Iron Ghost

Iron Ghost Chapter Three

Chapter Three
FBI Cadet Lecture Hall; August 15th  : A.M.
Dawn Just tosses the crumpled poster sheet in the trash as she steps past a few vacant seats in the lecture hall and checks the screen projector before she reviews her Agency Blackberry. Eight Rabbinical students shot in France; execution style; Israel issues ‘policy request; hate crime mass murder’ The policy requires American agents to report all information to electronic code #XVI777HCS.  No pursuit or investigation is to transpire.
Dawn enters her received code, presses ‘delete now’ and confirms the message is erased.  She glances at the time and looks up over the lecture hall now nearly fully occupied.
Rows and columns of stainless-steel fixtures reflect pivoting and angular laser-like, sterile-white light streams, seemingly motionlessly, across the crowed lecture hall now filled with moving and shuffling cadet bodies.
Two front row cadets review headlines of The Post.  Pope Benedict XVI calls on world to combat rising Anti Semitism.  Nazi Deserter Pontiff recalls 1933 German Sentiment
The  headline footer reads …Israel will not relinquish …all settlements… 1967 treaty…Israel’s Prime Minister in quotes; “…The world must be realistic…”
“Death itself was his favorite experiment.”
She projects her voice over the full and otherwise silent lecture hall.
Black centers of Dawn’s green eyes widen before she restrains tiny muscles around the corners of her mouth suppressing a ‘not regulation’ urge to smile. She pivots her backside away from facing the class and to the bright white wall.
“He was most proud of his…what he referred to as his ‘title; ‘The Angel of Death’
A walking black spider seemingly floats and then crawls across the glass top of the overhead screen projecting an FBI map delineating two Syrian terrorist camps color coded in a light and dark red. Each one has the international Red Cross symbol with a corresponding arrow pointing to a specific building in the camp. The spider shadow casts against the sterile white walls in a dark synchronized-like dance and silently rises and expands over Dawns shoulders.
“He boasted Hitler gave him the title.  He was jealous of Hitler. Intense jealousy,
One cadet lifts his arm. “Hitler would have killed him for treason.”
“Review closely Nazi clips in our film library; in the late 1930’s…some show Mengle at Hitler Youth Rallies attempting to suppress expressions of disgust while outwardly exalting expressions of pride.  By 1940 Mengle would only attend rallies mandated by High Command.  Most films confirm him having left early.”
“Why didn’t Goebbels have him tried?”
“Hitler favored Menegle…”
She inhales deeply, her shoulders now pulling a bit on her blouse.
“…Hitler was fascinated with Mengle’s sense of humor for one…”
Her blouse wrinkles.  Two front row male cadets shift in their seats.
“…At one point Mengle sutured a survivor’s penis to a vein on the victims nose.  Hitler got a belly laugh which put him in a good mood for a week…”
Silence.
“…To discredit Mengle would have bought you under Hitler’s suspicion.”
The cadet having asked the question nods.
“During what he dubbed his ‘exile’ he claims to have never referred to Hitler by name but rather…’the leader of my friends.’  He blamed Hitler’s ego for the Third Reich downfall.”
The first cadet in third row raises his hand.
“He was angry at Hitler.”
Dawn points her nose toward the light fixtures allowing her chestnut hair fall backward.
“He lived his post war life committed to the belief…Germany would have won…would have been the only world power today…The belief system drove him…”
Dawn shifts her weight off her left to her right hip.
“…had it not been for Hitler’s ego…”
She straightens herself.
“During his interrogation he unmasked his hatred and jealousy.  He became uncharacteristically curt.  Mengele is on record claiming he is “The Devil Himself”.
A blonde minute, not a lesbian, and yet very much a semi-athletically built cadet, springs forward appearing more like the cover girl during the photo shoot for Seventeen Magazine than an FBI agent making inquiry at a student lecture.
“I went to Fordham Criminal Institute.  Twins were his favorite experiment!”
Her yellow hair bounces and…
“Twins was one of his obsessions.”
The blonde minute nods a tiny bit.
“…He was dubbed the ‘Angel of Death’…for good reason.”
The spider lifts one back leg on each side before it….
Dawn blinks twice and swallows once, pivoting off her heel before lifting her head and facing the class.
“… he was just that. He boasted his favorite experiment…”  She stands on her toes and throws her shoulders back. “…killing children,  affixation…” Her hair settles after a wave.  “…under the age of seven and bringing them back…his record…at Berkineau …seven minutes.  He then fell silent.”
A large cadet raises his hand.
“The brain shuts down at three?”
  A series of looks and nods fills the room.
“Mengele claimed to have been capable of raising and lowering a confluence of chemicals and hormones, holding to precise ratios of each other, within the brain to maintain viability after what we refer to as extended death.”
Seemingly skating, the spider moves closer to the center of the projector light which casts a black halo around Dawn’s head.  Two opposite back spider legs on top of the white circle of light, appear like a disfigured and circling swastika.
“Were his subjects brain dead?” A cadet lowers his hand.
“Good question. He successfully returned six children in full mental capacity over five minutes dead.  His reports are unconfirmed yet, he provided our lab with some extraordinary findings.”
A Jewish cadet rises.
“His motive?  Tell the class his motive!”
“Yes, his motive…he was driven by…”
The spider moves to the right.
Dawn begins to move to the right, she plants her feet and bends her knees,  “…his desire to find…”  She shakes her head a bit.  “…the secrets to…”One foot lifts and moves to the right. Dawn’s head jerks down for a split moment before she coughs and stutters and the spider moves to the right again and she takes a full step to the right and straightens herself and now with glassy eyes she says, “Hy…hypothesis…  A scientist pursues a …”
“A despotic murderer…a motive is the proper…”
The spider moves further to the right.
Dawn moves further to the right.
“In his mind he was a scientist…” she coughs and her head jerks down a bit. “…he pursued…”  Her jaw clenches before it releases.  “…hypothesis.”
She stares still with glassy eyes at the cadet challenging her.
The cadet shakes his head and attached Yamuka and curls one fist yet says nothing else.
  “We have confirmed reports he thoroughly interrogated his victims on their experience of the after life.”
A sensation flowing across her chest reminds her to pull her blazer closed and then out from her chest area.
“Not surprisingly he selected children from all religions for this particular experiment.”
Many cadets cough and turn their heads toward one and another and she tilts her head allowing her chestnut hair to flow back and for a moment fixes her glassy eyes to the fluorescent light fixtures filtering white light through chrome grids.
“He declared with great pride what he referred to as…
She raises each hand slightly above her ears and extends the two forefingers on each hand bending just those fingers in a up and down motion.
“ …’a scientific honor greater than any Noble Prize’… “
She looks to the spider remaining motionless.  Several cadets shift in their seats.
“…all the children came back with a similar experience.”
“What was that?”
“When asked that same question…”
She pauses and stares for a moment without breathing.
“…with no outward mental resistance….he would answer, let me re-phrase that, apparently he could only answer…’That bitch!….Jews…Jews… Jews must be exterminated…that bitch!”
The enlarging leg-shadow of the spider, a dismembered stick figure, grows fainter in a break-dance like motion amidst the soft hum of the projector fan motor.
“We concluded he was referring to Mary the Mother of Jesus.
The yamuka drops.
“He questioned us…Where do you think children go when murdered?”
She looks to the young man wearing the yamuka.
“Bear in mind this is what we know was inside Dr. Menegle’s head near the time of his own death.”
A blonde haired and blue eyed American, first row cadet, coughs loudly, obtaining Dawn’s attention and then he motions with walking-like fingers to the projector.
She nods and has no surprise reaction.
Her hand rises first to lift the spider…when her head tilts a bit toward the creature…the creature stopping and then lifting one leg causing her to tilt her head again and raise each corner of her mouth… as the creature’s frail torso sets back a bit, throwing the magnified shadow past…Dawn’s presence…and is then lost into white sterile light illuminating throughout the lecture hall before Dawn retracts her tiny smile.
The bouncy one raises her hand, real quickly,  lifting some of the chest portion of her blouse out of her blue blazer as she says, “What were his major scientific findings regarding twins and mind control?”
My eyes blink repeatedly.
Dawn’s throat clears as she drops her hands off her blazer to her side.
“…Josef Mengele harvested twins and experimented…”
The speaking voice cracks.
“…on them with the…
The voice speaking cracks softer.  The eyes start blinking.
“… the stated purpose of creating duality personas within individuals. He would raise evil instincts, often times, jealous rage and put those risen emotions at odds with one’s human need, or one’s twin’s need,  the primal need to grow and to love. Interestingly, we have it from credible sources he most often would only question the child survivors in private.  Also, he most often did not take notes.”
My eyes stop blinking.
She twitches a little.
She pivots squaring off her profile to the class.
The creature…
“Is it true he lived most of his post war years in America?”
Dawn’s eyes remain fixed on the cadet.  She coughs.
“Yes, Ramsey, New Jersey to be specific.  Fred Watrals…” 
She scrawls the letters over the now spider-less projector  spelling ‘always rat’, Watrals was his most often used alias.”
“I have heard rumors of one who survived.”
“Those rumors…will be discussed…for those of you pursuing I/A you will study those rumors thoroughly.  Regarding our purposes today…I will tell you this…After Menegele described the machination designed against the then brainwashed victim… a boy of five years the first time, age nine and eleven the second and third attempts, …the survivor…was later quoted, as an adult, saying Mengle told him ‘the people of Ramsey are easy…’ our survivor went on to write to Congress…he claims to “… feel some degree of satisfaction these days knowing that Satan punishes Menegle for being kind…”
One cadet laughs and a few smile, most become still.
“The survivors case study is elaborate.  We refer to him as The Bronco Man.  At some point of your studies each one of you will be required to submit a paper on the ethics issues encountered.”
More than a few cadets burrow their eyebrows.
“We know during those years Mengele…continued his work.”
All the eyebrows lift.  Someone else coughs.
“Yes.  And plenty of those results have been proven by North Korea’s stem cell research.”
Dawn Just looks up from the podium searching for the arrogant cadet snapping off more than his share of questions. She lifts her head about to announce she will be canceling next months class, on the fourth anniversary of 9/11, in memory of agents lost.
“Why?”  The same cadet.
“Why does any scientist perform experiments?  To gain information and prove/disprove hypothesis.”
“I mean…do we know why he did not take notes?”
“Same reason George Washington slept with loaded pistols under his pillow. Mengle did not trust the guards.  He was jealous of Hitler as I told you…”
“Would not Hitler have him killed for treason?”
“We know Mengle successfully avoided having a SS tattoo under his arm.  We know sometimes he would sing to his victims when he was torturing them.  On one occasion, after the initial defeat at Stalingrad, we know Hitler did this as well.  The same tune…”
“How does Mengle fit into Hitler’s tune?”
“We know Hitler whistled Mengle’s favorite tune…’Alps and Castles, Rhapsody’.  We know Mengle suggested the tune.”
“We do not know if there exists a scientific connection.  We do know Hitler would sing the tune in and out of depression after the news of defeats.  His aides continued to summon Mengle for treatment.” 
Most of the cadets smile and more than a few look to each other.  The bouncy one nods.
“How many possible scientific motives can there be for killing seven year olds?”
“Be warned now, negative speculation has little room in the academy and for that matter, in your career.”
The same cadet.
“How about the twins?  Why would he be so interested in twins?”
“The emotional interaction of twins, the psychological phenomenon aspect…what we have established is his experimentation on twins took on a fervor beyond that he applied to Hitler’s specific work. We have many examples of his torture on twins designed to create many forms of psychosis.”
“Split personalities?” 
“You are being over simplistic…”
Raising her finger and stopping before she levels at the cadet, Dawn breathes slower than her last breath and nods before she continues.
“…But…yes, Mengele succeeded in creating persons suffering with dementia, multiple personality syndrome, Alzheimer’s”
“Excuse me…. Yes, various psychosis types we often mistakenly label.  Today, most of the traits of neurosis are categorized as bi-polar.”
“Are you the leading agency expert on Nazi’s?  I am interested…”
“No.”
The spider crouches creating a shadow the size of a lemon.
“I am level one expert at the agency in mind control and national field operations on select serial murderers.  Serial murderer and brainwashed victim have a great deal in common.  And this is a good opportunity to return to our lecture regarding mind control. My thesis on Nazi brainwashing technique and mass mind control is at the academy library if you are interested.  Today’s environment of terrorism has given rise to top priority on organized mind control.”
The almost-Seventeen model bounces forward.
“I am very interested.  Why did you choose Mengele to…”
Dawn looks at her watch before she cuts the cadet off this time.
“The more I studied serial killers the greater my interest in the part of the mind psychologists refer to as the ‘self’.  That part developed at age two when the child is powerless.  I often think what happened to Mengele at this stage of his life. Organized mind control technique dates back to Cleopatra. No one in history succeeded in the science of mind control…brainwashing… like the Nazi’s.  They created a depth to the science and applied it at all levels of the mind.  Most notably, levels of the mind previously unknown and most likely, in part, still unknown today...”
She pauses before switching off the projector as she dismisses the class.