Devil's Fork (10 page)

Jiyeon did not have much
time at the office. She needed to put her files away, fire off a
few emails, and especially touch up her makeup before dinner. Who
was this man, she thought as she got ready. Because North Korea was
just past walking distance from Seoul and because of its aggressive
nature, the NIS and South Korean military invested heavily in
subverting them. They were always preparing for conflict. People
went about their lives and tried not to think of their northern
neighbors too often. But a certain fear seeped through. Living next
to such a dangerous country, one always felt on guard. Some
visitors explained it as a tightness in the stomach. But once you
lived in Seoul long enough, you got used to it. And then here comes
this man from America, she thought, and not only is he coming to
this tense environment, he is going to basically swim into North
Korea and try to sneak into a military base. To her it sounded like
suicide, and it was not a mission they would easily let their
illegals take for that reason. But this American, he behaved like
it was another day at the office, she thought. He almost did not
seem to care. How could he look like that when he was about to
go
there?
She
wanted him to care. What drove him? He seemed pretty serious, but
what was it that made such a person care about something? What was
he thinking about? She wanted answers to all of these questions at
dinner.

As she finished her makeup, she realized she
was thirsty. She had been running around an American base all day.
She got up and started walking to the other side of the building,
which housed the kitchenette for their floor. The office seemed to
be lifeless – only a few people were left. This was also because of
the fact that Mr. Park and his small team of analysts left in a
hurry over the weekend. She thought it was odd, but not completely
strange. Mr. Park traveled often and sometimes he needed analysts
with him. What was abnormal about it this time was that he seemed
to run off in such a hurry and nobody knew anything about it until
Monday morning. It made sense as she thought about it – losing 1414
was a catastrophe for the group. Each illegal they had in the North
was unique. The group found out Mr. Park was in Washington to help
them prepare for this soon-to-come infiltration into the North. But
why did he need those analysts? Jiyeon did not like to put things
out of place. She did not like to push people’s buttons. Asking
about exactly what Mr. Park was doing in Washington would have been
too much for someone as sensitive as her. She preferred to remain
silent rather than ask every question on her mind. She knew people
around her thought she was shy because of that.

One of the only people in the office was Mr.
Kim. He was older than Jiyeon and a more senior analyst. He had
worked for Mr. Park for a long time. He always sat in his office
quietly and alone. Jiyeon could not believe that nobody knew
whether he had a family or even any friends. He just came to work
and worked. He never spoke about anything in the outside world. In
fact, Jiyeon noticed that he never participated in small talk. He
worked late and came in early. Jiyeon tried craning her neck to see
what he was doing in his office, without making it appear that she
was looking inside. He was reading something. He never looked
up.

As she walked into the kitchenette, she was
surprised to see Sung-Ho and Min-Ho. They were two analysts but in
a different group within NIS. They worked on a different floor.
They came down to the kitchenette on her floor because it had a
better coffee machine and better snacks in the vending machine.
Sung-Ho was not tall and did not have any distinctive features. He
wore glasses. Sometimes Jiyeon would see him in the kitchen and he
would ask her how she was enjoying her work and whether she was
busy. Jiyeon enjoyed the warmth he radiated when speaking. Last
week, she remembered being at the office late, seeing him in the
kitchen, and getting into a conversation with him that raised her
mood for the whole weekend. She did not recall what they spoke
about, but she liked speaking to polite people.

Min-Ho had a different personality. He could
be overwhelming. Jiyeon liked confident men, but he took it a bit
too far, to the point where he overvalued himself. He went out to
the clubs often, but liked to talk about it even more often. He
also seemed to sincerely believe that every girl, including Jiyeon,
had every reason to want to date him. That alone put her off. But
she still made sure to be pleasant whenever she saw him.

“
Hi guys, working late
tonight?” Jiyeon initiated.

“
Not really. We might go
out later if you want to join.” Of course it was the first thing
Min-Ho asked, Jiyeon thought.

“
Sorry I can’t.”

“
You must be busy with
work,” Sung-Ho said with understanding eyes.

Jiyeon felt that she could
read people well. Sung-ho, she had analyzed, was meticulous about
his appearance
.
He
always dressed well and made sure he had the right gadgets – like
his cell phone and watch. But what Jiyeon appreciated was that he
was not constantly pushing it in front of her face or talking about
it. His understated nature gave him extra charm, she thought.
Jiyeon had heard he came from a quietly wealthy family.

“
The office down here seems
to be pretty quiet” Sung-Ho said. “Are you the only one working
hard?”

“
Not really. It’s just one
of those days where everybody has something on his or her schedule.
You know?” She was not supposed to give any details of what her
group was working on, even to analysts in other groups within the
NIS. She could not say that Mr. Park had left with a team of
analysts. Every piece of information needed to be kept in a silo.
Only senior people had a full picture. She knew this was common –
the CIA and MI6 worked this way too.

“
You should take advantage
of it and come out with us,” Min-Ho added.

“
No, sorry guys. I already
have plans for tonight.”

With that Jiyeon took a water bottle and
went back to her desk. Tom was going to be waiting in the
restaurant if she did not leave soon.

CHAPTER 12

TUESDAY

Seoul, South Korea

Tom and Jiyeon sat at a table at Korean
barbeque restaurant popular that night. In between them a griddle
sat sizzling with pork and beef cooking in the Korean style. The
smell of the spicy sauces and marinades was alluring. It floated
through the room and stuck to one’s clothes, which in Tom’s case
was a slim, grey Hickey Freeman suit, white shirt, and no tie. The
top two buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned.

Looking into Jiyeon’s examining eyes, he
felt that somehow they had been connected for a long time, despite
having just met. Even though they were separated by oceans,
cultures, and backgrounds, as she spoke, he felt he was making a
rediscovery, rather than learning about someone new. The room was
dark but she gave it light. She had put her hair up and touched up
her makeup. Her eyes had more shadow and seemed to draw him in.

“
How long have you worked
at the NIS?” Tom asked. They had finished with the initial
pleasantries and were in that mode where two interested souls were
learning about each other.

“
I joined about 10 years
ago right after college.” She was no longer looking down like she
was at the briefing.

“
Were you an analyst in the
deep cover program from the start?”

“
No, I started in the
foreign affairs analysis group and then they moved me into the deep
cover program after two years. So I’ve been doing this for eight
years. You know, I come from a pretty traditional family, and my
parents did not want me to work in the government.”

“
Really?”

“
But I really wanted to go
out there and do something. So I came here to Seoul on my own and
started working for the NIS.”

“
Why did you want to do
that?”

“
You know, maybe I could
have married and lived quietly. But Tom, I really didn’t want to do
that yet. I can always settle down later.”

“
So you have a taste for
adventure?”

“
I wanted to understand the
world. It was unexplored. I’m still exploring it.”

“
And what are you finding
out?”

“
I don’t know. It’s
strange. Sometimes I imagine each country is represented by a
person. This person has the character and attitude of the country
he represents. At least its attitude on the international stage. If
all of these people were at a party or gathering, you would have a
crowd that I am not sure I would want to be with. You would have a
lot of manic, conniving characters most of whom would be trying to
find a get-rich-quick scheme of some kind. And they would all be
lying to each other to try to get there. It would be such a weird,
absurd gathering. Sometimes I imagine all of these things happening
while these people are formally dressed in suits.”

Tom sat back, smiled and started
nodding.

“
No but it’s true,” she
continued, smiling with him, “where I grew up, we were taught
certain things – respect your neighbors, find something you can do
for others, and be tolerant. Can you imagine that I grew on those
ideals and am now helping drive one of the characters in that
circus-party? What’s more strange is that I’m not sure what the
purpose of the party is. What? Each character is trying to find a
way to get the others to obey him? Figuring that out has been my
adventure.”

“
The thing about that
circus party that makes it more strange is that if you don’t play
along, you will lose. Whatever the game is.”

“
This reminds me of
something I read recently. I was reading the book
Heart of Darkness
and
–”

“
That’s a coincidence. I
was just about to reread it.”

Jiyeon laughed. “I guess we are telepathic.
But there’s a line or two in it that resonated with me: ‘Droll
thing life is — that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for
a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge
of yourself.’ So that’s my story. Ten years later, I’m still happy
I’m out here on my own, despite the strange world I’ve found myself
in.”

Tom paused for a moment. He felt relaxed
while looking into Jiyeon’s quiet eyes. He watched Jiyeon take a
delicate sip of her drink before he said, “what’s your family
saying now? Are they proud?”

“
They are. But they also
don’t really know what I do. I’m sure you have it the same way
where you can’t talk about much.” She was smiling at their
circumstance.

“
If everyone knew exactly
what we were doing, there would not be any intrigue and nobody
would be interested. So I’d say because we can’t talk about it,
people around us want to know everything we do. I think if the
former were not true, the latter wouldn’t be either. It’s a bit of
a paradox.”

“
I get that feeling too.”
Jiyeon smiled and looked at ease.

“
How do you like living in
Seoul?”

“
I like it. It’s a busy
place, so even walking down the street you feel like you’re in the
middle of action. That’s different than what I was used to growing
up.”

“
Do you ever try to get
away- for a weekend or anything like that?”

“
Yes, I do sometimes. But
mostly I just stay in the city. What about you? Where do you
live?”

“
I live in DC. It’s not as
busy as this town.”

“
How long have you been
with your group at the CIA?”

“
It’s been a good number of
years now. But before this job, I was in the military, so it has
really been one long stretch of doing similar work.”

“
How long of a
stretch?”

“
I joined the Navy right
after college. So this has been my life’s work.”

“
Yes, I remember, we were
briefed that you used to be a SEAL. That’s a special ops group
right?”

“
Yes – It’s the equivalent
of your country’s White Tiger battalion.”

“
Oh – wow.” Jiyeon took a
sip of her drink.

White Tiger was closer to
the equivalent of the Army’s 1
^st
Special Forces Operational
Detachment-Delta. White Tiger was the South Korean Army’s
land-based counter-terror unit. Tom heard that Delta had trained
with them from time to time, but when he was at DEVGRU, they had
never trained with White Tiger.

“
Why did you join the
military and the SEALs?”

Tom looked at the wall at the far side of
the restaurant. He seemed like he was looking into a safe he had
locked in his mind. “It was an escape.”

“
Were you in
trouble?”

“
Not in that way.” Tom’s
eyes were half shut as he looked just past Jiyeon. She looked at
him like one looks at a large scar. She leaned forward, wanting to
hear a secret. But her sensitivity took over and she adjusted the
direction of her questions.

“
Have you had a lot of
missions like this one?” She asked like a kid.

“
This one is not out of the
ordinary. I’ve had quite a few where I was alone in unfriendly
places,” Tom said matter-of-factly with his head angled slightly to
the side.