The other officer pointed toward the nearby terminal, where the stolen Winnebago was parked amid a fleet of FETC delivery trucks.
“That’s what they showed up in,” he said. “We just searched it and found two bodies inside. An elderly couple. The ’bago’s probably theirs.”
“So our guys just pulled up and were able to hop on board one of the jets?” Scanlon said. “Just like that?”
“We’re still interrogating a few people to figure out what happened,” the other officer said, “but from the sounds of it, they didn’t have to take over the plane. It was ready and waiting for them.”
“Unbelievable,” Bahn muttered.
“My guess is when we go through their warehouse we’re going to find more than just cheap cup holders and tea caddies,” Scanlon said. “I’m thinking their smack route to Phoenix runs through here.”
“So we’ve made another drug bust,” Bahn rumbled. “Big whoopie. Meanwhile, the people we want are flying off into the wild blue yonder.”
“Look, before you guys start kicking yourselves too much,” the other officer said, “you should know these guys you’re looking for aren’t out of the woods yet.”
“What are you talking about?” Jayne said.
“That plane they grabbed doesn’t have the fuel load to get clear across the ocean,” the officer replied. “They’ve got a scheduled pit stop in Guam. And even if they divert from their itinerary, we’ll have them on radar and know where they’re going.”
“So we can head them off at the pass,” Bahn said. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“Pretty much,” the other officer said. “We’ll have a force of some kind ready to meet them wherever they wind up landing, but I don’t think you’re gonna be able to get there in time to be part of the reception committee.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Bolan said, already plotting his next move. “That jet can only fly so fast. If I remember rightly, there’s an Air Force base a few miles from here, and they’ve got to have something that can fly faster.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Changchon Rehabilitation Center, North Korea
It was late morning when General Oh Chol returned to the clandestine mountain bunker where his whirlwind inspection tour had begun the day before. Yet another shipment of warheads had been delivered in his absence, and Major Jin was inside the massive vault overseeing the placement of the nuclear payloads.
As Oh waited for the major to complete his task, he took note of the rock wall encasing the vault and noticed still more debris had fallen to the ground. It wasn’t a large amount—barely enough to fill a wheelbarrow—but the displacement was enough to merit concern, a fact that brought the general a measure of relief.
Back at the missile launch site in Kijongdong, Oh had called ahead to Kaesong, requesting that a member of the KPA’s Corps of Engineers be dispatched immediately to Changchon. Since the walls here at the storage facility continued to show signs of crumbling, Oh figured his call for such prompt attention wouldn’t attract undue suspicion. It was important that Major Jin not question the presence of a COE official around the base, because the inspection would be only a pretext, masking the real reason for the visit. Yes, the inspector would be a trained structural engineer, but his COE credentials would be merely a cover, as his primary assignment would entail his expertise as an undercover agent for the Ministry of Internal Intelligence.
MII routinely used the Corps of Engineers as a front for investigating military personnel, as the infrastructure at the KPA’s various bases was almost always in need of some kind of repair or maintenance, allowing internal spies to carry out investigations in conjunction with their engineering tasks. Such would be the case here at Changchon. While the arriving COE official would take care to give due attention to the crumbling walls of the cavern facility, his greater concern would be initiating surveillance of Major Jin and the officials under his command.
Oh had his misgivings about summoning someone to spy on Jin, and he hoped that his long-time colleague would stand up to the scrutiny and be found innocent of anything but the sort of negligible, petty graft that was commonplace among the KPA military brass. Dabbling in the black market was something MII would likely turn a blind eye to, as long as it didn’t raise doubts as to an officer’s loyalty to the Kim regime and its ideals. With any luck, Jin’s reputation would remain intact and he would be allowed to go about his business without ever knowing that Oh had placed him under surveillance based on the rumors his nephew had heard at the launch facility in Kijongdong.