Ashes of the Red Heifer

by Shannon Baker

  Inside, Alanberg and four Corporation men crowded around the pen containing the heifer. Two of the men wore all black. Annie figured they were the rabbis. They turned to her as she strode into the lab.

  An older man with gray curly hair flowing around his yarmulke, and a chest as thick as an oak, dipped his head. “Shalom.”

  She’d never forget that voice. The CEO. She flashed him her most contemptuous expression. “I believe we’ve met.”

  The others watched her as she approached the pen.

  David had the heifer in the headgate. Her deflated water bag hung from her and she looked weak.

  Annie lost interest in The Corporation and the Silim. In front of her was an animal in distress. Annie’s instincts took over.

  She snatched gloves and snapped them on. The initial exam revealed the calf was huge, rear end first and upside down. She looked at David. “We’re going to have to do a C-section.”

  Alanberg leaned across the panel, sweat racing down his face. “Why can’t you pull it?”

  The other four men didn’t speak. Annie scowled at them. “I said we have to cut and we have to. You want to trust me or kill me? Your choice.”

  Alanberg sucked in a startled breath. He looked at the other men. The CEO nodded solemnly to Annie. “Do what you must.”

  She tried to ignore the Corporation men and the guards but felt the presence of their guns and their scrutiny. Would they really kill Lizabeth’s children? Yes, they probably would. They thought God directed their every move. With that kind of authority there was no need for common sense.

  Working quickly, Annie collected the antiseptic, needles, scalpel, and surgical thread. She plugged electric shears into an extension cord and shaved red hair off the heifer, clearing a long area in front of her hip from her backbone down to her belly. She filled a syringe with local anesthesia and gave the heifer several shots through the freshly shaved hide.

  The men stayed quiet, only breaking the silence with occasional comments among themselves.

  The lab felt hot and stuffy, the odors of cattle and human sweat mingling with feces and blood. Annie’s T-shirt stuck to her back and sweat dribbled down her face, salty drips accumulating above her lip.

  She took the scalpel in her hand and sized up the heifer’s side. She licked her lips and applied the knife to the top of the area and gently but firmly sliced downward in a straight line. When the first layer of skin was cut and one single drop of blood eased down the heifer’s side she started again at the top and cut through three muscle layers and the peritoneum, exposing the abdominal cavity.

  Annie reached inside to the uterus and felt along the moist, slippery surface until her hands closed on the two hooves. Encircling them with one hand, she took the scalpel and made a small slit in the uterus wall, sliding the hooves through. She dropped the knife in the antiseptic bucket, and keeping one hand still clasped around the hooves, reached for the O.B. chain and dangled it in the antiseptic for a moment. With a deft movement, she slipped the chain around the hooves and held it taut. She retrieved the scalpel and made the incision in the uterus large enough to heft the calf through.

  She glanced around at David. “I could use some help here.”

  David hurried toward her. “What do you want me to do?”

  She grunted in her effort to keep hold of the hooves. “Wash your hands and help me lift the calf out.”

  Straining with its weight, Annie and David lifted the calf from the heifer and lay it on the straw at her feet. Automatically, Annie slid a finger into both its nostrils to stimulate the breathing reflex. When she was sure it was breathing, Annie redirected her attention to the mother. The heifer hadn’t put up any fight, but stood calmly. She wouldn’t have felt anything Annie had just done.

  The Corporation men pressed against the panel, their voices murmuring low as if in church. Alanberg turned from the group and climbed slowly over the panel.

  Annie wiped the perspiration from her face with her arm. She reached into her pocket for the huge antibiotic boluses and dropped them into the sagging emptiness of the heifer’s womb.

  David spoke behind her, startling her with his presence. “Is it a heifer calf?”

  His voice stabbed her concentration and she jerked. She froze for a fraction of a second, then bent to her pile of supplies to retrieve a heavy, curved needle as long as her finger. She measured off thread. “I don’t know what it is. Right now, I’m more concerned with keeping the mother alive.”

  Alanberg slipped quietly toward the calf. David turned and knelt down to inspect it.

  Annie dipped the needle and surgical thread into a bucket of antiseptic solution. She glanced briefly at the calf and registered more details than she had when she’d pulled it from the heifer’s womb. Then, she’d only noticed if it was normal and breathing. Now she saw it appeared to be solid red. Not white or brockle-faced. No black eyebrows or nostrils.

  Alanberg looked up, tears glistening in his eyes. He motioned to the group. “Come.” The two black-clad men Annie assumed were rabbis climbed the panel and dropped awkwardly into the pen.

  The only thing Annie knew to do was to keep working. She stuck the needle between her teeth, tasting the bitter antiseptic and lifted the bucket of solution and sloshed it over the heifer’s side. She dipped the needle once again and took her first stitch through the uterus wall. David stood slowly and stepped close to Annie.

  One of the rabbis looked up at the CEO. He drew a shaky breath and in a high pitched voice made an announcement in Hebrew.

  David turned to Annie to translate. His voice had the soft quality of wonder. “It’s a heifer with no other color on her anywhere. She’s perfect.”

  Someone gasped. Another man started singing a haunting song with ancient rhythms. Alanberg folded his hands and squeezed his eyes shut.

  Annie finished sewing up the uterus and rethreaded her needle. She pushed the needle through the inside muscle layers. “I don’t hear any angels singing. You sure this was God’s big plan?”

  David didn’t answer.

  She let her gaze travel to where one of the rabbis sat in the hay a few feet from her. His eyes were closed but tears streamed down his upturned face. Both hands laid on the calf’s back and his fingers worked through the hair. His lips moved.

  A whooshing sound brought Annie’s attention back to the heifer. From inside the incision a purple organ, looking like a carnival balloon, filled the hole and shoved through to the outside. The rumen, one of the cow’s four stomachs, was inflating. Evidently, the anesthesia she’d given at the outset hadn’t been entirely effective. The heifer’s body thought she was in labor and the heifer was straining, trying to extract the calf she felt still inside.

  Annie let go of the needle and it dangled down the heifer’s side. She put her hands on the expanding rumen and pushed. “Damn.”

  David’s voice sounded harsh. “What’s the matter?”

  Annie shoved against the moist, but firm tissue. It gave a little and she tried to push it back inside the heifer. “Help me get this back in so I can sew her up.”

  David sounded impatient. “Let it go. We don’t need her. We’ve got the Red Heifer.”

  The heifer pushed again, thrusting the rumen back through the incision. David’s eyes focused on the calf, who lay quietly amid the worshipping Corporate figures.

  Sweat dripped down Annie’s cheeks. Her face pounded with exertion. “If you want that calf to live you’d better help me. You might think it’s a miracle birth but I’ll guarantee you, without colostrum from this immune heifer your holy cow will croak.” She hoped he wouldn’t think about the other heifer that had calved in the pen outside.

  David leaned close to Annie. “What should I do?”

  The contraction ended and Annie relaxed slightly. “Dip your hands in the antiseptic and help me push.”

  David did as he was told and had his hands in place when the heifer strained with the next contraction. They held the rumen in check and as soon as
the heifer relaxed Annie began to sew up the incision. With David pushing in the organ in front of Annie’s stitches, they finally got the inner hide closed.

  David joined the men gathered around the calf. They bowed their heads as one of the rabbis prayed in a soft chanting voice.

  Annie finished sewing the last layer of hide. She gave the heifer a shot of penicillin to fight off any infection and let her out of the headgate. “Better get away from the calf or the mother won’t clean it and get it up to suck.”

  With reluctance, the group rose from the calf and squeezed against the panel.

  David stood by Annie, his eyes never leaving the calf. “It’s a real miracle. Can you see that? What were the chances of getting a perfect red heifer calf? You said we might need two hundred cows.”

  Annie watched the newborn struggle to stand on her wobbly legs. The mother murmured low and sniffed the baby. She ran her rough tongue over the back of the calf, knocking it down before it could find a teat.

  A glimmer of hope flickered inside Annie, as it did every time she witnessed a new life. “Every birth is a miracle. You can track chromosomes, pick apart the DNA and alter every building block of life. But you can’t figure out what makes something alive.”

  David’s half smile was like a knife ripping through her belly. “You see, Annie? You do believe in God.”

  Without warning Annie’s throat closed up and tears pricked her eyes. She rejected the vengeful warrior preached from the pulpit of her father’s church and The Corporation’s enforcer of arbitrary rules. But God was life. Her heart knew this as truth.

  The only sound was the soft lowing of the mother. The calf had regained her feet and was rooting under her mother for her first taste of milk.

  David stared at the scene for a long time. “There’s much none of us will ever know. Cleansing ourselves with ashes from the Red Heifer doesn’t make sense. It’s a ritual, nothing more. We’re strong because we do what God directed.”

  So much for the miracle of birth. To David, it was the means to his goal: the Temple, the Messiah, ultimate power.

  She heard a loud banging on the lab door. The guards drew their guns and ran to stand between the calf and the door.

  The Silim! They’d found the camp and would burst through the door, guns blazing. Annie spun around, looking for some place to hide. The door burst open.

  The guards raised their guns and noises of yelling crashed all around. Three men came in all at once. Two men fought with the third man, forcing him into the lab. Two of the men were guards Annie had seen around camp. Their captive was also a guard but so much more.

  Moshe, held in the guards’ grasp, turned pleading eyes to Annie.

  TWENTY-NINE

  Annie’s heart stopped beating and then kicked to life with great force. Moshe hadn’t escaped.

  The two guards finally succeeded in each grasping one of his upper arms. Though he struggled, they held him firm.

  David stepped to the middle of the barn. “Where did you find him?”

  One of the guards grunted. “Climbing the ravine behind the camp.”

  David stepped closer to Moshe, eyeing him as he would a dog that had shit in his yard. “Where are the others?”

  Moshe lifted his face. “You will be discovered. Please, release the boys and their mothers.”

  The CEO spoke to David in Hebrew, his voice jarring in the small space.

  Moshe looked helpless in the face of The Corporation. Annie hurried to the panel and started to climb. “Leave him alone.”

  One of the men standing next to the CEO pulled a gun from a holster under his arm. He aimed it at Annie. She quit climbing and dropped to the floor, certain he wouldn’t hesitate to use it.

  David shouted at Moshe. “Where are they? How many?”

  Moshe looked past David to Annie. His eyes held desperation. “There is nobody else.”

  No one moved. The mother lowed and the calf stirred in the straw.

  Adi stepped close to Moshe. “You let the Muslim escape. Why did you betray us?”

  Moshe whispered. “Please let the boys go.”

  David walked deliberately to Adi and held out his hand for the gun. “Now you’ll see what your betrayal will cost.”

  White hot fear erupted in Annie. An animal scream escaped her and she lunged for the panel again. “No! David.”

  He raised the gun and pointed it at Moshe. Moshe jerked and fought, twisting between his captors.

  A sudden screeching of the lab door diverted everyone’s attention. A guard burst into the lab, shouting and waving his gun. “The Silim are on the ridge—”

  Machinegun fire erupted outside the door from somewhere in camp. Flashes of light and an explosion shook the compound. The men inside the lab yelled and rushed the door. No one wanted to get caught inside the lab like victims in a gas chamber. The two guards holding Moshe both looked toward the door, obviously torn about holding Moshe or running.

  Annie scrambled over the panel, jumping to the ground. More gunfire sounded in the camp and the men bunched at the door, slipping into the darkness outside.

  David’s hand tightened around the black handle of the pistol. The barrel reflected dull gray light as David pulled the gun up. It was happening too fast for Annie to stop it. And yet, it seemed to be in slow motion, so she noted every detail.

  David’s eyes held a deadly intent as they locked onto Moshe’s dark gaze. Annie felt energy pass between them. Moshe quit struggling, terror filling his face.

  Annie lunged toward David, her eyes on the gun.

  He raised the gun, his arm straight in front of him, the barrel pointed at Moshe.

  She couldn’t reach David in time and raised her leg to kick his arm. A flash exploded from the barrel of the gun, the roar searing through Annie’s head, mingled with her screams and David’s shouts. Other noises, maybe the guards or Moshe or the firestorm outside, swirled in the periphery of her consciousness.

  She’d succeeded in barely touching David’s arm but it was enough to send his aim high.

  Someone stormed through the door gun first, shots ricocheting around the lab. The two guards holding Moshe spun around and started shooting. The man in the doorway ran into the lab followed by another man.

  Annie dove for the floor but almost as she hit the ground Moshe’s fingers closed around her wrist and pulled her toward the door, away from the fighting. While David and the guards exchanged gunfire Moshe had the quick thinking to get the hell out of Dodge. Within seconds they were outside of the lab.

  Moshe shoved her down the ravine. “Stay in the shadow. Run!”

  He didn’t have to tell her twice. Expecting to be ripped to pieces by bullets she ran, keeping as close to the cliff side as she could. It seemed to take hours to reach a small desert brush and she dived behind it. Afraid to look she crouched low and peeked through the dry leaves.

  The camp was chaos. Rat-a-tatting that could have been a flock of woodpeckers back home broke though the night and little flashes burst as the Silim and the Corporation battled.

  Slight movement caught her eye and she focused on the shadows from where she’d come. Who was following her?

  With relief she saw it was Moshe. He moved slowly, not with the panic that had propelled Annie. He stopped and felt around the cliff wall. Of course, he was unlocking the captives. He’d free the boys and their mothers. How would he get them to safety in the middle of the gun battle?

  Annie started to get her breath back, trying to figure some plan to get them out. Before she could come up with something viable the rat-a-tat turned in Moshe’s direction.

  Moshe grunted. His arms flew out, his chest thrust forward and he hit the cliff as bullets slammed into his back. His lifeless form crumpled into the sand.

  The battle continued with the mess tent going up in flames.

  Moshe didn’t move. He lay in front of the hidden prison door. Annie looked behind her. She could make a run for safety following the ravine. No one was looking for her
out here. She turned to the compound. But who would save the captives inside the cliff?

  If the Silim succeeded in wiping out The Corporation they wouldn’t know to free the boys. If The Corporation got away from the Silim they would keep the boys and the Red Heifer for three more years. She couldn’t leave them.

  Keeping low and close to the wall, Annie crept back.

  Moshe hadn’t moved. She couldn’t tell if he was breathing. When she got close enough she reached for him, taking his still-warm hand. “Moshe.”

  David’s rough hands grasped her arms and jerked her to her feet. Not before her hand closed on the key clutched in Moshe’s stiff fingers.

  “You weren’t trying to escape, were you?” David’s mouth was close to her ear.

  She didn’t say anything. He slouched down and forced her into a crouch then pulled her along the shadows heading back to the compound. She tried to run from him but he slammed her into the cliff and shoved her ahead. The fighting had moved on and they slipped into the lab.

  One of the guards lay on his back, lifeless eyes wide, blood puddling under his head. Two other dead men bunched against the lab wall, draining blood they wouldn’t need anymore.

  David pulled her toward the pen. “Get the calf. Let’s go.”

  Annie couldn’t look away from the guard. That is what happened to Hassan. Somewhere on the desert he lay just like this guard. Dead. Moshe was probably dead, too. She touched the key in her pocket and vowed she’d save Jacob and Hannah. They all couldn’t die.

  David climbed over the panel, falling to the other side. “Let’s go. Now!”

  Another explosion rocked the compound and someone outside the door screamed in agony.

  Adrenaline shot through Annie and she hurried over the panel. She didn’t know where she was going but she couldn’t go out the lab door.

  David shoved the gun in his belt and knelt beside the calf. He scooped it in his arms and stood, straining under the weight. He started toward the back of the cave in the deep shadows. “This way.”