Foxbat by James Barrington

Author:James Barrington [Barrington, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Mystery & Detective, Fiction, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9780230225435
Publisher: Pan
Published: 2007-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

NIS Headquarters, Naegok-dong, Seoul, South Korea

Richter was escorted to a conference room located on the top floor of the National Intelligence Service headquarters in southern Seoul. The white five-storey structure had a square central entrance hall, topped with a dome, but the bulk of the building consisted of two curving arms of offices that embraced the approach road. As ‘spook central’ buildings go, it was more attractive than most.

‘Mr Richter.’ A short, stocky man stood up from his seat at the end of the long table and walked towards him, extending his hand. ‘My name is Kang Jang-Ho, and I’m the deputy director of this facility. Bae Chang-Su, the director, will be here shortly. You’ve had a long flight, I understand. Can I offer you some refreshment?’

Richter shook Kang’s hand. ‘Yes,’ he then replied, realizing that he felt pretty hungry: even business-class meals on Aeroflot were not too appealing. ‘That would be very welcome.’

‘Coffee and sandwiches – something like that?’ Kang suggested, picked up a telephone and held a brief conversation.

As he put the instrument down, another man entered the room, taller and slimmer and with a thin moustache. From the way Kang straightened up, Richter guessed this must be the ‘autocratic’ Bae Chang-Su, as proved the case when the newcomer introduced himself.

They sat down at one end of the long table, equipped with chairs for over a dozen people, Bae taking his seat at the end.

‘You have some information for us, I understand,’ he began.

Richter nodded and explained what he and Bykov had found out in Russia, and the assumed destination of the missing MiG-25s. The South Koreans had already known some of it, but the probability that Foxbats had also been stolen from Algeria was news to them.

‘According to General Bykov, at least sixteen have gone missing from Russian air bases, and we think maybe two from Aïn Oussera in Algeria, totalling a minimum of eighteen. Because of the fragmented state of the military in Russia, and the possibility that somebody high up in the Defence Ministry is facilitating these thefts, there could be a lot more aircraft unaccounted for. My own guess is that there must now be at least twenty MiG-25s north of the DMZ.’

Bae didn’t appear surprised by this. ‘What I can’t understand is why the North Koreans would want these aircraft. All their combat planes are old and no match for ours, so I would expect them to go after more modern fighters.’

At that moment there was a knock on the door, and a young man entered carrying a tray of refreshments. Richter waited until he’d left the room before responding.

‘According to my source in Moscow, the North Koreans may have picked on the MiG-25 because it was specifically designed to intercept ICBMs in the terminal stage of their flight. More importantly, the Foxbat is about the only aircraft likely to be left flying after the first nuclear explosion, because the EMP – the electromagnetic pulse – will fry the electronics of pretty much everything else, either in the air or on the ground.

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