"Of course, of course. But I fail to see why you..."
"You fail to see almost everything, Gottfried!" Schlacht
screamed. "The next thing we know Kaldy will be telling us that Christ Himself turned him into a werewolf!"
Weyrauch allowed himself a slight, tentative smile. "I
hardly think so, Helmuth. Theologically, such an assertion would beâ¦"
"Gottfried, shut your stupid maw and listen very
carefully to
me."
He leaned forward over his desk and
Weyrauch tried to withdraw even farther back into the cushions of the chair as Schlacht said, "I included you in
this project because I needed someone with medical knowledge
whom I could trust to keep what he knew to himself. But I most emphatically did
not
expect to have a subordinate who would allow himself to be duped by a subhuman freak!" He paused and closed his eyes, as if seeking to
restrain his fury. "The moon will be full in less than
twenty-four hours. Now, Fräulein Loewenstein here has done her job quite well, and we have a formula which should have the sort of effect we have been seeking. We are going to
test it today, first on a Jew and then, if it doesn't result
in death, on a select group of volunteers from my own command. If all goes as planned, we should have our invulnerable soldiers before the week is out, and then we will have no further need for Kaldy or his friend Blasko." He paused meaningfully. "And if you have not been able to
discover anything of use about the origin of this condition,
I will also have no further use for you. Do I make myself clear?"
"H...H...Helmuth..."
"I have tolerated your stupidity and Louisa's treasonous
impertinence for as long as I intend to," he said coldly. "If
you do not come up with some reliable facts about this creature, I'll ship you and Louisa off to
Auschwitz
myself."
"What about Kaldy?"
Petra
asked softly. "And what about
Claudia?"
He turned to her angrily. "What about them?"
"We have to be able to destroy them, Herr Colonel," she
replied. "They are dangerous. They are deadly. They must be killed."
"If worse comes to worst, we'll just send him off to Mengele, and the female with him, once we've captured her,"
he said. "There is a way to kill anything which lives. I
have confidence that Doctor Mengele will find it." He turned back to Weyrauch. "Now you go back to your little Gypsy and
tell him that I do not intend to indulge him any longer. And
get me some intelligent facts, Gottfried, or so help me, you won't live out the week! Now get out of here!"
"Helmuth..."
"RAUS!"
he screamed, and Weyrauch leapt from the chair and rushed out of the room. A few moments of strained silence ensued, after which Schlacht turned to
Petra
and snapped, "Report!"
"Yes, Herr Colonel," she said quietly, well aware of the fury which simmered beneath the cold surface of the S.S. officer, and not wishing to excite it. "As you know, we have been conducting experiments over the past four weeks..."
"I know that, Fräulein," he interrupted. "I made
certain that your daily reports were sent to me in
Bucharest
. Do not tell me what I already know."
"Yes, of course. Sorry." She paused and then asked conversationally, "How is the relocation of the Romanian Jews going, by the way?"
"I was there merely to advise the Iron Guard," he replied. "The Romanians can deal with their own Jewish
problem...not that this has anything to do with the subject
at hand."
"No, of course not," she conceded. "Well, I've become
reasonably certain that the deaths of the test subjects were a
result not of the relative ratios of the chemicals, but of the concentration of the solution
itself."
"And so you have diluted
it,"
he said impatiently. "I
know. Go on."
"Yes, and I believe that I have achieved a level which
is both effective and non-toxic. Though we won't know for
sure until we have tested
it."
He nodded. "What leads you to believe that it is effective and non-toxic? You have not yet injected it into
a test subject."
"I grew a culture from human cells.
When I infused the host environment with the solution, I found that the cells ceased to multiply but did not deteriorate, not even when an electric charge was passed through them."
"Meaning?" Schlacht asked.
"Meaning,"
Petra
replied, "that after absorbing the solution, the cells both ceased the normal process of growth and also displayed a resistance to breakdown."
He smiled. "Good, Fräulein. Excellent. And the test
subject? Is he ready?"
She nodded. "Yes, your men have him trussed up in the laboratory. One word of warning, though Colonel..."
"I need no caution against creating creatures, Fräulein. We have an ample supply of wolfsbane."
She shook her head. "No, not that. By diluting the enzyme, we may have weakened its effects. We have no way of k
nowing for certain what level of effectiveness the solution
will have..."
"Until we test
it,"
he finished for her. "Well, let us
do just that." Schlacht rose from behind his desk and walked
to the door. He held the door open for her and she nodded her acceptance of the courtesy. Schlacht glanced at his adjutant, Corporal Vogel, and the latter fell into line
behind Schlacht and
Petra
as they left the anteroom and went
out into the corridor.
As they walked from Schlacht's office toward Petra's laboratory, she said, "There are, of course, new problems with which we shall have to deal if this test is
successful."
"I have thought of a few," he said. "What are your concerns?"
"Well, if we are able to accomplish what you wish us to
accomplish, we will have the ability to create your invulnerable soldiers; however, when the full moon rises, they will pose a threat to everyone, not merely the enemy. They
will
be
the enemy!"
"Am I correct in assuming that you are about to suggest that we stop our research until we have discovered how these creatures can be killed?"
She smiled at him, deciding to be flattering. "Herr Colonel, you can read me like a book."
He was duly flattered. "A not uncommon skill among true leaders, my dear."
"Yes, you are correct, of course. These creatures are invulnerable, but when they are in their wolf forms they are also murderous, deadly, dangerous."
"We have the wolfsbane. We can control them."
"Yes, one or two," she objected. "But you are
envisioning an army, Herr Colonel. Is there enough wolfsbane
or a sufficient number of guards to deal with a thousand of these creatures, or ten thousand, or a hundred thousand?"
He laughed. "Your observation is interesting, Fräulein, but basically foolish."
She bridled slightly. "Hardly that, I hope!"
"If this test is successful, I shall begin to build my new elite corps from
Schutzstaffel
volunteers, dedicated National Socialists, loyal soldiers. Is it so difficult to foresee establishing a procedure to be followed before each full moon of one binding another with chains and wolfsbane, and he then being bound by a third and he by a fourth, and
so on? If it is done by squad, how long would it take before
all were bound?"
"But the supply of wolfsbane..."
"Please, please," Schlacht said, feigning impatience but secretly enjoying enlightening the woman. "When an army
moves, it attends to the most minute details of supply. Food,
ammunition, fuel, medicines, clothing, weapons, machinery, all must be projected, allocated, produced, transported. Do you really think it an insurmountable obstacle to add a monthly supply of wolfsbane to an already extensive list of needs, a list from which we will be able to subtract the food they will not need to eat, the medical supplies they will not need to treat the wounds they will not have?" He awaited a reply, but none was forthcoming. He stopped walking and placed his hands upon Petra's shoulders, turning her gently to face him. "I know that you wish to have the pleasure of killing the creature that killed your
family. Rest assured that once I am satisfied of the success of our experiment, we shall capture this other werewolf, and
we shall discover a way to destroy her and Kaldy." He smiled. "Besides, you are, of course, correct. The day may come when our...our pseudo-lycanthropes will have served their purpose and may indeed present a danger to the Reich.
We certainly must know how to dispatch them when and if that
day comes."
She bowed her head slightly to signal acceptance. "I am
pleased that our goals still converge, Herr Colonel. But I must say that I feel it would be safer to discover how to kill them before we set about creating an army of them."
Schlacht began again to walk toward the laboratory. "Your concern is noted and appreciated." She followed behind him wordlessly as Vogel, ever the silent and attentive subordinate, brought up the rear.
As they approached the laboratory on the ground floor of the Palace, Gottfried von Weyrauch was tapping his foot
impatiently as a guard unlocked the door to the dungeon cell
in which Kaldy and Blasko were being held. The minister entered to find his wife sitting on a stool beside the old Gypsy, laughing as Blasko recounted some apparently amusing experience from his past. Inasmuch as Blasko was speaking Romansch and Louisa was responding in Italian, Weyrauch had no idea what either of them was saying. They looked at him as he entered the cell, and the pleasant smile on Louisa's
face was replaced by an expression of distaste. Blasko fell silent and
watched Weyrauch as he walked past them, ignoring them
completely, and stopped before Kaldy, who was sitting on the
floor in the corner. Kaldy was leaning back against the
rough stone wall of the cell, staring off at nothing.
Weyrauch mustered up as much imperious authority as he could manage, and snapped. "Colonel Schlacht and I have come to the conclusion that you have been playing us for fools!"
Kaldy's head moved slowly in Weyrauch's direction, and after gazing impassively at him for a few moments, Kaldy said, "I am sorry to say that neither you nor Colonel Schlacht need any assistance from me in such matters."
"Herr Kaldy, I am quite serious, and quite annoyed," Weyrauch said angrily. "I have obtained a translation of
your, shall we say, rather cryptic statement of a few weeks
ago, and I am at a loss to explain it in any way other than
to assume that you have been fabricating the tales you have
been spinning." He harrumphed. "I don't believe that you've ever really been hypnotized by me at all! I think you have been indulging your whimsy by making up stories!"
Louisa had been giving Blasko a running translation of
what was being said, but she stopped speaking Italian and addressed her husband in German. "What are you talking about, Gottfried? What's this about a translation?"
"Herr Kaldy seems to think that we are foolish enough to believe that he was one of the Wise Men," Weyrauch said,
laughing humorlessly. "Those words he spoke in the midst of
that very convincing display of emotional fatigue were part of a ritual incantation of the ancient Magi."
"The Magi?" Louisa said. "The Wise Men from the Bible? You must be mistaken, Gottfried. I've read the Christmas story a hundred times, in both Matthew and Luke, and there are no incantations..."
"Oh, Louisa, be quiet!" he said firmly. "You don't know anything about these matters! Just keep your mouth shut and
stay out of
this!"
He was attempting to be overpowering in his wrath, but Louisa knew him too well to be impressed by him. She stood up slowly and walked menacingly towards him. "And just whom do you think you're talking to?!"
He fell back a step, away from Kaldy, his ill-fitting
mask of masculine dominance crumbling before his
wife's
anger. "Louisa, I didn't mean..."
"Gottfried," she said coldly, "it is hard enough for me to live up to my own disapproval of divorce! Don't add to my burden by making it hard for me to live up to the Biblical prohibition against homicide!"
"Now, now, my dear," he simpered, "all I meant was that such historical and religious matters were things with which
you are unfamiliar..."
"Fine," she said, closing her eyes and attempting control her anger and her hatred of her husband. "Then why
don't you enlighten me, Pastor!" She seemed to spit the last
word at him. "What's all this about the Wise Men?"
Weyrauch sighed, resigned once again to having lost face
and resigned as well to having to explain to his wife a rather intricate bit of religious history. "Well," he said,
"St. Matthew doesn't use the term âWise Men.' The Greek word
he uses is
magoi
, and it's just centuries of custom which
makes us translate that as..."