An Ordinary Day (13 page)

‘It’s nobody’s fault. It’s just something that’s always been inside me – and baby’s brought it out.’ ‘But we’ll work through it. You’ll be fine soon, and you’ll look back and think how silly the whole thing was.’

‘The psychologist wasn’t so optimistic. She said it could take a while.’

‘A while? Really?’

‘I’ve got to see her again tomorrow. I really want to try and get better and maybe she can help me.’

Durant looked at Stephanie’s drawn face and dishevelled hair and he hardly recognised her.

‘I’ll do whatever it takes to get you better,’ he said, and embraced her softly.

The kryton had engaged and he feared that this was only the start of the nuclear winter.

Scott handed Baker a
CD
, which he slid into the computer on his desk.

‘It’s a translated copy of the original
CD
which Ali gave to Vitoli yesterday. Ali got the original in a parcel which he picked up from a parcel counter.’

‘Here?’

‘No, a supermarket in Durban.’

‘Does he know who left the parcel there?’

‘No, boss, no idea. Got the voucher in the post. Instructions to take it to the parcel counter at that store after three. The parcel was there, he handed in the disc and, voila, the
CD
.’

Baker rubbed his chin in thought. ‘It’s tradecraft 101, a simple dead letter box.’

‘Yeah, but also pretty elegant.’

‘You gotta give it to the Libyans. They got style. There’s password protection on this file.’

‘Try Salem.
S
-
A
-
L
-
E
-
M
.’

Baker punched in the word on his keyboard. ‘I assume that wasn’t just a lucky guess.’

‘The password was in the instructions. Ali gave it to us.’

‘Salem. What’s it mean?’

‘It could be a name, or just a word. I think it means ‘peace’ as in Jerusalem. But when you look at the document, I’m sure the irony won’t be lost on you.’

Baker glanced down the list of items. ‘Fermenter, 1000 litres, made of non-corrodible material (borosilicate glass, polished stainless steel or polished aluminium) with double-sealing joints within the steam containment area, capable of
in situ
sterilisation in a closed state. Centrifugal separator with a flow of at least 300 litres per hour. Cross-flow filtration equipment,
P
2 containment housing, independently ventilated protective full suits. Equipment for the micro-encapsulation of live micro-organisms …’

Baker looked up from his monitor. ‘This is a nightmare scenario. This list is, what? Six pages long?’

Scott nodded. ‘Check the end, boss.’

Baker paged down to the last paragraph.

‘Stated use: pharmaceutical production of tuberculosis antibiotics for South African market. Supplier: Industrial Reactors Ltd, Canada. Payment: 9 million
US
dollars. Export address: Durban harbour. No installation or technical assistance necessary. High confidentiality advised – South African government playing down
TB
incidence rate as it reflects on
HIV
infection rate.’

Scott motioned towards Baker’s computer. ‘I think it’s pretty clear what they want, boss. A fermenter’s legitimately used for the manufacture of antibiotics. But also for biological agents for use in weapons of mass destruction.’

‘Not on our watch, son.’

‘Damn right, boss.’

Baker stood up and moved around his desk. ‘What else do we know?’

‘The Canadian company sells the fermenter and all the other biological equipment to a front company Ali sets up, thinking the end-user is a local company making
TB
antibiotics.’

Baker nodded. ‘But the shipment will probably barely touch South African shores. Somewhere between Halifax and Durban, that container’ll be diverted and end up in Tripoli harbour.’

‘And – what do you know? – an instant biological warfare factory. All they’ll need are some nice freeze-dried bacterial cultures from some repository in the world. And there’re many of those.’

‘I know. I lived close to one for years where you could buy an anthrax culture for under $100.’

‘And once you’ve got the starting culture, the rest is easy. You just keep feeding it in your fermenter until you’ve cultivated enough to infect a city, a country or a continent.’

‘Nine million dollars?’ Baker asked, looking up through his glasses.

‘Payment to Industrial Reactors Ltd. There’ll be more for the shipping and all the arrangements Ali will have to make: setting up a front company, smoothing out the paperwork, customs and so on. I reckon the whole operation could cost double that.’

‘Now, has Ali been told how payment will be made?’

‘No mention of it. At this stage, he only knows as much as we do. I think.’

‘What do you mean, “I think”?’

‘Well, Vitoli said Ali’s a smart guy. He’s worried that he’s already got some of the funds as a down payment. But he’s not declaring it.’

‘Is he saying we can’t trust Ali?’

‘He’s saying we can trust him up to a point. But we need to remember that the guy’s a crook.’

‘Yeah, I think there’s no question …’

‘He’s used to lying and cheating. He’s also a businessman. To him, this is just a business transaction; he’s got no real loyalty to us. In fact, he’d screw us if he could.’

‘So we call in the boys from Virginia, right? How big do we make this thing?’

‘It doesn’t have to be big because we’ve got control over the importer. Ali’s the Libyans’ guy. They’re working through him and he’s talking to us. We could inform – what’s it? – Industrial Reactors in Canada and stop the shipment. But we first need to identify other local players: the Libyan diplomats involved in procurement.’

‘Do we liaise it?’

‘Not yet, boss. We’ve got to identify the money trail. Then we can maybe use this thing to our political advantage – force Gaddafi to adopt a more moderate stance in the Middle East. I mean, Libya’s in total violation of the Biological Weapons Convention, which they’ve ratified.’

‘Steady, Paul, don’t get ahead of yourself. Let’s take small steps here. What’s our next move? Do we involve State, the boys at Langley, Interpol, the South Africans, the Canadians?’

‘No, boss. I recommend at this stage we just keep it at the operational level. Once we’ve wrapped it up, then we can let the ambassador take it up at political level. Once Langley gets it, they’ll send out twenty agents and an aircraft carrier’ll sail into Durban harbour. We’ve got control over this thing, boss, we can handle it right here. Once we’ve got further details, we can liaise with the
FBI
boys.’

‘And Homeland Security.’

‘Yeah, later. You know these guys never let us know about
their
operations till the last minute.’

‘Paul, I’m trusting you ’cos you’ve been here a lot longer than me and you know the ropes. One more meeting with Ali, then we need to know everything: the funding, the contacts, the who, what, where, how. Then we call a briefing and this thing’s wrapped up. I can hold Langley off for another few days maximum. Then I need to tell ’em what’s happening.’

‘Boss, our asset’s in place. Joe Vitoli’s our best field agent and he’s getting Ali to talk. We’re all set.’

Amina looked grim. ‘It’s so frustrating. We know Ali’s busy with something.’

Durant nodded and glanced at a ship slowly negotiating itself through the harbour entrance, its orange, red and blue containers stacked six-high on the deck. ‘Horizons’ was hardly an apt name for the restaurant; Durban’s humidity usually shrouded the sea’s horizon in a grey veil. But the food was cheap and it had become a kind of refuge from the office. It was easier talking about real-world issues out of the office and in the real world.

‘Why’s everybody so down?’ Durant asked. ‘Mike, you look miserable. This is Horizons. We’re not allowed to bring our moods here. This is where we relax.’

‘I’m cool,’ Shezi said, but Durant could see there was something on his mind. Maybe he and Thandi had had an argument that morning.

‘I wonder how many of those containers are going to reach their rightful owners? Ali probably also sits in this restaurant when the ships come in and calculates his monthly profit.’ Amina sighed. ‘Why didn’t the judge give us an extension on the tap?’

Shezi took a sip of strong coffee and shook his head. ‘Because he’s sitting in a cosy office in Pretoria, 600 kilometres away.’

‘It’s not that,’ said Durant. ‘Ali’s always operated on a very sophisticated level. He’s always been one step ahead of us. What we’re picking up are tiny pieces of a huge jigsaw puzzle. We only see these few pieces; we can only guess what the picture on the box is.’

Shezi allowed himself a laugh ‘You can see he’s got a kid. His examples are kids’ toys now.’

‘Shut up and listen,’ Durant said, happy to see Shezi perking up to his normal self. ‘We can’t motivate on the basis of what we think is on the puzzle box. We motivate on the basis of the pieces. The part that’s annoying is that the pieces of the puzzle we’ve got aren’t convincing enough for the judge. I can’t blame him.’

Amina adjusted her sunglasses and shook her head. ‘It’s different when you’re there. When you’re virtually sitting in his office with him like a fly on the wall. For six months I heard every word spoken in there. It’s unbelievable how in the past few weeks it’s just dried up. And what about the parcel? Why didn’t the judge take that into account?’

‘Without knowing what’s in the parcel, it’s just a parcel, it’s not intelligence. We can guess it’s drugs or money or a nuclear bomb. But it could just as easily be some banana muffins his granny baked.’

‘Then why did a Libyan intelligence officer come all the way from Malta to deliver granny’s banana muffins to Ali?’ Shezi asked, dipping an egg-and-bacon sandwich into his coffee.

‘We’re still waiting for that piece of the puzzle,’ said Durant. ‘Look, we’ve been incredibly lucky just picking up the contact with that Libyan woman. We were even luckier to get our old friend Dahdi to approach her and suggest the apartment. You know, in this occupation, luck plays a big role.’

‘Some of our biggest successes, if you think about it, happened because we were in the right place at the right time,’ Amina said. ‘So we mustn’t give up yet. I think we’ve done well. We’re closer to Ali than we’ve ever been.’

‘Of course, we’ll really have to encourage Elhasomi to take Dahdi up on his offer,’ Durant said. ‘We’re going to have to throw every curve ball we can in her way once we know where she’s booked in.’

‘How are you going to do that?’ Amina asked.

‘Like this. If she makes a reservation at the Holiday Inn, we send her an e-mail – saying during the period of her visit there will be a national police convention at the hotel and would she mind all the activity around that.’

‘Or a meeting of the Jewish Board of Deputies,’ Amina suggested.

Durant smiled. ‘You guys learn fast. We close every door that she opens until the only one left is Dahdi.’

‘Anything interesting from the surveillance reports?’ Shezi asked while spooning the remains of the sandwich out of his coffee.

‘They’ve withdrawn. They could only deploy for a week. Anja said they really struggled to monitor him. The guy’s tail-wise. He drives up one-way streets, ignores traffic lights, drives at 40 kilometres per hour on the freeway.’

Shezi laughed. ‘He should be a taxi driver with those skills!’

‘Ja, well, they lost him plenty of times. I’m waiting for the final report. Should be ready by tomorrow. Thing is, his driver, Mojo, is an ex-cop and I think he was in the
VIP
Protection Unit so he knows what he’s doing.’

‘How’s Stephanie and the baby? What’s her name again, Alice?’

‘Alexis. She’s okay, but Stephanie’s not doing so well. The last few weeks have been hell. She’s actually seeing a shrink.’

‘Those guys are expensive.’

‘Thanks, Mike, I noticed. That makes it even more depressing.’

‘I’m sure things will work out,’ Amina said. ‘It’s probably because everything’s still so new. I had a friend who had post-natal depression—’

‘We need to go over everything again,’ Durant interrupted, ‘so that if we missed something, we find it. Ali must have slipped up at some stage. He must have said or done something over the last three months which indicates what he’s up to. You guys need to wake up, get your act together and wrap this thing up.’

Durant threw money on the table and left the restaurant, while, in stunned silence, Shezi and Amina watched him go.

Emile Dahdi’s penthouse apartment overlooked the yacht mall and the Victoria Embankment. He’d made one of the bedrooms a study and positioned his desk in such a way that he could work on his pc and still see the ocean in his peripheral vision. He sat here on many occasions and wrote reports on interesting meetings he had attended and characters he had met. He knew Durant used him because of his particularly unique background. He was well known in the business world and in diplomatic circles; fluent in French and English, he could also speak and understand both Arabic and Hebrew. He’d worked in Arab and European countries for most of his life. He was old and eccentric and a thespian to the core. His performances were often not rehearsed at all, but delivered with a conviction which was hard to fault.