Chapter Seven
He struggled to keep his breathing even. Watching the zodiac boat approach, Ben tried to fight the fear and inevitable conclusion he couldn't seem to avoid. He was going to die, but not for a long time.
With Kang's brother involved, it would be a tortuous life ahead.
Ben tried to remember any briefing about Kang's background. Had he forgotten there was a brother? Ben couldn't recall but his swirling thoughts and fears weren't helping.
He had to focus. But how?
Every thought in his mind came back to imagining what the new Kang would do. It was sabotaging any thoughts of survival and escape. Yula was right; he would miss her. Compared to what lie ahead, Ben was yearning to go back to anyone but Kang.
Lost in his thoughts, Ben missed the amused gaze of Yula. A glimpse of wistfulness showed through her eyes but she squashed it. She joined her terrified prize in watching Kang's men approach.
Ben didn't recognize the men who stopped the boat alongside what had been his prison for awhile. Though they were Korean, he couldn't tell any family resemblance to Kang. If Kang was connected enough to buy him, Ben figured these men might just be muscle assigned to bring him to Kang.
There were four men on the small boat. Their gaze was honed in on Ben.
Ben looked away. He tried to steady his breath but it caught in his throat as he recognized something in the distance.
Shoreline. A mile out maybe, but there it was. Beyond it was a small city, basking in a late afternoon sun. The look of it was European, Poland maybe? Ben felt the tiniest bit of hope at the prospect. His brain started to deduce all the little clues it could.
They had to have been out of Russian waters. It would have been too risky to stay close to Russia. The Baltic Sea was an obvious choice. Then he noticed the goosebumps on his skin, not a side effect of his fear and his lack of a shirt but the cool sea air— colder than the Russian forest. Their position had to be further north.
Three of the men from the boat climbed aboard. Ben tried to half listen to their words as Yula handed him off to them. Something about payment being received and then getting a deal for such a valuable commodity.
"—bye, Mr. President," she said to Ben now, the mocking there as she used his title.
Yula kissed him again, something that should have angered him but his attention was on the path the boat had taken here.
She smirked at him as the three Koreans led him away. Already Ben wrote her off in his mind; the more important thing was where the zodiac had come from. Land or sea? Would they transport him via another boat or back to land and then a plane?
Remnants of wake showed on the water. The zodiac came from another boat, a freighter much larger than Yula's. The freighter was docked though.
It was the first glimmer of opportunity Ben had.
The Koreans forced him down a ladder to the zodiac. With his zip tied hands, he barely kept himself from falling.
One of the Koreans shoved him to the floor of the boat. Cold water, perhaps two inches of it, sloshed around him. Ben filed away the temperature of it.
Chatter in Korean sounded from the men. Two had guns drawn, a warning, but they spoke to each other and laughed in Ben's direction.
Ben noticed a knife sheathed at the waist of the Korean at the front of the boat.
The boat began to zip away, making Ben fall to one side unsteadily. The Korean with the knife kicked at him. Ben scrambled to right himself.
The sea air whipped around him. The spray from the ocean hit him and Ben started to shiver. He steeled himself, trying to ignore it.
He had to be ready. If they got him on the freighter, his chances would be over.
The zodiac skipped across the water. The momentum continued to bounce Ben around. He waited.
The zodiac slowed as it neared the ocean-side of the freighter. A passing fishing trawler produced more wake, which the zodiac headed right for. Ben saw this. His legs tensed, coiled and ready.
As soon as the zodiac hit the wake, Ben used the bounce as an excuse to move. He launched himself at the Korean with the knife. His body hit the man while his hands went for the knife. Ben didn't try to stop them both from going over the edge and into the ocean. He drew a deep breath at the last second before entering the water.
The water's cold had a greater effect when he was submerged but he couldn't be stunned. Ben pulled every ounce of mind over matter to kick away from the Korean. The knife he'd sought was in his hands, although he couldn't do much more than hang onto it. Beneath the water, he heard the thrashing of the Korean and the zodiac's engine slowing to a near stop.
Ben kicked away from that direction and towards the docks. But he barely moved. I'll run out of air. He had to get his hands free. His lungs were starting to feed the pressure to breathe. Ben slid the knife inch by inch from its sheath with his limited range of motion and dexterity. He nearly lost the grip on it when he tried to twist it to cut more effectively. His lungs burned. Ben's motions were too slow in the water. He could hear the Koreans shouting above water. But if he surfaced more, he'd be caught again.
He sawed at the plastic tie. A splash sounded nearby, above him. Was he sinking too? Ben ignored that. He kept moving the blade back and forth between his hands. Suddenly he grimaced and instinctively opened his mouth in a cry of pain. The knife cut his palm and part of his wrist in his efforts. Ben forced himself not to swallow but he was out of time—
The tie broke. Ben felt relieved but he had to surface.
He clawed for the light. In so doing the knife dropped from his hand but the surface beckoned him; the promise of air tormented him. His mouth opened, briny water filling his mouth. He gagged-
-and broke through the surface. He sputtered out the water and gulped in air greedily. Shouts behind him made him glance back. The zodiac's engine revved, and the driver of the boat steered for him.
The Korean Ben took with him in the water started to swim towards him also. Ben wished for more air but he couldn't afford it. He dove under the water.
He had to go as deep as he could, out of reach. The zodiac zoomed about above him. The docks, last he saw, were a football field away. He'd have to surface again multiple times.
Ben's lungs burned as he swam forward and up again to air. He hoped all his jogging habits helped his lung capacity, but he wished he'd spent more time swimming. He was still in great danger-as much from drowning as from the Koreans around him.
When he surfaced again, the zodiac had circled in front of him, blocking his path. He could go under but he didn't have the energy to outswim a boat.
Suddenly there was another buzzing sound, like another engine. Ben glanced over his shoulder. It was a small water craft, coming from the ship he'd been imprisoned on.
Yula. She and her men were headed his way.
His chances were rapidly diminishing. The temperature of the water was zapping his energy, and he was hardly in peak form. But Ben couldn't stop. Even if he died trying, it would be a better outcome than awaited him in Kang's hands.
Ben dove under the water again.
-0-0-0-
Lieutenant Cranston frowned at his screen. Being an analyst at Ramstein Air Base really meant he spent a lot of time going over surveillance and any other intelligence, combined it with anything else he found, and wrote new reports. It was a lot less exciting than it sounded.
The pressure of the last three weeks might have seemed lively to some but for him, it was frustrating. He and his fellow analysts all wanted President Asher to be found-and they wanted whatever work they did to help with that. Finding out about the auction, a suspected way to sell President Asher to the highest bidder, was a jolt of potential, but it was after the fact. They had to assume that the transaction had gone through. That much money should stand out, but he hadn't heard if the Financial Intelligence division found a trail.
An alert popped up on his screen. Cranston had been running facial recognition on Korean-originating flights arriving throughout Europe. He clicked on the alert and reviewed the image and findings.
Lieutenant Johnson, a row over from Cranston, was muttering under her breath. Cranston hated when she did that.
"Finland. Huh. Ever the hotbed of random violence," she muttered sarcastically.
Cranston was ready to tune her out when it sunk in what she said.
"Finland?" he asked aloud. Johnson glanced his way, usually just as annoyed with him as he was with her.
"Yeah. Small town south of Oulu."
Cranston frowned. "What's going on there?"
Johnson looked for a moment like she might not give him a straight answer but she decided to not be difficult for once. "Social media chatter. Some gun fire at the port."
Cranston didn't know what to think of that.
He turned back to his work. The facial recognition identified Dae Namgung. Cranston didn't know the man by name. He dug around what intelligence there was on Namgung.
His heart stopped for a moment. And then he waved his hand in his commander's direction as he stuttered out "Sir!"
The commander and the intense Secret Service agent quickly came over. The agent-Banning-was like a pressure cooker ready to explode and a constant shadow as well. Cranston admired that his commander hadn't snapped, but maybe that was because they all understood what was at stake.
"What have you got?" the commander said, leaning over him to peer closer at his screen.
Cranston swallowed. "Uh, Dae Namgung. He flew in a few hours ago to Helsinki. He's North Korean."
"I don't recognize him," Banning said. The commander looked to Cranston to continue.
"Well, me neither, sir. But his file-he has ties to Kang, the man who attacked the White House." Cranston suddenly felt stupid for clarifying who Kang was. If anyone knew who Kang was, it was certainly Banning.
But Banning frowned. "Kang?" There was confusion. Cranston wish he had more, especially when his commander said:
"What else?"
"Not much, except Lieutenant Johnson caught something going on in Finland as well. I thought it was an odd coincidence."
Cranston breathed a little easier when Banning fixed his gaze on Johnson.
She did not look pleased though.
"Lieutenant Johnson?" Banning prompted.
"I'm still digging through," she said. "There are a few reports of gunfire at the port near Oulu. Pretty far north from Helsinki."
"Any names or specifics?" the commander asked.
Johnson shook her head. "Not yet." She was quickly searching through whatever the internet could offer for answers. "It's mostly social media. One local news source issued a paragraph on it, but it doesn't sound like local authorities have even responded-"
She clicked through and suddenly stopped on a video on a European social media site. She heard the gunfire rather than saw it, but the angle of the poster's video was from some building, looking down at a distance at the harbor.
Banning was by her side now, leaning closely to her computer screen.
"Turn the volume up."
Johnson obeyed. The video was shaky. A group of men got out of a boat. A few more were just coming to the docks by a second boat. They were firing at something-
"What are they firing at?" the commander thought aloud.
As if trying to discover that themselves, the person filming swiveled to one direction, the same direction the men were running towards. A man, Caucasian, in pants but no shirt, ran unevenly away. He ran out of sight from the camera, with his pursuers following a block behind-but catching up.
"See what else you can find about the report," the commander said. His tone told Cranston it wasn't enough yet. He moved to walk away.
"Wait," Banning said. "Replay the video." Johnson clicked on it again.
Banning watched. "Skip to the man they're chasing." His features were stone-like, his attention fully on the video. Johnson risked a glance to Cranston.
"What?" the commander asked.
Banning muttered something quietly under his breath, so quiet that Cranston thought he must have heard wrong, but it sounded like he said "Hell of a presidential race." Suddenly Banning stood up straight. "It's him. That's the President."
The commander balked and looked at Johnson, then Cranston. Neither moved a muscle to confirm or deny.
"It's a pixelated video in the middle of nowhere-"
"It's at a port, and we know he was being held on a ship. We have Helsinki with Namgung and now gunfire in a town that's-"
"A town that's far from Helsinki," the commander interrupted.
Banning was unyielding. "I jogged with the president nearly every morning. That's his stance, his posture. He's injured, but it's him. And if you don't believe me, I don't care. Dig and find out more while I get out there."
The commander sighed. He nodded at Johnson and Cranston. "See what else you can find. Contact local authorities but don't mention the president yet."
Cranston understood the unsaid warning there. A false lead, made public, would be worse, both for morale and for giving away to the terrorists what they knew and didn't know.
"How long to fly me there?" Banning demanded.
"Maybe 3 hours from wheels up?"
Mike grabbed his jacket from the back of a chair. "Where's your armory, and how soon can the plane be ready?"
-0-0-0-
A/n: sorry, I have let this go for several months but am glad to be back at it now. Hopefully I keep it up for another update soon. Thanks!
