They left the hotel and drove to the restaurant that was located in a central plaza near the meeting venue. Both of them were famished and ordered a large plate of the traditional Wiener Schnitzel, made from veal, of course, with Sachertorte for dessert. They then walked across the plaza to the café and sat down in a small booth in which Eugene and Vassilly were already having a Vienna lager. After an introduction made using first names only, Orna asked for a glass of white wine while David joined the men for beer. Eugene went through the story of how he had come to suspect that the increase in the number of missing gamma sources was not a coincidence and that his report was dismissed by his department head and by the Secretary General himself. He also explained that when he was ordered to stop his investigation he became slightly paranoid and that was why he contacted the Israeli delegation. Vassilly then said that Federal Security Bureau of Russia, too, was not very concerned about this, while he personally agreed with Eugene that there was more than meets the eye. David was impressed by their frankness and by the fact that they were willing to take a personal risk to continue with the investigation, and decided to share with them his own suspicions about Professor Modena and his research objectives, particularly of producing fissile materials through gamma irradiation of thorium. Vassilly and Eugene remained open-mouthed as he finished his story and for a long time did not utter a sound. After recovering from the inferences of the story, Vassilly asked Eugene if he thought that there was a scientific basis for Modena's idea and both of them were deep in thought as they pondered the issue. David told them that he did not expect an answer immediately but asked them to discretely present this as a theoretical question to the nuclear physics experts in their national laboratories, without disclosing their concerns about an actual attempt to carry out the project. They agreed to meet again the following week to discuss the information they obtained and their findings. Orna was to serve as their contact as they did not want to be overheard talking to a Mossad agent in Israel.
By the time the Eugene and Vassilly parted it was close to midnight but there was so much adrenaline flowing through the veins of Orna and David that they decided to stay a little longer and have a nightcap of schnapps. This was followed by another couple of shots of schnapps that got them even more wound up. As they were too intoxicated to drive and could not find a taxi they slowly walked aimlessly through the quiet streets of Vienna. It was very cold but there was no rain or snow so they huddled closer and continued talking quietly as they strolled along the Danube banks. Orna said that they were very near her apartment and invited David up for a cup of coffee. In Israel when a woman invites her date to "come up for a cup of coffee" then it very seldom just ends after drinking coffee, if coffee is served at all. This time was no different, and, as soon as Orna and David shut the apartment's door behind them, they fell into each other's arms and exchanged a long passionate kiss which enhanced David's impression of her as a fertility goddess. Sleep, certainly sleeping alone, was far from their minds and they found themselves in her comfortable bed seeking warmth and security in each other's body. Orna had not really had a close companion since her divorce and David still remembered Ramona's implied invitation from the previous night that he had declined. Their lovemaking reflected this — both were hungry for human contact so it was over quickly, but after settling down quietly for sleep, they woke up an hour later and very slowly aroused each other until they climaxed almost simultaneously. In the morning they took a taxi that dropped them off near Orna's car. She drove David to his hotel where he checked out without using the bed and they headed back to the airport. David promised Orna that he would be back in Vienna to meet with Eugene and Vassilly after they received feedback from their scientists.
Professor Modena paced to and fro in the basement adjacent to the gamma irradiation chamber. He was quite pleased with the current rate of U-233 production but was worried about the quality of the product. The concentration of the bothersome intensely radioactive U-232 was increasing from batch to batch and was now at a level that posed a safety hazard for the crew that was in charge of separating the uranium product from the feed materials that consisted of a mixture of thorium and beryllium oxides, as well as from the small amount of highly radioactive fission products. Cynically he thought that all the engineers and technicians would become "disposable" once enough fissile material was produced, so he decided not to worry too much about the health and safety of the personnel. On the other hand, what did concern him was that the high radiation would complicate the construction of the improvised nuclear device. He therefore had called Andreas and Ollie for an urgent meeting and was expecting them to arrive at the lab later that afternoon. He deliberated with himself how to present these problems as he knew that their technical and scientific acumen was not sufficient for them to appreciate these fine points. He worried that they would blame him and perhaps even try to replace him by some other physicist or, God forbid, by a chemist or an engineer.
Andreas and Ollie arrived smiling since they had received regular progress reports and were pleased with the amount of U-233 that had already accumulated, but seeing the gaunt look on Modena's face their smiles faded away. The professor tried to explain the problems in simple terms and realizing that Andreas in particular had a hard time understanding, he used a quote attributed to Harold Agnew that was familiar mostly to people involved in nuclear terrorism. "If someone thinks making a plutonium implosion weapon is easy, he is wrong and if someone thinks making an improvised nuclear device using highly enriched uranium is difficult, he is even more wrong". He then gave them an overview of the technical problems of making a plutonium implosion weapon and emphasized that using U-233 for that purpose would be even more difficult as there was much less public information available. The professor explained that though it was possible to produce a primitive "gun type" device which would be similar to the U-235 based "Little Boy" the Americans dropped on Hiroshima, this would require a much larger amount of U-233 and constructing a device of this type would delay their project by at least one year because much more fissile material would be needed. Ollie understood that getting enough fissile material was a prerequisite for making the improvised nuclear device but that additional expertise was required to actually build the device. He told Andreas that they needed to convene another meeting of their supporters, particularly from the countries that had nuclear weapons in order to enlist such an expert. Modena was pleased that he managed to convey the message but his apprehension about his own fate grew when he realized that they would have no use for him once enough fissile material had accumulated. He feared that he would not fare any better than the "disposable" technicians and engineers when they reached that stage and he started planning how to obtain "insurance" against such an event.