Agent of Vengeance

by Scott M Neuman

  Rachel replayed the tape. This time, she focused not on the scientists but on the rest of the room. She noted that the different lab animals, including mice and various primates, remained alive and seemed to be unaffected. Also, there was no noticeable change in the various plants in the room.

  “It seems to be the ultimate in ecological warfare.” Levy commented. “You can kill every human in a country without upsetting the animal and plant ecosystem.”

  “You know, it is believed there is another cylinder in Israel that has not yet been accounted for. What can be done?” asked Bronot.

  “I would strongly advise to look for it while it is still intact. In the meantime, we will proceed with installing robotic equipment so we can analyze the pathogen and the bodies of the victims in the lab without putting anyone else at risk of contamination. It may take days or weeks before we are sure of what exactly we are dealing with or how to defend ourselves from it.”

  He then added, “Other than that, my personal advice for you would be to book a ticket to Europe and leave Israel today.”

  Bronot was unmoved. “The way things are going down at the office, I don’t think my boss will give me any time off.”

  As Rachel walked down the corridor, she became nervous. There was little chance at this point of finding Ali Rajad or the cylinder. Most likely, Rajad had already planted the cylinder and was now either in hiding or already out of the country.

  Furthermore, she couldn’t understand how the PLGA obtained a previously unknown pathogen that was so deadly. And why would they be involved in an operation that could potentially be just as lethal to the millions of Muslims and Arabs living in Israel? She concluded that Rajad probably did not know what was contained in the cylinder. And Israel’s only chance, however slim, was to locate him and the cylinder while it was still intact.

  Bronot boarded the helicopter and began planning her next steps.

  13

  The New Berlin Zoo was a picturesque zoological park surrounded by a grove of trees meant to resemble a forest. Within it there were wide paths bordered by vendors selling drinks, candies, and even souvenirs. One could travel around the zoo using the miniature train or on a path designed for bicycles and roller skates. Since it bordered the river, there was a dock where one could rent paddleboats and canoes. Hitler had designed the zoo and its grounds personally, as part of his effort to integrate his most precious memories into the infrastructure of Project Valhalla.

  There was one job at the New Berlin Zoo that the Jews of Holle prayed they would never be assigned. A single Jew was expected to clean the cages of over three hundred animals every day of the week except Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. The work hours began after the zoo closed at 6:00 p.m. and ended the following day at 8:00 a.m. It was known to the Jews that whoever was assigned this job would often never be heard from again. What they didn’t know was why. Having grown up without any familiarity of animals, Jews didn’t know to stay away from the zoo’s more aggressive species. Furthermore, the human instinct of fight or flight had been beaten out of the Jews by their Nazi tormentors. That meant that when an animal attacked, the Jewish worker would often choose to wait for the violence to end, which usually occurred only after the Jew was dead.

  Still, there were fringe benefits to those workers who managed to survive their first few days. For instance, one could supplement their diet by stealing food from the animals. The Jews of Holle, being provided rations that comprised of less than 900 calories a day, were in a constant state of hunger. The animals in the zoo were given a far more substantial and nutritionally balanced diet. A Jewish worker who took food from the animals would therefore have adequate nutrition and sometimes even have enough left over to share with the other occupants in their barracks.

  The other benefit was that since the job involved large amount of rancid animal feces, no Aryan guard was assigned to directly supervise the worker. Jews in Holle were under constant harassment by the guards. Even during the short time allocated to sleeping, guards would randomly overturn beds to create an atmosphere of terror. As long as there was an Aryan around, Jews were in constant fear that they were the next to be beaten or taken away, never to be seen again. The Jewish zoo worker, however, was on his own. As long as he showed up and did his job, nobody paid any notice to him.

  When the loudspeaker ordered Joshua to report to the zoo, he chalked it up as fate and didn’t let the reaction of sympathy from his fellow Jews bother him at all. Joshua had an innate confidence that he could overcome any obstacle the Nazis would throw at him. His quiet defiance gave him a sense of inner pride. This attitude, along with his natural intelligence, had kept him thus far alive.

  On his first day at the zoo, Joshua instinctively understood that it might be dangerous to enter cages with animals. This was a remarkable deduction, especially given that the Aryan manager of the zoo was under specific orders not to inform the Jewish worker of this danger. It was joke among the Aryans that if the Jew started his cleaning duties at the lion’s cage, he would never get to see the giraffe. The previous worker before Joshua had been lucky. His first cage was the Primate House, and therefore he only received a pelting of rocks from a troop of baboons.

  Joshua, to his good fortune, was blessed with patience and keen intuition. Before jumping into the job, he took time to observe the animals and their environment. He realized that attached to each cage was a small holding pen where the animal could be held during the cleaning. Also next to each cage was a long stick with a hook at its end which could be used to prod the animal into the pen. Joshua realized that only when the animal was in the holding pen and the gate separating the two areas was secured would it would be safe to clean the exhibit.

  Joshua was fascinated by the variety of life forms present in the zoo. Until he began working in the zoo, his only impressions of life had been from the concentration camp, the coal mine, and his work in the Aryan neighborhoods collecting garbage. Joshua loved watching the peacocks roaming free and displaying their beautiful feathers. His favorite animal, however, was the orangutan. His sad face reminded Joshua what so many Jews looked like as a result of their demoralizing life in Project Valhalla.

  As he progressed through his duties on his first day on the job, Joshua decided that he rather enjoyed the work, despite the unpleasant odor. Also, for the first time in his life, he felt liberated because he did not have an Aryan guard constantly harassing him. After the first few cages, Joshua hoped that he would be permanently assigned to zoo duties.

  One late night, Joshua had completed his work and was exploring the back areas of the zoo when he came upon a locked building. There was a large sign on the door marked “Untermenschen.” Had Joshua been taught to read, he would have been familiar with the word, since he and his fellow Jews were constantly referred to by the Nazis as untermenschen, or subhuman.

  Joshua was curious, so he looked around the building and found a window that was unlocked. Peeking through the window, he saw that there were no Germans inside, so he decided to sneak in. The viewing hall was dimly lit, but he could make out a row of cages. Upon closer examination the animals inside were old men. Each had a sign below the cage that explained something about the man inside the cage. There was a Russian soldier, American pilot, Italian businessman, African tribesman, and a handful of other people from around the world. Some of the cages were empty, containing only large color photographs of the former inhabitants. Joshua noted that the men in the cages ignored him, not even acknowledging his existence. Joshua didn’t know that the human inhabitants of the zoo had all, save one, long ago gone insane. As a result, they simply sat or mulled around their cage with blank expressions on their faces.

  The last cage stood alone, separated from the others. It appeared to be an important exhibit given its larger size and row of viewing benches in front. Joshua looked at the man in the cage and immediately felt an emotional connection. He sat down on the bench in front of the cage to observe the man more closely.

&nbs
p; The man had a long grey beard, and wore a ragged long black coat and prayer shawl. On his forehead he wore the black box known as tefillin, or phylacteries. The sign under the cage read: “Eastern European Jew. Born in Poland, 1915. Most Subhuman Species of Homo sapiens. Considered the most dangerous animal ever to exist.”

  As Joshua was staring at the cage, the man suddenly began speaking. “If you would like to know, I am a Jew.”

  Joshua was surprised. He thought to himself, “Impossible. No Jew can speak.” He looked carefully at the man and was able to see that he had a red flap in his mouth like an Aryan.

  The old man continued, “My name is Rabbi Gershon Cohen. I was once considered among the world’s foremost authorities on the Talmud, the Jewish oral tradition.”

  This statement was true. Rabbi Cohen had been considered one of the leading experts in Jewish law prior to the outbreak of World War II. At an early age, Rabbi Cohen had been admitted to Etz Chaim, otherwise known as the Volozhin Yeshiva, the famous rabbinical academy in Lithuania. Its founder, Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, was a student of the Vilna Gaon, and the yeshiva gained a reputation of being the world’s top rabbinical academy under Rabbi Naftali Berlin, better known as the Netziv. After being closed down in 1892 by the Russian Government for failure to comply with requirements regarding secular studies, it reopened in 1899.

  At that time, the Yeshiva recruited a young prodigy, Gershon Cohen. At age nine he became the youngest member of the most advanced class in Talmud that the Yeshiva had to offer. His photographic memory was so incredible that he was able to memorize the 2,711 pages of the Babylonian Talmud along with all of its commentaries.

  In order to test the young illui, or genius, his teacher would perform what was known as the “pin test.” He would stick a pin through a random volume of the Talmud. Then he would read Gershon the line, emphasizing the word which the pin passed through. With this information, young Gershon Cohen was able to state the tractate and page number of the line, as well as the line and word the pin passed through on all subsequent pages.

  By the age of fourteen, Gershon Cohen was ordained by the heads of the Yeshiva. Upon graduating at age eighteen, he surprised his teachers by enrolling at the University of the Sorbonne in Paris. He explained that in order to deepen his understanding of some of the more enigmatic sections of the Talmud, he would need a solid basis in the natural sciences. By his twenty-first birthday, Rabbi Gershon Cohen had successfully completed doctoral degrees in both mathematics and biology.

  Soon after World War II broke out. Rabbi Cohen was sent by the Nazis via cattle car to the infamous Auschwitz extermination camp. Initially he was given the job of scavenging gold teeth from the mouths of his fellow Jews who had just been murdered in the gas chambers.

  Rabbi Cohen kept a low profile and somehow survived the weekly selections that the Nazis used both to terrorize the Jews and to weed out the weaker ones. Near the end of the war he was sent along with several hundred Jews to a temporary camp in Crete, and then on to Valhalla. While the other Jews were placed in the concentration camp, Rabbi Cohen was chosen to be separated and housed permanently in the Untermenschen section of the zoo because of his irritating tendency to comfort and encourage the other Jews though stories and prayer. While the other humans on display in the zoo eventually went insane, Rabbi Cohen was able to keep himself lucid by constantly reviewing the giant scope of Jewish and worldly knowledge that he had obtained.

  He would often gain courage from remembering the Talmudic story of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the most famous disciple of Rabbi Akiva and author of the central book of Jewish mysticism, the Zohar. Chased by Roman persecutors, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son Eleazer sought refuge in a cave where they survived miraculously by eating the fruit of a carob tree. Rabbi Shimon and his son studied Torah together in these conditions for thirteen years.

  Rabbi Gershon would console himself by thinking, “I, too, have been confined to a cavern for a long period of time. I will use my time productively, as they did, for reviewing my knowledge. Perhaps the Master of the Universe has spared me, as he spared Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, for some greater purpose.”

  “My son, are you Jewish?” The Rabbi called out to Joshua.

  Joshua was incapable of answering verbally, but nodded his head. He then opened his mouth wide to show the Rabbi that he was missing the flap. It dawned on him how to prove that he was, in fact, Jewish. He lowered his pants and showed the startled Rabbi his Bar Mitzvah circumcision.

  Rabbi Gershon began to weep. It had been a great many years since he saw a fellow Jew. The Human House, as the Rabbi called it, had not been serviced by Joshua’s predecessors because there was a toilet in every cage. The only people the Rabbi encountered were Aryans touring the zoo and zookeepers who fed him once every two days. The visitors would sometimes throw him peanuts but more often would spit at him. On occasion, the more audacious Nazis would fling lit matches at him. For the past few years, Rabbi Cohen had mostly pretended that he, too, was insane, which he surmised would be safer.

  The Rabbi gently wiped away his tears using his prayer shawl, and then addressed Joshua.

  “You are a Jew. In spite of what the Nazis say, being a Jew is a something to be proud of.” He continued in a calm, soothing voice. “They treat us like animals, but one thing is for sure, they are the beasts. We Jews are an upright and noble people. And Jews are not treated like dirt everywhere. I once heard a few Aryans talking in front of my cage. They said that the Jews now have their own country called Israel, with its own army. I’m sure you were never told that above these caverns there is a wonderful world of sunlight and fresh air.”

  The Rabbi observed a puzzled look on Joshua’s face, then said. “I know, what I’m saying must be strange to you. Never mind, I will teach you everything. I’ll tell you about the world, Judaism, and God. The Jewish God, the one true God, not the raving lunatic called the Reich Gott, may its name be erased forever. I will teach you the concepts of freedom, goodness and morality. I promise you that in a short time you will know what it means be a good human being and a proud Jew.”

  Joshua felt in his heart that this man, a talking Jew, was sincere. So he made up his mind to concentrate all his efforts to learn everything that the Rabbi had promised to teach him.

  From that day on, as soon as Joshua arrived at the zoo, he would clean the animal cages as fast as he could to allow himself as much time with the Rabbi as possible. By rushing he was able to finish by 2:00 a.m., which allowed him six uninterrupted hours with his mentor. The Rabbi, an excellent teacher, instilled meaning into Joshua’s life. Joshua first learned about God and then learned to pray. He prayed that someday he would take the Rabbi and Miriam to live in the Jewish nation, Israel. Although he knew that such a prayer was impossible, the Rabbi insisted that nothing was too difficult for the God of Israel.

  14

  After killing the last sentry, Ronald Fletcher carefully descended the hill leading to the PLGA base camp. The intelligence report Barnes had obtained for him, though somewhat dated, had indicated that there were no mines or booby traps on the hill directly facing the camp. Regardless, movement was difficult given the uneven ground, heavy rain, thick fog, and darkness.

  Since all the guards had been eliminated, Fletcher entered unopposed by way of the main gate. Whiling moving stealthily toward the center of the camp, he took mental notes on its layout. Finally, Fletcher stopped behind an open jeep which was parked in front of the row of barracks where PLGA terrorists were housed. He dumped the contents of his knapsack on to the front seat.

  Fletcher glanced at his watch. He allowed himself five minutes to place and prime the C4 plastic charges around the barracks, power plant, and ammunition dump, taking care to strategically place the explosives where they would cause maximum damage.

  Fletcher then returned to the jeep and removed the magnesium flares. He set them directly in front of the jeep in several rows. He then moved from the jeep to behind a row of empty oil barrels abou
t fifty feet away. There he organized his weapons cache. When he was finished, he picked up the remote detonators, released the safeties, and, with a devious smile, pushed the button on the first detonator.

  Explosions ripped through the entire base. The ammunition dump erupted like a volcano, causing the ground to shake while at the same time littering the base with debris and black smoke. The generator was destroyed completely, plunging the base into complete darkness. Simultaneously the roofs of all three barracks buildings collapsed, crushing many of the sleeping terrorists.

  Fletcher pushed a second button, igniting the flares. The area in front of the barracks was suddenly illuminated with blinding light. Fletcher noticed a handful of surviving PLGA terrorists that had been awoken violently by the explosions stumbling out the front door. Concealed behind the oil barrels, he picked them off with automatic fire. He then fired a Willie Pete at a second group of terrorists that had gathered between the buildings, setting them ablaze.

  Fletcher maintained the light by igniting the remaining magnesium flares at short intervals. The next group of surviving PLGA terrorists, having watched their comrades slaughtered, opened fire with assault rifles. However, the blinding light obscured Fletcher’s position. He lobbed several M67 incendiary grenades and fired the remainder of the Willie Petes, turning the ruins of the barracks into a giant inferno. He then sprayed the remaining terrorists with hundreds of rounds from the Colt Commando.

  Within minutes, all the terrorists that had been housed in the barracks had been neutralized. Dead silence enveloped the base. Still, Fletcher new from experience that there were probably a few terrorists around that were either playing dead or hiding. He put the Commando into semi-automatic mode and walked around the base, firing one shot into the head of each body he came across. When he was finished, he slung the rifle over his shoulder. He then picked up the Colt .45 pistol and held it in his right hand, and placed the Israeli air gun in his left.