High Alert

CHAPTER 40

Nick kneeled next to Selena, wrapping a field bandage around her thigh. He talked to Ronnie as he worked.

"What happened?"

"We heard a noise. We went toward it, then those guys popped out of nowhere. It was like they were ghosts. I've never seen anything like it. They could teach us something."

"She's coming around," Lamont said.

Selena opened her eyes.

"You're wounded but you're okay," Nick said. "The round went through your armor but missed the artery and the bone. It's still in there."

"How long?"

"Have you been out? Not long. Can you stand?"

"I don't know."

Ronnie and Nick helped her to her feet. Waves of pain rolled through her. She bit her lip and leaned on Nick.

"Lamont, help her," Nick said.

"Got you, babe," Lamont said, putting his arm around her.

"Babe?"

He grinned at her. She managed a smile.

"Can you handle the pain?" Nick asked. "Morphine will knock you out."

"I can handle it, but give me a small dose, just enough to dull it down."

Nick took the morphine from his pack and squeezed half a dose into her thigh.

Vasiliev and Valentina stood near.

"We must move quickly," Vasiliev said.

He was right. Even with suppressors on both sides, the firefight had been noisy. If they were lucky, the sound of the generator running the lights at the tower would have covered the noise.

It started to snow, fat heavy flakes that landed and stuck.

"Time to take out the tower." Nick said.

Ronnie had retrieved the AT-4. The rest of the Russians had formed a circle around the others, weapons pointing out, watching for any sign the Koreans were coming.

"Major Vasiliev, were you able to neutralize all of the antiaircraft positions before the Chinese surprised us?" Valentina asked.

"They had moved them," Vasiliev said. He looked defensive.

"Did you or did you not neutralize the positions?"

"Two of them. We did not locate the third."

"Shit," Lamont said.

"Too late to do anything about it now," Nick said.

Another announcement came over the loudspeakers by the tower site.

"Thirty minutes to launch," Selena said.

Valentina looked at Nick, pointedly ignoring Vasiliev. "How do you want to do this?"

"We should stick together," Nick said. "No point in splitting up now."

He gestured toward the glow of lighting at the launch pad.

"The tower is about three hundred meters that way. We can get within fifty meters or so before we risk being seen."

"Fifty meters is well within the range of our launchers," Valentina said, "but visibility is getting worse. We need to move."

"Let's keep it simple," Nick said. "Line abreast, ten foot intervals. Colonel, put your, RPGs and loaders at each end. Ronnie, you take the middle with the AT-4. Selena, you and Lamont stay near Ronnie. We get close enough to see what we're shooting at, we blow the missile batteries. That will distract them and give them something to think about. Then we fire the launchers at the rocket, all at once. That sound good?"

Nods all around.

"Ronnie, you have the most bang for the buck. You aim below the nose where that bomb is. Just don't miss."

"Do I ever miss?"

"Everyone else should target the fuel trucks," Valentina said.

"Some of those troops down there might survive the blast," Ronnie said.

"We'll deal with that when we come to it," Nick said. "They'll be disoriented by the explosions and we have the advantage of surprise. Once that rocket goes up, we head back to the choppers and boogie."

Valentina looked confused. "Boogie?"

"We get the hell out of here."

"Can't be soon enough for me," Lamont said.

"Move out," Nick said.

They headed for the launch tower. Selena had her arm around Lamont's shoulders. The morphine had kicked in. She felt lightheaded, but her leg hurt enough to keep her alert.

Nick's adrenaline began pumping again as they set out. What if the Koreans had heard the firefight with the Chinese? How had the Chinese managed to take a seasoned Spetsnaz team by surprise in the first place? It wasn't going to do Vasiliev's career any good. Besides that, he hadn't done his job. One of those mobile antiaircraft units was still waiting out there somewhere.

They reached a spot just outside the circle cast by the lights illuminating the launch vehicle. A different fuel truck was hooked into the rocket. One more waited in line.

The assault teams knelt facing the target. Ronnie brought the AT-4 up onto his shoulder. He looked through the eyepiece and flipped off the safety. At each end of the line, the Russians waited with their grenade launchers. Nick looked through his rifle scope.

Nothing indicated that the firefight with the Chinese had been heard. Some of the troops he saw were keeping positions around the tower. They looked bored. An officer and two men in civilian coats stood some distance away, watching the fueling operation.

Nick spoke softly into his microphone. Valentina translated into Russian as he spoke.

"On my command, fire."

He turned to Lamont. "Blow the charges."

Lamont reached into his pocket, took out the remote detonator and pressed the button.

The result was instant, deafening. The first explosions were followed a split second later by the missiles detonating in their bunkers. The night lit with brilliant orange and yellow light. Chunks and pieces of concrete fountained into the sky and rained down over the site.

"Fire!"

Trails of smoke left the launchers, turning into streaks of light as the rockets ignited. Ronnie's shot struck just below the nose cone, a blossom of flame against the white paint of the rocket. The Russian grenades exploded against the two tankers at the base of the rocket and ignited a gigantic fireball of flame.

Liquid rocket fuel wasn't regular gasoline. It was far more volatile, gasoline combined with an oxidant like nitrogen tetroxide. Even Nick wasn't prepared for what followed when the trucks went up.

The explosion enveloped the tower, the launch pad and the rocket in a sheet of fire. A wave of heat and wind struck Nick in the face. Everyone near the tower was incinerated. What was left of the missile toppled away from the tower. It picked up speed, crashed to the ground and broke into burning pieces.

"Holy shit," Ronnie said.

A half-dozen Korean soldiers had survived the blast. They began firing wildly in the general direction of Nick and the others.

"Hold your fire," he said. "They don't know where we are. Don't give them a target. Move out."

Valentina repeated the order in Russian.

"Ronnie, Lamont, help Selena. Carry her if you have to."

Nick took one last look at the destruction they'd caused, then turned with the others toward the helicopters.