“I hope, for your sake, you are right. The Supreme Leader does not suffer failures lightly.”
PUSAN AIRBASE, SOUTH KOREA
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.
“So, how do you guys put it? What’s the flap?” Hunter said.
Now it was Sean’s turn to shake his head. “Not here. This stuff is way too hot. Can we kick the pilots off the flight deck for about an hour?”
Hunter looked grim. “That bad huh.” He tugged at Sean’s arm. “Hell, if it’s gonna be my ass I sure as hell don’t see why not.” Hunter turned around and shouted to his Second in Command. “Dice. I have to go talk to the Sergeant here. If you see another asshole dressed like him going through our gear, shoot him.”
Dice smiled and turned back to what he was doing.
Sean followed Hunter towards the front of the aircraft. He saw a SEAL field stripping one of the navy MP5N submachine guns. “Nice to see you still get all of the nice toys.”
Hunter glanced over. “Oh those? Yeah, we just got them a while back. It’s a sweet bit of gear. You guys still using the Armalites?”
“They work well. Our MP5s are a little different of course. They just gave us the 10mm version to play with.”
Hunter’s eyebrows perked up. “How’s that one to fire?”
“Very nice. Better stopping power as well. I’m tempted to favor them over the 9mm. Besides, with the way your lot sucks up the ammo, it’s easier for me to get brass for them.”
Hunter climbed the short stairs to the flight deck and went through the small bulkhead door. Snippets of mumbled conversation drifted through the thin aluminum barrier. The flight crew emerged, climbed down the stairs and walked outside. Sean clambered up to talk to Hunter.
The Seal Commander was sitting in the pilot’s chair. Sean sat down next to him in the copilot position. Hunter twisted sideways so he could watch Sean’s face. “So spill it. Mission objectives and most important, what are we up against?”
Sean took a deep breath. “It’s not good. The NKs managed to steal three SCUD warheads from a Russian base. Tactical warheads, Bob. Their latest stuff. How doesn’t really matter at this stage. The warheads are on a sub. It managed to get by your Navy’s picket line and our main intel asset feels they are going to offload the units at the port of Chanjon. Photo reconnaissance of some anti-air stuff that sprung up overnight by one of your stealth drones backs this theory up. The Whitehouse and Whitehall have called for complete and assured destruction of the warheads’ arming, detonation and guidance units. The Russians and their lot have agreed. It’s a complete balls up, Bob. We could hit the sub in port with some of your stealth fighters out of Pusan during the unload, but the men in suits want confirmation.” Sean stared out of the cockpit window. “Hands-on confirmation. They want us to take the units out in person.”