‘What do you think they’ll do?’ Jackson asked Richter as they re-entered their hotel.
‘I don’t know. If Watkinson does check with Bykov through Vauxhall Cross, he’ll be able to confirm what I’ve said, but that only makes the situation worse, not better. Until I stuck my oar in, the Dubai government was probably resigned to paying the money and saving the Burj. Now, whether they deliver the rest of the funds or dig their heels in and refuse, there’s a good chance there’ll be a hell of a bang down at Jumeirah Beach tomorrow. Right now, I can only see one way of stopping this.’
‘How?’
‘Play along with the terrorists: give them the ransom and let them leave the hotel. Then get a team into the suite to disarm the weapon, and stop the terrorists at the airport, or wherever, and retrieve the loot.’
Jackson smiled gently. ‘It sounds easy the way you say it,’ she said, ‘but there are a couple of problems with that scenario.’
‘I know, but it’s the only way I can see this business ending without that nuke going off. Every other approach is likely to involve a fire-fight at the Burj, and the possibility that the terrorists will go ahead and trigger the weapon.’
They sat down at an empty table and placed their order for drinks.
‘I do have one ace up my sleeve that nobody knows about,’ Richter revealed. ‘When I talked to Viktor Bykov, he—’
‘Oh, yes, I meant to ask you about him,’ Jackson interrupted, ‘but the atmosphere back at the embassy didn’t seem conducive to a discussion about your precise relationship with a high-ranking officer in the GRU.’
Richter grinned. ‘Honestly, it’s not as bad as it sounds. I first ran into him in France a while ago, during a covert op. He survived, but his boss didn’t, and I think he felt grateful to me, despite the fact that we managed to completely foul up the Russian plan. Since then, I’ve worked with him in Russia, on a separate operation, and we’ve enjoyed what you might call cautiously friendly relations.
‘Anyway, he refused to tell me the abort code for the stolen weapon because it’s classified. He said he’d try to get it declassified, but wasn’t very hopeful of doing that quickly enough. But he insisted on giving me his mobile phone number, so that I could contact him immediately. In fact, he made me write it down.’
Richter pulled out his notebook to show Jackson what he’d written — 734 869 2658.
‘So, you’ve got his mobile number. So what?’
‘Look at it again, Carole. Bykov reminded me that I had to prefix it with the Moscow dialling code.’
‘Hang on a minute. If it’s a mobile, you never prefix it with an area code. All you put in front is the country code, and for Russia that’s a seven.’
‘Exactly, and the moment he said that, I guessed he was actually telling me something else. And Russian telephone numbers are seven digits long, not ten. The area code adds another three numbers — like zero-nine-five for Moscow — making ten in all, but all ten-digit Russian numbers begin with a zero, not a seven.’
‘Unless he was knocking off the leading zero and adding the Russian country code. That’s a seven. That would work.’
Richter shook his head. ‘No. Bykov insisted I had to add the Moscow dialling code. And I tried dialling that number, with and without the country code for Russia and the area code for Moscow. Every time it came back as number unobtainable. That’ — Richter pointed at the page of his notebook — ‘isn’t a telephone number in Russia, or anywhere else. I think what Bykov gave me is actually the abort code for the weapon now sitting in the Burj Al-Arab Hotel.’
‘Are you sure?’ Jackson sounded far from certain.
‘No, I’m not. At least, I’m not convinced enough to give the number to Graham. I’d be prepared to input it into the weapon myself, but I wouldn’t ask anyone else to try it, just in case I’m completely wrong.’
Chapter Twenty-Two
The police arrived at the Crowne Plaza at nine, and within fifteen minutes Richter and Jackson were sitting in the back of a Dubai police car — a white Mercedes saloon with dark green doors sign-written in Arabic — and driving to Al-Etihad Street.
At the headquarters, they were ushered into a comfortable interview room. The door soon opened to admit a very tall thin Arab with a heavy black beard, wearing the uniform of a senior police officer. He introduced himself as Chief Inspector Hafez Ghul and, like almost every other resident of Dubai that Richter had met so far, spoke perfect English.
‘Thank you for agreeing to meet us here,’ Ghul began. ‘I’ve been in contact with the government division organizing the ransom payment, and they’ve decided to delay delivery of the final tranche to allow us time to review the situation. Despite this, the last instalment of the ransom will be delivered to the aircraft within three hours, so we’ve very little time left. Now, why are you so certain the terrorists don’t have the abort code for the weapon?’
Richter quickly recounted his conversation with Viktor Bykov.
‘You’re sure this Russian intelligence officer has no reason to try and mislead you?’
‘No. In fact, absolutely the reverse,’ Richter replied firmly. ‘If that bomb detonates, experts would probably be able to establish that it was of Russian origin, and that’s the last thing the government of the CIS would want. If Bykov could have told me the abort code without compromising his position, I’m sure he would have done so.’
For the moment, he decided not to mention Bykov’s ‘mobile phone number’.
‘So these terrorists are lying about something. It’s even possible that they don’t have a nuclear device in the hotel at all, but that seems the least likely scenario, as they’ve supplied the serial number of the weapon to us and Inspector Hussein has actually seen it. If they do genuinely have the weapon, then either they’ve no intention of setting the timer, and their threat is a bluff, or they will set it and reduce the Burj Al-Arab to rubble.’ Ghul glanced at his watch and looked back at Richter. ‘So we must consider our options quickly. What would you recommend?’
‘It’s my belief that these Americans want revenge for the 9/11 attack on New York as much as they want the ransom money, so I’m certain that they do have the weapon and they will set the timer. And as that’s the worst-case scenario, we might just as well work on that.
‘I think there are only two options. Either we attack them while they’re still holed up in the Burj, or we get into the suite immediately they’ve gone. Once they’ve left the building, they no longer have access to the nuclear weapon and they can easily be stopped by the police. There might be an exchange of fire, but there are only four of them armed with handguns, so the outcome shouldn’t be in any doubt. The aircraft can also be disabled — just have a sniper shoot out the tyres.’
The others nodded reluctant agreement with his summary.
‘Right, those are the options, but there are problems with both of them. Assaulting the suite would be difficult and dangerous. Dubai isn’t equipped for this kind of situation. Countries faced with serious terrorist threats tend to keep highly trained paramilitary forces on standby, but not here. If we could call on the SAS, an assault might be worth considering, but even then it would prove very difficult. The suite is situated near the very top of the hotel. They’ve booby-trapped the doors, and the only other way in is through the windows. Try abseiling down from the helicopter landing pad, and that would become immediately obvious.