Kill Them Wherever You Find Them (47 page)

Jeff continued, "It's going to take me some
time to get used to that. Two distinct realities, and only I - and
those of you in the shielded facilities - will be aware of, and
distinctly remember, both."

"It will be difficult for all of us to
assimilate."

"What about the Prime Minister, General
Aharonson, and the other facilities? How did they fare through all
of this?"

Moshe responded with some detail, "Only a few
Knesset members were successfully evacuated to this facility. The
Prime Minister was also among them. With the attacks happening in
the United States in the early evening, here most people were at
home, asleep. Some were traveling to various destinations for the
holidays. By the time everybody had been contacted, the country was
under under siege."

"Then the United States, China and Russia
initiated a nuclear exchange. Other countries followed. Most of the
Ministers of the Knesset chose to be with their families. General
Aharonson, with a handful of her military staff who stayed here to
coordinate military operations, were the only people in the Tzahal
to survive. I am proud to say we went out fighting to our last
breath."

Jeff spoke in a subdued voice, "The things
you must have witnessed, it all must have been too horrible to even
imagine. How anybody was able to hold up, to hold on to hope, is
beyond me."

"We Jews are a people of hope, Jeff.
Throughout our history, from Haman in the Scroll of Ester, to
Hitler, to the Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and so many others; there
have been those who would see the Jewish People wiped from the face
of the planet. Yet we continue to hope, to work, to survive."

"Remember that even the title of our national
anthem, HaTikva means, 'The Hope.' It defines us, who we are as a
people. That hope has made us strong, sometimes individually weak,
but always collectively strong. I'm confident that it always will.
Now we have this magnificent
Project
without which all hope
would have been lost, along with humanity."

"True, Moshe, what has been accomplished here
- it's incredible, nothing short of miraculous. Where does
The
Project
go from here?" Jeff wondered.

"I don't know. I've wondered that myself.
Wherever it goes, whatever its future uses, it'll have to do so
without me. My age, and now this damned heart attack, Rivka made me
swear that I would finally retire. There are two things I know in
life: First: the more I learn, the more I realize how very little I
really know. Second: you don't say 'no' to Rivka!" Moshe gave Jeff
a weak but amused smile.

"Jeff, you have done our country, our people,
the entire world a huge service. Words can't begin to express . . .
" Moshe's voice lowered to the inaudible.

"Nor do they have to, Moshe. Get some rest
now."

As he was about to depart Rivka opened the
door, entering the room. "Okay, that's enough boys." She spoke in
English with a German-Hebrew mix of an accent. Looking forcefully,
yet maternally, at Jeff she ordered him out of the room.

It was indeed a fact, one never said "no" to
Rivka.

Returning to the corridor he hoped to speak
with Rachael a little more, ground his emotions, and just take time
to reorient and think more than anything else. Rachael already
gone, Jeff was determined to call Lynn and the children. He longed
to hear their voices again.

~ ~ ~

Packing his office was a time of bittersweet
memories for Moshe. His work here was the crowning achievement of a
very long and satisfying career. An achievement never to be
published in any scientific journal, kept from the knowledge of
global colleagues. He wondered how many other scientists achieved
great heights only to be locked away for the sake of national or
industrial security. Governments had their spies and corporations
theirs. What was accomplished here would be the corporate coup of a
lifetime, worth more money than all countries' currencies
combined.

A soft rapping at the door announced Jeff's
arrival.

"Ah, so good to see you. Please, close the
door and come in." Moshe motioned Jeff in with an empty hand.

"Thank you." Settling down in a chair of a
previously Spartan office, Jeff was unsettled at how bare it now
looked, pictures removed from walls and desk. The desk was
uncluttered for the first time since he knew Moshe. "I see your
packing is progressing well. Anything I can do to help?"

"Thanks but no. Besides, you'd be unable to
read most of the papers and book titles rendering you - I'm sorry
to say - useless for packing them in the correct cartons." Moshe
shrugged a little, then continued packing.

"I'm going to miss you, Moshe. You and
Rachael are the best friends I have here. I understand you and
Rivka will be traveling, seeing the world?"

"Yes, we are. She's much more excited about
it than I. We'll be starting with a trip to Brazil though I'd much
rather go back to doing what I love best; research. Oh well, given
the little health scare I had, and the fact that Rivka and I
haven't traveled much since our honeymoon, it's time I put research
behind me and Rivka in an airplane beside me!"

"An important gain for Rivka, but a loss to
the scientific community."

"Thanks. Say, Jeff, I wanted to ask you
something."

"Anything."

"The first landing you executed took longer
for you to return than was expected due to the fact that you were
shot in the leg and captured. I wonder, why did the second landing
take so long?"

This was the question Jeff dreaded. So much
happened and then
un
happened; he had yet to be debriefed
formally.

"Moshe, I have to come clean sometime - it
seems appropriate that I do so first with you."

Stauffenberg spoke regarding his need to find
a way to manipulate both grandparents without risking ruining their
future happiness. He didn't expect the events of the current time
line to accelerate so rapidly.

Moshe thought for a while about Jeff's
response, how he required much more time than he had been
given.

"Even
if
you stuck to the schedule
exactly as it was given to you the nuclear and bio weapons would
have eliminated humans in our time frame anyway. There was no way
around that. But that's something you couldn't have known. That you
risked all of humanity by altering the time you spent in the past,
that's something I find unacceptable. What if
The Project
had been destroyed in our time? You would have been unable to
return, and humanity would have been extinguished. We know the
schedule you were given should have worked. You spent too much time
just seeing where events led you rather than taking the quickest,
most expedient route."

"I know that, Moshe. Don't you think I
considered all of these things carefully?"

"You're completely missing the point. You
changed the mission schedule based on what, your feelings? Your
concern for two children while the entire planet rested in the
balance? Did Rachael know about this?"

"No, she didn't have any idea. For that
matter I didn't know. I had to adjust and reevaluate as events
unfolded."

"Do you have any idea the impact those extra
days had here in this timeline? For the world at large, what
happened during the time you were gone versus the reality of now
makes it a non sequitur. For those of us in the facilities, where
the reality remains the same, there will be long-term psychological
and even physical damage."

Jeff realized that Moshe wasn't just
referring to his heart attack; there were others throughout the
facilities who also suffered lingering physical damages. He also
heard of cases of suicide by some in the facilities who had lost
loved ones on the outside. Taking his time to avert the potential
negative impact his manipulations might have had on the futures of
two innocent children had, ultimately, caused even more harm in his
own time, tragedies and deaths inside the facilities that he didn't
anticipate.

"Moshe, I don't know what to say."

"Nothing can be said. Understand Jeff, I'm
not doing this to you just to make you feel badly about yourself,
or me, or the others you affected in the here-and-now. I need you
to learn from it. You really must understand that if you are asked
to remain with
The Project
, you are to follow orders, and
that includes the time constraints you are given. The only
exception will be if your own life is endangered. It's okay to
question those orders with your leaders during the planning stage,
but never okay to make unilateral changes on your own unless your
life is endangered."

"Once a decision is reached, you either
follow the will of the consensus or you remove yourself completely.
You are exceptionally intelligent, there's no denying that. Many
minds superior to yours go into the decision-making process for
these missions. It is your place to question something you feel is
outside your own personal boundaries. Your thoughts and feelings
are taken into consideration. Once you agree to a plan and a
mission the thinking is done."

"Now, what's done is done. We can't risk
going back a second time to carry out the mission within the time
limits that it should have been executed. Each incursion in time
carries risks that can't be foreseen. Already ripples of the
changes you effected are being discovered by a records comparison
in and outside the shielded archives. Nothing that's raising any
red flags, but that could change."

"From what we can ascertain the ripples are
small though there are many more of them than what resulted from
your first landing. This second time incursion's reach will be much
more widespread. Should something alarming turn up we would still
not risk an additional incursion as the ultimate goal, preventing
the birth of the terrorists, proved successful."

"You will be spending time with Rachael for a
psych evaluation. Be completely honest with her. She won't divulge
what you confide in her with anybody else unless it impacts your
work with
The Project
. You will, naturally, be debriefed by
the military, science and intelligence branches related to your
mission."

"A final word of advice. Find a way to get
Lynn and your children to move here temporarily. You are the only
person to have successfully gone back in time - not just once, but
twice now - without any apparent lasting damage to mind or body. We
don't know if this is a possibility for all people, or if it may be
limited to a certain type of person, but I do know you'll be around
for a while longer. For your own sake, as well as that of
The
Project
, Lynn and your children really should be here. This
second time around should go more smoothly."

Chastised, corrected, then given fatherly
advice, Jeff spent most of the day visiting amiably with Moshe as
he finished his packing. Personal items piled in one area, old
memos and documents in another, everything needed by his successor
in yet a third, then the two men went to the cafeteria. After
finishing a late lunch Jeff walked Moshe to his car, waving what he
thought was to be a final good-bye to a remarkable man and loyal
friend.

Table of Contents

Epilogue

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this
time more intelligently."
- Henry Ford

Office of the Prime Minister,
State of Israel

Remembering distinctly the previous
timeline
while living in this altered version required some adjusting. When
Lt. General Dan Ashkelon entered the Prime Minister's office for a
staff meeting the PM nearly choked on his sandwich as he stared at
the man. The PM knew that Ashkelon was alive and well in this
timeline. Reconciling the memory of attending his funeral with his
grieving wife to the man standing in his office remained a feet of
mental acrobatics. He found shifting gears between the two
timelines to be mentally and emotionally exhausting.

"You look as if you've seen a ghost! Swallow
and breathe deeply." The General knew exactly what was going
through the PM's mind. He enjoyed kidding him.

"No, no, not at all. It's just been a long
week." A few other incidents like this happened.

In the weeks and months that ensued, he and
the others with memories of both timelines were finally in step
with the current stream of time as it flowed unhurriedly and
unconcerned around them.

After months of vetting new candidates and
shuffling people around; the PM, Mossad, Shin Bet, military
leaders, and facility heads were finally ready to go forward.

"To say that together we have been to hell
and back would almost be amusing, were it not true. The terrible
memories we share, the nightmares I'm sure we all continue to have,
will probably never leave." The Prime Minster, dark head of hair
turned a distinguished silver over the course of the months leading
to, and since the annihilation and salvation of his country and
planet, underscored the thoughts and feelings of all present.

"There's a great deal of work ahead of us.
What we have so recently been through, what
The Project
so
narrowly averted, has taught us many things not least of which, we
are never as prepared as we believe ourselves to be."

"All in this room, and nearly all working in
the three facilities of
The Project
collectively have our
hands on the trigger of the greatest, most frightening, weapon of
defense, as well as a more alarming potential for offense. The
responsibility is at once awesome in every understanding of the
word, and chilling to the bone."

"
The Project
saved our people, our
nation, and planet. If the people of the world knew what we did
they'd be grateful to us and absolutely terrified of us. In a very
real way, we are to the rest of the world what a modern
industrialized nation would be to a group of people still living in
the Stone Age."