Mark Abernethy - Golden Serpent

Mac and Paul watched as Wang was caught by his people as he was trying to get into Hatfi eld’s Chinook. Don came out, but he was powerless. The People’s Republic of China was reclaiming the bloke, and the Singaporeans were backing that.

Mac gave Wang the wink. ‘There goes the gold, mate. Looks like it’s going to get split seven ways, huh?’

Wang tried to say something with his eyes, but the MSS thugs dragged him away for one of those dentist appointments where you never have to wait.

Mac followed Don into the Chinook. Hatfi eld was laid out snoring on one of the airline seats. Like spooks, army blokes had to take sleep where they could fi nd it.

Don sat down at the map table. ‘Want coffee?’

Mac shook. Paul nodded. Don asked Brown’s sidekick for coffee.

Brown turned, said hi to Mac.

Don looked like shit. Pale, drawn, unhappy. ‘So, what have we got?’

Mac felt sorry for him. All his DIA guys were probably on Golden Serpent or with the naval SONAR birds. Mac and Paul were still a sideshow – although the briefi ng they’d given Don over the radio was bringing Kaohsiung Holdings and the PLA further to the centre.

‘Mate, we’ve had an idea,’ said Mac. ‘The PLA General Staff have been running this ghost ship around Asia for years. Probably got others too.’

‘It’s highly illegal,’ said Don. ‘Not to mention incredibly unsafe.’

‘Not so different to the unmarkeds that go out to Johnston.’

‘That’s different, and you know it,’ said Don.

Mac was glad Jenny wasn’t present.

‘Anyway, the idea,’ continued Mac. ‘Let’s say we can’t get any satellite bounces off this tub. It’s not on the AIS, so we can’t trig a position, right?’

Don nodded. As the coffee came, Paul reached forward.

‘But we still have imaging, right?’

Don nodded.

Mac looked over at Brown, who was in front of his panel of screens and keyboards. ‘That right, Brownie? We can fi nd an image of Hainan Star?’

Brown turned and looked at Don, who said, ‘Go ahead.’

‘Can I get a better idea of what you want?’ asked Brown.

Mac got up, walked over to the panel. ‘Okay, so once there was a terrorist emergency in Singapore, the satellite cameras would have been going overtime, right?’

Brown nodded, looked at Mac with a dawning smile.

‘And it was in the morning, clear morning, right?’

Brown broke in, lightbulb going on in his head. ‘So there’s going to be a shot of Hainan Star logged somewhere.’

‘Bingo, Brownie.’

Brownie tapped on keys, mumbled things into his headset. He scrolled databases, input searches, manipulated dates. He played multiple keyboards like Rick Wakeman. Finally, the big black SGI screen came up with an astonishing image: Port of Singapore with a time and date log on the bottom right. On the top right were coordinates in the nautical format. A ghosted cross-cursor fl oated in the middle of the screen and the imagery was amazingly clear.

‘Shit. Guess they dropped the Polaroids, huh? Got some new gear?’ said Mac, impressed.

Brownie laughed. ‘It’s pretty good stuff.’

Mac took a seat, pulled it up close. Paul and Don leaned over the back of both of them. Mac asked for a closer pull on Brani. Brownie shifted the cross, double-clicked on his mouse. The image got closer over Brani.

‘Again, mate.’

Brownie brought them in close, then Mac asked him to go further south. They zeroed in over the Kaohsiung Holdings building and Hainan Star.

The time code said they were looking at an image from seven-thirty am, the day before.

‘Can we take the time series forward, say ten minutes at a time?’

Brownie brought a smaller box up on the screen, changed a setting and got rid of the box, then took the time series of images forward by ten-minute increments by hitting an arrow key on the SGI keyboard.

The men watched the tailgate come down at eight am, watched the tug from the facility drive into the ship’s hold at 8.10. Brownie stopped the series. Let real time run. You could see the tug moving into the ship, with no trailers.

Mac smiled at Paul and Don. ‘It was being offl oaded.’

The time series jumped forward again. Tug taking trailers out of the hold, soldiers in plain clothes lounging on the quayside with assault rifl es over their shoulders.

At eight-thirty, the emergency started. Brownie ran the real time.

People out of the building, looking around. Pointing into the building.

People up and down the gangway of the ship. Confusion.

Brownie took it forward in jumps again. At 8.50, a tender boat arrived at the quay. Brownie took it back to real time. A group of people walked up to the Kaohsiung building. Two peeled off, placing a large bag on the quay beside the ship’s gangway. Then one went up the gangway, the other joining a group of people. They went into the building and about three minutes later the tug was moving trailers again, this time out of the building and into the ship.

Paul laughed. ‘Holy shit, Mac. Ever get the feeling you’re in the wrong line of business?’

Mac was quietly astonished at what he was watching. ‘Tell ya what, if we fi nd these blokes we’d better bring the cavalry. Know what I mean?’

Don and Paul nodded.

Brownie took the time series forward again. At 9.20 am, a person who looked to be in charge suddenly walked onto the quay. The tug reversed into the ship and soldiers disappeared into the building.

They waited. And waited. Mac was about to ask Brownie to go back to the time series, but then there it was. A naked man – Mac – emerged on the quayside, right behind Hainan Star, holding a black box to his chest. A smaller bag was on his back. He paused, looked around.

Mac turned to Brown. ‘Beautiful one day. Perfect the next.’

Another man appeared on the quay, carrying the same accessories as the fi rst man. Also naked. Paul.

Mac winked at Brown. ‘Not true what they say about Asian blokes.’

Mac made a sign like he was awarding a goal at the MCG. Felt a clip over the ear.

Onscreen the men moved to a position beside the building, dressed in overalls. One walked out of the picture. The other stood there, maybe making a call. The other man came back, they stowed their stuff and jogged away.

About forty seconds later, the loading operation began again.

Mac looked at Brown. ‘Now what we need is to get a still shot of Hainan Star, load it into that tricky NSA neural net stuff, and run a real-time matching exercise. All ships have distinctive dimensions and features. If we can fi nd the same size, same shape, we’ve got a target.’

He turned. ‘Right, Don?’

Don looked at the SGI screen. ‘I like it.’

Mac got nasi goreng from one bain-marie and some stir-fried vegies from another. Grabbing a bottle of water, he walked over to the plastic table where Don, Paul and Sawtell were seated in the makeshift chow line.

Mac put his plate on the table, ready to dig in, noticed the others had barely touched theirs.

‘Problem, boys?’ he asked.

‘Shit, what happened to the food?’ said Sawtell, pushing it around his plate.

‘Have to get Michelin in here for a quick chat, eh John?’ joked Mac, but Sawtell wasn’t smiling.

‘I’m with him,’ said Paul. ‘Bloke’s gotta eat.’

Don smiled, rolled his eyes. ‘Singaporeans doing the catering,’ he said, like that explained everything.

Mac couldn’t believe it. ‘What, you want to get McDonald’s and Pizza Hut in here? Shit, guys, we’re in Singers. When in Rome – all that shit.’

Mac looked into annoyed, peevish eyes and got up. He went over to the chow line, grabbed the fruit bowl, came back with it. Hands went out, grabbed oranges, apples and bananas.