In the cell she shared with Bob Paxton, the bombardment was discernible to Kate at first as no more than a dull series of vibrations.
From where he huddled in his habitual crouch on the far side of the cave, Paxton was studying her. "I hope to God that's the cavalry coming to the rescue. Right about now that martial arts stuff of yours is going to come in a lot more handy than praying."
"I wasn't praying," she said. "I was meditating. Meditating and martial arts are one and the same, Bob. Didn't you know that? The martial arts first came to Asia from India with Zen Buddhism in the sixth century."
He sighed, and seemed to physically deflate. There was fear in his eyes. "God, woman, I wish I was as resourceful as you are."
The distant sounds of explosions and the power of the concussions increased. Powdered dust drifted down from the cave ceiling, and Kate felt as if she was being draped in a lace shroud. She folded her arms as a shiver passed through her.
"Funny, I don't feel resourceful." Another concussion impacted, stronger than the others. "Bob, God help us. I feel like a victim with no hope."
Yokohama
The comm center for this operation was a comm van parked near the hangar where General Turtle had held the briefing.
An Isuzu two-door approached, and braked to a stop next to the van. Headlights and engine were extinguished.
Tuttle withdrew from where he'd been standing in the van's back door, watching the row of video monitors over a communication specialist's shoulder and listening to the conversations over the tac net. The van's retrieval system was constantly receiving, sorting and filing intel communications downfeed from innumerable sources, from AWACS planes to direct satellite links.
Meiko Kurita emerged from the car and strode forward and, for an instant, the male inside Tuttle could not help but naturally admire this fine figure of a woman, all slim hips and just the right amount of curves, muscular and strong, beautiful, alluring. He considered the similarities between Meiko and another woman, the other woman in Trev Galt's life named Kate, who was at the heart of this mission as far as Galt was concerned. Tuttle had always liked Trev and Kate as a couple. She was competent and dedicated, as evidenced by her having attained co-pilot status on a US. space shuttle flight. She also happened to be one of the most physically attractive women Tuttle had ever known. One Japanese, one American apple pie, but they could have been sisters.
"General."
"Meiko. Thanks for coming."
A handshake, and she squeezed his hand in both of hers to keep it from being perfunctory.
"Thank you for allowing the sentries to let me pass." She scanned the shapes of warehouses surrounding the hangar and helo-pad. "I would have never guessed that this was anything but an air freight company, as the street sign claims. And the government licensing was in order when I checked. You must trust me a great deal, General."
"Trust is a simple word," said Tuttle. "Unambiguous. You deserve to be in on this. You've been to the safe house. You know everything, maybe more than we do. We'll make good use of that intel you gave us on the yakuza connection with Kurita Industries. And you deserve to be in on this phase because of your relationship with Trev." In the faint glow from the monitors inside the van, he saw her blink, and start to protest. He added, "Do you forget that I saw the two of you together? I possess an uncanny ability for reading people and relationships, Ms. Kurita."
Her expression became unreadable. "Many have said it to me, General. Now I will say it to you. No comment." She gazed past him, into the interior of the comm van. "Is there anything you can tell me?"
He grunted. "I can tell you that I wish you'd gotten here sooner. Maybe you could have talked him out of what he's trying to do," and he told her about Galt going in solo, and of the chopper, which flew him into North Korean airspace, being shot down. And he told her about the hostile presence of the Chinese troops. "That's what Galt flew into, miss, and the chances are that it could be a one-way flight. Guess I could have used some backup in trying to reason with him to stand down."
"I wouldn't have been any help to you, General," said Meiko. "If you know Trev as well as you say, then you know that."
Tuttle sighed and his eyes drifted again to the sky. "I suppose you're right. But damn him for being such an insubordinate son of a bitch who can't take orders."
"General, you're a warrior. Gripe if you wish, but you'd rather be over there in North Korea with Trev instead of here, having to wait on the sidelines."
"Guess I'm not the only one who's good at reading people," Tuttle acknowledged.
North Korea
General Li knelt in the middle of the clearing that seemed to shimmer in amber from the flames of the wreckage of the his carriers, having been struck by missiles fired from the helicopter gunships within seconds after his men had obeyed his command to board the trucks. The attackers had swooped with such speed and ferocity that there had been no time for Li or Major Kwan or any of their men to scramble for cover. The flaming piles of misshapen metal that had been his convoy of troop carriers were unrecognizable as vehicles. Most of his men had been vaporized instantly when the missiles hit the trucks and exploded, but some were in flames, writhing and screaming helplessly as they died upon the ground. The stench of their burning flesh permeated the hellish atmosphere.
Kwan's head was pillowed in the palms of Li's hands, in his lap as he knelt. Kwan weakly held his middle, but had given up attempting to stem the rivulets of blood and red guts that burbled from between his fingers. Kwan shuddered as a man with palsy, coughing blood.
Tears ran down Li's face. The dying man he cradled was conscious of nothing save his own pain and dying, but Li, who somehow miraculously seemed to be the only survivor here, could not keep his mind from skipping from one photographic memory to another; holding this man, the warrior who reminded him of himself so many years ago, who had wanted to attack, who had vehemently questioned Li's smug command to pause as the tanks had taken their time drawing into position for the assault on the bandits. Kwan had been right. Now, there would never be an assault. The Americans were attacking Chai Bin, and General Li's force had been annihilated; the young men, serving their country under his command, would never return home to their loved ones. He had brought dishonor and disgrace upon himself, and upon the Politburo in Beijing, those who had entrusted to him this mission of the highest importance. He should have known it was time to attack, that Kwan was right, when the first American helicopter, which had spearheaded the American military operation, had been shot down. Instead, hoping to ensure success, Li had hesitated as his last tank had reported difficulty in positioning itself to strike a particularly vital point of the bandits' defense. And then it was too late. The American attack turned on them when one of Li's tank commanders had, without his authorization, opened fire on an American gunship, identified by Li from its sound as one of their American Apaches. And that was the end of it. The American gunships had pummeled the bandit stronghold and Li's force. Only one of his tank commanders was reporting in, the lone survivor of his crew. And young Major Kwan lay dying in his lap. He had the strangest flash of caring for his dying father, skeletal and wracked with pain, his skin like graying parchment. He saw himself caring for his son, who had died as a child of typhoid. And then Major Kwan gave one final series of spasms and puked a river of blood. He stiffened and died.
Li set Kwan aside carefully. He rose to his feet.
The dead and the dying were littered about him in what he had so smugly thought was such a fine shelter from the elements. He had clustered his troops, making them an easy American target. Some of those dying recognized him, and their cries of agony were like their arms, outstretched, pleading, in his direction.
He closed his eyes to it. He unholstered his pistol. He would think of something beautiful as he died. His ears blocked out the aftermath of destruction, the cries of the dying. He thought of how beautiful his wife had looked on that day they met under the cherry blossoms, when the world was young and there was a future of hope.
He placed the barrel of the pistol into his mouth and pulled the trigger.
The dull booming of the bombardment had given way to the stuttering and hammering of gunfire and much frantic shouting from very close. The ferocious close-quarters combat was magnified with a strangely cavernous echo, telling Kate that the assault on Chai Bin's fortress had breached his inner defenses and spilled into this tunnel complex.
She jumped to her feet when Chai Bin stormed into their cell. He held a pistol. With his free hand, he caught her wrist as if with a steel claw and tugged her to him.
Paxton sprang in his corner of the cave. "What's going on?" He gawked at the sight of Kate being manhandled.
Kate didn't struggle. She saw several of Chai's subordinates gathered in the tunnel outside this cave-cell. She strained to keep her voice steady. "Careful, Bob," she told Paxton, and she said to Chai Bin, "The question's a valid one. What's going on?"
"Everything has gone wrong for me," said Chai, his tone clipped and dispassionate. "The Americans have attacked."
Paxton said quietly, "God bless America."
Chai ignored this. "I have lost contact with my men at the shuttle. I can only assume the worst. We will withdraw now from here. I have an armed helicopter that is well concealed nearby, awaiting us. It is a helicopter shot down by my men a year ago." His chuckle was a gloating sneer. "It has been repaired. Fortunes of war."
Kate was summoning her chi as she never had before. "First you have to get us from here to there."
"Precisely stated, and that is why I am not killing the two of you. You will accompany me. The two of you are my passport, you see. Quickly now. We leave by this tunnel."
Paxton snarled, "Like hell," and flung himself at Chai.
Without hesitation, Chai lifted his right arm and swatted his pistol at Paxton as if batting a troublesome fly. Paxton caught the gun barrel alongside his head. He tumbled into the grasp of two of Chai's men, teenagers really, who had stepped into the cave to receive Paxton, one by each arm, before the astronaut could fall. Chai stepped out of the cell with Kate in tow, and they followed, dragging Paxton with them. In the tunnel, Chai flung Kate in the direction of two other bandits, who grasped her by each arm.
Kate saw that they stood opposite disorderly stacks of the electronic equipment removed from the Liberty and brought here. Her heart drummed against her ribcage when she saw three separate mounds of what looked like clumps of silly-putty, placed at intervals around the stacks. Plastic explosive, with detonators attached.
Chai observed her. "Those are five-minute fuses. Minutes from now, we will be gone and everything you see will have been destroyed."
There was a shifting of the shadows from across the tunnel, and Kate's breath caught in her throat.
Trev Galt said, "I don't think so, scumbag."