Snakehead

joined one of our country’s most distinguished regiments—the Household Cavalry—and served in the Falklands and the first Gulf War.
    “Unfortunately, he developed a bone condition that brought an end to his army career. But he was snapped up by intelligence, and for a time he worked for MI6—not Special Operations. He was fairly low-level, gathering and processing information…that sort of thing. Well, eventually he’d had enough of it because one day he disappeared. We know he was active in Thailand and Australia, but there’s no record of his activities, and it was only recently that we were able to identify him as the leader of one of the most powerful snakeheads in the region.”
    Mrs. Jones paused. When she looked up again, her eyes were bleak. “This may put you off, Alex. It may even persuade you to go home—and believe me, I wouldn’t blame you. According to our sources, Major Yu may have contacts with Scorpia. It’s even possible that he’s on the executive board.”
    Scorpia. Alex had hoped he would never hear that name again. And Mrs. Jones was right. If Ethan Brooke had given him that information, he might have thought twice about the whole thing. He wondered if the head of ASIS had known. Almost certainly. But he’d needed Alex, so he’d decided to keep it under his hat.
    “You still haven’t told me why you’re interested in him,” Alex said.
    “That’s top secret.” Mrs. Jones gestured with one hand. “But I’ll tell you anyway. Apart from anything else, it may well be that you’re in a position to help us—assuming that’s something you’d even consider. Anyway, I’ll explain and you can make up your own mind…
    “Have you ever heard of the Daisy Cutter?”
    Alex thought for a moment. “It’s a bomb,” he said. He remembered talking about it once at school, during history. “The Americans used it in Vietnam.”
    “They’ve also used it in Afghanistan,” Mrs. Jones said. “The Daisy Cutter, also known as BLU-82B or the Blue Boy, is the largest conventional bomb in existence. It’s the size of a car…and I mean a Lincoln. Each bomb contains twelve-and-a-half-thousand pounds of ammonium nitrate, aluminum powder, and polystyrene, and it’s powerful enough to destroy an entire building, easily. In fact, it’ll probably take out a whole block.”
    “The Americans used it because it’s terrifying,” Daniels muttered. He was speaking for the first time. “It may not compare to a nuclear bomb, but there’s nothing on the earth like it. The shock wave that it releases is unbelievable. You have no idea how much damage it can do.”
    “They used it in Vietnam to clear landing sites for helicopters,” Mrs. Jones went on. “Drop one on the jungle and you’d have no jungle for half a mile around. They called it the Daisy Cutter because that was the pattern the explosion made. It was used in Afghanistan to scare the Taliban…to show them what they were up against.”
    “What’s this got to do with Major Yu?” Alex asked. He was also wondering, with a sense of growing unease, what it might have to do with him.
    “For the last few years, the British government has been developing a second generation of Daisy Cutters,” Mrs. Jones explained. “They’ve managed to create a similar type of bomb except that it’s a little smaller and it’s more powerful, with an even greater shock wave. They gave it a code name, Royal Blue, and they’d built a prototype at a secret laboratory just outside London.” She took out a peppermint and twisted off the wrapper with a single movement of her thumb and forefinger. “Three weeks ago the prototype was stolen. Eight of our people were killed. Three of them were security guards. The rest were technicians. It was a very professional operation: perfectly timed, ruthlessly executed.” She slid the peppermint between her lips.
    “And you think Major Yu…?”
    “These things aren’t easy to transport, Alex. They need to be transported in a Hercules C-130 transport plane. We lost sight of the bomb, but two days later a C-130 took off with a flight plan that brought it to Bangkok via Albania and Tajikistan. We were able to identify the pilot…his name was Feng. He in turn had been employed by a criminal based here in Bangkok…a man called Anan Sukit…”
    “…and he works for the snakehead!” Alex finished the sentence.
    “He worked for the snakehead,” Mrs. Jones remarked sourly. “Until Daniels put three bullets