Rations were unpacked and all began to eat in silence, each with their own thoughts. Ryder checked their position and ascertained that they had covered over twenty-five klicks since leaving the beach; at this rate they would be in the search area within the next four to five days.
He looked across at Grace; she appeared exhausted, huddled in front of the fire. Except for the road incident she had done well and he was surprisingly impressed by her stamina and determination. She did not complain at the pace they made, which he hoped she would be able to maintain.
“Four to five days, Captain Seymour, and we’ll be in the search zone,” he offered, to help ease her discomfort.
“Please, call me Grace,” she replied softly. “I’ll keep up,” she added, as if reading his thoughts.
Crammed closely together as they were, he wondered for the first time how they would manage to give her the space and privacy she needed to carry out her bodily functions and to maintain some form of modesty without causing problems amongst the rest of the group. She was, after all, an attractive woman, even under those baggy peasant garments. This issue would have to be addressed.
“Captain… Sorry, Grace…” he said hesitantly, looking sheepishly at her and the others. “We’ll bunk down outside to give you some privacy.”
Her head shot up and she snapped, “You will not! I don’t want any favours because I’m a woman. We’re all in this together. When it’s over I will stink just like you; no change of clothing, no taking them off and no washing until we’re out of here. Let’s get this straight: I’m not trained like you to extreme hardship and deprivation, I admit. But I’ll manage. I’m here to do a specific job and, with your help, I hope to succeed. Is that understood?” She looked intently at each man. “As far as bodily functions go, I promise I won’t look if you don’t. Any questions?”
The men looked at Ryder in surprise for a response.
“Well… Uh… No,” he said, a little shocked by the outburst. “If that’s how you want it, that’s fine with me.” Relieved that this issue was out of the way, Ryder eyed the diminutive, dark-haired doctor and her innocent good looks and wondered how the hell she would manage the gruelling operation that lay before them.
“Okay with you guys?” Ryder looked at the three London- born Korean SAS operatives.
“No problem,” said Daniel Song, his stocky frame hunched on a log, staring intently at Grace.
Greg Bom nodded in agreement, then asked, “These ‘hot zones’, are they as deadly as they tell us?” His pock-marked features give him a distinctly menacing appearance, enhanced by close-cropped hair over strong angular features.
“Very!” warned Grace. “Believe me, a hot zone, or Level 4, is where the lethal viruses are kept. To enter this area without a pressure suit is to invite certain death.”
“How certain can we be that we’ll find protection if this lethal virus exists?”
“If a hot zone exists, they will have protection suits available for sure.”
“I wasn’t clear from the briefings if a respirator could replace the suit in an emergency,” said Campbell Chol, a young operative, who sported soft, round features with close-cropped hair atop a sinewy well-toned muscular body.
“Definitely not. It may stop you breathing in the viruses, but it will not stop them from entering the body through clothing into other orifices.”
Silence filled the hut. Grace stared at Ryder. “Those eyes; they look so Korean. Who did it?”
“Not me,” Ryder replied, hoping the natives would be equally fooled before this op was over. The soft plastic appendages were not uncomfortable and far less intrusive than he’d first imagined. “London specialist.” The attractive female make-up artist he’d spent hours with came to mind.
He moved on. “Currently, we’re in the southeastern foothills of the Hamgyongs. According to my reckoning, we’re ninety to a hundred klicks away from Pyorha-ri. The range runs roughly east-west parallel with the Chinese border. The town is on the northwestern side, isolated in the foothills about thirty klicks from the border.” Ryder paused to take a sip of water. “We’ll search the area east of Pyorha-ri first, due to its remoteness. If a subterranean base exists, more likely it’ll be there. South of the town the area is more populated; north and west is too close to the Chinese border. If no luck east, we search south.”
“And if we find one?” Song asked. His open features under his dark, bushy hair gave him a boyish look.
“Any complex we find is going to be heavily guarded. To get in undetected would be a feat in itself before even reaching the hot zone; let alone with an inexperienced operative.” Frank immediately bit his tongue.
Grace gave him a faint smile in response. “I did not ask to do this. Whatever happens I will do my best.”
Ryder nodded. The others glanced at him disapprovingly. He regretted what he had said; she did not deserve that.
“What happens if we find bugs and can’t do a burn-off? How will we destroy?” Song asked, letting Ryder off the hook.
The four turned to Grace.
“Not with explosives; that was made clear at the briefings,” she replied with renewed confidence. “Destroying depends on what we find in the way of containment levels and the amount of stocks held. If only a small amount of virus exists, it will be relatively easy to burn off. But large amounts will present a major problem if we have little time, which is more than likely given the circumstances. The risk of discovery would be too great.
“All bio-labs have furnaces capable of producing the kind of temperatures to destroy the virus totally, which is around 500 degrees centigrade. Some have larger furnaces than others; the bigger the furnace, obviously the more you can destroy quickly.”
“Are the furnaces continuously fired up?” Ryder asked.
“Should be in case of an emergency. They are around the clock at Porton.”
“And if not?” he pressed.
“I find that inconceivable. But if not, deep burial in concrete is the only alternative. If a lethal super virus escaped…” She paused, glancing at each of the four men. “Once the genie is out of the bottle, it will be very, very difficult to put it back in without a great loss of life. Most lethal viruses can survive up to twenty-four hours outside a host in temperate climates, but once inside, it will most certainly be passed onto others without degrading. With such a short incubation period – roughly a few hours – these viruses kill rapidly. If we find a lab harbouring super viruses, the prime objective is not to destroy them, but to get out with a vaccine,” Grace finished authoritatively.
“Right; let’s focus on the route and search area,” Ryder said, changing the subject. He looked at the map and said, “As the crow flies, Pyorha-ri is about ninety klicks northwest of here. In real terms, ninety represents a march of some hundred odd, depending on the terrain. It’ll be rough and craggy, so we’ll keep to the valleys. We should be able to cover sixteen to twenty a day if we tab, putting us in the search area after about four to five days.” In the British army ‘tab’ is slang for ‘force march’ and ‘klick’ for kilometre. He glanced at his notes. “The search area is a sixteen-by-sixteen box, about eight klicks east of Pyorha-ri.”
Ryder prodded the fire and put on more wood. Although the surroundings were not that dissimilar to what he had experienced elsewhere in the world, he could not shake the strangeness he felt – something about the land seemed so foreign.