L9

L9

He said, "I am called Michael."

Judith showed Michael the  six numbers tattooed  to her  arm in Ordruf  Nord to  affirm his  knowledge of  her was  correct. She said, "The Crown owes a very large marker to  my father, but he will  not cash  it  in to  obtain a  small  thing, a  concession of  such little  import  it could  not  possibly disconcert  the government in the smallest way. The Foreign Secretary refuses to allow Jews to immigrate to the British Mandate in Palestine. Not even Jews who are already British subjects."

"Oil," said Michael.

Judith nodded. One word,  but it  explained  everything. The Middle-East was awash in petroleum, but if the  Arabs could not be assured that the Jews would never have  an independent state there, they would attack  the wells owned  and operated  by the British. So the Balfour  Declaration and  the Churchill  White Paper of a generation ago were torn up for the worthless pieces of paper they always were,  and all bets  were off in  the Holy Land, even with the moral imperative newly laid on all humanity by the Holocaust.

Judith said, "The admiral  who deceived my  father is  dead. My father has resumed  his profession and he is willing  to let the whole matter go, because has sold his very life to the goyim. To answer your earlier question, Michael,  I would hunt the enemies of my people where they are  rather than wait for them here, but you must see that is quite, quite impossible for me."

"And yet I tell you in all sincerity, Judith  Margolies, if you truly are willing, you can be in Palestine this very day."

An eyebrow raised. Judith said, "Indeed? A few moments, please."

She went  into her  cottage,  and  returned ten  minutes  later carrying a  small  tote  bag with  clothing  and  her  personal effects. She also carried  her  rifle, but  now  she also  had several boxes  of .303  caliber  cartridges  carried on  little straps. But she had not taken  the time to wake  her father and notify him that  she  was  leaving, and  Michael  knew that  as matters stood the  girl could not be persuaded to  speak to him. Michael also noted, with some satisfaction, that Judith carried in one hand a quantity of unleavened bread. That was the essence of the feast of  Passover, to reaffirm  the willingness  of the children of Israel to respond  without delay to the  command of their God to depart their place of captivity. Perhaps Judith had an intuition of who she was really dealing with.