Beyond the Shield

by Nachman Kataczinsky

  “This will anger the U.S. government,” the Foreign Minister said.

  “Do we have to respond to them?” the Trade Minister asked.

  “No. Actually the next step is up to them. I don’t even know what the President’s position is on this.”

  Amos got up, signaling the end of the meeting. “I don’t see them starting a trade war; it isn’t in their interest. After consultations with their ambassador here they will see it as well.”

  ***

  For the first time in a couple of months Ze’ev was hosting a family dinner. Wolf Frumin was at officers’ school and couldn’t get a weekend pass. Major General Ephraim Hirshson, Ze’ev’s second son, flew in from Europe and attended with his wife. Their year old son was at home with a baby sitter and Ephraim’s wife kept looking at her watch.

  After Kiddush Ze’ev asked Jacob, “I hear that you have an announcement to make?”

  Jacob smiled a big smile. “Yes, we were keeping it for this occasion. On Wednesday I asked Esther to marry me and she agreed. We are formally engaged.”

  Jacob’s mother, Sara, and Esther’s parents, Nachman and Tzila looked surprised. Nachman was the first to recover. “We expected something like this but not so soon. When are you kids planning on marrying? I hope it’s not too soon. We need to make preparations.”

  “It will take a while,” Esther responded. “I want to graduate before we tie the knot and Jacob plans on being a billionaire before he is a married man,” she joked.

  “No, I don’t. I’m ready to get married tomorrow,” Jacob protested as everyone laughed.

  “I promise to let everyone know in plenty of time,” Esther said.

  Talk turned to other topics. Ephraim, seeing his brother-in-law Noam Shaviv for the first time since Noam had been injured, looked at him carefully. “How are you doing? I don’t see any signs of an injury.”

  “I was lucky. I’m almost back to normal. Walking long distances is still difficult, but getting easier.

  “I heard of your promotion and heroic leadership in Europe. How are you doing?”

  Ephraim smiled. “There was nothing heroic on my part. The guys on the front lines, like Wolf, showed courage. Generals are not supposed to be heroic. They are supposed to prevent the necessity for others to become heroes. I did my best, which was adequate.”

  “I heard different but will not try to inflate your ego beyond bare necessity. I have a serious question though. Many here assumed our technological superiority would guarantee an easy and bloodless victory, so why all the casualties?”

  “The technological difference provided us with a huge advantage,” Ephraim said, “but it didn’t guarantee a bloodless campaign. Both sides are using firearms, and ballistic projectiles, like mortars, can do serious damage, especially if tactical errors are made. I know of no commander who’s immune to error, so there you go.

  “By the way, how much do you know about this short campaign?”

  “There was detailed reporting in the media so the general facts are public knowledge. Then I was called up for training and we were briefed on the tactics and strategy our side used.”

  “Good,” Ephraim smiled. “In that case I can tell you why I did what I did. I figured that the only way to minimize our casualties was to make the Germans come to us. I provoked them and they responded as expected, at least while Hitler was in charge.

  “You see, I learned a couple of things from observing them fight the Brits and the Russians. The Germans are tenacious, their field commanders are good and they don’t run. We could have attacked them and destroyed them quickly, but at a cost I didn’t want to pay. It was a gamble, although not a serious one, to fight from prepared positions instead of advancing. Our troops and commanders are trained to be aggressive and it took a lot of discipline not to do what they were trained to do. But it worked.”

  The other conversations around the table petered out with everyone listening to Ephraim.

  “What do you think will happen now?” his mother Linda asked.

  “We have a peace agreement with Germany, which they seem to be scrupulously observing,” Ephraim responded. “Our forces are switching to observation and treaty-enforcement format. It means that the heavy weapons - armor, artillery and such - are going back home or to the base in Brindisi. We are deploying a much larger infantry force that will, in cooperation with the other allies, be stationed in Germany and Austria to oversee their denazification.”

  “And how’s that going?” Sara asked.

  “Surprisingly well,” Ephraim answered. “The Nazis alienated most of the population during their civil war and the rest are afraid to say or do anything that will draw the ire of their army.

  “On a different subject, I went to a computer store today to look for a tablet and found a Hirshson Computer laptop, although they had only the one on display. Is this another family business?” He looked at Ze’ev.

  “Don’t look at me. The culprit is sitting right next to you.”

  Jacob smiled. “Guilty as charged. Although I have to admit that my partner Zalman Gurevich is a bit too eager to sell. We don’t have the merchandise in adequate quantities yet.”

  Ze’ev nodded. “I hope you’ll rein him in. Otherwise he will just increase the demand and someone else will step in to fill it. By the time you’re ready it may be too late: You will have a competitor or two and angry customers.”

  “Yes, I’m aware of the danger. I already told him to stop advertising and pushing stuff we don’t have.”

  “So when will you have something to sell?” Ephraim asked. “I really need a good tablet or a small laptop.”

  “You want a Windows machine, a Linux, or an Android?” Jacob inquired.

  “I would prefer Windows.”

  “You’re in luck. I have a mini notebook with me. You can have it. It will go on sale by the end of next week. We already started shipping small numbers.”

  “How much?” Ephraim inquired.

  “For you, it’s free, but you have to promise to give me completely honest feedback about it.”

  Ephraim moved uncomfortably in his seat. “I would prefer to pay, especially as I can’t promise feedback. I’ll be very busy the next week or so and after that I go back to Europe.”

  “Somehow I expected that answer. But it’s not really free. Think of it as my company hiring you to demonstrate our product. I can’t take money from family, especially since your father helped me get started.”

  “Okay. But when people ask, what should I tell them it costs?”

  “Retail is 400 shekels,” Jacob responded.

  “That’s really inexpensive. I hope you make a profit.”

  “We will. This is a small machine, good for browsing the net, word processing, and not much else. Don’t expect it to be a super computer.”

  “Sounds like just what I need.”

  After dinner Ephraim went into his father’s study and signaled Ze’ev to follow.

  “Dad, I suspect that what I’m going to say will come as no surprise to you. I’m hoping you’ll clarify some things for me. Do you have ‘Top Secret’ access?”

  “Sure. Go ahead.”

  “I was instructed to move some of my forces to our base near Venice. It’s small but has a landing strip, fuel tanks, and other facilities. I was told to prepare to accept a combat engineer battalion for operations in a wilderness. Does this have anything to do with your alternate universe project?”

  Ze’ev smiled. “I’m very reassured. Our Prime Minister is not a slouch and apparently things are moving at a reasonable pace. To answer your question: yes.

  “It will not be a breach of secrecy to tell you now. You will know in a couple of days anyway. We have an operating portal into a parallel Earth. We call it, not terribly creatively, Earth 2. When the uses of this new Earth were discussed with your boss, the Chief of General Staff, he came up with an idea: we can move armed forces, or whatever, to Earth 2, and have them pop out anywhere on the globe. The only thing w
e have to do is move them into position on Earth 2, open a portal and there you are.

  “Last Thursday we discussed the possibility of establishing several transport points to take in refugees from the Soviet Union. Transporting people long distances from the inner parts by train is becoming seriously dangerous. It’s anarchy there and anti-Semites are popping up all over. We don’t want to endanger our people or the refugees.

  “The solution your boss proposed was to set up several portals and take people in directly. The size of a personnel portal is about like a doorway so we could have them anywhere. The idea is to set up airstrips on Earth 2. People will walk through a portal in the Soviet Union, board a plane on the other side and fly to another air strip located in the Earth 2 location for Israel or Brindisi. From there they just step through a portal back to our Earth.”

  “Sounds good. Thanks for telling me. Now I will not sit with my mouth open like an idiot at the Sunday briefing. I may even have some suggestions of my own.”

  “We have been exploring the neighborhood on Earth 2 for a while and arrived at one important conclusion: We need to set up a communications network. Consolidated is maintaining an aerostat floating at 600 meters in the area of our main gate near Hertzlia. It serves as an antenna and broadcast/receive station. Very handy to communicate with the exploration teams in Sinai 2 and Kuwait 2. For the military it would probably be more economical to use satellites. A couple of geostationary communication birds would solve problems for everyone.”

  ***

  “Dr. Salk, we appreciate you joining our research team. I sincerely hope you will be successful in whatever you decide to do.” The Chairman of Teva paused for a moment looking at the young man sitting across the desk from him. “I trust that you are satisfied with your lab and personnel?”

  “I’m very satisfied. I only hope that all the expenses will be justified. There is an inherent difficulty; I have to learn a lot before I know what I want to do.”

  “I understand. There are a number of cancers we can’t cure. Maybe start there? But it’s up to you. Take your time. There is another issue I wanted to bring up with you: the polio vaccine.”

  Salk smiled even wider. “Amazing what I would have done in ten years. I’ll definitely have to find something new.”

  “Before you do, we need to settle the rights to the vaccine. Under our current law and regulations everything an inventor invents is theirs but they can’t claim rights to inventions that they might have invented in the future. This means that legally you have no right to the vaccine, but since you are working for us we would like to show good will and reward you.”

  Jonas Salk shrugged. “I read my biography and will say what I said then: You can’t patent the Sun. I don’t want to profit from this vaccine.”

  “Good. Let’s shake on this. We will start selling the vaccine at cost all over the world and give out the manufacturing formula.”

  ***

  “Mr. Ambassador, I would like to thank your country for the latest insight into the Japanese situation. You knew the Japanese Empire was on the verge of collapse and needed only a small push to surrender. We acted on your information and told them them if they surrendered their Emperor could remain and not be touched. To our surprise they agreed. It seems that Japan was not only starving but also had no fuel to continue hostilities.”

  The Israeli ambassador bowed slightly in his seat. “This is what allies are for.”

  FDR continued, “Is there something else you wanted to discuss?”

  “Yes. As you know we have a vaccine for polio, or, as it’s better known here, Infantile Paralysis. Teva Pharmaceuticals decided that for the good of everyone they will sell the vaccine at cost and license the manufacturing process.”

  “This is very good news indeed. I’m sure the American people will appreciate this gesture of good will.”

  After the Ambassador left, Harry Hopkins, who had sat quietly through the meeting, said, “Mr. President, you showed a lot of good will in the past. Are you sure it was justified?”

  FDR got up and slowly walked around the Oval Office. “Harry, I had no choice. I understand why Cordell pressed them for rights to technology. I don’t particularly like uppity Jews either, but we either start a trade war or get as much as we can from dealing with them. I chose the latter.”

  “They are complicating our lives. Their ally in the Middle East, the King of Jordan, is gaining influence because of their support. If Abdullah starts a war with the house of Saud, we will have to intervene to protect our oil interests.”

  Roosevelt sat back behind his desk. “As you know the British Ambassador voiced a similar complaint. They’re also wary of the Jews interfering with their interests. The thing is, the Brits don’t have anything specific to complain about. They’re just worried on general principle. The presence of a strong power in the Middle East challenges their primacy in the region. The strong power being Jewish only makes it worse. The Brits share the Nazi’s view of Jews, as do most Americans.

  “Right now I am worried about a different issue: the Soviet Union seems to be in trouble and I have no idea whether the new government, assuming there will be a stable one, will honor Stalin’s obligations to us. We have invested a lot in them and the Republicans will make hay if they default on payments.”

  Hopkins brooded for a short time. “I’m sure this mess is also Israel’s doing. I carefully read Ambassador Kirk’s report. The press in Israel thinks that the disintegration of the Soviet Union is a good thing. I disagree.”

  The President shrugged. “We’ll have to figure out what to do about that.”

  Chapter 16

  October 1943

  “Lieutenant, I need you to take a platoon and investigate a piece of information we have about mysterious activity in Hernals.” Major Ivan Ivanovich Bobrov pointed to a far suburb of Vienna on the map spread between them.

  “We have reason to believe that there might be a Nazi cell holed up in an industrial building. You are to investigate and take any measures necessary to resolve the situation.”

  Lieutenant Wolf Frumin examined the map. “Are the Austrian police aware of the situation?” The question was posed in Russian. Wolf was fluent in the language and both he and the major used it rather than English, the agreed upon language of the Alliance. Both knew enough English to communicate but neither was comfortable with it.

  The major belonged to the Allied Treaty Control Forces, as did Wolf. The Allies participating in the treaty had changed in the last six months – the Soviet Union didn’t exist anymore and was replaced by the Russian Federation, which assumed all the Soviet obligations under the peace treaty with Germany. The Allies were empowered to observe and enforce the denazification of Germany, Austria and other Axis allies. The enforcement powers were very wide and allowed the Allies almost unlimited operational freedom.

  Ivan Bobrov was much calmer these days; the feared NKVD was gone and he expected to live to draw his military pension. He didn’t particularly like the other members of the force under his command in Vienna but he respected them, including the Israeli contingent. Jews or not, they were very dangerous in a fight.

  Bobrov considered the question. “You know that captain Angus Campbell was wounded last week. He was on a similar mission, also in Hernals. His force was ambushed. We coordinated with the Austrian police. It’s my belief they have a leak and betrayed us. If you insist on notifying them, it’s your funeral. I would tell them nothing until you’re on the spot and decide what to do.

  “I know that you guys have some advanced ‘magic’ tools. Feel free to use them. If you need more troops you can draw another platoon from whichever part of the force you like.”

  It took Wolf two days to prepare for the mission. The building in question was about five miles from the Allied headquarters - an abandoned warehouse with a partly glazed roof that had suffered some bomb damage during the war. Wolf had the intelligence company send a drone to land on the roof and look inside. The glass w
as broken in several places, but even with some dirty windows in the way it was clear that the building was partly occupied. The people inside made lame attempts at concealment but a fire during the cold night betrayed them. The images from the drone showed close to twenty individuals coming and going. Superficial surveillance also showed that several of the occupants visited a nearby abandoned office building on a daily basis, in the early evening.

  Wolf informed Lieutenant Rabinovitz of the Russian Army that he needed his platoon to join in the operation. Wolf had become friendly with the Jewish lieutenant, communicating with him in both Yiddish and Russian. The locals were afraid of the Russians who were, sometimes, brutal and not above looting or beating the Austrians. The fear could be used to advantage in this operation.

  The joint Allied force left for Hernals at three in the morning. By four, the building was surrounded and a section of the Golani platoon was detached to take a look at the office building visited by the occupants of the factory. The corporal leading that section reported twenty minutes later that they found a large stash of preserved food in the basement. That explained the frequent trips. Wolf scheduled a couple of trucks to come later to pick up the supplies.

  His next step was to have the Austrian police liaison use a loudspeaker to inform the people inside the warehouse that they were surrounded. Lieutenant Rabinovitz encouraged his troops to yell in Russian, which they did enthusiastically. Shortly thereafter the people in the building were told to surrender or else. The ‘else’ wasn’t specified but that and the presence of Russians scared some of them enough to come out with their hands over their heads.

  Wolf counted eight men. “Where are the rest?” He waited for the liaison’s translation and the reply. “There are only the eight of us.”

  “Start deploying tear gas,” Wolf ordered. Ten minutes later three more men came out. Then two squads of Golani fighters wearing gas masks entered the building. It took them close to a quarter of an hour to determine that the building was empty. By then there was enough light to see by, so Wolf ordered a thorough search. He also asked the prisoners. “I know there were twenty two of you. Where are the rest?”