‘Fortunately, there is an antidote of sorts: a mixture of atropine and diazepam, and another chemical called pralidoxime chloride — all of which are pretty nasty things in themselves. Decontamination wipes and powders are also available.’
‘Can I ask a question?’
‘Please, er, Ms…’
‘Gia Ferallo, CIA. Who invented this stuff?’
‘The Brits, Ms Ferallo, in 1953. Rumour has it they exchanged the technology with us, the United States, for thermonuclear secrets.’
‘Oh,’said Ferallo. She realised that her mouth was open, in shock. It had finally sunk in. They were being given this information for a reason, and it wasn’t to further their general knowledge. This was it, the scenario western governments all over the world had feared for a long time. Niven’s frightening words came back to her: terrorist organisation…twenty litres of VX nerve gas…the means to deliver it.
‘A while ago, Hollywood made a film starring VX called The Rock, with Nicolas Cage in the supporting role. You might like to get it out. A lot of the facts were wrong, but the movie got the point across about the toxicity of VX, and it’s quite entertaining,’ he said, smiling that brief smile of his before the frown returned.
‘Jesus, Spike. How reliable is the source for this?’ asked Greenway.
‘Very,’ said Niven, the muscles in his jaw bunching as he ground his molars.
‘Do we know where they got the VX from?’ Mortimer asked in a voice devoid of fear — ever the academic.
‘There are several likely sources. Exactly where is unknown. Possibly the missing Iraqi cache — a fraction of the stuff that supposedly didn’t exist. And that’s the most frightening option. It means that somewhere out there could be a thousand litres of this agent, and it opens up the feasibility of there being hidden stores of anthrax and botulism — and that it’s all accessible to terrorists. There’s also the possibility that it has come from some other source entirely — Iran’s the most likely suspect given the situation at the moment. But it could have come from Syria. Or from somewhere else in the region. While most countries don’t manufacture these weapons, many countries have small stocks of chemical and biological agents just for study purposes: Egypt, Saudi Arabia…We can’t just point the finger at Iraq. The reality is, we’ll probably never know.’
‘What about the delivery mechanism you mentioned? Would that give us an indication of the target?’ asked Meyer, who was still trying to get his head around the implications of this news.
‘Not really,’ said Niven. ‘If anything, it makes the possible scenarios worse.’ He touched a remote button and a screen filled with a picture of some kind of strangelooking aircraft. ‘They’ve got one of these. It’s a UAV, an acronym for “unmanned aerial vehicle”. A drone, basically. It’s one of ours, or rather, America’s.’
‘Great. And where the hell did they get one of those?’ asked Meyer, huffing irritably.
‘That we do know,’ said Niven. ‘Kadar told us it came from Israel. We’ve checked on that. One did go missing late last year. Shot down and not recovered. The Americans and Israelis believe it was purposely targeted for acquisition.’
‘Hang on,’ Ferallo said. ‘You mean the strike in this part of the world has been planned in the Middle East?’
‘My area is NBC, not intel,’ said Watson.
Ferallo frowned. Thanks.
‘Somehow, Kadar Al-Jahani managed to have it packaged and delivered to Babu Islam, somewhere in Indonesia,’ Niven said. ‘We have to assume the UAV is airworthy.’
‘And when it’s airworthy, what are the UAV’s capabilities?’ asked Meyer.
‘That would depend on what kind of damage it sustained when it crashed in Israel, and what sort of expertise is available to the terrorists to repair it. But, in standard trim, it can cruise for twelve hours at seventy-five miles per hour with a payload of around fifty kilos.’
‘With a tail wind, it could conceivably have a range in excess of a thousand miles,’ said Mortimer, quickly doing the sums.
‘Yes,’ Niven agreed.
‘Is the location of the terrorists’ base known?’ asked Mortimer.
‘No.’ Niven looked down at his notes, hoping that the answer might have miraculously appeared amongst them.
‘Beautiful,’ Meyer said, rolling his eyes. ‘Were the Americans perhaps a bit too heavy-handed with their interrogation of Al-Jahani?’
‘According to the report, Kadar Al-Jahani died from a pulmonary embolism,’ said Niven. ‘He developed a deep vein thrombosis that travelled to his lungs. Basically, he died from suffocation.’
‘Tremendous,’ Meyer said.
‘Look, Peter, getting pissed off is not going to help,’ said Niven. ‘What we need is your brain. For that matter, we need everyone’s brain here. The bottom line is, we’ve got to find BI’s base before they launch their drone.’
‘If they haven’t already done so,’ the ASIO boss muttered.
‘Which brings us to the next question: at what?’ Greenway asked, almost afraid to voice it. ‘What are they going to launch the thing at?’
‘We don’t know that either, but we have to think the worst,’ Niven said.
‘And that is?’
‘Darwin.’
There was a sudden intake of breath within the room.
‘Jesus,’ said Greenway, speaking for everyone.
‘How much Indonesian territory is within a radius of a thousand miles of Darwin?’ asked Meyer, thinking perhaps that they could work backwards from the target.
‘A lot,’ Mortimer said.
‘After the embassy bombing, the Indonesian army, in conjunction with the police, raided Babu Islam’s known encampment on Java,’ said Mahisa in clipped, heavily accented English, repeating the fact for those who weren’t aware of it. ‘But they had recently moved. Whether they were tipped off, or whether it was part of their plan to move after the bombing, we don’t know. We believe that they moved east — perhaps to Sumbawa or Flores, or maybe even West Papua. All are more remote and, of course, closer to Darwin than their Java base, and most certainly within the drone’s range.’
‘Well, that should narrow the search somewhat,’ Meyer said.
‘Yes, you would think so,’ said Mahisa, not picking up on Meyer’s sarcasm, ‘but these islands are rugged. It would take months to search them. And, of course, they might be somewhere else entirely.’
‘The captain is right,’ said Niven. ‘And we don’t know for sure that Darwin’s the target.’
‘Christ…so what do we do then?’ For the first time in his life, Peter Meyer felt at a loss, helpless.
Colonel Watson cut in. ‘While I believe it’s prudent not to sit on our hands, I also believe we have some time up our sleeve.’
‘Why is that, Colonel?’ Meyer asked.
‘The weather, sir,’ he said, putting the lid on his pen and setting it on the rail of the whiteboard. ‘VX has never been used to its full potential in war for a number of reasons, treaties banning its use notwithstanding. While it’s often called VX gas it is, in fact, a liquid at room temperature. It needs to be atomised so it can be spread over a maximum area. It’s carried on the wind, and if the wind changes, the droplets go with it. Basically, if you’re not real careful, you can end up killing your own people. At the moment, it’s cyclone season up there. If the terrorists know what they’re doing, and all indications are that they do, there’s no way they’ll launch their bird into those conditions. Even if they aren’t worried about the stuff blowing back on them, they will be careful to get their targeting — wherever it is — right. We do know they’ve only got one shot at it. Now, I’ve talked to a few of your meteorological people, and they say there’s perhaps another two to three weeks of cyclone activity before things calm down. I’d say we’ve got a window there.’