Kill Them Wherever You Find Them (18 page)

Avi was surprised that the first request was
just the names and general responsibilities of the people who
worked most closely with Lt. General Ashkelon. He thought they
would already have this information, it would not be that difficult
to acquire as there was nothing state secret about those employed
in the General's staff. He was, in fact, relieved that this was all
he had to hand over.

Days after giving this information to her,
she received pictures, sent with a postmark out of Belgium, of her
parents. They looked much better without the bruising and swelling.
Her mother was even wearing cleaner clothing without rips or
stains.

About every 30 days for the first few months,
he was asked for different bits of information. The next three were
also items that were not sensitive, so Avi felt increasingly
comfortable passing this information on. It helped ease the
situation for her parents, her love and gratitude for his help ever
evident at such times in her face. Each time, a few days later,
pictures would arrive of each parent showing them gaining weight
and looking healthier. He began to feel a certain pride in the way
he was helping Mona and her parents.

The fourth month he was asked to provide
information that made him a little uncomfortable. He was supposed
to give her the General's itinerary for the next two weeks.

By this point, he had been read into many of
the details of
The Project
, a necessity as he was working
with increasing frequency with the General and coordinating much of
the work involved therein between the three facilities and the
General's office. Because the General had to visit each of the
facilities often for updates and to download data into a main
computer, his actual travel schedule and his schedule sometimes
released to the media had discrepancies that were required to
maintain appearances and secrecy.

Avi reconciled his concerns by providing her
with the schedule that would in a day or two be provided to the
media such as, "Thank you for your time and willingness to do this
televised interview with us, General Ashkelon. We are sorry to have
interrupted your vacation, enjoy the beach!"

Days later she received pictures of her
parents, both severely beaten. Her mother on a filthy, thin
mattress on her cell floor with blood covering her face, three of
her fingers swollen at an angle that could only happen if they were
broken. Her father appeared to be in even worse condition. The note
stated that they would not tolerate misinformation. If it were to
happen again her parents would be killed and his government would
be sent proof of him passing information to the Iranian government:
photographic, video and audio proof.

Mona was in a state of panic. Avi wasn't far
behind. Trembling, he poured a drink to try and calm their nerves.
Two drinks later he held her and whispered gently in her ear that
he'd never put her parents in that kind of danger again. He added
the fact that he would not provide sensitive information without
some kind of proof that her parents would be released, and released
shortly, as well as given the freedom to leave Iran for the
destination of their choice. If he could be guaranteed their
freedom and safety, then he would provide whatever information he
could acquire, for as long as necessary.

Mona didn't believe this could be
accomplished but he could tell her heart jumped at the
prospect.

"Avi, write a letter to this effect. I'll
translate it into Farsi. To once more embrace my parents, even if
it meant my own death, would be a joy worth the forfeiture of my
life."

"It won't come to that, I promise you. They
have your parents, I have access to information that they need. I
can attain information of which they have not yet dreamed. I'll
give them something that will so amaze them they will gladly
release your parents just to get more."

"But Avi, your job – your oath!"

"Mona, I know the risks to myself, even to my
country. We are sufficiently insulated that even the information
they receive will be unusable without the scientific background
required to make any use of it. I can guarantee that with their
exclusive focus on nuclear, chemical and bio weapons, they have not
developed the sciences necessary to utilize the information I will
provide. Your parents will be freed, they will be fed just enough
information to keep them wanting more, enough to guarantee your
parents' ongoing safety, and enough to guarantee that they not dare
reveal me as the source lest they lose their only access. I'll also
demand money. Not much, mind you, but enough so that if things go
awry we can leave Israel to live comfortably in a country where we
will never be found."

Cairo, Egypt; Tehran, Islamic
Republic Of Iran.

"We have news from Mona." Abd announced. "Avi
will provide the military specifications of their so-called
Project
. We will gain yet another weapon of terror and
domination over the entire Middle East, over the world. He wants
financial guarantees as well as the release from prison of the
people he believes to be her parents. We'll wire money into the
account he set up. We'll then release Mona's
father
but keep
her
mother
in prison for a while longer, just to keep the
leash tight and let him know that we, not he, are in control. We
are planning a demonstration with the
mother
to show him
exactly how serious we are."

"For Westerners it always comes down to
money, doesn't it?" Ghasem questioned aloud. "How are things going
with No'am?"

Abd's face lit up with the response. "Every
bit as well, if not better. At least he's providing information
strictly out of foolish love. For him there is no money motive. The
irony is that he's much more intelligent than Avi but he's now
practically throwing data at Mona. At least Avi is also getting
financial compensation, though he'll not live long enough to enjoy
it. The money is to be routed through banks in Saudi Arabia,
Argentina, and finally Canada before the transfer is complete. We
will get it back, though with a global financial crash it won't be
worth very much beyond toilet paper. Our control over the oil
fields of the Middle East, however; will assure continuity of our
countries and holy religion."

Abd continued, "She is going to drop her
charade with No'am at the next, best opportunity. She feels that
she will get more information from him more quickly through
blackmail than a feigned love relationship. She also feels that he
is beginning to question her background, so coming clean now will
make it easy for her to blackmail him based on what he has already
told her, rather than having her hand forced. He can only provide
scientific data. We will continue to pressure Avi for military use
details."

"Very good, Abd." Ghasem was pleased with the
progress. "On my end, our sleeper cells are increasing in number
and in corresponding strength. We are now firmly in place in every
target city and organization."

Abd continued with something of a scowl, "We
have identified a few more sleepers who are starting to identify
with their targets and have made friendships. This we knew would
happen as they have to be in place for a few years to fully
infiltrate for the attacks to be successful. In most cases, we
simply transferred them to other areas as their background covers
are not fully established. We did have one more couple, a family
actually with two children attending a local high school, begin to
question the moral validity of our objective. They had an
unfortunate accident when their brakes failed."

"That is good. Replace them as quickly as
possible. Sala'am."

Table of Contents

13. HaTikva

"The future is something everyone reaches at the rate of
60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is."
- C. S.
Lewis

Somewhere in the Negev Desert,
State of Israel

Doctors Moshe Levin and
Shmu'el Aharon were
extended the honor of being present with Dr. No'am Abrams for the
first return
landing
. They were thrilled and each wished
that all members of their respective facilities could also be
present. The one exception was Dr. Rachael Siwel. Given her
above-and-beyond contributions to
The Project
, as well as a
genuine need to have her there for the outcome, she stood alongside
the three project managers.

Though Rachael met Avi only a few hours
earlier, her assessment of Lt. General Ashkelon's attaché varied
from that of everybody else in the room. Before the Experiment
began, everybody was understandably on edge. Though all tried to
hide it such feelings of tensions were understandable. If the
Experiment failed the outcome would be difficult to accept. Should
it be a success the outcome would be equally difficult, though for
altogether different reasons.

When Jeff
landed
in the room everybody
clapped and shouted for joy – heartfelt and loud. Rachael noticed
that Avi also smiled and clapped his hands with a cheer but it
didn't seem genuine. At least not as genuine as she felt would be
reasonable. She considered possibilities of strain and exhaustion
but discounted those. All were under a similar strain, all
exhausted, especially Moshe who was considerably older and in poor
health. Yet Moshe looked to be a teenage boy who just learned that
the girl over whom he pined all year also was head-over-heels with
him. No, even happier. The ever-tightening grip of age that was
weakening his body seemed to have evaporated with his joy. His face
had gone from a near-gray pallor to almost pink he was so flush
with excitement.

Something was wrong, she knew it, yet she was
unable to conceive of any reason that Avi would not be every bit as
thrilled with the outcome as everyone else in the room. Even the
conservative, stayed Prime Minister was as close to making a public
spectacle as he would allow himself, giving a hearty bear hug to
all around him; literally lifting people off of their feet.

She knew this was somehow important but did
not want to jump to conclusions, nor exceed her authority without
something more than observations and a gut feeling. Over the years
Rachael had learned to trust her feelings, at times even giving her
instincts precedence over her logical, analytical brain.

Rachael was one of the top twenty Physicists
in the world. Early on her mother had advised her to pick a
secondary field of study, just to maintain a balance in her life.
Her mom didn't really see much of a future in Physics. So while it
was true she wanted some balance in her daughter's life and
education, she also wanted a practical career option. Thus was she
pleased when her daughter received a second doctorate in
Psychology.

Rachael's motives for a PhD in psychology
went beyond balance. She had been a witness to the horrors of the
Sho'ah through her grandmother. Shortly after the Second World War,
especially following the birth of the Jewish state, Israel had more
mental care facilities per capita than any other country in the
world. So many survivors of the Holocaust, having lost everybody
they loved as well as their homes due to countries that didn't want
them to return, let loose the flimsy grip they had on their minds;
their anchor to the living around them.

Some were clinically insane while still in
the death camps, long before they were brought to Israel to heal.
The mental health facilities in Israel were second-to-none. They
helped her then young grandmother regain her footing and go on to
live as normal a life as was possible. She remarried, giving birth
to three more children. Through it all she never again spoke of her
previous husband and children who went up in the chimneys of Nazi
furnaces.

With this family background Rachael went on
to post-graduate work which included counseling patients who could
still be reached. Holocaust survivors were now in their advanced
years. The coming two, possibly three, decades would witness the
last of them pass into humankind's collective memory.

But there would always be those who needed
help to excise mental demons of their own - beyond the more
standard depression, clinical or otherwise - that may last a few
days to a few weeks, which everybody experienced at one time or
another in their lives. Countless people labored under the burden
of emotional pain so far beyond any describable physical pain be it
the loss of a child, a spouse through death or divorce, unresolved
childhood trauma, or a myriad of other things.

Between her education, practical training and
experience, as well as her most vital asset in such matters – her
intuition – she was certain that Avi was battling his own demons.
Would he be able to cope? Would his demons interfere with, or even
compromise, his work with
The Project
?

She made a mental note that No'am didn't
quite seem himself either. Strain and lack of sleep didn't preclude
the fact that there was something off with both. Given to moodiness
and lacking in social graces, she could easily be wrong about
No'am, but not Avi. She would discuss her observations with Moshe
at a more appropriate time and place.

For now, with Jeff bandaged-up and on his
feet, Rachael wanted to congratulate him as well as to more closely
observe him. The psychological effects not only of up-close
assassination, but more especially the heretofore unknown realities
and emotional consequences of time travel, were something to be
both monitored and cataloged for study; coupled with counseling and
guidance if needed.

While historians would spend months pouring
through history on the "outside," comparing individual,
geographical, political, and economic histories in the shielded
areas; observations and study of Jeff would take much longer.