It was a long shot but better than nothing. Shakily, blowing on his hands every few seconds to get some warmth back in them, Riley wrote the message and transcribed it. Hoffman finished his final adjustments with the transmitter and strung an antenna wire between two trees.
Riley looked at the luminous dial of his watch. It was almost five forty-five in the morning in Korea. If someone was monitoring, he hoped that person was awake.
"Ready?" Riley asked.
Hoffman nodded and hooked the twelve-volt battery into the transmitter. Riley slowly read the letters to Hoffman, who tapped out the message using two wires. They made it through the message.
"Again," said Riley.
Meng's spirits sank as he looked at the day's headline from the New York Times:
CHINA'S PREMIER APPEARS;
ARMY SEEMS TO TIGHTEN GRIP;
BUSH BARS NORMAL TIES NOW
BEIJING IS WARNED PRAISE FOR TROOPS
PRESIDENT SAYS RELATIONS PROTESTERS ARE CALLED ON
DEPEND ON ITS STANCE TO SURRENDER OR FACE
TOWARD STUDENTS HEAVY PUNISHMENT
It is too late, Mister President Bush, Meng thought. Soon the word will be out on the attack on the pipeline. What will you do then? Meng looked at the paper again. Between the two columns was a large picture of Prime Minister Li Peng. Meng stared at it with undisguised hatred. What will you do then, Mister Premier?
Hoffman was in the middle of his fourth repeat of the message when the transmitter started to smoke and sparks flew. He quickly disconnected the battery. Opening up the transmitter, he peered inside with the red-lens flashlight.
"It's fried," he announced mournfully.
16
"By terrain I mean distances, whether the ground is
traversed with ease or difficulty, whether it is open
or constricted, and the chances of life or death."
Colonel Hossey cracked an eye as the pounding on his BOQ door intruded on his sleep. "Who's there?"
"It's me, sir — Chief Trapp."
Hossey threw on a bathrobe and opened the door. The blood in his head was pounding against his skull. He'd stayed much too long at the club last night with the remaining members of Team 3, drowning his sorrows.
"You're a little early, Chief."
Trapp slumped into an armchair as he waited for Hossey to get dressed. "We're going to have a hell of a time getting through traffic, sir. I thought we'd leave a little earlier than planned."
Hossey threw on his fatigue shirt. "You going to drive?"
Trapp shook his head. "The sergeant major is. He dropped me off here and went to the compound to check on something. He should be back in a few minutes."
Hossey quickly buzzed his face with an electric razor, then grabbed his beret. "All right, let's go."
Hossey could think of a lot of things he'd rather be doing today than going to Camp Page to tell Jean Long her husband was dead. Even the timing of the notification of death was governed by the oplan, Hossey mused bitterly. He had wanted to tell her last night, but the cover story required that they wait until this morning, when the air force and navy would call off the search for the missing helicopter and declare the helicopter officially lost.
Carrying their overnight bags, the two men clattered down the stairs and went out front. In less than a minute they spotted Sergeant Major Hooker's old battered Mustang pulling up in front of the BOQ. The two men hopped in, Hossey in the back, Trapp up front with Hooker. The sergeant major pulled out of the parking lot and headed back toward south post.
Trapp was confused. "Where you going?"
Hooker glanced over at Trapp and shook his head. "I don't know what the fuck is going on, Jim. I did what you asked me to do and had one of the commo dinks up all night monitoring that frequency you gave me. I just went and checked on that idiot."
He threw a piece of paper into the shocked warrant officer's lap. "Maybe you or the colonel can break that out." Trapp picked it up and looked at it.
DETKTH
EHRTTY
QMSTPF
EHSMIT
ERDCBJ
AHEYCN
SNEHTY
HFGDSA
GHFJDK
EHWUCQ
NABXGH
REEDET
RHTKYL
QCHTYU
ENDHTI
POWSVY
WHJLTY
QKDKDJ
PTOYIW
TYRUEI
OYTLFD
EHRYTT
KTHREE
RHTNWM
ADGJLO
EHRMCN
WHEKRL
EHTUEO
YMEJTU
ZHEYRI
VBCNXM
EHDNUE
WHEUTR
AKEOWK
QZMLGF
WCXZGH
QNWHDS
THENAO
QHWYES
LEJFUR
FHRYEK
EHDUTP
NDKWSL
HEYSNN
WJRLTP
QJWEJE
POERLK
SETHYU
RHRYIO
WHTIRJ
MZNXBC
AGEJYO
XCVBNM
LSMWKE
TJRUWE
"I don't believe it! When did you get this?"
"The commo man picked it up just before I checked in on him. In fact, he was on the phone trying to call me when I walked in. He said it was sent four times manual. About midway through the fourth time it disappeared. The kid also said it sounded like somebody who wasn't a commo man was sending, because it was real slow — about seven words a minute."
Trapp handed the sheet of paper to the colonel. Hossey's hand was shaking as he took it. He looked at Trapp. "So somebody's alive."
"How the hell did they transmit without a radio?" Hooker asked.
Trapp shrugged. "Obviously they got a radio somehow. We're talking about some pretty smart fellows. You got the Bible, sir?"
Hossey dug into his overnight bag and pulled out the tattered New Testament. Turning to the agreed-upon page, he started transcribing the message.
Hooker glanced at the backseat. "You didn't tell me you had worked out a backup commo system with the team, sir."
"Riley thought it up," Hossey mumbled as he concentrated on the letters. "You must have been out when we talked about it."
Hossey worked slowly through the groups, using the Bible and his trigraph. "It's a Flight report. Damn. Jim, you got a message format book?"
"Sir, I've been doing this stuff for twenty years. I've got that Flight report memorized. You just break it out and I'll tell you what it all means."
When Hossey was done he handed the decoded message to Trapp. He hadn't even tried to read the six-letter groups. He was afraid of what they would say. Trapp took the sheet and studied it.
DETKTH
APAPAL
EEXXXP
ETHREE
ROONEU
ONEUNT
TROBEX
TZEROX
ENAMES
NEMYTO
NDEDMU
REEXXD
IMAONE
APALIM
BBBTEN
NTILZE
ILZERO
XIRSTR
XXSIXT
FFFCRA
MORROW
STGETO
ETKTHR
SIXEIG
AONESI
JUNEXX