"Thanks, Colonel. That should be enough to get us under way. Use the SATCOM to the destroyer Cole. We should have a six-hour ride on her before we move to the coast. We must have all three firm locations before we launch. Are we clear on this point?"
The colonel chuckled. "Commander, I see why you're so good at your work. Yes, we'll have firm locations for you. That's our lop priority right now. Call me anytime you have a question. We'll give you all the help we can. What about air?"
"It's a timing situation. That would be a hundred-and-fifty mile jump for your choppers. Your fighters could help faster, but couldn't evac us if we really get jammed. We'll have a Navy Cobra on call about ten minutes away. That will have to do for now. We'll keep our options open."
They said good-bye and hung up. Murdock looked at the phone. He called the admiral and told him they had the first location and where it was.
"About a six-hour ride in the Cole" the admiral said. "Let us know when you're ready to board. We'll put the Cobra on board with reloads of ammo after you and your men are choppered on. Anything else?"
"Not right now, Admiral. Thanks for asking. This has a little bit of a weird feeling about it."
"I've had the same feeling, Commander Murdock. Let's hope they are just pre-mission jumpy nerves."
"Yes, we'll hope."
Murdock put down the phone and hurried back to the assembly room. His men were ready. Jaybird had them in their cammies. "What happened to the Korean clothes?" Murdock asked.
"Foul-up, Skipper. The Army was supposed to supply them, but something went wrong. They sent the two Korean sergeants who will be our interpreters and fill in with machine guns. They arrived on board and are ready to move. We've given them MP-5's and ammo. The colonel I talked to said the clothing would be choppered to the Monroe before we got under way."
"Any other problems I need to know about. Jaybird?"
"No, sir. We have double ammo. Each man carries four fifty-caliber rounds in his combat vest. No rebreathers. We go in wet. We each have our waterproofed Motorolas, and we're taking two SATCOMs. Joe Douglas will carry the backup."
"What about the destroyer?"
"She's standing by. The RIBs are on board with the crews. Our Cobra is standing by, and will land on the destroyer as soon as we have been choppered aboard and the clothing arrives from Seoul."
"Sounds like we're ready, LPO."
Jaybird looked up quickly. "'Sir?"
"Yes, I know. I just promoted you to LPO, lead petty officer. You have some problem with that?"
Jaybird grinned. "No, sir. Commander, no problem at all. Only…"
"Yeah, it isn't official yet until I do the paperwork and twist some major tail. Call the admiral and tell him we're ready to roll."
Two hours later, the thirteen SEALs and their two South Korean interpreters, and the two large boxes of Korean civilian clothes, were safely on board the destroyer Cole and steaming west. The Cobra gunship sat tied down on the pad on the stern.
Word came through that the second NK general had been located. Their agents in North Korea reported that General Soo Chung Chi was taking a short vacation in the Chungsan area on the coast. There was a little-known resort there used only by the military high command and government officials.
Murdock looked at a map with the XO of the destroyer. "That's another thirty miles up the coast from your original drop-off point," the XO said.
"Which one first, Commander?"
"Let's wait and see where our third target is. We might get lucky. Then again, he might be three hundred land miles north up by Musan. We'll have to wait for word from the spooks." The destroyer had just finished the western leg of its trip, and was about to turn north around the west bulge of the southern part of North Korea, when the radio room called. Murdock got on the radio at once.
"Got your third general," Colonel Vuylsteke said.
"Good. Where?"
"He's about twenty miles inland from Chungsan at Taedong. Our sources say he has a private estate there that most North Koreans don't know anything about. His name is General Sun Kyu Ton."
"Who's running the war for these guys?" Murdock asked.
"They must have some new genera ls on the front lines. You get everything you need?"
"So far. What we could really use now is a big batch of good luck."
"Wish I could help, Commander. You stay healthy." Murdock went up to the bridge and talked with the destroyer captain. They checked the maps again and found the two towns.
The destroyer captain was a full commander with a lot of blue-water time. Commander J. Jenkins was from Oregon and wild about rainbow trout fishing. A yellow gnat and a brown bucktail fly were hooked through his hat.
"Where to, Commander?" Jenkins asked.
Murdock eyed the map again. "We'll continue on up the coast past Nampo to Chungsan. Pull this taxi to within five miles of the coast and we'll take the RIBs in as close as possible. We'll work the coast town first, then move inland to Taedong, and with any luck find some nighttime transport south thirty miles to the port city of Nampo."
"And hope that half the NK Army isn't chasing you by that time. I don't envy you this assignment, Commander."
"That's the damn kicker here, Jenkins. No orders. This is a volunteer mission." Murdock left with the destroyer captain trying to believe what he had just heard. Below decks in their assembly point, Murdock had the SEALs strip and put on the Korean clothes. They were mostly cotton, with lots of browns and blacks and dark blue. They had loose-fitting pants, some Western-style shirts, and some light jackets that would help hide their combat vests. They would keep on their regular black jungle boots with black socks turned down over the laces to help prevent snags.
The two Korean interpreters chuckled when they saw the SEALs changing into the Korean clothes. They already had on their civilian garb. They went around helping adjust the clothes. The SEALs had a variety of billed caps, mostly black and dark blue. These were the hats the people wore at this time of the year, the interpreters said. In the summer the Koreans switched to straw hats.
Murdock had a long talk with the two Koreans, DeWitt, and Jaybird.
"We're putting our lives in your hands," Murdock said, staring at the two Koreans. "You must know that. A lot of what we do will depend on your advice. If you don't think something we suggest will work, tell us at once. Don't worry about rank out here. We're SEALs, that's our rank on a mission, no officers, no sergeants. You understand?"
They both said they did. Murdock didn't want to know their names. He tagged one as Pete, and the other as Charlie. He asked if they had fired the MP-5 before. One said yes, the other said no. Murdock had Jaybird take them to the fantail and fire fifty rounds each. They came back looking confident about the weapon.
The SEALs had one last meal, then checked their equipment. They would be on their PD in a half hour. Murdock looked at them and chuckled.
"You are the sorriest bunch of SEALs I've ever seen. Absolutely no class, and let's hope that you stay that way whenever we run into any of the locals. Keep those damned round eyes closed as much as possible. We'll use a minimum of cammo colors so the locals might think we could be NKs in civilian disguise. Lead Petty Officer, is it time to get on deck?"
"Ten minutes, sir."
By the time they worked up to the deck, the Cole had slowed to four knots in a whitecapped sea. Rain filtered down from a socked-in sky.
"Rain is good," Murdock said. "Makes it harder for anybody to see us coming in."