Chapter Two Thousand Thirty-Four
7th December 1970
Estancia María, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina
It had started with an argument between Doctor von Preussen and the Sergeant in charge of her security after he had received a radio transmission and had come back furious. Ernesto had hardly been able to understand the rapid-fire German that had gone back and forth. It had sounded like he had accused her of withholding information about something that Ernesto had been unable to catch. She had said that it was impossible, she hadn’t been with anyone since she had left Germany and that a mistake must have been made. Did she look like she was six-months along and wouldn’t she be the first to know? The Sergeant had turned and told her that he wasn’t alone in being tired of her constant lies and self-destructive behavior, so it didn’t matter what she was. The other three men present had agreed with that assessment. All of that was beside the point because with the Chileans coming. They were going back to Rio Gallegos that instant, and he was not going to listen to any more bullshit.
Ernesto was given the choice of either going with them or walking. That was how he had found himself in the backseat of the Iltis as the Sergeant, the Corporal who was driving were in the front and the other two men who were different flavors of Lance Corporal were riding in the back with the remaining supplies. They had done this to prevent Kristina from jumping out the back when they came to a stop. It seemed that she had done that sort of thing before and they were not taking any chances.
Over the last couple months, Ernesto had observed Doctor von Preussen and had found that she was not to his liking. She was beautiful, however he found her to be boring. She was entirely too straitlaced, driven, and married. Watching her get thrown into the back of an Iltis like a sack of flour because of things that she had done in the past revealed that she apparently had a bit more depth than he had thought.
It had been on the road back to Rio Gallegos where the things had really gone sideways with the appearance of the Chilean Airforce. The Iltis had been strafed, Ernesto remembered the sound of shells hitting the bonnet and exploding, seconds before the Corporal had lost control of the vehicle and it had careened into the ditch on the side of the road. Ernesto must have hit his head because everything had gone black at that point. When he came to, he saw that the Iltis was resting on its side and that Kiki was standing with a pair of Gauchos who had come to help. The Corporal and the Sergeant had been torn apart by shell fragments and the two in the back had been thrown from the vehicle when it had crashed, that had ended badly for them.
To Ernesto’s surprise Doctor von Preussen was weeping for the men who had been so abrupt with her just a couple hours earlier. The Iltis was a total loss, that included much of the equipment that they’d had and especially the radio. Ernesto had figured that they were sort of screwed at that point, but it had not been until they had arrived at Estancia María that the full picture became clearer. It was not good. There were entire armies between them and any sort of safety. The people here knew Doctor von Preussen from the medical missions and saw helping her as a means of returning that debt. What had surprised him, but really shouldn’t have was that she had ditched her uniform for civilian clothes worn by the of the people in this region shortly later though she still was more than happy to be a Physician. It showed what she really considered her profession to be. The military rank was just superficial trappings and if she needed to dispense with it in order to hide until she had a workable plan, that wasn’t a problem. Ernesto could also see that she looked the part of a local woman with her dark hair and her blue eyes were not out of place. There were a lot of people in Patagonia descended from Welsh and German-Swiss settlers from the prior century about. The trouble was the way she walked, like if she owned whatever place she happened to be and when she opened her mouth, she couldn’t help but sounding urbane and educated.
“I know a lot about head injuries” Doctor von Preussen had said, when Ernesto had asked why she was putting up with him not contributing much for the first couple days.
“How is that?” Ernesto asked, half-jokingly.
“What happened a couple days ago wasn’t the first time someone tried to kill me” Doctor von Preussen replied, “One of the other times left me with a skull fracture. At least this time, it was simply being in the wrong place, impersonal, you know.”
That was a shocking detail about her. He would have thought that the daughter of the German Kaiser led a sort of charmed life. It seemed that Doctor von Preussen’s life was anything but that. As for what that argument with the Sergeant had been about, she waved that off. “Those jackals have not honored a single boundary of mine since I arrived in this wasteland” She said, “I would not put messing with the results of a blood sample to cause me trouble past them. Especially if they think that the result could get me sent home.”
Ernesto couldn’t imagine having to consider that and had said as much to Doctor von Preussen. He had also called her that and she had asked him not to. If they were stuck together, they might as well be friends and her friends called her Kiki. It was an odd request from her.
“It’s a nickname” Kiki said when Ernesto asked about it. “One my brothers gave me.”
“Deal then” Ernesto replied, “Only if you call me Che.”
“Why would you want that?” Kiki asked.
“Why would you want to be called Kiki?” He asked in reply.
