The Dragon Factory

eugenics program succeed.”

Grace said, “And your lot-the List-sorted them out?”

“Yes,” said Church.

Bug nodded. “So… the stuff from Deep Iron. Is that the eugenics research?”

“Not entirely. There is quite a lot of data from experiments in forced trauma-beatings and other abuse-as part of Mengele’s study to determine the limits of physical endurance under traumatic circumstances. Ostensibly this was intended to help the German soldiers in the field, but few rational people believe that.”

I noticed he cut a significant look at Hu when he said that, and for once Hu kept his mouth shut. Grace, to her credit, did not break into a smug smile.

Church said, “The experiments that Mengele performed, and those by other doctors in the various camps, were never intended to benefit the German soldier. They cared nothing for the man in the field. Jerome Freund did extensive interviews with camp survivors as well as those members of camp staff who were not executed after the Nuremberg Trials. What Mengele did-everything Mengele did-was fueled by his insanity and driven by his need to participate fully in the eugenics program.”

“Why?” asked Bug. “What was his deal?”

“Mengele believed in the master race concept. Through his experiments he tried to determine the physical vulnerabilities of the different races. It’s one of the reasons he and his masters picked Jews and Gypsies for much of their work, because those groups married within very limited family bloodlines. It allowed Mengele to work with a group who shared many common physiological traits, and that in turn allowed him to make intuitive jumps. The collection of statistics is more than just how the body reacts to trauma but how the bodies of specific races reacts. Think about the use for that when waging a war on what they believed were the lesser race. They believed that by researching common bloodlines they would find vulnerabilities that would give them weapons against the entire race.”

Grace growled out a comment that would have shocked a stevedore, then said, “Yes… and we can thank God that Mengele was not a geneticist.”

“Why?” asked Bug.

Hu fielded that one. “Because there are diseases and disorders that affect certain genetic lines. Tay-Sachs, for example, is a genetic disease that affects Jews whose bloodlines can be traced back to a certain region. Predominantly the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe. ‘Ashkenaz’ is a word from medieval Hebrew that refers to the Rhineland in the west of Germany.”

Hu was starting to show off, so Church stepped in. “If Mengele had known about Tay-Sachs and had access to genetic science… there’s no telling what kind of mass slaughter he might have perpetrated. It’s not inconceivable that, given time, the Nazis might have developed genetic weapons that could indeed wipe out all of the world’s Jews.”

“Holy God,” said Bug, looking aghast.

I had a very bad thought and I looked at Church. “The Cabal records that you destroyed… what were their lines of research?”

Church was silent for so long that I knew the answer would be bad.

“They were working on a way to weaponize genetic diseases. And, yes, that included Tay-Sachs. They wanted to create a version that could be given to people rather than inherited.”

Grace shook her head. “Bloody maniacs.”

Church punched some keys that put the letter I’d found up on the screen side by side with the English-language translation I’d written out during the flight back from Denver.

“This was written during Mengele’s tenure at Auschwitz. The reference to ‘Herr Wirths’ would be to Dr. Eduard Wirths, the chief SS doctor at the camp. He was Mengele’s superior and was a fiercely dedicated Nazi. Wirths was a highly trained physician who specialized in communicable diseases, and his appointment to the camp was made so that he could try and stop the typhus epidemic that was affecting SS personnel at Auschwitz. He was successful in that and stayed on to oversee other areas of research. We don’t have complete records of what he did, but we know from camp survivors that he was particularly interested in any prisoner who demonstrated symptoms of communicable diseases. It was Wirths who recommended Mengele for promotion to a senior doctor at the camp.”

“Sounds like a right charmer,” said Grace.

“Strangely,” Church said to her, “Wirth had a reputation for protecting inmate doctors and even improving some of the health care provided to inmates at Auschwitz.”

“Which is on a par with giving a man a nice cold glass of water before shoving him into a pit of fire,” I said.

Church nodded. “Wirths was a complicated man. He insisted that the deaths at the camp were ‘natural deaths’ and not state-sanctioned executions. Jerome Freund viewed him as a villain because of Wirth’s unflinching dedication to the three spheres of Nazi ideology: the goal of revitalizing the German race, the biomedical path to a perfected master race, and the belief that the Jews were a significant threat to the immediate and long-term health of the Germanic race. So, he was no hero by any stretch, even if certain inmates praised his compassion during the trials.”

“What happened to him?”

“He was taken into British custody in 1945 but shortly thereafter hung himself. Whether to escape punishment or out of remorse is anyone’s guess. However, it is because of men like Wirths and Mengele that we now have the Nuremberg Code of research ethics and principles for human experimentation.”

“What’s ‘noma’?” I asked.

“It’s a disfiguring gangrenous disease that was sweeping through the camp,” said Hu. “It’s triggered by malnutrition and is still a significant threat in Africa and other third world countries. Anywhere you find poor food sources, inadequate health care, and unsanitary conditions.”

I asked. “Okay, and what’s ‘zoonosis’?”

Hu took that one, too. “It’s the category for any infectious disease that’s able to be transmitted from animals to humans. HIV, bird flu… that sort of thing. Usually there isn’t a species jump, but sometimes contamination, a botched experiment, or someone getting jiggy with the livestock will do it.”

“Sorry,” I asked, “how’s that tie into Nazi research?”

“It’s rumored that they experimented with it,” said Hu, “but luckily, nothing much came of it.”

“The Cabal were doing a lot of research in that area,” said Church. “Their scientists were investigating zoonoses like measles, smallpox, influenza, and diphtheria to see if reintroduction to animals would strengthen the diseases so that they could then be weaponized and used against humans.”

“Christ on the cross,” said Grace. “I’m very glad your ‘List’ put those pricks down.”

If they did, I thought. I had my doubts.

“What about the reference to ‘twins’?” Grace asked.

“Mengele was obsessed with twins,” said Church. “He removed them from the general population of the camps, gave them better treatment… though few actually survived the camps. No one really knows what the ultimate point was of those experiments… if Mengele even had a point.”

“He was probably just batshit crazy,” suggested Bug.

“He was evil,” said Grace.

Hu gave her a condescending look. “Evil is an abstraction.”

Church turned slowly toward him; there was a weird vibe in the air. “I assure you, Doctor, evil exists. Everyone here at this table has seen it. My friend was murdered by a dart filled with Ebola. Insanity would have manifested differently: a bomb, a knifing, even abduction and murder, but to carefully craft a pathogenic weapon, hire an assassin, and deliver that weapon to a target shows a cool, perhaps cold, mind and a clear intent. That’s evil.”

“What if the killers believe that their ideology is sound?” Hu countered.

“Like the Nazi Party?” Church asked quietly.

“Sure. Like the Nazi Party. Your friend was German. Nazism emerged in Germany. Surely you’re not saying that a huge chunk of the German people suddenly became ‘evil.’ ”

“Of course not. Most people-in Germany as in every other country-are easily led, and easily corrupted by an extreme few. We’ve seen that with Muslim terrorists. Islam is neither evil nor corrupt, but it takes the rap for what some people do in the name of that religion. We can see that here in the states as well. And don’t misunderstand,