The Artifact

Book 3 of the MAURO BRUNO DETECTIVE SERIES

The Artifact – DIALOGUE & PLACES

Monopoli, Italy

It was 6 AM when the Airbus AS365 Dauphin landed on the helipad of the Conti Petroleum oil platform, which was anchored to the floor of the Adriatic Sea seven miles off the coast of the Italian city of Monopoli.

Hotel Vecchio Mulino – Monopoli, Italy

Donati rented a car from Hertz and, driving down the eastern coast of the heel of Italy, checked into the Hotel Vecchio Mulino, a 31-room hotel located in the heart of Monopoli.

Taranto, Italy

Earlier, he’d been enjoying a Peroni beer with a newspaper reporter at a tavern in Taranto, a coastal Italian city of 200,000 on the Ionian Sea, which was 40 miles from his home in Monopoli.

Airbus AS365 N3 Dauphin

Nicchi asked a laundry list of questions from the person who could have easily killed him, all of which went unanswered as he was eventually led to an Airbus AS365 Dauphin helicopter that was in an empty parking lot nearby.

BD&D offices in the Corso Di Porta Romana neighborhood of Milan(https://www.italy-sothebysrealty.com/en/for-rent/residential/milan-apartment-2541.aspx)

The Milan office was a 2,800 square foot four-bedroom apartment located a few steps from the Duomo. It was on the second floor of a white five-story historic building in the Corso Di Porta Romana neighborhood of Milan.

Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport – Bari, Italy

The plan was for Bruno and Donati to take a morning flight to the Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport, rent a car and drive the 40 miles to Monopoli, which didn’t have an airport of its own.

Liquified natural gas (LNG) tanker

Following the mechanical problem with the last LNG tanker headed to Civitavecchia, he tried to get other EU nations to divert one of their LNG deliveries to Italy, but all had the same problems of low reserves and high demand.

Limni, Greece

Captain Gregorio Xenos was a third-generation seafarer from the small town of Limni, in the northwestern portion of the Greek island of Euboea.

Offshore oil rig with derrick

“I assume you weren’t there when he fell,” Bruno said, knowing that Nicchi died on the offshore oil platform.

Port of Doha, Qatar

Sixteen days ago, Xenos had taken on five and a half million cubic feet of LNG in Doha, Qatar and was now 22 hours away from the Italian port of Civitavecchia, which was approximately 50 miles from the center of Rome.

Italian port of Civitavecchia

As demand for LNG carriers was high and schedules tight, Rome was unable to get a replacement shipment prior to the Trochus, and the natural gas supply in Civitavecchia was running perilously low.

Lago di Vico (volcanic lake)

He’d been to that town once before and liked that it was adjacent to the woods, a nature preserve, and the Lago di Vico – a volcanic lake.

Caprarola, Italy

Opening the next folder, which was titled Real Estate, he saw that it had only one asset – a residence in Caprarola, which was 37 miles north of Rome and 341 miles from Monopoli.

ST-16300 LNG tanker truck

Saad Bachir, Ziad Sadig, Rahim Yozef, and Yasin Baqir were in the first four ST-16300 LNG transport trailers, with Sargon Zebari’s men in the sixth and seventh positions.

Rasht, Iran

Sargon Zebari, also known as Thamer Saleem, lived in Rasht, a city of 650,000 on the edge of the Caspian Sea and 200 miles northwest of Tehran.

Italian Army Agusta A129 Mangusta attack helicopter

Patrolling the skies above these areas was a roving patrol of three Italian Army Agusta A129 Mangusta attack helicopters, each equipped with 81mm unguided rockets, fourth-generation anti-tank missiles, and a three-barrel M197 electric canon.

C-17 Globemaster III aircraft

The Secret Service, for example, sent ahead sophisticated monitoring and detection devices on one of the three C-17 Globemaster III aircraft that were now under guard at the Ciampino airport, 17 miles from the Hotel Hassler.

Italian Army ICH-47F Chinook helicopter

Once the Globemaster III’s rear cargo ramp opened, the Nemesis team dragged their gear and the two crates from their aircraft and onto an ICH-47F Chinook helicopter.

VH-3D Sea King helicopter

Hours ago its two sister aircraft arrived with two VH-3D Sea King helicopters, referred to as Marine One when occupied by the president …

F740 Combat Rubber Raiding Craft

The raft that was left for them was an F740 Combat Rubber Raiding Craft – a zodiac-style inflatable referred to among special forces as a CRRC.

MQ-1 Predator drone

In addition to the Sentinel, the airmen at Creech fly the MQ-1B Predator, and its successor the MQ-9 Reaper drone

MQ-9 Reaper drone

In addition to the Sentinel, the airmen at Creech fly the MQ-1B Predator, and its successor the MQ-9 Reaper drone.

RQ-170 Sentinel drone

What he needed instead was the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel drone, which resembled a mini B-2 stealth bomber.

CH-7 Chinese drone

The RQ-170 is virtually a clone of the Chinese CH-7, which entered service at a later date.

AK-74 rifle

Dropping their phones, they ran to their trucks and grabbed what appeared to be AK-74 rifles.

Lushun, China

The Changzheng 6 surfaced in the Bohai Sea, an inlet of the Yellow Sea on the northeast coast of China and docked at the Lushun submarine base.

Dalian, China

The Changzheng 6 surfaced in the Bohai Sea, an inlet of the Yellow Sea on the northeast coast of China and docked at the Lushun submarine base – which was a stone’s throw from Dalian.

Shaanxi Y-8 medium-range Chinese transport aircraft