Kill Chain (11 page)

“I don’t think they trust
them anymore. What with Bureau 121 out of control in Pyongyang, they’re
probably afraid they’ll become targets if they piss off the psycho.” Leroux
tapped his chin. “It definitely wasn’t transmitted from within North Korea.”

“What are you thinking?”

Leroux looked at Child. “Someone
transmitted it from the outside.”

“We already know Bureau
121 does a lot of its work from outside. China mostly.”

“Exactly. We need to find
them. Whoever uploaded the original video knows where the hostages are.”

“Sir, got something.”

Leroux turned toward Tong,
who pointed at the screen. A video showing a busy city street appeared,
pedestrians passing, cars farther in the shot, a fairly steady though not heavy
stream.

“What am I looking at?”

“An ATM on Sapyeong
Street. Watch.”

The video continued when
Leroux smiled, a bus, G20 logos emblazoned on the side, driving past. “Okay
everyone, concentrate your efforts on buildings that could house a bus on that
route from that location onward.” He pointed at Tong. “And get that to Delta.”

Embassy
of the United States Seoul
32
Sejongno Street, Seoul, Republic of Korea

“It is
imperative that we respond immediately and with strength. There can be no hesitation.
Pyongyang must be made to realize they risk war if they do not return the
hostages.”

President Starling agreed,
the Japanese Prime Minister clearly correct. The only way to deal with a bully
was to stand up to him. With North Korea now confirmed involved, it changed the
game. This was about face, not money, not religion. North Korea had a long
history of playing the petulant child, and it appeared they had taken it to new
extremes.

Kidnapping wasn’t new.
They were credited with a long list of abductions including that of Korean
nationals living in other countries, as well as Japanese and other foreigners,
though this scale and profile was unprecedented.

And they had a history of
killing.

But again, to kill the
German Chancellor’s husband was unfathomable.

Yet he was dead.

And the world now knew
who was responsible.

The German people were
demanding action despite their pacifist history since the war, and every other
country with the exception of the Chinese were already dealing with the outrage
of the public. His briefing only minutes ago indicated talk radio stations and
Internet discussion groups were afire, war demanded.

“We have limited assets
in the area,” said the British Prime Minister. “I’ve ordered as many vessels as
we can spare to head to the region, but it will take weeks before we can
contribute substantially. I’m afraid it will be up to regional powers to handle
this for the time being. Mr. President, I assume we can count on the Pacific
Fleet?”

Starling nodded. “I’ve
already ordered our forces to full readiness. Elements of the Seventh Fleet are
being redeployed from patrols in the South China Sea and Japan.”

“I’ve ordered our Navy to
deploy as well,” said the Australian Prime Minister. “We also have several
fighter squadrons that are ready to assist should it become necessary. What I
want to know is what the Chinese response to this is? President Cheng, you are
perhaps North Korea’s only ally in the region. Is there anything you can do?”

Cheng cleared his throat.
“We have of course been in contact with Pyongyang, who deny any involvement. In
fact, they are threatening war over the implied insult that they would commit
such a crime.”

“Ridiculous!” cried the
French President. “That lunatic is always threatening war.”

The British Prime Minister
agreed. “If someone breaks wind in Trafalgar Square near a North Korean, they
think it’s an attack on their dear leader or whatever the bloody hell they’re
calling this one.”

“Gentlemen, if I may,”
interjected the South Korean President. “It is the North’s unpredictability
that we must be wary of. They have a standing army of over one million men and
over seven-hundred artillery pieces within striking distance of the capital. If
we go to war, this city will be leveled and tens of thousands will die, if not
more.”

Starling’s head bobbed,
he painfully aware this was the most dangerous capital city in the civilized
world, it the only one with a sworn enemy within shelling distance. “Agreed. We
need to be very careful how we proceed. We should position our forces but avoid
provocation. This is more than our loved ones at risk, it is the lives of the
innocent civilians of this country as well, that must be considered.”

“What are you
suggesting?” asked the Australian Prime Minister.

“I suggest we be
extremely careful lest we risk war.”

The Italian Prime
Minister raised a finger as he leaned toward the camera. “Not to sound the
coward, but with Seoul being within artillery range, should we still be in the
city? My security team wants to evacuate immediately.”

The Australian nodded.
“Mine as well.”

Starling glanced at Red,
who had remained remarkably well behaved after the initial refusal to evacuate,
the operator’s face revealing no emotion.

“Then it is agreed, we
should leave at once?” asked the Italian.

“Yes,” replied the German
Chancellor, the woman displaying remarkable courage and strength after having
just lost her husband. “But if we leave, we must do so as one, so no one person
is singled out by the media.”

The South Korean returned
to her chair. “We can evacuate to Busan. It is out of range.”

Starling drew a breath
before speaking. “I will
not
leave until my daughter is safe. The rest
of you are free to leave, and I urge you to do so. Do
not
let the
foolish desire of a father dissuade you.”

The Canadian Prime
Minister spoke. “Mr. President, while I understand your desire to be near your
daughter, right now we have no idea if they are even in Seoul. We should
evacuate so our security teams can focus on finding the hostages rather than
worry about us.”

Starling agreed, the
argument sound. The man was right. Right now he had two Delta operators providing
security for him, when they could be out searching, and he was certain the same
was true for them all. He sighed. “Very well. I’ll meet you in Busan.”

The South Korean Prime
Minister, the Chair of the meeting, ended the teleconference. “Ladies and
gentlemen, this meeting is adjourned. We will reconvene when we are all secure
in Busan.”

The displays went blank
and Starling leaned back in his chair.

“I’ll arrange the evac,”
said Red as he headed for the door.

Starling shook his head.
“No. There’s no way in hell I’m leaving this city until my daughter is in my
arms.”

Red stopped and turned.
“What will we tell the others?”

Starling peered out the
window. “Nothing. Send Marine One with my double to Busan then isolate him.
I’ll conduct all meetings with them via telecom. They don’t need to know.”

Red grunted. “They’re
going to be pretty pissed when they find out.”

Starling turned to him.
“So be it. I’m not leaving without my daughter.”

Seoul
Metropolitan Police Lab
31
Sajik-ro-8-Gil, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Niner
watched carefully as the technicians worked on the recovered chips. It wasn’t
that he didn’t trust them—he didn’t—it was that he got the feeling they weren’t
operating under the same sense of urgency as he was. The President’s daughter
was missing, a young girl he knew, someone he had been through one of the most
harrowing experiences of his life with. After all, how many people could say
they survived the crash of a 747 in the jungle?

Her mother had died,
enough for any one family to go through. He respected the new President. The
man had kept his cool during those events and others, and though Niner wasn’t
political, he did think the man was doing a decent job under trying
circumstances.

And Niner was determined
to get the girl back.

I can’t imagine what
he’s going through.

Niner wasn’t sure if he
wanted kids. Maybe eventually, but definitely not now. Though when he saw Red
with his little guy, he had to admit the man appeared happy. In fact, he seemed
happiest when he was with his family. That seemed to be the pattern. The guys
loved the Unit, loved their brothers in arms, yet when the mission was over,
those with families were out the door as fast as they could manage, leaving the
single guys to drink the beer.

It wasn’t that he didn’t
want a girlfriend. He did. He just couldn’t seem to find the right woman. Jimmy
said it was because they couldn’t take him seriously, every second word out of
his mouth some sort of quip. It might be true, but that was who he was. If a
woman wanted to be in a relationship with him, she’d have to be able to keep
up.

He found his eyes
settling on the Korean woman, Senior Inspector Kim. She was smokin’ hot in a
buttoned-down sense. A lot of guys went for leggy blondes or busty redheads,
but he was more into the tinier packages, and she was definitely that, though
she was short by no means, Koreans not your stereotypical Asian, they on
average only an inch or two shorter than Americans. He himself was actually slightly
short for his heritage; something Atlas had no qualms teasing him about. His
lithe form didn’t help. Barrel chests were not a family trait, as was confirmed
with his interrupted visit with the family.

One of the techs from the
car company held up his hand, Kim walking over. “What is it?”

“The base code for this
chip has been modified.”

Niner’s eyes widened and
he quietly translated for Jimmy.

“Are you sure?” asked
Kim.

“Yes. The checksums don’t
match. We’ll have to analyze the code to see how exactly it was modified, but
it definitely was.”

Niner joined them. “Could
it have been hacked?”

The tech shook his head.
“No. These are set at the factory and there’s no way to change them. It’s a
security feature to prevent tampering. You’d have to have changed them at the
factory or at a dealership when being serviced.”

“So no way to do it
remotely.”

“Absolutely
no
way. They’re isolated.”

“Can you figure out when
they were modified?”

Another tech stepped
forward, holding up a tablet. “It had to be at the factory.”

“Why?”

“These are brand new
vehicles. According to the computer, they’ve never been serviced. They’ve got
less than one thousand kilometers on them.”

Niner bit the inside of
his cheek for a moment then looked at Kim. “We still need to know when they
were modified. If we’re dealing with the North Koreans, then they could still have
done it after the vehicles were delivered.”

“No.”

Niner turned to the tech.
“You sound pretty certain.”

“I am. This chip was
definitely modified at the factory.”

“How can you tell?”

The tech tapped away at a
keyboard for a moment then pointed at the display.

“I’m lost,” whispered
Jimmy as he leaned in to look at the screen filled with Korean text.

“I’ll explain in a
minute,” replied Niner as he quickly read the screen. He turned to the tech,
speaking Korean. “Is this showing the update history of the chip?”

The man nodded. “Yes.
This shows that someone modified the chip
before
a patch was applied. We
discovered a bug in the software that we fixed just before shipping the
vehicles.” He pointed at a line on the screen. “That’s the patch.” He pointed
at a line below it. “This is when it was modified by someone.” He pointed at
the last line. “And this is the original installation.” He jabbed a finger at
the chip. “This was definitely done at the factory.”