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thundered down it and fanned out, alert
     for any sign of danger.
    In the hold, the engines of the two Pinkies started simultaneously, then they rolled down the
     ramp and stopped side by side. Once everyone had climbed on board, Dekker checked that all the GPS units were indicating the same location, and that both the satellite navigation systems were
     working properly. They had to be able to find their objectiveswiftly and, equally important, find their way back to the Hercules once this operation was over.
    Dekker carried out a final radio check to ensure that everyone was on the net, then gave the
     order to advance. Behind them, the ramp closed and the noise of the C-130’s engines rose to a roar as the pilot began manoeuvring the aircraft into a take-off position. Once he was
     satisfied, he would shut down the engines and simply wait for the team to return.
    They knew it was going to be an uncomfortable ten miles – the satellite photographs had
     made that abundantly clear – but they weren’t prepared for just how rough the desert terrain actually was. Picking a suitable path through the rocks and boulders tested both
     drivers to the limit, and they weren’t helped by the covers over their headlamps that reduced the normal beam by about eighty per cent. Richter was hoping to get in and out of Algeria
     undetected, and bright lights can show up a long way off in the desert. Sound travels far as well, so the vehicles’ engines were fitted with additional silencers, and the engine bays
     packed with sound-insulating material to reduce the risk of being heard.
    Under normal conditions, driving this distance should have taken about twenty to thirty minutes,
     but it was nearly three quarters of an hour before Dekker looked up from his navigation system and ordered the vehicles to stop. They were now just under a mile from the airfield boundary,
     nine miles from the waiting Hercules, and that was as close as they could risk taking the Pinkies.
    Dekker ordered the two drivers to stay with their vehicles, then led the rest of his men,
     Richter tagging along behind, towards the east and to Aïn Oussera.
    Twenty minutes later they were lying prone on the summit of a slight rise, as Dekker and
     Richter studied the layout of the airfield directly in front of them.
    South of Suri-bong, North Korea
    The north coast of the Kuksa-bong peninsula is partially cultivated, but west of Kama-san the
     south coast is essentially uninhabited. The reasonalmost nobody lived there was the same reason that Yi Min-Ho couldn’t land there: an extremely inhospitable terrain
     cut through with deep, heavily wooded valleys ending in steep cliffs overlooking the sea. Instead, the plan called for him to be landed south of Suri-bong, on the north side of the bay known
     as Daito-wan. Yi himself would have preferred a location even further east, but that was impossible because of the logistics of getting the inflatable back to the fishing boat, and it would
     also have greatly increased the possibility of detection.
    About five hundred metres off the coast the crewman eased the inflatable to a virtual standstill
     and cut the engine. The boat rocked gently on the waves while the two men scanned the shore through image-intensifying binoculars, looking and listening for any sign of life or movement, but
     the coastline appeared almost deserted. They could see a few lights – probably from oil lamps, since the mains electricity supply in North Korea is, to put it mildly, erratic –
     signifying isolated dwellings, but there were no large settlements in this region.
    At a gesture from Yi Min-Ho, the crewman restarted the engine and steered towards the beach.
     This was perhaps the most dangerous phase of the entire operation, and they proceeded very cautiously, checking all around them – not just on the beach ahead – as they neared
     landfall. Both knew the fate that would await them if they were caught by the North Korean security