Devil's Fork (18 page)

WEDNESDAY

Northeast Coast, Democratic People’s
Republic Of Korea

Captain Kim took one last drag off his
cigarette. He threw it on the sand and stepped on it. He was
standing in the midst of his soldiers, who were talking amongst
themselves. Kim was watching the sea quietly. He exhaled the smoke
slowly.

Being an officer in the Korean People’s
Army’s military counter-intelligence battalion meant he sometimes
had to lead his men on sensitive missions. Today’s was
ultra-sensitive but also odd.

Yesterday, he received orders to keep his
men in their barracks for the next two days. Nobody was allowed to
go outside. All normal patrols were called off. That was strange.
He had never received an order like that. Normally the higher ups
wanted them to patrol as much as possible. They were extremely
frightened of infiltrators, smugglers, or defectors running around.
Staying inside was strange for any military unit, in any country.
Then this morning he received additional orders. When the sun hit
the horizon, the entire battalion was to go out on patrol. Other
KPA units would aid them. Several platoons were to patrol the
beach. Others were to patrol the woods and dirt roads behind the
beach. Captain Kim’s company was assigned to the beach.

He was in a room with
senior officers when the orders were distributed this morning. He
asked them what was going on. He asked it in a polite and proper
way, so as not to be accused of insubordination or crimes against
the state. The general took him aside and told him something
unsettling. They had received very valuable and well-sourced
intelligence that the Americans were going to insert a spy into the
beach nearby. “We have to catch him,” the general said. Kim then
asked about the shenanigans of staying inside the barracks all day
for two days and then running outside at sunset. But he remembered
to ask in a way that would
not
get him sent to a gulag. The general said
something that made Kim throw his head back. He said the Americans
had satellites flying overhead, and they needed to trick the
Americans by acting like they were not ready. Kim asked him how
they had learned how American satellites worked. He knew the
intelligence capabilities of his country. And, he thought to
himself, the intelligence capabilities of his country were slightly
better than having nothing. They did not even know how American
satellites worked. How did they know how they were flying around
above Earth? When he asked the general in the proper way, he was
told that their country had a special friend who was helping
them.

The general then told him something Captain
Kim would not forget. He said,

“
Captain, you are well
educated and thoughtful. You are one of our bright young officers.
Listen. Never forget these three lessons from the Chinese
philosopher Sun Tzu.

“
First, ‘all warfare is
based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem
unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are
near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far
away, we must make him believe we are near.’

“
Second, ‘hold out baits to
entice the enemy. Feign disorder and crush him.’

“
And third, ‘pretend
inferiority and encourage his arrogance.’ This is what we are
doing. One day you will be a senior leader. You must remember this.
Americans are arrogant and think they can do anything. Today we
will crush them.”

Captain Kim was taken aback by the
thoughtful lesson from the general. Then he became unsettled as he
digested what he had been told. Now, as he stood on the beach,
scanning the dark sea, he could feel his insides tense up.

He lit another cigarette. In the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea there did not seem to be much to do
other than smoke. He recalled how TVs had two channels showing
propaganda his sister unit had created. The only books allowed were
those describing the ideology of the country. There was not even
much electricity to do anything with. Yes, he thought, cigarettes
were the most fun.

Kim’s family had been part
of the elite. His father was a KPA general and was a member of one
of the innermost circles of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea. Perhaps not
the
inner circle, he always recalled, but not more than a few
rings out. This meant that his father was privy to some of the
State’s deepest secrets. His father also had a more realistic view
of the world. He explained to Kim that America was actually a very
powerful country and that another war had to be avoided. His father
mentioned the occasional famines they had to deal with. He used to
wonder as a child whether paradise was supposed to have famine. His
father always told him never to repeat what he heard from him. Kim
always obeyed carefully. Once, his father shared with him a secret
that was deeper than the others. When he joined the KPA and was
commissioned as a Lieutenant, Kim joined the elite military
counter-intelligence unit immediately. As a child of a general,
having been better educated and supposedly better indoctrinated, he
was placed into a unit that dealt with the State’s most treasured
jewels. Early in his military career, he had been sent to this
exact location on assignment. He lived in the same barracks and
patrolled the same woods and beach. Kim remembered sitting at the
table at home with his father, a few days before he was to leave
Pyongyang.

“
You know you are on one
of the most special assignments,”
his
father had said.

“
Really? How?”

“
You will not be just
patrolling some far corner of this country. You are actually there
to protect a special underground base.”

“
Wow. Why is it special?
What is in it?”

“
Even most members of the
government and military do not know about it. So you must keep this
to yourself.”
Then his father explained a
whole side of the Democratic People’s Republic he had never known
about.

That conversation with his late father came
back to Kim as if it were yesterday. While stationed at this
location, he had never seen this strange base or been inside. He
had never even heard any of the senior officers mention it.

And now the higher ups were
worried about an
American
. Landing on
this beach
? What did that
mean, he wondered? Could the Americans have found out about this
base? How was that even possible?

Captain Kim started motioning to his
soldiers that they needed to stop smoking and start patrolling. He
led a group of his men down the beach, while another group
continued in the opposite direction. He told his men to look for
bubbles in the water. Better yet, they needed to look for a line or
stream of bubbles heading out. Kim knew that was the way to find a
submerged diver. He had grown up in a country that he knew had a
technological inferiority. He had grown accustomed to using
low-tech methods to accomplish his missions.

As they walked, he turned and looked towards
the forest at his side.

Huh?

He thought for a moment he had seen
something behind him. It actually did not look like anything after
he thought about it. A bush seemed to move oddly. But it was also
about a hundred feet away, so his eyes might be making something
up, he thought. Nobody had reported seeing any bubbles yet, which
was the way they were going to catch this American.

Even if it is nothing, he thought, he should
go take a look. Just to make sure.

CHAPTER 26

WEDNESDAY

Langley, Virginia

Sara sat in conference room C not far from
the Command Room. Mark and J.D. were sitting with her. Both had
their laptops in front of them. Sara had explained operation
Devil’s Fork to them. She told them what she wrote in that message
that was compromised. She thought they should be filled in so that
they can try to help them fix the situation. Sara had the worst
feeling for an intelligence analyst. She felt the mission turn on
her. This time they were on that wrong side, she thought. They
walked into a trap. Sara wanted to scream.

But she held out hope. Sara
expected Tom to radio in any minute. At that point, Anderson would
tell him to abort the mission. Tom could then go back into his SDV
and back to the
Virginia
. There was a good chance he
could avoid all of those KPA troops patrolling the area. After all,
that is what he was trained to do. It was like breathing to him.
She would go back in the Command Room once he radioed in she
decided. She did not want to be there in the meantime. After all
that panic and stomach-churning she just felt sick to her stomach
being in that room. She did not know why.

She looked at the two NSA analysts typing
away at their laptops. She had seen Tom hold his rifle at a firing
range once. He looked good with it, she thought. But it also
somehow looked like his M4 was a close friend. She did not know how
that came across. Was it the way he gently placed his hands on it?
But she saw in these two NSA analysts something similar. Their
laptops looked like weapons. They looked powerful sitting behind
them.

She took a sip of water as she watched them
work. She had a question on her mind. Something that was lingering
that she did not get to ask earlier, during the panic that
erupted.

“
Mark, you said this
Chinese cyberwarfare group had intercepted a number of messages
sent by different groups in the CIA.”

Mark looked up. “They got a few before we
saw it.”

“
So are all of these CIA
missions compromised? Could they be sending messages now that are
getting intercepted?”

“
The few that got
intercepted, yes, are compromised. But that is actually a very
small number. And, correct me if I’m wrong, but intelligence
officers in the field use a different system to send messages back,
right?”

“
Yes, I think so. I’m not
sure how the other groups do it specifically but yes, officers in
the field are not sending in mission updates by email. And they
don’t use the DMS.”

“
That’s good. So we’re
still in good shape,” he said methodically.

“
But what about messages
being sent now. What if someone in another group is sending an
important email now that might get intercepted by this guy,
SLOTHMAN?”

“
Well, once we saw what was
happening on Monday, we started rerouting all of the CIA’s email
traffic through our servers and network.”

“
But what does that do? You
guys said you got attacked this way too, right?”

“
No. To be precise I said
that we noticed some of our traffic being rerouted through China.
They never read any messages we sent.”

“
Why?”

“
Because we use quantum
cryptography. That’s the most secure type of cryptography there is.
Even SLOTHMAN, good as he is, can’t hack that.” Mark smiled. He
leaned back in his seat.

“
So all of the CIA’s emails
and DMS messages are going through your system…and
being—“

“
Quantum encrypted, yes. So
they’re safe. We have been sending through traffic that talks about
sports scores and lunch menus to keep them occupied.”

Sara looked up at the ceiling. She thought
for a minute. “What is quantum cryptography? Why is it so hard to
break?”

Mark sat up straight, “Well. Before I
explain, let me ask. Did you study physics in college?”

“
A little. Not really
though. I studied history. I don’t think it really
relates.”

“
Oh, no. History is a
related subject.”

“
Really? So how does this
quantum cryptography work?”

“
Well it’s related to the
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. It is a principle in physics that
says that for very small particles, like electrons within an atom,
you can either know the position of the particle, or the speed. But
never both at the same time. The more you can figure out about the
position of an electron, the less you can tell about how fast it is
going.”

Sara listened intently. “OK. I’m with
you.”

“
Now the following analogy
helps explain it. This is where the history comes in. In ancient
Greece there was a philosopher named Zeno of Elea. He lived in the
400’s BC, even before Socrates. Zeno was known for coming up with a
few interesting paradoxes.”

“
Paradoxes?” Sara asked,
her voice inflecting upwards.

“
Yes – he came up with
three famous paradoxes. The one that’s relevant here is his Arrow
Paradox. He said to imagine an arrow flying through the air. Over a
certain period of time, it will move to its target. But if you take
an instant of time, a snapshot and see what the arrow is doing, you
would see that it is not flying anywhere. It would just be sitting
in one spot in the air. And this is true at every instant, whether
you take the instant of time right as the arrow is near the target,
or right as it leaves your bow. In all of these instants the arrow
does not move. Because time is basically made up of many, many of
these small instants, each of which has an arrow that is not
moving, then overall the arrow should never move. And yet we can go
shoot an arrow and watch it fly.”

Sara processed what Mark said. She repeated
it back to him to make sure she had it right.