The Caliphate by André Gallo (books to read for 13 year olds .TXT) 📕

of Shoshanna’s hand—only a small whimper escaped her—and then walked her out of the room. Habib stayed alone with Amitai.

     “Let’s get serious,” he said. “I graduated from Carnegie-Mellon—physics and lasers. Don’t think you can bullshit me. Now talk!”

     “Who are you? What do you hope to gain? If you have the education you claim, then you know that this can only have one ending. Israel has been fighting back against people like you for a long time. You will not succeed. Give yourself up. Save your life.”

    Habib realized he was somehow losing control. How did his prisoner now have the initiative? He felt out of his element. He called the guard back into the room and said, “You can talk with me and provide answers to my questions, or I’ll let you alone with him, or better, I’ll bring your wife back and he can work on her. It’s your choice.”

     Not getting any answer from the Israeli, Habib told the guard, “okay, bring her back.”

     Just before the guard reached the door, Amitai said, “Wait” in a resigned tone. He took a breath and said, “For us, this all started during Reagan’s Space Defense Initiative project. But I took the Israeli part of the project in a different direction. The United States invited several countries to participate in the research and development phase, and Israel was one of them. Israeli scientists worked on the SDI R and D both here in Israel and in the United States. The key obstacles, the real breakthroughs, took place right here.”

     He stopped, looked at Habib, and said, “I can’t do this.”

     “Yes you can. Here, have some water. I know that Carnegie Mellon received federal funds related to SDI. Go on, but I don’t need history so much as practical applications.”

     “I need to know that my wife is all right. I won’t go on unless you release her.”

     “I promise we’ll release her, but not before you answer my questions. Give me the information and I’ll get her released. There’s no way I can get her out beforehand. She’s lucky that she’s still alive.”

     Amitai collapsed in his chair. His shoulders slumped and he would have fallen out if he hadn’t been tied to it. He made a slight gurgling sound and tears came down his cheeks.

     “Promise you will release her.”

     “I swear. May Allah cast me in hell if I don’t.”

     Amitai sat up and continued after wiping tears from his face.

     “In any case, the idea was to find an effective way to counter the Soviet missile threat. We were looking at, and experimenting with, lasers powered by hydrogen fluoride. The American idea was either to have the laser in a 747 or to establish stations in space that, with the use of mirrors, could shoot a narrow laser beam to pierce the metal skin of the missile. Either the beam hits the fuel tank and the heat causes it to explode, or the beam burns through the electronics and causes a malfunction.”

     He paused, as his eyes glanced at the bloodstains left by his wife’s hand.

     “Although we were initially interested in SDI to destroy theater ballistic missiles before they leave enemy airspace, we had a new weapon after we were able to harness the tremendous power we get from nuclear energy. We realized—actually I realized—that we could now attack land targets, especially infantry. We were no longer limited to ballistic missiles.”

     “I can well understand how a laser beam could easily pierce the thin metal skin of a missile. But directing it at land targets is of a totally different magnitude, Doctor.”

     “Obviously. A beam still can’t destroy a tank or a building, not yet anyway. However, anyone without protection is vulnerable. So the weapon has the potential to destroy armies out in the open and to keep the enemy’s physical infrastructure fairly intact. We moved to deuterium fluoride, which has a longer wavelength and therefore allows easier transmission through the atmosphere. But it also requires larger mirrors.”

     Habib was extremely conscious of the time pressure. He wanted short answers, not lectures.

     “Yes, and where did all this take you? Where are you now? Is the beam operational or still in the research phase?”

     “Well, eventually, in 1989 actually, after Reagan left the White House, the Cold War was officially over. Someone invented the term ‘peace dividend,’ and money was no longer available for such martial enterprises. SDI research dried up. But we were very interested in continuing this research here in Israel. So that’s what we’re doing.”

     “I don’t believe this is all research. Why, then, the maps on the wall? I can bring Shoshanna back in here if you want.”

     “Shoshanna herself played a big role in thinking of nuclear power in new ways, in ways that the scientific world will one day recognize as historic watersheds. In the mid-nineties, our leadership, Rafael Industries, convinced Jerusalem to make a huge jump. We would power the lasers with nuclear energy. This would allow us to keep the laser gun here, on the ground, and only have to put the mirrors in space. With a lot of expensive and secret work.”

     Habib nodded and said, “Did you say nuclear? That’s impossible. Well, not impossible, but no one has harnessed lasers to nuclear power.”

     A smug grin crept onto Amitai’s face.

     “Our Weizmann Institute has always been in the vanguard; not across the board, we’re not a superpower. However, on certain technologies that touch on our survival, we’ve been on the cutting edge. We haven’t publicized our advances, and for good reasons.”

     Although still extremely aware of the need for quick, actionable information, the scientist in Habib couldn’t help asking, “So tell me, as a fellow scientist, how you overcame the obstacles that no one else