Upfall

Even with the binoculars nothing else significant was visible. Yatom could tell nothing from the railroad tracks—how could you tell a 1942 railroad bed from one seventy years later? The telephone poles did look antique. But then again they were supposedly eastern Poland. It wasn't hard to believe that the modern Poles still had an antiquated phone system.

Feldhandler put down his field glasses and reached into a back pocket on his webbing, producing a mit'znefet which meant "clown hat" in Hebrew. The mit'znefet was a loose camouflaged net covering that went over the combat helmet. It looked somewhat silly, but it effectively broke up and distorted the helmet's shape, making for a more difficult target. In grassy and wooded terrain it was particularly useful. Yatom looked over at Mofaz and Shapira and shrugged. They took out their own mit'znefetim and put them on. Yatom was annoyed.

He wasn't thinking for himself but was following the lead of a middle-aged scientist. Yatom radioed Itzak.

"Have the men put on their mit'z'nefetim" he ordered.

"Already done" Itzak radioed back. Yatom scowled. "Send Chaim and Bolander to patrol due west of the landing site—no more than two clicks."

"Acknowledged."

While Yatom spoke Feldhandler walked off into the open field.

Yatom started to follow, but Mofaz grabbed him by the sleeve. "Let him go" said the Major.

Mofaz turned to Perchansky. "What do you think?"

"Madness?" she offered.

"Maybe" answered Mofaz. "In any case, I don't see this as anything that requires our action. Even if the professor is right, our job is to get back home, not run around in some strange place and time."

"Agreed" said Yatom. He looked over at Shapira for unanimity, but the Lieutenant looked doubtful. "What Lieutenant?"

Shapira gave a quick shake of the head, and pointed toward Feldhandler. "Look at him."

The officers raised their binoculars again. Feldhandler was on the railroad embankment crouched along the track. He removed an item from his equipment bag that looked like a dun colored stone, but it had a detonator embedded in its side. It wasn't a stone, but a small piece of plastique that Feldhandler had molded into that innocuous shape and then spray painted. They'd all seen many similar charges laid by Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"He's laying a charge" said Yatom.

The scientist then trotted down the embankment toward the west and for a moment disappeared behind a copse of trees nearer to the tracks. He emerged a few minutes later.

"He placed another charge" said Shapira. "He's going to bomb a train."

"Shit" said Yatom in English. He raised Feldhandler on the radio. "What are you doing?"

"It's obvious isn't it?" Feldhandler radioed back. "I'm going to attack a rail transport. I could use some help."

"You're mad."

"You'll see that I am r1ot—were wasting our batteries. Meet rrre in the field." Feldhandler waved and pointed to a spot on the grassy field between the tracks and the tree line.

Yatom radioed Itzak. "Any word from Chaim?"

"Affirmative."

"Report."

"They are a click out. Just more woods. A small stream in the distance."

"He's been correct so far" said Shapira, who like all the commandos monitored the same communication net. "If we are where and when he says—and right now I've no reason to doubt him—it's likely that train will pass by here eventually—a German train."

"He can't seriously consider attacking a German train by himself—even if it's 1942" said Yatom, incredulous that he was even having this ridiculous discussion.

"We don't have any authorization or orders to attack anything" Mofaz reminded him. "German, Polish, Lebanese—it doesn't matter. We are on a training mission. Our duty is to return to base."

"Not really a German train" said Shapira, taking back his own words, and ignoring Mofaz. "Feldhandler used the word transport. In southeastern Poland in 1942 the priority transport on the rails was not Germans..."

"It was Jews" said Perchansky, finishing his sentence.

"Ach!" groaned Yatom, but for the first time since they'd arrived things were making sense to him. Yatom got on the radio to Feldhandler.

"Pick a spot and lay down. I'll meet you. Out." He turned to Mofaz. "Bring your team up, with Ido and Rafi too. Have Itzak call back the patrol and wait for them at the capsule."

Mofaz looked at him as if he'd gone crazy too, and did nothing. Yatom decided not to get into it with the Mofaz at the moment. He told Nir to issue the order, which the sergeant promptly did.

"Ron" Yatom said, turning toward Shapira. "When the men arrive, take Roi and move one click west of here, staying in the undergrowth. Stop right about where the tracks disappear behind those trees. Understood?"

"Yes commander!" said Shapira, relieved to get some orders and to finally have something constructive to do. He was so pleased he considered saluting Yatom, but thought better of it. It wasn't the Israeli way. Instead he went off into the woods to meet the men moving forward.