When they were done and exhausted, and trying to catch their breath, David asked her if she could now deliver her judgment. Ramona pondered the question for a few moments and said that she would need another sample for that and rolled over to closely examine the member in question, turning it fondly in her hand and tasting it until it transformed in size and texture and was ready for action. This time David was more patient and willing to play along with her fantasies pretending to be a lecherous stranger robbing the innocence of a pure Catholic maiden. Ramona barely suppressed her screams of joy and finally collapsed on his chest and with a large smile said that he was wrong — for her it worked better than any organ she had encountered before, especially with older men. David seized the opening and asked her if Professor Modena was one of those men but she evaded the question by saying that it was irrelevant as he was now in Padova. She then realized that she had let this piece of information slip and tried to cover this up by starting to stroke him again. David was so pleased with the lead to the whereabouts of Modena that he pretended not to notice anything and willingly played along with Ramona. This time they were both already fully satiated and did their best to pleasure each other gently before falling asleep with their limbs entwined.
David gave his report to the Deputy Director and Gabi, head of the Mossad team in charge of following up on the gamma sources and potential improvised nuclear device. They now had a substantial lead and discussed the strategic options for tracking Modena in Padova. Working in a foreign country, even a friendly one like Italy, always involved risks for Mossad agents, as they had learned the hard way time and again in operations that were exposed in Norway, Switzerland, Cyprus and New Zealand to mention a few examples. They debated the pros and cons of updating the international task force in Vienna about this and also discussed sharing the information with the Italian government. Shimony said that due to the potential risk of an international scandal the decision would have to be made by the Prime Minister and that he would update the director of Mossad and request a private audience with the PM.
They then called in the head of the Italian desk and his boss, the head of Mossad's international relations, and asked for a detailed description of the assets that would be available for finding Professor Modena and the rogue British scientist, Dr. Smalley, in Padova, if indeed they were together. The head of the Italian desk told them that Padova itself had slightly more than 200,000 residents but it served as a center for the surrounding area with a total population of over 1.5 million. Going about it with brute force would be like finding a needle in a haystack. There were about 75 hotels in the area, a manageable number for a door to door search, but he said that for a long term operation involving a workforce of a dozen or so people, it would be more likely that they would rent an apartment or two. Carrying out a search for rentals of this sort would be feasible but he believed that they were more likely to rent a large villa in the area surrounding Padova, with enough grounds to establish a laboratory of the type required for producing U-233. He suggested that they focus on this target area and screen all recent, long term rentals of such villas, and also look for large purchases of food supplies that were delivered to the suspect villas. David alleged that they shouldn't confine themselves to preconceptions and must also look for any newly registered companies in the high-tech part of the area.
After the larger meeting David and the Deputy Director privately discussed the actions that should be implemented after the laboratory and personnel were located. Eliminating the people involved and the laboratory would not suffice as they needed to discover the intended target of the device as well as the people, or organizations that had initiated the project in the first place. This meant that some of the key personnel had to be captured alive and interrogated. If the Italian government was not privy to the plan this act of kidnapping would have to be done discretely, preferably without crossing international borders and raising an alarm. Alternatively, they could smuggle Modena and Smalley out of Italy by plane or ship and bring them to Israel for an active interrogation. Based on previous experience, exposing this, even after the fact, could cause a major diplomatic furor. So this option too had to be presented to the Prime Minister.
Chapter 7
Ollie returned to Padova to monitor the progress of Astraea project. The last six weeks had been very productive and the accumulated amount of U-233 had reached 12 kg. In addition Dr. Jay had manufactured a model of the device that included the arrangement of the special explosives around a core consisting of metallic natural uranium that had been machined to the dimensions of the real device simulating the real core that would consist of U-233. Modena told Ollie that some of the workforce members were getting restless after so many months of being practically confined to the warehouse and its immediate neighborhood and Ollie responded that in view of the progress they could close down the laboratory for a week, starting on Monday, and let everybody take a short vacation. He then gathered all the employees and told them that he was pleased with the progress made and they all deserved a well-earned break. He then gave each a cash bonus and warned them to keep their mouths shut and not disclose or even discuss the location of the lab and the activity taking place in it. He suggested that they pair up and not go individually so that they could supervise and look after each other and keep out of trouble.
Ollie had received word from Paul Dooley, hand delivered by courier, that he felt that his phone was tapped and his computer and e-mail were scrutinized. In the note he referred to the meeting with Dr. Jay as the event that may have set off this enhanced surveillance. Dooley also said that he was now staying clear of any activity that may connect him with Dr. Jay, Ollie or with other European nationalist movements, but would continue his usual meetings with the BNSP, as he feared that an abrupt change of his normal routine would also look suspicious. Ollie realized that time was getting short and that the authorities in the UK, and possibly also in other countries, were getting suspicious.
The Mossad agents were frustrated after two weeks of looking for long term apartment rentals in Padova and at villas in the surrounding area. They had found nothing that looked like the clandestine laboratory they were seeking, although they did find two farms in which illegal activities, such as growing marijuana and distilling contraband whiskey took place, but refrained from informing the Italian authorities about these. They carried photos of Modena and Jay in their cell phones but did not show them around in order not to raise the suspicion of the locals. One of the agents managed to bribe an employee at city hall and get a list of all the newly registered chemical firms. He started checking them moving from the periphery to the center, but had not yet covered all of them. One of the last on the list was called Astraea and was located in a busy area near the Botanical Gardens. When he arrived there he found a large warehouse with a notice pasted on the front door saying that the place was closed down for a week and would reopen on the following Monday. The place did not look like a clandestine laboratory but like a legitimate business. Nevertheless, he decided to return the following week and take another look.