The End-Time Foretellers

by Ran Weber

“And the second article…” I continued.

  The waitress arrived and brought me coffee and a bagel. Her arrival paused our conversation for a moment.

  “Talk.”

  “Anyway, the second article will be published tomorrow. It tells of how Ehud… eh…” I narrowed my eyes, trying to remember his last name.

  “Slotzky.”

  “Yes, Slotzky,” I echoed him. “How Ehud Slotzky captured the criminal Schetritt and handed him to the feds. What do you think?”

  I took out a small USB flash drive full of evidence and a few more documents in a small folder. The folder was titled, “For Agent Jim Clark.” I handed the documents and the drive. “Give this to Jim. I assume you’re closely acquainted with him,” I said. “Oh, and one more, little thing. This contains materials about Rami too. If possible, get them to Jim too. After that, it wouldn’t hurt to call Rami and tell him that you need his help here… you know, make him fly out here and, how should I put it, get him together with Jim.”

  “Sounds good,” Ehud nodded. “By the way, Rami is already on his way here. He decided catch a flight to come and look for you himself, Yoav.”

  I rose and motioned to Binyamin that we’re leaving. When I got to the door, I turned around and told Ehud, “Just don’t forget to pay the check.” Ehud sipped from his coffee and raised a hand in agreement.

  108

  First traces of dawn. The horizon brightened. I looked at my watch. It was time to act.

  “Would you like to drive?” I asked Binyamin.

  “No, no, you drive,” he said. “I’m too nervous as it is, I don’t want to ruin Milstein’s car.”

  “I think it’s better if we take your pick-up.”

  Binyamin nodded. “Get in the pickup,” he said, then added, “I’m driving.”

  We got inside Binyamin’s Ford. He took it out of the driveway with a growl of the engine, then a screech of tires as we turned left and headed to Los Angeles.

  “You know where you’re going?” I asked.

  He didn’t answer.

  I got a SMS on my mobile and read it.

  “What?” asked Binyamin.

  “Ehud says he spoke with Jim and he’s about to transfer all the material to him. Jim spoke with an FBI team and they’re about to neutralize Schetritt’s servers immediately by using a temporary court order until they get all the facts straightened out.”

  “Great.”

  “We’re going to rescue Aharon,” I said.

  “I hope so.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “Remember, ‘There is no despair in the world at all.’”

  “Totally,” Binyamin gave out a sad smile. “Let’s get this over with.”

  ***

  “They’ll get here,” said Ali. “Don’t worry, Farhan.”

  “You had better start worrying,” said Aharon, “because when my dad gets here he’ll…”

  “Be quiet, boy!” screamed Ali. “I told you that if you won’t be quiet I’ll lock you up in the restroom.”

  “Take it easy, Ali,” said Farhan. “What are you getting all worked up by a little kid? We have bigger problems. I understand that the agents have gotten Schetritt.”

  “Schetritt?” asked Ali. “How can this be? He’s got some senator looking out for him.”

  “Wilson,” said Farhan and tugged at the edges of his mustache. “He’s disappeared. The heat must have made him crawl under some rock.”

  “Cowards!” cried Ali.

  “You’re the cowards!” screamed Aharon. Ali menacingly got closer to Aharon.

  “Leave the kid alone!” said Farhan.

  ***

  “You know where they live?” I asked.

  “Sure,” said Binyamin. “This is going to be quick.”

  “You sound confident.”

  Binyamin shrugged. “It’s pretty simple.”

  “What is?”

  “They have my whole world in their hands, while I have nothing that’s important to them, other than those two winded fools’ imaginary sense of self-respect.”

  I wanted to say something but couldn’t think of anything.

  “You understand what I’m saying? They have Aharon. This is not going to happen again.”

  “What?”

  “What happened in Hebron, it’s not going to happen again. I’m going to rescue Aharon, even if I’m going to have to claw my way to him with my fingernails, I’ll save him.” Tears of rage filled his eyes.

  ***

  “What did you go and lock the kid in the restroom for, Ali?”

  “He’s getting on my nerves,” said Ali and crossed his hands on his chest. “Just as irritating as his father.”

  Farhan began to nervously pace in the room.

  “What are you worried about?”

  “You’re too sure of yourself, Ali,” said Farhan.

  “They’re going to fall right into my trap,” smiled Ali.

  “How do you know that?”

  “Let’s just say that I know the persons involved. They’ll get here and try to storm their way in. I’ve prepared them a death trap, Farhan.”

  Farhan seemed amused and tugged at the edges of his mustache again. “Maybe you’re not as stupid as you look, Ali.”

  Ali smiled for a moment.

  ***

  “What’s the exact address?” I asked.

  “Caladero, corner of Vanalden in Tarzana.”

  “There’s a street behind the house?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  “You’ll soon find out.”

  I picked up my cell phone. “Ehud, I need some urgent help. Yes. Tell Jim this is the last favor I’m going to ask for, the last time he’ll hear my name. Yes. Tell him to urgently send a cop to Caladero, corner of Vanalden. Yes, I know it’s still early in the morning. What? Yes, tell him it’s a suspected kidnapping. Usual procedure. Thanks.” I hung up.

  “Suspected?” asked Binyamin. “They kidnapped my son.”

  “Take it easy, gramps.”

  Binyamin drove faster.

  I got another SMS message. I looked at the screen. “Binyamin,” I said, “you’d better drive just a little faster and stop in the street behind the house.”

  Binyamin parked behind the house.

  “Reverse it a little, Binyamin, so you’d have more momentum. Sure you don’t want me to drive?”

  “No way,” said Binyamin and shifted the gear to reverse. He drove a little over a hundred feet back. “Enough?

  I nodded with satisfaction.

  “What now?”

  “We wait.”

  “I don’t have any patience for waiting. I feel like breaking in there and smashing their…”

  “That’s exactly what they expect you to do,” I said, “I’m positive.”

  Binyamin nodded and lowered his head. “I guess you’re right. Thanks for coming with me, I would have probably made a total mess of it.”

  We heard a siren. “Cops” said Binyamin. “Sounds like two of them on the other side of the house.”

  “All right. If I’m not mistaken, now the police officer explains to whomever opened the door that he has to go inside and conduct a search. The polite Iranian who opened the door says that there’s no way he’s letting him in without a search warrant. Meanwhile, Ali is grabbing Aharon from whatever room they have him hidden in, rushes him to their car and tries to drive off from the back exit as quickly as possible.”

  “You think so?”

  “Start the engine,” I said. “Reverse another hundred feet or so, then get ready.”

  Binyamin obeyed.

  Let’s see how much strength a Ford really has, I thought. If I wasn’t mistaken and Ali had parked facing forward, he would hurtle out of the driveway in seconds with Aharon sitting beside him. If I
was wrong and he’d parked the other way, we’ll have a problem on our hands.

  “You know what?” said Binyamin, “let’s switch.”

  “Now’s not the time, Binyamin…” but he was already out of the car. I quickly jumped over to his seat and he came inside and sat in the passenger seat, in the nick of time. He always had to be living on the edge.

  I saw the parking shutter begin to rise. I looked at Binyamin, he seemed tense and concentrated. I looked straight ahead and brought my foot down as hard as I could on the gas pedal. The pickup sprang like a panther. I saw the nose of the car rolling out of the driveway. By the time Ali’s surprised face could be seen, the pickup already smashed into his engine. His car got stuck in the driveway door.

  We took advantage of the element of surprise. I stopped the pickup with a screech of tires, Binyamin jumped outside and opened the door on Aharon’s side. He raised him on his shoulders and ran back to the pickup. I went outside and saw Ali trapped in his car. Binyamin sat in his pickup with his arms wrapped around Aharon. Two shots punctured Ali’s tires, making sure he won’t be able to chase us and the cops would be able to detain and interrogate him, even without a warrant.

  ***

  Aharon didn’t talk during the drive back home, he just breathed hard and stared outside.

  “Are you all right?” Binyamin asked.

  Aharon didn’t answer.

  “Aharon.”

  “What?” he asked with tears in his eyes, hugging his father.

  I looked at him, he seemed so frail. I felt terrible. What did he do to deserve getting into this whole mess?

  “Did that man do anything to you?” I asked.

  “No, he said he was your friend.” He paused for a moment and examined me. “I remembered we’d met him at the beach. He told me you asked him to pick me up and that we were going to get ice cream.”

  “Ice cream?”

  “Yes, then we went to his house and he tied me to a chair. So I realized he was a bad man. He and his friend kept talking about how you two will come soon and about the trap they prepared for you, but I told him that my dad is going to kick their a…”

  “Aharon!” said Binyamin, “that’s not nice.”

  “Then the cops came,” Aharon continued, “and he told me we have to run away from them. We got inside his car and then you smashed into him and daddy took me.”

  “Aharon,” asked Binyamin, “you want ice cream?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where can we get some?” I asked.

  “It’s called Milky’s Frozen Yogurt, but they have ice cream too. It’s on Pico and Robertson. “

  “Know how to get there?”

  Binyamin waited a moment, then said, “1429 South Robertson, I think.”

  I reset the GPS and we sped toward Milky’s.

  109

  Milky’s Frozen Yogurt, Pico and Robertson, Los Angeles

  I sat with Binyamin at Milky’s and we waited for Aharon to bring the ice creams. The place’s logo was a morphing of a cat and a black and white cow painted against a pink background. Inside were white round chairs set around a small white table, very clean and comfortable, a place to take a breather, push back and forget a little about the passing day’s events.

  Aharon said he’d choose the best flavors for me and that I could count on him one hundred percent. He told me this was his favorite ice cream place and that dad took him there sometimes. On the way to order, he stopped and asked, “Do you prefer vegan? They have vegan ice creams.” I shook my head. He shrugged and said, “Some adults only eat vegan.” I remembered Rami.

  I watched him walk away. “The kid’s growing up,” said Binyamin and turned to me, “At least it’s over.”

  “What’s over?”

  “Everything,” he said. “All this madness.”

  I said nothing.

  He looked at me. “You’ve done well, Yoav.”

  “I didn’t run away this time.”

  He leaned closer. “You never have, but this time you made a choice.”

  “I didn’t run away?”

  “I wanted to tell you something, about Yossi and everything that’s happened in Hebron.”

  “Yossi?” I tensed.

  “Yes,” said Binyamin and lowered his voice. “Truth is, you never abandoned him. Everything got distorted in the interrogations. Rami made sure his version of the events was repeated hundreds and thousands of times. You didn’t run away and Yossi, unfortunately, did not die from terrorist fire.”

  I felt an abyss opening under my feet.

  “It was Rami, but it was also a terrible mistake.”

  “Rami?” I shifted in my chair uneasily. “Rami?”

  “Yes,” said Binyamin heavily and placed his hand on my shoulder. “He panicked and shot that girl, then Yossi began to scream, ‘What’s going on? Why did you shoot her?’ and Rami screamed right back at him.”

  “And…?” I asked with terror.

  Binyamin removed his hand and turned his head away from me. He took a deep breath and finally looked straight at me. “Rami had a Kalashnikov, his personal weapon. I don’t know if you remember it, he panicked... then he shot Yossi.”

  110

  The Desert Eagle, Nevada-California Border Area

  We drove back to the cabin in the desert. I asked Binyamin to stop at the Desert Eagle so I could pick up Donnie’s car. He dropped me off and Aharon stayed with him and waved goodbye to me from the car.

  When I got back to the cabin, I crashed onto the bed for a few hours of fitful sleep. When I woke up, things seemed quieter than usual. Aharon slept on the sofa and Donnie had left for Los Angeles. He had a trial he needed to attend. He wasn’t guilty, of course. As usual.

  I went out to the back porch, a wooden deck overlooking hills and a wide canyon. The deck had a few comfortable wood chairs and a small table. Two beer bottles rested on the table and Binyamin sat in one of the chairs.

  Binyamin raised one of the beers and said, “Congratulations. So that’s it? You saved the world?”

  “Something like that,” I said while sitting in the wood chair beside him and grabbing a beer.

  “Yoavi,” laughed Binyamin, “don’t be so modest, you saved the world. So what are we going to do next?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “That’s it, everything has been worked out now?”

  “No,” I admitted.

  “Why not?”

  “Because…” I said and put down the beer, “because nothing’s really changed. I prevented the destruction of the world, but I didn’t really save anything, everything stayed the same.”

  “And you want to change things?”

  I felt the fire rising in me. “Actually, I do,” I sighed. “I’ve no idea how, but I do, I totally want to change things.”

  I felt the will waking up in me again, filling me from head to toe. It was so powerful that it actually hurt on the inside, a sweet pain of pure desires. I didn’t resist it. I let it be.

  “Good for you. The fact that you have the desire to save it means everything. Now you just need to be persistent and let it carry you where it wills.”

  “You, Binyamin,” I said, “you’ve really got it. You have the ability to talk to people and influence them. Why don’t you do that?”

  “Talk about the truth? The truth needs to be lived, not talked about, and whomever is honest enough and possesses courage will choose to do good. I’ve never believed in using too many words.”

  “Don’t give me parliament speeches, Binyamin, that’s not the real reason. Perhaps it’s a part of it, but I remember you once told me you had given up on it.”

  He took a long sip of his beer and slammed it hard on the table. “You’re right, I gave up on it. Once, I believed you should talk to people, try showing the good in everyth
ing to them, tell them about it.” His eyes ignited for a moment, then turned dark again. “I believed I could change the world, but I’ve failed. Big time. I thought I could save the world, but I couldn’t even save my own wife. My son? He barely talks to me. You see how I live.”

  “So?”

  “So I tried the second option.”

  “The second option?”

  “Yes,” Binyamin sighed. “If they won’t listen and don’t want to change, at least let them be united. The holy book of the Zohar says that it’s all about the people being united. In in the days of Ahab, who was an evil king, the people of Israel succeeded only because they were united. It says of the Tower of Babel, that the people succeeded in building it because they were united, even if it was for a negative purpose, it was unity that helped them succeed. Of course, if we unite for a positive cause, everything in this world could change.”

  He paused for a moment and examined me.

  “Now I believe that all we need to do is simply to bring about unity, to learn from each other and add some goodness to the world. Every one of us needs to realize he is a part of this people and that he doesn’t know everything. That there is goodness in his neighbor too. Everyone needs to realize that we are all in exile and the fact that I am religious does not make me any better. I’m not saying that I like what the secular Jews are doing, but I bet they don’t accept what I’m doing too.”

  “The lamp of deficiencies?” I recalled the story.

  He nodded. “We’re all in the same boat, Yoavi, and there’s a whole lotta holes in it… and the water, the water’s getting in, sinking that boat one inch at a time… I tell you, Yoavi, we need to realize that we’re all part of a single people, and unless we’ll stick together, we’ll be annihilated.”

  “By an atom bomb from Iran?”

  “Something like that,” said Binyamin and flashed a bitter smile. “You don’t understand me yet, but you will. I had no choice. I feel like we’ve missed our window of opportunities. If we had realized it on time, we could have brought about unity on our own. Each one of us could have simply woken into it, say that he’s tired of living in such division, tired of hating the ultra-orthodox, tired of hating the secular Jews. Tired of being separate, of doing my own thing.”