Ballistic Force(89)

“Simple,” Tokaido said. “You’re already planning to deploy an ops squad across the DMZ, right? Instead of dropping them on the coast, just do a deeper insertion.”

“Well, going deep’s a little bit trickier.”

“I know that,” Tokaido said. “But it can be done, right? I say we quick playing guessing games and try to get to bottom of things. Let’s hit this base and find out what the hell’s going on.”

Michaels stared silently at the topo map for a moment, making the calculations in his head. Then he looked up at Tokaido and said, “Okay, buddy, we’ll go with your gut on this one. I’ll have that ops force ready to ship out at nightfall. I know it’ll mean waiting, but the darker it is when we come in, the better our chances.”

“Great,” Tokaido said. “One more thing, though.”

“What’s that?”

Tokaido caught the colonel’s gaze and held it firm. “I’m going along.”





CHAPTER FORTY-SIX


Changchon Mountain Range, North Korea

General Oh Chol was filled with misgivings as he headed back to Kaesong. His inspection tour of the Changchon facility had started out well enough, but any sense of optimism and well-being had been eroded during the last hour of his stay, and it was a toss-up as to which encounter had unnerved him most: his clash with Major Jin, the revelations of Sergeant Dahn, or the abject sniveling of the teenaged girl who had ridden with him in the jeep as far as the poppy fields. Whatever the case, his mood had darkened, and as the jeep he was riding in made its way along the same dirt road that had brought him to Changchon the day before, his back once again began to act up on him. I’m getting too old for this, he thought to himself, wincing as the jeep’s suspension was challenged by yet another deep rut left by the multiaxled missile transporters that had taken the same roadway en route to the mountain storage facility. Yet another transporter was scheduled for delivery later that night, but Oh wondered if plans had changed in light of the stepped-up investigation into Jin’s and Yulim’s possible link to Operation Guillotine.

“What a mess,” Oh murmured.

“What’s that, sir?” the driver asked.

“Nothing,” Oh said. “Keep driving. And try to steer clear of those ruts.”

“Yes, sir.”

Oh withdrew his cell phone. He’d tried calling his nephew before leaving the rehabilitation site, but Park Yo-Wi had been busy. The general wanted to apologize for the way he’d dismissed Park’s suspicions about Jin then lectured him on the need to allow for minor discretions on the part of senior officers. As if Jin’s apparent part in a conspiracy against the government was anything minor!

The general was dialing Park’s number when, above the drone of the jeep’s engine, he heard the droning of another motor. Puzzled, he glanced over his shoulder. They’d just rounded a bend in the road, so at first he couldn’t see anything, but as the jeep reached a straightaway, Oh finally spotted a man on a motorcycle headed their way. The driver saw the biker, as well, in the rearview mirror.

“I think it’s the engineer who just rode up from Kaesong,” the driver said.

“I think you’re right,” Oh said. “Pull over and let him catch up.”

The driver eased off on the accelerator and waited until he came on a spot where there was enough of a shoulder for him to pull over. Oh, meanwhile, was about to hang up his cell phone when his nephew got on the line. It was hard for the general to hear him, however, over the loudening whine of the approaching motorcycle.

“Yo-Wi, it’s your uncle,” Oh said, raising his voice and pressing the cell phone closer to his ear. “I want a word with you but I’ll have to call you right back. I’m in the middle of…”

Oh’s voice trailed off as the motorcycle came to a stop alongside the jeep and he suddenly found himself staring down the bore of a Ruger .22 pistol. The biker’s helmet visor was tinted, so Oh had no way of knowing it was one of Jin’s subordinates, a low-ranking private named Euikon Gryg-Il, who was about to pull the trigger on him.

As soon as Oh’s driver realized what was happening, he tried to shift the jeep back into gear. Before he could do so, however, the biker turned the Ruger on him and pulled the trigger. Oh tossed his cell phone aside and began to scramble out of the jeep, but Euikon casually shifted his aim back and fired twice more, putting one slug through the general’s shoulder and the other through his skull. Oh slumped limply halfway out of the vehicle.

The killer dropped the kickstand on the motorcycle, then left the engine idling as he strode over to the jeep to make sure both Oh and his driver were dead. As he was doing so, he heard the faint voice of Park Yo-Wi on the fallen cell phone. The private reached into the jeep and grabbed the cell phone, disconnecting the call. Before returning to the motorcycle, he slipped the cell phone into his pocket. Once back at Changchon, he would turn the phone in to Major Jin so that he could check the number Oh had called and have it cross-referenced to determine who the general had been talking to when he’d been shot. Euikon suspected that once the caller was identified, he would have to be tracked down and taken care of, as well.