Techno Ranger

by Thomas Sewell

  Even that vanished.

  The rush of the next wave rolled the vessel over. The bottom of the hull appeared at the wave's crest before rolling upright in the next trough.

  No sign of the crew, just a missing cannon and swinging metal railings periodically bashing into the cabin sides.

  Schnier pursed his lips and nodded.

  "Put away the weapons. This is fixin' up to be a humanitarian rescue mission. Cap won't have a problem doing S&R for the crew of a boat we watched get tumped over in the storm."

  Michelle grinned. "And if we happen to pick up an itinerant lost surfer at the same time, nobody will mind. Glad you didn't have to use that rubber boat after all."

  Schnier's military issue phone buzzed. He read the screen.

  "Lee reports the MP unit at the tunnel failed to check in. He's tracked the truck the enemy used from there via license plate scanners to Namsan Tower. TV news has a report that Namsan Mountain Park is being evacuated by military police, but nobody seems to know why.

  "The Major wants my platoon geared up and to Namsan Tower ASAP. We're the only available spec ops platoon with hostage rescue experience."

  That complicated everything. What was Lee up to?

  "Better hurry and pick Sam and the survivors out of the sea then, huh?"

  "That sorry hombre ruins all my dates."

  PART IV: Ranger Team

  Chapter Thirty-Nine: Deadly Deterrence

  One of Pahk's demolition experts stretched ropes of explosives around the glass perimeter doors.

  Lieutenant Kwon Chol's new team couldn't defend the doors, nor the multitude of windows around the base of the tower. Too much hard cover outside to make that tenable, but the explosives would deter any assault.

  Deadly deterrence.

  Standing next to the tower's central elevators, Kwon couldn't find any fault with Pahk nor his team. Goshawk team had been as efficient, they'd had the more difficult mission, that's all.

  Two of Pahk's snipers carried a stainless steel table into the central lobby from the tower restaurant's kitchen.

  They lined the table up on its side between the two elevators, facing the entrance.

  Dragged a pair of metal box trashcans over to reinforce the barricade and provide rifle rests for the defenders.

  Kwon tossed a handful of tiny chocolates from the lobby candy shop into his mouth. Excellent crunch, but a bit too sweet for his taste.

  The shop held tubes and stacks and shelves and buckets of candy in every shape and color. Would supplement the food and beverages from the restaurant kitchen's bank of freezers and refrigerators.

  The tower even had its own emergency generators to keep the communications equipment on the spike above energized.

  If the South didn't agree to reunification terms soon, his team could survive for months in the tower.

  All secure down here.

  He entered the elevator. Turned the fire override key. Selected the observation level.

  His men's weapons and MP identification had convinced the tower's maintenance staff to hand over all the keys and passes. Using those, they evacuated civilians from every part of the tower.

  The tower's tall central tube held the elevator shafts and maintenance equipment.

  Vertical air-gaps separated the three sets of circular rooms surrounding the central tube. The observation deck built atop the circle attached to the top of the tube was in turn topped by an antenna spiking into the air.

  The whole structure rose a few hundred meters above the hill's peak.

  Pahk's men cleared from the top down; the observation deck, the restaurant circling the tower below that, and then the shops and lobby on the hilltop.

  Nobody here now except their team.

  Well, except that meddling scientist, who could apparently track the Goshawk device.

  How did she manage that?

  Better to stash her upstairs than risk a premature panic.

  The elevator dinged. The doors opened on Pahk staring out the floor to ceiling glass windows.

  Even the urinals in the restrooms on this floor had great views.

  Pahk's orders were to guard the woman, not gaze at the Seoul skyline. At least he'd secured her by a wrist and an ankle to the railings.

  She was playing with her tablet. Some kind of game.

  Anything to keep her out of their way.

  Kwon strode over to him. "Need to rig up the device to ensure no one interrupts us. Take charge of the defenses below."

  Pahk nodded in acquiescence. Held out a mobile phone with a black and white cat's face on it. "Her phone. She's occupied with her tablet. Already used the restroom once. Pretty shy about it, too."

  Kwon took the phone. "Great. I can ignore her for a while. The dead man's switch is delicate. Don't want to do anything wrong when I arm the device and activate it."

  Pahk cleared his throat, but said nothing, just rubbed the back of his neck.

  The Goshawk device rested in the middle of the open floor on top of a rough-hewn table. Two of their men had brought the table up from the restaurant dining room on the floor below, along with a pair of matching benches.

  "Once armed, I'll be stuck here holding that switch, so rotate the men to reduce fatigue. One of them can periodically bring me and the woman meals. If I get too tired, I'll have you relieve me on the switch."

  Even as submissive as Pahk had been after Meon made it clear who was in charge, Kwon planned to limit the amount of time anyone else held massive destruction in their hand.

  They needed a credible threat to achieve peace, but there was no call to be reckless.

  "Got it." Pahk gestured toward the windows. "No signs of an armed response yet, but they'll come soon."

  Pahk departed in the elevator.

  At the first sign of a serious attack on the tower, they'd flip the emergency override to disable it. Only other way to reach this high was to climb 40 meters of steel rungs in its shaft.

  A pair of snipers at the top could hold off as many men as they had rounds.

  The snipers' ammo boxes each held 200 cartridges. If the enemy cleared the ground floor, with four ammo boxes stacked nearby, it'd take an Imperialist brigade sacrificing itself completely to get someone to the observation deck.

  By then, they'd be able to climb up the bodies.

  No, the odds of anyone confronting him here with the dead man switch for the nuclear device active were slim.

  The switch also prevented the enemy shelling the tower to destroy the bomb. He'd let go before he allowed that to happen.

  He tapped the photo in his breast pocket.

  Better to die in an explosion, taking this city with him, than to fail his adopted family.

  * * *

  More North Korean soldiers in Seoul. Now what?

  I'd ridden with Michelle and Schnier on the sub long enough for us to hitch a helicopter ride into Seoul. Almost dark before we assembled in the plaza at the base of the tower.

  Metro Police cleared the park of civilians and enforced a strict perimeter.

  Light snow drifted across the plaza's concrete pavers. Crunched underfoot as Schnier and I paced around the group in turn.

  Watched for threats.

  I recognized his glances around the place from my own habit of assessing infiltration points and security vulnerabilities.

  The military truck backed up to the tower's rear doors sure looked like the same truck the tangos left at the tunnel entrance. Maybe if I'd disabled it on my way into the tunnel . . .

  No, the MPs were responsible for securing the truck as evidence.

  Back at HQ, Lee had reported two of the MPs were dead, the third in the hospital with a concussion.

  The sergeant in charge of the MP detachment had explained to Captain Grant that he'd been on a food run while the enemy attacked his men.

  Lee requisitioned me a replacement phone from platoon stores. We'd left him behind to hunt for more info on the attackers.

  Major Williams ordered
Schnier's platoon to secure the close-in perimeter. From there, they'd assess how to take the North Korean terrorists down.

  The 75th RRC's sniper teams scattered themselves around the park's closest trees and stone walls.

  With quad night vision, they'd see the tower's defenders much easier than they'd be seen.

  Their equipment included streaming cameras to give us 360 degree live coverage of the tower.

  A small team in the plaza, out of sight of the front doors, readied a frontal assault.

  I'd tagged along as a technical adviser, outfitted in fresh tactical gear from the company's lockers.

  Michelle, dressed for a winter expedition in one of the Metro cop's puffy coats, stood off to the side explaining the facts of life to D.C. on her mobile phone.

  She fiddled with heart locks on the fence while talking.

  Told D.C. in no uncertain terms that if they didn't want Seoul to be a radioactive crater, they needed to fill our requests.

  The dude in D.C. didn't sound happy, but neither were we.

  Bishop stood next to me in that semi-relaxed posture a sergeant learns from hurry up and waiting for hours at a time.

  Schnier stopped his pacing next to Bishop. "Start again with the basics. Why didn't they keep any hostages in the tower? Why take the tower now, and not last week, or next week?"

  Bishop handed me a tiny encrypted flash card. "Play that. Can never get 'em to work on my phone."

  I plugged the card into my phone. "You have to transfer the file over to decrypt it first. Can't just play it straight from the card."

  We listened to the audio of Meon's ransom demands.

  My heart sunk.

  The timing of Meon's demands might be yet another disaster I was responsible for.

  After capturing him, he'd not only warned the dudes guarding the data, but he'd sent them across the border with their lone portable nuke.

  "They don't need hostages in the tower. Holding a dead man's switch on the bomb, we're all their hostages. Everyone from the tower or the park, every soldier at Yongsan base, every civilian in Seoul."

  Schnier scratched behind his ear. "Why here?"

  "So the nuke will be like an air-burst. The combined 500-meter height of the hill and tower means the shockwave will bounce off the ground and fold back into itself, spreading the blast wave and radiation farther horizontally.

  "Gives it a much bigger effective range."

  Schnier tucked his arms into his uniform jacket's armpits. "Even if they have a dead man's switch, I need to fix up an assault plan."

  "You don't get it. The fact that they chose the tower tells us they're keeping it near the top. Otherwise, they could've picked anywhere."

  I stepped toward him to emphasize my point.

  He stretched his arms like swords by his sides. Leaned a little too close to my face for my taste.

  "I get it fine, Harper. If'n we sit here on our thumbs, this city gonna fry."

  Bishop cut between us. Put his arms out like a referee at an MMA fight.

  "Lieutenants, this is a good time to make use of our diverse talents as a team to figure out what we're gonna do about that nuke."

  He lowered his voice to yell at us under his breath. "This isn't the time for either of you to cop an attitude."

  Couldn't help myself, but at least I kept my own voice low, "He doesn't know what he's doing."

  Bishop's eyebrows narrowed. He focused his eyes on mine. "Work it out together."

  Schnier nodded. "Harper, don't forget, you're supposed to be my platoon's intelligence support."

  Bishop turned to glare at Schnier. "Let it go. Your attitude is affecting the team as much as his family-history issues. Forgive and forget."

  Schnier lowered his gaze to the ground. Kicked a small pile of snow.

  Ever the diplomat, I changed the subject, "We should locate Hyo-jin. She'd be able to calculate the exact danger zone. Let me call her. See if she can join us here."

  Straight to voice mail, as if her phone was off. Must've let the battery run down while she focused on her work.

  Oh well, we'd ride this wave without her.

  Bishop let his carbine hang loose in front of him. Braced his hands on his hips.

  "Now, what about stormin' the entrances at the base of the tower? Snipers can take out anyone who fires from the edges above, so we can focus on the hallways.

  "Lee is working on video footage of their entrance. That'll get us a better count, but can't be many of 'em defending the place."

  Schnier shook his head. A loose strap allowed his combat helmet to wiggle back and forth. "Can get into the base of the tower, but my team's been looking at site diagrams.

  "Assuming they were smart enough to put men up that middle pipe, at the top of the elevator shafts, it's a death trap to climb from the base to the observation and restaurant levels."

  I hated to admit it, but, "He's right. They'll sacrifice the ground level and detonate the nuke if it looks like we're making progress up the central shaft."

  Bishop didn't need to ream me out in front of Schnier, even if he knew there was no way we'd bring it up with Williams.

  I could infiltrate the tower on my own. Put the defenders out of position, like Schnier's platoon in San Diego.

  No defense is impenetrable.

  Like the Maginot Line, I had to go around. To hit them from the other side.

  Would anyone notice if I slipped away to get a ride? Maybe I could borrow a bird at Seoul Air Base.

  Bet I could take the enemy tonight if I left right now. If it worked, the Rangers would have to accept me.

  Bishop tapped the short range encrypted radio hanging from his tactical belt.

  "They've ruled out evacuating the city. Too many casualties from the crowds of people trying to escape; too much risk it's noticed by the enemy and Meon makes good on his threat.

  "The powers-that-be are experiencing a serious denial of reality right about now, but Meon's deadline isn't until the morning."

  Schnier shook his head like he had rocks inside he needed to dislodge. "We'll try before then, but getting my men killed in the elevator shafts won't stop that nuke."

  He reached up to clamp his helmet down and tighten the loose strap.

  Michelle stalked over to rejoin us.

  "Useless in D.C. Said they'd look for one of those EMP bombs you asked about, Sam, but I wouldn't hold out any hope of someone flying one to us from the States before the deadline."

  I shrugged. "Long-shot anyway. That's a communications tower on top, so the place is well shielded. With an EMP we might get the bomb's detonation mechanism at the cost of all the electronics in the city, but I wouldn't want to count on that to save everyone's lives.

  "More of a last-ditch effort kind of thing."

  My new phone rang. The screen showed the caller as Sergeant Lee.

  I answered, "You're on speaker phone with Schnier, Bishop, and Michelle."

  Lee's voice echoed out of my phone like he was on the other side of a tunnel, "Reviewed the footage around the tower from the take-over. Counted eight tangos entering. What looks like a trashcan nuke was definitely in the back of that truck."

  Schnier bowed his head toward my phone, "We can take eight of them, if my men can get a jump on them."

  Lee wasn't done, "Doctor Yang arrived before they did. Watched it three times to be sure. She enters the tower right when the crowds start leaving, but never returns. Definitely still inside."

  Hyo-jin was in there with those mass murderers? Hyo-jin?

  No wonder she hadn't answered my call.

  "Her detector. Must've been testing her nuclear materials detector and stumbled on them."

  The detector she wanted me to help her troubleshoot, but I'd blown her off because I was uselessly traversing North Korean hills. I was so jacked up.

  Maybe I should take off and drop in on top of the tower by myself.

  I managed to mumble, "Is that all?"

  "Got an ID on the guys who were
giving the orders. People's Army special forces. Lieutenant Pahk Geon and Lieutenant Kwon Chol. Kwon appeared to be in charge."

  Michelle pushed Schnier away from my phone, "How common is 'Kwon Chol' as a name? How much info do you have on his background?"

  My phone vibrated. An alert showed a priority email from Hyo-jin.

  "That'll have to wait. May have inside information. We'll get back to you."

  Hung up on Lee. Opened the message. Showed it to the others.

  Hyo-jin sent a brief explanation that the terrorists must not have experience with the Internet. They'd let her keep her tablet, now connected to the tower's WiFi network instead of her phone.

  She'd attached pictures.

  Photos of her restraints. A shot out the window of the observation deck area, so we could tell which side they'd tied her to.

  Of Kwon sitting on a bench next to a table, eating dinner while holding a dead man's switch.

  A red thumb-button. Spring-loaded. Wired to fire the device on the table.

  The nuke holding us all hostage.

  Chapter Forty: Dead End

  Jin-son's Mother put their leftovers from dinner into the refrigerator.

  Looked forward to a steamy bath tonight, so she had the water running into her tub in the bathroom.

  Jin-son would stay up late playing his game, like he always did, but she could relax after a long day running her seamstress business and taking care of the boy.

  A fist pounded on her apartment's front door.

  She forced herself to expel a long breath. Not the secret police.

  No secret police here in the South, not like when she was a girl.

  Probably an anxious neighbor, wanting to borrow some vinegar. "One moment."

  She bustled over to her door, drying her hands on her apron. Peeked out the peephole.

  A blurry pair of soldiers, carrying long black guns, one foreigner, one Korean. Someone tall in a dark suit behind them.

  Did the secret police come for her?

  She blinked her eyes. Squinted. Looked again.

  Toby Howell.

  The man behind the soldiers was that officious bureaucrat from the American embassy.

  She unlocked the deadbolt. Opened the door.