The Beijing conspiracy

CHAPTER 43

C urtis O’Connor opened Kate Braithwaite’s security file. It contained the results of the exhaustive checks that were required for her clearance to work at USAMRIID, and he read them with more than a passing interest. Dr Braithwaite’s scientific credentials were impeccable and her research was at the cutting and dangerous edge of microbiology. Looking at her photograph again, Curtis recalled how he had long ago drawn a boundary around himself. For a CIA agent affairs of the heart were a dangerous distraction

The young scientist had been positively vetted and Curtis skipped over the thin reports on her financial affairs, unusually conscious that he was intruding into her private life. The reports on the FBI interviews of her referees however, including one from Professor Sayed, were something that he did need to know about, and they were all overwhelmingly positive, except one. Kate Braithwaite, Curtis discovered, had once been married to an up-and-coming Australian politician from the Liberal Party. It was an episode in her life that Kate had been completely honest about. The long reach of the US security system had gone into the US Embassy in Canberra and from there to the US Consulate in Martin Place in Sydney. Malcolm Braithwaite, the former President of the Young Liberals and now member of the NSW Legislative Council, had painted a scathing picture of his ex-wife, but the FBI’s man in Sydney had reached some skillful conclusions about the divorce. During the interview Malcolm Braithwaite had asked the FBI agent if he was a Christian, quoting the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians at him: ‘Just as Christ was the head of the church, a husband was the head of the wife.’ Braithwaite had let slip this was something that Kate had not been too keen on. Can’t imagine why, Curtis thought, smiling to himself as he closed the file and headed down to the entrance foyer to greet Kate and Professor Sayed.

‘I want to thank you both for your decision to come onboard,’ Curtis began. ‘I could not have hoped for two more qualified people to join me. For the duration of Operation P LASMID you will be sworn in as officers of the CIA. I also want you to know that I understand your concerns over this and for what it’s worth, I’ve opposed this from the very start,’ Curtis said, after Imran and Kate had settled into a small briefing room down the corridor from his office.

‘I owe you an apology,’ Kate responded. ‘I’ve discovered that my explanations on what can be done with polymerase chain reactions might have been a touch superfluous,’ she confessed, smiling sheepishly, then glancing at Imran.

‘I enjoyed the refresher,’ Curtis replied, his eyes twinkling. Kate found herself attracted to the irreverent Irishman. He was smart, seemed to have the same sensibilities, and was impossibly good looking; but she quickly reminded herself that this was not the time to be dropping her emotional guard and losing focus on the work ahead.

‘More importantly you helped me find something I missed.’ Curtis picked up a remote control and re-ran Dr Khalid Kadeer’s video threat of the first warning and the final attack.

‘It seems to me that “when the single strand meets its double” might be an indication he’s trying to engineer RNA and DNA viruses,’ Curtis said, switching on a PowerPoint presentation. ‘Operation P LASMID will involve a series of experiments that will be conducted in the Biosafety Level 4 laboratory suites at Halliwell Pharmaceuticals. The existence of these laboratories is classified top secret,’ he added, flashing up a screen display of the sprawling complex. ‘The Level 4 laboratories are here,’ he said, indicating the north-west corner of the Halliwell acreage. What went unnoticed by the three scientists was the number of super-heated exhaust vents – too many for the single laboratory to which Imran and Kate would be assigned.

‘While the program and its funding is being run out of my office, the actual experiments in the labs will be coordinated by the CEO of Halliwell,’ Curtis explained. The next image of Dr Richard Halliwell dominated the room. Kate was struck by his piercing yet emotionless eyes. Halliwell reminded her of Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of Hannibal Lecter. Little did she know how close to reality her thoughts might be.

‘I’ll have more to say about Halliwell in a moment, and we’ll organise a meeting with him,’ Curtis added. He had already decided to bring the scientists into the loop of information he had on the Pharmaceutical CEO. In O’Connor’s world, Halliwell was a man they all needed to be very wary of. ‘For the moment, be aware that outwardly he may seem charming but he’s ruthless, political, and very well connected to the Vice President and the White House. Athough he’s cleared into the compartment I would be cautious about revealing too much of what is shared in this type of briefing,’ Curtis warned. He flicked to the next image of a huge intercontinental missile being readied for launch on a pad, vapour coming from various ducts in the nose cone and around the engine cowlings.

‘Our mission is to try to discover what the terrorists might be able to achieve in the area of bioterrorism, and to that end, I’m starting with a worst case scenario and assuming that they may have had access to the Russian systems after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This is a Russian intercontinental missile being readied for launch on the Kamcatka Poluostrov, a 1200-kilometre peninsula that jutts into the icy wastes of the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk, well to the north of Vladivostok.’

Imran Sayed leaned forward in his chair, staring at the image of the Russian intercontinental missile. ‘They look like cooling fins,’ he said, staring at the rocket’s nose cone.

‘They are,’ Curtis replied, scrolling through successive imagery that had been obtained from the tracking satellites of the National Reconnaissance Office. The huge R-36M2 Voevoda intercontinental missile with a range of 16,000 kilometres was clearly visible on the launch pad.

‘Not only is the nose cone equipped with cooling fins but you can see here that it’s also connected to a large refrigeration system on the launch pad. These next images are of the launch itself and you can see as the launch progresses, the fins on the Voevoda nose cone start to glow red hot.’

‘Not your average nuclear warhead,’ Imran observed.

‘Exactly. Russian and US nuclear warheads are all engineered to withstand the extreme heat generated by a missile travelling through the earth’s atmosphere and that heat would kill any known virus, unless the nose cone contained an onboard refrigeration system that was fitted with fins that could dissipate the heat.’

‘All the hallmarks of a test for a biological launch,’ Imran offered, ‘but you’re not suggesting al-Qaeda are working on missile technology.’

‘They no doubt would if they could,’ Curtis observed wryly, ‘but unfortunately they may not need to. This imagery is only twelve months old and, if it ties in with some other intelligence, the Russians may be testing new forms of biological weapons. We have some recent information to indicate that a Georgian scientist, Dr Eduard Dolinsky, has been working with the Russians on the weaponising of smallpox, and he may also have been working on Ebola.’

Imran let out a low whistle. ‘I know him,’ Imran said. ‘He’s one of the most talented virologists in the world.’

‘If Dolinsky has been working on the single strand of the RNA Ebola virus, as well as the double strands of the DNA smallpox virus, he may have been trying to engineer one into the other,’ Kate said, voicing her thoughts on the single strand/ double strand connundrum.

Curtis nodded. ‘A super virus like Ebolapox would be easily transmitted, especially if it were released at an event like the Olympics. More importantly, there is no cure. By comparison, bird flu would be tame. Our task will be to try and emulate that engineering and produce a vaccine.’

A silence fell over the room as Imran and Kate exchanged glances, horrified at the enormity of what they were being asked to do.

‘Just to add to this madness,’ Curtis continued, ‘everything on this program is obviously highly sensitive, but most sensitive of all is some unconfirmed intelligence that Dolinsky may wish to defect. If that comes off, he will join us on the program. He, like some of his illustrious predecessors, will no doubt bring us up to date on what the Russians have been up to, what al-Qaeda has acquired and what they might be able to achieve.’

‘You’re worried al-Qaeda might have access to the Russian research?’ Kate asked.

‘It’s possible,’ Curtis replied. ‘Thousands of Russian scientists were thrown out of work after the collapse of the Soviet Union and more than a few of them crossed the line into the dark zone just to survive.’

‘Are you going to try and get him out?’ Kate challenged with a smile, mischievously putting Curtis on the spot. Kate’s and Curtis’ eyes met for a moment and in an instant she knew she was right.

‘That’s another compartment,’ Curtis replied with an enigmatic grin. ‘If we can do it, it will bring another dimension of expertise to our team. In the meantime, your first task will be to move the smallpox repositories from the Centers for Disease Control to the Halliwell labs. I don’t need to tell you how dangerous that might be.’