Devil's Fork

by Spencer Adams

CHAPTER 3

  MONDAY

  Langley, Virginia

  Sara Hayward’s week could not have started more hectically. The SAD’s section of offices within CIA’s Langley headquarters was buzzing more than usual. People were entering and exiting offices. Phones were ringing. Other desk analysts walked around briskly. She saw a small group of South Koreans who were given a conference room and worked through what looked like severe jet lag.

  She still did not have all the facts. Anderson called her late last night and asked her to come in early today. She was at Langley by 7AM. All Anderson told her then was that Tom was going on an operation in the Korean peninsula and she needed to go through the usual pre-mission checklist that SAD desk analysts typically prepared. She began going through satellite intelligence, figuring out what military assets were in the region and filing the mission in the CIA internal electronic filing system. Once Tom arrived, she needed to get him into a secure conference room. Anderson wanted to start the briefing soon. He was now in the conference room that held the South Korean group down the hall. She did not have time to speculate what aspect of the mission they were talking about, or why that team was here.

  Right now she was curious more than anything. Many SAD missions started off on a fast pace, but what she saw this morning was unusual. She wondered what Anderson was cooking up. She knew the Korean peninsula was always unstable and there were always threats of war. Why were we sending Tom now, she thought. And what was it about – nuclear weapons, conventional weapons, labor camps, or regime change? She would have to wait for the briefing.

  This morning her computer was slower than usual. It did not seem to want to let her use the internet. She sat back as it figured out how to take her to Google. When she needs something most, it never seems to work she thought.

  Another analyst stuck his head into her office, “Hey Sara, have you seen Tom?”

  “No. I think he should be here soon though.”

  “OK thanks”

  Have you seen Tom. That was the eternal question at SAD, Sara mused. Everybody always seemed to be looking for Tom. What was it about him that enchanted everyone, including her? For Sara it was his hazel eyes which seemed to change color based on what he was wearing. What intrigued her was that his heart rate never seemed to go above 60 – no matter what was happening in the office or around him. Sara could not maintain that level of calm. She was not neurotic, but she did get stressed on the job. This was after all one of the most secret and dangerous wings of the CIA. Plenty of things could get a desk analyst’s heart rate up. Yet Tom, who actually had to go on missions, somehow never let anything get to him. Maybe it was the SEAL training he went through she thought. But mix his calm with his charming smile, she thought, and there was the likely reason everyone was always looking for him. He did not seem to need it though. Sara remembered at group parties how in the chaos of everyone talking, eating, drinking and laughing, she would spot Tom standing alone with his drink. But he was not standing there out of shyness like she caught herself doing once in a while. His eyes would be half-closed and he had an expression that seemed to say that he owned the building. Others must have felt it because he was never standing alone for long – people were always coming up to him asking him questions – his opinion on something – or asking about his war stories. She always had a thousand questions she wanted to ask him.

  Just then she saw a large-framed, dark-haired figure leisurely stroll past her door.

  Tom!

  She ran out of her door with her files and coffee.

  “Tom, good you’re here”

  Tom looked back, smiled at her and then kept walking to his office as she caught up to him.

  “How was your weekend Sara?”

  “Good. Anderson wants you in the secure conference room. He wants to start the briefing right away.”

  “Let’s go”

  They walked to the end of the hall. On the interior side of the building was a conference room specially built to prevent sound leakage. The CIA’s internal security staff constantly monitored it for electronic surveillance. Sara remembered learning that the basic way electronic bugs worked is that they recorded the sounds around them and transmitted the recordings to a device outside the room. The transmission could either be continuous, meaning it was sent through a live feed, or the bug could record for a number of hours and then send the transmission in one batch. Ultimately an electronic signal needed to be sent outside of the room. In the secure conference rooms, the CIA had devices that monitored whether electronic signals were transmitting out of the room. This conference room was also in the interior of the building and windowless. Foreign intelligence services had developed a technology in the 1970’s that sensed the vibrations a window made from the voices inside and translated those vibrations into words. This allowed someone sitting in a car outside to listen to what was being said in the conference room. Windowless conference rooms were more secure.

  When Sara and Tom walked in, several people were already sitting inside. Sara thought one was from the technology group – she recognized him but did not know him. He introduced himself as Eric.

  “Are you here for Anderson’s briefing” She asked

  “Yes” Eric replied.

  The other man, who introduced himself as Sam said he was a lawyer from the White House. Sara noticed that lawyers snuck around and got into SAD meetings from time to time.

  Matt Smith was sitting by a laptop at the head of the conference table. Matt was the group’s IT specialist and was charged with communications – often with the military.

  There was an ominous map of North Korea on the screen. As they were getting settled, Anderson walked in with an older looking South Korean man – one of the people Sara saw in the other conference room earlier. Anderson was in a dark suit, white shirt, and dark tie.

  “I thought I saw you come in,” Anderson said to Tom.

  “Yes, sir. Luckily it was smooth driving over here this morning”

  Anderson introduced the man he came in with.

  “Tom, Sara, this is Mr. Park. He is South Korea’s National Intelligence Service’s director of their deep cover program in North Korea. He just got in yesterday. You probably saw his team in the other conference room.”

  The three shook hands and sat down. Anderson closed the door and began the briefing immediately.

  “Well, we have an interesting situation. Two days ago, one of Mr. Park’s officers who was operating in Pyongyang was compromised. He took his own life rather than allowing himself to get captured. However before he died, he sent back a message. As background, this officer had been tasked with finding a hidden base where North Korea conducts most of its nuclear weapons research. We along with the South Korean NIS have known for a number of years about several sites where North Korea was supposedly doing nuclear research. But all of those sites were decoys. We have suspected for some time that they must be doing most of their research and bomb building in one secret location. This is for a number of reasons. They only have a handful of nuclear scientists, so it would make sense for them to be all in one place rather than spread out. Also with the electricity shortages and power outages they have, it would be easiest for them to do all their research in one place and be sure to provide that location with the power they need. Lastly, after years of UN inspections and negotiations, they know that the world is watching them closely. So they likely wanted to have a secret facility where they could do research covertly to avoid scrutiny. Mr. Park’s officer – what was his code name?”

  “Officer 1414” Park replied.

  “Officer 1414 was working on finding that facility and as a secondary mission, he was tasked with determining their level of nuclear capability. Three days ago, he messaged that he was going to meet a cousin of a regime insider. He had that meeting two days ago and we believe he was told the location of the facility and possibly what was in it. The message he sent back was the following – I’ll read it to you:

  ‘4
1.160167,129.612440. Mission accomplished. Officer 1414 compromised. Last resort will be used. Error in how we think about Jewels.’

  Everyone except Tom squinted his or her eyes and looked in different directions as if it made thinking easier. Tom sat motionless. Anderson went on.

  “Obviously ‘mission accomplished’ means he figured out this facility’s location. The numbers seem to be GPS coordinates which we can pull up on the map here.”

  Anderson moved behind Matt as he typed the GPS coordinates into the mapping program. The big screen zoomed in on an area in the Northeastern part of North Korea. The spot was south of the city of Chongjin and North of Kilju. It was hundreds of miles on the other side of the peninsula from Pyongyang. The spot was in the middle of what looked like a forest in a hilly or slightly mountainous area. The group leaned forward in their chairs and squinted their eyes further. The location 1414 gave looked like a simple dirt plot.

  “This is not just a pile of dirt in the middle of nowhere,” Anderson went on. “This spot in the center we have identified as a structure – probably containing an elevator and a set of stairs. We believe this is the entrance to the facility. About a mile away, we can see the presence of trucks, which are rare in this number in North Korea. They look like they are loading and unloading something. Our satellites have also seen troop movements in the area. The military presence is mostly the counter-intelligence unit of the Korean People’s Army, or KPA. We can tell this from the type of uniform they wear and the weapons they carry. This strange facility seems to be completely underground.”

  Sara was always impressed with the level of satellite imagery the SAD routinely saw. The number of US Government imagery satellites was classified and only a few people knew exactly how many there were – maybe Anderson was one of them. But these satellites were so powerful that they could spot a golf ball on the ground and read whether it was a Titleist or TaylorMade. This is how the imagery analysts at the agency had figured out what uniforms and weapons the local military had.

  Sara also knew the significance that the soldiers were KPA counter-intelligence. In totalitarian regimes all spies and secret police were trained as military officers. Tom and the other SAD officers came from military backgrounds, but most of the conventional espionage force at the CIA did not. In totalitarian countries, intelligence and counter-intelligence are military-like activities. These states are mainly focused on protecting their regimes from threats abroad or threats from their own people. Setting up the intelligence services as military organizations is one way to ensure these officers were highly trained and sworn to defend the regime. While the secret police monitored the people and spies monitored the outside world, the military counter-intelligence safeguarded the regime’s secret activities. Their tasks would include guarding North Korea’s nuclear arms program.

  As with all North Korean activities this appeared paradoxical to Sara. The North Koreans wanted to keep secret their most precious project. So they put military counter-intelligence units to guard it. But because military counter-intelligence units were guarding it, the SAD could tell this was where the regime’s special project was housed. From all the time she spent working on North Korean-related projects, the one commonality Sara noticed was that paradoxes were abundant.

  As the briefing continued, Sara looked at Tom. He hid a subtle smirk and sat with a straight back. His sleeves were rolled up and his forearms looked like baseball bats. His hands looked like two sledgehammers at rest.

  Anderson continued, “we also know that the underground nuclear tests the regime has been conducting have all been near this area. This confirms that they are probably doing their research in this underground facility.”

  Tom jumped in “Do we know of any other entrances?”

  “If there are any, we can’t see them. This is a hilly area with a forest so we cannot see whether people are entering this base from other locations.

  “OK, let’s move on to the rest of 1414’s message. He then said he was compromised and made it clear he planned to take his own life. Mr. Park says his team provides each illegal with a pill they can take as a last resort—“

  “How was he compromised?” Sara asked.

  Mr. Park turned to her from across the table, looked down as if in deep thought for a brief moment and spoke in what sounded like native English.

  “We are not sure. Maybe someone overheard him talking with some of his contacts. Maybe he inadvertently used words from the South Korean dialect that drew attention to him. It is difficult to say right now.”

  “Could his source, his last contact, have been a plant from the secret police? Could 1414 have been given a false location?” Sara felt it was part of her job to protect Tom. He would go anywhere they sent him, but she had to make sure they were not sending him into any traps.

  “I don’t think so” Mr. Park replied, his voice methodical “like us, they are vigilant in the North. If 1414 had met with a secret police officer or a plant, they would probably have arrested him on the spot.”

  “Are we sure that the North Koreans did not see the message that 1414 sent? If they saw it, they could be fortifying that base.”

  Mr. Park again began quietly and precisely laying out an explanation. “We have high confidence that they did not see the message. This is for two reasons. First, the message he sent was encrypted. Secondly, we believe 1414 destroyed his phone before his death.”

  Anderson added “And if they arrested the contact 1414 met with, they might have found that he mentioned that base. But they still would not know for sure that 1414 was specifically looking for that piece of information. So they have no reason to believe that we know about that base.”

  After a pause as everybody digested the information, Anderson continued the briefing. “So then the last part of the message is ‘error in how we think about Jewels’” Anderson read slowly with his arms crossed. “This part we are not sure about.”

  Mr. Park started speaking again, carefully choosing every word.

  “As Mr. Anderson mentioned, when we sent him in we told 1414 that his primary objective was to find this facility and his secondary objective was to try to determine how far along North Korea’s nuclear weapons program was.”

  Sara knew this was an issue SAD dealt with often – how far along certain regimes were in their nuclear research. She did not know much of the science but knew that generally these countries tried to build nuclear reactors. The nuclear reactor could be used to create plutonium, which could ultimately be put into a bomb. A mechanism in the bomb exploded matter into the plutonium, causing the nuclear blast. But each step was difficult. The nuclear reactor had many components each of which was difficult to make, including the fuel, control rods, howitzers and spent fuel pool. The mechanism for the bomb itself was also difficult to design. But by knowing which pieces a country had, an analyst could estimate how much time it would take to get to a full nuclear capability. Neither the CIA nor the NIS had a good idea of what stage North Korea had reached. It had conducted several underground tests, but little intelligence could be derived from those tests. North Korea has also been saying for some time that it has become a nuclear state, but Sara knew the CIA and other intelligence agencies always regarded North Korea’s declarations with skepticism.

  Mr. Park continued, “Jewels was the code word for North Korea’s nuclear program. If they were still working on developing components of the reactor he was to send the message ‘green jewels’. If the reactor was assembled and they were working on extracting plutonium from the reactor, he was to send the message ‘yellow jewels’. If they had weapons grade plutonium and were working on the mechanisms of the bomb itself, such as initiating the fission reaction, he was to message us ‘orange jewels’. If they had the capability to create a full nuclear weapon, in other words if all the pieces of the process were working and they were actually producing nuclear weapons, he was to send the message ‘red jewels’”.

  Anderson picked up the thought “h
owever, 1414 went off-script and said this—” pointing to the message on the screen “Error in how we think about jewels.” Anderson stood there, looking deep into the empty floor.

  Mr. Park continued “We are working on interpreting this. Perhaps it means they are working on a hydrogen bomb. Or maybe the North has discovered a way to make a bomb without the traditional step by step path. One of my analysts thinks this could mean that they have given up on nuclear weapons and instead are focusing on developing chemical or biological weapons.”

  Sara wondered why Mr. Park flew over to the US with a team of analysts to discuss this. Why did they not just call from Seoul? Why did Mr. Park and his team need to work here?

  Tom answered Mr. Park’s last thought “He probably would have just said ‘no jewels’ in that case. He’s trying to say that the situation is different from what we imagined.”

  “I agree,” said Anderson “Either way we are now further back than square one. We thought we had an idea of what was going on and now we have none, and we aren’t sure in what direction we should be thinking. I assume you all have seen the news coverage. The Korean peninsula again seems to be on the brink of war. We cannot continue to fly in the dark like this. We need to understand what nuclear capabilities North Korea has. The NIS also can’t risk having another one of their deep cover officers try to figure this out. We need someone to get into that base and see what’s there.

  “We have a mission here, approved by the Director of the CIA. Tom, you are going to South Korea today. You will spend one day there getting briefed by the NIS and conducting some training. Then we will insert you into North Korea, on the coast about five miles from this base.” He motioned to Sara, knowing she would have the rest of the details at her fingertips.

  Sara looked at Tom, “one of the Navy’s submarines, the USS Virginia, is in the region and is equipped with a SEAL Delivery Vehicle. You should be able to use that to get close to shore. From there we think that with the terrain it should take you about two hours to get to target.”

  Sara remembered learning that SEAL Delivery Vehicles or SDVs were small submersibles that Navy SEALs use to get from a submarine several miles offshore right to the coast. They could be attached to a submarine. Once released, an operator drives it towards shore and simply parks it like a car. This always amused Sara. The operator then swims in scuba gear the rest of the way. It seemed simple but SEALs spend months training to master it. Since Tom was a SEAL he knew how to operate an SDV.

  Anderson continued with the mission details.

  “You will get to the base in the middle of the night. Given the country has trouble generating electricity there should be no lights. Their communications might be down as well. Also since their soldiers are poorly fed – even the KPA counter-intelligence unit – it seems unlikely that there would be a large guard stationed that late. Our infrared satellites on their last pass only spotted a small night guard crew of a couple men.”

  Sara always smiled thinking about the misconception many people had about satellites. Many films and books gave the impression that imagery satellites could be parked above a spot and stare down for a stream of real time imagery. This was not the case. Imagery satellites are constantly flying around Earth in orbit and are taking pictures of everything below them. They pass over the entire Earth every five to seven days depending on the satellite and the orbit. One can see what a spot on Earth looked like at the last satellite pass – which depended on the number of satellites available. For real time imagery, the CIA would need to send in a drone. Sara knew they were not going to send one over North Korea and risk starting a war. Still, the imagery Anderson was referring to was maybe a day old at worst.

  “Once inside you will look at everything, “ Anderson went on, “We need to see every scientific object in there. You will also need to take documents and anything that can store data – whether they are using flash drives or CDs, we need it. Finally you will need to bring plastic explosives. We will have to decide on the fly whether you will set them based on what we see inside. You can exfiltrate the way you came. Get back to shore and into your SDV. Then get back aboard the USS Virginia.”

  Anderson paused for Mr. Park to make a comment.

  “I am redirecting some of my illegals in North Korea to get information on the area around that base. We are trying to get a better picture before you go in. I am hoping my analysts will have something from the illegals by the time they brief you in Seoul.”

  Anderson looked at Tom. “Questions?” He asked.

  Sara stared at Tom. She thought about being in that strange country alone in the middle of the night and her feet felt like that time she looked over the edge of the Grand Canyon. Tom sat back in his chair.

  “Can you walk me through communications and mission control?” He asked.

  “You will be connected to satellite radio. It will connect you to our command room. You will also have a helmet camera so we will be able to look at everything with you in real time. I will direct you from here and we will coordinate with the Navy from here.”

  Sara jumped in “If we do set charges and destroy the base, won’t they assume it’s us. What if they retaliate?”

  “The USS George Washington is in the region and its aircraft will be on standby. But we should have plausible deniability if Tom can slip in and out.”

  Plausible deniability in the world of covert operations meant that a country could say that it did not conduct a covert mission against another and it could be believed. Sara sometimes thought of it as the adult version of the “wasn’t me” defense.

  After a pause Anderson went on “I want to quickly turn to Sam to hear the legal opinion.”

  “Thanks John. I know the legal side of these missions is usually a pain. We need to make sure the means justify the ends, always. I think on this one we feel comfortable. We have a suspected military facility potentially preparing nuclear weapons. The military is under orders of a regime threatening nuclear war on its neighbor and on us. If Tom does this right, there might be a few military deaths but no civilian deaths. With respect to blowing up the base, again if we can avoid civilian casualties, we are comfortable there. I think we are fine on this mission.”

  “That’s better than usual.” Tom said with a slight smile.

  Anderson continued, “OK – we have one last thing before we break. Eric go ahead.”

  Eric stood up with what looked like a duffel bag. He put it on the table and started talking in an excited tone.

  “For this mission we want to give you a new weapon we have been working on for several years. In North Korea where 20% of the population is in the military and human life is meaningless, if the mission goes wrong you could be in a firefight and potentially grossly outnumbered. Stalinist armies also like to charge. With just your rifle it would be hard for you to manage that.”

  Sara could not tell if Eric was just deadpanning or insensitive. She shifted in her chair. She saw Tom staring at Eric expressionless.

  Eric opened the black bag and pulled out what looked like a handgun at first. He unfolded the object so that it looked like a submachine gun. At one end Eric unfolded a circular disk. It looked like a miniature satellite dish sitting on the end of a small rifle. It was deep charcoal gray. Eric held it up after preparing it.

  “This is an Active Denial System, the first individualized version.”

  Sara could not believe it. Is this real? She had heard that the military was working on it, but never would have thought she would be looking at one. Most people have never heard of an Active Denial System, but knew it by what popular science called it: a particle beam weapon. The US military had been developing it for over a decade and abbreviated it “ADS”. It worked by shooting high frequency waves at a target. The person’s skin would heat up instantly and he would feel as though his skin was on fire. As soon as the beam was removed, the person would feel normal again, aside from the mental trauma of what he just experienced. Sara remembered reading a Wi
red magazine article about it several years ago. It alleged that most test subjects could not stand the beam for more than 3 seconds. She also remembered hearing that it was deployed briefly in Iraq and Afghanistan as a vehicle-mounted weapon for crowd control. But those versions were big – they sat on the roof of a Humvee. This was a small version. That is what impressed Sara.

  Eric continued “we have been working with the military on developing this personalized version for the last few years. Tom, when you’re in there, if something goes wrong and fifty bad guys are running at you, you just hit them with this for a couple seconds and they will all be running away. It also doesn’t make noise and is very light.”

  Tom was leaning forward in his seat for the first time.

  “This is a non-lethal weapon though, right?” he said methodically, as if he knew the answer.

  “Yes”

  “I will have my M4 rifle as I always do. Does it make sense to have, effectively, two rifles, one of which doesn’t kill?”

  Anderson stepped forward “You should use your M4 as your primary weapon. This ADS is light and that dish on the end folds, so you can attach this to your back. What we are concerned about is if you get swarmed, your M4 will only do so much. This thing can hit 50 people at once.”

  “Sir, with respect, if I get swarmed, they will have me surrounded and I will get killed nonetheless. And they’ll get that weapon.”

  Sara shivered. Real intelligence operations were not like the movies. An officer was not supposed to ride in like a cowboy and start fighting. The most successful missions were those where not a single shot was fired. In those missions, the SAD was able to get intelligence without the opposing side knowing. Tom and the other operatives brought their rifles on some of the more dangerous missions, but just as an insurance policy. In case somebody started shooting at them, they could shoot back. Or if there was no way to get into a facility other than shooting a guard outside, they could shoot. But in those cases, even if the operative got back with the intelligence, the operation was still considered unsuccessful. A successful clandestine operation against an enemy meant that afterwards, the enemy would not know that you know what he knows, Sara sometimes thought with a smile. That idea seemed to bang all around her head.

  “Look, Tom, let’s not get sidetracked about you getting swarmed. But at the end of the day this weapon is very light and powerful. And quiet. I think you should just take it and if you don’t use it, so be it.”

  Tom sat back in his chair and gave out a calm “Roger that, sir”.

  Anderson nodded at Tom. “Tom, you can go get your gear. We have a plane ready to take you to South Korea now. Sara and Matt can you two message Pacific Fleet Command and American Forces Korea? Can you tell them we are inserting someone into North Korea and need the Virginia? I’ll connect with them later to fill them in. By the way – Sara—what codename did you come up with for this mission?”

  Sara paused.

  “Devil’s Fork” she replied.

  Everyone looked at each other with heads tilted. Sam mouthed to Eric “what is that?”