for two hundred prisoners. To the outside world this probably seemed unimaginable. For Chung-Cha it was simply her life.
Ten.
Ten was the number of basic rules at all the camps.
The first and most important was, You must not escape.
The last and nearly as important was, If you break any of the above rules you will be shot.
All the rules in between—no stealing, obey all orders, spy on and betray other prisoners—were just filler, she believed. The fact was they could kill you for any reason or no reason at all.
Rule number nine had intrigued her, however. It said that one must truly be remorseful for one’s mistakes. She knew this was an incentive for those who hoped one day to be free of the camps. She had never hoped this. She never believed she would be free. She was not remorseful for her mistakes. She was simply trying to survive. In that regard her life now was no different from her life in the camp.
I am simply trying to survive.
Chapter
25
THE THREE MEN WERE IN the White House Situation Room again. And once more the NSC Watch teams had been walled off. There were no recordings being made. There were no other attendees. No official transcript would be kept.
Evan Tucker looked at the president, and the president stared back at him. The latter had not been told why this meeting had been called, only that it was urgent and needed to take place immediately. That was why they were sitting here now and why the president had canceled four meetings that he had been scheduled to attend.
“Care to take me out of the dark, Evan?” the president said in a clearly annoyed tone.
Josh Potter had already met with Tucker and thus knew what was coming. He had been uncomfortable not informing the president directly since he was the president’s man, but Tucker had browbeaten him into letting the DCI make the briefing.
And, in truth, Potter did not want to be the messenger on this debacle.
Tucker cleared his throat, which lately had felt like mold was growing there. He clasped his hands together and rubbed his two thumbs against one another so hard they turned bright pink.
“There have been developments of a critical nature related to the mission and none of them are good.”
All the color seemed to drain from the president’s face. He barked, “Explain that.”
Tucker said, “As you know, Lloyd Carson was the British envoy assigned to the embassy in Pyongyang. He has been our chief go-between with General Pak. Really our only go-between.”
The president said, “And I was initially incredulous. He should’ve gone to his own government with this. Then my esteemed colleague at 10 Downing Street could have dealt with it.”
“And as I explained, Carson was well aware that no one in his country would have the stomach to follow this through. So with his leader’s blessing he presented the opportunity to us.”
The president closed his eyes, his top row of teeth clamping onto his bottom lip. When he opened his eyes, his look was one of fury. “It always falls to us, doesn’t it? The good old USA, the world’s policeman. We’ll do the dirty work while everyone else stays safely on the sidelines. And if things go to hell feel free to turn on us or simply run away.”
Tucker nodded and said, “Superpower status carries great responsibility and much of it is unfair. But the fact remains we did follow it up because we saw a tremendous opportunity to get rid of a regime that has been a thorn in the civilized world’s side for decades. We knew there were risks, but we all felt that the benefits outweighed them.”
“Save the cover-your-ass speech, Evan,” snapped the president, “and tell me what happened.”
Tucker sat back and composed himself. The president had read him exactly right. That was his CYA speech, but at least he had said it.
“Lloyd Carson apparently got on the radar of the North Korean’s state security people.”
“How?”
“The entire country is one huge pool of paranoia where everyone spies on everyone else, sir. That’s built into their psyche from the cradle. It truly is like Orwell’s novel.”
“So he got on their radar. Then what?” said the president tersely.
“He was traveling outside the country. He had stops along the way, so he flew to Istanbul and boarded the Orient Express, which would take him first to eastern Europe and then on to western Europe, ending in Venice.”