Charles Z. David
The Dreadful Renegade
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.
FRONT MATTER
"The Dreadful Renegade" is a page-turning thriller about an international terror conspiracy full of twists and turns. 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.
It begins with an appalling breach of security and the removal of highly sensitive information by a renegade American citizen from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the most advanced nuclear weapons for the US arsenal are developed. It continues with a manhunt that encompasses three continents and involves numerous security agencies and intelligence services and an anti-American faction in the heart of the Pakistani government, until its surprising end. It depicts the gullibility of some of the agencies that we rely on for protecting our way of life and presents the harsh reality that not everyone, including some of our allies, does care enough about our security.
"The Dreadful Renegade" follows the "The Dreadful Alchemist" and precedes "The Dreadful Patriot" also by Charles Z. David.
I would greatly appreciate your comments at: charleszdavid1@gmail.com
And would be especially grateful if you would post a review on the Amazon website.
Renegade — a person who deserts and betrays an organization, country, or set of principles (Wikipedia).
Prologue
The large innocent looking suitcase was pushed slowly on its four wheels by an elegantly dressed young woman whose bulging belly announced to the whole world that she was carrying a baby, or perhaps even twins. Gentlemen who offered to help her were repelled by her fierce look and those bold enough to try and actually take hold of the suitcase handle were shooed away by a loud hissing sound emitted through thin lips enclosing her small mouth. She struggled with the wheels that appeared to have a will of their own and looked as if they were arguing with one another about the direction in which to move. Finally she reached the escalator leading to the second level of the large shopping center and realized that the suitcase was too wide for the escalator stairs. She turned around abruptly knocking over a toddler that was holding his mother's hand and without an apology headed toward the wide elevator. The toddler's mother barely managed to hold back the curse that came to her mind and settled for a drop-dead look that she sent to the receding back of the woman who was just entering the elevator. If radiation detectors had been mounted in the elevator they would be chirping like crazy with flashing lights indicating a deadly level of radiation, but none were installed so no one was the wiser about the imminent danger. The woman entered the ladies restroom with her suitcase and barely squeezed into the stall reserved for the handicapped. She quickly removed the pillow that made her midsection bulge, changed her clothes into nondescript jeans and a tightly fitting top that accentuated her slim figure, removed the blond wig she had been wearing and passed a comb through her jet black short hair. She placed the pillow and old clothes in a plastic bag that she left in the corner of the stall next to her suitcase. She then set the combination locks on both sides of the suitcase to the code that would give her 30 minutes to get far enough from the shopping center. She waited until she was certain that the restroom was empty, opened the booth's door and exited. With a small screwdriver that she pulled out of her purse she set the sign on the door to "occupied" and entered the next stall to relieve herself from the sudden urge to urinate. She made her way to the parking lot, went straight to her car that was still parked in the spot reserved for handicapped drivers and without any visible signs of being in a hurry merged with the traffic on highway 55 and then headed north on the I-5, trying to get as far away as possible from the Costa Mesa Mall.
Part 1. Getting in
Chapter 1
Nagib Jaber was carrying out another series of experiments with the electrochemical cell that he had developed under the supervision of his doctoral thesis advisor, Professor Jack Chen. Nagib was well aware of the fact that his professional future as an analytical chemist rested on the success of these new measurements. If he could reproduce the results obtained in his earlier tests then he would be able to complete his thesis and after passing the final exam get his doctorate and start looking for a well-paying job in industry or government. The subject of his thesis was the design of a small, compact, pocket-size device that could be used for determining trace amounts of uranium in water or in soil. With such a device surveys of uranium deposits could be performed in the field without the need to collect samples and transport them to a remote laboratory for analysis. This would enable the surveyors to track uranium bearing mineral deposits simply by following the increase in concentration until the main source was located and also to carry out environmental contamination surveys quickly and cheaply.
Nagib was the only Palestinian student in Professor Chen's large research group that consisted mainly of Chinese students who erroneously thought that Jack Chen was also Chinese and applied in masses to join his prestigious laboratory. Chen was actually originally from Israel, where Chen is pronounced with a hard CH and in Hebrew means "grace" and his first name was Jacob but he preferred the American version of Jack. The students who followed the numerous publications of this prolific scientist were unaware of this fact. Nagib, who was a graduate of Bir-Zeit University in the territory of the Palestinian Authority, also applied to Professor Chen for graduate studies assuming that he was Chinese. Professor Chen himself was quite indifferent about the nationality of his graduate students as long as they agreed to work long hours at a salary that just about allowed them to survive in Las Cruces where the cost of living was quite low. Chen used to joke that he preferred Chinese students because they did not complain and were just grateful for the opportunity to study and live in the United States and also liked Palestinian students because, as he jokingly said to his American colleagues, they had no home to go to for their vacations thanks to the Israel Defense Forces. In the case of Nagib this was accurate — his brother, Yassir, had been involved in the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli youth near Jerusalem and had been apprehended, tried and convicted by an Israeli military court. He was sentenced to a long prison term (capital punishment was not practiced in Israel) and the house of his family was torn down by bulldozers as a retaliatory act and as a warning to other would-be terrorists. Surprisingly, Nagib and Professor Chen got on very well and occasionally shared a meal consisting of Middle Eastern special dishes prepared by Nagib or by Chen's Israeli wife. Nagib knew that as a graduate of Chen's laboratory, and with proper recommendations and references he stood a good chance of getting not only a good job but also a "Green Card" that would allow him to work in the USA and receive citizenship after a few years. It was his dream to become a US citizen and work in one of National Laboratories in which nuclear weapons were designed and produced. He did share this part of his plans with his advisor but did not divulge the second part of his dream — to return to Palestine and seek revenge of the Israelis for destroying his ancestral home.