"What were they talking about?" Nick asked.
"There's been a security breach at their biological weapons lab."
"What kind of a breach?" Selena asked.
She wore dark blue slacks and a loose top that matched. A SIG-Sauer .40 caliber pistol in a quick draw holster at her waist added a black accent to her casual look. The outfit complimented her violet eyes and reddish-blonde hair. Selena was a woman who drew second looks wherever she went.
Harker said, "The People's Democratic Republic is working with some very nasty bugs. You know about bubonic plague?"
"I know it killed a lot of people back in the Middle Ages. Don’t you get lumps under your arms and in the groin? Black spots?"
"That's right. It takes over the lymph nodes and destroys the immune system, then spreads to the organs. Death is usually within one to two weeks if left untreated. There's a septicemic variety that bleeds under the skin and turns parts black. That's why it was called the Black Death in the Middle Ages. It affects coagulation. You get to watch your fingers turn black and rot before you die."
Lamont looked at his hands.
"How is it spread?" Nick asked.
"Usually by a flea bite but there are other ways as well. There's a pneumonic form that infects through a cough or a sneeze. One of the things that keeps the World Health Organization up at night is the fear that a plague epidemic would go airborne."
Harker paused and picked up her pen, a black Mont Blanc. She tapped it three times on her desk. "Our North Korean friends have developed a super strain of airborne plague. We think they weaponized it with aerosols."
Nick shook his head. "What’s the matter with these people?" He looked at her. "You’re going to tell me some of this stuff has gone missing, aren’t you?"
She nodded. "That's what the conversation we intercepted was about. The Korean lab is a Level 4 bio hazard facility. That's the highest level of containment. Ten days ago a technician let several men into the laboratory. They killed her and the guards and took containers with samples of the new bacteria. Then they planted charges and left. It was a well-executed op, military in precision. When the balloon went up the lab was destroyed and part of the mountain collapsed on top of it. That's the only good thing about this. The People's Republic won't be making any more of that bug for a while."
"How do they know what happened if everything was destroyed?"
"Video records of the whole thing. Security cameras recorded images from the containment labs in a separate building."
Nick waited.
"I met with the President and DCI Hood this morning," Elizabeth said. "They want us to handle a delicate mission."
"We don't usually do delicate," Nick said.
"It's a political bomb. Rice doesn't want to use Langley or any of the regular JSOC units, in case it doesn't work out."
Nick sighed. "What does he want us to do?"
"We need to know exactly what the North Koreans had. The chief scientist of Pyongyang's biological warfare program is a man named Kim Jung-Hun. He almost never leaves North Korea but he's attending an international conference in Hong Kong this weekend. He wants to defect. In return for asylum he's willing to give us details about their program."
"Whoa," Nick said, "that's a big fish."
"That's exactly what he is and the President wants to land him," Elizabeth said.
Nick said, "You want us to go pick him up."
Elizabeth nodded. "It's not going to be easy. I'm sending you and Lamont. Kim will be well guarded at all times. We only have a two day window and then he'll be back in North Korea. You'll have support for the extraction. But if something goes wrong before that, you're on your own. I can't protect you."
"How are we supposed to get him out?"
"A boat will be available for you courtesy of MI-6, once you have Kim."
"And how are we supposed to scoop him up?"
Elizabeth smiled. "That's up to you, Nick. Use your imagination."
CHAPTER 3
The black chop of the East China Sea slapped against the hull of boat. Nick braced himself against the constant, unpleasant motion. A black wool watch cap and thick jacket kept out some of the dank, night chill. Thick fog muffled the sound of their engine. Droplets of moisture lay like the touch of an obsessive lover over every surface of the boat.
The boat was old and slow. A tall, open wheelhouse did nothing to protect from the tendrils of fog reaching everywhere. Tiny streams of water trickled down the glass faces of the dimly lit gauges on the control console. The old style helm was slick and his left hand ached from gripping the wheel. The last two fingers had been broken by a sadistic Cuban policeman and continued to give him trouble. Nick tried to see through the fog and hoped they didn't run into one of the Chinese patrol boats that moved in these waters.
They had succeeded in grabbing Kim Jung-Hun in Hong Kong but it had been messy, with three of Kim's minders dead. By now all of China's security services were looking for the mouse-like man shivering in the cabin below. The Chinese and North Koreans would do everything they could to get Kim back. If they couldn't get him back, Nick was certain they'd settle for killing him.
Lamont came up from below deck and joined Nick in the wheelhouse. He scanned the impenetrable fog with night vision binoculars.
"Can't see a damn thing," Lamont said. The fog sucked up the sound of his voice. He put the binoculars down.
"How's our guest?" Nick said.
"Seasick. Barfing in a bucket. It stinks down there. I had to get some fresh air."
"They'll have figured it out by now," Nick said. "Someone will be out here looking for us."
Lamont grunted. There wasn't any point in worrying about all the things that could go wrong.
"Better get the RPG ready just in case," Nick said. The grenade launcher lay in an open box on the floor of the wheelhouse.
Lamont pulled it out of the box, loaded a round.
"All set," Lamont said. "Let's hope we don't need it. Not a lot of use against a patrol boat."
"Better than nothing."
"Yeah."
For a few minutes both men were silent, the only sound the muffled rhythm of the engine and the water against the hull.
"The fog is starting to thin," Nick said. "I don't think we'll have cover much longer."
"How far to the extraction point?" Lamont asked. They were headed for a rendezvous with a helicopter from an American Wasp class amphibious assault carrier.
"Another ten minutes," Nick said.
The fog clung to the gauges. Nick wiped droplets away with his right hand.
"Still plenty of fuel."
They both heard the sound at the same time.
"Engines. Big ones," Lamont said.
Nick cut the throttle and they drifted on the black water. Wisps of fog swirled around them. The sound seemed close.
"Maybe it's a fishing boat," Lamont said.
Nick pointed. "I don't think so," he said.
The sharp prow of a patrol vessel emerged from the gray as both boats entered a clear patch in the fog bank. The Chinese boat was long and lethal looking and bristling with guns. Nick rammed the throttles forward. A bright searchlight found them as they fled back into fog.
"Just our luck," Lamont said.
"That's a Shanghai II class," Nick said. "Obsolete, but she can do thirty knots. Dual 37s and 25s for the big stuff and heavy machine guns. They decide to start shooting, they can turn this tub into toothpicks in about ten seconds."
Nick steered deeper into the fog and throttled down.
Behind them they could hear shouts and alarms blaring, then silence.
The two vessels drifted in the fog.