Echo Six: Black Ops 4 - Chechen Massacre (18 page)

The Russian slumped down in his seat and within minutes was snoring loudly. The man had worked all through the night to fix the engine and would have been beyond the point of exhaustion. Talley concentrated on keeping the aircraft on course, and it wasn’t difficult to fly the simple biplane. He enjoyed it at first, but after the first hour had elapsed, his main enemy was boredom. The ground floated past, kilometer after kilometer of countryside, bland and unchanging. Sometimes there’d be a house or a tiny village, and once they even skirted the outskirts of a small town, but there was nothing interesting to view. Unless you enjoyed looking at rice paddies in their thousands. He saw an occasional peasant in a field, and every now and again a truck driving along a rural track.

It was a vast, empty flat chunk of nothingness. It occurred to him that keeping the sluggish Antonov straight, level, and low to avoid detection was like watching paint dry. He enjoyed flying, but after two hours of this, he wasn't sorry to wake Josef and hand over the controls. The Russian was instantly awake and flew on steadily. After three more hours had elapsed, he put down again for their next refueling.

"This is the last time before we leave China. If you have any second thoughts, anything you need to do before we cross the border, now is the time."

He meant before they entered North Korea. In North Korea, there would be no casual approach to surveillance of foreigners. Everything was monitored; people, vehicles, and especially aircraft.

"I need to report to my boss," Talley told him, "but we lost our communications equipment in the ambush."

"Why not use the satphone Yuri gave you?"

Of course, the satphone with Yuri’s number on speed dial! It will call anywhere in the world.

He checked the signal, and it was working fine, locking onto the satellite through the Perspex windshield. He waited back in the cabin while they pumped fuel into the Antonov, and Josef took off. Another of his long, hair-raising feats, and this time there was no strong headwind to give them extra lift. In normal use, the AN-2 only required a take off run of one hundred and seventy meters. With a full load of fuel and twenty troops on board, Josef needed between one and two kilometers, even more if there was little headwind. There was only a slight one, and he picked up speed slowly, accelerating along the highway. Yet still the aircraft wouldn't come unstuck. They passed the one-kilometer mark and saw a heavy truck heading toward them, maybe two kilometers away. Talley did the math.

"If you don't get her off the ground mighty soon, we're not going to make it."

"We'll make it."

He could smell the vodka on the pilot's breath. He hadn't drunk while he was flying, so Talley guessed he'd swallowed a good measure while he was waiting for the gas to be pumped into the tanks.

Is it drunken bravado making him ignore the risk of the onrushing truck? Or the skill, born of long years of experience and tens of thousands of hours in the air?

There was nothing he could do as the truck came nearer and nearer, and he could see the driver staring at them through the windshield. Yet there was no fear on the man's face, neither was Josef showing any sign of concern. He realized the two men were in some kind of idiotic game of chicken.

"Josef! You have to pull up. He's too near."

He heard a barrage of Russian curses, and all the time the truck came nearer and nearer. He turned to the men in the back and shouted.

"Brace for collision. We're about to lose a head on argument with a truck."

He tightened his seat harness and waited. Closer, closer. At the very last moment, two things happened. The truck swerved out of the way, losing control and going off the road into a ditch, and Josef pulled back on the stick. Suddenly they were airborne, clawing for height, inching into the sky. He heard Josef's shout of triumph.

"I told you there wasn't a problem!"

"That truck driver didn't hear you."

Josef grinned.

Macho bastard! Was he risking all our lives on some stupid game, or did he really know he was going to make it? I guess I'll never know.

They climbed to thirty meters. He switched on the satphone and keyed in Brooks' cellphone number. The Admiral answered almost immediately.

"Brooks."

"This is Talley. Sir, I'm calling on an unsecured satphone."

"Talley! Dear Christ, I thought we'd lost you."

He thought of Josef’s pissing contest with the truck.

It was close.

“We’ve had a few problem, but we’re still pushing ahead.”

He explained the sequence of events, and how they were planning to fix it. Their speech had to be couched in innocent terms. A satellite phone was not completely secure. Although the Chinese would need to strike lucky to pick up their signal, and even then, their conversation contained little to alarm an enemy. Hopefully.

"You're crossing over to the target?” He meant North Korea. “That's not good. We hoped you'd be able to prevent them getting that far."

"So did we, but our old friend had other ideas."

"Yeah, he's one tricky sonofabitch. Keep me updated as to your progress.

Talley ended the call. He was worried about Joshua and James.

I think I’ll call Kay and check on the boys. Who knows if we’ll make it back?

He put the call through, but Kay didn’t answer; it was her sister, Connie.

“Oh, Abe, thank God it’s you. It’s the boys.”

He felt a sliver of ice in his guts. "What about them? Has there been an accident?"

"No, not an accident. They disappeared."

"Disappeared! What the hell does that mean?"

Connie spelt it out, how they'd been taken to school by Kay's boyfriend and not been seen since.

"The cops are looking into it. Kay is frantic with worry.”

“Listen, Connie, I have to go, but tell Kay I’ll do everything I can to find them. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

He quickly made another call to Brooks.

“Brooks.”

“Talley, Sir. My sons have been kidnapped, and my wife is frantic. I don’t know what to do.”

“This is most strange. It's not as if you're wealthy man, and you could pay a big ransom. What could anyone want from you, what they could gain?"

He felt so powerless, trapped in the middle of an alien country, thousands of miles from civilization.

"I don’t know, but I should be there, Admiral."

"Yeah, I know how you feel, Talley. As soon as you get back, I'll arrange for transportation back to the US. You'll want to see for yourself what's going on."

"Yeah. Admiral, we're heading into the Black Hole of Asia, the shithouse of the world. There’re no guarantees over there. I need you to help me out here.”

The answer was immediate. "Of course. No matter what happens, you know what I mean, I'll make certain we track down your boys and get them back to their mother. I’ll do everything in my power, and I mean everything."

“Thank you, Sir.”

He felt the white heat of anger gnawing inside him.

God help whoever took them when I find them.

"You sure you can't think of any reason why someone would want to take your kids?" the Admiral persisted. "No family disputes in the background, nothing I should know about?"

Talley thought for a few moments more. "Only my work, Admiral. I guess I've racked up more than my share of enemies during my career."

He chuckled. "We all have. I'll have my people check back through your records, and see if anything looks promising. We'll find them. I promise you that much."

He ended the call, and Talley was left to endure the unknown, every parent’s agony when a child goes missing. It made no sense. He was tormented by the knowledge he could do nothing to go and look for them, and that he may not even return to undertake that task. If it came to the worst, he’d have to rely on Brooks leaving no stone unturned until he found them. But it was only a slight relief. As they flew on, toward the iron frontier of North Korea, he was left to suffer a thousand cuts of despair. Alessandra awoke and came forward while he was piloting the aircraft, allowing Josef a chance to catch up on more much needed rest. She saw the grim expression on his face.

"You don't like flying?"

"I love flying. If I hadn't joined the Navy Seals and gone on to command Echo Six, I'd have probably become a career pilot."

"Then it's something else. What's wrong?"

There was no reason not to spell it out. He explained about his sons. She went white.

"My God, that's terrible, the worst. Is there nothing you can do?"

He grimaced. "Not now. When we cross that border, there's no going back."

Maybe never.

"So why cross it? We all know the risks of going back into North Korea, and you've already done it once. You’ve done enough. You should consider aborting the operation. If they want those damn warheads, tell them to let loose the Tomahawks and blast them to smithereens. We could ditch the aircraft in the Sea of Japan and get picked up by one of the NATO warships on patrol. You'd be able to get back to the States to start looking for your sons."

The thought of Joshua and James held prisoner in some dark dungeon by brutal kidnappers is driving me mad, but it's not that simple.

He shook his head. "There's more at stake here. For everyone's sons, for every parent who has a right for their family to live without fear of a homicidal maniac turning the world into a nuclear bonfire. Maybe I should never have left her," he ended bitterly.

She stared at him. "You're still in love with her."

He looked at her in surprise. "You couldn't be more wrong, but the boys deserve better."

"They have better, Abe. They have you. You're doing your best for them, and for every other parent's son. But when you to cross that border, you have to put them out of your mind, if only for the next few hours. You need to get on top of this."

"And how the hell do you expect me to do that," he snapped back, angry at her lack of understanding.

"It's not me who expects you to do it,” she shouted back. “It's your men. Echo Six, they deserve a leader who gives one hundred percent. It may prove to be the most difficult and dangerous operation of their careers. You know that. Some of them may not come out alive. But it's not just Joshua and James on your mind, is it?"

He took his eyes away from the windshield and looked around at her. "What do you mean? Of course I’m worried about my sons. What else could there be?"

"Colonel Ho." He started to interrupt her, but she cut him off.

 
“No, listen to me! After he slaughtered those girls in Seoul, you've carried a worm of hatred inside you for that man, and it's festered and grown ever since, all because you blame yourself. It could easily affect your ability to make the correct decisions when we’re really up against it. Now that your boys are missing I know it’s an added burden, but Abe, it's time to knock it off. Forget Ho, forget the boys, even forget those damned warheads if you like. The only priority right now should be to your men, to the people inside this aircraft. They need for you to give them your best. Anything less is just not good enough, and is likely to get them killed. You need to snap out of it, and get on with this operation."

He gazed through the windshield as he flew on, thinking about her words.

Is it true? Have I already made bad decisions that have adversely affected this operation? I don’t think so, not yet. But she’s right. I’m leading men into battle, and not all of them will survive. No matter what’s on my mind, I have to push my emotions to one side until I’m finished with the business in hand, and only then go back to it.

He turned to her and was about to reply when the Antonov rocked violently and reared up on one wing, as if caught by powerful turbulence, like the shockwave of two supersonic fighters aircraft buzzing them.

"Jesus Christ! What the hell?"

Josef woke in an instant and was already grabbing for the controls. He stared out at the two Chinese interceptors that were already banking to come back around, about two kilometers ahead of them.