Devil's Fork (37 page)

Tom knew exactly what to
ask next,
“What do the Chinese get in
return?”

“
They get a cut of the
money we make. They have a few people there that collect it and
then distribute it to those involved. I remember when I was
studying in China, I read in a newspaper that some of the Chinese
bureaucrats send their children to school in America. Well, how do
you think a poor government bureaucrat can afford that?”

“
That makes sense,” Mark
immediately said. “Lo Min and his step brother seem to be the ones
helping Room 39.”

“
But does this mean that
the senior leadership in China is involved with drug trafficking?”
Sara asked.

“
I don’t see any senior
leader’s name come up in these files.”

Anderson said, “The senior leaders in China
could have no knowledge of this link. They could easily have a
rogue faction within their massive government bureaucracy that is
carrying out its own plans. They could be doing this all under the
nose of the Central Committee.”

Mark continued, “But what’s interesting is
that Lo Min has been trying to climb his way up the leadership
ladder. I have files here that show he’s been buying stakes in
various companies in China. He seems to have been developing
contacts all around the government. He’s getting paid by North
Korea to help them, and he uses the money in turn to develop what
look like legitimate business interests and friendships across
China’s power structure. There must be a number of bureaucrats like
him – people who cannot be accused of corruption in China, but who
have made their money in dark ways.”

“
So he’s trying to get rich
and then gain a leadership position in the government?” Anderson
said.

Sara smiled. “What can we do to stop all of
this?”

Anderson thought for a moment and then
replied. “This mission is to stop North Korea from getting nuclear
weapons. That facility will be destroyed in a few hours. That will
kill two birds with one stone. We’ll destroy a major part of this
money making scheme, Room 39. We will also bury Room 39’s only
nuclear bombs in a bunker deep underground. After that I don’t
think there will be much for us to do. Does it really matter to us
if these Chinese bureaucrats are trying to line their pockets by
helping the North Koreans?”

Sara jumped in her seat,
“It does matter. We can’t
volerate
it.”

Anderson looked at her as if she changed
languages. “What?”

“
We can’t allow ourselves
to tolerate the fact that these Chinese bureaucrats are helping
North Korea make and sell drugs. We can’t tolerate North Korea
trying to acquire nuclear arms. We can’t tolerate it just because
that in itself does not seem bad. We are looking at a frozen arrow.
But we have to try to see the flying arrow and where its target is.
If we let Room 39 to continue operating while being helped by rogue
bureaucrats in China, North Korea will get nuclear bombs again. Or
maybe they will slowly start to develop their own research so that
they
can
build a
bomb. Either way, we can’t stop once we blow that facility. We have
to make sure we stop Lo Min and we need to get word around to the
rest of the world so that they can counter these drug shipments. If
we stop Room 39’s activities around the world, we can cripple all
of its nuclear efforts.”

Anderson stared at her for a moment. Then he
turned to the analyst charged with keeping in contact with the
Director. Anderson asked to get the Director on the phone. Mark
also pulled out his cell phone and made a call. Sara looked back on
the main screen for a few minutes. Soon Mark finished his phone
call.

“
I think there’s something
I can do right now. I think I can throw a wrench into Lo Min’s
plans,” Mark said. He started typing on his laptop. Sara stood up
and walked around so she could see what he was doing. She soon
realized that from looking at his laptop she would not understand
what was going on. She just saw lines of code against a black
screen.

“
What are you
doing?”

“
I just spoke to the
Director of the NSA. He gave me approval to undermine Lo Min if I
do it surreptitiously. I’m going to tell Lo Min, Lo Jie and all the
other bureaucrats mentioned in these files that we know what they
are up to. I’m going to send an email from Lo Min’s account to
himself. But it will also be sent to the others involved, and to
some of the senior Chinese leaders, who probably don’t know about
Lo Min’s activities. They will realize it’s from us although I
won’t be explicit. By telling them that we know, we are threatening
that the United States will expose them to the world. This email
will also alert the senior Chinese leaders about their country’s
connection with Room 39, so that they can clean themselves up
internally. Here read this email. What do you think?”

Sara and J.D. read the screen as a message
appeared.

Dear Lo Min,

A wise man once said: “Happiness resides not
in possessions and not in gold; the feeling of happiness dwells in
the soul.”

You and your brother Lo Jie should take this
advice.

Stop working with Room 39.

Stop selling North Korean contraband.

Stop undermining peace.

Sincerely,

Lo Min

Anderson walked around and was stared at the
message as well. Sara, Mark, and J.D. turned around and waited for
him to say something.

“
The NSA Director approved
this?” Anderson asked.

“
Yes,” Mark
replied

“
This should work. If this
really is just a rogue faction in the government, once the main
leadership figures it out, these guys will see their world turn
upside down. No country would want a scandal involving its
government officials selling drugs with the North
Koreans.”

“
I’m sending it. Here I
go.” Mark hit a couple keys and then looked up at
everyone.

“
Sent.”

CHAPTER 52

THURSDAY

Wuhan, China

SLOTHMAN finished drinking his fifth cup of
hot water for the night. He usually drank hot water when he had to
stay awake late. It was a trick his mother had taught him.

He had slept only a few
hours in the last few days. He almost felt that he was a regular
soldier. But tonight was the most frustrating. He had thought he
installed a rootkit in the CIA’s servers. He thought he would
quickly be able to finish his job and get whatever files NATPAC
needed. He just wanted to go home and sleep. But a few hours after
he had told NATPAC he was close to being able to extract files from
their servers, he had realized that he must have made a mistake.
His rootkit was not working properly. It was buggy. He tried to
redo the process. The server he was trying to get into was also
acting strangely, and he could only see a few strange files on it.
The files were unrelated to the CIA and were mundane. After
reinstalling his rootkit, he realized it was still acting buggy and
he needed to fix it further. Meanwhile,
his
computer started acting
strangely. He had to restart it several times.

Now it was almost sunrise and SLOTHMAN
imagined that NATPAC would walk through the door any moment asking
for information. SLOTHMAN was ashamed that he had nothing yet.

Suddenly the main door to the bullpen of
computers and desks swung open. NATPAC walked in at a brisk pace.
SLOTHMAN felt his stomach tighten. As NATPAC walked by him he
smiled, pointed at him, and said, “Let’s talk in a few
minutes.”

NATPAC then continued walking towards his
office. SLOTHMAN sat up straight and tried to work as fast as he
could. He knew it would be fruitless because he would not be able
to fix his rootkit in a few minutes. He needed hours. He watched as
NATPAC disappeared into his office. SLOTHMAN did not like the
feeling that he would not be able to enjoy the luxury of sleep
until he finished a seemingly impossible task.

As he sat working, SLOTHMAN suddenly heard a
loud scream. He looked up. He could sense that it was coming from
NATPAC’s office. He stood up, as he felt all of his nerves
electrify. NATPAC was screaming at the top of his lungs. SLOTHMAN
never would have thought NATPAC could scream that loudly. A
shrieking holler flooded out of the office and filled the main
bullpen.

Is someone in there trying to kill
NATPAC?

The screaming became so loud that SLOTHMAN
himself wanted to scream. He started to feel jumpy but did not want
to move.

Then NATPAC emerged from his office. He
moved in the gear somewhere between walking and running. His face
looked red. As he came out he did not even see SLOTHMAN. He swiftly
marched past while vigorously trying to put his jacket back on. He
started running once he got to the main door. Soon SLOTHMAN was
standing alone in a silence that made him shake after hearing
NATPAC’s yelling.

He slowly walked towards NATPAC’s office. He
stepped inside carefully and saw that there was nobody inside. The
office was dark other than the white light of NATPAC’s computer.
SLOTHMAN walked towards it. There was a message on the screen. He
leaned forward to see it. His body stiffened as he read the
message.

DEMOCRITUS?

CHAPTER 53

WEDNESDAY

Langley, Virginia

Sara felt the atmosphere in the Command Room
lighten. She replayed the unbelievable day in her mind repeatedly.
She felt less tense now that Tom had made it into the facility and
was now almost past the ridge on the way back. They all saw the
facility, and Tom had captured intelligence as well as a
counter-intelligence soldier. She realized this was the first time
that day that they felt as though they were succeeding. She
remembered how they wanted to abort the mission immediately, but it
was Tom who willed it to continue.

From the helmet camera footage on the main
screen, she could see that dusk had arrived. The sun seemed to be
peeking over the horizon, but it had not quite risen yet.

She continued to try to
think of a way to get both Tom and Kim out of North Korea. Anderson
did not want them to go to the village and get a boat because it
exposed them too much. He did not want the
Virginia
to send a raft to get them
out because he was afraid the North Korean navy would capture it
and the sailors aboard. She was struggling to think of a solution
because the only real way out was to get to the
Virginia
. As she thought, she
realized there was no way to get to the
Virginia
other than on some type of
boat. There did not seem to be a solution.

The door to the Command Room creaked open
and one of Mr. Park’s analysts walked in. This was the first time
Sara had seen one of Mr. Park’s analysts outside of the special
conference room set up for them. The analyst had taken off his tie,
undone several buttons on his shirt, and rolled his sleeves up. His
hair was no longer combed as it looked like a hand had been running
through it for days. Sara even noticed small bags under his eyes.
Sara wondered when they would be able to sleep again. But what Sara
found strange was that this analyst seemed to have a small grin on
his face. He did not look as stiff as he did before in the
conference room. Sara watched as the analyst walked up to Mr. Park
and got his attention. Mr. Park had been transfixed at the screen
in front of the room. The analyst said something to Mr. Park in
Korean. It sounded like several sentences. Mr. Park did not reply
at first but then started nodding his head slowly. He said
something quick back to the analyst, who then left the room. Sara
noticed Anderson was watching Mr. Park. Mr. Park turned to Anderson
and quietly said,

“
They figured it out. My
analysts and I can leave now. Once they pack up we’ll head for the
airport.”

“
That’s good. Good luck.”
Anderson said just as quietly. They both turned their attention
back to the screen.

What did they figure out? I thought we
figured everything out.

Sara watched the screen too, but she tried
to figure out what that conversation referred to.

On the screen they all watched as Kim turned
to Tom and asked if they could stop for a drink. They were in an
open space within the woods. Tom agreed and they both stopped
moving. Tom got on his knee and reached for his water container
after putting down his rifle. As Tom’s torso was turned while
reaching for his water, Captain Kim’s fist flew into Tom’s
face.

Everyone in the Command Room stopped talking
and those that were sitting stood up. On the screen, through Tom’s
helmet camera, everyone watched as Tom was lying with his back on
the ground. Captain Kim was on top of him, looking down. To
everyone in the Command Room it looked like Captain Kim was looking
at them. Captain Kim put all his weight on Tom and started punching
wildly. Sara did not notice that she covered her mouth with her
hands.

Tom’s hands rose and started to block the
blows, but Captain Kim seemed to have turned into an enraged
animal. He was punching and yelling. At first he was shrieking, but
then he started to yell what sounded like phrases.

Mr. Park turned to Anderson. “He just yelled
out ‘I have the American. Everyone come help me.’”

CHAPTER 54

THURSDAY

Northeast Coast, North Korea

Lying on his back and getting punched in the
woods was not the last thing Tom had expected going into his
mission. But it was quite far down on his list of probable
events.