"Losses to whom?" Blackie asked with a grin.
"To the Americans of course. The virus factory was not damaged."
"At least that's the truth; we got the powerhouse," Pak laughed.
"The moment he made the announcement about American soldiers I left the meeting quietly and went back to my store. Somebody was going to wake up, perhaps soon. I told Pak and we decided to risk it as the soldiers were still moving into the police barracks and getting set up. We drove the mule cart quickly out the back end of the village and got away without being challenged. In fact we didn't see anyone at all until we met our own people."
"It looks like we've stirred up the whole country," I said. "They certainly seem frightened."
"I'm not surprised," Anders broke in. "When I left the factory, besides the virus cultures, my rucksack was full of bottles of vaccine against the bleeding death and as much of the anti-serum as I could carry. I expected we might need it. I destroyed all I could of what I had to leave behind and the papers too. The Communists have very little left."
"A fine piece of work, Doctor," I said. "You saved our lives and deprived the Reds of their protection, all at the same time." I turned back to Lee Sung. "I wonder how they figured we were Americans. All our papers were in order. There wasn't a thing to show we weren't native guerrillas, admittedly in the service of an unfriendly power. Why not think we were from South Korea?"
"Possibly some of the men we left in the factory lived long enough to talk," Blackie said, "put I doubt it very much. Of course seeing the white officers would give them grounds for suspicion."
"Suspicion, yes, but not fact," I said.
"The radio has been talking mysterious explosions and guerrilla warfare in Siberia and parts of China recently," Lee Sung reported.