Projekt 1065

Pretending he’s ready to show his loyalty to the Germans, Michael tells Fritz his parents have been hiding the British pilot they all searched for, and that Fritz needs to alert the Gestapo. Fritz is in “awe” (240) that Michael will betray his own parents for the Nazi cause, and the two are “friends again” (240).

Michael finds Horst walking home from a movie theater, throws a sack over his head, knocks him to the ground, and gives him “the beatdown he’d delivered to so many other boys” (241-42), the same beatdown he hopes the Allies can give to Hitler. By the time Michael is done, Horst is “just barely” (242) alive, and Michael uses Horst’s blood to draw an edelweiss on the wall above him.

Michael arrives home to tell his parents and Simon they must act tonight—“‘There’s been an opening on the science team’” (243).