Devil's Fork (28 page)

He tried to tell himself to
have patience. People always told him to work on his patience. Have
patience like the leaders, he told himself. The leaders had a fifty
year plan, maybe even a hundred year plan, between Act 1, Act 2,
and Act 3. His favorite subject to dream about took hold of his
mind again. Act 1 was almost complete. China’s foreign reserves
were in the trillions and growing. Act 2 was on its way. China was
already buying assets around the world, especially in America.
Then, in Act 3, China could take almost any path it wanted. It
could decide how to use its growing power and wealth. NATPAC
believed the best path would be to build the strongest military in
the world. China would be able to dominate world affairs. NATPAC
was stunned whenever he read about how the Soviets were able to
check the United States just because they had a comparable military
power. But what would happen if China’s military were
more powerful
? Then all
American wishes to dictate world affairs could be put down. NATPAC
was sometimes shocked to read that the number of military aged men
fit for duty in China was over 350 million. Once much of the world
was working for China-based companies, the leaders could put more
people in the military, say 100 million men. A 100 million-man army
with the latest technology and virtually unlimited resources could
do whatever it wanted in the world. Who would stop it? Even if the
rest of the world allied itself together, including America, would
they be able to match that force? China could now dictate world
affairs. It could impose its system on others. Its will could be
imposed on the Middle East, Europe, South America, and of course
North America. “We will be the only superpower again,” NATPAC
thought. China will regain its lost glory.

That is where NATPAC got the idea for his
username, or handle. He got the idea from an economic history book
he read a long time ago. In it, he read about a conspiracy theory
that turned out to be true. It was known as the General Motors
streetcar conspiracy. In the 1910’s and 1920’s, American cities
started to see the development of streetcars. These were trams that
drove through the city making stops. They were connected to
electrical wires above them, and so they ran on electricity, rather
than gasoline. They were clean and quiet. They did not pollute
either by smoke or by sound. Modern day San Francisco still had a
system like this operating. NATPAC read that General Motors,
Philips Petroleum, Firestone, and a number of other American
businesses became worried about the growth of these streetcars. If
such an efficient system of transportation developed in cities
around the country, people would be relying on vehicles that were
not from GM, that did not have tires from Firestone, and did not
use gasoline refined by Philips. The technology behind the electric
vehicles could potentially have been developed further into
standalone cars. Then nobody would buy a car, tires, or gasoline
from these businesses. But what these companies did, NATPAC
thought, was brilliant. They saw their fates ahead, and they acted.
GM, Firestone, Philips, and several others created and funded two
companies. One was called National City Lines. The other was called
Pacific City Lines. Starting in 1936, National City Lines and
Pacific City Lines bought 100 electric tram companies in cities
throughout the US, including New York City and Los Angeles. Then
National and Pacific dismantled the electric systems and replaced
the trams with buses. They cut research related to electric vehicle
systems. National and Pacific ensured the future dominance of GM,
Philips, and Firestone. These companies were the tool to achieve an
end goal. They achieved it by buying their enemies. NATPAC
remembered being so fascinated that he derived his username from
this conspiracy:

Nat
ional City Lines
Pac
ific City Lines

NATPAC was pleased to see that now China was
slowly buying its rivals. He leaned back on his couch. He stared
straight ahead for a moment as he thought about the future. Ten
years from now, he thought, he would just view tonight as a hiccup.
Maybe he would not even think about it at all.

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.

CHAPTER 42

EARLY THURSDAY

Northeast Coast, North Korea

Tom slowed down as he crossed Waypoint 3. He
had just found the dirt path that led directly to the base. He
kneeled on the side of the path. He stared up and down the path. It
appeared clear.

“
Yankee Main. I’m at
Waypoint 3. Area looks clear. Moving on to target.
Over.”

“
Yankee Actual. Do you
think those hills around you could contain sniper hole sites to
watch that path or target? Over”

Tom knew that despite it being Anderson’s
voice, that was Sara talking. A hole site was a spot where a sniper
“holed up” and shot at his targets. Tom always kept in the back of
his mind a reminder to check for sniper holes.

“
Those hills look too low
to provide a good field of vision. I’m moving deeper into the woods
but this area should be clear. Over.”

He got up and walked carefully back into the
woods but started heading in the direction of the target. He could
feel he was getting close.

He wondered what was happening in South
Korea at the moment. Anderson had said that they seemed to have
located Jiyeon and were sending in a team to rescue her. He guessed
that White Tiger would get sent in. He remembered talking to some
Delta operators back when he was a SEAL. They were comparing notes
on training exercises they had done with foreign special operations
units. Tom remembered mentioning that his DEVGRU unit had trained
with the New Zealand Special Air Service, with whom he had been
impressed. He thought one of the Delta operators had said that
White Tiger was a strong unit. But Tom knew that they did not have
as much experience as western units when it came to hostage rescue
missions. He would have wanted his DEVGRU team to be going on the
rescue mission instead. He had done hostage rescue on several of
his deployments. He would have liked to lead his DEVGRU team into
the building that Jiyeon was being held in. But Tom quickly got his
mind back to where it belonged. In SEAL training they had learned
to lock down their minds and focus only on the mission in front of
them. If one’s mind wandered while on a mission it could be fatal
to the entire team. Tom focused back on his task. He knew that he
could do nothing from where he was. He had to focus on getting into
that base and let White Tiger focus on getting Jiyeon.