“I told him I don’t speak Bangladeshi.” Silk Purse frowned.
“I thought it was an Indian restaurant.”
Anupa smiled at her. “They all are, aren’t they?”
After the meal, she sipped her wine.
“Crutch, have you warmed up yet?”
“Yeah, you don’t know how good a ship’s bunks and Galley are. I’d have frozen my balls off, if I had any.”
Silk Purse smiled. “It’s hush hush but there’s a meeting tomorrow. Preliminary results are in.” Silk Purse placed her forefinger over her lips. “Shhh.”
THE NEXT DAY ANUPA carried her teapot and cup into the meeting room in the SIS building and sat at the large table. Sat there were Rudolph and Silk Purse.
“Morning Crutch.” They chatted for a few minutes. There was a knock on the door. A man opened the door and looked in.
“Two Gentlemen are here to see you Sir.”
“Bring them in,” said Rudolph.
Two men walked in, one in his fifties wearing a tweed jacket with unkempt grey hair, the other was younger with a goatee beard. The younger one looked a little overawed and curious.
“Help yourself to tea or coffee and let’s get started,” said Rudolph. The two men sat at the table.
“Welcome to the SIS building. These are my colleagues, you’ll know them as Silk Purse and Crutch. These are Doctor’s Abbott and Heap from the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston. Dr Abbott, you and your team have had some time to study the material that we brought you. Could we have your initial report?”
The man in the tweed jacket took some papers from his briefcase.
“The samples were quite good, it’s taken time, we have to be careful. We have detected various substances including WGpu. Neutron sources such as 252Cf or 241Am/Be can also be used for industrial and research applications of course. These usually have higher average neutron energy than WGPu, but they may be moderated in energy by neutron scattering materials such as polyethene. The sources are also strong gamma-ray emitters. 252Cf has a continuous high-energy gamma-ray spectrum. 241Am/Be makes use of capture by beryllium of high-energy alpha particles from…”
“Doctor Abbott,” said Rudolph, “we’re not atomic physics PhD’s. Give us the report fundamentals.”
“But I have to furnish the background. So that you can understand the reports.”
“Dr Abbott, furnishing is what you buy from IKEA as far as we’re concerned,” said Silk Purse.
The younger man placed his hands on the table palms down.
“What do you want to know?”
“What are we dealing with?”
“Materials consistent with the presence of fabrication residues. Typically, these exploit spontaneous radioactive emissions from nuclear materials, or emissions stimulated by x-rays, gamma rays or neutrons.”
“And in English that is…?” asked Crutch.
“Fissile and possibly fusion devices.
Plutonium devices are generally detectable by their neutron emissions. Shielding is by large amounts of neutron moderating materials combined with thermal neutron capture materials. The best moderators have significant amounts of hydrogen in their molecular structure, such as water, polyethene or paraffin.” Crutch sighed.
“So what we’re saying is weapons?” The young man nodded.
“Don’t tell me,” she said. “We’re looking at fission devices?”
“Yes Miss. And possibly fusion.”
“Chances?” He frowned.
“How likely?” said Silk Purse.
“I’d classify it as a two sigma event, but…”
“Dr Heap, give us a percentage,” said Anupa.
“It’s hard to…”
“Look, Doctor Strangelove. In our game, about is good enough. Just an estimate, that’s all we need,” said Silk Purse.
“Upper nineties.”
“So,” said Anupa, “we have a ninety five per cent plus chance.”
“Crutch,” said Rudolph, “what are this pair of nuclear geeks on about?”
“Bombs Sir, fucking big bombs. Atomic and possibly Hydrogen weapons. Right?”
The younger man nodded.
“Gentlemen leave your reports on the table when you leave,” said Rudolph, “I think we’re done here.” The two scientists left the room.
Rudolph looked at the pair of them, his expression stern. He rubbed his temples with his fingers.
“So, sum it up for us Silk Purse,” said Rudolph.
She gestured to her younger colleague.
“Crutch was the one who was there.”
Crutch sat forward. “We had an idea of course. We’ve got the reports from linguistics. They’ve gone over the documents we brought back.” She opened the file she had in front of her.
“They’re in Farsi and Korean, That’s a big surprise. Iran and North Korea, both are keen NATO fans. Some of these documents are personnel rosters. Some refer to consignments to be removed from various chambers. They’ve got information about documenting the consignments. Nothing too incriminating, apart from the fact that they’re translated into Korean and Farsi. So clearly a joint enterprise; either side could carry out the tasks.
Of course, there are these photographs from behind the filing cabinet.” She pushed them forward across the table. They were views of Oriental and Middle Eastern looking men. All were smiling and standing in front of the machinery that had obviously been removed from the site. “No prizes for guessing their nationality,” she said.
“So,” said Rudolph, “we have Koreans and Iranians working together, presumably producing something. The equipment they used is subsequently removed, and we discover traces of materials that Jimmy and Joe Einstein tell us are used in the production of nuclear weapons.”
Crutch took over.
“Yeah, and this machinery is removed after the job’s presumably done. Just to hide their asses, the job’s done in the ass end of Antarctica. Nice and remote. More people have seen a Mother Superior’s quim.” Rudolph gave her a look of reproach. Anupa smiled
“You don’t think they wanted it kept quiet, do you?”
Rudolph sat back and folded his arms.
“For some reason, the Mossad passed the information to us. They know we’ll share it with the cousins.” He drummed his fingers.
“Let’s do it then. I’ll get this put into a file and sent to Langley. Let’s see what they make of it?”
THE LARGE SCREEN ON the far wall flickered once and became blank.
The meeting had been requested by the CIA and present were the senior section analysts Simon Hobbs, Middle East and Koon Wing Mui, Far East. The Joint Chiefs of Staff sat around a large table. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Ian Cotton USAF.
Chief of Staff of the Army General Sally Weingarten, USA.
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Nicolaj Kamov, USN.
Commandant of the Marine Corps Bruce Nanut, USMC.
Chief of Staff of the Air Force General Neil L Cooper, USAF.
Also sat at the table was National Security Advisor, Stockhaisen.
“That Sir, is our presentation,” said Simon Hobbs. “I think you’ll agree that it needs careful consideration and a possible response.”
“I agree,” said General Ian Cotton. “So, let me summarize. Iran and North Korea set up a joint facility in Antarctica to produce nuclear weapons. This facility has presumably done its job and is dismantled. The weapons have been shipped to who knows where? And the information that informed us of this site came from the Mossad via MI6.”
“That’s correct Sir,” said Hobbs.
“Then tell me Mr Hobbs. What the hell do we pay you for? Why don’t we just use the Mossad and MI6?”
“Sir, we are…”
“Ok, Mr Hobbs. Button it.” He turned to the other Chiefs of Staff.