afghangirlscifi

Science fiction stories chronicling Afghan women and girls.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Evelyn 5

Mum being on a union committee, she is scheduled for an all day meeting Saturday. I'm given the option of staying home alone or passing the day at Sarah's. No contest, I prefer the company.
We spend all morning out and about, walking Dallas Road (coastal scencery) and the breakwater, checking out the houseboats at Fisherman's Wharf. We aren't allowed to go to Beacon Hill Park without an adult as there are "pervs" there, but we can wander anywhere else in James Bay or downtown.
As we return to her place for lunch, the drizzle ("liquid sunshine" in slang here) turns to downpour, so our afternoon will be inside.
Mr and Mrs Klein have joined her parents for lunch. After lunch, our choice is going to watch TV or listen in to the adults. Again, no contest, Mr Klein is by far the most interesting person I've heard. He has read literally everything there is to read and it's always fun listening.
"So, you know what I've been reading? The big financial scandal, circa 2060."
"Oh, do tell," Sarah's Mum says, "I hear it's juicy."
With a wicked smile, Mr Klein begins, "they say the ultraOrthodox have never been the same since, never truly recovered. See it's like this, the huge population explosion in Haredim led to an increased demand for yeshiva (religious school) space. After all, it was that or be drafted into the IDF (Israeli Defence Force). Now these boyos were good arm twisters, knew how to play the Cabinet well. And so they were authorized space just outside of Ramallah, approximately one mile by three miles.
"And so they started in to fund raise. The exact plan would vary, depending on how much they could raise. As a minimum, three different yeshivas, a residence for bachelor students and a trailer park for families. Size of all this would of course depend.
"Of course there wasn't sufficient money in Israel itself, there never is. So, they prevailed upon contacts in Canada, the US, Britain and France to twist arms. The funds poured in, some 600 million shekels in all.
"Then, just as the serious building planning was starting, the Chief Financial Officer vanished. There was nada, zilch, not one shekel left in the bank. Eventually the finger pointed to the Cayman Islands. The culprit was found to be living there, and presumably banking there too.
"Now, it's never been proven that the culprit was killed by Mossad, but there certainly are lots of clues pointing that way. The author is about 99% certain, comparing the Method of Operation to other known Mossad hits.
"But then, the hit proved to be counter-productive. You see banking secrecy only depends on who wants to know. The US government put sufficient heat on the Cayman government, that the latter agreed to let the Israeli government send auditors to all Cayman banks. And, ta-da, zip, nada, zilch. Turns out the culprit owned an account of about a thousand dollars, no big transactions ever done in or out.
"To this day, no one knows where the culprit was banking, or who got the money."
Sarah's Dad smiles, "and just who was this person anyhow?"
"None other than Ariel Zilberman."
I feel myself suddenly going faint. I'm starting to sweat. Profusely as a matter of fact. Why? We-ell, it's connected to another clue I got in that strange dream.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home