North Korean Blowup (17 page)

Hunter had checked the map again. “This is where we take a new road heading south east,” Hunter said. “Beth, we’re about twenty miles from our target town of Kangge. You ready?”  

“I’ve been ready since the minute we left the doc in Seoul. Let’s get on with it.”

Ho found the new road with a sign pointing to Kangge      

Three miles down the new road they stopped and had lunch.

“Beats MRE’s Mohammad said.

“Not by much,” Tran snapped. “Who wants to trade me some of those sweet rolls for a nice slab of cured ham.” He had two takers.

They rolled again.

“Doesn’t this country ever run out of mountains?” Hunter asked Ho.

 The big Korean shook his head. “Plenty mountains. All over place.”

Hunter agreed with him. Coming into and leaving the various towns they found more and more of the land taken up with paddies for raising rice and vegetables. Every square inch was utilized along the lower edges of the hills, with terraces of paddies that worked up the hills in succeeding higher levels. Tillable land was at a premium in this mountainous land.

Hunter looked over at Beth who sat in the middle. “You have your tool kit with you?”

“In one of the drag bags.”

“What does it look like?”

“A black plastic box about a foot long and eight inches square.”

“Senior Chief,” Hunter said on his radio. “Check the drag bags until you find Beth’s tool kit. Black plastic, a foot long and eight inches square.”

“Wilco, Cap. We’re on it.”

Five miles later they met another army six by coming north. The lights blinked three times and the rig slowed. Ho slowed as well. The other army rig stopped and Ho rolled up beside it and stopped for driver to driver talk. He waved at the other driver and asked him a question about the road.

The other driver answered and asked about the highway conditions the other way. They talked a minute more, then waved and both trucks continued on their way.

“Road conditions?” Hunter asked when Ho told him what they talked about. “Good, then nobody is hunting this particular army truck yet. We might luck out and get all the way to Kanggye.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Korean Army six by was ten miles into the twenty mile trip to Kangge when Ho pointed ahead.

“Trouble?” he asked.

Hunter stared down the road. What he saw could only be a construction crew working on the highway. Two cars had lined up waiting to go forward.

“Pull up in back of the car and go up and see what the problem is,” Hunter told Ho.

The big Korean in his ill fitting army uniform parked and walked up to a flagman.

Hunter could see what looked like a reworking of a short section of the roadway maybe forty yards long. It evidently had sunken away from water seepage. They had dug out the base and had dumped in new rock and sand, to create a new base for the black top to go on. The new section looked to be maybe six inches below where the old roadway must have been.

There was no detour around the section. No place level enough on either side to accept a passenger car. As Hunter watched a big steam roller moved slowly up to the end of the fill, reversed and headed back the other way packing down the gravel and sand firmly.

Ho came back shaking his head. “Told them we had to go now. They say two hours, then firm enough. Looked hard to me.”

“Think we can get across without sinking in to the axles?” Hunter asked.

Ho held up his hands showing he didn’t know. Tanner came up on Hunter’s window.

“Yeah, they’re in the last stages of the base,” he said. “Seen it dozens of times. When it’s that close to being done, those cars can get across and so can our six by.”

“You sure?”

“Hell, no. But it beats sitting here for two or three hours until they think it’s solid enough. No macadam plant around here, so they’ll have to haul it in. Might be days before it gets here. Let’s give it a try.”

Ho grinned. “We try.”  He got out of the cab and went to the drivers ahead and told them to move their cars to the side. They did.

He came back and the flag man ran toward him. They shouted at each other and a moment later, Ho punched the man in the jaw. He sagged to his knees and a moment later collapsed on the ground.

Ho ran back to the cab, got in and started the engine. The big rig moved forward, edged with the front tires on the hard packed base of the new road. It held, he then gunned the motor and surged ahead powering into the run. The wheels sank in six inches and made deep tracks through the base but it held.

Ho pushed down on the throttle more and the six by moved over half way, then rolled toward the far end. The big roller packer driver saw the truck coming and pulled his rig off the base and Ho drove the six by up a gentle slope on the far end and back on the blacktop. There was a cheer from the men in back, and then they were rolling on down the highway past some construction rigs and men. A few shouted at them and some waved their fists.

“They do nothing,” Ho said. “We army. Here we rule.”

“Thanks Ho. You’re earning your pay,” Hunter said.

“Pay? I get pay?”

“I’ll see to it,” Hunter said. “When we get back I’ll put in a special request.”

Beth sat between them in the cab looking in her tool kit. There weren’t many items. Some carefully cushioned in poly foam. One Hunter saw was a battery operated handle to take any number of screw driver heads or small drills. She closed the box and nodded.

“All there. I’m ready to get to work.”

“Five, maybe seven miles more,” Hunter said. “Ho, will there be an army guard at the site?”

“Yes. Much army.”

Hunter looked at his small pocket notebook. “Your brother said the mine was north of town three miles on a dirt road. When we get to this town we find the dirt road and go out two miles and find some concealment for the truck. Hide it. Yes?”

“Hide. Yes.”
               “Then we’ll do a recon and see what we’re up against. Maybe they’ve sent all the troops home.”

“Much army. Protect bomb.”

“I was afraid you’d say that. We’ve got a couple of surprises that might help us spread out their troops a little.”

“What surprise?” Beth asked.

“You’ll have to wait to be surprised along with the NK army.”

Ho slowed and pulled to a stop just off the two lane highway. Hunter looked up surprised.

“Why the stop?”

“Gas. Two five gallon cans. Better use now.”

“Get out the gas cans,” Hunter said to his shoulder mike. Ho stepped down from the cab, found the fuel cap and poured the gas into the two inch opening, spilling only a little. The second five gallons vanished into the tank. They kept the cans in the back of the six by and were on the road again.

Another small valley opened up and in the distance they saw the town that had to be Kangge. Maybe five thousand people, Hunter decided. From their height he could see a road snaking out of the town to the north. Ho saw it too.

The valley was heavily farmed and soon they saw houses and some larger buildings. The town itself came up suddenly and Ho turned to the left searching for the dirt road that led into the hills to the north. He found it after three false starts. They had seen two army trucks in the town and expected to see more on the road. They worked out two miles and came to a small ravine to the left that had a lot of trees and brush and a lane leading into it.

“Take it,” Hunter said pointing and Ho drove the rig deep into the trees until it couldn’t be spotted from the road.

“Boys and girl, it’s time we get down to business,” Hunter said. “I want a perimeter defense around the truck, but stay inside the brush line. Your job Bancroft. I want Foster, Tran and Lawrence on me. You three bring MP-5’s. We’ll do a scouting mission. Let’s move it, now.”

The three SEALs hiked through the woods, shadowing the road as it climbed higher into the hills. Here and there the road had been widened as a gully suddenly gave out and they needed to get over a hill. When they came to the next summit they could smell smoke.

Across the way not more than half a mile, they saw a small tent city that had been set up near what Hunter’s binoculars showed him to be a series of mounds that could only be tailings from the coal mine.

“Gentlemen, we’ve found our mine, and from the looks of those tents forty to fifty North Korean soldier guards.” He passed the glasses around.

“Let’s see how close we can get for a better look.”

A quarter of a mile later their cover petered out and they crouched in the last of it to watch the guards. They had roving patrols around a fenced in compound that enclosed what had to be a tunnel that extended back into a small hill. There was no shaft, no lifting mechanisms. He wondered how they brought the coal to the surface.

“Ten guards walking posts around that fence,” Tran said passing on the glasses. “We can take them out, but what about the guys in the tents?  You think about fifty?”

“Looks that way. Six man tents down there. There are at least ten of them and then cook tent, officers’ tents, three or four more.

Suggestions?”

“A night hit,” Foster said. “We put six WP twenty rounds into the tents, and then hit them with about twenty five air bursts.”

“I like it,” Tran said. “We surprise them about midnight, and then we move in right away and clean up, torching every tent that isn’t burning and make sure on all fifty of the fuckers.”

“Lawrence?” Hunter asked.’

“Yes, but make the attack about four A.M. Gives us two hours to clean up in the dark, then with dawn we make another sweep for anyone we missed and we get Beth into the mine before they can send in any reinforcements.”
               “Hopefully we will ruin their radios on the first attack so they can’t ask for any help,” Hunter said. “Let’s get out of here. We’ve got some more planning to do. Probably hit them from an arc of about forty yards for our initial attack. Then sweep in on assault fire and finish the job.”

“What about Beth?” Tran asked.

“She and Ho stay on the knoll back a hundred until we secure the place.”

“Ho ain’t gonna like that,” Lawrence said.

“You’re right. He’ll want to get some pay back. So we’ll keep Rattigan with Beth. He’s got the leg wound.”

Back at the truck, Hunter filled in the men on the situation.

“Looks like maybe fifty troops. We’ll hit them hard and cut the odds down to zero. Now. What do we have left in the food box?”

There wasn’t much. “When you finish that off let’s go for an MRE out of the drag bags.  Go to it.” The men scrambled for the food box. Hunter called Senior Chief Chapman over.

“How many Bull Pups do we have?”

“Eight, counting yours.”

Make sure that every man has two WP rounds and the rest air bursts. Eight rounds per man on the air bursts should do it. So have each man take ten rounds, six in the magazine and the four in his vest. Put in the two WP rounds first in the magazine. We didn’t bring the machine guns, so we go with the AK-47’s for the rest of the men with their MP-5s on their backs. Should give us a good balance.”

“I’ll see that it’s done. Any sleep period?”

“Twenty hundred until oh two hundred. Then we’ll get primed and hike up to our bombardment point.”

“How’s our girl doing?”

“She’ll make it. That fire fight shook her up and she isn’t quite over it yet. But she’ll do the job she’s been trained to do. No problems there. She’ll stay on the hill while we do our assault and clean up. Rattigan will stay with her. We take no risk with his shot up leg.”
               “He’ll be pissed but he’ll do it. We bring her down on a radio call when the area is secure?”

“Right, and not before. No more chances some wounded NK nails her on the way in.”

“Roger that, LT.”

“Find two MRE’s for Beth and me. I’ll introduce her to military field rations.”

Beth liked the MRE’s.

“Look it has a mesquite chicken entrée, crackers and peanut butter and jelly spread, desert, mashed potatoes, pound cake and chocolate chip cookies.  Show me how this packet works that heats up my chicken.”

Hunter showed her how, and then heated up his own. He had chicken nuggets with cavetelli. Not quite like Gino’s back in DC but close.

After eating, the men sacked out in the grass. They had a fight coming up and they wanted to be laser sharp. Some of them checked the AK-47 rifles they would be using. Most of them worked well. Two didn’t and they threw them away. They had six good ones and plenty of ammunition. The AK-47 fired the heavier 7.62 x 33mm round with a thirty round magazine. On full auto it would pump out six hundred rounds a minute. The weapon was probably one of the widest used automatic rifles in the world. It was a favorite of insurgents and terrorists. It would be a long gun for the platoon, as contrasted to the H&K MP-5 submachine gun that fired the 9mm Parabellum at a much shorter range. The MP-5 also had a thirty round magazine and fired on full auto at eight hundred rounds a minute.

Hunter checked out one of the Russian Kalashnikov rifles. He remembered the hollow deadly sound they made when fired. This time he was glad he’d be on the shooting end of things.

Beth sat down near where Hunter cleaned his Bull Pup that didn’t need cleaning. She watched him and started to say something then stopped.

“I was about to call that your boy toy, but I bit my lip. These weapons are much more than that. They actually are our only means of staying alive. I just figured that out.” She frowned. “Now that I’ve killed a man,” she paused and shivered. “Now that I know what it feels like to kill someone, I have a great deal more respect for these weapons and the men who use them.”

“Beth, you’re getting downright philosophic, and at such a tender age.”

“Living out here on the edge of life and death, brings out those thoughts. I bet you have a few yourself.”

“When they come during a mission, I try to fend them off to think about later. If later never comes, I’ve saved a lot of time.”

“You’ve been with the President’s Platoon for over a year now,  Lieutenant. How many of your men have died and how many were wounded?”
               “Classified, Commander.” He shrugged. “We’ve been on eight missions and we’ve lost three men KIA. Wounded? Fifteen to twenty, maybe more. I lose track.”