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

  Ollie found the whole situation not to his liking for two main reasons: first, when he converted to Islam it was as a Suni Muslim like Fatima and the old sheik in Uppsala and not a Shi'ite like most of his Hizbollah colleagues and secondly he wanted combat action not to be positioned in an outpost waiting for something to happen. So when he heard about the formation of a radical Suni armed faction in Iraq and Syria he found a way to desert from Hizbollah on a dark night when no one was watching and travelled across the border from Lebanon to join the ISIS forces in Syria.

  North-East Syria, one year earlier

  The fierce fighting between the Islamic State forces and the poorly trained but determined Peshmergah Kurds near the Turkish border continued with no winner but many losers – the civilian population on both sides of the border and the fighters that lost their lives and even the Turkish regular army soldiers, ordered by their government to stay out of the fighting but to prevent fighters from either side to cross into, and out of, Turkish soil.

  Ollie led a small but select unit that consisted of volunteers from Western Europe that had recently converted to Islam. This unit, known as Ollie's Butchers, was feared for its ruthlessness and cruelty. The new converts to Islam wanted to show the world and particularly their fanatic comrades in arms, that they were totally dedicated to their new found faith. Members of this unit were seen on global TV networks beheading prisoners with a dull dagger. Not shown on TV, although they really wanted to be seen in the act, were the incidents of rape of women, men, girls, boys and babies. These acts were too much even for the most sensational TV stations and were quickly removed from Youtube due to their excessively graphic violence.

  Ollie's cellphone rang once and a coded text message summoned him to the Supreme Commander, known only as El Kahiri in reference to his original hometown of Cairo. El Kahiri set up his headquarters near the front lines of skirmish so that he could watch his troops closely and make sure that they carried out their duties according to his "shock and awe" (to borrow the US term) tactics. Ollie left the unit under the command of his second-in-command John the Beheader, also known as John the Jihadist an ex-Briton, whose masked face was familiar to TV viewers globally as the executioner of western prisoners and hostages.

  Still wearing his blood soaked military fatigues, Ollie mounted a motorbike that was "loaned" from a local garage, and rode to the five story house in which El Kahiri established his headquarters. After passing through the door guarded by two armed troopers, who frisked Ollie and removed his weapons and cellphone, he entered a windowless room on the ground floor with walls that were fortified by slabs of concrete as protection against artillery and mortar shells, as well as against the barrels of explosives dropped by Syrian air force helicopters.

  El Kahiri was seated on a folding chair at a rickety table and looked emaciated with a nervous tick in his left cheek. In a low voice he asked Ollie to sit opposite him at the table and then ordered all others to leave the room. After the door was shut El Kahiri said:

  "Ollie, you know that we have reached a dead-end here in Syria. The world media refuses to screen our footage of executions, pillage, destruction and rape. You are one of my best fighters and certainly a commendable leader of people into battle. You have shown your bravery, ruthlessness and total commitment to the cause of the Islamic State to rid the world of all infidels, be they Christian or Jews who refuse to acknowledge the greatness of Allah and Muhammad his Prophet, or Muslims who are misguided and believe that they can co-exist with these Kafers, and our own brethren who do not recognize our leadership".

  Ollie responded by saying "Supreme Commander, you know that I have seen the light of the true religion and will follow you to the Heaven promised to the Shahids who sacrifice their life for the greatness of Allah".

  "Ollie, I wish to invest upon you the most important mission of our movement. This job requires great responsibility and is our last chance to show the infidels the true way of Allah. This will involve a great deal of scheming and cunning, acting ability and apparent denial of all you believe in. Are you ready for such a task?"

  "Supreme Commander, I am ready and willing to sacrifice my life and that of many others, for our just cause".

  "You are to leave the Middle East, return to Sweden under a false identity, join the nationalist Swedish Resistance Movement (SMR) and pretend to be an avid Muslim hater. With your combat experience, natural leadership ability and utter ruthlessness, you will soon rise among the ranks and assume a dominant position. You will then advance the use of extreme measures to encourage non-Scandinavian residents to leave Sweden. When it turns out that conventional methods are not sufficient to force them to leave, you will suggest the use of unconventional action".

  "How will I do this?"

  "You will propose to get hold of a nuclear device that will be used to blackmail the Swedish government to expel all people that are not of pure Scandinavian descent. You will contact the Nationalist movements in all of Western Europe and together with them will construct such a device. You will convince them to help you by offering the use of this nuclear threat to one country after the other. You will argue that one such device, not to be really detonated only used for blackmail, will be sufficient to rid Europe of all its undesired elements".

  El Kahiri continued "However, your true mission will be to take this weapon to Jerusalem and detonate it at the center of the Old City, wiping out the holy sites sacred to the three false religions: the Wailing Wall of the Jews, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where the Christians believe Christ is buried and the Dome of the Rock mosque where the misguided Muslims worship Allah instead of going to Mecca".

  Ollie could not believe his ears and asked "Do you want to destroy the mosques of Temple Mount? The holy place from which Muhammad took off with his winged horse on his flight to heaven?"

  To this Elkahiri replied "I am glad to see that the religious teachings were taken seriously by you. Yes, I mean that these mosques must also be destroyed as this will start a religious war on a scale that will make World War II look like a minor skirmish. If you are fortunate enough to get another nuclear device you will not hesitate to detonate it in the heart of the primary Colonialist nation – the City of London – causing as many casualties as possible".

  "The plan sounds plausible but where will I get hold of such a device?"

  "Ollie my son, one of our supporters who had studied physics in Spain informed us about a professor of physics in Barcelona who is a rabid supporter of Catalan independence and claims to have developed a method to produce fissile material. I do not understand the scientific principles but my advisors tell me that he does not require a nuclear reactor or a facility to enrich uranium. You, with your background in mechanical engineering and Scandinavian looks, can contact him as a leader of the Swedish Nationalist movement and offer to help him develop his technique. You can convince him that having a nuclear device and threatening Madrid with it is the best way to guarantee Catalan independence. You can also play on his inferiority complex that is derived from the fact that the scientific community effectively shuns him and that his articles were rejected by every scientific journal. Offer him the means to complete his project and show the whole world what a great innovator he is".

  "I hope I am up to the challenge".

  "One last thing my son. Remember that no members of our ISIS council are aware of this plan. When you leave Syria the council will be informed only that you were sent by me on a personal top-secret mission for the cause of true Islam. So you will have to go into deep cover and will not be allowed to contact me or any known member of ISIS. You will operate independently and will have no access to any of our funds, bank accounts and supporters".

  "Supreme Commander, I am honored to have such an assignment and will do my best to succeed. Praise Allah".

  Ollie left the house, retrieved his weapons and cellphone from the bodyguards and got on his motorbike to return to his unit. As he approached their location he saw a column of b
lack smoke rising from a large smoldering crater. The stench of smoke, blood and bodies was so strong that he had to wrap his kefiya over his nose and mouth. Through the dense smoke he could barely see body parts and twisted weapons scattered all over the crater and realized that he was the sole survivor of his unit. Looking up he saw three women from a nearby demolished building standing on the rim of the crater and raising their hands towards the sky and blessing the pilot of the helicopter that threw the bomb that killed his whole unit. An uncontrolled rage swept through his body at the sight of his dead comrades and the gloating women and without a second thought he aimed his AK47, set the selector to automatic, and with one long burst cut the three women in half.

  Stockholm, 6 months earlier

  When he returned to Sweden, Ollie resumed the name and identity he had used after fleeing Sweden a few years earlier, so he continued to call himself Olaf Gunther Andersson, known in short as Ollie. Upon his return to Sweden he decided to stay away from Uppsala where he might be recognized and established himself in Stockholm as an unemployed disgruntled young man. He started frequenting seedy bars in which cheap beer and bootlegged whiskey were openly sold and within a few days he made some likeminded friends. He loudly complained about his fate and the fact that he could not find suitable employment and blamed that on the Jews that controlled the economy and on the Arab immigrants that took all the jobs as they were willing to work for a very low salary. He tried to pick fights with anyone with dark skin who dared enter the bars he visited but made sure to avoid being questioned by the police for fear of being recognized as the person wanted for involvement in the death of the motorcyclist that killed Fatima a couple of years earlier.

  One or two of the young men that were present at such brawls occasionally joined him in beating up the suspect Jews or Muslims, or any other foreigner that happened to be unfortunate enough to be near them. Ollie was soon invited to attend public rallies and private meetings in which the crowd called for the expulsion of all foreigners from Sweden calling them parasites that sucked money and health benefits from the social security system. In fact, most of the protestors and demonstrators themselves lived on social security money while most of the immigrants were gainfully employed and paid their taxes regularly. But these facts were irrelevant since prejudice and xenophobia were dominant. Ollie organized a gang of racist hooligans and initiated raids on neighborhoods in which immigrants lived, using fire bombs to ignite and burn cars and apartments, and beating up anyone who tried to stop them. The police responded slowly to calls for help in these neighborhoods as they had often been pelted with rotten fruit and stones by the residents. Some of them even sympathized with the hooligans and had no interest in detaining them.

  Ollie became known as a reliable participant in any brawl that involved immigrants. In one case three of his colleagues beat up a skinny youth who unfortunately for him could not speak Swedish fluently. When he lay almost unconscious on the sidewalk Ollie happened upon the scene and without hesitation kicked the boy in the head with his heavy boot murmuring inaudibly Allah Yerahamo (Allah will have mercy on his sole). His friends were too shocked by this act and did not ask what he had whispered. Word soon got around that Ollie was a fearless bully without any inhibitions when it came to beating up immigrants. On this particular case, the newspaper reported that the unidentified young man suffered irreparable brain damage and would spend the rest of his life in a vegetative state.

  Soon after this incident, when Ollie was standing in his favorite bar sipping his beer, he was approached by a blonde girl whose arms were covered with tattoos depicting gory scenes of fierce Viking warriors torturing and raping dark skinned women. The blonde snuggled close to Ollie and introduced herself as Alva asking him if he would like to buy her a drink. She then removed her shirt remaining with her scanty vest and Ollie could see that additional tattoos with even more garish scenes spread over her torso. Ollie, who had not spent time with female companions since Fatima's death, not counting the women he raped and then killed in Syria, was slightly at a loss for words. But her open face, her smile and the invitation in her eyes convinced him that she presented no danger to his true clandestine cause and he asked her what she would like to drink. Alva said that she would have whatever he was drinking and suggested that they move from the crowded bar to a quiet table. Ollie recalled his days in university where sex and one night stands were common and wanted none of that but followed her to the table. When they were seated Alva said that she was sent by Andreas who was the notorious leader of the Street Brigade of the Nationalist SMR militant organization. While the movement itself was above board and careful not to cross the line between legitimate speech and actions and illegal activities, the Street Brigade was the paramilitary arm consisting of enforcers and bullies very much like the Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA) Brown Shirts in prewar Germany. They guarded the Nationalist SMR rallies and brutally disrupted meetings by opposing parties. Their leader, Andreas Harald Nordholm, a Viking giant two meters tall weighing 140 kg, was well known as the "head cracker" due to the walking stick he wielded and used freely when the cameras were not rolling. Ollie knew that by gaining the attention of Andreas he had achieved an important step of the plan concocted by the Supreme Commander. What he now had to do was to gain Andreas's confidence and present him with the grand scheme of manufacturing a nuclear device as well as forming an alliance with likeminded Nationalist movements in Europe.

  After finishing their drinks, Alva told Ollie to hug her and pretend that they were just going out for some private time together. Once outside she disengaged herself from his grasp and beckoned him to follow her to a modern apartment building nearby. She entered the access code on the keypad at the entrance to the building and led the way to an elevator. Inside the elevator she took a small key out of her pocket and inserted it into the lock that allowed access to the penthouse at the top of the building. The elevator door opened and Ollie was frisked unprofessionally by two bodyguards. This reminded him of the very different and thorough search he had undergone before meeting the Supreme Commander in Syria a few months earlier. Andreas was seated in a comfortable leather recliner with a snifter of cognac in his hand. Alva approached him and tried to sit on his lap but Andreas slapped her gently on her back and told her to wait for him in the bedroom. He then welcomed Ollie. Ollie knew that the following minutes would be crucial for the success of his plan and prepared himself for the questions that were bound to follow.

  "You must be Ollie. I heard a lot about you and was especially impressed by the way you kicked that boy in the head".

  "Andreas, I am sorry I couldn't finish the job but your men were so shocked by that little friendly kick I gave the boy that I felt that they would throw up if I continued and finished the job".

  "Yea, these softies are only good when they are three to one against a lone boy. They have a soft core. You, on the other hand, are probably the real thing. Tell me about yourself".

  "I had a perfectly normal life until I was 15 and joined a football club at my hometown of Malme. Most of the other players, and the coach, were Muslim immigrants who saw an opportunity to advance in society by excelling in sports. After each match we used to go to the shower together to wash ourselves from the perspiration of the game. One day two of the kids made sure that none of the other true Swedes were in the shower and grabbed my arms and then called the coach who tried to rape me. I was quite big and strong even at the age of fifteen and managed to kick one of the kids who held my right arm, punch the kid who held my left arm and then free myself and run naked out of the shower. The coach and kids hesitated for a moment and I got away. When I tried to lodge a complaint with the police it was my word against the three of them. So, I decided to hunt them down one by one and do justice myself. I caught the first boy just outside his home and broke his right leg so that he would never play football again. I waited for the second boy near his school and one day when he was alone I caught him and punched him silly by hitting him several t
imes on his head until he collapsed. He, too, did not return to the football field. The coach, in a typical cowardly Arab fashion, left Malme and disappeared. Ever since, I have hated foreigners, and particularly Muslim Arabs".

  "How old are you, Ollie? Where have you been since that incident?"

  "Andreas, I was in and out of schools and correctional institutions. I got a partial education attending a local college but never got a degree. I am now twenty seven years old and have nothing: no job, no girl and no future. Only if we can rid our nation of these parasites will I have a chance for a real life".

  "Would you like to join our Street Brigade as a group leader?"

  "There is nothing I would like more. I believe that we can make a bigger impact on the good people of Sweden by doing unexpected things. Just beating up immigrants hardly makes the headlines anymore and vandalism of public property loses favor in the eyes of the conservative Swedes. We need to do something really big and I have some ideas".