Echo Six: Black Ops 4 - Chechen Massacre (24 page)

The Mil Mi-24, NATO codename 'Hind', was a powerful armored attack helicopter, equipped with a nose-mounted 12.7mm Yak-B Gatling gun, as well as a range of air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles on its inner and outer hardpoints. It was not a machine to tangle with, especially in a lumbering whale of a craft such as the mammoth Mi-26 they planned to use for their escape.

It meant their window of time was now defined, two hours from now, 1600. He quickly worked out time and distance to the border. If they weren't out of the air base inside one hour, the Hinds would be able to catch them before they were outside of North Korean airspace. Guy nodded. He'd done the same calculation.

He stared at them again. "Next, I want Colonel Ho brought here. Right now. “

Five heads looked away. No one dared betray the formidable Colonel.

Too bad. I have a simple way of extracting information.

"I'll ask that question again. Heinrich, each man that fails to reply, kill him.” He pointed to the controller nearest to him, a sergeant. "Colonel Ho. Where is he?"

The answer came after only a tiny pause. "In the Officers’ Mess, Sir. They will be finishing their lunch."

"Call him. Tell him Pyongyang requires him to report to the tower to deal with an emergency. Wait!" He glanced at Josef, who looked even worse. "Do you know enough Korean to understand what he says?"

"I'll know what he's saying."

He nodded to the sergeant. "Call him. And remember, screw it up, and it'll be the last thing you do in this life. Got it?"

The man nodded eagerly and picked up the internal telephone. After shouting at the person the other end, there was a pause, and then his tone changed. It was respectful, humble, an NCO speaking to a high-ranking officer of the Ministry of Public Security. Ho! The exchange lasted for half a minute, and he put down the phone. Josef nodded.

"We’re okay. He gave the impression that Kim Jong-un himself was calling him to the control tower."

"Now we wait. Virgil, get downstairs and warn them he's on the way. They'll have to clear those bodies and stay out of sight until he's inside the building. Then they can grab him and bring him up here."

"Copy that."

The trooper ran down the stairs, and they waited. He watched through the smoked glass of the control tower, and after a couple of minutes, an officer emerged from a low building. He recognized him instantly, short, with huge, broad shoulders and a squat, muscular body. He couldn't see his eyes under the visor of his cap, but he knew they’d be hard and cruel. Pig eyes, the eyes of a sadistic murderer. He felt an overwhelming rage, but Alessandra was standing nearby.

"Remember, this isn't about revenge," she muttered quietly.

"Yeah."

He watched the officer disappear into the building. There was a shout of anger from downstairs, and then he heard the sound of heavy boots climbing the staircase.

I want to kill the guy for everything he's done. For what he is, for the evil he represents. This isn’t about revenge.

To his surprise, he realized he meant it. It really wasn’t about revenge. It was a job, and that was all.

They appeared at the head of the staircase and walked across the floor of the control tower. Guy led the way and behind him, his nemesis. Colonel Ho. The North Korean had recovered well, and even appeared calm. He’d be anything but calm when their business was finished. He'd make sure the evil Colonel's career of murder and mayhem came to a permanent end. Strangely, he didn't feel any gloating satisfaction. He'd overcome the urgent, overwhelming need to kill the man standing before him. He was just a target, a target to be eliminated, nothing more. The target smiled.

"Well, well, Commander Talley. I never thought you'd get this far. You are to be congratulated, but if you think it will do you any good, you're quite wrong. You’ve just killed your sons. "

He felt his anger surge, and he forced himself to keep it in check.

This isn't about revenge.

"Where are they, Ho? Send the order to give them back to their mother. Otherwise, I’ll shoot you down right now, like the dog you are."

Ho chuckled. "And give up any hope of seeing them alive? I think not. I made you an offer, Commander. I want my property back, and then the boys will be returned. Not before."

"The nukes are gone for good, Colonel. They’re off the table, so you can put them out of your mind. The boys in exchange for your life. That's my deal. Take it or leave it."

Ho’s face didn’t change. "I think I'll leave it. Even if I accepted your offer, the boys are in California with their kidnappers. I have a prearranged time to speak to them at 2200 hours each evening. California time is sixteen hours behind us, so they make themselves available to take my call at exactly 0600 hours every day. Outside of those times, there is no communication. None! And if I do not make that call, they are to dispose of your sons and disappear.”

He slouched, appearing nonchalant, and his smile became a sneer. “But this is nonsense. Look outside. This base has a garrison of more than five hundred. You can’t fight them all." He walked toward the huge, smoked glass windows and pointed with his right hand, and his left hand smashed down on a big red button built into the console. Instantly, the control tower was invaded by the cacophony of an alarm siren.

"You fucker!" Talley snarled, cursing himself for being such a fool as to be taken in by him.

He ran forward and smashed the butt of his pistol on the man's hand, feeling it mash through to the bone. Ho screamed, snatched his hand away and knelt on the floor in agony, but it was too late. The damage was done, and he could see soldiers pouring out of the buildings in response to the alarm, hastily buttoning on jackets, fastening helmets, and shouldering their assault rifles. Ho started to pull himself to his feet, but Talley smashed him hard on the head.

"Stay down, you fucker! I'll tell you when to get up. Guy, we have hostiles incoming."

"It looks that way."

His number two was unflappable, no matter what the emergency. He was already pushing men into position and preparing their defenses. "Our men downstairs will have heard, and they'll hold them, at least for the time being. But when we leave here, we have to retreat back through the tunnel, and they'll come after us. Don't forget, those four gunships are inbound, and when these NKs see the Mi-26 take off, they'll put them on our tail."

Talley nodded, thinking desperately for a solution. If the enemy re-routed the Hinds, they’d vector cross-country and head them off, so they may have even less time than he'd thought. His eyes fixed on a steel mast set a hundred meters from the control tower, with a brick building at its base. At first, he'd assumed it was the mount for radar dishes, but they weren't any. The mushroom shaped objects just below the top of the mast were microwave dishes, and on the pinnacle was an array of radio aerials.

Communications! If we take out that mast, there'll be no way of contacting the incoming gunships, but they'd be able to use landlines to call the nearest air base and get them to issue the orders.

He called to the Korean air traffic control sergeant and pointed at the building.

"That building below the mast, what's inside?"

"It's the telephone exchange, Sir. They route all of our…"

"I've got it, good. Guy!"

"I'm on it. Jackson is downstairs. I'll take Virgil to cover us."

"Roger that. We'll keep them away from you as long as possible."

Guy sprinted away, and Talley saw him racing across the concrete with Drew Jackson, their demolitions specialist and Virgil Kane, the Minimi gunner. The door to the building was closed, but Guy barely paused. As he reached it, he lifted a boot and kicked it in. The door burst open, and they rushed inside. There was the brief sound of semi-automatic fire, and then Virgil re-appeared, throwing himself prone behind the Minimi, giving them time to set the charges. Talley glanced outside the control tower where scores of troops were converging on them.

"Dom, we have to hold them off. Smash out some of the windows and start shooting. Pour it on."

"I'm on it."

"Alessandra, we'll be leaving soon. Get Josef downstairs. You’ll have to do it on your own."

"I’ll manage." She helped the barely conscious pilot up and began dragging him toward the staircase.

He heard breaking glass as Rovere smashed the butt of his assault rifle through the window, reversed it, and emptied a clip at the soldiers running toward the control tower. Immediately, they took cover. Talley’s men switched to short bursts, conserving their dwindling supplies of ammunition, but he knew a garrison of five hundred men would not be deterred for too long by a few assault rifles firing three-shot bursts. They had to get out.

He ran across to the other side of the tower. So far, the communications building appeared to have gone unnoticed by the enemy. He ducked as a burst of gunfire shattered more windows, and the North Korean controllers dived to the floor for cover. He took is attention from them for a few moments and fired a few shots in the direction of some NKs who were beginning to mass for an attack. They dived out of sight, but one of the controllers, the officer, had somehow managed to get his hands on a pistol. He rolled out from underneath the console and fired two shots at Rovere. A bullet struck him on his armored vest and knocked him down. The second hit him in the lower part of the leg as he fell. Talley swung around and pulled the trigger, destroying the officer in a long burst of fire from his MP7, but the damage was done.

"How bad is it, Dom?"

The Italian looked up. "I'll wrap a field dressing around it to stop the bleeding. I don't think it's too bad. I should be able to walk."

"Get help if you have any problems. I'm not leaving anyone behind."

He looked around for the Korean sergeant. "You! Come here!"

The man crawled out from underneath the console and stood shivering in fear.

"It's okay. I'm not going to kill you, unless you force me. Tell me; is there an armory in this building? Quick man, don’t screw around."

The man slumped. "They've heard me answering your questions. When you leave here, they'll kill me anyway, so it doesn't make any difference. Unless you could take me with you?" He gave a fearful glance at Colonel Ho, who was watching him from where he lay on the floor. Ho’s expression was murderous, as if he was trying to strike the NCO dead on the spot.

Talley sighed.

Jesus Christ! In the middle of all this, we have a would-be defector, but maybe one who could be useful?

"No promises. Once we're out of here, you'll just have to take your chances. Now what about the armory?"

The man looked relieved. "It is in the basement. You go out through the bomb shelter into the tunnel and there is a door opposite. That is where they store the weapons and ammunition."

"Got it. Stay close, Sergeant. If I look around and find you're trying to get away, or I see a gun in your hand, I'll shoot you dead."

The man nodded eagerly. Talley looked out the window. Guy and the other two men were racing back to the tower. A few of the enemy saw them and opened fire, but Guy’s squad was almost at the door. They made it into the building and began returning fire. It was time to go. He shouted to his men to move Ho and the controllers down the staircase, and he went to follow, lending a shoulder to Rovere who was limping badly. He took a final glance out of the shattered windows before they vacated the tower, glimpsing the weapon the NKs were in process of deploying. Rovere grimaced.

"Shit! That changes everything."

The enemy had rolled out a flak gun, a Soviet era ZPU-4, placed only one hundred meters from the tower. Designed as a multi-barreled anti-aircraft weapon, the fearsome artillery piece fired 14.5mm armor-piercing rounds from each of its four barrels at high speed. Capable of knocking down a warplane, used on the ground it would devastate and destroy anything in its path. The thin skin of the control tower would be no obstacle to the heavy bullets. He dragged Rovere toward the staircase.

"We need to make sure we're out of here before they pull the trigger of that monster."

They reached the first floor where his men were waiting, still trading shots with an enemy who was getting closer by the minute, sheltering behind buildings and vehicles between rushes. It would only be a short time before they reached the tower, and they’d be likely to toss grenades when they were near. They emptied clip after clip at the NKs, but at best it only delayed them for a few seconds. Virgil flinched as an enemy bullet took him in the side, but he kept shooting the Minimi.