Devil's Fork (38 page)

The attack had started so suddenly that for
the first few seconds he had reacted instinctively. But now he had
come to his senses and realized what was happening. He was on his
back, Captain Kim was lying on top of him and punching him as fast
as he could. Tom put his hands up to try to protect his face.

He tried to wrap his legs around Kim’s
torso. From his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training he knew this was the
most important measure he could take while on his back. Kim would
then be in Tom’s guard and Tom knew he would be able to try any one
of the techniques he knew. Within seconds he had his legs around
Kim. But he was still receiving punch after punch in rapid
succession from Kim. Kim was also yelling out words now. Tom
assumed he was calling for help. Tom knew that meant he had only a
moment to get himself out of this situation.

He held up one hand to block Kim’s punches
and with the other hand he tried to reach down to his side to pull
out his Mark 3 knife. But as he was reaching down, he noticed that
Kim had suddenly slowed his punches and was now reaching for Tom’s
pistol, sitting in Tom’s thigh holster. Kim managed to grab the
handle and was trying to pull it out. If it came out, Tom knew he
would be dead within seconds. Tom reacted immediately and shot his
hand past his knife and to his pistol, jamming Kim’s hand on it so
that he would not be able to pull it out of the holster.

Tom now noticed that as Kim was struggling
for the pistol, his other arm had stopped punching and was holding
Tom’s chest. He knew what to do. In fact he had once thought he
could put the next move on with a blindfold. He grabbed Kim’s hand
with his free hand and tried to slap on a Triangle Choke. His right
leg curled around Kim’s neck and made a figure four with his other
leg. Kim’s arm, which had been on his chest, was now trapped and
Kim’s face started to turn red. Tom had Kim in a Triangle. All
those years of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training had finally come into
use, he thought. Tom felt Kim’s other hand, previously on the
handle of Tom’s pistol, loosen completely. Kim was now putting all
effort into getting his head out of Tom’s legs.

Each second Captain Kim became redder. Tom
knew that within seconds, Kim would black out. Tom watched Kim try
to mouth a phrase to him.

Kim seemed to say, “Please. No.”

Tom stared at Kim for a moment. He loosened
his triangle slightly, just enough so that Kim would stay
conscious, but not enough for Kim to escape. Now Tom spoke.

“
Why’d you do
this?”

Kim continued to struggle. His eyes were
bloodshot now. He stared at Tom and slowly replied, “I – hate –
you.”

By now Tom had reached for his knife. He
quickly pulled it out and thrust it into Kim’s face. Tom quickly
unraveled his Triangle and let Kim fall to the ground. He got on
his hands and knees and grabbed his rifle.

His radio started talking
immediately.
“Tom are you
hurt?”

Tom did not respond at
first. He stared at Kim’s limp body for a moment. Something he had
read in
Heart of Darkness
long ago leapt into his mind, although it
resonated in a different context as he stared at Kim.

“
It is impossible to
convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one's existence —
that which makes its truth, its meaning — its subtle and
penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream -
alone.”

Anderson’s voice on the
radio repeated,
“Tom, come in. Are you
OK?”

“
Yes. Hold on, I hear
something.”

Tom heard voices in the woods. They were not
near him but they were loud and approaching. Someone had heard
Kim’s calls.

CHAPTER 55

WEDNESDAY

Langley, Virginia

“
I still don’t understand
why he did that,” Matt said from the front of the room. “He said he
hated his country and he said he was treated like he was worthless.
Why would he try to kill Tom?” This was the first issue of the
night that seemed to aggravate Matt, Sara thought.

“
I don’t understand it at
all. I was assuming the regime killed his father. Why on Earth did
he do that?” Sara said.

They watched the screen as Tom dodged the
various vegetation and rocks in the woods, while looking around for
newly aroused patrols. The sun was sneaking its way up the sky.

Anderson, his arms crossed,
said, “Human beings are complicated creatures. We still don’t
understand how the mind works. I believe Captain Kim’s dislike of
his regime was genuine. But he has also been conditioned since he
was a small child to hate us. He probably could barely look at Tom
without feelings of anger and hatred. His mind has been hacked
since he was a child. You – Mark and J.D. – think hacking is a new
science that arrived with computers? It has been around for
hundreds of years. You get inside a child’s mind and you can
influence his behavior for the rest of his life. You show a child
an idea and show that it is in his interest to defend it, and you
have conditioned that child forever. It will not matter if someone
comes along who thinks he can help the child. If you threaten that
idea, that child, now an adult, will hate you for it. In our
country we complain about our politicians and about many aspects of
life here. Imagine if North Korea invaded
us
and said that they’ll fix
everything we complain about in this country. Do you think we would
welcome them? We would fight them too. No, Kim did exactly what we
should have expected him to do. He told Tom a bunch of things about
Room 39 and the regime to gain his trust, thinking that they were
alone. Then when Tom, and we, least expected it, he attacked and
showed who he really was.”

Then Sara sat up straight.
Suddenly she had a thought. “We called this mission Devil’s Fork
because whenever we deal with totalitarian countries, we end up
finding paradoxes. Today we found a few. But I think we just saw
the ultimate paradox. Tom once told me that power was the original
drug. But now I think the original drug might have been what those
in power used to keep their subjects in line. The original drug was
whatever tool was necessary for getting people to keep themselves
in line. Whether the drug was ideological, theological, social,
economic, or philosophical did not matter. Once that
drug
was administered,
those with power did not need to
use
their power. Once the people were
under the influence, they would coerce
themselves
. Those with power could
condition people to the point where the people believed that it was
in their interest to have those in power rule over them. The people
could, in a way, coerce you to stay in power. That’s the paradox of
totalitarian societies. The ruler has the power to coerce the
people, who begin to coerce themselves and lay prostrate in the
hands of those with power, negating the need for the power and
coercion in the first place. Think back through any such society in
history and this holds true. We human beings allow power to be
exercised upon us by living a paradox.”

A silence took over the Command Room. The
group watched the screen. Tom was back into his original pattern of
running, stopping, lying prone, looking around, and running again.
He had spotted several patrols, but they were at a distance and had
not seen Tom.

Anderson finally broke the silence and said,
“At least he can just get back into the water and into his SDV. We
don’t need to come up with a plan to get Tom and some guy out.”

Mr. Park walked into the Command Room after
having stepped out a few minutes before. He had his jacket on and
appeared to be ready to leave. He walked up to Anderson and shook
his hand.

“
Thank you for helping us
out. We’re going back now. We can take care of the last piece of
this mission.”

“
Good luck with it. Be
careful,” Anderson replied.

“
Also, I just got some news
about my analyst. The one that was abducted.”

“
And? Is she
OK?”

CHAPTER 56

THURSDAY

Korean peninsula

Tom stopped for what he expected to be the
last time. He was at the edge of the woods, overlooking the beach.
A vast, open sea lay in front of him. The KPA presence on the beach
was lighter. Many hours had passed since Tom’s first sprint through
the pocket of soldiers.

He checked that his flippers and his Draeger
rebreather were ready. He had just dug them out of the spot where
he had left them earlier. Tom checked his waterproof utility bag
with all of the Room 39 documents. He looked around again. The area
of beach in front of him luckily did not have soldiers patrolling
it. There was a group farther up the beach to the north.

Tom started sprinting for the last time.
Trying to run as fast as he could on the soft, sandy beach reminded
him of BUD/S training. He recalled how he had to do it every day.
Running on the sand, where one’s foot sinks in before it gets a
firm hold is a different science, he had realized. This morning, he
was glad that he went through BUD/S. As he crossed the halfway
point on the beach, he looked left and right. The soldiers did not
seem to be reacting. Maybe they were too far away, he thought. Tom
smiled as he imagined their confusion from seeing a black figure
running directly towards the open sea.

Soon Tom’s feet were underwater. He kept
moving as fast as he could. The frigid morning sea was soon at his
waist, and he was now in a fast walk. Tom raised his arms in front
of him, and dove forward into the water. He put in his mouthpiece
and started breathing underwater. He attached his flippers to his
feet as quickly as he could and started swimming towards his SDV.
Another one complete, he thought. Another mission finished,
although with more surprises than usual. As he swam he felt a rush.
A feeling of pleasure overtook his stomach. As he climbed into his
SDV, he finally had time to think. The first thing Tom started
wondering was what happened to Jiyeon.

* * *

As the helicopter started descending towards
Yongsan Garrison in South Korea, Tom woke up. Shortly after he had
boarded the helicopter in the Sea of Japan, he fell into a catnap.
He had learned to grab some sleep whenever he could. Now as he was
about to disembark at Yongsan, he felt somewhat rested.

Soon he felt the wheels touch the ground and
Tom hopped out of the craft. He started to walk towards the
building out of which he came the previous night. The sun was now
overhead and the world seemed to be stirring awake all around.

Tom saw a soldier approaching him from the
building ahead. As he came closer, Tom noticed that the soldier was
the sergeant he had befriended at the firing range. The sergeant
was smiling.

“
Great to see you back,” he
said holding out his hand. He clasped Tom’s hand.

“
Thanks,” Tom
said.

“
You OK? Your face looks a
little swollen. You have a cut under your eye. I’ll get a medic for
you.”

“
Thanks but I should be
fine. This is nothing.”

“
Oh and also, we have
Conference room D in there with a video link to your people. They
want to talk to you quickly. It sounds like you did a good job over
there.”

“
Conference room D.
Thanks.”

Tom continued walking. When he entered the
building he walked down the white hallway and turned into the
locker room first. He took off his helmet and put his rifle away.
He put his utility bag with all of the documents in his locker.
Then he walked out of the locker room and headed down the hallway,
looking for conference room D. He turned the corner and walked past
several other conference rooms. Finally he found D. He walked
inside. The conference room itself was empty, but in the front he
saw a screen. On the screen, Tom saw Anderson looking back at
him.

“
Tom, it’s good to see
you,” Anderson started talking right away. Tom felt Anderson was
talking a bit slower than usual. He was not smiling.

“
Thanks. How are you guys
over there?”

“
We’re fine. We’re glad to
see you in one piece after everything that happened
today.”

“
Thanks. I’ll give the
intelligence I took to the IT guys so they can start scanning the
documents. Anything else you need?”

“
Tom, you should know about
what happened to the NIS officer who was abducted. Jiyeon. The one
who briefed you.”

Tom stood in silence, waiting for Anderson
to just say it.

“
Tom, she didn’t make it.
Jiyeon’s dead.”

Tom stood motionless like a statue. The room
was silent. He could feel Anderson staring at him from the
screen.

Tom asked, “How?”

“
They didn’t get her in
time. The North Koreans who kidnapped her shot her as the house was
being raided.”

Tom felt a coldness enter his chest. Few
people knew him well. Those who were close provided a rare warmth.
Her loss blew out an ember.

“
Do we know how she was
targeted? Or why they did this to her?” He asked slowly.

“
The North Koreans in that
house were all killed. The NIS thinks they have the other pieces of
the puzzle together. They are about to get even.”

Tom was still staring at the ground. He
nodded slowly. He could tell his face was expressionless.

“
I’ve got you set up to fly
back on a military flight in 24 hours,” Anderson continued. “You
can rest up in the meantime.”