'You know, Mr. Herbert, I sympathize with you,' Captain Leyland said as the helicopter turned back to the landing pad. 'I look at every camper or tourist as a potential arsonist. But that does not make them one. Even if they're smoking or carrying matches, I can't go hosing them down. That's the price we pay for freedom. If we surrender that, we still won't have security. Not really. We will only have less freedom.'
'Only if you're extreme about it,' Herbert told him. 'Look, we already have the fire. We have a guy who picnicked at the spot that's burning. He has matches. We should have the ability to sit him down and ask him questions before he can wash away the smell of the smoke.'
'Obviously we agree with that to some extent, or we wouldn't be doing this,' Jelbart said.
'We're doing it by sneaking in the back door,' Herbert said. 'I prefer a more direct approach.'
'Like beating it out of him?' Coffey asked.
'No, like point-blank asking the guy what the hell's going on,' Herbert said. 'And if his answers don't match the facts we do know, we take him in. Ask him again. And again.'
'The legal and political fallout would be disastrous,' Coffey said.
'Only if we're wrong,' Herbert said.
'That's just it,' Coffey said. 'You could still be right and lose. Those confessions wouldn't be allowed in court. It would cost the state tens of millions of dollars to defend against a wrongful arrest lawsuit, to name just one, and you still wouldn't have your man.'
'Then he has an accident, as his wife did,' FNO Loh suggested.
'Bingo!' Herbert said. 'I like your style. That's the price of protecting the twenty-first-century world.
The debate ended as the Bell chopper set down. Leyland unfolded a detailed map of the area. He showed Jelbart the road to the area of trees they could use to set the trap. Herbert half-listened while Loh unloaded the wheelchair and helped him from the chopper. He was sick of talk in general. While they were crisscrossing the estate, radioactive material could be making its way to a terrorist factory. Or it could already be en route to Washington or London or Sydney. How stupid would they feel looking for perimeter access if a dirty bomb was built with this material and a few sticks of TNT? How would they live with themselves if 10,000 people died from radiation poisoning? Herbert had no interest in finding out. He would rather risk the wrath of Jervis Darling.
When Leyland and Jelbart had agreed on a place to carry out the first part of the operation, the brigade commander summoned the gangly kid named Spider. The young firefighter was going to help Jelbart with the insertion. Then he would return to his post. That was already one more person than Herbert wanted to be involved.
When Herbert worked for the CIA, the objective was to streamline operations, not to pad them.
It was well after ten P.M. when Herbert, Leyland, and Loh slipped into the brigade's Humvee and headed toward the front entrance to Darling's estate. Loh had borrowed civilian clothes from Eva. They were a little roomy, but they would serve their purpose. As the trio left, Jelbart and Spider also departed. They drove out in a jeep to the tree they had selected in the flyover. A tree that was on public land but overhung the wall of the Darling estate.
The tree where they would take Little Maluka, the mascot of the Queensland North Rural Fire Brigade, to play his part in the deception.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Hood was in his office, waiting for nine A.M. to arrive. That was when he planned to call Daphne Connors at home. While he waited, his phone beeped. He hoped it was the advertising executive. If Daphne called him, that would make his life a whole lot easier.
It was not Daphne Connors. It was Lowell Coffey.
'Well, we just sent two teams on a very unusual mission,' Coffey said.
'Where are you?'
'At the observation post cabin of the Queensland North Rural Fire Brigade,' Coffey said. 'We have a new member of the team.'
'Oh?'
'A koala that was burned in a fire,' Coffey said. 'They're sneaking him into the Darling compound through a back entrance. Then the fire captain, FNO Loh, and Bob are going in the front door to try to get him back.'
'Who are Loh and Bob supposed to be?' Hood asked.
'Volunteers with the local International Wildlife Education and Conservation Group,' Coffey told him. 'They're going to position the koala as their local poster child. Tell Darling what bad press it would be if the little escapee was hurt on his property. While they're inside, Bob is going to try to split from the others to get to Darling's phone.'
'Has he got a chance?'
'You know I would never bet against Bob,' Coffey replied. 'But I have to admit he's got me worried. Bob's pretty pissed off.'
'About what?'
'He was getting pretty hot about Darling, about the whole idea of a guy in our sights being innocent until proven otherwise,' Coffey said.
'Hold on,' Hood said. 'I'm going to conference in Liz Gordon.'
'Paul, I don't know if it's
'Exactly,' Hood said. 'Let's talk to someone who will.'
Hood put Coffey on hold and punched in Liz's home phone. She was there, obviously still asleep. The Op- Center psychiatrist did the Washington bar scene on Friday nights. Not to party, she swore, but to research a book she was writing on the dynamics of human flirtation. Maybe that was true. But Liz certainly sounded hungover when she answered the phone. She recovered quickly when she heard it was Paul Hood on the line. He brought her up to date and then plugged Coffey into the conversation.
'Lowell, Liz is on the line,' Hood said.
'Good morning,' Liz said groggily.
'Late evening here,' Coffey said. 'But good morning.'
'Right. Lowell, did Bob seem unstable, impatient?' she asked.
'He seemed fed up,' Coffey replied. 'He was disgusted out of proportion with the situation we're facing.'
'How bad did he lay into you personally?' Liz asked.
'Excuse me?'
'Did he insult you, criticize you, work you over?' Liz asked. 'Putting it bluntly, Lowell, is this payback?'
'No!' Coffey said. 'Even if he had, I can be objective. Give me credit.'
'Not my job,' she said. 'Was there any physical manifestation? Was he pounding things, playing repetitively with anything on his wheelchair?'
'He was in the backseat of the helicopter,' Coffey said. 'I couldn't really see.'
'Paul, was he airlifted from the Beirut rubble?' Liz asked.
'I believe he was,' Hood said.
'This could be subconscious motor memory, the chopper sound and vibration triggering unresolved hostility,' she said. 'Bottom line, Lowell. Do you think Bob is dangerous?'
'That may be an overstatement,' Coffey replied. 'I mean, you want a guy in that position to be aggressive.'
'So the answer is no,' she said.
'The answer is no, he was sounding
'But he was not violent,' she said.
Coffey said he was not.
'Paul,' Liz said, 'were there any reports of Bob overreacting on his last field operation? In Germany, I think it was?'
