Upfall

Brom looked at him. "You're not still uneasy that he's American? It's highly unusual for immigrants to be accepted into our best units. And you have two—Shapira and Bolander."

"Bolander immigrated as a child" interrupted Yatom.

"Still."

"They are both trustworthy and reliable soldiers. End of story."

"Mofaz?"

"Beseder" grunted Yatom, using the universal Israel word for okay. "Sometimes he seems to think he is a Macabee or Mordecai Anielewicz, but I'm not going to complain about such an officer." Yatom himself was from kibbutz Yad Mordecai, named for the Warsaw Ghetto martyr.

"He refused your order."

"Argued it" Yatom smiled. "It's our way. Besides, he was right." Brom nodded. "We'll replace your man. Expanding the sayeret may not be feasible at present. Mofaz will remain your deputy until you tell me otherwise, or someone gets rid of you or me."

"Then we could maybe get some sleep" said Yatom. In a separate part of the underground facility Feldhandler examined masses of data thrown up by his computers. The scientist examined masses of data thrown up by his computers. The scientist too had not slept for days, but chronic insomnia had been a bane since childhood. Eventually, he would crash, but at the moment he felt fine. It would have been normal for Feldhandler to feel triumphant, but that wasn't his way. Feldhandler cared little for public acknowledgement, so long as he got money, support and his way.

To the world he was known as the co-creator of Feldhandler-Gallardo Condensate, an exotic material that did not absorb light but actually slowed it. Other experimental condensates had manged the feat at extremely low temperatures, but Feldhandler and his Argentine-Jewish partner Arturo Gallardo, had created a condensate stable at ordinary temperatures.

For Israel, sympathetic care and feeding of the taciturn genius had paid off. In secret, and before his thirty-fifth birthday, he had delivered the world's first functioning fusion reactor to his government. It was a research reactor, buried deep underground, and not yet suitable for civilian use or mass energy production, but it provided Israel's super-secret Dinoma facility with unprecedented power and research capabilities.

Three years and billions of dollars later Feldhandler presented the transport device. Feldhandler had sold the concept in vague terms, as a means to transport troops and equipment, secretly and safely, anywhere they needed to be. In fact, the Device was capable of opening a space/time wormhole, thanks to the power of the reactor and Feldhandler-Gallardo Condensate, which could keep the hole sufficiently stable to transport a specially constructed capsule.

Such were Feldhandler's accomplishments and reputation that ordinary bureaucratic caution was thrown to the wind. He was given the funding, manpower and material to create the Device and the transport facility adjacent to the fusion reactor. It was at the junction of the two the Feldhandler now worked, surrounded by a dozen other scientists and technicians, for whom the diminutive scientist was a virtual demi-god. They would do whatever he told them to do.

Chief among the acolytes was Andrea Perchensky, a preternaturally bright young woman, in her late twenties. In Perchensky Feldhandler had his Watson, or perhaps more appropriately, his Liesl Meitner to his Otto Frisch—that is assuming that Otto Frisch had been a good deal brighter. Like Feldhandler, Perchensky had advanced well ahead of her peers, and completed university studies at a time when her childhood friends were text- messaging their way through high school. Like Feldhandler she'd interrupted her Ph.D. studies at the University of Gottingen to complete her Army service. Unlike Feldhandler, who spent three years working in various Israeli missile units, Perchansky had spent half of her Army time working on the Device, before returning to Germany to wrap up her degree. Now she was back where she was happiest, sitting one computer over from her mentor.

The Device required unprecedented amounts of energy, which the reactor could only supply in small bursts. Because it was a fusion reactor, it could never be safely shut down, any more than you could turn off the sun, but the plasma could be brought into differing energy levels. The nuclear team was endeavoring to limit the plasma's energy for the time being. Feldhandler stayed at the computer monitors for several additional minutes until satisfied that all operations were within acceptable limits. He thanked his team and prepared to leave. He glanced at Perchensky and with a nod, asked her to come with him. They walked slowly back toward the transport area.

In his typical fashion Feldhandler went right to the point, avoiding an exchange of congratulation.

"With our success today, we should get permission to launch another mission within a few weeks" Feldhandler told her. "We can't rest on our laurels."