The drive to Costa Mesa mall was slow because the highways were full of holiday shoppers, but she parked in the handicap spot closest to the main entrance and opened the car's trunk to unload the suitcase. A guard came up to her to ask her if she had a permit but when he saw her large extended belly he simply helped her take the suitcase out of the trunk. She thanked him and headed to the mall. The time was just before noon in California and Alia hoped that Nagib was all set for his part of the mission in Tel-Aviv where the time was close to 10 pm.
The large innocent looking suitcase was pushed slowly on its four wheels by an elegantly dressed young woman whose bulging belly announced to the whole world that she was carrying a baby, or perhaps even twins. Gentlemen who offered to help her were repelled by her fierce look and those bold enough to try and actually take hold of the suitcase handle were shooed away by a loud hissing sound emitted through thin lips enclosing her small mouth. She struggled with the wheels that appeared to have a will of their own and looked as if they were arguing with one another about the direction in which to move. Finally she reached the escalator leading to the second level of the large shopping center and realized that the suitcase was too wide for the escalator stairs. She turned around abruptly knocking over a toddler that was holding his mother's hand and without an apology headed toward the wide elevator. The toddler's mother barely managed to hold back the curse that came to her mind and settled for a drop-dead look that she sent to the receding back of the woman who was just entering the elevator. If radiation detectors had been mounted in the elevator they would be chirping like crazy with flashing lights indicating a deadly level of radiation, but none were installed so no one was the wiser about the imminent danger. The woman entered the ladies restroom and barely squeezed with her suitcase into the stall reserved for the handicapped. She quickly removed the pillow that made her midsection bulge, changed her clothes into nondescript jeans and a tightly fitting top that accentuated her slim figure, removed the blond wig she had been wearing and passed a comb through her jet black short hair. She placed the pillow and old clothes in a plastic bag that she left in the corner of the stall next to her suitcase. She then set the combination locks on both sides of the suitcase to the code that would give her 30 minutes to get far enough from the shopping center. She waited until she was certain that the restroom was empty, opened the booth's door and exited. With a small screwdriver she pulled out of her purse she set the sign on the door to "occupied" and entered the next stall to relieve herself from the sudden urge to urinate. She made her way to the parking lot, went straight to her car that was still parked in the spot reserved for handicapped drivers and without any visible signs of being in a hurry merged with the traffic on highway 55 and then heading north on the I-5, trying to get as far away as possible from Costa Mesa.
Alia turned on the car radio and tuned in to a news station. She was near East Los Angeles when she heard the "breaking news" jingle and announcement interrupting the regular program. The announcer sounded very distressed and after saying "This just in…" remained silent for a moment before continuing "we have just heard that a large explosion took place at Costa Mesa mall. There are several casualties and emergency forces are on their way to the scene. We don't have any details as to the cause of the explosion, whether it was an accident or an act of terror." Alia continued driving noticing the shocked looks on the faces of the drivers and passengers in the cars near her. A few minutes later, when she was near Glendale, the radio station continued with its "breaking news", saying "First responders estimate that a small bomb went off in the women's rest rooms on the first floor of the Costa Mesa mall. Initial estimates are that the size of the bomb was quite small, only a few pounds of high explosives. The death toll so far is just over two dozen but there are at least five times as many people that were injured and several more are in shock. Wait a minute, I am being handed a note saying that the first responders have detected an elevated level of radiation and suspect that the bomb included radioactive materials. All people are strongly advised to leave the area and keep their distance. The police are pushing the crowd of spectators back using loudspeakers to announce that the area may be contaminated with radioactive materials. Our correspondent at the scene, Diane Sacks, says that the crowd has now dispersed — apparently the warning worked."
Alia turned pale — this was not supposed to happen — she expected to hear about a nuclear detonation, a mushroom cloud, tens of thousands of casualties, vast destruction, a national state of emergency, statements from the White House, threats of retaliation against the perpetrators… This sounded more like a small "dirty bomb" that spread a little radioactivity.
Nagib wheeled his suitcase into Lusky Suites Hotel in the early evening. He had reserved a room in that hotel with his American credit card. He reckoned that by the time someone could track the transaction he would be far away and knew that his Pakistani passport would get him into trouble instantly. He had selected this hotel because of its central location on Yarkon Street, just across the narrow road from the American embassy. It was also very close to the lovely beachfront promenade with its restaurants, pubs and thousands of fun seeking Israelis and tourists. He set the timer to go off at exactly 10 pm and left his room. On his way out he chatted with the concierge, actually a fancy title for the girl who sat at the front desk, and asked her if she could recommend a good restaurant. The girl, Nava Pullman, was in fact a Mossad agent who took over the place of the regular concierge, and she asked him what kind of food he fancied and what would he like to spend on the meal because the selection was huge. Before Nagib could answer he was knocked down by two large security operatives of the Israel Security Agency and trussed like a turkey. David Avivi and "The Fish" went up to his room, followed by the top bomb expert of the Israeli police, and saw the suitcase. The bomb expert examined the suitcase without touching it and then produced a portable X-ray machine and imaged the contents of the suitcase. He was a bit surprised by the fuzzy image and when he mentioned this David quickly figured out that this must be due to spontaneous radiation emitted from the contents of the suitcase. A portable radiation detector confirmed this. The bomb expert said that there were no booby traps, sophisticated triggering or tamper proof devices and as far as he could tell from the image the explosives charge was to be set off by a crude timer. He asked David if he wanted to remove the suitcase and dismantle it elsewhere or to do it on the spot and David said that there was no telling for when the timer was set so it would be best to it then and there. The bomb expert didn't even perspire when he neutralized the timer and carefully removed the conventional explosives that were placed on both edges of the metal tube. When David told him that the metal tube contained a few kilograms of plutonium the bomb expert started trembling and sweat burst out of every pore. "The Fish" showed how he earned his reputation and started laughing saying that dying of a nuclear explosion made you just as dead as dying from a simple detonation. David added that the law of conservation of mass didn't deal with the number of particles into which you disintegrated. The bomb expert said he didn't appreciate this kind of humor and swore silently under his breath.