“Why didn’t the people in Sarabat fight back?” Randi said, but Smith subtly waved her off. He wanted to give the good cop some stage time.

“Doctor?”

Eichmann stared at the floor for a few seconds and then looked up to meet his eye. “It was the dream.”

“What dream? What were you trying to do? Influence people’s behavior?”

“Christian just wanted to help. After everything that happened to him—the Nazis, the Soviets—he realized that our primitive instincts were combining with modern technology, media, and politics to destroy us. He wanted to change that.”

“I remember that he spent hundreds of millions of dollars on educational research,” Smith said. “But that was more than thirty years ago.”

Eichmann licked his lips nervously. “Yes. We set up charter schools all over the world and educated tens of thousands of children for free. What wasn’t clear to the public was that the students were carefully chosen. Randomized.”

“So that you could test various educational theories,” Smith said. “Year-round school, separating boys and girls, classroom size, home intervention…”

“We tried them all. Every teaching technique and idea that had ever been conceived.”

“And it was a huge success. I learned about it in college.”

The German shook his head. “No. We made it look that way by choosing what data we released. The truth is that different educational techniques have almost no effect on intelligence and behavior. And what little impact they do have disappears in adulthood. But he didn’t believe it. Neither of us did. School and parenting virtually useless? The majority of our destiny written at birth? How could this be true?”

“So you created the study that I saw back at your house.”

“Christian decided we needed to try more drastic interventions—and to get the remaining cultural noise out of the data.”

The old man fell silent and Smith walked to the sink to get him a glass of water. “We’re not here to judge you, Dr. Eichmann. We’re here because the U.S. military needs to understand the technology it’s going to be relying on for the next hundred years. We’re not people who like surprises.”

Eichmann accepted the glass and took a hesitant sip from it. “As I’m sure you surmised, we took children from all over the world.”

“Took?” Randi said, but then fell silent when Smith shot her an angry glance.

“Some parents are willing to accept money, others are open to the promise that their children will be given opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise. Hospital workers are amenable to mixing up paperwork for the right price. And sometimes it’s as simple as directing and facilitating adoptions.”

In his peripheral vision, Smith could see Randi’s horrified expression turn to anger. And as a human being, he understood completely. But as a scientist, he couldn’t help being intrigued.

“So you created a perfectly controlled behavioral study.”