Kate and Imran prepared to unlock the vault where the stocks of smallpox were stored. A specially designed steel safe had been pre-positioned outside the vault. It would be the first time the smallpox stocks had ever been moved from the Centers for Disease Control. Imran had arranged for a heavy police escort and a truck that was very similar to the armoured trucks that banks used to transfer cash. Having an accident with smallpox didn’t bear thinking about.
CHAPTER 45
A mon al-Falid spread a map of Beijing on the low table in the safe house cellar. ‘Most of the activity during the Games will be centred on the area known as the Olympic Green,’ he said, directing Kadeer to the cluster of venues to the north of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. ‘Over half the Olympic competition will take place here and it also contains the Athletes’ Village, the Main Press Centre and the International Broadcasting Centre.’
‘You’re focusing just on this area?’ Kadeer asked, a little puzzled.
‘The Americans, British and the Australians are very keen on their sport,’ al-Falid replied contemptuously, ‘especially the Australians. The Chinese will obviously have the biggest contingent, but the three countries who first invaded Iraq will also send three of the largest teams and it would be good if we can wipe those out.’
‘Don’t lose sight of the bigger picture, Amon,’ Kadeer replied, cautioning his lieutenant not to let his emotion cloud his judgement. ‘Of all the venues, the Olympic Green is likely to be the most heavily guarded and the most difficult to attack. You will need to get some of our own people on staff to get past the security barriers.’ al-Falid nodded, his eyes shining with hatred. ‘There will be a large cleaning and maintenance staff, Khalid; my planner in Qingdao is keeping a close eye on that. We’re also looking at the airport and the big hotels.’
‘The airconditioning systems in the hotels and the airport are the city’s weakest point, Amon,’ Khalid replied, unknowingly echoing the plans of Richard Halliwell. ‘Just as the gram negative bacteria Legionella, which causes Legionnaires’ disease, is most often spread through airconditioning water towers in buildings, so we can use the same principle for the virus, although we should also look closely at the subway system.’
‘For a big city, the subway system is not nearly as well developed as London, but I have been giving it some thought,’ al-Falid agreed. ‘Line 1 runs from west to east from to
– Pingguoyuan to Sidhuidong. That line is important because it’s the only subway running through the centre of Beijing and it has stops near Tiananmen Square and the Bajiao Amusement Park; although an additional Line 5 is presently under construction and it will run north-south under the city from to
– Taipingzhvangbei to Songjiazhuang.’ al-Falid produced a map of the Beijing subway system and put it beside the map of the city. ‘Line 2, which is known as the Loop Line, will also be important because it runs under the city’s second ring road and has four interchange stations for Line 1 and Line 13 running to the north.’
‘And the airport line?’
‘That is under construction as well, Khalid, and it will connect terminals 2 and 3 to Line 1, although only 4 kilometres is underground. It will open on 30 June 2008. The other line we are looking at is the Olympic branch line which is scheduled to open on the same day. That runs from to
– Xiongmaohuandao to Senlingongyuan – and will connect to the new Olympic Park.’
‘You’ve done well, my friend. The bear farm is ready?’ With thousands of cameras being installed, Beijing was far too dangerous a place to set up a base. When a bear farm in the western Shandong Province had come up for sale, Kadeer had arranged to buy it. A bear farm would be the last place the authorities would suspect as a planning base for an attack on the Olympics. It had two other advantages. Away from the main roads, nestled among the foothills of Laoshan mountain and surrounded by old pines, the farm was hidden from view. And Kadeer had used the bear farm to secure guanxi with the most powerful man in the Chinese Olympic movement.
‘I will visit the bear farm before the Olympics, Khalid, just to make sure but I’m told that General Ho Feng is very grateful, as you predicted he would be.’
Kadeer was once again drawn back to the brutal murder of his family at the hands of the inhuman then- Captain Ho Feng. Putting the painful memories aside, Kadeer knew well that General Ho believed that bear bile products were a way of prolonging life. Kadeer had arranged for the bear farm manager to send some of the finest products to the general, ensuring that the Qingdao bear farm would enjoy protection at the highest levels of the Chinese government. More importantly, this gave Kadeer a sense of closure to know that the final solution would be launched from the very place his old enemy protected. Should the final solution become necessary, a special delivery of bear bile soup would be made to his nemesis and it would be a very unusual soup.
‘All this will depend on whether or not Dolinsky can successfully engineer the viruses, al-Falid. Have we heard from him?’ Kadeer asked. ‘His role is key to our plan.’
‘We stay in touch through our intermediaries, Khalid. Postings to Koltsovo in Siberia are not highly sought after, and we have several of our people there.’
‘How much has he been told?’
‘Just that Islam is getting ready to strike against those who are attacking us.’
‘What was his reaction?’
‘Dolinsky is frustrated and angry about the treatment of Muslim people in Georgia, but he’s an educated man and he follows world events closely, even from Koltsovo. He has access to the internet and he’s furious about the treatment of Muslims in other countries as well, especially in Chechnya and Iraq. That said, as a scientist Dolinsky might be squeamish about the extent of what we have planned so he hasn’t been told the whole story; only that we need him to help us attack those who are attacking Islam and he seems more than willing to do what he can. By the time he discovers the extent of our response it will be too late.
Khalid Kadeer nodded. ‘Nevertheless see that we treat him well.’
‘If we can get him out and get him into a Level 4 facility, he will be an ideal recruit, although the FSB, the Russian secret police, are watching his every move. They sit outside his apartment at night.’
Dr Dolinsky was part of the Kist people, a minority Muslim group in Georgia, seen as a threat by both the Georgian and Russian governments.
‘Because he’s a Georgian the Russians have taken him off their top-secret research on smallpox and sidelined him on a project that is looking at genetically engineering a far less deadly strain of cowpox. If he’s successful the virus might kill, but smallpox and Ebola are in a class of their own and Dolinsky sees the Russian move as a serious demotion, which it is.’
Kadeer nodded. ‘Yes, Georgia and Shevardnadze are not the flavour of the month in Putin’s Kremlin right now. How far did he get with his genetic engineering?’
‘He was close but the final steps are difficult and the Russians have not yet solved the problem. Dolinsky is a very angry prisoner, and not only is he ready to defect, he is ready to live and work among the infidels and engineer a super virus to be used against them.
‘The Americans have bought the intelligence on Dolinsky’s defection?’ Kadeer asked, intrigued as to how they might be planning to get him out. al-Falid smiled slowly. ‘The American Vice President and the CEO of Halliwell have. The CIA have been told to get Dolinsky out and for operations like this they will probably use a man named Curtis O’Connor.’
Khalid nodded. ‘I’ve heard of him. One of the true professionals and not to be underestimated, but we will need to keep track of this, Amon. If O’Connor tries to get him across the Altai Mountains he may need some help. Dolinsky is absolutely critical to the final solution and those mountains can be very dangerous, even for us. The Russians are not going to be too amused if they discover someone like O’Connor is in their midst.’
CHAPTER 46
