Sanctuary of the Chosen Audiobook
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Creator: Dave Hunt
Religion Serial Audio Book
Synopsis:
Set during the height of the Cold War, Dave Hunt's second novel focuses on the secret world of global warfare—not only between East and West, but for the ultimate control of planet Earth. Readers will be captivated by this heart-racing, history-based drama which masterfully weaves the perils of international politics with Bible prophecy and spine-chilling manifestations of our spiritual battle. This captivating novel brings the shadowy world of undercover espionage, international intrigue, and demonic deception into razor-sharp focus—in a thrilling plot that could just as easily have been set in present day.
Format: Audio Book
Continuity: Serial
Voices: Text to Speech
Genres: Religion, Historical
Completion status: Finished
Not tagged: [Maturity] [Creator demographics] [Character demographics] [Country of origin] [Transcript] [Content warnings]
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Episodes:
Wed, 24 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
The days before the wedding passed quickly. Much that had been puzzling was clarified as the four friends spent long hours talking—sometimes in quiet sorrow for things past or regretted, sometimes in exuberant and joyous laughter as they rehearsed the ways in which God had led them to this hour. The tragic death of Viktor at the hands of an Archon after Carla had half-carried him out of the disintegrating auditorium and pleaded with him to accept Jesus was discussed with great sorrow.
Carla’s account of her surrender to the Lord and how He rescued her from the Nine brought great joy. The diabolically clever metamorphosis of Del Sasso and the probable increasing persecution of the Messiah’s followers in the near future as the New World Order was established was discussed with concern.
Tue, 23 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
“What happens if the police are waiting for us?” asked Miriam. Looking down from clear skies at the menacing smog bank shrouding Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport, she was reminded of the perils facing the two fugitives as soon as they landed. “Tel Aviv could have called by now.”
“Relax,” Ari admonished, putting a protective arm around her. “If we look nervous, they might take us for drug smugglers. Have a dog sniffing our bags and find that kosher sausage,” he added with a laugh.
“I’ll just hang on to your arm and look like I’m in love. How’s that?”
“Great. Just try to make it convincing.”
“Ari! I’m serious. Suppose the Mossad is down there waiting for this flight?”
Mon, 22 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
“Can you be in the lobby of the King David in thirty minutes?” The urgency was apparent as soon as Yakov heard the voice on the other end of the line.
“Ah, David… I was just getting ready to go out to visit Ari. What’s up?”
“This is related. I’ll see you at the King David!” There was no hiding the suppressed excitement in his friend’s voice.
Surprising Confirmation - Chapter 49
Sun, 21 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
“Haven’t I seen you somewhere?” asked Ari. With great effort, he directed the question to the new orderly who stood before him balancing a medical tray. “What’s your name?”
In one of his more lucid moments, Ari was sitting on his bed in his large, shared room. Having difficulty knowing where he was and remembering almost nothing since he had returned to Israel, he was, nevertheless, getting disjointed memory flashes of more distant events. The medic, who had just been assigned to this wing in the psychiatric hospital, had come into the room with two guards to administer medication.
The Warsaw Ghetto Syndrome - Chapter 48
Sat, 20 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
Confined to a small apartment on one of Tel Aviv’s back streets and under constant guard, Ari found the next few months to be the most difficult period of his entire life. Miriam had promised to marry him as soon as possible—and now he was unable even to see her. In an earlier time, Ari would have made his escape and given the Mossad a run for their money. Now, however, instead of taking things into his own hands as he had always done in the past, he waited patiently for God to give him the direction he so urgently needed.
In "Protective Custody" - Chapter 47
Fri, 19 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
After about an hour’s wait, Ari was at last escorted in by a secretary. As soon as he entered the room he could sense the animosity. He was no longer one of them. He’d already been written off as the enemy.
Besides the Chief and David, the other four were strangers to Ari. He knew of them by reputation but had never met any of them, nor was he properly introduced now. The Chief simply recited their names and positions as a matter of formality. No one made a move to reach out and shake the hand Ari offered, then withdrew in embarrassment.
Thu, 18 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
Early the next morning, David came by the apartment, picked up Ari and the tape he and Yakov had made the night before, and drove him to Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv. Wondering why it was required, Ari brought along the suitcase with two weeks’ change of clothing that he’d been told to pack. David looked grim but seemed unwilling or unable to explain his somber mood.
“Don’t say anything about being allowed to stay at your apartment last night,” David began as soon as they were in the car.
Back from the Dead - Chapter 45
Wed, 17 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
Take another look! Had he heard a voice? Or had the words just emerged from his mind? Take a closer look! There it was again, and still he couldn’t tell whether it was a voice speaking to him from outside or words sounding in his head. What did it mean? Take a closer look at what? At the fissure blocking his route? At possible ways to bridge it?
Hesitantly, Ari stood up and looked around. Nothing had changed. Go closer, to the very edge! Impelled by that command, he cautiously approached the brink once again and peered down into the void, then searched either side of that awesome chasm. The roar of the river below was nerve-shattering. Still he saw nothing that he hadn’t seen before—nothing to give him any hope.
A Dream Come True - Chapter 44
Tue, 16 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
Dead… alive… some state in between? Ari sensed only the searing pain suffusing his body. How long he’d lain there drifting in and out of consciousness he did not know. When at last he had fully regained his senses, he moved first one limb, then another, and decided that, though horribly bruised, he was all in one piece. Had any of the others survived?
“Hello!” he called out into the blackness. Nothing but echoes. “Anybody there?” he cried again. The echoes bounced back and forth as they faded into the distance—then absolute silence. Alone! That realization was suddenly terrifying. Where was he?
All Hell Breaks Loose! - Chapter 43
Mon, 15 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
The press corps, limited to thirty reporters from the world’s most prestigious newspapers and magazines, and handpicked by Carla, had a block of seats in the center of the auditorium. No television coverage was allowed. Ari found his assigned place and sat down. Behind him, the delegates were pouring in. Ari found it strangely ominous to see these sophisticated political leaders jostling their way, seemingly as eager and excited as children at a Saturday movie matinee.
Ari had earlier heard the rumor circulating among the guests that the President of the United States had been deluged with requests from ambassadors, members of parliament, senators, and congressmen from around the world who were eager to attend. Thousands had apparently been turned away for lack of space. And now the small, three hundred-seat auditorium was filling rapidly with those fortunate enough to have been invited. Simultaneous translators were in their booths at the rear, and those delegates who were not proficient enough in English were putting on earphones and dialing their particular native language.
Congress for a New World - Chapter 42
Sun, 14 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
It was a long flight from Tel Aviv to London to Los Angeles, where they spent the night, then up to San Francisco the next morning. Due to limited space in the auditorium where the congress would be held, Israel had been allowed only one political delegate, Yetsak Kaufy, and one religious leader, Rabbi Mordechai Margolins, a popular and influential Lubavitcher—and one media representative, which, of course, was Ari. These three had seats together, and their animated discussion made the otherwise tedious flight pass more quickly.
An Irresistible Invitation - Chapter 41
Sat, 13 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
The next two years were lonely ones. Miriam seldom came to Jerusalem. She was very friendly when, on rare occasions, she dropped in at Yakov’s apartment, but that almost made it more painful. There seemed no hope that any romantic relationship could be reestablished. The one thing Ari had to look forward to was his trip to California—and his impatience to face that challenge only made the months pass more slowly and monotonously.
Not that there were no events of great significance to monitor and analyze for his twice-weekly column. There were many. In spite of rank pessimism on both sides that it could ever actually take place, the Israelis and Arabs came together for historic face-to-face peace talks in Madrid before the end of October. They then moved to Washington, D.C., in December 1991, for the next phase in their negotiations. It all occurred precisely as Elor had said it would.
The Israeli Connection - Chapter 40
Fri, 12 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
On May 13, 1991, an unusual news item came across the wires at The Jerusalem Post. Ari’s first reaction was to dismiss it as simply bizarre. The more he thought about it, however, the more intrigued he became. Late that afternoon, after some intensive research, Ari walked into the office of his editor, Ruta Cohen, and sat down to discuss his findings with her.
“What’s on your mind, Ari? Onto a scoop? I know that look,” said Ruta, when Ari had settled himself in a chair in front of her desk. Adjusting the oversize silver-rimmed glasses that lent her rather tall and very lean frame a scholarly look, the editor fixed Ari with the direct and piercing gaze that intimidated most of those under her.
A Matter of Principal - Chapter 39
Thu, 11 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
By the time Ari returned, Yakov, who usually retired early, was already in bed and sound asleep. His peculiar whistling snore could be heard as Ari tiptoed down the hall and into his own room. Whatever his eccentricities, the old man’s religion had definitely cleansed his conscience and given him peace of mind. He seemed to drop off quickly and sleep soundly all night—and had scarcely expressed a worry since Ari had known him. “The Lord’s will is always best,” was a standard response when any difficulty did arise.
By contrast, Ari lay awake for a long time that night trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. He found himself in the uncomfortable but exhilarating position of being a double agent. Life had purpose once again… and excitement. That was what he loved. Danger was nothing to fear; it was a challenge to face and conquer. How to handle what lay before him was the question that troubled him now, and he lay awake turning the convoluted scenario over and over in his mind.
A Dangerous Assignment - Chapter 38
Wed, 10 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
Yakov had been idly rocking back and forth in his favorite chair, eyes closed, listening carefully to all that David had been telling Ari. Now he came back to life, sat up straight, and turned abruptly to Ari. “Stay out of it! The CIA’s being set up. ‘The Nine’ aren’t ETIs.”
“Come on, Yakov,” returned David uneasily, “let’s not get sidetracked onto that demon thing again… okay?”
“You just listen to what I have to say,” returned Yakov impatiently, “and you’ll learn something. I used to practice cabala… heavy occultism… and I’m telling you that ‘the Nine’ are well known in occult circles. They’ve been making contact with spirit mediums in séances for centuries.”
Progress and Peril - Chapter 37
Tue, 09 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
The following Monday, Ari received a response to the letter he had written to Carla. It was enthusiastic and gave promise of further contact.
“How good it was to hear from you,” her letter began. “And how sad I was to have confirmation of Nicole’s death. I saw her name on the list of victims in the news but wasn’t sure whether that was the same person to whom you had introduced me. I tried to phone you at the Sorbonne, and that’s how I learned you’d gone to Israel. They could give me no forwarding address or phone number. So that’s why your letter was such a welcome surprise.
“And how excited I was to learn that you have a newspaper column of your own—and in such a prestigious paper as The Jerusalem Post! Yes, it was a surprise to learn that you were really Jewish, a Holocaust survivor. I guess that makes you very special in Israel. I can understand why, when you discovered your roots, you wanted to live there. It seems strange to call you Professor Ari Thalberg now after knowing you as Professor Hans Mueller all these years, but I’ll get used to it.”
Mon, 08 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
The ground war in the Gulf was over almost before it had begun—in one hundred hours. Was this just a good round figure that appealed to President Bush when he gave the ceasefire order—or was something more involved? His generals in the field had been unhappy at calling off their forces prematurely and thus leaving Saddam, an Arab Hitler, still in power. Why had the decision been made at that exact point?
After raising that question in one of his columns, Ari had then pointed out another side to the story. Bush’s order, which ended Operation Desert Storm at midnight February 27, had made a prophet out of the Lubavitchers’ Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, who had predicted an end to the conflict by Purim, beginning on February 28. Was that merely a coincidence?
Sun, 07 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
David showed up promptly at eight o’clock and joined Ari in the living room, sitting next to him in front of the picture window. He wasted no time getting down to business. “There are some bizarre aspects to what I’m going to tell you,” he began, leaning forward and punctuating the tension in his voice by stroking the knuckles of his strong, restless fingers. The lights had just gone on, illuminating the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall, but the magnificent view was lost on these two.
Yakov could be heard rinsing dishes at the sink in the kitchen. “Come on in here!” yelled David, a slight edge of irritation in his voice. “Stop pretending you’re so busy. You’ll be giving advice soon enough—so you might as well get in on the beginning.”
Sat, 06 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
So it was possible to be abducted by PLO terrorists right in the heart of Jerusalem! That alarming experience served as a solemn warning to Ari. Indeed, he had been very lucky. And he was on the PLO hit list because of what he wrote in his column in the Post! No doubt he’d now been moved up a little higher in targeting priority. That was not a comforting thought. How he wished for his old faithful Luger, left behind in France. Any pistol would do, but there was no way the Israeli government would license him to carry a concealed weapon.
Fri, 05 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
The aerial bombardment of Iraq began on January 15, 1991. Ari wasn’t surprised at the uncompromising stand taken by the U.S. President and his coalition partners in their pursuit of Kuwait’s liberation. He was surprised, however, at the overwhelming superiority of American technology, resulting in such astonishingly few allied losses. The allegedly invincible Republican Guard was pinned down and pulverized. Allied air power was making certain that the ground war, once it began, would produce a swift and stunning victory.
Ari was running out of hot issues to write about. Then along came Saddam Hussein’s brutal takeover of Kuwait in August 1990, and Ari’s job as a political columnist became exciting for him once again. The Post had connections high up in the Mossad, which gave Ari access to certain intelligence data that would not expose agent sources and was periodically earmarked for publication in his columns.
Bar Mitzvah — at Last - Chapter 32
Thu, 04 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
The next morning found Miriam, with Ari beside her, expertly threading her small Fiat through the maze of streets in the Old City and out to the hilltop Holocaust Museum, not far from the Knesset. As they drove, he learned that she was a widow, having lost her husband of six weeks in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. They’d had no children, and she had never remarried. Sitting next to her, he felt a sense of easy and pleasant camaraderie between them, as though he’d known and respected this admirable woman all his life. And he sensed that she felt the same way about him.
“It’s going to be horrifying,” Miriam warned Ari as they left the car in the parking lot and walked toward the sprawling complex, “so just be prepared. It’s beyond anything you could imagine. I never cried so much… I mean, really wept… as the first time I went through.”
“Really?” he asked, not knowing how else to respond.
Wed, 03 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
As the weeks turned to months, Ari’s strange street encounter, instead of fading into the past, seemed all the more vivid and troublesome. There was no way he could deny its reality, though he wasn’t sure what that meant in relation to an “intelligence” that could take on different forms, do the impossible, and appear and disappear apparently at will. His undergraduate work in physics had, in a sense, prepared him for something so bizarre. In the world of subatomic particles, the impossible happened all the time. But to see it in the mundane world of everyday experience was mind-boggling.
It was also very disturbing. So much that Elor had said made good sense. There was no doubt that the new freedom in Eastern Europe wasn’t the cure-all. Though bastions of freedom, Western democracies were seething cauldrons of racism and bigotry, with increasing crime, mushrooming debt, and monumental selfishness that left little hope of ever seeing the kind of compassionate caring for others that was so obviously needed. The transformation of the heart that Elor spoke of with such conviction was definitely needed, but he had declined to explain how that would come about.
Tue, 02 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
Life in Israel was settling into a routine of near-boredom. So Israel was surrounded by enemies who might attack at any moment. What else was new? Terrorism, yes, but a major attack, no. Not without the Soviet Union to back the invaders, and that was no longer feasible. Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika, just as Ari knew had been the plan all along, had given the Soviet leadership so many internal problems that helping the Arabs in a war against Israel was out of the question—at least for the foreseeable future.
Ari was running out of hot issues to write about. Then along came Saddam Hussein’s brutal takeover of Kuwait in August 1990, and Ari’s job as a political columnist became exciting for him once again. The Post had connections high up in the Mossad, which gave Ari access to certain intelligence data that would not expose agent sources and was periodically earmarked for publication in his columns.
Mon, 01 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000
“David!” exclaimed Yakov as he pulled the door open. “Great to see you! I’ve got a roommate—all the way from Paris. This is Ari Thalberg. Ari, meet David Kauly.”
Ari felt himself instantly and comprehensively scrutinized, analyzed, and memorized by the slightly balding, stocky man of medium height in his mid-forties who catapulted himself through the doorway and grasped his hand.
“So you’ve moved to Israel.” It was more a statement than a question. Ari was immediately alert. Who was this man with the quick eyes and noncommittal expression, and what did he know? He decided to keep that question alive for future consideration.
“Yes. Just arrived a few hours ago. Yakov’s good enough to share his flat with me.”
Sun, 31 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
Nothing Uzi might have said could possibly have prepared Ari for the little gnome of a man who answered to his knock a few hours later. A very round, wrinkled face topped by unruly white hair and punctuated by the brightest of blue eyes peered out through the doorway and sized up Ari in one glance.
“Come in, come in,” came the hearty greeting in barely understandable English and the thickest of accents. “You must be Ari Thalberg. I’ve been expecting you. I’m Yakov Kimchy. Welcome to Israel!”
Ari felt his hand gripped in a bone-tingling handshake. The man was a bundle of energy with the enthusiasm and strength of someone thirty years younger—and his smile was contagious. For the first time since boarding the plane, Ari felt his pain-ridden defenses relax in a very slight yet discernible way. This infectiously happy man was a new breed in Ari’s life, a man he liked and trusted instinctively from his first greeting.
“Welcome to Israel” - Chapter 27
Sat, 30 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
A hysterical passenger in his early seventies, his expensive tailored suit spattered with blood, was being taken off when Ari boarded the plane. He had finally convinced a flight attendant that his wife had been killed in the attack. Though overcome with shock and his own grief, Ari, after long years of training and practice, instinctively absorbed and evaluated every part of his surroundings and the swiftly moving events. He marveled at the speed and skill with which the superbly trained and prepared El Al crew controlled what would otherwise have been utter chaos on the plane. Speaking with absolute authority and assurance as they went up and down the aisle seeing to special needs, the flight attendants brought a sense of calm and safety to the passengers, many of whom were in a state of near-collapse when they came aboard.
“I’ll Be in Jerusalem Before You” - Chapter 26
Fri, 29 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
When Nicole phoned Dr. Duclos and his wife to tell them the good news of the next day’s meeting, they insisted upon taking her to the airport. “It’s too much for you to drive out there alone with the baby.” Her objections were brushed aside. “It’s all settled. We’ll pick you up at six thirty tomorrow morning.”
It was just before eight o’clock when they pulled up in front of Orly International Airport’s south terminal. Nicole got out of the car holding little Ari and looked around. “We’ll stay right here as long as we have to,” Dr. Duclos called after her.
An Unhappy Compromise - Chapter 25
Thu, 28 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
Ironically, after more than six hours of sweating out negotiations conducted with numerous governments through Bourbonnais’s top political contacts, tiny Israel was the only nation that was willing to admit Ari for immigration. And that breakthrough came only at the last minute when Ari brought up the possibility—and was finally willing to admit what he had spent a lifetime trying to deny and forget—that he was probably a Jewish survivor of the Nazi holocaust. Actually, it had been Abdul’s repulsive anti-Israel rhetoric, so reminiscent of the Nazi slogan, Deutschland Erwache! Judah verrecke! (“Germany Awake! Death to the Jews!”) that had so recently stirred long-suppressed memories.
Man Without a Country - Chapter 24
Wed, 27 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
“Pull over at the next phone booth,” Ari told the driver. “I just remembered an important call I have to make. See, that one up ahead… on the right. I’ll just be a minute.”
Inside the booth, Ari dialed Roger’s office at the consortium’s headquarters—a number that Roger had never given him and would be surprised to discover that he knew. The receptionist gave him to Roger’s secretary.
“I’m sorry, but Mr. Dunn is in a meeting right now. May I take a message and have him call you?”
“You can tell Mr. Dunn that the man he’s looking for is calling,” said Ari evenly, “and if he’s not on the line in thirty seconds, I’m hanging up!”
Roger was on the phone almost immediately. “Hello?”
“Good afternoon.”
“How did you get this number? Where are you?”
A Question of Survival - Chapter 23
Tue, 26 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
On February 20, Nicole gave birth to a healthy baby boy weighing just under eight pounds. Ari learned of the event a week later when he received in the mail an announcement of the birth of Ari Paul de Benoits. Enclosed was a picture of mother and child taken in the hospital. Nicole was looking proudly and protectively down at the small bundle in her arms.
Along with the vital statistics was this note in a familiar hand: “He looks so much like you, Ari! And he’s such a good baby. You’d be proud of him. Would you like me to bring him over sometime? Lots of love, Niki.”
Eyes blurring with tears, Ari read and reread the note, coming back again and again to those words, “He looks so much like you, Ari!” The woman he had passionately loved had given birth to his child—the baby he had wanted her to abort. Perhaps he had been wrong to insist upon that invasion. Yes, he’d made a tactical blunder. It had been a monumental folly that he’d come to profoundly regret.
Farewell to Love and Friendship - Chapter 22
Mon, 25 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
Because of his intensive travel schedule into Eastern Europe during those busy months, Ari had lost touch with Nicole. Then, one evening in mid-December, she called and asked to meet him the next day at their favorite restaurant on Boulevard du Port-Royal. Of course he had agreed, trying not to sound too eager. At least she had initiated the get-together. Was this a good omen?
Ari arrived first and took an inside table beyond the bar in a secluded corner. He had been waiting only a few minutes, when Nicole came up quietly behind him and kissed him lightly on the cheek. Her long, silken blond hair caressed his neck, and the fresh-scrubbed scent of her presence overwhelmed him with tender memories. With a swish of her full, silk skirt, she sat down beside him, more radiantly beautiful than ever.
She was seven months pregnant and looked it. Obviously, he had lost the abortion battle and resented that. Just seeing her again, however, brought back the old magic feeling—the same giddy attraction he’d felt the first time he’d laid eyes on her that unforgettable day nearly seven years ago.
Sweet, Sweet Success - Chapter 21
Sun, 24 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
The next few weeks were bitterly lonely ones for Ari. He hadn’t been there when Nicole had come to the apartment to pick up her things. Perhaps that had been best. But how he missed her! The last six years—his happiest—couldn’t be so easily negated. The vivid memory of her face and enchanting voice, of her lilting, contagious laugh and graceful feminine movements, of the very fragrance she had exuded, of the comfort of her presence and the love they had shared, made the present emptiness maddening. But even as the pain eroded all sense of peace, his resolve remained firm.
He could not, must not, give in on the abortion issue. It was a pregnancy they had not planned and as such it should be immediately terminated. Nothing could be more logical. As much as he longed for a reconciliation, Ari was determined, as a matter of principle, that the only way it could happen would be for Nicole to yield to reason, which she showed no sign—at least on his terms—of doing.
Sat, 23 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
Ari had caught sight of Carla in the distance, her long, naturally wavy auburn hair bouncing with every step. These tall Americans! They stand out in any crowd. And that self-confident stride, the look.… Ari pretended not to see her, and she made as though she were walking past. Casually, she turned in his direction, stopped as though taken by surprise, and waved.
“Professor Mueller!” she called.
Ari looked up and saw her, as though for the first time. “Carla!” he cried as he jumped to his feet.
The tall American squeezed her way between the closely packed diners to his table, where Ari gave her a welcoming hug.
To Be — Or Not To Be - Chapter 19
Fri, 22 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
For a long time Ari lay awake, starting at every real or imagined noise and rehearsing with painful clarity the evening’s debacle. So often during these past years he’d heard the reassuring sound of key grating against lock signaling that Nicole had returned safely from a late night at the hospital. Now he listened in vain. If only he’d been more sympathetic, more sensitive!
At last, sometime after midnight, he fell asleep. At three o’clock he awoke with a start. In a panic he realized that her side of the bed was still empty. She’d be sleeping on the couch, of course. But when he tiptoed quietly into the living room, it was empty.
Euphoria and Despair - Chapter 18
Thu, 21 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
“That dinner was fantastic,” exclaimed Ari, wiping his mouth with his napkin and pushing his chair back from the table. He stood up and reached for Nicole’s plate. “Here, let me help you.”
“Sit right back down,” she ordered, then added with an impish look, “I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“Shall I close my eyes?”
“If you like.” She went to the refrigerator and brought out a Black Forest torte—his favorite. Cutting a huge piece, she placed it in front of Ari and sat down with a dazzling smile.
Opiate of the People - Chapter 17
Wed, 20 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
Taking advantage of the summer school holiday—and of his new understanding with Roger—Ari spent the next two months traveling. How he wanted to go back to China to seek out the few leaders who he knew had escaped the purge! Yet to do so would only endanger them. He was getting money to them through established channels that were still functioning. Communications were coming out—but there was nothing else he could do to help at this time. The dark night of oppression had descended upon China once again. The entire country was in the grip of a terrible fear that was reminiscent of the worst periods during Mao’s reign of terror. It was far too soon even to think of picking up the pieces of his shattered organization and starting over again. Though it had looked so promising a few months ago, taming the Dragon was now a lost cause.
Accusations and Denials - Chapter 16
Tue, 19 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
It was a blisteringly hot late afternoon in mid-July but without the usual heat haze and smog. In spite of the lingering, oppressive humidity in the wake of a brief rainsquall that had blown across Paris that morning, there was almost unlimited visibility under a pale blue sky. Across Pont Alexandre III hurried an endless throng of pedestrians, mostly eager tourists. They chattered noisily in a variety of languages, exclaimed over the magnificent, colonnaded design of this popular link between the two banks of the Seine, and paused now and then to aim their cameras in various directions from this strategic viewpoint. The two figures standing off to one side near the center of the bridge and arguing guardedly didn’t seem to belong in the same scene.
The Making of a Terrorist? - Chapter 15
Mon, 18 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
Ari gulped down the last of his orange juice and grabbed the kitchen phone at its first ring. It was just before seven o’clock and Nicole mustn’t be disturbed. An emergency operation had kept her at the hospital until after two o’clock in the morning. She’d come home just before three looking completely exhausted.
“Hello,” he said in a low voice.
“Professor Mueller, it’s Abdy. Sorry to call so early…”
A Terrifying Possibility - Chapter 14
Sun, 17 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
“Ari! What are you doing?”
Nicole had awakened out of a sound sleep to find Ari sitting up in bed beside her in a yoga position, arms extended, palms up. From lips that only slightly moved came eerie, incomprehensible sounds.
She turned on the bed lamp and watched him in horror. Though his eyes were wide open, Ari seemed oblivious to his surroundings.
“Ari! Wake up!” Nicole grabbed his arm and began to shake him.
Sat, 16 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
“Niki! Professor Mueller! Great to see you!” exclaimed Abdul, after he had hurriedly squeezed between the patrons crowded around the closely placed tables, ducked under the rainbow-colored umbrellas above them, and joined the waiting couple. “Sorry to be late. The traffic’s horrible and parking’s impossible. I should have taken the metro.”
'Abdul shook Ari’s outstretched hand, then leaned over and kissed Nicole first on one cheek, then the other.
“Wonderful you could join us, Abdy,” said Niki with a happy smile. “It’s been too long.”
Ari motioned toward an extra chair he had pulled up to the small table. “Sit down and relax—we’ve got all evening. At least you and I have. Niki has to be at the hospital in an hour.”
The East-West Connection - Chapter 12
Fri, 15 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
A discreet cough from the waiter caught Ari’s attention. He approached their table, pencil and pad ready, and stood beside Ari in the distinctive dress of the garçons in this section of Paris: black bow tie and white shirt, black vest, and crisply starched, spotlessly white apron reaching almost to the ground. “Are monsieur and mademoiselle ready to order dinner?”
“Someone else is joining us,” replied Ari. He looked at his watch. “Any minute, now,” he added with a smile.
“Oui, monsieur.” He leaned over to light the candle on their table and then withdrew.
They sat in silence for some time, both lost in thought. In the fading soft glow of rosy sunset reflected from the scattered clouds overhead, the candlelight seemed to accent the outline of Nicole’s delicately prominent cheekbones. “Ari, how could you keep it a secret?” she asked him at last.
Thu, 14 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
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“You’re so quiet, Ari. Can’t you tell me what’s bothering you? Please, darling…”
Nicole tossed her long, blond hair back. It just touched the shoulders of the soft-pink silk suit that graced her slender five-feet-nine-inch frame. With high heels, she was slightly taller than Ari. Meticulously groomed and a perfectionist with her makeup, she habitually wore the latest Parisian fashions yet never seemed overdressed. She looked intently into Ari’s dark and troubled eyes.
Ari avoided her gaze and turned to stare at the profusion of red and yellow tulips blooming next to the small sidewalk café where they were seated at Le Petit Pont. Just beyond the narrow strip of flowers and close-cropped lawn, the heavy afternoon traffic crawled sluggishly along Quai Montebello bordering the river Seine. In the background rose the majestic spires of Notre Dame.
“It’s nothing, Niki,” said Ari unconvincingly, taking another sip from his glass and keeping his eyes glued on the traffic. “Nothing at all.”
“Don’t say it’s nothing when I can see what it’s doing to you!” Nicole’s deep blue eyes searched his face in concern as he continued to stare past her in silence. “Please, love…”
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Wed, 13 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
Ari looked at his watch. In exactly seven minutes and thirty seconds he would make a call from a certain pay phone near the Eiffel Tower to another pay phone somewhere in Paris, where Jean-André, one of his many couriers, would be at that precise time. Then he would go to another pay phone to make a similar call to a pay phone in his old town of Leipzig, where Heinz Bühne, his right-hand man in that area, would be waiting at that exact moment.
Coincidentally, Leipzig would be the center for the movement in East Germany when the time came—not because Ari wanted it that way for sentimental reasons but because that was the way it was going to happen. There were fourteen calls he had to make in the next three hours, each to a different country and from a different phone. That done, Ari would station himself at a precise time at yet another pay phone where his agents knew they could reach him if necessary. Tomorrow it would be a different phone and a different time for them to call, and so forth, according to a schedule that was changed weekly.
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A Matter of Principal - Chapter 9
Tue, 12 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
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Ari had not heard from Roger since being taken from his apartment at gunpoint years ago—nor had he attempted to contact him, suspecting that his mail and phone lines were under Stasi surveillance. Then one day, the remarkable Texan had walked unannounced into Ari’s office at the university. What a deliriously happy reunion that had been!
Roger told how he had diligently pursued every diplomatic channel in an attempt to learn what had happened to Ari after his arrest but without any success. He had eventually assumed that Ari had been executed. It had been nearly thirteen years later, while watching a French news program that he sometimes picked up from a satellite dish, that he had recognized Ari in a feature story about the Sorbonne. Not long after that, the American had come to Paris to present an irresistible offer to his old friend from East Germany.
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Mon, 11 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
From its watchful post on the centuries-darkened stone exterior high above the western entrance to the University of Paris, the weathered face of the ancient clock looked down solemnly on Place De La Sorbonne. Its hands stood at 11:47. Already the sidewalk tables of the brasseries, salons de thé, and grillades along the south side of the small square were crowded, though it was still too early for most of the business clientele. Students hunched over their drinks and conversed with great gusto in small groups, four or five around a tiny table made to accommodate two—saying very little about their studies but contending earnestly and at times heatedly about politics and human rights, as though the fate of the world hinged upon their sagacious pronouncements.
One outdoor table at Brasserie L’Escholier, a restaurant that specialized in Carlsberg and Dortmonder beers, had been occupied since midmorning by two men in business attire. Muscular and tanned, they looked more like professional athletes than entrepreneurs. They exchanged little conversation. A certain restlessness and an occasional glance around the square as they thumbed disinterestedly through the morning edition of Le Monde suggested that they were waiting for someone. When the hands of the clock moved past twelve, the two men seemed to grow increasingly alert and glanced more frequently over the tops of their papers toward the door below the ancient timepiece.
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R. Harrison Dunn IV - Chapter 6
Sat, 09 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
When at last, with chest heaving and legs about to give out, Ari reached the town and continued running at a slower pace through its deserted streets, uncertainty overwhelmed him once more. What if the police were watching this railway station after all? He’d heard the call on the radio for a general alarm nationwide and wasn’t sure what that meant. When the manhunt failed to pick up his trail to the south, wouldn’t they suspect he’d doubled back? Of course, they wouldn’t expect him to head for Berlin. The infamous Wall made that city the least likely place for a possible escape to the West. However, there was no predicting where the police might be or what they might do, precisely because they couldn’t be certain of his movements. More than likely, they’d be watching all routes.
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Enemy of the People - Chapter 5
Fri, 08 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
When at last, with chest heaving and legs about to give out, Ari reached the town and continued running at a slower pace through its deserted streets; uncertainty overwhelmed him once more. What if the police were watching this railway station after all? He’d heard the call on the radio for a general alarm nationwide and wasn’t sure what that meant. When the manhunt failed to pick up his trail to the south, wouldn’t they suspect he’d doubled back? Of course, they wouldn’t expect him to head for Berlin. The infamous Wall made that city the least likely place for a possible escape to the West. However, there was no predicting where the police might be or what they might do, precisely because they couldn’t be certain of his movements. More than likely, they’d be watching all routes.
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Thu, 07 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
“Oh, my God!” Ari’s mother fell to her knees in front of her husband, weeping uncontrollably now, clutching his legs. “Blessed Virgin, help me!” He shook her off and sank back into his chair at the table, staring at Ari with eyes that blazed hatred.
In stunned horror, Ari recoiled at the scene before him. The stinging words had resurrected memories of childhood fears and uncertainties that now paraded before him in haunting progression. Even his name had made him wonder. “Ari” wasn’t German; it was Jewish! Surely his father, who hated all things Jewish with a passion, would never have named him that. His mother had insisted that it had been her choice, but there were no relatives with that name.
Helping his mother to her feet, Ari held her hands and made her face him. “Look at me,” he pleaded. “He’s lying, isn’t he? You told me I wasn’t adopted… you swore that I wasn’t!”
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You're a Dirty, Stinking Jew! - Chapter 3
Wed, 06 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
Ten minutes past the lake, after accelerating to top speed again, the express slowed and ground to its first stop. This station was always a busy one, as Ari well knew. He had moved to the seat next to the rear exit, from where he could observe the entire platform through the window and keep a wary eye on anyone entering his car. About two dozen passengers boarded the train, all of them in the forward cars, except for an affectionate young couple. Arms around each other, they awkwardly negotiated a few steps down the narrow aisle and seated themselves four rows from the front, where they cuddled and babbled intimately as though no one else existed in the entire world. Nothing to fear from them.
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Tue, 05 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
After a brief burst of speed, Ari settled into a steady pace that he could maintain the entire distance. The only sound competing with the slap of his shoes on pavement was the eerie fluttering of the flags hanging from the dingy shop fronts. Plaster peeling from the once well-kept brick exteriors, and the gray metal storm shutters pulled down and locked tight over doors and windows, gave the impression of a city with a history of better days that had been lost even to memory.
The gaudy colors and frenetic motions of the flags snapping loudly in the stiff breeze marked the latest trade fair. These twice-a-year events, which were Leipzig’s chief claim to fame, brought an influx of visitors, mostly from other Iron Curtain countries. They also brought an astonishing infusion of fancy foods, from caviar to strawberries, that appeared miraculously—and briefly—in restaurants to impress exhibitors from the West with the benefits of socialism available in this “workers’ paradise.” There was still a surprising number of Western intellectuals naïve enough to be taken in by the transparent lie. Ari snorted contemptuously at the thought and slowed his pace to a normal walk until a passing car had overtaken him and sped out of sight. Then he broke into a steady run again.
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Betrayed - Chapter 1 - Sanctuary of The Chosen
Mon, 04 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000
From the depths of Ari’s hypnotic slumber, the harsh ringing of the phone sounded, distant and muffled. Still it continued, with unrelenting insistence, growing nearer and louder. The dissonant, repetitive jangling seemed at first to be a part of the strangely familiar nightmare. As always, he was being pursued. Spectral figures, armed men in dark suits—one of whom he instinctively recognized but could never identify—leaped incessantly into the path of his flight from the shadowy recesses of his brain until at last he was surrounded, with nowhere to turn.
From somewhere, an alarm began clanging. As it continued and grew louder, the specters multiplied to become a demonlike horde, with hideous, menacing expressions and powerful arms reaching out to seize him. There was the disturbing certainty that he’d been through all of this before—a certainty that made the experience as much one of bewilderment as of terror. Why must he relive it again and again? The answer to that haunting question always eluded him.
Now, in horrifying slow motion, like a panic-stricken diver with lungs bursting, straining to reach the surface, Ari fought his way back to a groggy semiconsciousness. The phone! At last, the realization broke through that the jarring noise was coming from a familiar source. Groping for the instrument beside his bed, he knocked it to the floor, groped again, then finally got a grip on the receiver. Tonight, of all nights, when he needed sleep so desperately!
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