The three men stared at her with varying expressions of shock. Unexpectedly, it was Graham who recovered first. ‘Very well. I accept we got off to a bad start. What is this information you’ve obtained?’
‘First, let me do a quick recap,’ Richter said. ‘Four terrorists have smuggled a nuclear weapon into the Burj Al-Arab and will detonate it unless the Dubai government pays them three billion dollars. Once they’ve got it, they’ll climb into their Gulfstream and head off into the wide blue yonder. While making their getaway, they’ll set the nuclear device to explode on a timer, and then radio the abort code to the Dubai government so that the bomb can then be disarmed. Is that a fair summary?’ Watkinson and Graham both nodded.
‘Now, I asked Carole this same question, but she didn’t know what the hell I was talking about. Does the area around Shaikh Zayed Road remind you of anywhere else? And, before you answer that, let me ask you another — why did the terrorists pick the Burj Al-Arab?’
‘The answer to your second question’s easy,’ Watkinson replied. ‘Because the Burj is Dubai’s best-known landmark, and it’s instantly recognizable worldwide.’
Richter nodded encouragement. ‘But why did they pick that particular building if all they wanted to do was threaten the government? Why not pick somewhere with a much larger population density? Take the worst-case scenario: if that weapon detonates, the Burj Al-Arab will be destroyed. It would be a spectacular bang, of course, but the loss of life would be fairly insignificant, precisely because of the hotel’s offshore location. But if they’d chosen somewhere like the Crowne Plaza — which would have been no more difficult tactically — the potential death toll would have been enormous, and that would have provided a much greater lever to threaten the government. So why the Burj?’
Neither man replied, but Richter didn’t seem surprised.
‘Let me take it from the beginning. You’re right, the Burj is as much a symbol of this city as the Houses of Parliament are for London, or the Eiffel Tower for Paris. Or the Twin Towers used to be for New York. I mentioned Shaikh Zayed Road, because many people think that district resembles Manhattan.’
‘I can see where you’re going with this, but it’s preposterous,’ Watkinson said. ‘You’re trying to equate Dubai with New York but there’s no real similarity at all.’
‘You’re wrong, Michael,’ Richter said quietly. ‘Both cities are symbols of their countries, and both are major financial centres — or, at least, that’s what Dubai is trying to become. Both have — or had in the case of New York — iconic buildings that immediately identify them.’
‘So what are you suggesting?’ George Graham sounded puzzled.
‘I’m suggesting that the huge ransom demand is only the secondary reason for this attack, but that’s what everyone’s become focused on. As a result, they’re not seeing the bigger picture. They haven’t recognized the real reason why there’s now a suitcase nuke sitting primed and ready at the top of the Burj Al-Arab.’
‘And that reason is what?’ Graham persisted.
‘This attack has almost nothing to do with money, and everything to do with revenge. These four Americans haven’t the slightest intention of transmitting the abort code for their weapon. They intend to take the money and run, leaving the bomb still ticking, and laughing at the stupid Arabs for believing them. And when it detonates, the Burj Al-Arab will come crashing down just the way the Twin Towers did in New York. They’ve picked Dubai and the Burj for the same reason that Osama bin Laden picked New York and the World Trade Center — because they’re outstanding symbols of those cities. They intend to visit upon Dubai the same sort of devastation and catastrophe that a handful of Arab terrorists managed to achieve in Manhattan. Revenge for 9/11 — that’s the real reason for all this, and that’s what nobody here in the government of Dubai has worked out yet.’
‘And what about the ransom?’ Watkinson asked. ‘If you’re right and this is a revenge attack, why didn’t they just detonate the bomb as soon as they got it into place?’
‘The ransom is payment for the job,’ Richter replied. ‘This has been a long and complex operation, and these four guys intend to be well rewarded for their efforts.’
‘This is all very interesting, Mr Richter,’ Graham interrupted, ‘but it’s mere speculation. You haven’t talked to these terrorists, so you can’t be certain of what you’re saying. The Dubai government is satisfied that this is just a case of extortion and that, once the ransom demand has been met, the incident will end peacefully. And I agree with them.’
‘You’re wrong, and so’s the Dubai government, and I can prove it.’
‘How?’ Watkinson demanded anxiously.
‘You really believe the terrorists will transmit the abort code once they’re clear of Emirates’ airspace?’ Richter asked, and the two men nodded. ‘Well, I know that they won’t, for one very simple reason.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Because they haven’t got the fucking abort code, that’s why.’
They’d opened thirty cash boxes in all and run five hundred notes of various currencies through the forgery detector, and every one had proved genuine.
That suggested the Dubai authorities were going to comply with O’Hagan’s demands, and so there should be no problems the following morning, when the financial instruments were due to be delivered.
The two men would stay on board the Gulfstream that night, with the cabin door locked and surrounded by cash and bullion, and they both thought they’d sleep perfectly well. With any luck, Sutter thought, as he phoned O’Hagan’s mobile to confirm the authenticity of the money, they’d be on their way out of the UAE in less than eighteen hours.
A long silence followed Richter’s words, finally broken by Michael Watkinson. ‘How do you know that?’ he demanded.
‘I know because I’ve got the right contacts and I know what questions to ask. I called an officer named Viktor Bykov who’s number three in the hierarchy of the GRU, the Russian military intelligence organization. He knew all about the suitcase bomb. In fact, he was responsible for releasing details of the theft to the West. He told me that the abort code was never stored with the weapon. It was always kept in a sealed envelope, along with the maintenance and other documentation. All the Americans took from Zarechnyy was the nuke, and I know that because Bykov had everything else sitting on his desk at the Aquarium.’
‘Aquarium?’ George Graham queried. ‘I don’t—’
‘It’s a slang term for GRU headquarters,’ Jackson told him. ‘It’s a building at the Khodinka airfield in Moscow.’
‘The Americans,’ Richter repeated, ‘have only got the weapon. They haven’t got the abort code, so there’s no way they can transmit it to the Dubai government. If they do set the timer, it’s because they intend that weapon to detonate.’
‘But they might only pretend to set the timer running,’ Graham suggested, with a hint of desperation.
‘In that case, why bother with getting a genuine nuke at all? They could have just knocked up a convincing fake and used that instead. No, I’m certain the weapon is real, and unless somebody does something pretty damn quickly it’s going to explode. And I don’t want to even think about the consequences of a group of American terrorists detonating a Russian nuclear weapon in Dubai.’
‘I’m still not convinced,’ Graham said, stubbornly.
‘That’s your decision, but if you won’t do anything, I’ll just shove the whole thing to my boss back in London. He’s extremely persuasive, and I’ve no doubt he’ll be kicking any number of aristocratic arses in the FCO before the afternoon’s over just to get things moving. If he does, you’ll probably be first in the queue down at the job centre next week. Why not tell the Dubai government what we suspect? Just tell them that we have received information suggesting the terrorists don’t have the weapon’s abort code and leave it at that. If they do nothing, it’s their problem, but at least you’ll have told them. That way you’ll have done all you can.’