Dragon Sim-13 (31 page)

Olinski raised himself slightly on his good arm. "They'll stop for the night. I don't think they'll keep up their sweep in the dark. They'll stop and set up a guard line, then move out tomorrow morning at first light."

Mitchell considered this. "So it's a question of whether they make it to the pickup zone before dark. If they don't, we're OK because we'll be there. If the Chinese do make it there, or farther, we're going to have to go through their lines tonight."

Riley nodded. "I think we ought to hold up here and keep watch on the search line. Wait until dark and then move down. With a little luck the Chinese will stop before the PZ."

C.J. was tired and irritable. "All that's nice and fine, but what happens if we make it to the PZ and no bird comes tonight? We'll still

have to deal with the Chinese tomorrow. Maybe we ought to head back the way we came and try to evade them."

Riley disagreed. "No way. It kicked our ass coming down here. We can't go back up. Besides, what's up there? They'll catch up with us eventually. We might as well go for broke tonight. If the aircraft doesn't come tonight, we'll try to slip through and head on down to the coast like originally planned. We can't run forever."

Camp Page, ChunChon, Korea Saturday, 10 June, 0600 Zulu Saturday, 10 June, 3:00 p.m. Local

Chief Warrant Officer Colin Lassiter was finishing running up a Blackhawk on the flight line when Captain Long finally tracked him down. He watched the approach of the captain through the windshield. She was with another warrant officer. Lassiter did a quick scrutiny of the man's uniform badges—you could learn a lot from a man's badges. No flight wings above the man's left shirt pocket: a warrant officer who wasn't an aviator. He noted the Special Forces patch on the man's left shoulder and the same patch on his right shoulder, indicating combat service in Special Forces. He wondered if that meant he had been in Vietnam.

Lassiter was too young to have been in Vietnam. He'd been in the army sixteen years, twelve of them as an aviator. He'd taken up flying because he liked excitement and he loved flying. He still loved flying but the excitement had worn thin. He was fed up with the army and planned on getting out after this tour in Korea. He was tired of all the games he had to play. He didn't know what he was going to do when he got out, and he really didn't care as long as he could fly.

He watched the captain and Special Forces warrant come up to the aircraft as he started to shut the bird down. Lassiter respected Captain Long. None of the warrants in D Company had been thrilled when they got a female commander, but their original antipathy had grudgingly given way to acceptance. Some still didn't like having a woman in command and never would, but after only two months in command, the captain had earned the respect of most of the men in her unit. Lassiter respected Long because she made decisions and didn't bullshit people. She told the truth as she saw it and was fair. That was unusual in officers, in Lassiter's experience—which was another one of the many reasons he was getting out of the army. On top of her command abilities, Lassiter also respected Captain Long's flying skill. She was one of the best pilots he had ever flown with.

With the engine finally shut down, Lassiter stepped out of the aircraft.

Long introduced the two warrants. "Jim Trapp, this is Colin Lassiter." She turned her direct gaze on Colin. "Jim is in my husband's unit down in Yongsan. He's come to me with a problem. I might be able to help him out but I need some assistance. I came to you first because I thought you might be willing to give us a hand."

Lassiter gathered together his flight gear, throwing his helmet in its bag. "What do you need?"

"I need a copilot to help me steal a helicopter and fly it to China to rescue my husband and some of his team members."

Lassiter put down the bag. Captain Long had a good sense of humor, but this was a little strange. "Come on, ma'am. That's pretty good. What do you all need?"

Trapp looked Lassiter in the eye. "She isn't joking. We were in China on a classified mission. Their helicopter crashed. Mine made it out. They've been written off as far as everyone else is concerned, but we know that some of them are alive. We can't get anyone else to react in time. We have to go in tonight."

Lassiter looked from one to the other. It sounded like dialogue from a bad movie. But he could tell they weren't joking. "You're serious," he said incredulously.

Jean Long looked at him piercingly. "Please, Colin. My husband is there. They've got three wounded men. We've got to go tonight to get them out."

Colin shook his head. "Why me? Why'd you come to me?"

"Because I know you're getting out and are fed up with this stuff. You're bored. You aren't married. You're a good pilot. And truthfully because you're probably the only one crazy enough to do this with me."

Colin considered this. "The last one is certainly true. I'd have to be crazy as hell to do this." He rubbed his chin in thought—things were looking more exciting by the second. "China, heh? I've always wanted to see China. What's the plan?"

"Let's go to my office and we'll show you."

Changbai Mountains, China Saturday, 10 June, 0600 Zulu Saturday, 10 June, 2:00 p.m. Local

The plan had been done scientifically. The 46th Army had five divisions. Two had been sent to Beijing. That left three infantry divisions at an authorized strength of ten thousand men each. Minus those sick or injured, the few on leave, and those slots that were unfilled, 26,345 were left to participate in the search. One wheeled vehicle per company was authorized to carry equipment and for radio control. Everyone else was on foot.

Taking out the truck drivers, division staffs, and various other support people, there were 24,395 soldiers on foot. Dividing the two hundred kilometers they were to cover by that many soldiers gave each man a search area approximately eight meters wide. With this gap between soldiers, the 46th People's Liberation Army marched toward the mountains.

The cordon already had run into twelve hunters and two trucks from mines in the mountains. The army commander was taking no chances. All had been taken into custody until their identification could be verified. Each regimental commander checked off the phase lines as their units crossed them. The pace had been set at two kilometers an hour.

Like a rising olive-green tide, the army swept the foothills of the mountains.

Camp Page, ChunChon, Korea Saturday, 10 June, 0800 Zulu Saturday, 10 June, 5:00 p.m. Local

Hossey, Trapp, and Hooker had spent the hours profitably. They war-gamed the situations they might face and devised plans to meet them. They decided that Trapp and Hooker would fly with the Blackhawk until the refuel point. Hossey wanted to go with them, but Trapp convinced the colonel that he had another important mission.

"Sir, you need to stay on the phone and get someone to believe that those men are really on the ground. I don't know what the hell is going on at US-SOCOM with them denying any knowledge of the operation, but you have to try to get to the bottom of it. We also need you to prepare for the return of the helicopter so it doesn't get shot down trying to get back into South Korean airspace."

Hossey was forced to agree with Trapp's logic. He took Hooker's car and headed back to Yongsan.

It had taken Lassiter and Long an hour to finish their flight plan for the mission. They plotted their route in and out of the target area and studied the maps they had available. The lack of good imagery was a handicap. Luckily the pickup zone appeared to be located just by the intersection of a river and an unimproved road. The plan was simple. They'd fly up the coast and turn left when they saw the lights of the North Korean town of Najin on its promontory. Circumnavigating the town, they'd fly almost due east until they saw the river, then turn left and fly until they hit the dirt road. Jean felt that they would have enough points over land to be able to update the Doppler en route and get them close to the PZ.

They planned to lift off just prior to 9:00 p.m. local. In the hours remaining they had a lot to accomplish. The internal tanks had to be filled on 579, the helicopter they would be using. They had to file a false flight plan with base operations so they could take off. They had to draw their night-vision goggles. Trapp and the sergeant major had to load some equipment on board the bird. And all this had to be done without arousing the suspicions of anyone in the unit.

Fortunately, the military mind-set aided them in their endeavors. No one questioned them as they went about preparing for the mission. The fact that it was a quiet Saturday afternoon helped. Jean let Lassiter handle the helicopter while she went over to flight operations and filed a flight plan. She told the NCO on duty the same story she had used on her first sergeant: She and Lassiter were taking 579 down to the range early and would spend the night there. Jean knew the story would last long enough for them to make the east coast of Korea. After that she wasn't sure what the reaction would be, but hopefully by then they would have disappeared from all radar screens as they hit the wave tops.

Lassiter had the support platoon bring over a fuel truck and pour in JP4 fuel until all four internal tanks were bulging. When that was done, he started preflighting the aircraft. As he was checking the engine fluid levels, Hooker and Trapp arrived, carrying a bulky duffel bag. Lassiter eyed the bag and the two Special Forces soldiers. "What's in there?"

Hooker tapped the bag knowingly. "Just some what-if stuff."

46th Army Headquarters, Yanji, China Saturday, 10 June, 0800 Zulu Saturday, 10 June, 4:00 p.m. Local

The army commander updated Tugur on the latest situation report. "The sweep has progressed twelve kilometers from the border road. They are making approximately two kilometers an hour." He turned to the map. "We estimate they will be somewhere along this trace by dark. So far they have managed to turn up some hunters and miners. There has been no sign of the terrorists."

Tugur grunted his acknowledgment.

The commander continued. "I have a recommendation to make." Tugur gave him an encouraging nod. "Since we found the wreckage in this location, I think we ought to narrow the search in order to concentrate our forces. The terrorists are on foot. They cannot be moving fast enough to have gone much farther than, say, from here to here." The commander outlined his estimate on the map. "I suggest we pull our forces from these areas here to the north and south and concentrate them in this center area, from twenty kilometers north of the indicated point to twenty-five kilometers below it. This will allow us to have a much better net."

Tugur agreed with the officer. "Your reasoning is valid. Give the orders."

Changbai Mountains, China Saturday, 10 June, 0900 Zulu Saturday, 10 June, 5:00 p.m. Local

Watching the search line creep forward had been agonizing. From his perch Riley watched in growing dismay as more trucks pulled into the area, dropping off additional troops. He climbed down from the tree and reported to Mitchell. "They're going to make the pickup zone before dark. They're only two kilometers away from it now. I figure they'll go maybe another kilometer beyond by dark. And there's more bad news. Looks like the search is being concentrated here. For the last hour more troops have been coming into this area. The density of the search line has almost doubled."

Mitchell sighed. "Do you think we can break through tonight?"

Riley shook his head. "Before these reinforcements I would have said maybe. Now I doubt it. We're definitely going to make contact. I don't relish the idea of running toward the pickup zone, carrying Olinski, and fighting off the Chinese at the same time. We could force our way through, but they'd track us down and wipe us out before we went five hundred meters." Riley kicked the tree Mitchell was leaning against. "Damn! We've got to come up with a plan."

Mitchell agreed. "Let's bring everyone together and talk it over."

'Offer the enemy a bait to lure him." Sun Tzu: The Art of War

Changbai Mountains, China Saturday, 10 June, 0930 Zulu Saturday, 10 June, 5:30 p.m. Local

Thirty minutes of brainstorming had turned up no feasible plan. Riley kept silent, but he knew what the plan had to be. He'd known all along. Mitchell must also see that they had only one choice. Riley had desperately hoped someone else could come up with a less drastic course of action. No one had.

Riley was getting ready to speak when Mitchell beat him to it. "All right. Enough. It's time to face reality. We can't run from these guys. Not only can we not outdistance them carrying Olinski—and I don't want to hear any more bullshit from you about getting left behind," the captain warned Olinski, "but also there's no point in going west. For all we know there's another search line coming up the mountains on that side. There must be people at the crash site. West is out.

"North and south are out, too. The search line extends as far as we can see in both directions. We'd never be able to do an end run around the flank. For all we know it extends fifty kilometers each way. That leaves us with the original problem. We have to either head east or hide in place. We're fooling ourselves if we think we can do either.

"The bottom line is that we have to make the Chinese change their tactics. There's only one way I can think of to do that. Set up a diversion." 

Mitchell let the significance of what he had just said sink in for a few seconds.

Olinski was the first to react. "I volunteer, sir. If you all could get me up to the high ground over there to the north, I could use the SAW and get their attention."

Mitchell had expected this and shook his head. "No. If the people doing the diversion are going to have any chance at surviving, they've got to be able to run. I'm not sending anybody on a suicide mission."

Riley raised his hand for attention. Everyone fell silent. "Here's what I propose. Two men, healthy men, take an SVD sniper rifle and the SAW machine gun. They go up in higher ground along that finger there to the north. Just after dark the one with the SVD starts taking out the Chinese along the search line. I'm sure they won't be practicing strict discipline. Hell, they'll probably have fires going all along the line. We shoot enough of them, and keep it up, until they have to react.

"The rest of the team hides. The best place will probably be down near the stream over there. Hopefully, once the shooting starts, the Chinese will break their line and move past those team members who are hiding, missing you in the dark. Once the Chinese go by, our guys head on down to the pickup zone. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to do it in the confusion. If you make any accidental contact, you can use the silenced submachine gun to take care of it. /

"The two guys in the hills keep the Chinese's attention as long as they can, then try to make it down to the pickup zone or, if that isn't possible, try to escape into the hills. Two healthy guys might have a chance where the whole group of us wouldn't. We coordinate a pickup zone back in the mountains for those two. If the rest of the team gets out tonight, you get base to run another exfiltration for those two on another night."

Riley stopped and looked at the captain. They both knew they had to go with this plan. It was the only way. It was feasible—all except the last part, Riley thought. There's no way those two men would survive. But at least they'd go out fighting.

The detachment commander stood up. "I agree, unless anyone can come up with a better suggestion." Mitchell looked each team member in the eye. No one said anything. "I'll decide who does what. Dave, come with me."

Riley and Mitchell walked about twenty meters away from the team and sat down on two rocks.

Riley preempted the captain. "Listen, Mitch. I know you're going to volunteer yourself to do this. Deep inside you know that's bullshit, for the same reasons you gave Olinski. We've got only four healthy men—me, Hoffman, Chong, and Comsky. It's got to be two of us. One of the two has got to be a trained sniper. That's between Comsky and me. We need to leave Comsky with the main party because he's the medic. That means I'm the one with the sniper rifle."

Mitchell didn't protest. He hated the decision. But it was the right decision.

Riley continued. 'Then it's between Hoffman and Chong for the SAW. Chong's qualified on the SAW and it's his weapon. I'd also prefer having Chong with me. If anybody can navigate our way through the mountains at night and keep us from getting tracked down, it's him. I'll leave Hoffman with you for another reason. If the exfil bird doesn't come tonight—and you and I both know it's a long shot—he's your best bet for figuring out something when you get to the coast, whether it be hot wiring a boat or rerigging a radio. You're going to need him."

Mitchell let out a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second. "You're right, as always, Dave. It's going to be you and Tom. I'll give him the news."

46th Army Headquarters, Yanji, China Saturday, 10 June, 1000 Zulu Saturday, 10 June, 6:00 p.m. Local

Yanji was a mining and industrial city with a population of one hundred thousand. Tugur was running the search operation from the regional army headquarters in the center of town. The six Z-9 attack helicopters of the 3d Aviation Regiment were crouched in the fields surrounding the headquarters along with eight S-70 transportation helicopters.

Tugur had taken the time to interrogate the hunters and miners who had been picked up in the sweep. Checks had confirmed their identities, but despite that, the local commander had been too frightened of the wrath of General Yang to release them. Unfortunately, that was the extent of his initiative. He had not thought to ask the prisoners if they had seen anything unusual. Tugur made up for this deficiency in his interrogation. They all replied in the negative, except for one disgruntled old miner who complained that someone had stolen the battery from his truck the previous night.

Tugur was interested in the report of the stolen battery. Who would go all the way up to the mountains to steal a battery from a truck? And if the terrorists had done it, why steal the battery and not the truck? Tugur puzzled over this but could not come up with an answer. He put it aside in the activity of coordinating the sweep's halt for the night. Still the detail gnawed away in the back of his mind. Something about the battery was important; he could feel it.

Changbai Mountains, China Saturday, 10 June, 1100 Zulu Saturday, 10 June, 7:00 p.m. Local

From the tall tree Riley watched the olive-green tide reach high water for the day only a kilometer and a half away. He observed the soldiers' preparations for the evening. Like soldiers anywhere, they were gathering wood for fires to take away the night's chill. Riley noted the lack of defensive preparations. The trucks, with their heavy machine guns mounted over the cabs, were not tactically placed in positions with good fields of fire. Instead, they were haphazardly parked in the places most convenient for the company commanders.

The line had made it almost a kilometer past the pickup zone—only a fraction of an inch on the map in Riley's pocket but a significant distance on the ground. Riley continued to study the terrain as the sun went down. He and Chong would move out to the sniper position on the ridgeline as soon as it got dark. Satisfied that he had seen all he wanted to, Riley climbed down.

The rest of the team was waiting for him at the base of the tree. They'd spent this time building a small terrain model, using dirt, sticks, and small rocks. The men gathered around the scale model as Riley made his report, pointing out the places he was talking about.

"The sweep line's made it along a front basically from here, to here, to here. About a klick and a half from here and a little under a klick in front of the pickup zone, if you draw a straight line from our location to the PZ. They don't seem concerned about making contact. Looks like there'll be a bunch of guards standing around fires all along the line. The fires are about thirty meters apart. I still don't think you could sneak through. The off-duty people are bedding down for the night all around, wherever they feel like it. The vegetation isn't thick enough here to cover you."

Mitchell nodded his head in agreement as Riley continued. "The plan we decided on still stands. Tom and I will go up to this position here on the ridge. We'll leave at twenty thirty, after it's fully dark and they've had a chance to settle in down there. We'll take two of the remaining sets of PVS-5 night-vision goggles. The rest of you will move down here, to this stream that runs into the river. Hide as best you can in the thick vegetation along the bank. At zero zero thirty local I'll start picking off people along the guard line. It's about two thousand meters from where I'll be shooting to the nearest Chinese, so they're going to have to move forward to engage me. Once they get inside a thousand meters, Tom will open up with the SAW. We'll keep engaging them until they get to within five hundred meters, at which time we'll head on up into the mountains."

Riley turned to Mitchell, and the captain began to brief them on the rest of the plan. "After Dave and Tom engage, we wait. In the confusion, we try to find the best time to move through the Chinese line along the stream bank. They might even move everyone out and pass us by. At worst case, they're going to have to thin their line to go after these two. Either way, we go through. I'll be in the lead with my silenced MP5 and wearing the last set of PVS-5s. Hoffman and Comsky will carry Olinski. C.J., you bring up the rear. Hoffman and Comsky will use the silenced .22s if they have to shoot. C.J., you take Olinski's shotgun.

"We've got an hour and a half from when Dave starts shooting to make it to the pickup zone. We'll wait there until 0500. If no aircraft comes by that time, they most likely aren't going to be coming. We use the remaining two hours of darkness to move downslope and find a hiding place. The next night we'll continue on to the border. Any questions?"

C.J. raised his hand. "What about the markings on the pickup zone? And frequency? The aircraft is going to have a hell of a time finding that place—if it comes at all. Also, there still might be shooting going on. We probably ought to be up on the radio to assure them that we're really there."

Mitchell agreed. "We've got four infrared chem lights left; we can use those for pickup zone marking. We've also got infrared strobes on all our vests. Olinski will have the PRC68. We think it still works after Hoffman put it back together. If Ski sees or hears anything resembling a friendly helicopter, he's going to start calling on the agreed-upon frequency. Anybody else?"

Hoffman stirred and looked at Riley. "Top, they don't need to get within five hundred meters to engage you. They can start engaging you from the search line using the 12.7-millimeter machine guns on the trucks. They've got the range to reach out there."

Riley had figured his junior engineer would make that observation. He hoped no one would ask too many questions about the diversion team's role. Most particularly he hoped no one would ask questions regarding their survivability. "I've thought of that," Riley answered. "Those machine guns have the range but they're not going to be able to find us until they get close. I've got a couple of tricks I'll use to hide my muzzle flashes. The Chinese are going to have to move. Once we start popping their people off, they'll be so mad they'll be hard to hold back. I just hope enough of them come forward to allow you all to slip through without making contact."

Camp Page, ChunChon, Korea Saturday, 10 June, 1229 Zulu Saturday, 10 June, 9:29 p.m. Local

"Camp Page tower, this is army helicopter 579. Request permission to depart airfield on a heading of eight zero degrees. Over."

"Roger army helicopter 579. You are cleared for taxiway and departure. Over."

Jean Long released the brakes on the Blackhawk as Lassiter increased throttle. The aircraft rolled on its three wheels out to the main runway that ran the length of Camp Page. They turned and faced to the east.

Jean tenderly lifted the collective and slipped the cyclic forward, and the heavily laden helicopter pushed away from the clutches of the earth. A two-foot gap appeared beneath the wheels. Getting the feel of the unusual center of gravity caused by the internal fuel bladders, Jean hovered there for ten seconds. She glanced over at Lassiter, who smiled, shrugged, and nodded. Increasing power and lift, she quickly gained altitude and flew off toward the high mountains that encircled ChunChon to the east.

Yongsan Army Base, Seoul, Korea Saturday, 10 June, 1230 Zulu Saturday, 10 June, 9:30 p.m. Local

Hossey was laboriously working his way around the Pentagon via phone extensions. No one he had talked to on the night duty staff had any knowledge of a live mission run in this part of the world. It was almost as if there had not been any authorization for this action.

Hossey looked at his military phone book in frustration. He opened it one more time and started from the front, looking for any number that might connect him with someone who knew what was going on.

Changbai Mountains, China Saturday, 10 June, 1230 Zulu Saturday, 10 June, 8:30 p.m. Local

Team 3 was splitting again, and this time it appeared to be permanent. Dave Riley could tell that Mitchell was very unhappy about the situation. Chong was standing at the edge of the little grouping, saying good-bye to the rest of the team. Riley stood next to the captain.

"Take care, Mitch, and get these guys out."

Mitchell nodded. It was hard for him to speak. He felt completely helpless. This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. Nothing in his training had ever prepared him to order two of his men to go on a oneway mission. Not only that, but Dave Riley was his best friend. He didn't know what to say, but he tried anyway. "If there was any other way, Dave. I just can't come up with anything."

Riley put his arm over his friend's shoulder. "I know that. Hell, we both came up with the same plan. You just get those guys out and it'll all be worthwhile. You've got to hang in there and drive on."