
Body armor could only be bullet-resistant.
The two demolition experts also double-checked each of their prepped blocks of explosives. They'd waste no time inside.
Kwon took a radio and earpiece from the com sergeant. Attached the radio to his belt. Inserted the earpiece.
The sergeant passed out similar devices to the rest of the men.
After seeing the men sorted out, Stro ordered a pair to guard the rear entrance to the lab, thick steel embedded into the concrete block outer wall.
For this mission, Goshawk team would operate in pairs; his com sergeant sticking with Stro, each of the demo guys paired with a sniper. Kwon by himself had the easiest and most important role of all.
Get the data they needed to turn the tables on the Imperialists.
With everyone else loaded up, Stro and Kwon began their own transformations into soldiers ready for combat. Kwon strapped a pistol holster to his leg. He'd do without the K2 rifle everyone else carried. No reason to develop tunnel vision.
If they needed him to carry a rifle, they'd already blown the mission.
The others stacked up into positions on either side of the lab door. Allowed space for the door to open outward.
If they'd traveled fully tactical, Kwon's team would've stood out from regular soldiers around town, but that didn't matter now.
Just a little longer until his team could act openly and land their blow on the Imperialists.
Kwon slid a tactical vest over his head. Tightened the waist strap. Snapped his mag panel into place. Double-checked the magazine in his Baek Du San clone of the CZ 75 semi-automatic pistol.
He'd join them in a moment.
A careless soldier eventually became a dead soldier.
Chapter Eleven: It's All Fun and Games ...
My biggest worry was getting close to Rhee.
I rode in artificial isolation on the subway train. Leaned back against a vertical advertisement for a casino, ignoring the girl in it.
My uniform wasn't uncommon around the lab. Plenty of soldiers hung around because US and Korean joint forces ran the place, but my height and other features wouldn't blend into the crowds on the nearby streets.
Rhee didn't exactly walk around with his head on a swivel.
More the type to decide all foreigners looked the same. To not bother to really look at their facial characteristics.
On the other hand, he'd seen me earlier in the day, so if he got a good glance at my mug in person, he'd recognize me pretty quickly. It did say Harper across the nametape right there on my uniform jacket, pretty much eye-level for a Korean.
If he bothered to look.
A man of Rhee's nature didn't pay close attention to his inferiors. A captain outranked a lieutenant in anyone's army.
My train stopped.
I followed the thinner inbound crowds out and up an escalator onto the street. The storefronts lining the ground floors of each building lit the wide concrete walkway with their flickering neon signs.
Tried to combine a huddle with a slouch. Reduce my height to fit in better. Inconsistent lighting, the type to create lots of shadows on the street, helped.
Good thing I wasn't a real spy. Wasn't any good at this spy game.
At least I'd be able to see Rhee over the heads of any others in a typical crowd. Needed to remember to duck if he looked toward me.
The signs in English advertised familiar stores and brands as I wandered down the sidewalk.
Could've been back in the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego, except the background chatter of the crowds wasn't in English. Most of the shops had Korea's Hangul lettering below their English signs.
Also, San Diego never dropped below 50 degrees in the evening, even in the winter. A curious mix of the familiar and the strange.
Icy rain fell; rattled off the buildings and sidewalk.
Shouldn't think about the lousy weather, so different from where I'd grown up.
Made being here worse.
Why did I try so hard to stay again? Oh, that's right, duty to the people my team protected, responsibility for my platoon, mostly sheer stubbornness to prove myself right.
Unfolded my umbrella to defend against the onslaught.
Made it across the street from the lab complex.
A predominantly gray split-face block building, like a big warehouse taking up most of the block. A street corner asphalt parking lot on one side, service alley on the other. They'd set the thirty feet tall lab physically apart from the neighbors.
No billboards revealed its secret purpose.
Just thick tree trunks and boulders around the street-side perimeter. Set close enough together in the landscaping a car
bomb couldn't pass between them.
The only windows faced the protected parking lot.
In the alley a half-dozen Korean soldiers waited at the loading dock near one of the local Army trucks.
Probably there for a pick-up or delivery.
Wasn't planning to use the loading dock entrance, anyway. The mantrap at the back door provides a shorter path into the secure lab zones, but it doesn't get enough foot traffic to hide in.
I walked over to a Paris Baguette café across from the lab's main entrance.
They mostly got a breakfast and lunch crowd. Relied on the local workers for repeat customers.
Fresh out of the oven, the warm yeast smell made my stomach growl. No reason I couldn't fill up and warm up at the same time.
Yellow, red, and white frosted pastries beckoned from the glassed-in shelves. Too much pure sugar there.
Asked the attendant for a hot chocolate. A black and white cartoon Korean cat face surrounded the outside of the cup she handed me.
Dark bitterness would help keep me alert while watching.
Folded up my umbrella.
Settled into an open table near the pop-out glass bay windows.
Set my back to a wall opposite the entrance so I could see down the street in both directions.
Watched for Rhee's return from dinner.
The portable RFID reader/transmitter I'd borrowed from Michelle was a small electronics board inside a sun block tube-sized hard plastic case. Really just a smart antenna to send and receive 13.45 MHz signals, the frequency used for security cards. You could get a cheap commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) version from China for a couple hundred bucks online.
CIA probably paid a few thousand for this one.
While waiting, I pulled the reader and mini-USB cable out of my cargo pocket. Ran the cable inside my uniform jacket and out the sleeve to my right hand.
Connected the cable to the reader and pushed them both up into my right sleeve a couple of inches, so they were no longer visible. Threaded the other end from my waist out through my left sleeve and into my smartphone.
Made sure I could load the correct software. That my phone properly detected the reader.
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