One shot. That was all it took.
The blast rang out, slashing through the silence and echoing into the far corners of the forest. I flinched but kept my eyes trained on the deer long enough to see it slump to the ground. He’d done it. Located his prey, locked in on it, and brought it down with a single shot.
I was equally impressed as I was terrified.
We made our way over to it, and I was stunned to see just how large the deer was. “This thing looks like a mutant compared to the small white-tail deer we had back home. How are we supposed to get it back to the cabin?”
“With this.” He pulled out a blue plastic tarp with rope tied to two of the corners from his backpack. “All we have to do is roll the deer onto the tarp, then we can drag it back.”
What he proposed was far more difficult than it sounded. I had been pondering, when I first woke up, how I was going to occupy my time, but I started to realize roughing it might be more time consuming than I anticipated. The hunting trip alone was going to be an all-day affair.
We eventually got the deer loaded up and each took a rope, dragging the carcass behind us.
“That shot was pretty impressive. What exactly did you do in the military?” The question had been bouncing around in my head after seeing him use the rifle like it was an extension of his own body.
“Special Forces.”
“What does that mean? Like our Army Rangers or Navy SEALs?”
“Very similar, yes.”
“But not the same?”
Tamir slowed his steps, coming to a stop. When I peered back at him, he’d gone eerily still, his entire body chiseled in stone.
“Have you heard of the Mossad?”
The gentle breeze seemed to still at his words as if the forest itself feared what he was about to say.
“It’s a super-secret organization,” I offered, barely above a whisper. I sensed we were entering dangerous waters between his change in demeanor and what I could recall from my research of Krav Maga.
“Its existence isn’t a secret, but its actions are. The Mossad is Israel’s chief intelligence agency, the same as other countries have, except the Mossad has near limitless autonomy. It reports only to the Prime Minister—no one else. Its actions and operatives are not subject to judicial inquiry, nor are its operations disclosed to the public. The institution is given absolute authority to act in the best interest of Israel.”
“And you were a part of the Mossad?”
“Yes. There are eight departments for purposes such as espionage, research, and technology. One of those departments contains a top secret unit called Kidon. I belonged to that unit.”
I felt like a child about to ask her parents about the existence of Santa Clause. Somehow, deep in my heart, I knew the answer to my own question, but I had to ask it anyway.
“What does the Kidon unit do?”
“Assassinations.” He said the word without any emotion. No remorse or shame.
Tamir was a killer.
Not just a man trained to fight. He specialized in ruthlessly ending lives without a second thought. That was why he could shoot as easy as breathing. That was why he had a silent alarm in his apartment and kept a gun beneath his bathroom sink. That was why my survival instincts begged and pleaded with me to stay away from him.
I didn’t say a word in response.
We continued walking, a heavy silence blanketing us all around.
What did a career as an assassin do to a person? Could someone remain sane after that? When he’d told me earlier that he was in the Special Forces, I imagined something like Blackhawk Down or Lone Survivor—a unit of soldiers busting into a compound to save innocent civilians. Something grand and heroic.
An assassin sounded far more ominous. Stealthy and ruthless. When I thought about it, the description fit him, but it wasn’t the only aspect to him. He was also the man who had offered a private training session when class had been canceled, saved me from an attacker, helped me on the run, and even took me to a botanical garden to help ease my nerves.
What was I supposed to think? What was I supposed to do? I could try to get away from him, but if I was being hunted, wouldn’t it make more sense to stay with the man who claimed he wanted to protect me? He was certainly capable, if I could manage to trust him.
I glanced to where he walked along side me, rope slung over one shoulder and gun on the other. I’d sensed he was dangerous but had never truly felt threatened by him. Every one of his actions spoke to his effort to keep me safe. As far as I could tell, my best move would be to trust that his actions accurately depicted his intentions.
Besides, it wasn’t like I had a decent alternative. I was in the middle of a forest without any mode of transportation unless I attempted to steal his car for the second time. Somehow, pissing him off like that sounded like an especially bad idea.
He was there to help me, and I would stay with him as long as he didn’t give me reason to run. He was definitely the lesser of two evils. If he could keep me from falling into the hands of the men who were after me, I’d gladly accept the risk of staying with him.
Should he change his mind and want to harm me, then I was a goner.
I’d never stand a chance against a man with such lethal abilities. I would just have to hope he would continue to use those gifts to protect me, rather than punish me.
When we got back to the cabin, after we both had lunch, Tamir strung up the deer on a pulley and began to butcher it. I didn’t have the stomach to watch, so I stayed inside and experimented with the water tank shower system.
I’d gone camping in a friend’s RV one time as a teen. The cabin shower reminded me of using the RV shower. The water sprinkled out, barely penetrating my thick hair. On top of that, there was no conditioner, which meant my hair would be a tangled mess for the foreseeable future. The one main difference between the RV and the cabin showers was the water temperature. I’d never in my life showered under such ice-cold water. It inspired a new level of efficiency in my routine.
Despite those drawbacks, I felt enormously better after cleaning off two days of grime since I hadn’t bathed after we arrived at the cabin the night before.
By the time Tamir finished and joined me inside, the clear sky had melted into dusk. He handed over two venison steaks, which we put in the tiny oven, and I began to cook dinner while he took his turn in the shower.
Dinner was better than I ever could have imagined. I had insisted on getting ranch-style beans for Tamir to try when we bought groceries on our way to the cabin. I cooked those and a can of green beans to go with our steaks. We were limited to canned goods and items that didn’t need to be refrigerated, but the meal tasted amazing.
After we finished every last bite, neither of us left the table. My belly was full, and the fire had kept the cabin toasty warm, which helped me feel more able to continue our discussion.
“As you can probably guess, I’ve thought about what you told me for the past few hours. I’d really like to know what happened after … what happened when you left the service.” He’d said that he was dishonorably discharged. I didn’t want to form any judgment until I knew exactly what had happened and had the entire picture.
Tamir stood and went to the kitchen shelf where an ancient bottle of whiskey had been collecting dust. He poured us each a small amount before returning to his seat. “Eleven years ago, my world came crashing down around me, and it was all my fault.”