Chapter 16
Pacific Ocean - Monday: September 27
Steve and I just stood there, stupid expressions on our faces, mouths agape.
"Come in, join us gentlemen, you must be hungry? please won't you sit down?" The old man said pointing at two vacant chairs, in a pleasant and friendly tone. I looked at Steve and he looked back at me. Nothing was said for a few moments. Then, we both shrugged and sat down. We returned to stare at Maria. She was smiling, and her smile had never looked better, but this time, somehow, its effect was a little lost on me.
"Louie, Steve, please relax? let's eat and then I will explain it all to you. Just be assured that you have been of great help to us and to both our countries. You have helped in saving the lives of millions of people," Maria said, matter of fact, as if thanking us for successfully doing the weekly shopping.
"But, unfortunately there is still a lot to be done," she added, grimly."First, may I present to you Commander Hoyt of the US Navy Intelligence Service," she continued nonplussed, "Commander please meet Louie Breccia, my recent employer, andDetective Steve Lucas of the Sydney Police," she wasn't finished. She wasn't finished by far. Next came the real bombshell, "Louie, Steve, I am Captain Maria Wolf, also with the US NIS."
We said nothing and just stared at her.
"Nice to meet you gentlemen? and now if you don't mind, we will eat," the Commander said and nodded to our sailor-guide, who snapped to attention and whispered into a microphone. The food must have been waiting right outside. Almost immediately, the door opened and food trolleys were pushed inside. We were served by smartly uniformed young sailors in all whites, including white gloves.
The meal was absolutely excellent, and considering our hunger, we were pretty restrained in not devouring it like two pigs at a through. The conversation during the meal was bland and of no significance to me: stuff about the weather, news from the States for Maria and the general. Steve and I just listened and ate. Both of us sending uncertain looks Maria's way. It was like being stuck in the Twilight zone, but neither one of us was willing to miss out on the delicious meal and wine by exclaiming something like, "Whoa there! What the fuck is going on here?" We just listened and ate.
After the meal, we were shown into an adjoining room, which was like a cozy lounge room, with couches and lounge chairs. Here we were served some coffee, unfortunately not short black, and a brandy.
The Commander told us that this was the only room on the whole ship where smoking was allowed and we could light up if we needed to.
Boy! I needed to, badly, really badly.
After the first few deep puffs, I could not wait any longer:
"Thank you for the excellent meal, Commander and? Captain?er? Maria? but we would really like to know what is going on," I said, stabbing my cigarette out in an attractive crystal ashtray with more force than was necessary, wasting most of it, out of pure frustration.
The two navy officers looked at each other, then the Commander nodded and Maria started, "First I would like to apologise to you both for misleading you and for dragging you into something that is a lot more involved and dangerous than you bargained for," she said, looking at both of us, sincerity and some contrition in her face.
"No one dragged us into anything, Maria. We did what we thought had to be done? probably more information and fewer? er? lies, would have been more helpful," I said coldly. I was not ready to forgive and forget. We had done many things in an attempt to rescue her that neither Steve nor I were terribly proud of, and a simple apology wasn't going to cut it for me, yet.
"I understand why you are not particularly happy with me Louie. But I had no choice in what I did and how I did it. You see? there was, there is, too much at stake. But I am, we are, truly grateful for your help, without it, I would not be here and the situation could have been irretrievably lost," she said intently and with considerable passion.
"Well, okay Maria, why don't you tell us about the? situation?" I said trying to relax in my chair, and lighting up another smoke to hide my failure. I was still burning up inside.
Again, she looked over to the Commander and waited for his nod to proceed.
"Basically you know most of it. I did have a twin sister: Brenda. Brenda was also an officer in the NIS like me. She was seconded, on loan to AIA for a special assignment as she was fluent in Russian. We were following up on a piece of intelligence that had been passed on to us by the Israelis. They were sure something big was going to go down soon, something a lot worse that the 9/11 disaster. The Mossad were sure that, the Russian mafia was involved and in particular an Australian branch of that organization, the Tarasoff mob, was the main pivot of the operation," she stopped to have a sip and light up a cigarette, after a deep puff, she continued.
"Brenda did her job well. She penetrated the Tarasoff mob and eventually she was able to discover what was being planned. Unfortunately, she was betrayed? we think by a mole in AIA. That's why it became extremely important that I avoid at all cost giving AIA my sister's information, we just did not know who to trust. You two saved the day for us, by neutralizing the Tarasoff Mob in a police action and by rescuing me, we are very grateful to you both," she finished, blessing us with one of her best smiles.
"It seems to me that we stumbled here and there, more or less blindly and accidentally did the right thing. I am not sure how much credit we are due," Steve commented, always generous.
"Yes, more luck than talent," I agreed, "are we going to be told what the information from your sister was really about? or is that top secret?" I asked.
"Well, that was what the Captain and I were discussing before dinner." The Commander finally spoke up, "frankly, I was of the opinion that you had been involved enough and that we should return you to Sydney... let you get on with your normal lives. But the Captain here seems to think a lot of your abilities. After she explained to me what you did to help her, I tend to agree with her. So, we are not only going to tell you what is going on, but we are, in fact, going to ask you for more of your help," he concluded, relaxed back into his chair, took a sip of his brandy and nodded to Maria.
"The information in my sister's letter is not definitive but it has enough fact in it to have us scared "shitless" as you Aussies would say." Maria said, "if I may digress a bit into a little history? in 2005, an official from the former Soviet Union, a certain Sergey Sinchenko, stated in a report to his Government that since perestroika in the late 1980's about 250 nuclear weapons could no longer be accounted for. A pretty frightening statement," Maria paused, taking a moment to collect her thoughts and control her mounting emotions. This was beginning to sound real bad and both Steve and I visibly tensed, we moved forward in our seats, concentrating on each and every word from Maria: this was very scary stuff indeed.
"It now seems clear that some of these," She continued. "We don't know how many, have found their way, through the Russian mafia, and into al Qaeda's hands. The plan discovered by my sister is that from different locations around the world, some of these weapons will be fired over Europe, the US, South America and Australasia. They will be fired and detonated very soon."
She paused, took a long swallow at her drink and for a moment seemed to have lost track of where she was going. She was as white and pale as a cadaver, and almost as stiff in her movements. The Commander took the opportunity to give her time to compose herself by asking us a question, which at first seemed to have no bearing on Maria's story.
"Either one of you knows what an E-bomb is or, has heard the term EMP?"
"EMP stands for Electromagnetic Pulse, doesn't it?" Smart-ass-Steve answered, "isn't it a burst of electromagnetic radiation that results from a nuclear explosion?" He added. I looked at him in surprise, I was impressed.
He turned to look at me, making sure that I was indeed impressed.
"Well put, Steve," the Commander agreed, "do you know what it's effect is?" He asked.
"I remember reading a recent SF novel based on the consequences of an EMP
attack. An EMP burst affects all electronic equipment? apparently the suddenly fluctuating magnetic field of an EMP causeselectronic systems to produce a damaging current surge, which basically means that anything electronic is toast in an instant," Steve answered, "but I thought it was all speculative, Science fiction? you know?" He concluded.
"Unfortunately no, it's not fiction at all. It is a real effect and we have known for some time that just one nuclear weapon that has been maximised for its EMP outburst exploded at the optimum altitude could potentially wipe out all electronic equipment in the USA," the Commander stated in a dismal tone.
For some time no one spoke. I sat there thinking to myself: "So what? A few nerds' computers will stop working? who cares?" But the word 'computer' was like a seed of evil: in my mind, the true potential for disaster of such a weapon exploded like bomb. Everything today is computer chip controlled: from the family car to air traffic control, from vital life saving equipment to food storage and refrigeration, from essential food and drug manufacturing to its delivery.
The terrifying prospect of this weapon grew in my mind like a cancer. I opened my mouth to speak, but for a moment, I could not find the words to express the cold dread growing inside me. From Steve's face, I could see that his thoughts were running exactly parallel to mine.
"But? but that? that would mean the end of civilization as we now know it? in a few weeks we would be back to the dark ages?" I managed to stammer.
Both Maria and Commander Hoyt nodded in unison. "That's exactly right, Louie. It would send us back 500 years and cause untold millions to die of starvation, disease, cold. Not to mention, the millions that would perish or be injured in literally thousands of accidents that would follow immediately after a strong EMP: planes crashing into the ground, vehicle accidents, trains ? the listis too long," Maria said, a blunt coldness in her voice, "we have to stop it happening? and we need your help," she added.
"Our help?!" I almost shouted in surprise, "I don't see what we can do, in fact what anyone can do?" I added, calming down. Steve nodded in total agreement; I could see his lips saying sub-vocally "Ditto."
"We will explain how we need your help in a moment. The why, is illustrated by your recent actions with the Russian mafia, your actions toward Henry, and how you resolved the Mr. Sin situation a few years ago, Louie" Maria said, her eyes were blank of all emotion. I was struck speechless.
"Not sure I understand?" Steve said, uncertainly looking from me to Maria to the Commander.
"Okay, I will be blunt," Hoyt said, "we need someone who is not afraid to step out of what is lawful for the right reasons, and do what must be done with a minimum of fuss and with all finality. This situation needs finality. It needs it badly."
"Let me explain, please," Maria said, "I will be brief: the terrorist cell concerned, is operating from a location in Sydney. Brenda's information leads us to believe that this cell has the co-ordinates from where the nuclear rockets will be fired. We need those locations so that our smart bombs can take them out. We are on a very tight time limit, we hope we have 2-4 days, but we cannot be sure. We need you to find this cell and get us that information. Yesterday would not be too soon," she finished her drink and waited for our response.
Steve was the first to speak up. "Maria, I understand the need for urgency, but I don't understand why you need us? You must have at your disposal the whole of the secret services of a number of countries including yours and ours? so why us?"
"I'll answer that," Commander Hoyt, quickly put in, "what you say is absolutely true. We could deploy an incredible number of agents. None of them, however would be as acquainted with Sydney as you are, none of them would cause less commotion than you two.None of them would easily step outside the normal path. If the terrorist get a whiff of even one agent, we'll tip them off too soon and the game will be lost. Once they postpone and disperse, any cell in the world can take over and we will have no chance of stopping them at all," he had stood up and had been pacing up and down the small cabin, his walking stick keeping tempo with his speech. When he was finished speaking he stopped in front of us. Maintained eye contact with us both, in turn, and then he added, "we need you gentlemen? if money is a problem you can ask for anything you want."
It was my turn to speak up, "do you two mind if Steve and I have a chat about it in private for a minute or two?" I said, with Steve nodding in agreement with my suggestion.
"No problem at all gentlemen," the Commander said, signaling with a movement of his head for Maria to follow him. They returned to the dining room and closed the door behind them. I looked at Steve.
"What do you reckon?" I asked.
"I reckon so," he said
"What about your job?" I asked.
"I'll take some long service, I am due," he said, as if we were not talking about the end of civilization.
"We'll probably get killed," I said.
"I know that," he said.
"What the fuck, no one lives forever," I said.
"No one," he confirmed.
"I would not like to be around if everything turns to shit," I said.
"Me neither," he said.
"I couldn't disappoint Maria," I said.
"Me neither," he said.
"I didn't pick her for a Yank," I said.
"Me neither."He said
"But, I don't mind? she's still Maria." I said
"Me neither, she sure is" he said.
"Go for it then?" I asked.
"You bet," he said
We knocked on the door and entered the dining room. Hoyt looked at us uncertainly. Maria's look told us that there was no doubt in her mind what we had decided.
"We'll do it," I announced.
"Ditto," Steve confirmed.
"Maria told me you would say that and convinced me to start the ball rolling. I? we are very grateful? you helicopter ride back to Sydney is waiting for you. Maria will fill you in on the little we know about this terrorist cell? er? good luck and God speed, gentlemen, for all our sakes," then he did a very strange thing. He jumped up to attention and saluted us, his eyes sparkling with emotion, turned around and left the room. Yanks, you gotta love them!