The Great Thirst Boxed Set

by Mary C. Findley

  They had to climb to the surface to use the Naddy’s satellite headset to reach the camp at Harappa. At first Naddy just kept saying, “What? I cannot understand you. No, I can’t make out a word you are saying. What? What?”

  “Is the signal that poor?” Sophie asked finally.

  “The signal is excellent,” Naddy growled. “It is only Jiggly. He has clearly had far too much coffee and is mostly speaking his peculiar brand of hyperactive. Here, Talia, see if you can get him to hand the phone off to someone we can comprehend.”

  Keith stifled a laugh as Talia verbally wrestled with Jiggly. Keith was sure she was speaking Italian at one point but the words came out so fast he wasn’t sure.

  “Oh, you’re already on your way with David?” she finally asked. “Why didn’t you say so? You have our location, right? We’ll see you in about an hour then. No, I can’t really tell you what we found over the phone. You’ll see soon enough. Yes, you can hang up now. Good-bye, Jiggly.”

  “This stuff is like stretch-wrap,” Keith exclaimed. “It sticks where you want it to and lets loose just as easily. I’ve got to get some tests done on these new skins.”

  They hustled to get as much packaged as they could before the helicopter’s arrival. The amphibian skin in its un-waterlogged state was a marvel. It formed itself around the artifacts and tablets. Volunteers from the cave settlers had been of enormous help and the children stared wide-eyed at the candy bars Keith and Talia offered them. Keith snapped pictures with his phone as they tasted the chocolate.

  “This is their first time, ever, right?” he said softly.

  “To eat chocolate? Looks like it,” Talia said with a smile.

  “I think I hear the helicopter,” their male guide said. “Keep working. I’ll go and show them where to land.”

  The workers had to keep splashing themselves from the well every time they carted loads of tablets out into the full sunlight. The bricks had heated up and sweat poured off Keith as he dragged another armload out and looked up.

  “Shouldn’t the helicopter have landed by now?” he asked as Talia joined him, panting, and they passed their tablets off to the bucket-brigade of volunteers moving the precious cargo up to the top of the well.

  “Oh …” Talia stared up at the shadowy craft as it passed over the well. “I thought David was going to bring a different one. That one looks awfully small.”

  “We heard a helicopter when we got up this morning,” Keith recalled. “What if that’s somebody else … somebody trying to find us or spy on us?”

  “Keith, our hosts said we’re safe here. That must be David. Come on. We have to keep moving. Obviously we’ll have to make several trips to Harappa.”

  Before long Jiggly came clattering down the steps and almost landed in the well. Keith dragged him back just in time.

  “Look at all this stuff!” Jiggly exclaimed. “More tablets? The Guardian guys will go nuts!”

  “Let’s just hurry up and get them out,” Keith said.

  “Come on, Jiggly. Give us a hand,” Talia said.

  “Well, I was going to say I cut my finger almost to the bone, but, no, The Warrior Angel speaks, and what can poor Jiggly do but obey?” Jiggly sighed, and started back up the steps with a load.

  Chapter Fifty-seven – The Honor Is to Serve

  Keith looked up and saw David Sharon’s towering silhouette at the edge of the well. He waved at them and started down. Jiggly spluttered and got red in the face when David met him on a narrow ledge and kept him weaving and bobbing in a minute-long dance before he let him go by with a laugh and a slap on the back.

  “Shalom, Evangel and her heart-holder,” David said as he accepted loads of tablets from both Naddy and Sophie. Keith felt a twinge of envy as the Israeli pilot’s muscles bunched up under his black T-shirt. He had almost twice the tablet load Keith could hope to carry out. “And to you as well, Doctors Ramin. The honor is to serve.” He bowed his head and took the steps double-time.

  “So that’s what they mean by hinds’ feet on high places, right?” Keith said. Talia looked up at David.

  “He works out all the time,” she said. “Hours every day. He used to say he had to sweat away the black thoughts. But he’s so cheerful and sweet, I can’t imagine what black thoughts he could ever have had.”

  “Talia,” Naddy said, “and Keith, we are almost done here. Perhaps this is as good a time as any to share David Sharon’s history with you. You may need to know at some point how we met him.”

  “Naw, I know how it is. I bet you met him at Monte Carlo,” Keith joked.

  “Wait … I remember now, that he said he owes you and Aunt Sophie,” Talia said. “Uncle Naddy, how does he even know you? I just played wargames online with him, and covered for him sometimes when he skipped out of required login times. Did he say he owes you because you got him the job at Magnum?”

  Naddy pulled them both aside into one of the chambers for royals inside the tunnel. “I met David Sharon before he went to work for Magnum. Possibly you knew him earlier through his online persona, Talia, but the night I met David Sharon, he was in an Israeli prison, accused of butchering a whole family of Palestinians with a combat knife as they slept in their beds.”

  Talia covered her mouth and turned white. Keith just stared blankly at Naddy.

  “What?” he said. “What?”

  “David’s parents were both teachers at a school he attended as a boy– that is, his father was headmaster, just as your father is at your school, Keith. His brothers and sisters attended classes there as well. They were a large family – seven children. He was fourteen years old when he became the only survivor in his family from a RPG attack on the school. As the years went by he made no secret of his various plots to find and kill the man who attacked the school.

  “In the meantime he enlisted and became a stellar airman, highly decorated and extremely well-known, though not by the name of David Sharon. If I told you his real name, Talia, I am sure you would remember his feats. Perhaps even you would know him by reputation, Keith.

  “But all along the way, bitterness filled his heart. Israelis live with death every day from Palestinian attacks, and so many have lost loved ones and live fatalistic lives. But he used to say his rage sparked the flame of his life of conquest and victory. All this he told me in the prison cell on a night when the government contemplated publicly executing him to appease those participating in the latest futile round of peace talks.”

  “Executing him?” Talia breathed.

  “Yes, and the prospect pleased him,” “Naddy said. “He said his grief would finally end, and he would be remembered as being the Avenger of Blood for his family. But a friend who knew David’s family extracted a promise that I would help him. He had proofs that David was not guilty. The man who was murdered was indeed the one who had fired on David’s school. The Palestinians freely acknowledged it.

  “But the executions were done by Palestinians who knew about David’s blood-grudge and planted evidence of his guilt to remove him as a threat. When I laid before him the proofs that my friend had gathered, he pleaded with me to destroy them and walk away.

  “I had made a promise. My friend was a high-ranking official who could not afford to become publicly involved. I, on the other hand, had nothing to lose by turning over the proofs to the Israeli government. I owed my friend a debt and this was his choice for how to settle it, by saving David’s life.

  “David, however, believed ending his life would end the agony of the loss of his family, a wound he had reopened every day with his schemes for vengeance. I told him no such thing would occur. He would have eternal memory. Peace would never be his. I do not know why he believed me. But he did, and you never saw such a strong man, such a courageous one, crumble and weep as he did. I left him in the cell weeping, and hurried to present my proofs to the prison official.

  “He looked over the evidence. Then he looked up at me, got up from his desk, and hurried me back to David’s cell. He unlock
ed it and waved us away.

  “‘Take him,’ the prison official said. ‘Get him out of here. Out of the country. Now. Tonight. I will wait to make this public tomorrow, when the repercussions cannot touch him. Go. Now.’

  “So I dragged my young friend out of there, no small job, since he could not see his way for tears, and chartered a private jet. Someone smoothed the way through what is normally the strictest security in the world, and we left Tel Aviv at three am, David a free man in body but with no concept of what to do with all those years of bitterness, grief, and rage, when he was reprieved but left with no life or identity.

  “He was an empty shell for many days. Sophie and I sometimes had to practically feed him, dress him, make him get out of bed each day. Finally my friend who had secured the proofs of his innocence managed to leave Israel secretly and came to see him. I had not known until the day he came to the tiny apartment we had rented for David that he was Messianic.”

  “Yeah, David said he was going to turn Dan into a Messianic, but I’m not real sure what that means. A Jewish Christian?” Keith asked.

  “There are many kinds of Messianics, but, yes, in David’s case, I know it means accepting Jesus Christ as Messiah,” Talia said. “They often struggle with how the Scriptures, the Law, and all the Jewish traditions, apply to them. I know David struggles with it.”

  “My friend counseled him to accept Christ, and we believed he did,” Naddy said. “But the blackness he runs from still mars his peace. He blames himself for the death of innocents in that Palestinian man’s family. He still grieves for his family. He misses Israel, his comrades in arms, the thrill of flying fighter missions and helping to protect his homeland.

  “He still feels lost and rootless. He tries to trust Christ, and prays all the while that he punishes his body with exercise. Working for Magnum has distracted him somewhat, and he seems better these days. Something may have happened to push back the blackness.”

  “What was that?” Keith asked as the ground shook. They ran out of the tunnel to the pavilion. Rocks rained down from the edges of the well and clouds of smoke and dust rose to blot out the sky. “Something exploded?”

  “Look! That’s Magnum’s four-seater, still on the ground! But where did that other copter come from?” Talia cried. “What is he doing? Shooting! He’s shooting at the people!”

  “David is taking off. He’s trying to shield them with his helicopter!” Keith shouted. “What can we do? We have to help these people!”

  “Amu and Zanamu, you two get back into the royal chambers.” She started pushing her aunt and uncle into the tunnel. “Get far inside, and stay there until we come back for you.” Keith and Talia shoved them in the right direction, with all the villagers who were still below with them.

  Talia pulled out her gun as they ran back to the tunnel entrance. She fired up toward the unmarked, sand-colored helicopter as people ran screaming from it and the larger Magnum craft swung around to run interference. The shots made the attacking copter veer away.

  “Follow me up, Keith,” Talia ordered. “Come on!” She started running up the stairs, still pausing to shoot, and Keith kept as close as he could. They hugged the wall and though the attackers tried to shoot at them the shots just made dust clouds along the wall. Finally the tan helicopter took off away over the desert, just about the time they reached the mouth of the well.

  “Get in the helicopter, Keith,” Talia shouted as David touched down again. None of the villagers were in sight and only the sound of the rotors disturbed the eerie quiet. Keith could see David frantically waving.

  “Wait, we have to get Remmy and Sophie up,” Keith said. “And you’re coming too. We’re all coming. Where’s Jiggly? Did Cindee come?”

  “Please don’t argue. I’ll go get Amu and Zanamu, but I need you to go ahead.”

  “No way I’m leaving without you,” Keith said. “Everybody comes or nobody.”

  “Keith, David won’t leave unless there’s another threat. But he knows the mission is to protect the tablets and to protect you. Please don’t argue. This is too important.”

  “What are you talking about? Protect me? We have to protect everybody.”

  “You’re needed to help with figuring out the technology to share the tablets. You’re the only one who’s made any headway. You’re the priority, along with the tablets.”

  “No. No way! There’s nothing special about me. And even if there was, you’re my wife. You can’t think I’d leave without you. And Naddy and Sophie … no way I’d leave them behind.”

  Keith saw Talia’s expression change and turned around just in time to see David get out of the helicopter and head toward them. Once he ducked to avoid the rotors, he advanced toward them so rapidly Keith hardly had time to react.

  “He is not picking me up and carrying me into that helicopter.”

  “Only if you force him. I love you. I’m going down to get the others. Please go, Keith.”

  Talia scrambled away down the steps. David came to a stop in front of Keith, his eyes deliberately staying on Talia’s retreating figure and not meeting Keith’s.

  “We will have a problem if you take off before they get up here,” Keith said to David.

  “More problems than you can imagine,” David said with a slight bow.

  “No, I mean between you and me,” Keith retorted.

  “Understood,” David replied. “But for now, I suggest you don’t make this any harder than it already is.”

  “Fair enough.” Keith followed David back and got in the passenger side of the copter. “You really can carry everybody and all these tablets too? And get us out of here in a hurry?”

  “Yes. That’s why I chose this copter. Magnum has no craft with a better payload-to-speed ratio.”

  “What about the villagers? Can’t we use this time to help them?”

  “They best know how to protect themselves,” David replied. “The villagers are not the target and I’ve been checking – as far as I can tell, they are all safely undercover now.” He put on his headset and pointing at a rack over Keith’s head. “There’s one there for you, as well, and we can communicate with those below via the satellite phone.”

  Keith sat with his fists clenched, staring at the lip of the well. A group came up, including Sophie, Cindee, and several villagers. The villagers scattered and vanished before the women even made it to the helicopter. Sophie and Cindee joined them inside. Keith knew it was no time to confirm his wedding-day suspicion that Cindee’s hair was a strange shade of sea-green, but he couldn’t help it.

  “Naddy’s having a hard time making it up,” Cindee said. “Talia and Jiggly are both trying to help him but his face is so red. We’re afraid he might be having a heart attack or something.”

  “Evangel, can I drop a harness for your amu?” David said into his headset.

  “Yes, we should try that,” Talia’s voice came back in Keith’s ears.

  “Let me get out and go help them,” Keith said through gritted teeth.

  David shook his head. “Strap in,” he announced, and lifted off before Keith could even get a hand on the door. The helicopter swung out over the well and a door in the floor opened. David deployed a cable and harness as he maneuvered into a position where they could see Talia, Naddy, and Jiggly struggling up a flight of steps. Naddy grasped the steps above him, bent over and huffing.

  “What I need you to do, Heart-holder,” David said, “is to hook yourself up to that safety harness against the wall on the opposite side from me, to try to keep the craft balanced. You need to be ready to pull Dr. Ramin in when he gets up to the opening. The cable will operate best if you don’t touch it. Just make sure he doesn’t get hung up at any point. Understood?”

  “Sure.” Keith hurried to take his position and snapped the harness around himself. The copter adjusted, corrected, and overall moved far too slowly for Keith’s taste. Finally they hung immediately over the side of the well where Talia and Jiggly seemed to be using all their
strength just to keep Naddy from sliding off. His face had gone from red to pasty and Keith struggled mentally with Talia as she wrestled the harness into place around him, while Jiggly pushed and pulled Naddy in the right directions.

  “All right. Take him,” Talia’s voice gasped into the headset. David’s hands moved fluidly and the copter swung Naddy free of the ledge. He hung in the harness like a dead weight and Keith heard Sophie start to sob. The winch reeled the cable slowly upward. Keith spared a glance at Talia and Jiggly as they started to climb the steps.

  Jiggly jerked upright and toppled over the edge. A puff of dust hit the wall next to Talia. She still tried to grab at Jiggly but his body leaned outward and fell, hitting several banks of steps as it crashed down into the well. Cindee and Sophie started screaming.

  Keith could see the desert-colored helicopter rise into view as more shots pinged around Talia and their craft. Naddy started to spin crazily and Keith had to grab his body to steady it and guide the path of the cable into the body of the copter. Out of the corner of his eye he saw David unlimber some kind of machine gun from a rack behind his seat, slide his door slightly open, and unleash a volley at the other copter, forcing it to retreat out of range.

  The Magnum craft bucked and twisted before David left off shooting and righted it. Keith, Cindee, and Sophie got Naddy buckled into a seat. The women got an oxygen mask and started to work on Naddy. When Keith turned around to deploy the harness again, he saw that David had shut the bay doors.

  “Open the doors back up! Drop the harness for Talia!” Keith screamed at David.

  “Can’t … sorry … something jammed the doors. I think some shots hit them. Heart-holder … I need your help up here.”

  That was when Keith saw the blood. He lunged forward and caught sight of David’s upper arm, sleeve and flesh shredded.

  “”First aid kit … under there.” David had wedged the joystick between one knee and his other foot and he indicated a small compartment with his toe. Keith dug out the kit and bandaged David’s arm. All the while he kept an eye on Talia as she climbed toward the well rim. Steps had been damaged by the shots from the attacker and she slipped and grabbed for a purchase more than once.