There was a movement in the doorway. De Payns looked up. Templar and Ackermann were standing there.

‘We’re going down to the cafeteria,’ said Templar. ‘Any orders?’

De Payns leaned back in his chair. ‘Josef, you were quiet in there.’

The scientist shrugged. ‘I wait for Marie to call me in.’

‘How about I call you in?’ suggested de Payns. ‘If we narrow this right down, the Pakistanis have developed a gas gangrene agent that works best when it’s added to water, something we all need to use every day.’

‘Sure,’ said Ackermann.

‘So if you were the terrorist, and you wanted to deploy this in Europe, what method of distribution would you use to create the biggest impact?’

Ackermann looked at the ceiling, thinking. ‘The best way would be to add as much as I could to the water supply of a major city—say, London, Paris, Madrid. But …’

‘That wouldn’t work,’ said de Payns.

‘Well, not really. You’d need a lot of bacteria to influence a metropolitan water supply, and the major cities have filters and chemical treatments that can defeat bacteriological pathogens.’

‘Even man-made, weaponised ones?’

‘This one from the MERC is very strong and very resilient,’ said Ackermann. ‘And it has this added sialidase feature, which negates the dilutive effects of water. It can still work when it reaches the intestine.’

‘But?’

‘But you’d have to get it past the water treatment stations and all their chemicals. Once it was in the pipes, that would be another story. That’s when you’d kill a large number of people.’

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

CHAPTER

SIXTY-THREE

The Alamut team went to lunch early. Briffaut wanted them to go and eat, regroup and come back with a solution.

Dominic Briffaut hit a four-numeral code on the landline console on his desk. Frasier picked up quickly and Briffaut told him that France could be a target, given the bioweapon was in Italy, and therefore DGSI—the Company’s domestic counterpart—should be briefed. Frasier accepted this, and Briffaut continued. ‘In about ten minutes you’ll be asked for authorisation on a transaction we’re making. I’d like you to say yes.’

‘What am I okaying?’ the director wanted to know.

‘I’d like to thank Manerie in my own way.’

There was a long pause.

‘The answer’s yes,’ said Frasier finally. ‘Make it happen. I’ll bring in DGSI.’

Briffaut rang the financial operations officer and dictated the details. Then he scrolled through the contacts in an old Nokia and hit a number. It was answered by a PA and Briffaut said, ‘Please tell Monsieur Sharif that Monsieur Roche will see him at twelve-thirty.’