Chapter One Thousand Sixty-Eight
5th June 1954
Berlin
It was the first time that Judita had been in the hospital in years and she wasn’t liking it anymore than her prior experiences. Especially because she had a doctor talking at her.
“I notice that suffered a fairly substantial head injury several years ago” The Doctor said.
“It has nothing to do with that” Judita answered, she had already been forced to admit that she experienced nausea in descending elevators. The Doctor had made clear that everything relevant.
“I must disagree with you Fraulein Schovajsa” The Doctor said, “It says here that you were unconscious for a week.”
“I just wasn’t feeling well” Judita replied, “All that happened was that I was feeling faint.”
“You suffered a convulsive seizure that you are now trying to minimize, and your roommate, who I might add is terrified for you, told us that it may have happened before” The Doctor said, “We still need to run more tests, but it looks like you are Epileptic. That is something that you need to take very seriously.”
That was not something that Judita wanted to hear, as she tried not to burst into tears she focused on the most distant point she could see and shut out what he was saying. In exasperation the Doctor got up and she was left alone. This was everything she imagined would happen in her life crashing down around her. Kat would learn of this, that was unavoidable. She would never get a chance to prove herself as she had hoped, the opportunity had passed because of her health. She sat there in the examination bay for a time feeling sorry for herself.
“Hello Jitka” A disheveled man wearing a stained lab coat said as he walked in. “You are looking well today.”
“Is that a joke?” Judita said, no one had called her that in years.
“Hardly considering how you were the last time we saw each other” The man said, “I was having to set the bones in your arm and leg in the castle, and you had a nasty cut on your scalp.”
“How can you remember that and who are you?”
“Albert Brandt, I’m a Doctor here, Neurologist by specialty though much of my work has been in Pharmacology” Brandt said, “And I tend to remember the miracles.”
“You are saying I’m a miracle?” Judita asked, because it certainly didn’t feel that way.
“A girl gets brought in after having a building fall on her, unconscious, with a crushed body and a grim prognosis at that time” Brandt said, “She makes a full recovery and goes on to make something of herself like you have. I would say that is a miracle.”
“According to your friend who just left I wouldn’t say that the recovery was full” Judita said.
Brandt just shrugged. “He’s an Emergency Surgeon” He said, “The best sort of person to have on hand if you were bleeding out, but not the best person if you are sick and needed convincing to take better care of yourself.”
Judita looked at Brandt quizzically. “What are you doing here?”
“I pay attention to who gets admitted down here” Brandt said, “Those from Gräfin von Mischner’s inner circle are always fascinating.”
“You cannot be serious” Judita said.
“Serious as a heart attack” Brandt said, “Now are you interested in learning how to control your condition or are you planning to have another seizure in a market. Which happens to be what landed you here today.”
“You know about that?” Judita asked, mortified that might be common knowledge.
“Doctors do talk to each other” Brandt said, “Particularly when they are dealing with a stubborn patient who they are happy to pass to on someone else.”
6th June 1954
Potsdam
“According to intelligence sources, we are continuing to find evidence of Russian armor being deployed in Greece” Kat said as she summarized what she had just read aloud.
“We’ve known all along that Russia would reemerge on the world stage” Kira said, “I just hoped that Georgy would wait a bit longer before jumping in with both feet.”
It was something that was inescapable, the way that the current structure of the Russian Government was very different from other nations that it might have been based on. It had been hoped years earlier that elected bodies would maintain greater control than they had. While the Czar wasn’t able to be an autocrat by any stretch of the imagination, Georgy had convinced the bulk of the Russian public that he shared their struggles and represented their interests against the rest of the world. That had unfortunately included their own elected Government at times. The result was that Georgy had more power over Russia than any other monarch in Europe had over their nation. Kat’s hope was that the Reichstag was paying attention to that and would respond accordingly in the future.
“We have been talking for a long time about the need to reach out diplomatically to your cousin” Kat said.
“You have been talking about that” Kira replied, “And I have been giving you my reasons for taking a different course of action.”
“Very well” Kat said, “We will still need to do something, if the Greeks get greedy then we are unsure of the consequences.”
Kira became stone faced. She understood the implications, but at the same time there was a part of her that had taken sides in this matter.
“I learned that one of the eyes was in the hospital yesterday” Kira said. Changing the subject to something that Kat couldn’t easily dismiss.
“Judita suffered a seizure in the market yesterday morning” Kat said, “She has had her problems, this just adds to it.”
All the girls were having issues. Judita getting sick had come on the heels of Kris discovering that she had low bone density. Then of all the Doctors who could get through to Judita it had to be Brandt. He had gotten Judita to agree to cooperate with treatment and then suggested a few things that were questionable.