by David Hunter
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"Congratulations, gentlemen! You are officially farmers!" The land agent handed them their Bill of Sale, showing the land owned by Mr. Jeff Ronayne as owner, with Karim and Khalid al-Ibrahimi as legal residents of the plot which was defined by legal specifications provided by a land surveyor. The previous days their lawyer, having reviewed all documents, approved the final payment from the bank, recording everything dutifully.
That night, Jeff and the two families celebrated, including the children at Jeff's suggestion and to the children's delight.
Insisting that he needed his partners at full-speed if this venture was to be successful, he furnished Karim's house with an ice box, warm and cold weather clothing for the family, and new cast iron cookware along with a few other items requisite of a modern kitchen.
All worked together to help Khalid and his family pack their belongings, then everybody made the long trip to the farm in two pickup trucks, changing one tire and stopping every thirty minutes or so for at least one of the children to answer the call of nature.
Arriving at the farm the families - especially the women - were delighted to find that Jeff, through the land agent, hired a few locals to clean the living areas in advance. The barn and shed they could later clean themselves.
In Khalid's house, a welcome gift of a beautifully hand-crafted oak wood "Iceland" ice box, matching that of Karim's house, was in a corner of the kitchen along with a new family dining table. Jeff hoped ice was delivered in this rural part of the country. Even if not, during the winter there would be plenty of blocks of ice to carve out of a river inlet that came partway into the property borders.
Before bidding farewell to the families, who seemed to have smiles perpetually glued on their faces, Jeff met with Khalid, Karim, and their wives - unknown to them - a final time.
He had the lawyer in Cairo draw up a Last Will and Testament, leaving the farm and all items associated with it to Karim and Khalid, to be split evenly between their families should they decide to sell at some future date.
Knowing this would be impossible for him to explain correctly in English, the why and how of his Last Will regarding the farm, the lawyer typed an explanation in Arabic for them to read.
"My friends, Karim and Khalid: This Last Will and Testament is to assure you that should Allah, the Passionate and Merciful, call me to Paradise, I want the farm to fall into your possession. My wife - who has always lived in a big city and enjoys her life there - would not be able to run a farm, nor would she wish to move to a country where she would be unable to speak the language. Were she widowed I wouldn't want to burden her with this responsibility. My job has paid me handsomely over the years. She will be comfortable the rest of her life."
"If you do not receive any communication from me within three consecutive years, you are instructed to go to a lawyer to have me declared deceased. If, after appropriate measures have been taken to contact me by the lawyer - at the contact information provided - have failed, and I am acknowledged as deceased according to Egyptian law, then full ownership of the farm falls into your hands, each having half ownership." From his own family history, Jeff recalled that a great-grandfather after whom he was named, Jeff Ronayne, died in Colorado in July of 1935. He had been using that name during this mission; not that he needed to change his name for a covert operation before he was even born. He changed it more as a matter of habit and tradition.
The two couples were solemn at the thought, Dina weeping openly.
"Do not cry. I will be well." Khalid's oldest son spoke English fairly well, taking over translation services from Hala.
The next morning both families and Jeff ate a satisfying breakfast made from eggs and dried bread brought from Khalid's house. There were still plenty of chickens roaming the farm, as well as several heads of cattle that fed off the plentiful weeds in the fields. Younger children ran after the chickens, the latter proving just fast enough to always escape their reach, while the cows looked on in lazy curiosity before returning to the verdant weeds.
No taxi cabs around for at least two hundred miles, Jeff returned to Cairo in Khalid's pickup truck, which was the more reliable of the two, from the journey the previous day. Jeff said he wanted to stay but he had to get back to Cairo and move on to his next destination.
He did make a request before leaving, asking them to avoid going on trips to a big city with their daughters. As if giving fatherly advice to these good parents, he suggested that it would be best for them to marry locals who could carry on the farming and stay near their parents. As a father himself, he told them, he knew the dangers and temptations facing young women in big cities.
In his time, this would have been an absurd comment, but in what was the here-and-now both fathers nodded clear agreement. Besides, he was now their boss, they would comply as was best in their power to do so.
Both brothers hugged Jeff, kissing him on both cheeks as was the custom. They were sad to see their friend leave but hopeful that he'd return with his wife in a couple of years, as part of their planned vacation. He could see that they were genuinely fond of him and hated to see him go, yet equally eager to get back to the farm and get to work on their new life with their families.
Some time later Khalid would discover a small roll of money in the glove compartment of his truck, tied with string and a note attached simply saying, "To my friends as we start our new venture and partnership, Jeff." Joyfully he shared the news with his brother; the money was enough to buy seed for the next season's crops.
Table of Contents
36. Time Again
"If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm." - Mahatma Gandhi
Somewhere in the Negev Desert, State of Israel
Where Jeff's return from the first landing was met with pure, exuberant joy, this time he was surprised to see a semblance of joy mixed with hesitation and tears. No rushing for hugs and congratulatory remarks, no champagne bottles, with his glass of chocolate milk ready for celebration.
Seeing the crowded conditions of the topside civilians in the bunker side-by-side with scientists who worked in this wing, combined with eyes red and puffy from extended hours of crying and exhaustion, Jeff recognized he must have failed in his mission. All was lost.
One of the scientists, surprised by his sudden return, nearly ran to him. "Dr. Stauffenberg, you're back! Are you okay?"
"Yes, fine. Is Dr. Levin available?"
"Transmissions! We're receiving transmissions from the outside! All channels and bandwidths are again active!" A tech at her desk practically knocked her chair over as she jumped up, shocked by the renewed sights and sounds of monitors, pulling off her earphones to make the announcement.
Cheers were heard from different rooms in the wing of the building as word spread.
Stunned by the announcement, the scientist responded, "No sir. He had a heart attack. He's recovering; he'll be fine. He's in the infirmary. He may be up to a visitor now."
"How about Dr. Siwel?"
"Last I saw she was in the clinic with Director Levin. She stays with him while his wife eats and rests."
"My family, do you know my family? Do you know where they are now? Are they here, in the bunker with everybody else?"
The scientist had a confused look, one that Jeff didn't understand. "They are dead sir. Well, maybe not. I just don't know. Please excuse me, I need to contact the remaining leadership, let them know you returned."
Without a word Jeff left the massive room, having to push his way through masses of people who appeared elated, grief-stricken, shocked, traumatized, hopeful. A greater mix of emotions would never again be found in a single group of people during his lifetime. This mix of emotion added further still to Jeff's own confusion and fear, bordering terror.
At last reaching the elevator, after carefully stepping over groups of people seated everywhere, navigating others also trying to plot a route through th
e congested corridors, it was reminiscent of blood platelets bunching together and then bursting through densely plaque-lined blood vessels, signaling an eventual aneurysm.
The elevator opened, packed with people. Jeff did an about-face and hurried, as much as the crowds moving toward the elevator allowed, for the stairs.
Before reaching the infirmary, the welcome news that he had returned, and that the planet had been restored to pre-attack conditions, was broadcast throughout the building.
Entering the infirmary, Rivka rushed passed him, running to the bed of her husband to hug him with a strength that nearly squeezed out what life remained in him.
Rachael was the first to see Jeff. They laughed and hugged, she kissed him on a cheek, they hugged once more.
"Where is my family?"
"If things are as they appear to be, Jeff, they are in Colorado - for them none of this happened. Though the last couple of years will still have transpired, and there will be changes, all should be much as it was before."
"I don't understand, Rachael. What happened here? Furthermore, why would my family be home in Colorado as if nothing happened, when other families are here, in the bunker?"
They stepped out into the corridor, now almost completely evacuated, to give Rivka and Moshe time to themselves while everybody attempted to absorb their new realities - both those from their memories of the events from within the temporal shielding, as well as the reality of the world around them, where there never were neither biological nor nuclear holocausts.
"As you recall, when you were stepping back through time, the biological agents had been unleashed in the United States. We were under the incorrect assumption that with the revised timetable of the terrorists, they'd hit our country first, on the night that opened the High Holidays."
"When there was no movement from the known sleeper agents here, we figured that we still had two more days to go - that we could quietly, along with other governments, round them up over the next two days, averting the worst of the crisis. We knew, from the onset, that we couldn't contain a full outbreak; having been unable to identify all of the sleepers."
"We were confident that if we made a coordinated, global arrest of the known sleepers, we would have more around seventy percent as the best that could be achieved. We didn't want to move too early for fear that their arrest would force the remaining terrorists to postpone their plan and send more sleepers into the target countries."
"In addition," Rachael continued, "we felt that rather than allow the remaining thirty percent of the unknown sleepers to execute their attacks - still killing scores of people and devastating global economies as well as sparking any number of wars - the Project remained our best option. An option, for any number of reasons, we chose to not share with partner nations. If successful, as is now evident, there never were any terrorists, there never was this threat hanging over the planet."
"Hold on. My family, why would they be back in Colorado?"
"Jeff, the bio agents were released sooner than expected. We had no idea, isolated where we are, that they would reach us as quickly as they did. There must have been a wind that carried them from - I don't know where or how. All I know is that by the time civilians topside started dying, it all happened so quickly we were caught unprepared. Many made it to the security of the bunker, actually most. Once we were able to get sufficiently organized, a list was drawn up of those who made it down here. Neither your family, nor mine, were on that list."
"So what, you're telling me our families . . . died?"
"Yes, it was devastating to all of us, especially those whose immediate families died. They had to close and seal the shelter doors when they did; if they didn't there would have been no survivors. Very possibly there would have been no functional facility for you to return to were radioactive waste allowed to enter."
Rivka cleared her throat. Startled, neither Jeff nor Rachael aware of her presence, she quietly said, "Jeff, Moshe would like to see you. Please be brief, he's very weak."
"Moshe, yedid, how are you doing?"
"I've been better. I've been guaranteed that I'll make a full recovery. At my age, that's probably not saying very much. Jeff, I know you will want to see your family. For now you have to settle with calling them on the phone. We need to debrief you before you can return to Colorado."
"I understand, Moshe. I'll stay as long as needed. I'll call Lynn as soon as we've spoken. From her perspective, I haven't called home for several days now, she'll be worried." Jeff spoke with concern in his voice for his wife.
"Yes, she will. Though, as far as she's concerned, you're in Europe conducting business as usual. The Project, their trip here to Israel never happened." Moshe spoke in a fatherly tone.
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.