Chapter 1

 

Twenty-five years ago

 

     On the day he turned nine years old, Zedaki Urguantu shot and killed his first human.  He nearly dropped the heavy silver pistol as it bucked wildly in his hand when he pulled the trigger.  But it had done exactly what he expected it to.  It had killed the man they had tied to the post and told him to shoot.  He lowered the heavy gun, then shrugged as he looked up at the man with the sunglasses.  “Now what?”

     A year earlier, Zed had watched from behind the scrub brush of the field as his village was burned and the army had killed everyone they could catch.  Well, almost everyone.  Most of the boys who looked to be old enough, were herded together and put into the back of a truck where they were later driven away…after everyone else had been murdered.  Everyone that they could round up and find anyway.  He had simply gotten lucky.  He had also been smart enough not to make a sound when anyone came searching too close. 

     He had survived.  But to what end?  When the army had left, he was virtually alone.  In the dark of the night, lit only by the still burning embers of the village, he could see nobody other than himself still alive.  “Stay down!  Stay silent!  Let the dark of the night hide you!” his mother had urged as she quickly shoved him toward the fields behind their hut.  It was the last words he would ever hear from her.  The last time he ever saw her.  When it was over, he knew better than to bother looking.  He’d rather remember her the way he had known her, not the way he was afraid she would look now.

     He had sat where he was, completely unmoving until first light.  All night long he had watched as the fires grew dimmer and dimmer, and the night became darker and darker.  The putrid smell of charred flesh was strong in the night air.  The smoke blowing in his face was sometimes worse.  But he sat unmoving and never once closed his eyes to any of it. 

     And when the faint light of the predawn sun showed the birds already flying in to feast on what was left, he knew then that it was truly over.  Only then did he bother to even turn his head to see if he could see anyone else still alive.  He waited and watched until the sun crept over the trees…until he could see everything clearly.  Despite the smoke, he could see no one else alive.  Nothing else alive, except the carrion birds.  It was no longer safe for him to stay there.  The birds were just the first of the scavengers who would pick over what was left.  The animals that would come next would kill and eat him as nothing more than a snack. 

     Knowing the direction that the army had come from and gone back to, he got up and started walking in the opposite direction.  There was a road there…of sorts.  He followed it.  He had been to the next village twice before his father had been killed earlier in the year.  It was the only direction he knew to go.

     Within a few months, he became just one of many homeless, nearly naked beggars just trying to survive where there was nothing for them to survive on.  By the end of the year, he had become a master at surviving and taking what he could get.  But he had also become bigger.  While his overly skinny body looked like it shouldn’t be able to stand upright, he had still grown taller.  Tall enough for a group of army men to notice him one day and chase him down.  And he hadn’t even stolen anything lately!  He got roped together with a few other boys they had taken and they were all thrown into the back of a truck.  He figured he was now going to die…and he didn’t care.  That was fine as far as he was concerned.  He had no reason to live anyway. 

     But when the truck stopped, some army man who was obviously way too drunk, talked to them about now being part of the elite army command and what a great honor it was.  To which all the rest of the soldiers around them laughed.  And then, wonder of wonders, his hands were untied, and he was led somewhere else…and given food!  And water!  It was just given to them!  He nearly got sick he ate so fast.  And the next day, they fed him again!  He was perfectly happy to stay right where he was, doing nothing, and take all the food he could get – for free!

     More boys were added to their group.  He noticed now that not all of the boys there were as naked as he was.  Some of the older ones had real clothes!  They were the ones who didn’t say much though.  They were the ones whose eyes told him he should run instead of stay where he was.  But he made the mistake of not trusting what those eyes were telling him.

     And a week later, everything changed.  Men came in with armload after armload of guns, and dropped them all in one big pile.  He sat while a man quickly explained how to work the guns.  He made it sound so easy.  He picked up a gun, held up one bullet and slid back something on the side of the gun and put the bullet in.  He closed it again and clicked something.  He showed them how to aim it and then pulled the trigger.  The resounding gunshot startled all of them.  And that was the only lesson on how to work the guns that they got.  They were each given one gun and one bullet with the order to not load the bullet until they were told to. 

     He sat in the dirt and examined the big heavy gun with the green strap wrapped around his neck.  He had never held a gun before, but he had seen lots of them.  And he had unfortunately seen all too closely what they could do.  He was very curious about the gun.  Very!  He began moving things and pushing the little switch on the side back and forth, none of which did anything that he could see.  Even pulling the trigger didn’t do anything.  But he didn’t expect it to.  Not without the bullet he was still holding in his hand. 

     One of the bigger kids came close and suddenly pushed him backwards.  In moments his one single bullet was ripped from his hands.  Now what was he going to do?  As far as he could tell, his gun was now useless.  Before he could put up much of a protest, they were all herded out and into the back of a truck where they sat and rode for hour after hour after hour.  Most of them fell asleep despite the bone jarring bumpy ride. 

     It was nearly evening when the truck finally stopped and they all got to get out.  They all relieved themselves in the dense woods.  He was given a small drink of water, but no food.  And then the man was talking to them again.  It was time to prove what valuable soldiers they all were.  It was time to show the world that they were real men, not just children holding a gun.  It was time now to fight bravely for the Colonel and the honor of the army.  And they would be leading the way – right through the middle of the village ahead!  They were told to load their one bullet and to shoot anyone at all that they saw – no matter who it was.  If it wasn’t one of them, then it was the enemy and they needed to kill them. 

      “I have no bullet!” Zed complained.  His concern was echoed by half a dozen of the newest boys. 

      “You shouldn’t have lost it.  You’ll just have to make due the best you can!” he was told.

     Zed was disgusted.  This wasn’t right.  Many more trucks full of men, real men, pulled up behind them and the road was soon clogged with them further back than Zed could tell.  And soon the order came to march…or walk – quickly.  If it wasn’t for all the men behind him holding guns that he was sure were loaded, he would have broken and ran.  But he also noticed that they were flanked on the sides now buy a row of soldiers who were watching for just such cowardice.  He walked.  Holding his useless weapon with the strap slung around his neck. 

     The village came into sight, and the signal came immediately to break into a run and shoot anyone they saw – with his useless gun.  He ran, but not at anyone, or to anywhere, he just ran to try to stay out of the way.  People scattered around them as the weapons from some of the boys sounded loudly.  He saw some of those boys stopping to reload – the ones who had taken the extra bullets.  He finally hid behind a large water jar, making himself as small as possible so the jar would shield as much of him as possible.  And from there, he watched.  And from there he saw the strategy.  The young boys were being used like bait.  The people from the village saw them approaching and shooting…which let the real army men know who had the guns and who to shoot first.  It was brutal, but effective.  It was smart.  And as far as Zed was concerned, really, really stupid!  He was hoping he could disappear into the jungle before it was all over with.

     He didn’t make it.  Long after most of the army had passed by him and just before he was about to get to his feet and run, a soldier stood over top of him.  The man reached down and grabbed Zed by the arm and yanked him to his feet.  “What’s wrong with you?” the soldier yelled.  “Are you a coward?”

      “No bullet!” Zed explained.

      “You already shot your round?” the man asked.  “Did you hit anything?” he laughed.

      “No.” Zed replied.  He wasn’t exactly lying.

      “Wait here with me,” the man ordered. 

     Zed’s chance to run away was lost.  Maybe he would be fed again soon though.  So he waited, wishing he could get rid of the heavy useless gun that was still strapped over his shoulder.  And that’s when a jeep drove up and stopped right next to them.  The soldier stood at attention and saluted.  Zed didn’t bother, he simply took in the tall man with the big sunglasses…and the fancy bright handgun sticking out of a holster strapped to his hip.  

     He didn’t know who the man with the sunglasses was.  Somebody important, that’s all he could tell.  But the man was angry because evidently whoever they had been after had escaped.  The man with the sunglasses was currently taking his frustration out on the soldier who had just kept Zed from running away a few minutes ago.  Zed shook his head as he listened.  The whole thing had been stupid.  “That’s because you do it wrong,” he said disgustedly as he turned and walked away.

      “What did you say boy?” the voice angrily lashed after him.  “Show some respect!”  The voice was from the soldier, not the man with the sunglasses.

     But Zed had no respect for the man.  Not if this was his idea of how to capture or kill somebody.  “I said you do it wrong!” he boldly insisted. 

     Before he knew what had happened the soldier came over and painfully knocked him to the ground.  And then to make matters worse, the man kicked him.  “You’ll shut up and learn respect!” the soldier growled.

      “You still do it wrong!” Zed replied defiantly.  Which earned him another painful kick to his undernourished ribs.  He didn’t hear the man with the sunglasses yell because he was too busy trying to get his lungs to accept air again. 

     When he could breathe, the soldier hauled him to his feet again and took his gun from him.  “You’ll learn respect!” the soldier growled menacingly.   Zed just shrugged.  At least he was rid of the useless encumbrance of the gun. 

      “What did we do wrong?” the man with the sunglasses asked.  His question was greeted by some laughter from the group of soldiers that had now gathered around, as if anything Zed might say was already considered to be nothing but a joke.  The man with the sunglasses smiled and raised his hand to silence his men.  He asked the question again.  “What did we do that was wrong?”

      “You wouldn’t listen, if I told you,” Zed’s surly voice returned.

      “And why not?  Is it really because you don’t have an answer?” the man with the sunglasses laughed…along with everyone else.

      “No!  Because you’re too blind by what your eyes tell you to see anything else!” Zed replied.

     The man with the sunglasses held up his hand again to quell the laughter.  “And what should our eyes have told us?”

      “They should have seen everything that the animal you hunt would have done.”

     The laugher wasn’t so much now.  “We weren’t hunting an animal.  We were hunting a man!”

      “Man, animal, it makes no difference.  It’s still the same.  You hunt a man like you hunt a lion.”

     There was more men around to listen, and now the laughter was louder.  “A lion!  And what would you know of hunting a lion?”

     Zed refused to be cowed.  “Far more than you, obviously.”

      “Well then little soldier, tell us how to hunt a lion?”

     Zed looked at him and the men all around.  They were all laughing at him.  But he knew how to hunt lions, and just about anything else too.  His father had been a great warrior, a great hunter.  And even though he was as young as he was, he had gone hunting with his father many times.  And he had learned quickly.  Maybe it had always been his father’s hand that had killed the beast, but he knew how it had to be done.  He looked boldly up at the man with the sunglasses.  “When you catch a lion, you hunt like a lion…like a pack of lions.  You stay down, silent and hidden, with the wind in your face so he can’t smell you.  You move only when you need to, slow and sure.  And you don’t let the lion know you are there until it is too late.  And when he runs, you only leave him one direction to run to…right where someone else is waiting to kill him before he realizes it.  That’s how you kill a lion.  You don’t chase it away and say you killed it.  You do it right!”

     There was a small measure of laughter, but that’s all.  Most of the men were silent now.  “And where did you learn this?” the man asked.

      “My father was a great hunter!” Zed replied.  “He taught me much.”

     The man nodded.  “So it seems.  What is your name little soldier?”

      “Zed.”

      “Did you shoot anyone today?” the man asked.

      “He is a coward!” the original soldier spat.  I found him hiding halfway down the street where he couldn’t get hurt.”

      “So you didn’t shoot anyone,” the man with the sunglasses stated.

     Zed shrugged.  “No bullet.”

      “They didn’t give you a bullet?”

      “They gave me one.  And another boy took it.”  His reply earned him more laughter.

      “He’s a coward anyway.  At least the bullet got put to better use,” the soldier laughed.

      “Are you a coward Zed?” the man with the sunglasses asked.

      “No.”  There was no bragging.  It was just a fact.

     Before Zed knew what was happening, the man with the sunglasses turned and pointed at the man who had just accused him…the same man who had beaten and kicked him.  “Grab him!  Bind him to that post!”

     Zed nearly ran as the scuffle started.  With much cursing and yelling, the man was soon bound with his hands behind the post.  And suddenly the man with the sunglasses had the gun Zed had held earlier in his hands and was walking towards him again.  “Are you a coward, Zed?” the man asked again.

      “I said I wasn’t,” Zed replied.  “I’m not stupid either, like most of the other boys.”

      “Why is that?” the man asked. 

      “Why should I stand in the middle of the street and get shot at if I don’t even have a gun that works?”

     The man nodded and held the rifle out toward Zack.  “Here’s your gun.  Take it!”

     Zed grabbed it again, not glad to have it back again.  

      “Now shoot him!” the man said as he quickly turned toward the bound man.

      “No bullet,” Zed said – just as he had earlier.

     The man with the sunglasses looked quickly around.  “A bullet for this gun?” he asked as he looked around.  It was a few moments before someone found one that would fit.  But once Zed held the bullet, the little door to chamber the round into the gun wouldn’t open.  He heard more laughter from a few of the men. 

      “Here, give me that!” the man with the sunglasses said, tired of waiting.  He grabbed the gun right out of Zed’s hand.  And in its place, he pulled the fancy silver pistol from the holster at his belt.  “This one is already loaded.”

     The pistol was very heavy in Zed’s hand as he raised it toward the man chained to the post.  The man yelled pitifully, but Zed didn’t care.  He tried to pull the trigger, but nothing happened. 

      “Here!” the man with the sunglasses said again as he grabbed the gun still in Zed’s hand.  He moved the tiny lever on the side of the gun and then pulled back the hammer.   “Now it’s ready to shoot.”

     Without pausing or caring, Zed turned toward the man chained to the post.  His eyes were wide with fright.  And at nine years old, Zed pulled the trigger and killed his first man.  He wasn’t prepared for the wild recoil of the heavy gun and almost dropped it in the process, but he didn’t.  He saw the large bleeding hole in the man’s chest and the blood escaping from the man’s lips as he slipped down toward the ground, dying quickly.  That fast, and that easily, he had killed the man.  And Zed felt nothing.  No horror, no elation, nothing.  As if it was something useless he did every day of his life.  He lowered the heavy gun, then shrugged as he looked up at the man with the sunglasses again.  “Now what?”

      “Now we see if you have what it takes to be a real soldier,” the man with the sunglasses said.  “You can call me Colonel Quar.”

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

     On that same day, at the same moment that Zed had killed the man, half a world away, on his ninth birthday, Ben Harris shot and killed his first lion.  One single shot rang out, and the beast was knocked to the ground dead, the bullet had gone straight through its heart. 

     Ben smiled jubilantly from his perch in the tree.  He had been leaving the house before dawn for the last three days, climbing the wooded hill at the back of the farm and then climbing his favorite tree.  The view of the farm and valley below them was incredible.  But watching the sun come up over the horizon to gradually light everything was nothing less than amazing. 

     Two days before, he had climbed the tree with the camera he had gotten as an early birthday gift from his grandparents.  His intention had been to take pictures of the sunrise over the farm.  That was the day he had first noticed the mountain lion.  But the animal was gone before he could focus his camera.  He had told his father about the beast, but his father had told him instead, “There aren’t any lions in this part of the state.  They don’t come anywhere around here.  You probably saw a dog.”  Ben wasn’t so sure.  To him, it really hadn’t looked that much like a dog.

     So he had climbed the tree with his camera again yesterday.  The sun had come up and he had taken a few more pictures of the landscape.  But his eyes were mostly watching the spot where he had seen the lion the day before.  But today when the lion appeared, it was moving faster and hadn’t paused in its journey to wherever it was going.  Ben hadn’t had time to even aim the camera before it was gone.  But one thing he was sure of, the animal hadn’t looked like a dog at all.  To him, it looked exactly like the mountain lions he had seen in books and on TV. 

     Again he told his father what he had seen.  His father just shook his head.  “It wasn’t a lion!” he insisted. 

      “It was!” Ben argued.

      “Ben!” his father had said angrily.  “Get it out of your head.  There are no mountain lions around here!  If there was, we’d be cleaning up dead cattle and organizing hunting parties to find the damn thing.  We haven’t even lost a single chicken!  So there is no lion!”

     Ben knew differently.

     But later in the afternoon, his father had brought out several of his guns that he used for hunting.  And as he sometimes did, he gathered the family together for some target shooting fun.  His mother, his sister, his brother, and even he had been allowed to shoot the rifles.  It was something they all enjoyed, and something that Ben considered himself to be just as good at as anyone else in his family, despite being the youngest.  Put a rifle in his hands, and Ben never missed!

     Perhaps it was because of that target shooting that Ben paused to look at his father’s gun just before he left the house the day of his birthday.  The guns weren’t usually locked away anywhere, they were all out where they could be easily reached.  But nobody in the family would dare even touch one of them unless his father had told them it was okay.  But that morning, before leaving the house, Ben put his camera away and grabbed his father’s rifle instead.  He checked to see if it was loaded.  As he knew it would be, it was. 

     Climbing the tree with the heavy gun was his biggest problem.  But once up where he liked to be, he had an easier time with it.  He could even rest the gun on a tree limb as he aimed it where he expected to see the lion, if it came again, and if it really was a lion.  He was still aiming at the spot where he had seen the animal before, pretending it was there and that he was shooting the dangerous beast, when suddenly the animal really was there.  Seeing it startled Ben and he made a lot of noise as he almost slipped from his perch in the tree.  The lion heard it and stopped, quickly looking around to see if there was any danger.  With the lion once again in his sights, Ben never hesitated at all.  He pulled the trigger and the kickback from the big gun nearly made him slip from his perch in the tree again.  It was a few seconds before he was able to look down to see what had happened.  The lion was still there.  It was laying on its side now.  Dead!

     Climbing down from the tree with the big gun was even more difficult than climbing up the tree had been.  He cautiously approached the animal he had shot.  Lion!  For sure!  But was it dead?  It looked like he had hit the thing right where his father had always told him he should aim – at the heart.  As far as he could see, the thing wasn’t breathing.  He was tempted to drag the thing back to the house to show his father, but it was bigger than he thought it would be, not to mention that he was still afraid the thing might still be alive.  Carrying the big gun, he took off at a trot for the house.

     He didn’t have to run very far because his father was running in his direction.  The sound of the shot had alerted him to trouble.  Ben stopped and waited until his father got to him.

      “Ben!” he father had yelled before he had even stopped running.  “What the hell are you doing?”

      “I shot it, Dad,” Ben said proudly as his father pulled to a stop right in front of him and quickly grabbed the gun out of his hands.

      “What have I told you about touching my guns!” his father had roared.  “You never, ever touch any of the guns in the house.  For any reason!”

      “But I shot it,” Ben insisted.

     His father shook his head.  “What did you shoot?” he asked.

      “The lion.”

      “Ben, there are no lions around here!”

      “Not anymore,” Ben said proudly.

      “Where is it,” his father asked, resigned to finding out who’s dog his son had just shot…if he had shot anything at all.

      “Back this way,” Ben said as he turned and ran back toward the hill and the trees.  His father followed, but at a resigned walk.

     Ben stood back from the inert body of the cat and waited as his father slowly walked up the hill.  But his father moved a lot faster as soon as he saw the dead animal.  “Shit!” Ben heard his father exclaim.

      “It’s a lion, isn’t it?” Ben asked.

      “Yeah,” his father said as he knelt down to examine the dead body.  “And it’s a big one.”

      “You wouldn’t believe me,” Ben said as his father ran his hand over the lion’s body.”

     His father looked up at him.  “Where did you shoot it from?” 

      “Up there,” Ben replied as he pointed to the big tree much further up the hill in the distance.

     His father looked at the tree.  It was one he himself knew well since it was one he had climbed as a boy, and he himself had pointed that very tree out to Ben a few years ago.  What surprised him the most, was the distance.  If Ben had really killed the lion from up in that tree, then it was one hell of a shot.  Shit, the damn animal had been shot in the heart.  No matter where Ben had been shooting from, it was one hell of a shot.  Had Ben simply gotten lucky?  But he wasn’t too sure about the luck.  He had seen Ben shoot before.  As young as he was, the kid was damn good with a gun. 

      “Ben,” he said for lack of anything better to say, “don’t you know that lions can climb trees almost as fast as they can run across the ground?  Being in a tree is about the last place you want to be with a lion around.  They run to the trees for cover when they’re frightened.”

      “I…I didn’t think about that,” Ben said.  “You didn’t believe me, and I just wanted to shoot the thing.”

     His father nodded as he stood up.  “Well, turns out you were right, Ben.  And whether you should have or not, you killed it with one hell of a damn good shot. “ 

     Ben just shrugged.  “I knew it could do it.  It wasn’t hard at all.”

     His father just looked from Ben, up to the tree in the distance.  One hell of a good shot, from a long way off!  And today was only his son’s ninth birthday!

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

     At exactly the same time that Zed had killed his first man and Ben had killed his first lion, nine year old Elaina Kedar picked her first lock and slipped out of her room at the Israeli orphanage.  One lock down, one more to go.  She glanced nervously around at the empty hallway and continued on toward the end of the hall.  She opened the stairway door there and descended the cement stairs all the way to the ground floor.  There were two doors there, one leading to the ground floor inside, and one leading to the outside.  And like her room had been, the outside door was locked.  The fact that the door had a sign saying, “Fire Exit” over top of it, and it was still locked, meant nothing to her.  It was her birthday.  She was nine years old that day.  And she was determined to escape the orphanage she lived in.

     Taking the two tiny wires in her hand, she slipped them carefully into the lock and began working them around.  She only had a vague idea of what she was doing, but all the trial and error on the door to her own room had taught her something.  It took her almost five minutes, far faster than she expected, but suddenly the entire lock seemed to turn with the pressure of her wires, and the lock was opened. 

     Grabbing the makeshift lock picks in her hand, she cautiously opened the door.  No alarm, but then she didn’t expect any.  She carefully stuck her head through the opening and looked around, nobody in sight.  She slipped through and eased the door closed silently behind her.  She was out!  But now where should she go?

     Not wanting to be spotted, she searched for her best source of cover.  The sparse woods in the distance seemed like a good idea, but it was a long way to get to them.  Easing along the side of the building, moving toward the back, she came to the back corner where there was a small parking area with several large trash dumpsters.  Poking her head around the corner, she didn’t see anyone in sight.  She ran from the building and hid behind the closest dumpster.  A second later, she was behind the second one, and finally the third.  Still seeing nobody around, she took a chance and sprinted for the trees.

 

 

      “What the hell?” the security guard exclaimed.  His attention had been caught by movement on the surveillance TV screen – where there shouldn’t have been any.  He watched as a girl ran off towards the trees in the distance.  “What the hell?” he exclaimed again.  He wasted no time however and ran – not for the exit to chase the girl, but for the director’s office.  He didn’t knock or even stop to speak to the secretary just outside the office.  He simply ran all the way into the inner office.  Eli Heskel was behind his desk, in conference with another man that the guard had never seen.  “Elaina’s at it again!” he exclaimed quickly.  “I just saw her on the monitor, running for the trees.”

      “What?” Eli shouted as he got up from his seat.  “I just locked her in her room not half an hour ago!  Make sure she doesn’t get out the gate.  And this time maybe you better send a few others to try to collect her.  I doubt she’s stupid enough to try to climb the fence, but with her, you never know!”

      “You locked her in her room?” his guest asked as the guard ran out to take care of the girl. 

      “Not half an hour ago!” Eli complained. 

      “What for?”

      “Huh!” Eli grunted.  “Elaina Kedar is the most troublesome, frustrating, and manipulative child I’ve ever known!  She terrorizes not only the other kids, but half the staff as well!  She’s always getting herself into trouble, or more usually, getting someone else in trouble over something that she did.  And then we don’t find out the truth until long afterwards!”

     His guest smiled.  “She sounds…delightful.”

     The look that Eli gave him was anything but a smile, and it conveyed years of frustration.

      “What was her offense that got her locked up this time?”

     Eli rolled his eyes.  “You’d never in a million years believe it!”

     His guest’s smile broadened.  “I can’t wait to hear about it now.”

     Eli shook his head.  “One of the boys in the school was found a few days ago, wandering around here wearing a dress!  And when we asked him about it, he kept telling us it was only because he wanted to!”

      “I didn’t know you allowed the boys to…express themselves that way.”

      “We don’t!  What he did didn’t make sense – especially not with him!  Basically, the boy is another one of our problem kids.  He has a fondness for picking on the younger kids.  So when we found him in the dress, it made even less sense than some of the others we get through here.”

      “But I take it that wasn’t the case?”

     Eli shook his head.  “Not by a long shot.  It took a little digging, and a couple of days to get the real truth out of him.  It was the fact that the dress belonged to Elaina that finally pointed us in the real direction.  Only then did the kid tell us the real truth…or part of it anyway.  Because I know he’s not telling us the whole story.  I actually think he’s too scared.  But it turns out that Elaina had somehow beat the kid up, and then started kicking him in the genitals until she had browbeat him into doing it.  She took his clothes and made him put her dress on, and evidently made him promise to wear it until she said he could take it off.  Of course, when we asked Elaina about it, she wouldn’t say anything at all about the matter, other than to look all too smug with herself and tell us that he deserved it!  Damn girl!”

     Eli’s guest burst out laughing.  “She sounds like lots of fun!”

      “Lots of headaches!” Eli returned.  “I’m half inclined to just let her out the front gate and wipe my hands of her!  And now I have to figure out how she got out of her room.  Not to mention how she got out of the building.”

     His guest leaned forward.  “How does she do with her schoolwork?  Is it acceptable?”

     Eli shrugged.  “It’s acceptable, but for the most part, not nearly what she’s capable of doing.  She doesn’t want to be here, so she simply doesn’t care.”

      “But from what I’m hearing, it sounds like she fairly intelligent.”

      “She’s very intelligent, but as I told you, she doesn’t try.  She’s not interested.”

     His guest sat back in his chair to consider something.  “I can take her off your hands if you like.  I know someplace where she might be a little…happier than she is here.”

      “Happier?  I don’t think she’d be happier unless she was out roaming the streets, stealing whatever she can get her hands on again!”

      “Will you let me have her to try?”

     Eli looked at him.  “You’re serious?  You know an orphanage that will take a problem like that?”

      “It’s not really…an orphanage.  Although I have no doubt she wouldn’t be the only orphan there.  It’s a government school…of sorts.”

      “Huh!  Of sorts?”

      “Of sorts.”

     Eli waited for further explanation, but he didn’t get anything.  He quickly came to a conclusion.  “If you want her, you can have her!  That is, if she doesn’t manage to get out of the fence and disappear before the security staff finds her.  And to tell the truth, I’m betting on her!”

 

 

     Elaina could just barely see the big fence through the trees.  With the three rows of barbed wire running along the entire top, there was no way to climb the thing.  She kept moving, kept hiding, following the fence and looking for any kind of an opening.  It took her a while, but eventually she saw the main gate in the distance.  There was nothing but a large patch of open ground between the trees and the manicured grounds around the gate.  No place to hide, or at least, very little.  But from everything she had seen of the fence, that gate was her only way out.  And it was open – not even closed.  Most likely they didn’t even know she was gone yet.  But then, why should they?

     The gate was open, but there was a guard shack right next to it.  She could see the guard who manned the gate sitting inside, looking away from her.  Not pausing to think, she ran in a crouch for the low hedges that lined the driveway leading up to the orphanage and school behind her.  Once there, she crawled as close to the gate as she could get.  There were flowers planted, making the place seem like it was nice…inviting.  Yeah right!  Not for her!  Ever since she had been put into this place she had considered it nothing less than a prison.  They had even locked her in her room today!  On her birthday!

     Moving slowly, she eased out from behind the cover of the hedge, and in a crouch, moved slowly toward the open gate.  The tall bushes and trees planted just on the other side prevented her from seeing the road beyond, but she wasn’t too worried about that.  She was more concerned with getting out of the gate unnoticed.  The guard still wasn’t looking in her direction.  Slowly and steadily she moved until she was up against the fence.  She eased her way along it until she reached the very corner she needed to get around to get out.  And still the guard wasn’t looking at her.  She could see the glow from a small TV screen inside the shack where he was sitting.

     As fast as she could, she rounded the edge of the fence and ran out…and stopped short!  There was a very big black car sitting right there, with a man standing next to it.  The back door of the car was open.  Waiting.

      “You must be Elaina,” the man said to her. 

     Warily, she watched him, but she said nothing in return.

      “Please,” the man said as he gestured toward the open car door.”

     Her eyes moved, but that was the only thing about her that moved. 

     The man smiled.  “You want out of here, don’t you?”

     This time, her head nodded, but just barely.

      “Then get in the car.  Trust me, it’s your only choice if you want to go somewhere else.”

      “Somewhere else?” she asked suspiciously.

     He nodded.  “Someplace…else.”

      “Where?”

      “Get in the car and I’ll tell you,” he said.  “Otherwise….”  He glanced inside the fence. 

     Elaina chanced looking back.  Security guards! Five of them!  All running her way!  She had been spotted after all.  Damn!”

      “You have a choice,” the man said, “go with me,” he paused for a moment, “or go back with them.  And I have a feeling that my old friend Eli isn’t too pleased with you just now.”

     She glanced back at the security guards again.  They were almost to the gate.  Her decision was immediate.  She ran for the open car door and ducked quickly inside. 

      “She’s going with me,” the man called to the guards.  “Check with Eli about it.”  He didn’t wait for a reply, but he quickly got into the back seat with Elaina and closed the car door.  “Move!” he said to the driver. 

     Elaina was still looking around the big opulent car.  “Where are we going?” she asked.

     The man considered his answer carefully.  “To another school.”  He didn’t miss Elaina rolling her eyes.

      “How long do I have to stay there?”

     The man smiled.  “Until you can easily pick the lock of your room, pick the lock to the front door by the office, escape the grounds without being seen by the security system, and then figure out how to get not only out of the school grounds, but totally out of Israel.”

     She was shocked.  “And how am I supposed to do that?”

     He smiled.  “That…is what they’re going to teach you.  By the way, you can call me Mendel.  Mendel Cohen.