December 25th, 2004. Patong Beach, Phuket
Mina woke up in Jack’s arms. She kissed his lips and watched him wake slowly from his sleep. He opened his eyes to the sight of Mina’s dark eyes looking down at him from under her long lashes.
‘Mornin’ you,’ he said, ‘what time is it?’
‘About eight-thirty.’
He frowned, suddenly deep in thought. Mina looked at his furrowed brow and smiled.
‘You should eat something before you run out the door to do whatever you’re thinking about right now’ she said.
‘Am I that predictable?’
‘Sometimes. I’m starting to know you Jack. So what’s the magic plan you’ve concocted overnight?’
‘I need to buy a laptop and I’d rather you came with me. I don’t want you to be alone if they find out we’re staying here.’
‘They can’t know we’re staying in a bungalow belonging to the hotel manager’s own brother, can they?’
‘I’m not taking any chances. I promised your mum I’d bring you home in one piece. Come on, let’s get some breakfast.’
They returned an hour later. Mina rested on the sand a few feet away from the porch, hidden from watchful eyes by a dense row of palm trees. Meanwhile, Jack was busy setting up his laptop, downloading and installing special software he needed for a secure communication. Luckily, the hotel manager’s brother had a good broadband connection in this bungalow. He dialled a number on the laptop to start a secure call with someone he had not spoken to in a very long time.
‘Hi Specs,’ said Jack.
‘Jack! My god! I haven’t heard from you in ages!’ said the crackly voice coming out of the speakers.
‘D’you ever sleep?’ asked Jack.
‘You know me. I only sleep when my computer goes to sleep.’
‘You haven’t changed one bit.’
‘Yeah. What’s up?’
‘I’m in trouble,’ said Jack.
‘What’s new?’
‘I need to track a mobile phone number, a number in Thailand.’
‘Lucky bastard. Are you on the beach right now?’
‘I can see it from here. I might go for a swim in a while, if I don’t get killed before then.’
‘OK. I’ll instant message you a website address. You type ‘C++’ when a second pop-up page appears, type ‘jacko’ and password ‘lolita,’ all lower-case.’
‘Lolita?’ asked Jack with a chuckle.
‘Shut up. It’s a great book by Nabokov.’
‘Yeah, it’s also the name of that gorgeous boss of yours, isn’t it?’ Jack mused.
‘D’you want my help or not?’
‘Yes, sorry,’ he said grinning. It felt good speaking to an old pal.
‘Right. When you’ve done that, another window opens. Just type in the mobile phone number, and you should be able to track it, if it’s turned on of course. If the person is in motion, it might be more difficult to localise.’
‘Will it leave any traces on the owner’s phone?’ asked Jack.
‘No Jack. Unless you called me to obtain the commercial version of the software?’
‘Why? How does the commercial one work?’ asked Jack.
‘It simply asks the owner of the phone if he agrees to be tracked.’
‘That’s sort of stupid isn’t it?’ said Jack.
‘It’s to avoid being tracked by your wife or girlfriend without your knowledge.’
‘Come on Specs, that’s even more stupid! She could just borrow your phone for five minutes, accept the tracking software then delete the text messages. You’d never know you were being tracked.’
‘Jack. I hope your girlfriend isn’t anything like you!’
‘I wish. How do I localise the phone?’
‘Once you’ve typed in the number, a map software will start running and if the person’s in town, you should be able to pinpoint the phone within a few yards.’
‘You’re a life saver, Specs. I owe you one,’ said Jack.
‘No you don’t, just keep in touch mate’ said Specs and ended the call.
Within a few seconds, Jack received an instant message with a web address. ‘Specs, you’re my cyber god,’ thought Jack.
He stepped off the porch, onto the beach. He loved the warm and gritty feeling of sand scrunching between his toes. He approached Mina, lying half asleep on a colourful towel.
‘Mina?’
‘Hmm. I’m sorry,’ she answered, ‘I fell asleep. So tired. Found out anything?’ she asked, groggily.
‘No but I’ve sorted what we’re going to do now. I’m calling Wheatley. You coming?’
‘Of course,’ she said, jumping up from her towel.
He explained carefully what she needed to do while he spoke to Oberon. She was to keep her eyes on the phone location and jot down the exact coordinates when he gave her the go-ahead. He plugged his phone into the laptop, started a GPS scrambling software, and dialled Wheatley’s number.
‘Welcome to Phuket,’ said Oberon. ‘I expected your phone call last night.’
‘Where are my mother and sister, Wheatley?’
‘You’re a trifle direct, aren’t you, Major?’
‘You’ve made a big mistake attacking my family.’
‘Don’t fret. They’re perfectly well, alive and kicking. Well, not kicking that much, as I had to have them restrained, you understand I’m sure.’
‘Just you wait.’
‘Threats? Now, now Major.’
‘What do you want? Money?’
‘Money? You know exactly what I want. Where is it?’ asked Oberon, icily.
‘It’s safely tucked away, in London,’ said Jack.
‘Now that’s too bad for Miss and Mrs Hillcliff. Don’t you think?’
Jack looked at Mina, who confirmed she had pinpointed the location of Oberon’s phone.
‘Why do you need it so badly? Don’t you have a copy of it already?’
‘Don’t provoke me unnecessarily, my boy. We both know exactly what happened to those photographs.’
Jack put his hand over the phone and turned to Mina with a quizzical look, ‘You were right, he thinks we have it, and that we stole the photos of it.’
‘Tell him we have a picture with us,’ she whispered.
He was about to ask why, but she seemed so resolute, ‘OK. We don’t have the tablet here, but we have a photograph of the inscription with us.’
Wheatley didn’t answer. Jack waited for a few moments, then blurted out, ‘Listen man, that’s the best I can do for the moment. When my family is safe, and we’ve all returned to the US, you’ll get the real tablet.’
Oberon still didn’t answer.
‘I want,’ said Jack, ‘we want out of this whole business. It was a terrible mistake to get involved any deeper than we already have with this tablet. I just want my mother and sister safe and sound. You won’t hear from us ever again.’
Wheatley broke his silence, ‘Tomorrow morning, nine o’clock. Bring the photograph in person.’
‘Where will we meet?’
‘I will text you the meeting place tomorrow morning,’ he answered and hung up.
Jack immediately looked over Mina’s jottings. The coordinates had changed quite a bit during the phone conversation. Oberon had been moving. But where? The first coordinates located the phone near Hat Kamala, a beach they had passed on the way from the airport. Then, the signal moved to another beach, Hat Surin, further north.
‘It doesn’t make any sense, Jack!’
‘He’s calling from a boat,’ Jack answered. ‘That settles it. There’s no way of finding him before tomorrow’s meeting.’
‘At least we have our bargaining chip now,’ said Mina.
‘Yes. But how are we going to produce the photograph?’
‘I’ll make a fake one of the Mosul tablet. I know the damn thing by heart,’ said Mina.
‘But how?’
‘I’ll download a few images from the web and then use software to alter them, and produce a photograph that will look like just like the tablet Oberon stole in the first place.’
‘Wouldn’t he remember what it really looked like?’ asked Jack.
‘I can’t see how. I don’t imagine he took the pictures himself. With any luck he’s never even looked at them properly,’ she replied.
‘OK. What do you need?’ asked Jack.
‘Download good image editing software. I’ll take it from there.’
An hour later. Kamala beach. A luxury hotel.
Oberon’s suite Oberon, wearing his favourite monogrammed bathrobe, was sitting comfortably in a wicker armchair. A beautiful Thai girl was massaging his shoulders. Natasha entered the room accompanied by a man built like a wardrobe.
‘So, did you get a lock on their location?’ asked Oberon.
‘Yes sir, but he was using scrambling software.’
‘He’s still in Patong, but we don’t know exactly where.’
‘Clever Jack. I wish he worked for me,’ said Oberon.
‘I’m not sure he’d feel the same way, Sir,’ replied Natasha.
‘Everyone has a price,’ he replied cuttingly. ‘Never mind. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow. Where are our guests?’
‘Ong-Tha delivered them to the yacht. We’ll bring them to the beach in the morning. We’ll anchor the yacht at a safe distance and have a small motor boat ready. Sir?’
‘Yes Natasha?’
‘I think you should have stayed on the yacht. It’s safer,’ she said.
‘God I miss my own yacht,’ he replied.
‘This one suits our purposes, sir. It’s faster and although we won’t go unnoticed, it is less conspicuous than your usual yacht.’
‘It’s tacky,’ he replied stubbornly. ‘I’ll stay at the hotel until this matter is over.’
‘Just don’t use your mobile phone while you’re here,’ said Natasha.
‘Fine. You know how to reach me if need be. We’ll meet in the restaurant on Patong beach but I want you to be close by, with both women there. I must have line of sight from our table.’
‘With binoculars you mean?’ she asked.
‘Yes. That Hillcliff is dangerous. We have underestimated him,’ said Oberon.
Natasha thought to herself, ‘I never did,’ but said, ‘At least we know who he is now, and he knows we can get to his family at any time.’
‘As long as he doesn’t ask for help from Intelligence.’
‘He hasn’t before, he probably won’t in the future,’ she answered.
‘We have our man there anyway. Isn’t it amazing what one can do with a little lubricating money?’ said Oberon, cheerfully. ‘What I still don’t understand is how Hillcliff managed to steal the tablet from inside the vault.’
‘Maybe the same way he got into the New York office unseen. Miss Dawson reckons he used a powerful electro-magnet to wipe out the CCTV data.’
‘Yes, but how did he avoid the two teams at the mansion? They were real enough,’ said Oberon.
‘It seems that one of the men from team Beta…’ Natasha started to say.
‘Spare me the code names,’ snapped Oberon.
‘Sorry, the man guarding the main entrance was sick most of the night and may not have been at his post the entire time.’
‘Sick was he?’ Oberon asked white with anger.
‘Hillcliff probably made him drink or eat something without him knowing.’
‘Make sure you put the guard on an indefinite leave of absence.’
‘Done. He’ll never be sick again,’ answered Natasha.
‘Good. Still, I don’t understand how he managed to approach the mansion unnoticed.’
‘The CCTV footage had been wiped clean,’ said Natasha.
‘Never mind. Tomorrow, I might just ask him how he did it before you terminate his involvement, as well as that of his family and Miss Osman of course.’
‘Yes Sir.’
‘I’m glad that’s all settled,’ he said, ‘now Natasha, would you mind leaving us?’
Natasha flashed a deadly look at the girl and left the room.
Same evening. Patong beach restaurant.
Mina was trying to swallow her food, a Thai green curry with chunky king prawns. Jack was going on and on about Thai cooking and its diversity in an attempt to keep her mind off their worries. She tried playing the game, thinking it had to be even harder for Jack, as it was his family that was missing, not hers. They spoke of their shared experiences in Iraq and back home, their successes and failures. But, all the while, they both felt as if they were avoiding the real conversation, made up of muted fears of what awaited them the next day. Mina was beginning to understand Jack’s ways, his military stoicism, how he lived in the present. He didn’t waste his thoughts or strength on what-ifs. But she was different. Under the circumstances, she couldn’t enjoy the food or even Jack’s company. Every good thought was marred by anxiety over tomorrow’s impending disaster. What if things went wrong? What if Oberon realised the photograph was not real? She had spoken about this at length with Jack and they had agreed that one frontal photograph of the main inscription would probably do the trick. As she herself had found the tablet and had an intimate knowledge of its measurements and appearance, she had been able to fabricate a good digital fake. She had downloaded numerous high-resolution images of cuneiform tablets from the internet. After copying, cutting and merging them one into the other, she had obtained a final picture, which was very similar to the original tablet in all aspects except one, the most important: it’s content. She suspected that Oberon couldn’t read cuneiform. All in all the result was pretty good and they had decided to print it out in blackand- white the next morning when the main shops opened.
Later that evening, they walked silently along the beach, side by side. Jack had rolled his linen trousers halfway up his calves, and Mina wore a long, orange and red dress, the hem of which trailed in the slow ebb and flow, as they treaded the wet sand. After a while, they returned to their bungalow and sat under the palm tree. They looked out at the shimmering sea and held each other under the star-filled sky. Deep down, they both felt the next day would be like nothing they had ever experienced before.