June 12th, Palma de Mallorca and London
The Spanish police received an anonymous call telling them that a British tourist was involved in an international plot to detonate an explosive radiation dispersion device in Barcelona. The tip off originated from a public phone in the heart of the City of London and the caller had an upper class English accent. At about the same time a similar call was placed to MI6 public relations department informing them that a UK citizen was about to be arrested in Palma for planning to use an RDD to disrupt normal life in London. The person in question was Dr. Jay Smalley a former employee of the Aldermaston Weapon Establishment (ARE). The information was forwarded to Colin Thomas who immediately got the Foreign Office to demand that Dr. Jay Smalley be extradited to the UK for crimes committed on British soil, including treason and violation of the Official Secrets Act 1989.
The Spanish police had no difficulty in locating Dr. Smalley and arresting him as he was too intoxicated to resist or even understand the charges against him. Before he sobered up he was already on a plane to London under heavy guard. When confronted by Thomas he was shocked to hear that the man he knew as Ollie was a convert to Islam and not the racist, rabid hater of Muslims and foreigners, as he had presented himself. Jay broke down and confessed all, except the connection with Dooley whom he believed remained his only ally. He felt that he had been led on by Ollie and played as a fool by him and sought revenge so he told Thomas all about the laboratory in Padova. Thomas already knew about the laboratory, and about the professor and the device, but wanted to get more details concerning the device from the very person who had manufactured it.
Dr. Jay described the device and mentioned all the difficulties and potential pitfalls. He said the core of the improvised nuclear device consisted of a sphere containing about 12 kg of U-233 metal. The core was completely surrounded by an array of shaped high explosive charges. The explosives were provided by Ollie who said they were purchased from a North Korean official who also supplied them with fast detonators of the type used in nuclear devices. Each shaped charge had a small slot drilled into it to provide a hole into which the detonators were to be inserted. All the detonators were wired to the timing mechanism. Smalley proudly told Thomas that it was designed by him based on his experience in AWE, in a way that would assure simultaneous activation of all the detonators. He explained that the detonation of the high explosives would compress the U-233 core to a supercritical configuration, just like the implosion bomb developed by the US during WWII. The whole system weighed a few hundred kilograms and was packed in a thin steel shell with inserts for the detonators. He also explained that a standard car battery powered the whole device and an alarm clock would be used to trigger the device. Thomas asked how the device was armed and Smalley said that the detonators had to be inserted in the slots, connected to the timing mechanism and the battery and could be dismantled by simply disconnecting the battery. Thomas then asked whether there were any health hazards and Smalley laughed and said that no one would feel comfortable sitting next to a few hundred kilograms of high explosives or if the device fell on someone's foot it could be painful. Thomas was not amused by this answer and asked if there was any radiation emitted from the U-233 core and Smalley replied that there was a slow build-up of decay products from the U-232 impurity, and particularly one of those, thallium-208 had a nasty energetic gamma ray that easily penetrated through the layer of high explosives and thin steel shell. This radiation could be detected from a distance of a few meters. He also added that during the production of the U-233, the workers at the Padova laboratory would have been exposed to gamma radiation and the longer they worked with the material the higher the risk. He stated that he had noticed some symptoms of radiation sickness in Professor Modena's behavior but thought that the other workers would not be at a serious risk because of the short duration of the project.
Thomas thanked him for the information and said that his cooperation might help reduce his prison sentence or at least allow him to get better treatment in jail. Smalley said that he would like to know what happened to Ollie and wished him to burn slowly in hell. Thomas then conveyed all the information provided by Jay to the members of the international task force and mentioned that it corroborated the information given by Stavros under duress.
June 12th, Haifa
The Panamax class cargo ship from Limassol arrived at the port of Haifa with 3,568 containers on board. The unloading was routinely executed and the ship was quickly ready to take on a new load of containers with goods exported from Israel. All the offloaded containers were placed in the port's holding area until custom officials examined their documents and cleared them. Since the radiation detectors were closed down for periodic maintenance, once the containers cleared customs they were loaded on trucks and transferred by land to their destinations without any further checks.
The container marked as "agricultural machinery" was placed on a truck and transported to the Khodori Institute in Tulkarm. Crossing over from Israel into the territory of the Palestinian Authority involved a long delay at both checkpoints but no special examinations of the container's content were carried out. Dr. Anwar El-Alami, the dean of research at the school, had been told that a container with agricultural machinery would be delivered to the institute but he was not to open it until the technician whose job was to install the equipment arrived. El-Alami was not used to having containers delivered to his poorly equipped school and was even more surprised by the directive not to open it. He inspected the container and saw that it was closed with a stamped, tamperproof seal, so had no option but to abide by his orders. He tried to enquire from the driver when the technician was expected but the driver said that he did not have any information. He then looked through the shipping documents and saw that Rijeka was the port of origin and the container had been transferred from one ship to another in Bari, Italy and again in Limassol, Cyprus, before reaching Haifa. He went back into his office and tried to locate Rijeka on the map and found that it was in Croatia but that did not give him a clue about the contents of the container.
Chapter 13
June 14th, Jerusalem
Ollie was pleased that the tour group had reached Jerusalem after two days in the Tel Aviv area and two days in the Galilee. In Tel Aviv he felt the pulse of this vibrant city, where traffic near the promenade along the beach at 2 am was almost as busy as in the middle of the day. The cafés, restaurants and beaches were full of people laughing, singing and having a good time. The beaches were crowded from morning to night and he saw the so many good looking girls of all ages wherever he cast his sight that he started to imagine the 72 virgins awaiting the faithful who died as Shahids, only he wasn't quite sure whether there were that many virgins among the beach goers. The group was taken to old Jaffa to get a taste of the night life, quite unexpected for a pilgrimage tour of the Holy Land.
His tried to chill his relationship with Lena once they settled in their hotel room since he didn't need the cover of a lover anymore. But Lena would not let this handsome man slip away so easily and to avoid having a big public row that would raise the suspicion of the rest of the group he had to play along. He particularly detested spending the nights in their king sized bed as he quickly found out that below her plain surface she had a voracious sexual appetite that had probably not been satisfied too often. Her looks belied the fact that she was very playful and inventive in bed. Ollie thought about the wild times he had spent with Agda and tried to blow off steam and vent his anger and frustration with Lena the same way, but she would have none of that rough business in bed. When he tried slapping her gently, as he had done with Agda, she turned red and became so indignant that she threatened to go to the police. So Ollie accepted this unexpected form of punishment and after the second night started to enjoy her enthusiasm in love making. He recalled a saying of one of his friends from the days at Uppsala University about plain looking and even ugly and fat women. The friend had said that they were so grateful to whoever
slept with them that they were willing to do anything and everything to please their mate. Lena's behavior provided good testimony of this – for a kiss, a hug or a smile from him, not to mention more passionate contact, she was ready to practically become his slave and worship him. Ollie thought that this could become useful for carrying out his future plans and meanwhile made the most of her eagerness and fervor in bed.
In the morning he told Lena that he wanted to wander around the Old City on his own, without being forced to follow a guide leading the group like a flock of sheep. Lena offered to join him and he agreed knowing that her presence would help him blend in with the many tourists that visited the city. He collected a tourist map of the Old City from the hotel's front desk and got some advice and instructions from the concierge. So Ollie and Lena set off on their own and walked down the narrow streets that led from the Jaffa Gate towards the center of the Old City. The narrow streets were just one large colorful open market and after a few hundred meters they left the busy bazaar and veered toward the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They stood in line with the other tourists waiting to enter the crowded church. Lena, who was wearing a short sleeved top and short pants that did not flatter her figure, had to cover herself with a scarf they purchased from one of the many vendors outside the church. Ollie was more interested in the security in the city and particularly near the church than in the church itself and kept looking around. Lena was impressed by the fact that the church was divided between several different Christian sects: the Greek Orthodox, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and Roman Catholics who all jealously watched over their part of the church. Fortunately, the Anglicans and other protestant groups believed that the true burial place of Jesus was in the Garden Tomb outside the walls of the Old City so they posted no claims in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. From the cool church they returned to the hot narrow bazaar streets and followed the crowds of tourists to the Wailing Wall, or Western Wall, the most sacred place to the Jews. The open space in front of the Wall which was separated into two segregated parts – one for men and one for women was crammed full of people. While some were busy praying near the Wall, many other tourists stood a little further away and concentrated on taking photographs of the Wall and colorful worshippers. There were many police and soldiers among these onlookers. Lena was impressed by the size of the stones at the bottom of the wall and wondered how they were carved to exactly fit each other more than two thousand years ago and admired the Dome of the Rock Shrine with its glittering golden roof located on top of the Temple Mount, considered the third most holy site for Islam, while Ollie gazed at the security measures. Lena and Ollie entered the large open space near the Dome of the Rock but as non-Muslims were not allowed to enter the mosque during prayers. Ollie had to accept this since in front of Lena he could not admit that he was a devout Muslim. Israeli soldiers and police forces were stationed at the entrance to Temple Mount but not in the space between al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Ollie had heard that they only entered this area if the Muslim worshippers started throwing stones and rocks at the Jewish worshippers down below.
This tour of the Old City alarmed Ollie and rattled him, since he realized that it would be impossible to drive a large truck with the container into the heart of the city. The narrow streets were not passable for vehicles that were large enough to carry a container, so Ollie knew he had to have the device transferred to a smaller vehicle, which would not be easy considering its weight and size, and disguising it would be a real challenge. He told Lena he wanted to walk back to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from the Lions Gate that was near Temple Mount – following part of Via Dolorosa in the footsteps of Jesus. He was more interested in the width of the streets than in the 14 stations on Via Dolorosa, but Lena was impressed by his sudden burst of religious zeal. The two ISA agents had followed Ollie and Lena the whole time keeping a safe distance from the couple and in the bustling crowd were not noticed by Ollie.
In the evening Lena and Ollie joined the group for dinner and their guide promised them a special treat – walking on the ancient walls of the Old City at night and seeing all the holy places illuminated by special lighting. After the tour of the walls Ollie went to one of the few remaining public phone booths, which were hard to find in a country that had more cellular phones than residents, and called the private number of the shipping agent in Rijeka and learned that the container had already been delivered safely to the agricultural institute in Tulkarm. He then placed another call to a randomly selected number in the Tel Aviv area and hung up.
The two ISA agents who had been trailing Ollie since his arrival in Tel Aviv were a bit surprised when he left the group and wondered around the Old City with Lena during the day. They did not see anything unusual in the fact that he had visited the holy places of Christianity, Judaism and Islam and did not suspect that he had been planning how to place a bomb amidst the Old City. So far he had behaved like a typical tourist and the signal from the tracking device planted in his passport was strong and continuous. The agents followed him to the phone booth and entered it as soon as he left and then redialed the last number. The call was answered by an old woman who sounded confused when they asked her who had just called and she said that she didn't know as the caller hung up without speaking. They recognized this simple ploy immediately and called the telephone company. After speaking to the shift supervisor the agents got the list of numbers that had been called from that booth and by the timestamp identified the number in Croatia that Ollie had called. A quick search revealed that it belonged to shipping agent. They passed the information to the ISA headquarters who forwarded it to Shimony at the Mossad. Shimony decided to send the resident from Zagreb to interrogate the shipping agent and called him instantly with instructions to find the man and discover everything about his connections with Ollie, and especially whether he had made a shipment of a container and its destination.
June 15th, Jerusalem
Ollie told Lena that he had called his mother from the phone booth the previous day and that due to an emergency situation involving his aging mother in Sweden he had to depart immediately. When he started packing his bag, Lena burst out crying and pleaded with him to stay another couple of days and return to Gothenburg with the group but he insisted that he had to leave right away and promised her he would get in touch with her in Sweden as soon as his mother's health improved. He then asked her to inform the group's guide about his plans and left 50 Euro as a tip for the guide.
Ollie made his way to the main bus station just outside the walls of the Old City that catered to the East Jerusalem Arab population and in English asked at the information counter how he could get to Umm al-Fahm. A fast exchange in Arabic took place between the man at the counter and a taxi driver and since Ollie had spent enough time in the Middle East with the ISIS forces and understood Arabic he knew they were planning on charging him double the regular exorbitant rate. He said something quite rude about cheating tourists so once they realized he spoke Arabic they managed to negotiate a price that was only slightly over the normal rate. He then got into the taxi and told the driver in English to make it fast. The two hour trip was uneventful as the taxi had the Israeli orange colored license plates and was not stopped by any police or military roadblock. When they reached Umm al-Fahm Ollie asked the driver to drop him off at the central mosque, tipped him generously and to the driver's surprise entered the mosque as if he belonged there and not like a Christian tourist.
The few worshippers who were in the mosque suspiciously eyed the tall blond man, and when he asked in English to see Sheik Khalil he was ignored and no one responded. Ollie switched to Arabic and that only increased their distrust as they had all encountered ISA agents who spoke the language. So Ollie got down on his knees and prayed – an act they had also seen done by ISA agents posing as true believers. Ollie tried to restrain himself but under his breath he let out a scandalous curse in Iraqi accented Arabic and only then did one of people in the mosque get up
and tell Ollie to follow him. The man led Ollie to a house that was right next to the mosque, told Ollie to wait outside and entered the house after knocking five times on the door. He reappeared after a couple of minutes and invited Ollie to enter. He escorted Ollie into the living room where a young man was sitting at a bare table sipping dark black coffee from a small decorative glass. The young man introduced himself as Sheik Khalil, the sheik of the Umm al-Fahm mosque and head of the radical (he used the word "true") Islamic movement in the north. Ollie stated that he brought a message from the brave brethren in Syria and clearly pronounced the code words "al Tahrir al Islami". Sheik Khalil asked Ollie's escort to leave the room, invited Ollie to sit down and offered him coffee which Ollie gratefully accepted.
Sheik Khalil asked about the holy warriors of ISIS and Ollie told him that despite the fact that many good brothers had been killed fighting for the cause of the new Caliphate many volunteers flocked to the organization to fill the place of those lost in battle. Ollie said that the new Supreme Commander Abu-Alli was especially pleased with the young men and women who came from Western European countries who had come to receive military training, ideological indoctrination and religious fervor and experience fighting for ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Those who survived and excelled in their work for Allah would then return to their home countries and either act on their own instilling terror in the hearts of the Kafirs or lay low until called upon to carry out special operations. He mentioned as examples the acts that were carried out by El Qaida trained fighters in Madrid, London, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen and the United States and said that in the future each of these would be regarded as a promo for the real thing – the globally coordinated actions carried out on behalf of ISIS. Sheik Khalil was duly impressed but asked what ISIS was doing to forward the cause of the Palestinians and Ollie explained that the Palestinian were just the tip of the iceberg and there was a plan for an operation on such an immense scale that would free all Muslims, including the Palestinians, from the infidels forever. Those that accepted the true faith would be allowed to live and those who refused would be summarily eliminated.
The Dreadful Alchemist: A Thrilling Espionage Novel (Techno thriller, Mystery & Suspense Book 1) Page 18