Devil's Fork

by Spencer Adams

CHAPTER 50

  THURSDAY

  Wuhan, China

  NATPAC rolled over for the last time on his couch. He knew he was not going to fall asleep. His mind just would not shut off for the night. He was thinking through everything. How long would it take SLOTHMAN to actually start pulling information from the CIA’s computers? How long until the NIS analyst would be extracted to North Korea? How long until those KPA units would catch that American and figure out what he was doing? Did the Americans find out about his project with the North Koreans? Did anyone know he was involved? The last question was what worried him most. He started to put together his decision trees and he realized that the reason everything else was scary was that they potentially led to him being discovered.

  He sat up and grabbed a cigarette. His hand still shook as he lit it. He knew what to do. He got up and started changing. He decided he would do what he usually did when he could not sleep. He would go into the office.

  As he was dressing he started thinking again through each of the pieces. He was able to reassure himself. SLOTHMAN would soon get into their servers, he thought. That NIS analyst was probably almost in North Korea. There was a massive team stationed in front of the base that one man could never get past. Besides, he thought, even if the CIA found that facility. There was no clear link to him. Even if that facility were destroyed, they could restart production somewhere else. It did not matter.

  He exhaled deeply as he felt some tension release. He did not even realize he could hold that much air. By now he was fully dressed. He looked at himself in the mirror. He imagined the bright future ahead. He imagined his future roles in the government. Maybe this project could be his stepping stone, he thought. He could one day be one of the leaders.

  If only they could see what I’ve already accomplished.

  He imagined himself sitting in the Central Committee, steering the country to his vision of Act 3. He now felt all the tension in his gut leave.

  He grabbed his cigarettes from his couch. He glanced at the bottle of Kaoliang he had sitting in the corner of the room. He thought he could start celebrating his bright future today. He opened the bottle and poured some in a glass. He walked to his window. The city was still dark and asleep. In a few hours it would start moving again, he thought. He took the shot and squeezed it down his throat. NATPAC headed out of his apartment door. He felt a spring in his step. As he headed down his hall, he said to himself, “I bet everything has been fixed already.”