"Mohammed!" the chief guard called, but Ghosn cut him off.

I'll take the Commander myself. There is no security problem in my shop."

"But-"

"But you worry like an old woman! If the Israelis were that clever, you'd already be dead, and the Commander with you!" It was too dark to see the expression on the guard's face, but Ghosn could feel the rage that radiated towards him from the man, an experienced front-line fighter.

"We'll see what the Commander says!"

"What's the problem now?" Qati emerged from the door, tucking his shirt in.

I'll drive you myself, Commander. We don't need a security force for this."

"As you say, Ibrahim." Qati walked to the jeep and got in. Ghosn drove off past some astonished security guards.

"What exactly is this all about?"

"It's a bomb after all, not an electronics pod," the engineer replied.

"So? We've retrieved scores of the cursed things! What is this all about?"

"It is easier to show you." The engineer drove rapidly, watching the road. "If you think I have wasted your time - when we are done, feel free to end my life."

Qati's head turned at that. The thought had already occurred to him, but he was too good a leader for that. Ghosn might not be the material of a fighter, but he was an expert at what he did. His service to the organization was as valuable as any man's. The Commander endured the rest of the ride in silence, wishing the medicines he was taking allowed him to eat - no, to retain what he ate.

Fifteen minutes later, Ghosn parked his jeep fifty meters from the shop, and led his Commander to the building by an indirect route. By this time Qati was thoroughly confused and more than a little angry. When the lights went on, he saw the bombcase.

"So, what about it?"

"Come here." Ghosn led him to the corner. The engineer bent down and lifted the tool box. "Behold!"

"What is it?" It looked like a small cannonball, a sphere of metal. Ghosn was enjoying this. Qati was angry, but that would soon change.

"It's plutonium."

The commander's head snapped around as though driven by a steel spring. "What? What do-"

Ghosn held up his hand. He spoke softly, but positively. "What I am sure of, Commander, is that this is the explosive portion of an atomic bomb. An Israeli atomic bomb."

"Impossible!" the Commander whispered.

"Touch it," Ghosn suggested.

The Commander bent down and touched a finger to it. "It's warm, why?"

"From the decay of alpha particles. A form of radiation that is not harmful - here it is not, in any case. That is plutonium, the explosive element of an atomic bomb. It can be nothing else."

"You're sure?"

"Positive, absolutely positive. It can only be what I say it is." Ghosn walked over to the bombcase. "These -" he held up some tiny electronic parts "- they look like glass spiders, no? They are called kryton switches, they perform their function with total precision, and that kind of precision is necessary for only one application found inside a bombcase. These explosive blocks, the intact ones, note that some are hexagons, some are pentagons? That is necessary to make a perfect explosive sphere. A shaped charge, like that for an RPG, but the focus is inward. These explosive blocks are designed to crush that sphere to the size of a walnut."