Hood was beginning to feel a lot like Alice after she went through the looking glass. Every time he turned around, people and events became more and more curious.

Stoll said, "I was checking out your cache memory capacities and I found a file that was put in at one-twelve P.M. today."

"One-twelve?" Hood said. "That's when we were having lunch."

"Right."

Hausen said, "But no one was here, Herr Stoll, except for Reiner."

"I know," Stoll said. "And by the way-- he's gone now."

Hausen looked at Stoll strangely. "Gone?"

"Split," said Stoll. He pointed into the reception area. "Soon as I sat down here, he took his shoulder bag and Italian-cut jacket and vamoosed. Your computer's been answering the phones ever since."

Hausen's eyes went from Stoll to the computer. His voice was flat as he asked, "What have you found?"

"For one thing," Stoll said, "Reiner left you a little love letter, which I'll show you in a minute. First, though, I want you to see this."

Stoll's index fingers pecked out commands, and the seventeen-inch screen went from blue to black. White stripes slashed across the screen horizontally. They morphed into strands of barbed wire, then changed again to form the words CONCENTRATION CAMP. Finally, the letters turned red and pooled into blood which filled the screen.

Introductory screens followed. First, there was the principal gate at Auschwitz with the inscription Arbeit macht frei.

"Work liberates," Lang said from behind his hand.

Next came a succession of clear, detailed, computer-animated snippets. Crowds of men, women, and children walking through the gate. Men in striped camp uniforms facing a wall while guards whipped them with switches. Men being shorn of their hair. A wedding ring being handed to a member of the SS Death's Head Unit in exchange for shoes. Searchlights in towers piercing the early morning dark as an SS guard roared, "Arbeitskommandos austreten."

"Working parties fall out," Lang translated. His hand was trembling now.

Prisoners grabbing shovels and picks. Leaving the main gate and doffing their caps to honor the slogan. Being kicked and punched by the guards. Working on a section of road.

A large party of men threw down their shovels and ran into the darkness. And then the game began. A menu offered the player a selection of languages. Stoll selected English.

An SS guard appeared in close-up and spoke to the player. His face was an animated photograph of Hausen. Behind him was a pastoral setting of trees, rivers, and the corner of a red brick citadel.

"Twenty-five prisoners have escaped into the woods. Your job is to divide your force so that you can find them, at the same time maintaining the productivity of the camp and continuing the processing of the bodies of subhumans."