The Shield: a novel (52 page)

***

Lieutenant Colonel Oren Shaviv trained for the last several months on old Skyhawks. A tedious business, as far as he was concerned. The jets lacked the power of the F-16s or the maneuverability of the Kfir. The Israeli command decided to use the Skyhawks since the country could easily replace the fighter/bomber’s wear parts.

At first, Oren was surprised. When red lights and alarms went off in the cockpit of his
Skyhawk he thought that the workhorse just died of old age. The plane was almost fifty years old and Oren suspected that all the maintenance in the world couldn’t make it new. It took another glance at the instruments and out the left side of the cockpit to discover the problem: he had been hit by a large caliber anti-aircraft explosive shell. This was pure bad luck.

There was a big hole in the left wing with fl
ames licking its edges. The flames looked even more ominous in the dark, but their light let him see that the hole in the wing was too big to for the aircraft to survive much longer. He didn’t have much time – just enough to head south into the open desert and try to gain some altitude on the way. He would have preferred to bail out over the sea, but he was heading south when he was hit and couldn’t turn. Several miles later the wing broke off and Oren ejected.

After landing he buried his parachute and all parts of the ejection seat he could find
in a nearby cave. There wasn’t much he could do about the aircraft itself. It was probably totally destroyed by the explosion of a bomb he didn’t have time to drop, and some of the remaining cannon shells. The fuel it was carrying was burning merrily when it hit the ground. After resting for a little while, he started walking deeper into the desert. There was no way of knowing what the Germans, or Italians, would do. They might decide to look for him; he hoped they would be too busy licking their wounds.

Oren considered two courses of action: going south, as deep as possible into the Libyan Desert, or circling around and trying to get to the Mediterranean. He decided to go south. There was traffic on the road east of
Tobruk and circling to the west would mean walking around the city and fortress – many miles of walking close to a populated area with a big Italian/German garrison.

By eleven in the morning Oren was exhausted. Climbing the endless sandy hills was hard. He was carrying about thirty pounds worth of water, emergency rations and arms. In addition to the usual 9mm polymer Jericho pistol he was also armed with a
Tavor assault rifle. This was a precaution taken for just the circumstances he found himself in. He needed to stop and rest for a couple of hours – until the hottest part of the day passed. This pause gave him an opportunity to double check his radio and location beacon. Judging by the displays, both were working, but he could get no response to his emergency signal. Finally he wrapped himself in a thin camouflage fabric and lay down on the sand. He chose a position on a down slope of a sandy hill covered with small stones and larger rock outcroppings. Assuming that any search parties were coming from the north, he chose the southern slope, behind a small rock.

The fierce sun
notwithstanding, the Lieutenant Colonel fell asleep. An hour and a half later he woke up with a start. He opened his eyes but didn’t move – he thought he’d heard a noise and was not going to give his position away until he knew more. He heard something again – it sounded like footsteps crunching on the sand and pebbles just next to his ear. Then he heard muffled speech. It was not really next to his ear – the ground transmitted the crunch and made it sound much closer than it really was.

Oren unwrapped his c
amouflage blanket, careful not to make any noise. After he was done, he covered himself with it so that just his eyes peeked out. He slowly lifted himself above the rock that was between him and the top of the hill. With only his eyes showing he scanned the scenery. Nothing. Then he heard people talking again. This time he got a better sense of direction: they were men and they were moving along the other side of the hill. He decided to take a look. It took a couple of minutes of slow and careful crawling before he could take a quick peek.

A vehicle was parked at the bottom of the valley between two hills. He thought that it was an Italian Fiat but could not be sure and didn’t want to bring out his mini-binoculars – a flash of reflected light could give away his position. Five men were sitting on the ground half way up the side of the hill opposite him. Three wore German uniforms. As far as Oren could tell, one of the Germans was a sergeant, the other two were privates. There were also two soldiers wearing Italian uniforms. Both
of them were privates.

***

On the flight to New York Jonathan and Dan were surprised to meet two other Israelis. One was an official from the Absorption Ministry and the other a historian specializing in the Jewish and Zionist history of the first half of the twentieth century. 

“
Where are you going?” one of the two asked.

“
To New York and beyond.” Dan responded.

“
Okay. Another secret project,” the historian said.

“
And what are you doing here?” Dan inquired.

“
It’s our third trip. We’re maintaining the contacts between Palestine and the Jewish community in America. These would have been severed when we popped up in this time
.
”

After they returned to their seats Jonathan looked at Dan
. “Another government screw-up? Why not use their contacts? We didn’t need to bother with Snyder.”

“
I don’t think it was a screw-up,” Dan responded. “The Jewish community, I mean the part of the community that is really Jewish and cares about other Jews, has no influence or connection with Roosevelt. They demonstrated and made noise in support of European Jews. All that got them was a notice on the inner page of some newspapers. Not even an interview with the President or anybody from the Administration.

“
We did look at possible connections there but discovered very quickly that the only contacts with Roosevelt were through labor leaders and Communists. Snyder was a unique opportunity. We probably could have gotten to him through these two emissaries but it was much handier to speak directly to him in Italy. You think that his visit to the Brindisi facility didn’t help us?”

Dan and Jonathan took a taxi from the pier where the flying boat was moored to the Hotel New York. It was close to noon and they expected to be able to wash up and get ready to meet Snyder.

Snyder was waiting for them in the hotel’s lobby: “How was your trip? Any problems?”

“
No. Thanks for asking. We are fine, any news about our business?”

Snyder pointed to a table and armchairs in the corner. After settling there and getting drinks Snyder said
, “I have good news and bad news. Which first?”

“
Tell us in chronological order.” Dan responded.

“
Right. I could not find any approach to the Vice Admiral. It sounds like he is a tough cookie and associates mainly with Navy characters. That’s the bad news.

“
The good news is that I know a nice woman who used to work for Mr. Roosevelt when he was the governor of New York. She was his Labor Secretary for a while. Now she heads a large union. She’s Jewish, but cares nothing about Palestine – her worries are mostly about the labor movement. On the other hand, she cares about Mr. Roosevelt’s health and has respect for Jewish doctors.

“
To make a long story short: after questioning me for two hours, she agreed to recommend Dr. Brown’s services to Mrs. Roosevelt. Eleanor has been looking for a second opinion – she thinks that Admiral McKinley is not the best doctor for her husband.

“
Here is the catch though: she will call Mrs. Roosevelt, and maybe the President, only after interviewing you. Our appointment with her is tonight at ten at her office. It’s not too far from here and I will take you there. Before I leave, we need to decide whether Dr. Brown is coming by himself or both of you go.”

Dan nodded
. “That’s a good question. My function here is to keep Dr. Brown safe – he’s a prominent physician and has knowledge of research done in Germany and other places. He may be in danger if the Nazis become aware of him being here, especially if his mission becomes known to them.”

Snyder looked from one man to the other
. “I wasn’t aware that you were that important, Dr. Brown. If that’s the case, by all means let’s go together. Of course, you will have to explain the situation to Miss Schiller.”

At
10 p.m. sharp they rang the bell at the entrance to a nondescript building in the garment district. The door was opened by a burly man who looked them over and let them enter. The cramped lobby looked old and somewhat dingy. It was lit by a single low-powered bulb which made it look even more worn out that it actually was. There were two other men in the lobby. The doorman motioned for them to lift their arms and patted them down: “Sorry about this, but we have to be careful.”

“
Yeah,” Snyder smiled. “I hear the mob is not too happy with Schiller’s policies. They’ll get used to it.”

The man wasn’t
amused. “Please follow me.”

They went up a creaking elevator that their guide controlled with a manual lever. It stopped on the sixth floor. The man opened the door and led them down a sparsely lit corridor. Close to its end he knocked on a door.

“Come in,” a woman’s voice shouted.

The first room was obviously a secretary’s or receptionist’s office. It was empty. The door to the next office was open. A woman in her late forties was seated behind a big desk. She got up to great them
. “Hi, Howard, punctual as usual. Pleasure to see you again. Introduce me to your friends.”

“
This is Dr. Jonathan Brown and Mr. Dan Law.” Both shook hands with the woman.

“
Sam, thank you. I’ll call you when these gentlemen are ready to leave.”

Clara Schiller was almost as tall as Jonathan. She looked them over, smiled and pointed to the chairs opposite her desk
. “Howard tells me that you are a prominent physician from Palestine. Can you tell me more about yourself?”

Jonathan told her his cover story – basically true, except for the slight modifications necessary to make it fit
America in 1941.

“
So you can see”, he concluded, “how we at Hadassah became a world center for medical knowledge.”

“
Very interesting. I didn’t realize that the little hospital in Jerusalem was so advanced, but it does make sense that with the influx of the best brains from Germany and the rest of Europe you would make progress.

“
Mr. Law, what brings you here?”

Dan smiled “Please call me Dan. I
am here mostly as a bodyguard for Jonathan. As you know, the German intelligence services are very thorough and probably know of our visit here. They would love to capture him for themselves or kill him to prevent him getting access to the President. I have other functions connected with the Zionist movement, but they are a far second to Jonathan’s safety.”

Clara Schiller was quiet for a while making notes on a pad in front of he
r. After she was done she said, “Dr. Brown, what do you expect to be able to do for the President?”

“Before I commit to anything I would need to ex
amine him and run some tests. Only after that will I be able to say with any degree of certainty what I can do.”

For a while the room was quiet. Finally Clara Schiller said
, “For whatever it’s worth, I trust you and will recommend you to Eleanor. Of course, she will want to interview you herself.

“
I’ll let you know tomorrow. Sam will bring a note from me to your hotel.”

***

“Captain, we have a pilot down,” the comm man reported to the commander of the missile boat
.
“He was shot down somewhere near Tobruk.”

The captain of the vessel looked at his watch. It was 4:20
a.m., about an hour and a half until sunrise. They were east and north of Tobruk and were scheduled to arrive outside the fortress in an hour.

“
Anything from the pilot?” he asked.

“
No, sir. Both his beacon and transceiver seem to be either dead or off. I did catch a short burst from the ejection seat transceiver so we know where he ejected.”

“
Okay. Keep listening. Gil,” He turned to his second in command, “Get HQ, tell them what the situation is and ask for instructions. I don’t like sending the helicopter out over hostile territory without having the pilot’s position.”

The HQ responded in a couple of minutes: “The Air Force is looking for him. Standby at the predetermined position. As soon as we know something we will let you know
.”

At about
ten in the morning the missile boat’s radar identified two ships approaching their position from the north. One was a merchant vessel, the other a cruiser, both headed straight for the port of Tobruk. Usually Germans didn’t escort their cargo ships.  They and the Italians had anti-aircraft guns installed on the merchant ships but didn’t want to risk their naval vessels.
A cruiser could put up some fire but it was likely to be sunk if discovered by the Royal Air Force. On the other hand, if it encountered a Royal Navy ship it would have a fair chance to inflict some damage.