way across the room, seeming casual but seeing everything.
‘Jim,’ said Mac, shaking hands. ‘Want to order something?’
‘No thanks,’ said the American, sitting. ‘Already ate.’
‘Hope you don’t mind,’ said Mac, buttering his toast.
‘No, go ahead. Nice place you’ve got here,’ said Jim, ostentatiously looking behind him, along the skirting board and up the walls to the ceilings.
‘Pretty sure we’re clean,’ said Mac, who’d already scouted for listening devices and cameras.
‘You’re in, I hear?’ said Jim.
‘Sure,’ said Mac, spreading honey.
‘Good. Welcome to Operation Totem.’ Jim leaned across and speared a piece of Mac’s rockmelon with his fork. ‘I guess you figured that we’re interested in that Lombok building in Maliana, right?’
‘Well, I got you a sample – the analysis says it’s a vaccine program for one of those super-pneumonias.’
‘Sure – it’s a vaccine, and it does have a WHO registration,’ said Jim.
‘So?’
‘We just want a closer look, okay?’
‘So what’s the gig?’ asked Mac, pouring coffee.
‘We’ll have a chat about the details,’ said Jim, thanking the waitress as she arrived with his cup. ‘But the number-one objective of Totem is to snatch Maria Gersao, bring her to safety.’
‘Thought you didn’t know who she was?’ said Mac.
‘You know how it is – we’ve had eyes on your Blackbird for some time, making sure she doesn’t get into trouble,’ said Jim. ‘Before we could bring her in, she disappeared.’
‘I see,’ said Mac. ‘So why is Blackbird so important?’
‘She photocopied a document at army HQ.’
‘A document?’ asked Mac. ‘What was it?’
‘It concerned something called Operasi Boa – you’re aware of it?’
‘Yes,’ said Mac, ‘but I don’t know what it is.’
‘We want any copies she made, and we’d like to talk with her,’ said Jim. ‘If we can get to her, we might just save her life.’
CHAPTER 36
Tommy aimed his pointer at the large black-and-white aerial photograph being projected onto the wall of the briefing room. One of the analysts with the Defense Intelligence Agency, Tommy was a swaggering, bearish operative whose job was to track the supply chains of medical and scientific research programs.
‘This is the Maliana area of Bobonaro regency, taken ten days ago,’ said Tommy.
Mac was sitting in the first-floor briefing room of the DIA building in Denpasar with Jim and a yuppie analyst called Simon who looked as if he would be happier in a stockbroker’s office.
‘Lombok is a vaccine facility,’ said Tommy in his no-nonsense Brooklyn accent. ‘And most materiel used in this program is DPI.’
‘Which is?’ asked Mac.
‘Dual-Purpose Items – they can be used for purposes other than those declared,’ said Tommy.
‘Don’t countries have to file reports on what these facilities do?’ asked Mac.
‘Yes, Mr McQueen,’ said Tommy, his black trop shirt rustling as he turned. ‘You’re talking about a Confidence-Building Measure. It’s a declaration of materials, weapons and processes that each state must make annually.’
‘So what do the Indonesians say about Lombok?’ asked Mac.
‘Indonesia has never filed a CBM return,’ said Tommy, as if Mac might be a bit slow.
Swapping a glance with Jim, Mac let the briefing continue.
‘The Lombok site is registered with WHO and it produces a vaccine that seems to work,’ said Tommy. ‘But we have some questions.’
The DIA people scrolled through their surveillance pictures and explained their concerns: the incinerator was burning too often and too hot to be destroying the waste Lombok officially produced, the food supplies to the site were too great for the residential staff, the water reservoir was eight times larger than required and the Siemens gas turbine that powered the Lombok site produced enough power to drive a small car plant.
‘We like this one,’ said Tommy, clicking to a photo of a dock worker standing in front of an open shipping container. ‘Lombok declared this as a shipment of Petri dishes from Malaysia, but when we bribed this fellow to open that container, we found something interesting.’
‘Yes?’ said Mac.
‘There was a single wall of boxes, and behind them were four sterile drying cabinets, made in Germany.’
‘That a bad thing?’ asked Mac.
‘It’s a good thing if you’re producing large amounts of methamphetamine – especially the crystal meth drug they’re calling “ice”.’
‘Okay, so Lombok is much bigger than they claim because a secret part of it is a drug lab?’ said Mac, swigging down his bad American coffee.
‘Perhaps,’ said Tommy, clicking his button until the area north and west of the Lombok buildings came back into the picture. ‘Hiding an illegal program with a legitimate one is a popular business decision in this part of the world.’
Nodding, Mac thought back to his recent infiltration of a medical research facility that turned out to be a paracetamol counterfeiting ring.
‘So where’s all the extra capacity?’ asked Mac.
‘Good question,’ said Tommy, aiming his pointer back at the screen. ‘The Lombok AgriCorp facility is built on a campus of about one hundred acres, with only a few buildings on it, grouped in one corner.’
Clicking, Tommy changed the photo to a close-up of the empty part of the campus, on which had been drawn parallel dotted lines along the ground linking six objects in the middle of the open area.
‘So what do we have here?’ demanded Tommy, slapping his pointer at close-ups of six ventilation stacks in the middle of a large field, camouflaged by trees and shrubs. ‘Why do we have ventilators in the middle of a field?’
‘It’s underground?’ asked Mac.
‘We think so,’ said Tommy.
Bringing up a new picture, Tommy indicated a rectangular building. ‘We believe this is a refrigeration plant. It runs twenty-four hours a day and gives off a heat signature associated with a meat-packing plant or an ice-cream factory.’
‘I see,’ said Mac.
‘I hope so, sir,’ smiled Tommy. ‘Because whatever else you do, this unit has to keep working, or the heat sensors will trigger an alarm.’
‘What do you mean, whatever else I do?’ laughed Mac. ‘What would I be doing there?’
‘Didn’t Jim tell you?’ asked Tommy confused. ‘We need someone inside.’
‘Someone?’ asked Mac, shifting in his chair. ‘You mean this little black Aussie duck?’
‘Well -’ said Tommy.
‘Where’s the SEALs or the Delta boys?’ said Mac, turning to Jim. ‘And I thought this was about Blackbird? Now I’m going back into a place where I’ve already been made, to infiltrate an underground drug lab? How did we get here?’
‘Sorry, buddy,’ said Jim. ‘You’re the only person in Western intelligence to have entered Lombok – we can’t get to Yarrow right now, so you’re a better bet than briefing a Delta operator. Besides – it dovetails with Blackbird.’
‘Dovetails?’ said Mac, ears pricked. ‘We’re snatching Blackbird to find out about Boa. So you’re saying Lombok is tied-up with Boa?’
