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‘It can’t be done,’ Carlyle said. ‘Attacking the water at its source was the first thing we considered and the first thing we dismissed. The logistics are insurmountable. Tas would need a significant and steady supply of toxins. A barrel of acid dumped in the Colorado won’t cut off the water supply to forty million people. That’s not how it works. It would dissipate. The best he could hope for is a small problem. Maybe a day. There’s nothing he can do to cause a mass migration event.’

‘He’s found a way,’ Koenig repeated.

Carlyle was adamant he hadn’t but agreed that Draper should be told anyway. Not all of it, but enough to use her influence on Smerconish. Koenig calling the DIA spook to tell him he was wrong about an attack on HMS Queen Elizabeth would be dismissed. An ex-CIA agent telling him the same thing would be taken more seriously. He hoped.

Koenig briefed her as quickly as he could.

When he’d finished, she said, ‘Would this fulfil the objectives of the Acacia Avenue Protocol?’

Carlyle said, ‘If he’s successful, yes.’

‘ If he’s successful?’

‘I don’t believe it’s possible to poison the water. The best brains in the country studied this from hundreds of angles. Considered every possible scenario.’

‘Underestimating Margaret would be a catastrophic mistake,’ Koenig said. ‘She had access to your data and she had time to think. Time to refine your plans.’

‘I’ll ask Smerconish to re-task some of the surveillance drones he has covering the naval base.’

‘California is the most hydrologically altered land mass on the planet,’ Carlyle said. ‘It gets its water from a limited number of sources. Tell him to start with the Colorado, Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. They all supply California. Lake Mead, obviously. The Mono Basin, maybe.’

Draper scrolled through her contacts, then pressed the green call icon.

‘Sir, we have a problem,’ she said.