Author's abstract: The story offered to the reader takes place in 2001, when America was attacked by Al Qaeda terrorists. The result of this atrocity was the death of three thousand people and the destruction of city infrastructure. Subsequent events were comparable to a brutal, merciless war and were repeatedly reflected in the media. However, history is silent about the fact that Osama bin Laden, the leader of the criminal organization, was captured by American intelligence services and replaced with his double eleven months after the attack on New York and Washington. While terrorist number one was being interrogated in a CIA detention facility, his "second-in-command" ran al-Qaeda until the end of his mission in May 2011. The fate of the real bin Laden remains unknown... I fled to the United States several decades ago, but retained my old ties to Russia. From the words of former secret agents, double agents and defectors, a mosaic of events from the recent past has been reconstructed and presented to the English-speaking world in the form of my novel When al Qaeda Launched the Nuke. (This manuscript can be found online). Subsequently, I translated the text into my native language and renamed it. The new version of the novel is expanded, supplemented and significantly improved. Descriptions of Siberia and Soviet military installations are taken from my personal impressions. In my younger years, I worked in the taiga with other conscripts of the Soviet Army, building missile silos intended for a nuclear strike on the United States. I retained current knowledge of post-Soviet Russia and its complex and troubling ties to Middle Eastern governments and terrorist groups. The novel is written in the wake of actual events. I wish you pleasant reading! Author