The police artists started to draw a round face with puffed cheeks, but Signora Cortese, shook her head, "She had high cheekbones and a narrow, pointed chin." The artists complied, and she nodded her approval. Then he drew slanted brown eyes, and once again she shook her head, "No, her eyes were hazel brown with perhaps some green tint but were not slanted." He made the necessary corrections and she approved. He then drew thick, bushy eyebrows, but when he saw her shaking her head he changed the thick line into a thinner more delicate line and she nodded.
In the other room, David said, "Julietta, eyebrows are the most distinctive facial feature, and many face-recognition algorithms use this to identify people who wear disguises." He looked at the emerging image, "You know, I have a strange feeling that I have seen this face." He was deep in thought trying to recall where and when he might have seen this face that looked vaguely familiar, and then it hit him like a ton of bricks. He drew out his cellphone, "I need to access my files." Julietta just looked at him as he started working with his cellphone like a man possessed. After a couple of minutes, he showed her a photo of a young woman, "Please take this to the room and ask the woman if this looks like the suspect."
Julietta entered the room and told Dr. Donizetti what she wanted. He said, "Let's wait until the artist finishes composing the image. We don't want to bias her in any way."
The session with the police artist drew to conclusion. Julietta asked the artist to leave the room and waited for the psychiatrist to show Signora Cortese the photo, but he said, "Let's give her a few minutes to rest. These sessions are quite strenuous because they deal with traumatic experiences. I can say that the artists image does look a lot like the photograph on the cellphone, but we need the signora to confirm this."
Julietta scanned both images and saw the resemblance. She grew impatient, "Doctor, this is very important. Get on with it, please."
"Signora Cortese, could you please look at the photo and tell me if it looks like the woman?"
The elderly lady almost jumped out of her chair when she saw the photo, "Yes, that's her."
"I'll count to ten, and when I reach ten you'll wake up. You'll feel relaxed and content. You have helped us a great deal." He counted to ten, and when Signora Cortese stretched her limbs and smiled shyly.
She turned to Julietta, "Did I help you at all? I feel good, as if I had been asleep and had pleasant dreams."
Julietta smiled at her, "Signora Cortese, you have been of great help. Thank you."
Julietta returned to David, gave him his cellphone and demanded, "Who is this woman?"
David told her to sit down and drink some water. "She is one of the most wanted terrorists in the world. Her original name is Layla Maysun Mayor, which may not sound familiar. But she is better known as Captain Lara Wayne, formerly a jet-fighter pilot in the United States Air Force, and a member of NEMESIS. Everyone thought she died in a plane crash near Bermuda, with the head of NEMESIS and its founder, the infamous arch-terrorist known as Le Docteur. If she survived and carried out the attacks in Bologna, then he is probably with her. This is bad news on a grand-scale. Please, give me a few minutes to think about the repercussions of this and we can decide what to do with the information."
They looked at each other, and each could see the expression of apprehension and shock on the other's face. They sat quietly for several minutes, before she spoke, " This is way above my pay-grade. I'll have to report this to General Benini."
David said, "This is no longer a local matter of terrorist attacks in Bologna, or even in Italy — it is a global affair now. We know that Le Docteur and his gang have operated all over Europe as well as in the United States and Mexico, and perhaps also in other places. If the world press gets information about the involvement of NEMESIS in these attacks — it will make the headlines and send the perpetrators into hiding. Our only chance of catching them is by surprise, when they think that they can operate safely with impunity. I suggest that you meet with General Benini discretely and update him personally. I'll do the same with my Chief. We'll let our bosses decide how to play this — whether to divulge the information to other friendly intelligence services or not. I hope that they refrain from involving politicians because they are not any good at keeping secrets. From my experience, they will only try to capitalize on this by sharing the information with the media in return for friendly coverage."
"Does this mean you have to return to Israel?" She said, hoping that he would stay a little while longer in Italy.
"Julietta, I need to leave immediately, but will return here because we need to pick up the trail of the NEMESIS people. In view of the success of the hypnosis techniques, perhaps you can find the tour-guide who led the group to the anatomical theater and try to refresh her memory of the suspect. Let's go to Dr. Donizetti and congratulate him on the success of his session with Signora Cortese."
"Good idea. This will also ensure his goodwill with the tour guide and boost his confidence in his professional skills."
The two intelligence agents approached the psychiatrist and thanked him for his contribution, adding that there was more work to do.
David managed to board a flight back to Israel later that evening, while Julietta tracked the tour guide and got her to agree to participate in a hypnosis session. However, despite her cooperation she had no useful information — the suspect was just another face in the crowd of tourists.
Chapter 8
David's elite team gathered in the conference room and took their usual seats around the table. Haim Shimony, Mossad chief, walked in and sat opposite David, at the head of the table. David gave a brief report of the events in Bologna, naturally omitting the part of his affair with Julietta that he deemed as irrelevant. He concluded, "If we have correctly identified Lara, this means that NEMESIS is back in Europe. We all know that their final objective is to impose the rule of Islam and the Sharia law on the Western world. The technological means they have tried to deploy in the past, ultimately involved using nuclear devices to precipitate a global war, not just destroy a city and murder a hundred thousand innocent people. I am sure that they have not changed their goal, only the means of achieving it."
Shimony nodded, "So, what do you propose?"
David looked around the table, "I want the team to accompany me to Bologna and, with the help of the local police and AISI, pick up the trail of the NEMESIS members. I am sure that Lara didn't work alone and doubt if only the two women were responsible for the three attacks — at the historic due tori, the anatomical theater and the basilica. They must have had some support."
Edna Rieger interrupted, "Do you think they are still in Bologna?" When everyone at the table shook their heads, she continued, "Perhaps we should look at the problem from the other side." She saw the inquisitive expressions, "I mean, assuming they are still trying to lay their hands on a nuclear device — where could they go to find one?"
David said, "Normally, I don't believe in coincidences, but this may be an exception. I have recently heard from my colleague, Dr. Eugene Powers of the NNSA, that a small, tactical nuke had gone missing from the stocks of the American forces in Germany during the Cold War. The incident may have occurred in the 1970s but was discovered only a decade or two later. It is still missing. Perhaps, and here I am taking a huge leap of imagination, NEMESIS people got word of it and are trying to locate it."
'The Fish' said with a tone of incredibility, "David, what kind of nuke can go missing? We are not talking about a sock that lost its pair in the laundry."