“Blast,” Hanover said mildly. “Major, I think we’re going to need those weapons quicker than I suspected.”
Dashwood nodded. “It’ll still be about a month,” he said. “Of course, by that point we should have a tiny base on the moon, which will then be British.”
Hanover nodded. “General, please make the arrangements for launching the strike against the Germans,” he said. “Meeting adjourned.”
Medical Research Lab
Germany
3rd May 1942
Stewart staggered to her feet as the door opened, trying to hide herself. It was futile; they’d taken away her clothes the first night she’d spent in the research laboratory. The room was supposed to be soundproofed, but she could hear distant screaming echoing down the corridors.
“I trust you had a pleasant night?” Josef Mengele asked. His eyes swept over her body. It was worse than being leered at; he didn’t even see her as an attractive piece of meat. “We will have an interesting day today, ja?”
His two assistants slipped past him and produced their handcuffs. She no longer had the strength to struggle; they handcuffed her hands and feet without difficulty, taking the opportunity to grope her as they did, then they picked her up effortlessly.
“Come along,” Mengele said, and they carried her out of the door. She glanced around her as she did, trained reporter instincts coming to the fore, but there was nothing helpful around, even assuming that she could have used it with her hands and feet bound. “Do you know what this place was?”
Stewart said nothing. Mengele nodded to one of the guards, who reached out and twisted her nipple. Stewart screamed in pain, before shaking her head desperately.
“Next time, talk,” Mengele said, still in a disinterested tone. “This place was once the home of a madhouse, where the… secrets of the Royal Family were dissected. I believe that there is some relationship with your royal family, yes? They might have a history of madness too?”
Stewart hesitated, but the hand reaching for her other breast was too much. “Yes,” she said. “Some of them went mad.”
“How interesting,” Mengele said. A note of interest had entered his voice for the first time. “You are quite a fascinating person, did you know that?”
Stewart spoke quickly. “I’ve always had a high opinion of myself,” she said.
“You spent nearly a year and a half here,” Mengele said. His voice was calmly interested as they entered a room. The guards dumped her on the cold hard floor, and then stood at the door. “During that time, you never passed blood at all.”
Stewart flushed. She supposed that it would have been easy for the Nazis to monitor her monthly periods, had she had any, but it wasn’t something she was comfortable discussing.
“You were having an affair with Obergruppenfuehrer Herman Roth,” Mengele continued. The two guards snickered; Stewart didn’t look at them. She knew what they were looking at. “During that time, you neither had a period, nor did you become pregnant. Why?”
Stewart hesitated. “I’ve got a permanent contraceptive in my blood,” she said finally, as Mengele prepared to signal one of the guards to hurt her. “Until I’m injected with the antidote, I will never have children.”
“How fascinating,” Mengele said. “How does it work?”
Stewart shook her head, and then cringed. “I don’t know,” she said, and braced herself.
“We will find out,” Mengele said. He nodded to the guards, who picked her up and laid her down on a table, face down. They attached her feet to the table, and then unlocked the handcuffs on her feet, forcing her legs open. She shuddered; one of the guards was touching her on her suddenly exposed anus.
“First, the blood,” Mengele said. He pulled out a set of needles, and started to draw blood from her body. Helpless, unable to move, she could only scream as he drew nearly three pints from her body. “Now, let’s see what you look like inside.”
Stewart could only scream as he produced a tool and started to examine her private parts. It hurt…
Himmler watched dispassionately through the one-way glass as Mengele’s two assistants had their fun with the broken British women. He turned as Mengele himself entered the room and saluted.
“I trust that this is really necessary?” He asked. He didn’t care about the pain Stewart went through for anything that they needed, but torture for the sake of torture was so inefficient. “We have so few British captives that we can hardly afford to lose one.”
“I prefer my research subjects broken,” Mengele said absently. “By inflicting damage on her body, indeed, by attempting to make her pregnant, we will have an opportunity to see how her body… counteracts the sperm cells. Although she herself knows nothing of the technique used to avoid pregnancy, we hope to be able to duplicate it – it must be part of the strange substances in her blood.”
Himmler nodded to himself. “If we could learn a way to make the contraceptive ourselves, we could ensure that we are the only ones to breed,” he said.
Mengele nodded, eager to please. “My research into genetics is continuing,” he said. “We have already performed remarkable experiments, based on the future.”
“The priority is improving the medical services for our brave soldiers,” Himmler said. He noticed how his two bodyguards orientated on Mengele as he spoke. “Your experiments are second to that, understand?”
Mengele looked rebellious, but nodded his head. “We found something interesting,” he said. “We were testing the subjects blood cells against other samples, and we found something interesting. She seems to have almost no resistance to Smallpox, which as you know the Russians have been developing into a weapon.”
Himmler lifted an eyebrow. “She is not vaccinated?” He asked. Every German had been vaccinated for years. “They don’t know how to do it?”
Mengele smiled. “According to their history books, Smallpox was destroyed in the 1970s,” he said. “At the moment, it would be a virgin field epidemic.”
Himmler considered. “We never even thought of Smallpox,” he said. “We assumed that they would be immune.”
“Ah, but have they thought of it?” Mengele asked. Himmler frowned; there was no way to know. “Given the attacks we’ve suffered today…”
Himmler stared him down. “This is a struggle for the supremacy of the Reich,” he said. “It is not a chance for you to learn more about diseases.” He scowled. “How could we infect them?”
Mengele winced, cringing backwards from his gaze. “Their soldiers are clearly vaccinated already,” he said. “It would have to be delivered in a rocket and…”
“Not good enough,” Himmler snapped. “We would need proof that the British civilians are not immune. I will have to ask some of our sources.” He met Mengele’s eyes, forcing him backwards. “This is very much a final resort,” he said. “If you conduct any unauthorised tests on unsuspecting Britain, you will be used as a test subject yourself.” He smiled. “Perhaps those dwarves of yours would agree to act as your jailors.”
Mengele blinked. His eyes were streaming. “Mein Fuhrer, if we can hit them with this…”
Himmler looked at him. “They can hit us worse,” he said. “This is a method of last resort, Doctor Mengele; do not use it without my permission, or the Reich will go up in flames.”
Chapter Twenty-Five: Peace In Our Time
HMAS Canberra
Sea of Japan
5th May 1942