Kill Them Wherever You Find Them (35 page)

Throughout the remainder of the night Jeff
was restless, unable to sleep.

In war, he thought, sometimes casualties of
innocent people happen – terrible as it is. But in war he never
targeted an innocent. Then again, depending on the side for which
you are fighting, it could be argued by the other side that
they
are the innocents and
you
are the aggressor.

On one assignment he was sent to assassinate
a hostile who killed hostages after the ransom had been made. At
just the perfect opportunity, with the target's head in the
crosshairs of his rifle, the man's wife and children pulled up to
the apartment block. Jeff couldn't allow his family to enter their
flat and see their husband and father dead like that. He waited for
another opportunity, taking it with no regret. There was a world of
difference punctuating his feelings about innocent bystanders, even
when the person living among them is a monster.

Hours of internal debate brought no
resolution. Even his discussion with his wife was, at best, purely
academic and of little to no help.

As the hot sun rose over the eastern horizon
Jeff decided to speak with Rachael as she precisely knew his
predicament.

~ ~ ~

"Jeff, please come in. Have a seat and get
comfortable. I'm pretty sure I know what this is about, though I
want you tell me in your own words."

"Thank's Rachael, I prefer to remain
standing. I really don't know where to begin with my feelings – so
I'll just state the facts. I've been asked to prevent the marriage
of one set of the grandparents of each of the two leaders of the
terror plot. From what we know they were good people, leading good
lives. If I go back to when they were young, alter their lives so
radically, I may be doing them irreparable harm. All along we've
known this was the objective of the second phase, and I accepted my
part in it. I'm not having second thoughts per se, I just don't
feel completely comfortable with it. On the other hand, to not meet
the objective would be to condemn an entire planet of innocents."
Jeff exhaled a sigh of relief, finally voicing his feelings.

Rachael spoke, taking advantage of the pause
on Jeff's side of the conversation. "Knowing you as I do, I figured
this might create a conflict for you. But we both know it has to be
done. I'm certain you can find a way to do it in which the would-be
grandparents still grow up to have happy, healthy lives and marry
somebody completely different than in the current time line."

Table of Contents

27. Past, Present,
Future

"Time goes you say?
Ah, no! Alas, time stays, we go."
– Henry Austin
Dobson

Near Rishon L'Tzion, State of
Israel

Dr. Itzhach Mendlesøn
was
comfortable
in his new position, replacing the late Dr. No'am Abrams, having
been fully briefed on
The Project
and the role his facility
played in the larger plan. Mendlesøn was Dr. No'am's lead
researcher so there was very little catching-up required for his
newest duties.

The fact that their facility actually played
a part in the honest-to-goodness successful human time travel trial
came as no surprise to him. Everybody knew this to be the goal of
their specific work in this facility even though nobody else knew
it was already a proven success.

Thanks to his facility's advances in Quantum
Entanglement and Nano Worm Micro technology and his position
previous to this, Mendlesøn was fully aware that a book, then a
tree, were sent back in time. Despite all that they knew, neither
he not the rest of his facility – with the exception of No'am –
were given the details with regard to the
landing
of this
Jeff Stauffenberg character. Excitement built as Itzhach read
Stauffenberg's full report of the
landing
, heavily annotated
by No'am. Finishing the report, he reviewed reams of printouts
comparing records time-altered to the records maintained in the
temporal shielded archives.

Flipping through the printouts, he paused
occasionally to read notations in the margins of the dozens of
researchers making the comparisons. Some notations were marked as
minor changes, others a little more important but of no particular
consequence to this timeline. One notation, marked in red several
hundred pages into one of the printouts, caught his attention
abruptly.

A business named "Richmond Plumbing and
Electric Supply LLC" was listed in the shielded records, but there
was no mention of it in the timeline-changed twin records. If a
large company ceased to exist when Martin McGlothlin's sons were
removed from history this could have broader implications. Were the
company a small operation it could have consequences down the road
as well, but less likely so. It's impossible to know of a certainty
one way or another. Dr. Mendlesøn compared the code to the list of
names employed in his facility. Once identified, he asked his
assistant to locate the researcher and bring him to the office
right away.

"Dr. Mendlesøn, I'm David. You asked that I
see you?"

"Yes David, please sit down, make yourself
comfortable. Coffee?"

"Thank you, yes."

"Cream or sugar?"

"I take it black."

David was a little nervous being called into
the Director's office like this. The offer of a cup of coffee set
him slightly more at ease, as did Mendlesøn's casual approach.

"I appreciate you interrupting your work to
see me David, so let's get right to it. B'seder?"

"B'seder." David replied.

"In this printout I see a note from you
indicating that a company in the old timeline doesn't exist in
ours, never has. What can you tell me about this company?

"Sir, not very much I'm afraid. It appears to
have been a
mom and pop
business, run from their home."
David went on, "They employed twenty people. According to tax
returns they declared their garage as being used exclusively for
their plumbing and electric supply company. Frankly, I forgot all
about them. I reported this change to my supervisor weeks ago and
never heard anything more."

"Why did you mark it in red ink?"

"I felt this to be a little more urgent than
other old and new timeline discrepancies as there is no evidence
that the woman who co-owned the business with her husband was born
in the new timeline. By now, in the old timeline, they would have
had three children and five grandchildren, and twenty-three
great-grandchildren. In our timeline, only the man exists. He
married somebody else, a woman named 'Miriam Greene' and moved to
Idaho where they had one child, no grandchildren."

"Have there been other instances such as
this?"

David responded as best as memory served,
"Similar, yes, but on a lesser scale – in fact quite a few. They
are marked in yellow. The difference between this and the others is
that one of the sons in the old timeline became a pediatric
surgeon, saving the lives of many children during his career. In
our timeline some of those children survived their illnesses anyway
while others probably died in the altered history. The outgoing
ripple effect is beyond our ability to measure. It may be highly
significant. I don't know."

"You've done excellent work, David. I see
nothing to show this was escalated by your supervisor to anybody
higher. Do you know if . . . your supervisor, what's his name?"

"
Her
name sir. It's Eliana. Eliana
Romanof."

"Do you know if Ms. Romanof closed the case
or escalated it higher?"

"I don't know sir."

"Please ask Ms. Romanof to join me at her
earliest opportunity. Ask her to bring the files regarding this
item and any others that may be similar."

Summarily but politely dismissed, David
thanked Dr. Mendlesøn for the coffee and returned to his desk by
way of Eliana's office. David liked Eliana, liked her a great deal
in fact. He hoped that things would go well.

~ ~ ~

"Thank you for coming on such short notice. I
asked David about the case in question. It appears that it, and
others that may be similar, weren't escalated higher than your
desk. Escalation may not have been necessary, but I want to be
certain that we haven't overlooked anything. Oh, where are my
manners? Would you like a cup of coffee?"

"Thank you, no Dr. Mendlesøn. Never acquired
a taste for it."

"Just as well. Sometimes I drink too much
absent-mindedly and end up with the 'jitters' by the end of the
day. My girlfriend is trying to switch me over to her own blend of
herbal tea."

"Oh? How's that working for you?"

"I pour it onto the nearest houseplant when
she's not looking. Nasty stuff." Eliana couldn't tell if he was
grinning, or grimacing, at the thought of the herbal tea.

"Right then, let's move on. About this
plumbing and electrical supply company, what are your
findings?"

"The findings are still in a preliminary
phase, despite the time since the notification landed on my desk.
Three genealogists are working the names we have of the children
who died without the pediatric surgery that they would have
received. Had they lived, as they did in the initial timeline, most
would have had grandchildren by now. At this point we have not
found anything that raises any concerns. At least no more or less
than other, less obvious, changes that have been identified. Logic
dictates that there are a myriad of changes that were effected by
the removal of the bloodlines of Martin's two now-unborn sons.
These will spawn a myriad more ad infinitum, though most likely
impossible to be measurable. I believe in a week, two at the very
most, I can give you as much of a conclusion to this case as is
possible."

"Thank you, Eliana. I appreciate your hard
work. Looking at your login/logout printout, I see you've been
burning the candle at both ends here."

"Yes sir, there is just so much to do, and
not enough time in which to get it all done."

"If we've proven anything here, Eliana, it's
that time is relative. I don't want you putting in any more than
nine hours a day at your job."

"But sir . . ."

"This isn't just for your sake, though your
health and well-being is important to me. It's also for the sake of
The Project
. The slightest mistake could have a negative
impact down the road. Mistakes due to exhaustion are those most
easily avoided."

"No more than nine, I understand."

"Thank you. Should your team come up with
anything you feel requires additional manpower feel free to
requisition added personnel on my authority."

"Thank you sir." Eliana hovered at the door
to the office, hesitant to leave.

"Anything else?"

"Well sir, if you have a moment, we have been
bantering about an idea. I'd like to ask you about it."

"Certainly. I have to be at a meeting in
thirty minutes, I can give you five."

"Suppose that this case, or another like it,
proved that the alteration of the past would have negative
consequences in our present, or future. Could it be corrected?"

"In theory, yes. In reality, I don't know. In
application, it would be ill advised. I suppose the actual answer
would have to be given on a case-by-case basis, depending largely
on how negative those consequences were in our time. Let me give
two examples."

"One. Through some twist of fate the changes
we implement in the past make it so that I'm never born. For me,
certainly, that is a dire consequence, but does the fact that I
never exist affect
The Project
? Doubtfully, or the past
would not have been altered in the first place. Does it affect this
facility and my contributions to it? Doubtfully, again for the same
reasons. Somebody obviously was able to capably fill my shoes. For
all we know even does a better job of it! In this scenario,
re-manipulating the past just so that I'm born and fulfill my
destiny does not rise to the standard we have set for time
manipulation. In this case, we don't look backward."

"Two. Through another twist of fate, the
changes we implement in the past make it so that Menachem Begin is
never born. He never makes peace with Egypt.
The Project
and
this facility exist in that timeline much as they do now, or the
manipulation could not have happened as in the example before. In
this scenario, peace with Egypt is too vital, Egypt too important
an ally. We risk going back a second time, make it so that our
first manipulation never happened, then make yet an additional time
incursion to try and achieve our initial goals while allowing Prime
Minister Begin to be born and carry out his destiny. Does this make
sense?"

"Yes but how could we go back and undo the
first manipulation? I mean, it's now a part of the past as well.
How does the person who first did the manipulation go back and stop
himself? Isn't it impossible for the same person to exist twice in
the same time frame?"

"Yes, you're right, it is. Or at least we
think
it is. Let's just hope it never comes to that. We have
now proven that time travel is possible. Even at that so much is
still theory that we need to maintain very cautious baby
steps."

Eliana added, "I suppose those are
conclusions we already reached in our conversations within my group
of people. One of my genealogists said that if she were researching
a family tree and found that she had never been born, she'd be very
upset!"

Leaving for his meeting, Itzhach thought
about this conversation, much as he had had similar musings before.
How would they go about revising their own revisions of time, if
the need arose?

He would, soon enough, have his answer in
order to attempt saving the life of one of the two men with whom he
was about to meet, Dr. Moshe Levin.