The Shield: a novel (2 page)

Finally his voice
came back on the line: “There is something you need to know. I don’t know the significance yet, but it is very strange. Our optical observers see no fires on the other side. This blast should have ignited at least some brush fires, but we see only empty land. Another strangeness is that Quneitra seems to be intact and occupied by civilians. Nobody on the other side seems to have noticed the activation or the blast. And the Gaza posts report that the area is mostly dark.”

“
Thanks Zvi. Let me know if you discover anything else.” Yaari hung up.

He reported the conversation to the others.

The P.M. looked at each of the five attendees. “Any suggestions or ideas?”

“
I have a question,” the Finance Minister said. She was a slim, petite woman in her early fifties, good-natured and quick to smile – definite assets for a Finance Minister. She was also one of the best economists in Israel and a successful business woman.

“
The way I understand it, the Shield is not really a shield
;
rather we are out of phase with reality and have to be pushed back by a second activation. Am I correct?”

It was Gad Yaari who answered
. “Yes, you are. We can’t stay like this indefinitely. Eventually we will run out of food and fuel. Our reserves are good for several months and, for some items only several weeks, so, as regrettable as it may be we have to return to the real world.”

“
We can gather some intelligence while we are out of phase,” the Minister of Defense suggested. “Let’s send a reconnaissance mission and take a look at the world. The planes shouldn’t be picked up by radar. They're out of phase as well and will remain so until we activate the Shield again.” Being a retired general himself, Nitzan Liebler usually made sense in military matters, though he tended to favor the use of excessive force. He was 62, medium height, bald and powerfully built. Having retired from the armed forces he, like many ex military, went into politics and served as a minister in several coalition governments. He was close to Amos, though he belonged to a different party – what the Prime Minister jokingly called “The crazy friendly right wing”.

“
I suggest that we send several planes to see what is going on. We will meet here in three hours and decide what to do next. I don’t think that we can stay in this strange state for much longer – the world will notice and we’ll blow our most effective secret weapon.” Amos looked at the others for comments. When none came, he announced the meeting closed, but not before warning everybody to keep quiet about the Shield and the subject of the meeting.

***

Several F15 planes equipped with high resolution cameras left their Israeli base at close to four fifteen in the morning. The sun was shining and it looked like another cloudless June day in the Middle East. One plane went northeast, over Syria and Iraq; the other directly east, over Jordan, and the third south and then southwest over the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt. The pilots were given instructions to turn back within thirty minutes. They would also report by radio if they saw something unusual. This was Zvi Kaplan’s idea – he remembered that the radio broadcasts would not be heard by anybody else but the Israeli receivers which were as out of phase as the transmitters in the planes. It was considered vital to turn the Shield off as soon as possible so as not make its existence known to everybody.

***

Sergeant Uri Dayan was tired, and it took him a moment to come back from the peaceful dream he was enjoying. The field phone was chirping. His infantry unit was on constant alert for infiltration and kidnapping attempts from the Gaza strip. After the latest bout of fighting, with Hamas temporarily beaten down, the situation was less tense than it had been in several years, but you could never know. Gaza was lawless and some group of thugs might decide this was a good day to start a fight.

He picked up the field phone: “Uri here.”

“Sir, sorry to wake you, but something happened.”

“
What time is it?” Uri asked.

“
Two forty three,” the soldier on the other side responded.

“
OK. Go ahead. What’s so important?”

“
Sergeant, all the lights on the other side of the fence went out. I think I can see something on the horizon, but I’m not sure.” The soldier was quiet, waiting for Uri’s response.

“
You should always identify yourself.” Uri responded automatically. He knew the caller for at least ten years of reserve service, but protocol and discipline were important.  “Are you sure ALL the lights are out? Can you see any movement?”

“
No movement on instruments or plain optics. It is possible that the instruments are on the blink, but we don’t see any buildings there either.”

“
Ok, keep looking. Call me if anything changes.”

His phone was chirping again: “Uri here.”

“Sarge, this is tower three. All the lights on the other side went out about two minutes ago.”

“
I know. We are working on it now,” said Uri. This is how he kept up the myth of an all-seeing and all-knowing platoon sergeant.

He shook awake the soldier on the bunk next to him: “Call tower one and verify that the lights on the other side went out. Also tell them I
am mad that they didn’t call me about it. I am going to wake the Chief. Oh, if they say the lights are on, come in and tell me.  And please get the coffee going.”

Uri pushed aside the curtain that separated Lieutenant No
am Shaviv’s closet-sized office from the rest of the bunker. The lieutenant was sitting on his bed, pulling on his boots. He paused for a moment and faced Uri: “What exactly are the reports?”

Uri repeated the reports.

“OK, I’m going to tower one to take a look. Get a couple of guys to come with me. Start a quiet alert. Body armor and combat positions. Alert the company HQ, tell them about my alert orders. Also tell them that I will call from the tower.”

Uri nodded and went to carry out the order. He always marveled at No
am’s ability to wake up when something was going on. He was not surprised to find his commanding officer seemingly wide awake. He had heard him snore only a couple of minutes earlier, but after eleven years together there were few surprises. Uri also trusted his commander’s instincts - they had saved lives in the past. If Noam thought that a full quiet alert was warranted, Uri was sure that it was necessary even though some of the platoon’s soldiers went to sleep less then an hour ago.

***

The Hatzerim airbase near Beersheba, Israel,
was busy. For the first time in many years F4 Phantom jets, bought from the U.S. in the late 1960s,
were taken out of mothballs and prepped for combat. These were expected to be ready in a couple of days.  In the meantime, Kfirs, Israeli-made jets from the seventies that were used for training, were being equipped with weapons and under-the-wing fuel tanks
.
Other mothballed jets were being prepped along with the old Phantoms.  The decision to use old jets had been taken only a couple of hours earlier, at seven in the morning. At that time the Shield had been re-activated, placing Israel back in the real world. The situation was baffling and complex and caution was to be exercised in everything. So said the Prime Minister, and he was not to be trifled with.

It was still June 20, but it was Friday, June 20, 1941. Or so the radio stations coming from outside Israel claimed. Astronomical observation confirmed the displacement. Scientists were still puzzling over how it happened. Arye Kidron had some ideas, which Professor Wisotzky predictably rejected, but there was nothing to be done about it, at least for now.

An announcement to the public had been made through media that could not be readily intercepted by current technology outside of Israel: low power FM radio, TV, Cell phones and the Internet. The announcement was bland and only stated the bare fact of time displacement and the current date.

Am
os Nir expected to have to answer questions both in the full cabinet meeting he had called for later in the day and before the legislature at the special session scheduled in the evening and called just for the purpose of questioning him. He had already initiated contacts with opposition leaders in order to set up a national unity government and had charged the Finance and Infrastructure ministers with developing a plan to extend as long as possible the existing fuel and food supplies.

At a Defense Cabinet meeting earlier, Nir decided to take several immediate steps without waiting for the full government to assemble. The scientists didn’t know if or when they would have an explanation for what happened and could not promise a reversal of the time travel incident. For now, the Defense Cabinet had to base its decisions on the assumption that the country was permanently stuck in the past. It was up to the General Staff to execute most of the Cabinet’s immediate orders, with the Security Services and the Police responsible for some.

***

It was three in the afternoon and Gad Yaari was asleep. His secretary had persuaded him that if he did not catch a couple of hours of sleep he would be too tired to make rational decisions.

“You don’t want to end up like Rabin in ‘67 - collapsing from exhaustion and needing to be hospitalized, do you?” Liat asked.

“
No, and I will not collapse. Don’t worry.”

“
I am not worried, but I can see that you’ll be out soon anyway. So go sleep for a while. I can take care of simple stuff and will wake you up if necessary.”

In his heart he knew she was right and did not argue any more. In less than five minutes he was asleep on the bed in his office.  This was a long day and it was not over yet, but at the moment the Chief of General Staff could rest. Orders had been given and other people were busy executing them.

One of the first orders got several jets in the air over Syria to see if they could assist the Australian, Free French and Palmach (elite units of one of the pre-state Israeli armed forces that included Moshe Dayan) who were fighting Vichy French for control of Lebanon and Syria.

The Israelis knew that the French High Commissioner had allowed Luftwaffe planes to land and refuel in his territories on their way to attack the British Occupation Forces in Iraq earlier in 1941. The British feared that the Germans would land in Syria and, using it as a base, take Iraq. This fear was reasonable given the Brit’s limited resources in the area. Their operation Battleaxe in North Africa wasn’t going well and they were under attack and retreating there. Iraq just finished an unsuccessful and barely suppressed pro-Nazi revolt. Losing Iraq would mean losing an important source of oil and giving the Germans control of an important part of the Middle East. It would also raise the specter of a new Arab revolt. The Jerusalem Mufti fomented and supported the pro-Nazi uprising in Iraq, and now, after it was suppressed, was in Germany still stirring up trouble for the British. With the Germans controlling Iraq and Syria, the Arabs would be even stronger and more bothersome.

It was Yaari’s decision to revive and use old planes. They could be supplied with locally manufactured parts – turbine blades being the most important. He decided to save the most advanced planes, the F16s and F15s, for more demanding operations. The replacement of wear parts for these planes was possible but more time and labor consuming. In 1941, a Kfir or an antique Phantom could perform miracles against the opposition. This was being proven now in Syria.

On June 20, 1941, General Henry Maitland Wilson, Commanding General of the combined forces attacking the Vichy government in Syria and Lebanon, was at his temporary headquarters just south of Beirut, studying the map of the area east of the city. His forces were organizing for a push toward D
amascus. The fighting up to this point had been difficult and without surprises. The French resisted and counterattacked but not very effectively. Still, it would take two, maybe three, weeks to defeat them. Allied forces were being re-supplied, and Wilson hoped to continue his advance in a couple of days, after a rest and reorganization. He was worried about Luftwaffe fighters stationed somewhere in Syria. They attacked his artillery, causing damage, and delayed or destroyed several supply columns. He knew that the deeper he got into Syria, the more dangerous those fighters would become: They would be closer to their airstrips and he would be farther from his RAF support. The Vichy planes were also potentially dangerous.

“
Sir, we received a strange radio message.” Wilson’s adjutant saluted and put a slip of paper on the map in front of the general.

“
Thank you, Major.” Wilson picked up the paper and carefully, like he always did, read the message. It said:

To: Sir Maitland Wilson General Commanding British forces in Lebanon and Syria

From: Lieutenant General Gad Yaari, Chief of General Staff, Israel Defense Forces, Tel Aviv

Due to an incident beyond our control, the State of Israel from many years in your future has been transported into the here and now. We occupy roughly the territory known to you as Palestine. As a result of this temporal displacement the Palestine as known to you does not exist in this time and space. This means that all of your logistical resources and reserves in Palestine have disappeared.