CHAPTER 12
TUESDAY
Seoul, South Korea
Tom and Jiyeon sat at a table at Korean barbeque restaurant popular that night. In between them a griddle sat sizzling with pork and beef cooking in the Korean style. The smell of the spicy sauces and marinades was alluring. It floated through the room and stuck to one’s clothes, which in Tom’s case was a slim, grey Hickey Freeman suit, white shirt, and no tie. The top two buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned.
Looking into Jiyeon’s examining eyes, he felt that somehow they had been connected for a long time, despite having just met. Even though they were separated by oceans, cultures, and backgrounds, as she spoke, he felt he was making a rediscovery, rather than learning about someone new. The room was dark but she gave it light. She had put her hair up and touched up her makeup. Her eyes had more shadow and seemed to draw him in.
“How long have you worked at the NIS?” Tom asked. They had finished with the initial pleasantries and were in that mode where two interested souls were learning about each other.
“I joined about 10 years ago right after college.” She was no longer looking down like she was at the briefing.
“Were you an analyst in the deep cover program from the start?”
“No, I started in the foreign affairs analysis group and then they moved me into the deep cover program after two years. So I’ve been doing this for eight years. You know, I come from a pretty traditional family, and my parents did not want me to work in the government.”
“Really?”
“But I really wanted to go out there and do something. So I came here to Seoul on my own and started working for the NIS.”
“Why did you want to do that?”
“You know, maybe I could have married and lived quietly. But Tom, I really didn’t want to do that yet. I can always settle down later.”
“So you have a taste for adventure?”
“I wanted to understand the world. It was unexplored. I’m still exploring it.”
“And what are you finding out?”
“I don’t know. It’s strange. Sometimes I imagine each country is represented by a person. This person has the character and attitude of the country he represents. At least its attitude on the international stage. If all of these people were at a party or gathering, you would have a crowd that I am not sure I would want to be with. You would have a lot of manic, conniving characters most of whom would be trying to find a get-rich-quick scheme of some kind. And they would all be lying to each other to try to get there. It would be such a weird, absurd gathering. Sometimes I imagine all of these things happening while these people are formally dressed in suits.”
Tom sat back, smiled and started nodding.
“No but it’s true,” she continued, smiling with him, “where I grew up, we were taught certain things – respect your neighbors, find something you can do for others, and be tolerant. Can you imagine that I grew on those ideals and am now helping drive one of the characters in that circus-party? What’s more strange is that I’m not sure what the purpose of the party is. What? Each character is trying to find a way to get the others to obey him? Figuring that out has been my adventure.”
“The thing about that circus party that makes it more strange is that if you don’t play along, you will lose. Whatever the game is.”
“This reminds me of something I read recently. I was reading the book Heart of Darkness and –”
“That’s a coincidence. I was just about to reread it.”
Jiyeon laughed. “I guess we are telepathic. But there’s a line or two in it that resonated with me: ‘Droll thing life is — that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself.’ So that’s my story. Ten years later, I’m still happy I’m out here on my own, despite the strange world I’ve found myself in.”
Tom paused for a moment. He felt relaxed while looking into Jiyeon’s quiet eyes. He watched Jiyeon take a delicate sip of her drink before he said, “what’s your family saying now? Are they proud?”
“They are. But they also don’t really know what I do. I’m sure you have it the same way where you can’t talk about much.” She was smiling at their circumstance.
“If everyone knew exactly what we were doing, there would not be any intrigue and nobody would be interested. So I’d say because we can’t talk about it, people around us want to know everything we do. I think if the former were not true, the latter wouldn’t be either. It’s a bit of a paradox.”
“I get that feeling too.” Jiyeon smiled and looked at ease.
“How do you like living in Seoul?”
“I like it. It’s a busy place, so even walking down the street you feel like you’re in the middle of action. That’s different than what I was used to growing up.”
“Do you ever try to get away- for a weekend or anything like that?”
“Yes, I do sometimes. But mostly I just stay in the city. What about you? Where do you live?”
“I live in DC. It’s not as busy as this town.”
“How long have you been with your group at the CIA?”
“It’s been a good number of years now. But before this job, I was in the military, so it has really been one long stretch of doing similar work.”
“How long of a stretch?”
“I joined the Navy right after college. So this has been my life’s work.”
“Yes, I remember, we were briefed that you used to be a SEAL. That’s a special ops group right?”
“Yes – It’s the equivalent of your country’s White Tiger battalion.”
“Oh – wow.” Jiyeon took a sip of her drink.
White Tiger was closer to the equivalent of the Army’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta. White Tiger was the South Korean Army’s land-based counter-terror unit. Tom heard that Delta had trained with them from time to time, but when he was at DEVGRU, they had never trained with White Tiger.
“Why did you join the military and the SEALs?”
Tom looked at the wall at the far side of the restaurant. He seemed like he was looking into a safe he had locked in his mind. “It was an escape.”
“Were you in trouble?”
“Not in that way.” Tom’s eyes were half shut as he looked just past Jiyeon. She looked at him like one looks at a large scar. She leaned forward, wanting to hear a secret. But her sensitivity took over and she adjusted the direction of her questions.
“Have you had a lot of missions like this one?” She asked like a kid.
“This one is not out of the ordinary. I’ve had quite a few where I was alone in unfriendly places,” Tom said matter-of-factly with his head angled slightly to the side.
“How do you keep so calm about it?”
“It’s really just conditioning.”
“You mean like fitness? Like strength and conditioning?”
“No, like operant conditioning. Or classical conditioning.”
“So you’re like one of Pavlov’s dog’s?” Jiyeon said with a half-laugh, “Is that it?”
Jiyeon is smart, Tom thought. He had studied Ivan Pavlov in a psychology course in college. But he had really understood Pavlov only when joining the SEAL teams. Ivan Pavlov was a Russian scientist who lived from the mid 1800’s to the mid 1900’s. He conducted a famous experiment with dogs in the early 20th century. He would serve the dogs their meal and at the same time ring a bell. As the meal was being presented to the dogs, they would start to salivate in anticipation of the food. After several repetitions, the dogs learned that when they heard the bell, it meant that food was about to be served. Eventually, just ringing the bell, without showing them any food, caused the dogs to salivate. The dogs had been classically conditioned. Operant conditioning was similar except that it was a behavior that was being conditioned, not a bodily response.
“In a way, yes,” Tom responded, “A lot of our behaviors can be explained by Pavlov’s dogs. Not everything we do – we are
rational human beings after all – but a lot of our biases, likes, dislikes, and attitudes can be explained by classical conditioning and operant conditioning. And the SEALs take that and use it.”
“How? How do you do it?”
“Well, in training, anytime someone loses at something – whether it is a boat race or a beach run, he is punished with a painful number of pushups or some other physical activity”
“But not everyone can win – only one person or group can win a race.”
“That’s true, but that’s exactly the thing. The point is not to make you a fast boat racer. The point is to condition you that failure at something will lead to a lot of pain. I watched one boat crew do 200 pushups once after placing fourth in a boat race. Those guys never came in that far behind again. The instructors were conditioning that group’s behavior, their attitude to win.”
“Oh God”
“But they condition you with rewards too. If a team works hard in the exercises and wins boat races, the instructors give the team a break and praise them. And they condition several things with positive and negative reinforcement, not just winning. They condition into each SEAL a teamwork mentality, a ‘can-do’ attitude, and self-confidence. So after the training, you have a group of people left who simply will do anything to accomplish a task. For them it feels wrong to think something can’t be done. That’s operant conditioning at work.”
“And so you think this applies to everyday life?”
Tom took a sip of his drink. He was having Four Roses bourbon, neat.
“More than that,” he answered “I think it has an impact on world events more than people think.”
“That’s because of the biases and dislikes you were saying right?”
“Well you guys deal with it every day. When I imagine the people in North Korea, from birth they have been told that everything bad that has happened to them is because of the United States. The people there are starving, and they’re told it’s because of an American blockade. People there are dying from disease at a higher rate than most other places because of a lack of medicines or medical knowhow. Their families are told it’s because of the US. As kids they are told that Americans came and tortured babies during the war. So from a young age, people have all of these strong negative emotions – fear, anger, disgust and are conditioned to associate that with America. It’s no wonder when you see them on TV why they look so hateful. They have been classically conditioned.”
“That’s funny you say that. What our illegals have been reporting is that despite the propaganda, many people there are at least somewhat disillusioned with their government, but they still have a very real dislike for the US.”
“It sounds like one very confused country,” Tom said as Jiyeon giggled. Tom continued, “seriously though, where it gets interesting is when you think about how many other countries don’t overtly teach this to kids, but still create the conditioning effect. Just from a general attitude in the country.”
Jiyeon thought for a second “Yes, it must be a key driver of behavior.”
Tom served the meat, which was about ready in the middle of the table. He took a bite into the spicy pork.
“Did you guys figure out how 1414 was compromised?”
Jiyeon shook her head, “No it’s still unclear. But something strange is going on.”
“Why do you say that?”
Jiyeon leaned in and spoke quietly “Mr. Park called Mr. Lee today and told us another illegal had been compromised but that he had escaped and was making his way back.”
“That was missing from my briefing today,” Tom said with a smirk.
“That’s why he had to go back to the office before me. He had to take Mr. Park’s call on short notice.”
Tom chewed the spicy chicken as he thought. He took another sip of bourbon. “How many officers are you guys pulling out?”
“For now just this one. Officer 6237. He was based in Pyongyang. I’m not supposed to give any more details on him.”
“Your group manages over six thousand deep cover officers in North Korea?” That was an absurd number of deep cover officers to have in any country Tom thought. Tom had heard that at the height of the Cold War, the Soviets had less than five illegals working in the US. Most of their spies had official cover – they worked at the embassy or trade missions in various made-up roles. He figured the US probably had the same number.
“No,” she smiled “The numbers are not assigned that way. It’s a different system we have.”
“Oh?”
Jiyeon tasted her drink, smiling through the edge of the glass. “You can figure it out. Let me know when you do.” She seemed to like playing the game of keeping something just out of Tom’s reach. She looked like she expected him to come around the table and shake it out of her. But Tom just thought he would figure it out later.
“So is that why Mr. Park is in DC with that team?” Tom asked.
“I don’t know exactly why he’s there. He told us about 6237 because he wanted us to help him get back. But he did not say anything else. I’m not sure what’s going on.”
“Is there anything you can think of that 1414 and 6237 had in common? Did they have any of the same contacts? Did they ever meet?”
“Other than that they were both based in Pyongyang, no. They did not even know each other. They had two separate missions. Nothing in common. In fact 6237 sent us a message last week saying that his mission was on track.”
“Maybe the messaging system has been hacked?”
“Maybe. But other illegals have sent us messages even today and yesterday. They have not been compromised yet. Like 2135 – the one who saw the strange men at the port.”
“Where is 6237 now?”
“He’s sneaking his way through the countryside. He’s going to China.”
“So what do you really think is in that base?” Tom asked in an oddly uncurious way.
“I’ve been trying to think about that. I don’t know. I can’t figure it out. I wish 1414 had been more specific.”
“He seemed to be trying to be extra vague.”
“I just don’t know what is scarier—that it was this hard to find this place or that we have no clue what’s inside. What do you think?”
“I’m holding judgment until I get inside.”
They continued eating. They were almost finished. Tom looked around the restaurant. It was a typical night scene. Darkness was punctuated with dimly lit candles. Servers were walking to and from the kitchen at fast speeds. Men were dressed in suits and were trying to look in control. Women were in skirts and were trying to laugh enough to appear cute. Tom noticed a lot of eyes on him. He had seen it before - even in cosmopolitan cities like Seoul. He stood out. He was a westerner who looked like he was built of stone. The attention did not bother him at all. Jiyeon appeared to not take her eyes off him and was engrossed in their conversation. She almost welcomed the eyes watching.
“What’s your favorite thing to do on weekends?” Tom asked.
“I’m not sure,” Jiyeon smiled as she thought about it, “What do you like to do?”
Tom thought about it. “I’ll tell you one thing I like. I wake up very early- before everyone – like 5 or 6 in the morning. I like to take a walk to the Potomac and see the early morning sun.”
“I know what you mean,” Jiyeon said, her eyes aimed upwards as if she were dreaming about it.
“But it’s not the sunrise I try to see. It’s the early sun. The sun is the most gentle at that time, right after it’s risen, and before it’s moved too high. The city is sleeping and in fact it feels like the world is sleeping. But the early sun makes you question whether the darkness of the night was present at all. It cleanses the world before us and gives the new day a fresh start. I like to just stand by the Potomac and take that in. Especially when I just get back.”
“I know exactly what you mean.” Jiyeon leaned in.
When they were done, they made sure to bottoms-up the remainder of t
heir drinks. They got up and started walking to the exit. On the way, as they were passing the bar, Jiyeon recognized a girl she knew. They hugged and talked excitedly for a half-minute. Then the girl saw Tom and became silent as she eyed him. Jiyeon introduced them – the girl’s name was Hyun-Joo. She was with a young man who stood solemnly and did not seem to be in the mood to talk. He was staring at Jiyeon with cold eyes. Tom was a head taller than him and twice as thick, so maybe he felt uncomfortable, Tom thought. As they exchanged pleasantries, Tom saw Jiyeon step closer to his side, so he put his arm around her waist.
A few moments later they were walking on the street. Tom saw that Jiyeon was walking close beside him. He put his arm around her. He felt her nestle into him.
“Can we get another drink somewhere else?” she asked.
“Sure.”
“By the way, there’s something funny I have to tell you about those two we just met.”