“Lowell, are there any nuclear power plants in the Darwin region?” Rodgers asked.

“I already asked my host,” Coffey told him. “She said she does not believe there are.”

“I’m with you, Lowell,” Herbert said. “Nothing personal, but I’m bothered by the fact that they asked for you instead of an official representative of the federal government.”

“I am, too,” Coffey said.

“Do we know that they didn’t do that as well?” Hood asked.

“I was told that I was their one-and-only,” Coffey said.

“Jelbert’s aide may not have been in possession of that information,” Hood pointed out. “For all we know, the American embassy has been notified. We’re going to have to let this play out until we know more.”

“There obviously has to be a legal issue involved,” Herbert said. “Something that requires Lowell’s expertise in international affairs.”

“That does seem to make sense,” Hood said. “Lowell, how long until you reach the airport?”

“About fifteen minutes,” Coffey replied.

“Maybe we’ll know more by then,” Hood said. “Lowell, let us know what you find out as soon as you can.”

“Of course,” he said.

Hood wished him well and hung up. He looked at the others. “Bob, is there any history of nuclear trafficking in that region?”

“The answer is, ‘possibly,’ ” Herbert said.

“Jeez, I remember when intelligence agencies used to deal in probablies,” Rodgers said.

“When you were a greenhorn in ’Nam, they did,” Herbert said. “We still had human intelligence resources in every backwater den you could imagine. Then the electronic intelligence guys came in and said there was no reason to risk lives anymore. They were wrong. Satellites can’t do belowdecks imaging in a freighter or oil tanker.”

“What about those possibilities, Bob?” Hood asked, getting them back on subject.

“We suspect that terrorists and rogue states in the Pacific Rim have used commercial ships and private vessels to transport nuclear weapons or components,” Herbert told him. “But we have no evidence of that. For the last few years a bunch of navies and air defense forces around the world, including Australia, have been placing radiation-detection equipment on their vessels. These gizmos measure gamma radiation or neutron fields, depending on whether they’re looking for raw radioactive material or weapons, respectively. But they haven’t found anything.”

“Which doesn’t mean much,” Rodgers said. “Adequate lead shielding will hide that.”

Herbert nodded. “That’s why we need more people watching potential traffickers on the shipping and receiving ends. The CIA and the FBI are working on that, but we’re nowhere near up to speed yet.”

“All right,” Hood said. “The system has a lot of holes. But you’re saying the Aussies have the capacity to pick up hot cargo?”

“That’s right,” Herbert said. “And if that’s what happened, there are a lot of reasons they might want someone like Lowell to have a look.”