In Chap­ter 27 of Moth­er Night, the pro­tag­o­nist reflects on the trag­ic and unset­tling death of Laz­lo Szom­bat­hy, a man who, using a rope meant for the pro­tag­o­nist, took his own life. Szom­bat­hy had been a Hun­gar­i­an Free­dom Fight­er and was deeply trou­bled by the fact that, despite his his­to­ry of vio­lence and his past in Hun­gary, he was unable to prac­tice as a vet­eri­nar­i­an in Amer­i­ca. His bit­ter­ness about the dis­par­i­ty between the free­dom he was promised and his expe­ri­ences in the Unit­ed States is painful­ly clear. Before his death, Szom­bat­hy left behind a note in which he claimed to have dis­cov­ered a cure for can­cer, but this asser­tion was quick­ly dis­missed by Amer­i­can doc­tors, who deemed it absurd. The nar­ra­tor finds him­self con­tem­plat­ing the trag­ic futil­i­ty of Szom­bat­hy’s life, which had been marked by frus­tra­tion, bit­ter­ness, and ulti­mate­ly, death, a reflec­tion of the larg­er human con­di­tion where unful­filled poten­tial and desires often lead to pro­found despair. This loss becomes a reflec­tion on the bro­ken promis­es of both per­son­al free­dom and sci­en­tif­ic dis­cov­ery in a soci­ety that strug­gles to bal­ance hope with real­i­ty.

As the nar­ra­tive unfolds, the pro­tag­o­nist finds him­self in a cel­lar that belongs to Dr. Lionel J. D. Jones, a place where not only med­ical pro­ce­dures are con­duct­ed but also where the infa­mous Iron Guard con­venes. The sound of a print­ing press fills the room, its mechan­i­cal churn echo­ing as it prints The White Chris­t­ian Min­ute­man, a pub­li­ca­tion that adds to the sense of secre­cy and ide­o­log­i­cal ten­sion sur­round­ing the gath­er­ing. The pro­tag­o­nist, hav­ing been beat­en ear­li­er, is now receiv­ing care from Dr. Abra­ham Epstein, with the events lead­ing to his injuries becom­ing an increas­ing source of men­tal tur­moil. Despite the harsh treat­ment, the pro­tag­o­nist feels an odd sense of trust in Dr. Jones, whom Resi, his com­pan­ion, had rec­om­mend­ed. Resi, how­ev­er, is deeply con­cerned, as she voic­es her wor­ries about the dan­gers they face, par­tic­u­lar­ly the threat from those who have tracked the pro­tag­o­nist’s past actions. The chap­ter hints at the broad­er con­spir­a­to­r­i­al forces sur­round­ing the pro­tag­o­nist, sug­gest­ing a larg­er, far-reach­ing web that involves pow­er­ful ene­mies deter­mined to pur­sue him for the crimes of his past. Resi’s grow­ing anx­i­ety and her belief that they are being pur­sued by Jew­ish oper­a­tives serve as an omi­nous reminder of the last­ing con­se­quences of the protagonist’s involve­ment in the ide­o­log­i­cal wars that have shaped his life.

As the ten­sion esca­lates in the under­ground space, Jones’ chauf­feur, known as the Black Fuehrer of Harlem, serves the pro­tag­o­nist a qui­et break­fast while pro­vid­ing cryp­tic but chill­ing advice. The chauf­feur informs the pro­tag­o­nist that the state of Israel is now active­ly inter­est­ed in cap­tur­ing him, ref­er­enc­ing the infa­mous cap­ture of Adolf Eich­mann as an exam­ple of the Israeli gov­ern­men­t’s reach. This rev­e­la­tion hits the pro­tag­o­nist with full force, as he now under­stands the inter­na­tion­al scale of the con­se­quences tied to his actions. His past, a series of choic­es made in the heat of war and sur­vival, has now caught up with him in the form of pow­er­ful inter­na­tion­al scruti­ny. As the sever­i­ty of this new threat becomes clear­er, Resi and the chauf­feur agree that the best course of action is for the pro­tag­o­nist to leave the coun­try imme­di­ate­ly. The notion of flee­ing becomes less of a choice and more of a neces­si­ty, a means of escap­ing not just the phys­i­cal dan­gers that await him but also the loom­ing specter of his past catch­ing up with him. Plans are quick­ly put in motion to arrange for the pro­tag­o­nist to be flown out of the coun­try to an undis­closed loca­tion where he can start over. The chap­ter delves into com­plex themes of para­noia, sur­vival, and the inescapa­bil­i­ty of past actions. As the pro­tag­o­nist grap­ples with his iden­ti­ty and the threat of ret­ri­bu­tion from the glob­al stage, the urgency of his sit­u­a­tion weighs heav­i­ly on his mind. This chap­ter explores the intri­cate dynam­ics between past trau­ma and the inevitable need for escape, show­ing how deeply per­son­al his­to­ries can inter­sect with larg­er polit­i­cal forces in ways that force indi­vid­u­als into des­per­ate actions.