Free The Manuscript I the Secret by Blanca Miosi, Gretchen Abernathy Page B

holding a book was walking around enjoying the vegetation—an American tourist. You can spot them a mile away.
    Brother Martucci looked in the same direction with no attempt at subtlety.
    “We had better be going.”
    I smiled like we were having a totally normal conversation, feigning interest in the spotted cat that had recently crossed our path. Still smiling, I said, “I don’t know why, but I feel like someone’s following us. There can’t be many rats around here,” I added, for the sake of banal chatter.
    “The cat population in this cemetery grows by the day, but no one does anything about it. The place is completely run down,” Brother Martucci stated.
    We turned and began our way back down the path.
    “So you’re saying you think I know how to find the part of the document that has the formula. What if I tell you I haven’t the faintest clue?” I asked, my voice lowered.
    “You probably know but just don’t realize it.”
    “It would be rather amazing to possess the secret to eternal youth. It could be used in so many ways. Its worth would be incalculable.”
    “Now you’re starting to sound like Claudio,” Martucci smiled. “I will only go so far as to give you the tube with the original documents. All the rest you’ll have to find on your own. Soon Claudio’s will and testament will be read. It goes without saying that you are the sole inheritor.”
    I made no comment. It seemed like years had passed since I had returned to Rome. I had learned so many shocking details about the life of Uncle Claudio—it was still too soon to think of him as “my father”—, and in many ways I felt like I was just now starting to grow up. I felt some unseen force compelling me to be like him.
    “Do you know what, Martucci? Just a few days ago, all I cared about was getting enough money to pay Irene back. Now it seems that Uncle Claudio’s legacy is much more than just money. Way more. And on that note, I think I’d rather keep calling him my uncle.”
    “Wonderful. That is exactly the change my good friend Claudio would have wanted to see in you. And you can call him whatever you like; it’s your prerogative. I only request that you be extremely careful. I know that there are people willing to do any and everything to get their hands on that formula, and they will surely be watching your every move. There is so much at stake, carissimo amico mio . So very much.”
    “Just who are these people? From what you said about the group interested in the formula, two Jews were against it.”
    “Exactly. They would like to make it disappear so that there are no traces left of the studies and research of Josef Mengele. To a degree, their position is entirely understandable, given what all was involved in the research. But they are fanatics driven by vengeance. Claudio escaped two assassination attempts. And they know me, which is why I did not want them to think that you and I were in contact. Likely they think that if the formula is ever successful, Mengele will go down in history as a great benefactor of humanity.”

11
    The Search for Josef Mengele
    1975–1976
     
    On the return flight, Claudio Contini-Massera could not stop thinking about how to track Mengele down. If he had left documents hidden in Armenia it was because he had been unable to retrieve them. In certain circles tied to Nazism, it was rumored that he was in Paraguay. The current dictator of the South American country was quite chummy with several Germans in the postwar era, especially Hitler’s sympathizers, though Claudio suspected his interest in them was more economic than philosophical. He would begin his search there. He had a few contacts in the Stroessner government, and it was time to make a few calls.
    As soon as he arrived in Rome, he made photostatic copies of each page of the documents in the tube and stored the originals in his safe. He was certain that this discovery would revolutionize science. From what he could tell, they