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A little while later Lyons’s cell rang.

  He listened as Barbara Price gave him a verbal rundown of the facts the cyberteam had unearthed. She ended by telling him the full facts were being downloaded to his phone. “Hope it helps,” she finished.

  “It will,” Lyons said. “And thanks.”

  He heard his mail app ring and opened the download. Along with the text, there were a couple photos.

  “Jake Borgnine. Ex-military. Army. Now a freelance security operative. His sheet is saying he’s basically a mercenary. Gun for hire who’ll work for anyone with the right amount of cash. Works under his former unit commander. Major William Macklin. According to info here, Macklin is a hardcase who clashed with top brass, because he liked to do things his way, not the Army’s way.”

  Lyons read through the files, then gave a concise briefing to the others.

  “Just the kind of guys to run that hit on the convoy,” Schwarz said.

  “First we go back and show Joe Matson this photo, see if he recognizes Jake Borgnine. If he does, we’ve got him nailed down,” Lyons said.

  “All we have to do after that is find him,” Lopaka said.

  Lyons drained his glass of juice. “Let’s go.”

  * * *

  MATSON LOOKED AT the image for no more than a few seconds, before he nodded.

  “That’s the mother. A face I won’t forget ever.” He switched his gaze to Lyons. “You guys don’t waste time.”

  “It’s the one thing we don’t have much of.”

  “Hey, did I help?”

  “Damn right, Joe. You opened this investigation up for us.”

  Now, Lyons thought, it’s time for us to close it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  NORTH KOREA

  Choi was not fully aware what was happening. He started in alarm when the explosions filled the air with sound. Windows behind him blew in, sending glass spinning across the room, and he even felt particles strike the back of his jacket. As the echo of the blast began to fade, he heard the staccato crackle of autofire. He recognized the hard pops of his men’s Type 68s. There was answering fire from other weapons—those he did not recognize but assumed they were weapons belonging to the strike force.

  “The helicopters have been destroyed,” one of the soldiers said, his face glistening from the rain as he ran inside. “We have intruders.”

  Choi managed a wry smile, as he faced the man. “Then why are you in here and not seeking out these people?”

  The soldier stood, hesitant, lost for words. And then he turned around and ran back out the door. Choi followed, leaving by the main entrance, and hurried around to the far side of the building. He stared in disbelief at the sight of the blazing helicopters.

  He slid out the cord attached to the communication set tucked into his uniform top pocket and turned it on. Then he inserted the earbud and angled the thin microphone into place.

  “This is Major Choi. Someone tell me what is happening.”

  All he heard was a buzz of static.

  Major Choi saw his career stalling because of this attack. His superiors in Pyongyang would see the failure of his command, and there would be severe recriminations. The North Korean structure left no breathing space for such things to happen. Especially to special projects like Cobalt Blue. By placing the research station here, on this isolated section of the coast, the thinking had been that no one would connect the dots. Choi and his team would be able to carry out their research into NNEMP development away from interested eyes.

  Pyongyang had been hoping the weapon would be perfected long before anyone became aware of its existence. That seemed to have been wishful thinking. The dramatic occurrence in Hawaii had done little to keep the secret. Cobalt Blue had been compromised. And now Choi and his team were under attack.

  His earpiece buzzed as a voice came through his comm set.

  “Major, this is Zang. We have located a small force inside the compound. Three, maybe more. They have blown the helicopters...”

  “I have already been informed. Where are they now?”

  “They have been spotted going in the direction of the research lab...and...Major, Li Kam is with them. She is carrying a weapon. Major, she is not a hostage...”

  “I understand that already. She is working with them. Li Kam is the one who interfered with the field trial in Hawaii. She planted the virus that was supposed to destroy the NNEMP firing.”

  “Major? What are your orders?”

  “Idiot, what do you think? Stop them. If Kam is leading them to the research lab, they are going to destroy the project. Take them, preferably dead, but stop what they intend doing.”

  Choi heard more autofire. The sudden blast of a grenade.

  If the research lab was destroyed, Choi might as well use his last bullet on himself. There would be no moving forward from such a disaster. Even connections he had in the capitol would sever their contacts. They would not want to be associated with him. Major Ri On Choi would suddenly find the world a cold and inhospitable place.

  Choi was a true follower of the regime, and as such, he would not go down without a fight. The training hammered into him as he had progressed through the ranks left him with a single purpose: uphold the commands of the Leader. Protect the ideals of the nation. Nothing else mattered. No sacrifice was too great.

  But at that precise moment Choi concentrated on the matter at hand.

  His location was under threat from enemies. His responsibility was to protect it. To stop anyone from destroying the project. Nothing was more important than that. Choi did not care where the strike force came from or how strong they were. He would throw the full force of his men at them. Pyongyang would expect nothing less. And Major Ri On Choi would not back down from that. He owed his life, his very existence, to the state. The state was all that mattered. Nothing else.

  Yet behind all that was a secondary concern. Something that Choi was unable to erase from his mind.

  The betrayal by Li Kam.

  A supposed loyal party member, who had been given such responsibility by the state. North Korea had trained her at great expense. Given her the opportunity to serve her nation, and she had worked against them. Her knowledge had allowed her to turn her expertise into an act of betrayal. She had sabotaged the Hawaiian strike. Had made an attempt to wreck the trial. It did not matter that the overall result had been only partially successful; the loss of the NNEMP equipment had been a disastrous blow.

  Li Kam had to be made to pay for her treachery. No matter what else happened, the woman had to be captured and held responsible. Choi recalled her attitude toward him. The brazen way she had spoken to him, while all the time she had been the cause of the NNEMP mishap.

  There was no way back for her now. Choi would find her. He would beat her into submission and make her confess her disloyalty. Her suffering and most likely her lingering death would at least go partway to erasing her disregard of his authority and her rejection of the state.

  * * *

  RI ON CHOI came from a family of good background. His father, now dead, had been an official in the Ministry of Propaganda. A dedicated acolyte of the Supreme Leader—Kim Jong Il. For Ri On Choi it had been an honor when he had been introduced to the Supreme Leader when Choi was sixteen years old.

  He had been brought up in the strict regime of North Korea and was totally dedicated to the ideals of the country. He had been conscripted into the army, and from day one, he realized this was where his future lay. Serving the leader and the country. Nothing else mattered.

  Choi was a good recruit. He excelled in everything and was rapidly pushed through the ranks. He was skilled in military functions. A fearless leader of his men. It was no surprise when he was promoted to major.

  He commanded by his devotion to duty. He was intelligent but had
an arrogant style that often stood him apart from fellow officers. That did not worry him. Choi knew he was a good officer. His superiors trusted him and approved his dominant style.

  Though Choi was aware of his accepted status, he did not allow himself to be fooled into believing he was untouchable. Pyongyang would praise a victor. It would also quickly and mercilessly condemn and brush aside someone who failed to meet their demands.

  On more than one occasion, Choi was given command of special projects. He knew how to focus on his given responsibilities. He drove himself as hard as he drove his men. They feared him. Respected him.

  During a training exercise, the helicopter he and his small squad were in developed a fault, and came down in a remote and inhospitable region. Choi and five of his men were the only survivors. There was no way to contact their base. Their equipment was basic and even the wireless communications failed. It was the middle of winter. They were over sixty miles from any military base. The only option was for them to walk to safety. If they didn’t, they would have surely died, frozen by the elements.

  Ri On Choi ordered his men to march. He led the way, his mind set on one thing—to survive and bring his men out alive. When his dispirited crew began to falter, Choi urged them on. He coaxed and bullied and threatened. When a man fell down, Choi dragged him upright and ordered him on.

  The weather was terrible: freezing temperatures, heavy falls of snow and biting wind that blinded them with its ferocity. Through it all Choi kept his small band on the move.

  Hope that rescue might come faded after a time. Day and night passed, and Choi’s command struggled on. Whatever his men felt, Choi urged them on. More than once, a man would be ready to give in, but Choi kept them going. He would not let them give in.

  They were doing this for the Supreme Leader, he told them. Keeping the spirit of North Korea alive. Struggling through adversity, just as Kim Jong Il expected of them.

  They were lost for days. Weak, emaciated, cold and struggling to stay alive. Yet they did. Because of Ri On Choi’s urging. Because of his unshakable belief in his Supreme Leader and the example he showed to the nation.

  When they finally stumbled into the remote base, they were greeted with cheers. Given up as lost and dead, no one had expected them to return. It took them weeks to recover.

  When Kim Jong Il made an unexpected visit to see them in the hospital, to praise them as high examples of the dedication he expected from his military, it had been the greatest moment of Choi’s life.

  His men were honored, given medals and held up as heroes of the state.

  Ri On Choi received the highest award the Supreme Leader could bestow. With his President on one side and his beaming father on the other, Choi could not have asked for more.

  He was given a posting to a section of the military that came under the heading of Special Projects. It was a prestige posting. The unit oversaw the development of advanced weapons, and Choi immersed himself in the various enterprises. He understood the need for North Korea to advance superior ordnance. South Korea, along with the connivance of America, was provoking possible future conflict. So the North had to adopt a similar attitude.

  America fed billions of dollars into its weapons divisions. It supplied the South with ever sophisticated armaments. North Korea retaliated by doing the same, though with its much weaker economy, it had a difficult time keeping up with the Americans.

  China—its own eyes on the future—helped by injecting financial aid to its poorer neighbor. Beijing watched the North-South competition and knew that it needed to keep North Korea’s head above water. China wanted greater control in the Pacific Rim arena. There were strategic implications in play. So assisting North Korea was in China’s interests.

  Ri On Choi was given command of North Korea’s development of the burgeoning NNEMP research. North Korea’s research had taken a number of leaps forward, so a concentrated effort was in full swing. Choi was sent to the remote facility, given total control over the site. His orders were plain. Push the research forward. Bring the pulse weapon on line. To do this, North Korea poached Dr. Emanuel Absalom and placed him as head of the special team.

  It had been learned that Absalom was one of the foremost experts in the field. Other governments had considered his talents, but none had made any firm commitments. With an unexpected and bold stroke, procurers working on behalf of North Korea stepped in and spirited Absalom from his university appointment in Germany, and brought him to the Korean site. Absalom, though a dedicated physicist, had a weakness. He liked money. So North Korea offered him a great deal. Pyongyang considered the inducement cheap, if Absalom got them what they wanted.

  And he did. Far quicker than anyone had anticipated.

  When a trial was decided on, the American puppet state of Hawaii was chosen. A date set.

  Then the sabotage, the sinking.

  Matters were escalating quickly. And not in the way that Choi would have anticipated or would have chosen.

  A traitor had been uncovered within the research unit.

  And now Choi’s command was under attack from armed intruders intent on causing even more unrest.

  It could not, would not, be allowed to succeed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  The gates were partway open, left in that position by the first of the North Koreans to search for the intruders. It allowed Phoenix Force to enter the compound without having to blow them, but not to avoid more of the defenders.

  As the trio of Stony Man warriors—Kayo Pak moving with them—breached the gates, they saw grouped soldiers rushing in their direction. It was not the time for any kind of finesse.

  Hawkins and Manning both produced fragmentation grenades and pulled the pins, tossing the handheld ordnance in the direction of the NK soldiers. They had timed the throws well, and the grenades detonated seconds after dropping in among the charging group. The HE explosives scattered the grenade fragments through the Koreans, the deadly shards tearing at clothing and the flesh beneath. All but two of the group went down, bloody and torn. Briefly disoriented by the twin blasts, the surviving Koreans had no chance to bring their weapons into play and were hit by concentrated P90 fire from McCarter.

  As the North Koreans were driven to the ground and Phoenix Force advanced, Kayo Pak keyed the compact text unit he carried. It was a simple means of passing a brief command to the unit Li Kam carried.

  He had told her to always have the compact unit and to act immediately on any commands it gave.

  Outside. Now was all the text showed.

  * * *

  LI KAM FELT the small unit vibrate in her pocket. She palmed the device and saw the two-word text on the tiny screen. She understood what it meant, and the sounds of grenades going off—first at the rear of the building and now below her—told her the time had come to move.

  She slid the message unit back inside her lab coat pocket. As she did, she sensed movement close by and, looking up, saw Ki Yen staring at her.

  He was looking at her, as if he had never seen her before. A total stranger.

  “What are you doing with that? You know it is forbidden.” A triumphant smile curled his thin lips. “I already know you are the saboteur. I traced your computer log. Now you are communicating with other traitors. Major Choi knows what you have done, too.”

  Li found courage she didn’t know she had, as she faced Yen.

  “And what are you going to do about it, Yen? Go running to your master like a little pet dog?”

  The building shook as twin heavy blasts from the exploding helicopters sent out concussion waves. Glass shattered. Stone cracked. The floor shook.

  Li reacted quickly, snatching up one of the tubular chairs and swinging it at Yen as the tech ran at her. The chair slammed into him chest high, knocking him off balance. Yen twisted away from her, throwing up an arm to pr
otect himself from the unexpected attack.

  Li maintained her advantage, swinging the chair again and again. She opened a bloody gash across Yen’s face, as he screamed violent invectives at her. He fell back, catching a heel in the leg of a bench, and Li drove in at him again, knowing her time was running out. One of the armed soldiers could appear at any moment, and the chair she was using as a weapon wouldn’t do her much good if that happened.

  She made a final swing, the chair cracking hard against Yen’s neck. He gagged, spitting blood, and went down hard on the floor, hands clutched to his crushed throat. He writhed on the floor, gasping as he tried futilely to suck in air. Li slammed the chair on the back of his exposed skull, and Yen dropped facedown on the lab floor, blood gleaming where Li had struck him.

  She threw aside the chair and ran for the exit, pushing the door wide and running fast. She half tumbled down the stairs, her only object being to get clear of the building. In her white lab coat, she was simply one of the group who was also trying to get clear. She unbuttoned it and shrugged it from her shoulders, letting it fall away.

  And then she was outside—rain striking her as she stood, quickly soaking through her clothing—momentarily unsure what to do as she looked around.

  There seemed to be a great deal of confusion around her. Other white-coated techs were running blindly in every direction. Smoke was rising over the roof of the research building. She heard shouting and then the muted howl of a warning siren.

  Li stared, surprise on her face when she actually saw Kayo Pak running toward her. He was carrying an automatic weapon and three uniformed non-Asian men were with him.

  “Li,” he called. “Here...”

  She ignored the rising cacophony of noise around her and joined the group.

  “Major Choi knows about me. One of the techs told him that I was responsible for the sabotage.”

  McCarter said, “No time, then. Can you show us where the research lab is? I’m Coyle and this is Allen.”

  Li nodded. “It’s the building behind us. Come this way.”