Shake me down
After flicking the cigarette onto the ground and stomping it out with his right boot, Werner entered the building again, still as angry as he'd been when he'd left.
He had decided what to do with the foolish doctor. He would threaten him, he was a Nazi anyway now, he might as well use the bit of power he had. He wouldn't threaten him with sending him to his death, he had a more clever approach, one that would surprise and scare the pole much more.
Werner had no idea what would happen to him. Was he condemned to staying in Nazi Germany the rest of his life, would he live to see the Nachkriegszeit? Or would he - somehow, spawn back to the year he'd left, to live the rest of his life? And if Wojciechowski did find the cure, would he then be able to cure himself and live the rest of his life a healthy man?
Werner entered the lab, but Wojciechowski wasn't there. He eventually found him in the room with the projector. Wojciechowski looked tired, almost beaten. Werner was confused, fifteen minutes ago the polish doctor had looked fine. Werner wasn't pugnacious by nature, but he was irritated almost to the point of violence, and now that Wojciechowski seemed to be faking feeling sick, Werner lost it.
"I left you fifteen minutes ago and you're already acting? Do you think I'll believe a word you say?" He sneered. Wojciechowski looked taken aback; but Werner couldn't tell if it was an act or the truth. The swarthy pole was a good liar all the way down. "Are you sick? Are you dying? Are you going to say that the fucking brain tumor is in your head?" Werner glared at Wojciechowski but he stopped talking. He wanted to punch the doctor into his smug face, but he didn't. Werner took a few deep breaths and continued more slowly. The more he spoke the more level his voice got until it became deathly calm.
"Wojciechowski, I know that I have a brain tumor. Back home I would have several documents to prove it. If I hold my hair back you can see a line and a hole where two operations were made. I do not care if you lie to Dr. Ziegler about all of this, I don't care who you tell. But I have brain cancer, and I know that you saw that from the pictures of my skull. I've had cancer long enough to be able to identify pictures with altered bone structure myself, and I'm not even a doctor. So please, Wojciechowski, tell me why you're lying." He exhaled heavily after saying this. It had taken a lot out of him to remain calm. But now that he had he felt a lot more in control. He felt less like an actual Nazi.
"Werner, I will repeat myself a hundred times if that's what it takes to tell you. You're not suffering from a brain tumor. You're completely healthy."
"I refuse to work with you if you continue like this." Werner said through gritted teeth. His tone remained calm for the moment.
"Werner, would it make you feel better if I said that I believe you?" Wojciechowski asked with an empathetic smile. Those pitying smiles that Wojciechowski often flashed at Werner had taken their toll on the young man. Without thinking twice he lunged forwards and grabbed Wojciechowski by the collar of his lab coat. The pole was shorter than him, and Werner was strong. He picked him up a bit, Wojciechowski's toes barely touched the ground.
"I'm not going to leave this room unless you admit that I have brain cancer." Werner said. The polish doctor didn't open his mouth, not even to say something in his defense. Werner was more angry than he'd ever been. It was much more than the fact that Wojciechowski wouldn't admit to lying. The whole subject was touchy for Werner. He hadn't gone through chemotherapy for six years, hadn't spent nights in the hospitals, hadn't almost failed school, hadn't been rejected by every university just for a polish doctor in the middle of the second world war to tell him that he was absolutely fine when he wasn't. "Wojciechowski." Werner growled. He could feel the heat in his face. He tightened his grip and began to shake the poor man.
Wojciechowski didn't show it but he was scared to death. He wasn't afraid of Werner himself. He'd seen the young man a little over a month ago, when the Lagerführer had invited him to see his hearing. But now, now Werner was becoming more and more like the rest of them. They'd turned a good man into a nazi. If something like this could happen to someone like Werner, then it could happen to almost anyone. Wojciechowski was no longer sure that the russians and americans would win the war.
Wojciechowskis fate might have been different if a random officer hadn't entered the room. He was on a mission to test an old film that might come in handy, as soon as he entered and saw the uniformed officier shaking down the doctor in the lab coat he halted in his tracks. He didn't want to disturb the soldier and feel his wrath. But Werner dropped Wojciechowski and turned away from him, marching across the room and past the newcomer, to whom he raised his arm and greeted 'Heil Hitler'. Wojciechowski was left rubbing his neck and staring in the direction that Werner had gone. The poor boy...