Kill Them Wherever You Find Them (54 page)

Various teams of each facility would undergo
a similar meeting with similar bio scans as the agency worked to
ferret out the traitor among them. It was agreed to start with the
leadership of each facility, working their way down to every
employee, until all personnel associated with
The Project
had undergone this first step of extra security measures.

Not only where all employees under scrutiny,
but also every member of the military up to and including Lieut.
Gen. Ashkelon himself.

Agents of the ISA and the Mossad who had even
the most tangential association were also to be vetted. No stone
was to be left unturned.

The bio-monitoring room had a cold atmosphere
to it, much of the light being emitted from blue and green computer
monitors. The room itself was physically cold; necessary to
maintain the temperatures of the hardware itself.

"Director, I'm sorry to interrupt."

"What is it?"

"Reviewing the satellite feeds, we believe we
know where Dr. Levin was taken after being spirited from the
resort. Based on this information, we are tracking a yacht that
departed the shores of Brazil and appears to be headed to Western
Europe."

"Thank you."

"One more thing sir. A helicopter retrieved
somebody from the yacht. We were unable to get a view of the
person's face, but based on height, build, and the way the person
was handled while being assisted into the helicopter, we believe it
to be a woman. The helicopter has been tracked to a private
airfield in Rio de Janeiro. As it was landing, something jammed our
satellite feed. We were unable to follow the target from that
point. Two of our agents have been dispatched to the airfield to
question the pilot of the helicopter."

Table of Contents

4. Called to Serve

“The best way to find yourself
is to lose yourself in the service to others.”
- Mahatma
Gandhi

Jerusalem and Negev,
Israel

Jeff Stauffenberg enjoyed his
time in the Old
City of Jerusalem. He never tired of visiting the ancient sites
held sacred by the three great Abrahamic religions that span the
globe: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

Avoiding the tourist trap 'The Church of the
Holy Sepulcher' neither the church nor the location having anything
to do with the burial and resurrection of Jesus; he did frequent
the 'Garden Tomb' site as often as occasion would permit.

He also enjoyed strolling through the
Armenian section of the Old City. The sights, sounds, and beautiful
language of the Armenian people never ceased to be a source of
wonder for Jeff. The Armenian people were nearly eradicated by the
Turks; a Holocaust in its own right that provided Hitler with the
assurance that the world would be equally impassive and
unresponsive as he attempted to do the same with European Jewry. It
was an assurance that proved all too correct.

Each time he ventured into the old city,
Jeff's final stop would be to say a prayer at the Kotel, what most
English speakers called the "Wailing Wall" or the "Western Wall."
The Kotel is the only part of Herod's Temple that remains intact on
the Temple Mount. The beautiful Al-Aqsa Mosque was located above
the Western Wall, atop the Temple Mount. Inspiring as well as
beautiful, Jeff would have enjoyed looking inside the mosque, but
because it was situated where the "Holy of Holies" of the ancient
Temple was, he chose to avoid that sacred site. At the top of the
stairs that lead from the Western Wall Plaza to the Temple Mount
above, a sign was posted that people of Levitical descent ought not
to walk on that sacred site. While not a Levite himself, Jeff
honored this request.

Conforming to Jewish tradition, which held
that a supplication written on paper and placed between the stones
of the wall would rise up to God, and as a nod to his cousins in
the tribe of Judah, Jeff covered his head with a hat; placing his
own supplication on the wall.

As wonderful and spiritually inspiring as it
was to be at the Western Wall, he regretted not being able to
worship in a Latter-day Saint Temple, a modern "House of the
Lord."

Strolling across the Western Wall plaza, he
admired the new building complex of Yeshiva Aish haTorah. Seeing
the clean cut young men who studied Judaism there, some pursuing a
path to rabbinic service, he was reminded of his own time in the
Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. Both institutions of
religious study and preparation for service to humanity had a lot
in common.

The Jewish people and Mormon peoples would
always find faithful friends and true support from each group.
These two, Mormons drawn primarily from the tribe of Ephraim, and
Jews comprised largely of the tribe of Judah with some Levite, had
ancient ties that would extend well into the future.

Though he was expected to avoid regular
patterns in his daily habits, and never go to the same vendor with
marked frequency, today Jeff couldn't resist going to his favorite
falafel place in a nearby Arab shook.

Falafel in one hand, can of soda in the
other, Jeff found a vacant chair under a palm tree to rest in the
shade and watched the masses of people as they walked by. Two
elderly Arab men seated nearby regarded him casually, deciding that
he was nobody of particular interest and most likely just a
tourist, returned to their game of backgammon while casually
puffing on a shared hookah.

He wished that Lynn could have joined him on
this pleasant walkabout. One couldn't have asked for more beautiful
day.

He was glad that his wife and children were
acclimating so well to their new home and language. Brian and
Samantha both picked up Hebrew with relative ease, but for Lynn it
was a struggle. To her credit, she never gave up, and was now able
to speak basic, conversational Hebrew.

Still unable to meet with the local Mormon
community, they received permission from their bishop back in
Colorado to hold Sabbath meetings in their flat. Naturally he
wasn't able to tell his Bishop the circumstance that led to their
relocation in Israel, but explained that they would be unable to
meet with local Mormons for a while. An understanding man, he
authorized Jeff to bless the Sacrament, what other Christians call
'Communion,' and administer the same to his family. Lynn was to be
their Sunday School President and teacher. Sami and Lynn would be
the women's Relief Society group of two, while Jeff and Brian were
the complimentary Priesthood group of two. At least it would be
easy to keep track of the spiritual and temporal needs of this
small congregation!

He wished they were able to meet with the
Mormon community, but was glad that the relative isolation wasn't
affecting his family too much.

In this timeline Lynn didn't know what Jeff's
real occupation was, though her suspicions were growing. It'd
become obvious to her that he was no common corporate accountant.
The security measures alone, she realized, went beyond that of the
typical Israeli citizen. Knowing and trusting her husband as she
did, she kept her own counsel. The leaders of
The Project
agreed; it was important to keep her busy during the day, more for
her own sake than anything else.

Paperwork was underway to clear her for
employment in the country, and place her in one of the front
companies run by the ISA. Documentation nearly completed, her
office skills would, in truth, be valuable as the front company was
an operational company that turned a profit. Busy during the day,
with genuinely important work, Lynn would be happier, and
safer.

Documentation was recently completed to grant
dual citizenship to his wife and children; Jeff already having been
a dual citizen as requirement for his security clearance.

Now that his entire family enjoyed
citizenship status with their adopted country, they would not only
be able to utilize many of the programs afforded by the state, such
as healthcare, more importantly they would have a stronger sense of
belonging.

Brian had entered university studies, with an
emphasis on criminal justice. Samantha had just matriculated from a
local high school, now in the process of deciding if she wanted to
go to a trade school, or university.

Both children had developed friendships with
local youth in the neighborhood. Jeff wasn't very happy about a boy
that Sami had started to date. Nothing was wrong with him per se,
in fact he was really a great young man, but he wasn't Mormon.
Understanding that he could not ask her to live like a hermit, he
bit his tongue and accepted the inevitable.

Making a mental note to himself to raise the
issue of their religious isolation, which negatively affected so
much in their lives, he returned to his falafel and soda, enjoying
the warm sun at his back.

A trained former member of an elite special
forces unit in the United States, Jeff was constantly aware of his
surroundings. Since his admission into
The Project
, he had
become even more vigilant than before.

Employing what could be considered a
sixth
sense
, he was aware of, and could even somehow feel, the ISA
agent approach him from behind. Standing, while turning
simultaneously to face him directly with instant eye contact, Jeff
appeared to have caught the agent off guard. He thought he saw just
the slightest hint of surprise on the agent's face. Were it there,
he would never know for sure.

Jeff held a deep respect for the Israel
Security Agency. He was especially appreciative of their work on
his family's behalf. In turn, the agents assigned to Jeff had also
come to appreciate and respect this man, not Jewish or born in
Israel, but vital to their nation's safety. They also could see his
military training, not only in his bearing, but in the way very way
he moved. They had no idea what he did for their country, but they
understood that in some way he was a hero and held in the highest
of esteem within
The Project
.

"Mr. Stauffenberg, you are needed at the
Facility. Please come with me."

While Jeff had never met this particular
agent before, he spotted him earlier in the morning; recognizing
that he was being tailed, but that the man wasn't hostile. He
accepted that all times while he was in Israel he would have one or
more ISA agents tailing him for his own security, as well as a
counterespionage measure.

His family was also being tailed by Shin Bet
agents for their protection. The rare times that they returned to
the United States as a family or, more rarely Jeff or Lynn
individually, a handful of Mossad agents shadowed them. Jeff
doubted they would ever again lead a normal life.

He recognized the sign and code words that
the agent provided, to confirm that he really was who he said he
was. Everything matched the rotating math and linguistics codes
used for the specific day.

As if on cue, a taxicab pulled up beside
them, Jeff entered the passenger front seat while the agent made
himself comfortable in the backseat. Without a word, the journey
began.

Driving through the circuitous and congested
streets and highways of Jerusalem, for what seemed to be the better
part of an hour, the taxi pulled into a lower level garage of a
large building.

Jeff wasn't in the least surprised when
another car pulled up beside them, the left rear door opening up
automatically. The taxi driver and agent silently watched as Jeff
transferred himself from the taxi to the awaiting vehicle.

The vehicle itself was dark, windows tinted,
the passenger seat sealed off from the front by an equally dark
window. If Jeff needed to contact the driver there was a speaker
through which he could communicate.

Accustomed to rides that were carried out in
silence, he was surprised when a voice came through the speaker to
his compartment.

"Mr. Stauffenberg, I'm sorry that we had to
cut your day short like this. All of the senior staff of each
facility, not already on-site, have been called into the Situation
Room of the main facility. It's necessary to bring you in as
well."

Biometric sensors, such as those employed
throughout the conference room during the briefing of the senior
staff, were carefully placed in the passenger compartment,
measuring Jeff's body readings. The other side of the darkened
glass separating him from the driver's section of the vehicle held
small video and infrared cameras to capture eye movement, pupil
dilation, heat, and a host of other biometrics invisible to
microphones.

"I regret to inform you Dr. Moshe Levin was
kidnapped while on vacation in Brazil."

Due to the darkness in the vehicle, Jeff
removed his sunglasses. As soon as the sunglasses were removed the
retinal scans and eye movement measurements automatically
engaged.

Jeff's left hand moved to the armrest of the
car door to press the button to respond to whomever was in the
forward area with the driver.

"We are on an open, two-way communication Dr.
Stauffenberg. You won't need the standard speaker button."

"When did this happen? How did it
happen?"

The intonation, pitch, speed, and lung volume
- as measured to carbon dioxide exhalation - were precisely
measured and recorded as he posed the two questions.

"I'm afraid I don't have all the details yet
sir. This is just a short briefing to get you up-to-speed, before
we reach the facility. You will be given greater detail upon your
arrival."

"His wife was with him, what is her current
location and status?"

"I'm afraid she's dead. Again, I have no
further information regarding her death or what became of Dr.
Levin."

The monitors that registered infrared changes
in his body marked the fact that rather than blushing, blood was
draining from his face as he spoke.