Black wind

betrayal, Lee knew that he and his ship had been deemed expendable.
    But a miscalculation would save them. Kim’s demolition team had planted ample explosives to rip the bowels out of a normal ship Koguryo’s size. But a critical piece of information about the cable ship had not been considered: she had a double hull. The detonated charges easily ruptured the vessel’s inner hull but only buckled the plates of the outer hull. Seawater gushed into the lower holds, but not with the massive force that would submerge the running ship as Tongju had envisioned. Lee immediately stopped the ship, deployed portable pumps to the damaged holds, and then sealed off the high-risk areas behind watertight doors. The ship would list and be unable to run at speed but she would not founder.
    Once the flooding was halted, the captain peered through a set of field glasses at the speeding tender escaping in the distance. Lee knew that he had little to live for now. As the captain of the vessel that launched the aborted missile attack against the United States, he would be the prime scapegoat if captured. If he somehow escaped, or was released, there would be no telling what sort of reception he’d receive from Kang. Satisfied that the ship was stabilized, Lee excused himself from the bridge and retired to his cabin. Retrieving a Chinese-made Makarov 9mm pistol from beneath a dresser drawer filled with pressed shirts, Lee lay down neatly on his bed, held the barrel to his ear, and pulled the trigger.
    While pursuing the speeding tender, the men in the Icarus caught sight of the series of explosions that ripped along the hull of the Koguryo. “Are those lunatics trying to scuttle her with all hands?” Dahlgren wondered.
    For several minutes, they watched the ship as she slowed but held steady. Pitt noticed that there was no apparent rush for the lifeboats, and he could see several members of the crew standing idly at the rail watching the jets overhead. He studied the waterline for a significant change but could only detect a slight list.
    “She’s not going to disappear on us anytime soon,” he said. “Let’s keep after the tender.”
    Giordino glanced at the LASH system output on the laptop computer, spotting several gray shapes to the southeast approximately thirty miles away.
    “Our Navy pals are on the way,” he said, tapping the screen. “They won’t be alone for long.”
    With a nearly 20-knot advantage in speed, the airship began easily gaining ground on the fleeing white boat. The Icarus had only ascended to a five-hundred-foot altitude when Giordino gave chase and he didn’t waste power on any further climbing. The blimp glided smoothly toward the boat’s wake, driving fast and low over the water. As the airship moved closer, Pitt focused the surveillance camera on the boat’s open rear deck and cabin. Through the covered portico, he could only make out indiscriminate shapes at the helm.
    “I count four men above decks,” he said.
    “Apparently, they’re not ones for a crowded escape,” Giordino replied.
    Pitt scanned the camera about the deck, relieved to find no heavy armament but noting the extra drums of fuel near the stern.
    “Plenty of gas for a run to Mexico,” he said.
    “I think our Coast Guard friends in San Diego might have something to say about that,” Giordino replied, tightening his bearing on the boat.
    Tongju and his men had been focused on the Koguryo, but one of the commandos finally noticed the approaching blimp. While Kim
    manned the helm, the other three men instinctively stepped to the rear open deck to better observe the airship. Pitt focused the zoom lens of the camera on the men until their faces could clearly be distinguished.
    “Recognize any of these characters?” Pitt asked over his shoulder to Dirk and Dahlgren.
    The younger Pitt studied the screen for just a moment before gritting his teeth hard. The flash of anger subsided quickly, though, as a contented smile returned to his face.
    “The Fu Manchu character standing in the center. His name is Tongju. He’s Kang’s master of ceremonies for torture and assassination. Appeared to be calling the shots aboard the Odyssey earlier.”
    “For such a nice guy, it would be kind of a shame to ruin his Mexican vacation,” Giordino replied.
    As he spoke, he dipped the prow of the blimp down and held steady as the airship slowly dove toward the water. When it looked like he was going to drive the nose into the sea, Giordino