Kill Them Wherever You Find Them (8 page)

"Each facility will work on different
aspects, or stages, of the mission. Thanks to efforts already
conducted in a joint program at the Hebrew University and
Technion's physics departments, we are already beyond the
developmental and most experimental phases of our objective."

"While there is no need for any one facility
to have access to specific details of the work being done in the
other two facilities, a general overview is required to assure an
expeditious, positive outcome."

"Moshe, Dr. Levin will head the facility that
will focus on the human element of the first stage. We need to know
now how much our timeline will be affected by the elimination of an
ancestor of a current enemy to mankind. Through me you will work
with Dr. Abram's facility on how to precisely target the
landing
of a person in a specific time and place in what we
consider to be the past, then bring them back to our present
space-time."

"Shmu'el, Dr. Aharon will head the
biotechnology facility that will anticipate any potential mutations
of the strains of Ebola and Anthrax that are currently being
weaponized, as well as develop an antidote as soon as is possible.
As bodies of the test victims continue to be amassed our agent is
providing us with body fluids so that we can keep up with the
ongoing development of each strain to make antidotes. We must,
though, keep up with computer models of any possible mutations so
that we can be prepared should they occur."

"No'am, Dr. Abrams will continue his work on
space-time singularities and quantum entanglement, as well as
perfecting how to shield objects, especially people, from the
physical effects of time travel."

"We have gone far, having sent a book printed
in 1920 back to 1920 with our names written by each of us on the
cover page in modern times. We then flew to New York City to find
the book in the main library – signatures aged nearly 100 years,
cracked and oxidized over the years. Though the ink is of modern
chemistry and for us the time difference was less than a week, our
signatures have been on that page for a full hundred years. We next
sent a modern citrus tree seedling, genetically altered for a DNA
fingerprint, back to a kibbutz in 1940. It was sent with a shipping
label that appeared to be from a Jewish charity in the United
States that existed at that time to help the Israeli citrus
industry, with a request that the seedling be planted in the common
area of the kibbutz. Dr. Aharon waited in the common area with his
temporal shield to help him maintain his own time references, at
the time the seedling was
landed
, the term we now use for an
object sent to a specific place and time in the past."

"At the instant it was sent back in our time
frame, he saw appear a large fruit tree in the modern common area
of the kibbutz. We were happy to note that nobody living in the
kibbutz seemed surprised at all that there was an old, fully-grown
tree there. For them, it had always been there. Not only that, but
dual, identical records we have of the kibbutz agribusiness and
population, with names and ages of people living at the kibbutz
before and since 1940 that are kept in the Temporal Shielded Room,
did not change with the appearance of the tree."

"However, a copy of the same records outside
of the Temporal Shielded Room documented the fact that production
numbers of the citrus output for the kibbutz jumped significantly
from the identical copy that was temporally shielded. Apparently,
some bright farmer realized that this tree was somehow very
special, made several grafts of it to plant more such trees.
Interestingly, there wasn't a single change in the number or names
of the people on the kibbutz – just the increased fruit production
output. The DNA was a perfect match to the DNA sample of the
seedling we had retained in the temporal shielded area."

"Another important item of note that resulted
from these two experiments was that we confirmed the changes at
all. Throughout our work in
The Project
there has been
conjecture that if the multiverse or parallel universe views of
space-time proved to be true, then we might be making changes to
another, near identical but altogether different universe – another
planet Earth – other than our own. The fact that the anticipated
changes happened in our own space-time, not elsewhere, allows us to
move forward to this most critical next step."

"What we are now planning to do, erase the
existence of an entire branch of a family, by making sure one of
their ancestors was never even conceived in the first place,
something we have theorized but never dared to attempt on moral and
philosophical grounds, is now something we must face as our best
line of defense against the near annihilation that will be visited
not only on our people, but on the entire world should we shirk
from this duty or fail at any step along the way."

"We will leave to religious leaders and sages
how to then put the genie back in the bottle once released.
Ideally, the world will never know what has transpired – hopefully
we will never be forced to do so again. Being the head of our
military, I'm well aware of consequences of not only this action,
but the possibility of its abuse in the future. As with all
technologies the use for good or for evil is in the hands of those
wielding the technology. I'll move that once we have accomplished
our mission that the technology – as well as all information
regarding it - be destroyed. A complete erasure of this knowledge
will be impossible, nachon?"

Dr. Abrams considered these last words
perhaps more deeply than the others. One could destroy his
facility, including all of his research notes. He and his
assistants would still have the information in their heads. Even
when old age and eventual death overcame them, the idea of time
travel would have been around for a very, very long time. If the
State of Israel did not develop and maintain control over it,
somebody else eventually would. Better to have such a powerful
weapon under one's own lock-and-key rather than to throw it out,
hoping nobody else would find and keep it to themselves.

While Lt. General Ashkelon was pontificating,
Dr. Levin already formulated the makeup of his team in his mind. Of
the top ten people who would be team leaders, two – one a lone
wolf, the other a brilliant scientist and leader in her own right –
came to him as flashes of lightning in a clouded sky.

Moshe first met Jeff when visiting a cousin
who taught at M.I.T. When a friend heard that he would be in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, he suggested that Moshe make it a point
to also meet Jeff, who would be there with his family for a
vacation that included a history tour. Knowing his friend as he
did, Moshe understood this to be no casual request. Moshe was given
the approximate time Jeff and his family would be walking the
"Freedom Trail" that goes through parts of old Boston. This
schedule was fairly certain as all of the Stauffenbergs' vacations
were booked through a travel agency.

Moshe
happened
to have stopped at an
old cemetery on the Freedom Trail to await casual conversation with
Jeff. Being told of Jeff's background and his interest in genealogy
an old cemetery seemed as good a place as any to strike up a
conversation. Besides, one of Moshe's ancestors was from New
England, allowing his
accidental and completely coincidental
encounter with Jeff to have at least an air of honesty.

Moshe remembered first seeing Jeff and his
family approach the cemetery – where the venerable Benjamin
Franklin's parents were buried. It seemed to be a magnet pulling
Jeff in, to the whining objections of his children who had had
enough walking that day!

The family, something about them, seemed
different, even in a crowd of similar individuals, couples, and
families. He could not put his finger on it but he would have
picked the Stauffenbergs out from the crowd easily even without
having seen their picture beforehand.

Observing Jeff interact with his wife and
children with love and humor, while still prodding them into the
cemetery, made him instantly likable. His beautiful wife, Lynn,
rolled her eyes knowing that arguing this one would be a no-win
situation, so she might as well make the best of it. His children,
Brian and Samantha, became a little more enthusiastic once promised
a pizza in the famous Italian North End of Boston, if they gave him
just 20 minutes to look at the antique gravestones. Moshe loved how
Americans thought something was antique if it was 200 years old. In
Israel, that's considered fairly modern. Antique in the State of
Israel was a status conferred on an object only once it had reached
the ripe age of at least 1,000 years of age, ideally closer to the
time of the Second Temple – some 2,000 years!

In the cemetery, Moshe smiled and nodded to
Jeff and Lynn, they nodded back in the friendly, open way that the
Americans seem to have when in a group of strangers. He wasn't
really sure, though, how to approach Jeff casually – without
appearing as if Jeff were a target.

He decided to let Jeff make the next move.
From what he knew of Jeff's background, the dossier was indeed very
thick, Jeff would approach him just from the ice-breaking smile
offered earlier. Jeff was known to be, above all else, friendly and
uncommonly open to strangers. This would be Moshe's way to engage
Jeff in conversation, to
feel him out
.

Meandering slowly around the old headstones,
calculating a path sure to intersect that of the Stauffenberg
family, Moshe happened to be looking at the same headstone as Jeff
and Lynn. Brian and Samantha, having long since lost any pretense
of interest "hooked up" with another group of teenagers who were
also bemoaning their fate.

Unsurprisingly, Jeff introduced himself.
Returning the gesture Moshe also casually commented to Jeff that he
had a family tie to early Boston, though he had been born and
raised in Israel. He would like to find a place where he could
study a little of his Boston roots.

"Perhaps the Boston Historical Society?"
Moshe asked.

"That might be a great place to start. You
may also want to try the branch of the Federal Archives nearby in
Waltham for census and immigration records."

"Great idea, I didn't know the census records
were so handily nearby! Do you know of any other, more local places
where one can search family history?" asked Moshe, hopeful to bring
up the vast Mormon genealogical records.

"I'm not from here, so I wouldn't know," Jeff
responded and continued, "do a search on the Internet, you should
find at least one option."

Not the response he had expected.

"I heard the Mormons have collected a
considerable database for family history research. Do you know if
that's true?"

"Yes, it is. Actually, I am a Mormon. But I'm
hesitant to bring it up because we do not proselytize the Jewish
People. You can go to FamilySearch.org - though it's run by the
church it's not a religious website. It simply is an online
database of genealogical records collected over the decades. In
fact, it's the largest online collection of genealogical data.
Truth be told Moshe I've done a great deal of family history but my
main addiction is Theoretical Physics. Now, usually when I bring
Physics up people's eyes glaze over and they find a way to make
their escape, but your face gives you away. Have I found a kindred
spirit in you?"

"You most certainly have, and then some. That
is a subject that fascinates me too, along with Particle Physics. I
have studied a couple of disciplines in Physics for many years
holding a Doctorate in Physics. Is this a hobby for you, or
something more?"

"What started out as a hobby in my childhood
– the seed of which was planted by television shows such as
Star
Trek
and
The Time Tunnel
of early 1960's and 70's –
evolved into something more. In fact, it's now a full-time hobby
that pays the bills!"

"Sounds like a great gig."

"Oh, it is, and one that I love. I'm
currently the Chair of the Physics Department at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem. Tell you what. I have to get going, but if
you have a business card, I would very much enjoy opening a
correspondence with you when I return to Jerusalem."

Doctor Levin not only got Jeff's contact
information, something that he already knew before making the
request, but he also recorded the entire conversation for later
review at Mossad and Shin Bet offices in both Tel-Aviv and
Jerusalem.

In just a few short weeks, Moshe would again
be in the United States. This time in Colorado, to ask Jeff some
foundational questions before inviting him to work on something
destined to change his life as well as the fate of every living
being on the planet.

Table of Contents

6. Escape in a Dream

"If you get an
infection, you get a fever; the fever is your body dealing with the
infection. If you get traumatized, your mind and your brain have a
reaction to that trauma. If you're not dreaming about it,
something's probably wrong."
- Sebastian Junger

Virginia, United States of America
- 1864

Jeff Stauffenberg was only
slightly
disappointed at the lack of any special effects one might expect
when
landing
in the past. He had hoped for a flash of light,
a gust of wind, or something to announce such a spectacular moment
in history. Though he knew that contrary to special effects of
sci-fi shows there would be no visual nor audible announcement to
his appearance; this seemed so bland, so ordinary. "Just as well,"
he thought, "best that nobody witness me appear out of thin air."
Then he recalled the experiment with the citrus tree at the
kibbutz. If somebody had seen him arrive, to them he'd have been
there already.