Finally Anderson started speaking. “Tom, It’s going to be sunrise in a few hours. You need to get moving. Put a few explosives in the main warehouse. Then start grabbing documents from those offices.”
Tom turned to Captain Kim and said, “OK, I’ll take you. But you have to help me set explosive charges in this warehouse. I also need to take as many documents as I can fit into my bag. You will help me. Always stay in my sight. Got it?”
Kim’s eyes became wide, “you are going to blow this place up? But there are nuclear weapons in there.”
Tom coolly replied, “That bunker is sealed. We need to place charges here to destroy this warehouse. Let’s go.”
Sara saw on the screen that Tom walked up to the AK rifles on the ground near the bodies of the other soldiers. He took out the ammunition and emptied the cases out. She was glad to see Tom be careful.
On the screen, Tom and Captain Kim walked to the middle of one of the long tables. They started setting one explosive charge. Sara felt some tension leave as she saw Kim helping Tom. Next to her, she saw Anderson mute the microphone and turn to her.
“I’m not sure that I trust Captain Kim yet. We also have an added complication. We have to figure out how to get Kim out of North Korea with Tom. Tom came in with his diving gear and with an SDV. Kim can’t get out that way. Can you start thinking through this, Sara?”
“There is a village a few miles south that has some boats. They can go there and take one,” Sara said.
“That sounds too risky,” Anderson replied.
“Or maybe Kim can take some of that cash in the other room and go to the Chinese border. He is not that far. We can help him from there. Actually, why can’t the Virginia send a small inflatable boat to shore undetected and get them both out that way?”
“It would be very easy for them to get captured in those scenarios,” Anderson said while shaking his head. “Keep thinking. In a few hours we have to do something.” He unmuted the microphone in the room.
Meanwhile Mr. Park stood still next to Anderson, looking at the screen without moving. He was not smiling. His arms were crossed. He said, “Tom, ask him to tell us something top secret or sensitive that we would not be able to figure out from looking at this base.”
By now Tom and Kim were walking towards one of the glass meth labs to set a charge on it. After Tom asked Mr. Park’s question, Captain Kim replied, “One thing that’s top secret is that the nuclear tests are conducted as much for internal reasons as for external reasons. While the drugs generate cash to keep the upper ranks in line, the nuclear tests are meant to scare them into line. My father always said that the leadership is not as stable as it looks. There are generals that have plotted coups. There are high-ranking officials who do not support the current leaders. The nuclear tests, especially the recent ones, were meant to demonstrate the strength of the current leaders. To some extent, these tests rallied many of the people and ordinary soldiers to support the current leadership. It created awe for the leaders. This helped consolidate power. It’s no different with the recent tensions that the leaders created with the West. You’ve seen it on your TV, right? Our leaders have been announcing that they are readying the troops for war. Tanks, planes, artillery are all on standby, ready for immediate combat. You think that’s just to scare you? They do this to scare their own people. The leaders do it to tighten their grip on the military. You think they want to create high tension? You think they like seeing TV footage of your stealth bombers flying a few miles away from the border? You think they enjoy the threat of war? They don’t. The commanders in the military are terrified when this happens. But that’s the point. The leaders know they have to do it to consolidate their own power, to prove their strength. I never understood how you Americans could not see right through that.”
Tom did not respond. He was now busy setting an explosive on one of the supporting columns in warehouse. But Sara sat frozen in her seat. She was staring into space. She thought about the non-stop media coverage she had seen recently about the tensions on the peninsula. She wondered if it could really be this backwards. She kept thinking about one phrase Kim said. You think that’s just to scare you? They do this to scare their own people. Sara thought about how many people were terrified of a potential war. Could that threat really have been for North Korea’s internal goals? Were they really so weak that they needed to construct tension to empower themselves, she wondered?
Suddenly, Sara felt a tapping on her shoulder again. It was Mark. She leaned her head back to hear what he had to say. He whispered, “That’s the Totalitarian Uncertainty Principle again. They say that they want war, but we observe that they actually don’t. The regime says they have a united country, but we observe that it is actually divided.”
Sara watched the screen and saw Tom and Kim walking towards the shelves of drugs. They walked past several aisles and then turned into one of the center aisles. The bags here contained white powder. They walked towards the middle and started setting the charge. Tom’s voice came on the loudspeakers.
“How is it that your country gets all the materials to make these drugs, Kim?”
Kim replied, “The farms are owned and controlled by the government. They tell the farmers what to plant. So they order many of them to grow the poppy plant. The farmers grow it and the government collects and sends the harvest here. It’s pretty simple right?”
By now they were finished setting the last explosive charge. Anderson said to Tom, “OK. Before you go, can you run into those offices and get some documents. Priority is if you find any storage devices like a flash drive or a disk. Grab all of those.” Tom ran into the offices. Sara saw on the screen what looked like a massive hand shoveling everything into a utility bag. She watched Tom go from office to office emptying the desks.
Within a few minutes Tom and Captain Kim were standing in front of the main staircase. The main part is done, Sara thought to herself. Looking back, she could not believe that Tom had made it past all of the patrols, got through the team guarding the base, made it inside, and figured out everything that they wanted to know. Now he just needs to get back, she thought. She tried to think how to get them both back to the Virginia. Then Tom started talking to Kim again.
“What happened to the guys who were guarding the entrance?” Tom asked Kim.
“I actually don’t know. They were all gone when I got here with my men and the door was open. We just went inside. I thought you would know where they all went.”
Sara stared at Kim’s face on the screen. She thought he seemed to be telling the truth. The fear they had, which Tom was checking, was that Captain Kim had found those guards Tom had tied up and let them loose. He probably just ran into the base without finding the soldiers she thought. Tom had made the soldiers think that they were being watched and so they were probably lying quietly. The radios in North Korea did not seem to work so if a commanding officer could not reach them he probably wrote it off. The men probably had a scheduled time when they were supposed to be relieved and were not expected to communicate with anyone.
“Kim, I’m letting you know that I am trusting you,” Tom continued. “But I just want to warn you as well. If we step outside the door upstairs and there is an ambush waiting, I will shoot you immediately. When we are outside, if you try to run away or yell or anything, I will shoot you immediately. But I am going to trust that you will leave with me. Do you have any questions, or is there anything else you want to tell me?”