"Amazing," said Herr Lassiter as his companion opened the door of the valley's headquarters.
"You are all to be congratulated. Your isolation is matched by your security. Superb!" Feigning a casualness he did not feel, Latham looked around the large room.
There was a profusion of sophisticated computerized equipment, banks of consoles against each wall, starchy-uniformed operators in front of each, seemingly an equal mix of men and women.... Men and women-something was odd, at least not normal.
What was it? And then he knew; to an individual, the operators were young, generally in their twenties, mostly blond or light-haired, with clear, suntanned skin. As a group they were inordinately attractive, like models corralled by an advertising agency to sit in front of a client's computer products, conveying the message that potential customers, too, would look like this if they bought the merchandise.
"Each is an expert, Mr. Lassiter," said an unfamiliar, monotonic voice behind Latham. The American turned abruptly. The newcomer was a man about his own age, dressed in camouflage fatigues and wearing a Wehrmacht officer's cap; he had silently emerged from an open doorway on the left.
"General Ulrich von Schnabe, your enthusiastic host, mein Herr," he continued, offering his hand.
"We meet a legend in his own time. Such a privilege!"
"You're far too generous, General. I'm merely an international businessman, but one with definite ideological persuasions, if you like."
"No doubt reached by years of international observation?"
"You could say that, and not be in error. They claim that Africa was the first continent, yet, while others have developed over several thousand years, Afrika remains the Dark Continent, the black continent. The northern shores are now havens for equally inferior people."
"Well said, Mr. Lassiter. Yet you've made millions, some say billions, servicing the, dark and darker skins."
"Why not? What better satisfaction can a man like me have than by helping them slaughter each other?"
"Wunderbar! Beautifully and perceptively stated.. .. You were studying our group here, I watched you. You can see for yourself that these, every one, are of Aryan blood. Pure Aryan blood. As are those everywhere in our valley. Each has been carefully selected, their bloodlines traced, their commitment absolute."
"The dream of the Lebensborn," said the American quietly, reverentially.
"The breeding farms-estates actu- 7 ally, if I'm not mistaken, where the finest SS officers were bred to strong Teutonic women-"
"Eichmann had studies done. It was determined that the northern Germanic female had not only the finest bone structure in Europe and extraordinary strength, but a marked subservience to the male," interrupted the general.
"The true superior race," concluded Lassiter admiringly.
"Would that the dream had come true."
"In large measure it has," said Von Schnabe quietly.
"We believe that a great many here, if not a majority, are the children of those children. We stole lists from the Red Cross in Geneva, and spent years tracing down each family where the Lebensbom infants had been sent. These, and others we shall recruit throughout Europe, are the Sonnenkinder, the Children of the Sun. The inheritors of the Reich!"
"It's incredible."
"We're reaching out everywhere, and everywhere those selected respond to us, for the circumstances are the same. just as in the twenties, when the stranglehold of the Versailles and Locarno,treaties led to the economic collapse of the Weimar Republic and the influx of undesirables throughout Germany, so has the collapse of the Berlin Wall led to chaos. We are a nation in conflagration, the lowborn non-Aryans crossing our borders in unlimited numbers, taking our jobs, polluting our morals, making whores of our women because where they come from it's perfectly acceptable. It's totally unacceptable and it must stop! You agree, of course."
"Why else would I be here, General? I have funneled millions into your needs through the banks in Algiers by way of Marseilles.
My code has been Frere-Brzider-I trust it is familiar to you."
"Which is why I embrace you with all my heart, as does the entire Brfiderschaft."
"So now let's conclude . my final gift, General, final, for you will never need me again.. ..
Forty-six cruise missiles appropriated from Saddam Hussein's arsenal, buried by his officer corps, who felt he would not survive. Their warheads are capable of carrying massive explosives as well as chemical payloads-gases that can immobilize whole areas of cities. These are included, of course, along with the launchers.
I paid twenty-five million, American, for them. Pay me, what you can, and if it is less, I will accept my loss with honor."
"You are, indeed, a man of great honor, mein Herr."