Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Thirty-Eight
4th July 1955
Berlin
“If only my Doctor looked like Doctor Brauer there” Frau Nagler said as the credits rolled at the end of the show, “A very handsome young man.”
“Young?” Kiki asked, “He’s what, forty?”
“That’s young to me dear” Frau Nagler replied.
They were watching a medical drama set in the Casualty Department and Wards of the very hospital that they were sitting in. The fictional Doctor Brauer was an Emergency Surgeon who gave everything to his career. It was noticeable to Kiki that the character was a complete wreck in every respect that didn’t involve being a Surgeon. Frau Nagler didn’t care about that though. The dramatic music, the feeling of excitement and certainty that only a writer could come up with and an actor portray were all she cared about. From what Kiki had seen from around the hospital in the short time she had been volunteering, Doctors frequently had to make educated guesses and run tests to figure out what was going on without doing further harm to the patient. It was a process that often took hours or even days and would have made for terrible television.
“That is what you want to be Kiki?” Frau Nagler asked, “A Surgeon?”
“Eventually” Kiki replied, “I just want to find a way to help.”
“That is really wonderful” Frau Nagler said, “When I was your age, we simply were not given so many options. You truly are blessed.”
With that, the Evening News came on and the lead story was about the peace talks that Kiki’s father was trying to arrange. There Louis Ferdinand was with Freddy at his right hand as they greeted the Turkish President as he got off an airplane.
“Speaking of handsome young men” Frau Nagler said, “Prince Friedrich is closer to your age.”
Kiki almost voiced her disgust at that. The brother with a fat head who called her Whippet all the time was Princess Kristina’s problem, here she was just Kiki von Fischer.
“He’s not my type” Kiki replied and left it at that. If Kiki was being entirely honest, she didn’t have the first clue if she even had a type. She just knew that every boy she met her own age were either bores or they talked endlessly about things that she had no interest in. It got even worse if they knew who she was. That was when the inane questions started.
“His father though is an odd duck, good Emperor though. For all our sakes I hope he lives to a ripe old age” Frau Nagler said, “I remember what happened to Friedrich, his great grandfather, the poor man. He died after only a few months and his son was never quite right for the job. The world would be a very different place today if he had lived.”
Kiki found it a bit amusing that Frau Nagler called her father an odd duck. It was as good a way to describe him as any. A newspaper editorial cartoon had once depicted him as a heron, but that didn’t seem to fit quite right. Kiki had to take Frau Nagler’s word about her family history. She knew that she could look it up easily, but Kiki also knew that the history books were not always the most reliable sources of information. Kiki’s mother remembered Wilhelm the 2nd as a sad old man defeated by time, the history books had said something else entirely.
The next story came on the news, this one detailing how the massive construction site in Tempelhof was snarling regional traffic.
“If you could change the channel please” Frau Nagler said, “There must be something better on.”
Kiki wasn’t inclined to disagree.
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When Nancy arrived home, she found that a note had been dropped in the mailbox of the house. It clearly had not come through the mail, instead it was a plain white envelop with her name written on it. Nancy recognized the handwriting as belonging to someone who had been a friend at the Vienna Embassy when she had still worked with the State Department. It warned Nancy that she should be advised that entering any properties of the United States Government including Embassies and Consulates would be unwise. While no one knew what was going to happen if Nancy did that, the powers that be in State were not people she should trust to act in good faith. While she had not actually broken any laws someone very high up was angry with her, someone who no one dared to cross. Kat had said that when she learned what Nancy was doing, she had feared that something like this might happen.
Looking out her bedroom window. She saw the street out front, the leaves on the trees and a woman walking a dog. It could have been a side street in any city that Nancy had ever lived in, but there was something unique about it. She liked the place that she had ended up. At the same time the thought kept rolling through her head was an observation that Asia had made, the relationship that she had with the country of her birth was like an emotionally abusive spouse after a nasty breakup. They had done everything they could to force Nancy out. Now that she was gone, they were still making things difficult because of hard feelings.