Upfall

Now it was the turn of the generals and politicians to roll their eyes at the enraged scientist. Arbel who spoke first, and if he was pleased that Feldhandler had just supported him he did not show it.

"Who are you to tell the leadership of the State what to do!" the defense minister barked.

Feldhandler turned to him, fury still in his eyes. "You yourself just castigated the Prime Minister for allowing this..."

"Yes, but I am the Minister of Defense, not some mid-level bureaucrat at Dimona. And besides, I only think we should put off the matter — delay — play some games." He looked over to the Prime Minister who nodded approvingly. Arbel went on. "You have no idea what you are talking about Dr. Feldhandler. No conception of the broader issues the country faces. You were asked here to give technical advice, not your feelings on state policy."

"Clearly, we have to cooperate with the Americans" the Prime Minister said, looking now directly at Feldhandler. "Whether we do it tomorrow or next month it must be done. And you, Professor Feldhandler, will have to cooperate when I tell you to cooperate. That is not negotiable."

Feldhandler stared ahead fixedly, but said nothing.

The once boisterous room remained silent, waiting for the Prime Minister to continue. "We will cooperate with the Americans, but not fully, not yet" he said, and then looked over toward the Chief of Staff and then Brom. The COS nodded at Brom who took over.

"We have raised the prospect of another operation, gotten off quickly, using the Device and Colonel Yatom's sarayet. The Prime Minister will bring it before the security cabinet, in accord with our protocols."

There was an excited stirring in the room now, like a fresh breeze that blew out the poisoned atmosphere that hung over the table just moments before. Brom continued.

"We‘ve dubbed the operation Kela, or some of us prefer the English word — for it: Slingshot. The operation can be carried out as soon as actionable intelligence appears and Yatom's sarayet is brought up to full strength. According to Professor Feldhandler, modifications to the device will allow Yatom to bring at least one additional man, and more equipment than we used in Iran."

"And the objective?" asked Moshe Hagni, the head of Shin Bet, one of the few men sitting at the table who had not been previously briefed on the matter.

"Liquidation" said Brom. "Liquidation the leader of Hezbollah by."

Hagni, a sharp man, interrupted Brom and finished his statement. "By sending a sarayet back temporally after intelligence has located the target. We can't miss."

"Correct" said Brom.

"Who exactly?" asked Hagni.

"Imam Mughniyeh" said Brom matter-of-factly, as though they were going to deliver mail, not death. Brom had the attention of everyone in the room now, because Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's defense chief had been at the top of Israel's (and America's) hit list for more than two decades. He was Islamic terrorism's true boogey man - deadly, skilled and elusive. He made Al Qaeda's leadership look like rank amateurs.

"Excuse me" interrupted Yatom "but Mughniyeh is dead— killed by a bomb in Damascus in 2008. Or am I missing something?"

"Mughniyeh faked his own death" said Levy. "As you may remember, Israel never took credit for the operation, and indeed we had nothing to do with it. It was an internal Hezbollah op."

"There was some speculation at the time that the whole affair was faked, as a way of giving Mughniyeh free reign and at the same time giving Hezbollah a new excuse to mobilize their supporters and ‘strike back‘ at us" said Brom. "For once the idiot fringe speculation was true."

Yatom pursed his lips as if to suggest he'd heard it all.

"We have two advantages now" said Brom. "First, we know that in fact he is alive. And secondly, with the Device, as Hagni said, if we know exactly where Mughniyeh will be, before he gets there." Brom, allowed his voice to trail off, and gestured with his hands, like a waiter presenting a filleted fish.

"But how far back do you go?" It was Adam Kaplinsky, the Prime

Minister's science advisor, who had only recently learned about Slingshot, and was unwilling to discount its risks. "In the Iranian operation temporal displacement was a matter of seconds, which reduced to insignificance causality/ paradox issues. But if I understand the concept of this operation correctly, you will need more time - minutes at least and perhaps more?"

Brom nodded, and looked around. The Security Cabinet ministers, other than Arbel appeared confused, as did a representative of the Home Command. "So we are all clear, the issue raised by Dr. Kaplinsky is the danger of causal paradoxes created by a time shift of more than a few seconds."

There was some murmur of agreement around the room, along with several blank and confused stares.

"Perhaps this issue is best dealt with by Dr. Feldhandler" said the Prime Minister.

"Fine" said Feldhandler, and with that, stood and ushered over Mina from her perch on the periphery.