Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Thirty-Two
10th July 1966
Pohnpei Island, Caroline Islands
The cottage that Kiki had been told was hers for the duration of the Holiday was just off the beach. That made it quiet at night, with just the sound of the water lapping on the beach and the distant sound of surf on the reef. Daytime was a different story though. With everyone coming down to the beach from the villa at some point during the day, it was difficult to avoid them.
In the weeks before they had left Berlin, Charlotte had arranged for Nella and Nan to receive swimming lessons. That had been great fun for them, but their reaction on the first day when they saw the beach and Pacific Ocean was something else. Nan said that she had never seen the sea before and as Suga had described, everything felt more vivid here. They had arrived in the early morning hours and even Nella and Nan had only been interested in finding a bed to get a few hours of sleep. Kiki had been there when Nan had first seen the white sand beach and turquoise water that first morning. She had stood there on the edge of the beach for several minutes, agape. Later she had told Kiki that she had no idea that places like this were real.
Now, a few days later Nella and Nan were playing in the water with Rea. Kiki was sitting in the hammock in the shade of the covered porch that ran the length of the back of the cottage reading a book that had caused everyone who saw it to give her a dirty look, The Pocket Guide to Emergency Medicine, as compiled by the School of Medicine, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena. The paperback book had been among the items in the Doctor’s bag that her father had given her, it included common injuries and ailments, how to identify them, and checklists to begin treatment. Kiki found it fascinating because she knew most of the Doctors who had contributed their notes to the text.
“Kiki, you’re supposed to be on Holiday!” Rea yelled from the water. “Put that stupid book down and join us!”
Nella and Nan called out similar things.
Swinging her feet off the hammock, Kiki knew that they wouldn’t leave her alone until she went swimming with them for a bit. She knew that if she really wanted to annoy them, she would find some work to do on this island. There had to be a clinic nearby that would be overjoyed to have her come visit. Kiki pushed that thought aside, for now, and considered what time of the day it was. There were still a couple hours until everyone would gather in the villa for lunch, during the lazy afternoon hours that followed Kiki would have plenty of time to read in peace. It only took a few minutes for her to change into the two-piece Atome style swimsuit that Zella had told her to pack before she went to join the others.
Trieste, Austria
The briefing had been unsettling to say the least.
The Turks were rearming and were going to start the next round of the decades long war against the Greeks at any time. Most of the Albanians were understandably not thrilled by the prospect of a new war, but the Turks were their only ally in the region and there were more than a few hotheads among them who wanted to take back the land that the Greeks had annexed in Southern Albina. That made the presence of armed raiders off the coast of Albania something of a mystery. Was it the Turks, some faction of the Albanians, an opportunist of some sort, or a mixture of all the above?
Another mystery was the question of what interest the Americans in the region. The role that Louis had been asked to play was a continuation of one that he had played years earlier. He’d had dealings with Captain Smith of the SS O’Brian in Kiel, because of that perhaps the Americans thought that he was someone they could do business with. The thought was that he could get an idea of what they wanted out of the present situation.
Louis had tried to carefully control what information the crew had, but after the briefing Borchardt had become completely intolerant of any slacking that he saw among them. Then Udi Brog and his men had been assigned to the Windhund and the small flotilla of German and Austrian boats that had been gathering in the Naval Base. The crew had put two and two together and had reached the conclusion that war was in the offing. The problem was that it was a bit premature even if it was the correct conclusion. The other problem was that the strategic situation remained unchanged. The High Seas Fleet wasn’t going to be in a rush to commit heavy units to the Adriatic Sea because they were too easily bottled up in Trieste. That meant light units would bear the brunt of whatever happened.
Wunsdorf had sent a coded message saying that reinforcements in the form of other S-Boats, SK-Boats, and R-Boats were being shifted from the North Sea, but other assets were needed in Danzig. No explanation had been given for that last part.
“I just hope that I am not going to get us all killed this summer” Louis said aloud as he finished reading the message.
“Then I would say that you are thinking along the right lines” Borchardt said when he heard that.
