David said, "Prego. Do you speak English? What's your name?"
The man nodded, "A little. My name is Fernando. Habla Espanol?"
"Sorry, Fernando, I don't speak Spanish." He took out the photos of Lara and Fiona, "Have you seen these women?"
Fernando studied the photos for a moment, then shrewdly said, "Perhaps, I see them."
David drew a brown 50 Euro note from his pocket and held it in front of Fernando, "This will be yours if you tell us about them."
The man smiled, exposing the vacant places where his premolars had once been, "I need more dineros."
David drew out another 50 Euro note, watched Fernando shake his head and then added couple more notes. Fernando said, "The one woman", he pointed at Fiona's photo, "took Rudi from the street and dressed him up nice. Then he disappeared."
The two Israeli agents exchanged a glance, "Who's Rudi?"
Fernando stretched his hand and opened his palm, then rubbed his fingers in a clear sign that more banknotes were needed for the additional information. David sighed, pulled out another two bills and held them a couple of inches from Fernando's hand. "Rudi is a large German guy. For some reason the dark girl took pity on him and enticed him away from here."
A few more bills exchanged hands until David had a more detailed description of the young German. Before parting, he asked Fernando, "Would you agree to spend some of your precious time with an artist and make a composite image of Rudi? I'll double your fee."
Fernando didn't think twice before agreeing. David told him to use his newly earned money and take a shower and promised to bring the artist to him the next morning.
David's dinner with Julietta was more intimate this time. Both knew where and how the evening would end, and both looked forward to it. Julietta congratulated David on finding out so quickly who the mysterious man was and made a couple of phone calls to make sure the police artist would be available in the morning. They didn't give a second thought to 'The Fish', who dined alone and then watched a football game on TV before turning in.
The next morning, David's nostrils sensed the intoxicating aroma of freshly brewed coffee and when he opened his eyes he was greeted by the sight of Julietta's nude body slipping into the bed beside him, after placing two cups of steaming coffee on the side-table. David faced a real dilemma — hot coffee or a hot woman — and the obvious answer came to him — coffee could be reheated.
By the time they were ready to leave her apartment, they had to hurry to the office of the AISI to meet the police artist. 'The Fish' was already there, waiting patiently for his boss and friend. The artist arrived, and they made their way to Piazza Verdi to find Fernando seated at his usual spot. David held out a bunch of green 100 Euro bills and showed them to Fernando. Like in a silent movie, Fernando stretched his hand to grab the notes and David shook his head and pointed at the artist who was already holding his drawing block in one hand and a pencil in the other. The artist and Fernando had a short exchange of words in a mixture of Spanish and Italian and after 15 minutes a sketch depicting a young man with unkempt blond hair and blue eyes was drawn. A verbal physical description was also written by the police artist. David paid the man and thanked him for his help.
Now, they had a new mission — find out who Rudi was and where he came from. This time they didn't have a real photo, only an artist's composite image — making the task a little harder. Julietta said that she would enlist the help of the local police force to do the leg-work.
A few hours later, Julietta's people had gathered some information about Rudi. He was his mid-twenties, searching for a meaning in his life. He was a social misfit and tended to hang around known anarchists, according to the police. One of the street-dwellers mentioned that Rudi had been mugged a few times — apparently, the muggers erroneously thought that all Germans were rich and that he would have money stashed away. The same man said that Rudi once told him that his interests in life were women, sun, alcohol and recreational drugs and that he spent whatever money he could lay his hands on, on those things. He cynically added that when Rudi had first arrived in Bologna, the sun was free, and women liked his blond good-looks and flocked to him, and he had enough money for alcohol and drugs. However, during the last few months, alcohol was the only thing that interested him, and women lost interest in him. He said that Rudi's luck changed when a dark-haired woman took a fancy to him and after that he disappeared from his spot at Piazza Verdi. He didn't know Rudi's full name or where in Germany he grew up.
David said that this information was not much to go on, but there were no more tracks left to follow in Bologna. He asked Julietta to try and find out what means of transportation Le Docteur and his gang used to leave Bologna. She promised to send her people to the bus and train stations, to the airport, and car rental agencies, with the photos and artist's composite image.
David and Julietta spent one more unforgettable night at her apartment, but when David awoke in the morning there was no steaming coffee by his bedside, only a note from Julietta that said that she would be glad if he contacted her whenever he came to Bologna.
Edna Rieger was frustrated. The three Mossad agents — Edna, Joe and Mata — had wandered all over the area where the US army base had been. The residents were not cooperative — they didn't like to be reminded of the time when uncouth American GIs behaved as if they were masters of the land and acted as if the Germans should be grateful for saving them from the communists in the east. The residents particularly resented the fact that the Americans, especially the African-American soldiers, dated their young Frauleins, drank huge amounts of cheap German beer and treated the German men as servants. When some foreigners started asking questions about an old army base they became hard of hearing and understanding and ignored the strangers. The Mossad team was not making any headway. Edna called the Mossad Chief and complained about the lack of collaboration and asked him to intervene, but Shimony refused to officially involve his German counterparts in what he considered as a wild goose chase. He said, "I understand that David is on his way to join forces with you. He has some local contacts who may be of assistance. Let's give him a chance to work his magic." He hung up and started pacing the room and thinking if Mossad should be involved in what appeared to be an attack by Islamic extremists on Western targets. He believed that the world would come to see the dangers radical Islam posed to Western society only after terrorist attacks on the scale of 9/11. He wondered, not for the first time, why lessons of history were never learnt until it was too late.
David and 'The Fish' were greeted by Edna and her small team. Her report was brief, "All the people we interviewed claimed that they know nothing about an American base in the area. So, we couldn't even ask if they knew what weapons were stored on site, and certainly said nothing about missing nukes…"
David said, "We now have something that may help", and he took out the photos of the two women and Le Docteur and the artist's image of Rudi, the young German man. "Some of the locals may remember them. Our only chance of finding them is based on an educated guess that they have returned to this area to pick up the stolen nuke."