Smith nodded as the dirt road they were on turned steep and winding, improving their odds against the personnel carrier. What wasn’t going to help them, though, was the familiar green shape rising over a crest about a kilometer ahead.

“Tank!” he shouted.

At first, the driver didn’t react, but then the jeep he’d insisted was at full speed started to accelerate. To their left, Smith spotted a double track leading into the trees and assumed they were headed for it.

That wasn’t the case, though, and Kyong sped by, continuing on a collision course with the tank.

“Did you see that?” Randi said from the back. “We could have gotten off there!”

“No!” the Korean said forcefully. “We might be able to make it! If they stay stopped behind us to pick up Dr. Eichmann and we can get to the river bottom…”

Another path, this time to the right, became visible ahead and Smith felt Randi grab him by the back of the neck.

“He’s probably secret police,” she said, bringing her lips close to his ear. “Who else would they send to escort foreign nationals? He’s going to drive us right into that goddamn tank!”

She was probably right. But where did all these side roads go? For all he knew, they petered out after a hundred meters. Add to that the fact that neither of them spoke Korean, they stood out like sore thumbs, and they were in the most clamped-down police state on the planet. It was time to gamble.

He managed a weak shrug and Randi released him, falling back in her seat as they started down a steep hill toward a dry riverbed. Fifty meters before they got to it, Kyong slammed on the brakes and spun the wheel.

“Hold on!” he shouted, crashing into the trees to their right.

Smith put a hand up to protect his face, but in less than a second they were through. Trees that had looked dense a moment before turned out to be a row of saplings planted only a meter deep.

“Come on!” Kyong shouted as he slid the vehicle to a stop and leapt from it. “Help me!”

Still not sure what had just happened, Smith and Randi jumped out and began helping him push the trees and bushes they’d broken upright again. The sound of explosions and mortar fire was still audible in the distance, but it was quickly being drowned out by the rumble of the tank bearing down on them.

“Hurry!” Kyong said. “It’s coming!”