by David Hunter
~ ~ ~
Avi's prison cell was claustrophobia inducing small. Isolated from the general population, stripped of all clothing to wear only prison garb made of a sturdy paper-based material, he was placed on a 24-hour suicide watch.
Absolute silence, no window, light only emanating from a single bulb recessed in the ceiling behind some kind of glass that was unbreakable; not even a door handle for the door that was precisely flush with the wall. He was entirely alone.
With no point of physical reference, save it be for the light above and the thin mat on the ground serving as a bed, the small cell was rounded-out with only a metal toilet that had no lid or handle to flush, a motion detector built into the wall doing that job.
Avi was confident that there would also be a fish-eye surveillance camera somewhere, that could view the entirety of the small cell, and most likely some kind of microphone to monitor any sound. The video surveillance was probably protected beside the light source. The miniature microphone could have been just about anywhere.
His hair, already military standard in length, was shorn to nearly bald when he first entered the prison and relinquished his clothing along with the items in his pockets.
Gaunt from emotional exhaustion, lack of sleep and food, coupled with the earlier worry about Mona; Avi knew that he was but a shell of his former self, the fading ghost of the man he was a few short days ago. Had he been on the streets like this, his own parents would have walked by without so much as a flicker of recognition.
He wondered when they would receive word of his incarceration. He knew that the security services would already have been investigating them, probably for several months now, to make sure they had no complicity in his betrayal. Once they learned of his imprisonment and eventual court martial, they would – could – never be told of the full circumstances leading to the same. Likely they would never have been told anything at all other than that it was a matter of "national security."
His mother would cry, often. He had no idea what his father's reaction would be. Probably one of stoic silence with later tears shown to none, not even his wife. Avi innately knew that he would by no means be allowed to see his parents again. Not knowing how he could face them, this would be for the best – for himself anyway.
Without reference for the passage of time, no clock, sun, or moonlight, he had no idea how long he had been in this cell. It may have been an hour or several hours. Time was his first sense of disorientation. He was to learn in the coming days that the lightbulb would never be extinguished. There would be times he was allowed to sleep, followed by times when – sleeping for who knows how long – he would be forced awake by a guard.
Meals, too, never followed any distinguishable pattern. Sometimes he could swear that lunch was handed through the small, sliding door at the base of the door to his cell just minutes after he had finished his breakfast. At other times the gnawing in his stomach led him to believe twelve or more hours had passed since his last meal.
When somebody came for an interview, a medical/mental evaluation, or the delivery of food, he always stood at the other end of the small cell. At such times he was shackled by waist-high handcuffs bolted to the wall that would automatically clamp closed around his wrists, then automatically release open again once he was allowed to move about. He never knew when people were to arrive for an interview. When they did he never once was allowed to leave the cell; chairs were instead brought in for the interviewers.
As Tzipora had threateningly promised, they did go to the prison for a follow-up interview. He supposed it was that same afternoon but the disorientation took hold quickly, leaving him in doubt as to any reference of time.
He was never beat, which actually came as something of a surprise to him given his situation as a highly placed soldier-turned-traitor and enemy of the state. Physically strong, he realized he would have preferred beatings to isolation and absolute disorientation. He didn't even have the benefit of growth of hair as an indicator of time lapsed because an attendant frequently - how frequently he could not guess - shaved his face and keep the hair on his scalp to no more than stubble.
At least two times, chemical interrogations were employed. Interrogations occurred less frequently, eventually not at all. Or so it seemed to him. It was either a day since he last spoke with an interrogator, a month, or even longer. He could not be sure. It appeared that either the interrogators came to accept that he was telling the truth, or that he had nothing more to share.
He wondered if he would die in this cell or simply go insane. For a while he would exercise to try and keep his body in relative shape. One day - night? - Avi reached the conclusion that it wasn't worth the effort. Either he would languish in this cell or be executed at the hands of the state as a traitor. One way or another, there just seemed no point in staying physically fit.
The State of Israel publicly prided itself on being a moral, just government and society based on Judaic principles of equality and justice. Avi always believed that, accepted that his service as a soldier defended this "high ground" position. His treatment of the last weeks, or maybe already months or even years, instilled not just a doubt of this moral public relations coup but contempt for the very idea.
"Put me on trial and end this already! I can't take this anymore – please just let me die." This was the first time, he believed, that he lost emotional control in the cell; lashing out vocally to his captors. For the first time since viewing her tongue ripped from her mouth Avi sank to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
Unsurprisingly, there was no response from his captors. Redemption, even the smallest amount, wasn't to be found. Alone, isolated, scared, he realized that even his very thoughts were now working against him, mocking and taunting the fool-turned-traitor.
Table of Contents
23. Who Pulls the Strings
"Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them."- Holy Bible, Ezekiel 38:7
Somewhere in the Negev Desert, State of Israel
Moshe gave Jeff a little information on the jet as they returned to Israel, just enough to assure him that cutting his visit home was necessary, a decision not taken lightly. Nothing was said that could have fully prepared him for what he was to hear in the conference room of the facility.
He knew Dr. Abrams as well as anybody could, the young military man by face and reputation only. The news just shared worsened his fear that his family was no more safe in Israel than they would be if they remained in Colorado; perhaps even less so. If an enemy nation – Jeff figured it had to be Iran given the weakness and disorganization of the other nations of the Middle East, other than perhaps Turkey – if an enemy nation could reach into the very Israeli military General Staff, as well as the head of one of the facilities of The Project, how could anybody guarantee his family's safety?
He made a mental assessment of the countries that first came to mind:
Egypt, with an uneasy peace with Israel, was going through an internal tumult having overthrown their first democratically elected president, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. The head of the judicial branch was now in charge until new elections could be held. They were now brokering yet another cease fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip before full-scale war broke out.
Lebanon was inching closer to civil war, with the Sunni Muslim population's growing tensions over Shi'a support of the Hezbollah involvement in the internal affairs of Syria. The Hezbollah had been pouring into Syria to support a hated despot whose majority population was trying to overthrow him in an extended, deadly civil war.
The Hezbollah was supported financially and with weaponry by the Shia's Islamic government of Iran, the primary financer and promoter of terror in the region. Al-Mazan, the dictator of Syria, belonged to a minority religious branch related to Shi'a Islam. He was a willing puppet of Iran as was his father before him.
More importantly, if his government were to be toppled, th
e Iranians would have to find another way to get rockets and other weaponry to the Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Syria was the most direct route, Al-Mazan being only too happy to allow unquestioned, even assisted, access through his country.
At all costs, Iran and the Hezbollah had to keep Al-Mazan, or at least another member of the minority Alawite Islam branch - which Iran accepted over the Sunni majority - in power in Syria.
Syria was in no position to wage any kind of foreign war, much as they would like to blame the internal uprising on "Zionist Spies and Revolutionaries" to divert public attention from the realities of the Al-Mazan government. This attempt at misdirection failed. The Syrian people were more intelligent and in-tune with the true problems in their country to be fooled by trumped-up allegations and propaganda.
The Royal Family of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was disliked by the regular Saudi people. They were seen as so rich as to be out-of-touch with the subjects of their kingdom. The excesses and sometime depravities of the ruling family facilitated and even propelled the birth of Al-Quieda; which eventually spun off smaller and sometimes deadlier groups.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan had significant problems with poverty and the initial influx of people from the areas now known as the West Bank and the Gaza. The West Bank was part of the Kingdom of Jordan before the war of 1967 that allowed the Israeli military to claim it as a buffer zone, as they likewise did with the Gaza Strip that was part of the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. The Sinai area was still as dangerous and lawless today as was the old Wild West of the early American frontier. The exodus of people from the West Bank into the Kingdom of Jordan in the War of 1967 had three components to it:
First: Some Israeli soldiers encouraged the people to leave their homes not only for their own safety but also so that they could contain the area against snipers and other threats. So yes, the Israeli Army had some complicity in the partial exodus of the people now known as "Palestinians," a name identified group of people never self-applied before 1967. Before there was a State of Israel the area was referred to as Palestine based on a name applied by early Romans to the area. Even the Romans refused to recognize the well-established Jewish Nation within their empire. How history is prone to repeat itself!
Second: Some leaders of Arab countries as well as influential religious Imams wanted to create a flight of refugees for the world to see and thus demonize Israel, a country they tried to destroy with weapons. Unsuccessful, they turned to the media as a form of weapon, a highly successful tactic used to this day. The faithful and fearful, being told they would be annihilated by the Jews if they remained, took shelter in Jordan and other countries.
Generations later, most of the slums created by these refugees would see no improvement in health and human services by their host countries. In fact, most of the host countries - the small and less affluent Kingdom of Jordan being, to their credit, a notable exception - had not allowed assimilation into the population so that the world would continue to take pity and blame the Israeli government for their generations-long poverty. Generations later, descendants of these initial refugees were refused citizenship in the majority of countries into which they were born. The refugee crisis is largely perpetuated by Arab countries.
Rarely mentioned is the fact that over half a million Jews were expelled from hostile Islamic-controlled governments since the establishment of Israel.
Each war since the War of Independence witnessed a fresh persecution and expulsion of Jews from Islamic nations hostile to Israel. This had never become newsworthy to the international media because Israel took in all of these refugees, fully integrating them into society.
In modern times, other than the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust, there had never been a Jewish refugee problem precisely because there was finally a country with a Jewish identity, where any and all Jews were welcome home.
Third: Many people evacuated of their own accord, having nothing to do with either Israeli or Arab motives.
No, the Kingdom of Jordan, led by a truly great and admirable king – as was his father before him – had enough internal problems to deal with. Complicating matters were the thousands of refugees from the Syrian civil war pouring into Jordan. They were doing the best that they could under difficult circumstances.
Iraq was still trying to recover from years of war, during and after the ouster of the tyrant Saddam Hussein and his two sadistic sons. There were signs of stability and hope that the country would become strong, under the rule of the people. This was yet to be seen, though unlikely. A new militant Islamic group, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, was doing their best to decapitate a large swath of land and population in the northern part of Iraq. If the Taliban had a more evil and monstrous twin, it would be ISIS.
Other countries such as Kurdistan and Afghanistan had their own internal problems to deal with, including spates of ongoing terrorism on their soil – both domestic and foreign in nature.
One common denominator was that all of the Arab countries had concerns over the growing strength and influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran. While not an intelligence analyst by any means, Jeff felt he could rule out all countries in this matter except for Iran. On the other hand, it was possible that Iran was funding a group of a mixed and loose confederacy. It was even possible – albeit unlikely – that Iran had nothing whatsoever to do with this.
Whoever was behind it, Jeff's concern for the safety and welfare of his family mounted exponentially as he learned the reason for his sudden recall.
The remaining three Stauffenbergs were due to arrive in Tel Aviv in a few days. Jeff would meet them at the airport with a security detail embedded among the people milling about the airport itself, complimented by the nine Mossad agents on the flight returning home to Israel themselves.
Rather than the housing in Jerusalem and flat in Tel Aviv, they would have to stay in the family residence area established within the perimeter of the facility itself, at least until after the second landing had been completed. After that, when the threat would be eliminated, they would be free to move into the regular housing while the aftermath of the landing in Phase II ran its course.
During this second phase, Sami would take high school classes with a small group of other children her age, while Brian would begin his college studies via online distance learning. Neither would be happy, it would be difficult to explain to them why they weren't allowed to leave the confinement of the facility border without explaining why. Teenage years were difficult enough, for children and parents; this was going to make the living situation nearly impossible. The good news was; at least for Lynn, Jeff would be around most days.
Having to stay on the facility grounds for months on end would be a trial for all four in the family, but mostly for Lynn. Perhaps she could be employed in some way at the facility so as to stay busy. Already gardens were popping up around the makeshift homes.
A gym and movie theater were near completion as well as a community center complete with bowling lanes and indoor tennis and racquetball courts. A small park, complete with a diving pool was also nearing completion. A primary and high school buildings were the first non-resident buildings to be completed – Jeff appreciated the priority being placed on education over recreation.
These, though, were Hebrew language institutions. Sami would mix with the students for such things as physical education and any other way she could be integrated.
All total, it could work, if they gave it a fair chance. With all activities and living quarters and needs such as food provided free, it was a sweet deal – as long as you could overlook what essentially was being held in captivity.
After the meeting, Rachael told Jeff that they should meet in her office. The look on her face caused Jeff to wonder if more bad news was in store.
Table of Contents
24. Time Stands Still
"The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time." - Abraham Lincoln
Somewhere In The Nege
v Desert, State Of Israel
The fortunate handful of employees of The Project who were able to go home and enjoy a long overdue vacation found themselves recalled to their various facilities for a critical meeting.
Because every member of the facility's 24/7 three shifts a day staff was required to attend the overflow was accommodated in additional rooms with two-way, closed-circuit audio and visual equipment outfitted in each; allowing for an open flow of communication, despite physical separation of walls.
There was an uncomfortable silence with few questions following the disclosure of the events of the last couple of weeks. Once the gravity and reality of what they had just heard fully sank in, salient questions and comments flowed, albeit with the composure and careful thought one would expect from a select audience such as this: from janitorial staff to lead scientist alike.
Rachael and the others gathered in the large conference room of this facility of The Project were dumbfounded by what they were hearing. Similar meetings were in progress at the other two facilities that comprised the totality of The Project.
Everyone wondered what could be so important as to be recalled back to work like this. Most had misgivings, realizing that whatever it was something critical had happened or was about to happen.
Nobody was prepared in the slightest for the revelations that one of their top scientists – himself the lead of one of the facilities, as well as an important aid to General Ashkelon - proved traitors leaking information to a hostile nation. Then, with that still filtering its way through the devastated thoughts of the assembled, they were told of the sudden passing of General Ashkelon.
Rachael knew that something was amiss with Avi after Jeff landed, completing a successful first phase of The Project. She intended to report her observations a day or two thereafter, but on further reflection she felt them to be unfounded and without tangible evidence. Besides which, the days of clinical observation and follow-up with Stauffenberg required her time and undivided attention. She regretted second-guessing herself now, but doubted she could have changed anything anyway - given the fact that Avi and No'am must have been under observation before her suspicions first arose.
Time seemed to stand still, nature itself frozen, the earth ceased to rotate on its axis, as they tried to absorb each bit of devastating news. Later in the day, each facility would be introduced to Lt. General Isabella Aharonson, the new Chief-of-Staff who would be overseeing The Project under the Prime Minister.
Having come to know both No'am and Avi personally, though not well, over the last few years she felt a certain, albeit illogical, sense of personal betrayal that went beyond the overall betrayal to colleagues, The Project, and the citizens of Israel. Dr. Siwel realized that what Abrams and Ben-Levi had done was in no way directed at her specifically. Yet this feeling of personal betrayal was an emotion not easily shaken. Had she not met the men and spoken with each of them more than once, especially Dr. Abrams, she thought that she might not feel this way.
No details as to the "how and why" of the motives and actions of the two men who betrayed The Project were given. Nobody expected them to be. Rachael looked over at Moshe and Jeff, both looking already tired and emotionally drained. She knew Stauffenberg was home in the United States with his family. He must have recently returned. She would have a chance to speak with them later. Rachael was eager to ask Jeff if his family would be joining them in Israel soon. Given these discomforting revelations she hoped the answer would be in the affirmative. She turned her attention back to the speaker.