Devil's Fork

CHAPTER 28

  WENDESDAY

  Northeast Coast, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

  Captain Kim stood near the edge of the beach looking into the pitch-black woods. He had one of his men shine a flashlight into the woods again. He looked carefully. He did not see any movement or anything resembling a human form. But then he looked down again and stared at what was puzzling him. Right at the edge of the beach as it met the forest he could see a wet spot. A spot two feet by two feet that had wet-looking sand. The rest of the sand on the beach was dry.

  The other thing that puzzled him was that leading to this wet spot were several indents in the sand. He knew dry sand does not hold the shape of a foot very well, but a foot stepping in the sand can certainly leave an indentation. And Captain Kim saw a series of what looked like indentations going all the way back to the tide’s high point. He told one of his soldiers to shine his flashlight at these indentations. People did not walk on this beach. There are no beachgoers in this part of the country. This was supposed to be a pristine beach, he thought. The only marks should be from his men or any animals that might be in the area. Or a spy.

  He turned to a group of soldiers that were not with him earlier but who were closer to this spot. “Did you walk here?”

  “Not recently, tongmu Captain, we walked through here maybe fifteen minutes ago.”

  Kim enjoyed hearing his proper title. Tongmu was the equivalent of “comrade”. Kim studied the marks leading to the beach again.

  “Did you see any bubbles coming from below the surface?”

  “No, tongmu. Not at all.”

  Kim took his radio. He started talking into it but realized it was not working. He hit it a few times and tried clicking it on again. Nothing.

  Typical. Nothing works in this country. I don’t even know why I expected it to.

  Captain Kim had been allowed to study abroad in China for three months when he was a university student. Being the son of a regime insider who had the right political qualifications, he was one of few who had such a special opportunity. The purpose was to learn Mandarin Chinese to the point of fluency. Having citizens who could speak to the closest ally was highly important. He was required to live in special housing with North Korean officers who could watch him. They did not need to. Kim made sure he was a model citizen. He spoke to nobody and did not travel within Beijing. He focused on his studies. He stayed quiet. But he had thoughts. Those were filled with awe and questions. Two things impressed him most about China. First, food was plentiful. He had never felt that feeling where one eats past where one is full, where the stomach feels as though it were an inflated balloon, hanging separate from the body. In China, it was a painful feeling that he liked. Every time he was in the university cafeteria he made sure he got himself to this point.

  The second thing that impressed him about China was that most objects worked. Elevators just worked. Electricity stayed on. TVs generally did not just shut off. The metro system did not break every day. Cars drove normally on the road. Heating generally worked. Water faucets just worked. How luxurious, he remembered thinking. In the Democratic People’s Republic things did not work like this. He had thought about it during those three months abroad quite often. Why was his country different?

  Finally after tapping on his radio enough times the lights flickered on. He radioed another company further down the beach to ask if they had seen anything. They had not. He radioed the officer in charge of the woods team. He reported that his men had not seen anything.

  He walked back to the spot near the woods that looked wet. He thought about the idea of an American running through here. He thought about the idea of an American in general. His stomach felt sick.

  “You four, come with me.” He pointed out four soldiers. “The rest of you keep patrolling the beach.” He looked into the dark forest one more time and stepped into it.

  If he’s in here he can’t be that far away. Do they know about that base?