Devil's Fork (23 page)

As he thought about it, he could not really
blame the other soldiers around here for not caring. How could
they? They had radios that did not work, flashlights that sometimes
worked, and nothing else. All of the men around him also felt at
least a small amount of constant hunger. They ate small portions of
corn and some wheat. Once in a while they were given some chicken.
But meat was a treat, a luxury they indulged in once in a while. In
fact it probably was not even chicken, as he thought about it.
Either way, how could a soldier be expected to work and perform his
duties with that constant hunger. Maybe, to the soldiers’ benefit,
because they did not know any better, they just carried on but with
a lazy attitude. But Kim could never forget his experiences in
China. He knew what it felt like to eat well, and he had not eaten
well once in the Democratic People’s Republic. He was constantly
told two things, which in his younger years made him forget about
his constant hunger. The first was that his country was the best
country in the world. Life was as good as it possibly could be, and
what was implied was that if he complained, he was ungrateful to be
living in such a place. He believed this for a long time. It made
sense to the younger Kim – why would the leaders say that this was
the best possible situation if it were not true. So when he was
younger, Kim would reassure himself when feeling uncertain due to
the hunger pangs or the ever-breaking equipment.

Secondly, he was told that
everything was the Americans’ fault. When he was in school as a
kid, the heating went out often in winter. He and his class would
sit at their desks shivering incessantly. He did not like that
feeling of constant cold, but he also thought it was normal.
Of course it’s cold in winter. How can we expect
to always receive heating?
But,
importantly, when they were sitting there shaking, their teacher
always reminded them that this pain and discomfort they were
feeling was because of the Americans. They were blockading us, he
was told. It makes sense, he thought. And then as he sat there
shaking in discomfort in his seat, he began to feel a real,
tangible anger at America.
Why were they
making me feel like this?
To this day,
sometimes when Kim thought of America, he began to shiver and feel
that same discomfort he had as a boy in the classroom. Another
time, his best friend in school had died. It happened quite
suddenly – soon after he started feeling pain in his stomach.
Later, while Kim was crying and feeling sick, his teacher told him
that his best friend had died because of his appendix. Of course,
appendicitis was always fatal, but it happened to people because of
the American blockade, he was told. Kim remembered that he became
furious. He became angrier than he had ever been and as a young boy
came home and said he wanted to join the Army so he could kill as
many Americans as he could. What was strange was that even today,
while standing on that beach, Captain Kim felt a similar sickly,
angry feeling as he thought about the American spy. That feeling
made him almost think that his best friend had just died
today.

Finally his radio started
talking clearly. Captain Kim listened. It was the officer in
command of the road team. He was reporting that Kim’s suggestion of
using diversionary tactics might have worked. His men had found
something. Kim met with some of the other officers before the
operation. He suggested to the Captain charged with watching the
road to use a diversionary tactic. Kim had remembered one of the
lessons he had learned from a military science class. Sometimes an
entire enemy unit could be made to focus on some type of diversion.
It could be a flare, an opposing small military installation, a
series of sounds, or – a
large
light
. He had suggested keeping a vehicle
far up the road with a large light fixed on the forest while
smaller teams patrolled up the road from the other side. What he
expected the spy to do was to sit along the road for some time and
observe the light and the troops around it. He had learned American
soldiers were taught to move slowly and carefully, and to spend
time observing before moving. By setting up a light, the KPA unit
could create a situation where the American might be spotted
sitting and observing the light by one of the small, quiet patrol
units. When he was studying English at university, he had learned
Americans liked to use the idiom “a deer in the headlights.” This
was what he thought they could create. Except Kim was not sure
whether he was using the expression correctly. He thought he could
check the true meaning with the spy once they caught
him.

The captain at the road was asking Kim to
come take a look at something. Luckily from what the other officer
was describing, Kim believed that they were actually close to the
other KPA unit. Captain Kim and his men walked up the hill in front
of them and continued walking forward. In about five minutes they
had reached the road.

The officer and his men were standing near
the edge of the forest several paces down the road, away from the
diversionary vehicle.

“
What’s the situation,”
Captain Kim asked upon arriving.

“
Did you see anything as
you were coming here?” The other officer asked.

“
No. Why? What happened
here?”

“
We were conducting the
sweep and one of my men thought he saw something move over here.”
The officer said, pointing to an area at the edge of the woods in
front of them,

“
Did you follow it into the
woods?”

“
We still don’t know if we
saw something or not. We went into the woods but after looking
around we could not find anything. We can’t see very well in there.
But here, look at this.” The officer was pointing to the ground. On
the ground, right by the bush was a small broken branch. Several
leaves were scattered on the ground. Kim looked around. The other
plants nearby had not lost any leaves. Here in front of him was a
small pile of leaves. It seemed as if someone had brushed against
the bush.

“
OK. You keep patrolling
this road, my men and I will go back and patrol the woods. We will
sweep up towards that vehicle,” Captain Kim said.

He still was not sure whether they were
actually finding clues or coincidences. One always seems to see
things move in the dark, Captain Kim mused. But the real question
that kept floating through Kim’s mind was whether this spy was
actually heading to that base. Kim thought that if he had to get to
that base, he would probably try to find this particular road as
well. But then again, if he were trying to get anywhere, he would
need to reach this road. It was not necessarily a coincidence that
needed explaining. Either way, if he and his men swept up the woods
in the direction of the vehicle, they would be moving towards the
base. Kim thought about what was inside. They would all be punished
if it were found. That was a certainty.

CHAPTER 35

WEDNESDAY NIGHT / THURSDAY MORNING

Northeast Coast, North Korea

Tom holstered his silenced Sig Saur pistol.
The patrol had moved on up the hill towards the road behind him. He
sat and listened for a moment.

While he had been moving away from the road,
he had seen a KPA fireteam approaching him in line formation. He
was coming down a small hill as they were approaching about 100
feet away. He had remembered a key acronym from SERE training:
BLISS. He used it to find the right hiding spot:

B
lend

L
ow Silhouette

I
rregular Shape

S
mall

S
ecluded location

He had found the right shelter at the bottom
of the small hill. There was an opening under the spot where a
fallen tree rested on a rock. It was a small spot that was quite
dark, matching his completely black uniform. Tom liked the spot
because it was low and the tall grass at the base gave him some
additional cover. He had slipped into the shelter right as the
unaware fireteam had been approaching.

He was laying there as the team walked
towards him. He was expecting them to continue up the hill.
However, they had stopped right in front of him. Tom had aligned
his M4 with his body in the hole so that the KPA team would not see
a strange barrel sticking out of the rock in front of them. But he
expected to be found within seconds, so he had pulled his Sig Saur
pistol out of his holster and aimed it at them. He aimed right
between the eyes of the soldier who seemed to be the officer—the
man who seemed to be calling out orders and was playing with his
broken radio.

This could be the time where I really find
out if I’m still at the expert pistol standard.

This fireteam in front of Tom looked as if
it had decided to take a break. The officer was trying to repair
his radio. It spat out harsh sounds, like a ‘90s TV during a power
surge. Tom smiled.

That’s good. Their comms look terrible.

The soldiers at the officer’s right were
staring up the hill but those to his left were staring at the
fallen tree. They did not look like they were searching for
anything. They seemed to be just eyeing the irregular shape
directly in front of them.

Tom held his aim. He knew that if one of
them discovered him, Tom could shoot all five before they had even
realized what they had seen. That’s the pistol standard with which
he tested himself back at Yongsan Garrison.

After the officer had fixed his radio, he
received some kind of message and went up the hill with his
men.

Now Tom had paused long enough where he was
confident the fireteam was a safe distance away from him. He felt
he needed to begin moving again. He rolled out of the comfortable
hole, rose to knee level, and looked around. He saw nothing but
desolate woods, lit up only by his night vision goggles. He got up
and started moving.

He kept a speed of one full second per step.
He felt that was the optimal medium between speed and silence. He
looked at his GPS watch. He was moving parallel to the road. He
looked back up as he continued to move silently. Trees were
approaching him like buildings on a street block. As he walked, he
would take a step left, or a step right to avoid them, paying
attention not to brush against them.

He could not hear any patrols, but he heard
the sounds of a civilization of birds and insects, singing their
songs. They were chatting, trying to impress each other like many
people do, he thought.

Tom was not unfamiliar with operating in
environments like these. This is exactly the purpose of the SAD. By
definition, any intelligence that could be collected in a major
city in what was considered a normal country, could be infiltrated
by traditional intelligence officers. They could work at companies,
agencies, or embassies. They could live in houses or apartments and
be a part of a society. But Tom always found himself running around
in sparsely populated areas, far removed from society, but
typically not far from military installations. He did this to
protect society, one that he sometimes saw. But on every mission,
as he found himself hidden in a ditch, on a mountaintop, near a
sand dune, or like now in a dark forest, he asked himself if there
was anything he would rather do. He always replied “no” to himself.
One appreciates the comforts of civilization only by removing
oneself from them. Going on these missions maintained that
appreciation, he believed. It seemed like a paradox.

As Tom was moving through a thick patch of
trees, he suddenly thought he heard something to his left. He
quickly stuffed himself into a small corner created by several
trees and tall plants. The corner created a one-way entrance out of
which Tom stared, with his M4 pointed in front of him. He listened
carefully for a branch to break or a twig to split. He used
James-Lange by trying to let his upper arms loosen up. He let his
jaw hang for a moment too. It helped – he could feel his heart
slowing despite the sudden excitement. He heard nothing – no voices
talked and none of the vegetation around made sounds of being
disturbed by bodies. He was on one knee and with his back bent,
slowly walked out of his corner hiding spot. When he was out, he
looked around and made a 360 degree observation of his
surroundings. With his night vision he would have been able to spot
someone nearby, but he saw nothing. He must have heard a bird or
small animal, he thought. He continued moving parallel to the road
towards his next waypoint.

CHAPTER 36

WEDNESDAY

Langley, Virginia

Sara was convinced everyone
in the Command Room had just been on the verge of a heart attack.
They watched on the big screen as Tom was observing the vehicle far
ahead of him. Then suddenly he looked back and everyone saw KPA
troops marching
towards
him. He started running back into the woods,
eventually making his way down a hill where another patrol was
right in front of him. They watched in horror as he dove under some
kind of shelter – a rock or a tree. Then she could feel the room
sweat as they watched the patrol walk up to what looked like ten
feet of him. They
stood
there. The Command Room was so silent she thought
she could
hear
everyone’s skin crawl. By the time everyone had time to
process what they were seeing, the patrol moved on past Tom on the
screen. He was now moving through the woods at his steady, measured
pace. Everyone sat back and sighed at the same time.