CHAPTER 57
FRIDAY
Tokyo, Japan
Officer 2135 walked down a packed street. The notorious Tokyo morning rush hour was sweeping past him in both directions. His life in Chongjin seemed to be from a different era.
He had made it out of North Korea two days ago. He had been lucky with his bicycle, which lasted for a relatively long time before breaking down. In the next village he came to, he bought a fresh bicycle from one of the villagers. Soon he was on the Chinese border. He crossed the Yalu River dividing China and Korea quietly in the middle of the night. During his entire escape he kept thinking about the last message command had sent him:
2135: Urgent. We believe you have been compromised. Leave country immediately. Once in China, proceed to Shanghai.
He tried to figure out how he had been compromised. But nothing came to mind.
Once he arrived in China, he was able to quickly make his way to Shanghai. Traveling was significantly easier, and he no longer needed to just use a bicycle. He knew what to do once in Shanghai. The NIS had a safe house where he would most likely have a message waiting. When he arrived in Shanghai, he already felt a world away from the land he had just left. When he found the NIS safe house, he quietly entered it. Inside, he found an NIS officer waiting for him. The officer handed 2135 a piece of paper that had an address in Tokyo on it. He was told to go to the airport and get to Tokyo immediately. Now, several hours later, 2135 was here. He had reached the address he was told to visit. It seemed to be another NIS safe house. It was a several story house just outside of Tokyo proper. Officer 2135 knocked on the door when he arrived. A man, who looked like another NIS officer opened and let him in. The officer escorted him to a private room at the top floor. Inside the room was a face Officer 2135 recognized quickly, despite not having seen it in the fifteen years he was in North Korea. It was Mr. Park, the director of the illegals group. He looked just about the same as he did when he had recruited Officer 2135 in the locker room at his military training facility.
Officer 2135 saw Mr. Park smile, and he walked up to him and hugged his boss immediately. They sat down and Mr. Park began to speak in his usual, meticulous manner.
“I am very happy you made it out of there,” Mr. Park said.
“Me too. That message you sent was unexpected to say the least.”
“Well, I’m sure you would like to know what happened, right?”
“If you’re willing to say.”
“One week ago, one of your colleagues – Officer 1414 – sent us a message before the secret police found him. I can tell you some aspects of his mission. He was working on figuring out North Korea’s nuclear capabilities. One week ago, he assembled the final piece of the puzzle together and sent us his message. In it, he sent two main pieces of information. He found the GPS coordinates of a special base and attempted to give us an idea of what was there. But he also had figured something else out. He sent us a third piece of information within the message. Here, I’ll show you the message, can you see the hidden message?”
Mr. Park pulled out a piece of paper with 1414’s message written down.
41.160167, 129.612440. Mission accomplished. Officer 1414 compromised. Last resort pill will be used. Error in how we think about Jewels.
Officer 2135 spotted the two main pieces of information – the GPS coordinates and the reference to the jewels. Those likely got his department at the NIS running around. But Officer 2135 instantly spotted the hidden message. He remembered his last day in South Korea, about 15 years ago. He had a private meeting with Mr. Park, similar to the meeting now. Mr. Park had told him that there was always a chance that in the course of his activities, Officer 2135 might come across information that was so sensitive, he would want only Mr. Park to be able to see it. Mr. Park then showed how to send messages so that only he would see them, but embed them within messages he sent to the NIS analysts. It was so simple that it was laughable at first. But Officer 2135 soon saw that it could prove helpful.
Mr. Park demonstrated the technique by handing Officer 2135 a letter to take with him. The letter was short:
Get in quietly. Organize your plans carefully. Only recruit assets in which you have full confidence. Develop your identity with thought. Listen to everything around you. Uncover any secrets you might find. Care for yourself first and foremost. Kill only when you are in danger.
Then Mr. Park explained that within all of the writing, there was an entirely separate message if one only used the first letter of each sentence. He explained that writing out each sentence vertically could help. Officer 2135 remembered looking at the page again and seeing the first letter of each sentence pop out of the page this time.
Get in quietly.
Organize your plans carefully.
Only recruit assets in which you have full confidence.
Develop your identity with thought.
Listen to everything around you.
Uncover any secrets you might find.
Care for yourself first and foremost.
Kill only when you are in danger.
Mr. Park’s final message released some of the last minute tension:
GOOD|LUCK
The hidden message in the letter was “Good Luck,” buried among all of the words. Mr. Park explained that people rarely thought to put first letters or sounds together this way.
Now as Officer 2135 looked at 1414’s message. The hidden message jumped out immediately. He ignored the GPS coordinates as he read it.
Mission accomplished. Officer 1414 compromised. Last resort pill will be used. Error in how we think about Jewels
He arranged the message vertically in his mind.
Mission accomplished.
Officer 1414 compromised.
Last resort pill will be used.
Error in how we think about Jewels
2135 could not believe what he was reading.
MOLE
After Officer 2135 read and reread 1414’s message, he looked up at Mr. Park. Mr. Park was looking at 2135 with tired but determined eyes. Then Mr. Park continued.
“We have a mole. Officer 1414 found this out from the same asset who gave him the location of the base. As soon as I received this message from 1414 I took a small team of analysts whom I trusted most. We immediately flew to Washington DC. I told them to take their computers and grab as many documents as they could. We went to the CIA building. I helped the CIA organize a mission to see that base 1414 found. At the same time I had my team of analysts working nonstop to figure out who the mole could be. They combed through documents and intelligence we received over the last decade. We opened the files on all of the illegals who had been caught and killed. I don’t think my team slept for four days.”
“But they figured out who it is?”
“What we noticed was that the officers who sent us a message one week ago – around last Thursday or Friday – had been compromised. Officer 1414 sent us a message on Friday night telling us that he was planning to meet with an asset and he might accomplish his mission the next day. Another one of your colleagues, Officer 6237, had sent a message on Friday early morning last week and on Saturday morning as he was returning to his apartment he saw secret police outside and left. The fact that those two sent a message around the same time and were compromised, gave us a suspicion. As we looked over the past ten years, we noticed small clusters like this. A few officers would send a message on the same day, and all of them would be compromised.”
“So that meant that someone was probably coming through the office and grabbing a bunch of documents at a time. Maybe the janitor at night or something, right? That’s what I had my assets - those who were janitors - do in North Korea.”
“Exactly. That’s exactly what we started thinking. So I called my most trusted analyst, who I left back at headquarters to watch things over. I asked him to install several small cameras to watch over the office. I asked him to tell everyone to go home early. I asked him to plant a st
ack of fake documents on peoples’ desks. It was like setting a trap. By the next morning we knew who the mole was.”
“Who was it?”
“I don’t think you know him. It’s this kid, a loser from a different group upstairs. His name is Sung-Ho.”
“I’ve never heard of him. So he was in a different group but was coming downstairs to look at our documents and files?”
“Yes. He made friends with one of our analysts, Jiyeon. His move seemed to be to come downstairs to our kitchen for tea, coffee, or snacks. He and his friend would talk to Jiyeon. While doing this he would take a look at how busy or quiet our offices were. I think he would also ask Jiyeon if ‘things were busy.’ He did this earlier this past week. He came downstairs very early on Wednesday morning because he saw that it was quiet. He walked through our offices, taking pictures of every document he could get his hands on. We actually were not careful and Sung-Ho saw the message you sent us about the port. That’s why I immediately told this most trusted analyst of mine to pull you out.”
“What’s his name? Do I know him?”
“It’s Mr. Kim. You might have met him. He was young and just starting when you were about to leave.”
“I remember him. This mole – how was he recruited? Was he sent in from the North or was he someone who was turned?”
“We looked into Sung-Ho. They got him with money. The North Koreans paid him every month. He was making almost his annual NIS salary every month from them. The story he told was that he came from a rich and quiet family. He bought himself gold watches, nice clothes, a car, in short, everything someone who wanted to look important could want.”
“Incredible. I can’t believe they did that to one of ours.”
“They trained him in the same techniques you use. He was always very friendly to his colleagues, including Jiyeon. When he came down to our floor, under the guise of getting coffee, nobody suspected him. Jiyeon in fact saw him right after he snooped around our offices. She sat down at her desk on Wednesday morning a few minutes after he had taken an enormous amount of photos of documents down the hall. We saw it with our cameras. He must have told her he was there for a walk or something. He was a professional. Nobody could have noticed it. Even I did not suspect him whenever I saw him wandering around.”
“Well hopefully he was not able to do much more damage.”
“Sung-Ho actually did significantly more damage than what I’ve told you so far. The North wanted to kidnap someone from our team in order to find out what we knew about that base 1414 found. Sung-Ho told them to target the young woman he had befriended, Jiyeon. A kidnap team abducted her as she was approaching her apartment building. The team had been given her address by Sung-Ho. I got some information from the Americans right as this was about to happen. I tried calling Mr. Kim to tell him to keep everyone in the office, but I could not reach him. Jiyeon died on Thursday morning as a team from White Tiger battalion was trying to rescue her.”
2135’s eyes opened wide. Mr. Park continued. “That’s right. It’s just a tragedy. But that’s why I’ve told you all of this. You know your mission in North Korea is over. You can never go back as an illegal. You will have to do something else with your life now. But I have one last mission for you.”
2135 sat up straight and leaned forward, “Yes, sir.”
“Sung-Ho took a vacation at the end of this past week. He said he was planning to go to Japan alone to meet some friends. Sounds suspicious right?”
“I’m guessing he’s planning to meet with his handlers.”
“Precisely. We figured out that he is here in Tokyo and is planning to meet his handlers on Monday. He took a suite at a hotel. We think there is a chance he might ask not to go back to South Korea. Given Jiyeon’s kidnapping, he might feel too exposed. He might try to go to China. We need you to go to his hotel room and make sure he never sees the light of day again. Here is the hotel and room number.” Mr. Park placed a folded piece of paper on the table in front of 2135. “You can decide how to execute this operation. When you are done, come back straight to Seoul using these plane tickets. Once in Seoul, make your way to the compound in which you were trained before being sent over. We will debrief you there and let you readjust and rest before heading back into society.”
Officer 2135 looked at the piece of paper in front of him. In one motion, he grabbed it, stood up, and said, “Yes, sir.”