“On the contrary, Bernie. I did it for the work. The ends do justify the means in this particular situation. I thought Heinrich explained all this. The importance of the work. A malaria vaccine really is something that’s worth everything that has been done in its name. I thought you understood that. What are a few hundred lives, maybe a couple of thousand, beside the millions that a vaccine will save? My conscience is clear, Bernie.”

“I know. That’s what makes this so tragic.”

“But for our work to proceed to the next stage, we simply have to have access to American medical research facilities. Laboratories. Equipment. Money.”

“New prisoners for experimentation,” I added. “Like those German POWs in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Who would have suspected that they had died of malaria in the Alps? I have to hand it to you, Eric. That was clever. So where will you go? Atlanta? New Jersey? Illinois? Or Rochester?”

For a moment, Gruen hesitated. “What makes you think I’ll go to any of those places?” he asked, carefully.

“Maybe I’m just a better detective than you think I am.”

“Don’t try to look for me, Bernie. For one thing, who’s going to believe you? You, a war criminal, against the word of someone like me. Someone who’s trusted by the CIA, no less. Believe me, Jacobs has done his homework on you, old friend. He found some very interesting photographs of you with Reichsführer Himmler, General Heydrich, and Arthur Nebe. There’s even a picture of you with Hermann Göring. I had no idea you were so well connected. The soaps will like that. It’ll make them think you’re the real thing. That Eric Gruen was much more important to the Reich than he really was.”

“Eric, I’m going to find you,” I said. “All of you. And I’m going to kill you. You, Henkell, Jacobs, and Albertine.”

“Ah, so you know about her as well, do you? You’ve been busy, Bernie. I congratulate you. What a pity that your powers as a detective didn’t kick in earlier. Well, what am I to say to such an idle threat?”

“It’s no idle threat.”

“Only what I said before. My new friends are very powerful. If you try to come after me, it won’t just be the soaps who are after you. It’ll be the CIA as well.”

“You forgot to mention the ODESSA,” I said. “Let’s not leave them out.”

He laughed. “What do you think you know about the ODESSA?”

“Enough to know that they helped set me up. Them and your friend, Father Gotovina.”