High Alert

CHAPTER 25

Supreme Leader Yun Chul-Moo felt the floor tremble under his feet as the hydrogen bomb detonated in its underground tunnel.

"Well?"

He turned to Park Moon, the man in charge of North Korea's nuclear program. Park stood in front of an array of instruments recording effects of the explosion. He was smiling.

"Great Leader, I am pleased to say that the test is an unqualified success."

"What is the yield?"

"Better than we expected. Four point two kilotons. Enough to register on the Western sensors, but they cannot be certain it was anything except an earthquake."

"Will New Dawn be ready in two weeks?"

New Dawn was the name Yun had given the EMP weapon he would use to attack the United States.

"The launch vehicle will be ready in days. New Dawn lacks only placement of the fissile material and the triggering mechanism. Before we install the final components, we need to move it to the launch site. We should be ready to launch within two weeks."

"And what will be the yield of the weapon?" Yun asked.

"Again, better than anticipated. Based on the result of this test, I estimate yield of New Dawn at between twenty-nine and thirty-two megatons."

"Excellent, Comrade Park. You have done well."

Yun snapped his fingers. An officer rushed forward and bowed, holding out a flat, black case. Yun opened the case and withdrew a medal. For a moment, Park looked confused. Then he came to attention.

"Comrade Park. You are awarded the Order of the National Flag, First Class, for achievements in scientific superiority in service to the nation."

Yun pinned the medal on Park's white laboratory smock. He began clapping.

The two dozen officers and lab workers present clapped loudly.

Park bowed. "I am unworthy of such an honor, Great Leader."

What would he have done if the test had failed? Park thought.

"Continue with your work, comrade. I am sure you will not fail us."

"Never, Great Leader." Not if I want to stay alive.

When Yun had left, Park turned to his chief engineer, standing nearby.

"You had better be right about the device being ready."

"Everything is on schedule, Director. Unless we run into an unforeseen problem, we will be ready on time. But I wish you had said a month rather than two weeks."

"Would you care to be the one to tell Chairman Yun that his weapon cannot be ready for him when he wants it? I told him what he wanted to hear."

The chief engineer nodded. "That is always the wisest course of action," he said.

"Prepare the device for shipment to Musudan-Ri."

The two men walked out of the control center. Neither one noticed the technician monitoring the radiation readouts who'd been listening to their conversation, nor had they seen the look of dismay on his face when he'd heard Park confirm the enormous yield of the weapon.

Cho Lee loved his country, but he loathed its leader. He knew enough about New Dawn to know it could lead to the destruction of everything he loved. Even if it were successful and the American homeland was destroyed, the Americans had powerful forces deployed in other parts of the globe. Their vengeance would be ferocious. They would obliterate the nation with their nuclear weapons.

Someone had to stop it from happening.

Radioactive fallout would spread over the borders with China and Russia. The Chinese didn't know what Yun was planning, but they were part of the problem. They kept him in power for their own ends. They couldn't be trusted to do what was right.

That left the Russians.