The very beginning

Chapter number 10 of the thriller "An Irretrievable Step".

"An Irretrievable Step

Chapter 10

On Sunday morning a short while after Seri settled down in his studies' room and shut the room's door Dan arrived. He did not knock on the door or called him, but simply opened up the door and entered.

'Today's lecture is a preface to clandestine activities…' Dan said while they were sitting opposite one another next to the small desk in Seri's new studies room.

'To let you understand clandestine activities in the plainest term, well it isn't much different from carrying an affair with a married woman.' Dan summed the issue up. 'Now then you've got all the material you need on your bookshelf, start with that almanac titled 'Clandestine Activities', and there's an oriental restaurant at the end of the street…'

'I'm in no need to adapt myself to oriental food.' Seri reminded him with a smile.

'We know it, but you'll have to feed yourself only with oriental food from now on, no more Italian or any other Western food, and you'll have to eat there every lunch break.'

'Okay no problems I'll eat there six days a week.' Seri promised him smiling.

'Well I'm off Seri, dedicate this week to reading and next Sunday we'll start our surveillance studies.' Dan said and left.

Thus the first week passed while Seri was getting used to his new surroundings, to the taciturn landlady and to meet Tami every evening; passing the nights making love to her in her bedroom clasped in her arms, and having an early breakfast together before parting just for several hours.

It was an exhilarating week that reminded Seri the Aztec sun rituals, when a future chosen scapegoat would enjoy a life status of a king and do whatever he wants to do along a full year, up to the date when he would lay on the altar on top of the highest pyramid, and his heart would be cut out while he is still alive, and be sacrificed to the rising sun. .

The weekend passed swiftly like all the good things that pass too swiftly.

On Sunday morning Dan arrived again and entered Seri's room as usual without knocking.

'Well how are you and how was the weekend?'

'It was not bad; we went to the beach like everyone else.'

'You mean you and her; well you're a lucky man.' Dan remarked smiling.

'For the time being,' Seri answered him.

'Oh come on you'll be ten folds better in the future, but let get to business.' He added right away. 'Have you finished reading the almanac?'

'Yes and several more books.'

'Fine I'm glad to hear it now then today we'll start with the rules of surveillance, with just the basic rules and the basic methods.' Dan made a short pause and looked at his pupil whether he has anything to say.

'As for the rules you must have read the chapter that deals with it in the almanac, such as avoiding to look straight back behind your shoulder, but using shop window panes or turning around as if you've forgotten to enter a certain shop or to turn to the right street and so on, while checking stealthily who is behind you. As for the basic methods we'll learn to detect a group of four or five men that follows a subject matter, while changing places each five or less minutes it depends on the circumstances and the neighborhood, to avoid being detected by the subject matter.' He left his seat and looked at Seri. 'Let's go out and practice.'

'Am I to be followed?' Seri wondered.

'Not yet, we'll just stroll about in the streets and see how one should sneak away from his pursuers without arousing suspicion.'

During that summer Seri practiced detecting surveillance with a group of the counter intelligence debutants, which practiced just like him but how to follow without being detected. As long as it took place in his home town it was no more than an exciting game. In the afternoons he studied Morse transmissions and Identifying airplanes, tanks, warships and missiles according to their silhouettes. Seri found it quite fascinating and on top of it he kept spending his evenings and nights with Tami.

Once a fortnight he paid a visit to his parents at Friday eve, and returned to Tami on Saturday morning; and although it was a life of daily routine, and he had to keep away from his old friends to avoid embarrassing questions, he liked it and it suited well his character.

The months passed like a jiffy, he became an expert in Morse transmission, and airplanes tanks, warships and missiles identification, and he learned to deal with sophisticated surveillance of two or three groups of men, equipped with means of transportation. While one group followed his course in the same street, the other group kept tracking him and his followers in a parallel street with electronic communication.

He had a few visits of his unit commander in his room, and met two more unit members without any personal introduction of course, but that was all he knew about his own unit according to the clandestine strict rules.

Summer passed with its heat, autumn wisped by and during winter he had three successive series of tests, in which he had to pass a weekend as a foreign tourist at the resort town of Eilat, which was the easiest test compared with his other tests, and a month later he had to pass two weeks in Haifa as a business man looking for deals; while in his last test he appeared as an American citizen of an Arab descent in Jerusalem. This last task was much more complicated compared to the two previous ones, and he did not like it at all, he was sure that he failed as he did not (according to his own judgement) represent convincingly the person he was supposed to represent. .

His relationship with Tami tightened during these eighteen months, despite the fact that he avoided meeting her parents, and he did not take her along whenever he visited his own parents; and when her mom or dad came to visit his love in her apartment (in most cases it was her mom), he had to stay away in some nearby café or bar till almost midnight. But these inconveniences were nothing at all compared with what was awaiting him at the end of his studies and training.

@ Haim Kadman 2017 �" all rights reserved.