"It's been several years since the lectures in Nuremberg. Welcome!"
"Danke, but I wish there were a less arduous way of getting here."
"You would dislike the mountain approach even more, I assure you. One walks for miles, and the snow gets heavier with every few hundred meters. Secrecy has its price.. .. Come, have some schnapps and relax for a few minutes while we chat. Then you'll see our progress. I tell you, it's remarkable!"
"Drinks later, and we'll chat as we observe," countered the visiting physician.
"I have a lengthy meeting with von Schnabe-not a pleasant prospect-and I want to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can. He'll ask for judgments and hold me accountable."
"Why am I excluded from this meeting?" asked the younger doctor resentfully as both sat down in the clinic's anteroom.
"He thinks you're too enthusiastic, Gerhardt. He admires your enthusiasm but he doesn't trust it."
"My God, who knows more about the process than I do? I developed it! With all respect, Traupman, this is my field of expertise, not yours."
441 know that and you know that, but our nonmedical general can't understand it. I am a neurosurgeon and have a certain reputation in cranial operations, therefore he' turns to that reputation, not to the real expertise. So convince me.. .. As I gather, according to you it's theoretically possible to alter the thought process without drugs or hypnosis-that theory somewhere in the ozones of para psychological science fiction, but then so were heart and liver transplants not too many years ago. How is it actually done?"
"You practically answered that yourself" Gerhardt Kroeger laughed, his eyes bright.
"Take the 'trans' out of 'transplant' and insert the letters i and m."
"Implant?"
"You implant steel plates, don't you?"
"Of course. For protection."
"So have I.. .. You've performed lobotomies, not so?"
"Naturally. To relieve electrical pressures."
"You've just said another magic word, Hans.
"Electrical," as in electrical impulses, the brain's electrical impulses. I simply micro calibrate and tap into them with an object so infinitesimal compared to a plate that it would be a mere shadow on an X ray."
"What in hell would that be?"
"A computer chip entirely compatible with an individual brain's electrical impulses."
"A what .. . ?"
"Within years, psychological indoctrination will be a thing of the past. Brainwashing'will be history!"
"Come again?"
"Over the past twenty-nine months I've experimented with operated upon-thirty-two patients, often with five or more in varying stages of development-"
"So I've been given to understand," interrupted Traupinan.
"Patients provided by suppliers, from prisons and elsewhere."
"Scrutinized, Hans, all male and all with above-average intelligence and education. Those from the prisons were sentenced for such offenses as embezzlement, or selling inside corporate information, or falsifying official government reports for personal gain. Crimes of subterfuge requiring some degree of expertise and sophistication, not violence. The violent mind as well as the less intelligent can too easily be programmed. I had to prove that my procedure could succeed above those levels."
"Did you prove it?"
"Sufficient unto the day," as the Bible ays."
"Why do I hear a negative, Gerhardt?"
"Because there is one. To date, the implant functions for not less than nine days or more than twelve."
"What happens then?"
"The brain rejects it. The patient rapidly develops a cranial hemorrhage and dies."
"You , re saying the brain explodes."
"Yes. Twenty-six of my patients so expired; however, the last seven lasted progressively from nine to twelve days. I'm convinced that with further microsurgical techniques I can eventually overcome the time factor. Ultimately, and it may take years, it will function permanently. Politicians, generals, and statesmen everywhere can disappear for a few days, and thereafter become our disciples."
"But for the present circumstances, with this American agent Latham, you believe he's ready to be sent out, am I correct?"
"Without question. You'll see for yourself. He's in his fourth day, leaving a minimum of five left and a maximum of eight. As our personnel in Paris, London, and Washington inform us that he is needed for no more than forty to seventy-two hours, the risk is minimal. By then we'll know everything our enemies know about the Brotherhood with the much more important benefit of Latham sending them all off in wrong directions."
"Let's go back, if you please," said'Traupman, shifting his legs in the white plastic chair.
"Before we get to the procedure itself, what exactly does this implant of yours do?"
"Are you familiar with computer chips, Hans?"
"As little as possible. I leave that to my technicians, as I do the application of anesthesia. I have enough to be concerned about.