Remember Remember (14 page)

August 1
st
, Sun City.

When Onar walked from the beach towards Sun City he was greeted by the morning sun which rose over Father Mountain, the backdrop to Olu Deniz, and the temperature was changed in an instant from cool bearable to 38 degrees C. The time was 08.40 and he believed Alan would be at breakfast in the holiday complex.

The waiters laid out only half the tables for breakfast, but Alan having met Onar on his way down to the restaurant asked a waiter if he would kindly make up a table near the night club. He wanted them to be out of the sun, away from the smokers and out of earshot.

He grabbed a cup of black tea, some bread and a cheese omelette and arrived back at the table to discuss Onar’s exploration of the container.

He came straight to the point, he was fairly certain the WMD was weapons grade Anthrax. He was also certain there was enough of it to kill half the population of the USA and Europe.

Alan whistled, “Christ, can we use it as we hoped?”

“Absolutely, it’s ideal, do you know anything about Anthrax.”

“Not really, I know it’s bloody bad news,” he responded, “didn’t they practice with it years ago on an island off Scotland which is still uninhabitable?”

“That’s the stuff,” he replied, “in its worst form it has its own energy which enables it to become airborne and form an undetectable cloud, which will travel wherever it is blown. In our case, mixed with explosives, it will be devastating. If it is weapons grade it is also virtually indestructible and will not be downgraded by explosion, temperature change, weather, water or anything I can imagine.”

“What does it actually do?”

“Anthrax is a seed, a spore, which in its natural state can lay doormat in the ground for years, and this is why that island you mentioned earlier is probably still uninhabitable. In its dry state it is harmless, but when it comes into contact with lymph fluid or blood, the seed cracks open and begins to grow. It turns itself into a rod shaped cell and then multiplies 2 -4 -8 -16 -32 -64, binary, it draws on the nutrients of the animal or person it has invaded, wanting to engulf them and kill its host. It actually wants you to die so that as your carcass rots the Anthrax cells sporulate, mix with your fluid and drain into the soil. Eventually it dries out and lies there, waiting as a seed for its next victim.”

“You deliver airborne weapons grade Anthrax into a city, a tube station, office complex, anywhere, then God help those people and animals living there. You really would cause a major number of deaths and absolute panic.”

Onar looked at Alan, smiled and continued, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Alan nodded and smiled back, then thought to himself, “It’s not the what, it’s the why” and hoped the smile hid his doubt about this being a step too far. In comparison to this, flying aeroplanes into office blocks seemed petty,” he concluded.

He looked at Onar and asked, “What do you need to begin production?”

“Some lab equipment, some method of containment, a mixing process, a transport system from the boat, protective clothing for the workforce and protective casings for the finished product,” he continued, “preferably a lab sealed off and kept under negative pressure, a lominar flow system and an electron microscope.”

“Christ, we can’t get all that can we?”

“Probably not, but that’s what the Yanks and Brits have and not having it might kill us all.”

“And getting it might get us all killed,”

“We’ll compromise,” nodded Onar, “the farther East in the world you go the more people seem to compromise.” He fell silent as a waiter approached to clear the table and on his departure continued.

“Let’s go through the needs, I am OK with the Lab that’s there now, I’ll reseal it, and I think I can get a reasonable microscope without causing too much fuss, if not I’ll use the one from the boat as a last resort. The mixing process I need to think about. To transport it from the boat we can use large metal containers and place the test tubes in them complete with their rubber casings. Protective clothing is already used by the workforce due to the nature of the current manufacture and I think new face masks and a wash down system will reduce the risk of infecting anybody on site. The protective casing, which is your department, must include two layers of tinfoil, one shiny side facing inward, the second shiny side facing outward, if all this works we will have the weapons in the UK by October.”

The waiter approached again to clear the remains from the table and silence fell as he completed his task and then moved on.

Alan turned to Onar, “I suggest we meet again tomorrow at the Pop In cocktail bar; it’s been good talking with you,” he concluded.

“Likewise, see you tomorrow.”

They stood, shook hands and parted company, Onar left Sun City and Alan walked to the pool bar, it was ten am. He ordered his first pint of Tuborg and nobody batted an eyelid. He leant against the bar and scanned the reclining bodies around the pool, watching as they sprayed oil over their skin to begin another day’s roasting. Kids screamed at each other, some mothers cared and tried to intervene, most didn’t bother. The entertainments manager shouted “Hello.” Sun City was now on full throttle, John Lennon sang, “Give Peace a Chance,” he ordered another Tuborg and thought, “You’re drinking too much,” he downed the second pint and knew he would never get rid of his bloody conscience.

August 2
nd
,
11.00, The Pop In cocktail Bar.

Onar and Alan sat at their usual private table. Alan drank Becks, Onar drank tea. Onar was confident the WMD could be mixed with the product. He was also confident that enough WMD could be transported from the ship by using divers’ oxygen tanks, so often used on that part of the coast by holiday makers and experienced divers. He believed two men arriving by boat and walking up the beach with diving equipment, putting it into a jeep and driving off would create little suspicion.

Alan confirmed the product outers would be available within 2 weeks and Onar would then be in a position to start manufacture of the products now bearing the LOLTS logo and design. It was agreed that due to the new company name and range of products the first 4 months manufactured batches would contain no WMD.

Alan believed these batches would not only be electronically scanned but also perhaps 10% to 20% would be physically broken and examined. From then on 10% of each product would contain WMD rising to 80% over the following months into the next year. Within this time different product outers could be used to aid a wider distribution across the UK and production of the other product ranges could begin within 2 months of full production of the first range.

Onar would be given a further identity and access to a Syrian bank account. Each week he would cross the border under this new identity and use the banking facility available. Should he receive a telephone call from Alan or Shan with the message “LOLTS is no longer trading,” then he at once would assume the second identity and leave Turkey.

There would be one further contact with Alan in Rhodes, when the factory was in full production and imports into England had been agreed through official channels. Onar would receive confirmation of a contract from a UK distributor soon and would begin to supply products as detailed in the contract. Alan ordered another Elfe beer, Onar rose to leave and they shook hands.

“Goodbye and good luck in your future work,” concluded Alan.

August 2
nd
, 11.00, An office block near St James tube station, London.

Major Steve Rock produced his identification which was scrutinised before he was allowed to pass into a second identification area. Here he passed through an electronic gate having placed his briefcase on a conveyor belt and placed his hand fingers down on a flat screen. His identification checked he was allowed complete with his briefcase into an open lounge area. He made himself a coffee, sat and waited for his call. It might be ten minutes, it might be 2 hours.

Major Rock had been seconded from the SAS a very fit and able officer his expertise being counter intelligence. Because of this he was part of an enormous team, which he thought was far too big, sifting information from any source possible. The team had multiplied ten fold since Sept 11 and each unit had a given sector to survey. Many units were internal, the UK has a large ethnic population some of whom might be sleepers waiting to strike. Another suicide bomber on a packed underground train would create not only death and destruction but panic among the 3,500,000 daily commuters who used the tube, not to mention the countrywide outrage at the bombing.

However Rock’s area of interest was not internal but Turkey, an enormous country bordering Syria among others which offered easy access to Iraq and other Arab states. Their task was to sift through as much information as possible from the enormous amounts of telephone traffic, web traffic, movements of people and word of mouth from helpers on the ground. His expertise enabled him to compile a dossier overviewing the important information gathered and his task today was to brief his commander with his conclusions. There was so much information that his concluding report would be all that was discussed, a daunting task with possible terrible consequences if he got it wrong. He sat and imagined that Bletchley Park in the 1940’s must have been similar but at least they knew what to listen for, mainly German traffic he believed. Here you had to listen for anything which may be significant.

A light flashed on above a single oak panelled door, Rock stood and holding his briefcase walked to the door, knocked and entered. He was dressed in civilian clothing, an average blue suit, black Oxfords, a white shirt and featureless tie. Mr Average. There were 4 people in the room, 3 men and 1 woman. Everything would be taped and videoed. Rock was beckoned to a seat, the same one he had sat in many times and he knew the video and audio systems would be trained on him.

“Good Morning Major,” said Commander Bagshaw, another civilian policeman seconded for the task from Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist unit.

“Good Morning,” said Rock as he opened his briefcase, took out a number of bound reports and passed one to each of the group.

“Please begin Major, we have sixty minutes for your briefing.”

He went through his administrative needs, his spending, his requirements and finally spent the greatest part of his sixty minutes on his conclusion. He had over 150 regular suspects whose telephone and electronic chatter was always monitored, but this yet again was in his words, normal. There was always activity near the Syrian border and information coming mainly from Istanbul and Ankara. However there was one slightly extraordinary event which Rock wanted to investigate further with their permission.

A tourist had requested to fly in a Microlight aircraft from Ovacik in the direction of Olu Deniz in Turkey. He had flown the usual route over Hisaronu, the Blue Lagoon and Butterfly Valley and had requested to fly low over the White Dolphin Restaurant on his return, in order that his wife might see him and perhaps take a photograph.

As the pilot descended he saw in the clear blue waters a little to the left of the restaurant about 15 meters from the rocky shoreline what appeared to be the wreck of a boat. This was reported to the police upon his return, who investigated. The wreck was found and divers searched what was discovered to be a wrecked Peugeot 307 lying in 20 feet of water from which a body was recovered. The body was that of a man and a full post mortem had concluded that he may have been dead before he hit the water. The car had somersaulted many times before it hit the sea therefore he may have died through injuries received as the car crashed down the mountain side, however bruising to his neck may have been due to some form of strangulation.

His time of death was difficult to ascertain because of the length of time in the water and nobody had come forward to say they had witnessed the car plunge down the mountain. Identification of the body had at first proved difficult because there were no clues on the body and few clues in the car. That in itself was also strange, a dead man with absolutely no ID on him.

The registration number of the car revealed it was hired from Hertz in Syria on the 22
nd
of July by a man called Tikrit Abdul. He paid in cash and had supporting papers. Nobody had been able to find him since the 22
nd
, however, the car had travelled hundreds of kilometres in about 6 days and this was a great distance for a tourist to travel. Hertz say that 500 kilometers a week is the norm. We found the distance it had travelled could easily have taken it to Turkey and back. We enquired at the border and indeed the car crossed into Turkey driven by Abdul accompanied by others. All their names have proved to be false.

The group of 4 sat and listened to the Major, no questions would be asked yet: he was the expert and at his recommendation on the final summary, more detail could be asked for if it were required.

Rock continued, “The police in Olu Deniz carried out enquiries at local hotels and found that three men booked into the Karbel Hotel with assumed names and passports. However only two booked out, but they did ask to book out the third person and take his passport which was refused. The third passport impounded by the police was in the name of Tikrit Abdul. This name is on our database and is an alias for a small time crook and suspected terrorist called Oman Hussein (no relation to Saddam). He made 3 mobile telephone calls, 2 on the 24
th
and one on the 25
th
all to the same number. We traced that number and found it to belong to a girl called Sevin. My contacts in Syria interviewed her and found her to be his lover. In brief, we found out that he had been offered a fabulous job paying five thousand English pounds per month, which is a phenomenal amount of money. She said he had told her he would have to go into Turkey and back many times and that his job was to transfer information. I believe he was being employed as a runner. He said to her he did not know much detail but one of the people he would be dealing with was very important to the cause, whatever that means. He had opened a bank account in Syria and five thousand pounds had been deposited.