The Dreadful Alchemist: A Thrilling Espionage Novel (Techno thriller, Mystery & Suspense Book 1)

by Charles Z David

  By the time the Eugene and Vassilly parted it was close to midnight but there was so much adrenaline flowing through the veins of Orna and David that they decided to stay a little longer and have a nightcap of schnapps. This was followed by another couple of shots of schnapps that got them even more wound up. As they were too intoxicated to drive and could not find a taxi they slowly walked aimlessly through the quiet streets of Vienna. It was very cold but there was no rain or snow so they huddled closer and continued talking quietly as they strolled along the Danube banks. Orna said that they were very near her apartment and invited David up for a cup of coffee. In Israel when a woman invites her date to "come up for a cup of coffee" then it very seldom just ends after drinking coffee, if coffee is served at all. This time was no different, and, as soon as Orna and David shut the apartment's door behind them, they fell into each other's arms and exchanged a long passionate kiss which enhanced David's impression of her as a fertility goddess. Sleep, certainly sleeping alone, was far from their minds and they found themselves in her comfortable bed seeking warmth and security in each other's body. Orna had not really had a close companion since her divorce and David still remembered Ramona's implied invitation from the previous night that he had declined. Their lovemaking reflected this – both were hungry for human contact so it was over quickly, but after settling down quietly for sleep, they woke up an hour later and very slowly aroused each other until they climaxed almost simultaneously. In the morning they took a taxi that dropped them off near Orna's car. She drove David to his hotel where he checked out without using the bed and they headed back to the airport. David promised Orna that he would be back in Vienna to meet with Eugene and Vassilly after they received feedback from their scientists.

  January 18th, Padova

  Professor Modena paced to and fro in the basement adjacent to the gamma irradiation chamber. He was quite pleased with the current rate of U-233 production but was worried about the quality of the product. The concentration of the bothersome intensely radioactive U-232 was increasing from batch to batch and was now at a level that posed a safety hazard for the crew that was in charge of separating the uranium product from the feed materials that consisted of a mixture of thorium and beryllium oxides, as well as from the small amount of highly radioactive fission products. Cynically he thought that all the engineers and technicians would become "disposable" once enough fissile material was produced, so he decided not to worry too much about the health and safety of the personnel. On the other hand, what did concern him was that the high radiation would complicate the construction of the improvised nuclear device. He therefore had called Andreas and Ollie for an urgent meeting and was expecting them to arrive at the lab later that afternoon. He deliberated with himself how to present these problems as he knew that their technical and scientific acumen was not sufficient for them to appreciate these fine points. He worried that they would blame him and perhaps even try to replace him by some other physicist or, God forbid, by a chemist or an engineer.

  Andreas and Ollie arrived smiling since they had received regular progress reports and were pleased with the amount of U-233 that had already accumulated, but seeing the gaunt look on Modena's face their smiles faded away. The professor tried to explain the problems in simple terms and realizing that Andreas in particular had a hard time understanding, he used a quote attributed to Harold Agnew that was familiar mostly to people involved in nuclear terrorism. "If someone thinks making a plutonium implosion weapon is easy, he is wrong and if someone thinks making an improvised nuclear device using highly enriched uranium is difficult, he is even more wrong". He then gave them an overview of the technical problems of making a plutonium implosion weapon and emphasized that using U-233 for that purpose would be even more difficult as there was much less public information available. The professor explained that though it was possible to produce a primitive "gun type" device which would be similar to the U-235 based "Little Boy" the Americans dropped on Hiroshima , this would require a much larger amount of U-233 and constructing a device of this type would delay their project by at least one year because much more fissile material would be needed. Ollie understood that getting enough fissile material was a prerequisite for making the improvised nuclear device but that additional expertise was required to actually build the device. He told Andreas that they needed to convene another meeting of their supporters, particularly from the countries that had nuclear weapons in order to enlist such an expert. Modena was pleased that he managed to convey the message but his apprehension about his own fate grew when he realized that they would have no use for him once enough fissile material had accumulated. He feared that he would not fare any better than the "disposable" technicians and engineers when they reached that stage and he started planning how to obtain "insurance" against such an event.

  January 20th, London

  Ollie travelled to London to meet with his British and French contacts from the Nationalist movements. These two were selected by him as in each country there was a thriving nuclear industry as well as established laboratories in which nuclear weapons were produced. They met in a small hotel on Cartwright Gardens close to the St. Pancras railway station where the Eurostar cross-channel train from Paris arrives. Instead of the thick necked ruffian, the delegate from the British National Socialist Party, Paul Dooley, was an aristocratic gentleman, a graduate of Trinity College in Cambridge, with a law degree. The French counterpart, Ettiene Brune, was from Marseille, a stronghold of extreme racists, and an engineer by training. Ollie described the progress in production of the fissile material but explained that they now had to manufacture the actual device and this called for expertise that Professor Modena did not possess. He asked them to help in enlisting a suitable engineer or scientist from one of their national weapon labs – someone who was willing and able to work clandestinely in support of their cause. He emphasized that there would be no moral qualms or issues because the device would not be detonated but only be used for blackmailing the governments that gave in to immigrants while forfeiting the rights and welfare of the true citizens. Brune was skeptical if such a person could be found but Dooley said that he had someone in mind who might be persuaded to join them and that he would set up a meeting with him and Ollie for noon the next day. The Frenchman had nothing further to contribute to the project so booked a return journey to Paris by the Eurostar and continued on the TGV train to Marseille. The Briton returned to his office in the City of London and Ollie went to the excellent Italian restaurant in nearby Bloomsbury for dinner on his own.

  The next day Ollie met with Dooley and his friend in a private room inside a pub near Dooley's office. Dooley was welcomed by the pub owner and they exchanged a secret signal that did not escape Ollie's eye. Without consulting with his partners, Dooley told the pub owner to bring his regular lunch for the three of them and a jug of pale ale. The private room was lined with fine wooden walls adorned Union Jack flags and British National Socialist Party (BNSP) Blood flags. When he saw the reaction of awe and reverence of Dooley's friend Ollie's mind was set at ease, since he realized that the man was a dedicated fanatic member of the BNSP and would probably not have qualms performing the task at hand. Dooley introduced his friend only as Doctor Jay and commended his knowledge and experience in designing and manufacturing what he termed "special devices". It seemed to Ollie as if Dooley was afraid of surveillance at this known meeting place of BNSP supporters and he wondered quietly why Dooley had chosen to meet there. Dooley told him that MI6 suspected him of illegal activities and occasionally followed him, so he preferred to meet right under their eyes and not to try evasive actions that would alert them that he was up to some mischief. Ollie understood the rationale but did not like it and suggested that they just enjoy lunch and then he could meet with Doctor Jay privately somewhere else without fear of being followed by Paul Dooley's "baby sitters".

  After having their lunch and talking about sports, films and politics, Doctor Jay and Ollie left the private
room in the pub and went to a crowded café and sat at a corner table. The background noise was at a high level so they could speak quietly without fear of being overheard. Ollie asked Jay about his background and learned that he had earned a doctorate in physics, summa cum laude, from UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) and had worked for several years at the very center of British nuclear weapons production in the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) near Reading. However he had been recently fired for abusing a co-worker who happened to be a British born chemist of Pakistani descent. Jay expressed to Ollie his hatred for Muslims in particular, blaming the government for allowing "fifth columnists" to penetrate the most sensitive center for development of nuclear weapons. He explained that after publicly stating that the Pakistani scientist would probably steal the atomic secrets like A Q Khan had done, he was reported to the authorities and was ordered to leave the building immediately and informed that he was to be fired without compensation.

  Jay said he was willing to do anything to speed up the process of expelling all foreigners from England and said he did not care if they went to Scotland or swam into the North Sea as long as they left his country. Ollie asked him if he could lead a small team in production of a nuclear device based on U-233 and Jay said that he believed there were few differences between that and the plutonium based weapons he had manufactured before being fired. Furthermore, he said, he was privy to the most advanced designs that had not even been tested but were accepted as the latest word in nuclear weaponry. Ollie did not like the idea of untested designs but Doctor Jay claimed that the new designs were tested computationally and completely foolproof and that their manufacture was simpler than the older models.

  Ollie insisted that they did not have the means to produce anything but the most simple device and Jay said that he had no problem with that approach. He said that Dooley had roughly outlined the project and that he was willing to travel abroad as nothing now tied him to the UK, especially after his wife left him and he no longer lived with his boyfriend who was the main reason his wife divorced him. Ollie said that he didn't care if Jay liked women, men or both and told him to prepare to leave for Italy two days later and they arranged to meet at Heathrow airport for the direct flight to Venice Marco Polo airport, a short drive from Padova.

  January 23rd, Padova

  Ollie and Doctor Jay left their hotel without even having breakfast and went straight to the warehouse in which the secret laboratory was located. Professor Modena was initially a bit reluctant to share his knowledge and concerns with Doctor Jay but Ollie convinced him that their jobs complemented each other and that Jay was not about to replace him or take over the production and separation of the U-233. In order to restrict the number of people who knew the true purpose of the Astraea project they were not to exchange ideas or discuss the project in front of the other people. The only exception was one of the older technicians from the production facility that would work with Jay on the fabrication of the device. Doctor Jay was asked to prepare a list of the equipment and materials he needed for the device and hand it to Ollie personally in the evening. Ollie then saw that Jay and Modena started to deliberate over the modifications needed for use of U-233 as the fissile material for the device.

  When he realized that he was virtually ignored because the two scientists were already arguing about this very issue, he bid them farewell after arranging to meet both of them for dinner. Dr. Jay told the professor that they should adopt the classic and well understood and tested design for their improvised nuclear device since they would not be able to conduct any actual trials. He said the most foolproof design was based on a solid core of the fissile material, U-233, that would be transformed from a subcritical configuration to a supercritical one by the tremendous pressure of the implosion of a few hundred kilograms of conventional high explosives. Professor Modena asked him if he meant to deploy the "Christy gadget" configuration and Dr. Jay answered that although more fissile material was required than in other more advanced configurations such as the hollow sphere model, it was more reliable and easy to manufacture even with the unsophisticated machining equipment they had in the lab. He also explained that with this simple configuration the implosion could be triggered by simultaneous detonation of high explosives from 32 points arranged evenly around the sphere.

  Ollie felt he needed to clear his head and strolled through the famous Botanical Gardens in search of the renowned Goethe's palm tree that he hoped would give him inspiration as it had to Goethe when he wrote about plant metamorphosis. He had seen many palm trees growing naturally outdoors in Syria and Iraq where they were very common and served as an important source of food, so he was disappointed to see that the tree was situated in a greenhouse inside the Ortus Sphearicus and not out in the open as he had expected. Nevertheless he was thankful for the serenity the garden induced. He hoped that the combination of the racist Doctor Jay and the Catalan independence supporter Prof. Modena would not lead political altercations, but there was little he could do trying to re-educate these two grown men with huge egos.

  The proprietor of the restaurant was glad to have three tourists dining on a quiet Thursday evening in mid-winter, especially as they ordered two bottles of his most expensive wine. Doctor Jay gave Ollie his shopping list and the three of them talked quietly about it. Ollie glanced at the list and expressed his opinion that there were only two items that would be difficult to purchase: the special explosives and the 32 detonators needed for simultaneously timing the implosion. He realized those would only be needed at the very final stage of the construction of the device but was very worried about their acquisition. Doctor Jay said that almost anything could be bought for the proper price on the nuclear black market or in China. Ollie noted that since the network of the Pakistani AQ Khan had been practically closed down and the Chinese were extremely careful about exporting items of this type, the best option was to discretely approach the North Koreans and offer them a large sum of hard currency with which they could buy food for the masses, or what was more likely, increase the foreign bank accounts of the country's elite leaders. The scientists had no idea how to contact the North Koreans so Ollie said that he would be responsible for obtaining these materials, while the lab's administrator could take care of acquiring all the other items, including those that were considered as "dual-use" and their sales were somewhat restricted. Jay and Ollie returned to their hotel and Modena to his small room above the laboratory. Arrangements were made for Dr. Jay to move to the dormitory above the laboratory as a long stay at the hotel would raise suspicion.

  January 24th, Vienna

  David arrived at Vienna airport on the evening flight and once again Orna met him at the airport and they exchanged a short hug and warm welcome kiss and immediately headed to the same café where Eugene and Vassilly were already waiting. Both had grim looks on their faces and appeared to be deep in thought so they barely acknowledged the presence of the two young Israelis. Eugene started speaking excitedly even before Orna and David were seated and summarized the insights he had gained during his discussions with the scientists from the national laboratories. He said that he had asked them if theoretically it was possible to produce U-233 through bombardment of thorium with gamma radiation. Their unanimous spontaneous reply was that it was not possible but after giving the matter some thought they said that in theory if the gamma radiation could somehow induce generation of neutrons they may be captured by thorium atoms and produce uranium-233. They were skeptical if this would be practical because of several physical considerations including the efficiency of neutron generation by this method, the energy of these neutrons and the uncertainty in the capture cross section of these neutrons by thorium. In conclusion, the scientists did not rule out the possibility that this could be done and also raised a question about the availability of suitable gamma radiation sources. Vassilly said that the Russian scientists with whom he consulted agreed with these observations and conclusions. He
also stated that one of the experts he had talked to, took him aside during a tea break and in confidence told him that he had been one of the reviewers of the manuscript submitted to the journal (he did not know that it was written by Professor Modena) and was familiar with the idea. He said that at the time he thought the whole scheme was in contradiction of basic physical principles and ridiculed the idea, recommending rejection of the manuscript on those grounds, but he now had second thoughts that it may not be impossible to generate neutrons using gamma irradiation of thorium.