North Korean Blowup (18 page)

“Did you know that I had to sign a long release form before they let me come on this mission? A confidentiality agreement the likes of which I have never seen before. I can’t mention the fact that the President’s Platoon even exists, let alone what it does. You’re sailing a ghost ship here, Lieutenant. Only the other spooks know you’re here and what you’re doing.”

“It has to be that way. Actually only four or five people know we exist outside of a few of the CIA spooks at the Farm.”

Tran went up to the lookout point to watch the North Korean army camp. He would report if there were any changes, like any more troops arriving.

Jut before dark they had another MRE. They were the last ones in the drag bags. From here on they would have to live off the land – and out of Korean grocery stores.

At 2000 they sacked out and were roused at 0200 to get their gear together.

Hunter told Rattigan he would be staying with Beth at the ridgeline while they closed in on the camp after the bombardment with the twenties.

“Damnit, you saw me limping, didn’t you boss? I knew better. A wounded lion never shows any weakness. Some goddamned lion I’ve been.”

“You’ll bring Beth down as soon as it’s safe for her,” Hunter said.

He watched them in the pale moonlight. “Now, SEALs, it’s time we move up to our firing point and kick some North Korean ass.”

“Hoo-yah!” the SEALs bellowed.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

It took the platoon only a half hour to hike out to their high point where it would attack the camp. Hunter positioned his men a hundred yards from the tents in a forty yard arc, and kept them in the cover of the brush and dozens of good sized pine trees. Then they waited.

“We could push the attack up to oh three hundred,” Bancroft said on the radio.

Hunter, who was with Beth and Rattigan, vetoed the idea. “That would give them another hour of darkness to escape if they luck out and we miss a few. Might work better to push it out to oh five hundred. Give us an hour for the attack and then with daylight we can track anyone who got away and tried to walk into town.”

“I like it,” Senior Chief Chapman said. “That extra hour could make a big difference. Let’s go at oh five hundred instead.”

“Bancroft?”

“Yes, one hour should be plenty for the attack, and the daylight will help with stragglers.”

“Done,” Hunter said. “Take a nap if you can. Tran, I want you to do a recon on them as close as you can get. See how many guards they have and where they are if possible. Don’t get caught.”

“Off and running, Cap. I’ll work all around the camp and see if there’s anything there we don’t know about that we should. Like I don’t remember seeing any trucks or vehicles when we looked at it this afternoon.”

“Good idea. That’s why you get the big bucks. Go.”

Beth had brought a back pack with her in her drag bag, and now put her tool kit into it and adjusted it so it fit tight and secure. She slipped into the shoulder straps and nodded. Yes, it would work well and leave her both hands for her submachine gun. She took off the pack and moved closer to Hunter.

“How do we get down into the mine?”

“No idea. I was hoping it would be a strip mine, just a big gouge out of the land, but no such luck. It’s an underground type. Maybe a shaft, but how do we get down the shaft if there’s no working gear? Could be some rope around. I have no idea how it is set up or how deep it is.”

“Must be pretty deep if they want to shield an accidental nuclear explosion,” Beth said.

“I’d hope so. That was one thing that Dr. Sung didn’t know, or forgot to tell us. We’ll have to play it by ear when we get there.”

“So when do I come down the hill?”

They could see a few lights at the camp below and hear the continuous purr of what must be generators providing power to the camp.

“When?  When we get the place cleared and safe. For sure not before daylight. We will absolutely take no chances with you getting involved in a shooting scrape down there.”

“Good, one was enough.” She gave a nervous laugh. “You said something about taking a nap. I couldn’t go to sleep now with a whole bottle of sleeping pills. How do these guys do it? They seem as calm as bunny rabbits waiting for the Easter egg roll. Look at Rattigan. He’s been snoring away for twenty minutes already.”

“They are confident of their ability to do the job ahead. They have all been here before. They relax and get ready to go into action when the time comes. Mostly it’s lots of experience.”

“I feel like Cinderella getting ready to go to the ball. My stomach is doing flip flops and trying for a world record. So far it’s only at sixty five.

“You’ll settle down. You are our Cinderella. You’re the only reason we’re making this little tourist trip into good old North Korea. Without you we’re just so many grunts trying to get from point A to B.”

“What’s a grunt?”

“A foot soldier, a doggie on the line, a pawn in the hands of the generals and admirals. Us guys.”

“Well, if you’re grunts, you’re the best grunts, I’ve ever seen. I like the way you do your work. Now, maybe I can have a nap. At least I’ll close my eyes and my mouth. Oh, if everyone goes to sleep, who wakes up the troops at five?”

“Don’t worry. Four or five of us will be ready.”

Tran came back after his half hour walk in the dark.

“Three six-bys on the other side and two staff cars,” he told Hunter. Looks like they’ve been here for quite a time. Even have a soccer field laid out on the other side. Mess tent, officer quarters and what looks like a shower tent. Only four men on guard posts around the camp, and eight walking posts around the mine. So that’s twelve of them not sleeping.”

“We could take some incoming fire,” Hunter said.

“We better plan on it. Could be twelve rifles down there ready to shoot at us.”

At 0455 Hunter barked into his personal radio mike. “Now hear this. All men man your brooms, clean sweep down fore and aft.”

Beth woke up with a jolt. “What on earth?”

Rattigan mumbled something about the black shoe navy.

“We have five minutes until blastoff. Everyone check your weapon, clean up anything left on the ground and get ready to attack. We now have four minutes. I want a squad check.”

Hunter listened as his seven men checked in on the radio. Then Bancroft made a check with his men. Everyone was awake and ready to rumble.

“Tran tells me they have twelve guards down there. So we could get some return fire. Pick out a good pine tree to fire from. Protect yourself. We’ll try to eliminate those shooters as soon as we can with the air bursts. Some of you hit the mine area. We have two minutes. I want the Bull Pups to fire their two WP rounds, then wait thirty seconds before you fire the air bursts. You men with the AK-47’s open fire as soon as the WPs hit. Any questions?”

“How many twenty rounds, Cap?” Tanner asked.

“How many do you have? Use them up. Then we move down to MP-5 range and do our assault fire and clean up. I’ll count it down to oh five hundred.”

Beth reached out and touched Hunter’s shoulder. “You be careful down there.”

He nodded in the faint moonlight.

“Five, four, three, two, go.”

The booming crack of the twenty millimeter rounds firing blasted into the morning darkness. Almost before the sound died the sound came again. The rounds hit in the tent area below that was outlined by several perimeter lights. The exploding white phosphorous  sounds came muted, then the fires began and the screams. The AK-47’s joined in the cacophony of the attack, with six SEALs slamming round after round into the tent area, not looking for targets, just random area fire.

The fires burned fiercely as one tent after another went up. The air bursts began and in the fire light they could see men running around, dropping when the shards of steel tore into them. Round after round exploded over the tents. Two contact rounds hit the trucks and one burst into flames as the fuel tank exploded.

A few rifle rounds slashed through the brush as the soldiers below returned fire. Hunter made sure Beth was behind a big pine, then leaned around one of his own and watched the occasional winking lights below that showed riflemen shooting up the hill.

Hunter wished he had one of the long guns. He saw two men run toward the edge of the firelight to the left. Air bursts exploded over their heads and they crumpled into the dirt.

Two dozen air bursts had stopped most motion below. Only an occasional rifle shot came from the camp and mine area.

“Cease fire,” Hunter barked into his shoulder mike. The men on the hill over the camp stopped shooting.

“Let’s go for a walk,” Hunter said. “Any AK-47 ammo left?”

He heard a chorus of responses in his earpiece.

“Okay, when we’re part way down open up on assault fire single shot. Use the 5.56 on the Pup. When we get to fifty yards use the MP-5s. Try to keep a straight line so we don’t shoot each other. Twenty yards from the fires, we hit the ground and look for targets. Let’s move.”

Rattigan sat down near a tree closer to Beth and made sure she stayed on the hill.

The SEALs walked down the slope toward the burning tents. They saw little movement. At fifty yards, Hunter fired a three round burst from his Pup and the rest of the platoon joined in with single shot assault fire as they walked closer. There were only two return fire shots that Hunter saw. At twenty yards they went to the ground and increased their fire, watching for targets.

“We hold here until it gets lighter,” Hunter said into the mike. “We have anyone hit?”

“Got a scratch on my side,” Walden said.

“Foster, find him.” Hunter said.

“I’m in the middle of the line,” Walden said. “Just a fucking scratch.”

Foster crawled from his spot near the left end of the line to the center and found Walden. He pulled up the Korean shirt and in the faint moonlight saw the blood smearing Walden’s right side.

“Yeah, just a scratch,” Foster said. “An in and out about an inch worth. Hold still while I stop the bleeding.”

“Bancroft, take Lawrence and Mohammad and check out the mine area. See if you can hear any guards over there.”

“We take them out if we find them?”

“Roger that.”

The three men ran, bent over to the right side of the area where the mine was situated. Hunter listened to his radio but heard nothing. Then two Bull Pup rounds went off and detonated almost at once. A scream shattered the rest of the night. An MP-5 stuttered out two three round bursts.

“Bancroft?”

“Cap, we found four of them huddled together. Damn stupid. All four are now with their ancestors. Want us to stay here and clear this area when you go into the tents?”

“Roger that.

The darkness drifted away in bite sized gulps, and light daggered in from the east. As it grew lighter, the SEALs found a target here and there in the still smoldering tents. One tent remained intact. When Hunter saw it still standing, he fired two twenties into it and set it on fire. Three men dashed out and were cut down by MP-5’s.

“Anyone see any targets?” Hunter asked.

“Got to be some alive in there somewhere,” Senior Chief Chapman said.

“Let’s go find out,” Hunter ordered. “Assault fire, a round every five seconds as we walk up to the camp. Then we hold fire for targets. Go now.”

They stood, fired, and walked the twenty yards to the edge of the camp. One Korean soldier lifted up from behind some metal kitchen fixture and fired ten rounds from an AK-47 on full auto. Three SEAL rounds cut him down.

“Let’s clear it,” Hunter said. They walked through the remains of the tents. One soldier stood and tried to run away. He didn’t have a weapon. The sniper rifle round slanted into his back and knocked him down sprawling in the dust..

Half way through the tents they slowed. Smoke still came from some of the tents, bedding, Hunter figured.

“Keep going,” Hunter ordered and the line swept through the rest of the rubble and out the far side. 

“Anyone hit?” Hunter asked.

“Where the hell is Sanborn?” Chang asked. “He was right beside me.”  Chang ran back the way he had come.

“Cap, you better get over here,” Chang said. “About the middle of the tents.”

“Bancroft, you clear over there?”

“All clear for now. Might be somebody in the mouth of a tunnel here. We need to clear that first.”

“Do it.” Hunter ran over where Chang was motioning to him.

“It’s Sanborn, Cap. He bought one right in the forehead.”

Hunter knelt beside the dead SEAL and shook his head, blinking back tears. He wiped them away. He picked up Sanborn and carried him out of the ruined camp to the far side and laid him in a grassy spot.

“We just lost Sanborn,” Hunter said on the radio, a catch in his voice. “He went down hard from that last AK-47 from the damned kitchen.” He waited a minute. “Okay, let’s go through the rubble here again and make damn sure there are no more Koreans playing possum on us.”

  Over by the mine, Bancroft and his men moved up slowly, checking every hiding spot as they went forward. They had eliminated four guards and he wondered if there were more. The fence around the old mine had been blown apart in places. The gate stood open. The four men they had killed had been at a post near the front of the wire. Now the three SEALs surged through the gate and dropped behind cover but took no fire.

They surged ahead again toward the black hole that had to be a mine tunnel. They were twenty yards from the tunnel when an AK-47 blasted six rounds at them. They missed. Bancroft’s men hit the dirt but the rounds were already past and no more came.

“Put a twenty into the mine tunnel,” Bancroft said. Lawrence triggered a round into the tunnel as far as he could see inside. After the sound of the blast faded they heard a scream from inside.

Bancroft waved his two men forward and they ran to the sides of the tunnel and looked in. No rounds greeted them.

“Two more twenties as far in as you can get them,” Bancroft said. Lawrence fired twice and they waited. There was no reaction.

“We have to clear it,” Bancroft said. “We surge in fast and glue ourselves against the walls. Then we see what happens. Let’s go, now.”