"And if they're not?" Jeanette said.
"With a little luck, the junk simply goes back to sea," Pickering said.
"And if Lady Luck is looking the other way," Jeanette said, "everybody on the Wind of Good Fortune gets bagged, and after interrogation, gets shot as spies."
"She's right, boss," Hart said.
Pickering started to say something in reply, and then didn't. He turned instead to Dunston.
"Do you think the idea has merit, Dunston?"
"Yes, sir, it does," Dunston said.
"And would you be willing to take the junk there?"
"Yes, sir, of course."
"That would be stupid," Hart announced.
"Excuse me?"
"For one thing, it would be foolish to risk his getting bagged. The NKs must know who he is. For another, you need him here. I'll ride the goddamn boat."
"That's out of the question," Pickering said, without thinking.
"Why? Who else have you got?" Hart said. "I can be spared, and I can do it. That looks pretty simple to me."
"I guess you're not, either," Jeanette said.
"Either what?"
"An unmitigated sonofabitch," Jeanette said.
"Are you sure, George?" Pickering asked.
"I'm sure, boss," Hart said.
Chapter Twenty
[ONE]
TOKCHOK-KUNDO ISLAND
0605 24 AUGUST 1950
Major Kim Pak Su, Korean national police, Captain Ken-neth R. McCoy, USMCR, Lieutenant David Taylor, USNR, and Master Gunner Ernest W. Zimmerman, USMC, all at-tired in black cotton shirts and trousers, stood looking down at the two panels laid on the ground between the two houses on the hill.
On one panel was written the letters R, A, and D, and on the other the letters I and O. The letters were written large, from the tops of the eight-by-ten-foot panels to their bot-toms. They were written in mud, of which there was an abundant supply, and was the only thing they had.
Master Gunner Zimmerman was embarrassed that he hadn't thought of using the panels to make a message board as soon-twenty-four hours before McCoy and Taylor had arrived-as the storm had taken out the gen-erator, but McCoy pointed out that the rain had stopped only hours before his arrival, and that the rain would have washed the letters away as soon as they could be written.
"Anyway, Ernie, it's a hell of a long shot," McCoy said. "We don't know when there will be another flyover, or whether he will be taking aerials, or whether he..."
There was the sound of aircraft engines.
The three officers moved to the side of the area between the houses and started to scan the sky.
Not quite two minutes later, two Corsairs suddenly ap-peared, flying down the Flying Fish Channel from the lighthouse at five hundred feet, making maybe 250 knots. Not flat out, in other words, but slower than they would have been flying had they not been interested in the islands around the Flying Fish Channel, and still fast enough so that if anyone on the North Korean-held shore happened to see them, it would not appear they were having a really good, close look at the Channel Islands and wonder why.
They didn't divert from their course, and thirty seconds after they appeared, they disappeared in the direction of In-chon.
They would, McCoy suspected, engage targets of oppor-tunity in Inchon before either flying a little farther north, or returning directly to their carrier, once they had, so to speak, justified their presence in the area to the enemy.
"You were saying, Mr. McCoy?" Taylor said.
"We don't know if those guys either (a) saw the panels, or if they did, could make sense of them, or (b) were taking pictures," McCoy said. "Or, (c) if they were taking pic-tures, that they got a shot of the panels clear enough to be read by the photo interpreters, or (d) if they saw them, and could read them, that the pictures'd wind up in the hands of someone who can do us any good. As I just observed to Mr. Zimmerman, Mr. Taylor, it's a long shot, a very long shot."
"What the hell, Killer, we gave it a shot," Zimmerman said. "We'll just have to wait and see."
"I don't like the idea of just sitting here waiting for the other shoe to drop," McCoy said.
"Meaning what, Ken?" Taylor asked.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, Major Kim, but your best guess of the North Korean strength on Taemuui-do is thirty people, under a sergeant, with their heaviest weapons a couple of machine guns?"
"That's my best information," Major Kim said.
"And on Yonghung-do?"
"There were a total of twenty-six men, including the lieutenant in charge and his sergeant. But we also learned that they've put people on Taebu-do-"
"Which is the little island to the south?" McCoy inter-rupted.
"From here, moving north, the nearest island is Taemuui-do, then Taebu-do, and then Yonghung-do. I would guess-if I were the lieutenant, it's what I would do-that he probably sent six, seven, eight men, under his sergeant, to the smaller island. That would leave him sixteen men, plus himself. And he's got two machine guns-"
"He probably sent one of them to the little island," Zim-merman chimed in.
"That's a total of fifty-six NK soldiers, give or take, right?" Taylor said. "We have ten Marines, counting you two, and fifteen national policemen, including the major..."
"And, of course, you," McCoy replied. "And the local militia..."
"Cut to the chase," Taylor said. "What are you thinking, McCoy?"
"That if the NKs have a radio, or had one, it-and the generator for it, and fuel for the generator-would proba-bly be with the lieutenant," McCoy said.
"And if they lost theirs, too, in the storm?" Taylor asked.
"Then we're no worse off than we are now," McCoy said.
"Let me make sure I understand you," Taylor said. "What you're suggesting is that-"
"We get off the dime," McCoy interrupted. "And it's not a suggestion, Dave."
Taylor ignored that, and continued:
"-we load our twenty-six people in the lifeboats, and try to take Yonghung-do-the most distant island-first-"
"Because that's where their CP and their radio, if they have one, is."
Taylor ignored that, too, and went on:
"-to do that, our little invasion fleet would have to sneak past both Taemuui-do and Taebu-do, which means we'd have to do that in the dark because if we did it in the daylight, two lifeboats and three fishing boats under sail-"
"I guess you weren't listening when I said this is not a suggestion, Dave," McCoy said.
"It's not?"
"No, it's not," McCoy said, evenly, but there was a steely I will be obeyed tone of command in his voice.
Taylor met his eyes for a long moment.
"Can I ask why Yonghung-do first?" he asked, finally.
"If we took Taemuui-do first, the lieutenant on Yonghung-do would know it. If nothing else, he would hear the gunfire. And we'll probably have to use grenades if they put up much of a scrap. If he has a radio, he'd report that to the mainland. And then would probably try to send help to Taemuui-do, whether or not he got orders from the mainland. This way, we'll knock out the radio, if there is one, and the lieutenant, too. And from what I've seen of the North Koreans, the sergeants on the other islands aren't going to do anything without orders."