"You're thinking of Korea as a foil to any Japanese ambitions?" Marshall asked, inquisitively cocking his head to one side.
"Right. We need to salvage some kind of decent relations there. China's still a question mark. We lose any more clout over there and we can kiss off the Pacific Rim as an area of American influence. I don't relish going down in history as the President who pulled America out of the Far East."
Nate shifted uncomfortably in his chair, leaning his hands on his knees. He'd have preferred to stand, as well, but that would have looked like an effort to usurp the President's position. "What if we let President Kwak know we have the evidence on him and are prepared to go public if he doesn't back off?"
"What if he calls our bluff?" General Thatcher objected.
The President held up a hand. "Wait. I like that." He looked at Nate. "If we could produce your dissident physicist, quietly tell Kwak we were prepared to parade him before the Security Council, it just might work. After they explode a bomb, the genie's out of the bottle. But right now, they would be under considerable pressure to hold up. Any Security Council sanctions would be very detrimental to their economic plans. I don't believe he'd want to take the risk."
"We stop the bomb but they don't lose face," said Kingsley Marshall.
The President nodded. "Exactly. Can you get Dr. Shin out of the country?"
Nate frowned thoughtfully. "It might be a problem getting him aboard an airliner. The government is working hard to track him down."
"We could arrange a submarine pickup in the Sea of Japan," Marshall suggested. "Nate has a man over there who recently went through the Agency's training program. He could handle that end of it."
The President turned to his National Security Advisor. "Any problems, Henry?"
"No, sir. I'll get with the Pentagon immediately. If we have a suitable boat in the area, we can set it up for sometime in the next few days."
Seoul, South Korea
Chapter 43
Burke groggily fumbled around in the dark for the telephone. He finally got it off the hook on the third or fourth ring. He wasn't sure which.
"Hello," he said wearily, reaching his other hand out to switch on a table lamp. He saw by the clock it was just after 1:30. He had only been asleep a couple of hours.
"Burke?" a faraway-sounding voice said.
"Yeah. Who is this?"
"Sorry to rouse you this time of night. I know it's early there."
"Nate?"
"Right. This is a 'Sierra' call. I'll wait for you."
Burke quickly got everything set up and pressed the Activate button. "Okay, Nate. What's up?"
Highsmith briefed him quickly on the meeting in the Oval Office. He relayed what the President wanted and what Kingsley Marshall had said about using Duane Elliston to set up the operation.
Burke was happy the President had approved getting Dr. Shin out of Korea, but he took the final point glumly. "In other words, I don't have any choice in the matter."
"That's affirmative," said Nate Highsmith. "Duane has been trained in this sort of thing. He knows the procedures. The reason I called right away was so you could get him down to that temple as soon as possible. He needs to arrange to move Dr. Shin to a safe spot along the coast. We'll make the rendezvous around Pyonghae. That's due east of the temple."
"Okay. I'll get Duane on the road at daylight. Jerry can call Moon Chwa at Pulguksa and alert him to what's going on. I'll be in touch as soon as Duane makes contact and reports back to us."
Burke sat on the side of the bed for a few minutes, gathering his thoughts before calling Duane's room. Maybe he was being too hard on the guy. He did possess a sharp mind, and he'd had the training for the job. It would be a big help if he spoke Korean, but Duane was never hesitant about bluffing his way through any situation. He'd been craving action. Well, he was about to get his chance.
But even if they got Dr. Shin out, would the bluff work at the Blue House? He wished he knew more about President Kwak Sung-kyo. It would be interesting to meet him. With only a couple of weeks to go, however, that wasn't likely.
He dialed Duane Elliston's room and set the rescue in motion.
Outwardly, it was a normal day at the Worldwide office. Jerry mentioned casually that Duane Elliston was taking a day off. The new Korean writer, An Kye-sun, reported for work. He was a sharp-eyed young bundle of energy with a squat frame, a cocky smile and a bushy head of black hair. His walk was more like a strut. He reminded Burke of a bantam rooster. Jerry gave him his briefing, got his signature on the employment agreement and Travis Tolliver began going over the office routine.
Burke and Jerry attempted to give the appearance of normality, though neither left the office for any reason. A close observer would have detected an undercurrent of unspoken tension, a tendency to listen expectantly with each ring of the phone.
Just before lunchtime, an air freight courier delivered a package from Washington. Burke knew before the secretary opened it that it would contain the manuscript from Dr. Cabot Lowing. Nate had told him to expect it. Miss Song brought the box and sat it on his desk.
"It looks like you have lots of reading to do, Mr. Hill."
He gave her a perfunctory grin. "Yeah. Ought to keep me out of trouble this weekend."
Besides the fact that he was anxious to find out what the manuscript was all about, he was happy it had arrived now to take his mind off the wait to hear from Duane. He didn't really anticipate any problems, but a lot was riding on this deal.
Dr. Shin Man-ki sat at his table in the spare room at the Hongsansa Temple, pen in hand. The wind had taken a calmer turn outside, but the snow still lay in deep chalky drifts, and a thick gray mass hid the sun. Dr. Shin was not pleased with his efforts to transfer his thoughts onto the sheets of paper in front of him. He had made several starts that morning, then crossed out what he had written. His presentation needed to paint a precise picture when the Coalition for Nuclear Freedom presented him to the international press. One of the monks had offered to bring his lunch, but hunger was the farthest thing from his mind.
He sipped at a cup of tea and turned back to the paper. The single light bulb that illuminated the room winked out, leaving the table half-shrouded in darkness.
The physicist rose from the chair and walked to the window. He saw two heavily-jacketed men heading for a small building across the compound. It was the location of the generator that supplied power to the temple area. On an earlier occasion, someone had let the machine run out of fuel, but the supply had been restocked.
After some twenty minutes, a sober-faced young monk entered his room and bowed. "The generator won't start," he said.
"Has someone been called to repair it?" Dr. Shin asked. "I suppose I'll have to use the lantern."
"We can't call. The radio won't work without electricity."
"Don't you have someone familiar with the workings of a generator?"
The monk nodded. "A mechanic is looking into it."
"Let me know what he finds," Dr. Shin said and watched the young man slog out through the snow.
He took an oil lantern off a shelf, lit it, and placed it on the table. As he took his seat, he began to wonder. With the radio silent, he was out of touch with his protector, Moon Chwa. Moon was to let him know about plans to effect his escape from the country.
He moved back to the window, hoping to see some activity that might indicate success with the generator. He saw no lights around the compound.
After another agonizing fifteen minutes, the young monk hurried through the snow back toward Dr. Shin's building. Shin opened the door and motioned the heavily-breathing man inside.
"What have you learned?" he asked.
The monk's eyes narrowed. "He thinks someone has contaminated the fuel, poured something into the tank. It could have been done an hour or so ago and just now reached the engine."
Dr. Shin had closed the door, but he felt a chill course through his body as though the door stood wide open. "Did
he see any indication that someone had been in there?"
"He said it looked like someone had swept the snow in back to cover their tracks."
The nuclear scientist dropped into his chair and lowered his head, a hand clasped around his forehead. The meaning was clear. Agents of the NSP had infiltrated the compound to cut off any contact with the outside. There was only one way out, down the narrow mountain road. He was trapped.
Burke had started reading the manuscript, which contained the byline of Dr. Yo Ku Lee (they had Americanized his name) and Dr. Cabot Lowing, as soon as he opened the box. He was immediately caught up in the account of the Koreans, mostly from the northern part of the country, who had joined with their expatriate countrymen in Manchuria in the thirties to fight the hated Japanese. They had linked up with Chinese communists to form something called the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. He read on about how a Korean communist from the Pyongyang area had changed his name to Kim Il-sung and became one of the partisan leaders.
He was so absorbed in the story that he failed to notice the call that came in around 1:30. It wasn't until his phone rang and he heard the excited voice of Jerry Chan that he realized what was happening.
"Burke, I've got Duane on the line. You want to come in my office?"
"Be right there," he said.
He closed the door behind him and looked expectantly at Jerry. "Did he find Dr. Shin?"
Jerry shook his head and held his hand over the mouthpiece. "It doesn't look good," he said grimly. Then, into the phone, "Let me put Burke on."
Burke perched on the corner of Jerry's desk and took the phone. "What happened, Duane?"
Although the likelihood of a telephone intercept appeared rather remote, they had agreed on some code words, including "manuscript" to refer to Dr. Shin. "I didn't get to see the manuscript," Duane said, using an imaginative metaphor. "Somebody may have beaten me to it. In fact, I wasn't even able to get to the temple."
"How come?"
"I must have been a quarter of a mile away when I was stopped by a roadblock."
"A roadblock? Manned by who?"
"ROK Army Special Forces. I explained I was on my way to Hongsansa looking for a rare Buddhist manuscript, but the soldier said it was temporarily closed, I'd have to come back some other time."
"Did he say why it was closed?"
"His English wasn't too good, but I gathered they had the place surrounded. He mentioned something about a search for somebody. While I was talking to him, a civilian came up and began to quiz me about who I was and what I was doing there. After I told him, he said I'd better get back down the mountain. Under the circumstances, I didn't argue with him."
That was an unusual reaction for Duane, Burke thought. The civilian was probably an NSP agent. They must have surrounded the place with Special Forces troops and sent the NSP in after Dr. Shin. Damn! If that was the case, it really screwed up the works. "Where are you now?"
"I drove down to Andong. Should I wait awhile and try again?"
"Give me the phone number there and then standby while we see what we can find out."
When Burke had hung up the phone, Jerry leaned back in his chair, his brows knitted. "Do you think they got Dr. Shin?"
"I'd say the odds were pretty damned good. How about calling your friend Moon Chwa and see if he knows anything about it."
Jerry dialed the Pulguksa number and asked that Moon Chwa call him back. It was fifteen agonizing minutes later when the call was returned.
"Our man got stopped at a roadblock near the temple," Jerry told him.
"Yes, I have just talked with our people down the mountain," the normally affable monk advised in a dispirited voice. "They saw the convoy going up. They normally contact the temple by radio, but for some reason the power was down. I suspect it was the work of the NSP. There was no way they could get word up there ahead of the soldiers."
"Duane said a civilian questioned him at the roadblock."
"An NSP officer, no doubt. They came looking for Dr. Shin. The soldiers had the temple grounds surrounded. There was no way for him to escape."
"He was captured?"
"I regret to say he was. We tried to provide him with sanctuary, but to no avail."
"Any idea how they found him?" Jerry asked.
"We think someone may have said the wrong thing on a telephone here at the temple following Mr. Chan's visit. I'm quite sure our lines are tapped."
"That's a tough blow. Will you demand the government release him?"
"Yes, of course. We will have someone taking steps in that direction shortly. But based on past experience, it will do little good. You can expect to read a story soon about Dr. Shin. It will say he was released but was killed in an automobile accident, or stepped in front of a truck, or fell from a train, some such absurdity." His voice conveyed an underlying sense of finality, like a footnote to an epitaph.
"I'm triply sorry to hear this," Jerry said. "Sorry for us, sorry for you, and particularly sorry for Dr. Shin. I wish there was something we could do to help."
"We appreciate what you attempted to do," said Moon Chwa. "You tried. That's all any of us can do. Just keep trying."
Sorry, Jerry said to himself, but just trying wasn't good enough for Shin Man-ki. And it damned sure won't be good enough for the President of the United States.
Chapter 44
Burke was late getting up for the simple reason that he'd not climbed into bed until an hour usually reserved for the likes of drunken party-goers, cat burglars and insomniacs. He had intended to end his reading earlier, but that was when he had encountered the note from Dr. Lowing, stuck in the manuscript toward the back, where a chapter had been chosen for revision. After reading the note, there was no way to put down the manuscript until he'd finished it.
Getting the day off to a reasonable start was a near impossibility without his morning coffee, particularly after a night like this. So he went down to breakfast before calling Captain Yun. He used the time to mull over the results of his reading, seeking to put it all in perspective for what he would tell the homicide detective.
Back in his room, he dialed Yun's number at the police station.
"I've got the manuscript," Burke said.
"I trust from the tone of your voice that you found something of value in it."
"That's putting it mildly, Captain. It came yesterday afternoon and I practically sat up all night reading. It contains some rather tantalizing passages, along with a disturbing note from Dr. Lowing."
"In what way disturbing?"
"Well, I think it explains what happened to Dr. Lee. And it points a finger at where to look for the answer to the mystery."
"You have my full attention, Mr. Hill," he said, the excitement coloring his voice. "I was about to drive over to Namdaemun Market. Have you ever been there?"
"No, I haven't found the time."
"Would you have time to go now? I think you'd find it quite an interesting place to see. We could talk about the manuscript along the way."
Burke agreed, and ten minutes later Captain Yun picked him up in front of the Chosun. The usual glut of morning traffic crowded the streets, but it was a short drive to the colorful open air bazaar. Burke had been near there on visits to the Bank of Korea. Facing the market across Namdaemunro, near the ancient gate, was the modern white high-rise headquarters of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Bureau, with its pagoda-like array of antennae on top.
"I brought the manuscript along," Burke said as he climbed into the unmarked police car. He placed the box on the seat between them. "I thought you'd want to read it for yourself. I've put paperclips along to mark the most significant sections."
"What did you mean that it explained what happened to Dr. Lee?"
"I was almost through the book when I found a note from Dr. Lowing. It was stuck in front of a chapter that dealt with the demise of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army."
"That was a guerrilla organization, as I recall from my Korean history,
" said Yun.
"Yeah. Kim Il-sung was a division commander. There were a few mentions along in the book about one of his detachment commanders called Horangi-chelmun."
Yun smiled. "Young Tiger."
Burke nodded. "Seems he was quite a tiger, too. He used the last name Lee, but according to Dr. Lee, it wasn't his real name. Like a lot of others, including Kim, he had chosen a pseudonym when he joined the partisans. He came up from Seoul with another teenager. At the time of the army's breakup—I believe it was 1941—Kim took his troops across the Tumen River to Vladivostok. But Young Tiger Lee picked three of his best fighters, apparently one of them his friend from Seoul, and moved back across the Yalu into Korea. He told the ones that went to the Soviet Union that his group would carry on their own guerrilla war against the Japanese. According to Dr. Lee's account, he was a master at hit-and-run tactics."
"The Poksu group." Yun's eyes flashed.
"According to the identities of the two who were killed at Taejon, Lee and another man were still at large when the war ended."
Captain Yun found a parking place at the edge of the market. When Burke saw the endless rows of stalls wandering off into the warren of streets and alleyways, he knew why Brittany had been so excited by her visit. Women bundled against the cold in thick insulated jackets swarmed among the stalls, haggling over vegetables, fish, produce, shoes, fabrics, casual ware. Burke marveled at the variety of merchandise.
"We're headed over this way," Captain Yun said, pointing out an alley toward the end of the block. "Why do you think Dr. Lee Yo-ku was murdered?"
They were passing a display of woven baskets that were stacked and hung in random profusion, all sizes, all shapes. Lori would have loved it, Burke thought. He turned back to the detective. "Dr. Lowing's note said he had talked with Dr. Lee just before leaving for Europe. Lee told him that with the shifting climate in Pyongyang, he had received some additional information, including photographs, from an old partisan. He said it could make the book a best seller. He intended to revise the chapter after he confirmed the new facts with, as he put it, 'the number two Poksu survivor in Chiangmai, Thailand.'"
The Poksu Conspiracy (Post Cold War Political Thriller Book 2) Page 29
