The Shield: a novel (41 page)

The meeting went on for a couple of hours with spirited and open discussion unrestricted by rank or position. In the end, the R&D manager was charged with developing a detailed plan of action. The Human Resources manager was told to develop a list of personnel needed and start hiring by the end of the week. A new office of Education Coordinator was created with an eye to bringing new immigrant engineers and scientists up to speed on technology the company would need quickly.

Ze’ev used some of his connections at the Technion to arrange special courses for immigrants hired by Consolidated. The company would pay for them and the Technion was more than happy to provide some of its graduate students
with additional income.

Ephraim Hirshson’s plane landed at Ben-Gurion airport in the early afternoon. He had spent most of the flight sleeping in an aisle seat of the first row and was first off the plane. Rank had its privileges.

After going through the passport, or, rather ID control, he ran to the exit door. The hall for arriving passengers was crowded with new immigrants and families. It took him a minute to see his wife, who was frantically waving to him. After hugging and kissing he finally had a good look at her: “I see that the baby is growing, and you look lovely as always.”

“
You flatterer! I love you too.”

It was a relatively short and uneventful drive to their home in Mevaseret Zion just west of Jerusalem. For the first time in months Hirshson could relax, but something was bothering him. He didn’t know why he had been called home so suddenly. He questioned his wife about her health, but she was fine and told him that the rest of the f
amily was in good shape as well. “You have very nice ancestors, you know. We spent a day sightseeing in Jerusalem, including a couple of places tourists rarely see. We stopped at that nice restaurant off Jaffa Street you like so much. Your great-grandmother and Aunt Sheina confuse me a bit. They don’t seem to be overly observant; they don’t dress very modestly and sometimes eat dairy right after meat, but both prayed for almost an hour at the Western Wall.”

“
My great-grandfather and grandfather were militant atheists. My father, you may have noticed, is also an atheist, though not of the militant variety. I think that the poor women were oppressed at home and not allowed to practice, which resulted in this somewhat mixed up behavior.”

“
Wishful thinking my dear husband. Neither Sara nor Sheina are the oppressed types. It’s more likely that Sara ruled the household and her husband did what she wanted him to do. You think you’re much different from your great-grandfather?”

“
Yes, yes. I know that women rule. No more arguments about this. Did you meet my grandfather and great-great-uncle too?”

“
Yes, we had a big family dinner at your parent’s house only a couple of days ago. Chaim is a nice man but seems to be troubled – I think that he is worried about making a living and is too proud to accept help from relatives he doesn’t really know. Your grandfather confuses me no end. I knew him when he was in his eighties and now he is back with us, only he is twenty one. I try to think of him not as your grandfather but just as a close relative - That works most of the time.”

“
Yes, that confused me too, probably even more than you. After all I knew him for most of my life and the young man resembles the grandfather I knew not only physically but in his mannerisms as well.”

“
Oh, by the way, Jacob mentioned that he would like to get your advice about enlisting. He is hesitating but wants to participate in the common defense, as he put it.”

After he was sure that it was not a f
amily emergency that brought him home, Ephraim decided to be patient and enjoy himself. He was scheduled to meet with his bosses in two days. They’d tell him what was going on.

***
*

“
Please wait here,” Major Liat Cohen instructed Ephraim Hirshson
.
“Gad will be with you in a few minutes.”

Five minutes later Liat emerged from her office. She was smiling
as she led him through her office and to a door on the right. Ephraim knew the other door led to Gad Yaari’s office but he had never been through it. They entered a large conference room. Four generals were at the table: Gad Yaari plus the commanders of the northern, central, and southern commands. Everybody rose as Yaari announced: “Colonel Ephraim Hirshson, you have been promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. Congratulations.”

His old rank insignia were replaced with new.  After much backslapping and a toast with wine, the ceremony was over.

“Now,” Yaari smiled at the new general, “there are a couple of things we need to discuss.”

The chief of general staff relaxed behind his desk: “Please call in the others,” he instructed his secretary. General Zvi Kaplan, chief of military intelligence and the head of the Mossad
came in. A couple of seconds later the general commanding the Air force and the Navy commander joined them.

Yaari opened the discussion
. “Gentlemen, so far we’ve had an advantage. This has changed now. The history of this time-line deviated from the one we know, mostly because of our actions to prevent the Holocaust.

“
The government concluded there was a serious danger of Moscow and/or Leningrad falling to the Nazis, which could lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union. A decision was made to intervene. We painted a couple of our old Stratocruisers, the ones we bought from Boeing in the fifties, in British colors and made them sort of look like Lancaster bombers – at least from a great distance. They bombed refineries and fuel depots in Ploesti, Romania. There was a danger of Germany recognizing that these were not what they seemed, but fortunately no one got close enough to do that – the escort jets shot down a couple of Messerschmitts that tried. There may be repercussion though, as the planes flew above the flack, which Lancasters can’t do. We’ll deal with that later if need be.

“
The operation was a success in that Germany lost its major source of fuel for at least three weeks. We figured that would slow them down enough to give the Russians a chance. To make sure they did slow down, we also bombed a synthetic fuel plant in the Ruhr. The damage to the plant was repaired in a couple of days, but we destroyed a month’s worth of production reserves as well.”

Zvi Kaplan hung a large map of the Ukraine and eastern USSR o
n the wall. “In the history we knew, the Germans surrounded five Soviet armies near Kiev. This happened on September 16, 1941, when Guderian’s Panzer Group 2 and von Kleist’s Panzer Group 1 met east of Kiev, completing the circle.

“
This time, both Guderian and Kleist are moving much slower. On September 16 they were still more than fifty kilometers apart. Soviet troops, retreating from Kiev, attacked Kleist’s panzers and slowed them even more. Our satellite images show that neither Guderian nor Kleist maneuver as much as they did in our history and consequently are suffering more losses. Because of lack of fuel they are spending much longer just sitting there waiting for supplies. They eventually completed the encirclement of Kiev, but only on October 2.

“
The net result of this small difference is that instead of taking about 650,000 prisoners, along with two thousand tanks and almost a thousand pieces of artillery, the Germans only captured about 200,000 prisoners and maybe five hundred tanks and about the same number of artillery pieces.

“
This being October 4, we still don’t know what the Soviets will do with their ‘extra’ troops and materiel. One thing is certain: history has changed in a major way.”

The head of the Mossad picked up the reporting
. “We are getting information from Germany, some of which is coming through Zvi’s intercepts, that indicate Hitler still thinks that Kiev was a major victory - which objectively it was, just not as big as it could have been. He congratulated all involved, and, most significantly, promised his armor commanders to increase fuel supplies for operation Typhoon, that is, the attack on Moscow. Our conclusion is that the Soviet’s good luck was the result of a simple fuel shortage. Another important piece of information is that Typhoon has been scheduled for October 7 – in our history it began on September 30.

“
The winter war will go badly for the Germans, much worse than in our time, unless Stalin does something exceedingly stupid. Our analysts estimate that if it goes badly enough, the Germans will ask the Caliph to help them. It’s also likely that we’ll see less German assistance with trucks or shipping – they’ll try to squeeze the last drop of fuel for their army.”

“
It’s my assumption that our government will refuse help to the Germans,” Yaari said. “This brings me to the main subject of this meeting – the Brindisi base. Sometime in February or early March of next year we’ll probably discover that the Nazis are not friendly to the Caliph anymore. We expect that this will happen either because the Caliph will refuse their request for assistance, or, more likely, because they’ll realize who we really are – the government is considering establishing formal relations with several countries fairly soon. The Germans will stop cooperating with our rescue efforts. We have to get everybody out of Europe by the end of the year.”

“
I don’t think we can do that,” Hirshson interjected. “There are communities that won’t move.”

“
Are they in real danger, or, rather, will they be in real danger when the Germans become hostile?” Yaari asked.

“
Difficult to predict,” the Mossad man responded, “but we probably can intimidate the Axis regimes directly, without nuking the Germans again. It’s either taking this chance or using force - German force - to evacuate them.”

“
Fine. I will report to the government and let them decide.

“
Now the next issue.” Yaari hung a map of southern Europe on the wall: “What do we do if, after realizing that we are not friendly, the Nazis decide to attack our base?”

“
Why would they? It makes no sense,” the Air Force commander asked.

“
As one who has had direct contact with them, I can tell you that they are definitely not rational,” Hirshson pointed out.

“
I agree,” Yaari said. “We need to prepare a defense. And don’t tell me that the Air Force can do it all by itself. Don’t underestimate the Germans. Ephraim, get your staff to prepare a plan. Everybody here will assist. Think of this base as a beachhead for the future invasion of Europe by the Allies – whoever they may be at the time.”

***

Amos Nir was in conference with the head of the Mossad when the Foreign Minister arrived: “Come in,” he greeted the Minister. “Our meeting got more complicated than I expected and your input will be helpful.

“
We were discussing how to prevent Hitler from declaring war on the U.S. in December. We came up with several ideas, but none of them is guaranteed.”

“We have a number of options,” the head of the Mossad said. “The Mufti is still running around Europe making sure that every single Jew is moved to Brindisi – We could have him try to convince Hitler that it would be folly to declare war on the U.S. Or we had the idea of giving Hitler’s astrologist a sudden revelation of what is going to happen a couple of days before the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. After his prediction comes true, he should have no trouble persuading Hitler that a declaration of war would result in a catastrophic loss for Germany. The last suggestion we discussed was sending an American businessman with good ties to the Nazis and known as their supporter - someone like Henry Ford or IBM’s Thomas Watson - to convince them that the U.S. wouldn’t attack Germany if Germany doesn’t declare war. I’m not saying that all these ideas are doable, but we need to decide what approach is most effective.”

“
I don’t think any of those ideas would work,” the Foreign Minister declared. “It’s futile to try convincing Hitler, and I’ve said so in the Cabinet meeting. Hitler’s decision to declare war on the U.S inexplicable. Germany gained nothing from it and lost a lot, allowing Roosevelt to get actively involved in the war in Europe. The Japanese have certainly not asked for German involvement or help. Historians and psychologist have speculated for years why he did this crazy thing. My approach is simple: the man is crazy, therefore unpredictable and uncontrollable. Nothing we can do will persuade him. I think that the full Cabinet has to discuss this again, with input from our resident psychiatrist and the Mossad.” He looked at the Prime Minister: “In the meantime I have news we have to discuss.”

Am
os addressed his advisors: “Okay, thank you for your input. I guess we’ll see you at the next Cabinet meeting.”

When they were alone the Foreign Minister again expressed his opposition to interference with
American involvement in Europe. He presented the common wisdom position: if the U.S. doesn’t get involved, there will be a real danger of the Soviets crushing Germany and dominating all of Europe, not just its eastern half. They had a similar conversation in the Cabinet meeting, with the Foreign Minister remaining in the minority. Most of the cabinet members accepted the Prime Minister’s opinion that it would be a good thing to prevent U.S. involvement in Europe. After all, it was Roosevelt that agreed to give Stalin, whom he trusted for inexplicable reasons, all of Eastern Europe.