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

by Charles Z David

  The agents, now with the backing of uniformed police officers, entered the house without knocking on the door and gathered all the residents in the large living room. They then took all the men out to the backyard and showed them the black Savana that was parked there under a makeshift shelter and asked them who it belonged to. The men knew that it was stolen property and suspected that it was used in some high-profile criminal activity and soon realized that they could be facing a serious charge, yet they were more afraid of Sheik Khalil and his religious zealots than of the police and refused to cooperate. Two of the ISA agents took the youngest man, who was 17 years old and looked more like a scared boy than a man, and led him to a dark corner in the yard and intimidated him with threats of what would happen to him in prison. They didn't need to use physical violence as the young boy cracked and told them all about Nasser and Ollie and about the Isuzu pick-up truck to which some large object was transferred from the Savana van. The ISA agents immediately forwarded the information to the control room. The police took the owner of the house and the young boy into custody, while cautioning all other men to remain in the house and not call anybody. The men returned to the living room joining the women and children under the supervision of three tough looking Border Police officers.

  The people manning the road blocks were told to stop and search all Isuzu pick-up trucks but to allow all other traffic to continue. They were warned that the driver and passenger in the suspect vehicle could be armed and were probably extremely dangerous, so caution must be practiced when approaching the vehicle. Furthermore, they were ordered to shoot only at the tires if the suspect vehicle tried to run through the road block as it probably had a large load of explosives that could be set off by a stray bullet. Reports about Isuzu pick-up trucks started coming in, as this was a very popular vehicle, but none had caused any problems when ordered to stop or objected to being searched, and of course, nothing was found.

  Nasser and Ollie did not have the means to monitor the police radio transmissions but Nasser came up with the idea of using the live traffic information system to see where there were traffic hold ups that were probably due to the road blocks. He switched on his cellphone and used the appropriate application and saw that they were just a couple of kilometers from the closest traffic obstruction. He looked for a way to get off the road and spotted a narrow trail in an orchard that lead to a deserted house swerving off the paved road to follow it. He suggested to Ollie that they should lay low for a few hours until things cleared up. He then called his cousin Mahmoud only to learn that he had been stopped at one of the road blocks but as his papers were in order, and with Leila sitting next to him, he was allowed to continue on his way and was now entering Tira. He then excitedly said that there were several police cars near the house of Nasser's cousins and that he was proceeding to Leila's house. Nasser updated Ollie about these developments and Ollie said that the police had probably traced the black Savana to the house. Ollie asked Nasser to move the Isuzu to a spot that couldn't be seen from the road and they parked behind the deserted building. Ollie got out of the cabin, and with Nasser's help removed the tarpaulin that covered the improvised nuclear device, and started inserting the detonators into the slots that were drilled into the blocks of high explosives. This operation took quite a while because there were a few dozen detonators that had to be correctly wired. In addition it was tricky to place the detonators in the bottom part of the device because of the difficult access to those slots on the back of the pick-up truck. It took Ollie about 30 minutes to complete the procedure and all he had to do now was to connect all the electrical leads to the battery and set the timer. Ollie did not want to commit suicide but dreaded failure of the divine mission he had undertaken so he installed a direct triggering mechanism bypassing the timer that would detonate the device instantaneously when pressed. He would set off the device if he thought that he was about to be stopped and vowed that he would do this as a last resort. Ollie told Nasser what he had done and instructed him to press the trigger if he himself were disabled.

  Nasser watched the procedure for arming the device identifying it as similar to what he had seen in the movies and realized that they were travelling with a nuclear device. He commented that even if it went off in the middle of nowhere in Israel the physical damage and psychological ramifications would be a great victory for Islam over the Jewish invaders and the Western civilization and thanked Ollie for allowing him to be part of this heroic act.

  June 17th, late evening, at the deserted house and Kafr Kassem

  Ollie's primal instincts set his skin tingling and his hair standing on end so he spent a few minutes analyzing the situation and deduced that the performance of the ISA agents tracking him first to Umm al-Fahm and then to the house of Nasser's cousins in Tira could only be due to a tracking device that was planted in his belongings. He discussed this with Nasser who agreed with him. They removed Ollie's luggage from the Isuzu placing it behind the fence surrounding the deserted house and decided to leave the house immediately realizing that they would be sitting ducks if they stayed there any longer. Without switching on the headlights they returned to the paved road and headed back towards the network of secondary roads in the agricultural area looking for another dirt road that would take them to Jerusalem circumventing the road blocks. Nasser, who knew the area well, suggested that they try to head to the densely populated area on the west side of Route 6 where Arab and Jewish villages coexisted side by side, and then try to switch vehicles again either with the voluntary help of an Arab supporter or by coercion.

  Using the cellular phone's navigation software to evade roadblocks, they managed to reach Kafr Kassem without being challenged. In this large Arab village they looked for Palestinian flags painted on the walls or flown on poles and signs of the Islamic ultra-religious movement. They didn't have to search for long before they saw a car repair garage with posters calling for donations to support Al Aqsa mosque. They parked the Isuzu in a dark corner of the poorly lit street and while Ollie remained in the truck to keep watch on the device Nasser went to the large shuttered door of the garage and knocked on it. After a couple of moments a male voice said in Arabic that the garage was closed until tomorrow morning. Nasser said that he had come to make a large donation for the Al Aqsa fund and asked the man to open the door. The garage owner was still suspicious as this ploy had been used by the Israeli police and security agency and it took Nasser a few minutes to convince him that he was indeed a disciple of the famous Sheik Khalil of Umm al-Fahm. Finally a smaller side door was opened by the garage owner who introduced himself as Abdul Aziz and asked Nasser what he really wanted as nobody had ever come late at night seeking to make a donation to the fund. Nasser said that they needed a car to deliver some goods to Jerusalem. Abdul Aziz saw that he winked when he said "goods" and understood that no good would come from these "goods" so he smiled and said that he had just completed the repair of a minivan that would probably be suitable for transporting the "goods" and showed Nasser a brand new Honda Odyssey that had been involved in a minor fender-bender accident. He said that the car was brought in by a wealthy Israeli resident from nearby Oranit and that the owner would not come back until the following week as he had gone on vacation to Paris. Nasser asked Abdul Aziz to open the garage door as he had to transfer the "goods" from the Isuzu truck to the Odyssey and would need a derrick or winch to do that. Looking around the fully equipped garage Nasser saw that it was ideal for their purposes so he went back out and drove the Isuzu into the garage. Abdul Aziz was surprised to see the blond man but when Ollie welcomed him in Arabic and praised Allah he became enthusiastic that such a typical Scandinavian man had adopted the true faith. The back seats of the Odyssey were removed and the device was placed in it and covered once again by the tarpaulin. The windows of the minivan were of the dark type so no one could see into the car from the sides or back. Abdul Aziz offered them coffee and pastries that they accepted with great joy as they were famished and tired. H
e saw that they looked haggard and invited them to stay at his house for the night saying that they would attract less attention in the heavy daytime traffic than late at night when very few vehicles would be on the road. Nasser exchanged a look with Ollie and agreed but asked Abdul Aziz to cover the Isuzu until it could be returned to Nasser's family in Tira.

  June 18th, Jerusalem

  Ollie and Nasser felt fully refreshed when they left Kafr Kassem after thanking Abdul Aziz for his help and hospitality. Nasser enjoyed driving the new Odyssey on paved highways after having driven the old Isuzu truck on dirt roads at night without lights. They got on the busy Highway 444 that took them south and then headed south-east on Highway 443 flowing with the heavy traffic to Jerusalem. There were a few roadblocks on the way but the shiny Odyssey was waved through them without a second glance. At each roadblock there were several Isuzu trucks that were searched by armed soldiers so they felt reassured that the police and ISA were still barking up the wrong tree. The mid-morning traffic at the outskirts of Jerusalem was moving at a slow stop-go pace so Ollie and Nasser started to relax and set into a fatalistic mood with regard to their chances of success and their personal destiny. Their route took them through an array of Jewish suburbs and Palestinian refugee camps that were intermingled in a complicated jumble that displayed how difficult it would be to divide Jerusalem between Palestine and Israel, if a 'two states solution" were ever seriously negotiated. Ollie thought to himself that if their plan worked that would be the least of the problems of the Middle East...

  Ollie had rigged a cable from the instant detonation emergency switch of the device in the back of the minivan to the front seat so that he could blow them both to smithereens together with everything within a radius of a few hundred meters. He jokingly told Nasser that they would need more than 72 virgins in paradise as they would be atomized to a zillion parts each deserving its own share of virgins.

  They passed very close to the headquarters of the Israeli police and then took the road circling along the walls of the Old City until they reached the Lions Gate on the east side of the city. They entered through the gate that actually was only a passage through the massive stone wall without an actual gate, and continued down the narrow street past the Church of Condemnation and Via Dolorosa. The streets were barely suitable for motorized traffic but Nasser told whoever enquired why they were driving on this narrow street that he was heading to the market to unload his goods. Ollie realized that their main problem would be to find a place where the car could be parked for a couple of hours without being towed away allowing them time to get as far as possible from the "ground zero" point. Nasser suggested they park in the yard of the Austrian Hostel which anyway was as far they could drive since at this point the streets turned into pedestrian lanes. Ollie was supposed to play the role of a tourist looking for a place to stay and ask permission to park until he settled down in his room. So Nasser drove to the hostel and Ollie went up to the reception desk and had no trouble charming the matronly lady in charge. He booked a room for three nights and obtained permission to leave the vehicle there for a couple of hours. The matron suggested that he go to the roof terrace and observe the view of the Old City from there. Ollie thought that this was a good idea and he and Nasser climbed the three flights of stairs to the roof. Looking towards the south-east they could clearly see the Temple Mount with its mosques – one with the golden dome and one with the silver dome. Looking west they saw a few more mosques and several small churches including the top of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They couldn't quite see the Wailing Wall but knew it was on the west side of Temple Mount. They agreed that the location was ideally suited for their plan, walked down the stairs and out of the building. In the yard Ollie set the timer of the device for two hours and both of them walked out of the Old City using the Damascus Gate and hailed a taxi. The Arab driver asked them where they were headed and they said they had to get to Umm al-Fahm in a hurry. After some haggling they agreed on a price and off they went.

  Chapter 15

  June 18th, 17:21 local time, Jerusalem

  The sound of the blast was heard 10 kilometers from Jerusalem by anyone who was not totally deaf. Those who happened to be looking towards Jerusalem, even in their peripheral sight, 30 seconds before the blast could be heard saw a strange flash of light from the direction of the town that served as the cradle of the Christian and Jewish religions. Those whose eyesight remained intact could see a huge cloud rising rapidly to a height of several kilometers and it gradually gained the typical mushroom shape of an atomic blast seen so many times in news reels from the middle of the 20th Century and in horror movies that were harbingers of the end of the world.The static air overpressure wave caused by the blast flattened many buildings within a radius of five hundred meters, which more or less meant the entire Old City of Jerusalem. The destruction of civilian buildings could have covered a radius of about one and half kilometers while moderate damage would be observed even five kilometers away but the colossal walls of the Old City built five centuries before absorbed the pressure, reducing the range of the damage. Among the few structures that remained standing were the massive walls surrounding the southern and western parts of the city that were relatively far from the blast, the foundations of the Wailing Wall and the Tower of David that was built be King Herod as a fortress two thousand years previously. Most of the excavations from the period Before Christ that were laboriously uncovered by generations of archeologists were once again covered by debris, only this time these were highly radioactive.

  This was followed by dynamic waves of vacuum and overpressure that pushed, tumbled and tore apart any object in the path of the blast. People who were not crushed directly by the blast or the collapsing buildings were fried by the intense thermal radiation in the form of the wave of heated air that followed the blast. Fires broke out everywhere as the gas tanks of cars and cooking gas cylinders as well as wooden objects, carpets and curtains caught fire. First degree burns were received by people who were several kilometers from the blast center while those who were less than two kilometers away suffered third degree burns that often led to their excruciating death. Some had their retinas burned out by the thermal radiation while others were blinded by the intense flash of light. Those a little further away who happened to be in open areas received a dose of ionizing radiation that killed them instantly if they were lucky or agonizingly slowly if they were not.

  The debris from the blast that were thrown sky-high fell back to earth. Some of the larger pieces hit people killing them straight away, others caused more collateral damage to property, but the worst part included highly radioactive fallout that covered a large area. Smaller particles of radioactive dust were carried by the dominant north-west winds towards Jordan and were deposited there by the unseasonal rain showers that also resulted from the blast. Due to the fact that the detonation took place at ground level the amount of radioactive fallout was much higher than that created by the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which had been detonated several hundred meters above the ground. The large pieces fell quite close to the epicenter, forming an area of intense gamma and neutron radiation. The overall visual effects were somewhat like the 14 kiloton test shot Charlie that was carried out in Nevada in 1951, where the top of the mushroom cloud had a red-orange color caused by ionization of oxygen and nitrogen air molecules that formed nitrogen oxides.

  People who saw the red color from a safe distance immediately associated it with blood and carnage, even without exact knowledge of the huge number of victims. Though the electromagnetic pulse caused by the bomb destroyed electronic devices within a radius of a few kilometers from the blast center, effectively cutting out all radio and electronic communications in the vicinity, a few landlines remained operational and conveyed the news of the devastation.

  The first reports that an atomic explosion had taken place in the Old City of Jerusalem were sent almost simultaneously by satellites circling the Earth an
d by the network of seismic stations that monitored earthquakes and nuclear tests. Within less than 20 minutes unmanned drones of the IDF were circling above the area of the blast. The live photos they sent to the control room in Tel-Aviv were so shockingly clear that the normally vibrant atmosphere was replaced by a complete ghastly silence. After a few minutes some of the battle hardened officers wiped tears from the corner of their eyes and got down to business.