Leon Uris (83 page)

They remained in the woods through the entire day. At ten minutes to six in the evening, exactly forty minutes before the sun was to set, the operation went into full effect.

The children to be evacuated were fed at exactly five minutes to six and a sleeping powder was put in each child’s milk. By a quarter after six the children were put into their bunks in the water-pipe shelters beneath the ground. They were led in group singing until they dropped off into a deep drugged slumber.

At six thirty-two the sun set behind Fort Esther.

At six-forty Ari called a meeting of the entire staff outside of the children’s bunkers.

“You will all pay strict attention,” he said sternly. “In a few minutes we are going to begin the evacuation of the younger children. Your name will be called and you will be given an assignment. Everything has been worked out on a tight schedule and any variation of it could endanger the lives of the children and their escorts as well as yourselves. I want no discussion or questions. Any failure to cooperate will be dealt with drastically.”

At six forty-five Jordana Ben Canaan set out a guard around Gan Dafna consisting of the rest of the children. The guard was four times normal strength to make certain there would be no Arab infiltration that might discover the movements inside Gan Dafna. Zev Gilboa and his twenty Palmach troops attached to Dafna pushed out toward the hills on a special covering mission.

As soon as the security around Gan Dafna was reported tight, twenty-five of the Gan Dafna staff went into the bunkers to dress the sleeping children in their warmest clothing. Kitty moved from child to child to make certain that each one had been properly drugged by the sleeping powder. A thick strip of adhesive tape was placed over each child’s mouth so that he could not cry out in his sleep. By seven thirty the unconscious children were dressed and ready. Ari then brought the task force from its hiding place in the woods.

A chain line was formed from the bunkers, and the sleeping little bodies handed out one by one. Improvised strap rigs had been sewn together to form a makeshift saddle seat for the back of the men so that the children could be carried like packs. This would allow each man to have both hands free for his rifle and the climb.

By eight-thirty, the two hundred and fifty men and their small slumbering loads stood a final check to see that the children were strapped in securely. Then the line moved out to the main gate where the protecting force, a hundred and fifty men with automatic weapons, stood ready. With Ari leading the way, they pushed off over the edge of the drop down the side of the mountain. One by one the men and the children dropped down, until the last of them disappeared into the night.

Those left behind stood at the gates of Gan Dafna in silence. There was nothing to do now but wait until morning. They began drifting back toward their bunkers, where they would spend the sleepless night in silence, trembling with fear for the children and for the fate of this strange convoy.

Kitty Fremont stood alone by the main gate for more than an hour after they had gone. She stared vacantly into the darkness.

“It is going to be a very long night,” a voice said behind her. “You might as well get in out of the cold.”

Kitty turned. Jordana stood next to her. For the first time since they had met, Kitty was actually glad to see the redheaded
sabra
. She had been developing a growing admiration for Jordana since her decision to stay. Jordana was perhaps the one person most responsible for keeping Gan Dafna calm. The girl had instilled the young Gadna troops with an infectious confidence; they behaved like spirited battle veterans. During all the ordeals since the closing of the road, Jordana had remained contained and efficient. It was quite a load for a young woman not yet twenty, but Jordana had that quality of leadership that made those around her feel secure.

“Yes, it’s going to be a very long night,” Kitty said.

“Then we can keep each other company,” Jordana said. “I will tell you a secret. I have a half bottle of brandy hidden in the command-post bunker. I think that tonight would be a perfect time to finish it. Why don’t you wait for me at my bunker? I have to bring in the guards. I’ll be back in a half hour.”

Kitty didn’t move. Jordana took her arm. “Come on,” she said gently, “there is nothing we can do now.”

Kitty had been sitting nervously and smoking cigarette after cigarette until Jordana finally got back to the command post. Jordana took the brown Haganah stocking cap from her head, and her long scarlet tresses fell to her shoulders. She alternately held her cheeks and rubbed her hands together to drive out the cold. The brandy was hidden in a loosely filled place in the dirt wall. She took it out and wiped off the bottle and poured Kitty and herself a stiff drink.

“
Le chaim
,” Jordana said, taking a sip. “That is good.”

“How long will it be before they pass near Abu Yesha?”

“That won’t be until after midnight,” Jordana answered.

“I have been telling myself over and over that they are going to come through all right. Then I begin thinking of the thousands of things that can go wrong.”

“It is impossible not to think about it,” Jordana said, “but it is in the hands of God now.”

“God? Yes, He does special things here,” Kitty said.

“If you don’t get religion in Palestine, I doubt that you’ll get it anywhere,” Jordana said. “I cannot remember the time that we have not lived on faith. We actually have little else to sustain us.”

Coming from Jordana Ben Canaan, the words sounded strange, yet—not strange at all. On the surface Jordana did not appear to harbor a deep faith ... but what else could give her the power to exist under this constant tension if it were not faith?

“Kitty,” Jordana said suddenly, “I have a confession to make to you. I have wanted very much for us to become friends.”

“Why is that, Jordana?”

“Because I have learned something from you ... something I have been very wrong about. I have watched you work here with the children and I know what you did for Ari. When you decided to stay I realized something ... I realized that a woman like you can have just as much courage as ... our kind of people. I used to believe that to be feminine was a sign of weakness.”

“Thank you, Jordana,” Kitty smiled weakly, “but I’m afraid I could use a little of your brand of faith or courage or whatever it is right now. I feel as though I’m ready to fall apart.”

Kitty lit a cigarette and Jordana poured her another brandy.

“I have been thinking ...” Jordana said. “You would be good for Ari.”

Kitty shook her head. “We are, as the saying goes, two nice people not made for each other.”

“That is unfortunate, Kitty.”

Kitty looked at her watch. She knew from the discussions that the long column of men would now be approaching the first of the almost straight drops. With the children, they would use ropes easing each man’s descent, one by one. It was a thirty-five-foot plunge. From there they would have to slide in loose dirt for a hundred yards.

“Tell me about yourself and David,” Kitty said quickly.

Jordana’s eyes lit up. “Ah, my David ... my gentle, wonderful David.”

“Where did you first meet?”

“At the Hebrew University. I met him the second day I was there. I saw him and he saw me and we fell in love at that very moment and we have never fallen out of it.”

“That’s the way it was with my husband and me,” Kitty said.

“Of course it took me all that first term to let him know he was in love with me.”

“It took me longer than that.” Kitty smiled.

“Yes, men can be a bother about such things. But by summer he knew very well who his woman was. We went out on an archaeological expedition together into the Negev Desert. We were trying to find the exact route of Moses and the ten tribes in the Wildernesses of Zin and Paran.”

“I hear it’s pretty desolate out there.”

“No, actually there are ruins of hundreds of Nabataean cities. The cisterns still have water in them. If you run in luck you can find all sorts of antiquities.”

“It sounds exciting.”

“It is, but it’s terribly hard work. David loves digging for ruins. He feels the glory of our people all around us. Like so many others ... that is why the Jews can never be separated from this land. David has made wonderful plans. After the war we are both going to return to the university. I will go for my master’s degree and David his doctorate, and then we shall excavate a big, big Hebrew city. He wants to open Hazor, right here in the Huleh. Of course, these are only dreams. That takes lots of money ... and peace.” Then she laughed ironically. “Peace, of course, is merely an abstract word, an illusion. I wonder what peace is like?”

“Perhaps peace would be dull for you.”

“I don’t know,” Jordana said, with a trace of tiredness in her young voice. “Just once in my life I would like to see how human beings live a normal life.”

“Will you travel?”

“Travel? No. I do what David does. I go where David goes. But, Kitty, I would like to go out once. All my life I have been told that all life begins and ends in Palestine. But ... every once in a while I feel strangled. Many of my friends have gone away from Palestine. It seems that we
sabras
are a strange breed made for fighting. We cannot adjust to living in other places. They all come back to Palestine sooner or later—but they grow old so quickly here.” Jordana cut herself short. “It must be the brandy,” she said. “As you know,
sabras
can’t drink at all.”

Kitty smiled at Jordana and felt her first compassion for the girl. She snuffed out her cigarette and looked at her watch again. The minutes were dragging.

“Where would they be now?”

“Still being lowered down that first cliff. It will take at least two hours to get them all down.”

Kitty sighed weakly and Jordana stared into space.

“What are you thinking?”

“About David ... and children. That first summer on the desert we found a graveyard more than four thousand years old. We managed to uncover a perfect skeleton of a little child. Perhaps it died trying to find the Promised Land. David looked at the skeleton and cried. He is like that. His heart is sick day and night over the siege of Jerusalem. I know he is going to try to do something foolish. I know it .... Why don’t you lie down, Kitty? It is going to be a long time before we know anything.”

Kitty finished her brandy and stretched back on the cot and closed her eyes. In her mind she saw that long line of men being lowered by rope with the sleeping children dangling from their backs. And then she saw flinty-eyed Arab irregulars lurking near the column, spying on their moves—waiting for them to get close and into a trap.

It was impossible to sleep.

“I think I’ll go over to Dr. Lieberman’s bunker and see how they’re doing.”

She put on a wool-lined jacket and walked outside. There hadn’t been any shelling all evening. An alarming thought came: perhaps Mohammed Kassi knew something and had moved most of his men out of Fort Esther. She did not like it. The moon was far too bright. The night was far too clear and quiet. Ari should have waited until a foggy night to move the children. Kitty looked up the hill and made out the outlines of Fort Esther. They must have seen, she thought.

She entered one of the faculty bunkers. Dr. Lieberman and the rest of the staff all sat on the edge of their cots staring blankly, numb with tension. Not a word was spoken. It was so morbid she could not stand it and she went outside again.

Both Karen and Dov were standing sentry duty.

She returned to the command-post bunker to find that Jordana had gone.

She stretched out on the cot again and covered her legs with a blanket. The vision of the men inching down the mountainside came to her once more. The day had left her spent. She began to doze. The hours passed.

Midnight
—
one o’clock
. Kitty thrashed about on the cot. Her brain was filled with nightmare. She saw the horde of Kassi’s men charging out at the column, shrieking, with their sabers glinting. The guards were dead and the Arabs had taken all the children and dug a huge pit for them....

Kitty bolted up on the cot in a cold sweat with her heart pounding madly. She shook her head slowly and trembled from head to foot. Then a sound reached her ears. She cocked her head and listened. Her eyes widened in terror!

It was a sound of distant gunfire!

She staggered to her feet. Yes! It was gunfire ... coming from the direction of Abu Yesha! It was no dream! The column had been discovered!

Jordana entered the bunker just as Kitty rushed for the door.

“Let me go!” she shrieked.

“Kitty, no, no ...!”

“They’re killing my babies! Murderers! Murderers!”

Jordana exerted all her strength to pin Kitty to the wall but Kitty was wild. She lashed out and tore from Jordana’s grasp. The
sabra
girl grabbed her, spun her around, and smashed her across the shoulders, sending her to the floor sobbing.

“Listen to me! That gunfire you hear is Zev Gilboa and the Palmach making a diversionary attack. They are hitting the opposite side of Abu Yesha to draw Kassi’s men away from the convoy.”

“You’re lying!”

“It is true, I swear it. I was told not to say anything until just before the attack. I came here and saw you asleep and went to warn the others.”

Jordana knelt down and helped Kitty to her feet and led her to the cot. “There is a little brandy left. Drink it.”

Kitty swallowed it, half gagging to force it down. She brought herself under control.

“I am sorry that I struck you,” Jordana said.

“No ... you did the right thing.”

Jordana sat beside Kitty and patted her hand and massaged the back of her neck. Kitty weakly lay her head on Jordana’s shoulder and cried very softly until she had cried herself out. Then she stood up and put on her heavy clothing.

“Karen and Dov will be coming off guard soon. I’ll go to my bunker and make them some tea.”

The hours of darkness dragged on and on—a night without end. Out in the blackness the men crawled on their bellies past Abu Yesha while the Palmach made its raid on the other side of the village, and then they plunged quickly down ... down ...