Devil's Fork (21 page)

The screen showed that Tom was moving
further inland. They all had seen why. When he looked back, there
was a flashlight in the distance, moving around. A KPA fireteam was
behind him.

Anderson looked like he was holding a heavy
weight.

“
John, what do you think?”
Sara asked.

He looked back, “Tom has a point. Going back
a kilometer through heavy patrols is probably as dangerous as going
forward. From this satellite imagery though, it looks like there is
a large group of KPA guarding the entrance to that base. I don’t
know how he’s going to get in. But then again, they don’t know for
sure that he is trying to get to that base. The message only said
he was being inserted into this area.”

Sara felt stronger now. “That area has
pretty good cover. With his SERE training he should be able to keep
avoiding them. Maybe once he gets closer we’ll be able to think of
a way for him to get in.”

Sara remembered how much fun it was to hear
Tom’s SERE stories. SERE stood for “Survive Evade Resist Escape”.
It was a military course all Navy SEALs were required to take. It
taught techniques for staying hidden when escaping from an enemy’s
prison. It could be used to escape from a search party. Sara found
it fascinating because after learning about some of the techniques
from Tom, she could spot mistakes in every film that showed people
trying to stay hidden. Looking at the screen she could even see
what Tom was trying to do. She noticed earlier that he was kneeling
next to a bush. One of the lessons from SERE was to avoid
disturbing vegetation that was above knee-height. Typically when
people tried to stay hidden, at least in films, they dove right
into a bush. That provided a good hiding spot, but when one left,
that bush would look visibly different from the vegetation
surrounding it. A search party could use that as a clue.

While watching the screen, she saw Tom use
another SERE technique. He was moving straight ahead, directly away
from the KPA fireteam behind him. But he suddenly cut right and
started moving towards what was his 2 o’clock. One of the other
SERE lessons Tom had told her was that one is supposed to run in a
zig zag pattern. If a search party was looking for someone and
found a clue, they were likely to continue walking forward in a
straight line looking for the next clue he left. If one zig zags,
the search party will be thrown off.

Suddenly the door to the Command Room
opened. One of the analysts walked in and walked up to
Anderson.

“
John, the Director just
called. He said The President has rejected a military exfiltration.
He does not want to start a war. The
George Washington
had its Marine
platoons and helos stand down.”

Anderson at first did not say anything. He
was nodding. Finally he spoke.

“
Tom is on his
own.”

For some reason, Sara felt less tense now
that the screen was showing what Tom was looking at. Hearing his
voice over the speakers was calming too. It felt like being there
with him, she thought.

We can help him do this.

“
He thinks he can get
there. He knows how to deal with situations like this,” she
said.

Anderson looked into space for some time. He
looked back at Mr. Park, who nodded to him confidently.

Anderson then spoke slowly, looking at the
entire room. “I will give him the green light to keep going. He’s
made it this far. Might as well see what’s in that underground
base.”

He pushed a button on the computer in front
of him, activating his headset.

“
Yankee Actual. Green light
on Devil’s Fork. You may proceed. Over.”

After a pause, Tom’s voice came in on the
Command Room speakers, slightly above a whisper.

“
Wilco. Continuing to
Waypoint 1. Over.”

Sara sometimes had to stop
and think what the radiospeak meant. She scrolled through the terms
in her head. “Wilco” meant “will comply”. She looked on her desk
map for Waypoint 1. The NIS analysts had briefed Tom on the best
route to take. Waypoint 1 was the side of a dirt path or road that
went towards a ridge. Tom was not going to walk
on
it. But he was going to get to it
and follow it from the side.

“
OK” she thought, “we had
the operation turn on us, but we will still try to get it done.”
Something about that felt good.

“
John,” she said, “tell Tom
that Waypoint 1 is about one klick ahead and from what I can tell
if he keeps moving due west he should be able to see the lights
from the vehicles patrolling the road within ten or fifteen
minutes.”

Anderson nodded and relayed the message.
Sara took a deep breath. She felt the tension escape as she began
to do her job.

CHAPTER 31

WEDNESDAY

Wuhan, China

NATPAC sat in his dark office, looking at
the wall in front of him. His computer’s screensaver was flying
around next to him. On his desk was an open bottle of Kaoliang. Its
rotten taste swirled around NATPAC’s mouth. He was in deep
thought.

Did they catch him yet? Does the CIA know
about the base? Is that really where he is going? Or did he have
some other mission and they just inserted him near that base by
coincidence.

NATPAC remembered from his statistics and
econometrics studies that coincidences happened more often than
most people thought. His statistics professor in university liked
to ask the students on the first day of class to write down a list
of numbers from 1-20 in what they deemed to be a random order. On
another piece of paper he asked his assistant to write down an
actual set of random numbers generated from a computer program they
had. The professor would look at both lists and would always be
able to tell which one was the students’. It was a neat trick that
always awed the crowd. NATPAC remembered seeing the lists. He could
still remember some of the numbers with his eidetic memory:

List A: 2, 5, 13, 19, 4, 7, 11, 15, 16,
18

List B: 3, 3, 5, 11, 3, 14, 13, 19, 20,
20

The professor could tell
rather quickly that the students had created list A. The random
number generating software had created List B. This was obvious
because list A
looked more
random
. The students tried to make a list
where no number repeated and especially where the same number never
appeared twice in a row. To the human mind that seemed more random.
But an actual random list would repeat the same numbers once in a
while and would even repeat two numbers in a row. NATPAC remembered
learning that statistically it is actually less probable for the
same number never to come up twice in a list. Over a long list,
however, the number of times each number appears had to be roughly
equal. If the list was a million numbers long, it would be strange
if half of those numbers were a “3”. The main lesson, however, was
that what seemed like a coincidence – a number repeating itself –
could actually happen randomly. A coincidence did not necessarily
mean that one issue was related to another. NATPAC sometimes smiled
at the paradox. The human mind tried to create a random list. In
the process of creating something that
looked random
he or she made a list
that was less likely to be random. Our minds do not understand the
complexity of the world around us, he often thought.

So NATPAC knew that just the fact that the
Americans were inserting a spy not far from that base did not
necessarily mean that they knew about that base. They could have
just stupidly dropped him right near it. Just like Americans do
everything - without thinking, he mused.

Well it should not really matter, he
thought. The KPA had followed his plan and so far as he could tell,
it was working. He knew all about American imagery satellites,
passing overhead every few hours. He had used his decision trees to
figure out a superior plan. If the Americans had seen a heavy KPA
presence in the area, they would not have sent in their spy. If
they had seen a very light KPA presence, they would have tried to
insert him. NATPAC then had jumped to the next branch of the
decision tree. If they had inserted this spy, he thought, they
would have probably done it at night. If the KPA were to stay
inside all day, the latest satellite imagery the Americans would
have been looking at would show a light presence. But once the sun
hit the horizon, the KPA units could come out en masse and swarm
that coastal area. Now to the next branch of the tree he thought.
If the spy did try to go to that base, we would catch him, if he
went somewhere else we would catch him, if he went back, we would
catch him. If he avoided the KPA for a few days, we could still
catch him, NATPAC thought.

Arrogant Americans. How did they become the
most powerful country? I would have thought stupidity was a
limiting factor.

Then NATPAC started to
think about bigger things. He had set up something important in
that facility. He needed it to be a part of Act 2. He always had it
in the back of his head. In Act 1, China would slowly start to
amass an absurd amount of foreign reserves by keeping its currency
artificially inflated. China already had several trillion dollars
sitting around. The fun part began in Act 2. All of China’s dollars
did not just need to sit there. China could start buying assets
around the world. It would start by owning the debt of various
countries, including the US. But it could start buying foreign
companies. In fact, we could buy important foreign companies,
NATPAC thought. He found himself running it through his mind often.
“With our trillions, we could buy American telecommunications and
technology companies that developed the latest innovations. We
could buy companies that managed American and European ports. We
could buy American food processing companies. We could buy oil,
gas, and mining companies in both Europe and America. We could
acquire stakes in their banks. We could acquire their real estate,
even in expensive places like Manhattan. We can even acquire their
movie theater companies,” he thought. Of course, “The Chinese
Government” would play no known role in this. Companies, often
managed by a former military officer or communist party leader,
would make these acquisitions. Chinese banks would support them,
however, and finance the acquisitions. The government reserves
could fund the banks. Few people actually knew one of the more
interesting facts about the corporate world. But it never ceased to
amaze NATPAC. If one were to look at
Forbes
’ list of 10 largest companies
in the world—based on factors such as revenue, net income, and
total assets—three were Chinese banks. NATPAC sat back and
continued thinking. Act 2 was brilliant. China could slowly buy out
many of its opponents’ assets. Soon they will all be working
for
us
, he
thought
.
Eventually most Americans will work for Chinese companies that
are closely watched or controlled by the Chinese government. They
are now used to the thought that many Chinese workers are putting
products together for them in Chinese factories. Soon they will be
putting together products or providing services to generate income
for China. The reversal will be monumental.

I must be a part of it. We have to make sure
the spy doesn’t figure out about that base.

Just then his door opened. SLOTHMAN walked
in, looking jumpy.

“
What’s up?” NATPAC
asked.

“
I think we made a
breakthrough.” SLOTHMAN replied.

“
I don’t know what I would
do without you SLOTHMAN,” NATPAC smiled, “what is it?”

“
I’ve penetrated deeper
than I ever have before. I’m right in their systems.”

“
I’m going to nominate you
for the Hero’s Medal.” NATPAC quipped. Of course SLOTHMAN would
never get the Hero’s Medal – you had to run and shoot in a battle
to get that. NATPAC had heard of the soldiers that received it and
their battlefield actions had sounded like fanatical lunacy to him.
He heard the Americans had an equivalent medal called the Medal of
Honor and the British had something called the Victoria Cross that
sounded like China’s Hero’s medal. NATPAC knew he and his men would
never get such an award. He did not really care either. He was
getting his reward in another way.

“
What did you figure out?
Any new information?” NATPAC asked.

“
I have to finish setting
it up. A couple more hours and I’ll have something.”

“
OK. I’m going home soon,
so call me there if you find anything that can help us.”

SLOTHMAN walked out of NATPAC’s office with
what looked to be an extra spring in his step. NATPAC still did not
feel comfortable. “A couple of hours” for SLOTHMAN could translate
to tomorrow evening.

NATPAC grabbed his phone and called the
usual number in Beijing. Despite the late hour, he will be in the
office as well, NATPAC thought. He put the phone on speaker because
he was too tired to lift the handle up to his ear. The phone rang
several times at the other end. Then a voice answered.

“
Yes?”

“
I’m getting worried. Did
they catch him yet?”

“
Not yet. They are
patrolling.”

“
Do you think this
operative knows about that facility?”

“
You’re the one that’s
supposed to figure that out. Did you?”

“
Not yet. Did they increase
security around the facility just in case?”