Devil's Fork

by Spencer Adams

CHAPTER 25

  WEDNESDAY

  Northeast Coast, Democratic People’s Republic Of Korea

  Captain Kim took one last drag off his cigarette. He threw it on the sand and stepped on it. He was standing in the midst of his soldiers, who were talking amongst themselves. Kim was watching the sea quietly. He exhaled the smoke slowly.

  Being an officer in the Korean People’s Army’s military counter-intelligence battalion meant he sometimes had to lead his men on sensitive missions. Today’s was ultra-sensitive but also odd.

  Yesterday, he received orders to keep his men in their barracks for the next two days. Nobody was allowed to go outside. All normal patrols were called off. That was strange. He had never received an order like that. Normally the higher ups wanted them to patrol as much as possible. They were extremely frightened of infiltrators, smugglers, or defectors running around. Staying inside was strange for any military unit, in any country. Then this morning he received additional orders. When the sun hit the horizon, the entire battalion was to go out on patrol. Other KPA units would aid them. Several platoons were to patrol the beach. Others were to patrol the woods and dirt roads behind the beach. Captain Kim’s company was assigned to the beach.

  He was in a room with senior officers when the orders were distributed this morning. He asked them what was going on. He asked it in a polite and proper way, so as not to be accused of insubordination or crimes against the state. The general took him aside and told him something unsettling. They had received very valuable and well-sourced intelligence that the Americans were going to insert a spy into the beach nearby. “We have to catch him,” the general said. Kim then asked about the shenanigans of staying inside the barracks all day for two days and then running outside at sunset. But he remembered to ask in a way that would not get him sent to a gulag. The general said something that made Kim throw his head back. He said the Americans had satellites flying overhead, and they needed to trick the Americans by acting like they were not ready. Kim asked him how they had learned how American satellites worked. He knew the intelligence capabilities of his country. And, he thought to himself, the intelligence capabilities of his country were slightly better than having nothing. They did not even know how American satellites worked. How did they know how they were flying around above Earth? When he asked the general in the proper way, he was told that their country had a special friend who was helping them.

  The general then told him something Captain Kim would not forget. He said,

  “Captain, you are well educated and thoughtful. You are one of our bright young officers. Listen. Never forget these three lessons from the Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu.

  “First, ‘all warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.’

  “Second, ‘hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder and crush him.’

  “And third, ‘pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.’ This is what we are doing. One day you will be a senior leader. You must remember this. Americans are arrogant and think they can do anything. Today we will crush them.”

  Captain Kim was taken aback by the thoughtful lesson from the general. Then he became unsettled as he digested what he had been told. Now, as he stood on the beach, scanning the dark sea, he could feel his insides tense up.

  He lit another cigarette. In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea there did not seem to be much to do other than smoke. He recalled how TVs had two channels showing propaganda his sister unit had created. The only books allowed were those describing the ideology of the country. There was not even much electricity to do anything with. Yes, he thought, cigarettes were the most fun.

  Kim’s family had been part of the elite. His father was a KPA general and was a member of one of the innermost circles of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Perhaps not the inner circle, he always recalled, but not more than a few rings out. This meant that his father was privy to some of the State’s deepest secrets. His father also had a more realistic view of the world. He explained to Kim that America was actually a very powerful country and that another war had to be avoided. His father mentioned the occasional famines they had to deal with. He used to wonder as a child whether paradise was supposed to have famine. His father always told him never to repeat what he heard from him. Kim always obeyed carefully. Once, his father shared with him a secret that was deeper than the others. When he joined the KPA and was commissioned as a Lieutenant, Kim joined the elite military counter-intelligence unit immediately. As a child of a general, having been better educated and supposedly better indoctrinated, he was placed into a unit that dealt with the State’s most treasured jewels. Early in his military career, he had been sent to this exact location on assignment. He lived in the same barracks and patrolled the same woods and beach. Kim remembered sitting at the table at home with his father, a few days before he was to leave Pyongyang.

  “You know you are on one of the most special assignments,” his father had said.

  “Really? How?”

  “You will not be just patrolling some far corner of this country. You are actually there to protect a special underground base.”

  “Wow. Why is it special? What is in it?”

  “Even most members of the government and military do not know about it. So you must keep this to yourself.” Then his father explained a whole side of the Democratic People’s Republic he had never known about.

  That conversation with his late father came back to Kim as if it were yesterday. While stationed at this location, he had never seen this strange base or been inside. He had never even heard any of the senior officers mention it.

  And now the higher ups were worried about an American. Landing on this beach? What did that mean, he wondered? Could the Americans have found out about this base? How was that even possible?

  Captain Kim started motioning to his soldiers that they needed to stop smoking and start patrolling. He led a group of his men down the beach, while another group continued in the opposite direction. He told his men to look for bubbles in the water. Better yet, they needed to look for a line or stream of bubbles heading out. Kim knew that was the way to find a submerged diver. He had grown up in a country that he knew had a technological inferiority. He had grown accustomed to using low-tech methods to accomplish his missions.

  As they walked, he turned and looked towards the forest at his side.

  Huh?

  He thought for a moment he had seen something behind him. It actually did not look like anything after he thought about it. A bush seemed to move oddly. But it was also about a hundred feet away, so his eyes might be making something up, he thought. Nobody had reported seeing any bubbles yet, which was the way they were going to catch this American.

  Even if it is nothing, he thought, he should go take a look. Just to make sure.