inside, Johnson flashed Fordyce the thumbs-up and began feeding gear to Tucker, who had already climbed into the hatch.
Once the CRRC was stripped, the two remaining SEALs scuttled it with their knives and let it sink as they dropped through the hatch and closed it above them.
As soon as everything was tight, they gave the pilots the word to get moving. The sooner they were out of North Korean waters and back on the USS Texas, the better all of them were going to feel.
Fordyce looked over at Jin-Sang. Tucker had placed a new mask on him and had wrapped the boy in a dry Mylar blanket. He was out of it, but not so out of it that he couldn’t sense the relief of the men around him. Slowly, Jin-Sang lifted his hand and flashed Fordyce a thumbs-up.
The SEAL returned the thumbs-up and then began thinking of everything they needed to report back to Washington as soon as possible.
CHAPTER 60
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LITTLE TORCH KEY, FLORIDA
Tai Cheng exited the van and looked out over the flat, turquoise water. A soft breeze moved the fronds of the palm trees along the beach. He had never been to this part of the United States before. He had seen it only in pictures.
His shoulder hurt like hell and he was exhausted, but they had made it. He was thankful to have had the foresight to pack a medical kit. The bullet wound to his shoulder had required repeated bandage changes.
They had overnighted in truck stops, staying off the roads from ten in the evening until five in the morning. It had added fourteen hours to the journey, but had dramatically reduced their odds of being pulled over. Cheng had gathered up the princelings and had made it out of Boston without being apprehended. All he had to do now was see them the last 120 miles to Havana, or the “Plantation,” as the Second Department referred to China’s intelligence station there, and his assignment would be complete.
Little Torch Key was a small island in the lower Florida Keys about thirty miles before Key West. It was so quiet the Dolphin Marina didn’t even have a restaurant, just a small bait-and-tackle shop with a gas pump and cold drinks. Cheng couldn’t have chosen a better rendezvous location if he had tried.
He was dressed for an afternoon of fishing, as were the rest of the princelings. They had purchased the clothing outside Fort Lauderdale, along with sunscreen, snacks, and an enormous cooler in which he had hidden the device.
Colonel Shi had warned Cheng to be careful around Medusa. The man held no loyalties except to himself. He would throw everyone overboard, including his crew, if it meant saving his own skin. He was lazy, which the colonel attributed to too much alcohol or too much sun, and he had very little honor. In other words, a typical American. But he was an exceptional smuggler and knew the waters from the Keys to Cuba like no one else. “Keep him sober and keep him focused,” Shi had advised.
Cheng found the fishing yacht berthed exactly where he had been told it would be. It was a forty-five-foot Bertram with dual fighting chairs and an array of radar communications equipment. Cheng was particularly glad to see the radar array. If there was even a hint of trouble from the ship’s captain, Cheng planned on his own kind of mutiny. Without hesitation, he would throw the man and his crew overboard and complete the journey without them. He had come too far to be undone.
Walking up to the vessel, he took the first mate and “hostess” by surprise. She was stocking beverages in a small fridge on the aft deck. As she bent over, the mate was rubbing himself against her. They were both white, sunburned trash.
The mate was a lean, muscled man with teardrop tattoos near his left eye and a host of other body art that suggested he had seen the inside of a prison more than once. She was petite, with greasy hair, a bikini top, and jean shorts. At the small of her back was what Americans referred to as a tramp stamp.
Cheng cleared his throat to get their attention. They were shameless. Neither seemed to be embarrassed to have been caught in such lewd behavior.
“Skipper!” the lean man shouted. “Charter’s here!”
It took a moment for the captain to appear, which led Cheng to believe the man had probably been in the head.