Jeffery Deaver - Garden Of Beasts

With a smile toward his brother, Kurt ran his hand over the test envelope, realizing that for the first time in months his heart was truly content.

Willi Kohl parked the DKW not far from the Labor Service truck, which was about fifty meters off the road, parked in such a way that the driver clearly intended that the vehicle not be seen.

As he walked quietly to the truck, his Panama hat low to keep the glaring sun out of his eyes, he removed his pistol and listened for footsteps, voices. But he heard nothing out of the ordinary: only birds, crickets, cicadas. He approached the truck slowly. He looked into the back and found the burlap bags, shovels and hoes he’d expected – the “weapons” of the Labor Service. But in the cab he located some items that interested him considerably more. On the seat was an RAD officer’s uniform – carefully folded as if it would be used again soon and the wearer was concerned that wrinkles might make him appear suspicious. More important, though, was what he found wrapped in paper beneath the seat: a blue double-breasted suit and a white shirt, both in large sizes. The shirt was an Arrow, made in the United States. And the suit? Kohl felt his heart thud as he looked at the label inside the jacket. Manny’s Men’s Wear, New York City.

Paul Schumann’s favorite store.

Kohl replaced the clothes and looked around for any sign of the American, the toad Webber or anyone else.

No one.

The footsteps in the dust outside the door of the truck suggested that Schumann had gone into the woods toward the campus. An old service drive, leading in that direction, was overgrown with grass but more or less smooth. But it was also exposed; the hedgerows and brush on either side would be a perfect place for Schumann to lie in wait. The only other route was through the hilly woods, strewn with rocks and branches. Ach… His poor feet cried out at the very sight of it. But he had no choice. Willi Kohl started forward through the painful obstacle course.

Please, Paul Schumann prayed. Please, step out of the car, Colonel Ernst, and into clear view. In a country that has outlawed God, where there were fewer prayers to hear, perhaps He’d grant this one.

But apparently this was not the moment for divine help. Ernst remained inside the Mercedes. Glare from the windshield and windows kept Paul from seeing exactly where he was in the backseat. If he fired through the glass and missed he’d never have another chance.

He scanned the field again, reflecting: No breeze. Good light – from the side, not in his eyes – illuminating the killing field. A perfect opportunity to shoot.

Paul wiped the sweat off his forehead and sat back in frustration. He felt something pressing uncomfortably into his thigh and he glanced down. It was the folder of papers that the balding man had placed in the car ten minutes before. He pushed it to the floor but, as he did, he glanced at the document on top. He lifted it and, alternating between glancing at Ernst’s Mercedes and the letter, he read:

Ludwig:

You will find annexed hereto my draft letter to the Leader about our study. Note that I’ve included a reference to the testing being done today at Waltham. We can add the results tonight.

At this early stage of the study I believe it is best that we refer to those killed by our Subject soldiers as state criminals. Therefore you will see in the letter that the two Jewish families we killed at Gatow will be described as Jew subversives, the Polish laborers killed at Charlottenburg as foreign infiltrators, the Roma as sexual deviants, and the young Aryans at Waltham today will be political dissidents. At a later point we can, I feel, be more forthright about the innocence of those exterminated by our Subjects but at the moment I do not believe the climate is right for this.

Nor do I refer to the questionnaires you administer to the soldiers as “psychological testing.” This too, I feel, would be unfavorably received.

Please review this and contact me about alterations. I intend to submit the letter as requested, on Monday, 27 July.

– Reinhard

Paul frowned. What was this all about? He flipped to the next sheet and continued reading.

HIGHEST CONFIENTIALITY

Adolf Hitler,

Leader, State Chancellor and President of the German

Nation and Commander of the Armed Forces

Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg,

State Minister of Defense

My Leader and my Minister:

You have asked for details of the Waltham Study being conducted by myself and Doctor-Professor Ludwig Keitel of Waltham Military College. I am pleased to describe the nature of the study and the results so far.

This study arises out of my instructions from you to make ready the German armed forces and to help them achieve most expeditiously the goals of our great nation, as you have set forth.

In my years of commanding our courageous troops during the War, I learned much about men’s behavior during combat. While any good soldier will follow orders, it became clear to me that men respond in different ways to the matter of killing, and this difference, I believe, is based on their nature.

In brief, our study involves asking questions of soldiers before and after they execute condemned enemies of the state and then analyzing their responses. These executions involve a number of different situations: various methods of execution, categories of prisoners, relationship of the soldier to the prisoners, the family background and personal history of the soldier, etc. The examples to date are as follows:

On 18 July of this year, in the town of Gatow, a soldier (Subject A) questioned at length two groups convicted of Jewish subversive activities. He was then ordered to carry out the execution order by automatic weapon fire.

On 19 July, a soldier in Charlottenburg (Subject B) similarly executed a number of Polish infiltrators. Although Subject B was the proximate cause of their deaths, he had had no communication with them prior to their extermination, unlike the Gatow executions.

On 21 July a soldier (Subject C) executed a group of Roma Gypsies engaged in sexually deviant behavior in a special facility we have had constructed at Waltham College. Carbon monoxide gas from vehicle exhaust was the means of death. Like Subject B, this soldier never conversed with the victims, but, unlike him, he did not witness their actual deaths.

Paul Schumann gasped in shock. He looked again at the first letter. Why, these people killed were innocent, by Ernst’s own admission. Jewish families, Polish workers… He read the passages again to make sure he’d seen correctly. He thought he must have mistranslated the words. But, no, there wasn’t any doubt. He looked across the dusty field at the black Mercedes, which still sheltered Ernst. He glanced down at the letter to Hitler and continued.

On 26 July a soldier (Subject D) executed a dozen political dissidents at the Waltham facility. The variation in this case was that these particular convicts were of Aryan extraction, and Subject D spent an hour or more conversing and playing sports with them immediately before he executed them, getting to know some of them by name. He was further instructed to observe them die.

Oh, Christ… that’s here, today!

Paul leaned forward, squinting over the field. The gray-uniformed German soldier who’d been playing soccer with the boys gave a stiff-arm salute to the balding man in brown then he hooked a thick hose from the tailpipe of the bus into a fixture on the outside wall of the classroom.

We are presently compiling the responses provided by all of these Subject soldiers. Several dozen other executions are planned, each one a variation intended to provide us with as much helpful data as possible. The results of the first four tests are attached hereto.