The car in which she rode remained virtually empty even though at the last stop before the Danube the train had made an unscheduled stop as over a hundred soldiers were escorted onto a few of the forward passenger cars. They were Romanian and they carried full field gear and packs and looked as if they were going on manuevers. The soldiers settled into their seats three cars forward and the weary woman thought nothing of them again.
Behind her closed eyelids she tried to bring to mind the memory of her last day in Patinas. How she had cried with a broken heart when her grandmother sent her away. First she had missed four years sacrificing her childhood for schooling in Prague under an assumed name. When that was complete her grandmother awarded her with another painful banishment—under her new name she would enter the military academy and finish her last two years of higher education. The academy just so happened to be in Israel. She was accepted with her new identity into the top secret military program called Talpiot. The academy is Israel’s most selective institution and accepts only fifty students a year. The school trains its students in physics and other sciences that most military-funded academies skim over. Its mission is to produce future leaders of the Israel Defense Forces who are not only capable of changing the “act first” attitude of a hard-line military, but to finally transform their armed forces into a model of efficiency.
She had performed so well in her two years at the Talpiot Academy that she drew the attention of the Mossad. The chance meeting was in the plan the whole time with the guidance of her grandmother, who seemed to be wiser than her years and always claiming that she was sending her to do the work of the people and it was something that her grandmother had had to do when her age so many years before, the only difference being that the queen had studied at Oxford and Cairo. They both had left home to learn the ways of the modern world to help protect the people.
She opened her eyes and looked out the window once more toward the distant mountain range hidden in the darkness beyond the clean and cold waters of the Danube. As her eyes scanned the darkness the dimly illuminated farmhouses along the train tracks slowly started coming to life for the hardworking folk of the soil-rich Danube valleys.
Mica half smiled as she realized that she was nearing her home and felt happy for the first time in years. She didn’t turn away from the smile that was returned in her reflection but did notice that the face had changed over the nine years she had been gone. Not that it had aged badly, but because her face was now showing the worries for her people far more than when she had been a child. Now she was slowly learning that the mountains could no longer be protected. She would have to break this news to her grandmother.
The worry over the fate of the temple and the men and beasts who protected it faded as she thought about setting foot in the pass once more. It was a place where she used to run and play with animals that lived in myth and legend. The Golia awaited her return and she anticipated rekindling the friendship that was lost when she was sent away.
Lost in thought, she was taken aback when she felt someone slide into the seat next to her.
“The general never realized just how good you were. But I knew as soon as I transferred you to Rome and put you on the trail of the lost legends you would dig up something to assist the righteous and bring what is ours back home.”
Mica turned away from the outside world and looked right into the face of Lieutenant Colonel Ben-Nevin. The pistol he held was low and aimed upward; its barrel, as well as his crooked smile, never wavered.
“Colonel, you and the people you follow have been listening to fairy tales that never had a basis in fact. Your kind has left Israel backward and alone in the world, and if it weren’t for the power of a few carefully chosen friends Israel would be nothing but a barren dustbowl today.”
“And this is coming from a tried-and-true patriot? I think not, Major.” The gun came up a little further. The woman slowly moved her eyes to better assess her situation, which was not a good one. The train’s car was nearly empty with the exception of a young boy and of all things he was accompanied by a goat. Welcome home, Anya, she thought to herself as she looked at the small boy at the front of the car and immediately regretted leaving her small cousin back in Rome, but she had thought it safer for the seller of oranges to stay safe for the time being.
The colonel watched her as she studied her situation and he smiled wider than before.
“Do not attempt it. I have over fifty men awaiting our arrival. You will lead us to the treasures of the Exodus so the true patriots of Israel can take back the people’s heritage.”
Anya Korvesky didn’t bother to look at the weapon because she knew how ruthlessly men of the colonel’s religious bent acted toward women. They were backward and only thought about their precious religious tilt. Most Israelis were now content to live in harmony with those around them, but others were far more resistant to making peace with people who didn’t care for the heavy-handedness of Jewish rule in the occupied territories. The colonel was part of an organization called Masada’s Patriots, named after the small mountain once laid siege to by the Roman army to settle a small revolt two thousand years before. She wondered if the colonel realized that every one of those long-ago patriots had committed suicide to escape Roman justice. Perhaps it was time to refresh Ben-Nevin’s memory on that point.
“You know there is no place you can ever run to and hide. General Shamni will burn any asset, kill any informer, he will take your group hostage in order to track you down and the law be damned.”
“And you, a favorite of his? Your betrayal will not sit well with the general just as mine will not. I’m afraid we are both in the same boat.” The look on his face was that of a cat staring at a caged canary. “Only, I have many friends and very powerful allies.”
Anya chanced a look around but still the only occupant of the car was the little boy and his goat far to the front. At four-thirty in the morning there just wasn’t any help to be had.
“This can all be so easy. We would be hailed as the man and woman who recovered the history and treasure of the chosen people, to prove to the world that, yes, God was once on our side and here is the proof,” Ben-Nevin said as his eyes widened and his breathing got heavier.
“It’s nothing but old wives’ tales to keep the people believing in their past when we should be looking toward the future. There is no gold and other treasure. There are no artifacts to prove God was once in our corner. There may be those who have scratched the truth but it will do them no good.” She looked the colonel straight in his eyes and didn’t flinch when he raised the pistol a little higher. “The Ark of the Covenant has been lost since the dawning of the Hebrew homeland—gone, Colonel. The treasure of the Exodus never existed. You have placed a warrant of death on you and your followers’ heads and every Israeli asset the world over will be out to track you down and kill you.”
“You can fool the general, Major, but I and my people are not as naive as many others. We know the truth. We know what Joshua did and we are destined to bring the truth back home to Israel despite what the general’s and prime minister’s traitorous moves are.”
“The general is a good man and so is the prime minister. They will never allow you to continue.”
“Good men always get better people killed. He and his kind will do anything to stop us from gaining the right to live—live and expand the borders of Israel.”
“And you think the recovery of some trinkets will allow the Jewish people to rise up and take control of everything? The people are not what you think they are, Colonel. They have evolved from the days where a few fundamentalists can whip them into patriotic frenzy. That policy had its place and its time. Everyone pulled together, and now you wish to take them apart, split the nation.” Anya leaned in toward Ben-Nevin, actually stunning him enough that he raised the gun fully into her face. “I’ll tell you, Colonel, since I have been with the Israeli people I have learned one inescapable fact—they like living, they also like to see thei
r sons and daughters come home without having a bomb go off on their bus. Mothers, fathers, and grandparents like peace and are willing to break with tradition to have it. They actually like living … stupid bastards.”
“Some of us aren’t as dedicated to righteousness as others in our group. Some of us still like the finer things in life.”
“I know your kind, Colonel,” she looked away for the briefest of moments, “because I have a brother not unlike you. He would also bring the world crashing down because of something he believed in above all else. But even I don’t believe he would be capable of selling out his own people as you are doing.”
“I don’t seek the treasure,” he lied with an expert’s persuasiveness and Anya saw it in his eyes. “Israel needs living space and the way to achieve it is to make other lesser people realize that God has always been on our side.”
She smiled, knowing the colonel trapped himself.
“Adolf Hitler, 1928. Your grasp of history is admirable, Colonel Ben-Nevin. I wonder if your efforts to create Lebensraum, or living space for the people, will find as much enthusiasm as Hitler’s did in the thirties and forties. I seem to remember him butchering millions of our people to achieve that living space. He even attempted to track my people down thinking we knew such a great and devastating secret involving our shared ancestry.”
“Hitler was a maniac. And by your people I am assuming you mean the Gypsies?”
Anya smiled and arched her eyebrows.
“That’s just about as much of a history lesson I can take for one night, so why don’t we—”
The colonel realized they were no longer alone. The small boy with the goat was now standing in the aisle and staring at Ben-Nevin.
“Go away, child. Take your goat and sit down.”
The boy was about eleven or twelve and was looking from the man to the woman, who just now realized who the child really was. She hadn’t recognized him at first, and to carry a goat along? Things had remained as crazy in her small village as they always had been and she knew the boy’s arrival had been her grandmother’s doing.
“Excuse me,” the boy said in halting English. “Aunt Anya?”
Anya smiled back and then relaxed as she knew who the boy was now. She felt the tears well up in her eyes and tried not to show her weakness, but she knew she was nothing but a real woman and not the trained Mossad agent she thought she was. Anya now realized how much she had missed her home. As she studied the boy she nodded her head and the child’s smile widened.
“Hello, Georgi, do you know you look just like Kinta, your cousin who lived with me in Rome?” Anya said, smiling even wider as the boy of twelve did also. “He’s there right now but will be home by next week I hope.”
“Ah, the boy who rescued the Americans—the child selling the oranges!” Ben-Nevin said, unable to hide his surprise. “You never cease to amaze me, Major. To have a child from your home on duty in Rome and you managed to keep it from the Mossad; you are far more resilient than even I thought.”
Anya turned to face the colonel. “I am human. To have someone from my village kept me sane and on track to what I needed to do.” She lowered her eyes for a moment. “And I have made my mistakes but having my nephew’s help makes me realize what’s important, just like this child right here.” She smiled and looked up at the boy again, ignoring the colonel. “Yes, I am your great-aunt. Did Grandmamma send you here?”
“That’s enough,” Ben-Nevin said as he reached out and grabbed the boy by the arm. “Save family reunion time for later. He will come with us when I meet my people in Bucharest.”
The boy just looked at the hand holding his arm. At the same time the colonel saw his eyes raise and then the goat bleated and tried to step backward in the aisle. Its eyes widened and then it fell to the floor of the car and tried to get beneath the seat it was near. The colonel saw the smile on the boy’s lips widen even further and his eyes moved from the hand on his arm to an area behind Ben-Nevin’s shoulder. A loud, low-throated growl sounded from behind him. The colonel actually felt the moist, warm breath on his neck.
Anya didn’t know how it had happened, but somehow her young great-nephew had gotten one of the Golia on board the deserted train. She slowly turned her head and saw the animal sitting in the train’s aisle. The yellow eyes were firmly placed on the back of the colonel’s head. For his part, Ben-Nevin only swallowed and then slowly turned his head to see the giant black and gray furred animal sitting menacingly behind him.
“My God,” he whispered as his gun slowly started to come around.
“That,” Anya said with authority, “is not a good idea, Colonel. The beast would have your severed hand in its mouth before you could pull the trigger.” Anya sat further up in her seat and then looked more closely at the Golia. Her eyes widened when she saw the notch missing from the right ear. She remembered as a little girl how the animal became scarred in a fight with its older and far more aggressive brother, Stanus.
“Georgi, is that Mikla?”
The twelve-year-old boy nodded as the wolf whined and then flicked its ears in recognition of its name, but the yellow glowing eyes never left those of the colonel.
Anya smiled as she turned back to face a Golia pup that was born just two days after herself. They were so close in age that her grandmother always included the black wolf with the gray-tipped ears and tail to her yearly celebrations. She loved the memory of the small wolf at her side with his ridiculous head scarf–birthday hat on. The giant wolf paid her no mind, as it was the vibes coming from Ben-Nevin that held its attention.
“This is impossible, what is this creature?”
Anya slowly reached over and relieved the colonel of his weapon and then pointed it at him.
“An old and dear friend that I have missed.” She smiled and then saw that Mikla had turned his head and was now watching something far beyond her nephew’s head and shoulders. She heard the low growl start deep within Mikla’s throat. His ears slowly lay down and Anya knew that someone was coming and the giant Golia sensed it. Anya chanced a quick look up and her heart froze.
“It seems we are about to have company, Major—whatever your real name is,” Ben-Nevin said as he also looked up and saw the soldiers coming down the aisle of the car in front of them. They were laughing and joking and one of the Romanian troopers had a large bottle of vodka and the three soldiers kept looking behind them as if they were sneaking away for a nice nip of the strong alcohol.
This time there was no mistaking the menace in Mikla’s growl. The colonel cringed as he sensed the wolf change positions behind him. He closed his eyes as the growl became far deeper and far more menacing than moments before. The soldiers had reached the door of the car and were about to enter the connection to their own. Mikla took one leap and was in the center of the aisle ten feet in front of Anya and the boy as she kept the colonel covered with the gun.
“No, Mikla!” Anya shouted as the soldiers opened the door to their own car just as the giant beast took four more large strides toward the connecting door. Anya saw that the Golia was not going to obey, he sensed danger from the soldiers and was ready to defend her and the boy and there was nothing she could do or say that would dissuade the massive beast. Anya stood from her seat. “No, Mikla, no harm!” she shouted in the silent car.
Instead of obeying Anya, the wolf hopped onto its hind legs and the three people in the car heard the cracking and the popping of the bones as the hip and pelvis started to make the shift that gave the Golia its heaven-sent ability to climb straight up any wall, mountain, or building. First one hip popped and shifted, sending the beast to the right as its articulated fingers took hold of the two seats closest to the aisle. It used the seat backs as a stabilizing factor as the thigh bones fell into place in the secondary socket; this straightened the animal’s spine and aligned itself for the change enabling it to walk upright. The legs became stronger, longer and that brought the wolf into proper proportions to stand as a man.
B
en-Nevin could not believe what he was witnessing. His eyes widened as he saw the beast could not even stand to its full height because of its size. The ears were laid back against the wood paneling of the car’s ceiling and the growling intensified to the point that the Golia vibrated the windows around them.
The soldiers were in the space that separated the cars and were swilling the vodka and laughing. The Golia let loose another growl that froze the colonel’s blood in his veins.
“Mikla, leave them be! Come—”
Ben-Nevin reached out and took hold of the weapon he had been relieved of moments before. He turned it on Anya and pushed her back and was about to turn the weapon on the Golia when he felt the pistol ripped from his hand, taking three fingers along with it. The colonel looked up in shock as the animal had moved so fast that he never realized he was being assaulted. The wolf stood over the smaller man with the gun clenched inside the massive hand of the animal. The beast sniffed at the weapon in its left hand and then the yellow eyes slowly rose to meet the frightened and shocked eyes of Ben-Nevin.
Anya saw what was going to happen and jumped over the seats and scrambled between the Golia and the man it was about to shred to pieces. Before she could do anything to save the man she despised, the door at the front of the car slowly opened and they all heard the laughter of the Romanian soldiers as they started to enter the killing field.
“Mikla, home, now!” she shouted as loud as she could as the door remained halfway open as the three soldiers hesitated momentarily to swig some more vodka.
The beast turned its large head to the right and saw the soldiers. Anya could tell the Golia was confused as to which threat to take first. The massive head swung back to the Israeli Mossad colonel, who fell to the floor of the car and threw his arm up over his face splattering his suit with blood from his damaged hand. The animal raised the pistol it held by the barrel and closed its hand around it and then threw it to the back of the train car. Mikla leaned in close to Ben-Nevin and began opening its jaws wide. The teeth were straight and clean and they were the largest the colonel had ever seen. Then as suddenly as the action had started it stopped as the beast straightened and turned and looked at the soldiers as they finished their drink. The beast growled heavily and then started to turn toward the oncoming threat to the woman and the boy.
Carpathian: An Event Group Thriller (Event Group Thrillers) Page 21