The Beijing conspiracy

CHAPTER 59

T he flight from the east coast of the United States to Australia had taken nearly 24 hours, but the trip was worth it. The three-day program for the International Conference on Bioterrorism promised to be a full one. Kate was having a coffee with Curtis in a quiet part of the foyer of the Sydney Convention Centre at the southern end of Darling Harbour.

‘I wonder how our friend Dolinsky’s going?’ Curtis mused.

‘In the short time I’ve been with him in the lab I’m amazed at how quickly he’s working. It’s almost as if we’re covering old ground.’

‘That’s Imran’s view as well,’ Curtis replied.

‘And if this ever got loose…’ Kate let her voice trail off. She knew the implications were horrific. ‘I guess all we can do is keep warning people in the hope that those in power will come to their senses, although I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Halliwell’s been in the lab a dozen times to see how we’re going. It’s weird, Curtis, it’s almost as if he’s got some sort of vested interest.’

Curtis nodded. ‘He asked about what intelligence I might have on the Olympics the other day but I’ve put him off while I do some checking. Something is not quite adding up with our friend Halliwell.’

‘Or Dolinsky for that matter. He gives me the creeps. I guess this conference is pretty important, although the time will go so quickly,’ Kate observed, conscious of how close she and Curtis were standing and how easily they enjoyed one another’s company. Again she warned herself not to get involved.

‘Too quickly,’ Curtis said enigmatically, ‘but we’ve got an extra day at the end of it for the visit to the State Crisis Centre. I’m looking forward to catching up with my old buddy, Brigadier Davis, who will no doubt bring us up to date on Australia’s counter-terrorist arrangements. Then it’s the big freedom bird home.’

‘You to Washington to do whatever else you do, and me to Atlanta.’ Kate immediately regretted the remark, annoyed that her personal feelings kept surfacing. She found herself thinking about what Curtis might be involved in when he wasn’t worrying about Operation P LASMID and the security of the Olympics.

‘Sorry. Didn’t mean to pry,’ Kate said, breaking the awkward silence.

‘You’re not prying,’ Curtis said, looking at her and gently touching her arm. ‘One day I’ll tell you,’ he added. Curtis was struggling with his own feelings. For the first time in his life, he found himself drawn to a woman for more than the thrill of the chase.

‘How about dinner tonight at one of those little restaurants at the Rocks,’ Curtis suggested, a touch of mischief in voice. ‘I’d ask Imran to join us if he wasn’t flying out.’ Curtis knew he was throwing caution to the winds. Any thought of a relationship would make his profession even more dangerous. Emotional feelings could threaten his judgement, and it wouldn’t be fair on Kate either.

‘That would be nice,’ Kate replied, as she accompanied Curtis back into the auditorium.

It was not every day that delegates had the opportunity to listen to a virologist of the international standing of Professor Imran Sayed. The main auditorium in the Sydney Convention Centre was packed, every scientist in the room acutely aware of the dangers that bioterrorism and genetic engineering posed to humanity if deadly viruses ever got into the wrong hands. Kate and Curtis were sitting two rows from the front and both listened attentively as Imran opened the conference with a warning.

‘Not to put too fine a point on it, the human race now stands at the edge of a vast precipice. Too often the western world has resorted to war as a first, rather than a last resort. Unless we change course, bioterrorism will provide other cultures with a means of retaliation that may well destroy a significant part of our civilisation. Later on in this conference the Chinese delegation will be giving a presentation on the security they are putting in place for the Beijing Olympics. One of the greatest threats facing the world today comes from Islamic fundamentalists and the Beijing Olympics is a prime target,’ Professor Sayed said. ‘As a result of the West waging a war in Iraq that has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of Muslims, support for the fundamentalist cause has risen immeasurably and al-Qaeda have an inexhaustible supply of suicide bombers. People in the United States, Britain and Australia are much less safe than we were before we invaded.’

It was a rare departure from the more polite form of public address for which the Professor was known. His frustration at western politicians’ reckless commitment to war was palpable.

‘I am a Muslim and I have nothing but contempt for Islamic fundamentalist groups who completely misinterpret Jihad to suit their own evil purposes, but by creating chaos in Iraq we’ve played right into their hands.’

Michelle Gillard, a young, accredited Sydney Morning Herald journalist sitting next to Kate was furiously taking notes.

‘As tragic as this American, British and Australian invasion of Iraq has been,’ Professor Sayed continued, ‘it’s a sideshow compared to that which awaits us. Many of you will have seen the warnings from Dr Khalid Kadeer. The West brands him as a terrorist and we refuse to discuss his grievances, but to him and his followers those grievances are very real. To cite just two examples, from where he sits, we are seen to be favouring Israel at the expense of the Palestinians. I happen to think he’s right.’ Imran paused to emphasise his point. ‘And the presence of American forces in the lands that contain the two most important cities in all of Islam, Mecca and Medina, is a grave affront to Kadeer. It’s akin to us having to put up with an Islamic army camping on the shores of the Potomac around Washington, or around the harbour here in Sydney. I think we should at least sit down and talk with him.’

Michelle Gillard wrote the quote down word for word. Coming from such a distinguished Muslim professor, it would be a front page story.

‘The White House isn’t going to like that, but I think he’s right,’ Curtis whispered to Kate.

‘Nor is the Australian Prime Minister,’ Kate replied.

‘Not so long ago,’ Professor Sayed said, ‘someone published the entire genome of bird flu on the internet, which enabled every bioterrorist in the world to download what would normally take twenty years of research to decipher. An Islamic fundamentalist, or any other terrorist with a PhD in microbiology, can now alter that virus to suit their own dark ends. Our friends from China who are responsible for protecting everyone at the Beijing Olympics have every right to be both alert and alarmed. If the Islamic fundamentalists and other terrorist groups are ever to be defeated it will take the combined efforts of the West, the Han Chinese, and the moderates in Islam, but we need to sit down at the negotiating table. Fighting unnecessary wars will lose those few friends we have left in the Islamic world.

‘I wish you all well for what will be one of the most important conferences of the modern era, and I make no apology for a simple concluding observation. It is but one example in the devastating scenario of untold misery that awaits us if we don’t come to our senses as a species. Filoviruses like Marburg and Ebola have no cure and we’ve never been able to develop a vaccine. The only saving grace is that they’re not easily transmitted from human to human, other than through close personal contact. Were these viruses ever to be combined with another more easily transmittable pathogen, the death toll could be in the hundreds of millions.’

Imran’s closing statement highlighted the frightening truth. Advances in science meant the threat from bioterrorism was a terrifying reality.