Devil's Fork (34 page)

Mr. Park, who had been
quiet for some time, said,
“This is what
Officer 1414 meant by ‘error in how we think about jewels’. We only
gave him codewords for the various stages of nuclear research. He
wanted to say that he found no evidence that North Korea was
performing serious research, but at the same time they seem to have
acquired nuclear bombs with drug money. We were indeed all thinking
about their nuclear program incorrectly. The real question for us
is whether this is really it. Are they really not capable of
developing nuclear weapons systems on their own?”

Tom listened to the conversation in the
Command Room as he stood motionless in front of the door to the
bunker. He wondered how everyone could have misread the situation.
Going into this mission, the CIA and NIS were focused on figuring
out what stage of the production process North Korea had reached
and it turned out they had no production process, yet they had
nuclear bombs. He wondered how North Korea was able to dupe
everyone. Then Tom’s focus returned, and he realized the mission
was not over yet.

“
Should I set charges next
to the bombs? Do we want to destroy them?”

“
I don’t think this bunker
is deep enough,”
the nuclear analyst began
slowly.
“The bunker floor is about fifty
feet underground and those are two bombs of probably fifteen
kilotons each. They would need to be thousands of feet underground
in order not to have any impact on the surface. At this level,
there would certainly be a blast on the surface and nuclear
fallout.”

“
But we can’t leave these
weapons in the hands of this regime,”
Matt
said hurriedly. Tom had not heard his voice until now.
“They could start a nuclear war. It doesn’t
matter if there’s nuclear fallout in North Korea. If destroying
these weapons can save the world later on we must do
it.”

“
Think about this,”
the nuclear analyst replied.
“If these two bombs go off, they will throw radioactive
material into the atmosphere. There are two large cities nearby
where probably close to a million people will get radiation
poisoning. If there are any winds, the radiation will travel –
possibly to Japan and definitely to China and Russia where
countless more could die. This is not the way to prevent nuclear
war – by creating a nuclear disaster.”

“
It’s better to take the
risk of some civilian casualties now than to risk the lives of
millions of people later. Imagine if because of this regime and
these nuclear weapons, we get an escalation to a global nuclear war
– involving China, Russia, and us. I think we must put explosives
there and destroy these weapons.”

“
That’s the other point I
wanted to make. Detonating an explosive next to those bombs might
not necessarily destroy them. For one of those bombs to go off, a
nuclear fission process needs to take place. You might not
necessarily set that off with an explosion.”

“
Can we guide Tom in
disarming them?”
Sara asked.

“
He would have been able
to disable the circuitry on a modern weapon, but he does not have
the tools to disarm that iron football,”
Anderson responded.
“The Director is
briefing the President right now. They are probably having this
discussion too and need our recommendation. Tom, how solid is that
bunker?”

“
It looks several feet
thick. From the doorway I can tell it is made of layers of concrete
and steel or iron. The room is also several more stories
underground. It is deep.”

“
I think we should be able
to set charges to destroy the warehouse without disturbing those
bombs. I will recommend this to the Director. I am calling him now.
There is no good option here.”

The radio was silent as the team waited for
a decision. Tom took another look at the bunker door and the
structure of the walls around it. Soon he heard someone in the
Command Room say that the White House was on the phone with the
decision.

“
The decision is to
detonate the warehouse but not the bombs,”
Anderson said.
“They say we have the
coordinates and
can monitor this facility
with satellites. When we detonate the facility, it will collapse on
the bunker, burying it, and it will be very difficult for the North
Koreans to access those weapons. If war ever breaks out, we can
launch a strike on this bunker but right now we cannot risk setting
off those bombs. Tom, seal that door and set charges in the rest of
the warehouse.”

“
Roger,” Tom
replied.

Tom started pushing the large door back to
shut it. The heavy door required a lot of strength but after some
effort, it was closed. He listened to the conversation that was
developing back in the Command Room.

“
I just feel that this is
not right,”
Sara said.

“
I agree,”
Anderson replied.
“But
the question is whether you would have that same bad feeling if we
went down the other path. I know I would. I hope you would
too.”

“
We should not have let it
come to this point,”
Sara said
quietly.

By now Tom had managed to shut the door and
turned the wheel to lock it in place.

Suddenly Tom heard a noise. It was a faint
scratching sound. The warehouse and the side rooms had been
completely quiet. He quickly shut off his helmet light and turned
on his night vision goggles.

He whispered into his radio, “Yankee Main, I
think someone’s in the warehouse. Over.”

“
Roger.”
The Command Room went silent.

Tom raised his M4 and turned towards the
doorway to the warehouse. He did not see anything.

He kneeled down next to the imported goods
and tried to listen more. He heard several distinct steps, but
steps that sounded like they were trying to be quiet. Tom did not
see anyone through the open door into the warehouse. He moved
closer to the entrance. He tried to see as much of the warehouse as
he could. Straight ahead of him were the assembly line tables. He
could see the far side of the warehouse well. What he could not see
was his near corner, or along the wall that the door was on. On the
far side it looked like there was no movement. But Tom still heard
the distinct scratching or stepping sound. Tom did not want to poke
his head out and look. From his days in DEVGRU he knew that poking
your head out was the best way to give away your position. He also
knew that moving targets were very difficult to hit and the
warehouse’s pitch-black darkness would help him. He looked again at
one of the assembly line tables. They were long and extended all
the way to the ground. He could hide behind one of them, he
thought.

In a split second, Tom was running. He felt
like a sprinter darting off from a still, kneeling position. He
aimed himself for the long tables ahead. As he crossed the
threshold, he looked to his right along the wall he could not see
before. He had been right for not poking his head out earlier. He
saw in his nightvision goggles several KPA soldiers about fifty
feet away, walking towards him. Right away he heard it. The sound
of gunfire awakened the silent warehouse. The KPA soldiers were
shooting at him. He heard bullets snapping and cracking as they
whizzed near him. But within seconds, he was behind one of the
tables, kneeling safely. In the Command Room, he heard Sara say in
a whisper, “Tom be careful”. He wished Anderson had muted the main
microphone in that room.

I’m not in danger. They are.

Now that he was behind one
of the tables, Tom crawled towards tables even farther away towards
the other side of the warehouse. He no longer heard any movement.
The KPA soldiers had probably stopped. He heard them whispering
intermittently. Within seconds he was behind the table that was on
the opposite side of the warehouse from the door out of which he
sprinted. He hooked around the corner of the table and crawled
forward. Tom wanted to try to flank these soldiers, or attack them
from the side. Tom crawled forward and was soon at the front side
of the table, the side facing the shelves of heroin at the front of
the warehouse. This time Tom peeked around the corner. He saw five
soldiers. They were standing close to where he had originally
spotted them. But they did not see him. They were looking at where
he had run
to.
He
had maneuvered around so that he was now staring at them from their
right side.

Tom knew what he was going to do. He raised
his M4 and aimed for the soldier in front. He squeezed the trigger.
His rifle made a clicking sound from the barrel recoiling and the
soldier he aimed at fell to the ground. Tom got up and started
running towards the heroin shelves. Because of the suppressor on
his rifle and the darkness, the soldiers were looking around for
where the firing came from. As Tom was about to reach one of the
glass meth labs, he took aim and let off another shot and hit the
second soldier. He then ran past the meth labs and into one of the
aisles. He did not hear any shooting from the KPA team. They were
now down to three.

Tom now tried to run quickly to the other
side of the aisle, the side of the warehouse at which the KPA
soldiers had been standing. Tom thought he might be able to get the
last three from behind. He almost enjoyed this game. It felt like
those chess games he played in college where he would slowly
dismantle the opponent’s pieces. He focused on planting his feet
carefully so that he would not make a stepping sound. Soon he was
on the other side of the warehouse. He paused for a moment to
listen. He did not hear anything. The warehouse was back to being
quiet. He looked at the shelf right next to him. These bags
contained white powder, similar to the bags he remembered seeing on
the first aisle.

Tom looked around the corner of the aisle.
He expected to see the soldiers’ backs. But they had moved. The
area where they had been standing was empty. Tom crawled out of the
aisle quietly and put his back against the outer wall of the
warehouse. Because of his night vision, he spotted their heads.
They were now kneeling by the long tables to which Tom originally
ran. He saw two heads sticking out of the space in between the
tables. Tom smiled as he thought they evidently liked his hiding
place. He knew they could not see him because their faces were
moving left and right as if they were looking for something around
them. Tom aimed his M4 at one of them, took a moment, and then
gently squeezed the trigger. The soldier fell back. At the same
time, the other head that had been sticking up came down and
disappeared behind the table. Now there were two left, Tom thought.
He guessed that the officer was probably the one hiding and
refusing to look.

Tom kept his rifle aimed and took a few
steps forward, keeping his back against the wall. He waited for the
other head to pop back out. He watched the spot for a minute and
then another minute. After what Tom guessed was two and a half
minutes he saw the other soldier’s head stick back up. He had moved
a bit back, but was not far from his first position. Tom took aim
and squeezed the trigger again. He saw the head disappear. There
was now one left.

Tom guessed that the officer who had been
hiding was lying in fear. He decided to start slowly walking
towards the tables where the soldiers were. He kept his rifle up
and aimed forward. As he walked forward he looked for any sign of
the last soldier. He could not see any body part sticking out. He
also did not hear any noise. Soon Tom was close to the tables. He
was bending to try to stay low. Tom thought it was clear this
officer was not going to move. He was probably sitting with his
rifle pointed and waiting. Tom slowly approached the tables even
closer.

Suddenly he heard a loud noise. It was the
sound of metal hitting the ground. He saw an AK rifle fly out of
the space between the tables and land a few feet from him.

Did he just throw his rifle away?

Tom took a few more steps closer. Then he
saw something. It was unmistakable. Two hands were sticking up
straight out of the space between the tables. Two hands were being
raised. Tom waited a moment and then stepped over to the side of
the table.

He was looking at the last thing he had
expected to see on a mission. A North Korean officer was on his
knees. His back was straight and his hands were raised high into
the air. Tom stared for a moment, trying to figure out what was the
catch. Then the KPA officer started speaking. Tom was surprised to
hear decent English.

“
American, I want to
surrender to you. I request asylum in your country. Take me out
with you. I can help us leave.”

CHAPTER 49

WEDNESDAY

Langley, Virginia

Sara had never seen anything like this on an
SAD infiltration operation. On the screen in the front of the room
the group saw images of a man on his knees with his hands raised.
He was asking for asylum. Sara thought to herself about all of the
unexpected events of the day, starting with the news that Mark and
J.D. brought over. She thought this could be added to the list.
Tom’s voice was coming through on the loudspeaker. He was talking
to the soldier. He was testing him to see if he was being
truthful.

“
What’s your name,”
Tom demanded.

“
Captain Kim. Army
counter-intelligence.”
He
replied.