The construction was assigned to Karl Gross, an SS officer and specialist in tropical diseases who had conducted experiments on seventeen hundred prisoners at the Mauthausen concentration camp. Gross ordered the construction of a ten-foot-high wall, built block by block by prisoners who’d later become the subject of Dr. Blome’s testing. By August of 1944, under the careful supervision of a special SS unit, the facility was expanded to include sections devoted to physiology, biology, bacteriology, and pharmacology. But the bulk of the operation was devoted to the development of sarin.
Other parts of the institute were busy as well. Himmler, looking for alternative chemical weapons, ordered Erich Traub, a veterinarian and virologist, to experiment on prisoners using the mass transmission of the malaria parasite to humans as well as the intentional exposure of bubonic plague.
Both of those studies were ongoing, but Dr. Blome’s research was given the highest priority. Himmler wanted to win the war, not simply cause the enemy combatants physical discomfort from which they might recover later. He demanded a death blow, and sarin was the solution. Yes, it was taboo by all definition. In Himmler’s mind, killing was killing regardless of the method.
With Himmler’s full support and promise of unlimited resources, Dr. Blome proceeded the day after the meeting at Wewelsburg Castle. The attempt on Hitler’s life on July 20 only served to hasten his efforts.
Dr. Blome had met with his colleagues, especially Traub. They’d gone over the arguments for and against Himmler’s Project Tabun. They discussed the human ramifications, but they also expressed their concerns about the catastrophic consequences of an error during their research. They began to question whether the ten-foot wall being constructed on Riems Island was to keep prying eyes from seeing in or to keep the sarin contained in the event of an accident.
At first, Dr. Blome had underestimated Himmler’s dedication to the project. He was left alone and not contacted by the Reichsführer for weeks. He later learned that Himmler’s mind was preoccupied with keeping the Reich together and ferreting out who was responsible for the assassination attempt on Hitler. Dr. Blome was not included in the plans to escape via Odessa.
He forged ahead under the minimal supervision of the SS-Wirtschafts und Verwaltungshauptamt, the Nazi organization responsible for managing the financing and business projects of the Reich. Dr. Blome couldn’t complain. After years of fighting for funding and improvements to his facility, now any request was met with swift fulfillment. More staff and more funding meant he could fulfill Himmler’s wishes without fear of repercussion. He’d seen what happened to those who failed to meet the Reichsführer’s expectations.
In late August of 1944, when the bombs began to fall on Berlin, the Institute on Riems Island became the recipient of additional scientists and materials. The manufacturing process of the sarin was increased tenfold. In addition, at Himmler’s request, design experimentation was undertaken to soak sponge material with the sarin.
On this day, a barge with a drop ramp docked at the island’s small boat ramp. Prisoners were taken off the building construction and ordered to unload the shipment. Thousands of titanium pressure vessels were delivered to Dr. Blome. Strong as steel but half the weight, titanium had the highest strength-to-weight ratio of all known metals.
And it didn’t oxidize in seawater. Salts, acids and other chemicals were seriously corrosive and damaging to lesser materials than titanium. This could lead to leakage of the contained substance.
This fact didn’t cross Dr. Blome’s mind as he supervised the delivery. He was unaware of Himmler’s plans for the delivery method of the sarin. His job was simple. Produce enough sarin to fill up the titanium vessels. And comply with Himmler’s latest directive—finish the first shipment by September 15, 1944.
Chapter Twelve
Aboard the Victory Casino Cruise Ship
One Hundred Miles East of Carvajal, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
Abduwali Ali was losing control of some of his pirates. Reports were coming from the ship’s personnel that his men were molesting the women passengers, and there was one reported rape in a stateroom. In the meantime, he’d learned through monitoring social media on his computer tablet that one of the passengers was broadcasting details of the attack on Facebook and Instagram.
He’d become enraged at first. Partly at himself for not considering this possibility but also because the passengers were not sufficiently frightened. Did they think this was some kind of game?
To drive the point home, although he abhorred rape, he didn’t stop his men from terrorizing some of the females at first. Despite the passengers being confined to quarters, he knew they could communicate through the walls and connecting doors. He’d use that to his advantage by solving two problems at once.
He’d drag the Larkin girl and her family out of the cabin, leaving the impression to everyone on the stateroom floor that they were going to be raped. In actuality, he wanted them moved to the captain’s stateroom, where he could have better access to them and protect them from his own men. He’d placed a very large bounty on their heads, and he was certain the Larkin girl’s father, a U.S. congressman, would demand proof of life throughout the process. Abduwali had no intention of killing the girl unless they either refused to comply or tried to pull some type of ill-advised rescue.
In that regard, Abduwali was pleased with the good fortune bestowed upon him by Allah. The tropical storm had been upgraded to a hurricane, and it was now headed directly for the ship. He was not the least bit concerned that the Victory could withstand the beating of the high winds and waves. He was pleased to have a respite from watching the seas and the radar for approaching naval vessels attempting a rescue. Only a fool would attempt such under these weather conditions.
He calculated the time it would take for the two-hundred-mile-wide storm to pass. He identified that as the deadline for the U.S. congressman to
