LABORATORY
"This is so ironic," Tessa said, looking at the furious work that engineers were involved with.
"How's that," Kaname, asked. Like the other Whispered girl, she had been been drained of Black Technology knowledge, and in returned stuffed with more types of current data and information than her mind and body could hold.
"The whole machine is growing so huge," Tessa replied, sweeping her hands about the room. "It's so many times the size of the original apparatus that put you and Sousuke in such a perplexing predicament. Some are calling it the Quantum Quixote."
"But… the irony part…" Kaname looked at her ring. It had recently changed its color to orange. The emotional and psychological pressure she was feeling kept growing more and more suffocating by the minute.
"In physics and chemistry, a quantum is a discrete packet of energy or matter." Tessa nodded her head in assent when an attendant asked if she would like more milk, tea, and lady fingers. She saw 'Kaname' shake her head 'no'. Sipping fresh tea, she continued. "The term quantum also means the minimum value of a physical property involved in an interaction."
"The word quantum is often mis-used as an adjective to mean the opposite of its definition or in an inappropriate context," Miss Uumellmahaye added. "The phase 'quantum leap' is used to suggest a large change, while the definition of quantum is that the change is the minimum amount possible." She frowned, looking at a glowing and thrumming conduit. Some temporary welds had been supplanted by duct tape.
"The first quantum machine was created on August 4, 2009 by Aaron D. O'Connell while pursuing his Ph.D," Dr. Necessiter said. "He and his colleagues coupled together a mechanical resonator, similar to a tiny springboard, and a qubit, a device that can be in a superposition of two quantum states at the same time. They were able to make the resonator vibrate a small amount and a large amount simultaneously…an effect which would be impossible in classical physics. The mechanical resonator was just large enough to see with the naked eye… about as long as the width of a human hair. Devices of that type are growing smaller by the day.""
"And there lies the irony," Tessa noted. "There are quantum machines that are so tiny. And our machine has grown so huge. It follows the tenets of quantum physics… and even has microscopic quantum devices in critical locations... but it is far from minimal."
"Some are calling me the Quantum Quack," Dr. Necessiter griped. "Even though I'm far from minimal!" He did a quick belly dancer move.
"I've been called the same thing," Dr. Hfuhruhurr griped. "If they were going to grade me on size, they should call me the Quantum Quahog!" He posed in an extremely awkward way. If a mother and daughter were present, the mother would cover the daughter's eyes. "Minimal? Posh!" He looked over at his fellow researcher who held two fingers up, two inches apart. He'd gotten the pesky bivalves mixed up again. "Oh! Not Quahog! Geoduck!"
"Size isn't everything," Anne said, chuckling when she saw the way that the two doctors looked away. That ought to straighten them out a bit, no pun intended. . "But, in this case, large size is to be expected. The machine they are stitching together makes use of Kinetic Energy, Gravitational Potential Energy, Elastic Potential Energy, Hydraulic Energy, Electrical Energy, and Electromagnetic Energy, among others." She frowned, interrupted by two loud-speaking engineers who were discussing how to make better use of the Pony Tail equation and other recent computations as they related to quantum mechanics.
"Not only is it big..." Kaname looked concerned. "But. Well. it's also so... jumbled. It looks like different groups of kids are playing in kindergarten, building competing structures out of wooden blocks." She was Kaname Chidori! She had to keep her spirit up! She wasn't the same depressed young girl she was in America. "And-" She too found her voice drowned out.
"You don't know if the competing structures fit together... and work together..." Tessa practically shouted to be heard. She understood how Kaname must feel. She was frightened herself... frightened for Kaname and Sousuke, people who meant a great deal to her. "I can see that. But, I have to say one thing... we truly are looking at a miracle. So many people. So many discussions. So many experiments. So many components. So much construction. All of it done in such a short time." If something like this were written into the script of a TV sitcom or a movie, people would find it too tacky and change the channels or leave the theater.
"That's right," Dr. Necessiter said. He spoke loudly, and used sign language. "There is a need for all of it. What transpired the first time was accidental and unexpected. This time, we are working towards a directed event with planning and preparation."
"Competing with the clock," Kaname said, subdued. "Trying to get things back to normal." Even that was a relative thing. She may have given up as much Black Technology information as she could purposefully; but, she was still a Whispered in a world where being so 'blessed meant that one was a fruit or vegetable sought after for squeezing.
"I'm sure-" Dr. Hfuhruhurr couldn't hear his own words. The loud talkers had moved closer:
"Meanwhile, the idea of quantum information processing has revolutionized theories and implementations of computation," a seven foot tall man spoke in a deep sonorous voice, in a conversation that did not involve Kaname and the others. "New quantum algorithms may offer tantalizing prospects to enhance machine learning itself. The interaction between machine learning and quantum physics will undoubtedly benefit both fields after we complete our groundbreaking work here. Fast development of machine-learning algorithms for identifying phases of matter is progressing in the blink of an eye, with so much brain power present in one place at one time."
"Not to mention Black Technology," a second engineer said, standing under five feet in height, with a voice big enough for a man twice his size. "Exciting progress has been made in using artificial neural networks to represent quantum states and solve related quantum many-body problems. As you are well aware, in quantum mechanics, fully describing an arbitrary many-body state requires an exponential amount of information. Consider a system with N qubits, or quantum bits. Each qubit has two possible independent configurations, either 0 or 1; thus there are two to the n possible configurations in total. Computationally, that means fully describing the corresponding quantum state requires two to the n complex numbers. Fortunately, most physical states of interest, such as the ground states of many-body Hamiltonians, typically access only a small corner of the entire Hilbert space of quantum states and can therefore be described with a reduced amount of information."
"Keep this in mind, too." A third engineer also spoke loudly, to be heard off the sounds of banging, welding, drilling, rachetting,and plasma torching. "A renowned description for the states that we are dealing with is the tensor-network representation, in which a tensor is assigned to each qubit, and together those tensors describe the many-body quantum state. Such a construction can represent most physical states efficiently in the sense that the amount of information required scales only polynomially, rather than exponentially, with the system size. A tensor's rank indicates its dimensionality, or the number of indices it has, so rank-1 tensors are vectors, rank-2 tensors are matrices, and so on. For simplicity, consider a one-dimensional system with N qubits, known as the matrix product states representation. Each qubit has an associated rank-3 tensor…." The conversation grew louder by the instant.
"Let's get some fresh air," Anne suggested. She led the two Whispered girls out into the hallway. The two scientists followed. 'Kaname' looked like the scientific talk had left her green around the gills. Tessa looked like the chatter had left her tea tasting somewhat flat.
"That's right," Dr. Necessiter said. "We can view the whole machine better from out here." He missed the evil glare that the Wiccan woman gave him. "Wow! At this distance, we can see the forest, not just the trees. It looks like such a Rube Goldberg Machine." Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg, born in 1883, was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. He is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated gadgets performing simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. The term 'Rube Goldberg machines' is used to describe similar gadgets and processes. Often, these machines consist of a series of simple devices that are linked together to produce a domino effect, in which each device triggers the next one, and the original goal is achieved only after many steps.
"You said it, Nessie!" Dr Hfuhruhurr had lost his earlier wave of compassion and empathy, more concerned about current observations and expounding than he was about Kaname Chidori's mental make-up. "Or… if you truly were a bloke with a British Mum, it would be a 'Heath Robinson contraption'." William Heath Robinson was an English cartoonist, illustrator and artist, best known for drawings of whimsically elaborate machines used to achieve simple objectives. 'Heath Robinson contraption' is perhaps more often used in relation to temporary fixes using ingenuity and whatever is to hand, often string and tape, or unlikely cannibalizations. Its continuing popularity was undoubtedly linked to Britain's shortages and the need to 'make do and mend' during the Second World War.
"Quite right, mate." Dr. Necessiter tried his terrible accent again. "But… in deference to our wonderful host nation… we could postulate that it might really be Chindōgu." That word was applied to a type of prank originating from Japan, which is done by a person seemingly inventing ingenious everyday gadgets that seem like an ideal solution to a particular problem, but are in fact nothing more than a useless gag. Examples include a combined household duster and cocktail-shaker, for the housewife who wants to reward herself as she is going along; the all-day tissue dispenser, which is basically a toilet roll fixed on top of a hat, for hay fever sufferers; the baby mop, an outfit worn by babies, so that as they crawl around, the floor is cleaned.
"But.. remember…" Dr Hfuhruhurr took a stance like the one made famous by the title character on a bottle of Captain Morgan rum. "The selfie stick, when it came out in the 1990s, was dismissed as a 'useless invention' at the time." He wanted to feel a sense of confidence for his own personal reasons. But, his knowledge of errata prompted his tongue again. "It really does seem like some kind of turboencabulator or turbo-encabulator or retroencabulator." Those were fictional machines whose alleged existence became an in-joke and subject of professional humor among engineers. The explanation of the supposed product always makes extensive use of technobabble.
"Right again, chap." Dr. Necessiter said, before quoting the article that gave birth to the gag: "Our machine has a base plate of prefabulated amulite, surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two main spurving bearings are in a direct line with the panametric fan. The latter consists simply of six hydrocoptic marzlevanes, so fitted to the ambifacient lunar waneshaft that side fumbling is effectively prevented. The main winding is of the normal lotus-o-deltoid type placed in panendermic semi-boloid slots in the stator, every seventh conductor being connected by a nonreversible tremmie pipe to the differential girdlespring on the 'up' end of the grammeters."
"THAT'S IT! I SAY THAT'S IT! AND BY THAT I MEAN IT'S MORE THAN ENOUGH 'IT' TO LAST AN ENTIRE LIFETIME!"
That was Anne. After shouting at the two babbling scientists she politely asked Kaname and Tessa to wait for her there. Then she rolled up her sleeves, put on a very scary face, grabbed both brilliant men by their ears, and dragged them into the Men's Room, not caring what men might be there now, or who might step in before she was done.
"This is really a bit much, isn't it, Anne?" Dr. Necessiter pleaded.
"I mean, we will certainly correct our actions," Dr Hfuhruhurr promised.
Miss Uumellmahaye remained quiet as she thoroughly washed each man's mouth out with soap. When Dr. Necessiter struggled, she asked if she needled to get a toilet brush or wand. He settled down and accepted his punishment.
"Quoff!" Dr Hfuhruhurr coughed. He blew out a large number of tiny bubbles. Like a playful cat, Dr. Necessiter batted at them, wanting to break as many as possible before they hit the ground.
Anne just shook her head. With all that fancy shiny equipment to play with, a world renowned scientist chose to play with soap bubbles. She also felt a bit guilty and hypocritical. She might be a bit more responsible, verbally; but, that had not stopped her from remembering the word 'Veeblefetzer' while looking at the growing machine. That was a word usually used facetiously as a placeholder name for any obscure or complicated object or mechanism, such as automobile parts, computer code and model railroad equipment.
"Oh… Anne… here you are…." Another of the hospital administrators walked in, one who was also a lawyer. "You… here...why" He looked over at the two soap-bubble covered doctors and understood. "Ah. I see. While I have you, let me say that the latest batch of tests have showed great success. I wouldn't be shocked if the whole jury-rigged projects actually succeeds!"
"Grrbblltt!" Dr Hfuhruhurr tried to say 'great', having heard the report. Bubble danced on his breath.
"That's the bee's knees. That's the dog's bollocks!" Dr. Necssiter said, swiping a couple of more bubbles, after hand-fighting with his fellow scientist. "I'm truly chuffed! It's boss, brill, banging, and bazzin'."
"Have they been like this all day," the administrator asked Anne.
"Worse," Anne admitted with a sigh. "Much worse."
"You have my condolences," the man replied.
When Miss Uumellmahaye returned to the two girls, she was just in time. "I will take that," she said, taking an i-Pad from Kaname's grasp, an tossing it back over her head to man who had made loan of the device."
"But-" There was a pleading look in Sousuke's eyes, something that had never been seen when his own brain was in his own body.
"NO!" Anne said succinctly.
"That's alright," Tessa said in an aside to Kaname. "I'll just call Commander Mardukas and-"
"DENIED!" Anne shot down the Captain's plan, too.
"I have a better way," Dr. Necessiter quipped. He wasn't a slow learner. He just couldn't help himself. "Look over there…." There were huge spools of wire of different grade and different metals, pushed against a wall of the hallway. They had been rolled out from a number of materials storage areas. "We have enough wire to reach the school and back a couple of times over. All we need is a pair of cups and we can-"
"Have you ever had your head flushed in a toilet," Anne asked Dr. Necessiter. He decided to go supervise a group of engineers.
"She might be right about avoiding outside news," Dr. Hfuhruhurr said, his face clean for the first time in weeks. He took a professional stance, looking like the ideal philosopher. "There are more important things to worry about, are there not?" He winked at the girls, adopting a more slouched posture as he began singing The Eagles to irritate Anne:
"Raven hair and ruby lips
Sparks fly from her fingertips
Echoed voices in the night
She's a restless spirit on an endless flight
Woo hoo, witchy woman
See how high she flies
Woo hoo, witchy woman
She got the moon in her eye
She held me spellbound in the night
Dancing shadows and firelight
Crazy laughter in another room
And she drove herself to madness with a silver spoon
Woo hoo, witchy woman
See how high she flies
Woo hoo, witchy woman
She got the moon in her eye."
"Let me tell you what I could do with a silver spoon," Anne said under her breath.
"Miss Tessa, Miss Tessa," an engineer called out, a flushed look on his freckled face. "We need you again. Your expertise on the TDD-1's TAROS will prove useful. We are finishing up our part of the project."
"Duty calls," Tessa said, handing her teacup to Anne, before wolfing down the last of her lady fingers.
"I wish Sousuke would," Kaname said quietly to herself. She was about to ask if there was a place that she could take a nap, if no one needed her at that moment. Maybe napping would even help preserve her level of psionic energy longer. "Wait-" Something caught her eye.
"What's going on here?" Anne asked, showing her administrators ID badge to the first in a column of workers headed towards the laboratory.
"We've been tasked with delivery," A bearded man in a hard-hat replied. He showed Anne a clipboard with a signed manifest. As he stood watching the woman read, he flinched when a voice down the hallway called out.
"What is the hold up, gentlemen?" A small-headed man with exceptionally large ears walked up, unconsciously picking his long and pointed nose.
"Reginald," Anne called out to the man. He was an administrative assistant whom she had dealt with on previous occasions. "What may I ask is going on here?"
"It's all written there," Reginald Hornblower replied pointing at the paperwork. "This comes from upstairs." By that, he meant it came from the Board of Directors. "They were antsy to begin with, and have only grown more so. I think that they worry they won't get the credit if things go well… but will get the blame if things go bad…."
"So?" Anne narrowed her eyes. She had an inkling of what the higher ups might be thinking.
"It would look bad if our two young visitors died in your experimentation," Reginald said. "They don't think it wise to perform the first and only procedure on Mr. Sagara or Miss Chidori."
"Don't you mean to say that they are concerned about their welfare?" Dr. Hfuhruhurr said, a stern look on his face. "Don't you mean that's what comes first?"
"Of course, doctor," Reginald replied, his face emotionless. "Of course. The patient always comes first." He waved for the men to continue on their way. "It's an order for me. And… I might add… it is an order for you." He meant that last for Anne and Dr. Hfuhruhurr both. "You can call upstairs if you like… but I don't recommend it…."
Kaname watched the first man walk by. He wore a hard-hat; but, she didn't see why he needed to. Or why any of the men with protective headgear did, for that matter. The first one carried two large plastic bags, each holding a Goldfish. The second one hugged two glass containers to his chest, each housing a Cane Toad. The third one pushed a wheeled cart with two wire cages, each with a frightened feline inside. The fourth one held two leashes, each leading to a collared sheep, one ran and one ewe.
"The animals went in two by two, Hurrah! Hurrah!" Dr. Hfuhruhurr said. "The elephant and the kangaroo, Hurrah! Hurrah." He was thinking of Noah's Ark; but, he was a bit off. God's specific instruction to Noah was to take two of every unclean animal, but seven pairs of every clean animal and seven pairs of every type of bird. Clean land animals are those that 'chew the cud' and have a divided hoof.
"So I suppose these are surrogates?" Anne looked angry and perplexed. She began tapping her foot rapidly, agitated and protective.
"You look a bit twitchy," Reginald said, picking at his nose. "That's a bad habit."
"I know a worse one," Anne shot back, channeling Willy Wonka. "You do know that those animals have no minds to transfer, right?"
"That's just the point," Dr. Necessiter said, having walked back to see what the commotion was about. "They didn't supply animals to confirm that Kaname's and Sousuke's brains will get back the way they were. They simply want to make certain that the energies involved won't kill living organisms. Whatever their motives, the decision makes sense."
"I don't see why you're so upset," Reginald said. "I mean you are a witch." He fought a losing battle, trying not to snicker. "Tee hee. Animal sacrifices and all that." He gave her a condescending look. He was a practicing Protestant. "That's truly backwards and barbaric!"
"Most modern Pagans and Heathens shy away from… or are downright horrified by… the idea of animal sacrifice." Anne was growing angry. She had to deal with numerous people who had the wrong idea about the Wiccan religion. "It goes against our Rede." She made a sour face. The two of them had never gotten along. "Sure… but you're not hypocritical at all. It's alright to torture and exploit animals for profit, of course. They are a cog in the machine of Corporate Capitalism, after all. It's okay to torture them for TV and movies… skin them for shirts and belts… force feed them to become food… murder them for the sake of medicine. Talk about barbaric!"
"Murder?" Reginald seemed taken aback. "Murder! You work in a hospital, for God's sake. Animal research has had a vital role in many scientific and medical advances of the past century and continues to aid our understanding of various diseases. Throughout the world, people enjoy a better quality of life because of these advances, and the subsequent development of new medicines and treatment…all made possible by an-i-mal re-search."
"This is neither the place nor the time for fighting," Toyotomi Mitsunari opined, walking up. "We're not setting a very good example for our visitor." He bowed in Kaname's direction.
"What?" Reginald seemed to be a bit hot under the collar. His temper had him rudely challenging someone of higher station. "Have you converted to witchcraft, too? Just remember what the Bible says. 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live'- Exodus 22:18. That might also hold true for-" He held his tongue, but his gaze still wandered to Kaname. He had been about to add '-the Whispered, too.'
"First, I'm Pentecostal," Mr. Mitsunari replied. "Second, you are repeating a mistake that others have made… one that is responsible for the witch burnings that plagued Europe, and later America, in the Early Modern Period. The original Hebrew word used in Exodus, translated by some as 'witch,' is mekhashepha. Some people forget to put things in the proper context. In the third century B.C., the word may have meant 'poisoners' or 'herbalists', and not people who used magic for evil. And the Whispers are a modern conundrum. I doubt that they have any religious connotations whatsoever." He set his jaw, looking more than a bit peeved. "Third. Your uncle may sit on the Board of Directors-" He met the other man's gaze. "-But my father does, too."
"That-" Reginald swallowed hard. "I should see to the animals." He scurried off. When one of the sheep went 'baaaaa-aaaa-aaa-aa-ah,' he snapped by saying "Shut up!"
"My apologies, Miss Chidori." Mr. Mitsunari said. "I will not lie. There are people in the administration who put money and reputation first. I am happy to say that they are in a minority."
"Thank you, sir." Kaname said. "I can't say he's the only person who would look at the Whispered funny, if they knew we exist." She let out a long heavy sigh. "And… well… I am conflicted about animal research. That man did make valid points…." She looked ready to cry. "But… seeing those animals…."
"Let me guess," Mr. Mitsunari said. "You feel a lot like a lab rat today, right?"
"Yes," Kaname said. "And… well… I'm sorry…." She stood straighter. Feeling sorry for herself would not serve any purpose. "Even though I know that most of the people here are working for my benefit… or at the very least mean me no harm… I can't help but think of something that Sousuke told me about." She hesitated, knowing the topic wasn't a pleasant one, to put things mildly. "Unit 731."
"Oh." Mr. Mitsunari looked uncomfortable. That was not a pleasant national memory. "That." There are some stains that time can never wholly wash away.
"What is Unit 731," Anne asked with some trepidation. It took a lot to discomfort Toyotomi Mitsunari, the 'Rock of The Tokyo Neurological Center'.
"Despite innocent beginnings as a research and public health agency, Unit 731 grew into a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War of World War Two." Dr. Hfuhruhurr said. "It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Imperial Japan. Unit 731 was based at the Pingfang district of Harbin, the largest city in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, now Northeast China. It is not a subject that most Japanese know about. And few who do wish to speak of it."
"It was officially known as the 'Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army'," Dr. Necessiter added. "At least three thousand men, women, and children… mostly Chinese, but also Soviet, Mongolian, Korean, and Allied POWs… were subjected to experimentation at the camp based in Pingfang alone. That number does not include victims from other medical experimentation sites, such as Unit 100, an Imperial Japanese Army facility called the 'Kwantung Army Warhorse Disease Prevention Shop' that focused on the development of biological weapons."
"Wh-" Anne wasn't sure she wanted to know. "What did they do?"
"I must admit that my mother's brother worked at a site in Pingfang," Mr. Mitsunari said solemnly. "I feel I must bear some of his shame, myself. Test subjects were sometimes referred to euphemistically as 'logs', used in such contexts as 'How many logs fell?' That term originated as a joke on the part of the staff, because the official cover story for the facility given to the local authorities was that it was a lumber mill. The members of researchers at the unit numbered approximately three hundred, and included doctors and bacteriologists. Many had been desensitized to performing unpleasant experiments by their experience in…."
"Animal research," Kaname said.
Mr. Mitsunari coughed to clear his throat. "Thousands of men, women, children, and infants interned at prisoner of war camps were subjected to vivisection, often without anesthesia and usually ending with the death of the victim. Vivisections were performed on prisoners after infecting them with various diseases. Researchers performed invasive surgery on prisoners, removing organs to study the effects of disease on the human body. These were conducted while the patients were alive because it was thought that the death of the subject would affect the results."
"That-" Anne went pale. "That's-"
"Prisoners had limbs amputated in order to study blood loss. Those limbs that were removed were sometimes re-attached to the opposite sides of the body." Mr. Mitsunari clenched his hands into fists. "Some prisoners had their stomachs surgically removed and the esophagus reattached to the intestines. Parts of organs, such as the brain, lungs, and liver, were removed from some prisoners. Victims were injected with diseases, disguised as vaccinations, to study their effects. It-" He coughed again.
"If I may," Kaname said, looking at the man with sympathy in her eyes. She had broken down into tears herself, when she forced Sousuke to tell her as many details as he could. She didn't know if any of her relatives were associated with atrocities during the war. "Plague fleas, infected clothing, and infected supplies were encased in bombs and were dropped on various targets. The resulting cholera, anthrax, and plague were estimated to have killed at least four hundred thousand Chinese civilians. Tularemia was tested on Chinese civilians, too."
"They were doctors-" Anne was too terrified to imagine what the prisoners must have gone through. Instead she focused her silent outrage at the perpetrators.
"Thank you, Miss Chidori." Mr. Mitsunari straightened his shoulders. "I can continue. Physiologists conducted experiments by taking captives outside, dipping various appendages into water, and allowing the limb to freeze. They could tell when they were frozen, a Japanese officer testified, when they struck by a cane and emitted a sound resembling the one which a board makes when it is struck. Ice was chipped away from the frozen arm and the area doused in water. The effects of different water temperatures at rewarming the areas were tested by bludgeoning the victim to determine if any areas were still frozen." He hung his head. "Doctors orchestrated forced sex acts between infected and non-infected prisoners to transmit syphilis. Female prisoners were forced to become pregnant, for use in experiments. A large number of babies were born in captivity and were all killed after birth. Mothers and fetuses together were killed and cut open. Human targets were used to test grenades positioned at various distances and in different positions. Flamethrowers were tested on humans. Humans were also tied to stakes and used as targets to test pathogen-releasing bombs, chemical weapons, and explosive bombs. Prisoners would be tied to stakes and used as targets for bayonet practice."
"Like in North Korea today," Kaname said quietly, remembering something else that Sousuke had told her. She shivered. It was hard enough hearing about terrible things. What must Sousuke have suffered, seeing terrible things?
"In other tests, subjects were deprived of food and water to determine the length of time until death," Mr. Mitsunari continued. "Some were placed into high-pressure chambers until death; experimented upon to determine the relationship between temperature, burns, and human survival; placed into centrifuges and spun until death, to experiment on G-forces; injected with animal blood; exposed to lethal doses of x-rays; subjected to various chemical weapons inside gas chambers; injected with sea water; and burned or buried alive. Some tests had no medical purpose at all, and instead were intended to administer excruciating pain, such as injecting horse urine into prisoners' kidneys." He took out a handkerchief and dabbed at his forehead. There were many more examples; but, he had said all that he could.
"During the final months of World War II, Japan planned to use plague as a biological weapon against San Diego, California," Dr. Hfuhruhurr said. "The plan was scheduled to launch on September 22, 1945, but Japan surrendered five weeks earlier."
"That plan was titled 'Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night'," Dr. Necessiter remarked. "Five of the new I-400-class long-range submarines were to be sent across the Pacific Ocean, each carrying three Aichi M6A Seiran aircraft loaded with plague-infected fleas. The submarines were to surface and launch the aircraft towards the target, either to drop the plague via balloon bombs, or to crash in enemy territory. Either way, the plague would then infect and kill many thousands of people in the area. Earlier, during the Philippines Campaign in March 1942, the Japanese considered releasing one hundred and fifty million plague-carrying fleas in ten separate attacks, but the Americans surrendered at Bataan before the plan was implemented. During the Battle of Iwo Jima, another biological attack was considered against the invading Americans. Two gliders carrying pathogens were supposed to be towed over the battle and released, but the gliders that were supposed to take off from mainland Japan to Matsumoto's airfield in Pingfang District in preparation for the attack never reached their destination."
"With all those terrible things… and so many I did not mention-" Mr. Mitsunari said. "-The Americans still granted those monsters immunity. Until the Japanese were threatened with bringing the Soviets into the picture, little information about biological warfare was being shared with the Americans. The Japanese wanted to avoid prosecution under the Soviet legal system, so after the threat was made, an American Lieutenant Colonel… who was also a noted microbiologist… received a manuscript describing Japan's involvement in biological warfare. When that manuscript was shown to General Douglas MacArthur, who was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers responsible for rebuilding Japan during the Allied occupations, he struck a deal with Japanese informants. He secretly granted immunity to the physicians of Unit 731, including their leader, in exchange for providing America… but not the other wartime allies… with their research on biological warfare and their data from human experimentation. The U.S. believed that the research data was valuable, and did not want other nations… particularly the Soviet Union… to acquire data on biological weapons."
"That's what happens after wars," Dr. Hfuhruhurr said. "Not only do victors write history, but they often gather the spoils of the defeated, even when they were gained in nefarious or nauseating ways. For example, Arthur L. Rudolph, a Nazi scientist who ran the Mittelwerk munitions factory, was brought to the United States in 1945 for his rocket-making expertise under Operation Paperclip, an American program that recruited scientists who had worked in Nazi Germany. Rudolph has been honored by NASA, and is credited as the father of the Saturn V rocket."
"Worse," Dr. Necessiter added. "Otto Von Bolschwing was an associate of Adolf Eichmann, and had helped develop the initial plans to purge Germany of the Jews. He later worked for the C.I.A. in the United States. So… if that kind of thing can happen in a country that has ostensibly striven to champion truth and justice…." He did not mention that in America, Russia, and other nations after the war, governments sponsored experiments on soldiers, prisoners and minorities among their own citizens.
"It can… and will… happen somewhere else." Anne looked stricken. It was all too much for her. She felt silly, thinking that animal experimentation was one of the pinnacles of man's cruelty. She put a hand to her mouth. She couldn't help but stare at Kaname. The things that Amalgam might do to her!
"But there are those who fight against such things," Tessa said, having overheard part of the conversation. She needed Anne's permission to perform a test on a section of machinery at the request of some engineers. "In the United States, and in this country. And, as you know, both nations are among those who fund Mithril. And… if Amalgam is the organization that patterns itself after evil empires… then Mithril is the organization designed to stop them. I truly believe that. We are not cut from the same cloth."
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing," Dr. Hfuhruhurr said.
The men and women in that little group were silent for a minute or so after that. Mr. Mitsunari broke the silence with a pledge. "Miss Chidori… let me say this… regardless of what any person in this facility might want… I will never let you be used as an experiment. Never." He was obviously sincere.
Even though she had felt so sad hearing and saying what she had, Kaname felt a great deal better after being given that promise. A lot of her pent-up fears and suspicions started evaporating.
"Thank you," Kaname said.
Anne felt better, too. "Gentlemen, the lattes are on me!" Everyone was psyched. The lattes at a fancy hospital snack bar were to die for.
"I should warn you all," Dr. Necessiter said, wagging a pointer finger. "I fart after I latte."
"No good deed goes unpunished," Miss Uumellmahaye whispered.
"Captain," Mr. Mitsunari said in a very formal and serious tone. "Does Mithril have a faraway facility in need of another scientist." He was looking at Dr. Necessiter.
"Would the East Antarctic Plateau do?" Tessa said with a straight face. "Near the South Pole?" The temperatures in basins there were the lowest on earth, averaging minus 138 Fahrenheit, and dipping as low as minus 148. There was no Mithril facility there. "We could find room for two, if need be."
"Perfect!" Mr. Mitsunari said. "Let's call it a deal. I'll send you the necessary papers."
"No need!" Dr. Necessiter said in a rush. "I'll keep my butt cheeks tight together."
"Lovely," Kaname said.
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