his rifle and the rest of his gear, Tang stashed his pistol beneath his tunic and prepared to receive the truck. “I’m going to go find out.”
With the SEALs covering him, Tang walked down to the side of the road, staying hidden by the tree line for as long as he could.
When he arrived at the vehicle, Hyun Su had already leaped out of the cab and was busy opening the doors in back.
“Where have you been?” Tang asked.
“My truck broke down.”
“Where’d you get this one?”
“I borrowed it.”
Tang looked at him. “By ‘borrow,’ do you mean you stole it?”
“Do you want me to take it back?”
“No,” the CIA operative replied as he signaled it was safe for the team to come out of the woods.
Hyun Su watched as they came, carrying the little boy on the stretcher. “Where’d he come from?”
“We borrowed him,” said Tang.
When Hyun Su opened the doors in back, the cargo area was completely empty. There were no boxes, no fake cargo to hide the team behind.
“What if we get stopped?” Tang asked.
“Then you’d better have a lot of whiskey and Playboy magazines.”
The CIA operative translated for Fordyce as the team climbed up into the truck. Once they got Jin-Sang in and Tang had changed into a fresh tunic, they closed the doors and got their show back on the road.
As Hyun Su drove, he detailed what had happened and what he had had to do in order to secure another vehicle. Even though it was a smaller truck, with no faux cargo and a much less healthy engine, it was a godsend and Tang complimented the young smuggler on his resourcefulness. As long as it got them where they were going, everything might be okay.
Hyun Su avoided asking Tang anything about his assignment. He knew better than that. Even if he had asked, the CIA operative wouldn’t have told him. They did, though, talk about Jin-Sang. It was obvious from his clothing that he had been in a labor camp. It was also obvious from the mask, the stretcher, and the splint fashioned around his leg that he wasn’t in the best of shape.
Tang explained to Hyun Su that he needed to get the boy across into South Korea as soon as possible. As they drove, they discussed options and began to formulate a plan.
Tang was already projecting further than just getting the little boy into South Korea. What he knew and what he had seen was highly valuable. Very important people at the Agency were going to want to debrief him. But then what? Who was going to take responsibility for him?
Tang thought about his own family, how they often discussed the horrors of North Korea, and while not particularly religious, how they prayed for the people there. Would his wife and children open their home, and more important, their hearts, to that little boy? The adjustment wouldn’t be easy for any of them, especially Jin-Sang.
The prisoners who did manage to escape often had difficulty fitting in. They carried a tremendous amount of survivor’s guilt and could be antisocial, even suicidal. Tang, though, felt Jin-Sang was different. The little boy understood the importance of family, and even though his had been taken from him, perhaps, in time, he could learn to love a new family. With those thoughts in mind, Tang leaned back and closed his eyes.
• • •
The CIA operative had no idea how long he had been asleep. The dramatic slowing of the truck jolted him awake. Immediately he reached for his SIG Sauer in the door pocket as his head swiveled from side to side.
“What is it?” he asked. “What’s going on?”
Hyun Su pointed up ahead and replied, “Checkpoint.”
“Checkpoint? I thought there weren’t supposed to be any checkpoints on this road.”
“There’s one now.”
Tang swore under his breath. Opening the rear window of the cab, he rapped on the cargo area to alert the SEALs that there was trouble and then sat back down.
“What do you want me to do?” Hyun Su asked.
“Just stay calm and let me do the talking.”
CHAPTER 53
* * *
* * *
The checkpoint seemed to be manned by an unnecessarily large detachment of six heavily armed police officers.
Everyone in North Korea was on the take. And while it was likely a shakedown operation meant to solicit bribes from smugglers who plied the country’s rural roads, Tang didn’t like it. Their presence, on this road of all roads, could easily represent something else. Had the dead Chinese officer been discovered