Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Eleven
11th January 1964
Mitte, Berlin
“You commandeered an airplane and my daughter’s boyfriend for what could be considered personal reasons?” Louis asked, he had finally gotten around to calling Kat in. It was just one more minor headache atop all the others that had been consuming his life over the previous months.
“Your standing orders state that I can use all assets of the State to further the ongoing mission of keeping Jehane Thomas from harm” Kat said, “I was just checking up on her.”
“That was twenty years ago, and the world has moved on since then” Louis said, annoyed by her cheek. “How is Gia doing? And the baby?”
“Gia is doing well” Kat replied, “So is Alexei.”
“That is what she named her son?”
“Yes, and at my suggestion.”
“Are you mad?” Louis asked, “Do you understand the history of that name.”
“I understand that it is a history that Gia has to reclaim if she wants to have control of her life” Kat said, “This Saint Sasha nonsense that her cousin has foisted upon her is pure poison. Sooner or later people are going to be reminded of just who she is and why they overthrew her grandfather in the first place.”
Louis winced as Kat referenced the Russian Revolution. He was starting to believe that the efforts to head off a recurrence of that event had had unforeseen complications in his own country. The problem he had was that he didn’t even know where to start looking after his daughter had voiced her suspicions to him.
“That is a matter of opinion, and please don’t do that again in the future” Louis said and as soon as he said it, he saw the look on Kat’s face. She thought that she had won or something. “And that is not the only reason why I wanted to talk to you today.”
“I presume that it has something to do with money” Kat replied. There were times when Louis was reminded of how the press had depicted Kat for years, as a tigress laying lazily behind the throne extending her claws as a reminder that she was every bit as fearsome as her reputation suggested. This was one of those times.
“I take it that you have already talked to Kristina and Victoria?” Louis asked.
“Yes” Kat replied, “I don’t think I need to urge you to be cautious though.”
“Anything else?”
“That it might be mere misogyny as opposed to corruption.”
“Best case scenario?”
“What do you think?” Kat asked in reply.
“You understand how the board was set up, how it was designed to keep me from appointing cronies to it?”
“You have the option of appointing an outside auditor” Kat said, “And if there are any irregularities those responsible had better find religion.”
So, Kat had been thinking about this.
“You understand how Kristina has been living because of these people?” Louise asked.
“I don’t think that Kiki minds living on the pay of an FSR Hauptman on student leave as much as knowing that she is bothers you” Kat replied.
The truth about Louis’ rebellious daughters had been jarring over the last few months. Kristina’s life had been radically changed by her experiences in the Medical Service in ways that would have been unimaginable before. They had finally found a way to keep Marie Cecilie out of trouble, ironically by appointing her to a position of responsibility. And finally, there was Victoria. Charlotte had asked what he would do if she found someone who she fell in love with, just that question alone had left him with heartburn for the rest of the day.
“Do you have someone in mind to act as auditor?” Louis asked and Kat gave him that terrifying smile of hers when she was about to get exactly what she wanted.
----------------------------------------------------------------
“You are going to do nothing of the sort” Kiki said to Zella, who had just concluded a rather colorful extended rant about what she would like to do to “Mithras” the terrorist leader who had been stalking Kiki for months. Unlike before, he now had a name and a face; Lothar de Maizière. He was known to them because all of them had attended classes with him. When Kiki had considered trying out for the University Orchestra in Berlin, he had been one of her potential rivals. One of the Russian Sisters worked in his mother’s household, she had seen his taste in artwork as well as his growing obsession with Kiki over the last year and had been understandably alarmed.
Zella gave Kiki a sour look. For all her bluster Kiki knew that Zella simply wasn’t capable of carrying out most of her threats. She didn’t have it in her to actually harm another person like that and even if she did the potential consequences would make such an action pointless.
“We know who he is” Kiki said, “We just can’t prove it.”
“You have a gun” Zella replied, “Use it.”
“This isn’t a movie Zella” Aurora said, “He isn’t going to blab about what he has been doing because we threaten him.”
Thank you, Kiki thought to herself.
“We need a plan” Kiki said, “One we can stick to that ends with him in a jail cell, and no more wild talk of cutting off his favorite bits. That’s just gross.”
Kiki was looking at Zella when she said that last part. She just smirked in response.