CHAPTER 13
UNIT: Harvey’s Special Operations Teams
SITUATION: Escaping the SPUK
LOCATION: Kaesong District, North Korea
TIME: 0030 hours Local Time, Current Date
The low gear noise of the prowling truck reached Harvey and Pearly’s ears. Harvey was tense. With a quick look at Mungo, he asked, “What’s that noise?”
Mungo’s equally tense reply was, “Major, we have been dodging that sound all night long! It’s a truck loaded with Kaesong soldiers. They have spotlights, and they are sweeping the countryside looking for Captain Dawn and for us. And, like I just said, we must leave, Now!”
Harvey turned to Pearly, “Load up! We’re leaving, now!”
Pearly breathed out a quivering, “Yes, Sir!” Then, a little more forcefully, he stated, “The Colonel wanted me to bring up the rear when we leave here.”
Mungo nodded, “He did mention that to me at one point.” He turned his scooter toward the tunnel entrance, looked at Major Harvey, and Said,” After you, Major!”
Harvey exclaimed, “Oh, hell yes! Everybody, put on your NVG goggles, and let’s get out of here!”
Pearly grinned a tremulous grin, “If you’re waiting on me, your waiting on the wrong person!” Pearly and Harvey flipped their NVG goggles down from the secure spot on their helmets. Pearly checked the bolt cutter to assure it was safely attached to his scooter.
Harvey ordered the others, “Everyone turn on your Night Vision Goggles. Follow me!” He powered his scooter down the ramp and into the tunnel, as the growl of the ominous truck motor filled the air! In the dark of the tunnel, Mungo waved Cowboy and Dude ahead of him and waved for Pearly to follow him. He powered his scooter into the darkness of the tunnel. If not for his NVGs he would have been unable to see anything!
Pearly, because he was behind everyone and was the last through the tunnel, heard the truck engine stop outside the tunnel entrance. As his scooter powered along in the tunnel, he believed he might have five minutes before the soldiers found the tunnel guards. He knew the guards would take a minute to shake off their being bound, and that they would then go to the tunnel electricity box, pull a lever and dynamite the tunnel and collapse it on top of him with Major Harvey’s Tunnel Mission.
Fighting the dust raised by the scooters in front of him, and fighting for a clean breath, Pearly said, to no one in particular, “Colonel Spence, you had better be right about this, or we’ll all die!” He looked at his watch with its glowing minute and hour hands. Harvey’s group had been traveling for about four minutes. Pearly cried out to himself, “Oh god. I can’t wait any longer.” Though Colonel Spence was nowhere around, Pearly wailed out loud, “Oh Colonel, I can’t wait any longer. I’ve got to do this, now!” Mungo, who had been monitoring his behavior, looked back and saw Pearly stop. He powered down his scooter..
Pearly pulled his scooter to the right, powered completely down, stood on the brake, and the scooter slid to a stop. He kicked the kickstand down. With shaking hands, he fumbled with the strap that held the bolt cutter to his scooter. His fingers fumbled uselessly with the strap. He heard the oncoming wheels of a scooter. He looked back at North Korea. He couldn’t see anything. He looked in the direction the group had driven. His NVGs showed him a figure stopping next to him. He heard the familiar voice of Sergeant Major Mungo, “What’s the problem, Pearly?”
“I can’t…can’t…get this bolt cutter loose!”
Mungo ordered, “Look at me, Pearly. Look at me!”
Pearly wavered, “I can’t, no time. Must do this now!”
Mungo’s voice came out as an ominous growl. He commanded, “Pearly, look at me, now!”
Slowly, Pearly lifted his eyes.
Mungo ordered, “Sergeant Pearly, how old are you?”
“I don’t see what that has to do with this!”
Mungo commanded, “Tell me your mother’s name!”
“What?”
In a conversational tone, Mungo said, “Tell me your mama’s name!”
Pearly smiled, “It’s Ruth.”
“Okay! That’s good. How old are you?”
In a shaky voice, Pearly replied, “24 Sir!!”
“That's good, too. Can you tell me how to disconnect that bolt cutter from your scooter?”
“Sure, you push the metal tab backward through the slot, and pull the belt out.”
“Okay, why don’t you try it on your scooter!”
Pearly grinned, unclasped the bolt cutter, held it up, and said, “See!”
“That’s fine Sergeant Pearly! Why don’t you use it the way the Colonel told you he wanted you to use it?”
As if he were returning to reality, Pearly said, “Oh, hell yes!” He turned to the wall of the tunnel, braced the bolt cutter against the conduit that ordinarily would have powered lights, motion sensors, laser beam motion detectors, and explosives. Now, however. it was connected to strategically placed lumps of C-4 explosives designed to collapse all of the tunnel the North Korean side of the DMZ, which is where they still were.
Pearly leaned on the handles of the bolt cutter and snapped the teeth through the conduit.
Mungo said, “Now, pull that conduit on the right out of the wall completely.”
Pearly grabbed the conduit and pulled mightily. The conduit came loose.
Mungo said, “No use in leaving those two ends so close together. A spark could kill us all!”
“Roger that, Sergeant Major!”
Mungo suggested, “Put that bolt cutter back on your scooter, and let’s get out of here before they collapse tunnel right here on us!”
Pearly agreed, “Oh, hell yes!” He strapped the cutter to his scooter, stopped, looked at Mungo, and said, “Thank you, Sergeant Major!”
Mungo nodded, “You’re a good man Pearly!”
They rotated the power handles to full throttle and powered away.
They had not been away from the broken connection more than 30 seconds when they heard the C-4 blasts and the collapsing tunnel falling behind them. In the enclosed tunnel they felt the over-pressure blast wave as it abruptly pushed them along. They cringed at the heat from the blast as it scorched their backs and their hair. They powered their scooters through it, and they finally caught up with the others.
Dawn, Slover, Kim, and Nongjangju felt the explosion a mile away on the river. Sergeant Nongjangju asked, “Do you suppose that’s good or bad?”
“I’d like to think it’s good for us and bad for them, but there’s no way to know until everyone checks in with the Colonel.”
Kim called out softly, “We’re at the curve in the river where we first started. I’m going to run the raft ashore.”
“Okay, do it! We’re ready!”
He gunned the quiet electric motor the last 50 feet and drove the craft nearly completely ashore. Dawn pulled Slover’s head back to where she could see if he was aware of his surroundings. She asked, “Slover? Can you hear me? Are you awake?”
He muttered, “Huh?”
“Can you stand up?”
“Huh?”
“Come on Sweetie! Try to stand up!” Then she commanded him, “Sergeant First Class Slover, stand up!”
He mumbled, “Okay, standing up!” He rose slowly then stood swaying!”
She said, “Here, lean on me. I’ve got to get you out of the boat! We need to pull the boat across the road and into a lagoon. But first, I need to get you across the road and into some bushes!”
He sluggishly replied, “Roger that! Some bushes!” He was nearly unconscious and was repeating things in an effort to make those listening think he was functioning normally.
Dawn managed to get him across the road and into the bushes. She, Kim, and Nongjangju managed to get the boat across the road and to the edge of the lagoon. She radioed Spence, “Control, this is Floater! I have target with me. We are about to put the raft in the lagoon.”
Spence started to reply when a land mine exploded on farmer Nongjangju’s farm. Spence quickly radioed Dawn, “Floater, stand fast.”
She radioed back, “Stand fast?”
Spence repeated, “Do not come now! We have a situation!”
“She replied, “Standing fast. “
Spence did not communicate further.
Spence and Cruz were sitting in the cargo area of the truck when the explosion occurred. The concussive force of the explosive bounced the truck they were sitting in. Spence had exclaimed, “What the hell?”
Cruz had observed, “That wasn’t a mortar round, and it wasn’t an artillery round!”
Spence agreed, “Yeah! And it wasn’t a grenade either! So, what the hell was it?”
Cruz thought rapidly. He started, “Nongjangju…Nongjangju mentioned landmines!”
Spence nodded quickly, “That’s it! We’ve got SPUK soldiers on our side of the DMZ! Quick, see what’s out there, and I’ll radio Floater.”
Cruz was tentative as he eased out of the truck. He tried to walk in the same area that Dawn, Kim, and Nongjangju had walked when they unloaded their rubber raft from the truck. He peered into the gloom trying to discern the shapes of North Koreans in uniform. As he watched, three flashlights clicked on one after the other. He watched the flashlight beams sway back and forth across the ground and across the shapes of seven other soldiers. He surmised that they were searching either for a missing soldier, or for the remaining body parts from the blast. He returned to Spence over the same ground he had walked on as he tried to locate the SPUK soldiers.
When he was back at the truck, he suggested to Spence, “Why don’t we crawl under the truck so that we will have some cover from Grenades and other explosives them sumbitches might have!”
Spence agreed. “Good idea! What did you see out there?”
“I saw probably ten soldiers walking around with flashlights and looking around!”
“What do you think they were looking for?”
“Probably their buddies, or maybe what was left of them!”
“Oh, man!"
“Yeah! Wat do you think they will do next?”
Spence paused, “Hmm. Well everyone this side of the DMZ knows that someone is out here who should not be out here. If they have any brains at all, they’ll get the hell back across the DMZ and go home!”
He was silent for a moment, “Oh, hell! They may have been using the same crossing point that Floater’s crew are using!”
He and Cruz heard intense arguing in Korean. Then, they heard the voices begin to recede toward the North Korean side of the DMZ. Spence keyed his radio and softly said, Floater, you have North Korean soldiers headed your way. Seek cover and concealment immediately. No need to acknowledge. Just do it now!”
Dawn relayed Spence’s commands in hurried whispers to Kim and Nongjangju. She covered Slover’s inert form with her body and breathed as quietly as possible. She, Kim, and Nongjangju heard the North Koreans splashing through the lagoon shallows about 40 meters away. One of them taking the flank walked within ten meters of their position. She held her breath until the soldier had walked on. The she held it longer until he had disappeared into the wet night.
She softly radioed Spence, “Control, Floater! The soldiers have passed out of range. Request permission to continue our return to your location!”
“Roger that, Floater. Try to return using the same path you went out on. Do not stray from it!”
“We copy, Control.”