They removed pistols from sacks, attached the silencers and stuck them in their belts.
“Don’t use unless unavoidable,” Ryder ordered, gesturing towards the pistols. “Use knives.”
They left the outbuilding one by one and made their way out to the main road heading back towards the bridge and the rectangular-shaped target block. The road now had fewer pedestrians and cyclists and only sporadic vehicles, headlamps ablaze. The road itself was unlit, but a half-moon in a cloudless sky bathed the way sufficiently to see where they were heading. Ryder led with the others close behind. He felt the adrenaline racking up; they were taking a big risk. He worried how the doc was coping. He was plagued, too, with all the uncertainties a break-in of this type could bring, but kept reminding himself that this was specifically what they were trained for. So just do it!
The four reached the building; the large contingent of soldiers seen earlier seemed to have thinned out. Lights shone from rooms on the ground floor and some on the second. On Ryder’s signal they split. He and Chol moved to the far flank and the other two took the nearest.
They stealthily encircled the front building, keeping close to the walls well within the shadows, eventually meeting up again without incident in the bush and trees at the rear. A courtyard fronted two dimly lit single-storey barrack buildings, with three open military trucks parked to one side. Small groups of soldiers milled about the yard, all coming and going in and out of the buildings. The truck drivers stood by their vehicles, smoking. Through the windows of the nearest building, Ryder could make out a number of people standing in a large open area filing towards officials, who were sitting at benches. Using binoculars he could see only a handful of soldiers in the room as he scanned for Grace. Then he saw her.
“She’s there. We need uniforms to get inside,” he whispered to the others. Those around her, mostly women, sobbed or stood in a robotic trance. She looked desperate. He looked again at the soldiers milling about the courtyard and the three by the trucks, his mind calculating the risks.
The nearest were the drivers. Ryder pointed at them, then signalled to Song and Bom for a silent kill. “We need those uniforms unmarked.”
They acknowledged and the three slunk away under cover of perimeter bush until parallel with the trucks.
Suddenly a soldier broke away from a group nearby, sauntered over to one of the drivers and spoke to him. All four soldiers had their backs to the bush, watching the building entrance.
Ryder waited, hoping the man would leave, but he lingered. He signalled Chol to join them.
When Chol arrived, Ryder signalled for Bom and Song to take the nearest two whilst he and Chol took out the others. The four waited to make sure all was clear before moving silently forward between the vehicles, each steeling themselves for the kill. There could be no room for error. The soldiers had to die quietly and without fuss.
It was all over within seconds; each soldier died without knowing what had hit him. Their necks were broken with a swift, brutal twist, before any could make a sound. The four lifeless forms were then dragged silently into the bush.
They hurriedly stripped and donned the uniforms. In the uniform Ryder had put on, he found a packet of cigarettes. He was very tempted to light one, but crushed the packet instead and threw it away into the bush. When completed, he and Song shouldered rifles, pulled caps firmly down on their heads and left the bush, striding confidently across the dirt courtyard and into the building. Bom and Chol occupied themselves with hiding the bodies well amongst the scrub, hoping they would not be found until they were all well away.
Inside, the low murmuring of the seventy-five or so detainees, broken by the occasional wails and the background sound of marshal music, filled the high-ceilinged room. From a separate area off the far side, closed off by a pair of large double doors, the two men could hear muted screams. Ryder counted at least ten soldiers lining the wall behind the officials under the portrait of the ‘Great Leader’ and several more spaced around the room. Lucky for him and Song, there didn’t appear to be an officer in charge. In the light of the room, Ryder’s disguise would now be truly tested.
He watched Grace, who looked terrified, as she glanced about in despair.
With no game plan in place, both men stayed close to each other, waiting to determine what action to take. Some of the women, after processing, were taken through the double doors on the other side by soldiers in turn; the rest were led to a cordoned-off area at the back of the room. They watched this going on for a short while, then it clicked: these women were being abused.
Ryder looked at Grace. If she were taken… He needed to see what was happening beyond those doors; this could be an opportunity to get Grace out without attracting attention. He whispered to Song, telling him what he intended and began to meander through the throng keeping one eye on the guards and another on the double doors. He purposely headed for Grace and as he went close, their eyes met and he gave her a reassuring wink. Recognition dawned immediately. She gave him a hint of a smile, papers in one hand and a sack in the other. She edged forward in the queue towards the officials.
Reaching the doors, Ryder boldly strode through and was confronted by a series of doors along one side of a narrow corridor. The screams had grown louder. He walked along the corridor opening each door. Every room had a bed, some occupied, but most were empty. He also noticed that every room he looked into had a window big enough to get through – an escape route had been found.
Back in the hall, he strode over to Song, concerned that Grace was now only fifth in line to face the officials. Telling him to return to the others, then move and wait at the back of the building, he took a place with the other soldiers against the wall behind the officials.
Grace arrived at the bench. Ryder watched, calculating his next move. She stood nervously in front of the official whilst her papers were scrutinized. The soldier to his right was definitely showing interest. Ryder had to get to her before he did.
The official handed back the papers and Grace was ushered through. Immediately Ryder stepped forward just before the soldier next to him, blocking his path. As the man backed away smirking, he boldly took Grace by the arm and led her towards the double doors.
Stepping into the corridor, with Grace in tow, Ryder, in his haste, knocked aside a soldier on his way out. The man was not happy and said so, staring hard at him. For one horrible moment, Ryder thought his disguise had been blown. He apologized profusely searching desperately for the right North Korean epithets, mumbling it was because he could not wait to fuck this woman. The soldier continued to stare and he steeled himself. The man turned to Grace, laughed and went back into the crowded room. Ryder exhaled a massive sigh of relief.
The first room they tried was occupied; Grace recoiled at seeing a naked woman stretched out across the bed with two soldiers systematically violating her. The next was empty. Ryder flicked the light on and off briefly, hoping the others would see. Song did and made towards the window.
Wasting little time in forcing open the window without breaking the glass, Ryder looked to see if all was clear. He helped Grace through, then he too dropped to the ground behind her before both scampered away into the bush.
Grace was in a state of shock, affecting her coordination. Ryder knew they could not rest until well away from this building and the town.
With Song supporting Grace, the group, led by Ryder, slipped silently through the backyards of the buildings that fronted the main road until they could go no further. Re-entering the road, he checked his compass and headed north following the road. He made sure to keep to the deeper shadows under the trees that lined the pavement. Grace could now manage to walk unaided. People were still about with a spattering of vehicles. Fortunately, the uniforms gave them protection from close scrutiny and the people ignored them.