‘That would depend on what he was making exactly,’ Anderson replied, suddenly taking an interest. ‘He could produce maybe eighty to ninety pounds of raw cyclonite or RDX crystals in a single day if he has any experience in production. That’s a lot of high explosives. Why’s there a question mark against the metal mercury?’
‘We know he was looking for some but we don’t know if he’s been able to get hold of any yet.’
‘If he does then he’s going for mercury fulminate as a detonator.’
‘Is that easy to manufacture?’ Hobart asked.
‘If he doesn’t blow himself up he could produce fulminate in, say, half a day,’ Anderson said. ‘Then he’d want to test it, of course.’
‘Test it?’ Hobart asked.
‘Sure. Detonators are usually made up of a primary and secondary explosive, the primary being the more powerful charge that’s initiated by a secondary, less volatile one. Fulminate is a primary explosive but if handled correctly it can be used without the secondary charge. Depending on how this guy constructs the detonator he’d want to be sure that it’s going to ignite the RDX.’
‘I’m assuming you have an idea what his target is?’ Weighbridge asked.
‘I want to stop him before he gets that far,’ Hobart said, avoiding the question. He wasn’t here to discuss every detail of his case with them, just Stratton and his threat potential. ‘What I’d like are some recent photos and a description of Stratton, if that’s possible?’
Weighbridge looked at Belling who nodded at him.
‘It’ll be in your office before you get back,’ Weighbridge said.
‘One other request,’ Hobart said. ‘I’d like one of your guys to assist us. Someone who would know how an operator like Stratton might think or react in a given situation. Better still, someone who actually knows him.’
Hobart didn’t look at Seaton. But Weighbridge threw a glance in the man’s direction and pondered the request for a moment.
‘You okay with that?’ Weighbridge asked Seaton.
Seaton could only wish that he had some hugely important high-priority task that would stop him going to California with Hobart but he didn’t. ‘Sure,’ he said.
Hobart looked at Seaton and nodded. Then he turned back to Weighbridge.
‘Anything else?’ Weighbridge asked, looking as if he needed to be somewhere else.
‘Not right now,’ Hobart said.
Weighbridge got to his feet and Hobart did the same.
‘Thanks,’ Hobart said, holding out his hand.
Weighbridge gripped it. ‘You need anything else, go through Seaton and we’ll see what we can do.’
‘I appreciate it,’ Hobart said.
The men filed out of the room, except for Seaton. Hobart repacked his briefcase and pulled his jacket off the back of his chair.
‘When are you heading back to California?’ Seaton asked.
‘I’ve got a charter waiting at Dulles.’
‘And you want me to go with you right now?’
Hobart paused to look at Seaton, picking up a feeling of deep reluctance radiating from the guy. ‘That was the idea,’ he said, being ever so nice. ‘But if you have things to do, maybe Weighbridge can get me someone else,’ he said, knowing what the reply to that would be.
‘No, that’s fine. I was just checking. I’m gonna need a few things. It’s a short detour to my house.’
‘Sure,’ Hobart said, pulling his jacket on and then extending an open palm towards the door. ‘Lead on.’
Half an hour later the two men were pulling away from Seaton’s house and heading for Dulles International Airport. Seaton and Hobart sat in the back seat of the sedan, staring out of their respective windows, both deep in thought. Then Hobart took his cellphone from a pocket, dialled a number, put the phone to his ear and waited for it to connect. ‘Hendrickson? Hobart. You should be receiving an ID on Stratton within the next few hours. It’ll probably come in on my private e-mail. Pull it up but do
Hobart pocketed the phone and thought through all the information he had once again, checking that there was nothing he had overlooked. ‘When’s the last time you saw Stratton?’ he asked Seaton.
Seaton glanced at Hobart but saw nothing in his expression that gave anything away. ‘We were in Iraq together just over a month ago,’ he said.
‘Was that where Jack Penton died?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you know his wife and kid?’
‘Jack’s? I met ’em once.’
Hobart glanced at Seaton again as a thought struck him. ‘That was the last time you saw Stratton – in Iraq?’
Seaton took a moment to think his answer through. Hobart had repeated the question which suggested that it was more than just idle curiosity on his part. It would not take a senior FBI man long to find out from other sources about a domestic flight that Stratton had recently taken. Nor could Seaton ask his wife and kids to lie about the English special forces guy who had stayed overnight. A lie like that would come back to haunt him and then all the other lies, especially any about the origins of the explosives, would be difficult to cover up. ‘No. He came to visit me here, the day after he arrived in LA.’
Hobart stared at the side of Seaton’s head for a moment. Then he looked away as several pieces of the puzzle slipped neatly into place. Seaton was the one who had given Stratton the information that he’d needed to hit Leka and Ardian – and Hobart would bet his hat that Seaton had also given him the explosives.
The first thing that came to Hobart’s mind was that he now had the CIA over a barrel. But he realised that Weighbridge couldn’t have known about Stratton’s visit to Seaton or he sure as hell would not have invited the guy to the meeting. Seaton had done it as a personal favour to a friend. It was Seaton who Hobart had over a barrel. The obvious question now was where did Seaton’s true loyalties lie: with Stratton or with himself ?
‘So how good is he?’ Hobart asked.
Seaton glanced at him, unsure what he meant exactly.
‘With explosives,’ Hobart added. ‘How good is Stratton?’
Seaton looked back out of the sedan window. ‘The best explosives experts are often given the title bomb doctor. They call him the surgeon.’
‘Great,’ Hobart sighed.
29
As Hobart was setting off for Burbank that morning, Stratton was climbing out of the pick-up and heading towards the mine with his newly purloined goods from the night before. The ground squirrel was waiting at the entrance and Stratton, pleased to see that the little guy hadn’t been hurt by the blast, stopped to dig a cracker from his pocket. This time the squirrel grabbed it up, took a bite, munched on it for a few seconds and scampered off with it. Stratton tossed a couple more on the ground and headed down the entrance shaft.
The process of preparing the detonators was much more complex than making the RDX. Mercury fulminate was one of the oldest detonation explosives around and theoretically adequate to initiate RDX. But it was much more unstable and great caution was required in its manufacture.
A coat of dust had gathered over everything during the night and after lighting the lamps Stratton set about cleaning the equipment he was going to need. Taking one of the pots, he poured in four gallons of nitric acid. Then he put on the gas mask. When he added the first of four bottles of mercury metal, toxic red fumes immediately floated off the liquid’s surface. While the mercury slowly dissolved he placed another of the large pots on the gas
