Devil's Fork (31 page)

“
Tongmu
Captain, those are vultures above us.”

“
So – that means what
exactly?”

Then suddenly the man to Kim’s left shouted
and pointed.

“
Tongmu
Captain, look.”

The line of men froze in place. Lying in a
ditch in front of them were five soldiers from another patrol. They
were motionless and covered in blood.

These soldiers were shot.

CHAPTER 48

EARLY THURSDAY

Northeast Coast, North Korea

Tom pointed his ADS at the crowd of
soldiers. He was holding it in his left hand. He kept it tucked
onto his hip, allowing him to keep it stable without keeping both
hands on it. He set the beam on the widest setting, so it would not
shoot at a point but in a wide area. He thought of it like
squeezing the end on a garden hose so that the water came out as a
shower instead of a sharp stream. In his right hand he held his Sig
Saur pistol. Tom knew exactly what he was going to do.

Tom squeezed the trigger on the ADS.
Instantly, each of the 40 soldiers standing around erupted into a
scream. Some started jumping up and down. Others dropped to the
ground and started wiggling around and rolling. Some of the
soldiers started to take their uniforms off. They had no idea what
was happening because they were not trying to step away like the
soldier did on the test range. They did not know there was a beam
hitting them. Tom imagined that they just thought their bodies had
caught fire. As Tom watched, he thought it looked like some kind of
spontaneous dance ritual. Men were jumping, rolling, shaking and
frantically waving their arms. The sound of their loud screams cut
through the quiet night like a sharp knife.

Tom held the trigger and
kept shooting the beam at the KPA unit as he started to walk slowly
towards the crowd. Tom had remembered one small unit infantry
tactic they had learned in SEAL training. It was an older tactic
that was not often used by modern military forces. It was
called
marching fire
. A unit would march forward towards the enemy and start
firing without taking much time to aim. In modern warfare, military
units typically leapfrogged. This meant that one soldier would lay
down a stream of fire to make the enemy hide, while another soldier
ran forward. Then the soldier who ran forward would start firing,
allowing his colleague to run forward. This way they could securely
advance towards an enemy. But marching fire was different. A unit
would simply fire and walk forward simultaneously. It looked crazy,
but it had success during World War II. Tom remembered reading
General Patton’s memoirs and being surprised that Patton was a
major proponent of marching fire and his units in World War II used
it often.

Tom now did what Patton would have had him
do. He slowly moved forward while hitting the soldiers with his
beam. He had now walked almost half way towards them. None of the
soldiers had a rifle in his hands any longer. None even saw Tom.
They were solely focused on their burning pain. Tom figured that he
had been holding the beam at them for almost seven seconds –
already more than double what most test subjects could withstand.
Now as Tom approached, he spotted the man who had been holding a
radio in his hands earlier. The radio was now lying on the ground
next to the man, who was writhing on his back. Tom took aim with
his pistol in his other hand and pulled the trigger. The radio
exploded and started releasing smoke.

Now they can’t call anyone for help.

Tom continued walking and soon was within
ten feet of the crowd. He had been hitting them with the ADS for 10
seconds now. He released the trigger and pointed his pistol at
them. He started motioning with his pistol by waving it in a
circle. He was signaling to roll on their stomachs. After a few
seconds, a few of the soldiers actually noticed that there was a
black uniformed figure standing above them. Some of the soldiers
instinctively reached for their rifles. One soldier on Tom’s right
grabbed the butt of his rifle and started pulling it in. Tom shot
him with his pistol. Another soldier tried to do the same on his
left and Tom shot him as well. He saw the men’s faces looking up at
him – many of them had burn marks already. The crowd, now having
fully noticed Tom, started moving as if trying to stand and many
now tried reaching for a gun.

I’ll give them a reminder.

Tom pulled the trigger on the ADS and the
crowd of soldiers started screaming again. One soldier tried to get
up and run away from the beam. Tom shot him with his pistol.

Then Tom ceased firing with his ADS. Now he
made another motion with his pistol for the soldiers to roll on
their stomachs. He raised his ADS to show that he was ready to use
it again. This time the men complied. Within seconds the entire
group was on the ground, on their chests with their arms out. Some
of them took longer to roll over. They all looked burned.

“
Yankee Actual. What are
you going to do with them? Over.”

“
I’m going to flexcuff
them. Over.”

Tom pulled out the plastic handcuffs he
carried on missions. He realized he did not have enough to cuff
each soldier individually. He thought about how he could securely
tie up all of the soldiers with only the fifteen or so cuffs he
had. First he got back on the radio.

“
I’m going to put my radio
on loudspeaker. Give the microphone to Mr. Park. Tell him to tell
this group that they are surrounded and
we
will shoot if they move or talk.
Over.”

“
Yankee Actual.
Standby.”

Tom switched his radio so that it would
broadcast to the group. Then he heard Mr. Park’s soft voice.

“
Tom, I’m
ready.”

“
OK go ahead.”

Mr. Park’s said a phrase in Korean two
times. Tom saw the soldiers perk up their heads, as they heard
something they could understand.

“
Mr. Park, tell them to nod
their heads if they understand.”

Mr. Park made a quick statement, and Tom saw
that everyone lying down in front of him was nodding his head up
and down. Tom walked up to the soldiers and started putting his
flexcuffs on them. It took about one second to slip them on and
tighten them, so in less than half a minute, over one third of the
soldiers were lying with their hands cuffed behind their back. Tom
started thinking what he would do next. On his typical missions, he
never had to deal with tying up such a large force of enemy
soldiers. Then again, he thought, this mission stopped being
typical the moment he got on the beach.

He holstered his ADS on his back and pulled
out his knife. He walked up to one of the dead soldiers who had
tried to fight him. He took off the man’s shoes and then cut off
the man’s pants. He only cut off the leg of the pants. Tom then cut
down lengthwise and opened up a rectangle of strong cloth. He then
started cutting strands widthwise from the rectangle of cloth. In
less than one minute he had a pile of pieces of string. He looked
up when he had finished cutting. None of the men on the ground had
moved. He started walking up to the soldiers who were not yet
cuffed and picked out the first two he saw. He aimed his ADS at
them as he helped them to his feet. He then got back on his
radio.

“
Mr. Park, tell these two
to take the strands of cloth I have here and tie everyone’s hands
behind their backs. Tell them I will check each one and if they are
not tight, I will shoot both of them.”

Mr. Park relayed the statement in Korean and
soon the two soldiers were grabbing the strands of cloth and tying
everyone’s hands. Tom stood back with the ADS aimed at them. He
decided to have these soldiers tie up their colleagues because it
would have taken too much time for him to do it. It would have been
enough time for someone to grab a gun.

Once the two soldiers were finished tying
everyone’s hands behind his back, they stood and looked at Tom. Tom
motioned with his hand for them to turn around. Tom checked the
knots they had tied and was pleased to see that they were
tight.

“
Mr. Park, tell these two
soldiers to help everyone else stand up. Say that once they are on
their feet, if they try to run, I will make it feel like fire
again.”

Tom’s radio broadcasted the new message to
the group. Tom paused for a moment. Then the two soldiers who tied
the knots started helping the soldiers on the ground to their feet.
In less than a minute, the entire group was standing in a line.

“
Now Mr. Park. Tell them to
march forward to the woods.”

Again, Mr. Park’s voice called out a command
on the radio. The group of soldiers started marching forward,
towards the tree line to the side of the entrance. Once the last
man crossed into the woods, Tom caught their attention and held out
his hand, signaling them to stop.

Tom got back on his radio to Mr. Park. “Now
tell them to lie down.”

Soon the group was lying down among the
trees and plants.

“
Mr. Park, tell those two
soldiers to tie everyone’s ankles and to put a blindfold on
everyone.” After the translation, the two men started working
again. Once everyone was fully tied up, Tom motioned for his two
accomplices to lie down. He walked up to them and tied their hands
and ankles, and he wrapped a strand of cloth around their eyes.
Then Tom went through the rest of the group and checked the new
knots on the ankles. They were all tight. Those soldiers must be
afraid, Tom thought.

He got back on his radio.

“
Last thing, Mr. Park. Tell
them my teammates are watching them. If they stay quiet, nothing
will happen to them. If they make any noise or start moving, they
will be shot.”

Mr. Park gave the final message through
Tom’s radio. The men nodded as though they understood. Tom looked
at his watch. It had only taken him about ten minutes to clear the
area. Anderson got back on the radio.

“
That seems like it was
effective.”

“
Tell Eric I’m not sure if
that’s how the ADS was supposed to be used, but it seemed to work
well,” Tom replied.

“
Will do. OK. Proceed.
Over.”

Tom walked out of the forest. He looked back
quickly to make sure everyone was still on the ground. They were.
Tom now thought he had to be quick in the base. If a patrol came
across the men tied up in the woods and an open door into the
underground facility, it could quickly become a disaster.

Tom walked up to the concrete structure
sticking up out of the field. It was about eight feet tall and it
looked like an industrial box that just fell out of the sky and
landed in the middle of nowhere. The metal door looked thick and
heavy, even though it was shut. Tom tried to push down on the large
handle. It did not budge. He pulled out an explosive charge out of
one of the straps on his chest and set it on top of the handle,
where the locking mechanism to the door would sit. When it was set,
Tom started the fuse and then ran around the back of the structure.
He kneeled against the wall and looked down. In fifteen seconds the
charge made a loud pop and the door swung open. The sound irritated
one’s ears in the silence of the night.

Tom shifted around the structure so that he
was now on the side. He held up his M4. He waited for a moment. He
knew that if a unit was stationed inside, they might have been
surprised by the blast and would try to run outside to see what it
was. As they ran out the door, he would be behind them and could
shoot them without them seeing him. He also watched the surrounding
woods for any patrols.

After quietly waiting, he saw on his watch
that one-minute had passed. The silence continued as the two-minute
mark approached. Not only did nobody run out of the door, but Tom
did not hear any voices or sounds coming from inside the
structure.

“
Yankee Main. Target door
is open. No sign of kilos inside. I’m going in. Over.”

“
Copy that. Go ahead.
Don’t forget to put the signal booster on the door.
Over.”

Tom had brought along a small square device
that had a suction cup on one side. It would maintain the signal
between Tom and the satellite while he was underground. He got up
off his knee and walked towards the entrance, his M4 raised. He
stepped in front of the open entrance quickly, with his rifle
pointed, his finger ready to pull the trigger. He saw was a
staircase leading straight down into darkness. Next to the stairs
was a large elevator door. Tom imagined that this elevator brought
countless workers or soldiers into the base below each day. Tom put
on his night vision goggles and pulled out the signal booster. He
stuck it right on the inside of the door so that if someone came in
after him, he would not be able to see the signal booster. It could
only be seen coming out of the entrance.

Tom looked down the stairway again. It went
down fifteen or twenty steps and then reached a landing where he
would need to turn 180 degrees and continue down. He pointed his
rifle and started walking down, careful to stay on the balls of his
feet in order to make as little noise as possible. As he stepped
down towards the landing he listened for any sounds, but heard
nothing. The stairwell was quiet. It was a dark silence that could
send chills up the spine, a pitch-black silence to match the
pitch-black sight. Tom was glad for his night vision, which allowed
him to see the steps he was trying to use. Soon he was on the
landing. As he looked around him he noticed he had to descend
several more flights of stairs. He continued down. Within a few
minutes he could see the bottom of the last set of steps and
paused. He still did not hear any movement or voices, so after a
moment he continued down. As he approached the bottom, the inside
of the facility came into view. Tom saw that he was descending into
the center of a small corridor. It extended out for about thirty
feet after which it opened up into a large warehouse-type space.
Tom stopped when he reached the bottom of the stairs. He paused for
a moment. It felt like he had climbed down into the center of
Earth.