Contract With God Read Free Page B

outside have it.’
    Graus’s eyes nearly leapt out of their sockets. He raised the knife again and advanced towards the priest.
    ‘You lied to me! You said you’d give me a chance!’
    Fowler looked at him impassively one last time.
    ‘God will forgive me. Do you think you’ll have as much luck?’
    Then, without another word, he disappeared into the hallway.
    The priest walked out of the building clutching the precious package to his chest. Two men in grey coats stood guard several feet from the door. Fowler warned them as he passed: ‘He has a knife.’
    The taller of the two cracked his knuckles and a small smile played on his lips.
    ‘Even better,’ he said.

2
    ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN EL GLOBO
    17 December 2005, Page 12
     
    AUSTRIAN HEROD FOUND DEAD
     
    Vienna (Associated Press)
    After evading justice for over fifty years, Dr Heinrich Graus, ‘the butcher of Spiegelgrund’, was finally located by the Austrian police. According to the authorities, the infamous Nazi war criminal was found dead, apparently of a heart attack, in a small house in the town of Krieglach, only 35 miles from Vienna.
    Born in 1915, Graus became a member of the Nazi party in 1931. By the beginning of the Second World War, he was already second in command at the Am Spiegelgrund Children’s Hospital. Graus used his position to conduct inhumane experiments on Jewish children with so-called behavioural problems or mental deficiencies. The doctor stated on several occasions that such behaviours were hereditary and the experiments he conducted were justified since the subjects possessed ‘lives not worth living’.
    Graus vaccinated healthy children with infectious diseases, performed vivisections, and injected his victims with different mixtures of the anaesthesia he was developing in order to measure their reaction to pain. It is believed that close to a thousand murders occurred within the walls of Spiegelgrund during the war.
    After the war, the Nazi fled, leaving no trace except for 300 children’s brains preserved in formaldehyde. Despite the efforts of the German authorities, no one was able to track him down. The famous Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal, who brought over 1,100 criminals to justice, remained intent until his death on finding Graus, whom he called ‘his pending assignment’, hunting the doctor tirelessly throughout South America. Wiesenthal died in Vienna three months ago, unaware that his target was living as a retired plumber not far from his own office.
    Unofficial sources at the Israeli embassy in Vienna lamented that Graus had died without having to answer for his crimes, but nonetheless celebrated his sudden demise, given that his advanced age would have complicated the extradition process and trial, as in the case of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
    ‘We cannot help but see the hand of the Creator in his death,’ stated a source.

3
    KAYN
    ‘He’s downstairs, sir.’
    The man in the chair shrank back a little. His hand trembled, although the movement wouldn’t have been noticeable to anyone who didn’t know him as well as his assistant.
    ‘What’s he like? Have you investigated him thoroughly?’
    ‘You know I have, sir.’
    There was a deep sigh.
    ‘Yes, Jacob. My apologies.’
    The man stood up as he spoke and reached for the remote control that regulated his environment. He pressed down hard on one of the buttons, his knuckles turning white. He had already broken several remotes and his assistant had finally given up and ordered a special one made out of reinforced acrylic that conformed to the shape of the old man’s hand.
    ‘My behaviour must be trying,’ said the old man. ‘I’m sorry.’
    His assistant didn’t respond; he realised that his boss needed to let off steam. He was a humble man yet very aware of his position in life, if those traits could be said to be compatible.
    ‘It pains me to sit here all day, you know? Each day I find less pleasure in ordinary things. I’ve become