Black Cross (50 page)

“What the hell is that?”

“Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures. You want to make a contribution or you want to be quiet?”

Stern scowled and moved away. Two minutes later, McConnell set down the pencil. “All right, listen,” he said. “If you’re willing to go back into that camp tonight, we can save your father.”

Stern came back and stood over him. “How?”

“By doing what Anna originally suggested. Moving the prisoners into the E-Block before the attack. It’s an insane risk for you — for all of us, really — but . . . well, it’s your decision.”

Anna looked at him in confusion. “But all of the prisoners won’t fit into the E-Block.”

“That’s right,” said McConnell. “All of them won’t.”

“But half of them will,” Stern said softly.

“It’s the only option, Stern. That or run.”

“Playing God,” Anna said.

“My father would never agree to be among the saved,” Stern said, almost to himself. “He would give up his place to a woman or child.”

“I’m afraid that’s what it’s going to come down to,” McConnell told him. “Depending on who makes the final decision, of course.”

“What do you mean? How many people can fit in there?”

“Anna said the chamber was three meters by three, and two meters high.” He looked at her. “Right?”

She nodded. “After we talked about it, I checked a test record to see if I was right. I was.”

“That’s eighteen cubic meters of total space.” McConnell looked down at his sheet. “Six hundred and fifty cubic feet to me.”

“You can squeeze a lot of bodies into that,” Stern said. “Especially underfed bodies.”

McConnell nodded patiently. “If it were merely a question of space. But it’s not. It’s a question of oxygen.”

“Eighteen cubic meters of air won’t support everyone we can fit in there?”

“Not for long. Those movies you’ve seen, where ten men get trapped in a sealed bank vault or a gold mine and spend two days trying to figure out a way to get out?”

“Yes?”

“They’re so much
Scheisse
, okay? Think about it like this. I tie a paper bag over your head. That’s all the air you have. How long can you survive on that?”

“Not very long.”

“Right. And that’s all the E-Block is — a big paper bag. Only it’s made of steel. You’ve got one hundred square feet of floor space. That sounds big, but believe me, it’s not. You could probably force a hundred malnourished women and children inside. However, every single body that goes in displaces a certain amount of air from the chamber, reducing the available oxygen.”

“Damn it, how many people can survive in there?”

“That depends on who goes in.” McConnell picked up his pencil. “How does the inmate population break down?”

“There are six barracks buildings,” Anna said. “Two for men, two for women, two for children. There are two for each because the Jews are separated from the other prisoners.”

“Privileged as usual,” Stern muttered.

“Normally there would be fifty persons in each barracks,” Anna went on, “totalling three hundred. But Brandt has had trouble replenishing the ranks. The Jewish Men’s Block has less than fifteen men in it. Both children’s barracks are nearly full, and the Jewish Women’s Block just under that. The Christian Women’s Block is under quota. After the reprisals, the total camp population is probably about two hundred and twenty.”

“I counted forty-eight women in the Jewish Women’s Block,” Stern said. “But they’ve shot five since then.”

McConnell picked up his pencil and began scratching again.

“Figure for forty-five women and fifty children,” Stern said. “We could fit that many inside — physically I mean.”

McConnell looked up, “I know what you’re telling me. Just give me a minute, please. These are big numbers. Total milliliters of air . . . oxygen percentages total and consumed . . . that’s per kilogram per minute . . . a pediatric figure . . . Christ . . . mmm . . . okay. I’ve got it.”

“How many?”

McConnell set down his pencil. “Assuming forty-five women and fifty children, the available oxygen would last one hundred and two minutes. That’s only a guess, but it’s a solid guess.”

“One hour and forty-two minutes,” Anna said. “Is that long enough?”

“Frankly, I don’t think so. Smith’s scientists planned this attack with only eight cylinders. That suggests a gas on the order of Sarin, which I’m certain it was copied from. If the British gas works, lethal amounts could persist for as long as four hours, maybe even longer.”

“Four hours is too long,” said Stern. “SS reinforcements could arrive from somewhere else.”

McConnell considered this factor. SS reinforcements could be as deadly as Sarin if they weren’t killed by the gas. “We must pare the numbers down to allow for two hours of oxygen. No less.”

“Numbers?” Stern echoed. “You’re talking about people!”

“I know that,” McConnell said evenly. “The one hundred and twenty-five I already excluded from the equation are people too. They’re just not Jews.”

For once, Stern did not lose his self-control when faced with an unpalatable truth. “What’s wrong with the fucking Nazis all of a sudden?” he grumbled. “They usually build everything twice as big as anyone else.”

“The gases Brandt tests in the E-Block are the most toxic in the world,” Anna explained. “Sometimes they run several tests in a day. The E-Block was designed small enough to be cleaned thoroughly and quickly with steam and detergents. The whole process is automated.”

“It’s just a bigger version of the Bubble back in my lab,” said McConnell.

“Bubble?”

“I remember,” said Stern. “Except you use rats. They use people. So tell me, how many people can survive for two hours in Brandt’s bubble?”

“You want to save all the children or all the women?”

“My God,” Anna whispered. “You have no right to do this.”

“You’re right,” McConnell agreed. “But I am doing it.”

“
Kinder
,” said Stern. “Save the children.”

“But the children must have someone to take care of them when they come out,” Anna argued.

“Women use more air,” said Stern. “There’ll be enough women left to take care of the children. Take out women.”

McConnell carefully recalculated his equation. “If you took out ten women,” he said, “the oxygen would last one hundred and nineteen minutes. Almost exactly two hours. If you want my opinion, I’d take out twenty women. It’s horrible, I know, but by trying to save too many we could kill them all.”

“Wait!” Anna cut in. “What about an oxygen bottle?”

McConnell’s eyebrows went up. “Oxygen bottle? Depending on the type, it could make a significant difference.”

“There are several large tanks in the factory, in case of accidents. I can’t get access to those, but in the hospital we have two portable bottles. I don’t know the exact amount of oxygen in them, but I think I could steal one. The other is being used on a pneumonia case, an SS private. It would be missed immediately.”

Stern was nodding excitedly. “At least that would let us save all the women, yes? Maybe even the few men—”

McConnell held up his hand. “There’s another concern here. These time limits I’m giving you are for total oxygen depletion. That means
death
. Before that there would be episodes of hysteria, fainting, possibly some violence. You’re talking about terrified women and children packed inside a sealed chamber, probably without lights. They could be tearing out each other’s eyes after an hour, trampling the children, God knows what. You understand?”

“You’re saying don’t increase the numbers at all?”

“I’m saying we should count that oxygen bottle as a reserve. There’s no guarantee we can even get it into the E-Block. On top of that, these people may
have
to stay inside the chamber three or four hours before it’s safe to come out.”

Stern nodded in resignation.

“Can we even get the E-Block open?” McConnell asked.

“It’s always open,” Anna said. “Who would want to go inside it?”

“Point taken. Okay, Jonas, I think you should go back in right now, tonight. You’ve got about three hours of darkness left. Talk to your father, explain the situation, tell him to start slipping people into the E-Block just before dawn. That’s when we’ll attack.”

Stern laughed. “Doctor, you may know chemistry, but you know nothing about military tactics.” He sat down at the table and picked up McConnell’s pencil. “What do you think is going to happen after this attack of ours? Where are these women and children going to go?”

“Where were they going to go if we saved them all? This isn’t Hollywood, Stern. We can give those people a fighting chance. That’s more than what they have now. Maybe they can make a run for Poland, try to reach the Resistance.”

“You obviously don’t know that half the Polish resistance groups will kill a Jew as quickly as a Nazi will.”

“Goddamn it, Stern—”

“No, you’re right, Doctor. They’ll have to try for Poland. But they can’t do that in the daylight. Women and children in stolen SS trucks crossing fifty miles of Nazi Germany by day? You’re crazy! I don’t fancy trying to find our British submarine in the daylight myself. Also, if I sneak back into the camp tonight — which might not be so easy, considering what Fräulein Kaas just did there — I’ve got damn little time to convince my father or those women to condemn their friends to death, then sneak out of the camp, up the hill, and send down the gas.” Stern tossed the pencil on the table. “No, it’s got to be tomorrow night.” He turned to Anna. “What time is the final roll call?”

“Seven p.m.”

“Then we’ll attack at eight. The confusion will be much greater for the SS at night, and we’ll have hours of darkness to escape.”

“You realize that tomorrow night will be the fourth night we’ve been here,” McConnell reminded him. “If we don’t make it to the submarine by dawn the next day, it won’t be there.”

“We’ll make it.”

“And what about the gas? It could be degrading into harmless chemicals right now. And the reprisals. What if they shoot ten more people tomorrow? What about your—”

Stern slapped the table. “Shut up, goddamn you! I’ve made my decision. If you’d ever seen unarmed people hunted down by troops in the daylight, you’d know why.”

McConnell hesitated, but reluctantly nodded his assent. “We’ll just have to pray Schörner doesn’t close the net on us by tomorrow night,” he said. “But what about Anna? She can’t go back into Totenhausen after what she did tonight.”

Anna closed her eyes. “If I don’t, they’ll know something’s wrong.”

“They already know! They must. You killed Miklos and kept them from interrogating him.”

“Maybe they don’t know that,” said Stern. “The SS had already roughed him up. She told the guard Wojik’s heart was weak. Maybe they think he just died.”

“I’ve also got to get that oxygen bottle into the E-Block,” Anna reminded them.

McConnell started to argue further, but she cut him off by asking Stern a question. “Do you think your father will consent to go into the E-Block?”

“With the way the numbers have worked out, I very much doubt it.” Stern stood up and leaned against the stove for warmth.

“You must persuade him. Perhaps he would agree to lead the women and children to Poland?”

“He might. I’ve got all day tomorrow to think of something.” Stern snapped his fingers. “There is one thing I can do tonight, though.” He walked around the table and disappeared through the cellar door.

Anna took McConnell’s hand under the table and squeezed it. “You are a strange man,” she said.

Stern came back up the stairs carrying his leather bag.

“What’s that for?” asked McConnell.

“The two cylinders we were going to put in the SS bomb shelter. If we’re going back to the original plan, we need every ounce of gas we can get for the attack, yes? I’m going to drag those two cylinders as close as possible to the camp fence. With the plastic explosive and time pencil fuses from Achnacarry, I can set charges on the cylinder heads and time them to coincide with the attack. Eight o’clock.”

“I completely forgot!” said McConnell, feeling like an idiot. “You’re right. We’re going to need the highest saturation we can get at ground level. I’ll come with you.”

Anna squeezed his hand painfully under the table.

“No point in both of us risking capture,” said Stern, slinging the strap of the bag over his shoulder. “I can drag the cylinders myself.”

McConnell thought about it, then acquiesced. “Just don’t get caught,” he said. “I couldn’t climb that pylon in a week.”

Stern grinned, surprising both Anna and McConnell. “You could if you had to, Doctor. But don’t worry about it. We’re due some good luck.” He picked up his Schmeisser and moved toward the foyer. At the door, he looked back and caught McConnell’s eye, beckoning him to follow.

“What is it?” McConnell asked, pulling the front door closed after them.

“The SS may come for her,” Stern said. “Frankly, it worries me that they haven’t come yet.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying you should wait for me in the cellar. She should stay upstairs. If they come, and she goes with them voluntarily, they might not search the house.”

“I’m not an idiot, Stern.”

“I know that. But you . . . her. I’m not blind. All I’m saying is that now is not the time.”

It irritated McConnell that Stern had seen through him so easily. “There may not be any other time,” he said.

Stern shrugged. “Do what you have to. But if they do come here — and they don’t find you — take the spikes from the cellar, climb the hill, and go up that pylon. When you get to the top, tie yourself on with your toggle rope and wait for me as long as you can.” He laughed. “McShane was right about those ropes after all, wasn’t he? Anyway, you’ll be in the treetops, but you’ll be able to see the camp road. If it looks like Schörner’s men are coming up the hill for you, send down the gas. It’s set up so a child could do it. After you’ve done it, forget about me, forget about her, and try to reach the coast. You just might get out alive.”

McConnell was shaking his head, but Stern said, “If it comes to that point, Doctor, she and I are dead already.”