Devil's Fork

by Spencer Adams

CHAPTER 29

  WEDNESDAY

  Northeast Coast, North Korea

  After moving as quietly as he could for almost 20 minutes, Tom got on his knee right by a small bush. The bush would help him stay hidden if anyone was around. He wanted to observe his surroundings and double check his location. He had a GPS unit on his wrist – almost like a watch. It was connected to a satellite somewhere above. GPS satellites orbited around earth like imagery satellites. But his communications equipment, his satellite radio, was connected to a communications satellite. Unlike imagery satellites or GPS satellites, which were constantly orbiting Earth, communications satellites were geosynchronous. This meant that they sat in one spot above Earth and rotated with the Earth. So if someone stood in one location on the ground, it would look like the same communications satellite was always above in the sky. The reason imagery satellites could not do this was because to be geosynchronous, a satellite had to sit pretty far away from Earth. So far that taking clear, zoomed pictures of the ground would be almost impossible. But to send communications back and forth, the distance posed no problem. Tom liked to think about the communications satellites while on missions. He liked the feeling of having a tool that was constantly watching down on him – as if he was surrounded by an omniscient presence. It made him forget for a moment about the dark land he was infiltrating.

  By now Tom had slipped on his night vision goggles. He was now using his main technological advantage. He would be able to see anyone around him. Even in these woods, which Tom assessed were not too thick.

  Tom looked around. He did not see any patrols. He looked behind him. Nothing.

  Finally.

  The twenty minutes he spent moving through the woods were really spent walking, then dropping down and lying prone, then walking again. He had seen several patrols in the woods to his left and his right. He got down to avoid being seen and had to crawl to something that could give him some cover. Then as the patrols passed by or turned around, he would get up and move again. This was quite the opposite of what he expected. Coming in, he thought he would be able to continuously move towards the underground base.

  It doesn’t matter. At least I’m past those patrols.

  Tom removed his Draeger unit and his flippers, which were hanging on his back. He typically removed his diving gear once ashore, as it added unnecessary weight. He pulled out his knife and used it to dig up the ground next to him. He used his hand as a shovel and soon had a small pit next to him. He threw in a bag with his rebreather and his flippers and covered it up with dirt. After two minutes he was satisfied that his gear was buried safely, and the ground above did not look disturbed. Tom marked his location on his GPS unit, so he could retrieve his gear at the end of the operation.

  Tom decided that now he could radio in. He knew this was much later than they had planned. But he had no choice – he was surrounded by the KPA. He knew Anderson, Sara, and the other analysts would still be in the Command Room. They were probably scared to death that he had not radioed in, he thought. “Well, now I can tell them that there was something wrong with that satellite imagery we looked at. They probably think I’m taking some kind of vacation,” he mouthed to himself just below a whisper.

  Tom clicked his radio on. He gave it a couple seconds to get loaded. Then finally he spoke.

  “Yankee Main, this is Yankee Actual. Come in. Over.”

  There was a pause, then suddenly Tom heard Anderson’s voice.

  “Yankee Actual, this is Yankee Main. Reading you five. What is your status and position? Over.”

  Tom nodded at the successful radio check. “Reading you five” is radiospeak that means the other person can hear you well and clearly.

  “Infiltration successful. I am one klick inland. I am on course. Kilo patrols very heavy. Many more than expected. I could not perform radiocheck until I got past them. I am turning on my headcam now. Over.”

  That’s good, they should know now he thought. “Kilo” was the term they used for the KPA or KPA soldiers, since “K” was the first letter in “Korean People’s Army” and the military phonetic alphabet for “K” was “Kilo”. A “klick” was a military term for “Kilometer.” In each case, it was easier to say one syllable.

  “Yankee Actual. Abort Devil’s Fork. Repeat Abort Devil’s Fork. Mission is compromised. They know you are there. They hacked our messaging system. They are looking for you. Over.”

  Tom dropped his head forward and closed his eyes for several seconds.

  You’re kidding me.

  Tom quickly thought through the six elements of successful special operations. He always had them in mind as it helped him evaluate a mission’s progress in real time.

  “Let’s see,” he thought to himself, “Simplicity: gone. There is nothing simple about this anymore. Now I have to maneuver through all of these KPA patrols.

  “Security: Gone. They somehow hacked us and know about the mission.

  “Repetition: Still have that one. Good thing I practiced with that ADS before launch.

  “Surprise: absolutely gone. These patrols all around are looking for me.

  “Speed: gone. Now I have to slow down. It took me 20 minutes to get one klick inland.

  “Sense of purpose—“ Tom stopped and thought. He remembered that dinner he had with Jiyeon the previous night. He got back on his radio.

  “Do they know what the target is? Over.”

  “Negative. The message they hacked only revealed your drop point and time. Not the target. But they are looking for you. Over.”

  “Yankee Main. Negative on aborting the mission. I am already past the heavy patrols. It is easier to go to target now. Going back would risk capture as much as going forward. Negative on that. Request Devil’s Fork continue as planned. Over.”

  “Tom, I repeat. You are instructed to abort Devil’s Fork. Kilo units are patrolling up ahead of you too. You will get captured or killed. Abort now. Over.”

  Tom looked around the dark woods. Insects were singing all around him. He closed his eyes. He thought about that cold Pacific Ocean swim on three days no sleep back at BUD/S. That felt like ages ago.

  “Negative. I might as well try to get into target and look around. At least we will know what is in there, whatever happens afterwards. Over.”

  “Yankee Actual. Wait three. Over.”

  Tom looked around. “Wait three” was radiospeak for “wait for me to respond to you. I need to think or check something. Expect my response in three minutes.”

  Tom was checking all sides as he waited for a response from Anderson.

  Suddenly when he looked behind him he thought he saw several soldiers not far away. It was difficult to see but Tom’s night vision goggles helped. The soldiers also helped by shining a flashlight all over the place, he thought as he smirked. The soldiers were walking straight towards him and were fanned out in a line formation. This allowed the team to observe as much as they could.

  Tom needed to get moving. He could not wait for Anderson to respond, he thought. The only way to go was forward. He did not even have time to make sure he was not leaving any traces behind. He slowly rose from his kneeled position and started walking away from the soldiers at a measured pace.