Screening accounts for most of the weight.’
‘I thought it would be much bigger,’ said the girl, Jasmine Fawaz. ‘They are in pictures.’
‘The pictures show you the whole thing. This is the warhead – just one section. Each Pluton has four units. The warhead, the guidance package, fuel tank and rocket engine. I used to work on the final assembly. Putting the lot together.’
‘Did you enjoy it, Zeid?’ She looked at him with curious eyes.
‘It was very interesting. I suppose that’s always enjoyableBut I was going to say – about size – when four sections are put together Pluton is seven-and-a-half metres long. All up weight 2350 kilograms. A lot of that is fuel. There were four Plutons in the Byblos consignment. More are coming in other ships.’
‘Fortunate we only needed a warhead,’ she said.
Adel Khoury, a gloomy round-shouldered man, pointed to the grooved locking device in the base of the cone. ‘This is where the detonator is attached. When Kamel is ready we’ll fix it.’ Khoury had taken a degree in physics at the American University in Beirut. Later he’d gone to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and during vacations worked on nuclear reactors with General Electric.
Ka’ed yawned. He’d had virtually no sleep for twenty-four hours. ‘Let’s have a look in the van.’
They followed him over to the Leyland. He opened the loading doors and got in, trailing the lead of an inspection lamp. The others followed, ranging themselves round the stack of Bokharas and Kashans. The carpets were 2.75 X 1.85 m making a solid stack 1.5 m high.
The men rolled back the upper layers to reveal a rectangular cavity in the centre of the stack. Its area was somewhat larger than the area of carpet remaining.
Jasmine Fawaz shivered. To her it looked like a mass grave awaiting coffins. A latticed aluminium frame supported its four walls. In the centre, between the cross bracing, there was another aluminium frame. Ka’ed lifted the top half. ‘It’s shaped to hold the warhead firmly in position once it’s locked down,’ he said.
The girl looked doubtful. ‘Is the bale strong enough with so much of the centre cut out?’
‘Yes.’ He took off his dark glasses, cleaned them with a tissue. ‘The whole bale’s reinforced laterally and transversally with aluminium rods. You can’t see them but they’re there. It’s a very strong structure.’
‘What about weight?’ said Abdu Hussein, thinking what wild eyes Ka’ed had.
‘Much the same as a standard bale of carpets of this size.The volume of material cut out is several times greater than the volume of the warhead. The weight of the warhead plus the aluminium reinforcing is only fifteen per cent more than the weight of the material cut out.’ He replaced the top half of the frame. ‘A tightly-compressed bale of carpets is a heavy item.’
Jasmine said, ‘How many carpets are there?’
‘Eighty-five.’
She shook her head. ‘And we mutilate most of them. How sad.’
‘They cost us nothing.’ Ka’ed shrugged his shoulders. ‘We took them.’
‘Like we take everything.’
He went to the open doors of the pantechnicon. ‘Hey, Zeid,’ he called.
The man at the bench answered, ‘What is it, Mahmoud?’
‘As soon as you and Kamel have finished, bring it across with the fork-lift.’ He turned to Tarik. ‘Got all the baling gear ready?’
‘Yes. Hessian, hooping bands, mechanical bander, marking materials, stencils. All okay.’
‘Good.’ Ka’ed climbed down from the Leyland and joined the man at the work-bench. For some time he watched in silence. At last he said, ‘Nearly finished, Assaf?’
Assaf Kamel did not look up from what he was doing. His eyes were fixed on the tip of the soldering iron from which a whisp of vapour issued. ‘Not long now’, he said. ‘I’m annealing the leads for the timing gear and emergency detonator.’
Ka’ed saw from his watch that it was close to six. The Leyland would take
‘I thought it would be much bigger,’ said the girl, Jasmine Fawaz. ‘They are in pictures.’
‘The pictures show you the whole thing. This is the warhead – just one section. Each Pluton has four units. The warhead, the guidance package, fuel tank and rocket engine. I used to work on the final assembly. Putting the lot together.’
‘Did you enjoy it, Zeid?’ She looked at him with curious eyes.
‘It was very interesting. I suppose that’s always enjoyableBut I was going to say – about size – when four sections are put together Pluton is seven-and-a-half metres long. All up weight 2350 kilograms. A lot of that is fuel. There were four Plutons in the Byblos consignment. More are coming in other ships.’
‘Fortunate we only needed a warhead,’ she said.
Adel Khoury, a gloomy round-shouldered man, pointed to the grooved locking device in the base of the cone. ‘This is where the detonator is attached. When Kamel is ready we’ll fix it.’ Khoury had taken a degree in physics at the American University in Beirut. Later he’d gone to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and during vacations worked on nuclear reactors with General Electric.
Ka’ed yawned. He’d had virtually no sleep for twenty-four hours. ‘Let’s have a look in the van.’
They followed him over to the Leyland. He opened the loading doors and got in, trailing the lead of an inspection lamp. The others followed, ranging themselves round the stack of Bokharas and Kashans. The carpets were 2.75 X 1.85 m making a solid stack 1.5 m high.
The men rolled back the upper layers to reveal a rectangular cavity in the centre of the stack. Its area was somewhat larger than the area of carpet remaining.
Jasmine Fawaz shivered. To her it looked like a mass grave awaiting coffins. A latticed aluminium frame supported its four walls. In the centre, between the cross bracing, there was another aluminium frame. Ka’ed lifted the top half. ‘It’s shaped to hold the warhead firmly in position once it’s locked down,’ he said.
The girl looked doubtful. ‘Is the bale strong enough with so much of the centre cut out?’
‘Yes.’ He took off his dark glasses, cleaned them with a tissue. ‘The whole bale’s reinforced laterally and transversally with aluminium rods. You can’t see them but they’re there. It’s a very strong structure.’
‘What about weight?’ said Abdu Hussein, thinking what wild eyes Ka’ed had.
‘Much the same as a standard bale of carpets of this size.The volume of material cut out is several times greater than the volume of the warhead. The weight of the warhead plus the aluminium reinforcing is only fifteen per cent more than the weight of the material cut out.’ He replaced the top half of the frame. ‘A tightly-compressed bale of carpets is a heavy item.’
Jasmine said, ‘How many carpets are there?’
‘Eighty-five.’
She shook her head. ‘And we mutilate most of them. How sad.’
‘They cost us nothing.’ Ka’ed shrugged his shoulders. ‘We took them.’
‘Like we take everything.’
He went to the open doors of the pantechnicon. ‘Hey, Zeid,’ he called.
The man at the bench answered, ‘What is it, Mahmoud?’
‘As soon as you and Kamel have finished, bring it across with the fork-lift.’ He turned to Tarik. ‘Got all the baling gear ready?’
‘Yes. Hessian, hooping bands, mechanical bander, marking materials, stencils. All okay.’
‘Good.’ Ka’ed climbed down from the Leyland and joined the man at the work-bench. For some time he watched in silence. At last he said, ‘Nearly finished, Assaf?’
Assaf Kamel did not look up from what he was doing. His eyes were fixed on the tip of the soldering iron from which a whisp of vapour issued. ‘Not long now’, he said. ‘I’m annealing the leads for the timing gear and emergency detonator.’
Ka’ed saw from his watch that it was close to six. The Leyland would take
Similar Books
BANKS Maya - Undenied (Samhain).txt
Undenied (Samhain).txt
Winning the Legend
B. Kristin McMichael
Pray for Dawn
Jocelynn Drake
Midnight Sons Volume 1
Debbie Macomber
Return to Winter: Russia, China, and the New Cold War Against America
Douglas E. Schoen, Melik Kaylan
Having Nathan's Baby
Fran Louise
The Romance of Lust Vol.2
Anonymous
Ransom
Julie Garwood