Mark Greaney - Full Force and Effect

“It is a personnel recovery device. Place the adult male in one basket with the male child. Put the two adult women together with the female child. We didn’t know about the Australian. We are expediting the backup UAV to your poz, but be advised, you’ll be waiting there five mikes.”

Adam spoke even softer now so Hwang and his wife could not hear, although they did not speak English. “Is this shit gonna work?”

“Affirmative, Avalanche. Those UAVs are top secret. Code name Freebird. They are tested at three hundred pounds per aircraft, well over the weight requirement needed. The baskets are not pressurized, so the ride will be low and a little bumpy, but it won’t be too bad.”

“Oh . . . okay. Any chance I can squeeze in?”

“Unless your new friend weighs less than forty-five pounds, I do not recommend it. The aircraft becomes unstable above three hundred twenty-five pounds.”

Adam started to speak, but the male voice told him to wait. After a few seconds he came back on the line, his voice more agitated.

“Be advised, Avalanche. We are monitoring military helicopters moving into your sector. Twelve minutes out at current speed. Get that cargo on board, seal the hatch, and go find some cover. We’ll do the rest, sir.”

“Okay.” He was more resolute this time with his reply, not because he now felt much better about flying in the Freebird, but rather because now that he knew DPRK helos were inbound, he felt much worse about standing around here pondering his options.

He ran over to Hwang and spoke in Mandarin. “Quickly. You and your family will fly in these airplanes.”

“Those aren’t airplanes!”

The man did have a point, Adam conceded to himself, but he knew he had to appear steadfast. “They are perfectly safe. We do this all the time.”

“Where are the pilots?”

Adam would have said the pilots were sitting safe and comfortable, maybe thousands of miles away, because he didn’t like this idea one bit, but he needed Hwang to comply.

So instead he said, “You’ll meet them when they land. These are remote-controlled UAVs.”

“I . . . I don’t know.”

“Dae Wonsu’s helicopters will be here in ten minutes. Do you know what will happen if the Army catches you and your family?”

Adam knew his argument was convincing, but he was surprised by the quick one-eighty. Hwang said, “We should go now.”

“Exactly.”

The children were actually the easiest part of the equation. They let Adam pick them up with no complaints. He placed Du-ho into one Predator, and then Hwang climbed in behind him. Adam put Min-hee into the other Predator, and then Dr. Powers climbed in along with Mrs. Hwang.

There was room for one more child in Hwang’s aircraft. But there was not enough room for a CIA officer.

Adam pushed the buttons to close the two baskets. He wanted to say, “Good luck,” but decided against it. Instead, still in Mandarin, he said, “See you in a little while.”

—

The first UAV taxied around, facing away from the direction of the approaching helicopters, and began accelerating up the straight road. The second turned and followed, not one hundred yards behind.

They climbed into the air one after the other. Adam felt the squeeze of tension in his stomach as they rose toward the green hill.

They disappeared into the night in under a minute.

He heard a voice on the sat phone, which he had lowered while watching the extraction. “Repeat last, Freedom ?”

“Be aware, third UAV approaching from south. Get off the road so it can land.”

“Copy that.”

Adam ran over to stand next to the SUV, and he listened for the arriving Predator. When he heard it he could tell it was flying a lot faster than the others, because the pitch was much higher.

The aircraft banked over the hill next to the road, lined up on final approach, and increased its descent.

And then it exploded in a fireball.

Adam shielded his eyes from the light and shouted into the sat phone. “ Freedom , you just lost the UAV!”

After a quick pause the reply came. “Roger, Avalanche. Inbound helos took it out with an air-to-air missile. You need to get out of there now!”

Adam dove into the SUV and turned the engine over. He stomped on the gas and raced up the road. Two attack helicopters came over the hill on his right, swooping down at nap-of-the-earth height. They flew over Adam, then banked around hard, and came back in his direction.

He floored it. As he accelerated up the road, the two helos passed on a gun run. Shells rained down on the road right in front of him, but they landed long.

Adam knew he wouldn’t survive another pass. He had a half-mile before getting to the highway, and they could pick him off there just as easily. He had to get out of the SUV and into the trees.

He pushed the engine as fast as the Pronto would go on the straight dirt road, then he popped the transmission into neutral. He opened his door and dove out into the low grass by the road. The SUV continued on.

Adam tumbled end over end, slamming his knee into a rock as he bounced on the earth. As soon as he stopped rolling, he climbed to his feet and limped into the hillside forest.

He heard the helos fire again at the vehicle, and then he heard a huge explosion. The SUV had taken a hit to the gas tank, and now it burned in the road behind him.

He hoped like hell no one would look for him for the length of time it took them to discover no bodies inside the burning SUV.

Even though he was injured now, he was starting to feel very lucky, considering how close he had come to death.

But then he realized he’d left the sat phone in the SUV.

He dropped down into the grass, pounding the ground in frustration. It was more than twenty miles to the Yalu River. China was on the other side, and it was hardly welcoming, but it was all he had to shoot for. He pulled himself back to his feet and hobbled up the hill, blood running down his leg.

74

The two Freebirds flew out over Korea Bay, then south to Inchon. There the UAVs were shadowed by a pair of U.S. Navy Seahawk helos in case of mechanical problems over water. The UAVs had no problems, however, and landed at Osan Air Base without incident ninety-five minutes later, marking the first and second operational use of a Predator Freebird.

When the baskets were opened by CIA personnel at the airfield, everyone was alive, awake, and aware, although Hwang and his daughter had both vomited repeatedly in transit.

Hwang dropped to the tarmac, then helped his son out of the basket. Once Du-ho was on firm ground, Hwang ran over to his wife and daughter and hugged them both.

It was only then that he realized he was surrounded by Americans.

—

Twenty minutes later he sat in a conference room in an administrative building at the airfield. He’d been given a change of clothes and a bottle of water, but no one had spoken directly to him until an American woman in her sixties entered the room with a Korean woman wearing the uniform of the United States Air Force. The Korean woman informed Hwang that she would be his translator. He nodded, but his eyes were on the other woman in front of him. “I want to speak to someone in charge.” The translator relayed this in English.

Mary Pat Foley replied, “I am the director of all the combined intelligence agencies for the United States of America. Will I do?”

Hwang looked to the translator, then back to Mary Pat. “Yes. You will do.”

She spent twenty minutes establishing who Hwang was, what he knew, and what access he had. Afterward, she left the room for an hour.

When she came back, she said, “Here are our terms. We want every piece of information you have. Everything about your operation. If we are satisfied with what you give us, in return you will receive political asylum in the United States. If you would like to relocate to South Korea, I feel confident we can see that this happens, but that is ultimately up to the South Koreans.”