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Five minutes later, the commanding officer and two more of his men joined us. “Are you army?” he asked.
“Air force, Flight Lieutenant Jones”
His eyebrows shot up. National security is the army’s domain. I could tell he was wondering why a junior air force officer was in charge of the operation.
NSA’s involvement was a closely kept secret and had to stay that way. “I’m attached to SOCOMD,” I said, shortly.
His misgivings gave way to camaraderie. He held out his hand. “Major Tarrant. Has he talked? Has he provided you with the names of his accomplices?”
Sergeant Wilson beat me to the gun. “No! He insists he’s working alone.”
Beth slumped on the sofa in a dazed stupor sprang to her feet. “He’s lying. I took a call from one of his accomplices earlier this morning, while he was out.”
I was pissed. First off because this was the first I’d heard about what was critical information. Second, I didn’t like her having a key to the perp’s place. Was she more involved than she’d led me to believe? “What did he say?” I barked at her.
“The diversionary demonstration at Yongah Detention Centre has commenced,” she said enunciating each word slowly.
“Is that it?”
She nodded.
“How did Karim react when you told him? What did he say?”
“The devious bastard made light of it,” she said wrinkling her brow. He simply asked if I’d got the caller’s name. I hadn’t ... it was a guy and he ended the call before I could ask him.” She hesitated then added, “I was worried. I wanted to call the police but he,” she turned her head and glowered at her abductor, “assured me that the prison warden would have already notified them. He made out that it was just a courtesy call, made on account of his connection with the Detention Centre.”
“What connection,” I yelled, unable to hide my exasperation.
She blushed. Her tears had washed off her makeup and her freckles stood out like melting chocolate drops. “Karim runs a voluntary medical clinic there, for the detainees.” Comprehension dawned on her face. “Oh my God; it was just an excuse to meet with his accomplices. Sorry I should have mentioned this sooner.”
I took a deep breath. How could I blame her; she’d been under unimaginable pressure. More to the point, without her input twenty senior representatives from member nations of the G20 along with the heir to the British throne could have been killed outright along with other collateral damage, like Annie and the other schoolkids in the audience.
“You weren’t to know.” I turned my anger on the actual guilty party, now sitting bolt upright tied to a chair without as much as a bruise on his sullen face. I felt like knocking his block off. “I want the names of your accomplices,” I said looming over him. I didn’t have to fake menace, I felt like beating him to a pulp.
All I got was a small defiant smile.
“We might get more out of him if we take him back to base,” said Tarrant looking pointedly at Beth. Under the circumstances, I doubted she would have objected if I beat the shit out of the swine. But I could see the major thought a civilian couldn’t be relied on to keep mum. I shook my head in exasperation at the needless delay. Beth had kept a far bigger secret for almost a decade.
I said to Tarrant, “I’ll have to clear it with my boss.” I smiled reassuringly at Beth, “I’ll also speak to him about safeguarding Annie.”
“I wondered when you’d get around to remembering her.”
Her anger was entirely reasonable. I had two sisters of my own. In her place I’d have been out of my mind. “I’m going to make that call now.” I headed for the privacy of the bedroom but Beth was on my heels. “I’ll only be a couple of minutes,” I said, and shut the door in her furious face.
* * *
“Take me through it slowly,” said General Lee.
During the next few minutes, I outlined how Dr. Al-Karim Farouk, a would-be-suicide bomber had had a change of heart when he unexpectedly ran into Beth. “Apparently, they had an affair when they worked together in Kenya. The mongrel was keen to pick up where they’d left off, if only he could find a way for the bombing to go ahead without sacrificing his life. He hit on the idea of replacing himself with Beth’s sister after learning she’d been selected to present a bouquet to the Duchess of Cambridge.” I then went onto to explain that the extremist had surgically implanted a cell-phone bomb inside Annie and that no one in Australia had the expertise to remove the device.
When I reached the end of the story the general said, “Tell Beth there’s no need to panic. The NSA has dealt with situations like this before. We’ll send out an experienced medical team immediately. They can be there in twenty-four hours...”
I cut him off. “But, Sir...”
He ignored my interjection. “In the meantime, Lieutenant, we’ll jam all mobile phone signals within the specific area. The child will need to be transferred to an isolated location to minimize the risk of collateral damage, you understand?
“Yes, Sir.” I understood. You couldn’t work around NASA’s tech nerds without picking up information about espionage gizmos. I’d heard the team leader brag about improvements he’d made to a cell phone jammer that had been used to save the lives of victims on al Qaeda’s death list. The high-powered device was able to block sophisticated dual-mode and tri-mode cell phones. It was designed to combat interference by switching to different networks to find a signal. But more crucially, in Annie’s case, because we still didn’t know the cell’s number, the device was able to disrupt the services of all cell phones up to twenty miles from the base station.
Unfortunately, jammers block access to emergency services and this was the reason Annie had to be moved out of the city. The knowledge didn’t allay my fears for her safety. “How long will all this take, Sir?”
“I’ll get our people onto it immediately.”
“You do know Karim has an accomplice at the detention camp at Northam? We believe he’s going to detonate the bomb at 1815 hours Western Australian Standard Time. That’s the time Annie was meant to present the bouquet. We have less than two hours to get her to safety.”
There was a pause. Finally he said, “Hold on.”
It was five minutes before he got back to me and it was all I could do to stop myself screaming when Star and Stripes Forever started up again for the fourth time. The general picked up on my state of mind. “Relax Lieutenant” he said, “We can have a magnetic field up and running by 17:00 your time.”
I wasn’t reassured. I’d done some thinking while I was waiting and I was about to drop a bombshell. “But what if one of his accomplices finds out the ceremony isn’t going ahead. Who knows what a frustrated fanatic may do? He or she could detonate the device earlier, as a parting shot.”
“Was the cancellation issued on a need-to-know basis?”
“Yes, but with so many guests involved it’s going to be hard to keep it under wraps. What if one of them, posts about the cancellation on social media?”
I chewed my lip tensely as the general explained all such sites had been issued with suppression orders.
“Yes, but Beth believes there could be a collaborator in the hospital. What if he or she gets wind of the closure and informs the crazy bastard.”
“Son of a bitch! You’ll have to find the rest of the gang.”
“How? We can’t get anything out of Karim and there are seventy-three detainees at Yongah. His accomplice could be any one of them ... and on top of everything else there’s a riot going on.”
There was a longer pause. Indistinctly, I heard him conferring with Otis. The sergeant’s thick Southern drawl was unmistakable. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make out what was said. I was growing more panicky with every stretched out second when at long last General Lee spoke to me, “Do you still have that pouch of scopolamine?”
“Uhh!” Scopolamine was the mind-altering drug Lee had given me to subdue Beth should I be unable to persuade her to go with me willingly. I’d not given it a thought since I’d satisfied myself that she wasn’t a terrorist threat. The last time I remembered handling it was when I’d placed it in my jeans prior to paying Beth a visit. I’d been dressed as I was now. Had I put it my kitbag for safe keeping? I started to sweat as I fished through my pockets.
“Well?”
“I’ve got it right here, Sir”
“Thank heaven!” Usually unemotional, General Lee let out a drawn-out sigh. “All you need to do is blow a little of the powder in the suspect’s face and he’ll tell you all he knows.”
I glanced at the digital clock on the bed side table. “How long before it takes effect.”
“About two minutes. Fill me in immediately the bastard talks.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“And tell Miss Godson I want to speak to her.”
