The Gates of Zion (Zion Chronicles) by Thoene Brock & Bodie Thoene

Author:Thoene, Brock & Bodie Thoene [Thoene, Brock]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2013-08-20T21:06:38.800189+00:00

***

Seagulls circled overhead in the clear blue sky, and only a faint breeze ruffled Ellie’s hair as she stood on deck, waiting for the ship to get under way. Tiny waves lapped the sides of the Ave Maria, and sunlight on the water reflected against her hull. Cables and nets cluttered the deck. Ellie studied the row of moored fishing vessels and found little about the Ave Maria to distinguish her from the other ships at port.

When Ellie commented that there was no way of telling that she was not an ordinary boat, Ehud nodded. “It is her heart.” He patted the wheel. “God has been with us, surely.”

“She carries the children of Abraham well for her age,” Moshe said.

“Like Sarah?” Ellie asked. “Maybe you ought to call your next boat Sarah. She was ninety when she had her first child.”

Ehud’s face clouded, and he stroked Maria’s wheel. “You shall wound her if you speak so. Pay no mind, my love,” he muttered.

“Why don’t you go on deck until we are under way?”

Ellie left the wheelhouse amused―until the engine refused to turn over and only moaned in response to Ehud’s coaxing.

“Now see,” he shouted to Ellie from the wheelhouse, “you have hurt her feelings!” Ehud cursed and clanked belowdecks in the engine room until at last the stubborn engine sighed and turned over with a roar.

Ellie sat on a pile of rope and watched as Moshe cast off the lines.

The old hulk shuddered in reverse into the harbor, then lunged forward out past the seawall into the serene blue of the Mediterranean. Gulls cried and followed after them in hopes that they would find fish to catch and share. Ehud occasionally glowered at her, and Ellie felt intimidated enough that she stayed on deck until at last Moshe joined her with two mugs of coffee in his hands.

“I said the wrong thing.” Ellie grimaced. “He doesn’t like me, I’m afraid.”

“He’ll get over it.” Moshe handed her a mug. “Drink this.”

“He’s a little strange, isn’t he? I mean, the boat and everything.”

“This

boat is everything. He lost his own family in the camps―sisters, brothers, and a young wife early on in the war. He’s a good man. He has defied the blockade a hundred times. Sixty-seven thousand Jews have been caught trying to get into Palestine in spite of the Mandate. The Ave Maria has been stopped and searched a dozen times, but never with passengers on board. Ehud is right.

There is something special about the old girl.”

“What happens to the ones who are caught?”

“They are still behind barbed wire on the island of Cyprus. The British keep them there so as not to arouse the wrath of the Mufti.”

Ellie inhaled the steam of her coffee, then sipped the hot brew.

“Looks to me like the Mufti is plenty mad already.” She gazed steadily at Moshe. “What would happen to you if you were caught?”

“Up to now we have only smuggled human contraband. We would be tried and imprisoned. Smuggling weapons means execution.”

“They would kill you for that? Weapons for defense?”

“Many of us have died already.

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