Ballistic Force(103)
“What?” Hilldecker and Leeton exclaimed simultaneously.
“You heard me,” Michaels said. “It’s less than a week away from being operational. And how are they getting the missiles to the launch pad? Get this—the bastards have drilled themselves a tunnel all the way from Kijongdong back to that mining camp in Changchon our ops are heading for.”
Hilldecker and Leeton took a moment to absorb the news, then the UN representative glanced at the undersecretary and pointed to her phone. “You might want to get Russia and China back on the horn,” he suggested. “Tell them we’ve got that proof they were looking for.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Changchon Rehabilitation Center, North Korea
Once he’d stripped himself of his parachute rig, Akira Tokaido parted his way through the poppies until he’d joined up with Major Stevens and several of the other Ranger ops from Camp Bonifas.
“So far, so good,” Stevens said once he’d scanned the fields and confirmed that the rest of his men had landed safely, as well.
“Any word from the others?” Tokaido asked.
Stevens nodded, tapping the radio headset affixed to his helmet. “They took a few hits but the convoy’s theirs.”
The major quickly explained how the KPA had intended to use a dummy missile to smuggle troops to the Changchon site, then said, “If they felt they had reason to be wary coming in, we’re gonna have to be extra cautious.”
“Maybe so,” Tokaido said, “but I think we can still stick with our game plan.”
“Agreed,” Stevens said.
On the flight from Camp Bonifas, Stevens and Cook had scanned a topo map of their target area, using NSA sat-cam data to sketch in a layout of the old mining camp and what seemed to be the primary access tunnels into the mountainside. It had been decided to use three-man teams to encircle the camp and set up an effective offensive perimeter. Now that half of the intended force had been diverted to the convoy, Stevens figured they would have to trim the teams to two and narrow down their perimeter coverage. Still, as Tokaido had suggested, the basic strategy remained intact.
“We’ll just scrap the teams we’d planned on situating along the roadway,” he said. “The guys in the convoy should be able to handle that.”
Stevens paired his men off and gave each team a designated target area, then gave the signal for them to move out. He’d opted for Tokaido as his partner, and once they cleared the poppy fields, the two men stole their way through the darkened forest area that lay between them and the concentration camp.
“Any chance we’re gonna run into land mines?” Tokaido murmured.
“I don’t think so,” Stevens said. “At least not until we get closer to the perimeter fences.”
The men had advanced fifty yards through the forest when they both froze in unison. Up ahead they could hear a faint scuffling sound, and when the breeze shifted, it carried the charnel scent of rotting flesh. Tokaido recoiled from the stench, grimacing.
“What gives?” he whispered.
Before Stevens could answer, the men heard an insistent growling. It didn’t sound human. Holding their breath, the men carefully stole forward. Soon they were within view of the shallow, mass grave where the victims of the executions in the poppy fields two days ago had been buried. A pack of wild dogs had dug away at the gravesite and begun to drag corpses up out of the dirt. The growling came from two dogs fighting over the same corpse. One had its jaws clamped around the body’s right leg while the other had bitten into an arm. They continued to growl at one another as they engaged in a grisly tug-of-war. Meanwhile, other dogs continued to rut through the soft earth for more bodies.
“Let’s just hope the guards can’t hear this,” Stevens murmured. “The last thing we need is to have them looking our way when we show up at their doorstep.”
“Not much we can do about it,” Tokaido said. “On the bright side, with their snouts in the grave the dogs aren’t gonna smell us. I say we make a slight detour and move around them.”
Stevens nodded. The men traipsed to their left, heading deeper into the forest. They made it the rest of the way without incident and soon found themselves at the edge of the forest. Directly in front of them lay the outermost fences of the concentration camp; thirty yards to their left, a four-story watchtower loomed up between the second and third fences. The structure was made of wood and designed primarily to allow a clear view of the camp and anyone who might try to escape. The idea of the camp being raided hadn’t been in the equation, and both Tokaido and Stevens could see that when the time came to attack it would take only a few well-placed shots from their carbines to take out the sentries. The men could see five other towers in the moonlight, all similarly constructed and equally vulnerable.