Nir checked his watch again. It was still over an hour before Nicole was scheduled to meet him. But he had gotten to their favorite Aroma coffee shop early because he had to think some things out. His gut seized just a bit, which he knew came from nerves. He was about to have a very important conversation with Nicole, one that could change both their lives and just might change his eternity.
Today was his first full day home after getting in the previous night following a circuitous route that had left him and his team hauling in nets for a Romanian fishing boat for four days. He didn’t mind the work. It was a refreshing relief to be out on the water and away from bullets for a while. But he was also anxious to get back to Tel Aviv. There was a girl who was waiting for him.
He thumbed her a text:
ready to see you
Me 2
maybe if youre lucky ill buy you two espressos
Good. I can finally drink one
myself before you steal it!
possibly. but youll have to be quick
Draining the last from his cup, he motioned for the guy behind the counter to bring him another.
Better be careful. You might make yourself too jittery to even think straight.
But he was already too jittery to think straight. Besides, caffeine was his happy place. No one ever died of a caffeine overdose. Or, if they did, they certainly didn’t have Jewish blood flowing through their veins.
After the days at sea, they had landed in the Bulgarian port city of Varna. From there, they drove through Bucharest and up to Budapest, a journey of well over 1,000 kilometers. Once in Hungary, they split up, which they were more than happy to do after being crammed together in a car across half of Eastern Europe. Each flew a different route, with all arriving within the last 36 hours.
Another reason he had enjoyed his time trapped out on the Black Sea so much was that the world was crazy inside of Israel. Leviathan had been hit by five UAVs, Tamar by three. The damage had been substantial, but it wasn’t enough to shut down production completely. If Israel hadn’t found a way to stop all the other drones, the gas fields would have been overwhelmed, and Israel’s economy would have gone into a tailspin. It might take a month or two, but Israel’s gas production would soon be back up and running at 100 percent.
Instead, it was Turkey’s economy that had taken the brunt of the blowback. There is little that is less tolerated in the Turkish culture than failure. Erdoğan had the opportunity to be a hero or a goat. Leviathan and Tamar were burning, but they weren’t destroyed. Thus, the Turkish president was being widely ridiculed in his own country and abroad. Rumors of early elections or even a military coup were surfacing.
But Turkey’s pain did not mean any gain for Israel. Nir’s people were still being massacred in the press for destroying the “humanitarian” aid that Russia was trying to send to the poor people in Syria. The war in Gaza continued to rage, and the leftist media couldn’t get enough of saying the word genocide. Somehow, Prime Minister Snir was holding on, but who knew for how much longer?
Floating on the water. Hauling in nets. Staying up into the night drinking beer and telling old stories—some real, some made up. Yeah, that sounds pretty good. But not as good as seeing the woman who’s about to walk through the doors of this café.
There was a loud crunch outside, followed by a hard smash. It was the type of metal-to-metal smack that said someone had gotten seriously careless with their car. The first responder in Nir had him instantly on his feet, racing for the doors.
Outside, he could immediately see what had happened. A midsized, white SUV had sideswiped a parked car, then careened into the intersection, where it had T-boned a second car. Victims and witnesses had already begun to exit their vehicles. Nir ran ahead to the T-boned car and pushed his way to the front.
An elderly man was behind the wheel and his wife was in the seat next to him. He was asking her, “Are you okay, motek? Are you okay?”
“Any broken bones? Any head trauma?” Nir asked through the open door.
The wife answered. “What? No, we’re okay. Just shaken up.”
“I’m so thankful they hit the rear of the car,” the man said as he looked over his wife to make sure she wasn’t hurt.
Nir turned his eyes to the offending vehicle. The rear of the elderly couple’s sedan had been caved in by the SUV. A half-meter more, and the results could have been very different.
Weird. I wonder where the driver of the SUV is? Did they run? Was this a stolen car? A hit-and-run?
A quick scan of the people surrounding the cars didn’t show anyone who looked like they had just stepped out of an accident scene.
Turning back to the couple, Nir said, “I’m sure emergency has been called. Are you two okay?”
The old man nodded and waved him away. “Go see how the other driver is.”
The crowd around the SUV had expanded. Again, Nir tried to spot the driver, but there was no one in the vehicle. The scene had an eerie feel to it. Most of the witnesses surrounding the accident were murmuring, except for a few who were trying to calm one hysterical woman. She was hyperventilating and her words weren’t making sense.
Pushing his way through, Nir looked inside the SUV. It looked like a family car. Kids’ toys in the back. Woman’s purse on the floor in front of the passenger’s seat. That made him think all the more that it was likely a stolen vehicle. But there was something off about the interior of the car. Something didn’t make sense.
That’s when he began to understand what the hysterical woman was saying.
“I was driving next to them. A little girl in the back seat was smiling at me. Then she just disappeared. They all just vanished. Everyone. The car veered and bounced off the parked car, then went into the intersection.”
They just vanished? Could she have been the driver of the SUV and hit her head? Those sound like the rantings of a concussed mind, and I should know!
Then, in a flash, Nir realized what was wrong with the interior of the car. Looking inside again, he noticed the front passenger side. A full set of women’s clothes were strewn on the seat and the floor. He looked down. The same was true on the driver’s side, only this time it was men’s clothing. Then he saw something else that made his blood chill. The seatbelts on both sides were still connected into their clasps.
Nir could feel his own panic swelling. He looked to the back, and what he saw confirmed his fears. Behind mom was a little dress held tight against the seat by the child restraint. Behind dad was a smaller dress, this one fashioned after some Disney princess. And in the middle was a sturdy child’s seat. A red, white, and blue Avengers logo stared at him from the empty onesie that was trapped under the straps.
Nicole!
Less than a minute later, Nir was in his car, racing through traffic. All around him, people were acting like nothing had happened. Obviously, the news hadn’t reached them yet because discovering that people had evaporated into thin air like in a Marvel movie is bound to shake anybody up.
Coming to a red light, he slowed his Mercedes until he saw a gap in the traffic. He gunned the accelerator and made a hard right. A horn blared behind him. He began weaving through cars until he saw the sign for the Marriott Courtyard. Cutting in front of a Land Cruiser, he bounced up into the parking lot, scraping the bottom of his chassis as he did so.
Nicole’s suite could be accessed from the back, so Nir rounded the building and slammed on his brakes. Leaving the door open, he ran from the car to her room.
“Nicole! Nicole, you in there?” he called as he pounded on the door. He knew the answer, but forced himself to wait 30 seconds. “Nicole! I’ll give you ten more seconds, then I’m kicking the door in.”
A woman in her fifties stuck her head out of the next suite over. “What is wrong with you?”
“Get back inside,” Nir roared. The woman quickly retreated. “Okay, motek, I’m coming in.”
The lock was strong, but training had its benefits, and the door flew open when he kicked. He raced in.
“Nicole! Nicole, are you here?”
The place was immaculate, as he expected, except for a thin blanket that had been left bunched on one cushion of the couch. In the kitchen, he saw that a kettle was on the stove, but the burner appeared to be off.
Not in the living room. Not in the kitchen. There’s only one place left to look.
Taking a deep breath, Nir walked toward the bedroom. The door was open, and the bed was made. He stepped inside. On one nightstand sat a magnetic phone charger and a second charger for an Apple Watch. The opposite nightstand held a Bible, black leather and worn along the edges. Nicole’s cell phone sat on top of the book. There were no sounds coming from the bathroom, and the light was off.
There was only one place left to look. Very slowly, he walked around to the other side of the bed. On the ground at his feet were sweatpants and an old red T-shirt he had occasionally seen her wear with a logo for the Cape Town Spurs Football Club. Next to the small pile of clothing was an empty mug and a spoon. An amber puddle had marred the floor’s tile.
She had warned him. She had said this was going to happen. Now she was gone, and he was too late.
Nir sat on the corner of the bed and wept.