"I hired you for your experience. Let's see if I made the right choice. If you want to talk again, I'll be here."
Hood hung up. Noticing the slice of tomato still on his fork, he ate it. Liz gave him a little thumbs-up. Ann and Lowell just stared.
Hood touched the intercom. "Bugs, please get me a progress report from Matt."
"Coming right up."
Lowell said, "Paul, this will finish off Donald and us."
"What would you have had me do? He was going anyway, and I won't leave one of my people out there alone." Hood chewed slowly. "Besides, he may pull something off. He's a good man."
"Exactly," said Ann. "And everyone knows it. When video of Donald and the North Koreans is on the late night news tonight— video of a man who lost his wife and is still willing to forgive— we'll all be looking for jobs."
"That's okay," Coffey said. "We can go to work for North Korea. They'll owe us one."
"Have some faith," Hood said. He waved a finger between Coffey and Ann. "And you two have a plan in place in case he does screw up."
The phone beeped and Hood picked up. It was Stoll.
"Paul," he said, "I was about to call you. You'd better come over and see what I've found."
Hood was already out of his seat. "Give me the short of it."
"The short of it is, we've been had— big-time."
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
The Nodong missiles were modified North Korean Scuds.
The construction was virtually identical, one stage with a payload of up to two hundred pounds and a range of five hundred miles. With a payload of seventy-five pounds of high explosives, the Nodong could fly nearly six hundred miles. It was accurate within a half-mile radius of its target.
Like the Scuds, the Nodongs could be launched from fixed sites or mobile launchers. Silo launchers made it possible to launch multiple strikes within an hour, but were highly vulnerable to enemy retaliation. Mobile launchers could only carry one missile and had to be brought to hidden stockpiles for reloading.
Both the fixed and mobile launchers were operated by a one-key system, once the launch coordinates were programmed into the computer. Turning the key began a two-minute countdown, during which time the launch command could only be stopped with both the key and a cancellation code. The code was known only to the officer in charge. In the event that he was unable to give it, the second in command had to get the code from Pyongyang.
The Nodong was a relatively unsophisticated system as missiles went. But it was effective in its purpose, which was to keep Seoul honest with the threat of sudden destruction from the skies. Even with Patriot missiles in place, the danger was still very reaclass="underline" designed to track and strike at the missile itself, the Patriot often left the warhead intact, allowing it to fall and explode somewhere in the target zone.
Colonel Ki-Soo was the ranking officer at the site in the Diamond Mountains, and when the guard post radioed ahead to tell him of the arrival of Colonel Sun, he was taken by surprise. Resting in his tent, which was situated at the foot of a steep hill, the bald, oval-faced officer rose and greeted the jeep as it arrived. Sun handed him his orders without being asked, and Ki-Soo retired to his blackout tent.
When the tent flap was secure, he switched on the lantern, withdrew the papers from the leather pouch, and unfolded the single sheet:
Office of the High Command
Pyongyang, June 15, 4:30 P.M.
From: Colonel Dho Oko
To: Colonel Kim Ki-Soo
Colonel Lee Sun has been dispatched by General Pil of Intelligence Operations to oversee the security of the missiles under your command. He will not interfere with your operation unless it directly affects the security of the site.
Affixed to the bottom of the document were the seals of the General of the Armed Forces and of General Pil.
Ki-Soo carefully folded the document and replaced it in the pouch. It was authentic, but something didn't seem right about it. Sun had come with two agents— one man to guard each missile, which was sensible enough. Yet something wasn't right.
He looked at the field phone and thought about calling headquarters. Boots crunched on the gravel outside. Ki-Soo doused the lantern and pulled the flap aside: Colonel Sun was standing in the dark, facing the tent. His hands were clasped behind his back and his body was rigid.
"Is everything all right?"
"It appears to be," said Ki-Soo, "though I'm curious about one thing."
"What is that?" Sun asked.
"Generally, orders such as these mention the number of men in the party. Yours do not."
"But they do. They mention me."
Ki-Soo looked at the other man, who was standing beside the jeep. He pointed with his thumb. "And this one?"
"Not an agent," Sun said. "Our department is hard-pressed right now. This man was sent to accompany me through the hills. He will remain to bring me back. That is his only function."
"I see," said Ki-Soo. He handed the folder to Sun. "Make yourself comfortable in my tent. If you'd like, I can have food brought over."
"Thank you, no," said Sun. "I'd prefer to tour the perimeter, see where we might be vulnerable. I'll let you know if there's anything I need."
Ki-Soo nodded as Sun returned to the jeep and took a hooded flashlight from a toolbox in the back. Then he set out with his men, away from the camp and across the small field to where the missiles sat.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Koh's warning reached Lee just after he'd finished tucking the cans of tabun into a niche in the tunnel. He went up from the tunnel to receive the call, then climbed back down the hemp line.
So Gregory Donald would be meeting with General Hong-koo in just a few hours. That must not be. It would attract sympathy for the North and might even convince some world leaders of their innocence. Phases two and three of the operation must go ahead while tension was at a peak.
Donald would have to die. Soon.
Lee briefed Private Yoo, the soldier who had remained with him. The other man had returned to the base with the truck; if it wasn't back when it was supposed to be, General Norbom might institute a search.
They would move the gas through to the North, as planned, but once there Yoo would have to place it alone while Lee took care of Donald. Yoo understood and accepted the task gratefully and promised that all would go as planned. Lee expected nothing less from any member of his team; each of whom had been trained to complete the mission if anything happened to a comrade.
Crouching in the dark, the men began working on a job they had run through countless times on paper.
The tunnels had been dug by the North Koreans, and formed a complex network over a mile from north to south and a quarter mile east to west. While Military Intelligence knew about them and made occasional attempts to close them down, the North Koreans were like ants: when one entrance was shut, another was opened. When a tunnel was flooded or gassed, another was opened. The entire region was shelled on occasion, but while that collapsed large sections of the tunnel the North Koreans simply dug new sections, deeper.
Lee and his men had recently opened this connecting tunnel of their own, ostensibly to spy on the North. While the nine-yard vertical passageway was nearly four feet in diameter the tunnel itself was narrower, just under three feet, identical to the North Korean tunnels; this trunk linked up with the main Northern tunnel just ten yards from the border.
To get the four quarter-size drums of tabun down, one man had gone to the bottom of the passageway while the other lowered the drums in a sling and Lee kept watch. The drums were tucked into a niche they'd dug on the far side of the passageway, away from the tunnel; otherwise, there wouldn't have been room for them and the men. Now it would be necessary for Yoo to move backward through the tunnel, guiding each drum in turn while Lee rolled them ahead. The drums would just fit. sideways, and where the tunnel wasn't wide enough, it would be necessary to shift them lengthwise and gently push them through.