The Shield: a novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

previous meeting had been only several hours earlier, but it seemed an eternity.
    “ We decided to make an immediate public announcement about our strange temporal status. There was really no choice about it. Anybody with a radio would be able to receive broadcasts on the AM band and conclude fairly quickly that those from outside the country were not coming from our time. This is especially true for the segment of our population that speaks several languages – which is most of us. People with satellite TV lost their reception and will soon discover there are no satellites. Our border villages can look out their windows and see changes. Withholding this information would only have damaged our credibility and caused panic.  We really need the trust of the people now.
    “ The government decided to immediately suspend our transmissions on all civilian bands and start jamming all private outgoing radio transmissions to prevent sensitive information from getting to our enemies.”
    Am os went on for a couple more minutes and finally announced: “We will have the military report now. The Chief of General Staff is a bit busy, so Colonel Gilead will do the honors.”
    Gilead briefly summarized the events: “Our offer of assistance to the British in Lebanon, which was agreed upon at the last cabinet meeting, was accepted. The intervention against Vichy forces in Syria is going well. We estimate that the French will surrender in a couple of days. They literally don’t know what hit them. The orders to our Air Force were to attack with high altitude weapons or if that was impossible, to make low altitude passes at supersonic speeds.
    “We used missiles to shoot down six Luftwaffe fighters. This will prevent reports of strange planes in case the pilots survived. We don’t think any of the pilots survived. The Vichy air force was nowhere to be seen. General Wilson was smart enough to comply with our request to keep the RAF away.  We didn’t want interference or them estimating our abilities, and he didn’t want to lose more planes.”
    The P .M. thanked Gilead for his presentation. “I think that now is the time to discuss the issues left open from this morning’s Cabinet meeting. Please feel free to raise any questions you find of interest.”
    In the next hour or so the discussion focused on supply problems. The country needed to be fed and fueled. The reserves of refined fuels were enough for several months, longer with rationing. Natural gas for electricity was cut off and coal was in short supply, only enough for two months. Some of the power stations could be converted fairly quickly to use heavy fuel oil, of which there were more significant stocks. Natural gas supplies could be restored, but that would take some time – the production platforms and pipes were lost in the Event. Food was also available; Israel was self-sufficient in dairy products, eggs, vegetables, some fruits, and almost self-sufficient in grain. Most of the Mediterranean fishing boats were in port during the Event and were still available, though it was thought prudent not to let them sail the open sea in view of possible entanglements with the Royal Navy. The reserves of other foodstuffs would last at least two months. Based on the assumption that they were stuck in this time, the government made several strategic decisions aimed at providing food and energy in the long term and decided to appoint a committee of three ministers to deal with the problems that would inevitably arise.
    Several ministers from the left-leaning coalition party argued for an immediate imposition of rationing on food, fuel and electricity. The Finance Minister argued against these draconian measures.  She explained that in the absence of a real shortage, rationing would create a black market and stockpiling of goods, which in turn would create real shortages. “Rationing is justified only if and when we have a real supply problem, which we are not likely to have if our