The officer in charge of the honor guard ordered Joshua into the working left stall, and instructed the guard holding the clean uniform to hand it to him. Joshua took the clean prison garb and placed it on the floor next to the toilet. Then Joshua removed the soiled uniform and pushed it towards the guard. The guard felt nauseous as he picked up the clothes. As he left the stall to dispose of the soiled uniform, Fletcher pushed a button in the broom closet that caused the left stall door to swing shut and lock.
Fletcher slid open the panel and saw Joshua sitting on the toilet. He quickly covered Joshua’s surprised face with a cloth which had been soaked with a powerful sedative, causing Joshua to pass out immediately. Fletcher moved Joshua into the broom closet, then grabbed Rajad, lowered his pants, and sat him on the toilet with his back leaning against the wall. The guards were not able to hear anything because the noise from the tens of thousands of shouting spectators in Martyrs’ square was deafening within the thin-walled bathroom.
Rajad looked around at his unfamiliar surroundings. His head was still spinning from the effects of the multiple injections he had received. He noticed his prison clothing and his pale white hands. He tried in vain to scream out, but his vocal cords had been completely paralyzed. This caused him to become even more frightened, so he began to weakly pound on the door.
The honor guards interpreted the sound as a signal that the mute prisoner was finished changing. They opened the door and pulled out Rajad. A close examination might have revealed the switch; however, the flow of events gave no reason for suspicion. To the guards, the man who entered the stall was obviously the same man who came out. Rajad tried to flail his arms to signal the guards, but the only responses he received were prods from the bayonets on the guards’ rifles to stop.
The honor guard returned to the ceremonial dais to present their detainee to General Abu al-Kalib. He looked the terrified Rajad over and said, “Good job. Now we can have a proper execution.”
As soon as the soldiers had left the restroom, Fletcher lifted Joshua and exited through the hatch in the back of the broom closet. He placed Joshua in the rear of the ambulance and laid him on to the stretcher. He closed the back of the ambulance and returned to the driver’s seat, started the engine, and drove slowly through the throng of spectators. While they drove, Bronot helped the now stirring Joshua into clean clothes and gave him a cup of water with an antidote to the laxative he had received.
Fletcher returned along the same route. When they arrived at the check post, the road was blocked but there were no soldiers. He knew it would be unwise to drive around the barricade without permission, so he got out of the ambulance and began to look for a guard. He found all the soldiers standing around the small black-and-white television set of the officer in charge. He looked over one of the guard’s shoulders at the screen and felt a warm surge of satisfaction surge flow through his body.
Ali Rajad was being led to the gallows by the Libyan honor guard. After climbing the steps to the platform, a man dressed in black placed a wire noose around Rajad’s neck. The wire was passed through a steel loop on a scaffold and the end was held by five husky soldiers with special gloves. The Prime Minister of Libya gave a signal and a trap door opened in the platform, causing Rajad to drop. However, the amount of loose wire was not sufficient to create enough force to break Rajad’s neck, resulting a period of several minutes in which Rajad, with his eyes bulging out, slowly strangled to death.
Fletcher watched with glee as his moment of revenge had finally arrived. After four and a half minutes, Rajad’s fight for survival ended. Fletcher, fully satisfied, asked the commanding officer if someone could open the gate. The officer ordered one of his men to allow the ambulance to pass. When he returned, Fletcher found that the path was blocked with a crowd of pedestrians, so he turned on the siren and proceeded slowly out of the center of town.
The ambulance headed east and eventually made its way on to the coastal highway. About an hour later, Fletcher exited the highway and drove along a dirt road next to the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. There he spotted a waiting car. When Fletcher and Bronot stepped out of the ambulance, two Nekama agents approached and carried Joshua out of the back. A third took Fletcher’s place in the driver’s seat and drove the ambulance off road to an overhanging cliff. He put the ambulance into neutral and then pushed it off the cliff into the sea, where it immediately sank.
Fletcher, Bronot, Joshua, and the Nekama agents then entered a large inflatable rubber boat with an outboard motor. When all were on board, one of the agents started the motor and they made their way out to sea. A second agent began navigating with a compass. After thirty minutes, they cut the engine and dropped small iron anchors at the four corners of the raft.
Minutes later, the boat rocked from side to side and then the entire craft was abruptly lifted out of the sea. The group found themselves on the port deck of a submarine. A hatch opened and the captain of the submarine, along with several Israeli Navy crew members, emerged.
“Shalom, Rachel. How was your sightseeing tour of Tripoli?” asked the captain.
“Not what I expected. It’s a shame I didn’t have a chance to buy you anything,” Rachel joked.
“Maybe next time. And you, Mr. Fletcher, how did you like our little submarine trick?”
“Not bad,” said Fletcher. “It reminded me of a plane landing on an aircraft carrier. Except instead of the plane maneuvering to land, the carrier adjusts to catch the plane.”
“Very good. Then I take it you approve,” the captain smiled.
Within minutes all were safely aboard the Israeli vessel. It was an ex-British Royal Navy Triton-class diesel-electric submarine. It submerged and it headed northwest, toward the United States Sixth Fleet.
24
The Prime Minister of Israel spoke with some trepidation into the secure telephone connected to the White House.
“Mr. President?”
“Speaking. How are you, old friend?” the President asked.
“Looking forward to better days!”
“Was the mission successful? We watched the execution on television, but I bet General Smith here a dollar the man hanged wasn’t our boy.”
“You can collect your money from General Smith. We did manage to switch prisoners.”
“Well, I hope it was someone deserving of the honor.” The President had a gut feeling it was some enemy of the Jewish people.
“I’m sure he was delighted to have been selected to do this service for our country. I must tell you, by the way, we are most impressed with your attaché, Mr. Ronald Fletcher. He was an enormous help. The man is simply remarkable. Are you sure he isn’t at least part Jewish?” the Prime Minister asked.
“He is as much a Baptist as I am,” the President answered.
“That’s a pity. You know we Jews have a tradition of not proselytizing. However, I must admit we are truly tempted in the case of Mr. Fletcher.”
The President and the Prime Minister shared a laugh. Then the President was ready to get down to business.
“Do you know the location of the source of the cylinders?”
“Yes, Mr. President. I’m going to play for you now a recording of the transcript of an interview Mr. Fletcher conducted of Joshua 74575, the man who was meant to be executed.”
“74575? What kind of name is that?” the President asked, curious.
“You will soon find out,” the Prime Minister answered. “The reason we are playing a recording of the transcript is that Joshua was interviewed in German.”
“I’m fluent in German,” said the President.
“Ah, that’s right. I did know that. Well, there’s another reason. Joshua 74575 is only able to communicate in sign language. It pains me to tell you that the Nazis long ago cut his tongue out.”
The President leaned back in his chair. A cold sweat appeared on his forehead. He had had a premonition that episode of the cylinders was only a preview to an even greater horror.
The P
rime Minister of Israel switched on a tape player. There was a short introduction explaining that Joshua 74575 was initially unwilling to cooperate with the Israeli psychologist. Then he was given a pen and paper and asked if he wanted to write or draw out his thoughts. The first words Joshua wrote was “Ich bin Jude,” “I am a Jew” in German. One of the naval officers then showed him the Jewish Star on his dog tag, to Joshua’s great excitement. He started waving around his arms in an attempt to communicate. The psychologist, a Holocaust survivor from Frankfurt, was familiar with this older European system of signing. Fletcher began to ask questions in German, with Joshua’s signed answers translating by the psychologist.
“What is your name?” Fletcher asked.
“Joshua 74575.”
“Why 74575?”
“This is the name I was given at birth.”
“By your parents?”
“I have no parents.”
“Then how did you acquire your name?”
“All the Jews are given numbers at birth by the Nazis.”
“Where are you from? You seem far too young to have lived under the Nazis.”
“I come from a place called Project Valhalla. There the Nazis rule and we Jews are their slaves.”
“What is this project?”
“It is a community, deep under the ground.”
“Does this community have a leader?’”
”Yes, he is called the Reich Gott.”
“Who is the Reich Gott?”
“The Rabbi says his real name is Adolf Hitler.”
“Joshua, Adolf Hitler died many years ago. Have you ever seen this Reich Gott? What does he look like?”
“I only saw him once, when I was ordered to clean the Temple.”
“What does he look like?
“He is a box with lights and switches. On the top of the box there a device that the Rabbi called a typewriter. The Rabbi said that Hitler communicates by receiving and sending messages through the typewriter.”
“Why do you call him the Reich Gott?”
“That is his name. All the Aryans worship him.”
“Do you worship him?”
“Of course not. I am a Jew. I believe in the one and only God. The God of Israel.”
“The Aryans allow you to believe in your God?”
“We Jews are not allowed to worship the Reich Gott. Instead, the Aryans teach us a false version of Judaism.”
”How do you know that what they are teaching is not real Judaism?”
“At first I just felt it couldn’t be true. Later, the Rabbi taught me what real Judaism is.”
“Who is this Rabbi?”
“He is a Jew who lives in a cage in the zoo.”
“Does he have a name?”
“His name is Rabbi Gershon Cohen.”
“Why is he in a cage in a zoo?”
“He is an exhibit in the Untermenschen section of the zoo. There is a row of cages with humans from different countries.”
“Where did you live?”
“In Hell, with all the Jews.”
“What is Hell?”
“The Rabbi told me it is a concentration camp.”
“Why do the Jews live there?”
“Because the High Priest says all Jews belong in Hell.”
“Who is this High Priest?”
“The Rabbi says his real name is Heinrich Mueller.”
“What does he do as High Priest?”
“He reads the communications of the Reich Gott and executes his orders.”
“Why did you leave Project Valhalla?”
“The Rabbi told me that I must escape.”
“Why?”
“He said that the Nazis are planning to destroy the State of Israel on the twenty-fifth of June at noon. He told me I must escape and bring back the Jewish Army to stop Hitler.”
At this point a dubbed-in voice announced, “End of Tape One.”
“Well, Mr. President, any thoughts?” the Prime Minister asked.
The President was thinking maybe he was asleep and in the middle of a nightmare. “Valhalla, Hitler, a human zoo? This must be the Nazi version of Alice in Wonderland,” he thought to himself.
“I have a feeling this is only getting worse,” the President replied.
“You are correct. Did you hear Joshua mentioning Heinrich Mueller?” asked the Prime Minister.
“Yes, what about him?”
“Heinrich Mueller was the head of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany. He was last seen in the Fuhrerbunker the night before Hitler’s suicide, and was never seen again.”
“Are you saying that Mueller is running the show at Project Valhalla?” The President asked.
“Maybe. And perhaps he is using this machine called the ‘Reich Gott’ to assert his authority in Hitler’s name. In any case we have located the origin of the cylinders, which were probably developed using the last resources of Nazi Germany.”
“Where is this place located?”
“I’m sorry, Mr. President. I must withhold this information unless you are prepared to agree to certain conditions,” said the Prime Minister assertively.
“What do you mean, conditions?” the President said in an exasperated tone. “You do understand that the base must be destroyed by tomorrow!”
“That’s exactly the problem,” said the Prime Minister.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, Mr. President, it’s obvious. Hundreds, maybe thousands of Jews are living in this man-made Hell as if the Holocaust never ended. The State of Israel was created in order to ensure that Jews would never again suffer so terribly at the hands of anti-Semites. I will not allow one more Jew to die because of the evil actions of a Nazi!” declared the Prime Minister in a trembling voice.
The President was slow to answer. He knew the Prime Minister of Israel had spoken from the depths of his soul.
“I understand your feelings. But your country, along with the rest of the world, is in grave danger. Furthermore, you must be aware that a boots-on-the-ground military operation would likely result in the deaths of many combatants.”
The Prime Minister responded with confidence. “The soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces are fully prepared to risk their lives to protect the Jewish people. This is our mandate from the Creator of the World, our national identity, and the reason for our country’s existence.”
“I’m sure you’re aware that even if you are successful, if Israeli violates Libyan sovereignty war will likely break out in the Middle East,” the President pointed out.
“We are a small country that only wants peace with our neighbors. Our army is called the Israel Defense Forces for a reason. The emphasis is on the word ‘defense.’ And there is no room for compromise when the very lives of our people are at stake. The Jews of Valhalla are no less citizens of the State of Israel then the Jews of Tel Aviv,” the Prime Minister stated emphatically.
The President was silent for a moment. He thought to himself, “This Israeli is as stubborn as he is proud. In any case, they know where the base is and therefore, they are holding all the cards. We can’t let them trigger world war by going in alone.”
Finally, the President spoke. “I suppose you have a plan?”
“Of course. We have many plans,” the Prime Minister replied with some relief.
“Do any one of those plans include a joint operation, by any chance?”
“As a matter of fact, that is the one I was going to propose. We have formulated our strategy with Ronald Fletcher’s expert assistance.”
The Prime Minister paused. “Before I share it with you, do I have the United States’ commitment to the safe evacuation of the Jewish prisoners of Project Valhalla?”
“You have my word,” the President answered.
“Thank you, Mr. President.”
The President was now ready for business. “Please place your chief of operations on the line. I’ll call in General Smith and they can go over the details,” he said. “I just hope to God that
this plan works.”
The Prime Minister answered sincerely, “If we put our faith of the God of the Jews and the Christians, I’m sure we’ll be successful.”
25
On June 25th, at 4:30 a.m., Ronald Fletcher, Mike Barnes, Rachel Bronot, and Joshua 74575 were lowered by harnesses into the same drilling hole Joshua had used to make his escape. By comparing the information Joshua provided with the estimated location of his capture, a team of Israeli geographers and geologists were able to determine the approximate location of Project Valhalla. A unit of U.S. Marines from the U.S. Sixth Fleet, now twenty-five miles off the Libyan coast, had accompanied them on a CH-46 Sea Knight transport helicopter that cruised less then forty feet above the waters of the Gulf of Sidra at an average speed of one hundred and fifty miles an hour to avoid detection by Libyan radar. After about forty minutes of flying, they arrived at the large salt marsh where the caverns were believed to be located. Joshua remembered every detail of the first views he had experienced of the above-ground world, and thus able to guide the pilot to their destination with remarkable precision.
The reconnaissance sortie led by Fletcher constituted the first phase of Operation Nemesis. Their job was critical. They were tasked with scouting Valhalla and gathering enough information to guide the second stage of the operation. Though Joshua had demonstrated a remarkable memory for details, the strategists in the Pentagon and HaKirya were lacking vital information regarding internal security systems and the location of the transmitter designed to send coded signals to the cylinders. A number of elaborate attack strategies had already been chalked out; however, it was still unknown which was the most likely to achieve total success.
Fletcher was the first to be lowered down into the shaft. Once at the bottom, he carefully removed the pile of rocks Joshua had placed to conceal the entrance. Peering into the cavern, he was shocked by what he witnessed. At the far end of the cavern, a giant circular light fixture was being lifted up mechanically. He watched with awe as successive rings of lights were illuminated, the artificial sunrise slowly turning night into day within the cavern complex.
Agent of Vengeance Page 19
