Devil's Fork (8 page)

“
And so he found
something,” Tom said

“
He messaged us this
morning. He said that a ship had come in sometime in the last few
days. Near the port, he said that he saw what he initially thought
were Middle Eastern men standing near the ship, having a cigarette.
“

“
Why do you say he
initially thought that?”

“
His message said that they
also looked Mediterranean or Caucasian, as in from the Caucasus
region. He was not sure.” Jiyeon said. She held eye contact with
Tom.

“
Did he see what they were
loading or unloading from the ship?” Tom asked her.

“
No. One of his assets
reported seeing a man in some kind of protective suit, but 2135
could not confirm it. These strange men meanwhile are just sitting
in port.” Her eyes were looking at his deeply, so that Tom sensed
she really wanted to give an explanation despite not having
one.

“
Probably upset the
Chongjin cruise line didn’t match the pictures they saw in the
brochure,” Tom said.

Jiyeon smiled.

Tom continued, “But I guess that does
somewhat confirm that this base is what we’ve been looking
for.”

“
It seems like this points
to a nuclear facility. But then when we think back to 1414’s
message, it’s hard to reconcile,” Jiyeon replied as she settled
deeper into her chair.

Mr. Lee jumped in, “we wanted you to have
the full picture before going in. We will have 2135 continue to
monitor that port in case we can find anything that will help your
mission.” There was a pause in the room. At this point, Mr. Lee and
Jiyeon were looking at Tom as if they wanted to say more, but ran
out of reports that might be helpful to him. Tom eased their
discomfort.

“
I appreciate it. This
briefing was very helpful. Is there anything else for us to go
through or can I go hit the firing range?”

Mr. Lee started speaking slowly, “There is
one thing we wanted to offer you. We have not spoken to Mr. Park or
your commander Anderson about this yet. We usually give our deep
cover officers a pill to take in case they find themselves in a
situation where they know they will get caught.” Jiyeon was looking
down as Mr. Lee continued. “If something happens and they do catch
you, they will torture you in unimaginable ways. I’ll spare you on
what they do, but it won’t stop even when you tell them everything
you know. They will keep it up long past the point where you will
lose your mind. There is no reason to go through that – it’s better
to die. All our illegals carry one. It’s what Officer 1414
used.”

Tom looked out the window – the sun was
bright outside. He slowly looked back at Mr. Lee, who was leaning
forward in his seat, awaiting a response. Tom methodically gave his
answer, “I have no need for that.” Tom shook his head slowly and
continued staring through the window, “I’ll never be captured
alive.” Mr. Lee did not move.

When Tom was going through Basic Underwater
Demolition / SEAL training, or BUD/S, to become a Navy SEAL many
years ago, he underwent a revelation. They were performing physical
activities all day. The instructors required them to pass a number
of tests including a beach run, pushups, pullups and a swim in the
frigid Pacific Ocean. On top of that, for one week, known as Hell
Week, they were only allowed one or two hours of sleep – for the
entire week. Each day of Hell Week they were told that they needed
to improve their scores on their physical tests from the previous
day. If they did not, they would be kicked out of the program. Some
SEAL candidates, having not slept at all in the previous days, quit
as the week went on, convinced that it was impossible to beat their
scores any further. The cold swim was what got most people. When
the candidates swam for a mile in the cold water when rested, it
was difficult enough. But on three days without sleep, it seemed
like insanity. Tom and a few others thought about it, put their
heads down, and just went for it. It was the hardest thing Tom had
ever done. It felt like death would snatch him out of that water at
any moment. Inside his head as he was swimming, he heard nothing as
his mind had already shut down. He barely registered that the water
felt like millions of ice cubes traveling all over his body. He
kept taking strokes as hard as he could. Somehow he beat his best
time. The revelation that hit him was that SEAL training was
psychological, not physical. His body could do the impossible if he
forced it. The phrase “you can do anything you put your mind to”
was something repeated among millions of children each year. But
the candidates who finished SEAL training learned to live it. After
that, fear no longer disturbed them. In Afghanistan if SEALs were
in a small team and outnumbered 100 to 1, they just fought back.
They would do anything to win. It felt right to them much like it
would feel right to a lesser man to run away. It was no different
from that swim during BUD/S – in the face of an impossibility, they
just got going. This trained confidence gave Tom the belief he
would not get captured on his missions. It was not because he could
defeat entire armies singlehandedly. It was because he knew he
would end up fighting with his fists if he had to. It felt
right.

Mr. Lee and Jiyeon had been sitting frozen
when Tom got up and walked over to Mr. Lee. They shook hands and
Tom patted him on the back.

“
Thanks for your help and
sorry about 1414,” he said.

“
We were told to help you
any way we can. So let us know if you need anything else,” Mr. Lee
replied.

Tom left the conference room.

* * *

Outside the late afternoon sun became gentle
as it approached the horizon. Tom was at the firing range with his
M4. He fired at a target in the distance with shots closely spaced
together. A group of five US Army soldiers watched along with the
sergeant who oversaw the firing range. Tom imagined they wondered
who was this man in jeans and a button-down who shot so well. What
was he doing here? They seemed afraid to ask him.

Tom pulled out his pistol and began firing
it as well. While in the SEAL teams, he had achieved both the Navy
Expert Rifleman medal and the Navy Expert Pistol Shot medal. The
standards for the pistol required one to shoot several shots with
the strong hand, then reload, switch to the weak hand and shoot
several more shots within a certain timeframe. All shots had to be
within the body frame painted on the target. It looked a bit like
acrobatics as Tom was performing it, but he was pleased to see that
he still met the standards.

“
That was impressive,” the
sergeant said as he was walking over.

“
You should see me do it in
a tuxedo,” Tom quipped.

“
It’s been a while since I
saw someone as good.”

“
I don’t believe
you.”

The sergeant stood next to Tom and looked
downrange.

“
You said you were a
SEAL?”

“
Yeah”

“
Sniper?”

“
No. I was an officer. Hey
sergeant, I need to test out this new weapon they gave me. It’s not
lethal. Just makes you feel like you’re on fire. Leaves no
temporary or permanent damage. Can I practice with it on one or two
volunteers?”

“
Is it – actually
safe?”

“
They told me the
department of defense tested it on thousands of people. All were
fine. There are videos of them testing it on a general on
YouTube.”

The sergeant called over the five men who
were watching. When they came over, he started talking to them in a
more measured tone than he had been using with Tom.

“
Listen up guys. My friend
Tom here needs to test out a new weapon.” The men’s faces slowly
turned from smiles and relaxed eyes to that look college fraternity
pledges make as they are being told the next task.

The sergeant continued, “This weapon is not
lethal and leaves no temporary or permanent damage. It just makes
you feel hot for a second. Tom needs to test it on someone to see
the effect. So we need a volunteer. Which one of you guys is man
enough to do it?”

The five soldiers looked at each other and
started pointing fingers, laughing, and slapping each other in the
back. It was the military version of the playground dare. Finally
one of them came forward.

“
You can move out of the
way as soon as you feel it,” Tom said to the brave kid, “I just
want to make sure I have the sights positioned well.”

“
OK, sir,” The soldier
said. He walked downrange about 50 meters and turned around facing
Tom and the group.

Tom took out the ADS. He unfolded it and
powered it up the way Eric showed him back at Langley. He aimed it
towards the soldier, who stood like a statue in the distance. It
must have looked silly because Tom appeared to be aiming a small
dish or bowl at the end of a stick. Tom took aim and pulled the
trigger. Immediately, the soldier jumped to his left to get out of
the way. The ADS made no noise – not even to confirm it was turned
on. The group ran towards the soldier.

“
What did it feel like?”
his friends were peppering him with questions even though they did
not want to try it out themselves.

The volunteer looked at them with his
eyebrows raised in the middle.

“
It felt like…all of a
sudden…I don’t know. Like I was dipped into a volcano’s lava. It
felt like the hottest possible feeling all over my
body.”

They all looked at Tom, who asked, “if you
were moving towards an enemy position and you felt that, is there
any way you could continue moving forward?”

“
No, sir. Uh uh. No way. It
was almost instinctual to run away. I felt like I stopped
thinking.” Tom looked down at the ADS – maybe it
was
a good idea to bring
this along, he thought. He didn’t realize the stopping power it
had. Maybe human beings are conditioned to run away from heat, he
thought.

The sergeant said “OK guys, take him to the
mess hall and get some water. Also, Corporal—“ The sergeant said to
the brave test subject “you can skip PT tomorrow.” The group of
soldiers walked away.

The sergeant looked at Tom. He waited for a
minute and then asked, “you’re going in there aren’t you?”

Tom did not look back but could tell the
sergeant was staring at him. Tom did not answer. His silence
implied his answer.

The sergeant continued, “we’ve been watching
the news. You think there really could be a war this time?”

Tom looked up, “if it comes we’ll have to
deal with it.”

“
Well, remember man, over
here at the edge of the world, ends justify means. You guys do
whatever you can to prevent World War III.”

“
That’s the idea.” Tom
replied.

* * *

Tom was walking back to the locker room with
his M4 strapped across his chest. He could see a few helicopters
taking off in the distance. They were probably training. He
expected to ride one of them to the submarine in two days for the
first leg of the mission.

Suddenly Jiyeon walked out of a building to
his right. She saw him, smiled and came over. She moved carefully
like a cat. It emphasized her slim figure.

“
You really like being at
this base, huh?” Tom said.

“
Yeah, Mr. Lee went back to
the office but I met with some of the helicopter pilots here. I
briefed them on North Korean naval activity. For when they fly you
to the
Virginia
.”

The importance of that did not escape Tom.
Despite the fact that North Korea was technologically backwards,
they employed their navy often. In recent years, they launched a
torpedo at a South Korean naval boat which killed a significant
number of sailors. The year before a North Korean ship entered the
South’s waters and started firing at a South Korean naval vessel.
The South Korean ship returned fire and the North Korean boat was
significantly damaged. A similar incident took place several years
earlier. Rarely reported by American media, these incidents showed
that the North Korean navy was looking to pick a fight, and if they
saw an American helicopter flying low, it would be within their
logical process to think to shoot it down. Whoever was flying Tom
would have to be aware of potential ships.

“
Let’s get dinner,” Tom
said to Jiyeon.

She smiled. “OK. But I have to drop off my
files at the office. What should we do?”

“
I need to put my gear away
and change anyway. Let’s meet in an hour.” Tom said, pointing to
his rifle.

“
OK. See you soon then.” It
pleased Tom to look at her smile.

* * *

In the locker room Tom quickly put on BBC
World News. They were reporting on the only story everyone was
thinking about.

“
North Korea released a
video today of its troops preparing for war. North Korean soldiers
were seen demonstrating their hand-to-hand combat skills and
shouting war slogans in unison. A video was also shown of missile
batteries being raised into a firing position. The regime released
a statement saying ‘If the American puppet state dares to strike
us, we will unleash a fiery response they cannot imagine. Our
nuclear forces are on the highest alert and are prepared to smite
all of America’s major cities with terrible destruction.’ South
Korea meanwhile has called up its reservists and has moved several
Marine units closer to the border. The United States is reported to
have sent its B-2 bombers to the region. These are the planes that
can carry nuclear bombs.”