Neither of them had thought this was what would happen that afternoon, but it was as if they had been possessed by a spirit. Eyal lay on top of her, and Leila guided him to the seat of her desires, full of the juices of her excitement. They joined together powerfully, and Eyal began to rock while Leila arched her body in accordance with his movements. The harmony increased and burst forth in a powerful eruption that made both of them tremble.
They lay on the warm ground, embracing silently. Neither of them had had such a powerful experience before. Its power was uncontrollable. They lay next to each other, shocked and astounded, each of them thanking their God for such an amazing experience.
Eyal held Leila in a loving embrace, and she softly nestled against him. The feeling that they shared a joint fate enveloped them, and it was very hard for them to disengage from their embrace. However, their friends who were waiting for them brought them back to reality. They stood up like one person, arranged their clothing, hugged each other, and separated without saying a word. They no longer needed to speak. They understood each other even without words.
Their trysts continued every day, and their excitement only increased. Gradually, Leila began to tell Eyal about herself, her origins, and her faith, and the idea of creating a movement to establish the United States of the Semitic Nations. At this point, she did not tell him anything about the earthquake and her encounter with the Israeli engineer.
Eyal listened to her carefully. Very soon, he became excited by the idea. Creating such a united country, such as Leila described, could solve many of the conflicts he had been experiencing in recent years.
Something in Leila’s description seemed familiar to him, and as she shared more details of her idea, it brought back various memories. When he was a child, his father had a friend, an architect who lived in the Judean Hills. Eyal would accompany his father on his visits to the architect, because he wanted to learn how to use a Macintosh, which was then a rare item in Israel. The architect was known for the three-dimensional products he produced on the Macintosh, and this aroused Eyal’s curiosity. During several visits there, in the Judean Hills, he would sit with the architect at the computer for an hour or two, and then he would go with his father and the architect into the flowery garden, play with the St. Bernard dog, and listen to their conversations, usually out of boredom.
Suddenly, he remembered the dog’s soft, pleasant touch and its heavy breathing. He also remembered the many empty wine bottles that filled the courtyard, which, according to the owner of the house, symbolized the turbulent times in his life.
Eyal’s father called the architect The Engineer, and Eyal never knew what his actual name was. The more Leila spoke, the more he remembered the things The Engineer had spoken about, which he referred to as conspiracies.
The Engineer’s stories began with a former general of Southern Command at the beginning of the 1950s; Egypt was then suffering from starvation, with tens of millions of hungry mouths. Abdul Nasser, a spirited general who rose to power, understood the situation. He saw the Americans pumping the soul out of the Gulf, and he realized a treasure lay buried within his country with its tens of millions of hungry mouths, and it was the Americans who were benefiting from it.
Young Nasser sent two legions to Yemen, and at the same time, held talks with the general of Israel’s Southern Command, asking him to allow the passage of his northern division through Eilat. In this way, he intended to complete a two-pronged movement with his divisions in Yemen in order to take control of the Gulf from the Americans. Nasser thought that by so doing, he would be able to feed the millions of starving people in his country.
In accordance with the agreement with Israel, an Egyptian division approached Eilat. The Egyptians closed the Suez Canal in order to stop the movement of ships. Achieving the Egyptian objective was closer than ever, but then an American spying vessel discovered the plot. Even though the general of Southern Command had managed to conceal it, the Americans understood the seriousness of the situation, and they compelled the British and the French to go to war in Egypt. The general of Southern Command was shot down in his airplane under mysterious circumstances and killed.
Moshe Dayan, who was the IDF Chief of Staff at that time and was supported by the Americans, also brought Israel into what became known as the 1956 Suez War.
To Eyal, the whole story sounded like one big conspiracy theory, but he told it to Leila. Leila listened carefully, and in response, she began to ask him questions about the Israeli engineer and what he looked like. She soon realized they were talking about her engineer. She also understood very quickly that Eyal represented The Engineer to her, and this was why she had fallen in love with him and felt such excitement. However, she still decided not to tell him anything about it.
The relationship between both of them became even closer. Fortunately for them, Naama knew another Israeli youth and continued her tour of India with him. Now Eyal was entirely available to Leila and her idea of the union. His devotion to the idea of establishing a United States of the Semitic Nations amazed Leila, and she decided to reveal her secret to her Arab friends and add Eyal as the Israeli representative of the group. The team was thrilled to have Eyal join them, and they became a very close-knit group.
Eyal contributed his military experience toward defining goals, purpose, rules for maintaining secrecy, methods of recruiting additional activists, and building contacts between the representatives of various countries.
The group decided, all together, they should continue growing the team and involve senior representatives from other countries in the Middle East until they filled in the map of the Middle East states with credible representatives who possessed the skills and abilities to bring about the revolution.
The connection between Eyal and Leila grew even stronger. They did not only share a revolutionary idea. They also loved each other with heart and soul. One evening, Leila decided to admit the truth to Eyal, and she told him about the earthquake and her connection with The Engineer. With great emotion on both sides, Leila made Eyal promise to make contact with The Engineer and tell him they were working to officially bring about the revolution that had been his invention.
Time passed. Leila went back to Pakistan, and Eyal decided to return to Israel. They arranged to meet again in exactly a year, at the same place and time. When he got back to Israel, Eyal decided to study at a university. Even though he had intended to study engineering, he changed direction and enrolled in economic and political sciences, so he could prepare for his new mission more efficiently.
On his return, he went to meet The Engineer at his home in the Judean Hills. The Engineer could not hide his excitement from Eyal when he received regards from Leila. Eyal told him about their meeting and how the seeds of the revolution were sown. The Engineer was very excited. He felt very close to Eyal, and he embraced him like a son. They carried on talking into the night, among the fig trees that partly covered the sky that was glittering with stars.
Of course, Eyal was accepted at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and he rented a comfortable room for himself in the same small community where The Engineer lived. This allowed them to continue meeting almost every evening and holding long conversations. The Engineer told Eyal about his life, starting with his birth in Switzerland, his Aliyah to Israel on an illegal immigrant ship, his time in the internment camp in Atlit, and his move to Tel Aviv. He told him about how he ran out of his home while still a child to look for his father who had gone to the synagogue, and how the British police found him and sent him home again. He also spoke to Eyal about the move to Ramat HaSharon, how the British camps were a joke, and about Abu Kishke, who used to let him ride on his camel. He also described the establishment of the State of Israel, the War of Independence, and the mass funerals that took place in his city.
Eyal could not fail to understand The Engineer’s great anger over what had happened to Zionism in the Jewish state
, the faulty understanding of the concept of the Jewish state, and the national planning that was so lacking.
I sat there, in the garden of the vigorous engineer, and I tried to digest everything he had told me till now. In the end, I came to a conclusion, and I said, “How can I find Eyal? I have to meet him!”
The Engineer, happy with what I asked, told me that according to rumors, Eyal had set up a revolutionary factory for manufacturing memory chips for computers in the Beit Guvrin-Kiryat Gat area. He suggested I investigate, and he added he thought if I sent Eyal regards from The Engineer, he would be only too happy to talk to me.
“On second thoughts,” he said. “I’d be pleased to go with you, to see how he’s doing, and what’s happening with the planned revolution, if it’s still in the pipeline.”
The Engineer’s words made me very happy. He seemed like a great traveling companion. In the next few minutes, The Engineer borrowed a bicycle from his neighbors and went into the house to pack a tent for us, two sleeping bags, and some food for the way. We loaded the equipment onto our bikes and set off. The Engineer decided to ride along the mountain paths he knew very well rather than along the main highways, because he was worried about the terrible chaos that reigned in those areas and any possible violence. We feared robbery and murder would become very popular as a result of the situation created by being cut off from the energy systems.
The ride was mostly easy on the way down. We bypassed the Elah Junction in the western hills. By riding slowly, we reached the area of the Beit Guvrin caves in the evening. We set up the tent, spread out our sleeping bags, and ate rusks, dried fruit, and drank water. We lay down to sleep with the intention of getting up early the next morning with renewed strength to go and find Eyal, based on the rumors about the location of his factory.
In the darkness of the night, while we were still deeply asleep, we were attacked by masked men. We woke up to find ourselves tied up with the tent ropes and loaded onto the back of a vehicle. The sound of its engine seemed strange. Then, after a short drive, we were thrown into a dark, mysterious space. Four masked men untied the tent ropes and pulled us out of the sleeping bags we had been left inside of. They passed strange devices over us, scanned us from top to toe, and back again, several times, until they were sure we were clean of God knows what.
Afterward, one of the masked men ordered us in clear Hebrew, in a pure Israeli accent, to go back to sleep. He said that in the morning, they would decide what to do with us. Needless to say, we did not even close our eyes. The Engineer was very thoughtful, and any attempt I made to talk to him and to think together as to why we had been detained like this was rebuffed.
The place we were in was dark and completely sealed. We only knew it was morning when a strange armored vehicle arrived. It floated like a hovercraft over the floor. Inside the vehicle sat an unidentified driver wearing a helmet, and apart from his seat, there were four empty places. He motioned to us with his hand to get inside, sit down, and put on seatbelts. This strange vehicle began to move at a dizzying pace toward a giant door that opened just before we reached it. The vehicle moved extremely fast, making sharp spins and strange turns. We went into another dark area, and from there toward another door, behind which there was yet another dark space. We came to the conclusion that the driver, with the help of his glasses, had perfect vision, and only we were completely blind.
I reckoned it took twenty minutes until we passed through another door that opened with a creak and we finally arrived inside an imposing, impressive room. It was in the shape of three-quarters of a sphere. The vehicle parked under the bottom quarter. The driver motioned to us to get out. When we stood on the transparent floor, we realized how huge this place was. We saw, right in the middle, a giant globe with a diameter of around twenty meters, composed of thousands of digital, triangular screens. Each triangle tossed out information written in different colors, and it was possible to focus on it and enlarge it on the other triangles. Even though we felt as if we had landed on a solid floor, the moment we stepped out of the strange vehicle, we discovered we were floating in space inside the complex, as if there was no gravity. The sensation was rather intoxicating. We floated in space, hardly moving a muscle, and we gradually found that any movement, whether fast or slow, made us fly. We quickly learned how to direct our movements carefully. In this way, we reached the wall of the room and stopped next to one of the triangles. The length of each of its sides was less than three meters. Suddenly, we understood the walls of the room were in fact reflections of the small triangles that made up the central globe. While we were very surprised by this, we understood the central globe was physical information, while the large triangle in the opposite wall was verbal information.
Pleasant classical music, Bach, if I wasn’t mistaken, accompanied us the entire time, strengthening the sense of contrast between now and the chaos of the outside world we had come from.
The Engineer and I did not exchange a word, and both of us tried to investigate our surroundings by looking around and with the movements of his body. Suddenly, we felt a similar sensation and we looked into each other’s eyes. Both of us were being gradually pulled by a mysterious force of gravity toward the other side of the globe. It began slowly and increased within seconds to a high speed. Powerful screams issued from our throats. We were convinced we would fly away and smash into one of the triangles the globe was composed of. Neither of us had ever experienced such helplessness until then.
Just as had happened with the vehicle that brought us here, the giant triangle the force was guiding us toward opened as soon as we drew close to it, and we were thrown with a powerful bump onto two cushioned armchairs.
Opposite us, stood an enormous table, half spherical in shape. Its upper part was a huge three-dimensional screen. Sitting at the table in an enormous armchair full of engravings was none other than Eyal. He smiled at us with great satisfaction and immediately turned to The Engineer.
“I recognized you as soon as you got ready to go to sleep. The entrances to our factory are very well hidden, but you had the bad luck to make your place right on top of one of those entrances.”
Based on what I had heard from The Engineer, I was sure they would give each other a big hug as they rediscovered the close relationship they used to have, but I was wrong.
Eyal remained sitting opposite us, smiling calmly, as he continued, “Do you understand? It’s not just a factory. You are looking right now at the one who is in control of the whole world! From here, I am in control of every corner of the world. And dear engineer…” He turned to The Engineer. “You were wrong! The revolution won’t come from your romantic dream of revolutions, young people, and peace. You got it so wrong. The world revolution is beginning right here, with me, with the destruction of existing civilization!”
The Engineer was so shocked he could not utter a single word. I gathered my strength and asked Eyal, “And what about Leila?”
Eyal’s smile broadened. “Leila? You’ll meet her soon. We managed to bring her here, and she has a senior position in the organization. And one other thing,” he became more serious, “it’s clear you won’t be able to leave here until we begin the revolution. In the meantime, each of you will have your own room. You can go between the rooms, but you won’t be able to leave the factory because of secrecy.”
At that moment, we realized we were trapped. We managed to see Eyal issuing an order in the room, and within seconds, we were flown with the chairs at heart-stopping speed. We each landed in a separate room with rounded walls that had a celestial feel to them. In the low space that reached the floor, I saw a kind of moon, and I realized this was the connection to the second room. The gravitational force worked in this room, too. When I stepped toward the moon, the door did open.
I found The Engineer slumped next to a table full of different kinds of foods. He was neither eating nor drinking. He looked toward me and whispered, “Eyal has
changed completely. Power has gone to his head! He feels like an emperor ruling over the world, and he’s extremely dangerous. Human life means nothing to him.”
The Engineer wept, and he was in a depressed mood. There was nothing to encourage him. We ate some excellent meats, vegetable salads, and Israeli fruits quietly together, and we drank some fine wine. It might have been a prison, but it was certainly a luxurious one.
The good meal, the wine, and everything that had happened to us that day left us feeling very tired. I went back to my room in the same way I had left, and I fell onto to my comfortable bed into a deep sleep.
Suddenly, I woke up with a huge bump. I opened my eyes in surprise, and I found myself lying on my sleeping bag on the ground. To my right was my bike, and to my left were The Engineer and his bike.
I jumped up in shock. “What’s this? What happened?”
The Engineer breathed deeply and replied, “First of all, let’s get on our bikes and go back to my house. On the way, I’ll tell you what I think happened.”
We jumped onto our bikes and began to ride away from there as fast as we could. A few minutes later, The Engineer worked out where we were, and he began to guide us back to his home. We pedaled quickly, breathing heavily, without being able to speak. I overcame my curiosity, as I believed him when he said we had to get out of there as fast as we could.
After three hours of an exhausting ride, we stopped in the hills north of Beit Shemesh. On the edge of the Kedoshim forest, we could already see the edge of Shoresh. We needed to rest before the difficult ascents, and we found a pleasant corner under a large tree. We put down our sleeping bags and slept for a short while. When we sat up again, I asked The Engineer once again what he thought had happened. Just before The Engineer began to speak, he took a deep breath and stared into the distance at a point that was beyond view. It looked as if he had been hypnotized.
A Universal Storm: A Gripping Thriller Page 6