This was death. Certain death. How did they possibly hope to escape? How could they do this to him? It was clear from the number of people he was seeing, that it was both families, risking death rather than remain behind.
Why? What’s so bad about this place?
He couldn’t fathom why they would do what they were doing. It made no sense. These were family men. They had to know if they were caught, the beating Jason had received earlier in the week would be just the beginning.
I can’t let this happen!
Five miles from the coast
Kane had taken point, leaving Carl to take up the rear, making sure no one was left behind, Jason still carrying his drugged son. They were behind schedule, ten minutes now due to their close encounter. And every minute counted. He urged them over the final rise, the next mile all downhill, and out of sight of the compound.
He fished out his satphone, then stopped Carl.
“Keep following this ditch,” he said, indicating the depression they were in. “If you see or hear anything, drop and wait for me. I’ll take up the rear for a few minutes.”
Carl nodded, and took point as Kane dropped to the ground, covering himself with his jacket, then turning the phone on, the light from the display now blocked from the outside world. He dialed the number he had been given, and waited. It picked up on the third ring.
“This is Dim Sum Palace, your order is ready for pickup in three minutes.”
Kane smiled at the code. ‘Three minutes’ meant Langley had come through. “Thanks, we’ll be there, weather permitting.”
He killed the call, and damned Chang for the other part of the code. Dim Sum Palace. His stomach rumbled. He could go for some good Dim Sum right now. He turned off the phone, threw his jacket back on, and was about to catch up to the others when he heard something.
It was footsteps, racing toward their position. He took cover behind a nearby tree, and waited, listening carefully. It was a man, he could tell by the volume of the sound, indicating the weight, there was just one person, and they were sprinting, uncontrolled, stumbling on the hard terrain.
If it was a guard, they weren’t following protocol.
A silhouette rushed over the rise they had just cleared, and continued headlong toward him. He ducked back behind the tree, and when the man passed, Kane reached out and clotheslined him, catching him directly on the exposed neck, knocking him down, and the wind out of him so he couldn’t call for help.
Kane was on the man in a second, cupping his left hand over the man’s mouth as he pinned his arms with his knees, his knife already at the man’s throat.
Then he recognized him.
Phil Hopkins.
He heard footfalls behind him and spun to see Carl and Jason rushing up to him.
“Are you okay?” asked Jason, skidding to a halt.
“Phil!” exclaimed Carl, who then apologized at his outburst with hand and facial expressions. “What the hell are you doing here?” he asked in a harsh whisper.
Kane slowly removed his hand from the prisoner’s mouth.
“Trying to stop you,” gasped Phil.
“Why? Just let us go!” cried Jason, his voice a little higher than Kane would like. “We don’t want to be here. Why can’t you understand that?”
“Don’t you realize what will happen if you’re caught? What they did to you, Jason, will be just the beginning. They might kill you. More likely they’ll kill one of your family!”
“I realize that,” said Jason, taking a knee. “I’m doing this for my family.”
Phil’s bewildered expression portrayed his complete lack of understanding of the situation.
“But you’ll get them killed!”
“I’d rather they die free, by my doing, in a world where I didn’t give the North Koreans a weapon that could destroy mankind.”
Phil shook his head. “That’s BS and you know it. They just want a weapon that can protect them from invasion. It’s a deterrent, nothing more.”
Kane could see this conversation wasn’t going anywhere, and he didn’t have time to let it continue much longer. He pressed the tip of his knife against Phil’s neck.
“How did you know where we were?”
“I followed your footprints from Jason’s house.”
“What were you doing there?”
Phil looked at Jason. “I wanted to talk to you about what you did to the EMP.”
“What do you mean?” asked Jason, his voice wary.
Phil blew air from between his lips. “You know what I mean. You rigged it to go off at midnight.”
“Please tell me—”
“Yes, I stopped it.”
Jason fell back on his butt, grasping his forehead, as Carl spun around, stomping his feet.
“Why the hell did you do that?” exclaimed Jason. “Now the research won’t be destroyed!”
“I don’t want it destroyed. If you come back now, nobody will know you were gone!”
Kane grabbed Phil by the throat, turning his head toward his.
“Listen very carefully. Things are not what they seem. You think you were recruited by a company in order to complete research, then to receive a pay out when that research is completed, correct?”
Phil nodded.
“Here’s what’s really going on. A company called BlackTide—heard of them?” Phil nodded. “They orchestrated this entire thing, with the help of some collaborators in the private and public sector, including the Secretary of Defense, to start a war. You will never be allowed to complete your research. If I don’t get you people out today, and destroy that research lab, the United States will be launching a strike against North Korea to regain its kidnapped citizens, all in the hopes, by this cabal led by BlackTide, of starting a war with China, designed to cripple their economy, and write off a significant portion of our foreign held debt, and ultimately, revitalize our manufacturing sector. This was never about million dollar payouts and deterrents. This was always about triggering a war, a war the United States might not win.”
The look of horror on Phil’s face at the words Kane had just spoken led Kane to believe he might just have gotten through. He released his grip on Phil’s throat. Slightly.
“Are you sure?” whispered Phil. “I mean, are you really sure?”
Kane nodded. “Absolutely. I received a briefing just before I entered North Korea. There are raids going on right now, trying to clean this conspiracy up back home, and I’m here to clean it up at this end. But now with the EMP disabled, I’m going to have to go back.”
And I might have to kill the three of you.
Phil pushed himself up on his elbows.
“Then let me go back.”
“What?”
“Let me go back. I’ll reactivate the EMP.”
“You’ll never get in,” said Jason. “It’s too well guarded.”
Phil shook his head. “No, I’ll go tell them you escaped, that I chased you but you got away, and I want to check on the lab to make sure you didn’t take anything.”
Kane stood up, pulling Phil to his feet. “Can you activate the EMP?”
“Yes. Once I’m in the lab, I’ll just hit the emergency button. They won’t know how to disable it within the two minute charge time.”
“But they’ll kill you,” said Jason, his voice cracking.
“I think we both know I deserve it.”
Jason grabbed his friend, hugging him, and Carl joined in. Tears were flowing freely, and Kane would have loved to let the goodbye continue, but he couldn’t.
“Okay, there’s no more time,” he said, slapping them on the backs. The huddle broke, and Kane took Phil by the arm.
“If they ask, I don’t exist. It’s just the families trying to escape. If they ask where, tell them you heard them say they were going to try and reach the South Korean border, then they beat you and left you.”
“Beat me?”
Kane shrugged his shoulders. “It has to be believable.”
Phil nodded, bracing himself. “Go ahead.”
Kane swung, catching the scientist on the jaw, dropping him with probably the hardest punch the academic had ever encountered. He dropped to his knees and landed several more blows, avoiding the eyes, his force measured to leave welts.
He stood, pulling Phil up, and steadied him on his feet.
“Are you okay?”
Phil nodded. “I-I think so.”
“Good, now get the hell out of here, and do your job. It’s all in your hands now.”
Phil nodded, looked at his friends one last time, then stumbled back toward the compound.
Kane looked at his watch, then turned to the scientists.
“We need to hustle, or we’re going to miss our rendezvous.”
At the fence, International Cooperation Center, North Korea
Phil followed the tracks in the snow back to the hole in the fence, and climbed through. Racing between two houses onto the street, he began to yell for help, and lights began to appear in some of the houses, others staying dark, but curtains moving, the occupants inside not wanting to get involved.
“Help, please, somebody! They’re trying to escape!” he cried as he ran down the street, toward the hub where the school, store and community center stood. He was quite certain that some of the blue jumpsuit staff would be on duty there, but before he could reach it, a jeep whipped around the corner, and screeched to a halt in front of him. Four men in jumpsuits exited the vehicle, surrounding him.
“My name is Phil Hopkins. You need to take me to Kwon Bae, he’s my handler. The other scientists and their families are trying to escape. I tried to stop them, but they beat me and left me.” Phil collapsed, but was caught by two of the men, and helped to the vehicle. Phil took a deep breath, sitting in the back seat with his head lying back, realizing he had to be careful not to put on too much of a show. He needed to get to the lab, not a hospital. The four guards were talking excitedly in front of the vehicle, one of them on a radio. Within minutes they were joined by several more vehicles, and Phil noticed that not a single light was turned on in any of the surrounding houses.
And he wondered how many times in the past someone had tried to escape.
And whether or not they had ever been successful.
He heard a tap on the window, and Kwon Bae was there. Phil forced the best smile he could manage, and leaned toward the man.
“Thank God you’re here!” he cried. “It’s Jason and Carl. They’re trying to escape.”
“How do you know?”
“I went to talk to Jason, but he wasn’t there. I saw footprints in the snow and followed them. They led to the other side of the fence.”
“You left the compound?”
Best to be honest. Phil nodded. “Yes, I saw them running with their families, so I chased them. There was no one around to help, so I figured I better go after them myself. I caught up, but they beat me, and left. That’s when I came back here to find you.”
“You should have come to me first.”
“I know, I know, but I thought I could stop them before they made a stupid mistake. After all, they’re my friends. I don’t want to see them get hurt.”
Kwon nodded, his lips pursed.
“Which way did they go?”
“Before they discovered me I heard them talking about trying to get to the South Korean border. Other than that, I don’t know.”
Kwon smiled. “Very stupid of them.”
Phil nodded. “Of course, very stupid. Now, I need you to take me to the lab.”
“Why?”
“So I can make sure they didn’t do anything to sabotage it.”
“We will check that ourselves.”
Phil’s heart sank. He could think of only one card to play.
“They might have set the EMP to go off. Only I can determine that. You need to let me in there to make sure everything is okay, otherwise we might lose everything, including the entire compound!”
Kwon’s eyes darted open, and he stood straight, shouting orders, then climbed in the back as two of the jumpsuits filled the front seats. Within seconds they were racing toward the bright white building on the other side of the small town.
Please God, let me make this right.
Four miles from the coast
A siren wailed nearby, and Kane dropped to the ground, checking his charges. Everyone save Darius was wide awake, paying attention, and cooperating. Carl was carrying Darius now, giving Jason a break. Knocking the young boy out had proven to be one of his better ideas. He climbed up the wall of the ditch and peered down the road, toward the sound.
A column of vehicles from, he assumed, the nearby military base streamed by on the road they needed to cross to get to the coast, and their rendezvous. Kane pushed himself back down the embankment, motioning for everyone to stay down, then pressing himself into the ground to set an example which everyone followed suit.
At least half a dozen vehicles whipped by, and Kane was about to sit up when he heard another vehicle approaching and slowing down. It stopped at the crossroads they were hiding at, the engine turning off.
Shit!
Kane punched the ground. If it weren’t for the delays, they would have been long past this road. He climbed up the edge again, and looked. There were two men, one sitting on the hood, smoking a cigarette, the other, his back to their position, taking a leak on the other side of the road. There was an outside chance this was just a pit stop, but he doubted it. North Korean soldiers in an emergency situation would be too disciplined to stop like this without orders.
They were manning a checkpoint.
Kane looked about. To their right was the road they were following. They couldn’t cross it without being seen. And to their left was the wrong direction. He motioned for the others to be quiet, then sprung from the embankment, his knife whipping from his side. The smoker reacted first, his eyes bulging, as Kane swung the knife in a smooth arc over his shoulder, the blade sailing through the air toward the urinating target, still unaware of what was going on. As the blade embedded itself into the man’s back with a thud and a grunt, Kane closed the final few feet between him and the smoker, then with one sudden jab, crushed the man’s windpipe. Grabbing him around the neck and spinning him so his back was pressed against Kane’s chest, he wrapped his left arm around the man’s neck and squeezed.
His neck snapped within seconds and Kane dragged his body to the other side of the road where his comrade had fallen, and threw the corpse into the ditch. Retrieving his knife from the other’s back, he kicked the body off the road, rolling it into the ditch and on top of his partner. Kane rushed over to the vehicle and checked to see if the keys were inside.
He smiled when he saw them dangling in the ignition.
“Everybody in the jeep, now!” he hissed, and heads popped up over the rise, then everyone climbed inside, Jason with Darius in the passenger seat, the three other adults in the back, the two children on their laps. He started the engine and slammed it in gear, turning off the lights and racing down the road as fast as he dared, knowing at any moment he might have to turn off.
He looked at the glowing dial on his watch, then flipped the Velcro cover closed again with a grimace.
We just might make the rendezvous.
International Cooperation Center, North Korea
Phil and Kwon Bae rushed onto the elevator, Phil having led the way from the jeep and up the steps and through the lobby, his handler having to call off the guards rushing to stop him. His hope was to get in the lab first and simply hit the button, and the only way that plan was to succeed was if he were to get there first. Kwon had to know the biggest risk was the EMP, and would most likely post a guard by it as soon as he could.
Phil hit the button for the fifth floor, then hammered on the Close Door button as guards ran to join them. The doors inexorably closed as Kwon was receiving a briefing over the radio.
The doors closed, leaving the two of them alone.
Phil did
n’t look at Kwon, instead turning to face the doors, leaving them only inches from his face. He could see fog from his breath on the polished metal, and he tried to calm himself, but it was no use. His heart threatened to break his ribs, his pulse raged in his pounding ears, and he was one fright away from pissing his pants.
The radio stopped.
“We found countermeasures in their houses, blocking our listening devices,” said Kwon. “That means they had help!”
Phil wasn’t sure what to say, but he knew he had to say something.
“Oh? I didn’t know you had listening devices in our houses.”
“And they found a note in Dr. Shephard’s house, thanking you for helping them escape!”
The elevator chimed and the doors began to open as Phil turned to see Kwon reaching behind him. He couldn’t remember if the man ever carried a gun, or if he had seen one on him tonight, but he couldn’t risk it. He spun around and shoved Kwon hard, sending him against the rear wall of the elevator, his head snapping back and smacking against the glass. Phil hit the button for the ground floor, then jumped out of the elevator as the doors closed. He heard Kwon yelling, pounding on the doors as the elevator slowly returned to the lobby.
Unless he has the presence of mind to get off sooner.
Phil rushed to the door of their lab and tried the handle. It was locked. He looked about and saw an old style cigar shaped ‘butt can’ ashtray standing by the elevator doors, one of the things he had found different about working here, but couldn’t put his finger on, finally snapping into place. He rushed over, grabbed the waist high ashtray off the floor, and carried it back to the door. He lifted it up and slammed it down on the door knob.
Nothing.
He repeated this several times, and finally the knob snapped off and the door swung open. He tossed the ashtray aside, entered the lab, then closed the door, pushing a cabinet in front of the door with a grunt, his muscles not used to the exertion, and the beating he had received to his face not helping, the pressure as he pushed causing the wounds to ache in pain.
Rogue Operator Page 26
