‘Why’d you steal that memory card from me, Tranh?’ said Mac, wanting to trust him again but not so sure.
‘I saw the way Lance looked at it in the van,’ said Tranh. ‘Then, when I take him for a drink, he went to the lavatory and he taking some time. I go into the lavatory to make sure he okay, and I hear him in the booth, talking into a phone.’
‘Yeah?’ said Mac, laughing.
‘Yep — and he telling someone that the memory card’s in the pocket of your backpack and he’ll grab it when he gets away from me.’
Mac remembered why he liked this bloke.
‘So when Lance come out I have a new bourbon and Coke for him, and then I say I have to buy more credit for my phone and for him to stay there.’
‘And you go back to the hotel and grab the SD card before Lance can get it?’
‘Yes, and hide it in my phone. Then all the hell is breaking loose and I forget to tell you. Then I am shot and I lose my phone, which is where —’
‘You hid the chip,’ said Mac. ‘Where did you go after we were ambushed at the apartment building?’
‘I run through the smash window, my hand shot, and I am caught by Jon,’ said Tranh, pointing. ‘So I am back to Saigon and in hiding and told to forget it, but I cannot forget it.’
‘Jon?’ said Mac, getting the heavy’s attention. ‘Luc still working for the boss?’
‘Sure,’ said Jon.
‘Can we get Luc and find out exactly where he’s flying today?’
Jon moved to the back of the cramped cabin where a Harris radio was mounted on the toilet bulkhead.
‘So,’ said Mac, ‘you were shot by the Americans?’
‘They were Chinese,’ said Tranh. ‘They shot me.’
‘Was it an accident?’
‘They shot the lady and when I run away they don’t shoot no more.’
‘Mr Richard?’ said Jon. ‘Luc’s heading for Singapore.’
‘Okay.’
‘And he say not to call back no more.’
‘He can’t talk?’
‘He sound scared,’ said Jon.
‘I bet he did,’ said Mac, holding out his hand for Jon’s satellite phone. ‘How do I call Australia on this thing?’
The heat and dust invaded the Citation’s cool atmosphere like a bad smell as Scotty and Sammy clambered into the jet on the tarmac at Stung Treng airport shortly after six pm.
‘Just had a call from Urquhart,’ said Scotty. ‘Wants to know where you are — says he has the PM’s authority.’
‘Does he?’
‘Not until Tobin tells me so,’ said Scotty. ‘Just warning you that the wheels are turning in Canberra.’
‘So where are we going?’ said Sammy.
‘You’ll see when we get there,’ said Mac, still not trusting the American. ‘In the meantime, I believe you’d like to apologise to my friend Tranh.’
Moving to the rear of the aircraft, Mac asked Scotty to join him.
‘What’s the kid doing here?’ said Scotty, inclining his head at Tranh as the jet roared to life and sped down the runway.
‘He’s Vincent Loh Han’s nephew, and he’s with us.’
Scotty frowned. ‘So what’s the plan?’
‘Dozsa’s about to land in Singapore,’ said Mac. ‘I think he’ll head for Ray’s house.’
‘Not Ray’s business?’
‘No, Dozsa knows that Ray wiped the missile details from the official fund records. So he’s looking for the one copy made by Ray and he probably thinks it’s in his house.’
‘We sure there’s only one file besides the one Sandy Beech is travelling with?’
‘The only other one is on an ASIO hard drive, from Quirk’s audits.’
Scotty checked for eavesdroppers. ‘This is embarrassing. You’re saying we send a bloke to audit the buy-up of technology used in the North Korean missiles, and our guy just downloads a copy for an ex-Mossad psycho?’
‘Under duress,’ said Mac. ‘This was a Canberra power couple, and Quirk was doing what he had to do to keep his wife out of prison. Here she is in this sting with the US Treasury, and suddenly Joel Dozsa’s back in her life.’
‘By the way,’ said Scotty, ‘I found a business centre at the airport and did some research on the computer Quirk was using.’
‘Yeah?’
‘It was bugging me, the way you described it.’
Scotty pulled a piece of paper folded into four squares from his pocket and handed it to Mac. Unfolding it, Mac saw a colour photograph of the same cream-coloured computer terminal that Jim Quirk died at in the Mekong Saloon.
‘Where’d you get this?’ said Mac. ‘This is it — see how the keyboard is built into the monitor and the hard drive?’
‘It’s the new TS series of desktops that ASIO had designed for the Australian government.’
A series of companies owned by Chinese intelligence had been buying the firms that made military-grade firewalls and anti-intrusion software. Realising that if the Chinese could control enough routers and firewalls they’d be inside the government’s systems, ASIO’s protective security people — T4 — commissioned a series of PCs for the Australian government. They were noteworthy because they couldn’t be networked and couldn’t be ‘queried’ by incoming or unsolicited pings from cyberspace. They were also ‘paired’ with designated routers built by the PC manufacturers. The designated routers would only respond to one of the numbered PCs.
‘I remember,’ said Mac. ‘So what was the terminal doing in a nightclub in Saigon?’
‘I had a chat to my guy, and it was probably stolen from the Jakarta intelligence section,’ said Scotty. ‘They’re doing that big shift to the new embassy — apparently there’s a report in the techie circles that they were short of one Top Secret PC after the move.’
‘There’s something else, mate,’ said Mac, keeping his voice low beneath the hiss of engines as the ascent continued. ‘And I don’t want you to get upset — we just have to think through some of the events.’
‘Okay,’ said Scotty.
‘Ray Hu and Vincent Loh Han are sitting in Ray’s study, making their calls and working out what this HARPAC fund is all about. Ray makes one copy — probably on a USB key or SD — and then uses his override passwords to wipe the information from the Harbour Pacific hard drives.’
Scotty nodded.
‘Then, when Loh Han goes off to bed, Ray hides his download and the next day he goes to the Pan Pac, to do a gig with me.’
Scotty’s eyes widened. ‘So how did Dozsa know to whack Ray? How did he know the deal was blown?’
‘That’s what I was thinking,’ said Mac. ‘Ray’s house and office were swept by our contractors every week — he wasn’t bugged.’
‘Well, shit,’ said Scotty. ‘There were only two people —’
‘Three,’ said Mac.
‘Ray, Loh Han…’ said Scotty, numbering them on his fingers.
‘And Liesl,’ said Mac.
Scotty gave Mac the death stare. ‘No way.’
‘Who else?’
‘Liesl?!’
‘I’m just trying to work it through.’
‘Why would a girl who had everything be spying on her own husband?’
‘So where else did Dozsa get the information?’
Scotty looked away. ‘Don’t do this, Macca.’
‘Ray closes down the missile file and the next day he’s executed. Ray and Loh Han had no interest in telling anyone.’
‘So what was Liesl Hu’s interest?’
‘Look, I know she’s popular — we all love Liesl — but I don’t see another link.’
‘Well, maybe we should be thinking about something a bit simpler,’ said Scotty.
‘Like?’
‘Like where’s Liesl right now? And where’s Dozsa? And where’s Ray’s download?’
A black Escalade was waiting on the apron as the Citation pulled into its port at Singapore’s Seletar Airport. Night had fallen and Scotty arranged customs clearance.