The Master Hacker

The lights in the cockpit were dim in the darkness of the starlit cabin. The occasional flicker of a needle in one of the gauges caught the pilot’s eye, but the flight from China had been relatively smooth, and he would be glad to land the plane and get some rest before returning. The pilot glanced over at his copilot and smiled as he saw the man’s head appearing to be disjointed as it bobbed up and down in sleep - an activity he spent a lot of time perfecting. Checking the clock in the wall of gauges in front of him, the pilot decided to let the other man sleep a little longer before waking him up to assist during the landing of the craft. He didn’t like flying into North Korea for any reason; their military was suspicious of everything entering their country. They would rather shoot down any perceived threat, real or imagined, than allow it to land safely and then determine the reason for its arrival. As if flying into North Korea wasn’t bad enough, the cargo he was carrying was being guarded by a group of eight heavily armed Chinese soldiers who sat silently around a large, wooden crate that had been loaded onto the craft before he arrived to fly the mission. A quick look into the cargo hold had earned him a stern rebuke from one of the guards, accompanied by what some might describe as the deafening sound of several selector switches being turned from ‘safe’ to ‘fire’ on the AK-47’s with which they were armed. A loud voice coming through his headphones not only brought him back to focus on what he was doing, but also awakened the copilot as the same voice interrupted a dream when it came through his headset. The plane was on a glide path that would take it over a series of hills and into a valley where a military landing strip was located, and the pilot would soon be able to spot the two rows of parallel landing lights marking his destination. The guards, along with the unmarked crate, made the pilot uneasy, and he would be glad to get the plane on the ground and away from its cargo … both human and otherwise. She had been planning this trip for quite a while, even to the point of acquiring several disguises and passports in different names. Her hope was that these would help her cross different borders to reach her final destination in the United States. Her name was SunHee Nham, and her goal was to flee North Korea and live the remainder of what she knew would be a short life in relative freedom, rather than the cage in which she now found herself confined. Other than an uncle and niece who resided in the U. S., unbeknownst to both the Chinese and North Korean Governments, she had no family. This eliminated one of the major tools used by those countries to maintain control over their citizens whenever that option was deemed necessary to guarantee a desired result. The two governments had decided to control SunHee’s life to make sure she continued her work to develop a system that would protect both countries from missile attacks. The prototype of what she had developed now rested in the belly of a Chinese military transport plane that would soon be landing near the airport from which she planned to depart. She could feel the icy stares of guards stationed throughout the terminal, and wondered if they seemed so cold because she even thought of leaving such a paradise, or because she was leaving and they couldn’t. Her next step was to check in for a flight to Kuwait, one of the few countries North Korean international airlines, Air Koryo, flew to from which a direct flight to the U.S. could be made. With ticket in hand, she headed for the passport control section and struggled to keep her breathing under control and her demeanor natural. She had gone through this same procedure for several trips in the past, but none of them had been as important as the flight on which she was about to embark. The officer at the station watched her approach and closely scrutinized the passport she presented, probably looking for any excuse to refuse her passage to the flight waiting area, but finding none, he finally let her pass. As she entered the area, she looked at a departure schedule for her flight and saw that it was slated to leave on time. A quick glance at her watch showed she had less than half an hour to wait, and knew the aircraft would soon begin boarding. For the most part, she kept her head down as she walked because she knew making eye contact was not only sometimes taken as a challenge, but it was also difficult to remember people with whom no eye contact had been made. The speaker system came to life with the plane’s boarding announcement, and she made her way toward the gate along with the other passengers. She found it difficult to remain calm knowing her every move, along with those of the other passengers, were being closely watched by people monitoring security cameras throughout the terminal, but continued to calmly move toward the gate. When she was 10th in line from the final barrier to boarding the aircraft, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and watched as several armed men started to close in on the gate. Even though her heart began to race with the implication of her possible arrest, she forced herself to continue moving forward as if unaware of the activity. The squad of armed men began to move more quickly as the line of boarding passengers snaked slowly forward. When she was the third person in line, the traveler at the gate suddenly made a rush toward the tube leading to the plane, but was tackled by one of the armed men and dragged away screaming by the rest of the team. The woman taking tickets at the gate appeared to be a bit shaken, but forced a smile and tried to act as if nothing had happened while continuing to collect passes from the remaining passengers. What had occurred at the gate was not a topic for discussion among the seated passengers; everyone knew the matter was a state issue, and it was best to ignore such incidents. They were all satisfied to know they weren’t the one the guards had dragged away … especially SunHee. Once all the passengers were seated and buckled in, the pilot announced their impending departure, and SunHee tried to relax. So far everything was going as she had planned, except for the incident at the loading gate. It had caused her a great deal of anguish, and even though she realized she was still not in the clear, she was surprised she had gotten this far without being stopped. She checked her watch again and realized she only had a little more than half an hour to reach the next step in her plan, and she had no control over the events she envisioned happening. After removing what looked like a small makeup-compact from her purse, she opened the lid and pried the mirror from its backing, then pushed the button secreted beneath it before replacing the mirror and container in her purse. Several miles away, a device prepositioned by her came to life by emitting a red light that illuminated a small control panel displaying constantly changing numbers. The numbers were calculations of the angle of approach, altitude, and speed of the approaching Chinese cargo plane carrying SunHee’s anti-missile system prototype. When the numbers reached the ones she had programmed into the machine, it would fire a small ground to air missile at the plane that would guarantee not only its destruction, but also the antimissile system it was delivering to North Korea and all the personnel on board. She had no idea where the cargo plane was currently located, but knew the plane she was on would fly over the air strip where it was supposed to land. Once her aircraft took to the air and began to climb toward its designated cruising altitude, she looked out the window beside her seat hoping to see the flash of the missile hitting the plane. The resulting explosion would be the diversion she felt she needed to ensure her escape from the hell she had been forced to live in. The pilot of the cargo plane was listening to his copilot read through a prelanding check-list while confirming the position of dials, handles and gauges as they were called out. He had already received permission from the control tower to stay on his final approach to the strip, and everything was going smoothly when he cleared the last hill and spotted the landing lights on the strip. A sudden alarm began to sound inside the cockpit, and it had been so long since he last heard the noise, he didn’t initially recognize what it meant. One of the lights on the control panel began to flash, and he immediately knew what was happening. “Missile lock,” he almost screamed. He tried to recall the evasive steps he was supposed to take to outwit the projectile’s guidance system, but had no time to react before he spotted the fiery bloom of the missile being fired. The pilot had a death grip on the transmitter button as the missile hit the fuselage, and that allowed those in the control tower to hear him screaming. His horror-stricken voice was followed by the sound of the plane breaking up as parts of it, the antimissile system, and the humans on board fell to the ground. SunHee was looking out the window while her plane made a sweeping turn, and saw a flash she thought was close to the ground. As she continued watching, a bigger blossom of flame developed, and she felt sure it was the cargo plane exploding as it hit the ground. She felt certain the anti-missile system, such as it was, would be destroyed beyond anyone’s ability to duplicate or study its components, and it would be impossible for anyone to discover it didn’t work and was never intended to. That fact was surprising since she had been able to convince the governments of both China and North Korea that it would. She knew one other thing about which she had mixed emotions. No matter what happened from that point on, she would never again see her home or be able to spend time with the downtrodden citizens of her native country whose plight she had hoped to improve. Even so, she was pleased with what she had just accomplished. To celebrate her deed, she removed a sleep mask from her bag and placed it over her eyes not only to shut out the light, but also to hide her smile. What followed was the most restful sleep she had experienced in months.