Hunter stayed silent for a long time as he worked things through in his head. “So what’s the catch?”
Sean’s left hand moved over the copilot flight yoke contours. “We’re completely deniable. If this turns to a ball of shit, nobody knows anything. Not us, not the Koreans, nobody.”
And then came the last question; the only one that mattered. “Mission survivability?”
Sean just shook his head. “Your guess is as good as mine. The odds are against us on this one.” Sean shrugged. “I still think it can be done with the right set of lads.”
Hunter’s jaw took on a firm set. “I see.” The SEAL let out a low, deadly chuckle. “Well, it’s not the first time we’ve had shit odds.”
Sean wanted to smile but couldn’t.
Hunter reached inside his battledress tunic and pulled out a slim flask. “Personally, I hate the waiting.” He uncapped the flask and took a long swallow.
Sean took the flask from Hunter’s outstretched hand. It was bourbon. He took another swig to keep the first company. “I hate the waiting too.” The flask was passed back. “But what I really fucking hate is the insertion. Take offs and landings. They give me the bloody willies. I’ve never gotten used to my life being in the hands of somebody else.”
The cabin grew quiet as each man lost himself in the past for a moment. Faces and places long forgotten, dead men best left at rest. Each one, in some way, a personal failure.
Hunter broke the reverie with another question. “What do we have for support?”
Sean was glad to get back to business. “Your two Hinds, for starters. They’re going to paint them up in North Korean colors as soon as they’re put back together. There’s a huge power grid to the North of the town and a rail nexus pretty close to that. One of the cruisers in the Straits is going to take care of them with cruise missiles. If we could guarantee a night op, a couple of your stealth fighters would have done it, but we just don’t know where this sub is going to turn up. We’ll have to take out a couple of the SA6 sites and their command and control nexus by ourselves on the way in. Not my usual cup of tea, but what the hell. The two Hinds are going to destroy as many of the ground positions as they can. They will also provide us with our EXFIL route. Last of all, a couple of your Harrier’s are on call just in case we need to blow the living shit out of whatever.”
“And we’re just going to waltz in and steal everything back.”
“That’s the plan,” Sean said. He got the flask for another swallow.
“I bet you came up with this brilliant piece of work.”
“Does it show that much?”
“You’re still fucking crazy, Addison.”
Sean had a quiet laugh. “Seriously though, Bob, we try to take the units when they transfer them to the dock. That way all of the things are sitting in one place and out in the open.”
“And that doesn’t worry you?”
“Yevgeny assures me that the bomb casings are built to withstand terrible air friction and even near misses by anti-ballistic missiles. He tells me the things are quite bulletproof. Besides, what are you worrying for? They’ve gone to all this trouble to get the things here. They’re not going to run the risk of blowing them up.”
“You’re going to need a man in the water or at least close by to relay the information, or give us a wave off if things prove too impossible.”
“Not this time.”
Hunter ignored Sean. “Got a guy on my team called Smoke. The fucker is as silent as he is deadly. If anybody can slip in there unnoticed, he’s the one.”
Sean shook his head. “There isn’t enough time. We’ve got to have all of our shit together now and get in place before this sub arrives.”
Hunter nodded. “So you say but, fact of the matter is Sean, you’re only here in an advisory role. I’m the one calling the shots. I don’t trust intel for shit, so my guy goes in.” He took another pull from the flask. “Trust me, you’ll thank me later. We came pretty loaded. If we can’t find enough gear, I’ll have one of my Chiefs raid the base stores.”
“How soon can you get all of your kit together?”
“Give me about six hours to secure the right gear. We get the GO code and you can figure another eight to ten hours before they get us all on the beach. I can work out the insertion points from our real-time satellite data. But until we’re on the beach, it’s anybody’s guess how long it’ll take to get into position.”
“That’s cutting it pretty fine, Bob.”
“You want to give me a better scenario?” Hunter could feel Sean was holding something back. “If everything fails, what’s plan B?”
Sean dropped his eyes. “We detonate one of the warheads.”
Hunter felt like he had lost all of the air in his lungs. “What?”
“If all else fails, we load a terminal action code into the warhead and set it off on a timer. The GRU Colonel has the destruct codes. Everybody gets a key and a set of the codes. If we get into a major drama out there and everything goes for shit, it’s up to one of us to deny the things to these assholes.”
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.”