Andy McDermott - The Midas Legacy

‘Intercepting it would have risked starting a war,’ replied MacNeer. There was a world map on one wall of Seretse’s office; he indicated the Korean peninsula, a tiny stub hanging off the eastern edge of China. ‘They never entered international airspace, so we couldn’t touch them.’

‘You could’ve still got a missile lock from hundreds of miles away. Shoot ’em down, and if the North Koreans complain, say you had a weapons malfunction or something.’

MacNeer clucked patronisingly. ‘This isn’t a Tom Clancy novel, Mr Chase. But the jet landed at Tonyong, a military base about forty miles north of the DMZ. It took off again a half-hour later and flew to Shenyang in China, where it’s stayed. We’re trying to track down Mikkelsson and the others there, but haven’t located them yet.’

‘You think he’s in China?’ asked Nina.

‘Would you want to stay in North Korea any longer than you absolutely had to?’

‘Point taken.’

Seretse joined the other official at the map. ‘What is the significance of Tonyong? Why would Fenrir go there?’

‘It’s a North Korean weapons development facility,’ MacNeer answered. ‘It’s underground, built into a mountain — they even dug one end of a runway into it so planes can be loaded without our surveillance satellites seeing what’s going on. There’s been a lot of activity over the past couple of years; more tunnels being excavated, judging from the amount of rubble that’s been dumped nearby.’

‘Big enough to build a particle accelerator?’ said Nina.

‘Maybe. We don’t know for sure — it’s one of the hardest countries in the world to get reliable intel out of. The North Koreans have a nasty habit of imprisoning or straight-up executing anyone they even think might be spying. Most of their big-money facilities have been involved with their nuke programme, and we know where they are, but particle accelerators have multiple uses — including separating enriched uranium-235 from useless uranium-238. We invented the technique as part of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s, so it’s not as if it’s a big secret. Considering how desperate they are to build up their nuclear arsenal, it wouldn’t surprise us if the North Koreans have been using every possible method to get fissile material out of their uranium deposits.’

‘And if Mikkelsson’s right about how the Crucible works, they can use it to turn their useless uranium into plutonium,’ she said gloomily. The small Crucible had been recovered along with the three survivors on the frozen lake, and was currently being kept under guard at a secure location pending a decision on what to do with it. ‘They can make the jump from A-bomb to H-bomb.’

MacNeer gave her a bleak nod. ‘The thermonuclear test they did in 2016 was a fizzle, whatever Kim tried to tell the world. But if they start to manufacture plutonium on a large scale, it’s only a matter of time before they have the real deal.’

‘So what’s being done about it?’ Eddie asked.

The two officials exchanged looks. ‘What?’ said Nina, realising the subject had already been discussed before she and Eddie arrived.

‘There has been a proposal by the State Department,’ Seretse said carefully. ‘Or more accurately, US intelligence. However, I suspect you will not like it.’

Eddie made a face. ‘That’s a really good start.’

‘What is it?’ Nina demanded. ‘What proposal?’

Seretse retreated to grant his guest the dubious honour of presenting the bad news. ‘As I said, it’s hard to get reliable intel out of North Korea,’ MacNeer began. ‘It looks likely that Mikkelsson delivered the Crucible to the North Koreans, and they’ve taken it to Tonyong — but we don’t know for sure. We hardly know anything about what’s down there. But what we do know — and this isn’t just the United States talking, but an agreement between the other nuclear powers in the IAEA — is that North Korea cannot under any circumstances be allowed to mass-produce nuclear weapons. Not only would that be a hugely destabilising threat to the world, it would violate the treaty that North Korea itself just agreed to.’

‘A treaty that Mikkelsson convinced them to sign,’ added Seretse. Another shake of his head. ‘What game are you playing, Fenrir?’ he added, almost to himself.

‘Under the terms of the treaty,’ MacNeer went on, ‘there’s a provision that allows direct action to be taken against any nation that wilfully violates the agreement. If North Korea arms itself with thermonuclear weapons, that would definitely qualify as a violation. The US, or any other involved nation for that matter, would be justified under international law in using any means necessary to prevent it.’

‘That sounds more like it,’ said Eddie. ‘So you’re going to send over a few stealth bombers loaded with bunker-busters?’

‘No action can be taken without proof,’ Seretse told him solemnly. ‘ Solid proof. After what happened in Iraq with the weapons of mass destruction that turned out not to exist, the United Nations requires a higher standard of confirmation before it will approve such risky measures.’ He gave the State Department official a hard look.

MacNeer let the implied criticism slide. ‘The thing is, getting that proof is going to be hard, and take a long time. We just don’t have the assets in place. Unless… we recruit some.’

Nina felt decidedly uneasy about the way he was looking at her and Eddie. ‘I’m going to guess that you’re not talking about bribing some North Korean guard to sneak in a camera.’

‘I’m afraid not. We need someone who can get in there by offering the North Koreans something they need — and then get back out to tell us what they’ve seen.’

Eddie’s eyebrows rose as he realised where the American was leading. ‘You mean us? You want us to go on a spying mission into North fucking Korea?’

‘You’re the only people who can do it,’ MacNeer explained. ‘You found the Crucibles in the first place, you retrieved them from the Greek, and you know how they work — both in turning mercury into gold and uranium into plutonium. There isn’t anybody else who could conceivably offer the Crucible you recovered to the Koreans. It would be too suspicious.’

‘It’ll be suspicious anyway!’ Nina protested. ‘What, are we supposed to rock up to the North Korean embassy and tell them, “Hey, we know that Fenrir Mikkelsson sold you the big Crucible, but we’ll let you complete the set if you show us your secret underground base”?’

MacNeer almost smiled before catching himself. ‘That’s kind of a sarcastic way of putting it, but… yes, in essence.’

‘And why the bloody hell would they believe us?’ said Eddie.

‘Because they do not know you,’ said Seretse. ‘If you make them an offer that seems mercenary, even positively rapacious in its demands, they will think you are simply after money — because the North Koreans believe all foreigners, especially Americans, are greedy, imperialist monsters.’

‘Except for Dennis Rodman, I guess,’ Nina said.

‘If there’s one thing they love to do,’ added MacNeer, ‘it’s show off all the incredible technology that they’re going to use to destroy America and conquer the world. Granted, most of it’s twenty to thirty years behind us, but that doesn’t mean they won’t give you a guided tour if you tell them you want to hand over the Crucible in person.’

Eddie was still dubious, to say the least. ‘Okay, so even if they decide to let us in, then what?’

‘All you need to do is confirm that they’re manufacturing plutonium, or intending to. Once you’re safely out of the country and report in, Special Forces will take care of the rest.’