Devil's Fork (15 page)

Tom reached for her waist and kissed her
forehead. “It will be OK” he whispered.

She nodded and looked down.

Mr. Lee appeared at the far side of the
hallway and walked towards them.

“
Sorry, I was on the phone.
Mr. Park is with everyone in the CIA Command room. They are all
ready.”

Tom looked at the two NIS analysts. He
nodded at them, and they nodded back. Then he started walking down
the hallway, towards the door leading outside. His pace was
controlled. Tom was looking at the ground eight feet in front of
him while he walked. He focused on his breathing.

Outside the cool air refreshed his face. He
had been inside all day. The sun was a purple-orange as it had
started crossing the horizon. Tom saw the helicopter about half a
football field away. Its blades were spinning. It was ready for
him. He marched on, maintaining his steady pace. When he reached
the helicopter, the crew was inside, ready to take him. They were
watching him carefully. Tom climbed inside and sat down. He looked
outside. Back near the building, he saw two figures standing and
watching him – Mr. Lee and Jiyeon.

When the helicopter took off, it looked like
the ground flew away from him quickly. It was a funny sensation Tom
always enjoyed. As they were gaining altitude, Tom looked around
the base. Nearby, he saw six soldiers looking up at the helicopter.
Tom wondered if they were the same group he saw at the firing range
yesterday.

The helicopter started picking up speed.
They were now headed out towards sea. Tom checked his watch. Soon
he would be in North Korea. He thought about that underground base.
Whatever was in it awaited him in that dark land he saw
northward.

CHAPTER 19

WEDNESDAY

Langley, Virginia

“
In about twenty minutes
he’ll be in the
Virginia
and then it’s maybe an hour until he’s on the
coast. So far we are on time.” Anderson was in control of the
Command Room. It was similar to a small college auditorium, with
many desks facing a screen. On that screen was a live feed from
Tom’s helmet camera. On it a darkening sky sat above while below
the ground was floating by. Analysts sat at desks with computers,
each assigned a task. One analyst’s job was to watch for incoming
satellite imagery and read it for any changes. Matt was at one of
the desks. His job was to be the contact point with the military.
Sara’s job would come when Tom was inside North Korea. She had to
analyze everything that came in through the video feed – such as
where Tom was or what he was seeing. Anderson had a headset with a
microphone that would connect directly to Tom once he activated it.
Anderson was overseeing everything. Mr. Park was standing in the
back, quietly observing.

Since Sara did not have any tasks while Tom
was en route, she decided to run to her office quickly. She wanted
another coffee and some water. She rose and left the Command Room.
As she walked through SAD’s offices she could see the parking lot
outside through the windows. It was just starting to fill up. Most
of the agency was getting to work but her group had just launched
an operation. That was a typical SAD move, she thought.

When she arrived at her office, she looked
for her cup, which she had left on her desk earlier. When she found
it, she noticed it was sitting next to a stack of business cards
she kept. Her eyebrows came closer together. Then she shoved the
palm of her hand into her head.

How could I not have
thought of that
?

She suddenly remembered that she had
attended an interagency training session almost six months ago. She
forgot what the training was about. But at that session she had sat
next to a man who was friendly. A bit too friendly, actually, she
thought. They started talking, casually at first. Soon he ended up
wanting to talk more than she did. She just wanted to get back to
the CIA. They exchanged business cards and he asked if she would be
interested in grabbing drinks sometime, to which she answered with
a placeholder of “sure, yeah, let’s do it sometime.” She did not
like being phony but what were you supposed to do with guys who
could not catch a hint? On the way to the office, when she had
looked at his business card, her head jumped back at what it
said:

Mike Castel

National Security Agency

She did not know anyone at the NSA and never
thought she would need to either. But now she realized she had been
a fool for not realizing earlier. If she was suspicious that Matt’s
message had been hacked, maybe she could call someone at the NSA
and ask if they had seen anything strange coming from China. It had
a half-chance of leading somewhere, so she decided to pick up the
phone and call.

She dialed the numbers and then heard a
ring. After another ring, a voice answered, “This is Mike.”

“
Mike. Hi. This is Sara
Hayward. I’m not sure if you remember but we met at a training
session a few months ago.”

“
Hey, Sara. Yeah I
remember. How are you?”

“
Good. Actually, Mike, I’m
calling about something specific. Do you know anyone over there at
the NSA who deals with foreign government hacking issues?” She felt
that she was making up words. She did not know what to call
it.

Mike paused. “You mean Cyberwarfare?”

“
Yes.”

His voice went into a lower tone, as if he
were disappointed “Yeah actually I do. I can give you someone’s
name and number if you just hang on for a second.”

“
Thank so much,
Mike.”

In a few seconds he was ready. “The guy you
want is Mark Aubrey. Very smart guy. Young too. He was a math
prodigy or something. I met him only once. He is a team leader in
the Cyberwarfare group.” Mike gave Sara the number.

“
Great”

“
No problem. Hey, let’s get
that drink sometime?”

“
Yeah sure.
Bye.”

Sara hung up and immediately started dialing
the number she got. She sat at the edge of her seat as she listened
to the phone ring on the other end. It rang four times. Then
somebody picked up.

“
Hello?”

“
Hello? Hi. Is this Mark
Aubrey?”

“
Yes. Can I help
you?”

“
Hi, Mark. My name is Sara
Hayward. I am an analyst at the CIA. I work in the Special
Activities Division. Do you have a quick second now? I just wanted
to ask you something, if its OK with you.”

“
Oh. Uh – sure. What’s your
question?” he suddenly sounded troubled.

“
I just wanted to ask if
you have seen any hacking attempts from China on your systems. I’m
just asking because another analyst and I sent a message yesterday
to a military asset and we – saw something weird.” And she sounded
weird now too, she thought.

“
Was it a Mandarin Chinese
character?”

Sara’s heart dropped. “Uh. Yeah.”

“
We were actually about to
call
you
. We need
to come to your offices and talk. Here, I’ll leave now.”

“
Wait – what is it? Can you
tell me quickly now?”

“
I don’t want to say it
over the phone. We’ll be there soon.”

CHAPTER 20

WEDNESDAY

Sea of Japan

Tom looked down from his seat in the
helicopter. The Korean peninsula had disappeared some time back.
Below him was open sea. The breeze flowed past his face. They were
flying fast. A partly lit moon brightened the dark sky.

Within minutes they would
be hovering over the
Virginia
. The crew of the helicopter
would then drop the fast rope. A sailor from the submarine would
hold it at the bottom while Tom slid down. This all was to happen
about 35 nautical miles from the area he planned to land on the
North Korean coast. By maritime law, a country’s territorial waters
extended 12 miles out from its coast. If a US helicopter or surface
ship crossed that zone, it could surely expect to be intercepted by
the North Korean navy. The territory of sea between 12 and 24
nautical miles was known as contiguous waters, and a country could
still justifiably intercept a ship in that zone if it were deemed a
threat. So at 35 nautical miles out, Tom felt that they were safe,
but also close.

Once Tom was on the
submarine, the plan was for the helicopter to turn around and land
on the
George
Washington
, which was several nautical
miles further back. It would refuel and then head back to Yongsan
Garrison in Seoul. If anyone was watching on radar, they would
likely just think this was a training exercise to practice a night
landing on an aircraft carrier. That was the idea. Meanwhile, once
Tom was inside the
Virginia
, it would submerge and turn
completely radio silent so as not to give away its location. It
would head directly towards the infiltration point and halt about
three nautical miles out. From there Tom would infiltrate with his
SDV.

Tom walked through the plan again as they
continued flying over the serene sea. He did not think helicopters
were the most pleasant vehicles. When he was deployed as a SEAL, he
had been in several helicopters that had crashed. These were not
major crashes and explosions like the movies showed. As he
visualized it in his mind, he remembered that it usually happened
when they were flying low and taking enemy fire. For some reason,
sometimes these helicopters would just fall. Luckily when it
happened to him, the SEALs inside survived. There had been other
helicopters that had been shot down and everyone was killed. But
because of these crashes, and the feeling of unease as they were
going down, Tom’s mind began associating the helicopter itself with
the unease he felt in those crashes. He was being classically
conditioned. Except this time it was not in a positive way. He did
not think about it too much, and it did not bother him too much as
he also had many positive experiences in helicopters as a
counterbalance. But he was aware that he was in a flawed vehicle.
He closed his eyes and used James-Lange.

What helped Tom was that he was not too
bothered by death. It was a paradox that clarified it for him. When
he was a SEAL, he deployed with various military units. Sometimes
they were US Army, Marines or Navy. But sometimes he deployed
alongside foreign units. He had seen a lot of soldiers and sailors
over the years. Many of them were very scared of dying. Tom never
blamed them. To be deployed in hostile environments and seeing
friends getting killed did not make one feel more secure in life.
But he noticed something odd. It started with the soldier or sailor
sitting in fear of death for a while. Facing this constant fear
made many of these men psychologically tormented. Nobody can look
death in the face for long without torment. After some time, the
person decides he cannot stand the angst any longer and sometimes
wishes that he were no longer alive. That seemed to be the only
escape from misery. But there was the paradox. He had seen people
become afraid of dying to the point where they, effectively, wanted
to die to escape the fear. Once that paradox came to light, that
fear of death dissipated. Not completely, but slowly. The confusion
in the mind helped one cope. Tom had seen a number of people reach
this state. You could see it in their faces. Many liked to call it
the Thousand Yard Stare.

Tom could feel the helicopter start to
descend. He saw the outline of a submarine, peeking through the
water. It seemed only a few football fields away. As they descended
closer, Tom could make out several sailors standing on the bridge,
looking at the helicopter with binoculars. Several more were on
deck preparing for Tom.

The helicopter slowed to a hover just above
the deck. The crew chief let the fast rope drop. A sailor on deck
grabbed it. If the fast rope swung around while Tom was on it, or
if the helicopter lurched, he could be in the sea in no time. Tom
took a look around the inside of the helicopter. Everyone was
watching him – the pilot and the crew. He grabbed the rope and slid
down with all his gear. As soon as he was on deck, he could feel
mist from the sea brush his face.

The helicopter pulled in
the fast rope and started off towards the
George Washington
. They were done
with their bit.

A sailor walked up to Tom. He had to yell
through the noise from the chopper blades and the sea.

“
Hello, sir! You are Tom,
correct?”

“
That’s right!” Tom yelled
back.

They ran to the bridge. Tom climbed up and
saw that the hatch was open at the top. Tom climbed the ladder down
into the warm submarine. When his feet touched ground, he looked
around. He was in a familiar place – the submarine’s control room.
He saw sailors in their blue work uniforms staring at him at their
stations. Everyone wanted to get a look at the man in all-black.
After him, the rest of the sailors from the deck above came down.
One older-looking man approached him.

“
Tom? I’m Captain Cruz.
Welcome aboard.”

“
Thank you,
sir.”

“
Collins, take care of
him.”

A sailor stepped forward. “Yes, sir. Come
with me.” He motioned aft and Tom started walking with him. Behind
him Tom heard the captain begin to give orders and his officers
acknowledge and relay them.

“
Make our depth seven zero
feet. And let’s go radio silent.”