"So that's why we need to leave Saturday?" Burke's frown deepened.
"That's right. I've had your reservations changed." Realizing Burke's frown was more than inquisitive, he asked, "That going to be a big problem for you?"
"A problem. Not a major one, I guess. I'll have to change some plans." He had intended to fly to Jackson, Tennessee on Saturday and pick up the search for his son. With Lori's delivery date coming up about the time of his return from Korea, it would delay any further pursuit of that search until after the first of the year. He had held out the hope of locating Cliff in time to let him know he was about to become a half-brother. That would have to wait. This operation had begun to appear sure to put his personal life on hold.
"I also talked with Kingsley Marshall," Nate said. "For the past month, his people have had a KH-12 reconnaissance satellite picking over South Korea like a dog after fleas."
The KH-12 was essentially a large telescope in orbit that could be aimed by remote control at particular spots on earth. The views it saw were scanned by electronic sensors that converted the images into numeric values. These digital readings were transmitted back to a ground satellite receiver, then to a computer that re-converted the numbers into visual images. The CIA's photo interpreters studied the views picked up by the telescope to determine the uses being made of the facilities and equipment it observed. The KH-12's optics were so powerful it could have read some of the big headlines in a newspaper kiosk during the Persian Gulf War.
"Have they found any fleas?" Burke asked.
Nate shook his head. "The results have been disappointing. They targeted military installations, industrial areas, and out-of-the-way facilities that might be hiding a nuclear site, but no apparent weapons projects turned up. There's some unusual activity around a nuclear power station called Kanggu, but they aren't sure what it means. Apparently it involves an industrial plant adjacent to the power station. Could be some kind of expansion. They reported the Taesong power station appears about finished. That's not news to us. It's the one Bartell Engineering is building. A lot of vehicle activity was observed around an underground facility owned by the Reijeo Business Group. Actually, it's built into the side of a mountain. They couldn't tell what's going on underground, of course, but the place has been there for several years."
"Any signs of missile activity?" Jerry asked.
"They have some launch sites in the northern part of the country. We helped them back when North Korea was working on improvements to the Scud. We know they've been trying to develop a cruise-type missile with a conventional warhead. The Agency doesn't think they've mastered the guidance technology yet. The satellite did pick up a new facility in the south they think is a missile training base."
Burke took out his pocket appointment book and jotted down the changed departure date. "It sounds like the bulk of the effort is still going to be on our shoulders."
"You're right. And Kingsley says the sooner you can get some answers the better. General Thatcher is getting antsy. You fellows will be the frontline troops."
Let's hope we don't get shot at any more than the troops in Desert Storm, Burke thought. Maybe the satellite watchers at Langley would still turn up something useful. For now, however, sophisticated technology would have to give way to the same old techniques that had been around since the days when David had pulled off a covert operation among the ranks of the Philistines. He and Jerry would have to put together a probing operation and follow wherever it led.
Chapter 16
The tall, rangy American stepped out of his small green Hyundai and looked across the broad parking lot toward the monstrous concrete cooling towers. Lifting his white hard hat, which was labeled "R.M. Steele" in block letters, he wiped the sweat from his brow and squinted his eyes against the bright October sun. Though the view was a bit different now, the warm and summerlike conditions reminded him of a much hotter day back in June when he had been pressured to have the first unit of the Taesong Nuclear Power Plant on line in barely seven months instead of a year.
Mitch Steele was on the far side of fifty, a hard-eyed, hard-jawed, hard-headed engineer with a reputation for accomplishing the improbable with relative ease. This one bordered on the impossible. The plant, called Taesong for the small coastal community nearby, was the last of the current crop of nuclear power stations under construction in South Korea by Kepco, or Korea Electric Power Company, the government-owned utility. Politics, Steele thought sullenly. That's what this speedup was about. The country had a brand new president and he and his cronies wanted to go balls out on important developmental projects like this one. Steele had grown up in Louisiana, a state noted for its ofttimes seamy political maneuverings, and he had learned to loathe those who practiced what he considered a dark and sinister art.
He strode into his office in the reactor building and found the sober visage of Moon Dong-sun, whose round face seemed a good fit for his name. Moon was the new distribution specialist for Korea Electric Power sent from Seoul to keep track of progress on the project. Steele moved across to the large, plasticized six-month schedule chart on the wall annotated with various colors of grease pencil to show planned and completed phases of the project.
"As you can see, we're on schedule for the December power-up," Steele said. "There are still a few things to be finished on the outside, but most of the work is now taking place indoors."
"It had better be ready," Moon said with an officious stare. "The Ministry of Energy and Resources plans to pull the single unit at Kanggu off-line by the end of the year. They want Taesong to pick up the load."
"I recall Mr. Chi saying something about pulling Kanggu off line." Chi was the affable Kepco contact that Moon had replaced.
Kanggu was located on the coast north of the big industrial city of Pohang, where blast furnaces roared day and night at one of the world's largest steel mills. It lay east of Mt. Chuwangsan, a rugged range of stark granite peaks and deep gorges.
"Yes, it has been in the plan for a while," Moon said.
"As I recall, Chi said some kind of research facility is scheduled for Kanggu. He'd heard they were hauling a lot of material and equipment up there."
Moon's frown hardened. "Such loose talk is probably why he was replaced."
As the sullen Korean sat beside his desk to read through the construction logs, Steele recalled Chi's last visit to the project. It had been a rainy afternoon when the youthful-appearing Kepco representative walked in with water dripping from his coat.
"You look like a kid who just took a shower with his clothes on," Steele said.
"I've done that. It's much more fun to take your clothes off, though. Then lather up with a pretty girl. What is it you say, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed?"
The engineer rumpled his brow. "Don't you think of anything but sex, Chi?"
"Sure." He spread out one hand and began counting on his fingers. "There's drinking, carousing—"
"Never mind. What info do you have about our fuel?"
"It will be coming from the Kanggu site. That's now the central fuel storage facility as well as the waste storage site."
"You ever hear any more about what's going on up there?" Steele asked.
Chi shrugged. "It's obviously a hush-hush affair. Who knows? Dr. Nam had a meeting in our conference room the other day with some people from Kanggu. I was surprised to see an old classmate of mine going in. He's some sort of manager with a division of Reijeo."
"Why were you surprised?" Steele asked.
"He's in their Explosives Division. They make dynamite and TNT, things like that. They don't have anything to do with nuclear power generation."