2nd Infantry Division
Camp Casey, 15 km from the DMZ
Detachment Under-Eye In the tunnel
Tongducheon, South Korea
0845 hours Sierra
Comment of the Moment: “From the markings on the outside, I’d say it has to be a nuclear device of some type.”
Mungo asked Aleumdaun, “Where are Cowboy and Dude?”
“Slover sent them, with their weapons over their shoulders, on the scooters, to explore downstream toward Seoul, about fifteen minutes ago. I told them to mark everything on their maps. I told them they should be back within twenty minutes so that you would have the remaining twenty minutes to fill the sink hole.”
“Hmmm. Okay thanks.
“What are you two doing with this crate?”
“I need to get a look at the mechanism inside to see what we’re dealing with.”
“From the markings on the outside, I’d say it has to be a nuclear device of some type.”
“Truly, but what type? What size? Strength? Yield?”
“That’s what I’m going to try to determine.”
Slover offered, “Okay, I have the side of the case off. It appears to be lined with a thin sheet of lead.”
She said, “That is SOP for nuclear devices.”
“Do you want me to take the hatch off the device”
“Okay, unscrew the hatch, but before you remove it, let me know.”
“Will do.” Quickly he removed the screws.
He reported, “The hatch is ready to come off.”
Aleumdaun answered, “Okay, come around here on the other side while I check its radiation levels.”
Slover asked, “You mean we might get radiation sickness from this thing?”
“No, no, it’s just a precaution. Mungo, please stand over there with him.”
Mungo moved quickly to stand beside Slover. He nodded, “You bet I will,”
Aleumdaun stood on the same side of the device as the two soldiers and stuck her measuring device around the side of the case. She looked at the meter on the device and quizzically asked a self-absorbed, “Hmmm?”
Mungo asked, “What? Do we need to run?”
She spoke to herself, “No. No. Something is off here.”
Nervously, and holding his hands in front of his groin area, Slover asked, “Like what?”
She explained, “All the readings are off. It’s almost as if there is no fissile material in there. It’s like it was in there once, and the inside walls are irradiated, but it’s not in there now.”
She reached inside her pants pocket. She took out a small compact mirror. She stuck her hand, with the mirror, around in front of the open case. She exclaimed, “Ha!”
Astonished, Slover asked, “You mean the case is empty?”
“Um, yes, well, I wouldn’t just stick my head in there to find out; too much residual radiation, but I can tell you this device is not armed.”
Mungo asked, “Do you mean the DPRK put an empty bomb case in this hole?”
Pensively she murmured, “Yes, well, it’s empty now. It did have a charge in it. I don’t know why they took it out.”
She stood still in thought for a few seconds. Then she exclaimed, “On the other hand, it’s pretty smart.”
Mungo attempted to lean around the device to look inside. He asked, “What are you talking about?”
She replied, “Let Slover and me put the side of the case back on, and I’ll tell you what I think.”
Slover asked, “You’re sure it’s okay.”
She replied, “I’m taking care of you Slover. It’s okay.”
After the two had reassembled the crate, she looked at the two soldiers in the dim light of her flashlight. She said, “Here’s the situation. The reason I said it was smart to put the core of the nuclear device in the bomb in the first place was because that was a logical place to hide it when the international inspectors came to look for nuclear devices.”
Slover stated, “I don’t get it.”
“Okay, let me put it this way. The world seems to think the North Koreans are a bunch of bumbling incompetents.
“The world is wrong. The North Koreans are among the most clever and devious people in the world. They are cunning. Their leader has some of the most brilliant minds in the world working for him.
“Number one; the world does not know about these tunnels. Where else would you store a nuclear bomb while international inspectors are inspecting the heart of your nuclear facilities? Why not hide fissile material in place in a bomb case that they are clueless about?”
Slover exclaimed, “Brilliant! But why take the fissile material out?”
She asked him, “Why leave it in there when you’re not ready to use it, but more especially why leave it in there, after the inspectors have left, where there is a chance it could be discovered by the enemy? It could be removed by the enemy! I mean you’re down at least one nuclear device, and if one is discovered, what are the chances the rest of them will be discovered and removed?”
Shaking his head, Slover blurted, “Incredible!”
To himself, he mused, “Maybe there’s hope for her.”
Aleumdaun said, “That’s not all. Do you remember hearing about an enormous explosion at Yong Byong, the Byongchon nuclear facility?”
Mungo nodded, “I remember. It was shrouded in secrecy. The North Koreans wouldn’t let any international aid come in.”
She explained, “It was a nuclear explosion.”
Slover and Mungo looked at each other. Then they looked at Aleumdaun. Mungo offered, “There were no reports of an atomic cloud!”
She nodded, “That’s number two.”
Both men asked, “What?”
She continued, “South Korean Intelligence believes that the North Korean scientists have developed a process that allows them to enrich plutonium in such a way that the majority of the detonation goes into an enormous Electro-Magnetic Pulse, an EMP. There is still a nuclear explosion with accompanying over-pressure blast and thermal heat, but the EMP is stronger.”
Mungo asked, “What’s the thing about the EMP?”
She said, “The EMP fries any unhardened computers and computer chips. That means it can disable all modern cars and trucks that have computer chips in them. That’s like nearly all vehicles produced after 1986.”
In amazement, Slover complained, “Just think about what could happen to commerce in the US if they could detonate a series of those things over the US.”
She agreed, “That’s number three.”
Slover asked, “What the hell?”
She continued, “The world thinks that the DPRK can’t successfully launch a rocket that will get past Japan.”
Slover complained, “Oh, man!”
She lectured, “Don’t be deceived. Those test firings of those rockets were not failures. They were successful test firings with specific goals. The scientists aborted the firings because the stages of the rockets met their performance requirements.
“They are closer than ever to firing a rocket that will fly over Japan and over the pacific. They will abort the missile over the Pacific and destroy it before it can impact the US. They will do it just to prove they can, and then they will use it to negotiate concessions from the US.
“After all, they have successfully launched two satellites in polar orbits, and they are still up there.”
Slover thought, “She’s just too damned smart for a woman.”
Then he snarled, “The devious little bastards.”
She nodded, “Truly!”
Then she explained “Your NSA scientists have developed a device that will measure the gamma rays given off by an enhanced bomb. I have a borrowed device.”
Mungo asked, “By enhanced do you mean the modified nuclear bomb that will produce a larger EMP?”
“Yes, and the device I hold in my hand is one of those devices.” She put one hand up in front of her. She said, “Don’t try to look at it. It’s secret. But I can tell you that the bomb that was in the case there was one of those modified bombs.”
Mungo summarized, “So, they wanted to destroy the leadership of the local command groups and disable all of our vehicles so that they could run right over us?”
“Something like that, yes.”
“We’ve got to put a stop to this, somehow! After we get this hole covered up, I’ll contact Spence again and get some guidance from him on what he wants us to do.”
Suddenly, Slover cocked his head toward the chamber entrance. He asked, “What was that?”
Mungo asked, “What was what?”
“What was that mechanical sound?”
“I didn’t hear anything.”
“Yeah, there was ah...a sound like a vehicle door slamming.”
Aleumdaun announced, “I heard voices.”
Mungo asked, “Was it Smith and Rider, or maybe Dude and Cowboy?”
She shook her head, “Shh! The voices were speaking Korean.”
Mungo whispered, “Oh, shit.” He unslung his rifle and pointed it at the chamber entrance. Slover moved over beside him and pointed his SAW at the entrance.
Aleumdaun pulled her service pistol from its holster.
Slover quietly asked, “What do you want to do, Top?”
His mind working furiously, Mungo replied, “We don’t have enough Intell about what is out there. If we go out firing, Cowboy and Dude will most likely hear it and might be able to join in, but we don’t know how close they are to coming back. I don’t know if Smith and Rider will be able to hear any weapons fire up topside. I don’t know if we can count on them.
“The North Koreans are here to fix the broken junction box, but if they can see the junction box, they can also see the hole that has not been filled in, and they will suspect that someone is probably down here. At any rate, they’re bound to come and check this chamber.
“If we burst out of here firing our weapons, we might be engaging a major force and facing certain death. We don’t know how many there are, what weapons they have, or what we’re up against. We need to wait and listen, learn all that we can about the enemy force that’s out there.
“I think we need to listen first. We need to see if we can put together a workable solution that will save our asses.”
Aleumdaun offered, “I just heard a male voice call for a squad leader.”
Mungo whispered, “That’s good. We now know that there is at least a squad out there.”
She said, “Let me slip closer to the entrance to this chamber and listen to what they are saying.”
As she moved toward the chamber entrance, Slover, put a cautioning hand on her shoulder. He whispered, “Shh. Be careful.”
She smiled and said, “I will.”
She moved stealthily to the small tunnel entrance at the larger tunnel. She peeked out of the small tunnel toward the DPRK Army detachment. Then she looked back toward Seoul.
She stood listening quietly for about thirty seconds. Then, she very quietly returned to the small chamber where Slover and Mungo waited.
She reported, “There are a Colonel and a Major out there. It looks like the Colonel is in charge of the repairs, and the Major is in charge of the soldiers. It is odd.”
Mungo replied, “Yeah. Two high ranking officers for a mundane repair job!
“How many soldiers did they bring to protect the work crew?”
“It looks like they brought about twenty.”
Dejectedly, he said, “Oh, man!”
“Yeah.”
Rousing himself from thought, he asked, “Did you by chance see Rider and Smith?”
She nodded, “Yes, both are about 100 yards back toward Seoul. They have laid their scooters down, and they are using them as shields against possible incoming fire.”
“Good idea.”
Suddenly, she whispered, “Shh. The Major is giving orders.” She quietly walked back to the chamber’s entrance and stood listening and watching. Then she hurried back to Mungo and Slover.
She explained, “The Major has just ordered a machine gun crew to set up facing the hole in the tunnel wall. He has everybody else in a semi-circle facing the hole in the wall. The attention of the work crew and the soldiers is on the hole in the wall.”
Mungo wondered, “Strange. What is the Colonel doing?”
“He’s just standing there, next to the Major, looking around. It’s like he’s in charge of the work crew and not the soldiers.”
“That’s weird.”
She shrugged.
Slover asked, “What do you want to do, Top?”
Mungo mused, “Hmmm. This is interesting.”
He asked Aleumdaun, “Can you signal Dude and Cowboy to sneak up here without your being seen and without their being seen?”
She said, “I think so.”
He exclaimed, “Okay. Wait! Slover, they’ll recognize you. They might not move if Captain Dawn signals them. I want you to signal them. The Captain and I will go out there with you and give you cover while you get them to come up here.”
Aleumdaun said, “Wait. I can signal them.”
Mungo agreed, “I know you can, but if the North Koreans see you and shoot you, I will forever be filling out paperwork explaining why I lost an ROK officer to the North Koreans. Now, please, let me work this situation out.”
Glumly, she nodded.
Mungo ordered, “Let’s get my two boys up here.”
The three moved quietly toward the chamber entrance. Mungo and Aleumdaun took up defensive positions just at the outside edge of the entry tunnel to the chamber.
The enemy force was about 20 meters away.
He whispered to her, “If it looks like either officer is going to look at us, or order the soldiers to aim their weapons at us, shoot them. You take the Major, I’ll take the Colonel.”
She nodded and aimed her pistol at the Major.
With the light of the tunnel from the DMZ side of the tunnel behind him, Slover waved his hand over his head to get the attention of Cowboy and Dude. Then he blinked his flashlight at them. Finally, Cowboy saw him and waved his hand over his head. Slover indicated by hand motions that he wanted the two to move over to the tunnel wall and to move quietly up to his position. Dude waved a rolled-up map over his head. Slover waved for him to put it down and move over to the tunnel wall. Dude hesitated. Slover continued to encourage him to come to him without the map.
In a few minutes, the two soldiers arrived at Slover’s position. Mungo and Aleumdaun backed slowly around the entrance. The five of them went back into the earthen chamber.
Mungo ordered, “Everybody check your ammunition. Make sure you’ve got a full load. Okay? Lock one clip, load.
“Here’s what we’re going to do.
“I’d rather be anywhere else than here. But, this is what we’ve trained for. We know how to do it.
“We’re going to go out this little tunnel entrance, and we’re going to line up quietly across the main tunnel. We will move stealthily. Will make sure that the enemy does not hear us or see us. We’re all covered in mud. That means we have good camouflage for this location. Then Captain Dawn will tell them in Korean to drop their weapons and surrender. Captain you still have the Major. I have the Colonel.
“If they start to turn their weapons toward us, especially the machine gun, we will engage the machine gun crew and the others with weapons and eliminate them immediately. If the officers attempt to engage us, we will eliminate them immediately.
“Slover, you have the SAW. The machine gun crew is your primary target. After that, it’s anyone who wants to shoot at us.”
Mungo paused and asked, “Slover, are you up for this?”
Slover replied, “Yeah, Top. We are under threat by the enemy. I’ve got this.”
Mungo agreed, “Good man!”
Slover nodded and whispered, “Hooah!”
Mungo ordered “Cowboy and Dude, your primary targets are the leading NCOs in the enemy formation. You’ve been taught to recognize their rank insignia. Engage them first, then any others who want to shoot at us.”
Both nodded and whispered, “Hooah!”
Mungo commanded, “We will engage them, eliminate them, and take control.”
He whispered, “Okay, let’s take command of the tunnel. Let’s move out.”