One of the kids Jin-Sang went to school with was killed by one of the rounds.”
Fordyce shook his head. “Let’s back up. Why exactly are the Chinese here? Does he know?”
The boy nodded and asked again about medicine and food for his sister.
“We’re not doing anything for him, or his sister, until he tells us all he knows,” Fordyce replied. “In fact, take that Fentanyl pop away from him. Maybe if his leg starts hurting again, he’ll get more cooperative.”
Tang looked at Fordyce. “Seriously?”
“As serious as a heart attack. We’re running out of time on target.”
“But he’s just a kid.”
“Listen to me closely, Billy. Maybe you’ve gotten used to operating by yourself in Indian country, but as long as you’re on this team, you’ll respect my command. Our orders are to gather as much intelligence as we can and get out. We’re not here to open a children’s hospital, dig a well, or build a new school. We’re way behind enemy lines and the security of our country depends on what we do here. I will not allow this operation to fail because you can’t do what needs to be done. Are we clear?”
Tang didn’t like being spoken to that way. It mattered little that Fordyce was completely justified and that Tang had brought it upon himself. “We’re crystal clear,” Tang said, as he snatched the Fentanyl pop away from Jin-Sang.
As the startled boy looked at him, Tang launched into a series of angry questions in Korean. The boy would begin to answer, only to have Tang cut him off and either repeat the question or berate and browbeat the child. Tang’s good-cop persona had completely evaporated. If Lieutenant Fordyce wanted him to play rough with an eleven-year-old, he would give him what he wanted.
The SEALs watched the exchange between Tang and Jin-Sang ebb and flow for a good fifteen minutes. Several times, the little boy was reduced to sobs.
When it was over, Tang handed him back the Fentanyl lollipop and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Fordyce waited until the quiet CIA operative opened his eyes before asking, “So?”
“You have no idea what this poor kid has seen.”
“I’m sure it sucks. For right now, though, I only want to hear the details relevant to our mission. Got me?”
Billy Tang nodded. “The Chinese are here for both military and agricultural training.”
“Two areas in which they far outpace the North Koreans. I don’t buy it,” Fordyce replied.
“From what I can gather, they aren’t here to necessarily learn how to farm well, but to learn how to farm in extreme hardship. When the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s and agriculture-related subsidies to North Korea dried up, the North Koreans had to learn new methods very quickly.”
“Yeah,” said Tucker. “They learned how to starve. One million North Koreans died in that famine. That’d be like losing twelve million Americans. What could the Norks possibly have to teach anyone?”
“How to survive. How to survive with no pesticides. How to survive without commercial fertilizers. How to survive without electricity. How to survive without running water. How to survive with little to no fuel for generators or vehicles. How to breed and raise livestock under medieval conditions. How to ration much-needed supplies when they barely trickle in from abroad. And how to protect all of it from roving bands of angry, starving American citizens. That’s what the North Koreans are teaching the Chinese.”
“Do you believe him?” Fordyce asked.
“Do I think he’s telling me the truth?” said Tang. “I think he would tell me anything if he thought it would help. But, yeah, I think he’s telling me the truth.”
“What about the nets? Those things are the size of football fields. We can see a lot of people coming and going, but what specifically are the buildings underneath them?”
“Jin-Sang has not been allowed in that sector, but his sister has. According to her, they have built a small American downtown, complete with storefronts, a restaurant, those kinds of things.”
“Why?”
“For some reason, they think rural Americans are much more likely to survive the attack. They believe they will band together in small towns similar to what has been created here. Jin-Sang says the farmers may need to trade with them and may possibly recruit them as laborers. The town exists to teach them what they may encounter.”
“What was his sister doing there? Was she a role-player?”
Tang nodded. “A role-player who speaks Chinese and English.”
“The father taught her?”
Tang nodded again. “He saw it as a skill that could make