Death's Head Legion by Trey Garrison Page B

have a viable sample of the GR-68 source compound,” Himmler said.
    â€œHerr Reichsführer,” Übel said, “what we have is not a sample of the GR-68 source, but rather a catalyzed sample drawn after cellular mutation and degeneration, introduced in suboptimal conditions for our desired outcome.”
    Even Heydrich wasn’t following exactly. Uhrwerk took the lead, first adjusting the speech modulator in his metal mask.
    â€œDoctor, explain the complexity first and how it relates to your requirements,” he said.
    Dr. Übel wiped his forehead with his pocket square.
    â€œThe process of the introduction of GR-68 is a five axis variable. It involves chemical, biological, radiological, alchemical, and paranormal processes. With the addition of each point of the axis, complexity increases by geometric progression.
    â€œFor example, take the most basic sixteenth century infantry musket,” he continued. “It was essentially a crude metal pipe stuffed with gunpowder and shot. It was a chemical device with the most primitive of mechanical aspects—almost a singular axis. Thus it was simple with base efficiency. Compare it to a modern bolt-action rifle—a true chemical/mechanical tool, much more complex than a first generation musket and requiring precision machine parts and exacting chemical formula. The rifle is far more efficient and offers a greater rate of fire and accuracy.
    â€œThe Maxim water-cooled machine gun of the Great War, in turn, is a chemical/mechanical/hydraulic device—many orders more complex than a bolt action rifle, far more complex to create and maintain, and far more efficient and effective. Likewise, the dragon-belcher is a simple chemical pressure device, while in turn the Grupps steam-railgun combines chemical, mechanical, alchemical, steam, magnetic, hydraulic, and other elements and is of several higher orders of complexity.”
    Himmler nodded. He failed to see where this was going, but then the Reichsführer was a man who gave as much credence to astrology as astronomy, and more to phrenology than psychology.
    It fell on Heydrich to draw more from Dr. Übel.
    The doctor was prepared for this. Several months before he’d provided the General’s Hall projectionist the proper overhead slides and film footage for this exact contingency. The inner circle of the Black Sun understood the broad concepts but not the details. Only a few had been fully briefed on the scale and depth of Project Gefallener.
    â€œThe primitive introduction of the GR-68 compound to the human system results in an equally primitive reaction and product,” Dr. Übel said as a screen dropped behind him. “This infection of a subject through direct contact with blood and other body fluids takes a significant amount of exposure to the bloodstream for effective transmission—far more than most blood-borne viruses. Left to itself, when successful this is the natural transmission of a most unnatural compound. This is the result,” he concluded as black-and-white footage from various experiments began to roll on the screen.
    A series of title cards explained that the first group was an early number of GR-68 test subjects, labeled GR-68 Zeds. Political prisoners injected with blood from the infected Ahnenerbe agent, they had returned from the Balkan expedition after being cut by a fragment of the Spear of Destiny.
    There was a flash, and the camera showed the inside of a glass-enclosed cell. The GR-68 Zeds shambled mindlessly about the enclosure. It showed “food” being dropped into the enclosure—live lab animals—and the Zed creatures all instantly attacking the small animals, grabbing and eating them alive. A member of Dr. Übel’s staff poked at one of the Zed creatures with a sharpened metal pole through a small window as it ate. At first the technician poked gently enough, and was ignored as the Zed stood eating a still twitching