The Midas Legacy

38

Mikkelsson strode triumphantly to Nina and Eddie. Sarah and De Klerx appeared behind him. ‘You were not expecting me to be here,’ said the Icelander. ‘You thought I had flown on to China, yes?’

‘Something like that,’ Nina replied. ‘I can’t imagine there are many places to spend ninety million dollars in North Korea.’

‘The gold will become far more valuable soon. I stayed here because I suspected you had survived to inform the United Nations and the IAEA what I had done. Since that meant they would be looking for me, remaining in the one place they cannot search was very much to my benefit. Did Olivia also survive, by the way?’

‘She did.’

‘What a shame.’

Sarah whispered something to him. She was pale and drawn, eyes red-rimmed with dark shadows beneath. ‘Yes, soon,’ her husband said with dismissive impatience, before addressing Eddie and Nina again. ‘Another reason I chose to remain here was because there was a high probability you would approach my hosts with some foolhardy proposal to sell them the second Crucible as a ruse to recover the first.’

‘You think we came here as a ruse?’

He smirked. ‘Come now. I imagine Howard MacNeer played upon your patriotism and your desire to save the world yet again. He is as predictable as he is dull-minded. No doubt he had Oswald to support him. Poor Oswald, I shall miss him. A good friend, but he was always a diligent follower of policy, never a man with the determination to make it.’

‘We came here of our own accord,’ Nina insisted.

Mikkelsson turned his gaze to what she held in her hand. ‘The Crucible. I assume there is a tracking device artfully hidden in the case? But I doubt it will be able to transmit through a hundred metres of solid rock.’ He took it from her and placed it carefully upon a desk.

Nina decided to play out her deception for as long as possible. ‘There’s nothing in it but the Crucible. We came here to sell it to someone who could actually make use of it.’

‘Thanks for letting us know they were interested, by the way,’ Eddie added.

‘If you can profit from it,’ Nina went on, ‘I don’t see why we shouldn’t too.’

Mikkelsson’s response was a mocking shake of the head. ‘Oh, Nina. You are not a good actress — I imagine that is why the producers of your movie did not ask you to play yourself. After all those times you insisted that you would not take your seat in the Legacy because you did not want money, you did not need money… now you expect me to believe that you have turned mercenary overnight?’ He tutted. ‘Even your husband, whom I know used to be a mercenary, could not have convinced me. He is too much of a white knight. And giving North Korea the power to build an unlimited number of hydrogen bombs would not be the act of such a man.’

‘So what kind of man does that make you?’ Nina demanded.

‘A man who sees through the hypocrisy of the United States, and its puppets at the United Nations,’ he replied. ‘The longer I worked for the IAEA, the more I realised that I was being used. The assertion that nuclear weapons are a destabilising force is a myth, a lie. The US works tirelessly to prevent others from developing what it already has, in numbers sufficient to wipe out the population of the world several times over. It is not interested in peace, only in preserving its own hegemony.’

‘So letting a bunch of nuts like North Korea have nukes is good for world peace?’ asked Eddie sarcastically. ‘No offence,’ he added to Kang and Bok. ‘But you’re pointing guns at me, so I reckon that entitles me to gob off.’

‘They provide security,’ said Mikkelsson. ‘The threat of mutually assured destruction kept the peace for fifty years.’

‘Except for, y’know, little things like the Korean War,’ Nina pointed out. ‘The Vietnam War, the Gulf War…’

‘Precisely! Small wars, proxy wars, held in check by the Soviet Union and its own arsenal. The global balance of terror was maintained. Once the Soviet Union collapsed, America believed it had the power to act unchecked. And look at the result! An arrogant giant could stamp freely all over the world — until it stepped on a wasps’ nest and was stung. Then, in its blind pain and rage, it caused more damage and chaos than its enemies could ever have wished. New tyrants rose, freedoms were destroyed, countless innocents died, because there was no deterrent. But this’ — he gestured at whatever was beyond the windows — ‘will bring back that deterrent.’

‘And what is this?’ said Eddie. ‘It’s pretty retro. Looks like we’re on the set of Space: 1999.’

Bewilderment from the Koreans, but Mikkelsson gestured for Nina and Eddie to join him at the windows. Warily, they did so, the soldiers’ guns tracking them. ‘This is North Korea’s newest and largest particle accelerator,’ he proclaimed.
Circular tunnels led out of each side of the large chamber below. Running through them was a thick tube of polished metal, its slight curvature hinting that it formed a loop several hundred metres in diameter. The accelerator was supported by a series of heavy-duty braces almost buried amongst a dense tangle of pipework and wiring: housings for the powerful electromagnets used to guide the particle beams.

Protruding from the accelerator directly before the control room was a set of heavy hinged panels, opened and closed by hydraulic pistons. They were currently in the former position, revealing that the accelerator passed through the shielded box. A large metal framework was mounted on tracks so it could be rolled towards the metal tube — which split into two, one branch continuing uninterrupted while the other had a gap in it. That surprised Nina, whose research had told her the particle beams needed to be contained in a vacuum to be brought almost to the speed of light.

A partial explanation came when she saw what was inside the framework.

The Crucible.

The larger of the two crystal spheres squatted within a high-tech copy of the cage that had formerly held it. The whole arrangement, particle accelerator and all, was nothing less than a man-made version of the natural nuclear reactor high in the Himalayas; once the accelerator was running at full power, the Crucible — containing uranium rather than mercury — would be slid into the beam’s path to trigger the transmutation process. Nature was being duplicated in steel and concrete.

Mikkelsson could tell that she had understood its purpose. ‘Yes, they have replicated the Midas Cave.’

‘How’d they do it so fast?’ Eddie asked. ‘You only just gave them the bloody thing!’

The Icelander chuckled. ‘Did you think I make everything up as I go, like you? I have planned this for some time. The accelerator had already been built; the Koreans intended to use it to transmute uranium to plutonium, ironically enough. But the Crucible will let them do so far more quickly and efficiently. I told them the principles after the discovery of the Secret Codex provided a way to find the Midas Cave. I intended to use my security clearance and friendship with Oswald to read the IHA’s files with the intent of locating the cave myself, but you, Nina, saved me the trouble. Once you described the Crucible in detail, I quickly designed an articulation frame to hold it. They have done a very good job of modifying the accelerator to accept it. It works perfectly.’

It took a moment for the full import of his words to sink in. ‘It’s already working?’ said Nina, shocked.

‘You are just in time for a demonstration,’ Mikkelsson replied.

Kang straightened proudly. ‘We have plutonium for two warheads. Now we make three.’

‘Uh-oh,’ muttered Eddie. ‘I just remembered how many warheadless missiles they’ve got parked upstairs.’

Kang issued an order. The technicians went to their stations, two scurrying down a flight of steps to a lower level. A series of confirmations as instruments and readouts were checked, then the lead technician, with a degree of ceremony, pressed a switch. The lights flickered and a low thrumming sound echoed up from the chamber below, rising gradually in pitch and volume.

‘The accelerator is building up power,’ said Mikkelsson, peering at the monitors. ‘When it reaches four teraelectronvolts, the particle beam will be redirected from the main loop down the branch’ — he pointed at the tube with the gap — ‘and into the Crucible. Once the intensity is high enough to trigger a neutron burst, the uranium will be transmuted into plutonium.’

Eddie eyed the system. ‘Should I have brought my lead-lined underpants?’

‘The panels form a radiation shield. After the uranium sphere is in position, the shield will be closed. We are quite safe.’ As he spoke, the two technicians came into view below. They were pushing a trolley, on which sat an orange-sized sphere of a dull grey metal. Despite its small dimensions, it was obvious from the men’s movements that it was extremely heavy. ‘Uranium-238,’ Mikkelsson went on. ‘In itself, useless as nuclear fuel or for nuclear weapons. But it can be converted into plutonium-239. By normal means it would contain a large number of undesirable contaminants, such as plutonium-240.’

‘Which can’t be used to make a bomb, I’m assuming,’ said Nina.

‘Correct. At least not at the Koreans’ current level of development. Plutonium-240 emits a great deal of harmful neutron radiation, with a high risk of a fizzled detonation, or even a premature one.’

‘Premature detonation’s a big problem for some men,’ Eddie quipped.

The Icelander ignored him. ‘But the Crucible achieves an almost total conversion of uranium-238 to supergrade plutonium-239, with practically no impurities. The ancient Atlanteans had the key to literally limitless power, but not the knowledge to use it. Now we have both.’

The technicians used a small crane arm to lift the sphere off the trolley and carefully lower it into the Crucible. Once it was in place, they quickly retreated. The sound of the particle accelerator had now risen to a shrill whine. A large digital readout in the control room was climbing with increasing speed; Nina didn’t know what it was displaying, but some of the staff were paying it close attention.

The lead technician gave a command. One of the operators pulled a lever, and the panels of the radiation shield edged shut, sealing in the Crucible with a flat bang. Another noise could be heard over the accelerator: a deep rumble of vacuum pumps.

The readout was rapidly approaching five thousand. A technician adjusted a dial, the rate of increase slowing slightly. The man in charge raised a hand, saying something in Korean that the visitors could only interpret as ‘Get ready…’

Five thousand — and the lights went out, plunging the room into a darkness broken only by the dim glow of the instruments. The technician barked an order. Another man worked a control. There was the clack of a heavy-duty circuit closing, and the room returned to full illumination. ‘Think you need to fix your fuse box,’ said Eddie.

‘They have switched in the second-stage power,’ Mikkelsson explained. ‘The accelerator is now at its maximum output. The liquid nitrogen cooling system has been brought to full capacity to stop the electromagnets from melting.’

The readings kept rising, the accelerator’s pulsing whine becoming a shriek. Tension was clear on the technicians’ faces as the seconds passed, then minutes. Nina imagined that if something went wrong with the process, the glowering Kang would hold them personally responsible for the failure.

The head technician bent over one of the displays, watching it unblinkingly. He began what sounded like a countdown. The Koreans all held their breath—

A strident buzzer made Nina jump. There was a rush of activity around the room as the techs rapidly worked the controls. The digital readout, which had just topped a figure of twelve thousand, plunged back towards zero as the electrical wail died down.

‘That’s it?’ Eddie asked, moving his cupped hands from his crotch.

‘It is,’ Mikkelsson confirmed. ‘That was the neutron burst.’ He looked over the shoulder of one of the white-coated Koreans at a screen, nodding in approval. ‘I believe the process has been successful. But we shall soon see for ourselves.’

A loud hiss of air came from below as the vacuum inside the radiation shield was breached. The panels opened, a vaporous cloud wafting out. The lead technician’s gaze snapped to a red-painted box on one wall, a radiation warning trefoil stencilled on frosted glass, but it remained unlit. He gave more instructions, his men completing the accelerator’s shutdown procedures while the two who had loaded the Crucible returned to extract its contents. The crane arm descended again, slowly lifting out the sphere.

‘It’s changed,’ said Nina. It was still dark grey, but subtly different in lustre.

‘Pure plutonium-239,’ said Mikkelsson, watching as one of the men ran a Geiger counter over it. The readings were to his satisfaction, and relief. ‘The uranium-238 was cast so it could be fitted straight into an already manufactured warhead after conversion. The North Koreans have a stockpile of such warheads based on proven Soviet designs, simply waiting for their nuclear cores.’

‘And I thought it was South Korea that was supposed to be super-efficient,’ Eddie said. ‘So that’s the plan, is it? Crank out a load of nukes, then tell the world, “Better not fuck with us”?’

‘These warheads are not for North Korea,’ Mikkelsson replied. ‘Not the first ones, at least.’

‘Then who?’ asked Nina, surprised.

Kang answered her question. ‘Saudi Arabia.’

That brought a splutter of disbelief from Eddie. ‘What?’ said Nina. ‘Saudi Arabia? What the hell does Saudi Arabia want with nukes?’

‘The balance of terror,’ said Mikkelsson. ‘The Saudis want to strengthen their hand against Iran, and Israel. Nuclear weapons will give them that strength. The United States has refused to grant the Saudis access to nuclear technology because of the threat to Israel, but North Korea is willing to supply it in exchange for hard currency — and more importantly, oil.’

‘The Israelis’ll go fucking apeshit!’ Eddie protested. ‘They’ve got nukes of their own, and there are plenty of Israeli politicians who’ve been itching for an excuse to use ’em.’

‘This’ll destabilise the entire Gulf,’ added Nina. ‘Iran only just stopped its nuclear weapons programme — how do you think they’ll react to having one of their biggest enemies getting hold of them?’

‘They will buy them from us also,’ said Kang smugly. ‘An agreement has been made.’

‘Violating a treaty that took years to work out?’

‘The Iranian treaty will not be violated,’ Mikkelsson said. ‘I know, I helped negotiate it. It prevents Iran from developing its own nuclear fission weapons using uranium from its existing facilities. It does not stop them from buying plutonium-based fusion weapons from other nations. The importation of weapons systems was specifically excluded from the terms.’

Eddie let out a disgusted breath. ‘Fucking diplomats. Always leaving loopholes!’

‘And I guess there were other loopholes in the treaty you negotiated with North Korea, right?’ said Nina.

The Icelander nodded. ‘Restrictions were placed on the production of fissile material in its nuclear reactors. This,’ he nodded towards the particle accelerator, ‘is not a reactor. Therefore it is outside the terms of the treaty.’

‘I doubt the US will see it that way.’

‘What the United States thinks is irrelevant. By the time they learn the truth, North Korea will already have an arsenal of thermonuclear ballistic missiles capable of striking South Korea, Japan, even mainland America. The balance of terror will be restored, North Korea will feel safer from American aggression — and a country that feels secure is less inclined to take overtly aggressive acts. You only have to look at your own country before and after 9/11 for proof of that, Nina.’

‘Peace through fear, huh?’ she said scathingly.

‘As the writer Heinlein — an American, I might add — once said, “An armed society is a polite society.” Soon, many more nations will be armed. When everyone has a finger on the trigger, they become very careful about pulling it.’

‘And what happens when someone sneezes when their finger’s on the trigger?’ Eddie demanded.

Before Mikkelsson could provide a smug answer, Sarah again whispered to him, more forcefully than before. ‘Yes, soon,’ he snapped.

‘No, now, Fenrir,’ she said. ‘I’ve got to know. We’ve got to know!’

‘We do, sir,’ added De Klerx, glaring at Nina and Eddie.

‘Very well,’ said Mikkelsson — but before he could say anything more, the group was distracted by the return of the two technicians from the lower chamber. They were carrying between them a small but heavy metal case.

‘Hold on,’ said Eddie in alarm, retreating until a jab from a soldier’s rifle brought him to a halt. ‘You’re bringing fucking plutonium in here?’

Mikkelsson smiled. ‘It is perfectly safe. Colonel, if I may?’ Kang nodded. The diplomat had a brief exchange in Korean with the senior technician, who then gave an order. The two men set down the case and opened it. Eddie tried to edge away, but the Icelander indicated the red box on the wall. ‘If the radiation readings were at even half a dangerous level, that alarm would have sounded.’

‘My sister thought that about her smoke alarm, until she burned some toast and it turned out the battery was flat,’ Eddie retorted.

‘I assure you, we are safe. If we were not, I would not do this.’ He reached into the case and — with effort — lifted out the sphere.

‘You can touch it?’ said Nina, both amazed and aghast.

‘I told you, it is pure plutonium-239. It produces almost no radiation; it is plutonium-240 that is dangerous. This emits only alpha particles, and they are so weak they cannot even penetrate the skin.’ He held it out to her. ‘Here. Touch it.’

She hesitated, but Kang and Bok’s expressions made her fear that refusal might not be a choice. Instead, she gingerly brushed the sphere with a fingertip — and involuntarily flinched back.

‘What is it?’ Eddie said, alarmed. ‘Is it electrified?’

‘No, it’s just… warm.’ She put her finger on it again. The metal felt hotter than body temperature, but not uncomfortably so. Nevertheless, she withdrew after only a few seconds.

‘You have had a rare privilege,’ Mikkelsson told her. ‘Few people have touched pure plutonium with their bare hands.’ He looked at Eddie. ‘And you?’

‘I’ll give it a miss, thanks,’ said Eddie firmly.

Mikkelsson shrugged, carefully returning the sphere to its case and closing the lid. The head technician spoke with the officers, then Bok used a walkie-talkie to issue a command to someone elsewhere in the base. ‘So now what?’ Nina asked as the other technicians began another series of checks and the two men who had brought the plutonium sphere up from the lower level headed back down the stairs.

‘Now, the particle accelerator is being readied to convert another sphere of uranium to plutonium,’ Mikkelsson said. ‘While this one,’ he gestured at the canister, ‘will be transported with the others, along with their warheads and missiles, to a launch facility at al-Sulayyil in Saudi Arabia.’ He crossed the room to the case Nina had brought. ‘As for the second Crucible, Colonel Kang agreed that we should let you bring it to North Korea, but I am wondering if I should buy it back. It does belong to the Legacy, after all. And soon it will be a great advantage to have our own gold factory. The markets always panic in times of instability and buy gold, raising the price.’

Kang frowned. ‘The Crucibles are ours.’

‘I am sure we can negotiate something to our mutual benefit. My gold will be too heavy to take it all in our jet. Perhaps some could be left with you for… safe keeping?’

Bok understood his meaning at once and grinned slyly; Kang took long enough to translate the suggestion that the guide began to do so for him before being curtly shouted down. ‘Yes. We can negotiate. For the good of North Korea,’ the colonel added, giving the translator a stern look of warning that he should never tell anyone else what he had heard. The man quailed.

Several more soldiers entered, led by the broad-jawed captain Kang had spoken to outside. He snapped to attention before his commanding officer, his team following suit. Kang acknowledged with a salute of his own, then reeled off commands. The captain responded smartly, his men loading the canister holding the plutonium on to a small cart, though with the same wary trepidation as Eddie.

‘How come they’re not juggling the thing about if it’s so safe?’ said the Englishman.

‘The dangers of a small amount of knowledge,’ the Icelander replied. ‘North Korea operates on the principle of need-to-know, and its soldiers do not need to know anything. They probably believe, like the uneducated in the West, that all nuclear materials are equally dangerous and instantly deadly. Captain Sek is responsible for delivering the plutonium and the warheads; all he needs to know is that if anything should go wrong, he is accountable.’

‘I guess they don’t need to know English either,’ said Nina. ‘Otherwise they’d wise up with us talking about it.’

‘It is not encouraged,’ said Bok with a smirk. ‘Not for the ordinary people.’

Kang gave more orders. The team wheeled the cart out of the control room. The particle accelerator started to build up power again, its noise rising. ‘Fenrir,’ said Sarah in a tone of pent-up frustration.

‘In a moment,’ Mikkelsson answered, turning to Kang.

‘No. Now.’ She rounded him to stand before Nina and Eddie. ‘Where’s Anastasia? What happened to her, where is she? Where’s my daughter?’ Frustration was replaced by desperation, her voice quavering.

Nina couldn’t help but feel a pang of empathy. ‘She’s… I’m sorry. She’s dead.’

Sarah’s expression froze as she struggled to take in the words. ‘What?’ barked De Klerx, his own shock holding back anger. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, she’s dead.’

‘She…’ Sarah’s face crumpled into anguish. ‘No, no, she… she can’t be. Not my girl, she…’ Behind her, Mikkelsson was unreadable, staring silently at the couple.

‘I’m sorry,’ Nina repeated.

De Klerx clenched his fists into tight, furious balls. ‘How did she die?’

‘She fell into the frozen lake.’

He shook his head. ‘No. No! She knew Iceland, she knew the lake. She would never have been that careless! What really happened?’ His eyes narrowed, fixing upon Eddie. ‘What did you do?’

‘Does it matter?’ Eddie asked, assessing the Dutchman’s mental state. He was close to snapping in sheer rage, meaning he might be provoked into doing something unwise…

‘Yes, it matters!’ De Klerx snarled. ‘Tell me! Tell me now!’

‘Remember that grenade launcher you had in Greece? I fired it into the ice underneath her. Boom.’ He mimed pulling a trigger, then raised his hand to blow smoke from an imaginary gun. ‘She went swimming with the elves.’ Sarah was shocked, Mikkelsson’s face still an emotionless mask — but De Klerx was now at the point of explosion.

‘Eddie…’ said Nina in surprised warning.

He pressed on, forcing a mocking smile. ‘Yeah, I killed her. What’re you gonna do about it, clog boy?’

Detonation. ‘I will kill you!’ De Klerx’s voice rose to a shriek as he launched himself at the Yorkshireman.