Net Force--Dark Web by Tom Clancy

Author:Tom Clancy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Published: 2019-09-20T12:54:38+00:00

BOOK III

THE INTERNET OF THINGS

21

Washington, DC/Romania/Birhan/New York

July 26–27, 2023

I

At ten o’clock in the morning Eastern Africa Time, chief UN weapons inspector Bruno Christianson stood under a running shower in his room at the Panthea Hotel, scrubbing up before dinner with members of his joint OPCW-UN investigative team. The twelve-hour charter flight from The Hague to Birhan had included an extended stopover in Istanbul due to a summer dust storm. But overall, it was a smooth trip.

Most members of the team were famished. Christianson himself had only a light breakfast aboard the charter, and was instantly receptive when his deputy, Altha Whitehirst, suggested they all convene for a solid meal after checking into their rooms. At noon they planned to strike out with their private security escort and tour three coastal sites between Port Birhan and the Hagar Oasis, where it was believed sarin gas was used to massacre an untold number of human beings, nearly wiping out the ancient Satair and Beja tribal communities.

“It’s wise to fill up good’n healthy,” Altha told the group, speaking with her thick Scottish accent as they waited for their key cards at the reception desk. “Try to stay away from carbohydrates, and eat as much protein as you can. My hunch is that, after the site visits, we won’t want undigested food in our stomachs.”

Christianson did not doubt her for a second. Back in the Netherlands, they had seen video of the victims—hundreds upon hundreds of them—crowded into a small, understaffed urgent care ward, one of many such centers in the stricken areas. It was so appalling that two of the inspectors—Guadalupe Collins and Brad Sturgill—left the room green with nausea.

The sight of contorted bodies on the floor, of young children in the final stages of respiratory paralysis lying in pools of their own vomit and bodily waste...it would haunt Christianson as long as he lived.

Now he stepped out from under the shower spray, toweled dry, and stood at the bathroom mirror. As far as he was concerned, the pictures gave adequate confirmation that weapons of mass destruction were used in the attacks. For his inspection team, then, the questions really centered on whether the toxic material was indeed sarin or some other agent, how it was delivered, and if there were hidden stockpiles of the CW or its ingredients. Moreover, they would want to determine if those stockpiles consisted of Schedule One, Two, or Three controlled substances—generally outlawed in the first instance, and restricted in the other two. When their work was complete, their findings and recommendations would be presented to the UN General Assembly and Security Council, and, assuming the evidence was solid, help build a case for international sanctions against Prince Negassie’s regime—and for tracing the weapon’s chemical constituents to their sources inside and outside the country.

But that was a classic example of putting the cart before the horse. Today’s visits to places that might have suffered a CW strike, or were linked to Birhan’s suspected chemical weapons manufacturing program, were no more than preliminary scouting missions.

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