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Smythe-Ward.
    Sebastian had seen pictures of Smythe-Ward as a young child, standing with his father and grandfather, who laughed as the snow fell and coated a sign behind them that read AUSCHWITZ.
    Dolan Smythe-Ward’s father, Adler Schmidt, and grandfather, Barrend Schmidt, had both worked with Joseph Mengele at the Nazi war camp. When the United States liberated Auschwitz, Barrend had fled, along with Mengele. Adler had prostrated himself on the altar of the United States’ benevolence, saying he’d been a prisoner. They’d believed him and offered him asylum. It wasn’t until he’d kidnapped and tortured a child in the U.S. that the truth was uncovered. He’d never been a prisoner. He’d been a warden of the camp and had actively participated in his father and Mengele’s experiments. And Dolan had grown up in this, witnessing the atrocities, though he was little more than a toddler. That’s where he’d cut his teeth.
    Dolan Smythe-Ward had come to the U.S. with Adler. After his father’s death at the hands of police, he’d gone to college and remade himself into a self-proclaimed purveyor of truth as well as a scientific genius. He somehow managed to hide the mantle of evil his father had draped him in by shedding his father’s name and living a relatively normal life. He developed his mind and cultivated his relationship with the government. His inventions and works within the field of genetics propelled the science of war to new levels. He’d become a brilliant mind, whose level of determination was eclipsed only by his well-hidden deceit, but he always managed to give the government what it wanted.
    While there were still unanswered questions about Smythe-Ward’s past, there was no doubt about what Sebastian had read on the trip over here. The man may be a scientific genius, but he wasn’t to be trusted.
    “You’re aware of my studies in genetics these past sixty years. I’ve made startling discoveries that have served to help humanity by destroying diseases and lengthening life. Unfortunately, in my youth and exuberance to find cures for deadly diseases, I stumbled across certain things that, for a time, led me in another direction. I’ll not bore you with the details; suffice it to say that I once felt indestructible and ready to take on the world. I wasn’t afraid to try new things in my field, and once I had established GenTech, I recruited several top notch scientists, also in the field of genetics, to help me in my quest.”
    “Your quest for what?” Sebastian interrupted.
    It took a full minute of complete silence before Smythe-Ward responded.
    “Immortality.”
    Sebastian’s chest tightened, and his scalp tingled in awareness.
    “Yes, gentleman. For a time I thought I could play God. My fellow scientists made discoveries that to this day haven’t been brought to light, and if the true God is willing, they never will. I can’t begin to describe the euphoria that comes with certain knowledge. But the devastation that knowledge brings with it can be deadly. I fell in love with one of my fellow scientists, Milania Veragova. She was a wondrous beauty, though I felt her true beauty lay within the winding recesses of her brain.”
    The man’s eyes held a faraway look, and his voice was thick and filled with an indeterminate emotion. He took a deep breath before continuing, and icy fingers of dread tickled Sebastian’s spine.
    “We were lovers for a short time. In my arrogance, I thought she’d never leave me. I was wrong. She left, but I later discovered she’d been pregnant with my children. I began searching for her, but she’d covered her tracks well. I searched for years before finally locating her in Ohio. By the time I found her she was already dead. I was distraught. My beloved Milania—dead. And what of my children? Had they lived? Where were they? Needless to say I searched for years until I managed to uncover a thread that led me to Savannah, Georgia.”
    The man wheezed in