Devil's Fork

by Spencer Adams

CHAPTER 49

  WEDNESDAY

  Langley, Virginia

  Sara had never seen anything like this on an SAD infiltration operation. On the screen in the front of the room the group saw images of a man on his knees with his hands raised. He was asking for asylum. Sara thought to herself about all of the unexpected events of the day, starting with the news that Mark and J.D. brought over. She thought this could be added to the list. Tom’s voice was coming through on the loudspeaker. He was talking to the soldier. He was testing him to see if he was being truthful.

  “What’s your name,” Tom demanded.

  “Captain Kim. Army counter-intelligence.” He replied.

  “Did you radio for reinforcements? Before you came in here?” Tom asked.

  “No, my radio does not work. None of our radios really work. Look, here.” Sara saw the man pull out his radio and hand it to Tom. Tom was looking at it. It did not make any sound or respond as if it were on.

  Anderson spoke quickly, “Tom, don’t let him know you have us on the radio. He might behave differently if he believes you are alone with him.” Anderson’s arms were crossed.

  On the screen Sara could see Tom walk up closer to the soldier and start patting him down. He did not find any weapons. He stepped back. Now Mr. Park took control. He spoke with confidence, as if he had seen this before.

  “Tom, ask him why he wants to defect.”

  Tom asked. The man replied in a slow voice.

  “I do not want to live in this country anymore. The leaders here only care about themselves. Ordinary people like me are completely unimportant. I have been living my whole life in fear.”

  Mr. Park had an immediate follow up. “Ask him about his family.”

  After Tom asked, Kim replied, “My father died last week. He was all that I had. I no longer have any ties to this country. My father was a general. He told me a lot about this country that many of the highest ranks in the military do not even know.” Sara could not believe that Kim was still talking to Tom as if they were the only two listening. He still did not realize an entire room of people were listening to him.

  Mr. Park told Tom, “Ask him to say something that he knows. Ask him what this place is and to tell you about it. Ask him for a couple more secrets. I’ll be able to tell if he’s lying.”

  Sara knew why they were going through this exercise. She remembered reading that over one thousand people defect from North Korea each year. These people come from all walks of life. Some worked for the government, some were in the military, and many were ordinary people. The problem was that sometimes the government sent in spies this way. They would “defect,” be granted South Korean citizenship, and would then live in South Korea, recruiting assets and hunting down other defectors. She knew the South Korean NIS took careful precautions to counter this. Interviews where the defector was asked about sensitive information was the primary technique. Someone sent over to spy would be hesitant to actually give away any sensitive information, whereas real defectors would be more than happy to share everything they knew. The spy might try to leave out important facts or outright lie, and the NIS knew how to catch them doing this. She looked over at Mr. Park. He stared at the screen without blinking.

  Captain Kim paused when Tom asked for information about the base. But he soon started talking. “This facility belongs to Room 39. Room 39 is the group tasked with generating cash for the leaders. It makes hundreds of millions of US dollars per year. It is the largest drug making and drug smuggling organization in the world. It sells drugs all over Asia and also to Europe and America. Some of this cash is brought back here to North Korea but some is also laundered through restaurants and several other legitimate businesses Room 39 operates. There are four main ways the cash is used. First, it is used to purchase all of the luxuries and food that our leaders want. Second, it is used to provide luxuries for those who are loyal in the upper ranks of the military and the government. Those people might be rewarded with a refrigerator manufactured in Europe or a cell phone made in South Korea. This keeps them in line. Third, some of it is sitting in foreign banks so that if the leaders need to flee, they will have plenty of cash to live well abroad. And last and most important, they have used the cash to purchase several nuclear weapons, which you probably saw in the other room.”

  “How did they buy those nukes?” Tom interrupted. “Where did they get them?”

  “That I don’t know. Even my father was not told.”

  Tom seemed to take the role of interrogator from Mr. Park, “So your leaders bought those bombs. But where do they do nuclear research? How close are your leaders to making their own weapons? Can they build their own nuclear bombs?”

  Captain Kim slowly shook his head. “No. My father told me that we are not even close to building a nuclear weapon. Do you really think that we live without even working radios and without electricity, but we can somehow perform advanced research in nuclear physics? It’s a strange contradiction. Our leaders want to make sure that they maintain their power. So they allow students here to only study some basic math and history. Students spend most of their time learning about the leaders and their philosophy. Because of this, we have a very uneducated populace in this country. Because of this, we don’t have many people who are even close to understanding nuclear physics, forget trying to build a nuclear bomb. Because of that, it will be a very long time before we actually develop a nuclear weapon. So our leaders have become weaker. Do you see? They tried to become more powerful by not allowing anyone to learn anything from the outside world, but it ended up in them losing power because they can’t build nuclear weapons. That’s some kind of contradiction.”

  “That’s a paradox,” Sara almost shouted.

  Tom asked, “But we always see images on TV of your nuclear research facilities. We see scientists walking around in protective suits. What is that?”

  Kim smiled, “You really think you can believe what our leaders say? They will gladly tell you that we have nuclear weapons. They will gladly send your media a film of ‘nuclear scientists’ working. But it is all staged. All actors. It’s like when tourists come from your country and we show them stores that are fake but set up to look real.”

  Mark tapped Sara. She turned around. He was looking at her wide-eyed and started whispering. “Sara, that’s the Totalitarian Uncertainty Principle you came up with. They say they can produce nuclear weapons. We went in and observed that they cannot produce nuclear weapons. What they say does not match what we see.” She had not even realized it. Of course, she thought, if they say they can make nuclear weapons, we should have expected to see something completely different when we went in. She almost forgot that totalitarian regimes will say anything at all. They will say anything to scare the rest of the world and protect their power.

  Kim went on, “Of course we have a few scientists. Our leaders send them abroad to study. But they only want to let people study abroad for a short time, to prevent them from defecting. I was only allowed to spend three months in China to study Mandarin. So we have a few scientists with some knowledge, and they are trying to do nuclear research. But I don’t think they can build a bomb. Our leaders realized this a long time ago. So they thought it would be easier to buy a few bombs, which in itself is difficult to do. I don’t know how or where they were able to do it.”

  One question had been bothering Sara for a few minutes now. “Tom, can you ask him about the nuclear tests we always read about? Sara constantly heard about underground nuclear tests that North Korea was conducting. She did not understand how they could be performing those if they effectively had no nuclear research program.

  After Tom asked, Captain Kim replied. “Well I think once in a while they take one of the bombs they bought and detonate them underground. They know that your navy is nearby testing for radiation. They will detonate these nuclear bombs, say they have conducted a successful nuclear test, and your navy will measure an increase in radiation levels. That is what is powerful. They can ge
t you to start telling yourselves that we have nuclear weapons.”

  Tom interrupted again, “So your leaders spend what, hundreds of millions of dollars on a nuclear bomb, just to detonate it? They are fine with seeing that much money blow up underground?” Sara enjoyed hearing Tom’s tone with this soldier.

  Kim replied quickly, “Isn’t it worth it? If you were our leaders and you worried everyday, if you could not sleep, if you were constantly wondering if America and Europe would invade your country and hang you, what do you think? Wouldn’t it be worth it to spend a couple hundred million dollars to scare the West into keeping back? Especially if the money was so easily made? I also think some of the nuclear tests were not nuclear at all. Some of the tests were just large explosions designed to make you believe we are conducting nuclear tests.” Kim pointed his hand at the shelves of drugs as he replied.

  Then Kim said something that made Sara feel queasy. She wasn’t sure if it was what he said, or the fact that he smiled while saying it.

  “Sun Tzu: All warfare is based on deception.”

  In this moment, Sara realized the aptness of the name Devil’s Fork for this mission. She had always thought of a devil’s fork as an object that could be conceived but at the same time could not. It could be drawn, but then again it really could not. It perplexed anyone to watch the two legs of the fork turn into three. In a similar light, she mused about what the screen before her revealed. Was North Korea a nuclear state? It was, but it was not. Was this a powerful nation, to be feared? It was, but it was not. Like the fork, she sat perplexed as she saw a threat turn benign and turn into a threat again. She saw that this country could be understood, but it could not.

  Finally Anderson started speaking. “Tom, It’s going to be sunrise in a few hours. You need to get moving. Put a few explosives in the main warehouse. Then start grabbing documents from those offices.”

  Tom turned to Captain Kim and said, “OK, I’ll take you. But you have to help me set explosive charges in this warehouse. I also need to take as many documents as I can fit into my bag. You will help me. Always stay in my sight. Got it?”

  Kim’s eyes became wide, “you are going to blow this place up? But there are nuclear weapons in there.”

  Tom coolly replied, “That bunker is sealed. We need to place charges here to destroy this warehouse. Let’s go.”

  Sara saw on the screen that Tom walked up to the AK rifles on the ground near the bodies of the other soldiers. He took out the ammunition and emptied the cases out. She was glad to see Tom be careful.

  On the screen, Tom and Captain Kim walked to the middle of one of the long tables. They started setting one explosive charge. Sara felt some tension leave as she saw Kim helping Tom. Next to her, she saw Anderson mute the microphone and turn to her.

  “I’m not sure that I trust Captain Kim yet. We also have an added complication. We have to figure out how to get Kim out of North Korea with Tom. Tom came in with his diving gear and with an SDV. Kim can’t get out that way. Can you start thinking through this, Sara?”

  “There is a village a few miles south that has some boats. They can go there and take one,” Sara said.

  “That sounds too risky,” Anderson replied.

  “Or maybe Kim can take some of that cash in the other room and go to the Chinese border. He is not that far. We can help him from there. Actually, why can’t the Virginia send a small inflatable boat to shore undetected and get them both out that way?”

  “It would be very easy for them to get captured in those scenarios,” Anderson said while shaking his head. “Keep thinking. In a few hours we have to do something.” He unmuted the microphone in the room.

  Meanwhile Mr. Park stood still next to Anderson, looking at the screen without moving. He was not smiling. His arms were crossed. He said, “Tom, ask him to tell us something top secret or sensitive that we would not be able to figure out from looking at this base.”

  By now Tom and Kim were walking towards one of the glass meth labs to set a charge on it. After Tom asked Mr. Park’s question, Captain Kim replied, “One thing that’s top secret is that the nuclear tests are conducted as much for internal reasons as for external reasons. While the drugs generate cash to keep the upper ranks in line, the nuclear tests are meant to scare them into line. My father always said that the leadership is not as stable as it looks. There are generals that have plotted coups. There are high-ranking officials who do not support the current leaders. The nuclear tests, especially the recent ones, were meant to demonstrate the strength of the current leaders. To some extent, these tests rallied many of the people and ordinary soldiers to support the current leadership. It created awe for the leaders. This helped consolidate power. It’s no different with the recent tensions that the leaders created with the West. You’ve seen it on your TV, right? Our leaders have been announcing that they are readying the troops for war. Tanks, planes, artillery are all on standby, ready for immediate combat. You think that’s just to scare you? They do this to scare their own people. The leaders do it to tighten their grip on the military. You think they want to create high tension? You think they like seeing TV footage of your stealth bombers flying a few miles away from the border? You think they enjoy the threat of war? They don’t. The commanders in the military are terrified when this happens. But that’s the point. The leaders know they have to do it to consolidate their own power, to prove their strength. I never understood how you Americans could not see right through that.”

  Tom did not respond. He was now busy setting an explosive on one of the supporting columns in warehouse. But Sara sat frozen in her seat. She was staring into space. She thought about the non-stop media coverage she had seen recently about the tensions on the peninsula. She wondered if it could really be this backwards. She kept thinking about one phrase Kim said. You think that’s just to scare you? They do this to scare their own people. Sara thought about how many people were terrified of a potential war. Could that threat really have been for North Korea’s internal goals? Were they really so weak that they needed to construct tension to empower themselves, she wondered?

  Suddenly, Sara felt a tapping on her shoulder again. It was Mark. She leaned her head back to hear what he had to say. He whispered, “That’s the Totalitarian Uncertainty Principle again. They say that they want war, but we observe that they actually don’t. The regime says they have a united country, but we observe that it is actually divided.”

  Sara watched the screen and saw Tom and Kim walking towards the shelves of drugs. They walked past several aisles and then turned into one of the center aisles. The bags here contained white powder. They walked towards the middle and started setting the charge. Tom’s voice came on the loudspeakers.

  “How is it that your country gets all the materials to make these drugs, Kim?”

  Kim replied, “The farms are owned and controlled by the government. They tell the farmers what to plant. So they order many of them to grow the poppy plant. The farmers grow it and the government collects and sends the harvest here. It’s pretty simple right?”

  By now they were finished setting the last explosive charge. Anderson said to Tom, “OK. Before you go, can you run into those offices and get some documents. Priority is if you find any storage devices like a flash drive or a disk. Grab all of those.” Tom ran into the offices. Sara saw on the screen what looked like a massive hand shoveling everything into a utility bag. She watched Tom go from office to office emptying the desks.

  Within a few minutes Tom and Captain Kim were standing in front of the main staircase. The main part is done, Sara thought to herself. Looking back, she could not believe that Tom had made it past all of the patrols, got through the team guarding the base, made it inside, and figured out everything that they wanted to know. Now he just needs to get back, she thought. She tried to think how to get them both back to the Virginia. Then Tom started talking to Kim again.

  “What happened to the guys who were guarding the entrance?” Tom asked
Kim.

  “I actually don’t know. They were all gone when I got here with my men and the door was open. We just went inside. I thought you would know where they all went.”

  Sara stared at Kim’s face on the screen. She thought he seemed to be telling the truth. The fear they had, which Tom was checking, was that Captain Kim had found those guards Tom had tied up and let them loose. He probably just ran into the base without finding the soldiers she thought. Tom had made the soldiers think that they were being watched and so they were probably lying quietly. The radios in North Korea did not seem to work so if a commanding officer could not reach them he probably wrote it off. The men probably had a scheduled time when they were supposed to be relieved and were not expected to communicate with anyone.

  “Kim, I’m letting you know that I am trusting you,” Tom continued. “But I just want to warn you as well. If we step outside the door upstairs and there is an ambush waiting, I will shoot you immediately. When we are outside, if you try to run away or yell or anything, I will shoot you immediately. But I am going to trust that you will leave with me. Do you have any questions, or is there anything else you want to tell me?”

  Kim replied immediately. “No, there is no ambush outside. I will follow your rules. I’m ready to go.” Kim stood still with his arms at his sides as he spoke.

  Sara believed Kim. She had attended CIA training sessions where a psychologist would teach a practical concept. In one of the training sessions, the psychologist spoke about how to see if someone was lying. Sara remembered one big sign to watch for was if the person touched his face, hair, or clothes while talking. Another sign was excessive blinking. One other sign was how the person answers the question. If someone is asked a question and the correct answer is “yes” and the person wants to lie, he or she might directly start explaining an answer in the negative. But the liar will rarely say “no”. Saying “no” feels painful and avoiding it reduces the anxiety of lying. Sara felt comfortable that Kim was not lying because he said “no” and did not move while talking. He seemed to be telling the truth.

  Captain Kim walked up the stairs, followed by Tom. At the top of the stairs they stopped just before the door. They were looking outside. Everyone in the Command Room squinted at the screen, trying to pick out anything strange past the door. Sara could not see anything unusual. Tom’s voice came back on. Again he was addressing Kim.

  “We are going to run into those woods straight ahead. You run out the door first. I will be a few seconds behind you. Go.”

  Sara watched as Kim started running to the woods. Ten seconds later Tom started running. The crowd in the Command Room held its breath. But nothing happened. There was no shooting and there were no signs of anybody else around. Within seconds Tom made it to the woods where Kim was waiting. Great, Sara thought, now they just have to make it to shore.

  I need to think how to get them out.