North Korean Blowup Read Free Page A

sparklers.
    After eight o’clock the rest of the night was quiet. The SEALs ate MRE’s. Hunter took ten of his men off the line and put them down in a barracks like room where the Marines also slept. Bancroft took the first watch with five SEALs until midnight. He had four men on the wall and one on the machine gun, but he didn’t expect any action.
    At midnight Hunter took the watch with four new men on the wall and one on the MG.
    Hunter setup the SATCOM and contacted the admiral in his office. It was about one a.m. Hunter’s time. He had no idea what time it was in DC.
    “Home Plate, this is your mid reliever,” Hunter said.
    The admiral came on sounding wide awake. “Mid reliever. Heard from State that you are still under attack. How is it going?”
    “Repelled one attack, and killed a tank with designs on the rear wall. Outside of that just some fraggers. Expect more action with sunup. It’s about oh one hundred here.”
    “Do you need anything?”
    “A couple of tanks and a regiment of Marines would help, but I think we can outlast them. Only one minor wound so far.”
    “From what we hear the rebels are on the run in three areas from the local army. They may pull back some of their firepower.”
    “That’s good. Any new orders?”
    “Stay the course, and don’t take any chances.”
    “Aye aye, Admiral. Out.”
    Hunter shut down the mini SATCOM. It was a miniaturization of the old SATCOM that was the size of two loaves of bread. This new one was four inches wide, two inches thick and about six inches high. It would do everything the large one did. Encrypted all messages, and transmitted in a hundredth of a second burst, so anyone trying to fix  the signal by triangulation would have a nightmare. It also came with an optional self destruct device so if it was not operated properly with a password, it would blow into a hundred pieces. It sent its signal directly to a satellite which beamed it down to the receiver. Hunter could talk with more than twenty different contacts. This one was the frequency for the chairman of the Chiefs of Staff.
    He put the set away and stared out the front gate. No action was good action.
    By 0830 Hunter’s team was sleeping and the fresh crew was on duty with Lt. Bancroft in command. He had shooters on the ladders and the boxes on the front wall, so he had eight weapons over the wall and the two machine guns in place. They waited.
    It was just after 0900 when a car came around the corner three blocks away and drove slowly up one block and stopped about two hundred yards from the gate. A man got out and used a bull horn. He spoke perfect English.
    “Good Morning Marines in the embassy. I come in peace. I come directly from President Afwerki to confer with you about the defense of your embassy.”
    Bancroft looked at Marine Lieutenant Ronkowski.
    “Not a chance. Our ambassador talks with the president daily by phone. No way he would send someone in an old car like that.”
    Bancroft moved to the edge of the gate and used his parade ground voice to bellow his response. “Glad to receive you. Walk forward with your hands in plain sight.”
    “I am not a terrorist. I come in peace.”
    “Leave the car there and come to the gate. Welcome.”
    “My legs are bad. War wounds. I can’t walk that far.”
    “Leave the car and walk forward, or turn around and leave,” Bancroft shouted.
    The man threw up his hands, and stepped back in the car. It was still for a moment, then gears clashed and the car leaped forward spinning wheels as it careened straight for the front gate.
    “Car bomb,” Bancroft barked into his mike.” Twenties, blow him off the face of the earth.”
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
    The ten year old sedan charged down the street leading toward the embassy. A twenty mm round hit beside it, then another slammed into the concrete ahead of it, The third round hit the windshield, penetrated and exploded inside the car setting off a secondary explosion that blew out windows