CHAPTER 41
WEDNESDAY
Langley, Virginia
“I think we might have found the location,” Mr. Park said to Anderson as he walked back into the Command Room.
“You mean where your analyst is being held?” Anderson asked back.
“Yes. The police at Incheon were given a tip. Incheon is the city on the west coast of Korea, right next to Seoul. A man said he was watching TV in his apartment when he heard a noise outside. When he looked across the street, he saw three figures carrying what looked like a female into a house. He said he thought she looked bound.”
“That was fast. That’s great,” Sara said. She had heard that the best tool any police force had was the eyes and ears of ordinary people. Someone was always likely to witness something strange going on.
“How long ago did this man witness this?” Anderson asked.
“About fifteen minutes ago. He just reported it,” Mr. Park replied.
“If she can be rescued soon, there could be a good chance they would not have time to interrogate her and learn anything about what we are doing,” Anderson said.
Sara agreed but also felt a coldness pervade the room. She wondered if they only cared about saving this girl because of mission security. Sara’s initial thought was that not only could this compromise Tom, but the girl herself could be imprisoned and tortured. That was reason enough to move quickly to save her.
“A platoon from White Tiger is preparing to move in now. My minister says that they will raid the house within the hour. It is unlikely they would start to interrogate her right in the house. North Korean kidnap teams usually operate as a silo. That team likely does not even know why they needed to kidnap her.”
“That’s good,” Anderson said. “We just have to make sure that this team does not get her on a boat and out of South Korea in the meantime.”
“That should not be a problem,” Mr. Park said coolly. “Our navy has sent every gunboat it can spare to the waters off Incheon. Not a single boat will be allowed to leave that area.” Mr. Park walked back out of the Command Room, back to what Sara guessed was now a second command room. That conference room Mr. Park’s team had taken now had a dual purpose. In addition to working on whatever project they had, Mr. Park was now going to monitor this second situation from there.
Sara looked up at the screen in front of the Command Room. Trees and shrubbery were now moving past at a faster speed than before. Tom was trying to get to the base faster, she thought. She wondered why he had the sudden sense of urgency. Perhaps it was the news that the KPA might descend on that base once they found out what was really going on. He seemed to be making more noise as he was moving. He was almost running. Then Tom’s deep voice came on the loudspeakers in the room.
“Any update on the abduction situation?”
Anderson hesitated, then replied. “We think we’ve located her. A rescue operation is being launched. We don’t think your mission will be further compromised. Over”
“Is she OK?”
“We believe so. Over.”
Sara felt a warmth spread through her. Tom was the toughest person she knew. Sometimes she wondered if he was made of steel. When she was in uncomfortable situations, whether it was being trapped in a roomful of people she did not know or whether it was a late night walk home, she often thought how much more comfortable it would feel if Tom were next to her. To hear Tom voice concern for someone who was in a helpless situation gave her that comfort. She wondered if she were in a difficult situation, would Tom rush to her side? His voice sounded like he wanted to be a part of that team that had to raid that house. He sometimes seemed to have no concern for his own life. That both scared and comforted Sara. Maybe that was the standard profile of SAD operatives, she wondered.
“Sara, do you have Tom’s ETA to Waypoint 3?” Anderson asked. Sara knew ETA meant “estimated time of arrival.”
“At his current pace, he might get to Waypoint 3 in twenty minutes. From Waypoint 3, he should only need another fifteen minutes or so to get to the entrance to the facility. From there we’ll need to see Kilo presence around there.”
“OK good. We’re almost in there.” Anderson had a drink of water. It was the first time Sara had seen him have a drink that day. He had been standing on his feet all day too, Sara thought. Now he continued to stand, with his hands on his hips, as he watched the screen.
Sara turned around to see what Mark and J.D. were doing. They were in their seats in the back of the room. Their laptops were open in front of them. Their computer screens mesmerized their eyes. A barrel of oil thrown at an incinerator in front of them would not have disturbed their focus. They had only briefly looked up when Tom had shot that KPA patrol.
Sara walked to the back and sat down next to Mark.
“What are you guys working on?”
“J.D. is trying to learn more about SLOTHMAN since he’s playing around in the honeypot. I’m still working on NATPAC. If we can figure out his true identity and the reason he’s so sensitive about this base, maybe we can understand what’s really going on there,” Mark replied.
“And? Have you found anything? Are you close?”
“J.D. is getting a pretty good sense of how their computer security systems work. I’m still trying to get through the defenses NATPAC set up not just on their system but for his computer. I still haven’t found anything out yet though.”
“I wonder what we can do when we figure out who he is?”
“We’ll see. We’ll have the upper hand. What do you think we’ll do when we find what kind of nuclear technology is in that base?”
“Aside from the informational benefit, we could get an upper hand too. If we know exactly what stage they reached, we will know how to counter them better. We could also outmaneuver the Totalitarian Uncertainty Principle we face where they constantly declare nuclear war but never do anything. We will be able to know what they can actually do, despite what they say.”
“And you said you guys plan to blow up that base too, right?”
“Potentially. If this works, we should be able to set them back a few years at least. But why NATPAC is helping them with their nuclear research is still something I don’t understand.”
“Well, he’s not helping them with their research, to be precise. He’s helping them protect that facility.”
“But do we know that the connection is anything more than a coincidence? All we know is that NATPAC saw our message and then started a chain of phone calls to North Korea. Maybe they just tipped off a friend?” Sara started feeling lost as she reasoned through the facts.
“But we can see that right now, as your mission is happening, SLOTHMAN is being very aggressive in trying to get into your systems. NATPAC also initiated that call to Beijing that led to Mr. Park’s analyst being abducted thirty minutes later. So I think the connection is strong. This feels like a personal struggle for NATPAC.”
“The question is what is in it for him.”
“That’s what I will hopefully find out,” Mark said coolly.