Eternity Base

Chapter 16

The headquarters for the North Korean Special Forces is located twenty-five miles north of the famous border city of Panmunjom. This puts it in close proximity to the demilitarized zone, where many of its units’ covert activities are conducted. Tonight, however, Gen. O Gulc Yol, the army chief of staff and former commander of the Special Forces Branch, had his eyes focused on a map that had never before been unfurled in his operations room. The fact that his staff had even been able to find the map on such short notice was quite an accomplishment. General Yol had been awakened by the duty officer and given Kang’s message from New York just forty-five minutes ago.

Yol pointed a gnarled finger, broken many times in hand-to-hand combat training, at the map. “It is there, sir.”

There were only two people in the world to whom General Yol would have shown such deference. One was Kim II Sung, the leader of North Korea for forty years, who had died two years ago. The other was the man who presently stood opposite him looking at the map — Kim’s son, Kim Jong II. “It is very far away,” Yol said.

“Yes, sir, but it is a golden opportunity. It gives us a lever that is the perfect solution to the problem that has kept us from implementing the Orange III plan.”

Kim, designated heir to Kim II Sung, rubbed the side of his face. He had watched his father slowly die without having seen completed his dream of uniting the two Koreas. It was unthinkable that his father’s life-long vision had not been realized. He would not allow the same thing to happen to himself.

The recent reduction of American forces in South Korea had left that threat a paper tiger. Kim had no doubt that his massive army — sixth largest in the world — could now overcome their enemies to the south. The problem was that the Americans still held a real threat — tactical nuclear weapons.

Korea is a land of mountains and narrow plains. It is along these narrow plains that any offensive movement has to advance. And tactical nuclear weapons were the ideal countermeasure to such movement. If that one factor could be removed, the entire balance of power in the peninsula would shift to the North’s favor.

In late 1991, the United States had removed all tactical nuclear weapons from the peninsula in a gesture meant to force the North Koreans to abandon their nuclear weapons program. The North ignored the gesture for the simple reason that it was seen as an empty one. The Americans maintained enough tactical nuclear weapons on the planes, submarines, and cruise missiles of the Seventh Fleet to more than make up for the lack of land-based ones.

Orange III was the classified operations plans (OPLAN) for a northern invasion of the south. Unfortunately, to Kim Jong Il’s mind, his father had not approved the implementation of the plan because of the high risk and cost potential if it failed — and fail it most likely would if the Americans used their nuclear weapons.

The fact that the North Koreans had their own small arsenal of nukes did not change that balance for two simple reasons: First, they had only limited abilities to project those weapons a few hundred miles into the South — and, of course, they could never touch the United States itself. Second, tactical nuclear weapons favored the defender, not the attacker.

North Korea had even opened its nuclear facilities to international inspection in 1992, having already made two dozen weapons and secreting them. They’d done that in exchange for political concessions from both the South and the Americans. For the past several years they had played the nuclear card close to their chest; there was not much more they could hope to gain in the political arena.

But now, now, there was a window of opportunity. This new information, if it was used properly, could make Orange III a reality.

Kim looked up at his old friend. “I cannot believe that the American government has abandoned two nuclear weapons and that this so-called news organization has not notified the military of their presence.”

Yol smiled, showing stained teeth, the result of constantly smoking cigarettes. “Imperialists are like that, sir. This news organization is more concerned with profit than duty and country. They will keep it a secret so they can have the story all to themselves.”

Kim thought it was all too strange. He just couldn’t understand Americans. “But the bombs? How could they have just been left there?”

“I don’t know, sir. But the fact is they are there. Unguarded for the moment. And we must seize the moment.” Yol emphasized each word in the last sentence.

Kim was more cautious than his military chief. “Could it be a trap set by the Americans? Could they have discovered our source at SNN?”

Yol considered that very briefly. “I do not believe Loki has been compromised. I also see no reason for the Americans to go through such trouble to set up a trap. It is a trap only if they know of both the Orange III plan and Loki’s existence. Even then, they cannot expect us to launch a mission based on such information. I believe they would not have put the weapons so far away if they had considered such a trap.”

“But can we use these weapons?”

Yol held up the message he’d received from Kang. “The codes and instructions to arm the weapons are at the same base.”

“How much time do we have?” Kim asked.

Yol sat back down in his chair. “It will take the second American news team about twenty-four hours to arrive in New Zealand. Then they must wait until the weather is good enough to fly down to Antarctica, which will take another eight or so hours. And from what my intelligence officer tells me, the bad weather can last for weeks. When they finally arrive at the base, they will announce their story.”

“It will take us at least twenty-four hours also,” Kim remarked, looking at the wall map of the world. “In fact, I don’t believe we can reach Antarctica from here with any aircraft we have. And we certainly cannot refuel anywhere en route.”

Yol had already thought of that. “I have had my staff working on this since the message first came in. They concur with your analysis, sir. The distance is too great to be reached from here. Additionally, the Americans and their South Korean lackeys keep too close a watch for us to even try launching a team by air from any of our bases here.”

Yol’s finger slid across Antarctica and up into the Atlantic Ocean until it came to rest on a spot in Africa. “Here is our answer, if you will give me permission, sir.”

“You have a plan then?”

Yol smiled. “Yes, sir.”

Kim settled back in his seat. “Let me hear it.”

Yol tapped an intercom button, and three officers carrying charts and paper bustled into the room. A Special Forces lieutenant colonel started talking, his pointer beginning at the same spot in southwest Africa. As he progressed, the pointer made its way south to Antarctica and then north again — but not to the Korean peninsula.

At the end of fifteen minutes, Kim had caught Yol’s enthusiasm. The briefing officers wrapped up and left the room, leaving the two of them alone. Kim Jong II had worked with General Yol for his entire adult life. He had only one question for his old friend. “It is a very daring plan. You think you can do it?”

“Yes.”

“Send the messages.”

“How the hell can there be a base put in by our military that we don’t know about?” General Hodges demanded, his forehead glinting in the overhead lights.

No one at the table ventured an answer. Hodges hadn’t truly expected one. Thirty-one years in the military intelligence community had taught him that not only didn’t one hand know what the other was doing in the U.S. government, but that fingers on the same hand were often in the dark as to the action of the other fingers.

“Do we have anything to work from?”

Weaver, the analyst who worked with Falcon, their source at SNN, spoke up from the far end of the table. “We have a name from a letter that was left at the base.”

Hodges swung his flint-hard gaze down the table. “What’s the name?”

“Glaston. Apparently he was the man in charge of construction in 1971. He worked for ISA from ‘62 through ‘79. Direct action section. Code three alpha.”

“I want this man Glaston.” Hodges turned to a man in a three-piece suit. “I want him ASAR You have priority one authorization.”

“Yes, sir.” The man headed for the door.