Devil's Fork

by Spencer Adams

CHAPTER 34

  WEDNESDAY NIGHT / THURSDAY MORNING

  Northeast Coast, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

  Captain Kim cursed at his radio as it tried saying something. Instead of broadcasting clearly, it garbled the message and he could not understand anything. By now he and his four men were almost at the road near the forest. He told his men to stretch out in a line formation. He knew lines were predominantly used in 18th and 19th century warfare, when armies marched in neat formations, stood facing each other, and fired relentlessly until one side ran away. But he wanted his men to use line formation to search for this spy. If they were spread out, they could cover more ground while they walked. As a unit would be more likely to find clues that this infiltrator left behind. His small team did find a clue back deeper in the forest. One of his men had spotted what looked like an indentation in the dirt near a bush. It was circular and looked like it might have been created by a knee placed on the ground. But it also could have been something else. It was difficult for Captain Kim to tell exactly what it was. But at least it gave him confidence to keep going straight forward. He knew that the other patrols in the woods were not being so careful. They were just walking around in columns shining their flashlights everywhere. It would be much harder for them to find anyone. Kim shook his head as he thought about it. Some people in this country, he thought, are such clowns. Why did they not take anything seriously or care? Was it because they had such bad equipment, like this blasted radio, that they just gave up?

  He had his men stop where they were. He wanted to try to get his radio working without having to walk. In front of them was a small hill sloping up with a fallen tree on a large rock about ten feet away. It was a cozy, secluded place to stand for a moment, he thought. His radio was still garbling up some message. He tried to open the back and see if he could play with any wiring. This radio had probably been used in the Fatherland Liberation War against the Americans over half a century ago, he imagined.

  As he thought about it, he could not really blame the other soldiers around here for not caring. How could they? They had radios that did not work, flashlights that sometimes worked, and nothing else. All of the men around him also felt at least a small amount of constant hunger. They ate small portions of corn and some wheat. Once in a while they were given some chicken. But meat was a treat, a luxury they indulged in once in a while. In fact it probably was not even chicken, as he thought about it. Either way, how could a soldier be expected to work and perform his duties with that constant hunger. Maybe, to the soldiers’ benefit, because they did not know any better, they just carried on but with a lazy attitude. But Kim could never forget his experiences in China. He knew what it felt like to eat well, and he had not eaten well once in the Democratic People’s Republic. He was constantly told two things, which in his younger years made him forget about his constant hunger. The first was that his country was the best country in the world. Life was as good as it possibly could be, and what was implied was that if he complained, he was ungrateful to be living in such a place. He believed this for a long time. It made sense to the younger Kim – why would the leaders say that this was the best possible situation if it were not true. So when he was younger, Kim would reassure himself when feeling uncertain due to the hunger pangs or the ever-breaking equipment.

  Secondly, he was told that everything was the Americans’ fault. When he was in school as a kid, the heating went out often in winter. He and his class would sit at their desks shivering incessantly. He did not like that feeling of constant cold, but he also thought it was normal. Of course it’s cold in winter. How can we expect to always receive heating? But, importantly, when they were sitting there shaking, their teacher always reminded them that this pain and discomfort they were feeling was because of the Americans. They were blockading us, he was told. It makes sense, he thought. And then as he sat there shaking in discomfort in his seat, he began to feel a real, tangible anger at America. Why were they making me feel like this? To this day, sometimes when Kim thought of America, he began to shiver and feel that same discomfort he had as a boy in the classroom. Another time, his best friend in school had died. It happened quite suddenly – soon after he started feeling pain in his stomach. Later, while Kim was crying and feeling sick, his teacher told him that his best friend had died because of his appendix. Of course, appendicitis was always fatal, but it happened to people because of the American blockade, he was told. Kim remembered that he became furious. He became angrier than he had ever been and as a young boy came home and said he wanted to join the Army so he could kill as many Americans as he could. What was strange was that even today, while standing on that beach, Captain Kim felt a similar sickly, angry feeling as he thought about the American spy. That feeling made him almost think that his best friend had just died today.

  Finally his radio started talking clearly. Captain Kim listened. It was the officer in command of the road team. He was reporting that Kim’s suggestion of using diversionary tactics might have worked. His men had found something. Kim met with some of the other officers before the operation. He suggested to the Captain charged with watching the road to use a diversionary tactic. Kim had remembered one of the lessons he had learned from a military science class. Sometimes an entire enemy unit could be made to focus on some type of diversion. It could be a flare, an opposing small military installation, a series of sounds, or – a large light. He had suggested keeping a vehicle far up the road with a large light fixed on the forest while smaller teams patrolled up the road from the other side. What he expected the spy to do was to sit along the road for some time and observe the light and the troops around it. He had learned American soldiers were taught to move slowly and carefully, and to spend time observing before moving. By setting up a light, the KPA unit could create a situation where the American might be spotted sitting and observing the light by one of the small, quiet patrol units. When he was studying English at university, he had learned Americans liked to use the idiom “a deer in the headlights.” This was what he thought they could create. Except Kim was not sure whether he was using the expression correctly. He thought he could check the true meaning with the spy once they caught him.

  The captain at the road was asking Kim to come take a look at something. Luckily from what the other officer was describing, Kim believed that they were actually close to the other KPA unit. Captain Kim and his men walked up the hill in front of them and continued walking forward. In about five minutes they had reached the road.

  The officer and his men were standing near the edge of the forest several paces down the road, away from the diversionary vehicle.

  “What’s the situation,” Captain Kim asked upon arriving.

  “Did you see anything as you were coming here?” The other officer asked.

  “No. Why? What happened here?”

  “We were conducting the sweep and one of my men thought he saw something move over here.” The officer said, pointing to an area at the edge of the woods in front of them,

  “Did you follow it into the woods?”

  “We still don’t know if we saw something or not. We went into the woods but after looking around we could not find anything. We can’t see very well in there. But here, look at this.” The officer was pointing to the ground. On the ground, right by the bush was a small broken branch. Several leaves were scattered on the ground. Kim looked around. The other plants nearby had not lost any leaves. Here in front of him was a small pile of leaves. It seemed as if someone had brushed against the bush.

  “OK. You keep patrolling this road, my men and I will go back and patrol the woods. We will sweep up towards that vehicle,” Captain Kim said.

  He still was not sure whether they were actually finding clues or coincidences. One always seems to see things move in the dark, Captain Kim mused. But the real question that kept floating through Kim’s mind was whether this spy was actually heading to that base. Kim thought that if he had to get to that base, he would prob
ably try to find this particular road as well. But then again, if he were trying to get anywhere, he would need to reach this road. It was not necessarily a coincidence that needed explaining. Either way, if he and his men swept up the woods in the direction of the vehicle, they would be moving towards the base. Kim thought about what was inside. They would all be punished if it were found. That was a certainty.