The Italian anti-corruption unit, headed by Piero Adriano, had combed the area in and around Padova looking for sources of gamma radiation. Handheld radiation detectors were distributed among the troops and they had meticulously scanned every farm, villa or secluded residence in a vast area. In addition, unmarked vehicles specially mounted with highly sensitive detectors had traversed the many gravel roads in Veneto province around Padova travelling at very low speed causing traffic delays and giving the impatient Italian drivers cause for silent complaints and not-so-quiet verbal abuse. The only positive responses the radiation detectors attained were from discarded smoke detectors that contained americium.
David was given a daily report of the lack of progress and growing frustration but could not reveal the fact that a search on a smaller scale by the Mossad team also yielded no results. He gradually became convinced that the clandestine laboratory had to be in a central location so that the unexplained burst of activity would not be noticed by local authorities and residents. He advised Piero that they should focus on finding a group of foreigners that resided and dined near the center of town and, although not really expecting successful identification of the two scientists, asked him to check the hotels and restaurants in the vicinity. He consulted with Umberto and Piero if the time was right to permit the agents to use the photos of Modena and Smalley and the police artist's image of the blond man when questioning the staffs at the hotels and restaurants. He emphasized that they were running out of time and needed to take a chance that word of the ongoing intensive search would reach the suspects. The Italians agreed that they needed to use more decisive measures and all the agents were sent to inspect the tourist areas in the town itself.
Umberto said that people trying to keep a low profile would probably shy away from the large tourist hotels as those insisted on registering the guests and photo-copying their passports and were usually paid with credit cards whose records of transactions could be followed. In addition, a group of men staying for an extended period in a large hotel was bound to raise suspicion that something irregular and illegal was taking place. On the other hand, the small bed and breakfast places often "forgot" to register guests and preferred cash deals, so that there would be no record that could attract the attention of the tax authorities. He reckoned that there would be a couple of dozen of these places near the center and promised to send the agents to cover all of these with a top priority. Within 24 hours the proprietors at all these small B&Bs were questioned.
After being promised that no information would be passed to the tax authorities, the owner of a small pension recalled that two men, one who looked like Dr. Smalley and one like the blond man, stayed at his place for one night a few months previously. He remembered them because very few tourists came in winter and these two arrived at night, without making a booking, paid cash and checked out early the next morning without even having breakfast. They did not appear to be interested in the tourist attractions but did not look like business men. When the information was passed on to David he asked Piero if he could personally try to find out if the date of that stay was at the end of January — coinciding with the approximate date that Dr. Smalley met the mysterious blond man in London. The owner did not remember the exact date but thought that it could have been near the end of January. In one of the restaurants they also got a positive identification of all three suspects. The proprietor noted that the three men had a quiet but intense discussion in English. He remembered that they ordered two bottles of his most expensive wine, a fact that pleased him, as there were very few tourists at that time of the year. He also noticed that whenever he came close to their table to serve them their discussion ceased and was renewed after he was out of earshot. When asked again about the language they were speaking he said that they placed their orders in English but two sounded like foreigners and the third had a British accent.
David and the Italians marked the two places on a large scale map of Padova and saw that they were not far apart and quite close to the Botanical Gardens. Piero called all his agents and divided the area in question into small sections and assigned a team to meticulously comb each section. The teams were briefed to pay special attention to newly established firms that presented themselves as involved in the chemical industry, according to the list obtained from the municipal authorities under the guise of searching for a clandestine laboratory for drug manufacturing.
Given the number of agents, the small area on which the search focused and the guidelines, it was no surprise that within less than an hour the warehouse was found. The two agents saw the name Astraea on the front door and a quick inquiry of the neighbors told them that the company was allegedly involved in research and development operations in the chemical industry. They immediately called Piero, who summoned Umberto and David to the site. The front office of Astraea was closed and as far as they could tell there was no one in the building. They brought their most sensitive gamma radiation detector and noted that the reading was slightly above the background level and the source appeared to be in the warehouse. Despite the fact that it was early in the evening they managed to obtain the floor plan of the building from the municipal archives and discovered that it had a vast basement area. Without waiting for a court order Umberto gave Piero an order to break down the door but use the radiation detectors to make sure that his people were not exposed to radiation. They carefully entered the building and found that the first floor had been converted into a dormitory that appeared to have been abandoned in a hurry. David counted 12 bunks which agreed with the estimate of the size of the workforce. They also found a small kitchen and dining area in which unwashed dishes were scattered indicating that the people left the place without bothering to tidy up and probably with no intension to return.
Going down the stairs to the basement the radiation intensity grew so that even the personal detectors with their relatively low sensitivity registered significant levels. David and Umberto told the rest of the people to remain in the street level office area while the two of them slowly went from chamber to chamber in the basement taking in the equipment in the three main rooms. The radiation monitor clicked like crazy when they entered the largest chamber and saw the lead bricks that lined the walls. David took one look at the four channels that led from the corners of the room to the middle of the chamber and saw the stainless steel vessel in the center and immediately understood that Professor Modena had carried out his plan to irradiate thorium. In the next chamber they found the chemical processing equipment and realized that the U-233 must have been successfully separated and purified there. The radiation level in this chamber was also high and they noticed a few stains on the floor that indicated that some liquids had been spilled. These stains emitted particularly intense radiation and David thought that this could have been due to the uranium, thorium or fission products. In the third chamber they found a lathe that had probably been used to shape the uranium core. Umberto called David's attention to a spherical object on a side table that actually consisted of two solid hemispheres with a diameter of about 10 centimeters. The radiation emanating from this sphere indicated that it consisted of a radioactive element but it was not as intense as the levels measured in the other rooms. David surmised that it was the mock-up core made from natural uranium that had probably been used as a mock-up model for the real fissile material core.