He placed the remaining copies on the pile, slipped off his glasses again, rubbed his eyes and looked at the three visitors. ‘Sorry to disappoint.’
‘I don’t trust him,’ Kate said matter-of-factly as they walked along the corridor away from the lab.
Derham gave her a surprised look. ‘Why? The guy knows what he’s talking about.’
‘I agree with Kate,’ Lou said. ‘Don’t believe a word of it.’
They stepped into the lift.
‘Why? Why would Newman lie?’
‘No idea. Well, maybe one,’ Kate began. ‘Perhaps he just didn’t want to look stupid… but he is lying. We shouldn’t have left the papers with him.’
Derham raised an eyebrow. ‘What? So you’re telling me the chief scientist of the largest naval base in the United States, Professor Max Newman — who has a very high-level security clearance indeed — is a liar and may also be grossly incompetent?’
‘I guess she is,’ Lou remarked.
Derham started to answer, but just shook his head.
‘I’d like a second opinion,’ Kate said.
‘Oh would you now? Our chief scientist doesn’t meet your spec?’ Derham retorted.
They left the lift and walked along the corridor that led back to the captain’s office. There was an uncomfortable silence between them.
‘Look,’ I didn’t mean to insult your precious—’ Kate began as they sat down, the door closing behind Derham.
He held up a hand. ‘It’s OK, you’re entitled to your opinion.’
‘Those papers are too important to ignore,’ Lou began.
‘I realize that. I had no intention of ignoring them.’ Derham frowned at Lou. ‘I’ve got nothing against a second opinion. Newman’s a good man, but he’s not the oracle of all knowledge. I know some people at MIT. They’ll have to be security-screened first and the material will have to be divided up between at least two groups who are not in communication with each other or aware they are working on linked papers… You still don’t look happy!’
Kate held Derham’s eyes. ‘By all means, get your contacts to go through them, but I would also like to try someone I know.’
‘They’ll have to be cleared.’
‘That won’t be necessary. He already has one of the highest clearances possible from the work he has done for the Pentagon.’
‘Who?’
‘It’s Professor Campion.’
Derham was stunned for a moment. ‘You know George Campion? The George Campion?’
Kate felt Lou’s eyes on her. She nodded. ‘He’s my godfather.’
11
Professor Max Newman placed his briefcase on the passenger seat of his white Ford Taurus and sent a text: ‘Significant discovery. Would like to share.’ Then he pulled out of the car park, swung the car round and out onto the carriageway leading to the security post and the exit of Norfolk Naval Base.
The clock on the dash told him it was almost six thirty. He felt hungry and tired, but fired up with barely controllable excitement. He had known within minutes of seeing the papers Derham and the other two had shown him that he had been offered the greatest opportunity to make a fortune he would ever have. He had also recognized the author of the document. It had to have been composed by a man he had admired since he was a schoolboy — Egbert Fortescue, the exceptionally talented British scientist who had died tragically young, before he could join the elite club that included Einstein, the Curies and Niels Bohr.
Out on Admiral Taussig Boulevard, Newman accelerated away and took a right. There he connected with his in-car Bluetooth and pushed a speed dial number. ‘I have it,’ he said simply.
‘Meeting point Beta, half an hour,’ said a voice at the other end of the line and hung up.
Professor Newman parked on East Ocean View Avenue, Norfolk, clicked the remote to lock the car and headed into the brisk wind blowing off the Atlantic Ocean.
Down a side street the view opened onto an expanse of blue-grey water tipped by breakers, white in the moonlight. Newman turned right, crossed a narrow road and stepped onto the beach. Looking behind, he could see a line of impressive waterfront homes, many of them dating back to the 1930s. Most were gabled and painted in bright nautical colours; a few had picket fences and white, freshly painted wooden gates. There was no one about and except for the waves foaming over the sand it was almost totally silent.
A short jetty stood about a hundred yards away along the beach. The professor knew it from previous visits in daylight. It was an old and neglected relic projecting out a dozen yards into the frothy ocean, the water beating about its corroding struts. Where it left the land there was a raised concrete platform a few feet above the sand. Newman strode towards it, ducking as he reached the iron platform and crouching under a wooden beam. The jetty stretched overhead with enough headroom for him to stand comfortably. He sat and waited.
‘A cold evening,’ a man’s voice came from the blackness.
Professor Newman started to get up, but the man put a hand on the physicist’s arm. ‘It’s OK.’
Newman unclasped his briefcase and extracted a narrow blue plastic file.
‘You implied in your message that this was something pretty important,’ said the new arrival who stood quite still.
‘And it is,’ Newman replied indignantly. He had met this man, Sterling Van Lee, on a couple of occasions and had taken an instant disliking to him. ‘This —’ and Newman waved the folder in front of him ‘— could be one of the most important discoveries in a century.’
Van Lee said nothing, just looked into Newman’s face. Their eyes had adjusted to the gloom under the jetty and they could make out each other’s features. He took the folder and opened it.
‘A copy of the original documents written by Egbert Fortescue.’
‘Who?’
Newman closed his eyes for a moment. He was a man who had dedicated his life to learning, a man who had sacrificed love, family and money to reach the pinnacle of his chosen field of study — nuclear interactions in radioactive sources. He hated ignorant people. ‘Egbert Fortescue was one of the greatest physicists who ever lived,’ Newman explained. ‘He worked with Ernest Rutherford on an early nuclear theory. In fact, he was the real genius behind it.’
Van Lee continued to stare at him, expressionless.
‘Within these pages,’ Newman went on, ‘Fortescue describes an alternative form of nuclear energy, a way to enhance the power of the atom which is completely novel and totally different to the methods developed two decades after his death and which led to the creation of the atomic bomb.’
‘And you can prove this?’
‘I’m almost there. I’ve only had these documents for a couple of hours.’
Newman eased himself up from the concrete ledge. Van Lee turned and walked out in front of him onto the beach carrying the file.
‘Contact me in the usual way if you need any guidance…’ the professor called after him.
‘Sorry?’
Newman started to speak again, then saw the gun Van Lee had drawn, its barrel very black in the darkness.
‘Do you really think I can just let you go?’
‘You’re going to kill me?’
Van Lee laughed and handed back the file containing Fortescue’s work. ‘Now why would I kill one of our most valuable assets, professor? Your brain is much more useful to us in one very clever piece.’
12