The colonel said, "I agree. I'll send my best men to those locations. Meanwhile, my hands are full because so many single, old men were apprehended and are held in cells in Bolshoy Dom."
"Colonel Alexandrova, I think that our wanted man is not among them. He's too smart to be caught like that. Just let them all go. This could tempt the perpetrator to feel overly confident and return to the streets."
Le Docteur was starting to get worried. He and Lara had moved to an apartment near the center of Malmo and settled down, waiting to hear about the terrorist nuclear attack in St. Petersburg. This, he knew, would be the deadliest attack in history and would make 9/11 look like a statistical error in the body-count of terror victims. In fact, he had calculated that if it worked as planned, it would surpass all previous terrorist attacks, combined. His contact in Moscow assured him that Yuri had received the message and the date of Putin's visit, but he had not heard anything from Yuri and didn't know what went wrong. He was considering his future actions, when Lara called out, "Look at the TV — they have just announced that President Putin had to cut short his private visit to St. Petersburg and had to return to Moscow to manage a crisis in Syria. CNN showed him in a meeting with the commander of the Russian air force and some other generals. His usual confident smile is replaced by a somber expression. There is no confirmation of a crisis in Syria, and the video looks familiar, so I suspect that this is some old footage being released by the Kremlin as a smoke-screen."
Le Docteur said, "Lara, do you think that our man has been discovered?"
"No, just the opposite. Putin wouldn't cancel his visit unless there was a serious threat. The fact that he left St. Petersburg in a hurry indicates that Yuri and the nuke haven't been caught."
"Does this mean that our plot has been uncovered? How and by whom?"
"We need to get information about the situation in St. Petersburg. Is there anyone you can call?"
"Lara, you saw the news that Ali Yashar, who had been posing as Ilya Yashin, was killed trying to break through a roadblock. He was our only safe asset in the city. I think that the best way to get reliable information is to send Karim back there. The two of us, and Fatima, are at risk of being on a 'most-wanted' list, even with our new identities."
He called Fatima and arranged to meet her and Karim at a restaurant near their apartment. By the time Le Docteur and Lara arrived, Karim and Fatima were having their third beer and were already beginning to feel a little tipsy. Karim stood up and gave Le Docteur the traditional peck on both cheeks and then hugged Lara and tried to kiss her lips. This annoyed the three NEMESIS operators and Le Docteur barely controlled himself, "Karim, what are you doing?"
Karim was embarrassed, "I am not used to being under house-arrest. Fatima and I are stuck in this miserable apartment and go out once a day at most. I like Fatima", she looked offended and wasn't placated by that, "but as a man of action I feel like an animal in captivity."
Le Docteur smiled, "Karim, this is exactly why we needed to meet." He explained the situation, and added, "This is why I want you to go back to St. Petersburg and see if you can contact Yuri and find out what's going on. Fatima will stay in the apartment until you return here. I have arranged a flight for you from Malmo to St. Petersburg and a return flight in two days' time."
Karim wasn't happy, "What if Yuri decides to detonate the nuke while I'm there? He may do it after I land but before I contact him."
Le Docteur said, "I'll tell my man in Moscow to warn Yuri that you are on the way. I hope that Yuri still calls him every night at 8 pm…" he didn't finish the sentence because Yuri's instructions didn't cover the possibility that he wouldn't carry out his mission as planned.
Karim's fears were not mollified, but then something else occurred to him. He was deep in thought for a few moments, and then spoke like a man who had a sudden insight, "I'll go and find out what's going on in the city. Please try get Yuri's contact information from your man in Moscow, otherwise it will be like finding a needle in a haystack." He smiled at Fatima, "Let's go to our apartment and enjoy what's left of this beautiful evening."
Le Docteur said, "Don't forget to use the 'burn-phone' and contact me as soon as you land in St. Petersburg. By then, I should have Yuri's contact information. Enjoy your night with Fatima." He paid the bill, and the two couples went their separate ways. If Le Docteur had had any inclination of what was on Karim's mind he would have used one of the steak-knives to cut the Iranian's throat, then and there.
The cruise ship, Baltic Queen, glided into its berth in Kiel harbor. Captain Scheiner was pleased that yet another cruise with thousands of passengers in seven different countries had come to a successful end. He stood on the bridge and watched the Chief Steward shake hand with every satisfied customer as they disembarked. Then the chief of security approached him with a concerned expression, "Captain, three cabins are locked with a 'Do not disturb' sign on the door handles. I am asking your permission to use the master-key to open the cabins."
The captain's face paled, "Which cabins? Who's staying in them?"
"The extravagant Algerian is in one, the woman with the Irish passport whose partner left the ship in St. Petersburg with the coffin is in another cabin, and the couple that accompanied her are in the third cabin."
"You have my full authority to enter the three cabins, by force if necessary. Are you sure you don't want to wait for the local police?" Then he saw a police car pulling up by the gangway and a high-ranking officer with a serious looking plainclothes man asked permission to come on board. He added, "I see the police are coming here now and I wonder if their visit is related to our passengers staying in the locked cabins. Wait for them to accompany you when you open these cabins."
The police officer came to the bridge and introduced himself, "Captain Scheiner, I am Mayor Grundtmann, the Chief of Police in Kiel, and this is Colonel Helmut Stach from the BND in Berlin. We wish to question you about some of your passengers."
The captain nodded, "I think I know which passengers you are interested in. Please, join my head of security and go and check the cabins of your suspects."
Twenty minutes later, Mayor Grundtmann and Colonel Stach returned to the bridge and found a highly-strung captain. The police-officer said, "It looks as if the people we are seeking, the occupants of the cabins, have left the ship. Can you tell us anything about the man who used the third cabin?"
The captain signaled to the Chief Steward, who had had come to the bridge, to answer. "The cabin was used by a very rich Algerian man. I saw that after the ship left St. Petersburg he befriended the Irish woman and was frequently seen with her and the other couple at meals and in the bar. It seemed as if they were inseparable. You know, one of those romances that happen on board our cruise ship so often."
He wanted to continue, but the BND colonel interrupted, "When did they get off the ship?"
The Chief Steward stammered, "I know they went on the museum tour in Stockholm and then also registered for the 'night on the town' bar-crawling tour. Come to think about it, I haven't seen them after that. The maid told me that the 'Do not disturb' sign had been on the door, but she thought that they were just celebrating the end of the cruise inside the cabin…"