Adrian D'Hage - The Maya codex

Schmidt shoved Levi over the rough ground towards the steps. ‘There are 186 steps, Jew, and you’re going to climb every one of them.’

Levi glanced back to where Ramona and the children were chained to the stone tower. Ramona’s eyes were full of fear.

‘Pick up that rock!’ Schmidt shouted when they reached the narrow stone staircase leading up to a high granite outcrop overlooking the quarry. ‘On your shoulders, Jew man!’ Schmidt’s jowls were crimson now and a strong stench of garlic assailed Levi. He heaved the heavy rock onto his right shoulder.

‘ Jetzt lauf! Now run!’

Ramona, her hands chained to an iron ring in the wall behind her head, watched in horror as Levi struggled to climb the staircase, a massive rock teetering on his shoulder.

Schmidt turned to two young guards. ‘You know what to do. Follow him!’

The taller of the two guards bounded up the stairs and yelled in Levi’s ear. ‘Come on, Jew, you’re not even halfway yet!’

Levi’s knees buckled under the weight of the granite boulder. He staggered and fell to the ground, and the other guard smashed a rifle against his ribcage.

‘Get up, Jewish pig! I don’t want to be here all fucking night!’ Levi levered himself to his feet and hoisted the boulder back onto his shoulders, closing his mind to the searing pain in his ribs.

‘What are they doing to Papa, Mama?’ Rebekkah sobbed, her hands chained high above her head.

Levi rasped for breath and glanced ahead of him, not daring to stop. Ten steps to go. Nearing exhaustion, he staggered over the very last step and let the boulder fall at his feet.

‘Who gave you permission to drop the rock?’ The taller guard swung his rifle butt into the small of Levi’s back. Levi fell face-first onto the rocks, breaking his nose and two of his teeth. ‘Get up!’

Levi got to one knee, coughing blood and fragments of teeth.

One of the guards looked at his watch. ‘We’re losing fucking drinking time up here, Gunther!’

‘ Ja. Get up, you Jewish shit!’ Gunther snarled, kicking Levi in the stomach. Levi stumbled forward onto a large flat rock that overlooked the quarry. A hundred metres below a jagged outcrop of granite extended from the cliff base to where the prisoners, their ribcages clearly visible, were quarrying stone with picks and shovels. Levi looked up to the left and a chill ran through him. The unmistakeable figure of von Hei?en was silhouetted against the fading light.

Levi shuffled back, but he was shoved violently from behind.

Ramona watched in horror as Levi tumbled over the cliff, his arms flailing wildly. His scream pierced her very soul as he bounced off a rock halfway down, before smashing into the jagged granite at the base of the cliff.

‘That’s what happens when you criticise the Reich!’ Schmidt shouted at the prisoners in the quarry. ‘Now get back to work or you’ll be next!’

Von Hei?en’s batman and the chief steward, the latter holding a large crystal glass of Glenfiddich on a silver tray, were standing at the ready, just inside the heavy cedar doors of the officers’ mess. Flags of the Third Reich and the SS were mounted on one of the stone walls, and the bar had been decorated with a large gold eagle.

‘ Meine Herren. Der Kommandant! ’ Hauptsturmfuhrer Brandt sprang out of his chair to announce von Hei?en’s arrival, and the other officers followed suit. Von Hei?en handed his cane and cap to his batman and relieved the steward of the crystal tumbler.

‘Hans, come and join us,’ von Hei?en commanded his adjutant, waving his hand towards an empty leather lounge chair beside Doctor Richtoff’s. ‘ Ein Bier? ’

‘ Danke schon, Herr Kommandant.’

Von Hei?en looked towards the bar and snapped his fingers.

‘So, Eduard, everything is in order?’ von Hei?en asked, turning towards Richtoff.

Richtoff nodded. The SS doctor’s skin was milky white. His spiky grey hair was cut short above his high, square forehead, and pale-green eyes peered from beneath bushy black brows. ‘It appears to be, Karl. The equipment is being tested as we speak. We should be able to start our experiments tomorrow.’

‘What is it that you’re testing for, Herr Doktor?’ Hans asked.

‘The SS is to set the standards for the new Reich, Hauptsturmfuhrer. The Mauthausen experiments are aimed at producing a new German elite – a human embryo that combines leader, scholar, warrior and administrator all in one. You will forgive me, gentlemen, but you are not perfect.’

‘But a good start, Doktor,’ von Hei?en responded, signalling the steward to refill his glass.

‘The experiments are also designed to provide data that may help with the conditioning of our troops for possible service on the Eastern Front.’

‘How will you achieve that?’ Brandt asked, keen to know how the German race might be perfected.

‘Your Kommandant has kindly undertaken to provide me with fit specimens, both male and female. In the first experiment we’ll strip them naked and put them in ice vats to discover how long it takes them to die. Of course, during the winter it will be easier,’ Richtoff added, coughing, ‘because we can just leave them naked in an outdoor cage to see how long they last. In the second experiment we’ll lower the temperature to a point where most of them die, and from the remainder, we’ll see which ones can be resuscitated. We’ve already done some testing in Auschwitz, where we forced iced water into their intestines… but all of them died. Unfortunately that method doesn’t seem to have much promise.’ Richtoff reached for his beer.

‘And the pressure tank? What’s that for?’ Brandt asked.

‘Low-pressure simulation of an oxygen-thin environment,’ Richtoff replied. ‘Your Kommandant, being a qualified high-altitude diver, knows quite a bit about this.’

‘It’s been a while now,’ von Hei?en replied.

‘We’ve also tested this at Auschwitz,’ Richtoff continued, ‘but in Mauthausen we’re planning to use women as well as men. The human body functions best at sea level, where the bloodstream is saturated with oxygen, but at altitudes above 15 000 feet, the oxygen levels are halved and the body needs to acclimatise. At Auschwitz we found that most subjects died once the altitude simulation reached 23 000 feet. At that height it’s difficult to sleep and the digestion system breaks down. But one lasted past 25 000 feet and we’ve kept his organs for further analysis.’

‘How many specimens do you need, Herr Doktor?’ Brandt asked.

‘Forty will do to start with. Twenty men and twenty women, but they must be fit.’

‘Include the Weizman woman in the first batch, Hans – and make sure those brats of hers are forced to watch. Perhaps next time the boy will not be so keen to hide things from the Reich. In the meantime, in honour of your arrival, Eduard, I’ve ordered some very nice wine for dinner.’

Night descended on the quarry, and a team of soldiers finished removing gold fillings from the bodies at the base of the cliff. A large bulldozer, smoke pouring from the exhaust flap, manoeuvred into position and began shovelling the corpses towards a refuse pit. Back behind the forbidding stone walls of the prisoner compound, the inmates were standing in the cold between the barrack blocks, waiting for roll call. Ramona did her best to comfort Ariel and Rebekkah, her spirit unbroken but her heart torn apart, aching for the man she’d loved with every fibre of her being.

‘Tomorrow, you’ll both be transferred to work in the laundry, Lieblings,’ Ramona whispered. ‘If someone offers to help you, you’re to do exactly as they tell you, all right?’

‘But what about you, Mama?’ Ariel asked. His face was white, his whole world shattered. Rebekkah looked up at her mother, struggling to understand what had happened.