by Terry Toler
Here we go.
“Just a few days.”
“Do you want to have dinner with me?”
“I’d better not,” Jamie said, having already rehearsed the answer in her mind. “I have a boyfriend.”
“I don’t see a ring on your finger,” he retorted.
“You don’t seem like the kind of guy who would care if I did,” Jamie said. That was mean but she wanted him to get the hint.
“Ouch!”
“No offense intended. Like I said, I have a boyfriend.” Even if she didn’t have a boyfriend, she wouldn’t fall for his charm. She’d never be someone’s one-night stand or another notch in his belt.
Her lunch arrived anyway, just in time. Or maybe it was breakfast. She left home fourteen hours ago, and with the time change, she wasn’t really sure what time it really was. She had ordered it from Ricky at the bar. The Bibimbap meal helped confuse the issue. The rice bowl was filled with all sorts of seasoned sautéed vegetables, marinated beef, and a fried egg sunny side up on the top right in the center.
The sauce tasted like it was made up of sprinkles of sesame and a generous heaping of a sweet and spicy bibimbap sauce. Jamie had only had the dish twice, and they were both about the same in quality and taste. She washed it down with a Sprite, served to her by Ricky who was no longer paying much attention to her since she was clearly a waste of his time.
When she finished, she dabbed the sauce off of the side of her lips and downed the rest of her drink. She took out her phone and tried to access the internet with it. She threw her hands in the air when she was unable to.
Ricky must’ve seen her because he said, “There’s a passcode to access the internet.”
“What did you just say?” Jamie said as a thought suddenly circled her mind like a race car speeding around an oval.
Ricky hesitated. “I said you need a passcode to access the internet.”
The word passcode triggered a memory. The Iranian had used the word “code” in his conversation. What was it he said? Jamie strained to remember.
The girl stole the satchel. The satchel contained the Pakistani codes. That’s what the Iranian had said.
Codes could only mean nuclear. It finally made sense. The girl stole the satchel. The satchel contained Pakistani nuclear codes. Alex went after the girl to get them. The Iranians must’ve bought them from the North Koreans. That’s why the Iranians were hunting Alex. This wasn’t about a girl; it was about keeping nuclear codes out of the hands of the Iranians.
That changed everything.
As soon as we arrive in Seoul, I have to take out the two Iranians.
33
North Korea Cyber Lab
The drive to the lab took less than an hour. We would’ve gotten there sooner, but I got lost on the back roads trying to find it from memory and coming from a different direction. Avoiding the police was an added challenge. Fortunately, we only saw one, and he was traveling away from us. Once we got closer to the lab, things became more familiar, and I remembered a side road that was a perfect place to hide the police cruiser.
“I don’t guess I can convince you to stay here and watch the police car,” I said to Bae.
“Nope!”
“It might be dangerous,” I added, realizing I wasn’t making the best argument. Bae seemed to thrive on the danger. I understood. I was somewhat of an adrenaline junkie. Most people like me get their kicks from bungee jumping or parachuting out of an airplane. I came alive when facing an adversary. Mano a mano. ‘May the best man win’ brought the best out of me.
“You might need me,” Bae argued, much to my amusement.
I choked back the laugh that had formed in my throat because Bae was easily offended, I had learned that the hard way. Like my girlfriend Jamie. If I left Bae in the car, she’d just wait a few minutes and follow me anyway. I was better off keeping her in my sights at all times. Putting her in harm’s way wasn’t smart, but she’d be in greater danger and so would I if she was out wandering around alone trying to avoid detection with no experience.
After a short hike through the woods, Bae and I found a good hiding place among some bushes on the backside of the facility. I left her there and circled around the perimeter to surveille the number of guards. There were still a dozen or so in the front entrance. The only difference was that one guard was outside walking around the building. That meant I had to be further away from the building than I would’ve liked.
“Shoot!” I said under my breath, staring at the computer that was open in my lap in front of me. I tried to connect to the lab’s wireless internet so I could take back control of Kryptonite.
“Alex. What’s wrong?” Bae whispered.
“I can’t get a signal from here,” I answered, looking up and scanning the facility to see what other options I had.
“What about that building?” Bae asked, pointing to the building where I was beaten and interrogated when I first arrived at the facility. That seemed like eons ago, even though it had only been two days.
“That building doesn’t have adequate power,” I said. “And the battery on the laptop is getting low. We still have some juice left, but it’ll run out before I finish what I need to do.”
“I guess we’re just going to have to find a way inside the lab,” Bae said with her hand on her chin like she was thinking. Why did that annoy me? Jamie did that to me all the time when we were on a mission together. Before I had a chance to analyze the situation, Jamie would try and find the best solution. Now Bae was trying to do the same thing, much to my frustration.
“I don’t guess I can convince you to stay here in the woods and be my lookout?” I asked.
“Nope!”
“Now you’re just getting on my nerves,” I said.
Bae’s brow furrowed and tilted her head. “I don’t understand what you mean, Alex.”
“Never mind. I have another idea,” I said as a new plan formed in my mind.
“What are we going to do now, boss?” Bae asked, bouncing up and down with excitement. She was too naive to really understand how much danger we were in.
“See that right over there,” I said, pointing to the main building. “It has a fire escape right there in the corner. I’m going to sneak over and climb up on the roof. There’s a heating unit up there. That means there’s also a power outlet. I’m going to plug the computer into it. I should be able to pick up the cell phone signal from the rooftop and charge the laptop at the same time.”
“Sounds good. Let’s go,” she said, clapping her hands together in a way that was muffled so no one could hear us, but so she could still express her enthusiasm.
“No way! You’re not going,” I said. “It’s too risky. You stay here.”
Bae’s nose crinkled as she let out an exasperated sigh.
“See that guard, he’s got a machine gun,” I said as the guard came around the corner of the building. We both instinctively ducked below the bushes even though we were far enough away that he couldn’t see us. “There’s a dozen more around the front. If they discover us, we’re in big trouble.”
I watched him carefully. He was in our sight for eight minutes. It took him another eight minutes to cross the front of the building back to our side. That’s how long it would take to get to the fire escape undetected.
“What about those people in the windows?” Bae asked. “They’ll see us.” Several offices were facing our direction. A couple of them had people in it, including Pok who I could see sitting at his desk in his office. The hairs on my arms raised as I bristled from seeing him.
I let out a frustrated sigh. The sun wouldn’t be setting for another hour. I also noticed that Bae said us and not you. That meant there was no way I was going alone. Probably better anyway. Bae was so impetuous she wouldn’t sit in the woods for the two to three hours it would take me to do everything I needed to do. At least on the roof, she’d be near me, and I could control her.
Somewhat.
I leaned back against
a tree and closed my eyes.
“What are you doing?” Bae asked.
“We’re going to have to wait until dark. There’s a rule to spying you need to know. Sleep when you can. You never know when you’ll get another chance. Sit back and relax. It’s going to be awhile.”
“You sleep. I’ll take the first watch,” Bae said, as she crouched down so she was looking through the bushes at the cyber lab like a watchman would.
I smiled as I felt an overwhelming urge to encourage her. “You do that, Bae. Wake me if you see someone coming.”
I must’ve slept really hard because the next time I opened my eyes, everything was completely dark except for the lights inside the cyber lab shining through the windows.
***
Bae and I got to the fire escape and up onto the roof of the cyber lab with no problem. Once there, the problems began.
The roof did have a power outlet, but it was the wrong voltage for the computer. A simple voltage converter that cost twenty bucks in the United States was all I needed but was something I obviously didn’t have with me. Technology always amazed me in that way. The largest and most sophisticated supercomputer in the world that costs millions of dollars to manufacture wouldn’t run on that power outlet without a twenty-dollar adapter.
The battery level on the laptop was just above thirty percent, so I wouldn’t be able to do everything I wanted. I had to choose. What I really wanted to do was email the Pakistani nuclear codes to Brad. I would feel much better knowing someone in our government besides me had that information and could do something about it. If something happened to me, that flash drive could still fall into the wrong hands.
It was also my ticket out of a court martial, should I somehow make it out of this mess alive. Coming to North Korea and letting Pok commandeer Kryptonite had been a huge operational failure and a threat to our national security. The justification that I had prevented nuclear codes from falling into the hands of the Iranians would cover a multitude of my sins.
The problem was that I couldn’t do both―mail the codes and salvage Kryptonite and keep Pok from hacking into the CIA server. Since the codes were safely in my possession, I decided to use what little battery power I had left to hack back into Kryptonite and set up a booby trap for Pok that would devastate his operations. Admittedly, some competitive personal revenge might have been behind the decision.
Nevertheless, I made the decision and set out to access Kryptonite from Pok’s cell phone. The problem was that he wasn’t on the phone. I had to wait until he logged into the cyber lab server to access his internet.
Bae could sense my frustration. “What’s wrong, Alex?” she whispered. We still had to be concerned that the guard circling the building didn’t hear us.
“His cell phone isn’t connected to the server. I can’t hack into it until it is.”
“How does that work?”
“The cyber lab accesses the internet through underground T-1 lines. There’s obviously no way for me to hack into them from here.”
I pointed to an antenna on the top of the roof.
“That’s a portable cell tower. It provides cell phone service to the lab. There’s a bigger tower somewhere around here. Probably a mile or two away. When someone in the lab turns on his cell phone, I can intercept the signal and piggyback off of it.”
I showed Bae where I had picked up the wireless signal on the computer. Her eyes were glazed over as I got too detailed in my explanations. I suspected that she had no idea what I was talking about, even though she nodded dutifully. Another trait of hers that warmed my heart along with the joy of teaching her. This trip had been eye opening to me. I discovered a skill I didn’t know I had. Someday I might want to do what Curly did and train operatives.
“The man running this lab is a very bad man,” I said to Bae. “He steals from people all over the world by using his computer. I’m going to stop him. He’s being careless by using the wireless connection. He probably thinks he’s safe here in North Korea. We just need for him to hurry. Our battery is down to twenty-four percent.”
We waited more than half an hour before Pok finally logged on. I quickly sprang into action and began typing furiously. I didn’t know how long he would stay on.
“We’re in business,” I said to Bae. I gave her a running play by play of what I was doing. “I’m making my computer mirror his so the cell phone tower thinks they are one in the same.”
“How are you . . .” `` Bae started to say.
“No questions,” I said roughly. “I need to give this my undivided attention. Don’t say anything for the next hour. Just listen. I’ll explain later.” I hated to be rude, but her questions were distracting and would slow me down. I was down to under twenty percent battery. I’d be cutting it close as it was. Every second counted.
“We’re in.”
Bae took in a breath like she was about to say something but then caught herself.
“I have a back way into Kryptonite no one knows about but me,” I said excitedly. It actually helped me to talk out loud. Something I usually did when I was alone working in my home or in the CIA lab.
I let out a gleeful laugh. “Pok’s not going to know what hits him!”
“Who’s Pok?” Bae asked.
I shouldn’t have said his name out loud in front of Bae, but it was too late. There was no time to think through the ramifications if there were any. Hopefully, she’d forget she ever heard the name.
“The man running the lab,” I answered. “The bad guy. I almost have control of Kryptonite. . . There. I have control now. This will let Brad go back in.”
“Who’s Brad?” Bae asked.
I looked up from the computer long enough to glare at her.
“Sorry,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. She then made a gesture like she was zipping her lip and throwing away the key. I’d seen Jamie do the same thing, although it never lasted long with her. Amazing how things like that go viral around the world.
“I’m putting in another firewall so Pok can’t go back in,” I explained. The effort was quickly sapping the energy out of the battery of the computer.
“Just hold on a little longer, baby,” I pleaded with the computer. I felt sweat form on my brow and then run down my face. I wiped one side off with the sleeve of my shirt and changed positions so I could type even faster.
Five percent power.
The computer went into power-saving mode as the screen darkened.
“Don’t do that!” I wanted to shout but whispered instead.
I didn’t have time to change the settings. I typed with the intensity of a skier trying to save someone from an avalanche.
The screen went dead.
Did I do enough? I think so.
I closed the lid on the laptop and handed it to Bae. “Here. You can carry this back to the car.”
My mind was processing as fast as a computer as I tried to figure out how much I had accomplished. I gave control of Kryptonite back to the CIA. That I was sure of. Could the CIA access a North Korea server undetected now with Kryptonite? That I wasn’t so sure of. I gave them access, but I didn’t have time to close all the vulnerabilities. Maybe I did enough. I’d find out when I got back to the hotel in South Korea.
At the very least, we were back to the status quo of how things were before I came to North Korea. No harm, no foul. Brad wouldn’t see it that way, but I had the nuclear codes as my trump card. In the CIA world, nuclear was the biggest priority. Nothing was more important than stopping possible nuclear attacks. All the rules went out the window when it came down to preventing them.
Overall, I felt good that the mission was justified and a success. Brad could argue that I almost caused a catastrophe, but I would argue that I prevented a bigger one. Brad was a former field agent. He’d understand the risks involved in missions. Sometimes, things didn’t go as planned. If they turned out alright in the end, then we’d live to fight another day.
That’s assuming Bae and I got ba
ck to South Korea with the flash drive. Still a big assumption.
“Bae, you go down the fire escape first,” I said. “I’ll follow you. As soon as you hit the ground, you take off running for the woods. I’ll cover you.”
The problem was that from the roof, we didn’t know where the guard was in his patrol around the building. The front of the building and the top of the roof was better lit, so I didn’t want to risk looking over the edge and being seen. The backside was darker, so I leaned over the side and looked both ways. The guard wasn’t there. That meant he was around in front somewhere. Where, though? Did he just start around the front or was he about to come to the back?
We could wait for him to pass, but I wanted to get out of there quickly before Pok realized what I’d done. As soon as he did, the dozen soldiers would be out looking for us. I wanted to put several miles between them and us before that happened.
I motioned for Bae to go. She traversed the ladder easily, even carrying the computer. I waited for her to clear the stairs in case the guard came around. From my vantage point, I could shoot him, and be down the stairs before the other guards heard the commotion.
Bae reached the bottom. Instead of running, she just stood there looking up at me. I couldn’t yell at her to run without the risk of being heard. So, I started down the stairs at a quickened pace.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. In the darkness.
The guard.
I stopped and drew the weapon, but I couldn’t see him clearly in the dark.
Bae let out a muted scream.
I continued down, even faster. When I reached the bottom, I turned to see what I was facing. I had the weapon raised in front of me.
The guard had one arm wrapped around Bae’s waist. His gun was in his other hand pointed directly at me about eight feet away. Too far for me to disarm him and close enough to where he wouldn’t miss if he got a shot off.
“Drop your weapon,” the guard shouted.
Not knowing what else to do, I raised my right hand in the air in a surrender pose, I slowly lowered the gun in my left hand and sat it on the ground.