He held up one hand to block Kim’s punches and with the other hand he tried to reach down to his side to pull out his Mark 3 knife. But as he was reaching down, he noticed that Kim had suddenly slowed his punches and was now reaching for Tom’s pistol, sitting in Tom’s thigh holster. Kim managed to grab the handle and was trying to pull it out. If it came out, Tom knew he would be dead within seconds. Tom reacted immediately and shot his hand past his knife and to his pistol, jamming Kim’s hand on it so that he would not be able to pull it out of the holster.
Tom now noticed that as Kim was struggling for the pistol, his other arm had stopped punching and was holding Tom’s chest. He knew what to do. In fact he had once thought he could put the next move on with a blindfold. He grabbed Kim’s hand with his free hand and tried to slap on a Triangle Choke. His right leg curled around Kim’s neck and made a figure four with his other leg. Kim’s arm, which had been on his chest, was now trapped and Kim’s face started to turn red. Tom had Kim in a Triangle. All those years of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training had finally come into use, he thought. Tom felt Kim’s other hand, previously on the handle of Tom’s pistol, loosen completely. Kim was now putting all effort into getting his head out of Tom’s legs.
Each second Captain Kim became redder. Tom knew that within seconds, Kim would black out. Tom watched Kim try to mouth a phrase to him.
Kim seemed to say, “Please. No.”
Tom stared at Kim for a moment. He loosened his triangle slightly, just enough so that Kim would stay conscious, but not enough for Kim to escape. Now Tom spoke.
“Why’d you do this?”
Kim continued to struggle. His eyes were bloodshot now. He stared at Tom and slowly replied, “I — hate — you.”
By now Tom had reached for his knife. He quickly pulled it out and thrust it into Kim’s face. Tom quickly unraveled his Triangle and let Kim fall to the ground. He got on his hands and knees and grabbed his rifle.
His radio started talking immediately. “Tom are you hurt?”
Tom did not respond at first. He stared at Kim’s limp body for a moment. Something he had read in Heart of Darkness long ago leapt into his mind, although it resonated in a different context as he stared at Kim.
“It is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one's existence — that which makes its truth, its meaning — its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream — alone.”
Anderson’s voice on the radio repeated, “Tom, come in. Are you OK?”
“Yes. Hold on, I hear something.”
Tom heard voices in the woods. They were not near him but they were loud and approaching. Someone had heard Kim’s calls.
CHAPTER 55
“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?”
CHAPTER 56
Tom stopped for what he expected to be the last time. He was at the edge of the woods, overlooking the beach. A vast, open sea lay in front of him. The KPA presence on the beach was lighter. Many hours had passed since Tom’s first sprint through the pocket of soldiers.