Chapter Six Hundred Thirty-Nine
3rd January 1948
Berlin
It was a wintery Saturday afternoon where there was not a whole lot to do. That went double when all the grownups were consumed with events that Freddy didn’t understand that were happening in other parts of the world. Here in the city he could only go outside in the courtyards. His usual companion, Ueli the foxhound didn’t do well in the city, so he had remained in Potsdam. Usually Gia would be around on a Saturday and they would do something fun here in the city but today she had sent her regrets because she needed to meet someone at the airport. The truth was that Freddy would have gladly gone to the airport, he liked airplanes. Instead he was showing his little sister around the unused corner of the Palace that he had discovered the previous winter.
“What’s this place” Kristina asked. Freddy had invited her to go along with his explorations to distract her from how she had been smarting over how her seventh birthday was going to be celebrated in July this year. One on the pitfalls of having her birthday fall on Christmas day. They were walking down a darkened hallway with water stained walls.
“Even before Grandpapa was Emperor this was how servants got around without being seen” Freddy replied. There were hidden ways throughout the Palace, above and below what people saw.
“Not practical” Kristina muttered. It was one the aspects of Kristina’s personality, everything in her world had to be perfectly ordered. To her this was a colossal waste of space.
“This way, Kiki” Freddy said like he did whenever she got too serious. Kristina hated it when anyone else called her that, she only barely tolerated her brothers calling her that. He pried one of the doors open and entered. It was a room that had once been the quarters of a servant. The window let in grey winter light through dust covered panes of glass. There were empty shelves and a single bed with a mattress rolled up on it. The wooden floor had a coat of dust on it.
“What is there to see?” Kristina asked.
“This one is empty but sometimes I find old newspapers and other things left behind” Freddy replied.
“So, you find the junk that they didn’t care enough to take with them when they left?”
“There’s more to it than that.”
“Not really” Kristina said before she turned on her heel and walked out. Freddy could hear her footsteps fading as she went back the way they had come. He knew the truth. The Emperor and Empress had once required an army of servants to go about doing even to most basic of tasks. He’d seen the paintings of his ancestors, the clothes they wore… In recent decades many of those things had fallen by the wayside and spaces like this had as well.
He had hoped that Kristina would share in his love of exploring these forgotten places, instead she was like Michael, too practical. Shaking his head, he closed the door and walked the other direction. There was a stairwell where he went up a flight of stairs and entered another empty hallway. Pulling out a key Freddy unlocked a door and opened it. This was what he had truly wanted to share with his sister, but he had to know she could keep a secret first or was even interested. The room inside he had cleaned out himself and it was filled with the treasures he had found, among other things. The walls were covered with posters that he had purchased with Gia. Movie posters, the Frankenstein monster, the Wolfman, Jochen Loewe. Posters of footballers playing a sport he wanted to understand. Then there were the stacks of books and model airplanes. He sat down on the mattress, wrapped a blanket around himself and looked out the window. The view was the northern portion of the island and the museum complex.
Freddy came here when he wanted to pretend that he had a normal life. What was the point of having a secret like this if it was yours alone?
Kiel
Jacob read through the latest progress reports relating to events in South America and enjoyed the warm feeling of triumph as his latest plans had come together. His minor project, Albrecht, was also coming together nicely. He had acquitted himself well…
“The latest, Sir” One of his aides said placing a manila envelope on his desk. Jacob opened it and saw that it was the latest dispatch from his spies in the nuclear program in Kempten. He read through the timetable for the coming year and saw that a new project leader had been appointed. Flipping through the pages he came across the relevant document. Nessa had been nominated for a Nobel Prize for her work in the nuclear program, Jacob knew about that already, but just when she was at her professional apex she had abruptly taken a teaching position at the Berlin Technical University at her own request. Why on Earth would she have done that? Why had she not mentioned any of that to him?
Jacob looked through the papers, there was one that was a copy of a document signed by Nessa herself requesting a sabbatical, weeks earlier. She sighted the known dangers and said that her even being in the Kempten complex was a risk she could no longer afford to take. Again, he was left with questions. If Nessa was no longer in Kempten, then where was she?