The End-Time Foretellers

by Ran Weber

  “You know what, Yoav?” said Binyamin, “just get out of here. You’re not going to help anyway. Just run like you always do. Just leave and run to some island on the Bahamas. No one’s keeping you here, it’s all over and you’re free to go. Don’t do us any favors and don’t pretend to care.” He paused for a moment and said, “Donnie and I will go to Los Angeles, rescue Aharon and destroy Schetritt’s servers. You can fly back to Israel, get back to playing imaginary computer games in Tel Aviv and forget you ever met us.”

  ‘What do you want from him?” asked Donnie.

  He knows exactly what I’m talking about,” said Binyamin. “Get out, Yoav, it’s time for you to decide where you really stand.”

  104

  The night was still and silent, the only sound I could hear was the chirping of crickets. A pleasant wind blew and thousands of stars twinkled in the sky. The cabin was behind me, a dim light glowed from the kitchen window. I felt helpless. I guess Binyamin had been right. I felt drained and powerless. I suddenly felt I had nothing to do with everything that was happening and just wanted to split, to leave it all behind me. I hated myself, hated the feeling I kept running away from everything, but felt that there wasn’t any choice. There was nothing I could do. Binyamin and Donnie needed to solve their own mess. They had forced me to get there. I hated the fact that I was there against my will.

  Don’t you care about anything? A voice asked inside me. I found no answer. Running away again, just like with Yossi? I thought, just when things get critical? Every time the moment of truth comes, I just… just don’t want to be there.

  That helpless feeling broke something up inside me. I couldn’t take it anymore, but I also didn’t know what to do. It was all so close, we were on the brink of success and we failed. I thought I was doing the right thing. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I did everything the right way and nothing good came out of it.

  Frustration gnawed at me from inside. I wanted to do something, but what?

  What can I do? I asked myself. I started running to unwind some of the energy that seethed inside me. Frustration and helplessness were transformed into anger and rage, then shattered into desperation. I felt ashamed. I felt guilty. I’ve ruined everything, I thought. The codes will get to the Iranians and they will launch the missile.

  I picked up a stone and hurled it into the darkness that surrounded me. Then I picked up another. It pierced the silence and hit a nearby rock. I wanted to toss myself with the stones. Toss it all off, finish with this nightmare and wake up somewhere far from here. Flashes of images of what might happen should the missile be actually launched rose before my eyes. Children in playgrounds, bustling office buildings, countless dreams and plans, all would be instantly severed by a single tidal wave of destruction. I panted hard, but not from the effort. I was flooded by unfamiliar sensations. I wanted to scream and cry, to kick and shake the world. I wanted to stop everything and start over, to do something that might… I didn’t even know what I wanted, just felt a burning desire in my chest and upper belly that spread until it claimed my entire body, cell by cell.

  Binyamin had once told me that there is a lot of noise in the mornings. “Other than all the people and animals running around outside,” he said, “the Talmud says that, ‘the sun scorches a path through the heavens,’ which makes a lot of noise. This is why the best time for seclusion is at night, when everything’s quiet.”

  I heard a loud shout, the kind of shout you could even hear from a distance in a crowded, bustling place, the kind of shout that is deafening in such a quiet, motionless place as this desert. A blood curdling scream that seemed to emerge from the bottom of the earth. The subtle silence was disturbed, pierced by the scream, which rose straight into the sky, “Enough, I’ve had it. Help me.” Then again, even louder this time, “Help me!” A wordless scream made of pure pain, shooting its way up into the heavens.

  The scream burst from inside me. I didn’t feel I was screaming, I felt that I was the scream itself. Repressed pain of years exploded inside me and burst out. The helplessness had turned into a ball of fire that ignited all the dormant parts inside me. I felt vitality flowing through me; suffering and happiness mixed together. I didn’t care about the fact that I could be heard, didn’t even think about it, I just screamed. I was in pain, like a tormented patient, unaware of his surroundings.

  Where will I find help? I asked myself. I’ve ruined everything. I looked into the sky. Do you even exist?

  “Enough!” I said, then asked again, “what can I do?” My breath quickened, I was burning from confusion and conflicting desires. Should I just leave everything again? Run away from it all and bury my head in the sand? For how much longer? I had to do something, but my feet were planted in the ground as if it were clay, a thick black clay that pained me, paralyzed me and threatened to drown me, unless I acted.

  I began to weep, hot tears washed over my face. I felt the anger and rage that had accumulated inside me for so long. I picked up a stone and threw it as far as I could, then another, and another. “I can’t take it anymore… father… I just can’t take it anymore.” I had no idea where the words were coming from. “I want to do good. I want to live, father, to really live. I don’t know anything, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what will happen.” I paused for a moment. “I want to do everything I can, I want to save the world. I want to take responsibility and do what needs to be done, but I don’t know how… what… I…” I drew silent. I cried and felt my heart gradually settling down. Something new sprouted in me. If I were one of those new age fanatics, I’d say that I’ve experienced some new light, but instead, I settled for a single word – hope. I experienced an unfamiliar inner clarity, accompanied by a burning will. I felt it burning in my entire body. I felt that will burning up all the fears. They were still there, but the force of that will had turned them into minor things. Like candles in the face of a scorching noon sun. Everything came together to form a single point.

  I felt an inexplicable sweetness. A sweet surrender to a deeper layer, full of gentle love, as well as strength and vitality. Something inside told me that everything was all right. There was still much to do, but everything will be all right. I wiped the tears and headed back to the cabin.

  105

  I was hoping they’d be asleep. They weren’t.

  “Well… I had no idea well-behaved children like you could scream like that,” said Donnie.

  I realized they’d heard everything. So what, I thought. I felt ashamed, but that didn’t stop me. I took my pistol out of the drawer and shoved it into my jeans pocket.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m going to Los Angeles to finish this.”

  I took out my cellphone and sent Ehud a message. “Meet me at the ‘Desert Eagle.’ Be there in two hours.” I figured he’d trace the place within minutes. He must be dying to put his hands on me.

  Binyamin rose from his seat. “You’re coming with me to rescue Aharon?”

  “Of course,” I said. “I just need to go by the Desert Eagle to finish something up. Pick me up from there?”

  He nodded.

  “If you’re really going for it,” said Donnie, took out a set of keys from his pocket and tossed them to me, “at least take my open-roof BMW. Drive into the city in style.”

  “Thanks, Donnie.”

  I looked at my watch. “I need an hour there, tops.”

  I knew what needed to be done with a kind of clarity I’d never experienced. My inner will was in perfect harmony with everything that was happening around me. I felt no inhibitions or hesitations. The clouds had dispersed and the skies were completely clear.

  My cellphone vibrated. Binyamin looked at me with wonder. I looked at the message and smiled back at him. “The fish swims straight into the fisherman’s net. Ehud will come to meet me. That would be a start.”

  “Tell me, do you need a laptop t
oo?” ask Donnie and raised his laptop.

  “Yes, that could definitely help,” I said and took the computer. “Pray for me,” I said before I left.

  106

  “Vladi?” asked Ehud.

  “Da?” answered Vladimir tiredly.

  “I have an urgent mission. Bring some extra muscle with you.”

  “Rate?”

  “The usual. Code blue.”

  “As a backup for you, or…”

  “The execution will be yours. I’m just going to meet with him, you do the job. I’ll leave the place first, then you go through the usual procedure: confirmation, pictures, clearing and cleaning the area.”

  “What about police, agencies… what is risk level?”

  “It’ll be all right, Vladi. I’ll make sure the coast is clear.”

  “All right, I’ll get Boris. He never misses.”

  107

  I sped towards Los Angeles. To my right, my eyes caught a sight of the sign for ‘The Desert Eagle.’ I was early. An hour and a half of driving and I was at the Eagle’s parking lot. This was a good place for me to go over the details of the plan and send the emails and instructions I wanted followed until Ehud shows up.

  I stopped next to the diner. I went out of the car and made sure the remote key was operating. I didn’t want Milstein’s car to be stolen, not yet, at least. It worked.

  ***

  “Wait a minute. Let me make a brief call,” said Binyamin and took out a dark business card. “I don’t like the fact that Ehud is meeting with Yoav. Something stinks there. Ehud is no pushover.”

  “Who are you calling?” asked Donnie while Binyamin was dialing.

  “Hello, Tyrell?” asked Binyamin, “it’s Binyamin Wolf. I helped you once with Grandma – the monstrous sound system. How’s the old lady doing? Yes? Alive and kicking? I’m happy to hear… Listen, I need some urgent help.”

  ***

  The diner was almost empty. I ordered some coffee and leafed through the local newspaper. I had things to arrange and organize before returning to Los Angeles. I had no choice, I had to take care of things on my own.

  Someone sat beside me, real close. I got scared. It was too early. “Ehud?”

  He looked at me with cold eyes, his hand under the table. “Isn’t it amazing, Yoav, that the name of the pistol I’m holding in my hand is identical to the name of this place? How poetic that you should end your life getting shot by a Desert Eagle pistol in a diner called ‘The Desert Eagle.’”

  My heart was pounding. How did he get here, I asked myself. He needed to drive at least two hours to get from Los Angeles to the diner. I assumed he must have located me even before I had sent him the message.

  “Very poetic, Ehud, like the rest of your life.”

  “Famous last words, by Yoav Sharff.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I mean that this is the end, the end of your life. I’m sorry, Yoav, he who lives like a lone wolf end up dying like a dog,” he paused and added, “not that I was your biggest fan, but I really don’t want to be the one dirtying his hands.”

  “So what do you intend on doing?” I asked. I was trying to stall for time. My heart pounded quickly and my thoughts clouded. This wasn’t what I had planned.

  “Oh…” he said tiredly, “I’m going to drag you out of this place and make sure that the two Russian thugs I’d hired will finish the job. I don’t want to see it with my own eyes, but it still needs to be done.”

  My heart beat like a wild drum. Things were getting complicated. “Listen, Ehud, I wanted to share the money with you,” I tried.

  Ehud laughed. “You don’t get it, do you? This is it. Finito. I don’t want your money. The curtain’s going down, Yoav. Do you know the riddle about the Gordian knot? How do you untie the knot no one has ever been able to untie? One swing of the sword and the riddle is solved. You’re the last problem. I take you out and everything is solved.”

  I felt like an idiot. A single moment of inner clarity and will had made me step right into a trap like a novice. What about backup?

  Instead of asking for help, I tried to play Clint Eastwood, leaving throbbing hearts and bleary eyes behind me. The all mighty Yoavi, always alone, never asking for anyone’s help. I should have crawled out of my own skin and asked Binyamin for help. Now it was all over. In a stinking diner in Nevada, no less, deep in the desert. My chances of escaping Ehud’s Russian thugs on my own were zero. I thought I’d catch him, but the hunter has become the hunted.

  My life flash-forwarded before my eyes. I saw myself on my own. As early as kindergarten. Alone in school, in the army, alone everywhere. Even when I had lived with Binyamin, I felt separate. Well, that wasn’t exact. At a certain point, I did feel something, I felt like Binyamin was ignoring that separate place of mine, that he, of all people, saw something in me and didn’t give up on me.

  “You’ll have plenty of time to sleep. Finish your coffee and get out, hotshot. I wish I could say how much fun I had working with you, but all I have left to do is wish you luck in getting admitted into heaven.”

  I froze. Things couldn’t possibly end like this, I said to myself. An ember of faith was rekindled inside me. Warmth flowed through my veins, filling me with assurance and certainty that came from somewhere else. I knew something was about to happen but had no idea what it was. I said a wordless prayer, with a lot of intent.

  I nodded and said, “Let it be.” Ehud looked at me with surprise.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Binyamin carefully getting inside the diner. He quietly walked behind Ehud, raised his pistol and slammed it into the back of his neck. Ehud fainted and drooped from the chair onto the floor. One of the diner employees quickly came to help Binyamin and dragged Ehud into a small room. Binyamin motioned for me to join them. He placed the unconscious Ehud on a chair and tied him with a rope. “Now what?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. Actually, I hadn’t planned that far.”

  “We’ll just wait until the clown wakes up. Want some coffee in the meantime?”

  “Gladly.”

  We left the bound Ehud in the small room, leaving the door slightly ajar so we’d be the first to hear him when he wakes up and starts screaming, and sat by one of the diner tables.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked after the waitress had brought Binyamin his coffee.

  He looked at me with interest. “You don’t leave your friends behind.”

  Binyamin raised his coffee mug in his right hand, said the proper blessing and took a long sip. “That’s a good cup of coffee…”

  “It’s hard for me to believe you’re here. You just jumped right into the flames to help me.”

  “Leave the romantic notions behind. What are we going to do with Ehud?”

  “Hmmm…” I said, “I guess he’d wake up soon and we have a lot to talk about. Once he starts making some noise, I’ll pay him a visit. You’ll cover me?”

  “Deal,” he said and took another sip.

  A few minutes later, I heard Ehud’s cries. “He’s awake,” I said.

  “Go take care of him,” said Binyamin. “I’ll take care of things on this end.”

  I got up, made my way into the small room and slammed the door behind me. “Was there something you wanted, Ehud?”

  Ehud tried to release his hands. “Yoav, you’re not going to get out of this one.”

  “Really?” I asked. “So far, it looks like your situation is much worse than mine.”

  His shoulders stiffened. “You had better start listening, Yoav,” he said firmly, “I am not going to let you get out of it this time.”

  “Looks like you don’t have a choice.”

  “You don’t get it, Yoav, the feds are going to fry you, the Iranians are going to gut you up and Schetritt is going to gobble you up. You’re not getting
out of this one, I’ll see to it personally.” He peeked outside. “Actually, I don’t have a lot of time with you guys, unless you let me go in…”

  His words were cut short by the deafening sound of bass rhythms. Mighty hip-hop music threatened to take down the diner walls, making our table tremble. A few howls were heard from outside, followed by a brief noise, then silence. Binyamin entered the room, “Ehud, I just got word that your guys are waiting for you in the trash container next to the diner. Don’t worry, they seem much more relaxed now. Actually, you can take as much time as you’d like to finish your milkshake, looks like they’re not going anywhere.”

  The rumbling sound of an engine sounded from outside the diner, then the same music as before. The bass rolled and shook the diner, gradually fading as the car sped away. “Perhaps we should neutralize you too?” asked Binyamin.

  I saw the fear in Ehud’s eyes. I recognized the same old feeling of stinging failure, of finishing number two, or four-hundred, of doing everyone’s dirty job and getting nothing for your troubles. Long years of being a cute puppy on a leash waiting for a raise that never comes.

  “I have another idea,” I said and untied the rope that bound him. “No need for violence.”

  He did not react, but it was apparent that he was listening attentively.

  “Let’s go outside and have a bite to eat. Looks like you’re hungry. Why else would you come to a diner, eh? “

  Ehud lowered his head and followed me out of the room. Binyamin looked at us with surprise. Finally, the three of us sat by one of the diner tables.

  “I just want to disappear from here, Ehud, get as far as possible from this whole filthy business. I got the codes to ‘The Times,’ as you know. I’m about to publish two articles, today and tomorrow. In today’s article, I’ll write that an Israeli hacker had died mysteriously and that the feds suspect that an Israeli businessman from the valley is somehow involved.”

  Ehud looked at me suspiciously.