Necessary Retribution (16 page)

“Tell the colonel I'm very grateful for the information and I offer whatever help I can. I would like to know how he got his information.”

“The Arabs were braggarts. They actually told me of their plans because I'm the only one who speaks English.”

Rocky's headset crackled. “Ernie to Rock, we're in place.”

“Standby, Ernie…My major is here now. What can we do to help you?”

“The women in the warehouse openly protested against the government in the public square. We have been ordered to execute them. We need you to take them with you. We can't hide them from the secret police here. If you take them, we can simply dig graves and say we buried them.”

Rocky did some quick mental calculations on the load capacity of the two RIBs they had. “Okay, let me go get my major and we'll get things worked out.”

“Do you have any medicine?”

“We have a medic. Why?”

“One of our sergeants is very sick. Could your medic look at him?”

“I'll check.” He turned and trotted to the meet point. Five minutes later he found the rest of the team. Mike had already picked up Marv.

“What the hell's going on?” Ernie asked.

“It's kind of complicated, but we don't have to worry about the army here. They're our friends.”

“Are you nuts?! We're in North Korea!”

“Look, Ernie, these people are starving and the government is doing nothing about it. They hate the government. They gave me the scoop on the tangos. I need you and Willy to come with me.”

Ernie took a deep breath. “Get your gear, Willy. The rest of you set up a perimeter and wait for us.”

“And don't shoot any soldiers,” Rocky added.

The three men went back to the warehouse and met the colonel and the lieutenant. During the walk back, Rocky filled Ernie in on the colonel's request.

“This is my major, sir,” Rocky said to the colonel.

The colonel held out his hand to Ernie and they shook hands.

“And this is Sergeant Young, our medic. He'll take a look at your sick soldier.”

“Would you please come with me, sergeant?” the lieutenant asked.

“Lead the way.”

“Before you go, Lieutenant, tell the colonel we'll get the women loaded on our boats. They can only take the essentials. We'll be near capacity.”

“It is all right, Major. They have nothing, but what they are wearing. Where will you be taking them?”

“South Korea.”

“I'll tell them.”

The colonel, lieutenant and Willy went into the warehouse. Moments later the colonel brought the four women out. They're eyes were wide and frightened. Ernie took the hand of the closest one in his hands and bowed to her.

“Don't be afraid. We will protect you.” He spoke in a soft, calm voice.

The woman managed a smile and nodded to Ernie.

“I hope she doesn't think you just proposed to her, boss,” Rocky cracked.

Ernie chuckled. “Let's get them to the boats.”

Willy knelt beside a soldier with a very pale face covered in perspiration. The soldier's breathing quick and shallow. “How long has he been like this?”

“Four days,” the lieutenant answered. “That's when he was injured.”

Willy lifted the man's shirt and started removing the bandage on his left side. The soldier flinched and gritted his teeth. Willy stopped and pulled a morphine auto injector out of his bag and punched it into the man's thigh.

“Tell him the pain will stop in a few minutes.”

The lieutenant translated.

Willy slowly removed the bandage as the soldier bravely took the pain. Willy began cleaning the infected wound as gently as he could. The man tensed with pain at first, but then started to relax as the morphine took hold. Willy began to clean more aggressively and debriding the wound. He applied antibiotic ointment then gently covered the injury. A tetanus shot and a shot with a large dose of the strongest antibiotic in his kit completed the treatment.

“Lieutenant, I'm giving you these morphine auto injectors. All you have to do is remove this cover, insert the needle in his buttocks or thigh and push this button. Don't do it more than four times a day and only do it if he's in severe pain. This is morphine and it's extremely addictive.” Willy then handed the lieutenant the rest of his antibiotic syringes and a bottle of antibiotic pills. “Give him a shot of antibiotics in the morning and another tomorrow night. Then start him on these pills…four a day until they're gone. Keep the wound clean, but don't bandage it for three days.”

The lieutenant handed the medical supplies to another man and gave him the instructions. The man nodded he understood.

“Does that man have any questions for me?”

The lieutenant asked the man the question and he said something back. “This man is one of our battalion medics. He says thank you for treating their sergeant. He wishes he had the same training and supplies you do.”

Willy looked at the man and smiled. “You're welcome.”

To Willy's surprise the man hugged him. Willy hugged him back, picked up his bag and looked at the soldiers around him. Their condition tore at his heart. They were malnourished and most of them did not look well. “When did the injured man last eat?”

“All of us have been sharing what we have, but he had only a little to eat this morning.”

Willy reached into his bag and pulled out two MRE rations. “Here is some food for him. He needs nutrition if he is going to get better.”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

“Okay, Lieutenant, let's get me back to the boats.”

Ernie saw Willy and the lieutenant coming out of the warehouse. The colonel had given him drawings of the ships the terrorists were using. Ernie identified them as the Norwegian Tween Deck/RO/RO Geared cargo ships listed in the intel. Ernie considered the intelligence bonanza the colonel and his men could provide on an ongoing basis about North Korea and Chongjin shipping traffic. He decided to take a big risk.

“Lieutenant, I want to give the colonel this satellite phone. It will enable us to communicate with your unit on a regular basis. You just have to be careful about when and where to transmit as I'm sure the air waves are monitored here, but you don't have to worry about receiving messages.”

The lieutenant translated and the colonel seemed to be interested, but troubled about the phone. After a minute of thought he spoke to the lieutenant, who became very upset and started arguing, but the colonel cut him off with a curt order. The lieutenant stood rigid with tears running down his cheeks. The colonel's face softened and he put his hands on the lieutenant's shoulders. Ernie thought he was witnessing a conversation between a father and his son.

The lieutenant turned to Ernie. “Major, my colonel says the only way this will work is if you take me with you. The colonel and I have a code, which only we know.” The lieutenant's voice broke and the colonel put his arm around his shoulders and spoke looking at Ernie as the lieutenant translated.

“Lieutenant Chong is a very capable officer. He has risked a very bright career to do the right thing for his men and people we serve
here in Chongjin.” The colonel choked back tears. “Years ago, my wife died in childbirth because I did not have sufficient rank to get the special care she needed. I lost her and my newborn son. Lieutenant Chong is the son I never had. Please take him with you. Then the phone will work well.”

Ernie turned to Rocky. “What about the capacity of the boats?”

“It will be touchy, but I think we can make it.”

Willy spoke up. “Ernie, we need to get these people food and medicine.”

“That would be damn near impossible, Willy!”

“Boss, you don't understand. These people are starving to death. The guy I just treated will definitely die if he doesn't get food and all of these people are sick. If they get hit with the flu they are all dead!”

Ernie's gut churned. And I insisted on leading ops. “Lieutenant, please tell the colonel to expect us back tomorrow night. If we don't make it, it will be the next night. In the meantime, we have a couple of cases of MREs we'll leave with you. We'll need one of your men to come get them from our boats.”

The lieutenant translated.

“Okay, let's get out of here. C'mon, Lieutenant, the colonel's right. You're more valuable with us.”

The lieutenant and the colonel had a last father and son embrace and then Rocky led the way to the boats. When the women saw the lieutenant climbing aboard, they all started whispering and smiling. The lieutenant reassured them everything would be all right. After unloading the MREs, the RIBs headed back to Kwan's boat, with Ernie wondering if he had made the right decisions.

T
WENTY

UPON RECEIVING THE COLONEL'S INFORMATION
from Ernie by satellite phone, Robin started issuing orders.

“Get us to Sasebo ASAP, Jack.”

“Roger.”

“Jamie, get a hold of Shosi and tell him to line up the chopper he and I talked about. Alert the Taiwan team to the description of their target ship. Tell them we'll have it located soon.”

“Okay, Rob.”

“Mark, get us geared up for a maritime op including scuttle charges according to the plan Ernie worked up.”

“Will do.”

Rob picked up the secure phone and called Grassley. He relayed the Colonel Sinchu's information and asked Grassley to locate the vessels by satellite ASAP. Then he pulled up satellite photos of Vladivostok and the Sea of Japan and started studying them. The pit of his stomach twisted.
We started with iffy intelligence that caused us to split our team and now Mark and I have to infiltrate into Vladivostok and sink a ship full of tangos. He leaned back in his chair. It's damn near too crazy to even contemplate doing this! I should just call Bill and tell him to sink the damn ship with an air strike. Why should I risk killing a young kid like Mark for this? Not to mention my own self. Robin reached for the secure phone, but the nagging thought of a nuclear war stuck in his mind. Dammit! I guess we can work up a plan and see how it shakes out. If it's too risky, I'll tell Bill we're off.
He hung up the phone.

By the time Fatboy landed in Sasebo, Robin and Mark had a plan that reasonably satisfied them under the circumstances. That didn't
mean they weren't apprehensive about the operation. Shosi met them at the Sasebo airport, after flying there in the CH53 he had procured.

Upon their arrival at Sasebo, it became clear why the port was targeted. It played a vital logistics role in
Operation Desert Shield/Storm
by serving as a supply point for ordnance and fuel for ships and Marines operating in the
Persian Gulf
theater. A successful attack would have major adverse effects on the war.

Robin and Mark spent an hour going over the plan with Shosi and Kuro Nakamuro, the helicopter pilot and his co-pilot Ryuu Yoshio. Kuro was a retired Japanese National Police commander and Japanese Naval Reserve captain. He flew helicopters for the Navy. Ryuu retired as a major in the Japanese Air Force. When they retired, the Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Company hired them as company pilots ferrying parts and repair crews to China and Russia.

Kuro did express some concern when he looked at the satellite photos and saw the target ship docked less than three hundred yards from the helipad where he usually landed. Robin assured him he would set the charges to go off long after Kuro flew back to Japan. Although he accepted this promise, he still seemed a little nervous, so Shosi agreed to go with them on the trip.

“What's security like at this part of the port, Kuro?” Robin asked.

Kuro laughed. “There is no security. Things are falling apart in Russia. Government workers are not getting paid most of the time, so they have simply stopped working. The only security I think you need to worry about is any private security the ship owners hire, but I have not seen much of that either.”

“Well that makes things easier, I suppose. Let's get going.”

NSA had located both target ships by satellite and fed regular updates to Robin and Emmett. As the men waited for the helicopter to be fueled and preflighted, Robin watched the sky turning dark. The coming night didn't bother him for the night was an ally… it was the gathering storm on the horizon. For the first time, Mark had a lack of enthusiasm about a mission. He face showed the same tension Robin felt.