Mitchell left Atsuko standing there and went in search of Satomi’s butler. He wanted a fresh pot of coffee and something to eat.
Precisely five minutes later, Atsuko and her father sat on one side of the table while Mitchell, Yuri, and a very agitated Jackson sat on the other. Satomi’s butler placed a carafe of coffee on the table along with a plate of sandwiches and then quietly left the room.
Mitchell began by telling Atsuko and her father of Daniel’s kidnapping and the failed attempt on Jen. Shaking her head, she said that she was unaware that Cypher was planning to abduct anyone. The genuine look of confusion in her eyes convinced Mitchell that she was telling the truth.
“He wouldn’t have taken Daniel unless he wanted something from us, and I’m betting that something is you,” said Mitchell firmly, looking into Atsuko’s tired eyes.
“Why would he want Atsuko back?” said Mister Satomi. “You yourself said he tried to have her killed on Matua Island.”
“Sir, I suspect that he sees your daughter as nothing more than a liability. If she were to go to the police right now, with what she knows about him and his operation, she could scuttle everything he has been working toward. He’s going to suggest a trade… Atsuko for Daniel.”
Taro Satomi sat back in his chair. He knew Mitchell was right; he just didn’t know what to say.
“This whole thing is beginning to really piss me off,” said Jackson. “Just what the hell is he up to?”
Atsuko took a deep breath and then, with a sad look on her face, she began. “Gabriel Cypher was hired by Colonel Hwan, a North Korean officer, to develop a foolproof method to cripple the United States. This would then allow North Korea to unify the Korean peninsula under its leadership.”
“And just how was he going to accomplish this?” asked Yuri.
“Using the plans I gave him years ago, Gabriel already had an idea in the back of his mind on a new type of weapon of mass destruction. Namely, a tectonic bomb capable of causing an earthquake wherever and whenever an opponent pleased. Unfortunately, his scientists made a couple of errors, and the first field test was an utter disaster. Instead of causing an earthquake, they somehow released the energy aboveground in a deadly pulse, which shattered the tissues in any living organism in its path. It was this wave that killed the students your people were looking for in the Gobi Desert.”
“So he arranged to whisk you away to his factory in Mongolia to be by his side in exchange for the security protocols to your father’s safe so he could obtain the missing information required to correct the problems with his bombs,” said Mitchell.
“Yes,” replied Atsuko sadly.
“Where… where does he intend to use the bombs?” said Jackson, his voice growing angry and agitated.
“He’s going to use them against your nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”
“The what?” said Yuri.
Mitchell looked over at Yuri. “The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is based in four locations in the southern U.S. If memory serves me, there are two in Texas and two in Louisiana. The oil is stored in massive underground chambers that are themselves manmade salt domes. They hold altogether over seven hundred million barrels of oil, which, if rationing wasn’t in place, would keep the U.S. running for about six months. After that, we would be out of oil.”
“And unable to support your allies,” added Atsuko.
“Where has Cypher gone?” asked Jackson.
“If he’s keeping to Colonel Hwan’s plan, he intends to detonate a device near the Big Hills Reserve which, according to the computer simulations we ran, will be completely demolished. The focused electromagnetic energy burst will act like a nutcracker, easily shattering the salt domes, turning them into granules finer than sand. The resulting release of one hundred and sixty million barrels of oil into the local environment will make last year’s spill in the Gulf of Mexico look like a mere picnic.”
“Why there?” asked Yuri.
“It was the easiest target. It is all part of a larger plan being orchestrated by Colonel Hwan. After the installation at Big Hill is destroyed, the North Korean ambassador to the UN will ask to meet with the president of the United States and lay out for him exactly how the disaster occurred. In exchange for not interfering with North Korea’s plans to annex the South, they will vow not to destroy the three remaining installations.”
“This is madness,” uttered Taro Satomi. “This will lead to war.”
“I am sorry, Father,” said Atsuko. Burying her head in her hands, she began to cry.
“We need to tell the general,” said Yuri. “He needs to warn the authorities in Texas.”
“I don’t know about that. I don’t want a bunch of trigger-happy cops chasing after Cypher, not while he has my boy,” said Jackson firmly.
“We have time,” said Mitchell. “I’ll wager a month’s wages that we get a call from Cypher before too long.”
With that, Mister Satomi’s butler walked back in the room. Apologizing for intruding, he placed a phone on the table, pushed the speaker button down, and then asked the man on the line to speak.
“Good afternoon, everyone,” cheerfully said Gabriel Cypher. “I suspect that aside from Taro and Atsuko Satomi, Ryan Mitchell and Nathaniel Jackson are sitting in the room.”
Yuri was going to say something, when Mitchell raised a hand cutting him off. The less Cypher knew, the better, reasoned Mitchell.
“You are correct,” said Mitchell.
“What have you done with my boy, you son of a bitch?” snarled Jackson. If he could have crawled through the line, he would have done so and choked the life out of Cypher right then and there.
“Mister Jackson, I wish there would have been a better way to handle this delicate situation. However, I can assure you that your son is fine. No harm has come to him, and none should, if you do as I say. I would like you all to join me here in Big Hill, Texas. Bring Atsuko Satomi with you; I will gladly trade Daniel for her. Now, doesn’t that sound like a good deal?”
“I’ll have to ask,” said Mitchell, looking over at Atsuko.
With tears in her eyes, Atsuko meekly nodded.
“It looks like we have a deal. Where and when do wish us to rendezvous with you?”
“I will send Atsuko an email with all the pertinent details. I look forward to meeting you in the flesh, Mister Mitchell.”
“As do I… as do I,” said Mitchell, abruptly ending the call.
42
“Come again?” said President Kempt, placing his reading glasses on the table in front of him.
“Sir, I have it from several reliable sources that South Korea’s interim president, Shin Seong-il, was found dead in his home less than an hour ago,” explained Harold White, the president’s Secretary of State. With his white hair and taste for bowties, White looked more like an African American schoolteacher than a key member of President Kempt’s inner circle of advisors.
“What happened?”
“As far as I can determine from the preliminary reports my office has received, it looks like he went for a jog on his treadmill and died from a heart attack.”
“Any suspicion of foul play?”
“None that I have heard of.”
“My God.” Kempt shook his head. “Who is the logical successor?”
“The person they will most likely ask to lead the country until the next election is Kim Soo-Mi. She is the current Minister of Education and has publically stated her desire to retire from politics after the next election.”
“What can you tell me about her?”
White dug out a pair of glasses and placed them on his nose. Looking over a prepared memo, he said, “She is fifty-three years old and is the daughter of a South Korean diplomat. As a child, she travelled extensively and was educated in both Great Britain and the States. She has a Master’s Degree in Education from Columbia University. Fluent in Korean, English, and Japanese, Mrs. Kim is the ideal candidate.”