North Korean Blowup (23 page)

They were just out of sight of the road. Chapman started a fire and let it burn down to a glowing bed of coals. By that time Chapman had cut out a dozen roasting sticks from tree branches. He sharpened the ends and provided half inch thick steaks skewered onto the green poles.

“Trick is to get the venison cooked without burning your stick in half,” he told the eager campers.

They had some of the plastic plates left over from the Korean dishes. Now they washed them and used their KA-BARs to cut up the roasted venison. Most of the men had never tasted venison.

“Like veal but with a tangier flavor,” Beth said. Some thought it tasted like wild turkey, others said it was better than beef. They ate and roasted and ate again. When they were all full, they still had two quarters of the deer left.

“We can keep it overnight,” Chapman said. “Tomorrow we eat again about ten o’clock and that will be the end of it.”

They made sure that the fire was out and policed the area so absolutely nothing was left behind. Then they crawled back in the Truck. In the cab, Hunter made a command decision.

He used the shoulder mike. “Men, we’re going to be traveling tonight, maybe all night. I want Tanner up here to take a turn at driving. Lights work on this crate, so we should cover lots of ground.   Pujon can’t be more than a half hour ahead. Then we check to see about roads going east again.”

They drove. Most of the men in back went to sleep. Beth nodded, then put her head on Hunter’s shoulder, gave a soft little sigh and dropped off. Hunter was wide awake.

Tanner, who told Hunter he had been a taxi driver in Manhattan in New York City for a while, wheeled the big truck down the gravel road like it was a limousine.

 Just before they drove into Pujon, Hunter had Ho back in the driver’s seat. The town looked to Hunter to be not more than two or three thousand. By then it was dark, and there were few lights showing in houses and no street lights. The road joined another that became the town’s main artery.

Half a block ahead under bright lights, Hunter saw two North Korean Army six by trucks blocking the street.

“Looks like we have a small problem here, Ho. See if you can talk us around this one.”

“Troops, we’ve got a road block. I want everyone awake, in your soccer gear, and locked and loaded. Can’t tell what we might run into this time.”

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

The soldier who stopped the truck stared at the bumper, put his flashlight beam on it, and then came up to the door.

“Twenty third regiment, sixth. You’re a long way from your post.”

“Yeah. Tough duty. We’re a soccer team playing the locals. Supposed to build up morale. Right now my team is so worn out a bunch of women could whip our ass. Anywhere around here we can bed down and get some chow?”

“You joking with me, soldier. You’ve got fifteen, eighteen men. That’s double our whole detail. Eat us out of our supply shed. Where do you play next?”

“Damn if I know. Next town whatever the hell that is.”

“Sangi-n is next town. They don’t even have a garrison there. Probably have a local team but not much good.”

“What’s the next town east?”

“Kujap, another village. You’ll have to go all the way to Patchu to find a team.”

“Point us in the right direction. We better drive all night.”

“Down a block to the highway that turns right, and that will do it.”

“Thanks. Sorry you don’t have any spare rations.”

They waved and Ho pulled the truck forward and one of the rigs blocking the road backed up giving them a passage way through.

“Close,” Hunter said. “We could have put them down and got through, but somebody might have chased us. I like it better this way.”

It was another small mountain farming community, but all the stores were closed up tight. The road leading out of town was better than the just finished one, and this one blacktopped. They rolled along at thirty five miles an hour and met almost no traffic.

Six hours later they had passed through four more small towns and now could smell the salt air of the Sea of Japan. In her sleep, Beth had snuggled against Hunter and he looped his arm around her. She woke slowly and looked up at him.

“Is this prom night and we’re late getting home?”

“Almost, but the prom is over and we’re heading north along the shore so we can find that other nuke.”

Beth yawned. Then she grinned and rubbed her eyes. “I’m sure that was tremendously attractive, me yawning in your face that way. Sorry.”

“It’s always good to see a woman when she’s not at her best,” Hunter said.

“Like meeting her mother so you’ll know how she’ll look in forty years?”

“About like that.”

Tanner was driving and he motioned ahead. “Getting light out there. Maybe we better get Ho up here.”

“Roger that. Pull over and stop and try to wake up Ho without rousing the rest of the animals. If they ask about food, tell them we’re on short rations until Beth blows up that last nuke.”

Ho came up in a few minutes and they powered down the highway. They were several miles from the sea now as the roadway followed the best route north.

By 1000 they came to Pukch’ano, and the store robbers went into a friendly looking store for breakfast. This time they found only cooked rice, sweet rolls and loaves of bread and a sack full of fruit. They bought paper cups and plastic spoons to eat with and made do.

“Where are we headed again?” Beth asked.

“Kilchu. Looks like it’s about ten miles inland.”

“How far?” Ho asked.

Hunting checked his small map again. “Forty miles, more or less. With this good road we should be there in three hours tops.

It’s eleven hundred, now. If it goes right, we could be sleeping on board a United States destroyer tonight.”

“We’ll have to fight our way into the place?” Beth asked.

“Probably. If the other one was an example. Most fire fights are over quickly. Thirty seconds, a minute and a half. Depends on how it goes down.”

“Just don’t get any more of our guys killed,” Beth said. “I would have a tough time dealing with that.”

“Yes, Ma’am Commander, Ma’am. We’ll do our best. Our first and primary job is to keep you healthy so you can do your work.”

“Kilchu is ten miles from the water,” Beth said. “Wouldn’t it have been easier to come in from the sea to do this bomb?”

“Right, but we were already in the middle of North Korea. We had to get ourselves out of there. So we came this way, escape from North Korea and take down the bomb all in one swooping fell.”

“You really mess up the English language.”

“Part of my charm.” They both laughed.

They didn’t see much of the Sea of Japan on the way north. The highway kept inland probably so more of the fertile land next to the water could be used to grow crops. Two more small towns came and went without incident, and then just five miles from their turnoff to Kilchu they hit a roadblock. It was concealed around a curve and had four men and two six bys stopping all traffic both ways. Ho was driving.

“This look bad,” he said. “Soldiers sharp. Officers.”

“Lock and load everyone,” Hunter said to his shoulder mike. “If they split soldiers on both sides of the truck, I’ve got the right.”

Ho brought the truck into the line of four cars and rigs waiting on their side of the highway. The soldiers were making people get out of the cars and inspecting inside them.

“Bad trouble,” Hunter said. “We may need to get insistent.”

When the big truck rolled to the head of the line an officer stared at the bumper and then came up to the high window.

“Your army travel orders,” he snapped in Korean.

“We don’t have time for this, lieutenant. We’re a soccer team on the way to play a game and we’re late. If we could just move on through we would appreciate it.”

“Impossible. This vehicle has been reported stolen. Get out of the truck and get everyone else out. Now.”

“Now,” Hunter said to his radio mike. He brought up the MP-5 and sent a three round burst into an armed soldier who had come up on the right side of the truck.

At almost the same time, Ho lifted his MP-5 over the window and blasted three rounds into the lieutenant’s chest, then hit the throttle and jolted the six by ahead. Two shots hit the truck as they drove past the block, then the men in the back opened up on the last two soldiers standing and put them down and dead on the blacktop. The six by thundered north on the road.

“No pursuit,” Hunter said checking the rear view mirror on his side. “That officer didn’t have time to use a radio if he had one. We should be clear until they are scheduled to make a radio report. They must have a radio. That’s the only way they could know that the truck was stolen. Okay, anybody hit by those rounds?” There was no response. “Let’s have a squad call. Alpha check in.” The six men left in Alpha let Hunter know they were alive. Then Chapman heard from his seven men.

“Looks like we’re all accounted for,” Chapman said. “No new KIA’s back here.”

“Good, let’s keep it that way. Closing in on the target.”

Beth shivered. Hunter put his arm around her and held her tight. He talked softly. “Beth, I know, I know. But it had to be done. We couldn’t let them stop us. We’re too close to where we have to go. In an hour or two they might be looking for us, but by that time we could be shooting our way into the next nuke. It had to come down to that. Try and relax. Remember the job you have to do and how important it is. Another million people you are saving. Saving their lives by blowing up this bomb. Remember that. That’s our only job right now, to get to that bomb and destroy it.”

She looked up and brushed away tears. “I saw the look on that man’s face just before he died. He knew he was going to die and he hated it but he couldn’t stop it. It was a look of pure horror. I don’t think I‘ll ever forget it.”

“Remember the balance sheet, Beth. A few lives here in exchange for a million South Korean men, women and little children. Think about that.”

“Turnoff Kilchu,” Ho said.

Hunter went on his radio. “We’re five to ten miles from the target. Everyone refill your magazines and check your full ones. Keep the AK-47’s handy, we may need them. We’re coming to the last chapter here on this little jaunt. Let’s make it a good one. Eat up anything left back there. This is probably our last chance before we hit the wet.”

The road curved up a hill and through one valley, then into more hills and another smaller valley.

“Ten kilometers, eight miles,” Ho said.

“Dr. Sung told us the hiding place was about a mile west of Kilchu. Let’s hit the town and find that road.”

The town turned out to be smaller than most of the others. They saw one army truck but got through the place without spotting any soldiers. Ho prowled the west side of town until he found a road leading out west. They took it. Another small hill in front of them. As they climbed up it, Ho went slowly, so he could watch the landscape ahead. He just nosed the truck over the hill and stopped.

“Ahead,” he said pointing.

In the bright light of noontime, they could see a facility of some kind at the base of the hill in a small valley. It had radio antennas, and what looked like a large block building. Two army six bys sat near the building and to the far side was another smaller one story structure.

“Back down off this crest,” Hunter said. “We need to ditch the truck and hide it.” There were no trees around. Just grassy hills. Ho backed the truck down a hundred yards and turned off into a narrow gully just wide enough for the truck. He drove in until the rig was out of sight of the road.

“Off load,” Hunter said. “Every man with two weapons. We should have enough AK’s for all. Four magazines for both weapons. Let’s move, people.”
               They hiked up to the crest of the road and found Tran there already with his binoculars.

“Cap, not much cover. We can work around to the right on that little crest and get within three hundred yards of the place.”

“Let’s do it. Bravo, take the lead. Tran out in front by fifty. Move.”

Twenty minutes later they spread out on the crest of the small rise behind the complex below. Now they could spot more vehicles there, a staff car and two civilian cars. Another small building could be a mess hall and the larger structure a barracks for the soldiers.

“Can’t use the twenties yet, because we don’t know where they have the bomb,” Hunter said.

Bancroft edged up. “Cap, I can take three men from Bravo down the ridgeline a hundred yards and open up some sniper fire and maybe a twenty or two into that small building. That should bring out the defense squads. Then you can drill them with a cross fire.”

“I like it,” Hunter said. “Go. Fire when you’re ready. Keep good cover.”

Bradford and three men slid back down from the crest and jogged to the north away from the others along the ridge. Less than two minutes later, Hunter saw a twenty round hit the small building and explode. The second round was a WP and it set the building on fire. At once a dozen armed men swarmed out of the barracks building. They hunkered down in a perimeter defense and sent rounds back at the ridge where they were they saw gunfire.

“Twenty air bursts along the line of men,” Hunter said. Four rounds fired and the air bursts went off almost at once. Half the men in the line never moved again. Two stood and ran for the protection of the barracks. Sniper rifles cut them in half before they made it. Three men on the ground crawled toward cover. Rifle fire drilled them and Hunter heard the heavy crack of the AK-47’s.

Two men raced out of the concrete block building. Sniper fire killed one, but the second one made it to the barracks building.

“Two rounds WP on that barracks.” Hunter said. “It should burn like a roman candle.” He watched the rounds hit and soon smoke seeped out windows and doors. Five more men streamed out of the barracks with weapons but were knocked down by rifle fire from the ridge. Soon flames licked through the roof of the barracks.

“Let’s move down to the block building,” Hunter said. “Bravo, cover us. Knock down anything that moves. Take out the trucks if you can see them. Use the twenties. Alpha, let’s get down the hill. Keep your eyes open. Walden, stay here with Beth. Don’t let anything so much as scratch her. Moving.”