Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Thirty-Six
20th June 1955
Berlin
Every Monday and Wednesday Kiki came into the Ward and visited with the patients for a couple of hours. As the Senior Nurse had told her most of them had reached an age where they had survived the loss of a spouse, children or any other loved ones they might have had. Most of them seemed happy that they had someone to talk to and Kiki had heard several times that they had a great granddaughter her age. She had also discovered that age affected people in different ways. Frau Nagler at Ninety-Six years old, having been born in the middle of the last century she had witnessed the momentous events. Her mind was still sharp, but her body had failed her in the end. Herr Blum was twenty years younger than her and he was still physically vigorous, but his mind was completely gone. According to the Nurses who minded the Ward he frequently asked about people who had been dead for decades or about events that had happened a lifetime ago as if they were going to happen next week.
Sometimes she watched television with the patients, the legal and medical dramas that they liked to watch mostly. The Nurses had advised her to make sure that the television was off before the evening news came on because it caused them a great deal of distress. “It’s because we are old enough to see plainly that people are making the same stupid mistakes their forebears did” Frau Nagler said as an explanation.
Kiki liked that here she was just that, Kiki. No one here saw her as anything more than that. It was particularly nice to get nothing but encouraging words when she told the patients that she there as a volunteer because she wanted to join the Medical Service when she was old enough. Probably the best aspect of all this was that Kat had provided her with the documentation to give to the University Administration, it was all under the name Kristina “Kiki” von Fischer and it listed her officially as a Student Volunteer. It was possibly the greatest thing that Kat could have given her.
Then she learned when she came in on a Monday afternoon that Herr Blum had passed away over the weekend and the reality of what she was doing here hit her full force. Kiki knew that Herr Blum had checked out mentally months before his body had, but she had never interacted with someone who had died like that before. It was something that she never forgot.
Mirny, Kakut Region, Siberia
It was supposed to be spring, it didn’t seem to be. Not here anyway, a place where summer never really arrived. The climate was harsh, and one didn’t need to look too far to see that so far in this project where the labor over the winter had come from. A substantial number of prisoners had died already, and it was expected that many more would as they got this operation running. The representative of Czar Georgy had seen the Geologist’s report and the greatest secrecy had been slapped on the entire thing. No one aside the people here and the small circle that made up the Czar’s closest advisors knew about the project. If this panned out, it could solve most of Russia’s fiscal issues in one fell swoop. Or it could go into the pockets of whoever managed the project. Fyodor had been ordered have anyone involved shot if they showed the slightest inclination towards corruption. There would be plenty of wealth to go around but the Czar got the first cut.
“You are certain that this find will be worth greater investment?” Fyodor asked the Geologist as soon as they got into shelter. As they had walked from the vehicles to the project trailers Fyodor had tried to avoid looking at the grey figures that were at the center of so much controversy. It was another one of those things that would require the attitudes of the Russian public to change.
The Geologist unlocked the cabinet and pulled a sample like the one that had been sent to Moscow, most would have seen a plain grey rock. The Geologist had seen it as a telltale of something more valuable buried deeper.
“If you read the report you know this is Kimberlite” The Geologist said, “Which we found on the surface.”
“When the Czar saw your report, he understood the implications” Fyodor said, “That is why he sent me.”
“I see” The Geologist said and then he pulled out a second sample. “This took some doing, explosives and jet engines to get through the permafrost in these conditions.”
The second sample were colorless stones, uncut diamonds. Fyodor could already see the small fortune in front of him. A tiny portion of what was believed to still be below.
Washington D.C.
It had hit the State Department like a ton of bricks dropped from the stratosphere. A former State Department employee had applied for dual citizenship with the intention of joining an organization whose motives and conduct had long been deemed suspect by the CIA, FBI, NSA and most of the rest of the alphabet soup. It was unknown if the National Park Service had tangled with the Agents of the German Federal Foreign Service or the less official Intelligence Service run by the Kaiserin. Considering the events of the prior decade…
When Vice-President Johnson found out he just exploded.