Chapter 41

Fear among your enemies is always a good thing though too little fear would make most people fight harder or do stupid reckless things. Too much fear would simply paralyze people making it harder for me to kill selected targets thereby necessitating me using my blanket of death, knowing that a target was there but could not target them specifically. My handlers were not totally pleased as I was still killing women and children, but as they were still providing targets for me I figured they were not too upset. Considering that for the next ten days, Ms. Pearl had me shuttling to different known trouble spots with Mosques known for their anti-Israeli zealotry; I figured their outrage was tempered by the number of names that I was taking off of the list I had seen at our first meeting.

Each place I visited, tens if not hundreds died, I did try to reduce the civilian casualties but there were far fewer than one might expect as the mosques with their Imams preaching hate had done an outstanding job of indoctrinating people. When they picked up arms to defend their mosques they became targets and I treated them the same as everyone else, they died.

All of these deaths were being reported by the various news services of course, but without any blood or any signs of trauma, along with the practice of burying bodies before sunset, all they had to report was the misinformation about someone getting and mishandling some type of chemical or biological weapon. The few people who would go into the areas afterwards did not find any evidence of those weapons just added to the mystery and the fear. There were other facets to the mystery as the majority of those that died had recently been in the mosques and died when they emerged. The vast majority of women who lived around the mosques were immune. Adding to the weapon of mass destruction theory were the two shopkeepers who survived the first attack and had been interviewed extensively.

It was a shame very few people could appreciate my work, but I was well compensated both monetarily and in other ways, not with Ms. Pearl though. After our one night together, she let me know that she had a significant other and she was feeling guilty about our evening together.

No, my compensation was in the form of supplies seized by the Israelis in their limited offensive. I would have preferred to have them wait until I had finished killing everyone on my list but that could have taken weeks and I was told that the confusion I had caused made the opportunity too good to pass up. With only eight wounded and no one dead, I agreed the time was right for them to act and my bank account reflected that fact.

Of course, there was fallout from what was happening and the Israelis were being blamed for everything including taking advantage of the disorganization of their enemy. Watching the news as I sat on the patio of the mansion my handlers had stashed me in I had to agree, the Israelis were responsible but not in a direct action sort of way.

After I had passed on the latest batch of information, I was asked if I wanted a day off. I agreed and during the night, I along with the rest of my people boarded helicopters heading southwest. I had no idea where we were going but after looking out and seeing the ocean, I had a clue. Asking my guide where we were heading I was told we were heading to a resort on the coast. The resort turned out to be adjacent to a mental hospital. From where we landed, we could not see the hospital so I did not care.

I will give my hosts credit because when they treat someone as a VIP they did it very well as I not only got four days of swimming in a pool and the ocean, I had time to ride horses and read. There were several offers from some of the staff who looked like they had been put there to distract me. After the first day of turning them down, they stopped and I had a surprise as a new helicopter arrived while I was swimming. I did not pay it any attention and after twenty minutes, I had female company, only now the woman in the water with me was Antonia. Looking towards the shore I watched as my escort pulled back to the point they were barely visible, giving Antonia and me as much privacy as possible. I can say that we took immediate advantage of the distance provided, though after our first time we decided that we would wait until we had showered as the sand and dried salt made our time on the beach uncomfortable.

The next couple of days were fun as Antonia filled me in on what her and her father had found and what they thought it meant. She also passed along her father's thanks for the upgraded equipment as there had been an accident and the better gear proved the difference in keeping people alive. Then of course, she thanked me on behalf of the Greek government for my work in expanding their museums.

After four days things changed with the trouble coming from the south instead of the north, or I should say from the south and the middle as both Gaza as well as the West Bank both exploded in violence. Both said they were protesting Israel's limited invasion and after two days of peaceful rock throwing and occasional fire bombs both enclaves changed tactics with the south reengaging in rocket attacks while the West Bank saw a dramatic increase of knife and vehicle attacks against civilians. All of it was said to be in support of their northern brothers.

After Antonia left to rejoin her father, I could see the reports not only on the news but also the colonel who was in charge of security told me a lot of what was happening as we became friendly spending several afternoons talking about world events. At first I did not pay that much attention to or even care what was happening, but after telling my guide I was ready to finish my contract and nothing was done, I knew my hosts were focusing on their new problems and I was secondary concern to them.

By day seventeen, I was ready to go home. Informing my hosts as to my desire had them scrambling to get something organized and I was asked to give them another day which I did. The extra day had me meeting with a number of officers who were hoping I might extend my stay in order to "solve" their problem though they had no idea as to what I was being paid for my services. When I told them, they balked though they did say they would talk to their superiors. After yet another day, I put Sven on getting a plane for us to get out of there and back home.

Being a foreigner it turned out to be a lot harder for Sven to make arrangements as the military had put a number of restrictions in place to prevent what they were calling as a 9/11 attack. Sven even went so far as to try to charter a flight out of Lebanon and we would drive there. Our hosts of course knew of our plans and what I got instead of a thank you for my work, was a request to wait yet another day before I made arrangements to travel. I informed my host that my security team and I would be leaving in the morning as soon as transportation could be arranged.

The next day started off with a couple of sayings that I had no idea where they came from but they were appropriate for the situation I was in: the first would be, "When it rains, it pours." The second was, "No good deed goes unpunished." The focus of my annoyance was Colonel Levi who in talking to Sven along with the rest of my entourage, I was referring to as my jailer. Calling him my jailer I knew was not fair to him as he had been pleasant and accommodating during my stay. Even with the weight of the world on his shoulders, he was a nice talkative fellow, who even now was nice as he asked me to delay as there was someone wanting to talk to me before I left.

Although my hosts knew we were leaving they did not have the time we needed to depart, as I had several hours before we would need to leave I generously gave him an hour. He needed less than ten minutes as yet another helicopter arrived setting down after circling the resort once. Stepping out of the helicopter was the one person I had not considered meeting, as I had never met a head of state before. Yet there she was coming towards me with her security detail looking serious.

I would have been even more surprised if they were not serious, as the previous PM died, along with most of the Knesset, when a Palestinian managed to fly a plane low enough to evade the defenses that had been in place to stop such an attack. Initially the Palestinians celebrated just as they had back in September 2001. Their celebrations were short lived as the woman who took the reins of power made Netanyahu look like a Peacenik. The Army moved into the territories to maintain order, when the first firebomb was thrown as everyone knew it would, the gloves came off and the streets ran red with blood. The population who were still in shock at the first attack agreed with the retaliation so it continued for weeks. Eventually leaders on both sides got control of their people and the bloodshed ended though Mrs. Hannah Safir stayed in power.

Stopping in front of me, we shook hands and I was caught off guard for a second time, as I was sure she was going to ask me to stay and help them deal with their new problem. She didn't, she didn't even mention what I had done for them up in Lebanon, and all she wanted to talk about was my philanthropic work in Greece and the various expeditions I had financed.