Then suddenly the man to Kim’s left shouted and pointed.
“Tongmu Captain, look.”
The line of men froze in place. Lying in a ditch in front of them were five soldiers from another patrol. They were motionless and covered in blood.
These soldiers were shot.
CHAPTER 48
Tom pointed his ADS at the crowd of soldiers. He was holding it in his left hand. He kept it tucked onto his hip, allowing him to keep it stable without keeping both hands on it. He set the beam on the widest setting, so it would not shoot at a point but in a wide area. He thought of it like squeezing the end on a garden hose so that the water came out as a shower instead of a sharp stream. In his right hand he held his Sig Saur pistol. Tom knew exactly what he was going to do.
Tom squeezed the trigger on the ADS. Instantly, each of the 40 soldiers standing around erupted into a scream. Some started jumping up and down. Others dropped to the ground and started wiggling around and rolling. Some of the soldiers started to take their uniforms off. They had no idea what was happening because they were not trying to step away like the soldier did on the test range. They did not know there was a beam hitting them. Tom imagined that they just thought their bodies had caught fire. As Tom watched, he thought it looked like some kind of spontaneous dance ritual. Men were jumping, rolling, shaking and frantically waving their arms. The sound of their loud screams cut through the quiet night like a sharp knife.
Tom held the trigger and kept shooting the beam at the KPA unit as he started to walk slowly towards the crowd. Tom had remembered one small unit infantry tactic they had learned in SEAL training. It was an older tactic that was not often used by modern military forces. It was called marching fire. A unit would march forward towards the enemy and start firing without taking much time to aim. In modern warfare, military units typically leapfrogged. This meant that one soldier would lay down a stream of fire to make the enemy hide, while another soldier ran forward. Then the soldier who ran forward would start firing, allowing his colleague to run forward. This way they could securely advance towards an enemy. But marching fire was different. A unit would simply fire and walk forward simultaneously. It looked crazy, but it had success during World War II. Tom remembered reading General Patton’s memoirs and being surprised that Patton was a major proponent of marching fire and his units in World War II used it often.
Tom now did what Patton would have had him do. He slowly moved forward while hitting the soldiers with his beam. He had now walked almost half way towards them. None of the soldiers had a rifle in his hands any longer. None even saw Tom. They were solely focused on their burning pain. Tom figured that he had been holding the beam at them for almost seven seconds — already more than double what most test subjects could withstand. Now as Tom approached, he spotted the man who had been holding a radio in his hands earlier. The radio was now lying on the ground next to the man, who was writhing on his back. Tom took aim with his pistol in his other hand and pulled the trigger. The radio exploded and started releasing smoke.
Now they can’t call anyone for help.
Tom continued walking and soon was within ten feet of the crowd. He had been hitting them with the ADS for 10 seconds now. He released the trigger and pointed his pistol at them. He started motioning with his pistol by waving it in a circle. He was signaling to roll on their stomachs. After a few seconds, a few of the soldiers actually noticed that there was a black uniformed figure standing above them. Some of the soldiers instinctively reached for their rifles. One soldier on Tom’s right grabbed the butt of his rifle and started pulling it in. Tom shot him with his pistol. Another soldier tried to do the same on his left and Tom shot him as well. He saw the men’s faces looking up at him — many of them had burn marks already. The crowd, now having fully noticed Tom, started moving as if trying to stand and many now tried reaching for a gun.
I’ll give them a reminder.
Tom pulled the trigger on the ADS and the crowd of soldiers started screaming again. One soldier tried to get up and run away from the beam. Tom shot him with his pistol.
Then Tom ceased firing with his ADS. Now he made another motion with his pistol for the soldiers to roll on their stomachs. He raised his ADS to show that he was ready to use it again. This time the men complied. Within seconds the entire group was on the ground, on their chests with their arms out. Some of them took longer to roll over. They all looked burned.
“Yankee Actual. What are you going to do with them? Over.”
“I’m going to flexcuff them. Over.”
Tom pulled out the plastic handcuffs he carried on missions. He realized he did not have enough to cuff each soldier individually. He thought about how he could securely tie up all of the soldiers with only the fifteen or so cuffs he had. First he got back on the radio.
“I’m going to put my radio on loudspeaker. Give the microphone to Mr. Park. Tell him to tell this group that they are surrounded and we will shoot if they move or talk. Over.”
“Yankee Actual. Standby.”
Tom switched his radio so that it would broadcast to the group. Then he heard Mr. Park’s soft voice.
“Tom, I’m ready.”
“OK go ahead.”
Mr. Park’s said a phrase in Korean two times. Tom saw the soldiers perk up their heads, as they heard something they could understand.
“Mr. Park, tell them to nod their heads if they understand.”
Mr. Park made a quick statement, and Tom saw that everyone lying down in front of him was nodding his head up and down. Tom walked up to the soldiers and started putting his flexcuffs on them. It took about one second to slip them on and tighten them, so in less than half a minute, over one third of the soldiers were lying with their hands cuffed behind their back. Tom started thinking what he would do next. On his typical missions, he never had to deal with tying up such a large force of enemy soldiers. Then again, he thought, this mission stopped being typical the moment he got on the beach.
He holstered his ADS on his back and pulled out his knife. He walked up to one of the dead soldiers who had tried to fight him. He took off the man’s shoes and then cut off the man’s pants. He only cut off the leg of the pants. Tom then cut down lengthwise and opened up a rectangle of strong cloth. He then started cutting strands widthwise from the rectangle of cloth. In less than one minute he had a pile of pieces of string. He looked up when he had finished cutting. None of the men on the ground had moved. He started walking up to the soldiers who were not yet cuffed and picked out the first two he saw. He aimed his ADS at them as he helped them to his feet. He then got back on his radio.
“Mr. Park, tell these two to take the strands of cloth I have here and tie everyone’s hands behind their backs. Tell them I will check each one and if they are not tight, I will shoot both of them.”
Mr. Park relayed the statement in Korean and soon the two soldiers were grabbing the strands of cloth and tying everyone’s hands. Tom stood back with the ADS aimed at them. He decided to have these soldiers tie up their colleagues because it would have taken too much time for him to do it. It would have been enough time for someone to grab a gun.
Once the two soldiers were finished tying everyone’s hands behind his back, they stood and looked at Tom. Tom motioned with his hand for them to turn around. Tom checked the knots they had tied and was pleased to see that they were tight.