to bring the coffee and leave, closing the door behind her. Then he turned to them after taking a sip.
“I understand that you both made it through the Burner Box with flying colors,” he said pleasantly. “Congratulations.”
“Does that mean we’re done?” asked Reel.
Tucker seemed surprised by this. “Didn’t the DD tell you?”
“She said a mission was coming and things had to be sped up,” answered Robie while Reel simply stared at the DCI.
“Well, I might not have been entirely clear with her,” conceded Tucker.
“And why isn’t she in this meeting?” asked Robie. “She runs the ops.”
“She doesn’t run all the ops,” corrected Tucker. “I’m the DCI.”
“So what’s the mission?” asked Robie.
“Yes, what is the mission, Director?” asked Reel pointedly.
Tucker took another swig of his coffee, uncapped the water, and took a drink from that too. Both Robie and Reel saw the beads of sweat on his forehead although the room was very chilly.
“I wanted to tell you personally,” began Tucker. “Heightened rules of secrecy will apply to this.”
“So high the DD isn’t in the loop?” asked Reel.
Tucker licked his lips. “I didn’t say that.”
“So who is the target?” asked Robie.
Tucker indicated computer screen panels built into the table in front of them. He hit some keys on his panel, and the screens in front of Robie and Reel came to life. They looked down at them and saw a photo of a man there.
Tucker said, “His name is General Pak Chin-Hae. He is vice marshal, chief of the North Korean Army’s general staff, and he helps to run the Central Military Committee, arguably the most powerful body in the country.”
“And he’s the target?” asked Robie. “Why?”
“You don’t have to know why, Robie,” snapped Tucker. “Have you learned nothing while you’ve been at the Burner? You follow orders. You don’t do analysis. Your job is to pull the trigger, not question those who tell you to do so.”
A few moments of silence passed before Tucker said, “I’m sorry. We’re all under a lot of pressure. We need to work together. Just be assured that this target has to be eliminated. It’s in the national security interests of this country.”
Robie looked over at Reel. She said, “Okay, he has to die. Does this mean we go to North Korea? If so, how do we get in and how do we get out? Or is that not in the game plan, the ‘getting out’ part?”
Tucker cleared his throat. “I understand the concerns you might have after Syria.”
“That’s good to hear, sir,” replied Robie.
“But I met with you before to assure you that this is not personal. This mission is for the greater good. Nothing gets in the way of that.”
“So, where is the target?” asked Reel.
“The target will not be in North Korea.”
“Where, then?”
“He’s currently in France. He traveled there for a medical procedure. The hit will take place there.”
“A medical issue and he went to France?” pondered Robie. “Why not China? Or Russia? They’re buddies with Pyongyang.”
“I really didn’t bother to find out why,” said Tucker curtly. “And hitting him in either of those places would have been far more problematic and perhaps resulted in dangerous international turmoil.”
“We’re taking out basically the number two guy in North Korea and you don’t think there’ll be international turmoil?” said Reel incredulously.
“We’re not going to announce that it’s us, for God’s sake,” said Tucker. “We’re not the only enemies that North Korea has. There’s a long list, actually. And that cover I think will be enough.” He added, “We’re going to lay the blame elsewhere. We might very well lay it at the feet of North Korea itself. Un has many internal enemies. It’s not a stretch to think one of them could have plotted against him and he took his revenge. No one will find out we did it.”
“When is all this taking place?” asked Robie.
Tucker took another sip of coffee and fiddled with the top to his bottled water.
“You leave tonight.”
Robie and Reel both stared at him incredulously.
Tucker finally lifted his gaze to meet theirs. “I understand that it’s not the usual amount of time for an op like this.”
“It’s not even close, actually,” said Robie.
“The SEALs did bin Laden on short notice,” the DCI pointed out.
“The target site there had been under eyes for a long time. There were plans. The squad was ’coptered in. They hit hard and fast. There was no cover-up or finger pointing. We wanted the world to know we’d done it,” Robie responded. “What you’re asking from