Edna said, "This certainly involves quite a leap of faith, or in case of a cynic like you, David, a great deal of speculation. What's the basis of your scenario?"
"I agree that it's a wild guess. Let's assume that the terrorist attacks in Bologna were carried out by Lara and Fiona. Lara is a known member of NEMESIS and is strongly associated with Le Docteur. He may well be the man who shared her bed in the apartment in Bologna. We also know for a fact, that the other woman, Fiona, adopted — if that's the correct term — Rudi, a young German guy. Furthermore, according to the testimony of the owner's wife, Signora Marino, at first the two women were alone in the apartment and were joined by the men later. It could well be, and I admit that here I am being very speculative, that they found out something from Rudi that made them bring Le Docteur to the scene. We know, and here I am standing on solid ground again, that the arch-terrorist's main interest is to obtain a nuclear device and use it on a target that represents vengeance against the repressors of Islam. He tried to do that in London and probably also on the Eastern Board of the US."
Edna interrupted, "You have built a scenario that is as full of holes as Swiss cheese, but continue, please."
"I agree it's hypothetical but bear with me a little longer. Now, the foursome leaves Bologna to an unknown destination. The Italian AISI is still trying to trace their means of transportation. If Rudi is somehow connected to the missing nuke — and this is another leap of imagination — then they would probably head to this area. It's not far from the now defunct US army base. My colleague from the NNSA, Eugene Powers who some of you have met, is quite certain the missing nuke is probably still in the area. He believes that it must have been abandoned, or forgotten, or else word of this nuke would have leaked out." He saw the skeptical expressions on the faces of all his elite team members, "I know this is farfetched, but I suggest we use this as a working hypothesis, unless someone can come up with a better theory." David had a doctorate in nuclear physics and was used to consider ideas and theories and attempt to refute them, and if there was no contradictory evidence, they could be treated as axioms. None of the Mossad agents had another theory. David concluded, "Now, we should try to use the photos and information we have to try and pick up the trail left by Le Docteur and his group of terrorists."
Chapter 9
Nine hundred kilometers to the south-east from the Mossad team in Coburn, Le Docteur and his colleagues, Lara, Fatima and Dr. Yuri Bakavlev, the Chechen scientist, were making progress in constructing their own improvised nuclear device. Under the direction of the Chechen scientist, the old 280 mm atomic artillery shell was dismantled, and the arrays of conventional explosives were examined. The meticulous inspection showed that the originally carefully shaped charges, explosive lenses as they were called by nuclear scientists, had started to crumble. Literally, 'crumbs' of the material were scattered when the external metal casing of the shell was removed. One didn't have to be an expert on nukes to know that the shell could not be used in its current condition.
Le Docteur said, "Yuri, what do you propose?"
The Chechen answered, "We can take the fissile materials from the core of the weapon, reshape them and construct a completely new nuclear weapon. This would require special facilities for safely handling the dangerous materials and specialized equipment to melt down and reshape the core. I have most of the knowledge and experience needed to do this, but it is inevitable that we'll lose some of the material doing these chemical, physical and metallurgical processes. This may leave us with an insufficient amount of fissile material, a subcritical quantity, and will prevent us from getting a working nuke." He saw the concerned look on the faces of Le Docteur and the two women. He added, "However, we can do something else." He paused to build up the tension, "We can leave the core intact — it looks as if it has not been damaged — and only fabricate new explosive lenses." He saw the look of relief on the faces of his colleagues, "This is not as easy as it sounds, because we'll need to obtain the proper type of high-explosives and then form them precisely, I emphasize, precisely, in the proper shapes and reassemble the nuclear device."
Le Docteur said, "If you can specify what type of explosives you need, I can get my network to obtain them. What else do you need?"
"We'll need a furnace to melt the explosives and molds to get the crude forms. Then we'll need tools, a lathe and such things, to manufacture the exact shape of the explosive lenses. Until we get the materials and equipment, I'll redesign the triggering mechanism and leave out the safety features that were installed in the artillery shell." He addressed Le Docteur, "Do you know how you want to use the nuke? Will it be delivered from a plane, a ship, a surface vehicle? Do you want to use a timer to assure that we can get away from the point of the explosion or will you have some suicide bomber to pull the trigger?"
"It is too early to tell what the target will be or even the means of delivery. I think we can rule out the option of dropping it from a plane." He looked at Lara and saw that she nodded emphatically. They both recalled what had happened on their flight from Bermuda to Washington with a nuke in the light-plane.
The Chechen scientist replied, "This makes it easier to design, but I can tell you that detonating a nuke a few hundred meters above the target is the most efficient way to cause the maximum damage. Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki…" He didn't need to finish the sentence.
Le Docteur concluded the conversation, "Yuri, write down exactly what types of high-explosives you need, and the quantities required. Also, make a list of the equipment you need to shape the charges. Please note which items are easy to acquire and which ones have to be purchased clandestinely."
Fatima walked up to the scientist, who had become her lover since the demise of Rudolf and hugged him warmly. "Let's go out to a good restaurant and celebrate." Lara and Le Docteur gave their approval, and the foursome got into the car and drove to the village of Detva in which there was a small selection of restaurants and bars.
The Mossad team must have covered hundreds of kilometers on foot, interviewed dozens of people and got nowhere closer to tracing the whereabouts of the NEMESIS terrorist gang. The mounting pressure from Mossad Chief made David call his team for a final meeting. He opened, "Friends, Shimony has given us another 24 hours. If there is no progress, we'll have to give up the chase and return to other assignments in Tel Aviv." The team members knew that this was coming, and none of them said anything for a moment or two.
Joe, who had been very quiet all the time, spoke up, "David, if your hypothesis is correct. Namely, they searched for the old artillery shell and found it and it weighs 350 kg, then they'll need lifting apparatus to move it. I am sure that there are not many stores in the town that sell this type of equipment. Let's spend the day tomorrow on a last-ditch effort to find the culprits." Edna took out her laptop and plotted all the hardware stores Coburg and the surrounding area. She raised her head from the screen and lifted five fingers, indicating there were only five stores that advertised portable winches.
The next day the Mossad team spread out to survey the five possible stores. One of them looked particularly probable, so David sent Joe and Mata to question the proprietor about the recent sale of a portable winch. They decided to use the 'damsel in distress' approach, that was so effective when Mata played the part of the poor helpless lass and Joe posed as the obstinate husband. They entered the store, supposedly whilst in the middle of a vocal argument. Mata said, "These is no way you can do it yourself. You need help. Here, ask this nice gentleman," she pointed at the middle-aged proprietor, "if you can lift the old motor yourself, or even with Hermann and Richard."