He had slept only a few hours in the last few days. He almost felt that he was a regular soldier. But tonight was the most frustrating. He had thought he installed a rootkit in the CIA’s servers. He thought he would quickly be able to finish his job and get whatever files NATPAC needed. He just wanted to go home and sleep. But a few hours after he had told NATPAC he was close to being able to extract files from their servers, he had realized that he must have made a mistake. His rootkit was not working properly. It was buggy. He tried to redo the process. The server he was trying to get into was also acting strangely, and he could only see a few strange files on it. The files were unrelated to the CIA and were mundane. After reinstalling his rootkit, he realized it was still acting buggy and he needed to fix it further. Meanwhile, his computer started acting strangely. He had to restart it several times.
Now it was almost sunrise and SLOTHMAN imagined that NATPAC would walk through the door any moment asking for information. SLOTHMAN was ashamed that he had nothing yet.
Suddenly the main door to the bullpen of computers and desks swung open. NATPAC walked in at a brisk pace. SLOTHMAN felt his stomach tighten. As NATPAC walked by him he smiled, pointed at him, and said, “Let’s talk in a few minutes.”
NATPAC then continued walking towards his office. SLOTHMAN sat up straight and tried to work as fast as he could. He knew it would be fruitless because he would not be able to fix his rootkit in a few minutes. He needed hours. He watched as NATPAC disappeared into his office. SLOTHMAN did not like the feeling that he would not be able to enjoy the luxury of sleep until he finished a seemingly impossible task.
As he sat working, SLOTHMAN suddenly heard a loud scream. He looked up. He could sense that it was coming from NATPAC’s office. He stood up, as he felt all of his nerves electrify. NATPAC was screaming at the top of his lungs. SLOTHMAN never would have thought NATPAC could scream that loudly. A shrieking holler flooded out of the office and filled the main bullpen.
Is someone in there trying to kill NATPAC?
The screaming became so loud that SLOTHMAN himself wanted to scream. He started to feel jumpy but did not want to move.
Then NATPAC emerged from his office. He moved in the gear somewhere between walking and running. His face looked red. As he came out he did not even see SLOTHMAN. He swiftly marched past while vigorously trying to put his jacket back on. He started running once he got to the main door. Soon SLOTHMAN was standing alone in a silence that made him shake after hearing NATPAC’s yelling.
He slowly walked towards NATPAC’s office. He stepped inside carefully and saw that there was nobody inside. The office was dark other than the white light of NATPAC’s computer. SLOTHMAN walked towards it. There was a message on the screen. He leaned forward to see it. His body stiffened as he read the message.
DEMOCRITUS?
CHAPTER 53
Sara felt the atmosphere in the Command Room lighten. She replayed the unbelievable day in her mind repeatedly. She felt less tense now that Tom had made it into the facility and was now almost past the ridge on the way back. They all saw the facility, and Tom had captured intelligence as well as a counter-intelligence soldier. She realized this was the first time that day that they felt as though they were succeeding. She remembered how they wanted to abort the mission immediately, but it was Tom who willed it to continue.
From the helmet camera footage on the main screen, she could see that dusk had arrived. The sun seemed to be peeking over the horizon, but it had not quite risen yet.
She continued to try to think of a way to get both Tom and Kim out of North Korea. Anderson did not want them to go to the village and get a boat because it exposed them too much. He did not want the Virginia to send a raft to get them out because he was afraid the North Korean navy would capture it and the sailors aboard. She was struggling to think of a solution because the only real way out was to get to the Virginia. As she thought, she realized there was no way to get to the Virginia other than on some type of boat. There did not seem to be a solution.
The door to the Command Room creaked open and one of Mr. Park’s analysts walked in. This was the first time Sara had seen one of Mr. Park’s analysts outside of the special conference room set up for them. The analyst had taken off his tie, undone several buttons on his shirt, and rolled his sleeves up. His hair was no longer combed as it looked like a hand had been running through it for days. Sara even noticed small bags under his eyes. Sara wondered when they would be able to sleep again. But what Sara found strange was that this analyst seemed to have a small grin on his face. He did not look as stiff as he did before in the conference room. Sara watched as the analyst walked up to Mr. Park and got his attention. Mr. Park had been transfixed at the screen in front of the room. The analyst said something to Mr. Park in Korean. It sounded like several sentences. Mr. Park did not reply at first but then started nodding his head slowly. He said something quick back to the analyst, who then left the room. Sara noticed Anderson was watching Mr. Park. Mr. Park turned to Anderson and quietly said,
“They figured it out. My analysts and I can leave now. Once they pack up we’ll head for the airport.”
“That’s good. Good luck.” Anderson said just as quietly. They both turned their attention back to the screen.
What did they figure out? I thought we figured everything out.
Sara watched the screen too, but she tried to figure out what that conversation referred to.
On the screen they all watched as Kim turned to Tom and asked if they could stop for a drink. They were in an open space within the woods. Tom agreed and they both stopped moving. Tom got on his knee and reached for his water container after putting down his rifle. As Tom’s torso was turned while reaching for his water, Captain Kim’s fist flew into Tom’s face.
Everyone in the Command Room stopped talking and those that were sitting stood up. On the screen, through Tom’s helmet camera, everyone watched as Tom was lying with his back on the ground. Captain Kim was on top of him, looking down. To everyone in the Command Room it looked like Captain Kim was looking at them. Captain Kim put all his weight on Tom and started punching wildly. Sara did not notice that she covered her mouth with her hands.
Tom’s hands rose and started to block the blows, but Captain Kim seemed to have turned into an enraged animal. He was punching and yelling. At first he was shrieking, but then he started to yell what sounded like phrases.
Mr. Park turned to Anderson. “He just yelled out ‘I have the American. Everyone come help me.’”
CHAPTER 54
Lying on his back and getting punched in the woods was not the last thing Tom had expected going into his mission. But it was quite far down on his list of probable events.
The attack had started so suddenly that for the first few seconds he had reacted instinctively. But now he had come to his senses and realized what was happening. He was on his back, Captain Kim was lying on top of him and punching him as fast as he could. Tom put his hands up to try to protect his face.
He tried to wrap his legs around Kim’s torso. From his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training he knew this was the most important measure he could take while on his back. Kim would then be in Tom’s guard and Tom knew he would be able to try any one of the techniques he knew. Within seconds he had his legs around Kim. But he was still receiving punch after punch in rapid succession from Kim. Kim was also yelling out words now. Tom assumed he was calling for help. Tom knew that meant he had only a moment to get himself out of this situation.