"I'm putting you on speaker," Nick said. "You said he was an aide?"
"He's dead. He shot himself with a .45. It made quite a mess."
"Are you certain he's the one?"
"Yes. It gets worse. We think he also copied our war plan for China."
"That could explain how Cotter got his hands on it."
"I'm more concerned about China getting hold of it. The FBI is going through everything in Sanford's home and office as we speak, looking for anything that could lead us to his handler."
"Phone records?"
"His regular cell phone is clean. They found a throw away with calls in the phone log from different numbers, all disposable. It's probably a dead-end, but you never know. We're looking at his finances now. If there's an unusual amount of money, it might be traceable."
"Why did he do it?"
"We'll find out. At least the mole has been found and the leak stopped. You could even say that justice of a sort has been served."
"That's not much consolation to the families of the men who went down in that sub," Nick said.
CHAPTER 25
Supreme Leader Yun Chul-Moo felt the floor tremble under his feet as the hydrogen bomb detonated in its underground tunnel.
"Well?"
He turned to Park Moon, the man in charge of North Korea's nuclear program. Park stood in front of an array of instruments recording effects of the explosion. He was smiling.
"Great Leader, I am pleased to say that the test is an unqualified success."
"What is the yield?"
"Better than we expected. Four point two kilotons. Enough to register on the Western sensors, but they cannot be certain it was anything except an earthquake."
"Will New Dawn be ready in two weeks?"
New Dawn was the name Yun had given the EMP weapon he would use to attack the United States.
"The launch vehicle will be ready in days. New Dawn lacks only placement of the fissile material and the triggering mechanism. Before we install the final components, we need to move it to the launch site. We should be ready to launch within two weeks."
"And what will be the yield of the weapon?" Yun asked.
"Again, better than anticipated. Based on the result of this test, I estimate yield of New Dawn at between twenty-nine and thirty-two megatons."
"Excellent, Comrade Park. You have done well."
Yun snapped his fingers. An officer rushed forward and bowed, holding out a flat, black case. Yun opened the case and withdrew a medal. For a moment, Park looked confused. Then he came to attention.
"Comrade Park. You are awarded the Order of the National Flag, First Class, for achievements in scientific superiority in service to the nation."
Yun pinned the medal on Park's white laboratory smock. He began clapping.
The two dozen officers and lab workers present clapped loudly.
Park bowed. "I am unworthy of such an honor, Great Leader."
What would he have done if the test had failed? Park thought.
"Continue with your work, comrade. I am sure you will not fail us."
"Never, Great Leader." Not if I want to stay alive.
When Yun had left, Park turned to his chief engineer, standing nearby.
"You had better be right about the device being ready."
"Everything is on schedule, Director. Unless we run into an unforeseen problem, we will be ready on time. But I wish you had said a month rather than two weeks."
"Would you care to be the one to tell Chairman Yun that his weapon cannot be ready for him when he wants it? I told him what he wanted to hear."
The chief engineer nodded. "That is always the wisest course of action," he said.
"Prepare the device for shipment to Musudan-Ri."
The two men walked out of the control center. Neither one noticed the technician monitoring the radiation readouts who'd been listening to their conversation, nor had they seen the look of dismay on his face when he'd heard Park confirm the enormous yield of the weapon.
Cho Lee loved his country, but he loathed its leader. He knew enough about New Dawn to know it could lead to the destruction of everything he loved. Even if it were successful and the American homeland was destroyed, the Americans had powerful forces deployed in other parts of the globe. Their vengeance would be ferocious. They would obliterate the nation with their nuclear weapons.
Someone had to stop it from happening.
Radioactive fallout would spread over the borders with China and Russia. The Chinese didn't know what Yun was planning, but they were part of the problem. They kept him in power for their own ends. They couldn't be trusted to do what was right.
That left the Russians.
CHAPTER 26
Alexei Vysotsky watched Valentina come into his office and sit down.
She really is a beautiful woman. I envy Orlov.
"Before you start, be careful what you say," Valentina said.
"I take it you were successful?"
"If you can call it that."
"I didn't ask you here to talk about your dalliance," Vysotsky said, "though I admit, I am curious. We can leave that for another time. A problem is developing in Korea and we're going to have to do something about it."
"What problem?"
"That idiot who calls himself the Supreme Leader intends to set off a massive EMP explosion over North America."
"That's insane. The Americans have plenty of assets outside of their homeland that would not be affected. They will annihilate him, probably with nukes. It will lead to chaos. We'll be drawn in."
"Exactly. Major commands like the Seventh Fleet have orders to act independently if central command is knocked out. Once they knew Yun was responsible, they would retaliate."
"A nuclear attack on North Korea would cover us with fallout."
"You see, Valentina? This is one reason you are the perfect person for this operation. You understand the consequences of failure."
"You haven't said yet what the operation is."
"I want you to go into North Korea with a team and destroy Yun's launch vehicle. It would be better to stop him on the ground rather than trying to shoot his missile down. There is always a chance we would miss."
"An assault team is highly specialized. They will resent an outsider, especially a woman. Why do you want me to go with them?"
"I want to get Harker's group involved and I want you to act as liaison with them."
"Are you serious? You want to bring in the Americans my sister works with? Why?"
Vysotsky reached into his desk drawer and took out the bottle of vodka he always kept there, along with two glasses.
"Think it through, Valentina. She and her comrades have proven themselves exceptional in the field. They specialize in operations like this. Like you, they are highly trained and capable of independent operation. They adapt. They are ruthless. If they were Russian, they would be my first choice for this. Your sister speaks and reads Korean. You have worked together before. A certain level of trust exists between you."
"She is still an American," Valentina said.
"Did you know Arkady Korov?"
Vysotsky filled the glasses with vodka.
"I met him a few times."
"He was a fine officer, dedicated. It was a great loss when he was killed. For a while he worked closely with your sister's unit. He came to trust them. Once suspicion was dispelled, they accepted him as an equal. If we do this on our own and something goes wrong, it will be a public relations disaster. It could even lead to war. Yun's launch site is not far from China. If we try to shoot down his missile, it could be misinterpreted by Beijing. Plus there is more to consider."