Steve Abbott - Devil's Gambit

The Admiral nodded. “Sure, that makes sense. They’ve been at each other’s throats for a long time. So let’s examine the other option. Why attack mainland Japan? It’s not like they are overtly threatening the North right now. Hell, there are at least a million North Koreans living in Japan right now. It’s where young Kim Jong Un gets almost all of his foreign currency and luxury goods. He has to realize that if he hit Japan, we would wipe his country from the face of the earth.”

Gayle saw Chun’s face stiffen at the Admiral’s last comment. Oh well, now was not a time to watch people’s feelings. She spoke up, “To be honest, Admiral, it is not our problem to figure out motive. Ours is the problem of eliminating those warheads from ever being used.”

“Of course you are Captain and I’m trying to assist you as much as I can.”

Gayle’s face hardened at the rebuff. She kept her voice calm. Now was not the time. “Yes, sir.”

Sung stood beside his UAZ 469 jeep and watched the last of the long line of trucks carrying the civilian contingent of Chanjon disappear in a green gray smudge of canvas and dust. Members of the Combat Engineer unit had strung concertina wire and erected barricades across the road before the dust had settled.

“Your men work very fast,” Sung remarked to the Engineer Colonel who stood beside him as his crew, done with the road tasks, began to erect a temporary guard post out of sandbags and boards.

The Colonel acknowledged the compliment with a nod of his head. “It is our job to be fast. Anything less would be a failure for all.”

“And the anti-air defenses?”

“All in position and functioning.”

“And…”

The Colonel held up his hand. “Comrade Sung, there has been no increase in activity nor have we detected anything that would indicate an interest by the Americans in this place.”

The man’s confidence grated on the director’s nerves. “Colonel, I cannot stress the importance of your mission here. Security must be maintained at all costs. The very future of our country depends on it.”

The Colonel smiled. “Comrade Sung, we control all you see and a great deal you do not. Trust me, if there is an attempt to compromise your mission, we are up to the task of dealing with it.”

“I hope, for your sake, you are right. The Supreme Leader does not suffer failures lightly.”

The C-17 Globemaster landed hard. It had been a long fight and the pilots were tired. The huge cargo plane was hooked to a tow cart minutes after landing and pulled to a large remote hanger at the far end of the base.

Donovan and his flight and engineering crews swarmed down the ladder to the two Hinds. Outside, through the minuscule porthole windows, other ground crew could be seen attaching power and hydraulic umbilical lines to plug-in points on the aircraft fuselage.

The Colonel cupped his hands around his mouth to be heard over the din that now filled the bay. “Okay people! Okay! Settle down. You know what has to be done. Now we only have fifteen hours to get these two birds back together and in flying condition.” He cracked a smile. “And seeing as how we’re not going to be able to take a test flight beforehand to check out your work, it had better be up to scratch the first time.” Scattered chuckles bounced off the cargo bay walls. Donovan looked at his chief engineer. “Because, if you fuck this one up, I’m gonna be real busy haunting all of you.”

The Chief whirled around and got his men moving. “You heard the man. Let’s go. Move it!”

Donovan nodded to Mac and pointed at the rear door. Both men moved towards it. He had to find the SEAL Team leader and whoever their liaison was over here. They had a mission to plan and he still didn’t know what the hell was going on.

The SEAL’s C-17 landed about ten minutes after Donovan and his group. Their equipment load out was based on the operation they expected to find. The orders had at least told them it was a combat insertion. The Globemaster’s hold was filled with all manner of weapons and explosives. The load master and his crew made it plain; they could hardly wait to offload the stuff.

Hunter stood watch by the now-open rear cargo door. All sixteen members of SEAL Team Three were present. There had been no discussion of volunteering from Special Operations command. That gave Hunter no comfort. SOCOM’s orders had been vague and very thin on intel.

“Lt. Commander Hunter?”

Hunter turned to see at the bottom of the ramp, a fairly attractive, dark-haired woman in a uniform green, flight suit coverall. He spotted the gleam of Captain’s bars by her throat right away. He also took in the two men behind her. One was in a Russian uniform. The other was in non-descript camouflage work dress. They came across as competent, at anything. Hunter smiled. He knew the type and then he recognized one of the faces and got a nod followed by a shake of the head. What the hell was Sean Addison doing here?

“Yes ma’am, I’m Hunter.”

She strode up the ramp, the two men right behind her. Gayle held out her hand. “Gayle Ecevit. I’m the NEST Team leader.”

“I see.”

Gayle pointed to her two partners. “Captain Yevgeny Solikov, GRU. Sergeant Sean Addison, SAS.”

Hunter ignored the two men and cut to the chase, “So who is going to tell me what the hell this is all about?”

Gayle handed him a thick file folder. “That’s your target information and you already know we’re going to use the Hinds as part of the insertion. Initial mission briefing is in two hours.” Gayle frowned. “I know this is all on very short notice, but I’m also sure that you watch the news.”

Hunter grinned. “It’s been a long time since I was in Korea. Hell, I’m even in the friendly part this time.”

“In two hours then Lt. Commander.” Gayle turned to leave. Yevgeny moved to follow.

Sean held back. “Just want to check some of their ordinance, Captain.”

“Just stay out of trouble, Addison,” she shot back over her shoulder. Sean waited till she disappeared from the circle of light around the rear of the aircraft.

“I thought you were dead?”

Sean shrugged. “So did I at one point, but we were able to tag an AWACS and they routed one of your rescue choppers in to get us out.”

“How bad was it?”

“We lost two.”

Hunter spat out on to the tarmac. “That’s a bitch.”

Sean nodded slowly, remembering. “Eddie was one of them.”

“Fuck. How?”

“Lucky shot. They were hosing us down pretty good at the LZ. He took one in the chest just before the chopper landed. The helo’s door gunners blasted the crap out of the perimeter. I’m pretty sure they got most of the attacking patrol.”

Hunter shook his head. “Even so. Did you at least get your primary?”

“Yeah. Turned into a real hornet’s nest after we blew them. At first we were just going to take out the command module in the TEL’s, but Eddie figured we could slap a chunk of PE4 with a timer on the rocket body for a bit of an added bang. He rigged up some kind of two-stage unit. The first charge punched a hole in the skin and the second set the whole thing off.”

Hunter grunted in approval. “Talk about your scorched earth policy.”

“Staff seemed to think so. Eddie got the DCM out of it. Bill is here too, by the way.”

“Harris?” Hunter chuckled low in his chest. “How much of our gear has he filched?”

Sean grinned back at him. “Hunter, you’ve only been here for half an hour and already you’re blaming us for kit you must have lost in transit?” Both men had a good laugh, then the tone grew serious.