33

 

State Department

Washington, DC

Su was devastated by Nash’s SMS message and then his call. Like Nash, she’d believed both You Moon and Kim Grace would be safe and freed from North Korea’s brutal Camp 16 complex. The news that they were to be executed just hours from now was more than Su could bear.

Nash and Su had quickly formulated a plan. Nash would talk to his father, relay the news about nuclear materials, and put his father on a path to deal directly with Pyongyang on the release of You Moon and Kim Grace. But that would take time—which their friends did not have. It was Su’s job to intervene from Washington.

It was very late in the day at State. Most of the vast bureaucracy had gone for the day. But Su knew that at least one person would still be there. Alex Cooper, the secretary’s brilliant, peripatetic director of science and innovation, was nearly always in his office long after the sun had gone down.

Today, thankfully, Alex was still there. “Can I talk?” Su asked as she fairly burst into his office minutes after getting off the phone with Nash.

Alex looked up from behind his terribly cluttered, messy desk. Stacks of paper were strewn across it and piled high on either side. “Always,” Alex said with a wan smile.

Su was one of his favorite people in the building. They shared a common belief in the power of Nash’s “relentless, positive storm” to remake the world for good.

“I need your help,” she said breathlessly.

“Tell me what you need.”

“Can you call the US ambassador in Seoul?”

Alex glanced at the map of world time zones he kept hanging to one side of his desk. He always struggled to keep track of the times in other parts of the world, and the map helped. “It’s the middle of the night there. I doubt if the ambassador is—”

“Can you call him?” Su demanded, much too loudly for the small office.

Alex studied his friend. She was clearly troubled. He would find out why at some point. But now he would do as she asked, without question. “Of course, Su. You can tell me what this is about while I find the number at the residence.”

“Thank you,” Su said more quietly.

Alex typed in a couple of commands on the MacBook Pro that he used as his office computer. An instant later, the telephone number for the US ambassador in South Korea’s capital appeared on his screen. He dialed the number from his Skype account and switched the video on. He wanted the ambassador to see him, via video, while he talked. He knew he’d likely get in trouble for this, but he didn’t care. If this was important to Su, it was important to him.

“So quickly, why am I calling him?” Alex asked while the number rang.

“To ask him to intervene in something immediately,” Su said. “They are going to execute two people in the morning—in just a few hours. We need to ask him to call the peace negotiators who are working through the agreements in Pyongyang…”

“Su, you do know that we can’t really make demands of the North Koreans right now, not on something like prisoners,” Alex said. “Internal security matters are their own concern. We can’t intervene in those things. We’re only concerned with matters of state—nuclear materials, troops on the peninsula, things like that.”

“I don’t care,” Su said. “This is a matter of state. The lives of these two people are critical to the national security interests of the United States. They have information vital to us, and we must keep them alive.”

Alex chose not to question Su further. There wasn’t time. “Their names? And where are they?”

“You Moon. He’s a personal boyhood friend of Pak Jong Un. He’s at Camp 16, along with another prisoner, Kim Grace. She’s the nuclear engineer who tipped us off to the nuclear activities near the camp.”

Someone answered on the other end. A video circle swirled on the Skype screen. “And they’re to be executed this morning?” Alex whispered. “How do you know that?”

“Nash got an mVillage message from You Moon.”

Alex nodded. The Skype connection finished. “Hello?” Alex asked. “This is Alex Cooper at the State Department in Washington, DC. I am calling from Secretary Moran’s office. Who am I speaking to?”

“My name is Emma Broddle,” the voice said sleepily, as if the call had awakened her. “I’m the cultural attaché here at the embassy.”

“May I speak to the ambassador?” Alex asked.

“I’m sorry, but he’s on travel,” Emma reported.

“Do you have a number for him? May I call him?”

“He’s in Pyongyang,” Emma said. “I think I can probably get a number for him, but I’ll have to get it from his executive assistant here at the residence. Can I tell her what it’s about?”

Alex glanced over at Su. She nodded. “Yes, tell her I need to speak to the ambassador about two North Korean prisoners who are about to be executed at Camp 16 in a few hours. These two prisoners are vital to the national security of the United States. I would like the ambassador to lodge a formal protest at the talks, which should halt the executions for now.”

Alex could see that the news had startled the young woman, who was clearly new to this sort of thing. But Emma didn’t blink or pause. “Yes, sir, I understand,” she said quickly. “Can I have the names of the two prisoners, so I can relay that information to the ambassador?”

“You Moon and Kim Grace,” Alex said. “You Moon is a boyhood friend of the new North Korean leader. He is at their principal camp for ex-government leaders. Camp 16.”

“And can you safely give me enough information about the national security implications I can relay to the ambassador?”

“You Moon has information that he wishes to provide—information that bears directly on the talks that are underway there in Pyongyang,” Alex said firmly. “But the ambassador is not to share that information with anyone. It is for him—and no one else—to know.”

“I understand,” Emma said. “I will deliver the message to him and then report back once I have news for you.”