Kill Them Wherever You Find Them (59 page)

Merav was looking forward to working in the
field with Jeff. Her previous landings with him were strictly for
training purposes. This was an honest to goodness operation, her
first.

Despite her experience with The Project, as
most of previous experience in the Tzahal, she found herself
experiencing a little anxiety. A small amount of apprehension she
expected, but a mix of excitement and anxiety came as a complete
surprise.

Her greatest fear was leaving her mom alone.
Two of her siblings had immigrated to the United States, and the
last one was something of a loner, rarely visiting home. Her mom
was elderly now, in frail health. Were something to happen to
Merav, she didn't know what would become of her. Not that she
needed full-time care, or anything like that. It was companionship
she needed, especially with her only grandchildren in America, she
was frequently lonely. Merav tried to visit her a few times a week.
What if something were to happen while on a mission? When she
started her two year term of military service her mom worried
months before it began, then cried nearly full-time the first week
of her service. As she got older her loneliness and understandable
dependence on Merav increased.

Finding she couldn't shrug off this anxiety,
but glad to at least understand and acknowledge the root cause, she
continued her preparations to assure as good a night sleep as
possible.

There would be nothing to pack for this trip,
only the clothes she would wear for the landing were carefully laid
out. A cool blouse and shorts for this time of year in Rio. Once
landed, they would purchase whatever else was required.

Once in bed she pulled her favorite comforter
up to her chin, closed her eyes and thought back to her first trial
landing. Apprehensive couldn't even begin to describe her emotional
state at that time.

She was sent back to the time she first
entered university. Careful to not actually go to any location
where an older 'her' might be sighted, certainly not where she
might encounter her younger self, all went well. Having kept a
detailed, daily journal since her teen years, it was easy to avoid
the places where she and her friends were to be found. That first
landing lasted only a few hours, followed by a return to present
space-time and multiple physical and psychological tests.

The other landings were similar, though none
in Israel and each further back in time until just a few years
before she was born. The further back she went, the worse the
headaches upon her return. Nothing serious, but annoying and - of
course - there was always in the back of her mind a concern about
aggregated long-term effects. Thus far, no deleterious effects in
the long- or short-term were manifested beyond the headaches.

The invitation to join The Project was brief
and to the point. She was called to a meeting with the former
Captain of her military unit, a man she knew well and held in the
highest esteem.

"Ms. Ben-David, it's very good to see you
again. I'm with a special branch of the Israeli Security Services.
We have a specialized group that we would like you to consider
joining. May I send a car tomorrow so that you can see our work and
decide if it is something you would like to be a part of?"

Initially leery, her curiosity got the best
of her. At the appointed time a sheyroot arrived, tinted windows,
riding low to the ground - obviously heavily armored - not quite
what she anticipated.

The first meeting was in a simple office of a
plain run-down building, one she saw several times and never gave a
second thought. She thought it was abandoned, or inhabited by
squatters as there were still some lights to be seen through a few
of the windows.

Yotam Friling, her former Captain, introduced
the only other person in the room.

"Ms. Marev Ben-David, I would like you to
meet Dr. Rachael Siwel."

"Pleasure, Dr. Siwel."

"Mine too and welcome, Ms. Ben-David. We
appreciate you meeting with us. Please, make yourself comfortable."
The chair to which she gestured didn't appear to be particularly
comfortable, but it made do as all three sat at a small plain
table.

"Before we discuss our purpose here, we will
require you to sign the National Secrets Confidentiality
Agreement." Papers were passed to Marev. She carefully read and
initialed all of the pages but the last; on which she printed her
name, then signed and dated the paper to complete the sequence.

Had she not carefully read the
confidentiality agreement, she would have been presented with an
alternative "secret" that didn't really exist and excused. So many
attributes were critical, not least of which was a person who was
careful in their dealings and didn't pass-off important details
casually.

"You are, no doubt, aware of the nuclear
facility in the Negev desert?"

"Of course I am. Diamona is the one nuclear
weapons and power plant secret that Israel has been eager to share
with the world while denying it at the same time."

"Well put. It's been a vital deterrent to the
confrontation states. What is known, and will never be shared with
the rest of the world, is a weapon of far greater value than a
nuclear bomb. I trust you cleared the next several hours in the
day?"

She thought back to what she was told at that
meeting, and over the course of the next several days. It was so
amazing, almost so much so as to be impossible to take it all in.
In tandem with learning about her duties she also underwent the
rigorous physical and psychological testing and training.

Now the time had come to put it all on the
line. She knew she was up to it; she had no doubt. She knew this
was what her life seemed to lead her to. She also knew that one of
the others who would be making the landing in the team was somebody
for whom she had started to develop feelings - having worked so
closely with him for so long now. She felt sparks, and she knew
Lior did as well. Neither of them were comfortable enough at this
juncture to pursue it, knowing that developing a serious
relationship might jeopardize their positions within The Project.
At best one would be transferred to a different facility. At worst,
one might have to resign altogether; something she didn't want and
was certain Lior wouldn't want either.

From the start Marev liked Dr. Siwel. Knowing
that she was a senior member of The Project, there since the day of
its founding, Rachael would know best how she should approach a
more-than-platonic relationship with a co-worker, if she should at
all.

Marev thought she'd never find love again,
not in her wildest dreams. But Lior, he was no ordinary man. She
would ask Rachael's opinion the first reasonable opportunity.

She fell into an easy sleep, awakening the
next morning refreshed and eager to get to the facility from which
the team would be sent on their landing. The apprehensions and
anxiety of the previous evening vanished as easily as did the
darkness with the rising sun.

Dressed much more casually than she would
normally have chosen for work, she arrived at the facility a little
earlier than expected for the simple reason that she didn't want to
feel rushed, stay calm and relaxed for this first landing of
genuine importance.

She wasn't really surprised to see the other
team members. The facility was fully staffed, the landing could
have been affected that very moment, but there was one final
briefing first.

"Well, it looks like everybody set their time
by the same clock! I trust all are well-rested as we may not be
afforded many opportunities to sleep in the next few days of
reconnaissance." The team leader de facto, Stauffenberg started the
briefing.

"I think we've gone over our objectives and
parameters of this mission sufficiently as to not repeat everything
again. Besides, the situation in real time requires a certain
degree of flexibility. There are, however; some new details to be
introduced. Udi?"

"Good morning. We have heard from the agents
on the ground in Brasil, as well as data mining done here, and the
news is disturbing. Please turn your attention to the monitor as I
walk you through it."

Everybody not already directly facing the
wall with the giant flat-screen monitor swiveled their chairs to
the proper angle.

"We were initially operating under the
assumption that an enemy nation, or terror group was behind the
murder of Mrs. Levin and kidnapping of the doctor. While we cannot
quite yet discount this completely, it appears that Great Britain
may have initiated the action, or at least had some complicity in
it."

Udi continued, "Facial recognition software
of the area around the resort, as well as passengers landing in all
South American countries in the month preceding the event flagged
the identification of three SIS operatives. These are their
pictures, names, and other data we have on them. Please take a
moment to study the screen, it's important to instantly recognize
them should spot them during the mission." After a few moments the
screen changed.

"We don't believe Dr. Levin was taken to
another South American country, or kept in Brasil. Up to two weeks
of satellite imagery reviewed and correlated with these images of a
yacht, fast forward time lapsed from three different angles as
different orbiting satellites moved into position, circled in red
as if a target, came into view and then departed show this yacht
arriving just two days before the Levins were to depart for São
Paulo. The time of its departure correlates to within the hour of
the time the autopsy indicates Mrs. Levin was shot. What is of
greater importance is the fact that infrared imagery shows nothing,
it's as if nobody were on the yacht at all. That it was shielded
from emitting infrared light waves isn't in and of itself isn't too
significant. It could easily be a drug running vessel. But that
fact, coupled with the arrival in South American of three British
SIS officers, each arriving in a different county within days of
one another is suspect."

"This has brought about a slight change in
the mission. None of you are known to the SIS, or any other
intelligence agency. We need two of you, any two - that's up to
Jeff - to get close enough to this yacht to identify who is on it.
The satellite images during the day are not good enough to make
id's. And, of course, from our perspective in time, it's too late
to reposition a satellite to direct it at an angle where any of the
personnel could be viewed. It is as important to us now to learn
more about this yacht as it is to learn about the individuals in
and around the resort that were responsible for the murder and
abduction. A pleasure boat, with enough water sports toys to make a
Saudi prince happy, should be rented as soon as you arrive. Any
questions?"

"I have one." Shabtai, the primary
audio-visual tech continued, "if the kidnappers prove to be British
rather than a known enemy, do the mission parameters change?"

"No. Not in the slightest. Whoever assaulted
the Levins know that we are looking for them and will exact
recompense. We cannot, once we confirm their identities, let them
know that we're onto them. British, Arab, American, or French. The
goal and parameters remain the same. Though, as with any mission,
those parameters may be changed on-the-fly as required."

"Thanks Udi. Well, as everybody is here,
let's get going."

News that the British government, for the
most part a staunch supporter of the tiny Jewish state, was
probably behind the events that led to this moment seemed to darken
the atmosphere in the conference room. Everybody felt it.

Going to the area from which they would
'launch,' Jeff wondered who could possibly have let the Brits know
about the Levins in the first place? Nobody outside The Project
could, or should, have known about it. It seemed impossible, but
here they were.

As their atoms were disassembled in this
time, and reassembled in the recent past of Rio de Janeiro, Agent
Northup was on her way to the dead letter drop to receive
instructions from her superiors. As she made her way to the
pre-assigned drop area Freddy Davies followed her progress through
the scope of the British-made L115A3 Long Range Rifle that British
Army snipers dubbed, 'the Silent Assassin', the weapon the Taliban
feared the most.

Table of Contents

End of Book Preview

###

Thank you for reading the first few preview
chapters of "Abducting the Time Master," the second book in the
"Pendulum of Time" trilogy.

To learn when this and the final book, "Fluid
Future" are available please go to the author's website:
DavidHunterBooks.com

Online Information
(Alphabetic Order)

Bahá’ís
: Also referenced is the
religion formally known as the Bahá’í (pronounced ba-HIGH) faith,
whose followers are intensely persecuted, disenfranchised, with
many hundreds more martyred in Iran. Learn more about this
exceptional religion and followers at
Bahai.org

Islam
: The Islamic religion and
faithful are often viewed with deep suspicion, even fear, in the
"Western" world. This is due, almost exclusively, to politicized
Islam emboldened and strengthened by the tools of terrorism.
Terrorists' and political Islamists' aim is to control the minds
and daily behavior of Muslim populations. Politicized Islam fears
any that mandates and defends religious liberty and social freedom.
It is nothing short of a perversion and defamation of legitimate
Islam. For facts about genuine Islamic beliefs see
islam.uga.edu
. Recommended
reading on Muslims fighting politicized Islam can be found at
aifdemocracy.org