John Kane had been in Australia for six weeks. His passport stated that he’d not been in England for two years. Even though prior his arrival in Australia, he’d spent six months in his native London, where he had hired premises under the name of Henry Josephs. He’d begun a business in engineering and had put together a professional tight fitting team of welders, fitters and draughtsman. Who together, designed and manufactured five high voltage electrical transformers.
Just ordinary everyday transformers that most people accepted as necessary devices attached to power poles around any city or country.
Kane’s designs were a little different. They had a special recess built into them where a small explosive device could be housed.
It would break a plastic seal and propel a deadly poison into the air. Arming the bomb was easily carried out by removing a dummy bolt and replacing it with a hollow spindle that had colour coded wires at its head end.
The business end of the spindle was a detonator. Its tapered round tipped spearhead was designed to pierce a small area of foil like metal in the top of the explosives container. Spearing its way into the explosive material as the spindle was wound into place. Alongside this recess, a small panel could be removed to reveal a clear cylinder shaped canister of a highly toxic nerve poison.
The poison had been developed by the Russians in the late 1960’s and its design had been stolen from them in the early 1970’s by the British. It was called 10X by them, their scientists sometimes explained to laypersons who inquired as to the reason for that particular name.
“10X? Why that means ten out of ten my friend.” It would kill every human, dog, cat and rat in a one hundred and fifty metre radius within ten minutes of detonation.
The small vial of fifty millilitres that Kane had originally acquired could kill thousands of people. Three hundred millilitres which could be housed in the transformers would unleash untold horror in a densely populated city. Even Kane shuddered at the thought of the sobbing, vomiting, gagging mass of lunchtime city centre pedestrians, as they writhed and kicked their way from this world and into the next.
Kane had manufactured five of these transformers, or items as he liked to call them.
Four of the items, without their explosives and 10X and in perfect working order had been exported from Britain. One each had been imported into the United States, Canada, and Australia; these were the countries of the willing. The fourth one went to the Philippines. A country considered by Kane and his colleagues to be the most easily accessible for prospective customers to visit incognito.
The fifth had its uses in London and had been discreetly stored just outside the city centre.
Each of the items had been exported and imported without their explosive and nerve agent components. In full working order as transformers, in case they were tested by Customs agents during their transit.
The nerve agents would be placed in the appropriate housings when the items were safely in their host countries. They had been smuggled into the host countries in capsule form, while the explosives had been acquired locally.
The capsules were similar in size and shape to the pharmaceutical variety, but they were made of glass. They were strong enough to withstand rough treatment during transport, but fragile enough to be crushed between the fingers of an average strength man.
Now finally, the last item had arrived at its destination.
Its late arrival had been due to engine failure of its transport ship, and it had sat aboard that ship for some weeks while repairs to the engines had been carried out.
It had been a trying time.
The five teams of people he had in the five other countries had grown bored with sitting and waiting. Although there had not been the slightest hint of mutiny, Kane had worried that they might lose their edge. There was a long way to go, and a lot of work to be done. He had used this time well in financing another engineering business here in Sydney. The business itself was in the name of one of his henchmen, Steve Walters, who was the only team member who held an authentic Australian passport.
To the outside world it looked like a normal engineering workshop.
Its lathe was an absolute necessity, and one in use at this very moment as its operator carefully cut the thread on the neck of a detonator spindle. The sound of the lathe carried through the building and with it came a cascade of satisfaction. A welcome feeling as he looked out of his office window at the wooden crate near the rear fence of his rented premises. He listened to the lathe as he gazed through the streaky window at the wooden crate.
Unmistakable proof their transformer plan was ticking over like a well-oiled machine.
It was an ordinary wooden crate, and identical to those in four other countries. Kane had, had a number of other wooden crates manufactured. When the time came he wanted people to notice wooden crates everywhere.
Even in their sleep.
He knew that a terrorist didn’t need a weapon. He just needed his victims to think there might be a weapon.
That was enough to bring out the fear.
It would also help to tie up law resources by allowing them to put their skills into practice on wild goose chases.
Kane wondered momentarily about Sudovich. He’d been more comfortable when he’d thought Sudovich’s death had been by natural causes, and had felt glad the man was out of the way. Less room for complication he’d thought, but now, the possibility that Sudovich had been murdered raised issues.
Would Sudovich’s removal bring its own complications? Why had he been killed, and should he, Kane be concerned about who had killed him?
Time would tell. For now, it had to be business as usual with problems disposed of as they arose.
Nothing was going to spoil his moment.
He looked out at the item crate again as a smile came to his face. It’s nearly time to show my crate-ive side, he thought.
*****
Lee looked up as Dan the Man walked into the office carrying a cardboard box.
He was a big man, and most people who got on his wrong side found out the hard way why he was called ‘the Man’.
His slow speech and slower facial expression suggested overall slowness, but this wasn’t the case. Dan was as smart as the next man who had above average I.Q. He was also cheerful.
“Good morning, Mr. Lee. How are you going Larry, beautiful sunny day, eh?” Lee watched the big man’s easy movement as he opened the carton and removed a metal detector. “I’ve read the instructions Mr. Lee, so I’ve got the basics on its working. What are we looking for?”
Lee looked at the machine. It beeped, and he saw Dan press a button on its hand piece which quietened it.
“We think Sudovich may have a safe or a hideaway in the office here somewhere. Are you sure you know how to work that thing?”
Dan nodded and Lee waved his hand about the room.
“Check out the floor. It appears to be clear, but we’ll try in the corners anyway. That’s where the carpet will lift easiest. Larry and I tried to lift it before but it seems to be nailed down. Try it anyway.” Lee instructed.
Larry was clearing potted plants and a book shelf from the corner areas. Dan waved the detector over these without success. Lee pointed to a door which opened onto a set of shelves, where office stationery and an assortment of files were stored.
Larry started to remove these and Dan put the machine to work on the interior walls. He moved the loop over the floor boards and then waved it over some pictures which were screwed to the wall.
Dan finally turned to Lee with a shrug of his shoulders.
“It seems to be all clear Mr. Lee.”
Larry chimed in.
“I’ve a feeling we’re missing something that is staring us right in the face.” They stood and looked at each other a moment, before Dan walked to Sudovich’s heavy old desk and waved the detector across the front of it.
He was rewarded with a short beep as he reached the desks corner. Touching the reset but
ton, he relocated the signal point and offered.
“Mr. Lee, I think this may be it. There’s a small square of metal here,” Dan said as he allowed its beep to continue for a moment to draw Lee’s and Larry’s attention to the particular area.
Larry walked around the desk and removed a long top drawer, before pulling from the desk a short middle drawer and a short lower drawer. He dropped to one knee to peer inside the desk and saw in the poor light a small safe. Lee walked around and squinted into the desks interior gloom, before he looked up at Dan.
“Dan, I want you to take your car and go and get Nibbles. We’ll need him to open it.”
Nibbles was the nick name he was given for his habit of chewing snacks while opening safes. So much so, that he’d had to take up chewing gum because the police had begun to recognize his jobs by the crumbs he left behind.
Dan left the room while Lee and Larry stayed behind. They smiled at each other while they rubbed their hands together in anticipation.
*****
Nibbles chewed his gum and quickly had the small, cheap safe open. Sudovich had obviously been so confident about his hiding place that he had forgone the need for a more expensive and less accessible safe.
Inside were thick wads of cash, being John Kane’s twenty-five percent deposit. Lee piled it onto the desk top before greedily pulling at the rest of the safe’s contents. It included the second set of books which he handed to Larry.
His third grasp returned from the safe’s inside with a thick sheaf of receipts, a plastic coated page of silver coins, a .38 calibre revolver and Sudovich’s personal diary.
Lee glanced at the papers and the coins before he dropped them onto the desk. He kept a firm hold of the diary, knowing that inside was the key to Sudovich’s methods, motives and possibly access to any funds the dead man might have ferreted away.
He picked up the pistol and opened it to allow four unused bullets and two empty casings to fall to the desk top. Through force of habit he wiped it clean before wrapping in his handkerchief and handing it to Dan.
“Dan, get rid of this now. Somewhere deep because we don’t know where it’s been, and neither of us needs connection to it.” Dan turned toward the door as Lee called after him, “Make sure it never comes back Dan. Better bring us some food too, eh? We might be here awhile.”
After Dan had left, Lee turned to Larry.
“How much time will you need with that book Larry?”
“I think I’ll be here most of the night Mr. Lee. There’s some interesting numbers and there’s a lot of them. It goes back three years to just after you refinanced him.”
Lee rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“Right, we’d better get started then. You can take the desk chair; you’ll need more room than me.” He then sank back into the vibrating armchair and began to read Sudovich’s diary.
CHAPTER 5