The Egyptians, Saudis and the small Gulf states offered no public statements but in private assured the Western nations, and Israel indirectly, that they would not mourn the annihilation of Iran, Iraq and Syria, and certainly would not grieve over the eradication of the Islamic State that they perceived as the most serious threat to their governments.
The European governments called upon all sides to stop the fighting before it became an all-out nuclear conflict that would destroy all civilization and perhaps humanity itself. Thanks to the persistence of the Russian and US governments and the self-control of the Chinese, a full scale World War III was prevented. However, the loss of life in one week from the handful of nuclear weapons that were deployed was comparable to the total number of casualties in the five and a half years of the Second World War.
A new world order was established. The five "official" nuclear powers, who also happened to be the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (in the order of becoming nuclear powers — the US, Russia, the UK, France and China), agreed to reduce the number of nuclear warheads they each kept operational and continue to blend down the weapon grade fissile materials and convert them into fuel for nuclear power plants. All other countries that had demonstrated and tested nuclear weapons were allowed to maintain a single item — to preserve their honor but to prevent them from starting a nuclear war. The terrorist movements, especially those motivated by religious fanaticism, were banned and any governments that gave them asylum or support of any kind, were to be punished by trade and economic sanctions and if that did not stop them then armed intervention by a UN force would be carried out.
The reconstruction of Jerusalem would have to wait a few more years until the level of radioactivity abated to a safe level. Plans for rebuilding the churches, mosques and Jewish temples were discussed in the General Assembly of the United Nations but the funding was not found as the countries in which nuclear weapons were exploded were busy taking care of their own losses. This solved one of the major problems of the Middle East — the question of who would control Jerusalem. Neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority wanted sole responsibility for rebuilding the city so it was divided between the two with each side accountable for reconstructing part of the city that would eventually serve as its own capital.
Chapter 17
If you are still reading this you know that the description of events presented above never occurred, fortunately.
While Ollie and Nasser were busy arming the improvised nuclear device at the deserted building, above them a quiet drone equipped with a receiver tuned to the signal emitted from Ollie's passport detected the encoded signal and started circling around the source while keeping a safe distance. The news excited the people gathered inside the ISA control room and "The Fish" invited David to join him there. They summoned the elite special police unit, known by its Hebrew acronym Yamam, and led the way towards the isolated building where Nasser and Ollie were parked. The trip from Tel Aviv took less than 30 minutes. When they were two kilometers from the source of the signal the Yamam fighters dismounted from their vehicles and continued silently on foot towards the building. David recalled his days as a squad commander in the army's elite unit and joined the fighters, while "The Fish" with another group of Yamam fighters waited on the roadside and maintained their position as a reserve force ready to intervene if things got out of hand. The Yamam squad approached the building but at first, even with their night vision goggles, did not see the Isuzu. David was sure that it was still there as he did not receive any indication that it had been on the move again and asked the squad commander to send two of his men to carefully circle the house and search for the vehicle. As soon as they went to the back of the building they saw the light that Ollie had been using while arming the device. They quietly called their commander and the whole squad took positions surrounding the Isuzu. David saw two human figures standing by the side of the pick-up truck and instructed the squad commander to take them down silently and neutralize them quickly, and, if necessary, to shoot them dead.
Ollie heard the footsteps of the Yamam fighter and managed to depress the instant triggering of the device before he was knocked down by a rubber baton striking his left temple. To his surprise he did not hear the big bang he expected but only a hushed puff. Instead of finding himself vaporized by a nuclear explosion or dismembered by detonation of hundreds of kilograms of conventional high explosives, when he regained consciousness he discovered that he was trussed like a Thanksgiving turkey. Nasser managed to turn around before receiving a similar treatment but there was nothing he could do. After ascertaining that no other terrorists were around David reported that they had secured the pick-up truck. Within a few minutes "The Fish" arrived on the scene along with the radiation detector that showed that strong gamma rays were emitted from the back of the pick-up. The Yamam fighters were ordered to form a secure perimeter at a safe distance of 50 meters from the Isuzu in order to avoid being exposed to the radiation.
David approached the Isuzu and saw the car battery with the connected electrical wires and primitive timer as well as the instant triggering mechanism. He noticed that the timer was set to go off with a delay of two hours and reckoned that the intended target was about one hour's drive away to allow Ollie to get safely out of the range of the explosion. He called Shimony who was in the Mossad's situation room and informed him about the device and timing mechanism and asked for assistance in dismantling the bomb — using the professional term "render safe". Shimony promised that a team of experts would be there within less than 30 minutes and suggested that they try to get information about the device by interrogating Ollie.
Ollie was just regaining consciousness and, realized that his grand project had failed miserably just as it was on the verge of success. He was surprised when David sat down next to him and started talking to him in a friendly tone:
"How do you feel, Ollie? Or should I call you Olaf Gunther Andersson? Or perhaps Oscar Gunnar Axelsson? Or do you prefer your recent name of Andreas Nester Burkhart or the name you used entering Israel, Hugo Elias Jacobsson?"
"My name is Hugo Elias Jacobsson. I don't know what you are talking about and why you invented all these names. I am just an innocent tourist from Sweden and I insist you call the Swedish embassy."
"What were you doing here, in the middle of nowhere?"
"I only wanted to have some fun with my friend Nasser, so we drove to this secluded building…". David interrupted:
"You must be joking. How can you explain the device in the back of the Isuzu?"
"I know nothing about that — it must have belonged to the owner of the Isuzu".