Ashes of the Red Heifer (13 page)

“Maybe. It certainly could happen that way. Normal brucellosis takes direct exposure to pass from critter to critter. But BA 23 has turned into a real killer. As the pathogen has accommodated new hosts it’s gotten more virulent. You can see that because we’re starting to hear of it passing to people, mostly very young and very old. But it’s killing them and soon it’ll be even stronger. Now it appears to be spreading through either droplets of water or the air.”

Moshe’s eyebrows drew together in concentration. “So if you don’t give your cows this vaccine before they come to Israel, they will have dead calves? Even when they are so close to giving birth?”

She nodded. “This is some nasty disease. It has the potential to wipe out cattle all over the world.”

He looked at her admiringly. “It is good you will find the cure.”

She plopped into her chair. “Not so good if I can’t get it out to others.”

“Once God gives us the Red Heifer, you can give it to everyone and all will be cured.”

She tried again. “But I have to get to Hassan before I can finish the vaccine.”

He laughed again. “I would be punished if I let you see your friend.”

She felt a twinge of excitement. Moshe had compassion; maybe she could tap into that. She’d start small. “When you take Hassan his meal you can ask him my question and have him write back the answer.”

“What question?” Moshe asked.

“The RNA sequencing showing the phylogenetic affinity to BA 23 on the basis of rRNA gave us the iron levels we used in the last vaccine. But it seems to me that when we actually put the vaccine together we tweaked that iron level. I never got around to recording that new level into the notes. I need to ask Hassan what iron concentration we used on Esther.”

Moshe’s eyes twinkled. “I only speak Hebrew and English. This makes no sense.”

“I’ll write it down.”

Moshe shook his head. “This will get you killed and me, too. I will not risk it.”

She pounded her fist. “But I need Hassan to help me.”

Moshe tapped his temple. “You are smart. You will see. It will be okay.”

The outside door banged open making Moshe and Annie flinch. Adi stood in the entry. “It is time to eat.”

Annie scowled at Adi. When she strolled out the door she locked eyes with him, daring him to react. His face stayed deadpan but his eyes followed her.

When they got to the mess tent, Adi growled orders to Moshe. Moshe passed Annie and went to fill a plate.

Annie looked around and spotted David sitting at a rickety aluminum table, trying to balance on a flimsy folding chair. She hurried to him, wanting to be close. It was true, their beliefs would probably keep them from ever having the long-term relationship Annie longed for but right now he was a friend and someone she trusted. Whatever other fantasies she’d harbored before this whole nightmare started she’d leave in her past.

He pulled out the empty chair next to him. “Looks like we’ve got rice and vegetables today.”

She wrinkled her nose at the spicy smells so different from meals she’d grown up with. “Mmm. Something new.”

He smiled at her. “And it’s kosher.”

She shook her head. “Wouldn’t it be difficult to keep kosher out here?”

It seemed as though he considered whether to continue the conversation and decided to plunge in. “Sometimes it’s good for things to be hard. It serves as a reminder to love God and it strengthens resolve.”

“I don’t understand what eating has to do with religion and God,” she said.

He leaned toward her. “Not all Jewish factions believe in or keep kosher. Orthodox Jews are strict about it. Conservatives, which I am, are supposed to keep it, but often don’t or keep it sometimes, and Reformed, well, they might as well be secular. Remember how the Corporation spoke of obedience without understanding?
Kashrut
exemplifies that. We keep kosher because God commanded it.”

“The rules get so detailed, it seems arbitrary.”

He sat back, taking her comment under consideration. “The table is seen in Jewish eyes as the Temple altar. The whole idea of
kashrut
is that it elevates the most mundane human routine to a religious experience. If I have to think about what I’m allowed to eat to honor God, then it reminds me to serve him at all times.”

She looked around at the faces in the tent. There had been no incoming truck yesterday or today and yet there were people she’d never seen before. At least twenty people sat at tables, stood around in conversation or filled their paper plates. At every meal there was always way more food than the people present could eat. The changeable faces, number of people and the volume of food baffled Annie. There were only the two sheds, the mess tent and a couple of smaller tents. Where did these people come from? Where did they sleep? More importantly, what were they doing here?

The food stuck in her throat with each swallow. She shoveled it in, though, wanting to get out of the mess tent and back to her lab.

David didn’t say much. He seemed lost in his own thoughts.

She scooped the last bite into her mouth and looked up at Moshe, who sat across from her. His head was raised and his eyes sparkled. A sweet grin curved his mouth. Annie followed his gaze to a striking dark-haired woman who had just entered the tent. She glanced at Moshe and flashed him a quick frown, then lowered her eyes.

Light faded from Moshe’s face. He lowered his head and caught Annie looking at him. An instant look of fear pass across his eyes. He recovered quickly. “She is a beauty, no?”

Annie looked back at the young woman who studiously ignored them. “Very pretty.”

He shrugged. “Won’t give me the time of day.” Moshe’s eyes shifted to David.

David laughed. “Looks like a heartbreaker to me, man. I’d leave her alone.”

Moshe nodded too enthusiastically. “You’re right.”

“Gotta take a leak,” David said, standing up.

Moshe jumped to his feet. “I’ll take you.”

David waved him to sit. “Finish eating. I’ll get Adi to go.”

Moshe dropped back down.

Concern surged through Annie. “Are you okay? I mean, you just went before we ate. Are you getting a bladder infection or is your stomach upset?” Who knew what kinds of infections or dysentery they might come down with in these conditions?

He put a hand on the back of her neck. “Quit worrying. I drank too much coffee this morning, that’s all.”

He walked away, stopped to talk to Adi and the both of them left the tent heading toward the latrine. If he were sick he wouldn’t tell her. She had to get them out of here.

An engine sounded outside and the tent suddenly grew quiet. It didn’t sound like the supply truck. Through the tent flap she saw a beat-up, dusty car. Probably the same one that had brought her and David here. Who was the newest prisoner?

The driver jumped out and opened the back door but no one got out.

Annie glanced at Moshe and saw his eyes focused on the pretty woman. The woman’s face paled and she swung her head away from Moshe. When Annie looked back at Moshe he was staring outside the tent.

The driver held the door open while two other men escorted a young woman carrying something in her arms. When she turned and leaned over to sit in the car Annie saw the bundle was a baby. The driver slammed the door, spoke rapidly to the two men, jumped into the front seat and peeled away.

The tent was silent and still. As if on cue people resumed conversations and movement, acting like nothing happened.

Annie turned to Moshe but his head was slumped low over his plate and he shoveled food into his mouth.

“What was that? Who was that? Where did they come from?”

Moshe didn’t look at her.

THIRTEEN

       Adi hadn’t escorted David back to the mess by the time Annie was ready to return to the lab. Was he seated in the latrine bent over with cramps from some digestive bacteria? Moshe wouldn’t allow her to check on him so she was forced back to the lab.

Maybe Moshe wouldn’t take a note to Hassan but the fact that he’d considered it meant Hassan was still alive. She had some time, but not much. The Corporation planned to send her, David and Moshe to Nebraska tomorrow. If she didn’t get Hassan out of the compound tonight she might not have another chance.

Moshe took up his position in the chair by the door and Annie worked in the lab.

Adi brought David back to the lab toward evening. He looked healthy. He wasn’t pale and there were no new bruises.

Annie felt relieved to have him near. “Where were you? What happened?”

He looked irritated. “I was sitting in Alanberg’s tent with Adi. Seems they are worried that we spend too much time together and might be hatching an escape plan.”

Annie scowled at Adi. “My escape plans aren’t very effective.”

David looked at the mess she’d spread out on the counter. “What is all this?”

She wished she could feel a sense of triumph over what she’d done but all she felt was a dull ache for Hassan. “I’ve just about finished the vaccine. A couple more hours and I’ll have it whipped.”

“What can I do to help?” he asked.

She shook her head. Hassan would have been working beside her, neither of them having to tell the other what to do. But David was a project director, not a scientist. It would take more time to instruct him than he’d save her. “I can finish this myself.”

Adi broke in. “You do not need him? I will take him to your room.”

Annie held her hand up. She wanted David with her. He made her feel a little more secure. “Wait. He can double check the data for me.”

Adi waved his gun at David, indicating for him to leave. “He can go.”

David stood up. “I guess if I’m locked in safe and sound and we’re not together, Adi can take a little time off, right dude?”

Adi grunted and pointed his gun toward the door.

David saluted Adi, threw Annie a kiss and sauntered to the door. Even that brief glimpse of David eased a slight amount of tension. Since Annie couldn’t follow him back to the shed, she concentrated on the vaccine.

Just over an hour later she shoved her chair back from the work space. She took a case containing six vials of vaccine to the refrigerator. “Poke me with a fork, I’m done,” she said to Moshe.

His head jerked up from his chest. She hadn’t noticed he’d dozed off while she worked. He might as well get some sleep; she couldn’t get out the door without waking him.

He blinked and stood. “Is it good vaccine to save the cows?”

She nodded. “Good vaccine to save Hassan, some sick people and the cows.”

He opened the door and she walked outside into the night, no longer tempted to make a run for it. She didn’t want to be responsible for any more damage to David.

Moshe touched her arm and pointed along the cliff to the south. His face held a pleading look. “Please. Quiet.”

What was he up to? She walked softly in the direction he indicated and soon dipped behind a jut in the wall just passed the mess tent.

Moshe touched her arm again and she stopped. He looked over his shoulder at the camp and pulled out keys, making sure they didn’t clink against each other. With one last glance to the sleeping camp, he turned to the cliff and flipped open a rock like the one hiding the lab door. Within seconds he opened a door and indicated Annie step inside. He quickly shut the door with a soft click.

What opened before her dwarfed her lab and barn eaked from the cliff. She stared, unbelieving.

The space was large enough it could have been a shopping mall. She stood on a stone floor but a few feet in front of her steps rose to a platform the rest of the mall seemed built upon. Four or five buildings circled an open courtyard, deserted now.

It looked to Annie like a movie set of a village in old Israel. “What…”

Moshe held his finger to his lips. He looked toward the courtyard and waited.

In a few seconds a woman hurried out of one of the doors. She surveyed the other buildings then silently rushed to Moshe’s waiting arms. Their embrace was almost violent in its intensity; their love and longing apparent even in the dark.

When the two pulled apart Annie saw the woman was the pretty dark-haired one from the mess tent. She bent her head close to Moshe’s ear and whispered in nearly inaudible Hebrew. Moshe nodded and indicated Annie.

The woman’s gaze locked on Moshe’s eyes with a look of deep anguish. She hurried back across the courtyard to the door from where she’d appeared. In a few seconds she reappeared with a blanket wrapped bundle. From the way she held it Annie could tell it was a child, not quite two-years old. She handed the baby to Moshe. He bent his head close to the child and held it tight, placing a soft kiss on the child’s sleeping face. He looked at the woman, their eyes speaking of love and devotion punctuated when he put a hand to her cheek.

He handed the child back to her and bent for another kiss on its forehead. He gave the woman a lingering kiss, ending with reluctance. Eyes still on the woman, he pointed Annie to the door.

As quietly as possible Annie retraced her footsteps until she stood in the sand. The moon was starting to rise. Moshe followed her out and relocked the door.

“What…” she started to ask again.

Moshe pointed to the lab and she understood they should wait until they were back inside. When he’d shut the door to the lab Annie said, “Now tell me what that was.”

Moshe’s eyes shone. “That is my wife, Hannah and our son, Jacob.”

“Your wife? What is she doing locked up? What is that place?”

Moshe took a deep breath. “There are rules and rituals that we need to follow with the Red Heifer sacrifice. It is different from all other sacrifices.”

“How so?”

“It is important that we must rebuild the Temple for almost all sacrifices except the Red Heifer. Most Jewish sacrifices take place in the Temple at the altar. After the animal has been killed, the blood is drained and only the flesh is burned. The Red Heifer sacrifice is performed outside the city, the only one where the blood is burned. The real mystery of the Red Heifer sacrifice is that the one performing it must be purified. So he’s clean when he starts. But by some means, he becomes unclean by the sacrifice.”