Trackers (2)
Complete darkness fell over the mountain.
Lee Sang-ho ordered his team to launch the drones.
A moment later, drones fitted with thermal cameras rose into the sky.
Lee Sang-ho personally unhooked the leashes of the dogs he had brought with him.
Two Belgian Malinois and two German Shepherds.
The freed dogs looked up at Lee Sang-ho.
Whoosh—
The instant Lee Sang-ho swept a hand through the air, they bolted into the blackness of the mountain.
As soon as the dogs vanished, Lee Sang-ho took out his GPS device.
On the screen, red dots were moving.
The GPS units attached to the dogs’ collars were working normally.
Watching the moving red dots, Lee Sang-ho silently vowed that he would make a decision before the night was over.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
At the same time, Kang-hae was climbing the mountain with Seong Ha-yeong slung over his shoulder.
The darkness made every step careful, and because of that, their pace had slowed.
They could go no farther.
If he kept carrying Seong Ha-yeong and misstepped in the mountain’s blind darkness, he might tumble down the slope.
Kang-hae gave up on climbing any higher.
Instead, he decided to dig into the ground and hide there until sunrise.
If the enemy had launched drones equipped with thermal cameras, then burying themselves beneath the earth would be a good way to evade them.
What worried him were the tracking dogs.
If they had let the dogs loose, the situation would become serious.
He had a gun, so killing the dogs wouldn’t be difficult.
But the gunshots and the dogs themselves would expose their position.
Kang-hae set Seong Ha-yeong down on a rock first.
Then he scanned the area, looking for a place where they could hide.
Just behind the rock where Seong Ha-yeong was sitting, he spotted a fallen tree.
Kang-hae began digging into the ground beneath it.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The soldiers of the Information Command’s 725 Unit, better known as the Jumunjin Team, had been training since the previous night in the mountainous region of Yongdae-ri, Buk-myeon, Inje County, Gangwon Province.
Then the team leader, Major Kim Joo-hyuk, received an urgent order from above.
They were to rescue a soldier and return immediately.
Last autumn, when the Jumunjin Team led by Kim Joo-hyuk had been waiting in the GP area of Cheorwon County, Gangwon Province for Kang-hae and Kim Ha-jun to return, they had remained on standby.
And only the day after Kang-hae was found in the Imjin River had they finally received orders to withdraw.
Operation Storm had been under such strict security that Kim Joo-hyuk had not known the details, but according to rumor, everyone who had taken part had been killed.
Could it be someone from that operation last fall…?
Kim Joo-hyuk halted training and shared the order with his team.
“Where is the location?”
That was asked by First Sergeant Lee Seok-min, the deputy team leader.
Kim Joo-hyuk showed him the position transmitted by the CW transmitter.
Lee Seok-min checked it at once.
“It’s the southern slope of Jeombongsan. Altitude: 800 meters. From our current position, it’s just over one ridge.”
“How long will it take?”
“If we go straight without taking any detours, we can get there in about an hour.”
“Let’s move.”
Kim Joo-hyuk didn’t hesitate.
He also resolved to rescue the returned operative no matter what.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
It took less than ten minutes to dig out a cramped space barely large enough for two people to lie down.
After finishing the hole, Kang-hae gathered fallen leaves and twigs.
It was June, but at eight hundred meters above sea level, the mountain felt like early winter.
Hypothermia was a real danger.
And Seong Ha-yeong, still sitting on the rock, shivered from the cold.
“Ha-yeong.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s lie down here until sunrise.”
“Both of us…?”
“Yes.”
“All right.”
Seong Ha-yeong rose from the rock.
She limped over to Kang-hae.
“How’s your foot?”
“A little better than before, but…”
Her foot still looked bad.
Kang-hae once again hoisted Seong Ha-yeong onto his shoulder and laid her down inside the shallow pit.
Then he covered her with the twigs and leaves before lying down beside her.
Thud.
The moment Kang-hae lay down next to her, Seong Ha-yeong’s heart began to pound hard.
Before long, even her body started to tremble.
“Are you cold?”
“Huh? A little…”
That wasn’t a lie.
She had been feeling the cold for a while.
But the trembling had nothing to do with the temperature.
And Kang-hae pulled her into a tight embrace.
“We can’t let our body heat drop.”
Seong Ha-yeong shivered even harder than before.
“And if you get sleepy, don’t fall asleep. If you sleep, your body temperature will drop.”
“Pfft.”
At his words, Seong Ha-yeong burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny? If you actually fall asleep, your body releases heat.”
“I know that much.”
“Then…”
“Do you think you’d be able to sleep right now if you were in my position, Kang-hae?”
“Are you very scared?”
“That’s not what I mean. How could I possibly sleep when I’m wrapped up like this with someone I like?”
“…”
Kang-hae didn’t know what to say, so he kept his mouth shut.
Seong Ha-yeong shifted her body and burrowed deeper into his arms.
“I’m cold.”
“…”
“Hey, Kang-hae.”
“Yes.”
“I’ve known this for a while, but your shoulders are broad too.”
“…”
“Why is your chest so hard? Your whole body feels like muscle.”
“I’m not sure when I ended up like this.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Nothing.”
Kang-hae almost tried to remember when Seong Ha-yeong had started speaking her mind so openly, then gave up.
Even now, as she kept blurting out things like that, she was adorable and pitiful at the same time.
Kang-hae understood.
She was terrified right now.
She had almost died in the middle of the highway.
If it were up to him, he would have liked to toss out some casual joke and ease her fear a little more.
But if they had released tracking dogs into the mountain, speaking at all could be dangerous.
“Ha-yeong.”
“Yes.”
“We need to conserve our strength. We can talk after we get down the mountain.”
Kang-hae didn’t mention the tracking dogs.
He didn’t want to make her more anxious.
“All right. Thanks for today.”
“Rest.”
“I don’t know if I can, with my heart pounding like this, but I’ll try.”
“…”
Kang-hae listened in silence to the sounds around them.
All he could hear was Seong Ha-yeong’s breathing.
He hoped no other sound would reach them until sunrise.
But his wish didn’t last long.
Twenty minutes later, a faint sound reached his ears.
It grew gradually louder.
Footsteps on leaves.
Kang-hae focused every nerve.
He knew the sound was being made by animals.
He sprang to his feet.
Then he drew the pistol from his waist.
“Kang-hae, what is it…!”
When Seong Ha-yeong asked, he pressed a finger to his nose, signaling for silence.
Then he aimed the gun toward the source of the sound.
“Huff, huff…”
A moment later, a shape came bursting out of the darkness, panting hard.
It was the lead Belgian Malinois.
Bang.
Without hesitation, Kang-hae pulled the trigger at the dog’s head.
Before the gunshot had even finished echoing through the mountain, he fired again.
Bang.
At the second Belgian Malinois behind the first, already collapsing.
Then Kang-hae saw the two Shepherds charging straight at him.
The pair leaped almost at the same time, lunging for him.
Bang.
Kang-hae shot the leaping Shepherd in the abdomen.
One dog dropped at once, but the other bared its teeth and went for his neck.
Judging that it was too late to swing the muzzle around, Kang-hae rolled hard across the ground.
Then he snapped back up and fired at the Shepherd.
Bang.
And just like that, Kang-hae brought down all four tracking dogs.
At that same moment, the PMC mercenaries heard the gunfire.
Lee Sang-ho snatched up the GPS device at once.
The red dots that had been moving until just moments ago had stopped at a single point.
Found them!
Lee Sang-ho immediately checked the location of the red dots.
It was only 1.2 kilometers away.
Lee Sang-ho launched the drones whose batteries had finished charging.
Then he led the mercenaries toward the direction where the red dots had stopped.
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Kang-hae checked the necks of the dead tracking dogs.
GPS units were attached to their collars.
“What do we do, Kang-hae…?”
Seong Ha-yeong limped over to him.
“We need to move.”
Kang-hae hoisted Seong Ha-yeong onto his shoulder again.
Then he climbed the mountain.
As they ascended, Kang-hae thought through the trackers in his head.
If they have trained tracking dogs, then they’re mercenaries with special forces experience. There are probably around ten of them… They’ll be wearing night-vision goggles, and they’ll have drones, of course, maybe even sniper rifles…
All Kang-hae had was a pistol with thirteen rounds left and one magazine containing seventeen more bullets.
And there was no way one pistol could suppress mercenaries from special forces units.
Not while he was carrying a limping Seong Ha-yeong on his shoulder.
From here on out, all Kang-hae could rely on was the Delta-0 Channel.
That channel was known only to Intelligence Command agents taking part in operations.
When Kang-hae had been deployed on Operation Storm, he had also learned its frequency.
And a few hours ago, he had sent Morse code through it.
All he could do now was hope the Intelligence Command standby team would appear.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Thirty minutes later.
“Found them!”
A drone equipped with a thermal camera spotted Kang-hae and Seong Ha-yeong.
The distance was within a one-kilometer radius.
They sped up.
And when the gap narrowed to 800 meters, Victor pulled out his sniper rifle.
“What the hell are you doing?”
The moment Lee Sang-ho saw that, he rushed to stop him.
But Victor, already drunk, ignored him.
“Fuck, how long are we supposed to keep chasing their damn tails?”
“It’s night. Sniping is not authorized.”
“Fuck off.”
“What…?!”
Lee Sang-ho started to say more, but Victor struck first.
Thwack.
The fist of the massive man, well over 120 kilograms, smashed into Lee Sang-ho’s jaw.
Struck by a teammate’s blow he never saw coming, Lee Sang-ho lost consciousness and crumpled to the ground.
“Fucking bastard, you goddamn Asian prick…!”
Victor didn’t like Lee Sang-ho.
He couldn’t accept a team leader who had failed to get the job done properly on the Han River and had dragged them into this bullshit nightmare.
More than anything, he hated that an Asian was the team leader.
The others felt the same way.
They all shared Victor’s sentiments.
Victor raised the scope toward the direction indicated by the thermal camera.
A moment later, he saw a man climbing the mountain with a woman slung over his shoulder.
He aimed the sniper rifle at the man’s head.
Bang.
As he pulled the trigger, Victor was certain.
In one second, the man’s skull would explode.
But the bullet narrowly missed, skimming past Kang-hae’s head.
“Fuck!”
Victor shouted, and through the scope he saw the man quickly take cover behind a rock.
Any further sniping was impossible.
Victor and the other mercenaries left the unconscious Lee Sang-ho behind and climbed the mountain.
“Huff…”
Kang-hae took shelter behind the rock and steadied his breathing.
When the wood splinters had flown just moments earlier, he had quickly hidden behind the rock.
With a sniper rifle involved, there was no more room to maneuver.
They would have to fight.
“Ha-yeong.”
Seong Ha-yeong, beside him, was trembling with fear.
“Yes…?”
“They might let you live.”
“Wh-what are you talking about right now…!”
“You must survive. Don’t resist for no reason.”
“Then what about you…!”
“And also. I liked you, too, Ha-yeong.”
Kang-hae kissed Seong Ha-yeong on the forehead.
Then he closed his eyes and listened.
A moment later, footsteps came closer.
Kang-hae opened his eyes.
And he leaned out over the rock to fire his gun.
Bang-bang-bang—
Bang-bang-bang—
Bang-bang-bang—
But before Kang-hae could even shoot, bullets rained down around the rock he was using for cover.
Kang-hae ducked back behind it.
From the start, it had been an impossible fight.
In the pitch-black mountain, armed with nothing but a pistol, there was no way to stand against multiple special forces operatives.
Kang-hae gave up on trying to shoot them.
Instead, he decided to go in close.
How many can I kill?
He knew he probably wouldn’t survive, but he also resolved not to die alone.
The footsteps grew closer and closer.
And Kang-hae steadied his breathing for the final fight.
Then, just then, gunfire sounded again.
Whizz—
Whizz—
Whizz—
But this time it was different from before.
And Kang-hae knew it.
Those were the sounds of a suppressed rifle.
The direction of the fire was different too.
The bullets were coming from above Kang-hae.
Toward the mercenaries pursuing him.
It was the Information Command Jumunjin Team led by Major Kim Joo-hyuk.