The African Diamond Trilogy Box Set

by Christopher Lowery

  ‘Don’t bother, Daniel, it’ll be easier if I just call him and sort it out. Thanks.’

  Oberhart left him and Leo went back down to the lab, racking his brains to work out how to find the reason for the extra code. Finally, he decided to recreate the tests he’d carried out successfully the previous night on Leo 1, with his original code. That’ll tell me if the hub is down or it’s due to these changes.

  He loaded his own instructions again, sent them to his hub and crossed his fingers. He hardly dared look, but once again, as if by a miracle, the Leo 1 network was up and working perfectly. A cold shiver ran up his spine. It’s not the hub and it’s not an error on my part. It can only be Sharif’s instructions to cell S470C887,999. What the hell is going on? Why did he change the test codes and run them at night without informing me?

  Leo was trying to push aside a word that kept entering his mind. Sabotage. Is it possible that Sharif is trying to sabotage the project? We’re two months away from launching the new products and he’s testing some kind of Doomsday function behind my back. Then another chilling thought came to him, even more far-fetched and sinister than the first. Is that what happened to Scotty? Did he discover too much? His experiences in South Africa six years ago had taught him there were many evil people in the world, especially where large sums of money were involved. Had he somehow become embroiled again in some kind of illegal activity?

  He forced himself to think calmly. All I know right now is that Sharif was testing something that knocked out the Lee-Win supported equipment. It could have simply been a resilience test. Then another thought occurred to him. Or it could be something that Shen asked him to do. Some new idea they might have come up with in Shanghai. He knew that despite the new reporting structure, the two men often talked over a coffee or had lunch together in the canteen. He sympathised with Sharif’s predicament; if Shen had asked him to do something, he couldn’t refuse, so he might have worked on it at night to avoid creating a difficult situation between them. I have to have a session with them to find out what’s going on. If there’s another item on the agenda, we can all work together to achieve it.

  Whatever the truth of the matter, he needed to get to the bottom of it immediately. Tom and Shen were coming back from New York that night and he had to bring them up to speed on the status tomorrow morning. If there was a problem, he had to get it resolved before meeting them. To do so, he had to get Sharif into the office and ask him some difficult questions face-to-face, see the Pakistani’s reaction when he realised his subterfuge had been discovered. It would either be an innocent reaction or a guilty one. He hoped and prayed it would be the former, and there was some rational and convincing reason for the coded instructions that knocked over a wireless network in less than a minute.

  Leo went to his office and pressed Sharif’s number on his contact list. A woman’s voice told him the phone couldn’t be reached for the moment. He kept trying.

  In the network centre, Daniel Oberhart was searching for Sharif’s tests from Tuesday night, but he could find them nowhere. It looked as if the Pakistani had erased the files after running his programmes. He ran a trace through the Pakistani’s previous test procedures, then through the whole network database, and failed to find any record of cell S470C887,999 in the XPC system at all. The test codes would be in Leo’s mini-network, but the lab was locked and he didn’t want to ask him any further questions. It wasn’t his area of responsibility and might only serve to arouse his suspicions.

  Why would Sharif be testing a cell that Leo doesn’t know about and then erase the files? How come there’s no record of that cell anywhere in the system? If there’s something going on here, I need to know about it, and fast.

  He called a Zurich number. ‘Hi Dad, how’s things?’ He listened for a while, then said, ‘Great, I love those numbers. If you can keep it up for another few months, this deal’s a no-brainer. But listen, I think there might be something weird going on here.’ He related his conversation with Leo and his search for the apparently non-existent cell. ‘Leo’s smart and he’s worried about Sharif’s testing. If the guy’s hiding that cell, it has to be for a reason. We can’t afford the risk that there’s something funny going on that could screw up three years of planning. I didn’t agree to come to live in this dump for the fun of it. What do you think I should do?’

  Oberhart listened again for several minutes. ‘OK, I guess you’re right. I’ll play it cool and get closer to Sharif, he might let something drop. And I’m going to try to find his log sheets, either in his office or on his laptop.’

  He rang off and went up to the Pakistani’s office. It was locked, and he knew he couldn’t get a key card without it looking suspicious. Back in the network centre he forced himself to concentrate on the week’s scheduling. Sharif would be back in a couple of days, it would just have to wait.

  London, England

  ‘I think we’re going to have to come in over the weekend, otherwise we’ll never catch up on things,’ Ilona Tymoshenko said to Dr Hugh Middleton. She was looking at her list of outstanding tasks. Business at the Institute for Global Internet Security was growing faster than they’d anticipated, and there never seemed to be time to plan ahead for staff and accommodation requirements. ‘If we’re not careful, we’ll bite off more than we can chew,’ she added worriedly.

  ‘I have time on Saturday afternoon. Will that suffice?’

  ‘Well, it’s a start. We’ll see what we can get through and if necessary, arrange another session. We can’t afford to fall behind.’

  ‘Very well, just as you say, Ilona.’ Middleton was happy to let her manage his time for him, she was better at it than he. ‘Meanwhile,’ he added, ‘I think it may be time to communicate our suspicions about Lee-Win to General Chillicott.’

  Ilona looked at him sceptically. ‘Yesterday, you said we should keep them to ourselves, and now you want to share our findings with Homeland Security. Any particular reason for your change of mind?’

  ‘I still believe that we should refrain from mentioning the deaths of Shen Fu Liáng’s family in the plane crash, and the possible financial consequences. However, the other facts about him and Oberhart are highly relevant to his investigation into the mysterious person, Tsunami, and to the ownership of Lee-Win and possible nefarious activities which he should be aware of. Between you and I, Ilona, of the two alternative theories I feel more inclined to favour the Chinese version.’

  ‘Alright, let’s talk to him. He’ll be in his office in a couple of hours, I’ll get hold of him then.’

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  Sharif called back after a half hour, to say he was in Sharjah for the day with his brother and was about to get on a boat to go out to look for dolphins. The rest of their day was similarly booked up. ‘Is it something I can sort on the phone? I’ve still got a few minutes before we set off.’

  ‘No, I was doing some more testing and I had a question about your last logs, but it’ll keep ‘til tomorrow. Enjoy Sharjah.’

  Leo was about to put the phone away when it rang in his hand. ‘Hi, Leo, it’s Tom. I’m just about to leave for JFK. How’s everything going over there? Still on target?’

  Leo thought for a moment before replying. He now had a dilemma on his hands. His boss was asking how things were; he couldn’t pretend everything was hunky-dory after what he’d discovered that morning, he had to say something, but carefully.

  ‘Everything’s going well on the testing of the upgrades. I’ve had one hundred per cent results on all my test networks, so unless something unexpected happens we’ll probably beat the deadline for the Shanghai delivery.’

  ‘Terrific, that’s great news.’ Tom was a shrewd man and sensed some reserve in Leo’s voice. ‘Is there anything unexpected that could happen, anything you can think of ?’

  Leo hesitated, then decided to phrase his concerns in the form of a question. ‘Do you by any chance know what the function of cell S470C887,999 is?’

  ‘You’re
asking me if I know the function of one of the billion cells on the card? I haven’t got a clue. Why do you want to know? What’s special about that cell?’

  ‘It’s probably nothing, but that component seems to be giving me some problems. I just thought it might have some special significance that you’d know about.’

  ‘I’ll note it down and ask Shen when I meet him at the airport. He’s bound to know, if anyone does. What was the ID again?’

  Leo repeated the number slowly. ‘How did things go in the Big Apple?’

  ‘Some great business coming along. They’re excited about Mark VII and ACRE. We’ll brief you tomorrow. Gotta run now. Cheers.’

  ‘Cheers Tom. Travel safely.’ Leo closed the phone and sat back in his chair. He felt better, he’d told Tom, so now it was his problem. Both teams were running the tests prepared for them by Sharif and Ed the previous day, and there was not a lot he could do before the Pakistani returned. He walked along to Ed’s office to invite him for lunch at the Corner House. He said nothing about the strange cell. It was sunny and hot, and sunbathers were lounging on the beach, soaking up the rays without a care in the world. They ordered a couple of beers and chilled out for a while.

  London, England

  ‘Sounds like you’ve worked out a theory around this. Want to tell me what it is?’ Hugh Middleton and Ilona Tymoshenko were on the encrypted line with General Chillicott.

  ‘Ilona will explain. She’s done all the research, a quite remarkable exhibition of lateral thinking.’

  The woman looked at him in amazement. He never pays compliments. What’s going on? She rallied her thoughts. ‘We have two possible theories, involving either Daniel Oberhart or Shen Fu Liáng, both senior officers of XPC.’

  First, she outlined the connection between Oberhart’s family, MicroCentral, Hai-Sat the Chinese hedge fund and the possibility of sabotage to prevent the launch of XPC’s new encryption technology.

  Chillicott’s response was succinct. ‘I don’t buy it. The sabotage motive for the murder of a genius programmer could hold water if they’re desperate to avoid the new product launch, but the rest doesn’t hang together. You really think a Swiss company owned by a Chinese hedge fund could be involved with a Russian agent, offshore company subterfuge and ownership of a Chinese microprocessor company in Dubai? It’s just one of those peculiar coincidences that happen. It doesn’t connect with what we’ve discovered to date.’

  ‘Our opinion is that you’re probably correct, Billy, but we’re attempting to evaluate all possibilities with all the evidence available. Please continue with our theory about Liáng, Ilona.’

  ‘Very well. First of all, General, it’s the timing. From your side we’ve learned that Tsunami became active five years ago, including setting up well-hidden companies for the acquisition of Lee-Win for reasons which aren’t clear. And from our side, we know that Shen Fu Liáng left his job with GRU and started with Lee-Win, also five years ago. Then there’s an empty six-month time slot in Liáng’s history just before that which we can’t explain. The Dubai facility took eighteen months to build and was opened two and a half years ago. The decision making, planning and approvals must have taken at least a year, which means it was probably conceived at about the same time, five years ago.’

  Following Middleton’s instructions, Ilona omitted to mention the suspicious deaths of Liáng’s Chinese family in September 2012, and the probability that he had inherited a substantial fortune.

  She went on, ‘Then there are the unusual facts around ownership and management. XPC is owned by Lee-Win Micro-Technology in China, but after the death of Chongkun, his family sold the business in 2012. The current ownership of that company is a mystery and Tsunami is somehow involved with that. And Liáng was sent down from Shanghai to be their man on the ground in their new microprocessor design business in Dubai, even though he’s not a computer technician. He was with Lee-Win for only two years before going down to Dubai, but for eight years before that, he was trained with the GRU in Moscow and Washington as what you would call a “spook”. So why was he appointed as an Executive VP in XPC?’

  Ilona looked at Middleton, who nodded his head. She took a deep breath and said, ‘Our theory is that there may be a connection between Tsunami and Liáng, and they are involved in some kind of conspiracy in XPC through Lee-Win. Maybe the two of them were introduced or met in some way during that “lost” six-month period, and they’ve been working together for the last five years since then.’

  ‘Doing what?’ Chillicott’s reaction was that this was a wild goose chase. There was no proof that Tsunami and Liáng had ever met, never mind worked together.

  Middleton intervened. ‘We think there may be a potential source of information to provide the answer to that question, Billy.’

  Chillicott suddenly understood the reason for the call. ‘Leo Stewart?’ he said.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  Thursday, 8 July 2017

  Leo decided to take the rest of the day off. Sharif wasn’t there, the teams were doing their testing, he’d advised Tom of his concern and he’d worked almost every single day since he got to Dubai. He was due a break.

  ‘What about chilling out on Palm Jumeirah?’ he asked Ed. ‘We should see it once at least.’

  An hour later, they were riding along the ‘trunk’ of the artificial island, shaped like a seventeen-fronded palm tree, which had taken ten years to create. The broad avenue was lined with luxury hotels, restaurants and shopping malls, many of them still under construction, not a patch of sand in sight.

  Leo was looking around and up, mainly up. ‘Have you ever seen so many half-built skyscrapers in your entire life? We’re on an artificial island in the Persian Gulf and it’s like being in Manhattan or Vegas. What a downer.’

  ‘I’ve never been to Vegas, but it’s not exactly Crosby Beach in Merseyside,’ laughed the Liverpudlian. ‘Probably can’t get decent fish and chips.’

  The leaflet they’d been given about the island gave some impressive numbers: 3 billion cubic feet of sand dredged from the sea floor, 7 million tons of mountain rock to form the seven-mile crescent-shaped breakwater, a six-lane undersea tunnel connecting the island to the beaches on the crescent, and the Middle East’s first monorail running the length of the island. Less impressive was the estimate of a square mile of coral killed in the Persian Gulf, although the developers had apparently dropped two American fighter jets on the sea floor to create new reefs. The second and third islands were still on the drawing board and no one was sure whether the project would ever be completed.

  They rode the Harley to one of the beach hotels and spent a lazy afternoon admiring the bikini-clad girls posing around them. Leo was chilling out and feeling more relaxed than he had for a while. He realised that meeting the July 31st deadline had become an all-consuming passion with him, and now he knew they could make it, it was like a massive weight lifted from his shoulders. Ed was good company and they swapped stories and made the most of their day off.

  It was seven in the evening by the time he dropped Ed off at his apartment and continued to the XPC building on his bike. He worked up a sweat in the gym with an hour of kicking and punching to keep his hands and feet hard, then went home to prepare for tomorrow’s meeting and do the things he’d been neglecting lately, like sending emails to his family and listening to his favourite music.

  His mobile rang as he let himself into the apartment. ‘Hi Leo, it’s Angela.’

  ‘Oh. Hi there.’

  After their last encounter he wasn’t sure what to expect, and was surprised when she went on, ‘Listen, I’m really sorry about the other night. I’d had some bad news from home and I wasn’t fit company for anyone, especially not you. Can you please forgive me and let’s try again?’

  At the sound of her contrite tone he felt himself relenting. Maybe I was too hard on her, everyone has a bad day from time to time. ‘What did you have in mind?’ he asked.


  ‘How about calling in at 27 for a drink? We can chat a while, then see what we feel like?’

  ‘Sounds cool. See you there at ten?’

  ‘Great, can’t wait to see you again.’

  Leo prepared an agenda for the next morning’s meeting and sent it from his mobile to Tom and the others. When he got to the club, Angela was waiting at the bar, and she jumped up to kiss him when he came over. She was wearing a white cotton shift with a black and gold thread running through it that almost reached her knees. Her coffee-coloured skin shone under the dim club lights. She looked stunning and he felt great.

  At eleven-thirty, Angela said, ‘I’ve had enough of this for tonight. Let’s go back to my place.’

  She clung to him on the bike, arms around his chest, her hands grasping his shirt. After a moment, she undid the buttons and held his bare chest, her fingernails digging deep into his skin. Again, the ride didn’t take long enough for his liking.

  Her third-floor flat in Dubai Marina was miniscule compared to his, but furnished in a comfortable way with giant cushions and colourful wraps on the floor and a couch in the living room. A big table lamp of painted porcelain threw a soft light over the room. She went to the kitchenette to get him a beer and he spotted a Jenson record player on the dresser. Adele’s 25 was on the turntable and he switched it on again.

  ‘Feeling romantic, are you?’ She clinked her glass against his. ‘Here’s to us.’

  ‘You made me feel romantic the first time I saw you.’

  She put their glasses aside and pulled him to her, kissing his face and lips. He responded, their tongues intertwining in a passionate kiss.

  ‘Wait,’ she pushed him away. ‘I’ve got something for you, to show how sorry I am about Tuesday.’ She took off the Adele disc and put on ‘Stairway to Heaven’, then switched the lamp off and went into her bedroom. After a moment, she emerged again, her body silhouetted by the light behind her. ‘Here’s your stairway to heaven,’ she said. Angela pushed aside the straps of the cotton shift and it fell to the floor, exposing her small, high breasts, the nipples aroused, and her shaved pubes. Leo felt the blood rush to his penis. She came over to him and pulled him to his feet. ‘Come here,’ leading him into the bedroom.