"Never been here before," Charley said. "Sorry. Lam and me go out front for look-see."
Murdock put the men down in the thickest part of the woods. There didn't see m to be any activity here. Nothing would happen until daylight. By then they had to have a hide-hole somewhere. He put two men on guard duty and told the others to relax.
Murdock lay in the weeds and brush trying to get warm. He clicked off problems they could run into. Army patrols. Not likely in this sector so far from the front. Civilians cutting wood? Good chance. Their Korean buddies would have to alibi them. Maybe say the SEALs were a special Army force in civilian garb watching for South Korean infiltrators. Should work.
North Korean Army units on training exercises? Could be, but they probably had all possible units at the front.
His eyes drooped shut, and he jerked himself awake. No damn time for sleeping. Too cold to sleep. The cotton pants and shirts would dry out in three or four hours from body heat, if they could maintain it. He got up and checked the sentries. Both were awake and alert. He went up to the brow of the hill and stared down at the town below. Somewhere down there was his target. All they had to do was find him.
Lam and Charley came back two hours later. They had found another patch of woods close to the town that was unoccupied.
"Looks good, Skip. Near a road with no traffic, but should be busy in the morning. Bicycles, I'd expect."
They moved the platoon forward and put them into temporary cover and concealment. Murdock called the two Koreans up and spelled it out.
"Your job, go into town and be there when it wakes up. Use any ploy you want to, but find out where the resort is without attracting any attention. Probably too late tonight to nail a drunk going home. We'll expect you back here by noon. Understand?"
Both men nodded. "Noon," they said in unison. They left their weapons and combat vests, and put on floppy sandals they had brought with them. Each had brought a small .22-caliber automatic along, and they hid the weapons in pockets. Murdock waved, and they headed downhill toward the city's muted lights.
"Another hide-hole, gents," Murdock said on his Motorola, and the SEALs fashioned more shallow holes with plenty of camouflage they could pull over them if needed. New guards went out and Murdock talked to DeWitt.
"What have I missed?" Murdock asked. "How else could we get our asses in a sling in here?"
"Depends how many Army units are stationed here," DeWitt said. "My guess is most of their troops have been pulled to the MLR to boost their numbers."
"Leaving few if any armed soldiers in this little town." Murdock rubbed his hand over his face.
"Damn, I hope that's right."
"What else? Snakebite? Booby traps, home guards, not finding the fucking resort, maybe it's got a regiment around it protecting the old hard-nuts general?"
DeWitt chuckled in the darkness. "Come on. Skipper. Relax. When we hit a problem, we'll figure out how to handle it. You're getting on the slightly paranoid side here."
Murdock rubbed his face again. "Yeah, you're right, 2IC. I'm getting old-woman-shit-faced. Let's get some shuteye and dry the fuck out."
Morning brought the first hint of trouble. Jaybird, who had taken the last watch, poked Murdock awake.
"Commander, you better check this out. Some minor problem,"
Murdock came awake at once, both his hands on the submachine gun. "Trouble? Where?" Jaybird led him through the sleeping bodies of the men in the first shafts of light that were eating up the darkness. At the crest of the hill they looked down at a small valley with a road beyond.
"So?" Murdock asked.
"Behind those trees. Watch what comes out of them."
They watched a moment. Then a line of women came out hiking along a trail the SEALs hadn't seen before in the darkness. It wound up the hill and would come within fifty feet of the SEALs' hiding spot.
"Women going to work in the fields somewhere," Jaybird said. "They might walk out ten miles to a field."
"We've seen this before… in China. Wake up the men and make sure they keep covered up as the women go past."
Ten minutes later the line of women had passed without incident, and Murdock drew a normal breath.
"Tell them to chow down," Murdock said. Each of the men had brought with him two MREs, the sealed-in-plastic ready-to-eat meals. They weren't exactly gourmet, but they would keep a man alive and ready to fight.
By that time everyone was dry. The rain of the night before had stopped early on, and now the sun came out and dried out the brush and trees. Murdock had out three lookouts. Nobody came near the woods after the women passed by.
A jet fighter streaked across the sky at treetop level less than a half mile from them and brought all the SEALs alert. The craft vanished off to the left and didn't come back.
"Training mission," Ron Holt said, and the SEALs went back to checking their weapons and taking naps. No telling when they might be able to get any sleep again.
At 1100, the two Koreans appeared in the woods. None of the guards had seen them approach. They grinned and showed a narrow ravine choked with brush that they had used to go from and come back to the hillside.
"Find it?" Murdock asked.
Charley nodded. "Other side of town, five kilometers out. Plenty guards around the place, civilians. Know for sure that one general is there. Many persons saw his big car with the bright red star on it drive in two days ago."
The other Korean nodded. "Five, six young women also go in, three men say. Plenty women there."
"How can we get there?" DeWitt asked.
Charley took them to the brow of the hill and pointed around the near side of the town. A small range of hills showed that were used for what the scouts described as a reforestation project.
"Plenty cover, no people," Charley said.
"Can we get there right now without attracting any attention?" Murdock asked.
"If careful, quiet, and lucky," Charley said.
"Two out of there ain't bad," DeWitt said.
"Let's saddle up, gentlemen," Murdock said. "We're going for a walk in the park."
They moved from the hilltop into the gully the Koreans had used. It concealed them perfectly. A half mile below, the gully ended at a dirt road. A string of six trucks lumbered past, each loaded with military supplies. Evidently they were heading south to the front.
Just when Murdock thought all was clear, two bicyclists came pedaling along. Charley tugged at Murdock's brown civilian shirt.
"We go across one at a time. Two, three minutes between. No one worry about it. We civilians."
An ancient truck filled with what looked to Murdock like rice straw came by. When it vanished, Murdock gave the order for the men to go across the road two at a time, spaced out. Half of the platoon was across when another convoy of military trucks came past. The men waited, then continued when the trucks were gone.
When they were all across, Lam waved them forward again into the light growth of timber on the small hills. They had just started down the third hill, well concealed in the growth, when Lam stopped.
"Skip, you better take a look," Lam said on his Motorola. Murdock hurried to the front and slid into the grass and weeds beside Lam.
Ahead, Murdock saw the problem.
"Woodcutting crew," Lam said. "Military. They stacked their rifles and began taking down pine trees. Almost looks like they're gonna make bunkers, but no reason to out here."
They heard a heavy truck engine some distance away. It stopped and the NK troops cheered.
"How many?" Murdock asked.
"Twelve, plus an officer who wasn't working and carries a pistol. He went to bring up the truck is my guess."
"Can we go around them?"
"No chance, Skip. The area up there is about fifty, maybe sixty feet wide. We go through them or we go back."
Murdock used the Motorola. "Come on up. and spread out into a firing line. Got a small problem."
Five minutes later the SEALs had set up a li
ne of men spread out and facing the woodcutters.
"Silenced rounds only. We're about fifty yards, so use the MPs, and the snipers. On my count. One, two… three." Murdock sighted in with his MP-5 submachine gun and put down a chopper nearest the far end. He saw the officer with the pistol come into the clearing, and targeted him next, but the man spun backwards with a round in his chest. Murdock looked for a new target.
Half the woodcutters were down after the first volley. Two scrambled for their rifles and got them, only to be cut to pieces before they could fire a shot.
There were three behind trees. "Let's move out and clean it up," Murdock said into the mike. The SEALs came to their feet and ran down the slope in a staggered line. The submachine guns chattered off three-round bursts, and then the SEALs were past the last of the dead woodcutters and moving up the other side of the hill.
Fifty yards into the thicker cover of trees and brush, Murdock stopped them.
"The truck," he said.
"Got it," Lam said. He motioned to Jaybird, and they faded back down the hill and to the left where they had heard the truck. Lam went ahead from tree to tree, watching everything forward.
He stopped twice and listened, then moved again. Jaybird followed him in the same pattern. Lam waved Jaybird up, and they looked down an open stretch fifty feet to a military truck. The driver leaned against the front fender, hands in his pockets.
Jaybird held up his hand with two fingers extended. Lam shook his head. He leveled in with his MP-5 and fired a three-round burst. The driver jolted off the fender clawing at his chest. He slammed backwards and hit the ground. They waited. The man on the ground didn't move. No one else came out of the truck.
Four minutes later, Lam and Jaybird found the rest of the SEALs, and they moved out generally north through the wooded hills.
They crossed one more road, a better one-lane blacktop that had much more traffic. It took them ten minutes to drift across this road one or two at a time, and bet ween old trucks, bicycles, and men and women on foot. The SEALs' new civilian clothing blended in nicely with the locals.
It was just after 1500 when they came to the top of another hill. Charley led Murdock to a vantage point, and they looked north and east. They had come past most of the town, and could see pockets of houses and a few industrial buildings to the north of the main settlement.
"We find two-lane road with line down middle," Charley said. "Resort at end of road, maybe five kilometers from town." "Let's move," Murdock said. "Like to get this one wrapped up before dark. Is there a swimming pool at this resort?"
Charley laughed. "This not California, Commander. No swim place."
"Then probably no chance for a long-range kill."
They hiked out of the hills and into a brushy area where the soil looked too sparse and rocky to cultivate. It provided enough cover for them. They worked three miles north; then Murdock called a halt.
"Lam, take Charley and go find that fucking two-lane road with a line down the middle. Should be to the east somewhere. Get back here as fast as possible."
Lam and Charley left their weapons with the others and struck out in the open across rice paddies, past a house or two, and kept moving quickly through the land.
Murdock watched them move out of sight behind a slight rise, and wished them luck. He sat down and leaned against a tree. The oversized floppy shirts they wore covered their combat harness, but there was no way they could conceal a canteen. Murdock was thirsty. He knew he had to stay that way. Maybe later Charley could find them some good drinking water. Probably all of the water up here was contaminated. Korea was a night-soil heaven.
A half mile to the left across the North Korean countryside, Lam leaned against a small tree and tried to hold in a laugh. Three young girls were chasing a small pig and not able to catch it. The two men skirted the scene, and found some woods where Lam could relax a little.
On the far side of the woods. Lam spotted a military truck speeding along a road. They edged up another two hundred yards and identified the roadway. A blacktop, two-lane road with a stripe up the middle. It was a superhighway in this area.
It took them a half hour to get back to the SEALs.
"Got it, Skip. Looks like we can jog west a quarter of a mile and find some more low hills. I'd bet that they swing to the east up ahead and that should bring us to the resort, or damn close to it."
"Let's move," Murdock said. He picked up the pace then, not quite jogging, but more than an easy walk. They found the hills and swung east. The number of farmed plots thinned out, in direct proportion to the thinning soil, Murdock decided.
Just after 1620, Lam called Murdock to the front of the line. He was on the crest of a small wooded hill, and pointed to the east.
Murdock took out his binoculars and checked. There were enough buildings for a resort. One was three stories high. They were built in a square and all looked new. The highway led up to the front of the place, and as he watched, a pair of military vehicles rolled through the gates into the square and vanished.
"Found it," Murdock said. "Now all we have to do is locate our favorite general, Soo Chung Chi."
For half an hour they scouted the place from a distance. There were no easy access routes. No concealment of any kind. No houses or buildings had been left standing for a quarter of a mile around the resort. It looked more like a fortified castle than a playing place.
"Have to go in at night," DeWitt said when he put down his binoculars. They had moved up as close as they could get in concealment.
"True," Murdock said. "Oh, oh. Look at this."
DeWitt pulled up his binoculars again and swore. "An old Russian armored personnel carrier.
Old, but it still moves and has a nasty sting in that fifty-caliber machine gun."
"Must have a crew of three," Murdock said. "That kind of eliminates our walking in the front door looking for a handout."
He looked at Jaybird, DeWitt, and the two Koreans.
"Now, just how the hell do we get into this place so we can find General Soo?"
20
Chungsan
North Korea
Darkness had just fallen. The scouts were back with their reports. The place was built like a fortress. It was a quad, with the buildings connected. Two entrances, one on the front with a drive-through arch and gate, and a man-sized door on the rear that evidently was locked or had a guard.
"It has to be the rear door," Jaybird said. "The front gate would be too obvious, and that's where they have the firepower. One guard tops at the rear door. We use our Koreans to get the door unlocked or open, take the guard out silently, and slip in that way. Then we find the general, welcome him into Hell, and leave by the same door."
"All silently and without a shot being fired," Murdock said. "I wish it could happen that way."
"Looks like the rear door is the best bet to get inside," DeWitt said. "I agree there, but once we get in, gonna be a hell of a job just to locate the general."
"Bribe," Charley the Korean interpreter said. "Bribery way of life in North. We offer the guard lot of money, twenty thousand won. That over nine thousand dollars U.S. More money than he'll ever see in lifetime. Will work. Bribery always work in North Korea."
"If that doesn't, can you talk your way in?"
"Yes," Charley said. He took out a banded stack of one hundred won notes. "Slip money under the door. I prepared."
"We need to get inside quietly," Murdock said. "We can't blow the door open. Then all the soldiers the general brought with him are on us with their AK-47's at full auto."
"Say we're inside the door," Jaybird said. "It's after midnight. What's next?"
"We play it by ear," Murdock said. "As usual. We try to find a hostage who will tell us where the general is. When we find Soo we eliminate him, get out, and take a hike away from here."
"He'd probably be in the three-floor section," DeWitt said. "On the top floor. So we would probably start at the top and work down."
"When?" Charley asked.
The three looked at him. "When?" Murdock asked himself. "I'd say just after midnight. That will mean many of the troops inside will be busy with their women, or asleep. It will also give us five or six hours of darkness to make our getaway."
"Now, should know where we go next. Taedong?" Charley asked.
"Taedong, right," Murdock said. "Then we'll swing back down to the coast, visit the seaside town of Nampo, before we launch ourselves into the Yellow Sea and hope for a pickup."
They considered using two men for a diversion at the front gate, but decided against it. They wanted to keep it a silent hit for as long as possible.
"We should be able to get to the back wall of the building in the dark," Murdock said. "Nobody reported any floodlights along the walls. That will help."
"We going to stay silent the whole time?" Jaybird asked.
"If we can. We'll use our suppressed weapons and KABARs. We find the general, snuff him, and get out of there before anyone knows we've been there."
"No chance," Charley said.
Murdock punched him in the shoulder. "Yeah, not much of a chance, but we keep silent as long as we can. Now, two hours to sleep, then we move out for that back door."
By midnight when they left the woods, the clouds had blown away and a cold half-moon rode high in the sky. They moved silently the mile to the resort building in a combat diamond. They saw no guards, and no lights bathed the outer walls. The platoon leaned against the wall and waited.
At the door, Charley got a thumbs-up from Murdock, and the small Korean pounded on the wooden door. Nothing happened. He pounded again, longer this time. A thin sliver of light showed under the door.
The third time he pounded, a pair of knocks came in response. Charley talked in Korean, waited, then said the words again.
Nothing happened.
Charley talked again, and slid three one-hundred-won notes under the door. The money vanished as someone grabbed it. He pushed three more of the bills under the door. They were pulled away. The door opened an inch and a Korean voice spoke softly. Charley held a stack of the one-hundred-won notes so the person beyond the door could see them.
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