The Dying Light (21 page)
‘These harmful algal blooms - HABS,’ continued Hopcraft, ‘are not limited to marine environments. They are also found in fresh water lakes in Australia and New Zealand. The cyanobacterial blooms are by definition blue-green. This toxic red algae - TRA - is interesting because red blooms are mostly confined to oceans, not fresh water, so that may be some clue as to what we are dealing with. The important point is that the cell walls of this TRA contain a substance that causes gastro-intestinal, eye, skin and respiratory irritation. Consumed in large quantities, the algae will damage the liver and neurological systems of humans as well as animals.’
‘How is it spreading?’ snapped Temple, who was chairing the meeting while Admiral Piper sat doing his best to look decisive at the other end of the table. ‘Should we investigate possible sabotage? Have we any idea where it comes from?’
Cannon recognised not panic in his master, but a raw political energy.
‘We don’t know how it’s spreading, prime minister,’ replied Hopcraft with a note that signalled he wasn’t prepared to be bullied. ‘The likely candidates are birds and humans - people travelling from reservoir to reservoir for recreational purposes perhaps: fishing, sailing, birdwatching. It could be anything. As yet we have nothing definite on this. However, we have established that the algae’s genetic code most closely resembles types found in New Zealand’s South Island. It seems to be intolerant of water with a high pH value. That much we do know.’
‘But how did this get into our water supply? It doesn’t just appear out of the blue.’ Temple turned to Christine Shoemaker of MI5. ‘Is there a possibility this has been deliberately introduced as an act of sabotage?’
‘If I may, prime minister,’ said Hopcraft, trying to head her off, ‘I think that conjecture would be premature at this stage. These things do spread around the world and such organisms are capable of relatively swift adaptation in new conditions. It may have been here for some time; we have no way of telling. And we should remember that the new filtration systems with ultrafine membranes do stop this particular algae.’
Temple batted the last sentence away with his hand. ‘Christine, are you aware of any groups that have the necessary capability or that are planning this sort of biological attack?’
‘It’s a possibility, but we have no specific intelligence that says the people we’re watching have contemplated this kind of action, though of course it would appeal in as much as drinking water is a very basic resource. The idea of introducing naturally occurring toxins into the supply and causing widespread panic would be an attractive option to some of the groups.’
‘Precisely,’ said Temple. ‘It must be understood that I’m taking this very seriously indeed.’ He looked around the room. ‘I want twice daily reports on all aspects of the situation - scientific, crisis management and security. The public is rightly very concerned about these occurrences and it is our duty to answer those concerns with explanation, reassurance and action. Philip will work on the media strategy this afternoon. We should aim for a full briefing of the press and broadcast media at five p.m. Adam, I’d like you there, but at this stage I do not wish for any speculation as to the source of this problem.’
He stood up and asked Cannon to remain behind, also Christine Shoemaker and Jamie Ferris, who advised Temple on security matters and came from MI6 via OSI, Eden White’s business intelligence company - Ortelius Security and Intelligence. It took a few minutes for the room to clear, during which Temple walked up to the screens and examined the images. Piper attempted to ingratiate himself but was pretty soon sent on his way.
‘Jamie has some interesting things to say about money transfers in the Caribbean, Christine,’ Temple said without turning from the screens.
Cannon didn’t need one of Temple’s excursions into the intelligence world now. He had three hours to organise the briefing and coordinate the line from all government press officers, vital on a story that could easily get out of hand if one of the departmental spokesmen or a minister went off-piste. ‘Do you need me for this, prime minister?’
‘Please stay. I’ll only be a few minutes. Jamie?’
Ferris coughed. ‘Our information is that very sizeable sums were left in a number of accounts in the Cayman Islands and Dutch Antilles by Sir Colin Eyam, which as far as we know have not been included in his estate. Estimates put it in the region of ten million US dollars, but that is only the money we have traced. We believe there is much more. Sir Colin was a very rich man and a very organised one. After his death, several large transfers took place in the week before Christmas to the Inter-American Development Bank, Cartagena, into an account held in the name of Daniel H. Duval, the name of a passenger who left Paris for Fort-de-France in Martinique on December fourteenth. This was about the time that Eyam vanished. We have also traced debit cards held in a variety of names that were used in Colombia to draw on funds in the accounts in Cayman and Curacao. On January second the money began to leave the account in Cartagena in small packages of ten thousand dollars to many different destinations. We are talking about a sum of at least two million dollars, but again we cannot be sure of the exact amount. I should stress that the procedures followed were extremely sophisticated and on a par with the money laundering operations of international crime syndicates.’
‘And when did this activity cease?’ asked Shoemaker.
‘There was a blizzard of transfers between Colombia, Curacao and Cayman leading up to January twelfth, the day Eyam was killed. The money went back and forth and every which way. But on the twelfth all activity stopped, except in the case of one debit card, on which regular amounts of five thousand dollars have been drawn every week since that date at the same bank in Cartagena.’ He looked at some typed notes. ‘This card, held in the name of Jan Tiermann, is being funded by an account at the Netherlands-Caribbean EuroBank of Curacao. We now have surveillance at the bank in Cartagena to see who is using the card. Most of the money is withdrawn over the counter so it won’t be long before we identify the individual.’
‘Is this any help, Christine?’ asked Temple.
‘Most certainly, prime minister. Clearly Lady Eyam has no knowledge of these funds, or at least if she does, did not control them, and anyway the abrupt cessation in the movements of money after the explosion would suggest this was solely David Eyam’s responsibility.’
‘Except for the debit card.’
‘We think that is a local man, prime minister.’
Temple threw Cannon a mysterious look, both cunning and regretful. ‘Find out all you can on this, Jamie. There is a feeling of purpose in Eyam’s actions that is not at all clear to me. I want to know who is using that card and what connection they had to David Eyam.’ He stopped and picked up the briefing papers from the Government Scientific Service. ‘Right, Philip, let’s go back to the office and sort out what we’re going to say about TRA.’
When Kate pressed ‘Play’ at the same time as ‘Forward’ she realised that the action tripped a switch in the car’s adapted tape deck, and caused the pick-up head to shift fractionally so that it read the unused strip of magnetic tape running between the two tracks of music. It was a technique developed in the Cold War for passing messages from the Communist bloc in adapted music cassettes. She had been told about it, more as a matter of historical interest than practical trade-craft, in the first weeks of the intelligence officers’ training course. Presumably this was where Eyam had learned about it also.
The first snatch of Eyam’s voice came as she crawled through the traffic on the outskirts of Oxford. She wound the tape back to the start and decided to take the long route through the Cotswold Hills back to High Castle. It would probably add an hour to the journey but she was in no hurry. As she cleared the city she played the recording from the beginning.
‘I hope you’re alone,’ he began. ‘If not, I suggest you wait until you are.’ There was a pause, presumably to give her time to turn the tape off or to collect herself. She heard the sounds of rooks in the distance and the rattle of bare branches. He must have recorded the message in the garden of Dove Cottage during the winter. ‘OK, Sis? Good. You found the tape - well done - and you’re almost certainly in my dear old car, which is good. I checked it for listening devices myself.’ Another pause - coughing.
‘By the time you hear this, I will be gone and you will be the proud owner of Dove Cottage and the flat in London. I realise that this must all have come as a surprise to you and I cannot predict how you feel about my legacy. Despite the money I’ve left you I anticipate a certain irritation. Well, I apologise, Sis. You see - I can say sorry. I wish there was another way. But I had to keep my cards close to my chest. Practically every part of my life is now monitored. The house is bugged and all communication by phone and computer is impossible. I agonised for a long time about coming to see you in New York and telling you everything that you now know about, but I decided that it would be fairer to allow you to think about this once I was gone. I believe you may still be unhappily engaged in that process.’
‘You’re damned right,’ she said aloud.
‘The documents passed to you by Hugh Russell with my letter will give you a good idea of why I had to leave, and if you inspect my computer you will know why the matter became urgent. They played very rough with me - a measure of their desperation but also of the corresponding strength of the case against them - and there seemed a very good chance that I would be jailed as a child molestor. I could not endure that.
‘You’re a lawyer, Sis, and the first thing you will want to know is did I do anything illegal? The answer is no. But by opposing them I was certainly made to feel like a criminal and in the end I had to behave like one. There’s nothing in the dossier that harms national security - in the true sense - and nothing that is illegal or morally wrong. But you must know that possession of the dossier, and indeed of this tape, may get you into a lot of trouble.
‘You have a choice: if for whatever reason you have no interest in helping destroy the thing that destroyed me, that’s fine, Sis. Really, I do understand. You’ve got a life in New York and you deserve peace and happiness. If, however, you’re willing to help, you must be prepared to use all your cunning and resilience. You are equal to the job, but let me warn you that this will consume your life.
‘OK, so that’s the sales pitch over.’ He gave an ironic laugh. ‘As you’ve seen in my outline, I’ve assembled the case against the prime minister, Eden White and senior members of the government and Civil Service. When I use the word assemble, that’s not quite right. Actually it is you who will have to assemble the evidence. I marshalled it over the course of the last two and a half years then saw to its dispersal in order to protect it. This evidence consists of original documents and copies of ones that cannot be contested. Even though I say it myself, there is no one better able to describe what has happened. Clearly, if I had left this all in one place - say with my lawyer, or at the Dove - it would have been vulnerable. So I’ve arranged for it to come together at an appropriate moment. But I will not say when or how because there are some things that it is better for you not to know now. There are other people in this thing - good people whose lives I do not wish to ruin. Only one has the whole picture and that person will make themselves known to you when it is safe and they are certain that you are committed.’
Eyam stopped and coughed, a dry chesty cough, which went on for some time. Kate paused the tape because she needed to concentrate on what he was saying. Fifteen minutes later she found an open gateway leading into some woods, reversed a little way down the track, turned the engine off and picked up where she had left off to hear Eyam clearing his throat away from the microphone.
‘There’s no point my going on about the dossier now. I know that you will already have mastered the contents, so I wanted to say some things I should have told you before now.’ He paused. ‘It’s odd. I’ve been planning to make this tape for some time and thought I knew what I was going to say, or rather how I was going to say it, but now I come to it I find . . . well, that it’s harder than I thought because I suppose it means I won’t be seeing you again. I suspect that’s why I’ve left it to the last possible moment. Remember that evening in New York? Our last meal together?’
Kate exhaled. ‘Forget the damned restaurant,’ she said out loud. ‘Tell me about the bloody dossier.’
‘I was thinking about it again today,’ continued Eyam, ‘and wondering why I behaved so idiotically. I suppose there was something in me saying, “Wait! Wait until we’re both ready.” That of course seems ridiculous.’ He paused again then asked, ‘Was that it? I still don’t know for sure. I was absorbed by the discovery of DEEP TRUTH and it weighed on me. You see, I was about to take a leap into the dark with this thing, and I was dwelling on my part in it all - my responsibility and failure and hubris. I always knew how to control things, think round or finesse them, but then I found a situation that I couldn’t manage in the usual way. I had a stark choice and I had to jump one way or the other, and there was no way I could avoid that. Yet instead of talking to my friend, asking her advice and resorting to her exceptional judgement I behaved like a bastard and belittled her.’ He stopped again. ‘I am sorry - I’m rambling. Forgive me. I’m pretty much at the end of my tether. We buried my father today and I’ve had a hard time of it lately. In a few hours’ time I must leave the Dove. I will not sleep here again. That’s quite a thought. It saddens me greatly because I’ve never felt quite so attached to a place or more inspired by a setting. I felt at peace here, Sis, and I wish now that you’d got to know it with me. It has an exceptional spirit. There’s a quote from Wordsworth, which captures it well. I can just see that derisive smile of yours, but here it is anyway:
“I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thought . . . A motion and a spirit, that impels all thinking things, all objects of all thought and rolls through all things.
” It suddenly strikes me that those two lines might easily refer to DEEP TRUTH.’ He cleared his throat.
“I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thought . . . A motion and a spirit, that impels all thinking things, all objects of all thought and rolls through all things.
” It suddenly strikes me that those two lines might easily refer to DEEP TRUTH.’ He cleared his throat.
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