The Shield: a novel

by Nachman Kataczinsky PhD

  ***

  The Frumins stayed with Ze’ev and Linda for two weeks. They spent most of their time at the local immigrant absorption center studying Hebrew and getting acquainted with modern Israel. Benjamin took the men shopping, while Linda had a grand time with Tzila.

  Two weeks after their arrival and before the Frumins moved to their new house in an immigrant town in the Galilee Linda invited both sides of the family for a Sabbath dinner. She made sure that everybody would be there and arranged transportation from Refidim and Beer Sheba. Ze’ev had his doubts. His mother’s family came from a small town in Belarus and would, probably, feel uncomfortable with the more sophisticated residents of the big city of Vilna. But his fears were completely baseless. To his surprise Wolf and Jacob had a lot in common and Wolf also quickly zeroed in on his beautiful relative Sheina. Jacob seemed to approve and even switched seats with his sister so she could seat next to Wolf. The dinner was a success.

  Wolf asked Sheina what she was doing.

  “I’m a student at the University of Beer Sheba. I and my cousin Tzipora want to study computers. In the meantime are studying Hebrew, math and other subjects. Hopefully we’ll enroll in the Computer Science course next semester.”

  Wolf was impressed. “I would have nothing against a college education. It makes life so much easier.”

  “So enroll in college. It’s also fun. Lots of new people to meet, though we study hard.” Sheina smiled. “You could even apply to my university.”

  Wolf frowned. “I wish I could but in three weeks I have to report to start my Army service. Maybe after I’m done with that…”

  How old are you?”

  “Eighteen last month. I want to serve in the Jewish Army. We all felt helpless and defenseless when the Germans came. Even the stupid Belorussian police could do what they wanted with us. I never want to feel like that again.”

  Sheina smiled again. “You’re brave. You know in what branch of the military you want to serve?”

  “I really don’t know much about the Israeli armed forces but according to your brother there are a number of elite commando units. I’ll do my best to get into one of those.”

  Sheina nodded. “Yes, Jacob wanted that too but he’s too old or something. Maybe he’ll succeed in getting in anyway. I still have a year before they call me up.”

  “You’re seventeen?” Wolf’s eyes sparkled. “I see that the dinner is finished, would you like going for a walk?”

  Sheina smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  They came back to the house well after midnight. Jacob was waiting up and met his sister at the door. ”You shouldn’t stay out so late. I know that this area is relatively safe but you never know.”

  “I would have protected her.” Wolf responded.

  “And who will protect her from you?” But Jacob could barely hide his smile.

  After two weeks, the Frumins moved to a new immigrant town in the Galilee. After having discussed his situation with Jacob, who could be his son but was also mature and had some experience, Nachman accepted Ze’ev’s offer of a loan and several weeks later was well on the way to setting up a wholesale business. His two brothers arrived a couple of weeks later and joined him in his new endeavor.

  Ze’ev was slightly worried about his eighteen year old uncle Wolf. The boy was a hothead and an idealist, not well-suited or prepared for army service, or so Ze’ev thought. In the old history, Wolf had been one of the first in their town to be shot when he came to the defense of a rabbi who was being beaten by a Nazi soldier. His parents were worried sick by his plans to join a commando unit. They still hadn’t heard from their daughter. She might be alive, but there was no way of knowing. Now their only surviving child was in danger. They were informed that their son, as an only child, would not be permitted to serve in a combat unit without their written authorization. Nachman, who had served in the Tsar’s army during the First World War, was suspicious of the promise.

  ***

  Despite all the family events, Ze’ev wasn’t neglecting his business. This was an opportunity to make Consolidated into a world-class corporation, much larger than it had been. Things were going quite well on most of the expansion projects. The new metallurgical complex being built in Refidim was progressing well. They were building their own equipment – arc and heat treatment furnaces and even sand molding machines were within Consolidated’s capabilities. Electrical transformers and regulating equipment would be supplied by other companies.

  Ze’ev was concerned with the company’s ability to manufacture machining equipment. He would have preferred to buy it but the only suppliers were in the far future. A solution was suggested by one of his engineers: install computer controls on old machines to modernize them. The problem was that the available old equipment was really old and worn out. A source of new old-fashioned machines was available in Britain and the U.S. but it was inaccessible until the government implemented its import plan. Consolidated was not idle while they waited. The company had obtained catalogs of machining equipment available in 1941 and was planning a modernization program based on machines they would be able to purchase in the near future, assuming the current isolation would be lifted soon.

  In the meantime, the company was making money supplying parts for the new electric trolleys being built at a former bus assembly plant in Ashdod. These were copies of German-made cars purchased for the Ayalon light rail project in Tel-Aviv. Luckily for everyone the cars were supplied with enough drawings and technical information to make reverse engineering easy.

  Ze’ev was worried about his decision to invest a major effort in the development of an electric car. They had been working on it for several months now without coming up with any brilliant ideas. They were stuck with old lead-acid batteries. The company had no expertise or materials to develop a high-efficiency, inexpensive means to store energy. Several possible ways presented themselves to solve the problem: find a partner with expertise in batteries, find a completely new source of energy or try to develop a hybrid. All three options were looking worse than when they started the project and Ze’ev was leaning towards starting work on developing a regular car.

  Consolidated had a partner of sorts in Tadiran, a local conglomerate that produced batteries and electronics, both consumer and military. Ze’ev wasn’t happy with the cooperation: Tadiran knew how to make lithium batteries, but these were expensive and there was no sign that the price would come down any time soon. Plus the management of the battery plant expected Consolidated to fund expansion but was reluctant to sign an exclusive agreement that might lower costs to make the use of these batteries feasible.

  At a recent meeting at the Technion Ze’ev had heard a rumor of a new source of energy being developed by the physics department. There was one person he hoped would enlighten him in this matter. He also wanted to ask a couple of questions that had been bothering him for a while. So he drove up to the campus in Haifa.

  ***

  “Hi, Yitzhak. How have you been?”

  “Hi, Ze’ev. I’m fine, despite some people here trying to drive me nuts. And how are you?”

  “Good, good. I am sorry I haven’t been in touch, but things are a bit hectic these days.”

  “Tell me about it.” Yitzhak smiled. “So, what brings you here today?”

  “Two things actually.” Ze’ev was still not entirely sure he wanted to discuss this with anybody, not even a good friend from college. But here he was, so best to get on with it. “The easy part first. I’ve heard from a number of people that you are working on an interesting source of energy. They were mad at you, but that’s a different issue. Is it true?”

  Yitzhak fidgeted in his armchair and made a move like he was lighting a cigarette, though he had abandoned the habit many years ago. “There is something to it. A doctoral student of mine came up with this crazy idea of Zero Point Energy, this is...”

  “Like in a couple of science fiction books?” Ze’ev interrupted.

  “We
ll, sort of. It is a theoretical possibility, though not easy to implement. All those virtual particles that pop out of nothing exert measurable force on the real world. You know about the Casimir effect where two metal plates placed very close together in a vacuum will either attract or repulse each other? The question is how to harness their energy. Say, would your company be willing to give us some money to research this a bit more?”

  “That would depend on how much and how soon we can expect a result.”

  Yitzhak Wisotzky picked up his phone: “Arye, there’s someone here I would like you to meet. Could you come to my office?”

  When Arye Kidron came into the Professor’s office, he was introduced as the guy who “sent us all into the past.” Kidron wasn’t happy with the introduction but had to agree that the description was accurate.

  “If that’s the case, then before we go into energy sources, I would like to ask the second question I had when I came here.” Ze’ev looked at the two physicists. “Are you guys sure it actually was time travel?”

  “What do you mean?” Professor Wisotzky asked. Arye Kidron was conspicuously silent.

  “One reason I always thought time travel was impossible is causality. You can’t reverse cause and effect. The classical example is, you go back in time and kill your grandfather before he has children. Then you were never born so never killed your grandfather and so it goes.

  “Yet, here we are apparently back in time and meeting our ancestors. I’m sure that my father will marry long before my mother gets out of Russia - Why shouldn’t he? The situation that brought them together in the first place doesn’t exist anymore. So I shouldn’t exist, but here I am.” Ze’ev was done and looked expectantly from the older physicist to the younger one.

  “You think you have existential problems,” Yitzhak Wisotzky smiled, “wait ‘til you hear my story. I discovered that my great aunt Sophie whom I remember distinctly never existed. That was a shock.

  “But it is not completely inexplicable. We are talking about the quantum universe here. Just observing something changes it, and our time travel episode was a huge interference. So anything is possible in the sense that we may have changed the past just by going there. Not that I can explain exactly how this happened.”

  Now Ze’ev was seriously intrigued: “So maybe it wasn’t time travel after all. What do you think, young man?”

  Arye Kidron was inspecting his fingernails and took a while to respond. “Time travel is the simplest answer, but I am still working on alternatives. I really don’t know enough to discuss this right now.”

  Seeing that Arye was reluctant to discuss his work, Ze’ev changed the subject back to energy. “How close are you to finding that ‘Zero Point’ source of energy? I’d happily finance the research if it is likely to lead to something practical in the foreseeable future.”

  Kidron considered how to word his reply. “We are fairly advanced on this. The Industry Ministry bankrolled the initial research so you’ll have to iron it out with them and our lawyers before you could profit from it.”

  “Leave the legal and business stuff to me,” Ze’ev said impatiently. “But I’ll need a short written summary of the current state of affairs - what needs to be done and what results can be expected. In short, send me a research proposal.”

  Arye smiled. “Will do. I haven’t done much about this since the Event – no money for experiments and such, just thinking.”

  Chapter 24

  The Chief of General Staff supported Ephraim Hirshson’s request to see the German fighting machine first hand despite strong opposition from the Defense and Foreign Ministers. They thought that satellite data and spy plane overflies produced enough information and there was no need to risk the life of a good officer, one that would be hard to replace.

  “If you are killed or injured we will have great difficulty replacing you – at least in the short run. If you are captured by the Germans it may become catastrophic for us and the hundreds of thousands of Jews still trapped in Europe,” said Nitzan Liebler.

  “Injury or death is a soldier’s normal combat risk – that’s something that shouldn’t influence the decision,” responded Hirshson. “If an armed force is unwilling to risk its soldiers’ lives, especially for a good cause, it becomes impotent. As to being captured: we can arrange for me to wear a British uniform of the Jewish Brigade or better – a neutral uniform. Maybe American. If I carry a micro transponder you’ll be able to rescue me before anything bad happens.”

  “I’m not sure it’s for good cause,” responded the Defense Minister. “What’s wrong with the information we are getting now?”

  Ephraim hesitated, not wanting to offend anyone. “Look at our own history: if we were to judge just by numbers and armament we would have lost the war of independence and a couple of wars after that. We would have won the second Lebanon war easily. We didn’t, because dry statistics tell you nothing about the spirit and leadership that are the real forces behind every army. This is what I want to try to learn. Knowing about how the Germans fought from books is not enough. If I’m supposed to defend the Brindisi base and maybe do something bigger, I need to understand them.”

  The Defense Minister thought for a while and, somewhat to Hirshson’s surprise, agreed.

  Ephraim Hirshson spent almost a week with his family. The next week he was an observer with the British forces in the Libyan Desert.

  ***

  “What’s new Erez?” General Hirshson asked his second in command even before his feet were off the plane’s ladder.

  Major Erez Zuckerman shook the hand his commanding officer offered. “Not much since my last report. I do need to update you on two recent developments though.”

  When they were in Hirshson’s office Erez showed him an order that had come through the command line that morning. It authorized Hirshson to call Eichmann’s replacement – Colonel Alois Brunner – and give him permission to forcibly deport all Jews remaining in Europe to Brindisi. This was a response to Brunner’s telephone call demanding permission to do so. Since Hirshson was absent at the time and Erez knew no German and wasn’t authorized to talk to the Germans he told the “secretary” to take a message and promise a response soon.

  The other matter was somewhat more complicated: “We received a telephone request from a Mr. Howard Snyder, an American correspondent working for the New York Herald-Tribune. He wants to come here and do a story about our operation.”

  “Ah, we should have expected something like that to happen sooner or later,” Hirshson responded. “Did you speak to him?”

  “Yes. I told him that we would get back to him shortly.”

  “Good. I’ll call him tomorrow. What do we know about him?”

  Major Zuckerman looked at his notes. “He’s apparently Jewish. His father emigrated from Russia and changed the family name from Schneider to Snyder. He is involved with the American Jewish Committee and a couple of other Jewish organizations. His wife, Golda, is a member of Hadassah. The guy is 43 years old. They have two kids. That’s it.”

  “This gives me an idea.” Hirshson made a note on his calendar. “I’ll have to call somebody in Israel before calling Snyder. In the meantime I want to go through the base’s defense plans.”

  For a while both officers looked through the computer printouts and maps of the proposed new fortifications. Hirshson appeared more and more concerned: “Major Zuckerman, I appreciate your hard work and imaginative planning, but we will have to modify this plan drastically. I must tell you that I was impressed and am somewhat worried by the Germans’ fighting spirit. They seem to be unable to give up even in the face of certain defeat and often succeed winning a battle by pure bravery and persistence. I also gained respect for their command. We always knew that Rommel was a gifted tactician, but he also has some very good officers under him and the soldiers admire and trust him.”

  Hirshson pointed at the map of the base on the table in front of him. “If they decide to attack us it will likely c
ome in two waves: the Italians will probably attack first. We should have no big problems pushing them back. The next major attack will be German and by then they will have information from the first attack. In theory we can deal with them indefinitely – our advanced weapons and all that crap. In practice though, we will suffer casualties and it will soon become a war of attrition. I don’t think we need that. Any static defense can eventually be breached, and our technological advantage may not be big enough to make us invincible to a prolonged pounding by a determined enemy.

  “What is the best defense, Major?”

  “Offence, of course, sir.” The Major was smiling. “If only I was allowed to plan an offensive and not just defend this facility.”

  “I’m glad we agree.” Hirshson nodded at the plans in front of him. “Let’s plan for an offense to take as much territory as possible as fast as possible. I also want you to consider what might trigger a fight. We can wait for them to attack, or we can choose another trigger. Present me with options. Another thing, plan on having two infantry divisions, a couple of armor battalions and a wing or two of air force support at your disposal. Before you do anything else, make sure that the joint command center for infantry, armor and air force is functioning properly. This should make planning that much easier.”

  ***

  The next day General Hirshson called Liat Cohen at the General Staff. “Liat, after reporting to Gad on my North African experience I sat in on part of a conversation with his next visitor. Please tell Gad that I may have a candidate for him.”

  “Ephraim, if you wait on the line I will let Gad know and see if he wants anything specific.”

  “Hi Ephraim, how are you getting used to the peace and quiet of Brindisi?” Gad Yaari sounded like he was smiling.

  “It’s shocking,” Hirshson also smiled. “I found a good candidate for our friend.”

  Hirshson told his boss about Howard Snyder. “You should have a full report now on your computer. If our friend is interested I will call Snyder and setup an interview in Brindisi.”