Lycanthropos (38 page)

"Yes, I know," Schlacht said. "It's the uniform of an S.S. general. Don't worry about it."

"But…"

"Once the formula for the solution had been established,
it was relatively simple for Fräulein Loewenstein to produce
a large quantity of it in anticipation of tonight's stage in the experiment," he went on, ignoring the ill ease which Weyrauch demonstrated as he pulled on the tunic. "We have fifteen volunteers from my command, we have the solution with which to alter them as we desire..." He smiled again. "And we have a Croatian partisan group operating in the hills near here to serve as the focal point of this
stage of our procedure."

Weyrauch finally understood. "You are going to use your men, your altered men, that is, to deal with the partisans?"

"Precisely," Schlacht replied. "Once they have been
treated and we are certain that the chemical has been absorbed, we shall go into the hills and flush out the partisans." He smiled. "We shall test our new race of
soldiers under combat conditions."

Weyrauch nodded. "I see. I see. But how will you, ah, flush the partisans out, Helmuth?"

"By giving them something they would like to capture or kill, of course."

In an instant the minister understood why he was wearing a general's uniform, and his knees began once again to wobble. "But...but..."

"Don't be frightened, my dear cousin," Schlacht said amicably. "If all goes well, the partisans won't get close enough to you to pinch your cheek!"

"If all goes well!" he cried. "If all goes well! Helmuth, we might be killed!"

"Yes, but this is war, Gottfried! Men die in battle every day. Do you have any idea how many good German soldiers died at
Stalingrad
?"

"Yes, but..."

"Besides, you don't have to worry about me. I won't be in any danger." Schlacht knew, of course, that his safety was of absolutely no concern to Weyrauch. He merely made this comment because it amused him to do so. "The idea, you see, is very simple. You will be riding in a staff car with a general's rank flag on the front bumper, and you will be escorted by my fifteen...what shall I call them?...by my fifteen
Lycanvolk,
if you will. We shall stop the car at a designated spot and open the bonnet so as to give the
impression that something is amiss with the engine. You will
wait in the car, the soldiers will wait outside the car, and I shall be watching through binoculars from a safe
distance." Schlacht stood up and straightened his thick belt
"The partisans are all over that area. I'm relatively certain that they will make an appearance before the night is out, and then, as the partisans try to get at you, we shall see how my men perform in combat."

"But..."

"Come, Gottfried, hurry up!" Schlacht said impatiently. "Get that uniform on. We don't have all night, you know, and if we don't conduct this test now, we'll have to wait three days to do it. Tomorrow is the first night of the full moon, and we must have our
Lycanvolk
safely confined before then. So make haste, cousin!"

"H...Helmuth..." he stammered, "perhaps it w...would be better to wait…"

"Nonsense, Gottfried, nonsense. Procrastination is the first rung on the ladder
of failure."

"But why me?" he whined. "Why not
use...why not use...?"

"Another Jew, perhaps?" Schlacht grinned wickedly.

"N…no, no, certainly not..."

Schlacht's eyebrows rose. "Why not?" Weyrauch did not know what to say, for he could neither agree with Schlacht's suggestion without accentuating his own hypocrisy and moral weakness, nor disagree with it without seeming to defend the humanity of the racial enemies of the German people. Schlacht watched his wordless prevarication and then he said, "The reason is obvious, of course. I wouldn't dream of disgracing a German uniform by putting it on the back of a Jew. You understand and agree, of course."

"I...
of...of course..."

"Good," he smiled, strapping on his holster and side arm.

"But why not...why not...why not have one of your own
people, someone treated with the solution..."

"Ah, yes, that is of course the obvious procedure to follow," he replied, picking up the helmet and pressing it down onto Weyrauch's head. "Let me explain, my dear Gottfried, and let me begin my explanation by asking you what else you have been told by the Gypsy Kaldy." He paused,
awaiting a reply. "Well?"

"Ah…well, he…he…"

"Told you more of his fairy tales?" Schlacht suggested.

"Well, yes, as a matter of
fact…"

"In whose company did he find himself in this most
recent round of imagination? Charlemagne and Buddha? Friedrich the Great and Immanuel Kant?"

Oh, Lord
, Weyrauch moaned inwardly. "No, Helmuth...he
talked about... well, about Pontius Pilate and Jesus Christ
and the crucifixion."

"Indeed!" Schlacht said, feigning surprise.
"He was Christ, I assume, and the Romans were unable to drive the nails into his hands?"

Weyrauch wiped his brow with a shaking hand. "No, he,
ah, he was Barabbas."

"Barabbas! Of course, I should have guessed. And his as
yet unseen friend Claudia was Mary Magdalene, I suppose?"

"No, Pilate's
wife."

"Pilate's
wife,"
Schlacht nodded. "Yes, that certainly makes
sense." He looked at Weyrauch, all trace of amusement vanishing from his eyes. "Do you understand now why I have decided that you should play a part in tonight's
mission?"

"Helmuth, I..."

"You are a disgrace, Gottfried, a disgrace to your family and a disgrace to your people," he said darkly. "It
is my unfortunate fate to be related to you by marriage, and
it is in a sense an act of self-purification for me to make certain that you render some service to the Reich, even if it means setting you up as a clay pigeon."

"Helmuth, please..." he wept.

"You are a weakling, Gottfried, a simpering, cowardly weakling. You disgust me, you nauseate me. At least Louisa, foolish and misguided as she is, has sufficient courage to speak her mind...courage seems to be a family characteristic...but you! You lick the ass of
anyone who chooses to shit in your face!"

"Helmuth,
I'll
do anything you want me to do, I
swear..."

"Of course you will," he said. "You'll do anything that
anyone
wants you to do, you miserable insect. When this is all over, when I am certain that our invulnerable soldiers can function effectively, I intend to send Blasko off to
Auschwitz
and have Louisa join him there.
She
will
be
killed, of course, but she will at least die on her feet, a brave if misguided German. You, on the other hand, may survive this night, and if so, and if any of my men are killed, I will expect you to perform the autopsies. And if none of my men are killed or injured, then
I'm
afraid that you, our esteemed ordained servant of the Lord, had best prepare to meet Him." He paused. "I could have a staff physician here at Hunyad perform whatever autopsies are required, if any, or ship the body off to Mengele, but I don't want anyone else to know what I am doing until I am
certain of success."

"But surely...surely I can continue to be of assistance
to you..."

"Continue to be of assistance! What on earth makes you think that you've been of assistance so far? True, you autopsied the dead experimental animals, but that is hardly what I would call a vital contribution to the project." He
shook his head. "No, Gottfried, you have spent the past month
doing two things. You have allowed a subhuman freak to humiliate a German by spinning his fancies off as truth, and you have gotten on my nerves. I think that we can dispense with both of your services in short order, don't you?"

"Helmuth, for the love of
God..."

Schlacht laughed. "Haven't you read your Nietzsche lately, Gottfried? God is dead. Now all things are
possible." His laughter ceased abruptly. "Now button your
coat and come with me."

Weyrauch followed behind Schlacht upon his trembling
legs as the S.S. Colonel walked out of the building into the
darkness. Schlacht glanced up at the moon, whose face was almost, but not entirely full, shining brightly.
Tomorrow night
, he thought,
my men will need to be confined; but tonight they will be human, rational, and impervious to the guns of the Croats
. "I wonder what the full moon has to do with
it,
anyway," Schlacht mused aloud.

"Wh..what...?" Weyrauch asked.

"Nothing, nothing, Gottfried," he snapped. "I wasn't talking to you. Just keep quiet and come with me." He glanced at the shaking man beside him. "And try to steady your hands. You have to inject my soldiers, and I don't want you to fail at yet another task. It may be your last
opportunity to do something properly, so don't botch it up."

Schlacht led Weyrauch through the door of what appeared to be a barracks. Within, Corporal Vogel was standing in front of a line of soldiers, and he and they snapped to
attention when Schlacht entered. The building, like all the
buildings in the camp, was a sturdy wooden structure, but
this one had evidently been neither used nor occupied until
that night. No beds lined the walls, no chairs stood near the doors or windows, the open lockers were empty, and one
solitary table provided the only furnishing in the large,
high ceilinged room. Schlacht began to tell Weyrauch that this particular barracks building had been designated for
S.S. personnel who had not yet been assigned to the newly
constructed, not yet fully utilized concentration camp, but then he decided not to grace his wife's cousin with any more
sociable conversation. Instead he gestured brusquely at the
table and said, "The solution and the needles are over there. Get them ready." As Weyrauch walked numbly over toward the table,
Schlacht turned to Vogel and asked, "Have
you briefed them fully?"

"
Jawohl,
Herr Colonel," Vogel replied.

"Good," he muttered, and then turned to the fifteen S.S. who stood stiffly before him, only their eyes giving expression to their eager, yet nervous excitement, tinged with just a hint of skepticism. He looked each one in the face for a moment and then raised his right hand slowly until it was parallel to his ear, palm facing outward. "Heil Hitler," he
said in a soft, confident tone.

"Heil Hitler!" they replied in unison.

"At ease," he said, and the fifteen volunteers complied.
He paused briefly, and then said, "Men, you have volunteered for what may well be the single most important mission in the entire war. When volunteers were first called for, all you knew was that we needed test subjects for an experimental chemical which, we hoped, would increase the
effectiveness and fighting power of the German soldier." He
paused and smiled. "If it is possible to increase something
already so formidable."

The soldiers glanced at each other, smiling and laughing softly at their commander's words. Schlacht knew that they were all nervous and he also knew that allowing them a few moments during which they could look at each other and share
a bit of trivial mirth would serve to ease their tension. He
waited until the muted laughter had subsided, and then he continued. "Until tonight, none of you knew the details of the experiment, and I assume that now that you have had it all explained to you, there are some of you who are experiencing a healthy disinclination to believe what you have heard." He paused. "Allow me to assure you that it is all completely true. I have seen this creature with my own eyes. I have seen it change its form from that of a man into that of a beast, and I know for a fact that regardless of the form it happens to inhabit, it cannot be injured or
killed." He paused again, allowing them to absorb his words.
"I also know for a fact, on the basis of my own personal observation, that a large degree of invulnerability results from the absorption of the enzyme discovered in the creature's blood. Do not misunderstand me; a human being injected with this solution can indeed be killed. But Corporal Vogel has read to you the official report. Ninety bullets, gentlemen. Ninety bullets, fired at close range, were needed to effect death." He smiled at them and moved his eyes from face to
face. "Good enough, is it not?"

He paused again as the smiles and soft laughs rose and
then dissipated. "I will not insult such fine Aryan warriors
as yourselves by minimizing what this will mean, and anyone who wishes not to participate is free to depart without
prejudice. Remember what you have been told. It appears that
great pain accompanies the absorption of the enzyme. And we are almost certain that for two nights out of each month, when this change occurs, it will be necessary to restrain you. But at all other times, on the other hand, you will be immune to disease, not subject to injury, needing neither sleep nor sustenance, free from thirst and hunger and
weariness and pain. And it is also reasonable to assume that
your life spans will be increased considerably." He looked again from face to face. "You have the facts, gentlemen. Does anyone wish to be relieved of this assignment?"