CHAPTER 9
TUESDAY
Yongsan Garrison, Seoul, South Korea
“If you take this ridge here, it should bring you to this dirt path over here, which gives you a direct route to the entrance to the base,” Mr. Lee said, pointing to a map.
Tom was in a well-lit conference room at the US base in Seoul. Mr. Lee was giving Tom the promised follow-up briefing. Next to Tom, Kang Jiyeon sat at the table. Tom noticed she kept looking down and then over at him.
Mr. Lee and Jiyeon were analysts in Mr. Park’s group at the NIS. They were in charge of the NIS illegals, or deep cover officers, in North Korea. Jiyeon had long black hair with almost a brown hue when in the sunlight. Her arms looked like straight lines. Her slender frame was upright in her chair, her neck so lean Tom wondered if he could hold it completely in his hand. Her face was made of delicate features which mystified her age - she could have been 25 or 35. Every time Tom looked over at her, he caught her looking at him, but she moved her eyes away, either down or towards Mr. Lee, who continued the briefing.
“The next topic we need to walk you through are the army counter-intelligence units in the area.” He continued, “The men in these units are not the typical half-trained soldiers like the regular ground force. These guys are smart—many of them are fluent in English and one other language. Many of them are related to the regime directly. We believe some are nephews and cousins of the high-ranking generals as well as members of the Politburo. What that means is they really believe in their system. More than that, they view themselves as the enforcers of their system. So you can expect them to be more vigilant and more careful than typical soldiers. They will also be better– better shooters and better tacticians than the regulars.”
“Do they carry different weapons than the rest of the army?” Tom asked. Having a sense of what weaponry you might encounter was an important element of SAD missions.
“These guys have all switched to the Type 88.” Tom knew this was another name for the AK-74 version of the original Kalashnikov rifle. Mr. Lee continued, “a durable weapon, its performance does not change in sand, snow, or wet environments. It has stopping power too, but in terms of accuracy, an M4 like you use is superior.”
“Do you have an estimate for their numbers in that area?” Tom looked at them both.
Mr. Lee motioned to Jiyeon. She started speaking with a delicate voice:
“From what we can tell it looks like 100 right around that area. Plus another thousand garrisoned close to both Chongjin and Kilju.” She looked embarrassed for having given such high numbers.
“But the number of them should be much smaller around the middle of the night, when you’re going.” Mr. Lee added.
Tom loved the night. While most people got stomach butterflies thinking about running around in a hostile environment at night, SAD operatives appreciated the night. He thought of it as a blindfold that blanketed a hostile territory. He used night vision goggles while his enemies on most operations had to use their naked eyes. Guarding anything from him at night was like asking someone to run with his feet tied together. At night, he simultaneously carried the power of invisibility and nocturnal vision. He would be the only person in North Korea in a few nights, who would be able to see in that dark country.
“Now,” Mr. Lee continued, “We have some additional intelligence we just recently received. This information comes from another one of the illegals Jiyeon and I manage for Mr. Park.”
Tom wondered how many illegals the South had in North Korea. It must have been a difficult operation to manage, he thought. North Korea was a feudal society. To find a good job, you had to come from the right family – one that fought in the Korean war, had no history of disloyalty whatsoever, and came from the right social class. How did South Korea have these illegals in that country living as citizens – holding jobs, receiving food rations, without coming from a carefully tracked family? Tom smiled as he imagined a society that claimed it was for “the people” yet where your class determined everything about your life – your job, where you lived, and what food you ate. A society that says its goal is to have equality for everyone and does this by creating inequality – what do you call that, he thought? It seemed irrational.
“We have a deep cover officer—” Mr. Lee continued as he looked down at a piece of paper, “Officer 2135, who we stationed in Chongjin several years ago. As you know, Chongjin is the closest major coastal city to the area you are infiltrating. It has a deep-water port, so it has ships coming in and going out every week. I can’t say where Officer 2135 works but we sent him a message asking if he can look into whether any potential nuclear weapon-related cargo is coming into that port.”
“And so he found something,” Tom said
“He messaged us this morning. He said that a ship had come in sometime in the last few days. Near the port, he said that he saw what he initially thought were Middle Eastern men standing near the ship, having a cigarette. “
“Why do you say he initially thought that?”
“His message said that they also looked Mediterranean or Caucasian, as in from the Caucasus region. He was not sure.” Jiyeon said. She held eye contact with Tom.
“Did he see what they were loading or unloading from the ship?” Tom asked her.
“No. One of his assets reported seeing a man in some kind of protective suit, but 2135 could not confirm it. These strange men meanwhile are just sitting in port.” Her eyes were looking at his deeply, so that Tom sensed she really wanted to give an explanation despite not having one.
“Probably upset the Chongjin cruise line didn’t match the pictures they saw in the brochure,” Tom said.
Jiyeon smiled.
Tom continued, “But I guess that does somewhat confirm that this base is what we’ve been looking for.”
“It seems like this points to a nuclear facility. But then when we think back to 1414’s message, it’s hard to reconcile,” Jiyeon replied as she settled deeper into her chair.
Mr. Lee jumped in, “we wanted you to have the full picture before going in. We will have 2135 continue to monitor that port in case we can find anything that will help your mission.” There was a pause in the room. At this point, Mr. Lee and Jiyeon were looking at Tom as if they wanted to say more, but ran out of reports that might be helpful to him. Tom eased their discomfort.
“I appreciate it. This briefing was very helpful. Is there anything else for us to go through or can I go hit the firing range?”
Mr. Lee started speaking slowly, “There is one thing we wanted to offer you. We have not spoken to Mr. Park or your commander Anderson about this yet. We usually give our deep cover officers a pill to take in case they find themselves in a situation where they know they will get caught.” Jiyeon was looking down as Mr. Lee continued. “If something happens and they do catch you, they will torture you in unimaginable ways. I’ll spare you on what they do, but it won’t stop even when you tell them everything you know. They will keep it up long past the point where you will lose your mind. There is no reason to go through that – it’s better to die. All our illegals carry one. It’s what Officer 1414 used.”
Tom looked out the window – the sun was bright outside. He slowly looked back at Mr. Lee, who was leaning forward in his seat, awaiting a response. Tom methodically gave his answer, “I have no need for that.” Tom shook his head slowly and continued staring through the window, “I’ll never be captured alive.” Mr. Lee did not move.
When Tom was going through Basic Underwater Demolition / SEAL training, or BUD/S, to become a Navy SEAL many years ago, he underwent a revelation. They were performing physical activities all day. The instructors required them to pass a number of tests including a beach run, pushups, pullups and a swim in the frigid Pacific Ocean. On top of that, for one week, known as Hell Week, they were only allowed one or two hours of sleep – for the entire week. Each day of Hell Week they were told that they needed to improve their scores on their physical tests from the previous day. If the
y did not, they would be kicked out of the program. Some SEAL candidates, having not slept at all in the previous days, quit as the week went on, convinced that it was impossible to beat their scores any further. The cold swim was what got most people. When the candidates swam for a mile in the cold water when rested, it was difficult enough. But on three days without sleep, it seemed like insanity. Tom and a few others thought about it, put their heads down, and just went for it. It was the hardest thing Tom had ever done. It felt like death would snatch him out of that water at any moment. Inside his head as he was swimming, he heard nothing as his mind had already shut down. He barely registered that the water felt like millions of ice cubes traveling all over his body. He kept taking strokes as hard as he could. Somehow he beat his best time. The revelation that hit him was that SEAL training was psychological, not physical. His body could do the impossible if he forced it. The phrase “you can do anything you put your mind to” was something repeated among millions of children each year. But the candidates who finished SEAL training learned to live it. After that, fear no longer disturbed them. In Afghanistan if SEALs were in a small team and outnumbered 100 to 1, they just fought back. They would do anything to win. It felt right to them much like it would feel right to a lesser man to run away. It was no different from that swim during BUD/S – in the face of an impossibility, they just got going. This trained confidence gave Tom the belief he would not get captured on his missions. It was not because he could defeat entire armies singlehandedly. It was because he knew he would end up fighting with his fists if he had to. It felt right.
Mr. Lee and Jiyeon had been sitting frozen when Tom got up and walked over to Mr. Lee. They shook hands and Tom patted him on the back.
“Thanks for your help and sorry about 1414,” he said.
“We were told to help you any way we can. So let us know if you need anything else,” Mr. Lee replied.
Tom left the conference room.