The Shadow Hunter (The Phoenix Chronicles Book 1)

by R. J. Patterson

  “Don’t be. We’re not out of the country yet, and I’ve found that getting out of North Korea is more challenging than getting in.”

  The half-hour drive to Sonbong passed quickly as Hawk and Tyson reminisced about their time in training as well as how becoming fathers had changed them.

  “Did you know being a father would be so difficult?” Hawk asked.

  “Difficult?” Tyson asked. “With one kid?”

  “You don’t know John Daniel.”

  “Well, if he’s anything like his old man, I could see it being a challenge. My boys are wild, but that’s nothing compared to having a daughter. Women cry over everything.”

  Hawk laughed. “I do remember that women crying was your kryptonite. One tear just welling up and you’d give defense secrets to China.”

  “That’s a little bit of a stretch, but an accurate assessment of my disdain for tears.”

  “That’s how Sheila got you to marry her, didn’t she? A couple of tears one day when you tried to break up with her and then you ran out and bought a ring.”

  “Also false, but plausible.”

  The two men shared a hearty laugh.

  “But as emotional as Sheila and Sam are, I still love them to pieces,” Tyson said. “I’m hoping that there will come a time when I can return home safely and I’ll be able to watch Sam grow up. I really just want to walk her down the aisle.”

  “Marriage?” Hawk said. “You’re already thinking about your daughter getting married? Samantha’s only what? Fourteen now?”

  “Yeah, she’s a teenager and that time goes by fast,” Tyson said. “And when you’re living in the middle of nowhere missing your family, you’ll think about anything if it’s related to your family, anything to stay sane—even if it hurts to do so.”

  Tyson’s tone turned more somber as he slowed the SUV.

  “Okay, we’re coming up on the drop point at the harbor,” Tyson said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen here, but be ready for anything. And if you can help it, wait until they’ve notified the Russians that the code has been received. If my family’s life is hanging in the balance, I don’t want the Russians to think I sabotaged this drop.”

  “Roger that.”

  Hawk steadied his breathing as he felt the vehicle come to a stop. He struggled to hear the conversation between a guard and Tyson. After a brief moment of silence, a different man began speaking with Tyson. The man’s tone was much more authoritative, leading Hawk to believe Tyson was talking with a higher-ranking officer.

  Hawk heard the hum of the automatic windows as the vehicle began to move again.

  “So far so good,” Tyson said. “I’ve been directed to drive along the harbor to the military entrance.”

  “Is that where you’re supposed to deliver the codes?” Hawk asked.

  “Yes. Now sit tight. We’re approaching the next guard station.”

  Hawk didn’t move during the prolonged discussion between Tyson and the new guard. After a few moments, Hawk heard footfalls just outside the rear of the vehicle, followed by a bright light that penetrated the blanket he was under. A tapping sound on the window made Hawk wonder if he was about to be discovered before it stopped. The light also vanished.

  As the SUV began to move again, Tyson updated Hawk on what was happening. There was a warehouse that Tyson needed to visit first.

  “Just stay put,” Tyson said. “Once we leave this compound, I’ll let you out and you can figure out how to deal with this situation. Just be patient a few minutes longer.”

  When they reached the warehouse, Tyson exited and walked away. Hawk listened as the footsteps faded and then stopped. A man began shouting at Tyson, who attempted to explain himself. Hawk made out something about the codes.

  Tyson pleaded with the man before the sound of an intense beating commenced. The scuffle lasted a few seconds before Hawk heard what sounded like a body hitting the pavement.

  Hawk shouldn’t have been surprised given what he knew about how ruthless the North Koreans were, but Hawk couldn’t help but think the situation was a setup from the beginning. The Russians had seen a way to keep their hands clean of the situation, while also giving the North Koreans a gift of a U.S. citizen involved in espionage. North Korea would be able to leverage Tyson for whatever purposes they desired—and they’d also be able to activate the nuclear warheads they’d received from Russia.

  Hawk couldn’t find anything good about the situation, especially since he was hidden in the back of the vehicle. Without any advance knowledge on what the location was like or even where the codes were now, Hawk was flying blind again.

  Moments later, two men walked near the vehicle. One of the men told the other one to take it somewhere and to search it before cleaning it out.

  Hawk estimated the soldier drove for about three minutes, making various turns. As he did, Hawk took careful note of each one in hopes that he'd be able to return to the scene. Once the vehicle came to a stop, the man was whistling as he encircled it. After he began cleaning out the interior, Hawk waited for his chance. It’d have to be swift, his aim true. With the element of surprise still on his side, he liked his odds.

  When the tailgate swung upward, Hawk dove headlong into the man’s midsection, knocking him to the ground. The man grabbed hold of Hawk’s shirt, tethering the men as they rolled for a few feet. When they came to a stop, Hawk was on the bottom. He scrambled to regain the upper hand, something he succeeded at after a brief tussle. Sitting on top of the man, Hawk delivered a throat punch. When he gasped for air, he let go of Hawk, who darted behind the man before breaking his neck. The man crumpled to the ground.

  As Hawk caught his breath, he looked around the area. He hadn’t had any opportunity to analyze the locale before, but now he surmised he was in an impound yard of some sort, probably one belonging to the military or at least controlled by it. Vehicles lined a chain-link fence, some of which had clearly seen better days almost a lifetime ago. Rust covered a portion of most of the cars along with patchy snow and ice.

  Hawk dragged the man’s body beneath one of the nearby cars before taking his uniform. He also confiscated the man’s phone and dialed into a secure line before delivering a code message to Magnum.

  “I found the package but misplaced it,” he said. “I’m hoping you will send someone over to help me find it. I’ll be home tomorrow night at eight o’clock and will send the address later.”

  He needed help but wouldn’t know what to do with it—at least not yet anyway.

  Hawk realized he couldn’t keep the cell phone. Once the soldier was confirmed missing, they would use his cell phone as a way to find him. And Hawk didn’t know when that would be. He switched the phone’s language to English and sent a text message to Alex.

  code red - orlovsky

  They’d developed a quick way to communicate if they believed the other person was in danger. Code Red meant a hostile could be approaching. Hawk knew Alex could hold her own, but that didn’t lessen his concern. Under his breath, Hawk said a little prayer for her and John Daniel.

  Hawk smashed the phone with his boot before swapping out a license plate on Tyson’s car. He needed to determine a safe place to base his operations and then figure out a way to get that message back to headquarters. And he didn’t have much time to do it.

  The mission had changed and the stakes had been raised.

  CHAPTER 29

  Los Angeles

  MORGAN STARED AT THE report a staff member had just handed her detailing Hawk’s message. Her team had determined that the package was Eddie Tyson, though they weren’t sure if misplaced meant dead or captured. As for the rest of it, he clearly needed a special ops team to help him, which would be challenging given the situation brewing in the Pacific.

  Morgan’s assistant buzzed in to notify her boss of an incoming call. “Ma’am, Alex is on line two.”

  “Thanks,” Morgan said as she stared at the blinking light on her office phone.

  With
Hawk in play and presumably armed with intel, she knew there was still a chance at mitigating the situation. But at the moment, Hawk was all alone. And his wife was on the other line, alone and concerned. Morgan didn’t want to talk to her, anticipating how unpleasant the conversation would be.

  This is why you get the big bucks, Morgan.

  “Good afternoon, Alex,” she said.

  “I need you to start telling me what the hell is going on,” Alex said, talking hurriedly. “I got this message from Hawk and—”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, Alex. Take a deep breath and start from the top again.”

  Alex sighed. “Where’s Hawk?”

  “Right now, we don’t know his exact location, just that we believe he’s in North Korea.”

  “And what makes you think that?”

  “The phone he called us from was registered to a North Korean number,” Morgan said. “It’s unlikely that he got the phone while still in Russia.”

  “And the phone’s location?”

  “We couldn’t get a signal to figure out exactly where, so we’re still a little hazy on the details. Now, you said Hawk sent you a message, right?”

  “Yeah,” Alex said. “And he never would’ve jeopardized the mission unless he felt like John Daniel and I were in grave danger.”

  “What did he tell you?”

  “That’s even more bizarre given that he’s in North Korea. Hawk passed along one of our coded messages that I was in imminent danger of being attacked by Andrei Orlovsky.”

  “Well, I’ve got two of my best men guarding your property,” Morgan said. “You shouldn’t have anything to worry about.”

  “Thanks but that doesn’t really put my mind at ease. Orlovsky has an ax to grind with us, and Hawk likely exacerbated the tensions between us and the Russian arms dealer.”

  “Just relax. I’ll send over some more support if you want it.”

  “I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference since Orlovsky’s men are probably already here. But I want to know when Hawk is coming back and what’s going on with him.”

  “I’m not sure you do.”

  “Morgan, I’m not playing games. Tell me what’s happening with Hawk.”

  Morgan proceeded to explain Hawk’s circumstances to Alex. By the time the conversation ended, Alex was crying.

  “We’re doing everything we can get to get him home safely to you and John Daniel, believe me,” Morgan said.

  “But not until the mission is completed, right?”

  “Nobody’s keeping him there,” Morgan said. “The mission we sent him there for is effectively over. But he’s staying there of his own volition. And if you trust him like I do, you have to assume that there’s a greater threat he’s identified. Otherwise, I know he’d be heading straight back to the ranch to be with you and John Daniel. However, the naked truth is that I don’t know what he’s up to. I’m just trying to trust him and help him in any way I can.”

  “He never should’ve left,” Alex said. “Everything was fine the way it was. But now what am I supposed to do?”

  Morgan drummed her fingers on the desk and closed her eyes, thinking of how to respond, trying to put herself in Alex’s shoes. Nothing to say that Morgan thought of could allay Alex’s fears.

  “When we sign up for jobs like these, we never expect them to go south,” Morgan finally said. “But sometimes they do. However, I have faith in Hawk. And I know you do too. His situation may put you more on edge since you’re not the only one he might leave behind. But I think he’s been in a few scenarios far more dangerous than this, right?”

  “Yeah,” Alex said with a sigh. “This just wasn’t what I had in mind.”

  “Well, it’s not over yet. He’s still fighting and we’re going to do everything we can to help him succeed.”

  They said their goodbyes and Morgan hung up. She ordered two more guards to get on the first flight to Billings to go help shore up the security around Alex’s property. At the very least, Morgan could give Alex a little peace of mind there.

  Morgan asked her assistant to call President Norris. A couple of minutes later, Morgan was discussing the situation in North Korea with him.

  “Sir, in light of what’s happening in North Korea, I thought I would give you a heads up on something,” she said.

  “I’m listening.”

  “We have an operative in Sonbong right now,” she said.

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yes. We don’t know much at the moment. He was in Russia trying to retrieve a former Navy SEAL who was supposedly dead, but we found out he was still alive, perhaps still in a Russian prison.”

  “Then how did your agent end up in North Korea?”

  “We intercepted a message that the Russians were strong-arming the Navy SEAL into delivering a code to North Korea. At the time, we didn’t know much about it or its significance. But now that we know there’s activity in Sonbong, I don’t think this is any coincidence.”

  “But you’ve lost contact with your asset?”

  “Yeah, he had to go dark,” Morgan said. “But he’s promised to reconnect with us as soon as possible to update us on the situation, as well as get us the coordinates to get a special ops team in there to help him.”

  “Sneaking a special ops team into North Korea right now? Are you out of your mind? I don’t want to know about anything else, unless you succeed.”

  “We could stop an attack before it starts, sir.”

  “And what if he gets caught? Then what? He’ll be paraded around for the world to see as another reason to distrust the United States”

  “Of course, sir,” she said. “I just thought I’d let you know that we still have a chance of stopping this thing before it starts, though I’m still not sure how good of a chance it is.”

  “I’ll be looking forward to our next call,” Norris said.

  Morgan thanked the president for his time and said goodbye.

  She shared Norris’s apprehension and stared at her phone, hoping it would hurry up and ring with news of Hawk’s whereabouts as well as his state of mind. Meanwhile, hers was becoming more of a mess by the minute.

  Uncle J.D. never warned me about this.

  She dialed her uncle’s number and waited for him to pick up. After a few rings, her face fell as his voicemail message started playing.

  CHAPTER 30

  Sonbong, North Korea

  HAWK CROUCHED LOW in the woods just off the shore and watched for any sign that the Navy SEALs would arrive on time. While they were trained to be punctual, Hawk had learned that flexibility was imperative in situations like this. Aside from fluctuations in the tide or current, any number of problems could arise when navigating foreign seas. Enemy ships, equipment malfunction, an unexpected fog—they were all part of the variables that could change in a second and leave Hawk twisting in the wind.

  He checked his watch. The team was fifteen minutes late, which now meant he was officially worried.

  Hawk had been able to find another phone and alert Morgan at the Magnum offices about what was going on. He briefed them on his needs as well as giving the exact location where to send the help, all by speaking in code. Then Hawk called Alex to warn her more directly as well as promise her that he’d be back. He hated making those types of promises, but he figured if he broke it, he wouldn’t have to worry about being in the doghouse because of it.

  He glanced at the time. The SEAL team was now twenty minutes late, which moved him beyond just worried and inching toward outright panic. Without anyone to assist him, Hawk had only a small chance of returning home, much less completing his mission. He’d been in plenty of dire situations before, but this one felt different. There were no safe houses nearby to seek refuge. There were no CIA assets to smuggle him out of the country. He was truly alone—and he felt it.

  Another five minutes ticked by and he wondered how much longer he needed to remain there. The wind howled through the trees overhead, the freezing temperatures s
tarting to eat away at the feeling in the tips of his fingers and toes.

  With no binoculars to scan the horizon, he began to wonder if he’d missed the team. One wrong number in a string of coordinates could mean the difference in being off by ten miles or more. He thought of Alex and John Daniel and what would become of them if something happened. Alex would likely land on her feet. She was as smart and talented as she was beautiful, lacking in none of those department. But John Daniel needed his father, someone to show him how to be a man in the world. And Hawk cringed at the thought of anyone else taking over that role for him.

  Two more minutes elapsed before he noticed a glint on the waves. He looked around to see if there were any fishing vessels entering or exiting the harbor that could’ve caused the light. But he didn’t see any movement on the water. Aside from commercial fishermen or military vessels, no ships were allowed in or out of the Sonbong harbor after sunset.

  Hawk looked again as he noticed the light again before it went dark.

  That has to be them.

  He kept his eyes transfixed on the area, waiting for someone to emerge from the surface. Another minute went by, then two. Still nothing.

  Hawk sighed and shook his head in frustration. He decided to get up and stretch his legs, but when he did, he felt a firm hand on his shoulder.

  “Don’t move another muscle,” the man said in English.

  Hawk froze. “It’s about time.”

  The man walked in front of Hawk, a weapon trained on him. “Brady Hawk?”

  “Are you cavalry?” Hawk asked with a wry grin.

  “It sure seems that way, doesn’t it?”

  The man dropped his gun and offered his hand. “I’m Commander Wilson, and these are Lieutenants Jackson and Finch. Big Earv also told me to say hello.”

  Hawk furrowed his brow. “Big Earv brought you guys here?”

  “This was a voluntary mission, totally off the books,” Wilson said, handing a gun to Hawk. “It was all we could do to scrounge up three of us to go, so Big Earv is running the Russian shrimping boat ten miles off shore. He’ll be ready to help extract us when it’s time to go.”