It was a h.e.l.lish, dangerous business, with violence and destruction all around him. He drove past more burning synagogues, more gangs of youths in pursuit of Jews, was waved on by exultant Storm Troopers. The air was filled with thickening black smoke, illuminated by flames, rang with desperate cries. He heard gunshots, more smashing gla.s.s, screams and oaths. As he turned off the main road, away from a blazing shopfront, he pa.s.sed a gang of youths who were beating a bearded old man with wooden poles. Women were wailing as their husbands and children were kicked and battered. Then eventually he found himself outside the apartment building where he lived quietly with Greta.

He climbed out, locked the door of the car, and noticed that a black SS car was parked a few doors farther along. He also noticed that a lot of neighbors were talking excitedly to one another. He hurried inside as another gang of youths came running along the street, filled with blood l.u.s.t and bawling excitedly.

Animals, Wilson thought. Civilization is a sham. We are still protecting our caves. Thank G.o.d, in whom I do not believe, that science will change all this.

When he let himself into his apartment, Greta was gazing down through the window.

Beside her was the recently promoted SS Captain Ernst Stoll, also gazing down at the street below, his face handsome and solemn.

They both turned to look at Wilson, then Greta hurried forward, kissed him on the cheek, and stepped back again.

'Thank G.o.d you weren't hurt,' she said. 'We were worried about you.'

'No,' he replied. 'I'm fine... But what's going on?'

'I believe it was '

'The recent murder of Counselor Ernst von Rath,' Stoll explained, 'has led to anti-Jewish riots here and in the Magdeburg-Anhalt district.'

Wilson was surprised to find Stoll there, as he hadn't seen the captain for many months. Obviously the recent a.s.sa.s.sination of the German Foreign Office official in Paris by a demented young Jew, Herschel Grynszpan, had been used as yet another excuse to arouse more anti-Semitic feelings. Wilson said, 'I suspected that Rath's death would lead to trouble, but these riots seem...'

'Yes,' Stoll said with a thin smile, 'organized. With the a.s.sistance of the Storm Troopers and SA since our beloved Fhrer has declared that the riots, now spreading throughout the country, should not be discouraged. Taking the Fhrer at his word, Goebbels has ordered a pogrom, and right now, with the aid of the SD, SA, and SS, hundreds of Jewish shops, homes, and synagogues throughout Germany are being set to the torch and the Jews themselves, after public humiliation and abuse, are being rounded up and sent to concentration camps. A night to remember, yes?'

Ignoring Stoll's dry mockery, Wilson went to the window and looked down on the street where, in the lamplight, an unfortunate Jew was being tugged by his beard along the road by a laughing Storm Trooper while a gang of youths spat upon him, kicked him, and took punches at him.

Wilson, though feeling nothing for the Jew, had no respect for the youths.

'Animals,' he said, putting his thoughts into words. 'We're still as mindless as savages.'

'You see cruelty down there, Herr Wilson?'

'I just see wasted energy.'

When he turned away from the window, Stoll was smiling sardonically. 'Ah, yes,' he said, 'you have no time for human emotions. You prefer the intellect, the calmly reasoning mind, the cold light of pure thought.'

'That's correct,' Wilson said, ignoring Stoll's soft sarcasm. 'Most human emotions are primitive impulses. I prefer science, unimpeded by human weakness.'

'You love science - and love is an emotion.'

'No, Captain Stoll, I don't love science. In fact, I respect it. Only science can lead us away from the caves and into our destiny.'

'Which is?'

'Knowledge for the sake of knowledge. The evolution of reason.'

'Naturally,' Stoll said. 'You're the most ruthless man I've ever met

and I've met a few. You are made of ice, Wilson.'

So Stoll, though no longer shocked by the gross behaviour of his military friends, nevertheless could still be shocked by his unyielding single-mindedness. Wilson recognized that far from being the cynic he pretended, Stoll was in fact a disillusioned romantic of the most impressionable kind.

This one I can use, he thought. 'I haven't seen you for a long time,' he said. 'Not since you were shipped to the Antarctic. What are you doing here?'

'Because of my services in the Antarctic, I've been placed in charge of your research inst.i.tute at k.u.mmersdorf. In future, therefore, you will report directly to me, since I, and not Flugkapitn Schriever, will act as your channel to Himmler.'

Secretly pleased to hear this, Wilson took care not to show it, and simply said, 'You didn't come here to tell me that, so why did you come?'

'I want to show you the state of Germany,' Stoll said. 'The country you work for. I want to know what you think of it. Are you willing to come with me?'

'Now?'

'Yes.'

'Is that an order?'