The Persona Protocol - By Andy McDermott Page 0,82

snowy wilderness, the line of the leaden sea on the horizon. The flattened perspective suggested that the picture had been taken from a distance with a telephoto lens. At the centre was the core of an RTG, wrenched out of its protective cage and with several radiator vanes damaged or missing. Part of the case had been broken open, the crowbar and chisels used still lying beside it.

Also beside it were four bodies.

The Arctic cold had preserved them to an extent – enough to show how their faces had been burned and blistered, the skin a savage, molten red. From their agonised expressions and contorted positions, the men’s deaths had been far from painless.

‘August 2004,’ said Tony. ‘This is an island in the White Sea, north-west Russia. These men decided to break into one of the lighthouses and strip it of everything valuable. They got more than they bargained for. Either they didn’t know what the warning symbol meant, or they didn’t care. But when they busted open the core, they got a lethal dose of radiation, enough to kill them in minutes.’

‘And this is not the only instance,’ Morgan added. ‘There have been more than forty reported cases of raiding or vandalism of RTG-powered lighthouses in the past ten years – in one case, a stolen core was found at a bus stop in a town in Leningrad Oblast. Then there are the accidents. At least nine RTGs have been dropped from helicopters during transport or were aboard ships that sank, and have never been recovered.’

‘And these are just the ones the Russians have admitted to. Our intelligence sources have found out that as many as six RTGs have . . . disappeared.’ Tony brought up another map, the same as the first – except that half a dozen of the dots, scattered along the Russian coast, were now circled in red. ‘Teams went to check on the lighthouses, and found that their RTGs were gone. No trace, no dead looters, no signs of excessive radiation in the vicinity.’

‘They’re out there, somewhere,’ said Morgan ominously. ‘But our operation in Macau has given us a lead on one of them. Ruslan Zykov is acting as an intermediary between al-Rais and a Russian army officer, Colonel Kirill Makariy Sevnik.’

A new picture came up, a computer-generated facial composite of a middle-aged man, every deep line in his thin, tired face seemingly etched with a chisel. ‘We don’t have a photo of Sevnik, but Adam used Zykov’s persona to produce this,’ said Tony, with a brief sidelong glance at Adam on the group’s periphery. ‘It seems he’s had enough of serving in Siberia and wants to take early retirement somewhere tropical. The RTG is his retirement plan. Zykov will take a big cut, of course, but the deal will still give Sevnik five million dollars – and al-Rais a new terror weapon. He won’t be able to use it to build a bomb, but at our minimum estimate, the RTG contains enough radioactive strontium-90 to lethally poison two million people if it were released in a major city.’

A shiver of concern ran through the assembled group. ‘Adam learned from Zykov that the deal has been agreed,’ he went on. ‘Zykov hasn’t met al-Rais in person yet, but will be doing so soon to make the exchange. NSA’s now monitoring all Zykov’s phone and Internet use to find out when and where it’s going to happen – a job we made a lot easier for them by giving them all his passwords, by the way.’ The comment eased the tension slightly. ‘Once we know that . . . we can catch al-Rais.’

‘Fuckin’ A!’ said Kyle under his breath, though still loudly enough to draw a disapproving glare from Morgan.

‘Will we be involved in the mission to capture him?’ asked Holly Jo.

‘That hasn’t been decided yet,’ Morgan replied. ‘But considering the value of the information we got from Zykov, even if there were some, ah, hitches’ – Bianca, standing near Tony, looked uncomfortably at her feet – ‘I’d say we will be involved, yes. I want everybody to prep for an operation on that assumption. Once Zykov makes his move, we might not have a lot of time to react. So, get to it. Oh, and one more thing,’ he added as the meeting began to disperse. ‘Good work on the last mission.’

‘Yes, good work, all of you,’ added Kiddrick, stepping forward. ‘What the Persona Project has done is bring us one step closer to