High Alert

CHAPTER 28

Selena finished throwing up breakfast, stood, and flushed the toilet. She went to the bathroom sink and rinsed out her mouth.

I can't be, she thought. It's not possible.

"You okay?" Nick called from the other room.

"Fine," she called out. "I'll be right there."

She looked at herself in the mirror and saw nothing unusual staring back at her, no indication anything had changed. But she knew something had. She'd stop by the pharmacy later and pick up a test. There was no point in talking about it with Nick until she knew for certain.

She came out of the bathroom.

"What's going on?"

"I think I picked up a stomach bug, maybe a touch of flu. It's giving me a headache."

She did have a headache, but it wasn't because she thought she had flu.

Nick said, "We have to plan the mission."

"I'll be fine. Stop by a drugstore and I'll pick up some aspirin."

"There's a big pharmacy in that shopping center we pass on the way in. They'll have whatever you need."

Yes, they will.

"We'd better get going," Nick said.

At the shopping center, Nick waited in the car while Selena went inside. She bought two pregnancy tests and a small bottle of aspirin. Walking back to the car, she hoped she was wrong. Her mind sorted through scenarios where she was pregnant, with no good result. She was glad when they arrived at Project HQ. It meant she could turn her attention to something impersonal, something she understood.

The team waited for the briefing to begin. Nick settled in at Elizabeth's desk as his phone indicated a call from her.

"Morning, Director."

"Good morning, Nick. I'm being discharged today. More accurately, I'm discharging myself. But that's not the only reason I'm calling. I had a conversation a few minutes ago with General Vysotsky."

"Vysotsky? What did he want?"

Elizabeth told him. Then she said, "Vysotsky has made Selena's sister responsible for overseeing their end of the operation."

"Valentina? You're kidding."

"No, I'm not. We're going to have to coordinate the mission with the Russians. I want you to call Vysotsky and begin the process."

"Shouldn't we wait until you get back?"

"I'll be here for a few hours yet. The doctors insist on another bank of tests before they'll let me go. We need to get on this right away."

"All right."

Elizabeth gave Vysotsky's contact information to Nick.

"I'll be there as soon as I can. Get ready to go to Korea. While you're doing that, I need to clear this with the President."

"Copy that, Director."

He set the phone down on the desk. Everyone was looking at him.

"What's that about Valentina and Vysotsky?" Selena said.

"Harker just talked to him. It seems our good friend Chairman Yun plans to put a hydrogen bomb into orbit over us and set off an EMP explosion. A big one."

"That would wipe out the grid," Ronnie said.

"That guy is a looney tune," Lamont said.

"Vysotsky wants us to form a joint mission with one of their Spetsnaz teams and take out Yun's rocket before he can launch. Harker wants me to call him. Valentina is going to be in command of the Russians."

"Oh, that's just great," Selena said.

"Why are the Russians warning us about it?" Lamont asked. "They'd be happy to see us taken off the board."

"If that bomb goes off, Vysotsky thinks we'll retaliate with a nuclear strike on North Korea. He's worried it would lead to war with China, and that Russia would be dragged in."

"He's right," Ronnie said. "We'd hit them with everything we had."

"He's also right it would lead to war with China," Selena said. "Russia couldn't escape getting caught up in it. No one would win."

"We have a firm target. Vysotsky told Harker the bomb is going to be launched from Musudan-ri."

Musudan-ri is no longer known by that designation. It has been renamed Tonghae.

"Whatever it's called, we're going to destroy it. Freddie, bring up a map of the region and satellite photos of the target."

The map and pictures appeared on the monitor screen. The launch facility was located in the northeast of the country, a short distance inland from the Sea of Japan and not far from the Kamchatka Peninsula, near Vladivostok. The area surrounding the launch site was gently rolling, sparsely populated, and covered with snow.

"Sure wish this target was somewhere warm," Lamont said.

"Not exactly Cape Canaveral," Ronnie said.

"By our standards it's primitive, but it's good enough for them to put a satellite into orbit." Nick took a laser pointer off the desktop and clicked it on. The red dot moved across the screen.

"I took a look at this yesterday, when we weren't sure which of their sites would be the target. You can see the launch pad and the gantry and tower next to it. That road leading away to the south goes to launch control, this building here."

The laser dot moved.

"This small building with the radar tower is the control station for their anti-aircraft missile batteries. The low buildings to the west are assembly sheds. They built a new addition not long ago. It's a little over thirty meters long. That's the exact height of the launch tower. Their rocket is still in that building."

He moved the pointer.

"This construction over here is for a new, larger facility. Those structures don't concern us. Our target is the assembly building and the tower. If the rocket is already on the launch pad, we forget about the assembly building."

"What's that building in the lower left corner of the picture?" Selena asked.

"I was going to talk about that next. It's a barracks for a company of special forces soldiers. Mostly they patrol the road coming in from the coast. They're under strength but we don't want to tangle with them."

"When were these pictures taken?" Ronnie asked.

These photographs were taken twelve hours, thirty-four minutes and six seconds ago.

"How long does it take to set up and fuel?" Selena asked.

Positioning the rocket for launch and fueling takes approximately two days.

"We need a more recent shot," Lamont said.

Accessing.

Seconds later a new shot of the launch site appeared on the monitor. This picture showed a transporter hauling a long, shrouded shape from the assembly building.

The size and shape of the covered launch vehicle in the photo suggests that it is an Unha-3. It is a three stage rocket used in the past by the North Koreans to place weather satellites in orbit. It must be fueled shortly before launch and is highly unstable.

"I don't see any permanent fueling facility," Lamont said. "They must bring in fuel with tankers."

"We can target the trucks," Ronnie said. "They're bombs on wheels."

"Ought to make a hell of a bonfire," Lamont said.

"We have to get on site first," Nick said.

"Russia isn't far from the target," Selena said. "It would be easier to stage from there than from Japan."

Nick fiddled with the pointer. "Until I talk with the Russians we can't pin down details. But we can get the logistics ready. It's cold over there right now. You three put together what we need for personal gear. Pack one of our AT-4's. Take plenty of C4 and our own detonators. The Russians will have theirs but I want to work with our own stuff."

"When are we leaving?" Selena asked.

"The target's on the other side of the world. Plan on wheels up early tomorrow."