Red Phoenix Burning
Read Red Phoenix Burning Online
Authors: Larry Bond
| Red Phoenix Burning | |
| Number II of Red Phoenix | |
| Larry Bond | |
| CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (2016) | |
| Rating: | *** |
North Korea has one of the world's largest standing armies, capable of unleashing a massive arsenal of chemical and nuclear weapons. With an unstable government, under absolute dictator Kim Jong-un, North Korea more closely resembles an organized crime ring than a real nation-state. Millions live on the edge of starvation while Pyongyang's ruthless generals, crooked bureaucrats, and vicious secret police wage a covert war against each other to expand their rival fiefdoms. RED PHOENIX BURNING explores the implosion of this corrupt regime - a coup that triggers a bloody civil war among the North's brutal factions. The world is dragged into a violent and rapidly widening confrontation amid North Korea's shattered ruins, bringing it to the edge of an all-out war that could engulf the entire civilized world.
Fans of the original RED PHOENIX will be delighted to see favorite characters like Colonel Kevin Little, Brigadier General Tony Christopher, and Colonel Rhee Han-Gil returning to battle, older and wiser, alongside a new cast of heroes and villains. RED PHOENIX BURNING will also offer readers a deeper look behind today's headlines of turmoil and uncertainty - a look made all the more profound by the in-depth knowledge of war, military technology, and geopolitics brought to bear by Larry Bond and his co-author Chris Carlson.
WARNER BOOKS BY LARRY BOND AND PAT LARKIN
Red Phoenix
Vortex
Cauldron
Enemy Within
Day of Wrath
FORGE BOOKS BY LARRY BOND AND CHRIS CARLSON
Dangerous Ground
Cold Choices
Exit Plan
Shattered Trident
Lash-Up
Fatal Thunder
FORGE BOOKS BY LARRY BOND AND JIM DEFELICE
Larry Bond’s First Team
Larry Bond’s First Team: Angels of Wrath
Larry Bond’s First Team: Fires of War
Larry Bond’s First Team: Soul of the Assassin
Larry Bond’s Red Dragon Rising: Shadows of War
Larry Bond’s Red Dragon Rising: Edge of War
Larry Bond’s Red Dragon Rising: Shock of War
Larry Bond’s Red Dragon Rising: Blood of War
Red Phoenix Burning
By
Larry Bond & Chris Carlson
R
ED
P
HOENIX
B
URNING
All Rights Reserved © 2016 by Larry Bond and Chris Carlson, and Patrick Larkin
eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Published by Larry Bond and Chris Carlson
Map by Erik Carlson
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the people of the Koreas and their long struggle for a free and united homeland.
Contents
Chapter 9 - The Murder of Pyongyang
Chapter 14 - Second Battle of Pyongyang
Acknowledgments
Our deepest thanks go to Dr. Andrew Erickson and Ms. Jean Hyun for taking the time out of their busy schedules to review the manuscript. We greatly appreciated Dr. Erickson sharing his Chinese political-military expertise, and Ms. Hyun for helping us get the cultural aspects correct. This novel is better because of your efforts.
Authors’ Note
This book is a sequel to the novel
Red Phoenix
, written by Larry Bond and Patrick Larkin, and published by Warner books in 1989. It described a hypothetical invasion of South Korea by the North, an oft-discussed scenario on that troubled peninsula.
The world has changed in many ways since
Red Phoenix
was published, but the two Koreas remain, a fossilized relic of the Cold War and the East-West polarization that touched many parts of our lives before the fall of the Soviet Union.
At the end of
Red Phoenix
, the invaders were defeated by UN forces and retreated back across the 38th parallel, with the cooperation of the Chinese, who supervised a caretaker government. Kim Jong-il, the “Dear Leader” who had ordered the invasion was assassinated, and his young son Kim Jong-un was installed by the Chinese as the new leader of the country under the tutelage of his aunt and uncle who acted as regents.
Thus, the North Korea described in the world of
Red Phoenix
does not differ too much from our real world, except that there was no invasion of South Korea in late 1989.
With this bit of fictional background, you can read this story without having to have read
Red Phoenix
first. If you have read it, you will find familiar names, both of original characters and the next generation.
We hope you will enjoy their story.
This time, I worked with my long-time partner, Chris Carlson, to describe a different but equally dangerous scenario. Chris’ knowledge and storytelling ability were vital in making this the best story we could, and the only reason my name comes first is that “B” precedes “C” in the alphabet. I will refuse to claim any passage as mine, or point to one and say Chris wrote it. We could have each written a story based on the same scenario, but together, we’ve created one much better than either of us could have done alone.
Dramatis Personae
American Characters
| Carter, Randall | | Lieutenant General, commanding officer, US Seventh Air Force |
| Christopher, Tony | | Brigadier General, vice commander, US Seventh Air Force |
| Dougherty, Jeff | | Team leader, North Korea section, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) |
| Fascione, Thomas | | General, commanding officer, Combined Forces Command and US Forces Korea |
| Fowler, Kary | | Aid worker, Christian Friends of Korea |
| Graves, Andrew | | Colonel, commanding officer, Eighth Fighter Wing, US Seventh Air Force |
| Jenkins, Rick | | Commanding officer, USS Hawaii (SSN 776) |
| Yeom, George | | CIA-NIS liaison, CIA |
| Little, Kevin | | Colonel, commanding officer, Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, US Eighth Army |
| Miller, Mike | | Lieutenant Colonel, commanding officer, Joint Security Area battalion |
| Mitchell, Ralph | | Commanding officer, USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) |
| O’Rourke, Dan | | Major General, chief of staff, US Forces Korea |
| Olsen, George | | Brigadier General, intelligence officer, US Forces Korea |
| Sawyer, Chris | | North Korea senior analyst, CIA |
| Tracy, Robert | | Lieutenant General, commanding officer, US Eighth Army |
| Waleski, Gabriel | | Rear Admiral, commanding officer, US Navy in South Korea |
| Wallace, Joshua | | Lieutenant Commander, executive officer, USS Hawaii (SSN 776) |
| Wyman, James | | President, United States of America |
South Korean Characters
An Kye-nam | | President, Republic of Korea (ROK) |
| Guk Yong-soo | | Lieutenant, Ninth Special Forces “Ghost” Brigade, ROK |
| Gung Ji-han | | Lieutenant, Ninth Special Forces “Ghost” Brigade, ROK |
| Ji Sang-hoon | | General, commanding officer, ROK Air Force |
| Kwon | | Major General, commanding officer, Special Warfare Command, ROK |
| Lee Joon-ho | | Major, operations officer, UN Command Security Battalion |
| Ma | | Corporal, Ninth Special Forces “Ghost” Brigade, ROK |
| Moon Su-bin | | Volunteer nurse, Christian Friends of Korea |
| Oh | | Master Sergeant, Ninth Special Forces “Ghost” Brigade, ROK |
| Park Joon-ho | | General, deputy commander, ROK-US Combined Forces Command |
| Rhee Han-gil | | Colonel, commanding officer, Ninth Special Forces “Ghost” Brigade, ROK |
| Sobong | | Lieutenant Colonel, Mike Miller’s second-in-command |
| Sohn | | General, commanding officer, Third Army, ROK |
| Yeon Min-soo | | General, chief of staff, ROK Army |
North Korean Characters
Cheon Ji-hyo | | North Korean refugee, mother of two children |
| Cho Ho-jin | | North Korean citizen, Russian intelligence asset |
| Choi Sung-min | | Sergeant, neighborhood supervisor, Ministry of Public Security |
| Gong Kyeong-pyo | | Vice Admiral, KPA Navy |
| Kim Jong-un | | Supreme Leader, DPRK |
| Koh Chong-su | | Vice Marshal, Chief of the General Staff, Korean People’s Army (KPA) |
| Lee Ji-young | | North Korean defector, daughter of Lee Ye-jun |
| Lee Ye-jun | | Senior Politburo member, DPRK |
| Maeng | | Sergeant, special forces, KPA |
| Ri Il-chun | | Deputy Chairman, Second Economic Committee |
| Ro Ji-hun | | Captain, special forces, KPA |
| Ryeon Jae-gon | | Captain, aide to General Tae, KPA |
| Sik Chol-jun | | Colonel, bodyguard to Kim Jong-un |
| Tae Seok-won | | General, Sixth Bureau, General Staff Department; then commanding officer, Thirty-Third Infantry Division, KPA |
| Yang | | Major General, deputy commander, Thirty-Third Infantry Division, KPA |
People’s Republic of China Characters
Long | | General, deputy commander, Southeast Security Force |
| Shu | | General, chief of staff, People’s Liberation Army |
| Wen Kun | | President, People’s Republic of China |
| Yu | | General, defense minister, People’s Republic of China |
Russian Characters
Malikov, Alexei Fedorovich | | Deputy Director, Directorate S, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service |
| Telitsyn, Pavel Ramonovich | | Asian Department chief, Directorate S, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service |