Charles Z. David
The Dreadful Alchemist
About the Author
Charles Z. David is the pen-name of a renowned scientist who worked for the Israel Atomic Energy Commission for over 35 years and has been active in the research and development of advanced analytical chemistry methods. He has also been involved in international affairs as an expert and in this fictional novel brings forth some of his own knowledge of nuclear science as well as a healthy degree of imagination. The plot is so realistic that some of the readers confessed to having sleepless nights in case such a thing could really happen.
"The Dreadful Alchemist" is followed by "The Dreadful Renegade" that was published by Amazon Kindle e-books in December, 2015, and precedes "The Dreadful Patriot" that is due in March, 2016, also by Charles Z. David.
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Prologue
In the chest of every real scientist beats the heart of an alchemist dreaming of converting base metals into gold, but even the wonders of modern technology have not managed to produce gold through transmutation.
The closest resemblance is turning cheap, inexpensive uranium into precious, almost priceless, weapon grade plutonium. To date, this has been carried out only by a small number of states using nuclear reactors and deploying complicated chemical processes to extract the plutonium product. Strict safeguards are implemented to monitor production of fissile materials — plutonium and high enriched uranium — to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The dreadful alchemist has devised a method to transmute thorium into uranium-233, a fissile material that is not closely watched. The process can be carried out in a clandestine facility, readily disguised as regular chemical laboratory. With this material making an atomic bomb is as easy as lighting a fire, a fire that might engulf our entire planet.
Chapter 1
Oscar Gunnar Axelsson, a fine looking man in his late twenties with typical Scandinavian features known to his few old friends simply as Ossi, strolled down the famous Ramblas promenade in Barcelona. The regulars, including pickpockets, con artists and wallet snatchers that made their living off the many gullible tourists, took a fleeting look at the tall blond man and viewed him as a potential victim, but, a second look convinced them that he was far from being a soft touch. Perhaps it was the controlled way he moved his athletic body or the toughness in his weary facial expression, as if he had seen all this before.
Ossi sauntered along the Ramblas enjoying the living statues, the three-card-Monty shysters and the vivacious crowds. Although the tourist season was just beginning, there were large swarms of people bustling in the shaded avenue, eating ice cream, admiring the street vendors with their meager merchandise displayed on a blanket ready to be folded in seconds if the police hassle them. The gathering of people round the street performers provided good opportunities for the pick-pockets with nimble hands and for those working in groups to make sure that the victim was unaware of being robbed in broad daylight.
The instincts of the regulars to avoid Ossi served them well as his outward appearance was in sharp contrast with his real personality. In fact, after obtaining a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Faculty of Science and Technology of Uppsala University, he decided that spending his entire life in an industrial plant or a research laboratory would be boring and looked for more adventurous and challenging things to do.
He was initially drawn to Islam through some of his fellow students and later through a romantic involvement with a beautiful and exotic young girl. After a tragic accident that killed her on their wedding day, he had to leave Sweden in haste and seek refuge from the police in the Middle East. Within a short time he drifted to more and more extreme factions until he became a full-fledged member of the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) movement and excelled in their murderous journey through Iraq and Syria.
He accepted their vision of establishing a new Caliphate — an empire that would encompass a vast area and include present day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, the entire Arabian Peninsula and a broad strip along the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea stretching from Sinai, through Egypt, Libya to Tunisia — and like many converts was a fervent devotee of the Caliphate.
Ossi had recently returned from the battlefront in Syria where he had led a death squad unit in charge of sowing terror into the hearts of the unbelievers and those Muslims considered as not being true-believers. For ISIS, the category of the unbelievers included practically everyone who was not a member of their faction or showed compassion or even hesitation before shooting old men, women and babies who were unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The leader of ISIS had designated Ossi to head the efforts to obtain the ultimate weapon — a nuclear device — that would bring the West and its allies down on their knees and would ensure the removal of the last infidels from the holy territory of the Islamic State and the Arab Nation.
ISIS realized that the fundamentalist Shiite regime in Iran would not supply them with the fissionable material they needed. Even worse, the religious leaders of the Iranian Islamic Republic rightly saw ISIS as a threat to Shiites worldwide and therefore were willing to join forces with the US led coalition against ISIS. The "black market" in smuggled or stolen nuclear materials that thrived after the demise of the Soviet Union had practically seized to exist and offers of nuclear warheads for sale were now considered as no more than a hoax. This forced the ISIS leaders to devise plans to acquire the material through a different route. Arabic looking agents were bound to raise suspicion immediately so the leaders chose to conduct a "false flag" operation with their agents posing as a European ultra-right wing group. Ossi's Aryan looks and his unquestioned dedication to ISIS cause and his proven ruthlessness made him an ideal candidate to lead this effort.
Ossi knew that the best place to hide, and to lose a tail if he was being followed, was in a crowded area and the Ramblas avenue was ideally suited for this purpose. After strolling along the boulevard for several minutes and playing at being a tourist he slipped into the quieter Boqueria Street and made his way to the Travel Bar, famous for serving as the starting point for free walking tours that were led by excellent guides. The tables in the shaded courtyard were almost fully occupied by tourists and a few local young men trying to pick-up unattached female and male tourists.
Ossi found a vacant table and sat down waiting for his contact to arrive. A dark, good-looking young woman asked him in rapid Catalan if the chair next to him was free. Ossi answered in English that he did not understand and the woman asked in slightly accented English whether she could join him as all other seats were taken. Hearing the code phrase "all other seats were taken" he answered with the prearranged "please be seated and I'll buy you a cool drink". She sat down and introduced herself as Ramona and he introduced himself as Ollie, short for Olaf Gunther Andersson, his current cover name, and asked her if she would be his guide in Barcelona. This charade, straight out of a cheap spy novel, was acted out for the sake of anyone sitting nearby and listening to their conversation. After finishing their drinks, Ramona led the way to her car that was parked nearby and drove off without telling him where they were heading. They passed by Catalunya Caixa the square that had been the focal point for many demonstrations, then drove up the beautiful Passeig di Gracia through the modern Eixample quarter and then along the Avenida Diagonal taking a sharp left down Carrer de Berlin into Avenida de Madrid passing by the famous Camp Nuo the home of the Barcelona football and basketball teams and on to the Universidad de Barcelona. Ossi kept glancing at Ramona and was impressed by the practiced way she handled the car and weaved through the traffic and told her so. Ramona shrugged at the compliment and said that this was a prerequisite for survival in the crowded streets of Barcelona.