Free Kill Chain by J Robert Kennedy Page B

once?” asked the Italian.
    “Yes,” replied the German
Chancellor, the woman displaying remarkable courage and strength after having
just lost her husband. “But if we leave, we must do so as one, so no one person
is singled out by the media.”
    The South Korean returned
to her chair. “We can evacuate to Busan. It is out of range.”
    Starling drew a breath
before speaking. “I will not leave until my daughter is safe. The rest
of you are free to leave, and I urge you to do so. Do not let the
foolish desire of a father dissuade you.”
    The Canadian Prime
Minister spoke. “Mr. President, while I understand your desire to be near your
daughter, right now we have no idea if they are even in Seoul. We should
evacuate so our security teams can focus on finding the hostages rather than
worry about us.”
    Starling agreed, the
argument sound. The man was right. Right now he had two Delta operators providing
security for him, when they could be out searching, and he was certain the same
was true for them all. He sighed. “Very well. I’ll meet you in Busan.”
    The South Korean Prime
Minister, the Chair of the meeting, ended the teleconference. “Ladies and
gentlemen, this meeting is adjourned. We will reconvene when we are all secure
in Busan.”
    The displays went blank
and Starling leaned back in his chair.
    “I’ll arrange the evac,”
said Red as he headed for the door.
    Starling shook his head.
“No. There’s no way in hell I’m leaving this city until my daughter is in my
arms.”
    Red stopped and turned.
“What will we tell the others?”
    Starling peered out the
window. “Nothing. Send Marine One with my double to Busan then isolate him.
I’ll conduct all meetings with them via telecom. They don’t need to know.”
    Red grunted. “They’re
going to be pretty pissed when they find out.”
    Starling turned to him.
“So be it. I’m not leaving without my daughter.”
     
     

27

    Seoul
Metropolitan Police Lab
31
Sajik-ro-8-Gil, Seoul, Republic of Korea
     
    Niner
watched carefully as the technicians worked on the recovered chips. It wasn’t
that he didn’t trust them—he didn’t—it was that he got the feeling they weren’t
operating under the same sense of urgency as he was. The President’s daughter
was missing, a young girl he knew, someone he had been through one of the most
harrowing experiences of his life with. After all, how many people could say
they survived the crash of a 747 in the jungle?
    Her mother had died,
enough for any one family to go through. He respected the new President. The
man had kept his cool during those events and others, and though Niner wasn’t
political, he did think the man was doing a decent job under trying
circumstances.
    And Niner was determined
to get the girl back.
    I can’t imagine what
he’s going through.
    Niner wasn’t sure if he

wanted kids. Maybe eventually, but definitely not now. Though when he saw Red
with his little guy, he had to admit the man appeared happy. In fact, he seemed
happiest when he was with his family. That seemed to be the pattern. The guys
loved the Unit, loved their brothers in arms, yet when the mission was over,
those with families were out the door as fast as they could manage, leaving the
single guys to drink the beer.
    It wasn’t that he didn’t
want a girlfriend. He did. He just couldn’t seem to find the right woman. Jimmy
said it was because they couldn’t take him seriously, every second word out of
his mouth some sort of quip. It might be true, but that was who he was. If a
woman wanted to be in a relationship with him, she’d have to be able to keep
up.
    He found his eyes
settling on the Korean woman, Senior Inspector Kim. She was smokin’ hot in a
buttoned-down sense. A lot of guys went for leggy blondes or busty redheads,
but he was more into the tinier packages, and she was definitely that, though
she was short by no means, Koreans not your stereotypical Asian, they on
average only an inch or two shorter