High Alert (The Project Book 14)

by Alex Lukeman

  "Major Vasiliev, were you able to neutralize all of the antiaircraft positions before the Chinese surprised us?" Valentina asked.

  "They had moved them," Vasiliev said. He looked defensive.

  "Did you or did you not neutralize the positions?"

  "Two of them. We did not locate the third."

  "Shit," Lamont said.

  "Too late to do anything about it now," Nick said.

  Another announcement came over the loudspeakers by the tower site.

  "Thirty minutes to launch," Selena said.

  Valentina looked at Nick, pointedly ignoring Vasiliev. "How do you want to do this?"

  "We should stick together," Nick said. "No point in splitting up now."

  He gestured toward the glow of lighting at the launch pad.

  "The tower is about three hundred meters that way. We can get within fifty meters or so before we risk being seen."

  "Fifty meters is well within the range of our launchers," Valentina said, "but visibility is getting worse. We need to move."

  "Let's keep it simple," Nick said. "Line abreast, ten foot intervals. Colonel, put your, RPGs and loaders at each end. Ronnie, you take the middle with the AT-4. Selena, you and Lamont stay near Ronnie. We get close enough to see what we're shooting at, we blow the missile batteries. That will distract them and give them something to think about. Then we fire the launchers at the rocket, all at once. That sound good?"

  Nods all around.

  "Ronnie, you have the most bang for the buck. You aim below the nose where that bomb is. Just don't miss."

  "Do I ever miss?"

  "Everyone else should target the fuel trucks," Valentina said.

  "Some of those troops down there might survive the blast," Ronnie said.

  "We'll deal with that when we come to it," Nick said. "They'll be disoriented by the explosions and we have the advantage of surprise. Once that rocket goes up, we head back to the choppers and boogie."

  Valentina looked confused. "Boogie?"

  "We get the hell out of here."

  "Can't be soon enough for me," Lamont said.

  "Move out," Nick said.

  They headed for the launch tower. Selena had her arm around Lamont's shoulders. The morphine had kicked in. She felt lightheaded, but her leg hurt enough to keep her alert.

  Nick's adrenaline began pumping again as they set out. What if the Koreans had heard the firefight with the Chinese? How had the Chinese managed to take a seasoned Spetsnaz team by surprise in the first place? It wasn't going to do Vasiliev's career any good. Besides that, he hadn't done his job. One of those mobile antiaircraft units was still waiting out there somewhere.

  They reached a spot just outside the circle cast by the lights illuminating the launch vehicle. A different fuel truck was hooked into the rocket. One more waited in line.

  The assault teams knelt facing the target. Ronnie brought the AT-4 up onto his shoulder. He looked through the eyepiece and flipped off the safety. At each end of the line, the Russians waited with their grenade launchers. Nick looked through his rifle scope.

  Nothing indicated that the firefight with the Chinese had been heard. Some of the troops he saw were keeping positions around the tower. They looked bored. An officer and two men in civilian coats stood some distance away, watching the fueling operation.

  Nick spoke softly into his microphone. Valentina translated into Russian as he spoke.

  "On my command, fire."

  He turned to Lamont. "Blow the charges."

  Lamont reached into his pocket, took out the remote detonator and pressed the button.

  The result was instant, deafening. The first explosions were followed a split second later by the missiles detonating in their bunkers. The night lit with brilliant orange and yellow light. Chunks and pieces of concrete fountained into the sky and rained down over the site.

  "Fire!"

  Trails of smoke left the launchers, turning into streaks of light as the rockets ignited. Ronnie's shot struck just below the nose cone, a blossom of flame against the white paint of the rocket. The Russian grenades exploded against the two tankers at the base of the rocket and ignited a gigantic fireball of flame.

  Liquid rocket fuel wasn't regular gasoline. It was far more volatile, gasoline combined with an oxidant like nitrogen tetroxide. Even Nick wasn't prepared for what followed when the trucks went up.

  The explosion enveloped the tower, the launch pad and the rocket in a sheet of fire. A wave of heat and wind struck Nick in the face. Everyone near the tower was incinerated. What was left of the missile toppled away from the tower. It picked up speed, crashed to the ground and broke into burning pieces.

  "Holy shit," Ronnie said.

  A half-dozen Korean soldiers had survived the blast. They began firing wildly in the general direction of Nick and the others.

  "Hold your fire," he said. "They don't know where we are. Don't give them a target. Move out."

  Valentina repeated the order in Russian.

  "Ronnie, Lamont, help Selena. Carry her if you have to."

  Nick took one last look at the destruction they'd caused, then turned with the others toward the helicopters.

  CHAPTER 41

  The snow cut visibility to a few yards. Vasiliev lagged behind the rest of the Spetsnaz unit. Valentina was with him. Nick and the others were somewhere in back of them. Vasiliev stopped as if to adjust his gear.

  Valentina stopped with him.

  "What is the problem, Major?"

  Vasiliev pointed his rifle at her. "You are, Colonel. You and that American bitch you call a sister."

  "What did you say?"

  "I've seen women like you before," Vasiliev said. "You would never have your rank if it weren't for your pet general and your cozy relationship with our president."

  He smiled at Valentina's look of surprise.

  "Yes, I know about that. Everyone does. Did you think you could jump the promotion list so far and so fast without people wondering why? You earned your rank on your back. You know nothing, whore. You're an insult to the uniform and to real officers like me."

  Valentina wondered if he was crazy enough to shoot her, if she could get to him in time.

  "You are costing us time, Major. The helicopters are waiting."

  "Not for you, Colonel."

  The snow fell around them. Vasiliev's unit was out of sight. He swung the butt of his rifle in a quick movement and smashed it into the side of Valentina's head. She went down like a stone. Vasiliev spit on her, turned, and ran for the helicopters.

  Nick, Ronnie, Lamont and Selena moved as quickly as they could, slowed by Selena's injury. The Russians were out of sight, their tracks quickly fading in the new snow.

  "What do you bet Vasiliev takes off before we get there?" Ronnie said.

  "He screwed up," Lamont said. "I don't think that general will be happy with him when he gets back."

  "Not our problem," Nick said.

  "What's that up ahead?" Selena said. "On the ground?"

  "Ah, hell," Lamont said.

  They reached Valentina, lying unconscious in the snow. The side of her face was bloodied. Her jaw was at an odd angle. Blood trickled from her mouth.

  Selena gasped. "Valentina."

  "I'll get her," Nick said. "We'll carry her back with us."

  "Careful," Selena said, "I think her jaw is broken."

  "Vasiliev must've done this."

  "Why?"

  "We'll deal with it later. Come on."

  He picked up Valentina. They set off for the choppers.

  Ten minutes later, they reached the extraction point. One of the big helicopters was gone. The second waited with rotors turning. One of the pilots stood by the cargo door. He said something and Selena let off a rapid stream of Russian. They handed Valentina into the cargo bay. Lamont pulled the sliding door shut. Seconds later they rose into the air.

  "What did he say?" Nick asked.

  "Vasiliev told him Valentina had gone back to meet us
and that her orders were for the first helicopter to take off once Vasiliev and his men arrived."

  "What a chicken shit bastard," Lamont said.

  "Doesn't say a lot about international cooperation, does it?" Ronnie said.

  Nick said, "He probably figured we wouldn't find Valentina. He gets back before us and spins a story to cover what happened to her. Maybe blames us while he's at it."

  "Stupid. He'd never get away with it."

  Selena was listening to the Russian pilots on her headset. She looked up, wide-eyed, as a shrill alarm sounded in the cockpit. The helicopter banked hard to the right. Ronnie grabbed at Valentina's unconscious form to keep her from sliding across the floor.

  "Missile lock-on," Selena said.

  The aircraft shuddered as the antimissile weapons fired. Two missiles shot by outside, jagged streaks of light. Seconds later, explosions in the night sky showed two more, knocked out by the helicopter's defenses.

  Their headsets filled with excited Russian voices.

  Selena held a hand over her ear piece. "The other helicopter is under attack."

  They passed over the coast and banked north. The helicopter dove down until it was sYunming the whitecaps churning the surface of the Sea of Japan. The engine over their heads screamed at full throttle. Visibility was bad with the snow blowing outside, but not so bad that Nick couldn't see a sudden, bloom of light somewhere ahead of them.

  For a second the headset was silent, then Nick heard cursing in Russian. He didn't need to speak the language to know what they were saying.

  "The other chopper is gone," Selena said.

  She looked at the motionless form of her sister lying on the floor.

  "I guess Vasiliev did her a favor. She would have been on it."

  "Wasn't her time," Ronnie said.

  "How's your leg?" Nick asked.

  "How about the rest of that morphine?" Selena said.

  CHAPTER 42

  The hospital on the Russian base was small and old, but well equipped because of the fighter pilots stationed there. General Alexei Vysotsky stood by Valentina's bedside. Dull winter light seeped through a window on the other side of the room, splaying across a worn linoleum floor that had been laid down in the time of Brezhnev.

  Earlier that morning a Russian surgeon had removed the Chinese bullet from Selena's thigh. An inch to the right, and the round would have cut the femoral artery and killed her. She lay sleeping. Nick sat nearby, thinking about what the doctor had told him.

  At the other end of the ward, Vysotsky was talking to Valentina. The side of her face was black and purple, swollen and bandaged. Her jaw had dislocated when Vasiliev's rifle struck her. The doctors put it back in place and bandaged it to limit movement. She could barely talk.

  Vysotsky looked at his protégé and shook his head.

  "President Orlov wants me to tell you that you are in his prayers."

  Valentina snorted and winced in pain.

  "Tha's nish. Oo's e pay'ng to?"

  "You really must watch what you say, Valentina. One of these days it will get you in trouble."

  He held up his hand. "You don't need to talk. Major Carter told me what happened. When you are able to speak clearly again, you can tell me yourself. For now, I will assume Carter's report is accurate."

  Valentina grunted in assent.

  "Vasiliev's helicopter went down over water. There is no convincing evidence we were involved. Our president has also asked me to give you his congratulations. Yun's plan is stopped and his weapon destroyed. The mission is a success. You will be getting another medal on your tunic."

  "Don' care."

  "No, but President Orlov seems to think it's a good idea."

  Nick paid no attention to Vysotsky's voice on the other side of the room. He was still coming down, exhausted from the aftermath of the adrenaline high. His body ached.

  And now this.

  She's pregnant. Why didn't she tell me? She wouldn't have been here if I'd known..

  He was having trouble wrapping his head around it. Nick listened to her quiet breathing as she slept and thought about what it would mean to have a child.

  Years before, when he'd been engaged to Megan, they'd wanted children. They'd joked about having an average American family of two and a half kids. Then Megan had died and part of him had died with her. He'd left his heart in the blackened wreckage of her plane, shut down his emotions, and thrown himself into his job as a Marine.

  Then he'd met Selena. Without knowing how it happened, he'd allowed himself to love again. The danger they'd shared had bonded them together in a way few couples ever achieved. He'd never revealed to her the depth of his fear that she'd be killed on one of their missions.

  Now she was pregnant with their child. Another hostage to love, another potential loss to face.

  The thought terrified him.

  Selena opened her eyes. "Hey."

  "Hey, yourself. How do you feel?"

  "Like I got hit with a bus."

  "They took the bullet out. I saved it for you."

  Nick reached in his pocket and took out a lump of metal.

  "I thought you might want it for a souvenir."

  He paused.

  "What's wrong?" Selena asked.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I can tell when something is bothering you. What is it?"

  Nick looked away, then back again. "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "Tell you what?"

  "That you're pregnant."

  "Oh. That."

  Nick was silent.

  "Is the baby all right?" Selena asked.

  "The doctor said it was fine."

  "I was going to tell you when we got back. I didn't want to worry you before the mission."

  "Damn it, Selena..."

  "I only found out right before we left. I didn't know how to tell you."

  "You should have told me."

  "I know."

  "How far along are you?"

  "I'm not sure," Selena said. "I think about seven weeks."

  "I should've figured it out," Nick said. "In hindsight, it's easy. The way you’ve been sick in the mornings."

  "That part's not much fun," she said.

  "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "Because I didn't know how you'd react." She paused. "I want this baby."

  It was the first time she'd admitted it to herself. She really did want this child. Besides, abortion wasn't an option she was willing to consider.

  "And you were afraid I wouldn't," Nick said.

  "Yes." What's he going to say?

  "I guess we have a problem."

  Selena's heart began pounding.

  He took her hand. "What are we going to name him?"

  The emotion that swept through her came out of nowhere. She began crying.

  "Hey," Nick said. "Hey, it's okay."

  CHAPTER 43

  In Pyongyang, the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea had been screaming at the generals standing rigidly in front of him for the better part of an hour. Flecks of spit flew from his mouth. Finally, Yun grew calm. His eyes narrowed.

  Marshal Park Cho knew this was the most dangerous time to be around the chairman. His fits of rage were always followed by periods of icy calm. Then he'd start looking for a scapegoat, someone to blame for whatever had gone wrong.

  In this case, a great deal had gone wrong. The launch tower and pad at Musudan-Ri had been destroyed, along with the weapon that would have brought down the American imperialists. Years of work and planning, all gone. That wasn't all. The launch site, what was left of it, was contaminated with radioactive fallout from the destruction of the bomb. No one would be able to use it again for hundreds of years.

  Yun turned his gaze on Park.

  "Who did this?"

  "Great Leader, at least two groups attacked the complex. One was Chinese. We have identified them as members of Beijing's elite special forces group, South Blade. I am happy to report that they were
all killed."

  Yun shouted. "The Chinese? The Chinese?"

  That set off another tirade. When he was calm again, Yun said, "You said two groups. Who else?"

  "Great Leader, we think it was the Russians. We found shell casings implicating them in the attack. It is also possible the Americans were involved."

  Park waited for another eruption, but it didn't come.

  "So. The Chinese, the Americans, and the Russians."

  "Yes, Great Leader. We think the Chinese got in a fight with the others. All of them were there to sabotage the launch."

  "Then all of them will regret it," Yun said. "How many of our nuclear missiles are ready?"

  Park resisted an urge to look at his comrades on the general staff.

  "We have four missiles capable of reaching as far as Japan. A dozen with shorter range."

  "What is the yield?"

  "Great Leader, the average yield is five kilotons."

  "No thermonuclear warheads?"

  "No, Great Leader. They are in development. All our resources were dedicated to New Dawn."

  "Prepare all missiles for launch, nuclear and conventional. Target Seoul, Tokyo, Vladivostok and Beijing."

  Park was speechless.

  "You wish to say something?"

  "Great Leader, if we launch our missiles, China, Russia and America will retaliate. We will be destroyed."

  "Marshal Park, you are under arrest. General Rhee, you are promoted to Marshal of the Republic. Prepare our missiles for launch."

  Rhee looked at the group of stone faced men who were his peers and comrades. One of them gave a slight shake of his head.

  No.

  "Ah, forgive me, Great Leader," Rhee said, "but Marshal Park is correct. If we carry out your insane order, we will be destroyed."

  Yun looked as if he had swallowed a lemon.

  "You are also under arrest. General Kang. Carry out my orders."

  Kang looked at Yun. "I will not," he said.

  "Enough of this," Park said.

  He took out his pistol and shot Yun in the face. Brains and bits of bone sprayed out from the back of his head as the round exited. The floor shook when Yun's large body fell. Park put the pistol back in his holster and buttoned the flap.