Avraham Azrieli - The Masada Complex

“Surrender immediately, or you’ll be shot.”

“We will push a hostage off the cliff, and another one every hour, until you accept our fair and just demands! Be reasonable or your children will die!” He slid his hand into his pocket and clenched the cold grenade.

“You must attack!” Masada followed Colonel Ness back to the chopper, which served as command center. “What are you waiting for?”

He got in, bowing his head to avoid the bar over the door. “Too risky. The kids-”

“They’re fifteen!” Masada jumped in after him. “They know the drill. They’ll lie down as soon as shooting starts. We have to attack!”

“That’s my Masada.” He touched her cheek. “Always on fire.”

The palm of his hand was the softest part of him. She grabbed his wrist but didn’t push away his hand. “Give the order. Don’t wait.”

“Trust me. Your brother will be fine.” Ness squeezed into the copilot seat and put on a headpiece. “Get me Central Command.”

The pilot fiddled with the radio knobs. Ness shut the cockpit partition.

Masada rolled up the steel cables. She knew Ness wasn’t afraid to fight. It wasn’t luck that had made him the youngest colonel in the Israeli army. But Srulie was in there-a hostage! Why hadn’t he stayed in the kibbutz to study as he had promised? Fear made her shiver. I can’t lose him! I can’t!

Ten minutes passed.

Another ten.

Intermittent, muffled voices came from the cockpit.

3:40 a.m.

Masada knocked on the cockpit partition. No response. What was he waiting for? Israel’s official policy was clear: No bargaining with terrorists! No releasing of murderers! Nothing but rescue at any cost!

3:45 a.m.

She could hear the soldiers talking to each in the darkness.

3:52 a.m.

Across the Dead Sea, atop the jagged summits of the Edom Mountains, a pink glow appeared. Dawn was about to break, which would make a surprise attack impossible.

A moment later, the colonel jumped out and kneeled behind a large rock, the megaphone to his mouth. “This is the Israeli army. You must surrender now. Come out with your hands in the air.”

The reply came immediately. “Our demands are reasonable. Negotiate, or we kill a hostage!”

“You must surrender now.”

“We ask only for what’s ours,” the Arab yelled. “Your children’s lives are at stake!”

“I repeat, come out with your hands-”

Masada tore the megaphone from his hand and yelled into it. “You have ten seconds to give up, or we’re coming in!”

Abu Faddah was stunned. Had the Israelis gone mad, allowing a woman to take command? He heard a cheer and looked over his shoulder. The Israeli boy at the edge clapped his hands. Abu Faddah shuddered. Would the Jews risk soiling Mount Masada with fresh blood? Would they?

He put his mouth to the crack in the barricade. “Don’t ignore our ultimatum!” There was a deficiency in his plan, and he needed time to figure it out. “We would extend the deadline if you provide assurance-”

“Papa!”

He turned to see the Israeli knock the gun from Faddah’s hand and punch him in the face. Faddah swung blindly, his fist missing his opponent, who dropped to search the dirt floor. The other hostages tried to get up, tripping over the strings that tied their arms and legs.

“Papa,” Faddah yelled, “help me!”

The teenage Jew found the pistol.

Abu Faddah lunged forward, crossing the distance between them with strides that felt like slow motion. The Israeli stood up, lifting the gun. Abu Faddah flew by his cowed son and rammed the Israeli, who groaned and stumbled back. His ankle caught on the remnant of the wall at the edge. He tried to grab the empty air and fell backwards into the void, yelling, “Masada!”

“ Srulie?” Masada pushed Ness away and listened intently. The hostages were screaming. She ran to where a section of the casement wall had long collapsed and looked down over the edge, where the Roman’s earthen ramp emerged from the dark, reaching halfway up. To the right, the outer wall of rooms curved with the rim of the mountaintop toward the hostage room, out of sight, where the sheer cliff dropped as much as a hundred-story building to the distant bottom.

“Hey!” Ness chased her back to the chopper. “Get behind-”

“It was Srulie’s voice!” She grabbed one of the steel cables, still attached to the helicopter, and unfurled it over the edge.

Ness grabbed her arm. “It’s a trick.”

She pulled on the gloves.

“This Arab is too clever. We know all about him.”

She clenched a small flashlight between her teeth and rolled over the side.

“Stop! That’s an order!”

Masada loosened her grip and slid down fast, the cable whistling as it rushed through her gloves. Below her, the Roman ramp rose rapidly through the twilight. Tightening her grip, she slowed her descent, the gloves hot against her palms.

She hit the dirt, let go of the cable, and ran down the ramp. Finally reaching the desert floor, she aimed the flashlight and ran along the base of the mountain, glancing up to orient herself. The sheer rock above turned reddish with first light. She kept running, hoping not to find anything.

But she did.

He was lying at the foot of the cliff, white face framed in dark hair, eyes open, looking at her. She ran to him, dropped to her knees. His eyes didn’t move.

Masada tore off the gloves and laid a hand on his chest, begging for it to heave. She tried to press down, to force air into his lungs, to bring him back to life.

“ Srulie! ”

Nothing.

She pulled him up to her, but there was no firmness to his body. His head hung back from his broken neck. His right arm was crushed, a mess of flesh and bones.

Her eyes turned upward, all the way to the top of the cliff. Searing hate filled her. She reached for her Uzi, but realized she had left it in the chopper.

Masada’s fingers closed around a sharp stick that lay on the ground near Srulie. It felt wet. She looked at the object in her hand, her mind fogged up with agony. It was a bone from his forearm, cracked lengthwise, narrowing to a pointy end like a pink dagger.

Abu Faddah knelt at the edge. In the twilight, all the way down, a small figure ran from the foolish boy’s body, around the curved base of the mountain toward the Roman ramp, and out of sight. He wondered how the Israelis had managed to send a man down so quickly.

He backed away from the edge. Behind him, the hostages wept.

Faddah trembled so badly his teeth rattled.

“We’ll be fine, son,” Abu Faddah said, but he knew the Israelis would assume the death hadn’t been an accident. How long before they attacked? He tried to think. Clearly, his plan had failed. The maddening part was that his basic premise had been correct-as proven by the boy, who had yelled “ Masada! ” at the moment of his imminent death, like a rallying cry that confirmed the enormous mythical weight of this ancient fort for the Israelis. Yet in dying he had also killed Abu Faddah’s chances of regaining the family home in Haifa for his son. In fact, Faddah would be lucky to survive the next ten minutes.

Abu Faddah knew he must take the initiative. He led his son to the cliff’s edge and sat him down. “No matter what happens, don’t move!”

Faddah nodded.

Back at the barricaded entrance, Abu Faddah yelled through the crack, “A terrible accident occurred. We’re willing to surrender.”