The Gate Read Online Free PDF

black smoke filled with sparks into the night. With almost unlimited power fed to it from reservoirs such as Chosin, the Hungnam Valley was one of the manufacturing centers of North Korea and had been so for over sixty years, ever since an enterprising Japanese industrialist had first spied the valley’s potential in the decade before the Second World War. It was one of the spinoffs of that industrialist’s efforts and vision so long ago that had led to the two men clinging to the side of this mountain on this early fall night.
    “The mission must go,” Nagoya said.
    Nishin’s face didn’t betray any reaction, even though he knew Nagoya’s statement was a death sentence. He peered down the rocky slope. A hundred feet below them arc lights brightly lit the mountainside. A new path from the valley floor had been cut with great effort into the rock, switching back and forth up to an opening in the side of the mountain. It was impossible to get heavy equipment up the slender path. So a line of men slithered into the opening every day with shovels and picks, carefully unearthing what had lain hidden inside for the past fifty-two years.
    At night there was a squad of guards protecting the dig, their main post on the path itself. The guards would not be a problem, Nishin knew. The men were oriented toward the road and downward. The guards did not suspect that someone would come from above. As far as the North Koreans were concerned the mountain was impassable. In fact, they probably were not expecting anyone since Nishin had no doubt that they did not know what they guarded. He himself did not know exactly what the cave held. He only knew that whatever was in there must be kept in there.
    The site could not be spotted from the air. Camouflage nets draped over the cave mouth and the vertical slope prohibited that. If Nishin and Nagoya had not been given the exact location during the mission briefing they would have never found it. He briefly wondered if Nakanga, the man who had briefed them on the mission and given them their orders, knew what was so important. It had to date back to the war. Of that Nishin had no doubt. He also wondered how Nakanga knew the cave had been opened if it couldn’t be seen from the air. Information did not flow freely out of North Korea.
    Why now, why here? These were questions Nishin accepted he would never know the answer to. Nagoya was checking the charges one last time. They were a powerful new explosive. Each contained three kilograms of liquid in a thick rubber container shaped like a large sausage. The fuse was built into the end of the container and Nagoya was checking the connections. They had twenty-four of the charges, twelve each, and Nakanga had assured them it would be more than enough to take down the mountainside around the cave.
    “Now that we have made it this far, I can plant the charges myself,” Nagoya said, not looking up from his hands, the delicate fingers tracing wires in the dark.
    “Without the helicopter ...,” Nishin began.
    “You can head back up as I start down,” Nagoya said. “I will give you enough time to get over the top of the mountain before I proceed. They will find my body among the rubble, but that will not be a problem and it should make any further search less intensive as they will think they have found the infiltrator. You can also remove all signs of us having climbed down as you go back over. It will confuse them greatly. They will suspect a traitor in their own ranks.”
    Nagoya was half-Korean. His mother one of the many women who came over to Japan in the sixties to do domestic work and his birth was never legitimized. If his father had not been a member of the Society—and Nagoya’s loyalty tested on several missions—Nishin would have had his own doubts about the man and the new course of action he was proposing. But he knew Nagoya was true.
    “If they find your body, that will not be good,” Nagoya continued. There would be no