Murray McDonald - Critical Error

Before you bombard me any further, please welcome our new neighbors. A cheer was raised as the President dropped the tarpaulins covering the plaque to reveal the Israeli flags, with ‘New Israel’ written underneath.

Ahmed Hameed drove from one end of Palestine to the other, from Egypt to Lebanon. The area designated as the United Nations territory was substantial but not so that they couldn’t see the victory in what they had achieved. They were at peace. His people were at peace. He never believed he would see the day.

Jerusalem was a free city. Anybody and everybody owned her. It was fitting for such a wonderful and holy place.

Ahmed Hameed said a prayer for Ben Meir as he accepted the thanks of his nation.

As the noise began to die down, the President called for some calm.

“I have one more announcement to make. I would like to introduce you to my new Vice President, Charles Baker.”

The surprise at this announcement almost exceeded that of the New Israel.

However, the audience was unaware of Ben’s demonstration only minutes earlier. The President had watched in horror as his four closest advisers, Johnson, Preston, Gates and the new Secretary of Defense were paraded before him, stuck in the back of a minivan being driven to a certain death. The message had been loud and clear, Ben was calling the shots, quite literally.

The effect on the President of the President’s four closest advisers being shown to him in the minivan before being driven away to a certain and painful death.

“And further, I wish to give him my support at the upcoming election to become the next President of the United States of America.”

Another shock wave swept through the audience. That announcement came on the back of a promise that Sam Baker would not seek retribution. It really did help to have a scary brother.

***

With the announcement of the New Israel, Sam looked at Rebecca who just shook her head in amazement. She knew nothing of any of it. She was also refusing to tell him what had spooked her earlier but whatever it was, it had affected her badly.

“They can’t have,” she repeated quietly to herself with each announcement.

Sam looked at the field of tents and wondered how far it stretched. Five to six million people, even four to a tent, was a massive area and an unbelievable undertaking over the last few days. It was phenomenal, mused Sam, shaking his head.

“It will take them years to build a country from nothing,” offered Sam, grasping the scale of what lay ahead.

“Not if I know Ben Meir,” replied Rebecca, her tone far from happy. Which Sam could fully understand. She had spent her life fighting to save a country that they had been chased out of. Israel had been defeated.

Sam took her in her arms and offered his support but she remained uncharacteristically stiff.

“I’m sorry, I need to go.” She left and walked towards Ben. Without looking back she walked through the gates and into New Israel.

It had been two months since Yom Kippur and Sam had buried his family properly. It had been a beautiful ceremony attended by hundreds. The President had offered to come and it had taken some power of persuasion by the Vice President to stop Sam from trying to kill him for even having the audacity to consider going.

Charles had explained to Sam many times why the President was allowed to continue. They needed to maintain the government to ensure that New Israel had time to build itself into a strong and independent nation again. Sam would bide his time and promised he would not kill the President. However, he had made no such statement about not killing former President Andrew Russell. His day would come he thought.

He had bought a new house on the main island having decided against rebuilding his old house. He had thrown himself back into his work as a PE teacher and was once again racing his kids up to the top of the hill, although a far more welcome sight than normal awaited him at the top of the hill that morning. Rebecca Cohen, sat on the small mound of stones that marked the summit, a broad smile welcomed Sam to the top.

“What took you so long?” she asked.

“I didn’t think I’d see you again!” he answered with a smile.

Rebecca didn’t say any more. She walked across and grabbed Sam in a breath crushing embrace, much to the delight of the kids.

That next morning, Rebecca took Sam to New York and they boarded an El Al flight to New Tel Aviv. Sam couldn’t believe the change. The security before check-in and boarding was no different than those for any other carrier. The flight was short and Sam had wondered what he would find when they arrived. It had only been two months and achieving the basics would still be a struggle but he vowed to do whatever he could to help.

“First time?” asked a man, seated next to Sam.

“Yep!”

“I’m Saul, first week off in years,” he said, striking up a conversation. “Evacuated one day, back in a new dock the next day, unloading the same bloody stuff I loaded at the other end!” he moaned.

“New docks?” asked Sam surprised. He had never seen any docks in that old part of Texas.

“Yep, walked out the old port on Friday and walked into the new one on Sunday, not even a day off.”

Sam turned to Rebecca who was on his other side and who had heard the conversation. She just shook her head.

As the flight approached the airport, Sam braced himself for the chaos of the Arrivals gate. It never came. The airport was state of the art, brand new. Sam walked through the terminal and exited into what could have been any major city in the world.

“What the hell?”

Rebecca shook her head and pressed her finger to her lips and drove Sam to the nearby beach. Sam looked around. There was not a tent to be seen anywhere. But he had followed the news and had watched the nightly reports of the refugees of New Israel as they struggled to cope with building their new nation.

“Sam, I believe you deserve to hear this but I am Israeli and my heart will always be Israel’s first. I will deny it all.”

Sam just nodded his head as he walked along beside her.

“The day I left you, I saw a ghost. I was not joking I did see a ghost. It was the ghost of my dead husband. A man I loved with all my heart. My son’s father.”

Sam nodded.

“But of course there are no such things as ghosts. I saw my husband that day. He was driving a minivan that was taking the President’s advisers away.”

Sam instantly liked the guy, knowing exactly what she meant by ‘away’.

“Something had always bothered me. When I first discovered the nuclear weapon plot, I saw something I recognized in the terrorist called The Sheikh.”

Sam nodded for her to go on.

“I recognized his eyes. They were my husband’s eyes. My husband is The Sheikh.”

“Your husband’s a Palestinian terrorist, but wait…”

“Exactly, a Palestinian terrorist would not have killed people for Ben!” Rebecca could see the confusion in Sam’s face.

Sam looked around at the infrastructure. He thought back to New Tel Aviv, the talk of the man on the plane of the new port. What he could see was years of preparation and building. The Sheikh was an Israeli plant.

“But that means…”

“Yes, every bit of this has been planned, even down to the original nuclear explosion which was actually a neutron bomb, not a nuclear bomb. Neutron bombs let off a large amount of radiation but it disappears almost immediately. Within forty-eight hours, the land was safe and construction was underway.”

Rebecca slowly turned round, her arms outstretched. “I give you Project Ararat!”

Sam fell to the sand. The whole world had been fooled.