The Beijing conspiracy

CHAPTER 58

C urtis O’Connor glanced at the clock on his office wall. The intervening days to the conference in Sydney seemed to have flown. Imran had already left for Sydney the previous day and it was almost time to pick up Kate and head out to Dulles airport. He reached for the last file in his tray, marked ‘Top Secret – Echelon’. Echelon had been set up during the Cold War by the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to eavesdrop on the Russians, but now, thousands of operators around the world scanned the electronic spectrum for private emails, faxes, mobile phone calls and any other electronic communication ordinary citizens made as part of their daily lives. The big dishes at top secret satellite stations at Fort Meade in Maryland and Yakima in Washington State, as well as overseas stations like those at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire, Bad Aibling in Germany and the remote bases at Shoal Bay in the Northern Territory and Geraldton in Western Australia pulled the transmissions in like giant electronic vacuum cleaners.

O’Connor’s brain kicked into high gear as he read the email intercept that had been flagged by an alert analyst: Authorities reacted to TCDD and community worries. Half-life a concern. Normal activities suspended and no longer able to use them as cover. Cork in bottle approach may now be limited and will need to concentrate on HEAT for surface attack.

‘Half life a concern’. Did that mean al-Qaeda was attempting to launch another series of dirty bombs, or did it mean Dr Kadeer was planning to go nuclear, as his colleagues, bin Laden and al-Zawahiri had threatened twice before him. O’Connor wondered.

As he rushed out of the office on the way to pick up Kate and get to the airport, he knew that it was only a matter of time before a terrorist set off a bomb packed with radioactive material. Given the availability of the stuff in hospitals and industry, both he and Tom McNamara had been surprised that one hadn’t been detonated already, but with such a high-volume workload, even experienced operators like O’Connor could miss the clue that was contained in the first line of the email: ‘Authorities reacted to TCDD and community worries’. It would have led O’Connor to the target. Of all the dioxins, TCDD or 2,3,7,8-Tetrachloro dibenzene-para-dioxin was one of the most lethal, with a half-life of nearly ten years. At high levels it caused cancer in humans and it had been dominating the target city’s media for months.

The ramp outside the departures hall of Washington’s Dulles International Airport was crowded with yellow taxis disgorging passengers into the melee that had become the usual for post-September 11 travel.

‘Pamela!’ Curtis waved to a taxi further beind them in the rank, turned back to his own and gave the cheerful taxi driver unloading the bags a generous tip. The taxi driver had regaled Kate and Curtis with proud anecdotes of his nine children for the entire trip. Curtis strode down to the taxi behind them and Kate watched as he embraced an older, elegant woman in a Qantas uniform. He then beckoned Kate over. She smiled, shook her head, and pointed to the bags on the terminal apron.

‘Very nice,’ Kate said, when Curtis returned. ‘Old flame or current model?’

‘You make it sound like I’m running a car franchise,’ Curtis replied. More like a small boy in a candy shop, Kate thought as they headed for the queue at the counter for Flight QF 3082 to Los Angeles and then on to Sydney.

‘Pamela is a very useful person to know,’ Curtis said, his attempt at looking hurt only partly successful. ‘She just happens to be the Purser on this flight so you should’ve come across to meet her.’

‘I’m sure I’ll meet her on board. It would have been very bad form for a man in your position to have his bags unattended on the sidewalk,’ Kate chided. ‘The way Homeland Security is these days, the bomb squad would have been there in an instant.’

It took nearly an hour to check in and get through customs and by the time they were on the departures side, the ‘go to gate’ sign had changed to ‘boarding’.

‘I’m looking forward to Business Class,’ Kate said, as she took out her ticket and boarding pass. ‘We scientists are not used to this sort of luxury.’

Curtis smiled as they handed over their tickets.

‘Dr O’Connor, Dr Braithwaite, welcome aboard.’ The flight attendant was young and attractive, and Kate grinned as Curtis flashed a warm smile.

‘You won’t be needing these,’ the flight attendant said, her attention on Curtis. She put the boarding passes in the bin. ‘Unfortunately I’m working in Business Class but I’m sure Pamela will look after you,’ she added, as the machine churned out two replacement passes with their distinctive gold First Class stripe.

‘That is unfortunate,’ Curtis replied with another warm smile.

‘That is unfortunate.’ Kate mimicked Curtis’ soft Irish brogue as they headed toward the for’ard door of the 747.

‘Very ungrateful,’ Curtis responded. ‘This way you and I can have a bed all the way to Sydney,’ he added mischievously.

‘Two single beds,’ Kate said quickly, shaking her head. She was finding herself strangely attracted to Curtis. His irreverent attitude and sense of fun made her wonder what it would be like to… Steady on, girl, don’t get involved, she told herself. A relationship with a work colleague was not professional. For both of them, the research program was more important and the work ahead was going to be complex and dangerous. She needed to keep her wits about her.