The Korean Gambit

by Charles DeMaris

“Maybe for you. You have more hours than I do in these.”

  “But you’re not that far behind me.”

  “It’s just been a while…and we haven’t named her yet.”

  “All in good time, brother. You got that package in your luggage?”

  “The one from Avi? Yeah. How close do we have to get?”

  “100 miles. We just turn them on and drop them out the cargo hatch. We need to be below 2000 feet when we deploy them. They’re programmed to navigate to Yuriy’s compound.”

  “Avi’s not worried about them being detected?”

  “It won’t be like Paris. These are going to stay outside and keep their distance. They’ll fly around and get video and still images from all sides of the compound and they have infrared cameras to detect the number of people inside and their movements in real time.”

  “And they can do that without having to go inside? The last thing we need is one of them being spotted and causing him to move up his timetable.”

  “Avi seemed pretty confident. He can turn them off and on remotely to save the charge, but he said one will run close to a couple weeks on a charge.”

  “He needs to design cell phones.”

  “We’ll be within range before long. We can dump these drones and hightail it back to the States.”

  “What’s the range on this bird?”

  “Not much better than Nyangumi, but much higher cruising speed. We’ll be back at the bait shop tomorrow. We’ll still need to fuel at our usual stop.”

  “I’ll let Will know we’re coming.”

  Their usual stop was an out of the way port in Falmouth, England that serviced all manner of ships and seaplanes. Will assured Elijah they would keep a spot open and they could top off their fuel without delay.

  “Coming up in the , world, aren’t we?” Will said to Ken while the plane was fueling.

  “We needed something with a bit more speed.”

  “You finally got rid of Nyangumi?”

  “Oh no. With all she’s seen us through, I could never abandon her. There are times you need to get somewhere a little faster is all.”

  “This will certainly do that. What did you do, break a bank? These ain’t cheap.”

  “Folks we’re working with have the cash.”

  “Who would you be working with these days?”

  “Now Will, you know I can’t—”

  “Pardon me for asking. I’ve known you long enough. Whoever you’re working with is none of my business. You sure you don’t have time to come in for a pint?”

  “I wish we could, but time is tight. As usual, thank you for the expeditious service. I owe you one.”

  “That’s what you said the last five times.”

  “Next time you’re in Kenya.”

  “How often are you there? Often as I see you here, I wonder.”

  “See you later, Will. This one is big. I’ll catch you when it’s over.”

  Nathan and his team of programmers worked around the clock and by noon the following day had finished a workable VR version of Yuriy’s compound, as close to the real thing as satellite photos and Rachel’s memory would allow. Rachel put a mask on and walked through the compound, marking areas that were off so Nathan could make the necessary fixes. By evening they had most of the bugs worked out and by the next morning Nathan had managed to program a few AI characters to patrol the corridors, once again using what Rachel could tell him about the patrol patterns the night she had escaped.

  By lunch time that day, Avi had compiled very detailed video of the compound from the drones and had sent it to Nathan to incorporate into the program. Nathan and his team were running on fumes at this point, not having slept more than a few minutes at a time for over a day.

  “Doc, me and the guys need to get a nap. It is written, ‘man cannot live on Red Bull alone.’”

  “You do that. I have a good schematic of the building here. I’ll work with Brock and formulate an assault plan. How workable is it right now?”

  “The layout is correct and some of the guards are walking around in there. You could have the guys run around in there to get familiar with the layout, but we can’t do any more updates without a couple hours of shuteye.”

  Brock and Avi were in Avi’s workshop poring over images of the compound and what they knew of the defenses. Brock held a drone in his hand, marveling at the amount of tech Dr. Zielinski had managed to put into something so small.

  “Is this what got those images?” he asked.

  “Something similar. That one you’re holding is a more primitive model.”

  “What can the newer ones do?”

  “That’s what we’re about to discuss. Look at these images of the compound. You have snipers on the roof, with a clear view of every approach. One of them shot Rachel at night, so we can assume night vision scopes at the very least, possibly thermal. The only way we can even hope of getting into the compound is to neutralize those men, or at least neutralize their tech. We can blind the night vision with a strobe and we have clothing that will minimize a thermal signature.”

  “That’s great, but they’ll have cameras, not to mention the motion sensors and mines.”

  “I’ve mapped the location of the mines and we can have a real time feed from the same kind of drone that took these images.”

  “So, those little different colored circles are the mines?”

  “Yes, before we deploy any people, Ken will drop more drones. They will give me a real time video feed of the area. We can send that feed straight to our people through these,” he said, holding up a pair of glasses, “We can overlay whatever we want on the inside of the lens. The wearer will be able to see the location of the mines while walking.”

  “How about weapons?”

  “The wall behind you. Pick what you think is most suitable, and what you think our people can handle best. The one on the left is my choice, but it’s your call.”

  Brock picked up the rifle on the left and looked it over. It was a compact design with a collapsible stock, integrated suppressor, and a holographic reflex sight.

  “You know, I’ve fired a lot of weapons in my day, but this is one I’ve never seen. Is it a new prototype?”

  “It’s my design. I made those in my shop here. Casey’s deadly with it. Fires standard 5.56 rounds.”

  “May I?”

  “Sure, hit the range for a bit if you want.”

  Brock came back twenty minutes later, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

  “That will do. You have a real talent there, Doc.”

  “Just call me Avi. I’m retired.”

  “Retired, my ass.”

  “From the classroom, my young friend.”

  “I can’t remember the last time someone called me young.”

  “I’m probably the only one around here who could. Now, you’ve seen the equipment we have access to, so we need to come up with a plan.”

  “We’ll need to hit hard and fast. Small teams, two or three people each, work through and clear the building. One team’s going to need to hit the computer room as fast as possible, in case they have a way to jump the gun and launch.”

  “For manpower, we have the four young gentlemen you’ve been drilling mercilessly, Casey, Jefferson, if you think he’s ready, and I imagine Hank will want to be in on this.”

  “You forgot somebody,” Rachel said as she walked into the room.

  “You’re hardly 100 percent,” Avi said.

  “I’ll be well enough when we go, and I’m the only one who’s actually been there.”

  “That will be up to Brock when the time comes. This is his op.”

  “You forgot somebody else,” Brock said, “There is no way I’m not going.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “I’m the only one who’s been in combat, and I have buddies on Okinawa. That bastard wants to mess with them, he’s gonna have to deal with me.”

  “What if he manages to launch?” Rachel asked, “We’ll nee
d a geek on the op, just in case.”

  “The only real options in that case are Ahmed or Jenny.”

  “Now,” Brock said, “your fancy drones can blind the guys on the roof, but someone’s gonna need to disable them or take them out. The roof can be an entry point for the same team. Then we hit the front door and the back door at the same time. The team from the roof can clear the upper floor, the teams from the front and back doors clear the main floor, and we have another team heading straight for the basement. Ahmed will be with that team in case he’s needed on the computer.”

  “Sounds simple enough,” Avi said.

  “To put it simply, we’re a group of amateurs. The plan has to be simple. Too many moving parts, too many chances for something to go wrong…and we have to be prepared for something going wrong anyway. How about overwatch?”

  “Ken can keep the plane circling at a safe distance. We’ll set up a terminal on the plane and we’ll have Miriam monitoring the real time feeds and communicating with the teams.”

  “Taking out that anti-aircraft battery would help.”

  “It’s on the roof, so the team that lands there will have to take care of that.”

  “That’s the only thing we haven’t covered, how we’re going to deploy everyone. I can’t imagine you all have jump training.”

  “We have the next best thing, and everyone’s had a couple flights,” Avi said, pointing to one of the wing suits on the far wall.”

  “Is that what Casey used in Miami?”

  “With a few improvements. I’ve improved the stability of the suit by adding retractable hard wings, added oxygen in case we want to deploy at higher altitude, and improved the fuel efficiency of the boots. Flight time’s almost doubled and the top speed is slightly better, and with the new wings you don’t have to hold your arms out the whole time.”

  “I’ll need to have a go.”

  “Ken will be back this evening. Tomorrow morning would be a good time for everyone, then in the afternoon we can drill outside and in the simulator. When Ken gets in, we’ll meet in the conference room and figure out the teams.”

  The next morning

  Ken leveled off at fifteen thousand feet and opened the rear cargo door. Everyone who would be taking place in the upcoming op was wearing a wing suit, a pair of boots, and a helmet. They would be launching two at a time, a few seconds between each launch, and staying paired up for the duration of their flights. Rachel was paired up with Brock and Casey with Jefferson, so that the two least experienced would be with one of the most experienced. Hank and Ahmed would wait for Casey and Rachel to return before going out with them.

  For this flight, they would be testing a new feature Avi had added to the helmets, a navigation system with programmed waypoints. For this flight, he had programmed a set of waypoints they would fly to before returning to the plane. The system would automatically route them toward the plane, no matter where it was flying, and would display a suggested speed on the HUD when they were getting back to dock with the plane. Each pair had their own comm channel for the practice flights, but on the night of the op they would be on a global channel so they could coordinate their movements.

  “Man, I’ll never get tired of this,” Jefferson said to Casey as they throttled up and rocketed away from the rear of the plane.

  “Yeah, it’s a blast, but this is training, remember?”

  “I know, but it’s still fun.”

  “I hear you. Let’s hit these waypoints and get back so I can get Ahmed out here. He’s only been out once before.”

  “Your lead, boss.”

  They flew through the programmed route and made it back to the plane in good time, throttling down and gliding into the cargo area, followed soon by Rachel and Brock, then the rest of the pairs a minute or so apart. A few minutes later Casey and Rachel returned with Ahmed and Hank in tow. Ahmed was grinning ear to ear and Hank looked as white as a ghost.

  “I’m getting too old for this kind of thing,” he said.

  “I thought it was rather exhilarating,” Brock said.

  “I was monitoring everything from here. It looked like everyone did fine,” Avi said, “But remember on the op, you won’t be landing back in a moving plane. We’ll have an LZ programmed for each team. When we get back to the office, we’ll have lunch and then get on the simulator to go through the attack plan a few times.”

  32

  The next few days followed the same pattern. Up in the plane to practice with the wing suits, including landing on preprogrammed spots on the ground, and afternoons training on the obstacle course and going over the assault plan on the virtual reality compound. Everyone had the layout of the compound memorized and when the day came to set out, they were chomping at the bit to get over there and get on with it.

  They took two vans to the lake to transport everyone and their gear. Ken and Elijah loaded everything onto the plane and started going through a pre-flight while everyone boarded and took their seats in the back.

  Everyone except Casey. He was standing on the pier with Kathy, holding hands and trying to figure out what to say.

  “Take your time, gotta finish pre-flight,” Ken yelled from the plane.

  “You’re not nervous?” Kathy asked as she reached forward and took both of his hands in hers.

  “A bit. This one is big.”

  “So was the last one, and you pulled that one off.”

  “Yeah…this seems harder. Everything has to go just right.”

  “You just be careful. You’d better come back.”

  “Yeah, you better come back,” Wilma said from a couple feet away.

  He saw his mother standing there and walked over to envelope her in a bear hug.

  “I’m coming back mama. Just got a job to do.”

  “You go and do it then. I’m not stoppin’ you.”

  She reluctantly pulled away from the hug and there was Kathy, pulling him close and kissing him ardently.

  “Go save the world,” she said, her face inches from his, “and don’t forget what you’re coming back to.”

  Casey found his seat in the plane and strapped in, not sure if his feet had touched the ground over the last fifty feet. Ken throttled up, lifted off the water, and climbed to cruising altitude, heading east. When they leveled off, Elijah came back with food and drinks and everyone unstrapped from the wall mounted seats and walked over to the food cart.

  “Feels good to get up. Not the most comfortable seats,” Jefferson said.

  “You get used to them,” Brock said.

  “Maybe a smaller guy like you.”

  “Everyone’s smaller than you,” Casey said

  “Listen up,” Brock said, “I know we’ve been over the plan what seems like a million times, but we’ll run through it again on the way. Then I would advise getting as much sleep as you can manage.”

  Near the front of the cargo area, desks were mounted to the walls and Ahmed, Miriam, and Avi all had computers set up. Ahmed stayed at his computer, because his entire job in the assault was to stay as close to Brock as possible and be ready if his skills were needed.

  Avi opened a box and pulled out six more of his miniature drones, turning them on to make sure they were operational and synced with his computer. When he was satisfied, he put them back in the box.

  “When do we deploy those?” Ahmed asked.

  “About an hour before you all jump out,” Avi said, “I want them in place before everyone’s on the ground. One of them will allow you to hack the camera system when it’s close enough. You need to record a loop on each camera and have that play so they won’t be seeing a real time feed when they check their monitors. Just make sure there’s no repeated movement to make it obvious.”

  “What do the other ones do?”

  “One of them can detect the mines and send a video feed to the everyone on the ground, so you don’t put a step wrong. Another will fly close to the roof and emit a strobe that will blind the night vision scopes the snipers have. I
f I time it right, that should be just before Casey and Jefferson glide down to the roof and take them out. That will be the signal for the teams to advance on the building and breach the doors at the same time Casey blows the anti aircraft gun on the roof.”

  “And I stay with Brock all the way to the computer room and secure the computer before anyone tries anything?”

  “That’s the plan. And if someone does try something, you have to think fast and stop it.”

  Miriam checked her system again, and satisfied that there was nothing else she could do at the moment, strapped into a seat and went to sleep.

  They made a quick fuel stop in Cornwall again before continuing on their way and when they were about 45 minutes away from deployment, Ken alerted them and opened the cargo door for Avi to deploy his drones. He had three monitors set up and each drone had a window showing a video feed. He turned the drones on and tossed them out the cargo door before Ken closed the door. Each drone had a pre-programmed set of coordinates and they would all be on station above the compound before the operators were on site.

  Twenty minutes later Brock woke everyone up and they checked their equipment one last time and suited up, checking comms with Miriam as well. The drones were on station and Ahmed took control of one of them, moving it close to the camera system on the outside of the compound. It took him a couple minutes to hack into the camera system and another minute to record and set a loop on the cameras. Anyone monitoring the cameras in the compound would not be seeing a live feed.

  When they were as close as Ken dared to fly, he reduced speed and opened the cargo door. One last comm check and a thumbs up from Miriam, and they lined up at the rear door and went out by pairs. Casey and Jefferson, Abdullah and Mohammed, Omar and Kalil, Hank and Rachel, and Brock and Ahmed exited the plane in that order and followed their respective waypoints, killing the throttle and gliding for the last two hundred meters to approach silently.

  One by one, each team reported in position and waiting. They shed the wing suits and the boots, keeping the helmets on and giving their weapons a last check. Casey and Jefferson were gliding toward the roof and while they were still a few seconds away they saw several bright flashes of light and the men dropped their weapons to check the night vision scopes. When they were still a few feet above the roof Casey pulled the pin on a grenade and dropped it onto the middle of the roof.