Devil's Fork (27 page)

I could have called Mr. Park and fixed
everything.

Then Jiyeon took the next step. The logical
progression, she thought, was that if Mr. Kim was working with the
North Koreans, then the reason the NIS illegals have been getting
compromised was sitting right in their office this whole time.

Mr. Kim killed Officer 1414 and tried to
kill officers 2135 and 6237.

She shivered at the thought
that she had been working so closely with a secret agent for North
Korea for all these years. No, she thought. She had not been
working with a
North Korean
agent
. She had been working with a
North Korean illegal
. The
NIS’s illegal department had an illegal in it. She had an urge to
press a rewind button somewhere and go back and change everything.
She wanted to go back and save Officer 1414. Officer 2135 and
officer 6237 were probably captured or killed by now too, she
imagined. Mr. Kim would have known their routes to
China.

Now everything else started to come together
in her mind. Mr. Park probably went to Washington DC because he had
realized something was wrong. She guessed he probably suspected
that an illegal had penetrated their group, but did not know whom.
He wanted to take a small team and get away from Seoul, away from
the mole. He could figure out who it was without the mole figuring
it out. Mr. Park also could pull out some of his illegals before
the unknown illegal in their group betrayed them further. That’s
why Mr. Park himself had given the orders to pull out the officers
from DC.

She wondered if this meant that Tom’s
mission was probably compromised. Maybe the worst had happened and
he had been captured too by now, she thought. She tried to look out
the window and see the moon. Maybe he was sitting in a damp corner
somewhere looking up at the moon and thinking of her too. She
remembered that her kidnappers looked weak compared to Tom. They
would not be able to stop him if he came through the door looking
for her. Jiyeon paused for a moment and listened for the possible
sound of commotion in the house. Maybe Tom would burst into the
house any moment, subdue her kidnappers and walk through the door
in the far corner with a smile on his face, his hair maybe
disheveled slightly. She wanted to go on that weekend trip and find
out the secret behind his quiet eyes. What did he want to tell her?
She mainly thought about the comfort of his arms. She remembered
that it felt like his arms had more muscle than her whole body.

When she had left to go to
work at the NIS, she remembered how she wanted to see how the
machine worked. She thought about how after a few years the only
realization that flowed through her mind was the silliness of it
all. The world was that party of schemers. What was the point?
Power?
Why?
Now
because of it, she was sitting handcuffed in some corner. She
refocused on the moon, one piece of nature that gave light in dark
times. She wondered where Tom was.

CHAPTER 39

EARLY THURSDAY

Northeast Coast, Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea

Captain Kim told his men to stop. They had
been walking for some time through the woods. At this point he
realized that they had not seen anything since the bush near the
road a kilometer or two back. Kim was now questioning whether they
had been following anything at all or just their imaginations. He
thought back to that wet spot on the beach.

Was that spot really that strange? Maybe it
was nothing.

He then thought about that bush they saw by
the road. The soldier on the road team said he thought he saw
something move. The bush did look disturbed.

Could it have been an animal? We still have
not seen a person yet. Are these all coincidences?

And now they have not found anything else
for some time. They passed by several other patrols who also said
they had not seen anything. Captain Kim also realized that if
another team, like the platoon guarding the special facility, had
been shooting at someone, not only would he have heard the
shooting, but he would have heard something on the radio. At least
he hoped that his radio would say something, he thought as he
looked at his antique equipment.

Kim grabbed his radio and saw that this time
it seemed to be working. He radioed his beach team and asked if
they had seen any bubbles coming out of the water. He waited for a
response. None came. Kim repeated his question.

Maybe their radio doesn’t work either.

They stood and waited.
Finally, after repeating a few more times, he heard a muffled
response. The beach team reported no bubbles. Then he had a new
idea. Kim radioed the team guarding the special facility and asked
them if they had seen anything. Nobody was told that team was
guarding a
facility
. Kim and his men were told the team was to stand guard on a
plot of dirt. His men did not seem to question it. But Kim quietly
knew what was really there.

It’s silly of our leaders to keep that place
so secret.

The dirt plot team reported back that they
had not seen anything. Kim now tried to figure out what to do.

Is there really a spy here? Would he really
know about that facility? How could they have possibly found out if
nobody here knows about it? What will happen to us if there is a
spy and he got into that facility?

Kim felt a familiar feeling crawl through
his body. As a child in the Democratic People’s Republic, he
learned quickly that what he said could get him in trouble. He
learned quickly that he was always being watched. His father always
told him that some of their closest friends could be informants for
the secret police, so it was better not to talk outside at all. He
eventually found out why. In class he remembered hearing another
student say that his family did not plan to go to the Square to pay
their respects for the victory in the Fatherland Liberation War.
That boy said the reason was that his father said he had better
things to do. That boy was not in school the next day and Kim had
never seen him since. One or two of his friends also disappeared in
the middle of the night. He soon learned that if he were not
careful about what he said, he might disappear one night as well.
Soon it led to a process he could not control. Each night his mind
became so active he could not sleep. He sat up wondering if he had
said anything wrong. He became afraid to go to bed at night. His
mind analyzed and re-analyzed everything he had said that day,
which by that time had shrunk to only a few words. Eventually his
father noticed his plight and tried to console him. He said that
even if some things in the Democratic People’s Republic seemed
uncomfortable or scary, the higher ups were saying this was the
best possible way to manage our society for the people. So he told
Kim to take some comfort in that and realize life must be just as
hard elsewhere. He said to find a way to show the higher ups you
are the most loyal servant they have. Eventually Kim got rid of
that feeling. But sometimes he thought that he might have just
become used to its constant presence. He thought maybe he found a
way to live through each day despite it.

That feeling briefly returned with full
strength about a year ago, however. Ever since Kim could remember,
his father had been a KPA general. It was always something that had
made him proud growing up. His father was still rather young, so
Kim expected his father to remain a general. But one year ago, his
father had suddenly retired from the KPA. The last time Kim was
home, six months ago, he had seen his father in a new state. He
seemed jumpy. He asked Captain Kim if he had not been careful when
speaking outside. Captain Kim thought about it but was sure he had.
He rarely spoke to anyone other than on military
counter-intelligence business. It was his mind that he had allowed
to run unfettered, not his mouth. That was the last Captain saw of
his father. Last week, he received notice that his father had
passed away. The letter he received from the higher ups said
something more like that his father “died gloriously in service to
the Democratic People’s Republic.” Captain Kim was now on his own,
and had to make his own way.

As he stood with his men in the dark forest,
Kim switched to thinking about where to go next. He had no more
clues and the entire area seemed to be quiet. Ahead of them, the
road nearby led to the interior of their country. It first ran to a
few villages and then on to larger towns. If this spy, assuming he
were here, wanted to get further inside the Democratic People’s
Republic he would have kept going straight, Kim thought. If he had
somehow known about this base, he would have turned here to go
through the ridge. Kim thought some more. If they did not catch
him, they would be punished either way if it were found out later.
Kim made his decision.

He turned to his men, “We are going to turn
now and head through this ridge. Let’s go.”

They turned and started walking in line
formation through the dark ridge. As they walked they saw two hills
or small mountains on their right and left side. Suddenly his
soldier on the far right pointed at something.

“
Tongmu
Captain, I see something.”

“
What is it?”

The soldier squinted and tried to make it
out. The whole team was looking now. Then one of the other men
recognized it,

“
It looks like another
patrol.”

“
Signal them with your
flashlight.” The soldier who spotted them signaled the patrol. They
were about 500 feet away but saw the signal and started coming
towards Captain Kim’s team. When the team approached their officer,
a lieutenant saluted Kim.

“
Tongmu
Captain, we are continuing our patrol of this
area. Do you have any instructions for us?” He said.

“
I have a question. Have
you seen or heard anything in this area?” Kim asked.

“
No,
tongmu
. We have been patrolling
diligently but my men and I have not seen anything.”

“
I’m going through this
area with my team. I want to go to the other side and take a look.
You have a radio?”

“
Yes,
tongmu
.”

“
I’ll radio you if I find
anything or need your team. Keep patrolling your area in the
meantime.”

“
Yes,
tongmu
Captain. I also have another
patrol team moving through the ridge. It’s another five of my men.
You might be able to spot them if you keep walking through,” the
Lieutenant said as he saluted.

“
Great. I’ll try to link up
with them too.” Kim turned to his men and said, “let’s keep
going.”

As they headed towards the
end of the ridge, Kim became more curious about the underground
base. He wondered if his father’s story from that day long ago was
true. He wished he could look inside. Why is it that the Americans
would risk so much to see
this
place, he wondered?

Why are our leaders making me risk my life
for this?

CHAPTER 40

EARLY THURSDAY

Wuhan, China

NATPAC instantly awoke when he heard his
phone ring. He lay on his couch, at home, in his apartment. He had
let himself drift off into a light sleep for a moment. He grabbed
the phone’s handle but put his phone on speaker.

“
Yes?”

“
Were you
sleeping?”

“
No. What do you
want?”

“
The Snatch mission has
been initiated. They have her in a safe house. They are waiting to
extract her to the North.”

“
Did they find anything out
about this spy’s mission?”

“
The mission team is just
a snatch team. They don’t have any details other than their orders
to take her. So they can’t interrogate her. It will be easier once
they bring her across. Hopefully they can do this in an hour. An
interrogation team is standing by.”

“
Well in the meantime we
still don’t know what this spy is doing. Any update from the team
patrolling near our facility?”

“
No. They haven’t caught
anyone yet.”

“
But the facility hasn’t
been broken into? The guards there have not let anything get by
them?”

“
That’s right. I was told
that team has been standing right in front of the door all night.
If anyone gets through it would have to be over their dead
bodies.

“
That’s good. Maybe this
spy is just planning to go deeper into the country, towards a city.
Maybe we’ve been overreacting. They probably don’t know anything
about our facility.”

“
Have you guys figured
anything out yet? What’s your SLOTHMAN working on? Does he have
anything?”

“
Not yet. He’s close
though. Maybe he’ll have some information by the
morning.”

NATPAC hung up the phone. He pulled a
cigarette out of the pack on the table and lit it up.

Everything is moving too slowly.

NATPAC wanted to jump into the fray himself.
He wanted to take the controls from SLOTHMAN and infiltrate the
CIA’s systems himself. He wanted to get on a boat and take this
South Korean over the border and interrogate her himself. He wanted
to grab a gun and patrol the base himself. It seemed that without
him, everything was too relaxed. That made sense, he thought.
Nobody but him really had much skin in the game. This whole project
could be discovered, he thought, and he would really pay for
it.