Our issue we’ve discussed on Sqrbt. I’ll update there.
“What’s Sqrbt?”
“I don’t know,” Oscar says, “But Squarebot is a private end-to-end encrypted company communications system. So I’d guess it’s a reference to that.”
I hand it back. It figures, any sensible company these days isn’t going to discuss sensitive matters on email. That’s why platforms like Squarebot exist.
“I don’t see the point.”
“The point is,” James interrupts us. “They’re not using email. They have an issue, but it’s too sensitive to talk about. And it’s ongoing.” He looks at Oscar. “We reckon it’s a leak.”
“Why?”
“Your dead fish. It’s either a leak or they’re dumping. And as much as I don’t trust a single chemical company, I don’t think Fonchem would dump. Not with Lily’s dad’s knowledge anyway.”
“Well,” I start, but then I stop talking. I’d already assumed it must be a leak. Or it could be a leak – if it’s not just the result of an onshore gale that whipped up enough waves to wash some animals ashore, that can happen.
“Billy, are you done eating?” James asks now. And when I say I am, he goes on.
“Can you clear the table. I’ve got a map I want to show you.”
So I help by grabbing the big pot and taking it through to the kitchen. I go to rinse it in the sink, but James tells me not to worry, he’ll do it later, so I just dump it on the side instead. Then I go back through to the other room, where now there’s a giant blueprint unrolled on the table.
“What’s this?”
“It’s the building plans for the Fonchem site. The current one – you can see where they want to extend down here.” I lean in and look. It’s interesting to me, because on Google Earth it’s all blurred out – companies can request to do this and sometimes Google says yes, if they accept that there’s a security risk for publishing accurate maps. I’ve no idea really what I’m looking at though. It’s just a series of buildings, and pipelines, and storage areas. I turn to James and look.
“The Fonchem Lornea Island site makes resins, mostly, and you need a lot of heat to do that. So we reckon, if there’s a leak somewhere, you’d be able to see it, if you could see heat.”
Now they both look up from the map and stare at me, in this really weird, expectant way. It makes me feel uncomfortable, the way they’re both looking at me. But then I understand what they’re getting at.
“Infrared?”
James nods, smiling.
“Fitted onto a drone?”
“Uh huh.”
“Fly it over there and…”
“That’s right. We figure if we can get images – actual pictures showing there’s a leak from the current facility – they’ll be forced to fix it. But more importantly, there’s no chance they’ll get the go ahead for the site extension.”
“Even better, Lily doesn’t have to find out we had anything to do with it.” Oscar finishes.
Maybe I should explain, because it’s both really simple, what they’re suggesting, but also – well – audacious, I suppose. Possibly illegal, I’m not sure – I’d have to check if there are any restrictions of drone flying in that area. You see, all objects emit infrared energy, known as a heat signature. An infrared camera (they’re also called thermal-imaging cameras) detects and measures the infrared energy of objects. The camera converts that infrared data into an electronic image that shows the apparent surface temperature of the object being measured. So something that’s cold, like a pipeline, would show as dark, you’d hardly see it. But a leak – a leak of something hot – would show up bright white. You wouldn’t be able to miss it.
“Have you got an infrared camera?”
“No,” James says. “We don’t even have a drone, or know how to fly one, but you mentioned…”
“In Australia,” I remember, I told them when we first met. “I used them to monitor white sharks – and I knew how to fly them, because I have one at home.”
“Exactly.” James says. “So we thought you might want to join in the fun.”
Chapter Forty-Four
I probably shouldn’t, but I get a bit carried away by it all. It’s kind of exciting to be doing something like this. More exciting than my course anyway – I do hope that gets a bit more challenging next semester. I do feel bad about not telling Lily of course, but I can’t tell her – James is right about that, anytime I mention her family’s business she’s touchy about it. And obviously I don’t tell anyone else, and that includes Eric. Apparently Oscar hasn’t even told Jennifer.
There’s the problem of how to get there. I assumed at first we would just go in James’ car, but when I suggested that he gave me a look like he couldn’t believe how naive I was – I forget how they’re much more experienced at this sort of thing. So Oscar asks me if I can handle booking a rental car, and then the ferry. I think it was a bit of a test. And while it might sound easy, it’s not as straightforward as you might think. Even if I wanted to rent the car in my name, I couldn’t because I’m too young. But obviously I don’t want to do it in my name because that would mean leaving a super-obvious trail. Oscar told me he could help me get fake documents together, but I didn’t need help because I asked my dark web contacts to source them for me.
I had a bit of fun with the name, I choose Hans Hass. That’s a joke, he’s a really famous marine biologist who came up with something called the Energon theory. It says everything boils down to the transfer of energy, which
