Выбрать главу

Jaybird held up his hand with two fingers extended. Lam shook his head. He leveled in with his MP-5 and fired a three-round burst. The driver jolted off the fender clawing at his chest. He slammed backwards and hit the ground. They waited. The man on the ground didn't move. No one else came out of the truck.

Four minutes later, Lam and Jaybird found the rest of the SEALs, and they moved out generally north through the wooded hills.

They crossed one more road, a better one-lane blacktop that had much more traffic. It took them ten minutes to drift across this road one or two at a time, and bet ween old trucks, bicycles, and men and women on foot. The SEALs' new civilian clothing blended in nicely with the locals.

It was just after 1500 when they came to the top of another hill. Charley led Murdock to a vantage point, and they looked north and east. They had come past most of the town, and could see pockets of houses and a few industrial buildings to the north of the main settlement.

"We find two-lane road with line down middle," Charley said. "Resort at end of road, maybe five kilometers from town." "Let's move," Murdock said. "Like to get this one wrapped up before dark. Is there a swimming pool at this resort?"

Charley laughed. "This not California, Commander. No swim place."

"Then probably no chance for a long-range kill."

They hiked out of the hills and into a brushy area where the soil looked too sparse and rocky to cultivate. It provided enough cover for them. They worked three miles north; then Murdock called a halt.

"Lam, take Charley and go find that fucking two-lane road with a line down the middle. Should be to the east somewhere. Get back here as fast as possible."

Lam and Charley left their weapons with the others and struck out in the open across rice paddies, past a house or two, and kept moving quickly through the land.

Murdock watched them move out of sight behind a slight rise, and wished them luck. He sat down and leaned against a tree. The oversized floppy shirts they wore covered their combat harness, but there was no way they could conceal a canteen. Murdock was thirsty. He knew he had to stay that way. Maybe later Charley could find them some good drinking water. Probably all of the water up here was contaminated. Korea was a night-soil heaven.

A half mile to the left across the North Korean countryside, Lam leaned against a small tree and tried to hold in a laugh. Three young girls were chasing a small pig and not able to catch it. The two men skirted the scene, and found some woods where Lam could relax a little.

On the far side of the woods. Lam spotted a military truck speeding along a road. They edged up another two hundred yards and identified the roadway. A blacktop, two-lane road with a stripe up the middle. It was a superhighway in this area.

It took them a half hour to get back to the SEALs.

"Got it, Skip. Looks like we can jog west a quarter of a mile and find some more low hills. I'd bet that they swing to the east up ahead and that should bring us to the resort, or damn close to it."

"Let's move," Murdock said. He picked up the pace then, not quite jogging, but more than an easy walk. They found the hills and swung east. The number of farmed plots thinned out, in direct proportion to the thinning soil, Murdock decided.

Just after 1620, Lam called Murdock to the front of the line. He was on the crest of a small wooded hill, and pointed to the east.

Murdock took out his binoculars and checked. There were enough buildings for a resort. One was three stories high. They were built in a square and all looked new. The highway led up to the front of the place, and as he watched, a pair of military vehicles rolled through the gates into the square and vanished.

"Found it," Murdock said. "Now all we have to do is locate our favorite general, Soo Chung Chi."

For half an hour they scouted the place from a distance. There were no easy access routes. No concealment of any kind. No houses or buildings had been left standing for a quarter of a mile around the resort. It looked more like a fortified castle than a playing place.

"Have to go in at night," DeWitt said when he put down his binoculars. They had moved up as close as they could get in concealment.

"True," Murdock said. "Oh, oh. Look at this."

DeWitt pulled up his binoculars again and swore. "An old Russian armored personnel carrier.

Old, but it still moves and has a nasty sting in that fifty-caliber machine gun."

"Must have a crew of three," Murdock said. "That kind of eliminates our walking in the front door looking for a handout."

He looked at Jaybird, DeWitt, and the two Koreans.

"Now, just how the hell do we get into this place so we can find General Soo?"

20

Chungsan
North Korea

Darkness had just fallen. The scouts were back with their reports. The place was built like a fortress. It was a quad, with the buildings connected. Two entrances, one on the front with a drive-through arch and gate, and a man-sized door on the rear that evidently was locked or had a guard.

"It has to be the rear door," Jaybird said. "The front gate would be too obvious, and that's where they have the firepower. One guard tops at the rear door. We use our Koreans to get the door unlocked or open, take the guard out silently, and slip in that way. Then we find the general, welcome him into Hell, and leave by the same door."

"All silently and without a shot being fired," Murdock said. "I wish it could happen that way."

"Looks like the rear door is the best bet to get inside," DeWitt said. "I agree there, but once we get in, gonna be a hell of a job just to locate the general."

"Bribe," Charley the Korean interpreter said. "Bribery way of life in North. We offer the guard lot of money, twenty thousand won. That over nine thousand dollars U.S. More money than he'll ever see in lifetime. Will work. Bribery always work in North Korea."

"If that doesn't, can you talk your way in?"

"Yes," Charley said. He took out a banded stack of one hundred won notes. "Slip money under the door. I prepared."

"We need to get inside quietly," Murdock said. "We can't blow the door open. Then all the soldiers the general brought with him are on us with their AK-47's at full auto."

"Say we're inside the door," Jaybird said. "It's after midnight. What's next?"

"We play it by ear," Murdock said. "As usual. We try to find a hostage who will tell us where the general is. When we find Soo we eliminate him, get out, and take a hike away from here."

"He'd probably be in the three-floor section," DeWitt said. "On the top floor. So we would probably start at the top and work down."

"When?" Charley asked.

The three looked at him. "When?" Murdock asked himself. "I'd say just after midnight. That will mean many of the troops inside will be busy with their women, or asleep. It will also give us five or six hours of darkness to make our getaway."

"Now, should know where we go next. Taedong?" Charley asked.

"Taedong, right," Murdock said. "Then we'll swing back down to the coast, visit the seaside town of Nampo, before we launch ourselves into the Yellow Sea and hope for a pickup."

They considered using two men for a diversion at the front gate, but decided against it. They wanted to keep it a silent hit for as long as possible.

"We should be able to get to the back wall of the building in the dark," Murdock said. "Nobody reported any floodlights along the walls. That will help."

"We going to stay silent the whole time?" Jaybird asked.

"If we can. We'll use our suppressed weapons and KABARs. We find the general, snuff him, and get out of there before anyone knows we've been there."

"No chance," Charley said.

Murdock punched him in the shoulder. "Yeah, not much of a chance, but we keep silent as long as we can. Now, two hours to sleep, then we move out for that back door."