Greg Iles - Black Cross

Katarina took my hand and pulled me out of the room.

She led me into a spotless white kitchen, opened the refrigerator and took out a can of coffee. For some reason, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I told myself it was some kind of transference. That after hearing the story of the brave German nurse — who was actually the elderly lady in the next room — I had invested her granddaughter with her personality. But there was no denying the young woman’s beauty, or the intelligence behind her bright eyes.

“I’ve never seen her that upset,” Katarina said as she poured bottled water into the coffeemaker. “I think it might help her to talk to you. Even though she tries to pretend the past is dead, it haunts her. Were you planning to stay the night in New York? You have a hotel?”

“No. I’d really planned to fly back tonight.”

“Tonight? But that’s crazy. You can stay here with us—”

Suddenly she blushed, as if realizing she had overstepped some invisible line. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know how it is in medicine. I’m sure you’ve got to get back right away.”

“Katarina,” I said softly. “I’m not really sure why I came up here. I really don’t have any plans at all.”

She looked at me very openly then, directly into my eyes. “Call me Kat,” she said. “That’s what everyone calls me.”

“Kat,” I said, testing the name on my tongue. “Kat, I would really love to stay. If you have room, of course.”

She smiled.

AFTERWORD

Black Cross is a novel of historical fiction. In certain instances, I have taken small liberties with facts or time frames for dramatic purposes, but not in such a way as to distort essential historical truths.

There was no concentration camp called Totenhausen in Mecklenburg. However, there were far too many camps like it throughout Germany and Poland. The medical experiments described in the book involving Dr. Clauberg are documented facts. Those involving meningitis are fictional, but do not approach in horror and effect some of the actual experiments carried out by the Nazis.

The Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest military award, has been awarded to only one non-British citizen: an “unknown American warrior.” So far as I know, there is no “secret list” as described in Chapter One. The actual medal that would have been received by a non-British civilian for the type of mission described in the book would be the George Cross, which is relatively unknown to most Americans.

Achnacarry Castle is a real place, and during the Second World War produced some of the greatest unsung heroes in history. Colonel Charles Vaughan was the real C.O. of the Commando Depot there, and much of the credit for the exploits of its graduates — including the U.S. Army Rangers — goes to him. Sir Donald Walter Cameron was the real Laird of Achnacarry during the war, and also the father of the present laird, Sir Donald Hamish Cameron, who served with distinction with the Lovat Scouts during WWII. I fictionalized both Colonel Vaughan and the elder Sir Donald with the utmost respect and admiration.

The nerve gases described in Black Cross were and are real. Tabun was discovered by the Germans in 1936; Sarin in 1938; and Soman in 1944. Sarin and Soman are still the most feared war gases in the world. The Nazis produced over 7,000 tons of Sarin by the end of the war. According to official accounts, Soman never reached the mass production stage; however, as a curtain of secrecy descended over all these captured compounds after the Nazi surrender, we cannot be certain that all facts are known.

I believe that Adolf Hitler, a man willing to destroy Germany rather than surrender, would have required powerful reasons to stay his hand from a weapon as potentially decisive as Sarin. I like to think that the Allies, particularly Winston Churchill, possessed the nerve and the guts to order a mission like the one described in Black Cross . A similar “suicide mission” was carried out by Norwegians — with the assistance of SOE — against a heavy water plant in Norway in 1943. This costly raid ensured that Adolf Hitler was denied nuclear weapons.

The Allied reaction — or lack thereof — to the news of what was occurring in the Nazi concentration camps remains one of the darkest chapters of WWII. It is expertly detailed in Auschwitz and the Allies , by Martin Gilbert.

All of us owe our freedom to men and women we shall never know. Some of their stories are told in: Skis Against the Atom , by Knut Haukelid; The Holocaust and Churchill , by Martin Gilbert; Castle Commando , by Donald Gilchrist; Moon Squadron , by Jerrard Tickell; A Man Called Intrepid , by William Stevenson; and The Glory and the Dream , by William Manchester.

Finally, I would ask young readers to realize that fifty years is not a long time.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many thanks to Natasha Kern, a superagent in the true sense of the word.

Many thanks to Elaine Koster, a publisher with the guts to let her authors break the rules.

Special thanks to John Grisham.

To Edward Stackler, fine editor and master of POV!

For research assistance: Scotland, Colin Maclean and Beryl Austin; London, Folly Marland, Stuart Hamilton, and at the Imperial War Museum, Peter Simkins; Washington, D.C., David Kasmier; Portland, OR, Oriana Green; Novato, CA, Dale Wilson

Medical advisors: Jerry Iles, M.D., Michael Bourland, M.D., Noah Archer, M.D., Barry Tillman, M.D., David Steckler, M.D.

Electrical engineering: Marlon Copeland, Howard Wooten

Languages: Toos S. Nooijen, Jean-Claude Coulerez, Susan Callon, Christof Schauwecker, Gloria Glickstein Brame

8th Air Force: Austin Ingels, Donald Toye

Judaica: Jerry Gross, Louis DeVries, Ronald E. Stackler

Matters Scottish: Diana Gabaldon

Special thanks to Jeff Walker for devious plot insights.

Special thanks to Geoff Iles for brotherly advice.

Kudos to all the pros at Dutton/Signet.

Readers: Betty Iles, Courtney Aldridge, Mary Lou England

Putting Up With My Obsession Committee: Carrie and Madeline.

All mistakes are mine.

Books by Greg Iles

Spandau Phoenix (1992)

Black Cross (1995)

Mortal Fear (1996)

The Quiet Game (1999)

24 Hours (2000) aka Trapped

Dead Sleep (2001)

Sleep No More (2002)

The Footprints of God (2003) aka Dark Matter

Blood Memory (2005)

Turning Angel (2005)

True Evil (2006)

Third Degree (2007)

The Devil's Punchbowl (2008)