Local time – 10:15am, Sunday 17th June, 2011.
Over Turkey.
‘Found anything useful?’ Henry asked. He seemed ready to be warm and charming again. Alex had skim read only about 100 of the 1,000 pages in Bernie’s Conspiracy Bible, and was already giving up hope of spotting a clue.
‘The problem is, I don’t know what’s useful and what’s not,’ she replied. He sat next to her, in the seat recently vacated by Josh, who had joined Phil in the cockpit.
‘Do you want me to take over looking? Maybe my fresh eyes will help.’
‘No, I think if anyone’s going to find something, it’s me. I knew Bernie best. I know how he thinks.’
‘Why would he have left something in here that could lead people to his secret?’
Alex stared at Henry and tried not to get lost in his eyes. He had emerged from his quiet time with a new found determination and magnetism. But this time she was determined to keep a professional distance.
‘I’ve been wondering that myself. It’s possible it was the only way to keep the secret from being lost. Spies are trained to be paranoid. He knew the information would need to outlive him.’
Henry nodded gravely. ‘Maybe he told his contact at MI6 where it was hidden. They betrayed him once; it’s likely they also told the Bilderbergers about the iPad.’
‘Yes. The location, but not the secret. There’s got to be something in here. Something really important to finding the weapon.’
‘I’m guessing it’s not as simple as an address?’
Alex bristled. She had been carefully skimming the text for any signs of an address, anything that looked remotely like a location in Pakistan. But there was nothing. And it seemed far too obvious to think it was so simple. Bernie was smarter than that. He would have been much more careful.
‘You used to be a spy. If you knew the location of a hidden nuclear weapon, how would you keep it hidden in an iPad?’
‘Obviously it would be encrypted. And someone else would know how to break the encryption. Someone I trusted.’ Alex noticed Henry add a slight emphasis to the word ‘trusted’. Her chest tightened.
‘You think he told me something, don’t you. You think I was given the iPad and the information on how to use it!’
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘You didn’t have to. It’s obvious that’s what you think! And Phil! Why wouldn’t I just say if I could help! Laura gave me the iPad as an after thought! It wasn’t even Bernie.’
‘It’s OK, I believe you. I’m just trying to help.’ Henry held up his hands defensively. Alex regretted her outburst, and the icy feeling it left between them.
‘I’m not getting anywhere. It wouldn’t hurt for you to have a look.’ She handed him the iPad and he sat back in his seat and stared at it. The Conspiracy Bible was still open, so he flicked his finger up and down the screen, scrolling through the mass of words and headings.
‘Why are you focussing on this document? Does it look like it’s got clues in it?’
‘No, it doesn’t seem to be anything except what I thought it was… Bernie’s notes. The only reason I’m focussing on it is because it’s the only thing on there. Apart from Safari and the Mail App.’ Henry seemed to know his way around the iPad, and clicked back to the home page. Then he flicked the home page right and Alex recognised the black search page. Henry typed in the most obvious search first and looked as surprised as Alex when a result appeared. The word ‘Pakistan’ brought up one document.
‘Where is that! I couldn’t see any documents on there!’
Henry looked puzzled.
‘This is strange. There’s a document that’s shown up with the word Pakistan in it. It looks to be a Pdf. But it’s hidden.’
‘I didn’t realise you could hide files on the iPad. I would never have thought Bernie knew that either!’ Alex exclaimed. She recalled Bernie’s reluctance to use the iPad for anything but reading. He was always proclaiming a hatred for technology, referring to it as, “newfangled rubbish”. Alex had taken control of searching the iPad because she knew Bernie best. But she kicked herself now. I knew Bernie the journalist, not Bernie the spy. She watched Henry as his look of puzzlement turned slowly to disappointment.
‘It’s hidden because it’s encrypted. He’s used the mSecure app to password protect it.’
‘What does that mean? We can’t read it unless we know his password?’
‘Yep. And this app destroys the contents of the file if you get the password wrong five times.’ He turned to her and forced a smile. ‘You knew him best. Got any ideas?’