It had not, after that, been too difficult to arrange for Choi Yong and two of his colleagues to follow her there to further their studies in London.
With a disaffected Uncle working on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, Yong would be a good catch if he could be landed.
***
Because Betty’s job at the University was full-time, it was the weekend before they could all get together. Not that weekends were ever anything special to people in the intelligence world. One day was much the same as any other. The only real difference today was that they were in casual dress. That meant that James Piper was not wearing a tie for a change, but it was his office after all.
“Thanks for coming in,” he said, as his secretary brought in mugs of coffee. “There are questions to ask about our three students from North Korea, so we hope you can help with some answers, Betty.”
“If I can, of course. Things seem to be moving forward at last,” she said. It was almost a question rather than a statement. “I’m interested to know how things are going from your point of view, after so much effort trying to get you to meet them,” she said to Maurice Northcot, the only other person present.
“Thanks to you,” Maurice replied, “I’ve met all three of them once, and since then had two further meetings with Choi Yong while you were at Stratford.”
“Good move, that, getting the other two away,” commented James. “But communicating with you is proving a problem which we need to address today, among other things.”
Betty nodded. “I can appreciate that,” she said. “But I can’t use normal methods, like personal mobile phones. I dare not risk blowing my cover.”
“Quite. But now this operation at last appears to be underway, it’s important that we can keep in touch, and get hold of you when we need to.”
“Agreed; and I may need to contact you, too, although the whole thing could be complicated by the fact that I spend so much of my time in a classroom or doing tutorials.”
“Do you have any sort of timetable for your work at the University?” asked Maurice. “Are there times when you can be contacted more easily than others?”
“Yes, there are, although always subject to change of course. It’s that sort of job, unlike a normal school with a regular curriculum. I’ll email a work schedule to both of you,” promised Betty.
“That’s helpful. And you have the secure mobile phone, which we shall use from now on. If for some reason you can’t speak, say so and ring us back as soon as possible.”
“Weekends and evenings are probably the best times for us to make contact, and for me to talk quietly to our two targets. But ring any time, and hope for the best.”
“Good. Keep the Satcom with you and on stand-by at all times from now on, then,” ordered James. “Now, there were a couple of things earlier on which puzzled us, and we still don’t properly understand.”
“For a start,” said Maurice, “Yong left me a message to ‘meet again’, written in his native script. How could he possibly know I could read Chŏsongŭl, or was he just guessing? It put me in a difficult situation, not knowing whether or not you had told him.”
“He doesn’t know. I have certainly never mentioned you to him at all. He has no idea that we are in any way connected, or that between us we engineered your first meeting. As for his message, I think he was just flying a kite. After all, you did tell them you were interested in North Korea and would like to learn more about it from them. Perhaps he suspected that he and his colleagues were being set up and was just checking you out. He’s very bright young man, is Yong.”
“Why would he suspect the meeting was anything other than a coincidence? I was just a complete stranger who happened to sit at their table to eat my lunch.”
“It was their first time out of the confines of the University, don’t forget. They were all bound to be a bit on edge, especially as they had their minder Cheong Sung with them.”
“He could prove to be a bit of a handicap, that fellow,” said James. “We’ll talk about him later.”
“I’d like to know how you found out about our second meeting, and managed to get the others out of the way to Stratford,” said Maurice.
Betty looked at James, her Head of Section.
“I hope you don’t mind,” she said, “but I arranged for their room at the lodgings where they are staying to be bugged. Perhaps I should have asked you first.”
“Who did it?” demanded James.
“Len Ellis,” she replied.
“Another smart move,” replied James with a grin. “He’s one of our best technical officers, as I’m sure you know.”
“He got proper authority, since he had to break in to do it,” said Betty. “It’s just that we didn’t ask you first.”
“Forget it,” said James.
“It would be useful to have a feed off that, so that I know what’s being discussed,” said Maurice. “It would save you having to pass on anything interesting.”
“I’ll get Len to fix that.”
“To my office will be fine. Is it audio or video as well?”
“Just audio. Len didn’t have time to do both, and there didn’t seem to be any point anyway.”
“What’s been the tone of their general chat recently,” asked James. “Anything interesting?”
“Yong and his buddy Lee Kwang-sun find it difficult to talk privately between themselves since Cheong Sung is always around,” reported Betty. “He is already proving a nuisance by just being there, and he is a proper zealot, utterly devoted to the Great Leader and to his country. I had the utmost difficulty in persuading them all that they really should get out to meet ordinary people. Their written English is OK, but their spoken English totally lacks idiom, which they will only ever learn by mixing with others. They don’t even mix with other students. As you know, it took Cheong ages to be convinced, and then even longer to convince their embassy people, but their movements are still very restricted.”
“By the embassy or by Cheong?” asked James.
“Cheong.”
“He’ll have to go!” Maurice was only half joking. “But you can’t help wondering why he keeps them under such close scrutiny. Does he have some reason to suspect that they might defect?”
“Always possible, I suppose,” replied James.
“I shall need to have several further meetings with Yong and Kwang-sun, together and probably separately as well, and it would be very useful to meet in different places from time to time.”
“It would help their studies, too,” said Betty. “But I doubt Cheong would ever agree, even if he joined them.”
“Having him hanging around is the last thing I want. I might just as well not meet them at all if he’s there.”
Head of Section 7 nodded
“If the two of them could get away from Cheong, we could meet anywhere that gives a us bit of privacy – on a river boat down the Thames, for instance, or a stroll in St. James’s Park. That would give them a bit more confidence, too, if they didn’t think they are being followed or could be overheard.”
“I’ll need to think about this,” said James. “But tell me more about Kwang-sun. What can he bring to this party?”
“There’s no doubt in my mind,” replied Betty, “that Yong is desperate to stay in this country, and there’s no doubt either that he has an Uncle working at a senior level on their nuclear weapons programme. Yong even claims that his uncle has been to this country on an official visit.”
“He has. Such things are possible, but intensely difficult to arrange, under United Nations auspices as part of the reunification and normalisation process following the war between North and South.”
“I didn’t know that,” said Betty, surprised.
“We have the dates, and managed to learn quite a lot about the guy while he was here.” said James. “As a matter of interest, he visited America, too, but wasn’t keen on the place or the people apparently.”
“So we need Yong so tha
t we can keep in contact with his Uncle?”
“Exactly.”
“But what about Kwang-sun?” asked Maurice “Why should we help him? Can he even be trusted?”
“Can any of them,” questioned James.
“There’s a lot more work to be done before we can answer than one,” said Betty. “But I think Kwang-sun is equally desperate to stay here, and for much the same reason as Yong – better life-style, freedom of movement and expression, and a general dislike for the way things are run back home. Like the rest of them, though, he is also frightened by the regime and what it might do to his family if he defects, so he is looking for help to achieve that in a way which won’t arouse suspicion.”
“The question still is, ‘why should we?’ Has he anything to offer in return for his freedom? Can we use him in any way?”
“Kwang-sun claims that his father works at the same nuclear facility as Yong’s Uncle – some sort of technician. Not on the same level as Yong, but another useful contact if he is to be believed.”
“Why does he not just apply for asylum?”
“That would be to put his family at risk, which he wants to avoid. He needs to simply disappear, same as Yong,” said Maurice.
“Just about impossible with Cheong hanging around,” said Betty. “Much of their chat in their room has been about that, and how it might be achieved, with or without your help, Maurice, but they are pinning their hope on you at the moment. And your friends.”
“It’s odd that they should apparently trust me, and believe that I can and will help them. I think it’s very suspicious, personally.”
“Well, I don’t agree,” said James. “Apart from their tutors, you are the only other person they have met, so they have no-one else to turn to.”
“And they must know the teaching staff would be unlikely to help them,” added Betty. “They are University lecturers, not businessmen with a wide range of contacts, which is how they see you, Maurice.”
“If we do decide to help one or both of them stay here, I shall have to admit working for the Government at some time. Probably soon, in my view, if we are to keep him interested.”
“We need to be very sure they are not trying to get in as doubles or sleepers before you do that,” said James Piper.
“I’ve done what little checking I can,” said Maurice, “and there is nothing known about either of them other than what you have reported, Betty.”
“Knowing about Yong’s uncle doesn’t help us decide about young Mr. Kwang-sun, though.”
“He’s the difficult one, no doubt.”
“Would Yong stay, do you think, if we refused to help Kwang-sun?”
“Difficult to say,” replied Betty. “But he’s desperate enough so he probably would.”
“I’m not sure we can risk losing him and especially not his uncle,” said James. “It seems to me we have to plan to keep both. There’s no doubt his uncle is Yong’s trump card, and that he will play it as often as he needs to.”
He thought for a moment.
“When’s your next meeting?” he asked Maurice Northcot.
“Nothing planned,” he replied. “I’m playing hard to get at the moment and raising all sorts of doubts about them and why I should help them. But I have agreed to keep talking, and the deal is that Yong rings me at my ‘office’ when he thinks they can get away from Cheong. I’ve given them my ‘Aspect Management Consultants’ card, so that’s the number he’ll use. Any call will come through to the green phone in my office here.”
James pondered again.
“Something will have to be done about that man Cheong, otherwise they will never be able to get in touch.”
“And they can’t even get away to drop in at The Fitzroy Tavern on the off chance of catching you during your lunch break, either.”
“I shall only go there again if I know they are going to be there. It’s not my favourite pub!”
“Any thoughts about Cheong?” asked Betty.
“Let’s talk this through,” pondered James. “It seems the only way to give Yong and Kwang-Sun any freedom of action is to get rid of Cheong completely, or at least to get him out of the University. I take it he could not be replaced by another student minder, half way through their stay?”
He looked at Betty, who shook her head. “The University Board would never contemplate his replacement at this stage.”
“How is he doing, academically?” asked James. “Any chance of him being chucked off the course and sent home for lack of effort or something”?
“None. He’s doing well in all his subjects, according to colleagues, and is dedicated and hardworking, as his ‘Great Leader’ expects.”
“Why are you keen for him to be sent home, James?” asked Maurice. “There are plenty of other ways of making him disappear, I should have thought.”
“Such as?”
“Well, an accident, say. Fatal, of course, and easily arranged. Even food poisoning or a heart attack or something like that which could kill him off.”
“If he dies in this country, his body will have to be sent back to North Korea, where there’s bound to be an autopsy or post mortem or whatever they do over there, which puts us at risk if we engineer his death in some way. I would much prefer that he went home alive and in one piece.”
“In that case,” said Maurice, “we shall have to engineer some other reason. We can’t expel him from the University on academic grounds, so we shall have to dream up some other means of getting rid of him.”
“What about locking him up here until the future of the other two is settled?”
“Now that’s an idea,” said James. “Trump up some reason to have him arrested and charged.”
“And if we could think up some offence which is serious enough, like drug dealing, we might even get him deported.”
“If he gets sent home in disgrace, he will be condemned to one of their notorious labour camps, probably along with most of his family,” said James.
“I’m not sure I could live with that,” said Betty. “He’s quite a decent chap really, like the other two, and he can’t help being from a different and alien ideological background.”
“There doesn’t seem to me to be any way of getting him out of the country other than in disgrace. Even failing the University academic standards would be seen as a disgrace and him letting down his country.”
“Accident then,” said Maurice.
“For him to have an accident which does not involve the other two seems highly unlikely, given that he is never on his own. There are always three of them, together,” observed James.
“As a matter of interest, Betty,” asked Maurice, “how was it that Yong managed to evade your trip to Stratford?”
“All three were booked to go, but Yong pulled out at the last minute saying he felt ill. And I mean last minute. We were all on the coach.”
“Any other trips planned?”
“Not by me, but other lecturers arrange technical visits from time to time. I’ll see what’s in the diary if you like, in case something comes up which we could manipulate.”
They talked around the issues for half an hour or so but made no progress.
“Divide and rule is all very well,” said Betty, “but these three seem indivisible. The only times they are apart is when they are on individual lectures or tutorials within the University, and then they are normally in the company of other fellow students.”
“How long do we have, as a matter of interest?”
“I’m due back in Pyongyang in about three months,” replied Betty, “and they are due to return with me.”
“We are going round in circles at the moment,” he said. “We could sit here for ever and never come up with anything, so I suggest we call it a day. If anyone gets any workable idea of how to settle this, share it immediately, but it seems to me that finding a solution probably rests with you Betty. You’re in contact with them all the time, and unless you can organise something, nobody ever
will.”
“Thanks for nothing.”
12.
THE MESSAGE
It was about two weeks later that Maurice’s green phone rang. It was Yong.
“We can meet now if we are quick.”
“Where’s Cheong?”
“He has been called to our embassy with Kwang-Sun, and has just left by taxi.”
“Well, I could meet you in the Tavern, I suppose.”
“But it isn’t lunch time,” protested Yong.
“They’re open all day.”
“Please hurry. We may not have long.”
“I’ll get there as quickly as possible. Probably half an hour or so.”
“But you work nearby. Surely you can be quicker.”
“That’s the point. I work. And I’m not in my office at the moment, either.”
“You answered the phone.”
“Your call was diverted to my mobile.”
“Please hurry. I need to talk to you again to persuade you to help me.”
“Ok, Ok. I’ll get there as soon as I can. If you get there first, I’ll have a pint of best bitter.”
He put the phone down.
A genius has been at work, he thought. Called to the embassy? Left by taxi? One of ours, no doubt, provided by Section 11. I wonder if they’ll ever arrive. Or get back.
Betty rang on the secure line.
“You may soon get a phone call,” she announced.
“I’ve just had one.”
“You’ve got a few hours.”
“I need days, if not weeks.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
She rang off.
A genius at work.
***
The genius got on the phone to James Piper.
“I’ve just sent Lee Kwang-sun and Cheong Sung on a wild goose chase to their Embassy, so that Maurice can have an hour or so with Choi Yong on his own,” announced Betty.
“What sort of wild goose chase?” asked James.
“I said it was a family thing they wanted to talk about.”
“Not true?”
“Pure invention. The Embassy won’t have the slightest idea why they turn up – when they do. I sent them in a Section 11 taxi, and told them to take their time.”
“So why tell me?” enquired James.
“It occurred to me after they’d gone, that we may be able to get rid of them both for ever.”