"Rhee, until then, I am working on a most important assignment, I am not to be disturbed for any reason, do you understand?"
"Of course sir, I will see to it."
Kim had a lot of thinking to do
Chapter 56
Kim’s ride was waiting for him outside his office building when he strode out carrying his briefcase in his left hand and his flight case in his right.
The colonel’s uniform opens a lot of doors in North Korea, and he was ushered into the tack room and was in a flight suit in a matter of minutes.
He was in the left seat of the trainer five minutes later, and was at full power on the western runway when he firmly pulled back on the stick and headed into the firmament three minutes after that.
He reduced power for a steady climb and leveled off at fifteen thousand feet, twenty five miles from the airfield. He made the minimum radio calls required.
Then Kim made his final decision.
He made a mayday call on his regular frequency, then switched his radio frequency to the international distress frequency and made a similar call.
Instead of turning right when he crossed the coast, he turned left, applied full power and dove for the ground. The old plane shook as he pulled back on the stick, he hoped the old wings would stand the 4g shock and leveled out at one hundred and fifty feet. Low flying took a great deal of skill, and Kim was concentrating hard to miss the waves splashing below. This old bird had none of the modern navigation aids of terrain following radar guidance.
North Korea had been paranoid about attack from the south. It’s ageing Chinese and Russian radars were the spotters for their missile racks. Kim was betting that they were not expecting traffic south, or that they simple were switched off or inoperable, either way, Kim was right.
It is less then two hundred miles from Pyongyang to Seoul, even less from the military airfield east of the city. As he was approaching the border to the south, he made another mayday call on the international frequency, climbed to five thousand feet and throttled back to two hundred knots.
From the border it is only forty eight miles to the nearest military airbase.
Two minutes later he was joined by a pair of US made F-15K Slam Eagles in South Korean livery. They shook their wings, the international sign for follow me.
Kim breathed a huge sign of relief and followed his guardian angels to freedom.
As soon as Kim had taxied to a stop at the military airfield, his aircraft was surrounded by soldiers waving M-16s.
He shut down his engines for the last time, and climbed down slowly and announced in passable English "I am Colonel Kim of the Korean People’s Army Air force, I have important information, and request asylum in the United States."
Chapter 57
Kim was treated courteously, but was still kept under armed guard at all times, even when changing out of his flight suit.
He was given a simple meal and some tea. Kim had plenty of time and was not at all impatient. He had been waiting the best part of two hours when the door to the small office he was sitting in opened and the tallest man he had ever seen entered. His guards took this as their cue to wait outside.
"Colonel Kim, I am John Daley from the United States Embassy in Seoul. I understand you are requesting political asylum in the United States" said Daley in a slow Texan drawl.
"Thank you for coming Mister Daley, how soon can I go to the
United States?" replied Kim in even slower English.
"Colonel, things like this take some time, even if asylum is granted, it will take weeks to make the arrangements"
"I understand Mister Daley, but this will not take that long to happen I am certain" said a confident Kim.
"I have some knowledge that I must pass on to your President immediately. I will speak only to your President in person, and only after I have a written offer of asylum in the U.S."
"Dream on buddy, that’s just not going to happen, if that’s your attitude, I recommend you climb back into that rust bucket of an aircraft and fly on home!" commented the loud Texan.
"Mister Daley, please explain to your superiors that there is a Russian nuclear weapon involved, it will open some doors I think. Please communicate quickly. I don’t think you want to be held responsible for the sudden death of tens of thousands of your countrymen." Kim crossed his arms as if to say that was the last word.
Daley ran out the door of the office without another word.
He immediately called his superior, who called his superior. He in turn called his superior, who turned out to be the United States Commander-in-Chief, President Connolly.
Chapter 58
"Here is a map I have drawn for you so you don’t get lost" said Natasha. "Go out the front door, turn left and go about a kilometer then turn left. You will go over a bridge, and one of the few parks in this part of town. Then left again at the big gas tanks and then left back onto our street here" explained Natasha pointing to her hand drawn map.
"Ok, sounds fine to me. SARTIME is 8am" said Matt as he took off out the door and down the stairs.
Matt was making a better pace than the previous day. He had passed the bridge and the park. As he was approaching the gas tanks, Matt turned and ran right into a short but well muscled individual.
He started to apologize in Russian, when he noticed the man held a knife and was pushing Matt back between the gas tanks.
"Give me your phone and watch" said the man in gutter Russian. Matt remembered the tracking device in the phone and remembered the potential importance to his mission.
Without even thinking, Matt stepped forward toward his attacker and pushed the man’s knife hand away with both his forearms in a blocking move, taking the man by surprise. Matt took another half step forward with his right foot, behind the legs of the knifeman, whilst grasping the attacker’s right wrist with his left hand. Then Matt did a palm strike to the adversary’s chin which made his tripping move even more effective. The attacker went down head first, banging his head on the ground and rendering him unconscious. Next, Matt remembered his training without a thought. Always disarm your opponent. This was drummed in to him at The Farm. When he searched the man he found a lethal looking pistol in a pancake holster behind his back. This seemed a little odd to Matt, but nevertheless he grabbed the pistol and the knife and stuck them in his pockets. Next he checked that the guy was not dead. There was a pulse and this was enough for Matt.
He took off in an adrenaline rush and made it back to the apartment in almost double time, with only a quick stop to throw the gun and knife down a drain.
"What happened to you?" Natasha asked as Matt looked a little disheveled.
Matt explained exactly what happened, and was duly proud of his effort. This was the first time in his life he had ever hit someone in anger.
"See Matt, I told you Russia is not safe. I am glad you are ok. You must be very careful, nothing is quite what it seems here" Natasha warned.
Chapter 59