Devil's Fork

CHAPTER 55

  WEDNESDAY

  Langley, Virginia

  “I still don’t understand why he did that,” Matt said from the front of the room. “He said he hated his country and he said he was treated like he was worthless. Why would he try to kill Tom?” This was the first issue of the night that seemed to aggravate Matt, Sara thought.

  “I don’t understand it at all. I was assuming the regime killed his father. Why on Earth did he do that?” Sara said.

  They watched the screen as Tom dodged the various vegetation and rocks in the woods, while looking around for newly aroused patrols. The sun was sneaking its way up the sky.

  Anderson, his arms crossed, said, “Human beings are complicated creatures. We still don’t understand how the mind works. I believe Captain Kim’s dislike of his regime was genuine. But he has also been conditioned since he was a small child to hate us. He probably could barely look at Tom without feelings of anger and hatred. His mind has been hacked since he was a child. You – Mark and J.D. – think hacking is a new science that arrived with computers? It has been around for hundreds of years. You get inside a child’s mind and you can influence his behavior for the rest of his life. You show a child an idea and show that it is in his interest to defend it, and you have conditioned that child forever. It will not matter if someone comes along who thinks he can help the child. If you threaten that idea, that child, now an adult, will hate you for it. In our country we complain about our politicians and about many aspects of life here. Imagine if North Korea invaded us and said that they’ll fix everything we complain about in this country. Do you think we would welcome them? We would fight them too. No, Kim did exactly what we should have expected him to do. He told Tom a bunch of things about Room 39 and the regime to gain his trust, thinking that they were alone. Then when Tom, and we, least expected it, he attacked and showed who he really was.”

  Then Sara sat up straight. Suddenly she had a thought. “We called this mission Devil’s Fork because whenever we deal with totalitarian countries, we end up finding paradoxes. Today we found a few. But I think we just saw the ultimate paradox. Tom once told me that power was the original drug. But now I think the original drug might have been what those in power used to keep their subjects in line. The original drug was whatever tool was necessary for getting people to keep themselves in line. Whether the drug was ideological, theological, social, economic, or philosophical did not matter. Once that drug was administered, those with power did not need to use their power. Once the people were under the influence, they would coerce themselves. Those with power could condition people to the point where the people believed that it was in their interest to have those in power rule over them. The people could, in a way, coerce you to stay in power. That’s the paradox of totalitarian societies. The ruler has the power to coerce the people, who begin to coerce themselves and lay prostrate in the hands of those with power, negating the need for the power and coercion in the first place. Think back through any such society in history and this holds true. We human beings allow power to be exercised upon us by living a paradox.”

  A silence took over the Command Room. The group watched the screen. Tom was back into his original pattern of running, stopping, lying prone, looking around, and running again. He had spotted several patrols, but they were at a distance and had not seen Tom.

  Anderson finally broke the silence and said, “At least he can just get back into the water and into his SDV. We don’t need to come up with a plan to get Tom and some guy out.”

  Mr. Park walked into the Command Room after having stepped out a few minutes before. He had his jacket on and appeared to be ready to leave. He walked up to Anderson and shook his hand.

  “Thank you for helping us out. We’re going back now. We can take care of the last piece of this mission.”

  “Good luck with it. Be careful,” Anderson replied.

  “Also, I just got some news about my analyst. The one that was abducted.”

  “And? Is she OK?”