‘I think it would be unwise to speculate on rumour before we have a full and thorough report on what has been a dreadful and dark day in Australia’s history,’ the Defence Chief replied diplomatically. ‘I extend my personal condolences to those military families who’ve lost loved ones serving their country today and on behalf of the military, I extend our condolences to the wider community who’ve also suffered so tragically as a result of these attacks.’
BOOK THREE
CHAPTER 72
A s the enormity of the attack on Sydney dawned, the mood in the Situation Room beneath the Oval Office was again tense as President Denver Harrison and his war cabinet watched the video released on al-Jazeera.
‘The loss of life in Sydney is to be regretted,’ Dr Kadeer said, ‘but of all the governments in the West, the Australian government is the most enthusiastic supporter of the United States war machine. This was just the first of three warning attacks. If the West does not change course and start to negotiate, more lives will be lost, on both sides.’ Kadeer’s face was expressionless.
‘Even by the West’s own figures,’ he continued, ‘over 3000 people, more than the total number killed in the Twin Towers on September 11, die every month as a result of your free-wheeling invasion of Iraq. The attack on Sydney is a small taste of what is to come if you don’t take the opportunity to redress this. Sit down and negotiate with Syria, with Iran, and with all of the Arab nations in the Middle East. Hold a summit and agree to a way forward. It looks complex but the fundamental principles are not difficult. The establishment of a viable Palestinian State should be the first principle the West must support. There will be a need for compromise on both sides with an exchange of Israeli land for the illegal settlements that continue to be built on Palestinian land with the support of you in the West, and there will need to be funding for the return of Palestinian refugees to the new State of Palestine. If you in the West genuinely get behind this, you will find that the ordinary Israelis and Palestinians crave peace and they will support it.’
‘Arrogant bastard,’ Vice President Bolton muttered.
‘The only way you will solve the horror you have created in Iraq is by political negotiation. Extra troops will not solve your problems and many more of them will be killed. Persian Shiite Iran doesn’t want a hotbed of terrorism on her borders, any more than Arab Sunni Syria does, but you won’t solve your problems without inviting both of these countries to the negotiating table. Finally, you must stop ignoring the murder and imprisonment of ordinary people in China and the thuggery and human rights abuses of the Chinese Communist Party. If you do not we will deliver two more warnings. When the opportunity presents itself we will attack you when the alpha rotates for the first time, then we will attack you when the alpha rotates for the second time. One of the most powerful prime numbers, through which we are all intimately connected, is the prime of 137. Verse 137 of the noble Qu’ran makes it very clear that we are all believers in what was given to Abraham, Moses, Jesus and all the prophets. When the alpha rotates for the second time the prime of 137 will be turned against you. For you, Western infidels, time is running out. If Allah the Most Kind, the Most Merciful directs it, then as Noah was commanded 6000 years ago, the final solution will be implemented where the single strand meets its double.’
As the video faded to black, President Harrison’s face was set more stubbornly than ever. It was Vice President Bolton who broke the silence.
‘We can’t be seen to be negotiating at the whim of some two-bit terrorist, Mr President.’ With Curtis O’Connor in Sydney there was no one in the room to challenge the Vice President’s view.
‘I agree, Mr President,’ the Defense Secretary said, adding his weight to stay the course. ‘The President of Iran’s price for helping out in Iraq will be endorsement of their nuclear capability.’
‘That’s not going to happen on my watch,’ President Harrison agreed, turning to his press secretary. ‘No negotiation.’
In the NSW State Crisis Centre, images of the death and devastation in Sydney were suddenly replaced by CNN’s anchor announcing a live broadcast from the White House Rose Garden. The image of President Harrison of the United States standing behind the White House podium took over the screen.
‘These latest attacks show that these terrorists, these fundamentalist Muslims, will stop at nothing. They hate decent, freedom-loving people like my good friends in Australia and other like-minded people, and they’re trying to break our will. They’re trying to destroy us and our civilisation and everything we stand for. Let me assure the Australians and my fellow Americans that we’re not going to stand by and let that happen. God is not going to stand by and let that happen. We’re winning in Iraq. We’re winning in Afghanistan and now is not the time to surrender. We’re winning this war on terror. The terrorists are being defeated on every front and we’re going to keep fighting until every one of them is brought to justice.’
The President’s refusal to even consider changing a policy that was clearly not working left the most sycophantic of the journalists in the White House press corps shaking their heads.
Curtis turned to Kate. ‘Doesn’t look as if Denver Harrison’s going to negotiate anytime soon,’ he said.
‘Neither will our Prime Minister,’ Kate replied. ‘One’s as stubborn as the other.’
‘Yet they must realise that Kadeer is deadly serious.’
‘He’s an unusual man, this Khalid Kadeer,’ Kate said quietly.
‘Highly intelligent and more moderate than people think. I suspect we could do worse than sit down and talk to him to see if we have any common ground,’ Curtis said.
‘I wonder if it will have any effect on the Chinese torturing their citizens?’ Kate mused. The preliminary attack on the Chinese Consulate in Camperdown had been all but forgotten by the media, but the significance of the target had not been lost on either Kate or Curtis.
‘Hard to tell but the Chinese can be just as stubborn as the West and I can’t see any movement on the human rights front. They execute you over there at the drop of a hat, although,’ Curtis reflected, ‘if this starts to affect the success of the Games, the Chinese may shift ground. Nothing’s going to get in the way of them getting “the best Games ever” tag; it will be a matter of saving face. What do you make of the alpha and 137?’
‘Not sure about the next warning and the alpha rotating for the first time,’ Kate responded, ‘but the prime number 137 is an interesting one. The fine-structure constant of the universe is very close to 1 over 137.’
Alpha, the universe’s fine-structure constant had been puzzling some of the finest minds in the world of physics for nearly a hundred years. It had been introduced in 1916 by the German physicist Arnold Sommerfield as a constant that characterised the strength of electromagnetic reaction. Several formulae had been developed, the simplest of which was: where ‘e’ was the charge on the electron, ‘c’ was the speed of light, h-bar was Planck’s constant and the epsilon represented the permittivity or effect of an electric field on free space.
‘Arguably the most important number in physics,’ Curtis agreed. ‘If it varied in the minutest amount life on this planet wouldn’t exist. I wonder if that’s what Kadeer is saying to us.’
‘That life will no longer be possible,’ Kate wondered, ‘or is it related to the number itself? If you rotate the alpha you get 137, and if we’re talking about an attack that is even more deadly and more explosive than what Kadeer’s just carried out in Sydney, he might be threatening a dirty bomb.’
‘The radioactive isotopes,’ Curtis offered, following Kate’s logic with intense interest.
‘Exactly. The isotopes having two elements with mass numbers of 137 are barium and caesium, and if either of those elements were rotated into their radioactive form Kadeer would have the ingredients for a dirty bomb,’ said Kate.
‘I hope you’re wrong but we’ll need to follow this up. The consequences of a radioactive dirty bomb in a crowded city would be horrific,’ Curtis said thoughtfully.
‘Now that you and I are flying back to the States out of Melbourne, I’d better see if I can organise something
