Ashes of the Red Heifer

by Shannon Baker

  She pulled back. “What about the rest of the kibbutz? How many bombs? Is anybody hurt?” Though she was a veterinarian, certain medical skills transferred.

  Hassan shook his head, dust flying from his curly hair. “I think it’s just one bomb. Just us.”

  Annie turned her attention back to the barn. “Where is the calf?”

  Only the east and south walls still stood. What was once the west wall that had opened to a corral was nothing but a gaping hole letting in dull light. Debris littered the corral.

  The plane had come from the north. The bomb hit at dawn, a time when even Hassan and Annie weren’t usually in the barn. Was that on purpose? Or was the bomb intended to hit the apartments? Questions swam in Annie’s head as she looked around trying to get her bearings.

  The headgate sat at an angle, swinging loose from the concrete. The opening was sprung, and Esther had vanished. Annie hopped through clutter to the demolished wall and scanned the corral. She hated the thought the bomb might have killed the cattle.

  Another wave of relief washed over Annie. Esther stood in the corner, sides heaving, ears straight up, her tail slashing. She startled when she saw Annie and ran along the fence line, then raced back.

  Annie spun back to the barn and saw David and Hassan flinging aluminum sheets and other debris from the spot where the calf had been.

  She hurtled the mess and joined them. Please be alive.

  In despair, she looked at the spot where the calf should be. Debris piled high, including a section of roof beam. Maybe it hadn’t crushed the little calf she’d breathed life into. Maybe. “This is where he should be. Help me get this off.”

  Together, she and David manhandled the twisted steel beam, sliding it a few feet away.

  Hassan gasped. “Most Merciful and Compassionate…”

  She rushed to see. The calf lay on his side, a bleeding gash through his gut, almost split in half. She slapped the beam and whirled away. “Damn, damn, god damn.” Compassion rushed through her for Esther, who would never suckle her newborn.

  Proof of the cure had been within their grasp. Cows would have calves because of them. People would be safe from the virus. Finally Annie would have done something for someone else that really mattered. Maybe then she could find forgiveness for letting her family down. But her success lay in the rubble, as far from her reach as the ranch from Israel.

  Hassan stepped back from the calf, his soft eyes sad. “We don’t know if it was going to survive or not.”

  Annie tried to stop the pang of sorrow. She couldn’t mourn another dead calf. This was science, after all, what was one more dead newborn? But the baby had been alive. She ran a hand across her forehead to shove her hair back and felt grit from the explosion. A bomb falling might not be her fault but the fact remained that Annie had failed again.

  Put aside the emotion, it doesn’t help. Think. “Okay. It might not have survived the birth if we hadn’t helped. Even then, it still might have died. Maybe the vaccine prevented Esther from aborting, or causing the obvious birth defects of BA 23. Let’s get a full blood workup ASAP.”

  She turned around and stared at the dead calf, shutting off the sadness. “We need to vaccinate healthy cattle before breeding, maybe a booster mid-way through. And then give them a shot in late gestation to protect calves at birth.”

  Hassan’s mouth opened slightly and he stared at her. After all their years working together she was amused to see she still shocked him. Hassan had been Annie’s partner in biology class in college. He wasn’t big on biology, but he was a whiz at computers. She helped him through the natural science classes, he got her through computer courses and they’d been working together since. They’d even arranged most of their post-graduate studies at the same universities.

  Hassan blinked. “We were just bombed.”

  David’s eyes crinkled at the corners and his lips turned up into the heart-stopping half smile. “Mind if I get a bandage for my head first?”

  She studied both of them again to make sure they were okay. “You need to have Doc clean and bandage that cut, David. Then come back. No one is as close to the cure as we are and a day’s delay might cost a child’s life.”

  She glanced around the ruins. “So we can’t use our lab.” She thought a second. “You can requisition what equipment needs to be replaced,” she said to David. “In the meantime, we can set up a lab in the laundry room.”

  David gingerly dabbed at his cut with his sleeve and winced. Like her, he was in his early thirties. Technically, he was her boss, a project manager with PharmCo heading up the BA 23 research.

  And personally? She wasn’t sure what they were. Not lovers yet, but heading that way, maybe.

  “Slow down, will you?” David said.

  “Slow down? We’re too close to a cure to back off now. I’m not about to let a bomb stop me.”

  She absently rubbed at the sore spot on the back of her head. “I’ll get the blood and fecal samples. Hassan, get cleaned up and have Doc check you out, then run a check on Esther’s RNA sequence for the phylogenetic relationship to BA 23.”

  He brushed dust from his head and looked confused. “Annie…”

  A sudden scream took Annie’s breath. She jerked convulsively and peered through the dust to where the barn door used to be.

  Sophie, one of the women who lived at the kibbutz, stared at the wreckage, her hands covering her mouth. She tore through the ruins. “Avrel!”

  What was she doing? No one was in the barn except Annie, David and Hassan. Annie waded through the metal and hay and tried to calm the woman. But Sophie shook her off, sobbing and calling for Avrel.

  Two men from the kibbutz arrived and spoke rapidly to Sophie in Hebrew. They called for Avrel and started searching the mangled remains of the barn.

  David’s face frozen in pain. “She said Avrel had just come to the barn.”

  “Oh, no.” She only knew Avrel as the teasing, friendly cook. What could he be doing here? And where was he now?

  Annie, David and Hassan began to dig beneath the ruins, carefully picking their way. Within minutes a dozen or more people crowded the barn.

  Several older women surrounded Sophie.

  Two men shouted in Hebrew from close to what used to be the lab. Sophie tore free from the women and ran to the spot.

  Annie watched in horror as the men stepped back and let Sophie close.

  She screamed, a sound so scorching it burned into Annie’s bones.

  The other women rushed to her and put their arms around the new widow, pulling her through the wreckage out of the barn.

  Her wailing echoed through the remaining building. It sank into Annie’s stomach and chilled her blood. How had this happened? Why?

  David put his arm around her, his eyes wet with tears. “Damn them,” he whispered.

  * * * *

  A few hours later, showered and bandaged, Annie stood in the rubble that once was their lab. She tapped into the river of determination she’d learned could keep devastation at a manageable level. Sorrow for Avrel and Sophie was stuffed into a dark corner of her brain, where she tossed thoughts of the dead calf. She’d have to take them out and deal with them later, but not now.

  She pictured her father, arms folded across his chest, a smile of satisfaction on his face. Nothing would please him more than for her to quit and walk away, admit she’d been bested. But he’d have to get his jollies some other way this time.

  When BA 23 broke out in Israel three years ago, Annie had itched to join the research. She’d applied to every pharmaceutical company and university with a project in Israel. But she was too young, had no credentials, and she’d been passed up. She kept up on the research as best she could and never stopped badgering project directors for a job. Something deep in her heart told her she could find the cure for BA 23 and it nearly drove her crazy not to be able to try.

  Then, six months ago, David called. PharmCo had been slow to get their research project underway and were willing t
o take a chance on a young researcher.

  The BA 23 virus caused abortions in cattle and if it crossed into humans it attacked major organs causing kidneys, heart, and lungs to fail. It could be treated with an antiviral, which Annie had already begun after resuscitating the calf, but it was expensive and in the poor countries of the Middle East, where medical supplies and information could be scarce, that wouldn’t bring much relief. The problem with research was that it had to be conducted in Israel. Because of the highly contagious nature of BA 23, no one was allowed to take tissue or blood or even DNA beyond Israel’s borders.

  Her near success with Esther had her aching to get back to work. But she needed more cows, another lab, and her data. Avrel’s smiling face rose unbidden to her mind and she pushed it away.

  Annie heard rustling in the debris and turned to see David picking his way toward her. He’d showered and cleaned the cut on his face. He looked surprisingly good for a man who’d been through a bombing.

  Hassan trailed slowly behind David, a new plastic protector and pens nestled in his chest pocket. She felt a rush of thankfulness that they’d survived, followed by a new stab of sorrow for Sophie. Hassan had been Annie’s only family for over ten years. And David—she couldn’t say what he was but she knew she wanted him in her life. What would she do if either of them were hurt?

  David moved gracefully through the clutter. His jaw clenched and anger glittered in his eyes. “No one is taking responsibility for the bombing.”

  “Did you find out what Avrel was doing here?” she asked.

  Hassan looked at the ground. “They said he came to urge us to go to the shelter.”

  His words struck like a kick to her stomach. It was her fault. If she’d gone to the shelter when the siren sounded Avrel would be alive.

  David broke the silence, his voice harsh. “According to the experts, the bombers probably intended to do more damage, but the TNT was packed too loosely. It was a homemade bomb, and not a good one. It’s got to be Muslim extremists.”

  Hassan sucked in a breath and stepped back.

  Annie put her hand up. “Hold on. We don’t know who did it. With negotiations going so well, maybe someone wanted to derail the peace process. It might be Jews trying to blame the Arabs.”

  David raised his eyebrows. “Are you saying you think Jews bombed their own kibbutz?”

  “It’s been known to happen,” Hassan mumbled.

  Annie shook her head. “I’m saying strange things happen for strange reasons here.”

  A high-pitched officious voice stopped the conversation. “Hello, there.”

  Annie turned to see Dr. Alanberg, the administrator of the kibbutz and government liaison, daintily step toward them. If Annie were asked to draw a picture of a bureaucrat, that person would look like Dr. Alanberg. When he stood, she could see the top of his yarmulke. His potbelly hung over his belt. White whiskers covered his chin, and white, wiry hair peeked out from his yarmulke.

  Annie had never seen him smile, in fact, hardly ever saw him without a scowl. He had an American, eastern seaboard accent, but Annie didn’t know where he called home. She suspected he was raised by old widowed aunts in a decaying mansion where they embroidered in dark rooms and counted every penny of a dwindling inheritance.

  Annie forced a smile. His pompous self-righteousness irritated her. Best to keep her mouth shut and let David handle this. It wouldn’t be good if she lost her temper.

  Alanberg studied the devastation and shook his head. “A tragedy. This should never have happened. Praise be to God it was only one bomb. It could have been worse.”

  Worse? Avrel was dead, Sophie a widow. The BA 23 cure would be pushed back.

  Hassan nodded and stared at the ground. David’s mouth flattened in an angry line, but he didn’t speak.

  Great. They were going to clam up and leave it to her. She took a breath. “Before the bomb hit we delivered a live calf. This could mean we’ve found the cure for BA 23. We need to bring in a few uninfected cows and try again.”

  Hassan stared at her, his eyes wide and disbelieving. David folded his arms across his chest and frowned.

  Alanberg held up his hand and cleared his throat. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible—”

  No. She wouldn’t let him say it. She talked faster, saying things he should already know. “We’ve got to eradicate BA 23. They found infection in that herd in Lebanon a couple of weeks ago. Maybe they stopped the spread by killing all the animals, but maybe not. Our best hope to corral BA 23 is to let me finish my research. If this crosses borders and gets into some third world country where people practically live with their cows, there’s no telling how many people will die.”

  Alanberg stepped back, looking as though he’d been sprayed by a rabid skunk. “I appreciate your passion, Dr. Grant, but one of our people has been killed. We don’t know who did it or why. Until we have answers, we are canceling the project and evacuating the kibbutz.”

  She closed the space between them, leaning forward. “Because of a bomb? Everyone knows Jews don’t cave to terrorism. Look, I’ve identified the LPS epitomes. No one else has been able to do that. Don’t shut us down.”

  David touched her arm, trying to calm her. “Annie, be reasonable. This bomb is serious.”

  He didn’t have to tell her how serious it was, the memory of Sophie’s wails proved that. “Stuff like this happens in Israel and I thought you make it a point not to let it stop you. Don’t let Avrel’s death mean nothing.”

  Alanberg took an indignant breath and pulled back his soft shoulders. “I don’t have to justify this to you.”

  Annie lunged for Hassan.

  Startled, he backed away.

  Annie reached for his pocket protector, and grabbed a pen. She shoved it toward Alanberg. “Write a requisition for me to the Ag Ministry. Post date it. Let me get a half dozen cows and I’ll find another kibbutz. I need those cattle, Dr. Alanberg.”

  He looked at her as he might a mutant cell under the microscope, but said nothing.

  “Please.”

  Hassan spoke quietly. “They won’t let you bring cows into the country now. It’s too risky.”

  Alanberg dusted his hands together. “The project is terminated.”

  Annie threw her pen past Alanberg’s head. “How many more are going to die if we don’t find the cure?”

  Alanberg gave her an icy stare. His voice sounded terse. “Buses will arrive to take you to Jerusalem in two hours. Please be ready to board at that time.”

  THREE

  Annie watched Alanberg mince his way out of the wreckage and stifled her inclination to chase after and throttle him. There simply wasn’t time.

  David and Hassan stood silently, as if waiting to see if they should escape while they had the chance.

  Inside Annie, the molten anger that boiled at Alanberg’s rejection solidified to cold steel. He might have told her she was finished but so had her father, and several people since. Annie hadn’t accepted it then, and she didn’t accept it now. The answers to BA 23 were contained in Esther’s blood and the tissue of her calf and Annie needed samples.

  Time was running out; she felt it in every beat of her heart. Annie had figured out the right formula for the cure. She was certain no one else was even close. She couldn’t quit now.

  In his fluttering lab coat, Hassan fretted next to Annie. “We should go pack our things, don’t you think?”

  She turned to the decimated lab. Two hours wasn’t enough time. “Hassan, if I can get that equipment to function how long will blood analysis take with your new program?”

  Hassan stopped in front of her, purpose taking away his nervous energy. “Depends on what you want to know.”

  “I want to know if vaccinating Esther raised the interferon levels in the calf and if the serum antibodies in the calf are elevated. If the brucellosis strain infected the calf, what tissues did it damage?”

  David let out a burst of air. “What are you talking about? The project
is scrapped. All that’s left is to pack up and head to Jerusalem.”

  Annie jumped on David. “Why aren’t you fighting Alanberg to let us stay? It’s your company project on the line here.”

  David took a deep breath. “Don’t you think I want PharmCo to win the race to find the cure? But I’m much more interested in keeping PharmCo’s employees alive.”

  Arguing would only waste precious time. “We’ve got two hours until that bus leaves. If I get the tissue and blood samples we’ll run them through Hassan’s new program later. We can recreate the vaccine in another lab.”

  Hassan gave a stutter step and fidgeted. “But we’ve got to get our stuff packed.”

  David looked irritated. “Come on, Annie. It’s time to quit.”

  Quit? Not likely. Her father had taught her better than that. Annie made her way to the wreckage that was the lab, hoping to find a syringe and other instruments she’d need to collect samples. “Go on, Hassan. David, pack your stuff then get mine.”

  Hassan hesitated only a second then bounded for the door.

  David’s expression reminded her of the way her father looked when he discovered ’coons in the grain bin. “Maybe Hassan is used to taking your orders, but I’m not—especially when I don’t see the point of all this.”

  Annie spoke over her shoulder. “Bags are in the closet. Dump everything in and I’ll sort it out later.”

  He balked like a stubborn colt. “I’m not packing for you.”

  She had to get him off the defensive if she wanted him to help. “We’re so close. Thanks to Hassan’s computer programs. He’s brilliant. Thanks for letting me bring him in on this.”

  David’s mouth twitched with humor. “Letting you? As if you gave me a choice. All I did was put him on PharmCo’s payroll and get him a ticket to Israel.”

  She smiled. “Yeah, but it wasn’t easy getting a Muslim onto a kibbutz.”

  He gave her a conceding grin. “No, it wasn’t easy.”

  She shrugged. “It was the bargain of your life. Nobody works harder.”