Pulse Point

by Don Pendleton

  She realized they would be foolish to go back inside by the normal entrance, so she chose the only other way to enter the building. The others fell in behind her, and Li directed them along the side of the building.

  A soldier appeared from the corner they were heading for, his weapon rising as he saw the intruders. McCarter already had his P90 up and ready, and he triggered a burst that spun the North Korean off his feet and dropped him on the wet ground.

  “Keep moving,” the Briton yelled.

  As Pak reached the downed soldier, he scooped up the man’s autorifle and thrust it into Li’s hands. She took the weapon, nodding without breaking her stride.

  McCarter, Manning, Hawkins, Kayo Pak and Li Kam skirted the side of the main research building. She pointed to the metal stairs attached to the rear outer wall and ran up the swaying metal structure, Manning close behind, while McCarter, Hawkins and Kayo protected their rear from the base of the stairs.

  “Go and do what you have to,” McCarter said. “We’ll cover. Just make it fast.”

  Li had reached midway up the stairs, when the door at the top burst open and an armed soldier pushed through onto the square landing. Li angled her Type 68 and opened fire, catching the Korean before he could bring his own weapon into play. Her hasty burst tore into his left hip, ripping through flesh and bone. Manning tracked in with his P90 and hit the guy with a second burst, high up, and the soldier was tipped back against the metal rail. He held there for a few seconds, then fell out of sight.

  “Inside,” Li called as Manning joined her. “We can reach the main lab from here.”

  She vanished through the door, with Manning on her heels, his P90 raised, scanning the passage they were moving along. Li kept to one side, leaving a clear field of fire for the Canadian.

  The short passage opened up onto a large room crammed full of electronic equipment, including a number of high-spec computer terminals and monitors. It was the main research lab. At the far end a wide door led from the room. As Manning and Li entered, they caught sight of the uniformed soldiers pushing to get inside the lab.

  Manning sighted his P90 in that direction and fired off bursts that drove the soldiers back. One took a full hit in the chest, slumping against the wall, and Manning freed a grenade and threw it the length of the room. It glanced off the door frame and into the passage beyond. Manning caught hold of Li’s collar and pulled her below the level of the workbench they were standing by. As they dropped into cover, the grenade detonated. Manning heard someone scream. Debris was flung back into the lab as a thick wreath of smoke coiled through the door.

  Li indicated the steel door at the other end of the lab.

  “That is the door to the room where the memory bank is housed. The digital log of everything created on all the computers within the facility. All the work done on the NNEMP development will be in the memory.” Li was unable to prevent a smile of regret showing. “It must be where they discovered I was the one who entered the code into the NNEMP program. Foolishly I had forgotten it recorded all entries.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Manning said. “Hell, nobody’s perfect,” he added, grinning at her.

  Manning slipped his backpack to the floor and opened it. He took out a prepared explosive pack and studied the door for a few seconds. His expertise gave him the answer to where he needed to place the device to open the door.

  “Li, keep your weapon on that far door. Anyone shows their face, open fire. Keep them busy while I fix this to the door.”

  Li nodded and turned to face the far door.

  Manning cleared the end of the bench and crouchwalked to the door, shielded by other work units. At the steel door, he placed the pack close to the lock mechanism, where it was held in place against the metal by the thin magnetic strips attached to the underside. He tapped in a ten-second countdown and activated the detonator. He turned about and made his way back to where Li knelt. He grabbed his pack and Li’s arm and pulled her toward the entrance of the passage they had used to breach the room. He was mentally counting off the seconds as he moved her along the passage.

  Nine...ten...

  The explosion was not as loud as Li had expected, but she felt the floor and walls quake under the concussion of the blast. A thick rush of smoke filled the passage. Splintered stone pattered from the ceiling. A few of the monitors were shaken from the workbenches.

  Manning ignored the smoke, leading Li back to the lab where he positioned her against the end wall and instructed her to watch the far door again. As the smoke and dust thinned out, she could see that the door to the memory bank hung partway open, metal bent and twisted, blackened by the heat of the blast.

  “One more visit, then we’re gone,” Manning said. “Just keep that far entrance covered and shoot anything that moves.”

  He extracted a couple more explosive packs, and without hesitating, plunged into the misty fog still hanging in the air. He reached the blast-loosened door and eased inside the room.

  The backup unit stood against the far wall. Made of metal and plastic, it would be no match for the powerful explosive Manning was about to attach to it. The high-intensity compound would rip the unit apart and destroy the digital memory circuits inside. Within the confines of the small room, the blast would be concentrated and undiminished. Manning clamped two identical packs to the metal casing and keyed in ten seconds, then pressed the activation button. As he turned away from the unit, he took hold of his P90, then slipped out through the door.

  A burst of autofire from Li’s position told him the North Korean soldiers had braved the door again. He heard a man yell. Following that, a concentrated salvo sent streams of slugs across the lab. Manning had dropped low the moment Li opened fire, so the burst intended for him slammed into the wall over his head. With the knowledge of the ten-second countdown still ongoing, Manning stayed low and crawled across the floor, letting his weapon hang by its strap again, and ignoring the bite of debris against his hands as he supported himself. Partly protected by the workbenches, he ignored the gunfire over his head, concentrating on reaching the passage where Li was concealed and still returning fire.

  Manning pushed Li away from the opening and tumbled against the passage wall himself a scant second before the double explosion rocked the lab again. The heavy blast blew the already damaged steel door off its hinges, sending it spinning across the room. The tumbling door ripped its way across the workbenches, wrecking monitors and computer towers in its path. For the second time, a thick mix of smoke and dust filled the room. There was a sudden groan of loosened stone as the ceiling began to sag, followed by a rumbling sound as it collapsed into the lab. Chunks of stone and splintered wooden beams dropped, crashing down hard and creating a solid barrier across the middle of the lab.

  Manning had already urged Li into retreating along the passage. As he made to join her, he slipped his two remaining explosive packs from his bag, set them for twenty seconds and placed them on the passage floor.

  She was staring at him through the dusty air, eyes flicking from him to the explosives, then back.

  “Shouldn’t we get away from here?”

  “Oh, yes,” Manning said and caught her arm, hustling her along the passage to the outer door. As they emerged onto the metal landing, the heavy rain caught them again. It felt pleasant after the dust and smoke inside.

  McCarter, Hawkins and Pak were holding fast at the base of the steps, driving back any of the Koreans who risked sticking their heads out from cover. McCarter glanced over his shoulder as Manning and Li hurried down the stairs.

  “About bloody time,” he said. “I was about to come...”

  “You want to give it a second,” Manning said back.

  The final twin explosions rocked the building.

  The door and the windows above their heads blew out, showering them with glass and toothpicks of woo
d. The very wall bulged under the pressure of the blast, stone crumbling. The metal stairs shook and twisted, as bolts securing the structure were blown free.

  Manning and Li were pushed off balance as they kept moving down the swaying steps. They managed to stay upright and took the final steps in ungainly lunges, stumbling as they reached ground level. McCarter reached out and caught hold of Li as she started to go down.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “I’m okay, too,” Manning said.

  “That’s fine, then.” McCarter grinned. “Now let’s get the hell out of here before Choi and more of his boys come running.”

  Li indicated they should go back the way they had come, so that was the route they chose.

  Thick smoke was pouring out of the upper windows and the roof where the explosions had disturbed the tiles. The orange glow of rising flames was visible.

  “Lot of timber in the old construction,” Li pointed out.

  “Burn, baby, burn,” Manning murmured as they skirted the wall of the building.

  “Choi will make it his life’s work to stop us now,” Pak said.

  “Let’s hope it’s a short one, then,” Hawkins said.

  The crackle of autofire was followed by the slam of 7.62 mm slugs striking the stone wall. Stinging chips peppered them, and McCarter waved Manning and Li to ease back.

  McCarter raised his P90 and returned fire on the moving soldiers. He then led his SMG on the closest man, as the guy paused in order to settle his aim. McCarter fired first, his shots on target, the 5.7 mm slugs piercing the man’s combat jacket and into his chest. The North Korean stumbled and went down on his face.

  The moment he fired on the first, McCarter swiveled the muzzle of the P90 and stitched the second attacker across the middle. The guy had dropped to his knees, his finger jerking on the trigger of his autorifle and sending a burst of fire into the ground. Seeing the guy was still alive, McCarter again raised his weapon and put a short burst into the man’s head, the impact kicking the Korean backward, his skull bursting apart in a bloody explosion.

  “Let’s move it,” McCarter yelled above the sudden crash of collapsing stone overhead from the building behind them.

  Flames rose, crackling fiercely. Dust and smoke swirled across the area, reducing visibility.

  They angled away from the spot, cutting across an open section of ground, and merged with the parked vehicles that provided the closest cover. Raised voices behind them indicated they had been spotted. Autofire sparked, but the only hits were to the vehicles.

  “Now that isn’t the smartest thing to do,” Manning observed, as he heard a tire burst under the impact of loose fire. “Blowing holes in their own transport.”

  The thud of shots hitting vehicle bodywork continued as the Koreans kept up steady fire. Crouching in the lee of the parked trucks, McCarter, Hawkins, Manning, Pak and Li returned fire, driving the exposed soldiers back. One went down clutching a shattered hip. A second tumbled from concentrated fire that punched through his clothing and into his body.

  Li called out, “There—it’s Major Choi.”

  McCarter followed her pointing finger.

  At the front of the building, in among a group of advancing soldiers, was a figure in the uniform of a North Korean officer, his drawn pistol being used to wave his men forward.

  McCarter plucked a grenade from his harness and pulled the pin. He held for a few seconds before throwing the grenade in a long curve that dropped it close to where the North Koreans were clustered. The fragmentation bomb detonated with a harsh sound, the scattering metal pieces scything through the Korean military men.

  When the smoke drifted away a number of soldiers were down, the others backing up.

  Choi was among them.

  “Missed the bugger,” McCarter grumbled.

  “Maybe we get him next time,” Pak said.

  “Move out,” McCarter ordered. “Time to leave.”

  He led the way past the parked trucks and out through the open gates in the perimeter fence.

  The deluge of rain drowned any sound they might have made as they ran away from the defined path, and eased into the tangled undergrowth and trees. The ground underfoot was sodden, and they left tracks as they moved along. That fact concerned McCarter, but he knew there wasn’t a thing he could do about it; he could only hope that the still-falling rain might wash away most of the boot prints from the soft earth.

  They moved fast, without any pause, wanting to gain some distance before Major Choi reorganized his force and came after them. McCarter was under no illusion. The strike against the research lab would incense Choi, and regardless of any subsequent punishment he received for allowing the attack, the man would be desperate to gain some kind of success from the affair by capturing or killing the people responsible.

  The North Korean command didn’t tolerate failure, so Choi would be in deep trouble. There would be no excuses his superiors would accept. The loss of the NNEMP research and the lab would set the Koreans back. If any success had been achieved from the experimental strike in Hawaii, the destruction of the lab would wipe it out. The elimination of the covert team that had penetrated into North Korea was all Choi had left to offer the high command in Pyongyang. He had to have something to show them, when he went cap in hand.

  “Spread out,” McCarter ordered. “Bunched together, we’re going to offer Choi and his mates an easy target.”

  Phoenix Force went in different directions, their intention to converge when they reached the beach jumping-off spot.

  Li and Kayo Pak stayed on McCarter’s six, as they forced their way through the thick greenery.

  The rain showed no sign of easing off. The forest floor underfoot had turned to a spongy carpet, dotted with gathered pools where the ground could not absorb any more water.

  Glancing down at his P90, McCarter saw the ammo magazine showed he was almost out. He released the translucent loader and cast it aside. He slid a hand into one of the pouches on his harness and pulled out a fully loaded fresh magazine. McCarter snapped it into placed and primed the SMG.

  A raised voice sounded above the pounding rain. It came from McCarter’s left. He turned his head and spotted a uniformed figure keeping pace with them.

  “Hey,” McCarter shouted a warning.

  “See him,” Pak said.

  The North Korean soldier was shouting into a handheld comm set.

  “He’s telling his mates where we are,” McCarter said.

  He slithered to a full stop, raised the P90 and fired a short burst that hit the radio spotter in the side. As the guy went down McCarter saw other uniformed men crowding in behind their comrade.

  Both Li and Pak opened up, their respective weapons spitting out lethal fire. With McCarter’s contribution they dropped the bunched Koreans.

  “Keep moving before any backup shows,” McCarter said.

  With Li and Kayo Pak close, McCarter led the way.

  A bubbling rush of water barred their path. Normally only a stream running through the forest, it had turned into a wide, frothing runoff.

  “That’s a bummer,” McCarter commented. “We’re going to get wet wading through there.”

  The off-the-cuff remark, normal for the Briton, hung in the air for a moment before Li Kam laughed.

  “I think I could get to like you, Coyle,” she said.

  While Pak stood watch, McCarter and Li waded through the cold water. It reached waist high in the middle, the current strong. They hung on to each other to stay upright. Once they had reached the other side, Pak made the crossing, forcing his way across.

  “I do not think I will ever be dry again,” the Korean said.

  “Any chance of Choi calling in additional troops?” McCarter asked as they pushed on.

  “If he did, it would tak
e time,” Pak said. “This is a remote area. The closest army base is at least three hours away by helicopter.”

  “Choi would not be happy having to ask for help,” Li said. “This place is his personal responsibility. To ask for more soldiers would go against his pride.”

  “Let’s hope you’re right. Last thing we need is a full battalion of North Korean regulars on our tail.”

  * * *

  THEY TRAVELED ANOTHER half mile before McCarter called up the rest of Phoenix Force on his comm set. He picked up responses as they came back within range and relayed their positions.

  “Close in,” McCarter said. “I want to be able to see your ugly mugs again. What’s your sitrep?”

  “We have a number of North Koreans on our heels,” James said. “Still a distance away, but I have a feeling they’re not going to back off.”

  “Rain is slowing them,” Pak said. “Ground underfoot isn’t going to hold our boot prints for long, so they’ll need to move slower in order to stay on track.”

  “I was wondering about that,” McCarter admitted.

  “Just be grateful for the bad climate this time of year,” Pak said.

  “Let’s cut around and head for the shoreline,” McCarter said. “We need to get to the rendezvous point and retrieve the scuba gear.”

  James said over the comm link, “We’re closer. Let us scout ahead and advise if there’s a problem.”

  “You do that. We’ll move in and wait for your intel.”

  Encizo said, “We planted our last explosive pack under the main fuel tank. Set it for forty minutes. Which should be coming up pretty soon.”

  * * *

  THE EXPLOSION SOUNDED just over a minute later. The solid blast was followed by a massive swell of orange-red flames that surged skyward. It spread and boiled in an orgy of destruction, the flames searching outward as well as up. Anything within its range was incinerated. A number of the base’s parked vehicles were turned into blazing wrecks. As the flames rose, so did a thick mass of swirling blackness that threw a dark blanket of shadows over the base.