“That’s not the reason we kill each other here,” Tamir said. “Too many differences, too many people want this small piece of the earth and are not willing to share it.” He hung his head. “We haven’t solved our problems. We’ll fight again.”
“Then why are you here in a kibbutz?” Matt asked. “There’s so much you can do to help your country get ready if you’re going to have to fight another war.”
The scientist raised his head. Would the young man sitting beside him understand that this kibbutz was his home, the place where Shoshana had been born and his wife Miriam killed? “Here is Israel’s moral compass, its conscience. If we lose this, we are nothing. And to think, I gave my country nuclear weapons, and almost created a Holocaust.”
“That wouldn’t have been your fault,” Matt protested.
“Where does responsibility begin? Where does it end?” The pain in Tamir’s words filled the night air. “Tell me, for I don’t know.”
Matthew Zachary Pontowski III, grandson to the President of the United States, didn’t have the answer. “I think my grandfather knows,” he said. Then: “You never answered the question, though. Why are you here?”
“This is my home and where I can help Israel the most.” The crystalline hardness that had soured Tamir’s life shatteredas he sat in the clear night air next to the young American. “And where Shoshana can help.”
For an instant, Matt would have sworn that his heart stopped. “But you said …”
“I said, ‘There’s nothing here for you.’ She was badly wounded — burned. She won’t marry you, not now.”
“Let her tell me that.”
Avi Tamir relented. “She’s in a hospital outside Tel Aviv. I’ll take you there tomorrow.”
“Daddy, what are you reading?” Megan, one of Furry’s twin five-year-old girls, crawled onto the couch beside her father, pulled the orders out of his hands, and pretended to read them.
“Those are orders assigning us to another base,” Furry answered.
“Is it far away?”
“Yes, Meggie, it’s in the United States. That’s where you were born.”
“Does that mean we all have to move?” The little girl could carry on the most serious conversations.
“Yep, it sure do.” He threw her over his shoulder and carried her upstairs to the bedroom Megan shared with her twin, Naomi.
“Sleep tight,” he said, tucking her in bed.
“And don’t let the bedbugs bite,” she giggled, completing their bedtime ritual. He checked on her sister who was already asleep. “Daddy,” Megan’s sleepy voice came from her bed, “why do we have to move so often?”
“Because it’s what I do for a living.”
“But I’ll miss my friends. Can’t you do something else?”
“Probably not,” he told her. “It’s what I am, Meggie. Go to sleep.” He turned out the light and closed the door. Then he hesitated and cracked it open, so he could keep them safe.
The doctor was brisk efficiency and only took time from his busy schedule because his superior told him to. “Shoshana received third-degree burns over the left side of her face,” he explained, leading the two men down a corridor. “A little of her scalp and a small part of her earlobe were burned away where her helmet had not protected her. But all that can be repaired with skin grafts.” Matt could sense Avi stiffen.
“Luckily,” the doctor continued, “the Nomex flight suit she was wearing protected most of her. She will have a zipper shaped burn scar down the front of her body. It runs from her crotch right up between her breasts.” The doctor smiled. “For some reason, it amuses her. Her left hand was burned the worst when her tank was hit — two fingers burnt off — we can’t fix that.” He held the door to a large ward open. “This way, please.”
Shoshana saw them coming and laid down the book she was reading beside her. Her eyes followed Matt as he made his way to her.
“I told you I’d be back,” he said. His words were full and warm, unforced. He knew he loved this woman. Her right hand reached out for his and he didn’t care about the heavy bandages that covered most of her head and face. She was alive.
“I wish … I wish,” she began, her voice strained, “that you hadn’t come.”
“This doesn’t matter”—he looked at her bandages—“reconstructive surgery … it doesn’t matter.”
“We do agree on that.” He could hear a bitter amusement in her words.
“Captain Pontowski is right about the surgery,” the doctor said. “We have you scheduled for a trip to Geneva. The Swiss have the best burn center in the world.”
“I’m not going,” Shoshana said.
“But you must,” her father whispered.
“There’s better things to do with the money,” she said. “And with my time.”
Matt smiled, for the surgery didn’t matter to him. “When are you going to marry me?”
She squeezed his hand and looked at him. A slight shake of her head. She did love this man. “Not now. There’s too much to do here.”
The smile never left Matt’s face. He knew she was telling him to go — at least for now. “I’ll be back, you know.”
She knew.
Glossary
Throughout this novel, I have used many terms that may seem foreign to anyone who is not acquainted with military jargon. I hope the definitions below will help the reader understand the unique vocabulary of the Air Force. These definitions come from a variety of sources, such as the Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, published by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the unclassified technical manuals associated with various weapons systems.
AAA: Antiaircraft artillery.
Active: Can mean when a weapons system is on-line and working or the runway that is currently in use.
AIM: An air intercept missile such as the AMRAAM or Sidewinder.
AMRAAM: AIM-120, the advanced, medium-range air-to-air missile.
APC: Armored personnel carrier.
APDS: Armor-piercing discarding sabot antitank round.
AWACS: Airborne Warning and Control System. Air surveillance and control provided by an airborne radar platform.
Backseater: Any person occupying the backseat of a fighter aircraft.
Bandit: An air contact positively identified as being hostile.
BDA: Bomb damage assessment. The determination of the, effect of an air attack on a target.
BFM: Basic fighter maneuvers.
BMP: Soviet-built, tracked armored personnel carrier that weighs twelve tons. It sports a 73-millimeter gun, an antitank missile, and a 7.62-millimeter machine gun. Carries twelve people.
Bogie: An air contact that is unidentified but suspected to be hostile.
BOQ: Bachelor officers’ quarters.
CAP: Combat air patrol. An aircraft patrol provided for the purpose of intercepting and destroying hostile aircraft.
CAS: Control Augmentation System. Senses pitch, roll, and yaw rates; vertical and lateral acceleration; angle of attack; g forces; and provides the proper electrical input into the control surfaces.
DCI: Director of central intelligence. An individual appointed by the President and approved by the Senate who is in charge of all United States intelligence agencies and functions.