Ultimate Weapon (29 page)

‘Book me then, if you want to,’ said Nick. ‘What do you get for breaking and entering these days anyway? A bit of community service, and one of those little electronic tags wrapped around your big toe? Fine, I’ll take my punishment. It’s a fair cop. I’m guilty, case closed.’ He ground his fists together. ‘Now let me go. I’ve got things to do.’

‘Like what, Nick?’ said Marlow.

Nick stared at the man. He was sitting calmly at the desk, his face impassive. Nick hadn’t liked him much when he was a Rupert, and he had even less time for him now he was in civilian clothes.

‘That’s my business.’

‘I think you’ll find it’s our business as well.’

Nick looked at Laura. ‘Has Wilmington pressed charges?’

There was a moment of hesitation on her face: a tightening of the lips and a narrowing of her eyes. It lasted just a fraction of second, but it told Nick all he needed to know. ‘Then you’ve no reason to hold me here,’ he persisted. ‘Let me go.’

‘We’ll let you go when it’s safe,’ said Laura.

‘I can decide when it’s safe,’ snapped Nick.

Slowly, Marlow stood up. He was a tall man, over six foot three, and he had grown thinner since Nick had last seen him, the way some men do when they age. He peered at Nick. ‘Listen, man,’ he said. ‘You know bugger all about what’s going on here. I suggest you stop shooting your ruddy mouth off and start listening.’ He paused, his face reddening slightly. ‘For once in your miserable life.’

Nick could feel the anger building within him. It was welling up in his stomach, and he tightened his fists together to try and control it. It was going to take all the willpower he possessed not to throw a punch in the next few seconds. ‘My daughter’s missing,’ he said, his voice low and determined, all the anger buried within it. ‘She discovered something.’

He hesitated, debating with himself how much to tell them. Sod it, he thought. I might as well level with them. It might be the only chance I have of getting out of this place – and finding Sarah.

‘Cold fusion,’ he continued. ‘Don’t press me for the details of the science, but I’m sure you know more about it than me. I think the Iraqis might have got hold of it, and lifted her out of the country.’ He looked first at Marlow, then at Laura. ‘So I haven’t got time to piss around talking to you two. My daughter’s in danger, and I mean to find her.’

‘We do know,’ said Laura.

His could feel the rage reddening his cheeks. ‘What do you bloody know?’ he spluttered.

‘We know,’ Laura repeated.

‘You know my daughter’s been kidnapped by Saddam Hussein?’ said Nick.

‘Of course,’ said Laura. ‘That’s why we brought you here.’

Marlow glanced at Nick, a hint of a smile on his face. ‘We didn’t want to run the risk of you blundering around Iraq trying to find her,’ he said. ‘You’d just screw everything up. Like the last time.’

Laura shot Marlow an angry glance. ‘Why don’t you sit down, and tell us everything you know?’ she said. ‘I think it’s time we started cooperating.’

Nick pulled up a chair. He didn’t have much choice. They had taken him prisoner. And they clearly knew a lot more about Sarah than he did. If he didn’t work with them, they would just throw him back into that cell and forget about him.

I’ll work with them, he told himself. But I won’t trust them.
Not for an instant.

‘You tell me what you know,’ he said bitterly.

‘That’s not the way it works, and you know it,’ said Laura. ‘Now, you tell us what
you
know.’

Nick reached out for a glass of water. Behind the desk, the television was tuned to BBC News 24. The sound was turned down, but he could see they were reporting the build-up to the invasion of Iraq. There were reporters talking to camera from the Kuwaiti border. He looked back at Laura. ‘Sarah disappeared about ten days ago.’

‘You don’t know the actual day?’ said Marlow.

‘She’s a grown woman,’ said Nick gruffly. ‘I don’t speak to her every day.’

‘But you were suspicious?’ said Laura.

Nick nodded. ‘She’d never go more than a few days without contacting someone.’

‘Your daughter drank heavily,’ said Laura.

‘I know,’ snapped Nick.

‘And took drugs.’

Nick paused. He didn’t know that, but it didn’t surprise him either. Sarah had a talent for getting herself into trouble. She had done ever since she was a teenager. ‘She wasn’t just on a bender,’ said Nick. ‘For starters, they never lasted that long. Next, there was money in her account.’

‘A hundred thousand,’ said Laura.

‘You know?’

‘We’ve been keeping tabs on Sarah for a while.’

‘Because of what she was working on?’

‘Precisely.’ Laura’s tone was clipped, businesslike, but Nick reckoned there was an emotion in there somewhere. As if she was still concealing something, and that made her uncomfortable.

‘Cold fusion,’ said Nick.

‘It’s a very important piece of science,’ said Laura. ‘If Sarah has made the breakthrough we think she has, and I’m not really qualified to say whether she has or hasn’t, then it has global implications. It matters for the state. And we’re concerned about Sarah’s safety as well, of course.’

‘Bollocks,’ Nick snapped. ‘You don’t give a toss for anyone’s safety except your own.’

‘Watch your language, Nick,’ said Marlow. ‘You’re not on an oil rig now.’

‘I’ll speak as I like,’ said Nick. He looked back at Laura. He despised himself for wanting to impress her, but he did. ‘Her professor has been working for the Iraqis,’ he said.

‘For some years, yes,’ said Laura.

‘So why the hell haven’t you arrested him?’ said Nick angrily.

‘We wanted to, as soon as we were aware of the full magnitude of the situation,’ she said. ‘We were trailing him to find out who his handlers were. There must be senior Iraqi agents controlling him in this country, and we want to know who they are. Unfortunately, he seems to have vanished.’

‘Just like Sarah …’

‘That’s why we were monitoring his office,’ said Laura. ‘When we saw you going in there, we had to intervene. We don’t want amateurs crashing into an investigation that is being handled by us.’

Nick glared at her. ‘She’s in Iraq, isn’t she?’

Laura paused. ‘She may well be,’ she said. ‘Right now, we really have no idea where she might be. We’re doing our best to find out.’

‘She’s in fucking Iraq. I know it.’

‘I’ve already told you to watch your language,’ Marlow snapped.

‘My daughter’s in the middle of what’s about to become a bloody war zone, so I’ll swear if I want to,’ Nick snapped back. ‘Why do the Iraqis want cold fusion,
anyway? They’re already sitting on top of half the oil in the world.’

‘Precisely,’ says Laura. ‘If cold fusion works, Saddam and the rest of the Arabs are back to growing dates for a living. If Saddam gets control of this technology, he can bury it. Even better, he can threaten his neighbours that he’ll release it, so destroying their economies. It will give him control over all the Middle Eastern oil, which is what he has always dreamt about. And that would allow him to hold the West hostage as well.’ She paused, glancing at Marlow. ‘It would make him the most powerful man in the world.’

‘I thought we were invading because of WMD?’ said Nick.

Laura laughed, flicking away a few strands of her blonde hair with her right hand. ‘That’s just to bring the bearded polytechnic lecturers on the Labour back-benches on board. It’s much more serious than that.’

‘As serious as getting my daughter back,’ said Nick.

Laura didn’t respond. She was turning to the television behind the desk. News 24 had cut to live pictures from Baghdad. Marlow, perched on the edge of the desk, was also peering at the TV screen, his expression intent, focused, as if he was searching for something.

What the hell are they looking for, wondered Nick. ‘Are you serious about getting my daughter back?’ he said, his voice louder this time.

Laura glanced back at him. ‘We have to go,’ she said, getting up. ‘You’ll stay here. The doors will be locked,
and there is no other way out of this room. Don’t try to move. You’ll only hurt yourself.’

‘Let me the fuck out of here,’ Nick growled.

He took a menacing step towards her. Marlow suddenly stood to attention, putting his body between them. He was a tall man, but he was in his sixties now: even Regiment training did you no good in a fight once you got past a certain age. Nick knew he could take him apart with a couple of blows. ‘Back off,’ Marlow said. ‘We’ve got dozens of guards in here who’d be only too happy to beat the crap out of you.’

Laura had already opened the door, and Marlow moved swiftly behind her. Nick took a couple of steps forward to follow them, but in the next instant the door slammed shut. He pushed hard against it, but it had already been locked. He started pulling on the steel handle, but there was no give in it.

‘You bastards,’ he muttered.

Turning round, he wiped the sweat from his brow. He took a sip of the water from the desk, trying to calm himself down. His heart was thumping, and he could feel his pulse racing. What kind of brutal game have they been playing with Sarah, he asked himself.
If she gets hurt, I’ll make them pay for it with their blood.

He looked at the television. The sound was still turned down, and he couldn’t see a remote to turn the volume up. On the screen, he could see a panoramic view of Baghdad at night. The city was shrouded in darkness. Then he could see one or two flashes of lights. Lightning? An explosion? No, Nick realised, with a sudden chill to
his spine. I know what that light looks like. I’m familiar with the sudden, violent thunderball that splits open the sky. I’ve seen it before.

A cruise missile.

Suddenly, the lights were popping up over the screen like a firework display. The city, as displayed on the TV screen, was bathed in an ugly mixture of blue, orange and white. A terrifying storm was engulfing the place, turning what were once streets and roads into a raging inferno of smoke and fire.

On the screen, underneath the picture, Nick could read the rolling headline news. ‘Shock and Awe attack starts on Baghdad,’ it read. ‘Allies launch massive missile strikes.’

Christ, thought Nick.

He wiped away a fresh layer of sweat that had formed on his brow.

The war has started already.

And Sarah is right there, somewhere in the middle of it.

Jed lay perfectly still. He’d already checked his watch a dozen times, and there was no point in checking it again. The time for waiting had passed. The war would start in the next few seconds.

Looking down, he could see movement. A black van was pulling up at the plant. Inside the courtyard, the door to the admin building was open, and he could see several figures running back and forth.

Jesus, he thought.
Do they know something?

He listened intently. For the past three hours, he’d just been lying here, listening to the sounds of the city. It was quiet. Baghdad was already in a state of high alert. All the lights had been turned out, as a blackout as well as a curfew had been imposed. The people were inside their houses, keeping their heads down, hoping for the best. Only a few ventured outside, and then they risked being rounded up by the police and soldiers. Twice, he had seen people shot on the streets below, as the army rushed forwards, building up its defences. Most of the time, however, the city was virtually silent, with just the low background noise of a couple of million people trying to keep out of harm’s way.

Now, he could hear something different.

At first, it was a low, growling sound, like a blocked drain.

Then an audible buzz, like a washing machine.

And now, a whooshing sound, as the air was sucked out of the sky.

The sound of an incoming cruise missile.

He leant in, checking the LTD. The laser was in position. Its beam was locked onto the main orb within the compound, providing perfect guidance for the incoming strike.

He could see the cruise flying overhead now, and started counting down the seconds in his head. The missile was long and thin, like a cigar, but it moved so fast through the air, all Jed could see was a flash of hot metal slicing through the night sky.

Five, four …

Something was moving in the compound. The van had been loaded. The gates had been opened. It was driving away …

‘What the fuck’s happening down there?’ muttered Jed.

‘They’re scarpering,’ said Matt. ‘Sodding chicken ragheads. They’re buggering off just as things turn interesting.’

Three, two …

The van was skidding into the street, its lights flashing, and even a kilometre away Jed could hear its horn blaring.

One …

Jed steeled himself, taking a sharp intake of breath.

Impact.

The missile collided with the plant, crashing into its target with pinpoint accuracy. There was a momentary stillness in the air, as the hardened tip of the missile forged its deadly path into the metal skin of the plant. It drilled into the building, cutting a channel through it. Jed held his breath. In the next fraction of a second, its explosives detonated. How much power had been packed into the missile, Jed had no way of knowing, but from the sudden gust of wind that rustled past his ears as the missile ignited, he guessed it was at least a couple of hundred pounds of explosives. A flash of lightning suddenly struck up into the air, and he could smell the burning of metal, wood, oil and flesh. A wave of heat rolled out from the plant, hitting him straight in the face, as if the whole city had just been put into the microwave.