Kill Them Wherever You Find Them (5 page)

~ ~ ~

While the work week in Israel typically
begins Sunday morning, the staff of
The Project
had a few
days off to make up for the absence from their loved ones and to
allow them some time to get immediate concerns taken care of as
there would be many more lengthy absences in the foreseeable
future.

The days with her family passed much too
quickly and now she found herself returning to
The Project
.
She could not help but feel a sense of anticipation, excitement
even, and more than a little foreboding as she drove her little
gas-saving compact to the drop-off / pick-up area.

Hers would be but one part of
The
Project
, and she would have only a basic understanding, where
needed, of the part the others played. One of the many rules was
that they were not to talk about their work with one another when
not actually conducting work. The common room and recreational
areas were strictly non-work. Hidden cameras and microphones were
everywhere – even in their
private
living areas. These not
only protected them from intruders and internal espionage, but they
also served to assure rules were being followed to the letter. The
fate of the nation, and even perhaps the Jewish People as a whole,
was riding on
The Project
.

She knew that there were two more facilities
of
The Project
in other parts of the country. A location
such as the Negev Nuclear Research Center in the Negev Desert area
called "Dimona," the reputed site of a nuclear reactor and weapons,
would be ideal for a location of
The Project
. Even Rachael,
with her security clearance, had not been allowed to breach its
steel-reinforced, sacrosanct walls.

Parking her car in the designated spot,
reasonably certain that she wasn't followed, she exited and walked
across the street to hail a shayroot, an Israeli multi-passenger
taxi that was the equivalent of two taxis in one, allowing for
multiple passengers during lengthy trips to share the expense.

Within seconds the shayroot pulled up and
stopped beside her with a scratch on the passenger door exactly
where it should be, a predefined hand signal, and a driver's face
that matched the photo sent to her mobile phone. Assured that this
was her driver, doubtlessly armed to the teeth, Rachael settled
into the back seat when the door automatically opened for her.

She noticed how low the car was to the
street, lower than a regular shayroot. This was to be expected, and
reassuring. The vehicle had significant alterations to allow for
heavy plating around the body, roof, and undercarriage. Its wheels
would withstand the impact of a low-yield RPG. Thick windows with
nearly invisible wire filament provided security stronger than
bullet-proof glass found at bank teller stations.

The vehicle also had a special wire mesh
throughout that would block all incoming and outgoing transmission.
Both the driver and passenger had access to two redundant emergency
radio systems, tuned to the bandwidth used by the country’s
security services. Two cleverly designed antennae for each
emergency radio system, invisible from outside the vehicle assured
strong transmission. The emergency radios even had their own
independent processors that monitored the car, allowing each to
transmit an automated emergency message if the shayroot were to be
significantly damaged or the passengers rendered unconscious.

From the outside the shayroot looked
ordinary. The passenger area, which would have comfortably
accommodated eight adults, was custom designed for no more than two
passengers so that it could be fitted with many of the conveniences
of home.

The comfort and elegance of its appointments
were partly an effort to diffuse tensions experienced when one
knows that one is effectively severed from the outside and a
sitting duck
in a potentially hazardous situation.

Rachael had completed a lengthy and detailed
questionnaire about her preferences in food and dietary
requirements and special requests. Being strictly Orthodox, she
observed all kashrut laws to maintain a kosher kitchen in her
home.

The questionnaire further included inquiries
relative to preferred books and other forms of entertainment,
clothing restrictions - she would not wear pants or shorts -
prescriptions both medical and optical, special exercise
requirements, personal care needs and wants, allergies, and a
litany of other items. This questionnaire was the second time she
was answering these questions about her wants and needs while
employed at
The Project
.

At the beginning of the screening process,
there were seemingly countless psychological tests, some overt such
as written essays and
describe what you see
pictures, in
tandem with others of a more camouflaged nature.

Additional background checks went beyond
those already conducted for her security clearance. There were
judicious inquiries about, and with, her family and friends, her
online activities and social networks.

Rachael felt that the organizers of
The
Project
knew her better than she knew herself. No doubt they
also kept tabs on the conduct and financial affairs of her family
members as well: children, spouse, parents, and siblings.

Given all the information already compiled on
her likes and dislikes, she wasn't surprised to find a crystal
glass and silver ice bucket stocked with a bottle of Perrier
mineral water waiting for her. This wasn't the glass of calming red
wine she would have preferred under the circumstances, but it would
have to do.

The consumption of alcohol for the duration
of
The Project
, except for a glass of wine as a part of the
Sabbath meal for the religiously observant, was strictly
prohibited. Indeed, wine for religious purposes wasn't required.
One could drink grape juice or even water for the Sabbath and
religious holidays such as Passover, but she had already given up
so much of her life she had no intention of giving up wine on the
Sabbath! Other than the Sabbath meal - sometimes not even then -
she never drank alcoholic beverages unless accompanied by a
romantic meal with her husband, so this wouldn't be a deal breaker.
She wondered what would be on ice in the shayroot for her Mormon
colleague, Jeff, to drink.

As difficult as these changes in her daily
routine were for her, Rachael mused, it must be considerably more
so for Jeff. After all, she was in her own country and her family
was ever nearby. He, however, was in a country with a language and
culture largely foreign to him, his family and friends thousands of
miles away.

As a Christian he was always welcome, for the
most part, and had many friends already – but he and everybody else
knew he could never fit in 100%. There was a growing social
backlash at the number of non-Jews living and working in the
country. Most were poorly paid, frequently working
off the
books
illegally, from countries such as the Philippines and
Eastern Europe. They were having babies in Israel, requiring an
increasing draw from the common tax base for medical treatment and
childhood education.

Exacerbating matters were also non-Jewish,
non-Arab people in Israel, in high paying positions, taking jobs
from Israelis. In fact this latter group in reality did no such
thing. They were only allowed in for high positions in industries
such as commerce, manufacturing, technology, and etcetera when
their experience and qualifications were markedly superior to other
applicants. It's difficult to deny or ignore the very perception of
the mainstream population. Like it or not perception in any society
is the equivalent of reality.

While he appeared to thrive in such an
environment, Stauffenberg's family so far away in the United States
would certainly take its toll on him emotionally after a period of
time. Rachael could be with her family with some regularity. But
for Jeff, trips home would have to be planned with extra security
measures in place for him and his family. Unknown to his family,
nine Mossad agents would watch over them in shifts of three at
their home and schools, providing a measure of comfort to this
exceptional husband and father.

For him, the struggle was that they had no
idea of his real work or even where he really was. Every week they
received postcards written by him well in advance, complete with
European postmarks, sometimes to be accompanied by gifts for
special occasions. The gifts from European stores with the
occasional Euro price tag that he sometimes
forgot
to remove
were also in storage at the facility for his return trips home.
Telephone calls to his wife and children were relayed through
European phone systems, complete with pre-recorded background
sounds of a restaurant or metro station, sometimes including people
casually "passing by," while conversing in the language of the
country in which he was supposed to be working.

She knew that such deceptions were very
difficult for him to foist on his family, but also knew he
understood the value of
The Project
and the critical part he
must play in it. A part even she didn't know, but soon would.

Upon arrival at the facility, every item
still being used by the members, as well as everybody on the staff,
was surrendered in the anterooms, one for women and one for men.
This meant every stitch of clothing was also to be surrendered.
Even hearing aids and vision-correcting glasses had to be removed,
with
Project
supplied hearing aids, glasses, etc., provided
on the other side of the locker room where one would then get
dressed in compliance with regulation clothing. A complete body
scan would be conducted after dressing in
Project
clothing
to assure that nothing had been secreted into the facility. Finally
a holographic photo badge for identification and job classification
was provided once dressed.

Every room, even bathrooms and most hallways,
could only be accessed via biometrics. State-of-the-art security
equipment was in place with biometric technology to guarantee that
a person wasn’t entering an area under duress and actually belonged
there. For example, the retinal scan required a specific set of
parameters of the eye being scanned including temperature, movement
of blood through the surface and internal capillaries, and even
pupil diameter. A person under unusual stress such as that caused
by a kidnap situation, a person in a drugged state, or a person
attempting deception, would have pupils that react differently than
that same person when calm and operating under normal
conditions.

The only thing allowing passage into the
facility after changing clothing in the locker area was the person
inside the clothing. No personal items such as jewelry, not even
frames for photographs, were admitted beyond the anterooms of the
facility. The one exception was family photographs that were
inspected before gaining admittance. For Dr. Stauffenberg a
departure from the norm was approved. He found, to his amazement
and great pleasure, an enlarged photograph of his family, from a
recent trip to Disneyland, in a beautiful frame mounted on the wall
of his sleeping room. Beside his bed on the simple nightstand he
discovered a set of scriptures used by Mormons that included the
Bible. Jeff felt grateful, and even touched, that
The
Project
leadership understood how much more difficult and
stressful it would be to be completely removed from his family and
religious community. He made a mental note to thank Moshe when next
they spoke.

Each member of the scientific team had their
own living area. These living areas consisted of the aforementioned
sleeping room, a bathroom, and a reading-work area complete with
one hard-wired computer. In the facility there were no WiFi
devices, no over-the-airwaves communications including television
and radio. Only the security guards operated with walkie-talkies
whose frequencies were set to randomly alternate throughout the
day. People communicated either in persona propria, via
landline-based inter-office phones which were swept throughout the
day for
bugs
at irregular intervals, 128 bit encrypted
e-mail, or by somebody else going in the direction of the person
for whom one had a non-confidential message.

The computer system for each facility was
completely sealed save for one output-only port used to download
and store data offsite. Access to the information from the
mainframe outside the facilities was impossible unless one could
gain entry to the off-site file storage; the location of which was
a closely guarded secret held by only three people. Files were
carefully secured in a multi-layered and lethal manner with both
technological and brawny human safeguards. Rachael knew that even
with her extraordinary intelligence, exquisite Mediterranean
beauty, and finely-honed female charms, she would never make it
past the first guard alive unless invited by the Prime Minister
himself into the data storage chamber some 30 stories below ground
level.

This second trip to the facility seemed to go
more quickly than the first. Even with the windows darkened, she
could tell that the driver took measures to alter the route, a
couple of times stopping so suddenly that it caught her breath.
Thankfully, Perrier did not stain.

She decided to read a book over letting her
thoughts run rampant. Still, it was impossible to not consider, as
she had more than a few times over the last couple of days, the
scenarios Moshe put forth before their departure for home about
time itself.

Rachael’s maternal grandmother suffered the
horrors of the Sho'ah, the Nazi Holocaust. She had no doubt that if
she could she would have killed Hitler with her bare hands before
the maniac turned much of Europe into humans-as-cattle railway
transports, gas chambers, and forced labor death camps.