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.
FIFTY-SIX
Wednesday 2:45 A.M., the DMZ
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.
Lee had calculated that each round-trip through the maze would take seventy-five minutes. That wouldn’t leave him much time to get back to Donald, but it would have to do; he didn’t dare stop to do it now, lest he get caught and fail to complete his mission here.
Major Lee took the small flashlight from the pocket of his uniform, turned it on, and clipped it to the strap on his shoulder. Yoo backed a short distance into the tunnel while Lee gently took the first drum from the niche and walked it on end to the entrance. Getting on his hands and knees, he began rolling the drum after Yoo, who checked the tunnel for sharp outcroppings they may have missed on their earlier sweeps….
FIFTY-SEVEN
Wednesday, 2:55 A.M., Seoul
The KCIA car screeched to a stop in front of the casualty entrance at the National University Hospital on Yulgongno. She left the car running and ran through the automatic doors demanding help for a wounded man. Two doctors hurried into the drizzle, one toward Hwan, the other to the figure in front.
“He’s dead!” Kim yelled to the second medic. “Help this man!”
The physician opened the door anyway and felt for a pulse, then climbed half into the car to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. In the backseat, the doctor carefully but quickly removed the belt and socks from Hwan’s wound. Hwan had been pale and semiconscious when they arrived, but he was fully awake as two paramedics came racing out with a stretcher and lifted him on.
Hwan’s hand shot out, clutching at the air. “Kim!”
“I’m here,” she said, running over and catching his hand, then holding it as they wheeled him toward the doors.
“See to … other….”
“I know,” she said. “I’ll take care of it.” Letting go of his hand, she watched as they took him inside, then walked back toward the car where the doctor had given up trying to revive the assassin and was examining his gunshot wounds. He motioned toward the hospital door.
“What happened, miss?”
“It was awful,” Kim said. “Mr. Hwan and I were driving to our cottage in Yanguu Village when we stopped to help this man. It appeared he’d had a scooter accident. The man stabbed Mr. Hwan, who shot him.”
“You don’t know why?”
She shook her head.
“Would you come inside, miss? You’ll have to give us information about the wounded man, and the police will want to speak with you.”
“Of course,” she said as a stretcher was wheeled out. “Just let me park the car.”
Two orderlies removed the body from the car, placed it on the stretcher, and covered it with a sheet. When they were gone, Kim slid behind the wheel and headed toward the parking lot. As she pulled into a spot, she picked up the phone and pressed the red button on the receiver. The desk officer at the KCIA answered.
“I’m calling on Kim Hwan’s car phone,” Kim said. “He was wounded by an assassin and is at the National University Hospital. The man who wounded him is dead. He’s also at the hospital. Mr. Hwan believes that this man was involved with the bombers who attacked the Palace, and that you check his fingerprints to find out who he is.”
Kim hung up and ignored the phone when it rang. Looking around the parking lot, she saw a car she knew: a Toyota Tercel. Taking her radio from the backseat, she put it on the floor, turned it on, and angled it so the light of the dial shined under the dashboard. Finding the ignition wires where her instructors had once told her they’d be, she knotted them together, started the car, and drove off, headed north.
FIFTY-EIGHT
Tuesday, 1:10 P.M., Op-Center
As Hood arrived in Matt Stoll’s office, the Operations Support Officer was just finishing up his work. There was a big smile on his round, full face, and a look of triumph in his eyes.
“Paul, this was pure, wonderful genius.” he said. “I set up all kinds of safeguards and diagnostics and checks and double checks to make sure incoming software wasn’t tainted, and they got it past me anyway.”
“Who did, and how?”
“The South Koreans. Or at least someone with access to their software. Here it is, in diskette SK-17.”
Hood bent over the screen and watched as a series of numbers and characters flashed on and off.
“What am I looking at?”
“All the stuff that was dumped into our computer system from this one diskette. I’m flushing it out-told the computer to read the original program and take it out in its entirety.”