Okinawa (2)
The van carrying Yeon-woo and the three other agents sped down the road.
The agents had already stashed the operational gear and the rubber boat in advance.
Near the Gushikawa Castle Ruins at the southernmost tip of Okinawa, the area was undeveloped, with brush growing as tall as a person and no proper sandy beaches to speak of, so neither tourists nor locals ever came this way. That made it the perfect route for hiding things in the undergrowth—and for secretly departing and returning.
"We've arrived."
"Good. Let's get started."
They parked the van on a deserted stretch of road nearby and climbed out. Moments later all four, including Yeon-woo, stripped and changed into functional combat suits designed for maritime operations.
As expected of Navy SEAL gear—the quality's excellent.
Bitterly, the equipment they had purchased from the Brazilian arms dealer Urbano Silva was superior in every way to what he had been issued for operations in his past life.
Han Hae-un pulled the waterproof operational bag from the trunk and handed it to Yeon-woo.
"Omega carries this to the objective."
"Yes."
Yeon-woo bowed his head briefly in reply, took the bag, and slung it onto his back. Giving orders in casual speech to Yeon-woo—who had always been his superior across both lives—must have felt rather awkward for Han Hae-un inside, but it did not show outwardly.
Or maybe not? That bastard Hae-un might actually be enjoying this…
In a way, this was a legitimate chance for Hae-un to chew him out, wasn't it?
Carrying the considerably heavy operational bag packed full of white phosphorus and special solutions that would cleanly burn the island to ashes, Yeon-woo followed the agents as they pushed through the grass and ran.
Come to think of it, of course I'll mix it once we reach the objective, but do I really have to be the one carrying it too…?
Feeling somehow put-upon, Yeon-woo tilted his head even as he trailed after the agents running ahead.
Meanwhile Lee Gyu-jin, conscious of Omega following behind, felt a slight admiration. He knew the weight of the operational bag Omega was carrying and running with, since he had loaded it into the van himself.
It's got to be close to forty kilos, yet there's not a single sign of his breathing getting ragged. His voice sounds pretty young—I wonder which unit he originally belonged to.
Of course, the rule was not to try to find out anything beyond what higher-ups told you, and not to know it either. The more you knew, the more information that could potentially leak if you were captured by the enemy. That was the "need-to-know principle" that NIS agents and those carrying out secret operations had to uphold. But after already carrying out two operations together, it was only human that a little curiosity would arise.
Racing through the tall grass that grew to the height of an adult man, they soon reached the black rubber boat lying near the sea. Since the rear with the motor was heavier, Yeon-woo, still carrying the bag, moved to the front of the boat. Lee Gyu-jin and Park Jung-hyeon took the rear, while Han Hae-un came opposite Yeon-woo and grabbed the front.
Then Lee Gyu-jin called the cadence.
"On three. One, two, three!"
"Hup!"
All four lifted the boat with practiced hands and carried it toward the sea. To the public this was the kind of operation that regularly appeared in military media under the name IBS—Inflatable Boat Small—training. The boat itself weighed about a hundred twenty kilos, and the motor mounted on the rear another forty, for a total approaching a hundred sixty. In training they usually did it without the motor and in teams of six or more, but four agents seasoned by real combat had no trouble carrying it forward.
Meanwhile Lee Gyu-jin and Park Jung-hyeon standing at the rear looked at Omega right in front of them and shook their heads.
Add the bag weight to the boat weight and it's no joke.
On the other hand, Omega Yeon-woo was looking back and worrying about Lee Gyu-jin and Park Jung-hyeon instead.
Hmm, their origins may differ, but they've probably done IBS until it was second nature, right?
Yeon-woo glanced sideways at the two following behind, then strode unhesitatingly into the sea where the waves were crashing. The four of them pushed the boat forward through the violently crashing night waves until the water reached chest height. When Yeon-woo judged the depth sufficient, he quietly nodded at Han Hae-un.
Han Hae-un opened his mouth.
"Board."
At Alpha-Beta Han Hae-un's command, the other three swiftly climbed into the rubber boat.
"HQ. Any movement from Target B?"
—None. Checking movement every five minutes.
Yeon-woo quietly nodded at Kim Su-hyeok's voice coming through his earpiece. Target B was the tracker Kim Su-hyeok had dived and attached to the underside of the ship belonging to those presumed to be Baeksol during the previous reconnaissance. No movement past midnight meant the chances of them visiting the island today were extremely low.
"Okay, we're moving out."
At Alpha-Beta's command, Lee Gyu-jin sitting at the very back started the motor. The rubber boat raced at high speed across the pitch-black sea with no lighthouse in sight. They had not specifically aimed for the timing, but coincidentally tonight was a new moon, so the vast sea the boat was crossing was dark as pitch.
—Turn about five degrees to starboard.
From HQ, Kim Su-hyeok was checking GPS values in real time and correcting the route toward the objective. Meanwhile Lee Gyu-jin holding the motor scratched his head.
What the hell is five degrees. Do I just nudge it a tiny bit?
Lee Gyu-jin adjusted the direction slightly by feel, and after going on for a while the boat eventually had to turn to port again. After pressing on for a long time, a brightly lit island like a city that never sleeps came into view in the distance. Because the surroundings were so dark and there were no other nearby islands, it looked relatively extremely bright, but compared to the lights of residential areas on other islands it was nothing special, so it was not the kind of light that would make merchant ships passing this area think anything suspicious.
Tonight it'll shine even brighter than usual. In red…
Yeon-woo looked ahead, thinking of the white phosphorus and special reagents he was carrying on his back.
The approach route to the island was not the southeast with the sandy beach and small harbor. To head for the northwest—the exact opposite side from where the dock was—they took a long detour around to approach the island.
Once the boat got reasonably close, they cut the motor. Then the agents each took up paddles. They were paddling with the least possible movement so as not to create a wake, but because the four were so highly skilled, the rubber boat's forward speed was still quite fast.
The direction we're approaching from has only cliffs too low for a ship to moor, so they don't seem to post separate guards, but just in case…
The core of this operation was not burning the island. If burning it had been the goal, there would have been no need for all these preparations. They could just go in, subdue everyone, and blow it up.
Without anyone knowing, and naturally.
That was the core of this operation. For that, not only did no one have to know that Yeon-woo and the agents had entered the island, but later when Baeksol or Japan's National Police Agency Public Security Bureau investigated the cause of the fire, the case had to end up concluded as spontaneous combustion.
As Yeon-woo paddled while setting up response plans for the various variables that could arise in this operation, before he knew it the boat had come up against the cliffs on the island's northwest side. Then Lee Gyu-jin made a fist, pointed to himself, then opened his palm and stretched it toward the top of the cliff. It was a hand signal meaning he would climb up first, check the situation, and handle the follow-up work. In fact, since that was Lee Gyu-jin's specialty, it was only natural he take this role now.
When Han Hae-un nodded, Lee Gyu-jin looped a rope around his waist and began rapidly climbing the cliff. It was top-class rock-climbing skill. Watching Lee Gyu-jin's back, Yeon-woo recalled the past.
Lee Gyu-jin might seem a bit frivolous because of his slightly flighty personality, but he was a former U.S. Air Force CCT—Combat Control Team—member. CCT were nicknamed "pathfinders of infiltration routes," and they were the ones first deployed if war broke out. They would infiltrate enemy territory with no information via high-altitude parachute drops, then gather intel, control aircraft, or open infiltration routes.
Using him on an island guarded by just a few sentries is overkill…
Lee Gyu-jin quickly climbed the cliff, checked the surroundings with a thermal camera, then secured the rope by driving in a stake.
—Clear.
Once Lee Gyu-jin confirmed the infiltration route was safe, Han Hae-un began climbing the rope first. Before climbing next, Park Jung-hyeon glanced back slightly at Yeon-woo behind him.
"Omega. Is the bag okay?"
He was asking if he should carry it instead, since Yeon-woo would have to rock-climb while carrying an operational bag of weight similar to full combat gear, and Park Jung-hyeon was the big one. Yeon-woo smiled and shook his head.
"I'm fine."
Park Jung-hyeon nodded, then with his large frame grabbed the rope and began rapidly climbing the cliff. Yeon-woo firmly secured the end of the rope to the boat and climbed last.
When Yeon-woo reached the top, the three agents had already spread into a triangular formation and were covering all directions. When Han Hae-un made a fist then pointed forward with index and middle fingers together, Yeon-woo joined the already formed triangle last, making a diamond formation. Maintaining that, they advanced.
After advancing about ten meters that way, when a suitable flat area appeared where they could mix the white phosphorus and reagents, Han Hae-un made a fist to stop everyone. While the agents spread out in all directions to watch for any possible enemy movement, Yeon-woo set down the operational bag and took out the tools from inside.
From here on it was purely the realm of feel.
I have to consider the surrounding humidity, the island's vegetation, and even the temperature.
If the white phosphorus mixing method had been the kind of thing that could be taught through education, Yeon-woo would not have needed to come in person.
The island's vegetation is mainly tropical shrubs, and the leaves are on the thin side. I need to reduce the phosphorus content, so cut the total white phosphorus and add a bit more initiator…
Meanwhile Lee Gyu-jin, camouflaged among the shrubs and watching for any possible enemy movement, spotted the undergrowth ahead rustling. Their current position was the forest behind the factory where the drugs were stored, quite a distance from where the bastards mainly lived or worked, so it was not on the patrol routes they had carefully observed over several months.
No one should be coming this way at this hour…?
He pressed the buzzer on his chest first. That would make the sensors on the other agents' special ops suits vibrate lightly to signal them. A single short buzz was a caution signal, so Han Hae-un and Park Jung-hyeon immediately froze all movement and split their breathing to exhale soundlessly.
Then Lee Gyu-jin quietly drew the thermal camera from his waist and checked the direction the undergrowth had rustled. There was movement showing on the thermal camera. But the temperature of the heat source displayed as a circle was around forty degrees.
…Huh? A wild animal? The body temperature's way too high.
Maintaining alert status, a little time passed, and something walked out through the undergrowth. Lee Gyu-jin's face, watching from concealment among the shrubs, twisted.
…It's a person.
Even though it was night, the temperature was over twenty-five degrees and the humidity extremely high. But the guy who had burst out of the brush was bundled up tightly in thick clothes. Lee Gyu-jin quietly raised his suppressed pistol. The end of the direction the guy was heading was where Omega was mixing the reagents, so he absolutely could not let him live.
I know the core of this operation is "stealth," but…
Lee Gyu-jin looked toward Alpha-Beta on the opposite side. It was to receive orders on what to do, but even Lee Gyu-jin could not see Han Hae-un concealed in the darkness on the other side.
Should I just take him out and somehow disguise the cause of death as being caught in the flames…
Looking at the guy walking past the shrubs where he was hiding, Lee Gyu-jin put his finger on the trigger.
Just then a white hand appeared soundlessly from beside him and gently pressed down on the wrist holding the pistol. Startled, Lee Gyu-jin's eyes went wide as he hurriedly looked to the side.
How the hell did he…?
There stood Omega, who should have been mixing reagents way back there, appearing like a ghost and quietly shaking his head as he looked at the target.