‘What do you expect me to do? Go back and start over? I’m done. I’m finished. It was my stupid ego that got me this steeped in blood. I thought I could repeat Fischer, get his data, then get the Nobel, God knows. With Nathan’s help. But were they ever really gonna give me prizes for revealing something so apocalyptic? For guaranteeing war? I was an idiot. Race is the curse, the curse of God on man. And Kellerman had his own motives. Leviticus 25. I was so bloody stupid.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Work it out. My ego got Alphonse killed, Eloise killed. Nathan is dead. You guys nearly killed. Fazackerly is dead. It’s so fucking over. I’m moving on. Turning a new leaf. Drawing a line. Might take up golf.’
‘But I’m not done.’ It was Amy talking. The two men looked at her; blonde hair floating on the hot salty breeze.
‘Remember what José said?’ She looked first at Angus, then at David. ‘When he said I know what happened to the Jews – that’s the whole key to this isn’t it, Angus? Whatever this…secret is…that you were working towards. It explains why the Jews died in the Holocaust, doesn’t it? Eloise told us that. You told her something.’
Angus piloted the boat without a word.
But Amy’s face was set in that determined expression. She insisted:
‘That’s the big mystery, isn’t it? Why the Holocaust? That’s what this is all headed towards, isn’t it?’
Angus was still silent, but Amy was fired up: ‘Tell me this is it, Angus. Tell me. Hitler could have used the Jews as slave labour – and he had plans to put them in some homeland, in Russia or Africa, right? But then suddenly he changed his mind.’ She gazed at Angus. ‘Suddenly he decided he had to kill them. All of them. Even if it crippled – overextended and destroyed – the German war effort. Why did he do that?’
Angus was quiet, then he sighed.
‘Yes. Sort of. It does explain the Holocaust. Maybe. Who knows. I only mentioned it to Eloise…’ His expression darkened. ‘Because I felt sorry for her. The last Cagot in the world. She was in pain. She deserved a little explanation for what was happening.’
‘So what is it? What did Fischer find?’
‘Can’t fucking tell you. Because I have no proof. I never make a statement without proof. I am a scientist.’ He gazed their way, angrily. ‘Why not cut me some. Eh? My boyfriend is dead and Eloise’s blood is also on my damn hands. Enough. Enough.’
‘You won’t tell us.’
‘No. Because I don’t know for sure. I never did the fucking Fischer experiments. But…but if Kellerman was right, there is a man who can maybe help. That’s what Nathan was saying.’
The switchback moods of the Scotsman were bewildering. He was now staring ahead. David followed his gaze along the austere coast. He could see buildings, the spire of a church, brightly painted houses. Another surreal German town perched on the desert coast, overlooking the brutal sea.
David returned to the conversation.
‘What man?’
Angus slowed the boat as they began their approach to the port. And said:
‘Nazi. Cancerous old Nazi named Dresler, who worked with Fischer at Gurs. Knew Grandpa Kellerman. And as you heard – just here on the boat – Dresler knows.’
Amy said:
‘Please explain. Knows what?’
‘Herr Doktor Dresler fled here from Europe, in the 1990s. He was uncovered somehow. Don’t know how. So he came here. Good place to hide, Luderitz, million miles from the next kartoffelsalat. And he already knew the Kellermans.’
‘And?’
‘Remember. Rewind. Go back.’
‘Sorry?’
‘In 1946 Eugen Fischer got in touch with his old friends, the Kellermans, and told them what he had found at Gurs. And naturlich the Kellermans were…very excited by the news of what the Germans had discovered.’ The boat was slowing. ‘But the Kellermans had no proof – they didn’t have the actual data. So they have been waiting for genetic science to catch up with the Germans – for six decades.’ Angus smiled, laconically. ‘They take a long view, these dynastic Jews. They’ve been waiting since the Babylonian Captivity, you might say. Anyway the Kellermans had hopes of the Diversity Project at Stanford but that folded.’ He blinked as water splashed the boat. ‘Then GenoMap kicked off – and so they basically took us over, and used us. To repeat the Fischer experiments. Then Dresler was coaxed south, he came to live here in the 1990s and he was able to help, with lots of info. People