14.
THE TOURIST
Maurice Northcot went straight from the briefing to Bourleywood House, in the Cotswolds.
“It’s good of you to drive me down, James,” he said to Piper. “It’s not often I get the boss to take me out in his car for a ride through the British countryside!”
“It’s not often I get to visit The House, either,” replied the Head of Section 7. “Good chance to do so, since you’ll be there. We can talk for a bit, but I must get back after dinner”
“I thought the briefing went rather well, didn’t you?” queried Maurice.
“Funny chap, Jack Salisbury,” replied Piper. “On top of his job and on top of his subject, but never appears as if he is, somehow.”
“Nobody quibbled about anything.”
“More than they dared do, probably. There’s nobody higher than him to complain too, apart from the PM!”
“It was a bit frightening, in a way, being there with all that lot,” said Maurice. “It made me realise that I have to succeed, with all that power behind the operation. I’ve never been to a briefing quite like that before.”
“You’ll succeed,” countered Piper. “You wouldn’t be going if we didn’t believe that.”
“A couple of weeks down here will be useful though. Brush up my technical Chosŏnŏ, for a start.”
“There’s a lot more to it than that. Your whole time there is specially tailored towards you and what you have to do at the end of it. You are the sole centre of attention for those selected to help you and to run the course. There is nobody else.”
“I’ve been on the lecturing side of courses like that before, a couple of times. Who’s in charge? Anyone I know?”
“Warren Russell.”
“I thought he was Director of the place?”
“He is. That’s why he’s in charge. Your next bit of travelling is of the utmost importance – I hope you realise that. So we are making sure as best we can that you know everything you need to know and have everything you need to have before you go.”
“Sounds like a busy couple of weeks.”
“Not just lectures and briefings, either. They will get you kitted out, as well. We’ve got some really high-tech stuff for you, which I’m interested in seeing for myself. But you’ll have a whole two weeks of intensive training, including time with the SAS to get you fit, and some time with Doc Perkins to make sure you are.”
“Hope all the new technology works!”
“A lot of it will work without you having to do anything, but there are a couple of new bits of communications stuff you will need to be briefed on. One of them has to be fitted.”
Piper looked across at his passenger, and then had to swerve to miss a Pheasant idly crossing the road.
“You nearly caught dinner!” said Maurice.
“They get cocky when they’re out of season.”
Piper was pleased to see that Northcot appeared to be so relaxed about things. He’d done it all before, of course, but nothing quite like this.
“Does this operation worry you at all – just between us, of course?” asked Piper.
“Not specially.” Northcot was almost casual about it. “I know what I have to do, so I shall just get on and do it. Same as always.”
Piper shook his head.
“I think going in as a tourist is a neat idea, I must say,” said Northcot. “All open and above board – proper visas, tour guides and everything. Nothing to draw me to their attention. Just an ordinary guy, one of the crowd out for some sightseeing.”
“Until you disappear off their radar, of course.”
“I haven’t quite worked out how to do that yet,” admitted Northcot. “Much will depend on your back-up people already over there, and how they plan that I should collect our trophy when it’s ready. I just hope I don’t have to hang around too long before Dr. Choi gets it all together. Your guys on the ground over there are mostly disaffected locals, didn’t you say? I shall probably have to play it by ear after I’ve got the goods, unless they can lay on some sort of escape route for me.”
“Not a problem?”
“Hope not. I’ve had to do it before, not least on the last trip to Jakarta. Something will turn up. But I must take as much time as possible while I’m down here studying maps and photographs and so on. I shall need to feel that I know the place inside out, and that I’ve lived over there all my life once I get there. The only problem is that although I can speak and read and write their language, I don’t look like one of them. I shall stick out like a sore thumb, if I’m not careful, so once I have collected, I shall probably have to keep out of sight as much as possible.”
“Which means?”
“Which will mean travelling by night, probably, unless there’s a good escape route set up for me with contacts, guides and so on. And even if there is, it might not work, judging from what little I know of the people over there and the regime they live in. It will only take one weak link in the chain to break, and I shall be on my own.”
James frowned.
“My problem is that our contacts over there are mostly disaffected locals. They’re not people from here, working from the Embassy or Consulate as they usually are when you travel. I’m sure they will do their best to help us, but we have no direct control over most of them. Some we do. Some are ours sent in from here, and they will be trying to organise the rest, but as you say, one weak link and the whole chain breaks.”
“How will they know when Dr. Choi is ready to deliver, and how will he know that I’m on my way to collect?”
“There is a form of chain-of command, and we shall be able to get word through, but the whole show is a bit shaky, to be honest. We think the people we’re using are all trustworthy, but …”
Piper sighed.
“Trust nobody, seems to be their own moto.”
“That’s just what I intend to do! Trust nobody! There are a couple of things I need to discuss with you, though.”
“Such as?”
“I gather the plan is that I shall collect the trophy from one of our people already over there – time and place yet to be determined of course. But what happens if we fail to meet up as planned?”
“We shall give you Dr. Choi’s address, just in case.”
“And what makes you think he’ll trust me if I just turn up and knock on his door, always assuming he’s still at home and not in hospital.”
“We shall give you photos of Lee Cooper with yourself and Choi’s nephew, Yong. That should be enough, and we’re making he sure he prepares at least two sets of ‘trophy’ material, in case one gets lost somehow. He’ll know how to recognise you if you have to contact him direct, but if the current plan works, you’ll pick up the stuff from a middle man and you won’t need to.”
“If I miss the ‘drop’ and the escape route folds up as well, then I may be away some time!”
He looked across at James Piper.
“Getting out on my own won’t be too easy, thinking about it. It might not be a very good idea trying to make my way across China with a pocket full of their nuclear secrets.”
“We should know where you are, and will try to arrange help if things go a bit pear-shaped. And you’ll have all the documents, passports, visas and papers you could ever need.”
“Even if I have to get out through Russia?”
“Even that, although I wouldn’t recommend that route. It’s only a short border and about as far northeast as you can get from where you’ll be operating. But you’ll have the right papers if you need them. Forgeries, of course, but they’ve never been spotted before.”
“Thanks. You’ve no idea how vital that sort of back-up is.”
“Your team here will start your briefing by telling you all about your ‘holiday’. How it’s booked, what the rules are for tourists and all that. It’s a firm that specialises in trips to North Korea, and we’ve used them before a couple of times. Everything seems to work. They’re based in Sweden, and used extensively by MUST and SÄPO, the Swedish intelligence agencies.”
“I hope they’re good at getting tourists back from there as well.”
“It’s a return package. There were options, but we’ve booked you home via South Korea, as it happens, rather than through China again.”
“Why?”
“It gives you a further set of options, ending up in a friendly country. If everything goes according to plan, you should be back in Seoul in four days, having made the pick-up. We’re still working on the details, but getting across from North to South is tricky if you’re on your own. The Demilitarised Zone dividing the two countries is claimed to be the most dangerous place on earth.”
“So how do tourists manage?”
“They go round it, rather than across it, via Beijing. But with any luck, you’ll be able to do the pick-up during part of your planned tour – a brush-pass, or bag-swap or something like that. It should be seamless”
They pulled into the grounds of Bourleywood House, and drove to the tradesmen’s entrance at the back of the building, rather than the imposing front entrance used by visitors to the National Trust house and grounds.
“One of your briefers will take you to your room,” said Piper, “and if I may, I’ll join you for dinner in the mess, with Warren. Your first briefing session is later this evening. After dinner, you’ll be in the hands of Warren and the people he’s gathered together here. I’ll see you again when you get back from your trip, but we shall be able to keep in touch while you’re over there. You’ll be given a code name, by the way. Dr. Penny.”
“Like ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’, you mean?”
“Something like that.”
“See you for dinner, then.”
There was, after all, roast Pheasant on the menu.
***
The after-dinner session was long one, and the start of one of the most intensive briefings that Maurice had ever experienced. If it did nothing else, it made him realise that this was not a routine mission.
This was special.
And could be his last.
The details he was given about his itinerary were certainly better than any other holiday-maker on his tour would get. They would need to rely on information provided by the tour agency, supplemented by any guide books they could find.
He was given one of those as well, to help him look the part as much as anything, but the rest of his party would not have received anything like the detailed presentation of films, photographs and maps, some of them marked ‘Secret’, to which Maurice was subjected later that evening.
The briefing session was about the tourist part of the exercise, and he was given a crib sheet at the end of it, marked ‘Secret’. It had to be returned and handed in before he left The House. It contained all the sort of details his tour company might otherwise have provided, and more besides.
Like:-
Don’t drink water out of the tap, because the power supply is not up to purifying it – bottled water only.
Be nice to the two guides (minders) who will be allocated to you – they are only doing their job, but they will be with you everywhere, all the time. Don’t try to lose them unless/until you have to.
Tourists are not allowed to use the local currency (Won), so if you need to buy anything, use US Dollars or Euros. You will be given plenty of cash, but you will need to account for it on your return, using form FC 17.
Keep at least one of your passports with you. You will actually be given several, each with the appropriate historic and current visas. Depending on where you are, make sure you present the right one when asked. Your North Korean visa will include two for China as well, since you will be staging via Beijing (On the way in, at least)
Unless (or until) you need to break away from the tour party, do what the itinerary says – hotels, meals, excursions and so on.
You will be given an RV for the drop. Stick to the plan.
It is best not to take photographs, so we shall not be giving you a camera. (Not the sort tourists use, anyway.)
As a tourist, you will not be able to move around the country without at least one of your allocated guides, who may be able to arrange special trips for you (not recommended). They like cigarettes, US Dollars and Chinese Yuan. Similarly, you may not leave your hotel without a guide (minder).
Your hotel will only have hot water for an hour before breakfast and an hour before dinner, because of power shortages. Your back-pack will include wet-wipes.
Your passport(s) (forgeries) will look well used, and contain a variety of visas for America, Israel, South Korea and other places adventurous tourist like you tend to visit. These visas will not cause any problems, but note that US citizens may not travel by rail in North Korea. If you need to avoid Lou Lopez or any other member of the CIA, catch the train.
And so on.
***
Northcot was up early next morning. He was soon to realise that the rest of his stay at The House would be no picnic. A lot of people had obviously given a lot of thought to what it was he had to do, and how he should be best prepared to do it.
For a start, he had twice-daily briefings about the situation in North Korea in terms of the support being put together, the planning for his reception, ‘the drop’, and his eventual escape if he was unable to return with his fellow tourists. There was little news of how Dr.Choi was getting on, but someone over there was obviously now in regular contact with him, so he also knew what was being organised.
Everything at Bourleywood House was planned down to the last detail. He wore clothing, as he would from now on, made in Korea and China – not a Marks and Spencer label in sight.
He had a miserable 48-hours with the SAS, who made sure he knew how to get about at night in strange countryside, and to navigate as well as survive.
The roast pheasant was the last he tasted of anything approaching British food. On some days and nights, he had to eat what he could forage, or go hungry.
The technical briefings about the equipment he was to take were fascinating, to say the least. In spite of the many years he had spent in the service, he had no idea about some of the technology which he was to take with him on this mission. It was small, powerful, and virtually undetectable, but he would be very limited in his ability to communicate with HQ, or for them to get in touch with him. Personal contact with a few people on the ground would be about the best he could expect occasionally, but there was no guarantee attached to that either.
Neither had he realised how far behind he had slipped in his knowledge of the Korean language.
It was a pleasant and unexpected surprise when Betty Ogden turned up to put him through his paces and brush up his vocabulary. They spoke no English the whole time she was there, and officially, she had taken a weekend’s ‘sick leave’ from her lectures at the Westminster University specially to be there.
But she brought unexpected news as well, when she told Maurice quietly that she would not be returning to the Pyongyang University as originally planned.
“It has been decided that I should not return,” she said, “largely for my own safety they claim.”
“How is that?” asked Maurice.
“They think that the authorities may well be suspicious of Choi Yong when he returns, because of what happened when his two colleagues were deported, and that some sort of finger of suspicion could point my way. To be on the safe side, they think I should not return.”
“Well, if your safety is at risk, then of course you must stay,” replied Maurice. “But what about Yong?”
“He will return as planned. Everything has been explained to him, and although he is tempted to defect, he has said he wants to get back to his uncle while he is still alive, and to finish his studies in Pyongyang. He has been convinced, I think, that if he really wants to help the international community, then he can best do so by staying in North Korea, completing his studies and hopefully then getting work in their nuclear industry, rather than by remaining here.”
“That makes sense.”
“There is also concern over the future of the British Council over there, apparently. I am told that there have already been veiled threats to close down its operation, and that is deemed too valuable to put at risk. So I am not returning,” she said.
“What next, then? A desk in London?”
“Most of the time, I expect, but I shall spend some time here, in the language school.”
“I shall look forward to seeing you when I get back, then,” said Maurice.
“I get a flat in town as part of the job,” she said. “There’s a put-u-up in the sitting room if ever you’re desperate.”
“I might be glad of that if I can’t get down to the cottage. Thanks.”
“I do hope you do get back safely,” said Betty, “But we must get on with your own technical tuition – we have gossiped enough!”
Another surprise was when Choi Yong turned up. Again, they spoke no English while they were together, but Choi was able to tell him the latest news about his uncle Shin; about his health and about how he was progressing with preparing the information which Maurice was to collect. Special communications links had been set up between them. Yong was obviously now well ‘turned’ and working for the UK without question.
It seemed to Yong that his uncle was pressing ahead with all speed, and that plenty of worthwhile material would be available ‘for collection’ in a couple of weeks.
“He is running a great risk, doing what he is doing,” said Yong, “and it almost seems that he has thrown caution to the wind to collect the information you want as quickly as possible. I am afraid that he may no longer be taking special precautions.”
“The timing could fit quite well,” said Maurice. “I should be ready to leave in a couple of weeks, and there is a tour available from Stockholm at about that time on which I have been booked.”
“I don’t envy you your holiday,” said Yong. “I shall be returning home when the time comes, but you will be in a strange land among strange people on a dangerous mission.”
“I thought at one time,” said Maurice, “that you wanted to stay in this country; to defect.”
“At one time, I did, you are quite right,” he confirmed, “but I have been persuaded by your colleagues that I would be of more use returning home. I can gain my qualifications, perhaps follow my uncle’s footsteps, and be in a position to provide you with more information as time goes on. Staying here would not achieve that. I am sure it is what my uncle would want and expect of me.”
“And we shall still be able to keep in touch as well,” added Maurice, with a smile.
“I shall be sad though that Miss Ogden will not after all be returning with me. She has been invaluable in my studies, and in helping me since I’ve been here to meet people like you and Lee Cooper. But I think I understand the reason. She could well be in danger if she returns and is held responsible for the deportation of Lee and Cheong.”
Later on that weekend Maurice and Yong were unexpectedly able to meet Kang Soo, the SAS soldier who had successfully escaped and made his way home after the murder of his colleague Park Yon at Yongbyon. He had immediately been sent to Bourleywood House.
What he had to tell them was invaluable. He had been given what the military had called a ‘hot debrief’ as soon as he reached Hereford, and people from MI6 had naturally been present at that as well, but simply chatting to Maurice about his experiences and what everyday life was like both in North Korea and rural China proved a gold-mine of useful detail which he might not otherwise have learnt.
Yong, of course, was fascinated to meet one of the two men who had been sent as emissaries to his father.
“It was the brutal execution of your colleague which finally convinced my uncle that he should help this country,” said Yong. “But by then, of course, it was too late to take advantage of your bravery in getting over there to make contact with either of you.”
“I could have stayed on,” replied Soo, “but I was ordered home so had no real choice.”
He looked at Maurice, almost pleadingly.
“However,” he said, “if you need help and an escort on your visit, I will happily volunteer to come with you.”
Maurice nodded and understood. After a moment’s thought he said simply, “I think I might be better on my own to be honest, in spite of the fact that Dr. Choi might recognise you but has never seen me before.”
This time, Soo nodded and also understood.
“But I am told to stay here for as long as you are here, and to help whenever I can with your briefing,” he said.
The longer he was at The House, the more detailed Northcot’s briefings became. They went through his itinerary with a fine toothcomb, until he knew all the details backwards. They went through his documentation more than once, and showed him literally hundreds of photographs, satellite pictures and film, especially of the really important parts of his tour. By the end of it all Northcot was confident that, if everyone else played their part as planned, he could successful meet the objective of his mission.
Only one thing concerned him.
It was going to be difficult for him to communicate with London, or they with him.
He was not used to that.
He really would be operating on his own.
***
He eventually left the tranquil countryside of the Cotswolds for a short flight from Birmingham airport to Stockholm.
He was now no longer an agent of MI6.
He was a tourist.
A traveller.
But he had with him all the paraphernalia which went with both.
He stayed the night in Stockholm, which he knew well anyway, and left for Beijing the following morning after he had met up at the airport with the rest of his tour party. There, they transferred to Air Koryo flight JS152 from Terminal 2 at the Capital Airport, and flew to Pyongyang, on board a reasonably new Russian Tupolev TU-204.
They arrived more or less on time, and were greeted by their tour guides, who from now on would be with them everywhere, all the time. There would be no escaping their ‘minders’. Northcot was somewhat surprised that they were really quite pleasant people, and not the sinister individuals he had almost been expecting.
A gap in his briefing; he hoped there weren’t many others.
Not that he would see much of his escorts, as it happened.
Their bus took them on a tour of Pyongyang on the way to the Yanggakdo four-star Hotel, an extravagant-looking building on an island in the Taedong River. It was already plain to see that Pyongyang was the home of the rich and privileged members of North Korean society, developed as a sign to the outside world that the country was as prosperous as the regime’s propaganda claimed.
Before dinner, the visitors just had time to freshen up during the evening’s one hour of warm water at the Hotel.
The next day was to be the climax of Northcot’s visit.
It was the day allocated for ‘the drop’.
He and his party of tourists were scheduled to drive to Kaesong, about 10 miles from the Demilitarised Zone which separated the two Koreas. They were also scheduled to visit the DMZ itself. At the abandoned village of Panmunjom, where the 1953 Armistice was signed, the tour included a visit to the Military Museum on the 38th parallel.
Northcot was scheduled to buy a rather special souvenir there from a rather special trader.
But there was no trader and no souvenir.
The Bourleywood House plan had collapsed already.
This was not the easiest place on earth from which to make an escape, either. Their allocation of guides had been implemented by several North Korean officers who had showed them round Panmunjom.
But somehow, Northcot had to dodge the party and abandon the tour, not least because this was as close as he could get to his escape route.
The tour party was next scheduled to take a walk in Janamsan Park, noted for its panoramic views of historic Kaesong, and it was here that he managed to slip away unseen, and hide among the rather overgrown shrubs and bushes away from the main viewing points.
Thinking about it afterwards, the others had to admit that he didn’t quite look like an ordinary tourist.
No sandals, no shorts, no trainers, but jeans and ‘sensible’ shoes.
He was not missed until the party returned to the coach for their drive into Kaesong for lunch, but by then, it was too late.
They had all left their backpacks on the coach. Northcot had kept his with him.
He was away.
He made his way deeper into cover, and decided to wait for the next tour party to arrive at the Museum, in case his souvenir seller should turn up then.
He didn’t.
It was dangerous for Northcot to hang around the museum and tag on to too many coach parties. He would soon be noticed.
Indeed, he was already wondering if there weren’t rather more soldiers around than there were when they arrived yesterday. He had even seen some of them in the Park.
He concluded that, having missed him on the coach, they were now looking for him.
Searching, even.
There was now only one option open to Northcot. He would have to make his way to Yongbyon, about 100 miles north of Pyongyang, and find Dr Choi.
He would be heading away from safety and possible escape, which lay south. He was going north. Not for the first time recently, he wondered if he’d perhaps done enough travelling.
Maurice realised that they were in some way able to track his movements at HQ, but he had to send a message just the same.
“No drop.”
It was enough to send James Piper, and others, apoplectic.
Not just because of Maurice, but also because of what might have happened to ‘the trophy’ which the souvenir seller was supposed to have sold to him.
Like Maurice, the Museum trader was one of their top men in North Korea, and locally recruited. If he had been betrayed, then their whole network could be in jeopardy.
And that meant real trouble for Northcot and his mission.
***
Piper went straight to ‘C’s’ office.
Something had to be done, and done quickly.
They had half talked about this before, but had made no firm contingency plans, never believing for a minute that the original scenario so carefully planned and discussed at Bourleywood House would fail so early.
It was plain that something had gone seriously wrong - the word ‘treachery’ sprang to mind – and that immediate action needed to be taken if the mission itself as well as the people involved in it, was to be saved.
Sir Geoffrey Sefton got hold of Jack Salisbury on the red phone, told him that the mission had failed at the first fence, and agreed to meet straight away to discuss yet another Plan B.
There were three things for them to decide as a matter of the utmost urgency. First of all, should Northcot be brought home with all speed, or left there to make one further attempt to obtain the precious information he had gone to collect. Secondly, if they did decide to press on in spite of everything, how could they now help Northcot to succeed? And thirdly, what had gone wrong so quickly into the venture. Post mortems are usually the last thing one does – in this case it was vital to quickly establish what might have caused this failure in order to decide whether it might happen again if they pressed ahead.
There was one other element to all this as well, as Piper pointed out, and which they had better all bear in mind.
Northcot himself.
Whatever they decided in London, they now had no direct control over Maurice Northcot. Knowing the man, he was as likely to press on as not, regardless of the odds or what London might think.
Indeed, it was a pretty fair assumption, that this was what he had already done.
Surprisingly, Jack Salisbury himself pondered an even higher priority.
“It’s no use us sitting here deliberating about what went wrong and what to do next,” he said, “until we know why things have gone wrong. Unless we know that, whatever we decide to do next could also – um – go wrong.”
“The problem is, Jack, that at present my whole admittedly rather shaky organisation in North Korea, seems to have fallen apart.”
“Quite so,” said Salisbury. “Quite so. But not because of anything they could have done.”
They looked puzzled.
“They have been betrayed, as we all have, by someone here.”
He scowled at them all.
“Someone here told them what to expect, and someone there was then able to stop it happening.”
He l