While these events were taking place, Fatima told Le Docteur and Lara that she decided to continue with the cruise and not join Yuri on his suicide mission. Lara wasn't surprised, after seeing Fatima's hesitation to accept Yuri's invitation she had expected this decision. She wondered what she would do if a similar situation arose with Le Docteur and remembered her hesitation about taking the fateful flight from Bermuda to Washington. In fact, she thought, perhaps Yuri could also save himself by arranging a different type of triggering mechanism for the nuke. She didn't speak. She hugged Fatima and said that sacrificing herself wouldn't help the cause and that it would be better if she lived to fight another day. Fatima thanked her and restrained herself from crying over the expected fate of her latest lover. She envied Lara and Le Docteur for their relationship and thought that she stood to lose her second lover less than two months after losing Rudi.
President Vladimir Putin was getting restless. He was sick and tired of the Kremlin and the political manipulations he had to practice reining in his opponents. Some of them were muzzled by long-term prison sentences, other were permanently silenced by 'traffic accidents', mysterious house fires, drowning incidents in swimming pools, random mugging, or blatantly by 'execution style' with a couple of small caliber bullets to the back of their heads. The dacha in Crimea was an ideal spot to escape the cold winters of Moscow, but every visit aroused political repercussions from his domestic opponents and the foreign press. In summer, his favorite place was St. Petersburg. Being there evoked pleasant childhood memories and he was always welcome by the residents of the city who treated him like their local hero, as well as by the officials who owed him their appointments.
He needed to take care of some business before going on vacation. First, he had to demonstrate to the world, especially to the clown in Washington, who was the real boss in Syria. Russia's interests in the region were served by a modern naval base in Tartus and by the large Khmeimim air base, in western Syria, south-east of the city of Latakia. The Tartus facility was Russia's only Mediterranean port and could simultaneously accommodate several small or medium sized warships for repairs and replenishment. There were plans to expand the facility so that Russia's largest ships, including Kirov class aircraft carriers, could be serviced there. This was vital for Russia's ability to project its naval force without having to go to the Black Sea — a maneuver that could be risky in times of strife as the ships had to pass through the two choke-point, the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits. Russia had sent several of its Sukhoi Su-57, its most advanced fifth generation stealth fighter planes, to Khmeimim air base. These planes have advanced avionics that enable them to face the top of the line of US fighter planes, the F-22 and F-35, in aerial combat. From their base in Syria, the Su-57 can strike any target within range and provide ground and maritime defenses. Putin was proud of the fact that his aggressive policy resulted in a victory for Russia in the race against the United States to establish military bases in Syria.
He considered going to Syria before taking his long-overdue vacation in St. Petersburg. This would give him great photo-opportunities with Russian aviators standing next to the latest Su-57 planes, and naval officers posing on their battleships. In addition, this would be another chance to remind President Assad of Syria to whom he owed his presidency and, most certainly, his life. His advisors told him that it would bring pride to the patriotic citizens of Russia who were tired of being told that their economic crisis would soon be over. A visit to Syria didn’t have the drawbacks that trips to Chechnya or the Crimean Peninsula had, where demonstrations against Putin and Russia were to be expected. Furthermore, Assad would surely arrange large crowds to welcome him and praise the Russian President for his support. The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea of paying a short visit to Syria before returning to his favorite city, St. Petersburg.
Chapter 11
David Avivi and his small elite team arrived in St. Petersburg, posing as tourists. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB according to its acronym in Russian) was aware of the presence of a group of Mossad agents, and assigned their own agents to follow the Israelis around. David had expected to be followed but didn't worry because they had no intention of doing anything illegal. On the contrary, Haim Shimony had instructed him to share whatever information his team could dig up, with the Russian authorities. David knew that Joe, the human chameleon, could easily evade anyone trying to follow him, and decided to use Joe's exceptional talents of disappearing right in front of his followers' eyes, when the necessity arose. In the meantime, the Mossad group visited all the regular tourist sites, but spent extra time observing the activities in the docks area.
Apparently, there were several maritime ports in the city. One was designated as the sea fishing port and David ruled that one out. The sea port of St. Petersburg, sometimes called the 'big port' was the busiest as it catered to cargo ships arriving mainly from harbors in Western Europe. The maritime traffic from the ports of Germany and Holland, was particularly heavy. Numerous shipping containers were unloaded every day and the security arrangement couldn't cope with the increased volume of merchandize arriving at the port of St. Petersburg, so containers were selected at random for a more thorough examination, while most were just given a cursory check. Through unofficial channels the Israelis had alerted the local authorities that radioactive materials may be delivered to the city, so the port authorities were trying to install additional radiation monitoring portals, but the process was slow. David assigned 'The Fish' and Mata to observe the way the unloaded containers were inspected and to report any unusual events.
The line of trucks carrying shipping containers waiting for their turn to go through the radiation detector portals was very long. From their observation point at the docks-side, the two Mossad agents noticed that some trucks completely circumvented the portals, usually after the driver opened his window to enable a custom's-inspector to step up and accept the stuffed envelope that quickly changed hands. They later told David that with a few extra dollars anyone could smuggle the entire nuclear arsenal of the United States through the lapse security system.
Joe was sent to watch the cruise ship terminal, just in case the culprits would try to avoid detection of their nuke by dodging the cargo terminal. Joe told David that the security arrangements at this terminal were practically nonexistent. The he added, "I saw something strange, today. It had nothing to do with shipping containers, but I think it's worth mentioning." David waited for him to continue. "You know the large cruise ships that visit the ports of the Baltic Sea?" It was a rhetorical question, and David clearly showed that he was getting impatient. Joe continued, "After about two thousand tourists got off this ship, the Baltic Queen, and boarded the fleet of buses and taxis waiting for them, a coffin was unloaded from the ship. It was accompanied by an old man and he was met by a black hearse. The driver helped him load the coffin in the hearse."
David commented, "This may be a bit unusual, but nothing suspicious."
"The strange thing was that the old man also got in the hearse and sat beside the driver. They seemed to be chatting amiably."
"Joe, perhaps he didn't want to sit by himself in the back, close to the coffin."
"I still think this is irregular. I can give you a description of the passenger. He was quite old and stooped. To me he looked like a person who came from one of the Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, not like a Nordic type that we see so many of in St. Petersburg."