OUTCAST Ops: Red Ice

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Tanner picked up his phone and was greeted with an urgent-sounding voice.

“Where are you?” Casey asked without preamble.

“Chinatown, three blocks away from the target. What’s wrong?”

“We just had a shitload of hell roll into town, courtesy of Rhee and his men.”

Tanner straightened in his seat, instantly alert. “What happened?”

“Simultaneous attacks on the Golden Gate, BART and San Francisco International in the last ten minutes. The body count at the airport alone is already in the triple digits.”

“Do you want us to abort?”

“No. Rhee’s your only concern.”

Tanner glanced at the rest of the team. Dante was driving and the others were in the cargo bay. Like Tanner, they were dressed in dark blue jumpsuits, and the cargo bay was filled with painting equipment. “Understood.”

“If the investigation finds anything that pertains to Rhee and his people, we’ll pass it along.”

“All right. Where are you?”

“Still at the hotel. I’ve ordered the federal offices here in the city to give any help the city needs, but otherwise, I’m staying out of the way. Relations between the city and D.C. are not the best, and they don’t want me looking over their shoulder. If they need me, they’ll call. Otherwise, I’ll monitor the situation from here.”

“Right. Keep us informed.”

“You know I will. Bye.”

“What’s wrong?” Dante asked.

Tanner told them. Liam scowled. “There could be other attacks happening.”

“We have no idea when or if they’re going to happen,” Tanner said. “Right now, we have a clear mission. Let’s stick with that instead of chasing after an enemy we have no intel on.”

“I know,” Liam said sourly. “Doesn’t mean I like it.”

“Neither do I.”

The lobby of the Trans-Continental Marsh Hotel was large, stylish and displayed the luxury that awaited the guest. As the highest-end hotel in the city, its clientele were among the richest and most politically connected people on the planet.

To Seonwoo, it was an example of the corruption that infested the west. Hidden behind designer sunglasses, his eyes scanned the lobby, looking to pinpoint potential threats such as security cameras and guards. He noted three men in the lobby who were armed, and several well-placed security cameras. The Americans pretended to take security seriously, but to Seonwoo it was a joke.

For the past four hours, members of Seonwoo’s unit had been drifting into the hotel in ones and twos. Most headed up to the world-renowned restaurant at the top of the hotel and had breakfast, in perfect position to see the explosions on the Golden Gate. Taking it as a signal, they had hurriedly paid and left. Instead of going down to the lobby, the soldiers descended to the seventeenth floor, where two members of the unit had rented a room. They were now preparing for the mission.

Seonwoo leisurely headed toward the elevators. The business suit he wore was high-end, as were the shoes and the briefcase he carried. No one noticed him as he walked through the lobby, one of a dozen people coming and going.

Three other passengers occupied the elevator, a pair of businessmen and a woman wearing a dress that ended above the knee. In Saenwoo’s worldview, the businessmen were parasites, feeding on the world’s downtrodden masses, while the woman was a whore, prostituting herself for wealth. He was confident he could kill all three without effort.

Keeping his sunglasses on and his face impassive, he looked around the elevator car. The elevator was all dark paneling, with recessed lighting and soft music from hidden speakers. He noticed the obvious security camera in the corner, but after more surveillance, he spotted a second camera in a less obvious location among the recessed lights. The elevator’s control panel wasn’t much different than any other one Seonwoo had seen before, only the brass plate was polished to a high sheen and the lights were all lit, except for the target floor. The only other slightly unusual thing was the card reader attached to the control panel.

The whore got off on the tenth floor while the businessmen left on the twelfth. Now alone, Seonwoo stared at the control panel, memorizing the security system. To access the target floor, a magnetic card would have to be run through the reader in order to activate that floor’s button. The number of cards in use at any one time was limited, issued by the hotel security office, and limited to two days before the cards became deactivated and had to be replaced.

Seonwoo exited the elevator on the seventeenth and studied the hall for a few seconds before he headed for the room. Despite being alone in the hall, he was alert for trouble. The enemy was dangerous; it would not be beyond them to have eyes everywhere.

He reached the room and rapped a coded knock on the door. It opened to the width of the security chain and Seonwoo could see an eye and half a head.

“One moment, sir,” a man said softly in Korean. After hearing the chain lock being removed, the door opened all the way. The doorman, Ryeon Seung-won, stepped back, beckoning for Seonwoo to come in.

“Everyone here?” Seonwoo asked in Korean as he walked past Ryeon.

“Yes sir,” Ryeon replied.

The room seemed smaller with ten soldiers in it, even more so when they all stood and came to attention. Seonwoo motioned for them to be at ease.

The room was larger than Seonwoo’s own quarters back in North Korea, but still smaller than the suite they would be attacking. The double beds had weapons lain on them; one bed supported a mix of VZ-61 Skorpion machine pistols, MAC-10s, Uzis, and a pair of AR-15s, The pistols on the other bed were also a mixed bag — S&W Model 39s, Colt M1911A1s, Browning Hi-Powers and a single Desert Eagle. There was also a pair of Russian-made KS-23 shotguns, along with a dozen grenades and magazines for the different weapons.

Seonwoo glanced around the room for a moment, gauging his men’s mood, then turned to Yoon Kwang-ho. “Do you have the floor plans?”

The sergeant nodded and motioned toward a man sitting in front of a laptop at the desk. “Yuh has them.”

Seonwoo walked over to Yuh. “Let me see.”

Yuh, one of a group of North Korean Special Forces soldiers trained by the Chinese in computer hacking, turned the laptop so his commander could see the screen. Seonwoo studied the floor plans for a couple of minutes, then said, “What about security access?”

“Already taken care of. I cracked the network and gained access to the elevator and stairwell security systems.” He motioned to a pair of cards with magnetic strips lying next to the laptop. “They’ve been programmed with the right security code. We are lucky — the codes are to be changed later today.”

“What about the security cameras?”

“I can kill them anytime you want, as well as jam all the phones and cell phone signals on the top five floors.”

“Good.” He looked around the room at his men before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a strip of paper with skin patches on them. “The major has ordered all of us to wear one of these.”

“What is it?” Yoon asked the question on all of their minds.

“It’s a drug to help you fight better. It has been decided that you will be the first Democratic People’s Republic troops to use this in battle. It has already been tested by others, and now it is our turn. You will love it. I use it myself.” Seonwoo pulled a patch from the strip and stuck it to his wrist before passing the paper to Yoon.

“Everyone take one.”

After the patches had been passed out, Seonwoo glanced at his watch and addressed his men. “The target is to be taken alive if possible. If not, we are to kill him. Everyone else on the floor is to be killed on sight. Let’s go.”