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

  THE DREADFUL ALCHEMIST

  Text Copyright @ 2015 by Charles Z David

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction and all its characters and events are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, or to real events, is purely coincidental. Likewise any depiction of Israeli governmental bodies or agencies is solely the product of the author's imagination.

  Contact: [email protected]

  FRONT MATTER

  "The Dreadful Alchemist" is an action packed, fast moving international thriller, and a page turner from cover to virtual cover. It takes the reader from peaceful Scandinavia, to the offices of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and through a clandestine laboratory culminating in the turmoil of the Middle East where the Islamic State seeks to establish the New Islamic Caliphate. ISIS plans to detonate a nuclear device to ignite a global war, but David Avivi, a brilliant physicist who is a Mossad agent, and the Israel Security Agency are just one step behind...

  ˃˃˃ Who can stop ISIS from promoting destruction and havoc on a global scale.

  The author skillfully leads us through the current political situation in the Western world by employing menacing ingredients such as fanatic Islam and an atomic bomb threat. This book comprises of classical components such as sex and the Middle East conflict, the reader is easily and quickly caught by the developing plot. The scientific core is (thank God) unfounded, yet it looks reasonable even for scientists that are not experts in nuclear physics.

  This book is highly recommended for those who like thrillers with unexpected original plot.

  David Z. Charles is the pen-name of a renowned scientist who worked for the Israel Atomic Energy Commission for over 35 years and has been active in the research and development of advanced analytical chemistry methods. He has also been involved in international affairs as an expert and in this fictional novel brings forth some of his own knowledge of nuclear science as well as a healthy degree of imagination. The plot is so realistic that some of the readers confessed to having sleepless nights in case such a thing could really happen.

  "The Dreadful Alchemist" is followed by "The Dreadful Renegade" that was published by Amazon Kindle e-books in December, 2015, and precedes "The Dreadful Patriot" that is due in March, 2016, also by Charles Z. David.

  I would greatly appreciate your comments at: [email protected]

  And I would be especially grateful if you would post a review on the Amazon website.

  The Dreadful Alchemist

  Charles Z. David

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Acknowledgments

  The Dreadful Renegade

  The Dreadful Alchemist

  Charles Z. David

  Prologue

  In the chest of every real scientist beats the heart of an alchemist dreaming of converting base metals into gold, but even the wonders of modern technology have not managed to produce gold through transmutation.

  The closest resemblance is turning cheap, inexpensive uranium into precious, almost priceless, weapon grade plutonium. To date, this has been carried out only by a small number of states using nuclear reactors and deploying complicated chemical processes to extract the plutonium product. Strict safeguards are implemented to monitor production of fissile materials - plutonium and high enriched uranium – to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

  The dreadful alchemist has devised a method to transmute thorium into uranium-233, a fissile material that is not closely watched. The process can be carried out in a clandestine facility, readily disguised as regular chemical laboratory. With this material making an atomic bomb is as easy as lighting a fire, a fire that might engulf our entire planet.

  Chapter 1

  April 18th, Barcelona

  Oscar Gunnar Axelsson, , a fine looking man in his late twenties with typical Scandinavian features known to his few old friends simply as Ossi, strolled down the famous Ramblas promenade in Barcelona. The regulars, including pickpockets, con artists and wallet snatchers that made their living off the many gullible tourists, took a fleeting look at the tall blond man and viewed him as a potential victim, but, a second look convinced them that he was far from being a soft touch. Perhaps it was the controlled way he moved his athletic body or the toughness in his weary facial expression, as if he had seen all this before.

  Ossi sauntered along the Ramblas enjoying the living statues, the three-card-Monty shysters and the vivacious crowds. Although the tourist season was just beginning, there were large swarms of people bustling in the shaded avenue, eating ice cream, admiring the street vendors with their meager merchandise displayed on a blanket ready to be folded in seconds if the police hassle them. The gathering of people round the street performers provided good opportunities for the pick-pockets with nimble hands and for those working in groups to make sure that the victim was unaware of being robbed in broad daylight.

  The instincts of the regulars to avoid Ossi served them well as his outward appearance was in sharp contrast with his real personality. In fact, after obtaining a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Faculty of Science and Technology of Uppsala University, he decided that spending his entire life in an industrial plant or a research laboratory would be boring and looked for more adventurous and challenging things to do.

  He was initially drawn to Islam through some of his fellow students and later through a romantic involvement with a beautiful and exotic young girl. After a tragic accident that killed her on their wedding day, he had to leave Sweden in haste and seek refuge from the police in the Middle East. Within a short time he drifted to more and more extreme factions until he became a full-fledged member of the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) movement and excelled in their murderous journey through Iraq and Syria.

  He accepted their vision of establishing a new Caliphate – an empire that would encompass a vast area and include present day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, the entire Arabian Peninsula and a broad strip along the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea stretching from Sinai, through Egypt, Libya to Tunisia – and like many converts was a fervent devotee of the Caliphate.

  Ossi had recently returned from the battlefront in Syria where he had led a death squad unit in charge of sowing terror into the hearts of the unbelievers and those Muslims considered as not being true-believers. For ISIS, the category of the unbelievers included practically everyone who was not a member of their faction or showed compassion or even hesitation before shooting old men, women and babies who were unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  The leader of ISIS had designated Ossi to head the efforts to obtain the ultimate weapon – a nuclear device – that would bring the West and its allies down on their knees and would ensure the removal of the last infidels from the holy territory of the Islamic State and the Arab Nation.

  ISIS realized that the fundamentalist Shiite regime in Iran would not supply them with the fissionable material they needed. Even worse, the relig
ious leaders of the Iranian Islamic Republic rightly saw ISIS as a threat to Shiites worldwide and therefore were willing to join forces with the US led coalition against ISIS. The "black market" in smuggled or stolen nuclear materials that thrived after the demise of the Soviet Union had practically seized to exist and offers of nuclear warheads for sale were now considered as no more than a hoax. This forced the ISIS leaders to devise plans to acquire the material through a different route. Arabic looking agents were bound to raise suspicion immediately so the leaders chose to conduct a "false flag" operation with their agents posing as a European ultra-right wing group. Ossi's Aryan looks and his unquestioned dedication to ISIS cause and his proven ruthlessness made him an ideal candidate to lead this effort.

  Ossi knew that the best place to hide, and to lose a tail if he was being followed, was in a crowded area and the Ramblas avenue was ideally suited for this purpose. After strolling along the boulevard for several minutes and playing at being a tourist he slipped into the quieter Boqueria Street and made his way to the Travel Bar, famous for serving as the starting point for free walking tours that were led by excellent guides. The tables in the shaded courtyard were almost fully occupied by tourists and a few local young men trying to pick-up unattached female and male tourists.

  Ossi found a vacant table and sat down waiting for his contact to arrive. A dark, good-looking young woman asked him in rapid Catalan if the chair next to him was free. Ossi answered in English that he did not understand and the woman asked in slightly accented English whether she could join him as all other seats were taken. Hearing the code phrase "all other seats were taken" he answered with the prearranged "please be seated and I'll buy you a cool drink". She sat down and introduced herself as Ramona and he introduced himself as Ollie, short for Olaf Gunther Andersson, his current cover name, and asked her if she would be his guide in Barcelona. This charade, straight out of a cheap spy novel, was acted out for the sake of anyone sitting nearby and listening to their conversation. After finishing their drinks, Ramona led the way to her car that was parked nearby and drove off without telling him where they were heading. They passed by Catalunya Caixa the square that had been the focal point for many demonstrations, then drove up the beautiful Passeig di Gracia through the modern Eixample quarter and then along the Avenida Diagonal taking a sharp left down Carrer de Berlin into Avenida de Madrid passing by the famous Camp Nuo the home of the Barcelona football and basketball teams and on to the Universidad de Barcelona. Ossi kept glancing at Ramona and was impressed by the practiced way she handled the car and weaved through the traffic and told her so. Ramona shrugged at the compliment and said that this was a prerequisite for survival in the crowded streets of Barcelona.

  Ramona parked the car and, again, without saying a word, led the way to one of the buildings that housed several classrooms and laboratories. There was a large courtyard with many tables occupied by noisy students who were busy drinking coffee and laughing. On the second floor Ramona knocked on the door with a sign indicating this was the office of Prof. Matias Antonio Modena. Ramona exchanged a few words in Catalan with the tall thin man that appeared to be in his early sixties and then introduced Ollie as the emissary from Sweden.

  The professor turned to him and in perfect English said "I am pleased to meet you Ollie. You can call me Matias. Ramona told me you came from Sweden to discuss matters of mutual interest".

  Ollie respectfully responded "Professor, I am honored to meet you and am sure that we will find that we have similar goals. My organization has heard about your groundbreaking research in nuclear physics and engineering and it interests us".

  "Unfortunately, no scientific journal has agreed to publish my work and the reasons the editor gave for rejecting it were based on peer reviews by narrow minded, ignorant and envious colleagues who do not believe that what I did in my lab is possible. They do not accept my reported experimental results and even went so far as to write to the head of my department here that I should be audited for malfeasance and for fabricating results".

  "I am not a scientist, professor, but I understand that this is highly unusual. What did you do to upset them and raise such suspicions?"

  "I spent hours on end working alone in the lab. I did this because all my graduate students, except Ramona here, have left me because they thought that I was insane, or so they implied. Ramona participated in most of the work but for safety reasons I preferred that she leave the lab when I performed some rather dangerous experiments. I must say that I have repeated the work several times and obtained the same results – thorium was transformed into uranium-233 without the use of a nuclear reactor or a standard neutron source, just by using an intense gamma radiation source. The scientific community is unwilling to face the facts and therefore I have been ostracized".

  "Professor…"

  "Please call me Matias."

  "OK, Matias could anyone repeat your experiments and validate your results?"

  "Well, young man, this has such a large commercial potential that I left out some technical details. Therefore, anyone attempting to repeat my work was bound to fail and indeed they did. The basic physical principle is quite complicated but in simple terms you could say that I converted common thorium into a very precious commodity – fissile material".

  "May I ask how you gained access to a gamma source?"

  "Very strong gamma sources are used in hospitals for radiation therapy or in facilities for sterilization of medical equipment and food products. Another application is in the chemical industry. Several sources are lost accidentally each year and they are called "orphan sources". For my experiments, I got hold of two such sources and by combining the radiation from both sources I created a single extremely strong source. I would rather not go into the details of the means I used to get these two sources, but suffice it to say that with enough money and the help of Catalan patriots it became possible".

  "Aren't these sources difficult to handle and dangerous?"

  "If you keep them properly sealed in their protective containers they are perfectly safe for someone who knows what he is doing. I did need some manual help and proper equipment to transport them to my lab, and there I disguised them as items of standard laboratory equipment. Even the audit of my work, carried out by the head of the department and the faculty dean did not identify the sources as I made sure they were sealed and no radiation leaked out".

  "Professor, sorry, Matias, what is the efficiency of the transmutation you have achieved converting thorium into uranium-233?"

  "Well, Ollie, my method exceeds by far the efficiency of neutron bombardment that occurs in nuclear reactors".

  "This is very impressive, professor, can you tell me on what scale you have carried out your experiments?"

  "So far only on a few grams of thorium, but scaling up should be simple, provided I can get enough gamma radiation sources. Purchasing thorium is very easy – several companies in India and China will gladly sell you as much thorium as you can pay for and ship it to you disguised as fertilizer or other chemicals for a fee, of course. High purity thorium is more expensive but can also be bought without the need to answer any questions".

  "Do you mean to say that all you need to produce kilogram quantities are gamma sources, a few hundred kilograms of thorium and a suitable laboratory?"

  "Yes Ollie, but then you need to separate the fissile uranium-233 from the parent thorium and this requires a small chemical laboratory and some patience."

  "Why patience?"

  "You need to wait about three months to allow enough time for the formation of uranium-233 from the intermediate product formed after irradiation of the thorium and nothing can be done to make this conversion occur faster".

  "I understand that you need to wait a few months for that, but is it correct that this could be done in almost any chemical laboratory with a few additional safety measures?"

  "Yes indeed, I can produce enough uranium-233 to fuel a nuclear power plant at a fraction of the cost nee
ded to enrich natural uranium or to produce plutonium in a nuclear reactor".

  "Professor, as you know, our movement is not too concerned with power plants and electricity production…"

  "Ollie, please do not elaborate what other applications you have in mind. Given the proper utilities and a few months, I can provide you with kilogram quantities of high purity uranium-233".

  "Thank you, Professor Modena for meeting me. I am sure that your scientific genius will soon be recognized by your peers and nomination for the Nobel Prize is only a matter of time once you show them that the energy problems of the world can be solved without using fossil fuels. I need to present these exciting ideas to my organization and convince them to fund your project and lend you all the assistance you need. I will be in touch as soon as I can".

  "Thank you Ollie. It was a pleasure meeting such an enthusiastic young man".

  Chapter 2

  Uppsala University, Sweden, 3 years earlier

  Young Oscar Gunnar Axelsson, Ossi, was in the final year of his undergraduate studies of mechanical engineering and trying to decide what to do after graduation. Despite his blond good looks he had not managed to form a lasting relationship with any of the many female students that also attended the university. Sure, he had been through several one-night-stands where each side just sought physical relief from pressures and by mutual consent took advantage of each other. Seeing that his classmates knew exactly what they planned to do after leaving the university – some intended to go on and get an advanced degree, others wanted to start a bourgeois career with jobs in industry or government while a few enterprising soles wanted to start their own high-tech company - Ossi felt somewhat like an outcast. His best friends were two dark skinned students who were second cousins, Ahmed and Abdullah had immigrated to Sweden from Lebanon after one of the many civil clashes that ripped Lebanon. As devout Muslims they refused to join him in his drinking binges and did not show any interest in the female students. Although they were registered as students of political science at the university they spent more time at the Islamic community center than in the classroom, a fact that explained why after 6 years at the university (courtesy of the Swedish taxpayer money) they had yet to complete their bachelor's degree.