The water would drag him north, and then it would buttonhook him back south, keeping him in hostile waters. With Tong’s treason, he expected an armada to know his exact location, and escape would require assistance. He felt more assured of his decision to transmit his plea.
But the lack of an attack confounded him. The Kim drifted over the horizon of the enemy coast, within easy reach of its hunters. Where were the helicopters? Where were the patrol craft? Or was his enemy stalking him with the dozens of silent assassins of its submarine fleet?
He toggled the screen to a view of the sounds the Kim’s hydrophones heard. Seeing no assailing forces, he yielded to paranoia.
“Something isn’t making sense,” he said. “We should be under attack already.”
Thinking he spoke to himself, Yoon hadn’t expected a response. Nang’s reaction startled him.
“I may have an answer for you, sir.”
Yoon twisted his pained abdomen to see the senior chief and Hong carrying a body into the compartment. Instead of continuing to the freezer, they stopped and lay the body below the lieutenant.
He looked down and saw the admiral staring back at him with tormented but living eyes.
“We found him alive, sir.”
“I see that.”
The captive groaned, and Yoon scanned his body for wounds.
“He’s barely hit. Just his leg and his arm.”
“That’s right, sir. Looks like he just played dead.”
Yoon glared at the man.
“Coward.”
“I think not, young man. It’s not cowardice to preserve one’s life when no noble death is before him.”
With Tong dead, he viewed the prisoner as the target of his revenge. He considered kicking him, but he remembered his wound.
“Bandage him,” he said. “Then tape him to a chair.”
With the captive’s torso mummified to a seat in front of a tactical console, Yoon hobbled on his crutches towards him.
“Tell me what happened to you tonight, starting with your abduction.”
“I had been asleep for approximately two hours when your men broke in through my bedroom window. I live in private quarters on the base with my wife. She was visiting her mother, leaving me alone in the house. I assume that her absence played into the timing of my abduction.”
Yoon realized he suffered from restricted knowledge. The Kim’s crew knew where to drop off the commandos and where to gather them. Their activities on land had been a planned secret, and he had to trust the admiral’s account of the tale for lack of dissenting evidence.
“How did they get you off the base?”
“They drove. Rather, they made me drive. They changed into naval officer uniforms in my house and rode with me in my car. Then they made me drive to their assault craft on an isolated stretch of beach. It seemed to be a very simple and well-planned operation.”
Yoon judged the man as cooperative.
“Simple, until something went awry,” Yoon said. “I saw the captain free your bonds and hand you a knife, which you immediately jabbed into the stomach of a commando. That was premeditated. When did the captain confide his plan in you?”
The admiral pursed his lips in thought, measuring his words.
“When we reached the beach, he sent his men ahead to secure the area. He shocked me with his direct candor at that point.”
“What did he say?”
“He said I was condemned to stand trial for the sinking of the Cheonan and that I would certainly be found guilty and executed.”
“Did you sink the Cheonan?”
“Me? Personally? No.”
“But were you responsible?”
“Yes. I designed and authorized the mission.”
From the corner of his eye, Yoon saw Nang raise his palm and then backhand the side of the admiral’s face.
“Senior chief!”
“Sorry, sir, but he deserves no less.”
“Get back and sit down, senior chief.”
As Nang retreated across the room, Yoon winked at him to infer that he approved his violence.
“He won’t do that again,” Yoon said. “Now, what did the captain say to compel you to join him in his treason?”
“Given my situation, I was agreeable to any option to improve my lot. He said he wanted to take me captive himself and hold me hostage for ransom. I needed to only assist him in turning on all of you, and the attack was to begin as soon as he set foot aboard the ship.”
Yoon wanted to believe him, but it seemed like self-indulgence to hope that Tong hadn’t intended to call upon the enemy fleet to pursue the Kim.
“You want me to believe that this was motivated by greed?”
“I have no evidence to the contrary.”
“What was his plan with the submarine?”
“He shared with me in the engineering space that he planned to kill most of the crew. He would leave just enough of you alive to drive the ship to a safe coastline.”
“Why would we comply with him?”
“He was ready to offer you your lives in exchange for your assistance. He was also going to appeal to your sense of mission accomplishment by pointing out that he would eventually deliver me to justice, for a price, of course.”
“What went wrong?”
“You started the fire.”
Yoon stifled a surge of pride and humbled himself by recalling that the fire was obvious in retrospect. It was one good idea in a string of many he would need to survive.
“That caught him off guard?”
“He was waiting for you to barge into the engineering space. I believe he expected you to be desperate and angry enough to challenge him directly. He would have gunned you down, probably only injuring the last men to keep enough manpower to operate the submarine.”
“Then the fire thwarted his plans?”
“Yes. When you cracked open the door and the smoke rushed in, I noted a shift in his demeanor.”
“How so?”
“He seemed defeated for a moment, but not desperate. More angry, as if you had ruined his mission, but you hadn’t condemned him to death. He still behaved as if he were in charge of his destiny.”
“Commandos are trained to be confident.”
“I understand this. I am merely telling you what I saw.”
“I see. Why are you being so cooperative? Why should I trust you?”
The captive looked up at Yoon.
“Because I want you to succeed in your mission of bringing me to justice. Despite the threats of your traitor, I believe that your judicial system provides me my only chance of survival.”
Yoon found the logic sound and prodded further.
“What about the shaft?”
“I suspect that his backup plan was to cripple this ship, surface it, and hail my countrymen. By doing so, he probably expected to seek asylum with my people. I see no other rationale for him having plastic explosives with him for use on your shaft.”
“That would explain why we haven’t yet been hunted down. Your countrymen don’t know where we are. Tong wasn’t planning to tip them off. They only know that you have been abducted.”
“I can only assume you are right. But they will come, and when they do, I will suffer the same fate as you. Like you, I have no wish to die by torpedo or depth charge.”
Yoon straightened his back.
“Senior chief, set up a two-man watch rotation on the prisoner. Give him water but no food until I say so. When he claims he needs to use the head, contact me.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
Nang selected the first two armed sailors to stand guard over their prisoner.
“Help me to the captain’s stateroom.”
With pictures of the former captain’s family on a small desk, Yoon found his new quarters alien. But he wanted to assert his responsibility for the survivors’ safety, and that included taking residence in the commanding officer’s quarters.