introduction
December, 1998, Mediterranean Sea, In front of the beaches of Bat Galim neighborhood, Haifa
It was one of those years, where the first candle of Hanukkah went out on the Sunday evening of the week. Good for the Jews, as they say. And so it turned out that in the afternoon of Wednesday, the standby team of the Coast Guard at the port of Haifa easily remembered that it was time to start preparations for lighting a fourth candle.
Andreas Gerber, on the other hand, on board the Turkish cargo ship "DoGiRiolar", not that kind of thing, it's what candle the Jews light in the menorah that evening. He had enough other worries, now on board, and there, at home, if you can call it home. At the top of his mind was the weather, which was getting darker, to his delight. And the plan, of course, which is progressing smoothly, better than expected. Dr. Gerber, although he was always cold, planned and punctual (after all, a Swiss and another doctor of physics) - could not help but raise a gentle smile under his thin mustache.
cement! So simple, who would have believed…
He looked at the horizon towards the north and breathed the cool air deep into his lungs. Looking to the right, towards the east, he saw the coasts of the Kiryat and the city of Acre. Among them, the compound that he guessed bears the familiar name "Shelush Institute". Above them - dark gray storm clouds. "Yes," he thought to himself as he examined the storm clouds, "it will turn out even better than we hoped." Gerber never liked sea voyages, and in general, in this secret project, he mainly managed the affairs and hardly interfered himself in what was happening on the ground. But this special event... required his personal presence. For his sons...
He wiped his round glasses and started to walk to his small room to collect his few things, to warm up a little and maybe even have time to eat a little something. He was convinced that the Israeli Coast Guard could be trusted to rescue him and the drunken Turks in time, even without getting wet in the seawater... but just to be safe, he thought to himself, maybe he should have a few more calories in his stomach. Andreas Gerber had an engineer's head, after all. One designed to solve complex problems, to utilize the power of nature for the benefit of man. In his case, it is abuse, and yet... it is an engineer's head. And maybe, with the little secret twist he added to the plan, he'll get some light consideration in the sentencing in the next world. But this depended on the plan working as planned, and on someone picking up the hint, of course...
And that there is an afterlife at all, something that Dr. Gerber didn't believe in anyway.
At those very moments, the commander of the standby team of the Haifa Coast Guard began gathering his small team to light the fourth Hanukkah candle. He had some kind of strange feeling thatsomething will occur. Based on his own private Murphy's Law, "my favorite" as he called him, every time he was scheduled for a relatively calm shift - something happened. "For me, calm is a bad sign," he would joke with his colleagues. "That's why I try to forcefully fill my diary with nonsense. The main thing is that something appears there... that my loved one won't find a place to enter."
He was right, of course, because the commander of the Coast Guard team, Yoram Atias, was an intelligent guy, after all. Exactly one minute before they were going to light the candles, when they were waiting for Yarmy the fool who was fooling around with his stupid walk to bring the cap from the other pants pocket that he always carried with him for some reason, they received a distress call from the Turkish cement ship that left the port earlier, after it was not allowed to unload the goods.
This call of distress, the same "my day", which he had already heard dozens of times in recent years, this time sounded quite relaxed, he noted to himself; Just as if the captain expected his rickety ship to sink, just a few minutes after it left the port...
Part One: tide
March 31 to April 1 2002
is everything ok
- That's fine.
are we done
- We are done.
how much do you have left
- Half of a tank.
Let's do another little round and then we'll leave
- That's fine.
The dialogue took place in the sign language of the divers. Thumb touches finger, and the silent answer, thumb touches finger. Hands moving away from each other, like questions. Thumb touches finger, as a positive answer.
The diver and the diver swam slowly around the sunken ship, which the locals called the "Turkish Hamlet Ship" or simply, "The Turkish". The long diving fins on their legs quickly brought them closer to the ship, and its rusting sides were illuminated by the light beams of the shallow diving lights they had taken with them. This ship arrived there only a few years ago, in the winter.
Tamar remembered that day. It happened on Hanukkah of the year '98... She was at home with the onset of labor and was watching TV, to try to somehow pass the time while waiting for Andy, who was of course late. To herself, she admitted that she watches the news, simply because she, like all Israelis, is obsessed, even during labor.
Even though she had done it hundreds of times in her life, diving always excited her. Especially in recent years, when her work has naturally become much more laboratory and office in nature. She missed diving so much... this feeling of levitation, the movement in all dimensions, the coolness of the enveloping, the sophisticated devices, the silence... it was like a meditation for her.
The sunken ship was relatively small for a cargo ship. Remnants of crumbling sacks were seen on the deck leaning on its side on the bottom. Schools of small fish moved vigorously around the deck, as if they themselves were curious to catch a glimpse of the beautiful sight. She scanned the rusting ship with her large, shining brown eyes, which had already had a thick layer of algae settled on it. There is something mesmerizing, maybe even aesthetic, about destruction... especially underwater. Actually, everything is beautiful under water.
The depth gauge showed that the high part of the deck was a total of 11 meters deep. "I could dive here even without devices," she thought and smiled a little to herself. Maybe come back here some Saturday and try...
She is glad that she decided to go down with Guy after all, and collect the sample herself. This was not required at all from her position as a researcher, this is a task for technicians or students. Still, when there is an opportunity for a diving mission so close to home, on such a pleasant day at the beginning of the week, with low and calm seas - why would you refuse?
The task was simply to collect samples of water from around the sunken ship, for the purpose of research by the institute and the university on the effect of sunken ships in shallow water on the dispersion of materials in the sea and the formation of habitats around them. A simple task, quite routine, even quite unnecessary, in her opinion.
Still, something she couldn't quite explain in words begged her to go out on her own this time, and not send the student with a random diving partner from the institute. Maybe it was the pleasant day, maybe the longing for the sea, and maybe intuition, which whispered that something interesting was waiting to be discovered.
If asked, she wouldn't be able to say whether the casual decision to go for the short dive on that pleasant March day in 2002 led to one of the most successful events in her life, or one of the worst. And in any case, there is no one to ask, since this affair has remained completely confidential, to this day