Chapter One Thousand Three Hundred Eighty-Eight
7th August 1960
Jilin Provence, China
“No disrespect” Jonny said, “But is that a fucking joke.”
“No, it isn’t” Parker said, as he plopped three photographs down on the table, “The first was taken in the White House, the second in Rock Creek. Both from last year. The third from yesterday. Langley suspected she was here but didn’t have proof before yesterday.”
The pictures were of the same girl who Jonny had met the day before with the Kraut medical mission. In the first two photographs she was identified as Princess Kristina of Prussia. The first had her meeting with President Harriman while she was with a man almost as instantly recognizable, her father, Kaiser Lou. The second was of her sitting on a picnic table surrounded by what looked like a bunch of girl scouts. The third was of her talking to the Runt while she was writing on the clipboard where she had a stack of those tags the Kraut medics used, and the little punk was practically eating out of her hand. Jonny would need to have a word with Specialist Valenzuela about this.
“Damn” Jonny said, “The men are going to shit a brick when they see this.”
“They aren’t” Parker said, “Because you aren’t going to tell them a word about it. This is need to know and I’m only telling you this because you need to know. We are also going to need to debrief you and your men about your interactions with Fahnenjunker Fischer.”
Jonny gave Parker a sour look. The whole thing was embarrassing. Here they were, elite soldiers who had been led around by the nose by a mere girl who had disliked them just standing around while there was work needing to be done. Having it turn out that she wasn’t a mere girl did not improve matters. He had also learned later why she had been offended when he had called her a Cadet. To the German Military that was a rank belonging solely to the Navy, as in Sea Cadet. The other service branches preferred the term Officer Aspirant.
“What did the Brass have to say about my report?” Jonny asked changing the subject.
“That you are lucky the Chinese are unaware of your opinion of the state of their army” Parker replied, “The Brass are choosing to interpret it as you making the suggestion that the Chinese Government dodged a bullet by not starting a war this year.”
Whoever had seen it must have been able to read between the lines. While Jonny had not come out and said so, the Chinese Army was a mess. The men were a rabble. The logistics were a nightmare because it seemed that no two Companies had the same weapons and most of those weapons looked like they belonged in a museum as opposed to the battlefield. Even finding the right cartridges for the rifles frequently took days.
Montreal, Canada
It was the Sunday meeting of the Montreal Women’s Literary Society and Kat was sitting there uncomfortably, waiting to give her talk. She had originally agreed to do this as a way to get back at Margot for a number of things that Margot had said since she had arrived in Canada a couple weeks earlier. Only once she got here, she remembered that every one of them had read Gloria Steinem’s warts and all biography of her and that if there was one thing that Kat hated it was being the center of attention. It was a reminder that Kat had promised Gloria that she would sit for a formal interview and fill in many of the blank spots. It hadn’t happened yet, but she was expecting Gloria to make good on that promise at any time. The book had also revealed a lot of things that were met with quite a bit of controversy and she hoped that these women would not bring up certain topics. It was however too late to back out now.
As Kat waited to be introduced, she listened as she was talked up. Her various accomplishments. Where she had started out and how she had overcome early difficulties. Thankfully, that was without mentioning what those difficulties had been. Then her various professional accomplishments were mentioned. Looking around her, Kat realized that all these women were eating this up and that they all seemed to be of a certain type. Well to do, but not rich, middle-aged housewives. To her annoyance, Kat realized that despite her efforts to keep herself fit, she might as well be one of them having just celebrated her thirty-eighth birthday. Then Kat had one of them notice that was looking at them. She had a giddy smile on her face. Kat realized that absurdly, she was who these women wished that they could be.
“Now, without further ado, I would like to introduce Generalmajor von Mischner” The woman who was the Master of Ceremonies concluded. There was a round of applause and Kat made her way to the front of the room. There was a poster next to a copy of the book, the photograph that Doug had taken on the day that Kat had met him, of her being awarded the PLM by Louis Ferdinand. The whole truth about what she had done to earn that medal being something that she would need to take to her grave.
As she stepped up to the lectern, Kat saw dozens of smiling faces. She also saw Margot, who looked like she had just bit into a lemon. Then she looked at her prepared notes. What was she going to tell these people that wasn’t already in the book?
Then something occurred to her.
“Thank you for being here today” Kat said, “Does the name Kim Philby mean anything to any of you?”
This was met with a murmur. That name meant nothing to anyone outside a small circle of people who Kat was one of.
“His death was ruled to be by misadventure because it was important that the truth be hidden for the greater good” Kat said, “He was killed out of revenge, because he was the one who caused the Tumbler Ridge Massacre.”
The murmuring that Kat had heard before was back, this was not what anyone was expecting to hear today.
“Where I come in is that I had been assigned to a desk in the AA, German Foreign Service, when I had a memo cross my desk regarding activities in London…”