Haim Shimony held a small celebration in his office. It was attended by David Avivi and his elite team consisting of Edna Rieger, Mata, Joe and 'The Fish'. The Mossad Chief looked at the small group and raised a toast, "Thanks to you, the world is a better place. The dreadful menace, the arch-terrorist known as Le Docteur, and his entire organization, NEMESIS, have been wiped off the face of the earth. The P5+1 have negotiated an improved deal with Iran. The Nuclear Deal has been expanded and includes severe restrictions on the development of rockets and missiles. Iran has agreed to pull back its forces from Syria and discontinue its support of terrorist organizations in the Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza and Iraq. New elections will be held in Iran next year. The Supreme Leader's health has deteriorated badly, so it is believed that in the coming elections a more democratic, secular government may be elected."
David, skeptical as always, "Yeah, and the Messiah is coming. Friends, the only thing that we can be assured of is that Le Docteur and his two women, Lara and Fatima, are dead. This dreadful menace has been removed — but the fundamental problems of radical Islam have not been resolved. Sooner or later, another terror organization will raise its ugly head. Sooner or later, Iran, or some other country, will endanger our fragile existence in the Middle East. We can all take a short vacation. I am going to Bologna to see how the reconstruction of the twin towers is going." He saw the smiling faces around him, "Well, I'll also do my best to improve the relations between Italy and Israel."
Acknowledgements
During the Cold-War, the United States maintained large army and air-force bases in West Germany. Due to the great advantage of the Soviet Bloc (Warsaw Pact) forces on the ground, the US (and NATO) military strategists figured that the only way to stop an invasion of the Warsaw Pact tank and infantry forces would be to use tactical nuclear weapons. The famous, or more correctly, infamous, neutron bomb, among other nuclear weapons, was developed for this scenario. The idea was to kill or maim the tank crews (or anyone else who had the misfortune to be near them) while leaving the tanks, and hardware, relatively intact. I don't know if AFAP (artillery fired atomic projectile) munitions, like the 280 mm shells, were part of this arsenal, but I placed them in bunkers of US army camps for the sake of the current plot.
I have never been on a cruise ship, much less on one that is as delightful as the fictitious Baltic Queen that is part of a real and well-respected fleet of cruise ships that sail in the Baltic Sea. The description of the itinerary, the facilities on board the ship and everything else about it is based on the advertisements by the Costa Lines and some reviews I have read. I am sure that passengers on cruise ships like the Baltic Queen thoroughly enjoy it, especially if undesired terrorists like Le Docteur are not on board.
As Matthew Bunn states in the presentation entitled "The threat of nuclear terrorism and NSS16" on YouTube, getting weapon usable nuclear materials is 80 % of the way to creating a nuclear device. Making a terrorist nuke is much easier than producing an efficient nuclear weapon.
If you want a brief and clear explanation on nuclear radiation and its health effects, as well as a short presentation on "dirty bombs" and "Improvised Nuclear Devices", I strongly recommend watching the first 12 minutes of the video, listed below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTd_vuDGGt8
Finally, I wish to thank my 'alpha readers', particularly Rob Carnell, author of "Smuggler's Surprise" and "Nuclear Surprise", and my editor, Glenda Sacks-Jaffe.