Eddie stared in amazement — and a sense of horror — at the screen. Kroll was recognisable as the man whose photo he had seen at the United Nations… but only just. In the seventy years he had been in hiding, he had put on a huge amount of weight. His face was bloated, jowls overflowing his collar. His hair had almost disappeared except for a few grey wisps over his ears. But it was definitely the same man, the malevolent eyes unchanged.
He wore a black SS officer’s uniform, a line of medals and ribbons drawing a line across his left breast to a bright red slash around his bicep. An armband, a symbol upon it.
The swastika, emblem of Nazi Germany.
The same emblem, much larger, was also on the wall behind him, the white circle around the angular black character framing his head like a halo. Eddie felt a chill. This wasn’t somebody dressing up in a Nazi costume, or a thuggish modern-day imitator. The man he was looking at was the genuine article, an actual wanted war criminal.
And he had escaped not only justice, but also the ravages of time. Kroll should have been almost a hundred years old, but he appeared only half that, not even his grotesque corpulence adding any age to his features. Was Nina’s discovery in Alexandria really true, then? Had the escaped Nazis found water from the Spring of Immortality?
Zane stiffened, face tight with anger. Eddie could fully sympathise. To the Englishman, the Nazis were an aggressive, powerful war machine that had tried to crush his country; to the young Jewish man, they were figures of pure evil who had attempted to exterminate every last one of his people. Kroll was a demon made flesh, emerging from the past to threaten them once more.
The demon spoke, his voice like bubbles slowly working their way up through black tar. ‘Good day to you all,’ said Kroll in heavily accented English.
Leitz’s guests responded with something approaching awe. Eddie felt slightly sick when he realised why. To him and Zane, the Nazi was a monster; to those below, he was an icon. His earlier comment about the hand grenade had been joking, but now he wanted to do it for real.
‘As Herr Leitz has told you,’ Kroll continued, ‘during the war we obtained a supply of an incredible substance, a water that slowed the process of ageing. For those who drink it regularly, each five years that pass are like only a single one. We have been in hiding for almost seventy years, but our bodies have aged only about fifteen.’
‘I still want to see scientific proof of this,’ said Holmes, drawing disapproving looks from some of his companions.
Kroll scowled. ‘You have already been shown as much proof as we are able to provide without compromising our security. If you did not believe it, why are you here?’ Holmes shifted uncomfortably, forced to concede the point. ‘But we had only a limited amount of the water. This meant that only select members of our group were permitted to use it.’ His eyes became more intense. ‘The situation has now changed. Our raid on the tomb of Alexander the Great in Egypt has given us the means to locate the water’s original source.’
That prompted intrigued mutterings from the guests. Eddie, meanwhile, had a whispered comment of his own. ‘What? They didn’t get anything. We took the statue.’ Zane shushed him.
‘Gentlemen,’ said Kroll impatiently. The susurration ceased. ‘I asked Herr Leitz to assemble you here so that I can present to you a great opportunity. You are all wealthy men, in positions of power and influence in your countries. Influence that you are willing to use to promote the ideals of history’s greatest leader… Adolf Hitler.’
One of the men jumped to his feet, right arm stiffly raised with his palm turned downwards. ‘Heil Hitler!’
In moments, the others had all stood to deliver identical salutes. ‘Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler!’ The bloated figure on the screen looked on with approval.
‘Jesus Christ,’ Eddie gasped, appalled. Zane appeared ready to kill.
Kroll waited for the awful chorus to die down. ‘Thank you. It is very good to know that others outside the Enklave’ — something about the way he said the word made Eddie realise he was using it as a proper noun — ‘believe as we do. And the tide of history is turning back towards us. More people join our cause every day across Europe and other parts of the world, disgusted by the failures of the supposed democracies and the pollution of their nations by inferiors. The time to act is now! All of you have enough influence to bring the masses in your countries to our way of thinking — through your newspapers, television stations, the Internet, your friends and puppets in government. If you all push together, our way will be seen as the only way, now and for ever — and with what I am offering, you will all be able to see the work through.’
The hard sell was coming, Eddie realised. Kroll had had decades to work on his sales pitch — and his audience seemed to be willing buyers.
The Nazi spoke again. ‘As I told you, we have obtained the means to find the source of the water. However, it will require considerable resources to secure it — and considerable amounts of money. But I can assure you that it will be worth it. Your payments now will guarantee you a supply for the rest of your lives. Which will be very long.’ He leaned back, watching his audience’s response intently.
Leitz stepped forward. ‘You have heard Herr Kroll’s proposal, and he has authorised me to act as his agent. The price for entry is… ten million US dollars.’
That caused a flurry of consternation from the guests. While they had come with the intention of doing business, clearly few had expected the cost to be so high. ‘And Leitz takes his twenty per cent of it all,’ whispered Zane.
‘Gentlemen,’ said Kroll, more loudly. His raised voice brought all eyes back to his image. ‘Ten million dollars may seem like a large sum, but you should consider it an investment — in your futures. The water from the Spring of Immortality will make the rest of your lives five times longer, or more. Think of what you can accomplish with those extra years. And it will be you who is doing it; not your heirs, not your trusts or companies. You will see your plans through to completion. You will see the final victory of the New Reich. Is that not worth the price I ask?’
Discussions began, but it was evident to the observers in the gallery that Kroll’s words had made an impression. Before long, the men below gravitated to Leitz; from his smiles in response, they had decided to accept the war criminal’s offer.
All but one. Holmes, the American, was still dubious. ‘Herr Kroll, you know that I’m a committed supporter of your goals — the world needs to be taken under firm control. But I also follow the news, and I don’t just mean Fox. The raid in Alexandria yesterday… it wasn’t successful, was it? Several of your men were killed, and I know from my sources that you didn’t get what you were after. The Egyptians and the International Heritage Agency recovered the statue.’
Some of the other guests regarded the challenger with surprise and even mistrust. Kroll’s eyes for a moment betrayed fury… then control returned. ‘Your sources are not quite up to date, Mr Holmes,’ he said. ‘Yes, the statue was taken from us. But we have already retaliated. This morning, my men attacked the convoy transporting it to Cairo — and their mission to recover it was a success.’