Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Seventy-One
21st June 1963
Mitte, Berlin
The first part of the rehearsal had been a walkthrough of the Berlin Cathedral, for Kat it was a reminder of her own marriage. It had been with a considerable amount of disbelief that she realized that it had been sixteen years. Then they had got into cars and had gone to a Buddhist Temple in Spandau that Kat had no idea existed until Suga had suggested that it play an important role in the marriage between her and Freddy a few months earlier.
The location was surprising considering the history of that Borough, the prison there had been closed recently and the Government was trying to figure out what to do with it because only the worst sort of criminal had ever been sent there and seldom for long. It was the place where capital punishment had been carried out, with dozens having been sent to the guillotine, shot or hung depending on the nature of their crimes. Kat remembered when the tribunal had rendered its verdict on Lavrentiy Beria. He had been ordered hung so that his blood wouldn’t pollute the soil of Germany after his execution. The look on his face when he heard that was almost as delicious as months later when Kat implied that Gia was still alive and that his entire spy network in Europe was hopelessly compromised. Baria’s death had been exactly the sort of undignified spectacle that he deserved in Kat’s opinion. It had been worth the amount of trouble that she had landed in because of it.
By the time Stalin had followed his henchman to the gallows, Kat had found that she was no longer interested. Gia had gotten her own pound of flesh by then. Her prediction that he would get burnt up with the trash and be thrown into the midden had been very close to what had happened. Kat had been in Canada at that time and even if she had Margot to contend with, it had still been a better use of her time. The thought of Gia reminded Kat of what had happened earlier the day before when Gia had stepped off the plane that had transported the Russian Czar. Her victory had been in far outliving Stalin and if what Kat had noticed bore out then she would have one last victory over the long dead Despot in the near future. Kat needed a chance to talk to Gia alone before she went back to Russia for that very reason.
Suga’s reasoning for bringing a portion of the wedding to the Buddhist Temple was extremely good though. She said it was because to a certain extent she represented all the recent arrivals to Berlin from Japan, Korea, China and even the Russian Far East. They were a variety of religions, but this was a way of acknowledging that they were a part of life here. It was a smart move, except Kat understood just how fractious city politics were. Whoever had coined the term, you cannot please everyone, might as have been talking about Berlin. Tonight’s rehearsal dinner was a good example of that. While it was considered a family event with only selected guests that had been invited, there was no escaping that it was a royal function. There were those here who happened to be of paramount importance and had to be present for political reasons. Because Kat was one of the few living nonroyal full members of the Order of the Black Eagle, her and Douglas were seated with the Imperial Family. By comparison, the Governing Mayor of Berlin was seated halfway down the table.
Sitting closer, immediately to Kat’s left, was an icy presence that she wished that she didn’t have to put up with, Franz von Papen. As the Chairman of the Board at the Imperial Bank of Germany, he was not someone who even Louis Ferdinand could afford to ignore. As Kat had told Douglas, even Emperors have creditors and they need to receive their due. Kat’s experience of dealing with him personally had come after she and Jack Kennedy had completed the arduous task of making the lifetime of illicit wealth that she had inherited from her father look legitimate. It had been von Papen who had insisted that she be repeatedly audited. When nothing had come up the first time, he had ordered that his people start anew. It was just as well that Kat had left a considerable amount of money in the numbered accounts. The real totals would have probably caused him to have a fatal fit of apoplexy on the spot. There was also von Papen being outspoken in his personal belief in the superiority of the aristocracy over commoners. The mere existence of Gräfin Katherine von Mischner was a direct challenge to all his longwinded claptrap. Of course, someone either had not paid attention or had a twisted sense of humor when they arranged the seating. The decrepit pompous windbag was well over eighty and by some miracle still alive. In Kat’s experience, whoever said that evil never dies was wrong. She knew for a fact that evil people died all the time. Just for those who had to deal with them, it certainly felt like forever.
With that thought, Louis Ferdinand stood up and started to give the speech that he was going to give for the toast. This meant that the evening was drawing to a close, something that could not come soon enough to suit Kat.