Steve Abbott - Devil's Gambit

Hunter could not believe what he was hearing. He knew he was expendable, but he had been trained to survive, at all costs. “Then why don’t we just nuke the place ourselves?”

“Authorizing the dropping of the third nuclear bomb in history can’t be too appetizing an option for your President.”

“But setting one off, while standing beside it is fine?”

Sean shrugged. “I’m not going to question the bigwigs running the show. They don’t give much of a shit about what I think anyway but they need to be sure, what if the North sold them to terrorists? What if they detonated one of these things in Tokyo or any other Japanese city? It’s got to be confirmed. You can’t be sure from ten thousand feet up.”

With a nod, Hunter acceded the point, “Yeah, you’re right. When are we going in?”

“As soon as that sub turns up. Gayle tells me the NSA has rerouted enough birds to give us almost hourly coverage.” Sean got out of the seat and moved to the cabin door. “We lost the sub on the other side of the Straits of Tushima. I’d give him about the next twenty hours to make it to port if he heads straight for it. But we probably have a little longer. The Captain of that boat is pure tactical. He knows the importance of his cargo. Plus, the NKs put a bunch of very noisy subs in the area to screw up our second task force. So far, it has worked like a charm for the bastards.” Sean put his hand on the knob of the door. “There is one other thing. We have a North Korean defector named Chun with us. He designed the Packchon and the Yongbyong facilities. He’s old, but he’s still a player. He whacked a couple of his own government’s security agents to escape. He’s going to be joining us.”

Hunter moved behind Sean. “Do you trust him?”

“As much as I’d trust any defector. I get the feeling he’s using us to get back there. I think he has some scores to settle. If he fucks off and you don’t have a clear shot, let him go. His own people are not the kindest when it comes to traitors.”

“You’re just a barrel of good news, Addison.”

Sean shrugged. What else could he tell the man? This mission had been screwed from the start. First by bureaucratic maneuvering and finally by the skill of a determined opponent. “Look Bob. I’ve said far too much already. If Ecevit knew what I just told you, she’d cut me and Bill completely out of this deal. As you so eloquently pointed out, we’re only here as advisers and that cover is wearing pretty thin.”

Addison was telling the truth. Hunter could see that. Sean could be a bastard at times, but he always gave the straight goods when it came to operations. Hunter had been on three black ops with Addison. The SAS man had always been a clean operator. Deadly and efficient. Trained to blend in, never stick out, just another face in the crowd. It was something Hunter had tried to eschew in his own team. Their own personal camouflage. Everyone had heard of the SEAL Teams Two and Six, both noted for their showdowns with local bar patrons in their home base towns. In comparison, SEAL Team Three had become a group of ciphers. Their hair was cut in civilian styles, they never let themselves be seen as they were leaving the base and they avoided confrontations with civilians like the plague.

“I’ll catch you at the briefing.” Sean disappeared out the port side door.

“Who’s the spook?” Dice said as Sean was leaving.

Hunter turned to Dice, his Second in Command. “Sean Addison, SAS. He’s not a spook.”

“A player then?”

“Three degrees colder than absolute zero. Yeah, he’s a player of the highest order. He makes Tarzan look like a first year Boy Scout in the jungle. Don’t fuck with the man, Dice, or his partner for that matter. Nothing good will come of it.”

Dice was surprised by his skipper’s tone. “Who the hell is he, James fucking Bond?”

“More like the Terminator when he gets going. I’ve seen him in action. Anyway, enough of this. If what he just told me is right, then this whole thing is starting to smell like a huge cluster fuck and I don’t feel like taking it up the ass. I’m getting too old for shit like that. Intel on this thing is nonexistent, not that we’ve ever trusted the intel boys. Get Smoke and the Chief up here pronto. Smoke’s gotta go for a little swim ahead of us. And the Chief has a bunch of gear to put together.”

Gayle put her pointer on the desk in front of her and looked out at the sea of serious faces that filled the cramped ready room. “And that, gentlemen, is what we are up against.”

Sean, Hunter and Yevgeny sat in chairs to the right of Gayle. They would start to field the operational questions. The F-22A and Harrier pilots had been briefed earlier. Everything about this mission was need-to-know. The two helicopter pilots and their crews were also present. They would be responsible for fire support and, if everything went well, the extraction. Donovan listened with a stone face but, deep inside, he gave little to their chances of getting out of this one alive. He wasn’t going to be fatalistic about it. A bad attitude seldom helped mission survivability. None of the SEALS looked any happier. They had been handed tough assignments before, but having to detonate a nuclear warhead in case things went badly did not sit well with them. It smacked of a predetermined failure.

“Morale is going to be a bitch on this op,” Hunter thought to himself. “Oh well, he hadn’t played all of his cards yet.”

Dice, Hunter’s 2IC, held up his hand. “Captain Ecevit, can you guarantee the location of these warheads?”

“We’re pretty sure that Chanjon is the place, Lieutenant. The North Koreans certainly have all the proper assets in place. The recent appearance of the SAM sites and control equipment would support our data.”

“Could it not be related to recent political events in Korea?”

Hunter cleared his throat. “Cut the lady some slack, Dice. The intel is as good as you’re going to get from the NSA. The boss has given us a job and we don’t question the boss.” The SEAL commander turned to Gayle. “Captain, with your permission, I’d like to take over the briefing.”

Gayle handed him the pointer and sat down beside Sean. Sean leaned over and whispered in her ear, “That was well done, Captain. You just showed these men that you’re not a showboat.”

Gayle ignored him, but inside, she was pleased with the compliment. She had never expected things to get this far. If only they had known the full extent of the game they were playing when they first started.

Hunter brought the pointer down on the podium hard enough to snap it in two. Everyone in the room jumped. He aimed the broken shaft into the room like a sword. “Now listen up, fuckers.” Hunter swept the room with his eyes, making sure he had everybody’s attention. “I don’t give a rat’s right nut how you feel about this job. You’ve been on tougher and you came back. You don’t come back from this one and you’re just some stupid cheese dick who should have been smarter. We don’t have much time, so doing this by the numbers isn’t going to work. The Chief has dug up a couple of South Korean PBRs. They’re going to get us into the waters on just the other side of Chanjon. Then it’ll be a nice little fifteen click drive to the beach.” Hunter smiled. “Smoke is already on his way in-country. He’ll try to make sure we don’t get too warm a reception. The minute that sub hits the dock, we nail the NKs with everything we have. Any wills you need to write or letters to prepare, you do it now. There’s not much time, so do it quick. Each one of you will be issued with a terminal action code and a missile key. If things go to shit and we can’t secure these devices and return them to a safe location, you are to get to a warhead, insert the key and punch in this code. At the very least, it will be quick. You’ll be sent off with the loudest twenty one gun salute in the history of our group.” This was getting depressing again. “Dice, I’m counting on you not to fuck up.”