P. Deutermann - The Last Man

“You have no idea,” David said, wondering what was going to happen next. Both he and Judith were itching vigorously. He was still shaken by that wine bowl. Ellerstein was about to reply when Judith grabbed his arm, pulled him farther out of earshot of the soldiers, and spoke to him in rapid-fire Hebrew for a few minutes. David couldn’t follow a word, of course, but he saw the expression on Ellerstein’s face. She’s telling him what’s down there, he thought.

When she was finished, Ellerstein walked slowly back over to where David and the soldiers were waiting. Judith folded her arms around her chest and stood staring out over the Dead Sea.

“I don’t know what to say now, Mr. Hall,” Ellerstein said. “It seems you have made some amazing discoveries here. Despite all the deception.”

“Did she tell you about finding her husband’s body?”

“Yes, she did. She believes he was murdered, probably by the same person who closed that slab on you two.”

“And the pipes? She tell you about the pipes?”

“No. What about pipes, Mr. Hall?”

David hesitated. Ellerstein was asking a question to which he sounded like he might already know the answer. He described the pipes and the cylinders. Ellerstein gave him an odd look when he mentioned them. “Whoever’s been using this cistern did not know about that cave,” David concluded, “but they sure as hell knew all about the cistern.”

Judith came back over to where they were standing. It was light now, with sunrise imminent. A cool breeze had begun to flow up over the ramparts.

“Skuratov,” she said. “He’s here, isn’t he?”

Ellerstein nodded.

“Take me to him,” she commanded.

“Judith, are you very sure—”

“I am very sure, Yossi. He locked us in the cave, didn’t he? He or his people. Now, if you please.”

Ellerstein hesitated and then spoke to the sergeant, who made another radio call. Then they were escorted up to the north end of the fortress, where they were met by Lieutenant Colonel Shapiro and more soldiers. Shapiro and Ellerstein talked for a moment in Hebrew, and then the colonel took them down to the middle terrace, where they found Skuratov sitting by himself. In the soft light of dawn, his face was haggard, but his eyes were alert and angry when he saw Judith and David. He was perched on a marble bench fragment just inside the waist-high balustrade, his back to the stupendous view overlooking the sheer palisade that dropped down into the darkness.

Colonel Shapiro walked out onto the terrace, followed by Judith, David, and Professor Ellerstein. Above them, Shapiro’s team waited, bored now, their submachine guns draped casually as they lit up cigarettes. In the distance, David saw lights down on the coast road, approaching the mountain, coming fast. Too fast, he thought; that has to be a helicopter. Then he heard the whining engine noise. Skuratov glared first at David, then Ellerstein. The helicopter came whopping by, actually below them, the rotor disk silvery in the morning light, and then it hooked a lazy right turn, climbing up the south side of the mountain, turning again to line up on the top of the fortress and then landing in a cloud of dust and noise in front of the storeroom ruins.

Ellerstein waited for all the noise up top to subside before approaching Skuratov. He was pretty sure he knew who was in the helicopter.

Skuratov just glared at him. “So, Ellerstein,” he said in Hebrew. “What have you done here?”

“The question is, Colonel, what have you done here,” Ellerstein replied. “These people tell me that Judith’s husband, Dov Ressner, lies at the bottom of that cistern.”

“Where you should have left him,” Skuratov spat, “ and them.”

Ellerstein was taken aback. He asked Colonel Shapiro to move his men back from the terrace above; ordinary conscripts should not hear this. He also asked the colonel to keep an eye out for any more of Skuratov’s people. Just then Gulder and two of the prime minister’s bodyguards appeared, coming down the terrace steps. Shapiro made a gesture, and the soldiers backed out of sight. The bodyguards started down, but Gulder waved them back up the steps.

Ellerstein pulled his glasses down to look directly at Skuratov. “So this information is not news? You did this thing?”

“I did not put him there,” Skuratov said. “He put himself there. I just made sure he stayed there.”

“All right, Yossi, I’ll take it from here,” Gulder said as he walked up. Ellerstein was surprised at the aide’s tone of voice. This was a different Israel Gulder. He could see that the American, unable to understand Hebrew, was totally baffled. Judith, on the other hand, looked as if she were going to explode.

“It was you?” she hissed. “ You who closed the slab on my husband? It was you who closed it on us, too, wasn’t it?”

“What are they saying?” David asked Ellerstein in English. The professor just shook his head. “That’s Colonel Malyuta Lukyanovitch Skuratov, of the Israeli security service known as Shin Bet,” he said softly to David in English. “Very important at Dimona. I believe he murdered Yehudit’s husband.”

Judith advanced on Skuratov, pushing past Colonel Shapiro to get right in the old man’s face. “I know he murdered my husband,” she said, in English now. “Just like he tried to murder us. Why? Evil bastard, look at me! Why? ”

“Because you had no business being down there, in that cistern,” Skuratov thundered in heavily accented English. “Neither of you: It is forbidden ! Do you understand me? Forbidden! ” He glared at David. “You goddamned Americans think you can go anywhere, all over the world, and do anything you please? Well, not here, you can’t. Absolutely not. It is forbidden !”

“Did you know about the cave?” David asked him. “With the Temple relics?”

Skuratov hesitated but then waved his hand dismissively. “What cave? What relics? Is this some more of your emotional dreams about Metsadá, American fool? There is no cave.”

“Yes there is, you bastard,” Judith yelled. “Now explain yourself: Why have you done these terrible things? What are you hiding down there?”

“Your security, and Israel’s. Your husband took an oath, and then he broke that oath when he consorted with antinuclear traitors. We knew what he was up to, of course. When he came here, to find the D2O, he went too far. We took the appropriate measures. That is all.”

“D2O?” David asked softly. “Did you say D2O?”

Skuratov squinted his eyes for an instant and then sighed. “Ah. I forgot. Our American here is an engineer.” He rubbed the sides of his face. “Yes, I said D2O. So now you know.”

“Know what ?” Gulder said. Ellerstein said something to him in Hebrew. Gulder’s face tightened, and then he looked at David.

Judith wasn’t interested in D2O. “I don’t care!” she shouted, clearly on the verge of hysteria. “You murdered my husband!”

Skuratov snorted his contempt, but Colonel Shapiro moved closer to Judith.

“In Hebrew, please,” Gulder said, glancing again at David. “Yossi, what is this D2O business?”

“Deuterium oxide, Mr. Gulder,” Ellerstein said. “Also known as heavy water. The American mentioned pipes. I’m going to guess that the cistern is part of a heavy water distiller, supplied from an evaporation plant nearby. Right, Colonel?”

Skuratov nodded once but then stared away into space. The breeze wafting up from the cliffs below carried a faint whiff of warm brine.

“They were making heavy water?” Gulder asked. “Here, in this place? In this desert?”