“We brought you here to ensure our weapons system could be brought successfully online sooner rather than later.”
Absalom allowed a weary smile to edge his lips. “Science does not perform in order to satisfy time schedules. Regardless of what is written in your manifesto, the weapon will be ready when it is ready. You as much as anyone should understand there are no such things as miracles.”
Choi’s rigid face flushed with anger. He sat upright in his seat and pointed a finger at Absalom.
“Be careful what you say, Doctor. Men have been executed for less.”
“Ah, the ultimate threat. And what would that achieve, Major? My death would gain you nothing except more delays. Steps back in the development. I was invited here to help your people get what they want. My work on NNEMP is way ahead of the Chinese and the Americans. North Korea chose me because my knowledge is invaluable.
“If killing me will satisfy you, then go ahead. Just remember I carry more in my head than there is on paper or in your computers. And I am sure your superiors in Pyongyang would not be happy if you wasted all the money they paid out to get me here.”
Absalom paused, holding the Korean’s angry stare. “The fact that the test did actually produce results seems to have been forgotten. Now if there is nothing else, Major Choi, we have work to do.
“The destruction of the delivery vessel needs to be analyzed, because if this cannot be resolved, we may have an ongoing problem with future larger-scale tests to carry out. Until, and if, the equipment is located and returned, all we have is our computer backup here.
“It may give us some answers, but we need to do a full breakdown of the program to attempt to determine how this happened. We will have to duplicate the launch mechanism and run lab tests on that. We may come up with a solution. So our work must go on without interruption.”
To his credit Absalom faced the Korean without flinching. “Major Choi, my responsibility is to develop the NNEMP. Which I am doing. I am a scientist, not a soldier. Security is in your hands. You are fond of telling me to do my job. I will. Now you do yours.”
“Are you telling me how to perform my duty?”
“Right now we are all concerned over what happened,” Absalom said. “Solving the matter is something else, because it should not have happened.”
“Exactly so,” Choi said. “Which is why I need to understand. When I speak again to Pyongyang, I will be expected to detail why this disaster took place.”
“I would not call it a disaster, Major. In essence we achieved what we set out to do. The pulse did work. Admittedly to a lesser degree than we had hoped, but it did work. The reversal of the electromagnetic pulse effect weakened the burst. That is my real concern. Until we work out why it happened, we cannot risk any further field trials. It would be rather counterproductive if the same thing happened each time we fired our device.”
“Are you telling me that this team of yours, much vaunted by yourself, is unable to explain what happened?”
Choi was showing signs of impatience. Not a good thing. Failure reflected on his command and Major Ri On Choi refused to become the scapegoat because of the failure of others.
Choi knew how Pyongyang would react. Their anger would be directed at him. He was the man in charge, so he carried the responsibility. Choi knew he would not be able to avoid that. He showed a brave face to the world. Inside there was fear, and it would not go away until the matter was resolved.
It was Li Kam who spoke up.
“Please understand, Major. The science of these procedures is both difficult and challenging. We are dealing with a complex mix of circuits that combine linear and semiconductors. This is electronic engineering at the highest level. Our need is to bring these matters together in a manageable form that allows us complete control. It requires a delicate balancing of all the functions. We enter them into the computer system and merge them into what we hope will offer us the function we require.”
“Our calculations,” Absalom said, “gave us the readouts we hoped for. On paper, as they say, we had our system blueprint. It is incredibly complex. Until we go through everything, we will not come close to understanding why we experienced the reversal that generated enough power to sink the launch vessel. We are prepared to work day and night while we investigate. But it will not—cannot—be an instant response.
“No matter how much Pyongyang shouts, there is no quick fix. Without question they could push us aside and send in more people to take over. By all means send for them, if you believe they can do better. I assure you, they could not walk in here and find a solution faster than we can.”
Choi stared around the table, pausing on each face. He quickly realized, as irritating as the doctor was, that Absalom was correct. Choi was not graced with a scientific mind. He was, after all, a soldier. Give him a rifle, and he would strip and reassemble it in the dark. But here, among Absalom’s computers and his talk of electronics and pulses, Choi was lost. Grudgingly he was forced to accept what Absalom and his team told him.
“I need... I want answers,” he snapped. “Find out how this error occurred. And do it as quickly as possible. Believe me when I say that I—and Pyongyang—will not wait forever. The successful development of this weapon is vital.”
Major Choi stood. He once more glanced around the table at Absalom’s team, who remained silent and passive. All except Li Kam, who sat upright, facing him with her unflinching stare. He straightened his uniform jacket and swept his cap off the table.
“Keep me informed of developments,” he said. “I want to hear the minute you have anything.”
“Of course,” Absalom said evenly, rising himself.
He watched as Choi crossed to the door and left, the heels of his polished boots snapping against the floor.
There seemed to be a collective sigh of relief around the table at Choi’s departure.
“Would someone bring me a fresh cup of coffee, please,” Absalom said.
Li Kam picked up his cup and crossed to the side table to freshen his drink. She was young, slim and feminine, and she deferred to Absalom. But unbeknownst to the man, only on the surface. Her real feelings were kept hidden. She was aware of her vulnerable position. One slip could expose her real agenda, and everything that had gone before would be wiped out. Li Kam understood the fragile path she trod. As matters moved toward the inevitable conclusion, she had to stay in control to see them through.
“You should be careful,” she suggested. “Choi is not a nice man. He will remember what you have said to him today. He is a hard-line member of the party. Very strict when it comes to...”
Absalom smiled at her hesitation. “When it comes to daring to mock him?”
Li nodded.
“If I have insulted any of you, then I apologize. The last thing I want is to disrespect my team,” the physicist said.
Gok Tang, one of the male members, shook his head. “Don’t concern yourself with Choi. The man is obsessed with the project.”
“I thought we all were,” Absalom said. “Was I wrong?”
Tang said, “There is obsession, and there is obsession. Choi is more self-obsessed than anything else. He sees this project as his opportunity to higher promotion. To help him climb the ladder within the military. If this project fails, so does he.”
“He has ambition,” Absalom said. “In itself not a bad thing.”
“But Choi takes it to extremes. He uses his power to intimidate,” said Tang. “If we succeed in developing the project, Choi will take every bit of the credit, and we will be forgotten.”
“What are you thinking?” Absalom asked.
Another team member, Ki Yen, said, “That we make certain we do not find ourselves pushed into the shadows.”
“But I was under the impression that being loyal party members, you were doing this for Nort
h Korea. Without personal gratification.”
“Of course,” Li said, “but we also want to be alive at the end.” She gave Absalom a glance that told him there was more to the young woman than simply a desire to demonstrate her blind loyalty to the NK regime. “Explain to us, Dr. Absalom, why you came here to develop the NNEMP process.”
“You know why.”
“To help our country develop a weapon we can use to make North Korea stronger? Able to show the South, and its capitalistic ally, America, that we here in the North are capable of greatness?”
“Said like that, I almost forgot I came for the money your people offered me,” Absalom said, smiling gently. “Politics do not interest, or influence, me. The petty squabbles between countries are beyond me. I work for my science.” He added, “But do not forget I am a capitalist, and I do like my financial rewards.”
Li nodded. “You almost forgot,” she said. “You came for the money. We want the success that creating the weapons will offer. If we perfect the process, we four will enjoy a better standard of living. You must understand the strictures under which we exist. A shortage of food. Barely sustainable lifestyles. The country dies on its knees while the rulers live in luxury. We are not so naive as to let ourselves be manipulated by all the propaganda. Is that so hard to understand?”
Absalom shook his head. “No. It’s not hard to understand at all. My own childhood was far from pleasant. But I learned at an early age that I had a better brain than most. I excelled in mathematics. The sciences. And I used those skills to better myself. The sciences were my way out of poverty.
“I also saw fit to make those skills pay. Not to labor in some dull job where I would barely make a decent living.” He smiled. “I realized I could use my skills by selling myself to the highest bidder. The world has a need to create bigger and better weapons of destruction. My creativity was my way out. And it has enabled me to lift myself from the ranks of the poorly paid.”
Yen said, “And when your work here is done, you will be able to move on. We have to stay.”
“As much as I sympathize, Yen, there is little I can do about that. It is out of my hands.”
“Yen, the doctor cannot be held responsible for our problems,” Li said. “You know that. The work we do here may advance our own situation and offer us some security.”
“Only if we make this project a success,” Me Sang, the final member of Absalom’s close team, reminded them all.
Absalom took a drink from his cup. “In that context I am as tied here as you. Success for us all depends on that system. We have to make it work.” He placed his cup back on the table. “So let us go to the beginning and review the Hawaiian test firing. In all the feedback we got from the computer link, there has to be the answer why the pulse reflected back to the ship and caused that explosion.”
While Li and Absalom sat at the table, bent over the printed feedback, Tang, Yen and Sang returned to their own monitor screens and began working through the mass of stored data that had been transmitted from the ship during the test firing. The input had been steady and had only ceased the moment the NNEMP burst had reversed itself and struck the ship.
They all were aware of two important things.
The days and night ahead of them were going to be long and stressful.
And with Major Choi overseeing their every move, they were on a ticking clock.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Her name was Li Kam and she was twenty-eight years old. Her late parents had been fishers from South Hamgyong Province. Li was their only child.
From a young age, she had showed promise and had been recruited into the government educational program after her three-year compulsory military service. Her natural ability had been studied as the years passed, and her aptitude for science—and especially the study of physics—meant the young Li was recruited into the applied physics courses.
She had had no choice when she was taken from her family and housed in a government dormitory building with other students; where day after day she was schooled in the subject, her instructors keeping a close eye on the bright and articulate young woman.
Life for Li Kam was by no means perfect. As a gifted student, she was housed and fed by the state. The apartment she shared with two other girls, clean and reasonably comfortable, made her feel uncomfortable when she thought about the crude, basic hut her parents shared. It made her even more awkward when she admitted there was nothing she could do about it, apart from taking small gifts whenever she managed to visit them.
Within herself she felt a strong urge to rebel against the stringent and authoritarian regime that forced the larger part of the country into silent sufferance, while those in positions of power resided in comfort, had plenty of food and lived a lifestyle of comparative ease.
The deaths of her parents had shocked Li. But her separation from her parents and the hard life in the government compound had made her realize she had little control over her own life. It was a simple choice. To maintain her status, she had to publicly condemn her parents and maintain her status as a true member of the regime. She became an obedient citizen and did as she was told.
To do otherwise would have destroyed her cover. So she held her tongue, kept her thoughts to herself and waited for the chance, any chance, to rebel. And while she showed a loyal face, inside she refused to forget her parents and the way they had died.
The injustice gnawed at Li. The anger inside grew, and when she was approached by Kayo Pak, she had responded eagerly to his suggestions. She listened to what he had to say. He had, he told her, noticed her impatience with the current status of the country’s majority, and if she wanted to do something about it, he could introduce her to his covert group.
Despite her need to strike out, Li was wary. She knew how the state set traps for the unwary, using their own agents to test loyalty. Anyone who was caught uttering antigovernment propaganda would be arrested, given a so-called trial and then summarily sentenced; the punishment could be death, which was often looked on as preferable to being sent to one of the dreaded labor camps.
There, caged behind barbed wire, the victims of the regime’s oppressive code would work out their lives at hard labor, in squalid conditions where life meant nothing. Very few escaped the labor camps. If they did break free, they were hunted down and then usually shot. Or as in the case of her family, treated in such a way that death became the only way out.
Li’s intelligence and her skill in her chosen field resulted in her being seen as a valuable asset. When she was placed in the isolated research facility, Li was more than pleased, though she simply accepted the position with humility.
Her insight into the work they were doing, gained by her interest in the use of nonnuclear electronic pulse technology, brought her on board when Emanuel Absalom recognized her potential. He had asked for her, and she was placed within his department.
Li fitted into the small unit well. Once installed, she learned even more about the application of the developing NNEMP research. As she worked daily beside Absalom, her quick brain grasped the fact that she was now not only working for the North Koreans on an important project but was at the same time able to siphon off data that she smuggled out to her contact in the South Korean security agency.
For her SK contact, Kayo Pak, Li’s recruitment into the NNEMP research facility was an unexpected coup. He had been hoping she would be placed in an important position, but even he was pleasantly surprised at her appointment.
The NNEMP development was something South Korea had been viewing with mounting suspicion. If North Korea could create a workable weapon, it would become a real threat. Pak’s bosses had been trying to get a foot in the door, but until Li Kam’s appointment, they had not been successful.
When Pak reported Kam was in, the South Korean administration informed him that he could write his own t
icket to help the young agent make the most of her new assignment. Pak remained calm and made it clear to Li Kam that she should proceed with caution. He demanded that she should do nothing to upset the status quo. He wanted results. Solid results, not quick results.
They might never get another chance, so he made Li understand she had to stay calm and wait for the right moment. Her main task was to play the devoted party member, to work as part of the team but also to pass as much information as she could to Pak and covertly attempt to sabotage the development.
When Absalom joined the unit, Li simply reported the fact to Pak. He managed to convince her to continue watching and waiting. As the months passed, Pak had to brush off the impatience from his superiors, while instilling into Li Kam that the scraps of data she was able to pass him were all helping in allowing South Korea to build a picture of the emerging NNEMP system.
Li Kam’s first practical initiative came when she had learned about the upcoming trial. Just Major Choi and Absalom were in the know as to the actual target. The only scrap of information that was passed to the team was the fact the trial would be away from North Korea. It was a practical decision in case there were any repercussions.
She took it on herself to write and insert the computer code into the launch equipment. It was designed to initiate a failure in the NNEMP probe. Her skill with the computing side of the work allowed her to create a block of code, hidden within the main computer text, that would in effect disable the launch sequence once the NNEMP missile was in the air.
In fact the sequence did not have quite the effect Li had been anticipating. She learned later that, although the launch had gone ahead—and it was only then she learned the target had been Hawaii—and had been successful, the code she had inserted into the system had caused a kickback. The result had been the explosion that had sunk the launch vessel and killed a number of the North Korean crew.
Li’s concern was that Major Choi would be doing his best to find out what had happened. He would dig and probe. He would question, badger, even without understanding what he was looking for. He would not be satisfied until he had proven to himself someone at the facility was responsible. And he would fret until the launch unit was recovered and sent directly to the North Korean facility.
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