Jenny Plague-Bringer(65)
“Is that a...political party?” Juliana didn’t know much about European politics. She knew that Germany had been an enemy of the United States during the Great War, but that had been old Germany ruled by a king. They were a democracy now, so they were probably more peaceful.
“They are the only party that matters anymore,” Alise said. “They are raising Germany up, up from darkness.” She raised her hand high above her head, as if measuring rising water. “Creating a better future for us. My father has helped the party for years—he was one of the first to see they were Germany’s best defense against the Communist threat. I personally helped to organize Bund Deutscher Mädel in der Hitler-Jugend.” She smiled proudly.
“The what?” Juliana asked.
“League of German Girls...Hitler Youth,” Alise translated.
“What is a Hitler?”
“Sh!” Alise looked cross, and glanced into the aisle to check if anyone had heard Juliana. “The leader of the National Socialists and of Germany. You will need education.”
“I suppose,” Juliana said. “I’m sorry, I just don’t know these things.”
“Politics,” Alise said, then pretended to yawn, and Juliana smiled.
The boys returned with beer for everyone, and they kept the conversation light after that. They learned that Alise was the daughter of a duke, making her “nobility.” Though Germany was a democracy, belonging to the old aristocracy seemed to still count for something. Niklaus was her first cousin, which explained the strong resemblance between them. Alise was twenty-five, while her cousin Niklaus was nineteen.
Juliana gathered that Alise was the truly influential one, and she had pulled strings to have her cousin Niklaus made into an officer of the Schutzstaffel, apparently some kind of elite police force. His main job, as far as Juliana could tell, was acting as Alise’s bodyguard, driver, and all-around footman.
Though she reminded herself not to trust Alise, or anyone else just yet, Juliana felt relieved to have a girl about her own age to explain things to her—in English, especially.
The train left the city of Hamburg and picked up speed across the green countryside, rushing them towards the mountains and their uncertain future.
* * *
They had to change trains at a mountain town called Wernigerode, which had a number of impressive Gothic buildings with pointy spires, including a castle overlooking the town from a hilltop. They moved to a special narrow-gauge track built for the steep curves and narrow passes of the mountains. The view out the window became both lovely and terrifying, full of steep gorges dropping away toward lakes and waterways far below the narrow tracks.
Juliana felt relieved when they finally disembarked at a tiny, unidentified station in the mountains, guarded by a pair of S.S. officers in black uniforms. Nobody was coming or going here except Juliana, Sebastian, and their two escorts.
Niklaus loaded their suitcases into the back of an old black Brennabor sedan, the only car in the small lot. The car coughed and chugged its way up a newly paved mountain road, which passed through a solid wilderness of old, mossy spruce and thick banks of fern. The mountain forest was unbroken until they reached a fork in the road. They stayed to the right, while a smaller road branched off to the left.
The steep road took them up toward a brick wall with square towers at each end. As they drew closer, Juliana saw guards in the watchtowers, partially shielded by metal-grill walls, with machine guns mounted below the grillwork. A coil of wire ran across the top of the brick wall, and the gate was made of steel doors. Juliana had imagined a place that looked sort of like a college, set among trees and mountain streams, but this looked more like a prison than any kind of research lab.
“Do not fear,” Alise told her, seeing the look on her face. “It is all for our security. The inside is nice.”
“Okay,” Juliana replied. She couldn’t think of anything else to say. She had a sudden urge to announce that she’d changed her mind and wanted to go home right away.
Guards were posted at the gate, and they spoke briefly to Alise before opening up for them. Niklaus drove them inside.
Juliana didn’t think the interior was at all nice, either. The brick wall was actually a big square perimeter, with a guard tower at each corner. There were four low, squarish buildings, single-story and made of plain concrete, and a long brick building like a warehouse along the western wall. She saw some smaller structures that she took for strangely tall brick water walls, circular and with slanted tin roofs mounted a few feet above them. As they passed one, she saw that it had a whirling electrical fan inside, and seemed to be sucking down a large quantity of air.