Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread II

No, now is the time for the BND to prove itself the more civilized service and pump this baby for all the propaganda value it has. Also ask the Empress to stop using any other agents that are a little silly like Asia or hand them over to the BND for a proper course.
 
Today had been no joy either as they waited for word about transport home. Asia had found out that in addition to taking her, the Russian soldiers had also grabbed Dick Ambrose and Blair Pritt. The instant Asia saw them she had flown into a rage, she wanted them to suffer for what they had done. Gia had stopped her from doing that and had told her that they would endure far worse where they were going.

Gulag? Mental hospital in Russia or Germany? Perhaps the prison near Stuttgart where Heydrich met his maker?

Oh, the possibilities are endless.......

I am sure PM has already dreamed up a special kind of hell for them to live out their soon to miserable days.
 
The goal is to ratchet down the tone not ramp it up.
This is how wars get started when going tit for tat is not enough and each side escalate beyond the last incidents until no one can back off and they only can go forward to where they can't stop the momentum.
As for Kira abandoning Asia, that is what happens to Non-Official Cover agents all the time, if caught they are disavowed and left behind until a deal can be made, the fact that the Americans screwed up big time and sent Asia to a hell hole should not mean that the Germans have to retaliate in kind.
A meeting of principles should be arranged to set the "ground rules" because there is no reason for each side to continue to make mistakes that lead to unintended consequences.
The deal becomes the Americans don't look too hard at what happened to Dr. Demento and Nurse Ratched and the Germans take at face value the apologies and compensation for Asia.
 

FBKampfer

Banned
TTL and OTL Russia are hardly the same. These men quite possibly don't really remember what the Soviet system was like, and how brutal it was. Their reactions speak little about the situation.


After Germany's meddling, I doubt that the other European services are going to say a word. The French especially are probably kackling as the Germans and Americans fuck each other up.
 

Grimbald

Monthly Donor
Is Asia going to be able (assuming she recovers) to return to Germany or will circumstances relegate her to spending her life in Russia as Gia's guest?

Will Kat get blamed for the whole thing with Kira and its impact on the Order?
 
While it was inappropriate for Asia to be sent to an Asylum, it's important to note that the U.S. was NOT the only one that treated inmates like this at this time. The UK performed proportionally more lobotomies. Germany (OTL) favored electro-convulsive therapy more than the US did. Honestly, the history of medicine is more like a torture manual than anything done to actually better anyone.
 
The problem that the United States has is not with the leadership at the top, it is with the underlings.
There was this time in Australia in 1940 where two ONI agents tried to kidnap a young German teenaged girl at a fancy ball, another time the personal bodyguard to the Kaiser who was meeting with the President of the United States was forced to divest herself of the weapons she had on her person.
Now this, the Field Agents should have listened to the professional in the room but they acted on their own and things got out of control.The
What President Harriman should do is find something that the Germans want that the Americans have like, I don't know maybe American Samoa?
Have a plebiscite on whether the Samoan islands are be reunited and become independent.
Another thing is to get in the Space program by announcing that the goal for the American Space Program is to build an Earth Orbital Laboratory for "Scientists in Space" with the United States footing the vast majority of budget for it and make it open to other nations to participate.

I think the real problem is that in a racist and misoginist society like TTL USA whenever federal agents catch a woman or a "brown" or "black" person not behaving "properly" according the stereotypes they will act in a really stupid way.

It can be seen in Nancy case, that was accused only for being a woman working in a typically male organisation.
 
Drug the CIA agents and have them wake up naked ... On the steps of Bedlam Asylum. Especially if they wake up with some medical electrodes glued to their body and the cables should look torn off.
 
An example needs to be made, IMVHO, but of the sort that the agent recovers from, but with the implication that NEXT TIME, it will be serious. In short, a warning that, this time, it's embarrassing, next time, much worse.

Perhaps the agent wakes up with torture or "medical" scars or even injuries tattooed on him, in places that can't easily be covered. The tattoos, of course, are disturbingly realistic. Or tattoo electrodes in sensitive places, or...

In short, the agent or agents are living billboards for what could be done.
 
Gia had sacrificed the last shreds of her life in Berlin and personal freedom in order to save her.

Gia sacrificed all that in order to save her first love from a fate literally worse than death. Feodor will probably hang around and Gia might come to treat him with something less than total distain but Gia and Asia have the perfect reason for them to be almost inseparable.

Now would be a good time for Gia to buy/build a house in Russia and move the rest of the orphans in with her. Embrace the role that the public imagines for her.
 
As for Kira abandoning Asia, that is what happens to Non-Official Cover agents all the time, if caught they are disavowed and left behind until a deal can be made, the fact that the Americans screwed up big time and sent Asia to a hell hole should not mean that the Germans have to retaliate in kind.

No, I think Kira screwed up. Asia was travelling under a diplomatic passport and while that does not give her diplomatic immunity it does make her official. And she entered the US on an official mission to the president not as an intelligence agent. Disavowing her will cost Kira in the future as it will be that much more difficult for her to get anyone to undertake a similar mission. Agents understand disavowal if they are caught actively spying but to be disavowed for no real reason, not so much.
 
No, now is the time for the BND to prove itself the more civilized service and pump this baby for all the propaganda value it has. Also ask the Empress to stop using any other agents that are a little silly like Asia or hand them over to the BND for a proper course.

This actually makes a lot of sense. Either Kira has to stop using the Sisterhood as her personal spy ring, or acknowledge that this is what they are, and lose control of them to the BND/BII.

Is Asia going to be able (assuming she recovers) to return to Germany or will circumstances relegate her to spending her life in Russia as Gia's guest?

Will Kat get blamed for the whole thing with Kira and its impact on the Order?
I could see Kira trying to blame Kat for this for not reigning in Asia, but at the same time, Kat didn't order Asia to go to America. This one falls squarely on Kira's shoulders, if Kat tells her this and Kira reacts badly, (something she has form for), then Kat's time is done.
The amusing part is that Kira will think it is punishment, Kat will consider it a much overdue reward.
 
Things actually got worse for the US
The worst part had been when the Germans had stated that Asia Lawniczak wasn’t even a spy, she was a courier and facilitator of backchannel communication between Office of the President and the German Kaiser and Kaiserin. With some reluctance, Harry Truman had confirmed that little detail to news reporters. He also said that he had tried to warn Miss Lawniczak that there was trouble coming her way and regretted that he had not been convincing enough. Truman said he truly hoped that the girl would turn up alive because she had struck him as someone whose only crime was to be adventurous. Heinrich Krekeler, the German Ambassador had said that as a Chemist by profession he was having the water tested in Washington D.C. to see if there was anything in it that might cause mental retardation.

That really is the worse part, as far as the US government and its relationships with the international community is concerned. Mistreatment of spies is one thing, it has occurred before after all, but this is the seizure, incarceration and torture of a confirmed diplomatic courier, travelling on a diplomatic passport in the course of her duties. This is something that is not done. The fact that it has happened will disgust and outrage every single government the US has relations with, formal or otherwise, because if it happened to the Germans, it could happen to anyone. It also opens up the possibility of US diplomatic couriers and whatever they may be carrying to seizure by other governments. After all, if the USA doesn't give a shit about diplomatic niceties, why should they? It's not just the CIA that will be running around saying "It wasn't us!" and demanding that heads roll at the FBI, the State Department will be screaming for blood and dreading the loss of reputation on the world stage.

Trust and repiutation is a big deal at that level and the US, thanks to the FBI Boston Field Office, just blew that with a demonstration of barbarism arising out of petty spite.
 
An example needs to be made, IMVHO, but of the sort that the agent recovers from, but with the implication that NEXT TIME, it will be serious. In short, a warning that, this time, it's embarrassing, next time, much worse.

Perhaps the agent wakes up with torture or "medical" scars or even injuries tattooed on him, in places that can't easily be covered. The tattoos, of course, are disturbingly realistic. Or tattoo electrodes in sensitive places, or...

In short, the agent or agents are living billboards for what could be done.

Or they could just tattoo "SPY!" across their foreheads and then send them home.
 
This actually makes a lot of sense. Either Kira has to stop using the Sisterhood as her personal spy ring, or acknowledge that this is what they are, and lose control of them to the BND/BII.


I could see Kira trying to blame Kat for this for not reigning in Asia, but at the same time, Kat didn't order Asia to go to America. This one falls squarely on Kira's shoulders, if Kat tells her this and Kira reacts badly, (something she has form for), then Kat's time is done.
The amusing part is that Kira will think it is punishment, Kat will consider it a much overdue reward.

Actually I think we will finally see Kat divorcing herself from Kira's control.
 
Part 81, Chapter 1226
Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Six


27th May 1957

Berlin

Everything was falling apart, that was all Kat could think about as she collected Kiki from a Luftwaffe Airfield. The girl looked afraid, that was hardly a surprise because Kiki was in unknown territory for her. Unfortunately, it was territory that Kat knew all too well. Unlike many others in her family Kiki had to be aware that she was looking at evidence of a potentially lethal inheritance.

The month of May had started badly and then had gotten worse. First had come word that Asia had been kidnapped from the hospital where she had been detained. Kira had correctly suspected that Kat had played a role but because Kat had never left her post with the First Foot while that had happened and was keeping quiet nothing had come of it. Gia had remained absent from the Imperial Court and that had not been unnoticed.

Then in the middle of the month everything had come unraveled. Gia had turned up in Moscow and gave a press conference. She announced to the world that she had paid for and led the rescue of her adopted sister Asia Lawniczak at the hands of Danvers State Hospital and the Boston Field Office of the FBI. She had then presented the file that she had taken from the hospital so that they could see for themselves what had been happening. Finally, she had said that she had shot Doctor Walter Freeman in an act that she said she wasn’t proud of, but it was her reaction in the face of such evil. She was willing to be held legally accountable for her actions. Kat had realized at that until that moment, Gia had believed that she had killed Walter Freeman. The issue wasn’t helped by Walter Freeman’s reputation getting the full light of world focus shown on it. More showman than Doctor, Freeman’s nonchalance and selling on an invasive medical procedure as a cure-all was impossible to hide. There were many who thought that his fate was poetic justice.

Even if the U.S. Government wasn’t aware that no jury in the world would convict Gia, Russia itself had closed ranks around her. For years they had seen Gia as some sort of saint, and she had not really been a public figure. She had raised some eyebrows with her love of activities that were not considered feminine, fighting and shooting. However, when mixed with the pious, wholesome image that Georgy had sold them of Gia, they had a different picture of her now. She was someone who could not back down in the face of evil, and when she encountered it, fought to kill it. The accounts of the men who had accompanied Gia into Danvers, who Kat was certain were Russian Airborne Special Forces, had described a literal Hell on Earth that “Sasha Lukichna” had fearlessly entered.

Gia had also announced that Doctor Richard Ambrose and his accomplice Blair Pratt were to be tried under one of the Anti-Stalin Laws, any Official of the State who engaged in torture of an individual that they held in detention would be looking at an extremely long stay in Siberia. The U.S. State Department had lodged a protest that they were Americans who had been arrested in America. The Russians had found that amusing and had asked when the U.S. Government was going to finish paying the money that they owed. Kat understood the implications of that. The Doctor and Nurse had been caught in the act of doing something that they shouldn’t have been doing. Now they were pawns in a larger game while enjoying the comforts of Russian prisons.

Kira had not been happy. Of all the sisterhood, Gia was the one who she could not touch, and this had put Gia firmly in the pocket of Georgy. She had favored diplomatic means of getting Asia back. Normally that would have been the right call, but in this case, someone had move quickly or Asia would have been left physically and mentally crippled. Kat had found herself in the uncomfortable position of having to defend Kira to the girls while at the same time she was having to defend Gia’s actions with Kira.

Things had come to a head a day earlier when Kat had tried to tell Kira that Gia had paid a heavy price and would continue to pay it for years to come. She had was deeply in Georgy’s debt and Kat was trying to find a way to get Gia out from under that. Kira’s response had been to state that she felt that she needed to appoint a new Kammerfräulein and that if Kat said one more word defending Gia then she would be needing a new Mistress of the Keys as well. Kat had realized that Kira was seeing Gia’s actions as a personal betrayal similar to the one she had endured at the hands of her daughter and that the Empress couldn’t be reasoned with.

That was when something that Kat had long feared would happen did. Kira had collapsed there in the middle of the Court. Kat had found herself with the Royal Physician trying to save Kira’s life after she had suffered a heart-attack.

Now the next day, Kat had come from University Hospital to get Kiki from a Luftwaffe Airfield outside the city because that would keep the Press away from Kiki at this time. Kat didn’t need to tell her what was happening, her Aunt had passed away from heart disease just months earlier and she would know that it could run in families. Kat had no idea how Kiki’s maternal grandfather had died, just that he wasn’t particularly old when he had.

“How is she?” Kiki asked as Kat walked with her from the airplane to the waiting helicopter.

“She’s doing better” Kat replied, “The Doctors are keeping her comfortable.”

“What is the prognosis, Kat?” Kiki asked, “Please don’t try to protect me from it.”

Kat hesitated for a second, she might be a serious and dedicated young woman, but Kiki was still fifteen, that was quite young for what she was asking.

“You need to help with your younger brother and sisters” Kat replied, “They don’t understand what happened.”

“What are you trying not to tell me?” Kiki demanded, her determined look wasn’t one that Kat had ever seen on Kira. She wasn’t going to happy with anything less than the truth.

“Barring a miracle…” Kat started to say but thought better of it. “This is an opportunity for you to make peace with her, you need to make the most of it, for your own sake.”

It was just as well that the engines of the helicopter prevented further conversation.
 
........In a level its both better and worse. Kiki will live with that cross in the future. I can imagine that the last words of Kira would be sadly to ask for forgiveness from her daughter for her actions, that she was immensely proud that her Daughter in a level BROKE her chains and took her destiny in her hands.

Oddly, i suspect that Kira may ask to speak with Katherine......in a level her relationship was complex. Deep down, i suspect that Kira envied Katherine for her sheer strength against all odds, yet she became a rock that Kira could hold in those hard times and further.....She further felt envy as her younger daughters saw Kat as more of a preeminent figure in their lives than their mother.....and ironically this was better now, as the last petition of Kira its to ask Kat to become the Mother figure of her younger daughters, to teach them wisdom and strength and to hold their lives's control.......

I can imagine that Kira's last words would be to be thankful that she met Kat...the first true Friend in her life, even with all the manipulation and politics....
 
That was a surprise, but a suitable one for the circumstances.

I wonder if trying the prisoners might be the wrong thing to do on some levels. Asking the Americans if they have anti-torture laws could be intersting. If they DO, then they were deliberately violating them. If NOT, why not?
 
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