Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Ninety-Four



7th May 1967

Potsdam

The recent elections in Russia had placed the Monarchist/Nationalist block firmly in control of the Duma. While that was good news for Czar Georgy, it wasn’t for nearly everyone else from the Black Sea to the Baltic who nervously watched a resurgent Russia. Recent events in Greece and the Balkans were examples of Russia flexing its muscle as an emerging power. Louis found himself reminding everyone that they needed to play the extremely old game of keeping the Russians on side while trying to contain that vast country to its own borders. Closer to home, Louis found that after months cooped up in the penthouse apartment, a change of scenery had been desperately needed. Assessing the Summer Residence ahead of the busy season that was planned had been welcomed as soon as the idea had been suggested.

From the window of his Potsdam office Louis was watching Nella and Nan run around the gardens chased after by Weisse, a puppy that was all oversized ears, paws and silky fur that was completely at odds him being mostly Whippet. The pup’s name was actually Berliner Weisse, a direct reference to his sire Rauchbier and the theme which all of his brothers and sisters reflected as well. In Weisse’s particular case, he had been the runt of the litter that had been named after various types of beer, he had been named after a kind of small beer as a result. Between that and his irregularly patterned black and white coat, he had been deemed unsuitable for the ambition of Kennel Master of Hohenzollern Castle for developing the Swabian Windhund. However, he was perfect for being the companion of two seven-year-old girls who were euphoric at the prospect of having a dog of their own.

“It was wonderful that you were able to arrange for them to get their birthday gift early” Charlotte said as she joined Louis at the window. The harsh truth was that no paper records existed of Nan’s actual birthday and her “Aunt” Gudrun hadn’t cared enough to remember, so they had celebrated it on the same date as Nella’s, the 2nd of June. That seemed to have stuck.

“Nan seems genuinely happy” Louis replied, “She isn’t running away and hiding as much as she used to.”

“She shouldn’t feel that she needs to hide at all” Charlotte said.

“That is only going to change when Nan discovers that fighting is preferable” Louis replied.

“What a terrible thing to say.”

“It was how it worked out for all the girls in this family” Louis said, “Even the last one who really hid herself away like Nan.”

“Which one is that?” Charlotte asked, unaware that had been the case.

“Kristina” Louis said, “The difference is that she locked her bedroom door for days at a time once she discovered that she could do that.”

Charlotte looked out at the girls playing in the gardens. “When I hear about Kristina’s childhood, I can only think about how lonely she must have been” She said.

“Kira not understanding her didn’t help matters” Louis said, “She expected her to be a social butterfly when she was given opportunities. The problem is that Kristina just doesn’t work that way and she found the situations her mother thrust her into exhausting. The twins were worse in a way, Marie Cecilie and Victoria preferred each other’s company as children, often forming a united front against everyone else, including their mother.”

“Victoria” Charlotte said, “I cannot believe the gall of Albrecht of Bavaria, asking if she would be willing to marry his son. As if you could make that choice. That’s like something from a century ago. He doesn’t know about her, how she is, does he?”

“If he did, it might just make him more enthusiastic about the whole idea” Louis said, “It would be a sham marriage in more ways than one. To keep up appearances for both families, would be how he would put it. Fortunately, this is not a century ago, so I can tell Albrecht that it’s not up to me and to talk to Victoria himself. I’m sure that will be a fun conversation if it ever happens.”

Charlotte was a bit surprised by that.



Mitte, Berlin

Sitting in her bedroom, Zella contemplated the phone call with Aurora. She had suggested to Zella that perhaps it was time that she moved out of her parent’s house. She was done with University and was successful in her own right. Why was she living under her parent’s roof and following their rules? Rather than complaining about it to Aurora, who didn’t want to hear it, she ought to do something. The trouble was that despite the frequent disagreements that Zella with her mother, it was clear that they didn’t want her to leave. It was easy for Aurora to say that; she had been living and working in Hamburg planning advertising campaigns for Krupp Steel which meant that Zella hardly got to see her anymore. It would be nice to go back to when Zella had lived with Kiki and Aurora in the University Dormitory, life was a lot easier and Zella had been happy back then.

For lack of anything better to do, Zella started opening the mail that had been delivered to her over the previous week. There were a number of letters from people she knew congratulating her for her coverage of the Bratwurst War on April Fool’s Day the month before and suggesting several ideas of what she might do next year. Then buried under the pile of letters, was a large, flat package. Opening it she saw that it was a vinyl LP with a garish album cover that was a bit unsettling to look at, the title was Moondogs, Spiraling. Enclosed was a note; EMI is trying to bury this, give it a listen and see if you can do something about that -John. It seemed that John was at war with the record company again, hardly a surprise really.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Ninety-Five



13th May 1967

Jena

Kiki dragging herself out of bed late in the morning on a Saturday wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. It was her displaying that Vicky’s guest, King Albrecht of Bavaria, was just one more thing on the already lengthy list of things she didn’t care about that was most annoying. Ever since Kiki had moved in with Vicky a couple years earlier, she had gotten her fill of her older sister’s obnoxious behavior. Today was no different as Kiki padded barefoot down the stairs in one of the old faded Football jerseys and grey trackpants that she slept in with Rauchbier at her heels. Her hair was a bird’s nest of loose curls and the only nod towards even being out of bed was that she had found her glasses before leaving her room. Possibly the only redeemable aspect of the situation was that Benjamin had stayed in Berlin over the weekend, otherwise this would have been beyond awkward. As it was, Kiki’s presence distracted from several questions that Vicky had. Just why Albrecht had come to see her this morning?

“Set anyone else up for failure this morning Albrecht?” Kiki asked as she helped herself to the coffee that Vicky had not intended to prepare for her.

“Your suitor seems to have been intelligent enough to have worked out the situation for himself” Albrecht replied, “And it was hardly my intention to set him up to fail.”

“Keep telling yourself that” Kiki muttered as she took the mug of coffee and headed for the back door to let Rauchbier out. The two bodyguards who had accompanied Albrecht this morning wilted under a withering glare from Kiki as she walked out into the back garden.

“I am terribly sorry about Kristina” Vicky said, “She has never liked mornings and has gotten worse lately since she started commuting to Halle.”

Albrecht sat there across the kitchen table with an odd look on his face. Vicky had to wonder what he was thinking after Kiki had been so unpleasant.

“Regardless” Albrecht said, “I came here to see you because I have a highly unusual request that I understand is probably asking too much of you.”

“Yes…” Vicky replied with some trepidation.

“I am in searching for a woman from the right sort of family to be a bride for my son who has… some unfortunate predilections. I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors” Albrecht said, “Among your sisters, I have met Kristina and Marie Cecilie and any fool could see why they would be wildly unacceptable.”

“You mean you are looking for a beard because Franz is said to be a dear friend of Old Fritz” Vicky said, and Albrecht winced. “Don’t you have more than one son?”

“If I went the old route and had Franz committed to a Monastic Order, I would have Max to contend with” Albrecht replied, “He is far more ambitious and driven than his brother. While those are laudable traits, he lacks the head for the administrative portion of being King and is too impulsive. He would have the treasury empty and revolutionaries at the palace gates inside a year.”

“Wouldn’t the Landtag have something to say about that?” Vicky asked, only to see Albrecht wince again.

“That is just it, Victoria” Albrecht said, “You are asking the right questions and have the qualities which would make you a fine Queen, who would also be acceptable to the people of Bavaria.”

“I see” Vicky replied, astonished at the sheer irony of this situation. If some hack writer threw it into a sitcom no one would take it seriously because the entire scene was beyond absurd.

“As I said, this is highly unusual and probably asking too much” Albrecht said, “I am prepared to be extremely generous if the union between you and my son were to produce an acceptable heir or two. An expert who I consulted with told me that is very easily done these days in a laboratory with absolutely no question of paternity and that you would free to live your life however you please except for the occasional public function.”

Vicky saw Kiki out in the back garden throwing a ball for Rauchbier. It was shocking how a dog that seemed content to lazily go about his days could be so quick off the mark once he started running. Kiki actually looked a bit happy out there like she was typically when she thought that no one was looking. She had said that Albrecht’s son Franz had actually proposed to her years earlier before she had left for Laupheim to join the FSR. Kiki had done that knowing full well the consequences of that action towards her reputation, something that Vicky had again and again discovered she lacked the courage to do.

“That would be a life altering decision” Vicky said, “Can you give me time to think about it?”

Albrecht gave her a sly, tight smile. That was about as much as could be expected from a man as stern as he was, his thinking was clearly that she hadn’t told him no.

“Take as much time as you need” Albrecht said before he got up from the chair to leave. As Vicky watched him leave, the only thought that came to mind was that Anna was going to laugh herself silly when she found out about this. On one hand Vicky had spoken to Anna about how she still wanted a family someday. This would be a way to go about doing that with no questions being asked. On the other, the irony of the whole thing would not be lost on her.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Ninety-Six



17th May 1967

Panama City, Panama

“The fun part of this entire bullshit mess is over” Was how the German Sergeant Major had put it when they had finally gotten orders to proceed with the mission. Ritchie wasn’t inclined to disagree with that lunatic this time.

The whole charade of the training mission had been pitched aside as all of their gear and weapons were replaced with items that were considered untraceable. Something that was somewhat debatable. Then came the usual time spent on a transport plane without being told exactly where they were going, as if they wouldn’t have figured out that they were in the Canal Zone within five seconds of landing. The fact that the words Panama Canal Zone were painted all over everything was a big clue.

Getting into civilian vans that would be considered beaters back home, they fanned out through the city. It was noticeable that Ritchie had been told to do all the talking as his team along with a platoon of the German Recon Dragoons as muscle cleared out the warehouse they had been assigned. The instructions were simple. Clear the people out, grab any paper records, and then torch the building. That seemed easy enough, it wasn’t until they got into the warehouse that they discovered that it was full of munitions.

Panama City got one Hell of a fireworks display that night.



18th May 1967

Plitra, Greece

The telegrams seemed tersely worded, though George Bush couldn’t figure out how that was possible. It seemed that all of his warehouses in Panama City had gone up in flames and the Panamanian Government was pissed at him, thinking that he might have had something to do with it. His own people said that the ones responsible had been extremely disciplined and spoke Spanish if they spoke at all. That suggested that a State actor was involved, which was worrying. If George had to guess, it was his friends from German Special Forces returning the favor for not sticking around on Santorini and getting arrested like a chump.

The truth was that the contents of the warehouses in Panama had become worthless to him. They had already been purchased and the Governments that had bought them were on the verge of collapse and delivering them through the LON mandated blockade had grown prohibitively expensive, as had storage. Albania was getting overrun and everyone was expecting news of the Government in Ankara being deposed at any time. The Turks had miscalculated this time, thinking that they could get the backing of the Arabs if they couched the conflict in religious terms. It had turned out that their southern neighbors hated them just as much as the Greeks.

That meant that the entire enterprise had become one of diminishing returns and it was time to end it forever. The coffers being full in Switzerland certainly helped with that. He would need to call his contact in the German Government to help facilitate the final liquidation of his business. A few weeks from now he would be sitting on a tropical beach and the rest of the world could happily burn itself down without his help.



Halle (Saale), Anhalt

The reduction of a limb so that the patient could be transported to the hospital hadn’t been easy to carry out this time. Kiki had found herself having to talk to the patient, keeping the woman focused on something other than her leg which looked like it was broken in a couple different places so that Oskar could work on it. The woman was terrified about what would happen to her husband and children because of her failure to get the groceries home. What were they going to eat? There was no food in the house. This was while the contents of the bags of groceries were scattered all over the pedestrian causeway at the bottom of the stairs that the woman had fallen down.

“We can arrange for the groceries to get to your family” Kiki said without thinking. As soon as she said that she realized that it had probably been a mistake.

“Have fun gathering all this, Kiki” Oskar said as he handed her a dented tin. Finding that the bags that the woman had been carrying had torn open when she had fallen down the stairs, Kiki looked around for a solution, annoyed that she had talked her way into this. Walking back towards the car, Kiki spotted a photographer among the crowd that had gathered outside the area that the police had roped off. The gutter press had figured out that by sending someone to every accident scene they would get marketable photographs even if she didn’t show up. The galling cynicism that displayed made Kiki wish that shooting them wasn’t against the law. There was also the aspect of the clothes that a Notarzt wore in the field were about as unfashionable as was possible. How could another dozen pictures of her wearing them joining the thousands out there possibly hold any value?

Pulling a rubbish bag out of the back of the Föhn, Kiki picked up all the groceries that were salvageable even as the patient watched. When Kiki got close to give the bag to the Medics who were loading the woman onto the ambulance, the woman gave her a look of recognition.

“You really are her, aren’t you?” The woman asked.

“As much as I wish I wasn’t” Kiki replied only to get a quizzical look in return.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Ninety-Seven



26th May 1967

Köpenick, Berlin

It was all too predictable how things had played out. Vicky had told Anna about the lavender marriage that King Albrecht had proposed to her on behalf of his son. In Vicky’s opinion it was just indecent for him to have done that and Anna had found it all hilarious. Then Anna had asked just how generous was Albrecht prepared to be? Vicky had explained that it would involve her conceiving a child. After that she would be set up to live her life independent of the Bavarian Royal Family if she so pleased and would only be obligated to make the occasional public appearance. Anna had said that even she would be tempted by such an offer but hadn’t been born with Vicky’s magical uterus, so she was happy not to have to make a choice like that. Anna’s sarcasm aside, she raised an important point. If Vicky wanted a family of her own, that would probably be as good of an arrangement as was possible. Then Anna had asked what Franz thought about being her sperm donor at some point in the future? Vicky had no idea because she had never actually met him. With a great deal of reluctance, she had made the phone call.

The heels of Vicky’s shoes seemed entirely too loud against the hardwood floors as she made her way through the old palace that once housed the Elector of Brandenburg. These days it was the National Gallery of Contemporary Art and Design. Franz had agreed to meet her here because according to him it was neutral ground where he was comfortable when they had talked over the telephone. He also said that all his father had to hear was the words “Fine Arts” and Albrecht would run the other way, so there was little risk of too much being read into their meeting. She found him seated on a bench with a sketchpad studying a sculpture of a somewhat exaggerated feminine form.

“Pleased to finally meet you in person” Franz said nervously as Vicky approached.

“I know that this is very unusual” Vicky replied as she sat on the far side of the bench from Franz.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve seen you though” Franz said, “When you and your sister were introduced to the Imperial Court I was there. Both of you were beautiful as your full names and titles were read aloud.”

“I’m surprised you would take an interest” Vicky said, “Because, well… you know.”

“I love the pageantry of events like that and can appreciate beauty in all its forms” Franz replied, “And now that you’ve brought up that little detail, I will have you know that I am perfectly aware that I am not the only one with a things that we would prefer to remain out of view.”

Vicky felt a flash of anger tinged with fear. Franz had to know better than to try to out her, she could hit back a lot harder because she wasn’t directly in line for the throne like he was.

“Don’t worry about me causing you any personal problems, Victoria” Franz said, “I’m not the sort to do that. Just be warned that my father has no scruples about getting what he wants and has had you watched for a long time. He suspects that you are more than just friends with a blond woman seen frequently around your house.”

“Anna is a dear friend” Vicky said, “And I’ll need to do something about your father spying on me.”

Franz smiled and went back to his sketch pad, “I’ve a dear friend or two of my own” He said, “My father says that you are still going to University, studying Psychology.”

“Yes” Vicky replied grateful that he had changed the subject, “I would like to be able to help people someday, like my sister and stepmother.”

“What would Jung or Freud make of the likes of us?” Franz asked.

“They would see that too many expectations and the need to keep up appearances are slowly killing us” Vicky replied, “I imagine that they would have a great deal to say. Starting with asking why we cannot ever seem to be able to tell our parents to go jump in a lake.”

Franz laughed at that.

“The world just cannot accept us for being who we are, for a lot of reasons” Franz replied turning serious, “What do you want personally? Not the answer that people want to hear, but the truth.”

Vicky hesitated for a second, she had only just met Franz a few minutes earlier.

“In the near term I have been trying to get accepted into the Doctoral Program at the University of Basil in Switzerland, speaking of Carl Jung” Vicky said, “Someday though, having a family would be nice.”

“But appearances…?” Franz asked glumly.

“Yes, appearances” Vicky answered, “The same question for you. What do you want? The truth.”

“We are surrounded by what I truly want” Franz said, “Many of the works of art on display in this museum were created with my patronage. My father thinks that it is a waste of money, but the creation and study so many beautiful works of art is the highest calling.”

“You helped the artists create all of this?” Vicky asked looking around.

“Not all of it, of course” Franz replied, “But I can show you around.”

With that Franz closed his sketchpad and bounded to his feet. He seemed genuinely excited about the works of art that Vicky couldn’t even began to understand.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Ninety-Eight



1st June 1967

Tirana, Albania

This place had taken on the feel of Pusan towards the end of the Second World War when the Japanese were getting pushed out of Korea and China. Douglas Blackwood remembered that well. There had been thousands of soldiers and refugees crowding the docks, hoping that the means of escaping to the relative safety of Japan would present itself as the perimeter of the port city was crumbling. By the end, there had been people who had risked leaving on anything that would float.

Here in Tirana, the streets were crowded with thousands who had fled here for the temporary illusion of safety. An illusion that was crumbling by the hour along with the Albanian Army. Already there was word that the roads west to the Adriatic Coast were jammed up as those with the means to, fled.

The rumble of artillery was a constant reminder that the war was creeping closer. Months earlier, Doug had taken this assignment in the hope that he could document what was happening here and along the frontier with Serbia. Far to the north, it was rumored that the tributaries of the Danube were running red with blood. That was considered something of an exaggeration, but not by as much as anyone would have liked. Everyone knew that when Tirana fell the resulting humanitarian crisis would be apocalyptic, yet no one seemed to have the wherewithal to do anything about it. As it had turned out, he had barely left Tirana but had still taken many photographs that were relevant to what was happening here.

Over the past few months, the Serbian/Bulgarian Army had methodically advanced into Albania. Wherever the Albanians had dug in or had constructed fortifications, they had discovered that their enemies were perfectly happy seeing to it that those became their tombs by any means available. Most disturbing of all were the men who had appeared among the combatants who wore green uniforms that had no identifying features for nation or military division. The jokes had flown around about how these were little green men. As Doug had observed, these were not Martians but Russian speaking volunteers.

Today, Doug had found himself sitting in the back of an Iltis from the German Observation Mission. The Hauptmann in charge of it had been ordered to bug out and part of his orders had been to collect Doug and get him onto one of the transport helicopters using force if he had to. One of the first things that Doug had noticed was that he had the Hellcat patch on his sleeve, meaning that the orders had probably come from Kat herself. Considering the sort of hairy situations that she had found herself in over the years, if Kat felt that it was time to get out, then the time for debate was over. As if the full battle kit her people were wearing wasn’t a big clue already.

As they made their way to the airport, Doug saw the compound used by the League of Nations Mission was a hive a frenetic activity. Hardly a surprise really. The situation in Albania had laid bare the limitations of that organization. For decades, critics had seen the LON as a threat to the sovereignty of the member States. Those more knowledgeable said that it only had the authority that those same States allowed it to have and was a debate club for those connected. Recently, the determination had been reached that peacekeepers were needed in the Albanian region and the resolution had landed on the floor of the LON with a thud. After the resolution had fallen flat the best that could be achieved was a weapons embargo in an effort to contain the conflict. In Washington DC, London, and Berlin, the Governments had reached a determination of their own. To them, Albania wasn’t worth starting a larger war over and its people were paying a heavy price and would continue to do so. Doug was snapping photographs from the back of the Iltis the entire way. The fact that no one seemed inclined to stop him suggested that they had opinions of their own about what was happening.

“Here you go Sir” The Hauptmann said as they handed him his bags and hustled him across the tarmac to the waiting Albatros Al-30 Hurricane helicopter as the airport was buffeted by the sonic booms from low flying fighter planes. No one said anything as Doug took the first seat available once he got to the top of the ramp, just behind the door gunner.

As the helicopter lifted off, Doug could see smoke rising from the east where he had heard that a large set-piece battle was taking place. Then a column of smoke and dust rose up from the center of Tirana, followed by another seconds later. Through the viewfinder of his camera and the telephoto lens, he saw what he knew from long experience was an artillery bombardment commencing. The armies massing outside the city didn’t care if they took it intact and they cared even less about its residents, Doug realized as he watched it start to play out as the distance grew.

A couple hours later, the helicopter landed in Italy and Doug was greeted by the sight of holiday travelers seeking a week or more of fun in sun-soaked Apulia completely oblivious to what was happening just across the water. It seemed like a world apart. Finding a telephone, he called the house in Tempelhof. Kat wasn’t home, but he got his youngest daughter, Marie Alexandra, instead. Talking to her about what she was doing this afternoon, how Jo and Tatiana didn’t have time for her, so she was doing her own thing was exactly what he needed at that moment.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Ninety-Nine



5th June 1967

Washington D.C.

“Ms. Jensen is here” The Secretary said over the intercom and James debated climbing out the window.

There were many realities of being a freshman Member of Congress was that James M. Hendrix was getting used to. One of those was that he needed to be on the phone for hours every day with either people back in Washington’s 7th Congressional District or Party donors trying to get them to part with money so that he would have the influence to even began to do what his constituents wanted. Bill Stoughton, the Speaker of the House, had told him on the day that he had been sworn in what the lot of a freshman was. Without money he couldn’t get reelected, getting sent back to D.C. by the voters was how he gained influence because that was measured by how long he could keep his ass in his Congressional seat. That would be tough enough to do even if James weren’t Black. Not that James held a comment like that against Stoughton, after all the talking around that issue that he had encountered the directness of the Boston Politician had been welcome.

It was far different from when he had first gotten into politics by getting elected Class President in the Sixth Grade. It was something that had repeated itself throughout the next several years culminating in becoming the Student Body President at James A. Garfield High School and an academic scholarship to the University of Washington. He had been first member of his family to attend and graduate College. Getting creamed in his attempt to run for a seat in the Washington State Legislature hadn’t been a part of the plan. That had put him on the map though and the Party had approached him to run for the open 7th Congressional District seat. It had felt like he had been at the top of the world in November of 1966 when he had won that election. Months later, he was still grappling with the reality that he was a small fish in a very deep pond.

Into this was the fact that not only did James represent the hometown of the Kaiser’s Lobbyist in Washington, she was Alumni of UW as well, which gave her instant access to his office. He was acutely aware that Nancy Jensen was an occupational hazard for him whenever she came around every few months. The last thing he needed was for the opposition Party to get the idea that he was kowtowing to the interests of a foreign Head of State.



Halle (Saale), Anhalt

“You’ll have an interesting scar to show off to your friends” Kiki said to the little boy who had stopped blubbering and brightened to the prospect of that as soon as she pointed it out to him.

The patient had managed to deeply gash his leg open while playing outdoors after school. For Kiki, it was a simple matter of cleaning the dirt out of it and suturing it closed. Even with a local anastatic the process wasn’t a comfortable one. The problems were that the seven-year-old had been crying, his mother was panicking and not really able to control her three other children who were finding that being in the Emergency Department was an incredible place to explore. Pointing out that this would give him an “Interesting scar” worked as well as saying the same thing to the Marines who she had treated in the field in Korea. Did the Marines have the same mentality as a seven-year-old boy? Or was it the other way around? She would need to ask Doctor Holz about that the next time she saw him.

“You are good at that” The mother said when saw how Kiki had calmed the boy down.

“It’s the same as talking to Marines in Korea under the same circumstances” Kiki said, getting puzzled look in return.

Just then there was the clatter of something metallic hitting the linoleum floor and the mother was up in an instant and was loudly scolding her other children.

“I need you to sit down and be quiet so that the Doctor can do her work!” The woman yelled at them, clearly unaware of the irony in that.

“Thank you” Kiki said as she worked on tying off the suture. She didn’t bother to correct the woman about she wasn’t a Doctor yet. People got sort of odd over the nuance between Doctor and Surgical Intern, not really understanding that it wasn’t quite the same as if she were training to be a Mechanic. They saw the white lab coat and stethoscope and assumed that the person wearing it was a Doctor regardless of age. Correcting that sort of assumption was a mistake. The fact that she was an Intern was embroidered on the same lab coat with the letters M.A. before her name seemed to go unnoticed. Of course, Kiki understood that most people couldn’t be bothered to read. With that, she cut the thread and started to bandage the leg.

“He will need to come back in two weeks to get the stitches removed” Kiki said to the mother, “I am also prescribing him a course of antibiotics because of how messy it was.” Fortunately, the boy having all of his shots was in the file. Frequently when Kiki had enquired about if a patient had been vaccinated against tetanus, she had gotten a blank look in return. Kiki spent a minute finishing filling out the required paperwork.

“Thank you, Doctor…” The woman glanced at the name embroidered on Kiki’s coat. “von Preussen? Is that for real?”

“Yes” Kiki said without elaboration as she handed the woman the forms.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred



9th June 1967

Jena

Sitting in the parlor of Kiki’s house in Jena on a Friday night had turned out not to be too exciting. Especially because Kiki was tired and didn’t want to do anything. He had said that he would be fine if they just hung around and watched television, but she said that she still had obligations to attend to. That was when Ben had made the mistake of asking where Vicky was and had been rather surprised by the answer.

“She went to Munich to help her fiancé with planning their wedding” Kiki said as she was in the process of opening a tray of letters all addressed to her that had been picked up from the Post Office, picking which ones to respond to and which to discard.

“There are several problems with that” Ben replied, “Does Anna know about this?”

“The two of them are making a weekend of it” Kiki said, the tone of her voice reflecting how absurd she thought that was. “I had hoped that Vicky had managed to put aside her conventional thinking and embraced who she really is. Now she is seriously considering marrying Franz von Bayern.”

“Not everyone has your courage, Kiki.”

“Vicky said the same thing before she left” Kiki replied.

“Speaking of marriage” Ben said, “My mother asked if we are ever going to get around to it.”

Kiki groaned when Ben said that and tore open a letter with the Martin Luther University Hospital’s logo on it, before throwing it on the discard pile. He saw that it was an invitation of some kind. He picked it up to see what it was.

“One day Nadine wants me to just go away, the next she asks you that” Kiki said, “Besides, even if both of us were not still in University and living in different cities, just the logistics of me marrying anyone would be an absolute nightmare.”

“We aren’t going to be able to put her off forever” Ben said as Kiki did nothing to hide her annoyance, before looking at the engraved invitation in his hand. “Did you read this.”

“Yes” Kiki said in an exasperated tone.

“Assistenzarzt Prinzessin Kristina von Preussen zu Hohenzollern” Ben read aloud, “We cordially invite you and a guest to our celebration of Midsummer on the Twenty-Fourth of June…”

Ben stopped when he saw that Kiki was glaring at him. “Are you through?” She asked.

“It could be fun” Ben replied, “That’s two weeks from now, so we have plenty of time.”

“I am very familiar with how events like that work” Kiki said, “The Department Heads and Senior Surgeons play court, everyone beneath them in rank has to line up and kiss their well-padded derrières. Care to guess who as an Intern would have to be first in line with their lips puckered?”

“That is being rather cynical” Ben said, “Do you socialize at all outside of work? Or better yet, have you been doing anything else besides work?”

“I do plenty of other things” Kiki said indignantly.

“Taking Rauchbier out for his morning run doesn’t count” Ben replied.

Kiki muttered something under her breath and Rauchbier’s ears perked up at the mention of his name despite seeming to have been asleep on the floor by their feet.

“You have more clout at events like this than you realize” Ben said, “It says right here where they call you by your title. Princess, as in the daughter of the Emperor who donates a considerable amount of money to the various charities that are dear to them.”

“You are welcome to go if you want then” Kiki said, as she opened another letter.



Mitte, Berlin

George’s arrival in Zurich had been an epic disaster. He had found that his accounts had been emptied and the Bank Manager had not been the least bit sympathetic to him. Minutes later he had tried to call his contact in Germany and had been given the bureaucratic run around. A day later he had arrived at the offices of his contact only to learn that the individual he was looking for had never worked there. As he walked out of the building, it occurred to him that someone had been playing him for months.

That was when he got grabbed from behind and pulled into a waiting car. The people who had grabbed him refused to talk as they then hustled him out of the car and into the back entrance of a building. A man who looked to be in his sixties closed the door and locked it once they were inside. George could hear loud music playing nearby as he looked at a large stack of beer crates that dominated one end of the room. An old table with chairs around it sat in the center of the room and the two people already seated didn’t need to be introduced, Fürstin Katherine von Mischner and Juan Pujol-Garcia. A Japanese man stood to the Fürstin’s right, there was a darkness that seemed to surround him that made the hair on the back of George’s neck stand on end. If anything happened to him in this room, no one would ever hear it.

“Better you than me pal” The man who had locked the door said, revealing that he was American. The thugs who were holding George roughly placed him in a chair. He realized that by their very presence, they were telling him something.

“You ripped me off!” George yelled at them.

“Yes” Kat replied, “And no one on Earth could say that you didn’t have it coming.”

“Wait, what?” George asked. He hadn’t been expecting a straight answer to that.

“If you had gotten arrested on that Greek island you would have paid a fine and set up shop somewhere else a few weeks later” Kat said, “That didn’t seem like justice to me, so I made other arrangements to go after the only thing that you actually care about.”

George glared at her, not liking where this was leading.

“The thing that you fear above all else Herr Bush” Kat said, “Destitution and the knowledge that the people you have ripped off are closing in. Who do you think it will be? The Greeks and Turks know about your double-dealing because I told them. The Panamanians are quite angry with you over a large portion of the Warehouse District of Panama City getting blown into orbit as well. Beyond that, the line of people looking to kill you starts on the left.”

It was about then that George realized that he was completely screwed.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred One



12th June 1967

Washington D.C.

“According to the man the CIA says it has inside the BND, the Germans really put the screws to George Bush” Brent Scowcroft, the National Security Advisor said.

“What is our exposure?” President Rockefeller asked.

“Little to none” Scowcroft replied, “Any use he would have had to the US Government ended as soon as he fled the country after the Augusta affair came to light. Justice and State want to know if we will try to extradite him.”

“Why bother?” Rockefeller asked looking at the memo on his desk, “According to this he is begging everyone to keep him safe from his own customers. If we bring him back, he’ll get three square and a cot at taxpayer expense and we’ll be obligated to protect him. Out there sooner or later the Greeks or Turks will butcher him.”

“You think that is justice?” Scowcroft asked.

“No, I just would rather stick the Germans with the expense” Rockefeller said, “Who is John Elis?”

“The owner of the nightclub where George Bush was caught apparently” Scowcroft replied, “Supposedly he is an American expat originally from Cardiff, Illinois who looked for greener pastures abroad during the Great Depression and landed in Berlin.”

“You doubt that?”

“Cardiff hardly exists and most of the people who once lived there are long gone” Scowcroft replied, “So we have no way if knowing that any of that is true. Anything about anyone directly associated Jacob Schmidt and Katherine von Mischner needs to be taken with a large grain of salt.”

“I see” Rockefeller said. It seemed like Germany was a hall of mirrors from the American perspective. Everything was distorted and you couldn’t trust what you were seeing with your own eyes.

“There is some quibbling in State about why you ordered that George Bush wasn’t to be warned that he was getting played” Scowcroft said, “No one understands that.”

“I always hated his old man” Rockefeller replied, “And everyone knows that George Bush had it coming after what he did in Mexico, this way he is out of business for good.”



Halle (Saale), Anhalt

There were some days when Kiki felt like she was getting pecked to death by ducks and this was proving to be one of those days. She was on the phone with her cousin Wilhelm-Karl as he asked about whether or not she would be attending the gathering of the Johanniter Order in Sonnenburg on the Feast Day of Saint John the Baptist. Grasping for an excuse to get out of it, she mentioned that she had been invited to the Midsummer Celebration that the University Hospital was holding on the same night. Wilhelm-Karl had been understanding. Then he had told her that her getting frequently photographed wearing the insignia of the Order at accident sites was great for their public image and told her to keep up the good work. It had taken a moment for Kiki to remember that she had sewn the white Maltese cross patch to her coat at the suggestion of Doctor Baber. She had awkwardly thanked her cousin and then having run out of excuses, phoned Ben and told him that she had changed her mind about attending the Midsummer Ball. Predictably, he was overjoyed about her change of heart. It was a formal event, so Kiki would need to acquire a gown to wear. She figured that Charlotte would be happy to help.

The rest of the afternoon was drudgery as she took on the cases that the Chief Physician of the Emergency Department wasn’t interested in and talked to the patients about their medical histories to fill in the blanks. Then there were cases like the one she was dealing with now which left her with a deep loathing for much of humanity. The man had come in complaining about a painful burning sensation when he urinated, which wasn’t exactly an emergency, just he was too embarrassed to go to his regular Physician. After a great deal of talking around what it might be and the all too likely cause, she learned that he had stuck something somewhere it didn’t belong and had picked up a little souvenir along the way. His file also said that he was married and that meant that his wife would need to be tested as well. Kiki knew that would be a delightful conversation to have.

Kiki had ordered samples sent to the lab and figured that she would need to order a course of treatment. It was as she found herself having to explain to the patient that condoms existed for a reason, it occurred to her that someone had to be laughing about her having to deal with situations like this. It was also a reminder of the situations that Kat and Sigi found themselves in. Did all men step out like this? Or was it that she was getting a front row seat on yet one more negative aspect of certain people?

The next case after that was a compound fracture which caused the Chief Physician to push her aside to observe. Kiki knew that it was her assigned role, she was supposed to watch and learn. That didn’t mean that she didn’t notice that she was growing impatient. Kiki had been studying Medicine in one capacity or another for almost a decade and the next set of State examinations couldn’t arrive fast enough.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Two



24th June 1967

Adriatic Sea, northeast of Ancona

As nautical darkness set in, it was expected that the smugglers would put to sea. Looking through the Sperber device Louis Junior was watching the distant Italian Coast for the “Rum-Runner” style boats employed by them in this region. While the view through the scope was like being underwater, it enabled them to sneak up upon the boats they were tasked with intercepting and cornering them before they had a chance to run off and do something stupid. Some of the time anyway.

Italy being what it was, wherever there was an illicit profit to be had there was also a Mafia Don with his finger in the pie and that meant that things got a bit complicated out on the water. The smuggler crews knew that the Don’s investment would be paid back in either blood or treasure. The latter being the hard currency that anyone still dealing with the Albanians these days. The former though, that was what caused Louis so much trouble. The crews feared what the Don would do to them far more than getting killed or arrested by the Navies patrolling the Adriatic. So, they would put up a fight to protect the Don’s investment if running wasn’t an option.

The smuggling boats were large enough to deliver their cargos but small enough to evade search radar, sacrificing everything else including crew comfort to that end. Coupled with the most powerful engines available, usually old V-12 aircraft engines, they were difficult to catch. And when they did run, the pursuers would likely come under fire from someone on the fantail with an automatic rifle or even a machine gun. As Louis had discovered, putting a cannon shell into a hull packed with munitions and high-octane fuel was a bad idea. Sometimes they went boom and the last time that had happened the Windhund had been forced to return to Port because of substantial blast damage.

Into this was Louis’ life, what there was of it these days. The somewhat dubious highlight of the week had been receiving a letter from Zella, and she was her usual self. Taking a break from shooting her documentaries, she had taken a holiday in the South of France and she had talked about how much fun she was having. Included was a photograph that she had taken of herself at the beach where it had appeared as if she had partaken of the French habit of minimalist beach attire which she found amusing. It was difficult to tell for sure though because of the angle she held the camera and she had joked in the letter about how Kiki would react upon seeing it. A closer look revealed that she was in fact wearing a swimsuit even if it was hard to see, making him do that was probably her intention in taking the picture. Louis wondered what possessed Zella to pull provocative stunts like this. It was as if she saw that song written by John Lennon about how she could be superficial and got off on cheap thrills as a challenge to be worse.



Halle (Saale), Anhalt

The hall that was being used by the University for the Midsummer Celebration was crowded as Kiki and Ben made their entrance. Ben was wearing a suit tonight that was appropriate for the black-tie event, while Kiki’s choice was an elegant gown made from silk that was such a dark shade of blue that it was almost black. The only nod to their careers was that they would wear civil awards only because Kiki felt like they might as well be in uniform if they did anything else and she didn’t want that. That was why his was wearing the Order of the Rue Crown on its green ribband over his right shoulder with its star next to the Polaris Medal. Kiki had done something similar except she was wearing the Grand Cross of the Order of Louise which had a white ribband and star. She also had a version of the Johanniter Order on a black bow pinned to the left sleeve of her gown, “There are advantages of having your cousin as the Grand Master” Kiki had said when Ben had asked about it.

As they were introduced, Ben noticed that everyone had stopped and stared. Prinzessin Kristina von Preussen zu Hohenzollern and Burggraf Benjamin von Hirsch zu Balderschwang. That was who he was now, and it was the first time that the full weight of that was sinking in. It sounded impressive, but it was just a road with a few houses and a store. With a planned ski resort going in on the opposite side of the valley from the land that Ben owned, they were optimistic that perhaps they would be able to build a hotel and apartments for the workers one day. Small wonder that they had been euphoric when they learned that Ben had leased a corner of his property to the University of Berlin in conjunction with the University of Munich so that an observatory could be built there. That meant year-round employment and other opportunities. Ben had gotten the people of the area to like him by the oldest means possible, he had inadvertently paid them off.

As Ben led Kiki out onto the dance floor, he noticed that she seemed nervous. While she had gotten better over the years, she still found being among people to be a draining experience.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Three



30th June 1967

Mitte, Berlin

Today was 11 Messidor, Year 175, and Andreas was seeking redemption as he rode the elevator to the top floor. He had been the one who had gotten shot on that night five years earlier when he had been with the group that had been shadowing the girl as she had made her way down a river. He had come to realize that had been the starting point for what had eventually become the downfall of the movement that he had been a part of as well. That incident had caused its leader to become obsessed with the girl who had shot him. That had also been the start of his own personal downfall. While he was recovering from his injuries, the movement had gone on without him. Later, the University he had attended had learned that he was a member of a proscribed group and had booted him out. He had been forced to work a series of menial jobs that had never lasted long. As he had watched, his future had disappeared.

“If the basis of Popular Government in peacetime is virtue, the basis of Popular Government during a revolution is both virtue and terror. Virtue without terror is baneful, terror without virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe, and inflexible justice. It is thus the emanation of virtue. It is less a principle in itself than a consequence of the general principle of Democracy applied to the most pressing wants of the Fatherland” Andreas whispered aloud the words that he had memorized years earlier as he stepped off the elevator and wedged the doors open. He had stolen a key that put elevators throughout the city into fire mode, something that had seemed too valuable to let pass years earlier. If everything went to plan, it would provide his escape route.

The exterior of the building was complete, the various floors were sitting empty waiting to be leased out. Andreas had noticed that the top floors were unoccupied when he had worked as a Janitor in this same building years earlier. The property owner was an unpleasant and greedy little man, so it wasn’t a surprise that this floor remained unoccupied. Looking out the window as he slid it open, Andreas looked out at the teeming streets of Berlin fifteen stories below. At that very moment thousands of commuters were on their way out to their vanilla existence out in the suburb, thousands more lived in the city or were planning on a night of frivolity.

When his movement had been strong, they had managed to steal several rifles from an Army Depot. Andreas had hidden one away against the day that the revolution would finally come. Somewhere along the line he had realized that he would wait forever unless he figured out a way to strike the first blow. It was the same rifle whose pieces he pulled from the case that he had used to sneak it into this building, he began to assemble it and pulled one of several 30-round magazines. Minutes later he was peering through the two-power scope at the crowded streets he saw that he would hardly have to aim.

“Pity is treason” Andreas muttered to himself as he started to squeeze the trigger. Again, echoing the words of a man who history had judged a tyrant, but those more open to what Andreas considered the truth knew was a misunderstood visionary.

The first shots announcing to the world that the Jacobin Club had not gone away like they wanted to think were glorious…



Jena

Vicky was trying to watch the evening news. Much to her annoyance, Kiki and Zella refused to leave and were talking to each other in the parlor while completely ignoring both her and the television. It had turned out that Zella had spent the previous weeks in France, she had reveled in the beach culture that she had encountered there. She had swung through Jena on her way back to Berlin to visit Kiki and had given her an earful about it. Zella had worn the latest barely there Atome swimsuit and had enjoyed showing off her body. Kiki had just shrugged in reply.

“Why do you act so nonchalant?” Zella asked when she saw that Kiki didn’t really care.

“Do I need to remind you that when I was in Korea, I spent a lot of time when I was off duty swimming in the creeks near the airfields I operated out of during the summer?” Kiki asked in reply “No one thought to issue us swimwear, so we just did without and no one made a big deal of it.”

“No one can imagine you going starkers” Zella said, “I have no idea how you were so bold.”

“I was wearing only slightly less that you are in these photographs” Kiki said.

“Yes” Zella replied, “But it was you who did that, as I said no one can imagine.”

“You are really funny” Kiki said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“What was this I saw about you and Ben going to a formal event as a couple?” Zella asked.

“It wasn’t something I planned” Kiki replied, “I had gotten a call from…”

Vicky made a choking sound, stopping Kiki midsentence. Zella and Kiki looked at her and saw that her face was white as a sheet. The news report had been abruptly interrupted…

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Four



30th June 1967

Mitte, Berlin

After he had emptied the fourth magazine into the street below, Andreas could see the rising panic. The crowd was a living thing as individuals scrambled for shelter, even though the fire had paused. He loaded the fifth and final magazine into the rifle and this time, aiming carefully as to make sure that everything would be at a fever pitch down there when the Police belatedly arrived. Then disassembling the rifle, Andreas put it in the case and walked to the concrete wall next to the elevator he wrote the message that he wanted the whole world to hear when they traced the bullets back to this room in permanent marker. It was graffiti in the same style as what he had done in countless places when he had first started down the path of being a student radical.

The King must die so the country can live.

Andreas smiled when he saw those words on the wall which would leave no doubt about who had done this. Perhaps this time people would finally pay heed.

Then he pulled the wedge from the elevator doors and pressed the button for the subbasement, with the elevator in fire mode it would go where he wanted and nowhere else. Andreas was aware if the tunnels that led under the city streets and was planning on making good his escape, being able to move swiftly while everyone else was caught up in the mess that had resulted from his actions. One of the entrances to the tunnel system was in the basement of this building.



1st July 1967

Mitte, Berlin

Glass crunched under Louis’ shoes as he walked through a scene of utter devastation in the early morning hours. It hadn’t been the rifle fire that had caused this, but the resulting panic as people struggled to get off the street and into any sort of shelter they could find. In the business that Louis was looking at, several people had been shoved through a plate-glass window by the crush behind them. Despite the lacerations, they had been lucky ones. Those who had been crushed against less yielding surfaces had not been as fortunate. The U-Bahn entrances had proven particularly lethal with people falling down the stairs and getting trampled. Many felt that this was just one more part of the chaos that was engulfing the wider world in recent days, the violence having finally come to Berlin.

The Police estimated that a hundred and fifty shots had been fired from the top floor of the high-rise building that overlooked the long avenue. They said that this had been well planned and executed with the gunman having vanished as soon as the shooting had stopped. All the Police had found was a pile of brass cartridges and a message scrawled on the wall suggesting what the motives of the shooter were. They were still counting the dead and injured, this was a bad day by anyone’s standard.

It had been a nice day right up until the shooting had started. Louis had gone to the site of the new Winter Residence and had looked at the footings for the buildings’ foundations as they were being put down. The team of Lawyers and Accountants who managed his finances said that construction was moving ahead now that funding had been secured. They had mentioned that taxpayers were not on the hook this time, something that made the Reichstag happy but gave Louis heartburn. Exactly what had his people done to secure the money? While Louis was glad that they worked for him and the betterment of the State, they were of the sort who caused mayhem on an international scale when they got a bit too creative.

Then things had gone off the rails.

Louis had been rushed to the Central Command of the Berlin Police where he had been informed that Charlotte, Marie Cecilie, Nella, and Nan were secure in the penthouse apartment. They ought to be, being enclosed in steel reinforced concrete and bulletproof glass on the top floors of one of the tallest buildings in Berlin. Michael was in Prague surrounded by the Bohemian Army. Victoria was safe in Jena while Louis was somewhere in the Adriatic commanding a warship.

Friedrich, Suga and Mirai had been hustled off to a secure location which not even Louis Ferdinand knew the location of. In the event of war, the destruction of Berlin, or any other major emergency the First Foot had only one duty; to preserve the line of succession as part of the continuity of governance. While it was debatable just how much a role the House of Hohenzollern played in that governance, they were seen as a unifying factor which would be sorely needed in a time of extreme National crisis. This had come at a particularly poor time for Suga. It hadn’t been announced officially yet but with Mirai having turned three, they had decided that it was time to have another child, planned this time, and Suga was expecting. This emergency had occurred when she was at a delicate point.

Then he had gotten rather disquieting news, Kristina being Kristina, she had seen the news reports of the unfolding crisis and was rushing to Berlin heedless of the danger. No one had known yet if the attack was a multipronged effort and he had been tempted to order the First Foot to stop her but had ordered her to be directed to him instead. When Kristina had arrived in Central Command with Doctor Oskar Baber, the veteran Notarzt who supervised her in the field, she had been angry about her Security Detail bringing her here. To his credit, Doctor Baber had just introduced himself and told Louis that he should be proud of the sort of person who Kristina was.

Putting Kristina in a position that amounted to make-work, having her make phone calls to coordinate medical efforts that were already well coordinated had seemed like the right call. Later it had turned out that Louis had underestimated Kristina and the stature she had taken on in recent years. She was able to get through to Hospital Administrators, not just in Berlin but in several other cities as well and had gotten them to make hard commitments to what they could send to the response effort. Later, Kristina had still been upset because she felt that she needed to be out in the field doing things as opposed to talking on the phone. Louis was tempted to ask her exactly what she thought those in positions of command did but had thought better of it.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Five



7th July 1967

Potsdam

Despite everything else that happened, life had resumed. It was not as if nothing had happened, but in a city that had a long history and had taken worse blows in living memory, shock didn’t last long and didn’t pay the bills. Like always, once the glass was swept up and the injured had started to be released from the hospital it was easy to move on to the next thing. If Louis had to guess, it was a part of human nature.

Louis Ferdinand had been typing a column that would run in several newspapers but kept getting distracted. The topic was the proposed strategic alliance between Junkers AG, Sud-Ouest, and Hawker Siddeley with the intention of competing with Focke-Wulf-Dorner, which was moving into a dominant position in the European Airline Market as well as the American aerospace giants, Boeing, and Curtis. Louis thought that it was a good idea. All three of those corporations brought something to the table and did a bit of competition ever hurt anyone?

Instead he kept looking at the fuzzy black and white photograph on his desk and Louis marveled at the technology that made it possible. He had seen photographs taken on the moon, every corner of the globe and the depths of the oceans. Still, those didn’t have the deep personal connection to Louis that this one did. The photograph was of the scan of his second grandchild, he or she was going to be born in seven months give or take.

When Friedrich and Suga had returned from the secured location where they had been sent, Suga had complained about how it had been uncomfortable and cold for her under that mountain, completely claustrophobic was how she had put it. Louis had gently chided her for talking about a location that didn’t officially exist and was one of the most deeply held secrets of the Fallschirmjäger who guarded it, more secret than even the nuclear program.

To maintain domestic tranquility, Freddy had agreed to take Suga in for a medical checkup that he didn’t feel was necessary because the previous one had only been a few weeks earlier and Suga had been under observation by the Royal Physician the entire time. Louis had reminded his son that there were some battles that should not be fought. Now that Friedrich was an Associate at the Berlin Law Firm where he had done his Legal Apprenticeship at, anything that got him out of the office for a few hours was welcome. That trip to the hospital had been when the photograph was taken, and it had been concluded that Suga’s pregnancy was progressing normally.

If only all the news out hospitals was as good. Louis had gotten a call from the Administrator at the University Hospital in Halle, it seemed that Kristina had presented herself in his office and demanded that disciplinary action be taken against her because she had missed two entire shifts that she had been scheduled for on Sunday and Monday. Not only had he known exactly where she was the entire time, he been one of the Hospital Administrators who she had been on the phone with when she had worked to coordinate the relief effort.

Louis had told him to send Kristina home for a few days and not to bother with any official reprimand. The odds were high that Kristina would find some other means of self-flagellation without his help. That got a bewildered response of the sort that Louis was all too used to after twenty-five years of his daughter’s occasionally odd behavior. Louis just wished that she would allow herself to be happy for once. Looking at an unrelated report on his desk about the scheduled refit of ships in Kiel, a thought about what to do about Kristina occurred to him.



North Sea, mouth of the Elbe River

The statement made by the Emperor had disgusted Andreas. It was full of platitudes about how the individual or individuals responsible for the terrorist attack would be brought to justice. Everywhere that he had looked, people had been enraptured by those words. Louis Ferdinand identifying himself as a servant of the people and lauding the efforts of his parasitic spawn in the relief effort had made Andreas see red. Still, he realized that he couldn’t do anything about it. Mithras had gone after them directly and that had gotten him a one-way ticket to the Fechtel Mountains, the location of the so-called Valley of Death where prisoners got the privilege of carving granite with basic hand tools until the nature of that work left them too broken to cause the State more trouble.

Still, it didn’t take a genius to realize that the State and Federal Police were on his trail. Unless Andreas wanted to join Mithras in Flossenbürg, he needed to quickly get as far from Berlin as he could. Though he had no plan, getting to Hamburg and onto a ferry bound for England had seemed like the right call. He had no idea what he would do once he would get there. Moving on to somewhere even further away seemed like a good idea.

Standing at the rail watching the coast of Lower Saxony fade in the distance, Andreas kept expecting helicopters full of Police Commandos to storm the ship guns blazing. That never happened though and he was greatly relieved as Germany disappeared over the horizon.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Six



15th July 1967

Silesia

Sitting in his father’s study, Albrecht was trying to limit his intake of alcohol so he could keep his wits about him. Manfred von Richthofen was entertaining a number of prominent men, all heads of important Silesian families and industry. They made up the base of his power in the State and they were the ones who had elevated him to be the Prince-Elector of Silesia. All of them were as powerful as they were corrupt. That corruption was the very thing that had led to the situation where Manfred had them by the balls and there wasn’t a chance in Hell that he was ever going to let go. Mostly, it was in the form of debt, Manfred took their political support in lieu of money, but not entirely and as a few of them had learned the hard way, he wasn’t above calling in their debts if it suited him. It was hardly a surprise that no matter what they did, they ended up further in the hole while the Richthofen family kept handing them shovels.

For Albrecht, he disliked getting roped into his father’s Machiavellian schemes but his sense of loyalty to his father and his wider family kept him from speaking up. Whatever disagreements Albrecht had with Manfred, the importance of presenting a united front to the world and not bringing their arguments out into the light for all to see had been something that had been drilled into his head from before he had even learned to walk. He supposed that just being in this room at his father’s side was an improvement over what had been the status quo over the previous two decades. Helene had told him that their father treating them like equals as opposed to rivals or worse, as disappointments, was probably the best that they could hope for.

Eventually, the others left, leaving only Albrecht and Manfred in the study. It was a warm Summer night and all the windows were open allowing fresh air in. Manfred was seated in his favorite chair facing the bookcases and the glass fronted case containing his favorite firearms. There were a large number of trophies mounted on the walls, everything from prizes taken on hunting trips around the globe to bits of aircraft that he had shot down over France and Poland. Years earlier, Albrecht had realized that this room was a physical manifestation of his father’s mind. Rust was sleeping in his accustomed spot next to Manfred’s chair. Albrecht took the chair opposite of his father and waited.

“You don’t approve of me?” Manfred asked before sipping his drink.

“You have those men over a barrel, and I think that will have unforeseen consequences” Albrecht replied.

“That bunch of jackals” Manfred said with a snort, “They were playing the same game I was, except they lost. They didn’t have the balls to see it through and now they will be taking orders from us, forever if I have my way.”

“Where is the dividing line?” Albrecht asked, “Between your personal ambition and what you see as advancing our family’s interests.”

“You don’t think those are one in the same?” Manfred asked in reply, “You will eventually learn it when you are sitting in this chair.”

“You assume that I want to take your place” Albrecht said.

“No” Manfred replied, “Lothar would have tried to take my place, and completely fucked it up like he did with everything else. I assume that you will play this role in your own way and those men who you worry about me mistreating will welcome you with open arms because you aren’t me. You are smart enough to know just how untrustworthy they are and act accordingly.”

Albrecht really didn’t like it when his father talked about Lothar this way. His older brother had spent his entire life, trying to meet their father’s expectations, and failed at every step along the way. At some point, Albrecht had realized that it was Lothar’s obsequious nature that had become his undoing. Manfred von Richthofen just couldn’t respect him because of that. It had been again and again Albrecht had stood up to his father that had changed their relationship. First while going to University where, as a Doctoral Student, he had done necessary though secret work on the guidance computers used in rockets. Him getting a series of student deferments at the time had not gone over well, then he had joined the Navy after the war… It had not been until he had joined what would become the ESA Space Program and had gone into orbit a couple times that Manfred had started to come around. It hadn’t been until a few years later Albrecht had gone back to the ESA and commanded the Taxidiotis Program, often going toe to toe with Werner von Braun that he had finally started treating him as something other than the black sheep of the family.

“Keep in mind that everything I do, it is for you and Nikolaus” Manfred said, “You and the boy are my legacy, the ones who carry on this family after I am gone.”

“Tell me more about after you are gone” Albrecht replied.

Manfred laughed at that as he got up from his chair. Walking over he clapped Albrecht on the shoulder with Rust falling into step behind him.

“I’m not going anywhere for a long time” Manfred said, “So don’t go measuring the drapes.”

With that, Manfred left the room and Albrecht was reminded of something else that Helene had said. That their father was exactly the sort who would live for another twenty years, if for no other reason than to spite them.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Seven



28th July 1967

Flossenbürg

As it had turned out, Lothar de Maizière was willing to cooperate regarding the apprehension of the perpetrator of the recent mass shooting incident in Berlin. However, what he had requested in return seemed completely inappropriate, to speak with Kristina von Preussen.

Kiki had other ideas.

If he wanted to have a woman who he had tried to kill talking with him about how he was rotting in prison and she was still very much alive. She was also doing as well personally as any would expect. There was also the happy coincidence that her visit would happen on the 28th of July, the 173rd anniversary of the death of Maximilien Robespierre, the man who had led the Reign of Terror eventually getting his head lopped off by his fellow revolutionaries because they knew that he was coming after them next. Lothar had modeled himself on Robespierre and oddly his family had fled the French Revolution otherwise they would have been among the victims of that madman. Kiki had been looking forward to rubbing his face in those little details when she made her way to the prison where he was being kept. What she hadn’t factored in was what she would find when she got to Flossenbürg.

The prison was in a narrow valley, a handful of barracks and administrative buildings surrounded by rows of electrified concertina wire. It was one of the locations that was referred to with the Z notations when convicts where sentenced, denoting the hard labor and harsh conditions of their punishment. Supposedly, it was where they sent the worst sort of criminals. Those who would have been executed a few years earlier. Riding in the backseat of the car that had picked her up from the train station, Kiki could feel the misery that seemed to radiate from every inch of this place as the car drove through the gates.

Getting out of the car, Kiki didn’t feel any warmth from the July sun. The Warden and a handful of his guards were there to greet Kiki. The bodyguards who had accompanied her bristled when they saw the other men and Kiki was reminded of what she had heard once that the only real difference between guards and prisoners was that they wore different colored uniforms.

“It is an honor Princess” The Warden said as Kiki approached, “We don’t get many who are willing to have a confrontation like the one that you are here to do.”

“That is not why I am here” Kiki replied, “If talking to him results in one life being saved then it is worth it to me.”

The Warden gave her a look that suggested that he couldn’t have cared less about saving life. It was a reminder that this was a place where people were warehoused. There was talk that there was a prison reform effort underway, that the State should be in the business of rehabilitation rather than punishment. The truth was that Kiki was torn on the subject. While she agreed with that in principle, a part of her wanted Lothar to be locked away forever for what he had done to her.

Walking into one of the buildings walking into one of the buildings, Kiki was led down a hallway to an interview room there she saw that Lothar was waiting with his hands shackled to the table and he didn’t look good. He looked malnourished and sick. The sheen of sweat on his forehead was reflected in the caged light overhead. She didn’t want to know what was going on with him beyond the obvious, that just being in this place was bad for you.

“You got me here” Kiki said, “What do you have to say?”

Lothar stared at her dully. “I… Ki…” He managed to say then slumped over in his chair. It didn’t look like he was faking this.

At that moment, Kiki had an ethical dilemma. What did she owe a man who had come dangerously close to ending her ambitions? How did this square with her beliefs?

“Guards!” Kiki yelled, “Some help in here?”

Minutes later, Kiki watched as Lothar was being carried out on a stretcher.

“How did no one notice this?” Kiki asked as she walked with the Warden.

“We get a lot of malingering” The Warden said lamely. He was clearly not used to being questioned. Because Kiki was here as Princess Kristina, she had more authority than him so long as she didn’t try to push it too far.

“How long until he gets proper care?” Kiki asked.

“The Orderlies will take a look, but the Doctor is out for the afternoon” The Warden said, “He’ll be back in the morning.”

“Can you call the Doctor?” Kiki asked, “Get him back here, this man has valuable information.”

“That wouldn’t be a good idea” The Warden said, “Doctor Schwarz tends to like a drink or two in the afternoon.”

Meaning that the Prison’s Doctor was probably totally plastered, and everyone knew it.

Kiki hid her annoyance as she looked at Lothar as they walked into the infirmary. Just by looking at him, she could see that he had a high fever, she also noticed a spreading stain on the leg of his uniform’s pant leg.

“Can one of you grab me a pair of scissors?” Kiki asked one of the Orderlies who was gaping at her. He handed a pair to her and she cut along the seam. What she found was disturbing, livid red streaks and an untreated gash that was turning black around the edges. She had only seen photographs in textbooks of this.

“I need my bag from the car” Kiki said to one of her bodyguards.

“Is this something contagious?” The Warden asked.

Kiki was half tempted to tell that it was.

Lothar’s nonsense had probably saved his life. Just Kiki knew that he certainly wouldn’t be in any condition to talk in the near term and he would not be thanking her after what she was about to do him.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Eight



4th August 1967

Hohenzollern Castle

The Imperial flag flew over the North Tower with the long blue pennant of the Medical Service just below it. It was to tell everyone within sight of the castle that Kiki was home. After the events of the previous week, she was actually happy to escape to the mountaintop castle for the next few weeks. That someone had hung a blue and white banner in the great hall that was identical to the personal banner hanging in the Medical Service’s Hall in the Berlin Imperial War Museum was less welcome. It was decorated with all the Honors and Orders that Kiki had received in her career, a detail she found a bit embarrassing. Still, besides that, this place was a nice escape from her everyday life.

Back in Halle, there had been a lot of questions that Kiki had been forced to answer about what had happened in Flossenbürg. To many, her having performed what amounted to life saving, but also life altering, surgery upon a man who she had many reasons to dislike presented a lot of ethical problems. Fortunately, the Pathologist’s report on the bacterial infection and resulting septicemia backed up Kiki’s report that her actions had been necessary. It had also been concluded that the surgical options to treat the infected wound on Lothar’s leg had been limited by the time that Kiki had discovered it. The quick application of antibiotics and the regrettable amputation had probably saved his life. Kiki had been loath to admit that she had only performed the operation in question on cadavers prior to that but it had been successful, so no one had held that against her.

Kiki’s prediction about Lothar’s reaction to what had happened had proven true as well. He thought that she had gotten some sort of satisfaction out of crippling him, failing to realize that not everyone was like him. While Kiki had not told anyone that she had more interested in saving the information that he had rather than him personally. That much should have been obvious. In the end, Kiki had been told to take a long holiday, to stay out of trouble, and hopefully avoid medical matters for a few weeks. Getting asked by her father to go to the Hohenzollern Provence wasn’t a surprise. That was what typically happened whenever she went on a holiday without a plan.

The main entrance of the castle was a series of sharply curving ramps and gates where any attacking force would have to pass below the next higher terrace in full view of the defenders to reach the next gate if they managed to breach the Eagle Gate. It was a very artfully designed kill-zone. So, it was small wonder that it had a reputation of having been an incredibly tough nut to crack before castles had grown obsolete in warfare. Sieges had lasted for years with the castle having to surrender due to starvation rather than force of arms. Looking away from it, Kiki walked back towards the Keep, lost in her own thoughts.

These days the castle was quite different from the fortress that it had been in its previous incarnations. A few hours earlier the group from the charity that had been established in the name of Kiki’s mother had been opening the castle up to group of children for an immersive history lesson over their Summer Holidays had arrived. Kiki was happy to continue it because the sound of children laughing as they went about their assigned tasks made her days a bit easier. There was an amusing aspect of these children going about helping with the daily maintenance of the Castle. Loads of scrubbing, polishing, and washing needed to be done. There were also tasks like tending the Kitchen Garden as well. Their parents were likely to be completely astonished if they saw them doing this and having fun because of the novelty. Not that there weren’t plenty of activities planned that were actual fun.

Looking among the trees on the south end of the courtyard, she saw a small group of the children there. Rauchbier was among them, the dog was no fool and knew easy marks for scratches and treats when he found them. A few of the children peeled off and ran to her, three girls who she recognized as Marie Alexandra von Mischner-Blackwood as well as her youngest sisters, Nella, and Nan. Part of the fun was the period costumes that had been given to them, so the three of them were wearing the ankle length belted tunics that had been made specially for the girls. The fact that they had been dyed vivid red, blue, and yellow wasn’t an accident hadn’t been noticed. While keeping with historical practice, those were all high visibility colors. The boys were dressed in a similar manner though different enough so as to not raise any objections from them. It all made Kiki aware of how she was the Lady of the Castle and hardly ever looked the part. Presently she was dressed in what Ben jokingly referred to as Korean War surplus casual, splinter parka and the blue jeans that had been a gift from Zella.

“We-made-it-here-today-Kiki-we-told-you-that-we-would-Momma-and-Poppa-let-us-ride-the-train-on-our-own-so-long-as-we-stayed-with-Marie-and…” Nella said in a wild rush before pausing to take a breath while Nan hugged Kiki and was swiftly joined by Nella who had forgotten her train of thought.

“Traveling by train is very new for them” Marie said with a smile, “And we were never alone.”

“Tell me more about that” Kiki said as she walked with girls back to the group that was staring at her. They would get used to her in no time though.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Nine



12th August 1967

Beijing, China

There was profound irony in how Pan Yong had found himself being the one who had kept the Generalissimo in power since the Sino-Korean had ended in disaster years earlier. He had plotted and schemed along with everyone else in how to remove Chiang Kai-shek and be at the top of the heap when the smoke cleared. The problem was that the opportunity had never presented itself. Instead, Pan found himself at the head of an army sent to quell peasant uprisings, put down another General who had rebelled against the central authority, or some other bloody errand. It seemed like there always a new crisis that needed to be dealt with first.

Today was no different, except it was protests over the rising price of rice and other food staples in the Capital this time. The well-fed professionals in the city were upset about that while completely unaware of the famine that gripped the countryside. All Pan could do was shake his head in disgust as his men were deployed to keep order. Whenever there was a mass protest, there were opportunists about who took advantage of the situation however they could. The smell of smoke in the air suggested that it had already begun. The last thing that needed to happen was for the city’s Fire Brigades to be unable to respond because protesters crowding the streets. That was where Pan came in, he had a reputation of doing what was necessary once the Riot Act had been read. Just the mention of his name caused many to flee in fear. Still, it made for a long afternoon because those who set out to loot businesses or just for the sake of causing trouble were not the sort inclined to run at the sight of soldiers entering their proximity.



Hohenzollern Castle

The rain was drumming on the windows driven by the howling wind and every few minutes there was a flash of lightning followed by a crash of thunder seconds later. Because the castle had been built atop a high bluff they were inside the storm as it blew through the mountains. They were supposed to be sleeping, instead the three other girls sharing this room were crowded onto Marie’s bed. The younger girls didn’t want to admit that they were frightened of the storm and were keeping her awake.

At the age of eleven, Marie was considered old enough to help mind several of the other children on this trip to the castle that her mother had arranged. Sharing a room with Nella and Nan had seemed easy enough. Just there was a fourth girl, Sophie, who was a bit more to contend with. Her mother managed a clothing store in Mitte, and she had no idea of what had become of her father, she just knew that her Maternal Grandparents preferred not to ever talk about that subject. Sophie had never been outside of her Berlin neighborhood in her life. She had applied to go on this trip through her school and had been shocked when she had been told she was coming. Her mother and grandparents had not needed to be so jubilant though. Sophie might have been the same age as Nella and Nan, their experiences were a world apart in a staggering number of ways.

Nella was a Princess and Kiki’s half-sister, everyone knew that. Nan was a giant question mark. Supposedly, she had come from difficult circumstances before she had been taken in by her “Aunt Lotte and Uncle Louis” and become Nella’s sister of sorts. Marie seen that the two of them had become inseparable over the last couple of years and it was far different from her relationship with Tatiana or Malcolm. It seemed like all she did was argue with them.

The day before had been a good for all of them, fun anyway. First, they had helped with the breakfast cleanup followed by spending the rest of the morning making candles. Then they had walked down to Hechingen to go swimming in the public pool in the afternoon. That evening, they had seen the storming blowing in from the west and not thought anything of it until they had been abruptly woken up by thunder and lightning around midnight.

There was a crash of thunder and Marie felt the girls jump.

“You know that there is nothing to be afraid of” Marie said, “In here we are warm and safe, not out there.”

“I’m not afraid” Nan said, Marie could see with Nella and Sophie nodding in agreement as a bolt of lightning lit up the room.

Seconds later came the crash of thunder that belied Nan’s words as the girls tried to get deeper under the covers that really weren’t meant for four people. Marie was starting to get annoyed by this. Yes, she was responsible for them, but had not signed up for their childhood fears…

Just then, a gust of wind blew open one of the windows and all of them, including Marie let out a shriek as they clung together. Feeling a bit foolish, Marie remembered that she had the windows open the previous afternoon and had rushed out without latching them when she had heard that the evening meal was being served. Getting out of her bed, Marie sheepishly padded to the window to close it. The air smelled of ozone and damp earth. Looking out, Marie saw a quarter moon through the clouds that were rushing by as she closed and latched the window and made sure that the others would stay closed.

Looking back, Marie saw the other girls were staring at her. “Can I have my bed back?” She asked.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Ten



20th August 1967

Hohenzollern Castle

Kiki had no idea how the staff had figured out that she was going to have guests who were deemed to be important for the summer observation of her birthday, but they had. She had found herself looking up as two new pennants were flying beneath hers atop the North Tower. The first was light grey with a stylized falcon, the second was red and white with a black horse derived from a knight chess piece, meaning that Zella and Ben were coming. She had no idea where those had come from and Zella’s reaction when she saw that was to laugh. It had turned out that Emil, Zella’s father had played no role in the creation of that banner. A few of his aides had cooked it up at the direction of the Luftwaffe when he had been appointed to command forces in the Far East near the end of the Second World War. Ben had just sheepishly looked up at the tower and said that it had been the crew who had come up with it in Korea and that it was actually the airplane that was the Black Knight. Aurora’s arrival was given no fanfare, but she had just smiled and said to give it time. Anya had been the last to arrive and all she said was that the castle had not changed a bit since she had last been here years earlier. Suga had been invited but had called to say that she didn’t feel up to traveling right now but had wished Kiki a happy observed birthday. Suga didn’t seem too thrilled about the prospect of becoming ever further immobilized over the next six months and had told Kiki all about it.

The idea for getting her oldest and dearest friends together had come to Kiki when she had realized that she had not had a conversation with anyone over the age of twelve in several days and she had always celebrated her birthday sometime in the summertime because she had been born on Christmas Day, which seemed like a good opportunity. This had happened because there were thirty children taking their summer holiday in the castle, sixteen girls and fourteen boys between the ages of seven and twelve. While Kiki had been advised to avoid medical matters, she had found herself treating things like scraped knees, bruises, or a splinter in a finger. The trouble was that she found herself a bit too adamant about the need to keep any injury clean after the events of a month earlier. A break from that had seriously been needed but when Kiki had extended the invitations, she had not considered how it would be interpreted by others.

Zella was a Markgräfin and the daughter of the former Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Recently the tabloids had speculated that she was romantically linked with Kiki’s brother Louis, but she said that was bullshit. Ben had become a Burggraf as a result of his role in the Space Program and was widely seen as being Kiki’s suitor. Aurora was seen as an up and coming figure at one of the largest corporations in the world. Anya had been the ward of Jehane Alexandra Thomas-Romanova. That had prompted the castle’s staff to go all out in preparations. Then Kiki had started to get requests from the Mayors of the local Towns and Villages for an invitation. That had been followed by similar requests from various individuals in the region, many of whose presence in the Province of Hohenzollern was because Kiki had enticed them to relocate here for business opportunities.

That was why what was supposed to be a gathering of a few friends turned into a formal event with a couple hundred people involved. She also had thirty disappointed children who saw that they were being kept out of the Great Hall tonight. Kiki had arranged for them to have cake and ice cream at a separate party, but many of them remained convinced that they were losing out. There was considerable irony in that they were getting something closer to what Kiki had wanted in the first place.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The windows of the Great Hall were lit up and Marie could hear the conversation among the grownups that was happening inside from the courtyard. Whatever was going on in there seemed far more interesting than what was happening just outside. Their group from the city had been joined by a number of kids from the towns in the countryside that surrounded the castle. Marie, along with everyone else, had discovered that they hardly spoke the same language.

Earlier, when Kiki had explained what the children were doing tonight it had seemed to Marie that the party with treats and games out here was a shabby afterthought. One of the older boys was trying to get the record player that they had been provided to work. The records had been selected by Marcella von Holz, who was supposedly the epitome of cool according to one of girls who was knowledgeable of these things. The music that filled the courtyard was the odd Berliner Jazz of the Django Reinhardt Orchestra, music that Marie had always found incomprehensible.

“Do you want to dance?” Marie heard a voice ask her.

Turning she saw that it was one of the local boys who was around her age. His friends had clearly put him up to this, she could see them behind him.

“Why?” Marie asked in reply.

“It’s what we’re supposed to do” The boy said, flustered by Marie’s question.

Staring at his outstretched hand, Marie wondered what to do.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Eleven



21st August 1967

Langeoog Island

Pausing from reading her book, Jo looked out at the seagulls who ruled the beach early on a Sunday morning now that the summertime residents of the beach houses were apparently sleeping in. The night before there had been bonfires along the tideline and the party had lasted until well after midnight.

This year Jo had been accompanied by Suse when she had taken her Summer Holiday at Kat’s house in the East Friesian Islands. It was a nice distraction from the troubles that seemed to be taking over Jo’s life. It all had to do with her attempting to enter the field of education and the classes she was taking at University. Her Professors tended to make assumptions based entirely on her appearance. One had even gone so far as to suggest that she never attempt to teach any male students above the age of ten because the odds were high that they probably wouldn’t learn anything so long as they were in her class. It was obvious to Jo that the Professor was speaking for himself in that instance and she wished she were more like Kat. Few people messed with Kat and if they did, they soon regretted it.

Escaping to the island for the month of August seemed like a good way to help keep her sanity. However, Suse had been distracted since they had arrived. She had said that her and Manny were going to have a long overdue talk about things, she had come back later that night refusing to talk about what had happened. For days, Jo had questioned Suse about the matter afraid that Manny had been the selfish prick that he could be at times. When Suse finally told Jo the truth, that the conversation had gone in certain unpredicted directions. Jo learned that Manny had been the exact opposite of selfish and had gone along with Suse’s request that they not “go all the way” just yet. That didn’t mean that there weren’t other things that they could try out.

For years, Jo had known that Manny’s mouth was his worst feature. He was forever talking his way up dead-end streets, particularly when it involved women. It was the reason why she had lost interest in him after having had a crush on Manny when she had been in her early teens. Now it seemed that his tongue was good for something after all and he had managed to give Suse an experience that she had taken days to process apparently having never had an orgasm prior to that. It was completely unbelievable that Jo would envy Suse over such a matter, but she did regardless. It was a rule of thumb that things pertaining to sex were supposed to be somewhat awkward and not often enjoyable, especially the first time. Suse had compared it to flying a sailplane in a powerful wave of air coming off a mountain peak. “So very lucky” Jo muttered to herself before looking back to her book.



Hohenzollern Castle

“That is not exactly what that was made for” Ben said as Kiki looked through the telescope towards Stuttgart, which was sixty odd kilometers to the north. Easily visible on a clear day.

“I know” Kiki replied, “But until the stars are out, what are we supposed to do with it?”

The telescope was a birthday gift from Ben, it also provided the perfect excuse for him to come to the castle and visit while she was here. After all, he was studying to become a Doctor of Astronomy. The terrace between the inner and outer walls provided a spectacular view of the countryside. When Kiki had opened the box containing the telescope, she had wanted to test it out and this had seemed like the best option.

“I would be pointing it down there” Zella said, gesturing towards Hechingen. “After last night I’m certain that what happened up here is what everyone is talking about.”

“Be nice Zella” Kiki said, “These are good people, they just aren’t quite up on things out here.”

Zella snorted, but didn’t say anything, her sunglasses making her expression hard to read. Regardless of Zella’s habit of hanging out in nightclubs to see the latest acts, she seldom drank, and if she did it was in a place that she deemed safe. Hohenzollern Castle, which was currently owned by her best friend was just such a place and she had helped herself to a fair amount of wine which had been served with dinner the night before and had been badly hungover when she had come down for breakfast. So had Aurora and Anya, but they were sleeping it off as opposed to Zella who had requested a drink containing tomato juice and a liberal amount of black pepper, she said she would be up for actual food later. Kiki was happy to put up with Zella’s occasional excesses if she was willing to put in a bit of effort towards getting along with Ben like she was this morning.

“The Mayor of Hechingen certainly could have handled that one surprise a bit better” Ben said absently as he took his turn to look at Stuttgart.

“He should have asked the right questions then” Kiki replied, “He didn’t mean to imply anything about Marie Alexandra.”

The night before, Kiki had gone to check on the party that the children were having in the courtyard and she found that Marie had agreed to dance with the Mayor’s oldest son. It was an amusing scene and Kiki had told him about it when she had gone back into the Great Hall. He had questioned her about who Marie was. It seemed that everyone in Hechingen knew that Kiki was hosting a group of children who were largely from Working Class backgrounds in Berlin. All most of them knew about the city was what they saw on television, particularly the gritty crime and medical dramas set there. That did paint a rather distorted picture.

The Mayor had wondered if a girl like Marie would be a bad influence and had asked about her parents. It was obvious what he meant, and Kiki had been honest with him. Her father was a Canadian photographer with a Franco-Scottish background and her mother was Fürstin Katherine von Mischner-Blackwood zu Berlin, the infamous Tigress of Pankow. He had choked on his drink when she had said that, and it served him right.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Twelve



23rd August 1967

Mitte, Berlin

Getting back into the swing of things proved to be a bit of a challenge and then Manny had gone on leave pending his appointment to the War Academy. It was hardly surprising that things had played out that way. Sudden changes, followed by periods of adjustment, followed by more changes.

First the culture in New York had been vastly different and what passed for beer in America was an atrocity. Still, they had accomplished both their stated mission and the covert one in Panama. Afterwards, on the long flight back across the Atlantic, Manny had been so bored he had read the articles in the Playboy magazine that he had picked up as a souvenir. The article titled All the Questions you were too Embarrassed to Ask had caught his attention. It included a short history of the Institute for the Science of Sexuality and mentioned Magnus Hirschfeld by name. Manny had been a bit surprised to learn that it was located just a few blocks from the townhouse where his family lived while they were in Berlin.

Manny had heard jokes about that organization since before he had even understood what they had meant, that they catered to Homosexuals and supposedly had the largest collection of pornography in the world. The article had painted a completely different picture from that. About how the embarrassment and shame that people felt resulted in secrecy and a number of unhealthy practices. The article expressly mentioned that everyone was welcome, and the archives were far from the only services they offered. On the airplane, Manny had dismissed the whole concept as ridiculous, at first.

Things had changed when he had gone on leave.

His family had gone on summer holiday to the Baltic and because they had no idea he was coming home, so they had gone ahead without him. Manny’s mother had offered to buy him a train ticket so that he could join them, but he had already promised Suse that they would have the overdue talk that he had been dreading for months. Suse wanted to know where their relationship was going, just how serious he was, and most of all to not join those her treated her like a child. Needing to have answers as well as a desire not to rattle about an empty house had made visiting the site of the world’s largest smut gallery not seem so far-fetched.

That wasn’t what had greeted him though. The nondescript building looked like any other office, only the nameplate revealed the true nature of what it was. Poking his head through the door, the Secretary had just given him a warm smile who had told him to wait until she could get to him.

“Do you need a referral to a clinic that won’t inform your Commander for whatever treatment you need?” The Secretary had asked.

“How…?” Manny had started to ask. He wasn’t wearing a uniform, so how had she figured it out so quickly?

“That haircut gives you away” The Secretary said, and Manny realized that she must see this constantly. A failed a short-arm inspection was the sort of thing that could land a soldier and their CO in hot water. Getting such a matter taken care of confidentially would be priceless.

“No” Manny had said, “I have a different situation.”

He had then paused, and the Secretary looked at him expectantly.

“My girlfriend… is, er… sort of giving me one last chance” Manny said, “When her parents got married, she was kind of already on the way. Her father, who commands Panzers, has said that he will grind me to paste under the tracks of an entire Division if history repeats itself and that is nothing compared to what my Aunt said she will do to me.”

The Secretary had looked amused by that. “So, the referral you need is for family planning?” She asked.

She must have seen the blood rush from Manny’s face as he sputtered for answer. “It’s about not having a family until you are ready for one” The Secretary had said, “Is that all?”

Manny had then tried to think of what else to ask but couldn’t think of the right questions.

“How do I not mess things up?” Manny asked, “Suse already dumped me once, she’ll not hesitate to do it again.”

“Oh, relationship advice” The Secretary said, the tone of her voice suggesting that Manny had brought up something akin to dropping a live snake on her desk.

That was how Manny had found himself talking to one of the Doctors. The conversation had been wide ranging and informative. The sour note had come at the end when the Doctor had loaded Manny up with a dozen pamphlets and informed him that keeping young men like him from becoming public health hazards was a key part of their purpose. Later, when he had gotten together with Suse he had used several suggestions he had been given including one of the alternative examples of intimacy when things had taken an unexpected direction. Suse’s reaction had been one of surprise to say the least and she had left shortly after she had asked him to stop.

Now, a few weeks later Manny had yet to hear back from Suse and he wondered if he had messed something else up this time.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Thirteen



31st August 1967

Ionian Sea

The German Gunboat whose crew called the Little Greyhound was cruising on a parallel course to the Greek Flotilla. Her Captain had been unable to hide his disgust over how events had played out, the German Prince had gone on and on about unforeseen consequences. As if the Germans had any room to complain about the actions of those who lived in the Balkans. Anthypaspistis Fotios Papadopoulos was certain that it had not been a coincidence that many leaders of revanchist political parties throughout Europe had ended up dead back in the 30’s, particularly in France and Italy. It was an action that Fotios completely understood. They had known that they were going to be fighting for their lives against the Soviets and couldn’t afford to have an enemy at their back. The Greek situation was no different and like with the Soviets, Fotios knew damn well that if the other side had been the victors, they would have been far less merciful.

Fotios looked at the rust covered hull of the freighter as it slowly passed the ships of the Greek Navy, just one of the hodgepodge of old freighters he had seen over the prior days. It was a sign of the resounding victory that the Hellenic Empire had achieved and Fotios wasn’t finding nearly as satisfying as he had thought it would be. The Turks had started this war at a time when the Greeks and their Allies had been prepared to end it. The terms of the ceasefire that the Greeks had imposed involved the Turks taking the refugees from territories formerly known as Albania and Bosnia. Anyone from those people who wished to remain were more than welcome to, they just did it with the understanding that no one would stop the various other people they had been at war with for centuries from killing them.

It was a brutal but necessary action. The Croatians might be the wrong sort of Christians for example, at least they weren’t heathens like the Turks and those who were allied with them. There was simply no living with them.



Hohenzollern Castle

Marie ran down the spiral stairs to the courtyard, emerging into the late summer sun. The others were gathering in a corner of the Great Hall for lunch and she didn’t want to be late. All morning she had been sitting with a woman from the town below the castle who had come to show the girls how an old-fashioned loom worked. The schedule said that they were being given a free afternoon and Marie still was finding new things when she explored the castle.

It had gotten cold the night before, a clear reminder of how the Summer Holiday was drawing to a close. In a few days Marie would board a train that would take her back to Berlin and her old life. Then it would be back to schoolwork and living her life vicariously through books and flights of fancy. Sure, Marie missed her dog Fleur and cat Cheshire, but here in the castle she was living the sort of thing that normally only existed in books or movies. The ankle length blue tunic and sandals she was wearing were a part of that, they were exactly what someone like her living in this castle would have worn at any point in its history. Marie wished that she could slow down time and spend a lot longer in this place. Being unable to do that, she was certainly keeping the tunic and sandals.

The younger girls were of all different minds. Nella and Nan wanted to resume their old lives. Nan had pointed out that Uncle Louis could well have engaged in all manner of deviltry in their absence. Nella had seconded that. She understood her father well. Considering that Marie knew who they were talking about, it was probably a fair assessment of what had happened over the summer. On the other hand, Sophie didn’t ever want to return home. Apparently, things were difficult for her there…

Walking across the courtyard, Marie had an unexpected sight. Standing there smoking a cigarette was Kage Akio. A trusted colleague of her mother who mostly stuck of his own volition when he wasn’t off doing the bidding of the Japanese Government. He said that life was rarely dull around Marie’s Mother. They had known each other for years and like always Marie had to remember to not run up and hug him, he really didn’t like it when she did that.

“Herr Kage” Marie said in greeting as she approached.

“Ojosama” Kage replied and he gave her a slight bow. Marie understood what that meant and having watched many Japanese animated films, knew that Kage was poking fun at her by using that formal address.

Marie returned the bow as he had taught her over one of their prior encounters and played along with it.

“What brings you here Herr Kage?” Marie asked in Japanese. Which got her a raised eyebrow. Over the previous school year, she had taken upon herself to learn the language and it had not proven as difficult as Korean or English. It also revealed a few things that Marie hadn’t quite understood. Kage’s name translated to Luminous Shadow and the reference material had shown woodcut painting of a dark hooded figure that was considered semi-mythological in his native country. Was Kage such an individual? That certainly explained a great deal.

“Your Mother is here to meet with Lady Kristina in the Hall about a bit of emergency surgery she did last month” Kage replied, “And to visit you, of course.”

Before she went into the Great Hall, Marie did have one last question for Kage.

“You have castles in Japan?” Marie asked.

“Yes” Kage replied, “Not as drafty and this place needs nightingale floors.”

“Nightingale floors?”

Kage didn’t answer the question. Instead he gave Marie the sly look she knew all too well; Figure it out yourself. It was one of the rules of their exchanges. Kage would only answer questions for as long as he felt like it and if he felt like Marie should figure it out on her own, he wouldn’t give her an answer. With that Marie shrugged and ran into the Great Hall.