Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread II

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Seventeen


10th March 1957

Three months.

Kiki realized that was all the time she had left in Japan. Only ninety days and change. When she had been sent away for a year it had seemed to yawn ahead of her like a vast canyon impossible to bridge. Now it felt like she was on the verge of going home. She was trying to process exactly what to make of the events of the last year and the events that had led up to her exile. Tonight, she was opening the various letters that she received over the last few weeks.

Kiki knew that she was going to have to write replies, a lot of them offered condolences for what had happened to her family in recent days. Kiki knew that she was doing well enough personally but there were many things to say. She figured that if she wrote anything it would probably include the most significant thing to happen since she had returned to Japan. A large earthquake in the Aleutian Islands had struck the prior afternoon. Kiki had seen how seriously the Japanese had taken the tsunami warning. Kyoto was somewhat inland, but in Japan one was never far from the sea.

She opened another letter and this one was from Nora Berg. She didn’t offer Kiki any condolences, instead she was asking if Kiki was taking proper care of herself. Berg had also said that when Kiki had been in Berlin in February that had been a lost opportunity for Kiki to have gotten her annual physical. Ominously, Doctor Berg said that she had already arranged with Kiki’s mother for an appointment in June and she looked forward to seeing her.

Suga heard Kiki’s exasperated sigh.

“What is that?” Suga asked.

“A letter from my Mentor” Kiki replied.

“You don’t sound particularly happy.”

Kiki thought about what to say in reply to Suga.

“She is also my Doctor” Kiki said, “She specializes in women’s issues and she wants to see me in that capacity.”

“I see” Suga said, “That presents problems for you?”

“When I went in last year, my mother was there when they were looking at the ultrasound” Kiki said, “I was laying on the table in just a hospital gown as they were looking at my… womb and other bits, and she acted like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.”

Suga gave a Kiki a quizzical look, “Then request that your mother wait outside next time” She said, “And what’s an ultrasound?”

“It’s a device that uses sound waves to see into the body” Kiki said, “It sounds more interesting than it is, and they prefer to do it when you have a full bladder, so it is uncomfortable as well. And not just because the device is cold when they rub it on your belly.”

With that Suga had her hand over her mouth in the way she had been trained to do over a lifetime. Unbelievably, she found the whole thing funny.

“I couldn’t imagine my mother’s reaction to finding out that I even have those bits as you refer to them” Suga said, “The way she acts you would think that we get those in a box on our wedding day.”

Kiki then understood, she had been around Suga for months but could count on one hand the number of times she had seen the Empress Consort. Since Suga was a child she had lived a separate life from her parents. She had no way of knowing if what Suga said was true or not.

“This device, it allows a Doctor to look right into the human body?” Suga asked, “Like an X-Ray?”

“It’s not as damaging as an X-Ray” Kiki replied.

Suga sat there blinking again. Kiki sometimes forgot that the rest of the world was still trying to catch up when it came to the sciences. As someone who was trying to get into University and Medical School, she had kept abreast of many of the latest discoveries. One of those had been the potential dangers of X-Rays, which was one of the discoveries of the nuclear weapons research. There had been incidents where exposure to radiation had proven fatal to a few of the researchers. That news probably hadn’t reached Japan yet.


Berlin

The Government of the City-State of Berlin was at odds with the Federal Government over a project that the City wanted, and the Federal Government was opposed to. That was hardly anything new, but it was an odd echo of the proposed Flak towers that had been proposed during the Second World War except the situation was reversed this time. The complaint about the Flak towers was that it was like driving an iron stake through the heart of the city. How was building a 370-meter-tall television tower in the middle of Berlin any different? Helene, who had spent a great deal of time in the one Flak tower that had been built, the Castle, didn’t think so.

What was different this time was that the backers of the project had discovered that they had a powerful ally in this battle, Gräfin Katherine von Mischner. As soon as Helene had seen Kat’s name attached to the project and the proposed location near Alexanderplatz she had known that the deck would be stacked against those opposed to the project. The neighborhood councils on that side of the river had been in the pocket of the Mischner family for decades. While Kat might not have gone into the family business, she was still a friend they knew they could count on, an increasingly influential one. The area around Alexanderplatz was also slated for redevelopment. Helene had a feeling that she already knew who owned a considerable amount of the property around there and would stand to benefit considerably from having that monstrous eyesore practically next door.

It was the sort of thing that strained friendships. Helene knew that Kat was a trained Intelligence Officer and she would have had access to the very information in question. Buy low and sell dear, that was Economics 101 and Kat had done exactly that with the Tempelhof project. She was clearly doing that again with Alexanderplatz.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Eighteen


25th March 1957

Kyoto

It was something that had never occurred to Kiki until she had woken up with a runny nose and itchy eyes. The cherry blossom season had arrived. Everyone in the household of the old palace had been overjoyed except for her, she got to sniffle and wheeze through the day. Yes, the trees were beautiful, but Kiki found it hard to appreciate them when she was like this.

“Are you alright?” Suga asked as they had been driven to the school they attended. Kiki had just said that she would be fine and that this sort of thing happened to her every spring.

Still though, it was a sunny afternoon and Doctor Berg had gotten after her the previous winter about not getting enough sunlight. So, Kiki endured the hay fever until she had made it back to the guest house where she took two antihistamine tablets. She had always resisted taking those pills, Diphenhydramine was what was printed on the bottle because they made her sleepy. Today was no exception. The result was that Kiki got out her futon and put it in the sunlight and took a nap. A couple hours later, Suga found her there and woke her up by sitting next to her on the floor.

“This isn’t like you” Suga said.

“Allergy medication” Kiki replied, feeling like her head was stuffed full of cotton balls and her own voice sounded like it was coming from the next room, “I’m no good for anything when I take those.”

“Sounds difficult” Suga said.

Kiki heard that but didn’t care, she was looking at Suga’s long black hair. “Your hair, it’s so lovely” She said, “Mine is like a dust mop.”

Suga just had a slight smile as she listened to Kiki say that, “There is an expression I’ve heard” She replied, “The grass in always greener on the other side of the fence.”

“Oh” Kiki replied, “You are still beautiful and all the other things I’m not. It’s why Freddy likes you.”

“I’ve known Freddy since I was nine-years-old and we were playmates” Suga replied, “His interest in me has always been as a friend.”

“Just give him a chance” Kiki said, “Real friends are hard to find for people like us.”

Kiki saw Suga smile at that, she remembered again that smiles mean different things to different cultures. She might have just embarrassed her friend again.

“I’ll tell the Cook that you are not feeling well and have something sent to you when you are ready” Suga replied.


Berlin

As Nancy sat there in an uncomfortable chair in the hospital, she was thinking that somewhere out there Kat must be having a laugh over this. Doctor Berg was looking across her desk at her and Tilo, her face rather unreadable. Kat had said that despite the considerable differences she’d had with Berg she knew that Berg was among the best in the world when it came to these matters. Doctor Berg had explored every aspect of Nancy’s life and found it wanting. Then there was what she had to say about the apartment that Nancy shared with Tilo in Cuxhaven, it was too small because babies take up more space than people realize. Tilo had spoken with the Base Comandante about finding them a new place before Nancy’s due date. It was a good thing that they still had a few months…

“You seem to be progressing nicely, but in the scan that I had done there was a discrepancy” Berg said, “The original due date worked out with your Doctor back in November may have been off and you are further along than previously thought. Rather than in late June, I would say that you had better prepare for mid to late May.”

“What are you saying?” Nancy asked.

“Nothing that needs to concern you too much” Berg replied, “You are probably closer to seven months along.”

“I only have one question” Tilo said, “Were you able to tell if it was a boy or girl?”

Nancy turned towards Tilo completely filled with sudden rage. “We had an agreement Dietrich Ignatz” She hissed at him, “To wait, so that it would be a surprise.”

“Ma wants to buy us some things and that would make it a whole lot easier” Tilo said, only to get a withering look from Nancy who was having none of that.

“If you two could take this outside” Berg said, “That would be nice.”

Doctor Berg watched as they took their argument out into the lobby. It was fairly typical that this sort of thing happened even before technology had opened new frontiers for couples to argue over, and Berg found it informative when that happened. During pregnancy emotions ran high and that brought out the best and worst in people. If Dietrich “Tilo” Schultz would ever raise a hand against his wife or child, then this would probably when that side of him would come out. So far, he had not shown any inclination in that regard, but Berg had dealt with men and women from elite military units before. With them violence was always just under the surface. For all his pretense of being a scholar and philosopher, Tilo had gotten where he was by being what he needed to become in order to survive. She had also heard from Kat Mischner what his father was like.

Berg knew the answer to Tilo's question but had understood that she would honor Nancy’s wishes in that regard.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Nineteen


1st April 1957

Peenemünde

It was now the Hauptmann Thomas Kolman Waltz Training and Research Center, it had been officially dedicated on the first of April and it definitely felt like the joke was on the Raumfahrer Program. Albrecht had been meeting with the others in the program, Linus Dunst had pointed out that judging from the number of accidents involving unmanned rockets and the events surrounding Atgeir 8, it was only a matter of time before many of the streets or buildings in Peenemünde would have their names attached to them. It was noticeable that the gallows humor that had surrounded the entire program had been absent in recent months. Having to attend a memorial service had made those jokes a whole lot less funny.

The political situation was a mess. The Reichstag had appointed a committee to examine the entire program and a lot of things had come to light. The exact nature of the program, the rush to be first and the sort of chances that they had taken had all come to light. No one in the program had come off looking particularly good. Eventually, it had been Albrecht’s father who had come to their rescue. Graf von Richthofen was highly respected in aviation circles and he had reminded people that while the Space Program was dangerous and expensive, it was fulfilling the very mission that it had set out to do. Accepting those risks and carrying out the mission anyway was what it meant to be a Raumfahrer. They were among the best their nation had ever produced. That had given everyone a warm glow as the review had been carried out and profound changes started to be made.

What Albrecht’s father had told him in private was completely different. He had finally given Albrecht his blessing to marry Ilse, but his reasoning had been harsh. As a widow Ilse would be eligible to receive Albrecht’s pension and she would probably need all the help she could get after Albrecht’s likely death in the Atgeir Project or in whatever projects followed.

Then there was the latest batch of volunteers. Albrecht had found himself having to contend with men, and even some women this time, who not only had seen how dangerous the program was but had rushed to join because of it. Finally, there was how the program had been opened to all Allied Air Forces the program had suddenly found itself with an international flavor. Most troubling of all, Albrecht found himself eye to eye with a man who was quite literally known as the Devil.


Berlin

Meeting Kat for lunch had been a good idea at the time Helene had come up with it and they had been having an enjoyable discussion. Then Kat involvement with the tower project had come up.

“I didn’t learn any of it from intelligence reports” Kat said, “It was actually Gerta who told us about the planned tower last year. Weren’t you listening?”

That caused Helene to pause for a few seconds.

“I can understand that” Helene said, “But taking advantage of inside information is unethical, no matter where you get it from.”

“I’m not a politician Helene” Kat replied, “And you know full well that I will take every advantage I can get.”

Helene realized that Kat had the same attitude that she had years earlier when she had been negotiating rent on the house that she would eventually own. She was also aware that Kat kept track of every last pfennig in her household. It was how she had always been with money and it was the least endearing aspect of her personality. That didn’t solve the mystery of where her investment money had come from. What Kat had spent on the Tempelhof project should have been far beyond her means. She was in the process of getting a return on that investment, having the City and University as her tenants would see to that, but to turn around and invest so quickly with Alexanderplatz… Something was going on.

“I have my nieces and nephew to consider Kat” Helene said, “If you are going down the same road that your father did then I have great cause to be concerned.”

Kat just paused and went still, Helene could tell that she was struggling not to get angry over that.

“I am not my father” Kat stated flatly, “I’m do the best I can with the means that I have been provided so that my children can have a better life.”

“Perhaps” Helene said, “But these risks you are taking. Where did the money come from?”

“The money is my own” Kat said, though Helene “As for risks… Have you ever thought about where your own family’s money came from?”

That caught Helene short, it was something she hadn’t thought about.

“Land, Helene” Kat said, “And the accumulation of wealth over generations. That was how the descendants of a bastard son of Leopold the First, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau got where they are. Your family also really cleaned up when Friedrich the Great invaded Silesia.”

Helene hated that because everything that Kat had just said was more or less true.

“I’m doing the first part of that” Kat said, “The center of the city has been allowed to decay to a degree since the war. I can acquire it cheaply at a time when the Government is looking at ways to revitalize it.”

“Still” Helene said, “People ask questions.”

“Let them” Kat replied, “Those are mostly people who’ve hated me for the last twenty years.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Twenty


13th April 1957

Berlin

The staff of Leary’s Tavern was still working to put the place back in order. Jack Kennedy couldn’t help but notice that plywood covered one of the windows. He used Leary’s tavern as his impromptu office while he was in Berlin. That had its drawbacks at times like this.

“Have a wild night Leary?” Jack asked.

With that Jack got the stink eye from Leary Quinlan who was tending bar like he did most mornings.

“One of the goddamned Panzer Regiments let some of their men go on leave and they came here” Leary growled, “They managed to drink all the beer, but after the damage they did I’ll be lucky to break even for the night and one of my waitresses quit this morning because of them.”

Jack knew that for all his complaining, Leary bought his beer wholesale directly from the breweries. Here in the city he sold it at a considerable markup. That meant that if the party that had caused all the trouble the night before really had drunk all beer Leary would have come out far ahead even with the broken window.

“Did you report them to their Officers?” Jack asked.

“Those were the Officers” Leary said.

“I see” Jack replied, “Perhaps you ought to talk to the client who is supposed to meet me here, her brother is a General in the Panzer Corps.”

Leary made a face at that, “Official notice is all I need” He said sarcastically.

Jack just shrugged, “If it gets them to pay for a new window then it might be worth your while.”

If Leary heard him, he didn’t say because that was when Kat walked in. While she was an attractive woman, she was no Norma Bolender. Besides that, Jack preferred blonds to redheads.

“Morning Countess, the usual?” Leary asked as Jack led her to one of the booths.

“Yes” Kat said to Leary as she sat down across the table.

“So?” Jack asked, “What was so important that I needed to come thirteen hundred kilometers out of my way?”

“I pay a considerable amount for your time” Kat replied.

“And my firm loves you for that” Jack said.

“I’ve a situation that I need to get ahead of before I require the other services you offer” Kat said before she paused as Leary placed her drink, soda water with lime in front of her.

“You aren’t planning on killing someone again, are you?” Jack asked, “As your Legal Counsel I can tell you that would be bad no matter where you do it or why.”

“Don’t be obtuse Jack” Kat said, “If the last decade has taught me anything, it’s that trying to shoot my way out of situations just causes me trouble.”

“Good to hear” Jack replied, “What is the situation that you needed to discuss?”

“My friend Helene” Kat said, “She’s asking questions about my investments, where the money came from and why there is so much of it. Because she is concerned.”

With Jack’s help, Kat had been investing her father’s ill-gotten gains in projects in Berlin. It seemed that she was trying to become the German equivalent of the elderly Texas man from the joke who is listening to two tycoons brag about the size of their ranches, with oil, thousands of head of cattle and what they call their ranches on an airplane flight. When they ask him what he has he tells them that his property is a modest ten acres with no oil or cattle that he calls Downtown Dallas. Having Helene von Richthofen, an elected Member of the German Reichstag sniffing around Kat’s finances presented a huge problem for them and because of the impending marriage between Kat’s younger sister and the current von Richthofen heir the two families were going to be further meshed together in the future.

“I think that we’ve created enough of a paper trail that your finances will stand up to scrutiny” Jack said, “Still, your friend will need to be handled carefully.”

“She’s like a sister to me and I want to tell her about what I’m planning, but Helene is too much like her father” Kat said, “She wouldn’t be able to get past where the money came from.”

“I’ve never met the Graf” Jack said, “He has a reputation for being uncompromising.”

“You know phrase, spare the rod and spoil the child?” Kat asked and Jack nodded in reply, “With him it is made of steel and it’s the same one he has crammed up his ass.”

“I take it that says a lot about his relationship with his children?” Jack asked.

“You would not believe what he said to Bert and Ilse a few weeks ago” Kat replied, “He basically told them that he expects Bert to get himself killed, if they get married before that happens then at least his pension will see that Ilse is provided for.”

While Jack understood the cold-blooded logic behind that statement, it was a messed-up thing to have said.

“I would have thought that his problem would have been having another commoner marry into his family” Jack said.

“That’s not it” Kat said, “The Graf and his wife have always been kind to Ilse, the Graf himself though has always been… well, somewhat harsh with his own children.”

“I see” Jack replied, that cut a bit close to home for him.

“I don’t understand it” Kat said, “I’ve seen how he behaves towards Ilse, or any of his grandchildren. Completely different, and after what happened to Lothar… As I said, I don’t understand it.”

“That is not the sort of thing I can help you with” Jack said, “Keeping your finances from legal entanglements is far easier.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred One


15th April 1957

Peenemünde

As a part of effort to boost public confidence in the program Albrecht had been leading tours through the training center a lot lately. Normally, he would have been giving this tour to Government Officials or other VIPs but today he was leading different sort of group. A school science club.

“This is the simulator control room” Albrecht said as he led the school group into the room, two dozen ten-year-old girls whose attention he had to keep somehow. “If you look through the windows you will see the simulator itself.”

They could see the round steel sphere that held the simulator spinning within the rings that gave it the full range of motion. “In there we can create the best approximation of being in orbit here on Earth” Albrecht continued, “Right now one of the brave Raumfahrers is practicing what such a mission would be like.”

Albrecht flipped a switch and the voice of the Raumfahrer in question. Lucky for Albrecht it wasn’t in a language that these girls would understand, still the tone was unmistakable. These girls knew swear words when they heard them. The giggling made that clear. Albrecht turned it off mid-sentence, he didn’t think that any of the microphones in the control room were active but the last thing he needed was to hear the Japanese pilot to realize he was being laughed at by a bunch of schoolgirls.

“Kaigun-chūsa Nishizawa is currently doing one of our more challenging simulations” Albrecht said.

Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, better known as the Devil of the South China Sea, had eluded the efforts of the combined Fleet Air Command to kill him while inflicting many embarrassing losses upon them. Later he had led an interceptor squadron in the defense of Japan where he continued the fight against the Luftwaffe until the civil war at the end of the war had seen him flying against his own countrymen. After the war it had emerged that he was the leading Japanese ace, something that he had not known during the conflict because the Japanese Navy tended to credit entire squadrons with kills rather than the individual. His relatively low rank for his age was a mark of where he had started as an Enlisted Sailor, being a Warrant Officer until late in the war. He had come to the Space Program because it offered him a real challenge. And as he had said to Albrecht, if things go wrong a death that involved becoming a shooting star was absolutely glorious from his perspective.

“Next we are going to look at the computers that run the simulator” Albrecht said, “Weighing in at one thousand kilograms and fitting in a single room, they are of the most advanced design that science can create.”

The girls were chattering excitedly at the prospect. This was exactly the sort of thing that they had come here to see. As they went into the computer Albrecht caught Jo’s eye and she smiled as she walked past. Months earlier Ilse had given her a tour of the University of Berlin’s new Humboldt Campus Science Building and that had inspired her interest in the subject. She had then joined her school’s science club, and Ilse had asked Albrecht if he could get that club a tour. Something he had been happy to do.


Cambridge, Massachusetts

She had been intending to follow Truman’s parting advice, but life had other plans for her. Asia had met Patrick and his girlfriend Sandy in a bar in Greenwich Village and they had been entranced by her adventurous life. They had gotten drunk and high that night with Asia introducing Pat and Sandy to hashish which few in New York had heard of. In the weeks that followed they had pulled up stakes in New York and headed for Boston where Patrick had friends among the students of Harvard. They had been shocked by how sexually liberated Asia was but after some initial hesitation they had followed her lead. The only thing that amazed Asia was that Sandy had no idea what an orgasm even was before she had come along.

Asia knew it wouldn’t last, it was the sort of thing that never did, and she had the feeling that if she remained out of contact much longer Kris would come looking for her. That had happened once in the past and it had been extremely awkward. Kris didn’t approve of her doing this sort of thing even though she had absolutely no room to criticize her for it. So, she was planning her exit, just breaking it off by vanishing from their lives in much the same way that she had entered it. As with most mornings, Asia extracted herself from the bed they shared and went into the bathroom to wash and brush her teeth. After she dressed, Asia took a few minutes to quietly gather her belongings. She noticed that Sandy was awake and watching her.

“Sorry, but I must go my love” Asia said, and she kissed Sandy on her forehead. From the look on her face Sandy must have realized the finality of that. Asia knew that it would have been better if she had just remained asleep.

Moving swiftly, Asia grabbed her bag and walked for the door and out into the hallway. She heard the click of the door as it locked behind her. In the years since she had broken up with Gia, she had always been careful not to get too attached to her lovers. Still, Asia didn’t like how she had always seemed to leave broken hearts behind.

Standing in the hallway waiting for the elevator, Asia had a feeling that something was off. The sort of feeling that she had been trained to never ignore. Walking swiftly towards the back stairs, Asia heard the gate of the elevator open as she descended to the first landing. A few seconds later came the sound of splintering wood and Sandy’s scream. Asia ran down the stairs as swiftly as she could. Days earlier she had gone through the building and had looked at all the possible escape routes. She knew that the entrances would all be watched, so she had looked for an alternate exit. When she reached the first third floor landing, she opened the window and saw that the narrow alley on this side of the building was still clear. She jumped across the alley to the next building a meter and a half away and grabbed the opposite window sill. As she felt the rough bricks digging into the palms of her hands, she knew that this wouldn’t be difficult if it weren’t for the bone crushing drop beneath her.

Prying open the window she crawled into the stairwell of the building. As she tried to bring her breathing and heartbeat back into control, she felt a stab of guilt over what had just happened to Pat and Sandy but knew it was too late for her to help them.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Two


16th April 1957

Washington D.C.

The call into the Headquarters of the FBI from the Boston Field Office was not what anyone was expecting. Casandra Lodge, the young daughter of US Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. had been caught up in a vice sweep that had been conducted by local police in Cambridge, Massachusetts. That was hardly a surprise. As the FBI Director, Eliot Ness got calls from people in high places who had either run afoul of the Law or someone in their family had. They expected him to help make it all go away somehow. Usually Ness told them to pound sand unless they had some truly useful information. As first glance, Casandra Lodge had run off with her boyfriend to lead a bohemian lifestyle. It was hardly a surprise that she would get eventually get busted with a small amount of marijuana in an old hotel.

It was one of the salacious details of this matter that had caught the Boston Field Office’s attention. Casandra Lodge and her boyfriend had engaged in an illicit Ménage à trois with a woman who matched the description of a suspected Foreign Agent. One crafty enough to disappear in a building that had supposedly been sealed off by the police.

It was obvious why Senator Lodge wanted this matter to go away, at the same time Ness understood the need to apprehend the woman who was at the center of all this. If she was smart, then she would be on her way out of the country. Ness picked up the phone, he needed his best people on it. The FBI had known that with the new Administration they needed to make an example of someone and prove their worth, this was their chance. He got the head of the Counter Intelligence Division on the phone, he had known John Aleshire for years and this was in his wheelhouse.


Boston, Massachusetts

They had grabbed her in Logan International trying to board a flight to Paris. Another five minutes and she would have been out of this country.

“Asia” The one of the men with the ill-fitting suits and bad haircuts said, “If you just tell us your version of events, I’m sure that we can work this out. A misunderstanding.”

He had identified himself as Edward Reed. His partner, Mike Scranton, was silent and glaring at her. He hadn’t said much yet, but it was obvious that Scranton was going to play the bad cop.

They had her real passport, she had retrieved it from where it had been cached on her way to the airport. That made this the stickiest situation she had ever found herself in. Asia knew that they didn’t really have anything to hold her on, Pat and Sandy had known her as Ingrid. She had nothing in her possession that justified her detention. They would need to contact the German Embassy because her passport had her diplomatic credentials, otherwise they would cause an international incident. She just needed to maintain her silence until then, she had years of practice when it came to maintaining silence.

“Care to tell us why a woman matching your description was seen leaving an apartment where police found an illicit narcotic?” Scranton asked with a harsh tone.

That was clumsy, it suggested that Asia had committed a crime without actually accusing her. They had been going on at length for an hour without formally arresting her. They were trying to get her to talk and incriminate herself, she was not about to oblige them by doing that.

“Enough of that Mike” Ed said, “We already know that you were there Asia, you only need to tell us the truth. You’ve nothing to worry about, right?”

That was an insult to Asia’s intelligence.

Time ticked by with them talking at her, Asia was starting to get bored.

----------------------------------------------------------------

John Aleshire was watching the interrogation through the one-way mirror. Asia Lawniczak maintained her silence all afternoon until the Deputy Director of the Boston Field Office came in.

“We aren’t going to get anything from her” John said, “This isn’t some skell who robbed a liquor store.”

“No, she isn’t, and she’s smart enough to know we can’t prove shit” The Deputy Director said.

“You don’t sound too bothered by that” John replied.

The Deputy Director didn’t react.

“She has a diplomatic passport” John said, “That might complicate things if we continue to hold her.”

The Deputy Director looked at John with a smirk on his face.

“So fucking what” The Deputy Director said, “She’s not getting released by us, not anytime soon anyway. We’ve come up with something a bit more creative.”

That sounded to John like some of the clever plans that he had seen criminals come up with. The sort that had a way in blowing up in their faces.

“We don’t have much on her that we can prove in front of a jury” The Deputy Director said, “But we’ve heard a bit about how she’s gender and sexually deviant not to mention a Polack. They will love that where she is going.”

“Excuse me, Sir” John asked.

The Deputy Director laughed at that, “We are planning on sending her to Danvers for observation, and then for the damnedest reasons her paperwork will accidently get lost” He said, “By the time the Krauts figure out what happened there won’t be a whole lot left of their girl.”

“I see” John said. His mind was already racing. What he had just heard was illegal and he knew that he would need to get word to BND-NAA about what was happening.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Three


23rd April 1957

Berlin

Kat felt like she was sick to her stomach. Everything had gotten screwed up. Asia had overstayed in the United States, she was supposed to have returned weeks earlier after getting a gauge of the American public during the Presidential Inauguration. Instead she had run off doing God knows what in the weeks since and she had gotten caught by American Law enforcement though no one was saying what she had been detained for. The BND had somehow learned what had happened. They were not saying much because their source was highly placed, and they didn’t want to risk compromising that individual. The AA were trying to keep the whole thing quiet because of whispers of the things that Asia had been suspected of doing. What it all amounted to was their intention to do nothing but wait and hope that it resolved itself somehow. For reasons that were too obvious to even mention, no one wanted the public anywhere to know about Asia.

Kira had directly ordered Kat the rein in the sisterhood because they wanted to rescue Asia but doing so would be considered an act of war. She had also made it clear that if Kat herself went she had better die in the attempt because she would not be welcomed back after that action. The thing that Kat found most galling was that Kira had made it clear that Asia had been following Kat’s example, she’d been playing on the edge of disaster for years. Now one of her girls had fallen over that ledge, whatever was going to happen to Asia was going to be a consequence of that and it would be something Kat would have to live with.

They knew where Asia was being held, Danvers State Hospital and there were a lot of chilling implications to that. By sending her there, they skirted American Law. Normally, they arrested someone and then had to have an arraignment. According to Kat’s own sources Asia had not actually been doing anything illegal when she had been detained other than trying to leave the country. Kat also knew that State Hospitals in the United States were houses of horror. Kat knew that Asia would die before she broke her silence. It was something that worked against her in this instance, it was easy to see how that could be made to look like psychosis and if Asia got pushed hard enough to push back…

Kat didn’t even want to think about what the consequences would be if that happened. And she had received word that Gia had vanished, and Anya was staying at the house belonging to Robert Capa and Gerda Taro. Gia had done that to conceal her movements from Kat because whatever she was doing was something that she didn’t want Kat to know about.


Moscow, Russia

“She is my adopted sister as much as Katherine is” Gia said, “And nothing is being done to get her back.”

Georgy shrugged.

“They are being realistic” Georgy replied, “I do however find it amusing that you are now coming to me for help.”

That was not what Gia wanted to hear.

“You’ve enjoyed the benefits of your position but have taken on few of the responsibilities” Georgy said, “Having a friend in a bad situation that you are helpless to do anything about falls under that.”

That was almost exactly what Kira had said, Gia would not give Georgy the satisfaction of telling him that though.

“You aren’t going to help me then?” Gia asked.

“No, I didn’t say that Sasha” Georgy said, “There will be conditions.”

Gia heard that and knew that whatever Georgy was about to ask for would be as Czar and not as her cousin. All of the warnings that Kat had given her about royalty were suddenly at the forefront of her mind. They never gave anything without demanding twice that in return. But this would be for Asia, someone who Gia felt she owed more to than she would ever be able to repay.

“What do you want?” Gia asked.

“Not much” Georgy replied, “You are an Imperial Grand Duchess of Russia like your mother before you, you need to start taking the obligations of that seriously.”

Gia paused for a few seconds uncertain of exactly what Georgy was asking of her.

“I’m not going to ask you for anything unreasonable” Georgy said, “It is however long past time that the daughter of Tatiana Nikolaevna came home.”

That sounded reasonable unless one knew that it would give Georgy control of most aspects of Gia’s life.


Danvers State Hospital, Danvers, Massachusetts

The sound and smell in this wing were impossible to get used to as Asia had found. She had spent days trying to be silent and inoffensive after she had learned that she had been effectively buried in this hospital, in an effort to convince these people that she was harmless. That had been undone in an instant of violence.

The smug asshole in a white coat who was her jailer had ignored the fact that the Orderly in question had ended up with ruptured testicles because they had been out where they didn’t belong. Instead he had blamed Asia’s alleged promiscuity and deviance. She had seen how the Doctor had gotten off on the hypocrisy of his statements. It wasn’t about sex with him, it was about power and control.

When she had been dragged into maximum security wing the Orderlies had not attempted to assault her sexually after that. They preferred to do that sort of thing when they wouldn’t have witnesses. Instead they had taken their frustrations out on her with a beating that had lasted several minutes. The last thing she had heard from the Doctor was that a specialist was coming who dealt with cases like hers after he had made sure that she wasn’t going to die of her injuries.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Four


30th April 1957

Danvers, Massachusetts

The building that Gia was looking at was huge. If they had not gotten up to date intelligence regarding it the mission might have foundered on that part alone. When Kat had learned that Gia could act while she couldn’t she had covertly arranged through a friend to get that information. Kat had also provided them with clothes and weapons that she said couldn’t be traced back to Germany or Russia. That included an Italian made automatic pistol that Kat had told her to use it only in the most dire need.

That had been a few days ago on Langeoog Island and the whole time Gia had couldn’t tell if Kat was upset about the choice that she had made to get Asia back or just disappointed in her for making it without asking her first. Feodor had been happy enough to have her along. His men had found it silly, but word had spread about her beating up one of the Sealions in Constantinople which gave her some credibility but not enough. There were dark comments that she had heard here and there questioning her presence. These men were Spetsnaz, they were only doing this because the Czar himself had asked and Feodor was leading them. As far as they were concerned Gia was just baggage.

As they made their way up the hill Gia saw the men fan out. The telephone exchange was a primary target, as well the office of the Hospital’s Medical Director. Everyone also knew that the State Hospital was basically a prison, so they needed to get in, get what they came for and get out. Hopefully, without disrupting operations unduly because having to contend with additional patents, inmates or whatever they were called, would be potentially disastrous.

Gaining entry through a door that had been pried open Gia followed Feodor and four of his men down the corridors. The whole place made Gia’s skin crawl, the air seemed to be full of the smell of urine and despair if that were such a thing. She could hear some of the patents locked in their rooms moaning and screaming. As Feodor and Gia came to the room where Asia was supposed to be, they found it empty. As Gia fought to prevent a rising tide of panic, Feodor was talking into the radio.

“The team that took the Medical Director’s office found her” Feodor said, “And they have a problem.”

As they ran through the hospital, Gia tried to figure out what that meant. It wasn’t until they got to the office that Gia saw what the problem was. Asia was on a table, but nonresponsive. Two men, presumably Doctors, and a woman, a Nurse who was clutching a folder to her chest were in the room with Asia. They were looking fearfully at the armed men who had invaded this place.

“What did you do to her?” Gia demanded as she tried to get Asia’s attention.

“We hadn’t really done anything yet” One of the Doctors said, “This was only the preparation.”

Gia saw the nurse and pulled the pistol from the holster, “Give that to me now” She said to the cowering woman as she pointed the pistol at her. With some reluctance she handed Gia the folder, Gia opened it and quickly read through the particulars. The fictional name they were holding Asia under, the bloodwork and testing that had been done. The biased observations including blaming Asia for the male staff’s inability to control themselves and finally what they were planning on doing to her. The whole time Gia’s rage grew. Especially when she saw what the Doctor had meant by preparation.

“Which one of you is Doctor Ambrose?” Gia asked in a voice that was colder than Antarctica.

“That would be me” One of the Doctors said.

“You’ve been electrocuting her for the last hour?” Gia demanded, she had read what he had ordered. “And you were going to cut into her brain while she was still awake?”

“It is how the procedure is done” The other Doctor said, “I’ve done it many times and…”

Something about the way the Doctor said it made Gia realize that she was hearing a practiced sales pitch and she was already angry. This man had hurt the first person that Gia had ever fallen in love with for reasons that she knew had been entirely made up by small hate filled men. Gia shot him in the head cutting him off mid-sentence. The Nurse screamed and fell to the floor whimpering and Doctor Ambrose pissed himself.

“About time someone shut him up” One of the Spetsnaz muttered, “Before you got here, he was talking on and on about how great what he did is. A real fathead.”

Gia saw how the other Spetsnaz were looking at her as she put the pistol back into its holster. I’m not seen as baggage anymore, she thought to herself.

“See if you can get your friend moving” Feodor said to Gia, then he gestured to Doctor Ambrose and the Nurse. “These two are coming with us as well.”

Feodor had warned Gia that it was their practice to create confusion in the wake of their operations, taking Doctor Ambrose and the nurse would do that. It was so that an investigation by their opponents after the fact would be left with more questions than answers. She had also been told not to interfere with that.

Looking down, Gia saw that the other Doctor hadn’t died yet. The bullet had been generic military issue, solidly built so not to fragment on impact. That had probably extended his life for a time even with the grievous headwound. It was better than he deserved, Gia thought to herself and she didn’t regret it for a second. Gia put that thought out of her head as she turned to Asia, who was shaking and sobbing uncontrollably.

“They can’t hurt you anymore” Gia said as she hugged Asia and tried to ease her off the table, but Asia’s legs wouldn’t hold her weight. Gia was at a loss of what to do, even with the hospital’s phones down it was only a matter of time until this drew a massive response. They had to be clear of the area by then.

“Allow me to help” Feodor said, and they half carried, half walked Asia to the lorry that was waiting.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Five


2nd May 1957

Washington D.C.

President Harriman was furious when he learned about what had happened. He had included in his address to a Joint Session of Congress the need to open America to a new era of international leadership. Now, he had a huge problem on his hands and was on the receiving end of some extremely harsh criticism.

A suspected German Agent gets picked up. Rather than arresting her and handing her off to the Justice Department to sort out the way she was supposed to have, she gets buried in a psychiatric hospital. The Boston Field Office had made sure that the Medical Director of the State Hospital, Doctor Richard Ambrose knew exactly what the Agent was suspected of with the intention of having her be on the receiving end treatment that even many in the same field considered inhumane.

Presently, Doctor Ambrose along with one of his staff was missing and the FBI was having to investigate them in case they had some involvement. Doctor Walter Freeman who was a well-known advocate of transorbital lobotomies had been left in Danvers State Hospital having been shot through the head. By some miracle he had survived but ironically the .380 bullet that had blown through his brain had taken with it a substantial amount of grey matter and it had roughly the same effect of him as the surgery that he loved to promote. They knew it was a .380 because there was the full metal jacket bullet found lodged in the wall and the cartridge case found on the scene. Both manufactured by Winchester in the United States.

The German Embassy had sent a tersely worded letter to the White House, with copies going to the New York Times and Washington Post, stating that their understanding was that a German citizen had been detained by the FBI, tortured by medical personnel and then been allowed to be kidnapped by an unknown third party. Whoever had taken her had invaded the Danvers State Hospital and had not been delicate with the Staff. There had been a number of injuries, only one serious though. The FBI was left wondering if it had been inside job? And if so, who exactly had been controlling Doctor Ambrose and Nurse Pratt? Considerable effort was going into the effort to try to figure that out.

The worst part had been when the Germans had stated that Asia Lawniczak wasn’t even a spy, she was a courier and facilitator of backchannel communication between Office of the President and the German Kaiser and Kaiserin. With some reluctance, Harry Truman had confirmed that little detail to news reporters. He also said that he had tried to warn Miss Lawniczak that there was trouble coming her way and regretted that he had not been convincing enough. Truman said he truly hoped that the girl would turn up alive because she had struck him as someone whose only crime was to be adventurous. Heinrich Krekeler, the German Ambassador had said that as a Chemist by profession he was having the water tested in Washington D.C. to see if there was anything in it that might cause mental retardation.

For Eliot Ness, this was the worst fiasco that the FBI had suffered since the Little Bohemia Lodge incident in 1934. There were rumblings about the public hearings in the House and Senate. The CIA was pissed because they knew that because of this it would be open season on their own people. They had told anyone in the FBI who would listen that the next time any of their people got picked up in Germany they fully expected the BII to return the favor with interest in one of the very real historic torture chambers that existed in that country. The President had refused to accept Ness’ resignation until after he had finished cleaning up this mess. The only one who had emerged from all of this within screaming distance of having their reputation intact was the Head of FBI Counter Intelligence Division, John Aleshire. He had tried to get the Boston Field Office to rethink this and had also tried to go up the chain of command to get this sorted but had been over taken by events. Currently he was in Danvers leading the investigation and trying to figure out who had kidnapped Asia Lawniczak.

Now that Ness had a chance to think about it, perhaps Aleshire was due a promotion. The FBI needed people who could see through the petty bullshit and just do their job properly. Clearing out the dead wood was overdue, and he was the perfect man for that job. Personally, Ness was getting extremely tired of the Krauts, it was their turn to get a black eye.


Montreal, Canada

Her hands would not stop shaking.

Asia looked at them and felt herself starting to cry again. The night before had been awful, she had woken up from a nightmare where she was back in the hospital. Convulsing as electricity was running through her. She had woken up to Gia trying to calm her because she had been screaming in her sleep. It had been the first time that Asia had managed to sleep since she had been rescued. The night before that had been spent in the back of a lorry enduring the five-hour drive from Danvers to the Canadian border followed by a day spent in an anxiety filled haze once they reached Montreal.

Today had been no joy either as they waited for word about transport home. Asia had found out that in addition to taking her, the Russian soldiers had also grabbed Dick Ambrose and Blair Pratt. The instant Asia saw them she had flown into a rage, she wanted them to suffer for what they had done. Gia had stopped her from doing that and had told her that they would endure far worse where they were going.

Later, she had started talking to Gia and tried to pretend that things were normal when the subject of the Russian soldiers came up. Gia had been trying to duck why they had helped her save Asia and it had turned into an argument. Then the reasoning for Gia’s evasiveness had struck her. Gia hadn’t denied it, instead she had said that she had asked her cousin Georgy for help and he had given it to her, but the price was that she return to Russia with the soldiers and live there as Grand Duchess Alexandra.

Gia had sacrificed the last shreds of her life in Berlin and personal freedom in order to save her.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Six


27th May 1957

Berlin

Everything was falling apart, that was all Kat could think about as she collected Kiki from a Luftwaffe Airfield. The girl looked afraid, that was hardly a surprise because Kiki was in unknown territory for her. Unfortunately, it was territory that Kat knew all too well. Unlike many others in her family Kiki had to be aware that she was looking at evidence of a potentially lethal inheritance.

The month of May had started badly and then had gotten worse. First had come word that Asia had been kidnapped from the hospital where she had been detained. Kira had correctly suspected that Kat had played a role but because Kat had never left her post with the First Foot while that had happened and was keeping quiet nothing had come of it. Gia had remained absent from the Imperial Court and that had not been unnoticed.

Then in the middle of the month everything had come unraveled. Gia had turned up in Moscow and gave a press conference. She announced to the world that she had paid for and led the rescue of her adopted sister Asia Lawniczak at the hands of Danvers State Hospital and the Boston Field Office of the FBI. She had then presented the file that she had taken from the hospital so that they could see for themselves what had been happening. Finally, she had said that she had shot Doctor Walter Freeman in an act that she said she wasn’t proud of, but it was her reaction in the face of such evil. She was willing to be held legally accountable for her actions. Kat had realized at that until that moment, Gia had believed that she had killed Walter Freeman. The issue wasn’t helped by Walter Freeman’s reputation getting the full light of world focus shown on it. More showman than Doctor, Freeman’s nonchalance and selling on an invasive medical procedure as a cure-all was impossible to hide. There were many who thought that his fate was poetic justice.

Even if the U.S. Government wasn’t aware that no jury in the world would convict Gia, Russia itself had closed ranks around her. For years they had seen Gia as some sort of saint, and she had not really been a public figure. She had raised some eyebrows with her love of activities that were not considered feminine, fighting and shooting. However, when mixed with the pious, wholesome image that Georgy had sold them of Gia, they had a different picture of her now. She was someone who could not back down in the face of evil, and when she encountered it, fought to kill it. The accounts of the men who had accompanied Gia into Danvers, who Kat was certain were Russian Airborne Special Forces, had described a literal Hell on Earth that “Sasha Lukichna” had fearlessly entered.

Gia had also announced that Doctor Richard Ambrose and his accomplice Blair Pratt were to be tried under one of the Anti-Stalin Laws, any Official of the State who engaged in torture of an individual that they held in detention would be looking at an extremely long stay in Siberia. The U.S. State Department had lodged a protest that they were Americans who had been arrested in America. The Russians had found that amusing and had asked when the U.S. Government was going to finish paying the money that they owed. Kat understood the implications of that. The Doctor and Nurse had been caught in the act of doing something that they shouldn’t have been doing. Now they were pawns in a larger game while enjoying the comforts of Russian prisons.

Kira had not been happy. Of all the sisterhood, Gia was the one who she could not touch, and this had put Gia firmly in the pocket of Georgy. She had favored diplomatic means of getting Asia back. Normally that would have been the right call, but in this case, someone had move quickly or Asia would have been left physically and mentally crippled. Kat had found herself in the uncomfortable position of having to defend Kira to the girls while at the same time she was having to defend Gia’s actions with Kira.

Things had come to a head a day earlier when Kat had tried to tell Kira that Gia had paid a heavy price and would continue to pay it for years to come. She had was deeply in Georgy’s debt and Kat was trying to find a way to get Gia out from under that. Kira’s response had been to state that she felt that she needed to appoint a new Kammerfräulein and that if Kat said one more word defending Gia then she would be needing a new Mistress of the Keys as well. Kat had realized that Kira was seeing Gia’s actions as a personal betrayal similar to the one she had endured at the hands of her daughter and that the Empress couldn’t be reasoned with.

That was when something that Kat had long feared would happen did. Kira had collapsed there in the middle of the Court. Kat had found herself with the Royal Physician trying to save Kira’s life after she had suffered a heart-attack.

Now the next day, Kat had come from University Hospital to get Kiki from a Luftwaffe Airfield outside the city because that would keep the Press away from Kiki at this time. Kat didn’t need to tell her what was happening, her Aunt had passed away from heart disease just months earlier and she would know that it could run in families. Kat had no idea how Kiki’s maternal grandfather had died, just that he wasn’t particularly old when he had.

“How is she?” Kiki asked as Kat walked with her from the airplane to the waiting helicopter.

“She’s doing better” Kat replied, “The Doctors are keeping her comfortable.”

“What is the prognosis, Kat?” Kiki asked, “Please don’t try to protect me from it.”

Kat hesitated for a second, she might be a serious and dedicated young woman, but Kiki was still fifteen, that was quite young for what she was asking.

“You need to help with your younger brother and sisters” Kat replied, “They don’t understand what happened.”

“What are you trying not to tell me?” Kiki demanded, her determined look wasn’t one that Kat had ever seen on Kira. She wasn’t going to happy with anything less than the truth.

“Barring a miracle…” Kat started to say but thought better of it. “This is an opportunity for you to make peace with her, you need to make the most of it, for your own sake.”

It was just as well that the engines of the helicopter prevented further conversation.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Seven


30th May 1957

Berlin

Watching Kiki trying to hold it together was difficult. Gia had known that there would be significant consequences when she had set out to save Asia and had accepted that. One of the consequences was that Kira had refused to allow her to see her after she had returned to Berlin. It was perfectly understandable. What Gia didn’t understand was why she had done the same thing to Kiki. That was a move made out of spite geared entirely to hurt a fifteen-year-old girl who was hardly deserving of that sort of treatment. All Kiki had wanted was a chance to make peace with her mother over the events of the last year. Gia just hoped that Kiki would eventually understand that it wasn’t her fault.

The other thing that Gia had been facing the consequences of was the grabbing of the Doctor and the Nurse. The Spetsnaz had been content to have them simply vanish into Siberia, but Gia had furnished the world with proof that they had mistreated Asia because of her Slavic ethnicity, her religion as a Catholic and the mere fact that she not virgin and unmarried. It was all there in black and white. How Asia had fought back against attempted rape only to be sanctioned and beaten for it. How her silence in the face of her treatment was interpreted as a sign of her deviancy. Deviant was a word that came up again and again. Gia had concluded that it had been Dick Ambrose’s way of rationalizing his biased opinions as he inserted them into the official record. He had ordered Asia tested for sexually transmitted diseases and then included in his notes his disbelief at the negative results.

The law that Gia had said Dick Ambrose would be charged under was real. Though she didn’t expect the charges to stick. It had been more than a decade after the death of Stalin and that law had never been enforced. Her hope was that it would force the Americans and the Russians to reexamine their respective systems as forlorn a hope as that was. Eventually, they would probably be sent home only able to identify Gia among the people who had taken them. Gia alone bore responsibility for all this. She hoped that was something no one would never be allowed to forget.

Asia was a complete mess, plagued with nightmares at night and panic attacks during the day. Kat had said that she needed time to heal but Gia had seen what she had been through had taken from her. There had been a wild innocence about Asia that she had preserved through the loss of her parents and the difficult years that had followed. In that foul place misnamed a hospital it seemed that part of her had been irreparably shattered. Gia had arranged for her to go to the Richthofen estate in Silesia. Among other things, it was peaceful, and the modern world seemed extremely far away. Kat had said that she knew people who knew how to handle traumatic stress and they were willing to help.

Gia herself was still trying to come to terms with the debt she owed her cousin. Reestablishing her life in Moscow seemed like an extremely heavy lift and Feodor Volkov had shown no signs of going anywhere. As one of Georgy’s few actual friends Gia figured that she had better get used to his presence. His courting her was something that she didn’t want to even think about.

Then there was what was happening here. Kat had said that with the passing of the Empress, the Order of Louise as it was currently structured was at an end. There was no new Grand Mistress waiting in the wings, eventually either Louis Ferdinand would remarry or when Freddy took the throne his wife, whoever she was, would take on the role. In the meantime, the Order was to remain dormant with its members disbanded. According to Kat, Kira had made her promise that she would continue to watch over the three youngest of the royal children as her last duty as the Dame Commander.

Not all was bleak, however. Just when they no longer had any reason to wait around the hospital another reason to stay had presented itself. Nancy Jensen was in the bed with Tilo in the chair that had probably been the seat of hundreds of new fathers during its time in this room. The rest of the sisterhood and the Schultz family had crowded into the room along with several children. Despite everything else, life had continued.

“I can understand Sebastian, your father’s middle name” Kat said as she held the baby, “But Reier? Doesn’t your friend have a first name?”

“There was not a chance in Hell that we were naming him Wenzeslaus” Nancy said, “Not even as a middle name.”

“Wenzeslaus Reier?” Kat asked with a smirk, “I never would have guessed that.”

“He doesn’t really want that out in circulation” Tilo replied, “But I owed him that much after he was with me in the Pacific from Vietnam all the way to Japan.”

“I guess” Kat replied as she carefully handed Gia the baby.

It was difficult to tell too much about him yet. Gia just knew what Kat had said about the Schultz men, they were either Generals or felons with not a lot of middle ground. He was also Nancy’s son, perhaps he would have her warmth and intelligence, so those extremes wouldn’t apply with him. Perhaps he would be a Musician and a Composer like the man his grandfather had been named after. Or better yet live in a world where soldiers like his grandfather, father and uncles were not needed.

Kiki looked at Sabastian and smiled sadly. Gia remembered what that had been like, having to come to terms with a radically changed reality. At least Kiki wasn’t having to cope with serious injuries on top of it.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Eight


3rd June 1957

Berlin

The room was tiny, almost the exact same dimensions as the room that Freddy had shown her years earlier, the one he used when he pretended that he had a normal life. It had been sitting empty for months until Kiki had moved in the day before and it was hers until she figured out what she wanted. It had been the day before, while in her mother’s funeral procession that Kiki had decided that the whole business of being a Princess was over for her. It had poisoned her relationship with her mother, and it was a weight that she had realized that she could no longer carry if she wanted to have any kind of life. Unlike her brother, Kiki wasn’t interested in pretending.

“It was not about anger in the end, it never is” Doctor Berg had told her, “It was about fear, fear of what you might say, fear that you would be angry, fear that you would refuse to forgive her. Fear makes people do regrettable things.”

Kiki had been thinking a lot about that conversation with Doctor Berg. She had phoned to remind her of the appointment next week and Berg had asked Kiki how she was doing personally. She was hardly the only one who had asked that, but she had been able to give her some insight on what her mother must have been thinking. Even though her mother had been laid to rest in the Antique Temple just the day before, none of that felt real to her.

The aspect of it being a State funeral that had dragged on for days had hardly helped matters with it all being a surreal version of the Kabuki theater that she had seen in Japan. Somehow the American delegation had ended up next to the Russian delegation. Gia had walked through the event regally just a pace behind the Czar and Czarina the Order of Louise pinned to the front of her dress and the crimson sash of the Order of Saint Catherine over her black dress. She was everything that Kiki knew that she would never be able to become. When she did acknowledge the presence of the Americans, her very posture seemed to radiate what she wanted to say. I am here, I have nothing to be ashamed of. Can you say that? Gia had spent a good portion of the afternoon with the President of the United States, the Vice President and their assorted guests boring holes through her with their eyes but never flinched away. Kiki had known Gia for her entire life, since long before she knew that they were related, but never felt more love and admiration for her cousin before that. It had given Kiki the inspiration and courage to do what had come next.

Only Gräfin Katherine, Doctor Berg and presumably her father knew she was here, officially anyway. There had been a few encounters with Julia, the Maid and her husband Serhiy who shared the room across the attic hallway from Kiki. She had been offered this room by the Gräfin when she had refused to return to the palace after the funeral had ended. The life she’d had there just didn’t appeal to her. Kat had said that she could remain so long as she didn’t draw attention to herself and was in either work or school. Kiki had been profoundly surprised that the adults had so readily agreed to this, right up until Douglas had told her that while Kat would have taken in Kiki for free, her father was paying Kat to have her be here so that she didn’t cause any additional disturbances at the Hohenzollern Palace.

Kiki assumed that it was so that her father could deal with everything that was going on. He had enough trouble after Uncle Vladimir had arrived in Berlin by getting thrown off an airplane and banned by Lufthansa because he had gotten piss drunk on the flight from Rio de Janeiro. There also was already speculation that her father might remarry that had left Kiki aghast. Some of the names mentioned were of women who didn’t seem much older that Kiki was, and her father was in his late forties.

Again, Doctor Berg had tried to help her put it in perspective. “It’s biology Kiki” She had said, “Women tend to be attracted to men who are well established and could provide for them regardless of age differences.” Kiki wasn’t sure that she agreed with Doctor Berg in this particular matter and had said as much.

Then what Berg said next floored her. “Beyond being the Emperor, your father has a lot going for him” Berg had said, “He’s tall, handsome, cultured and accomplished in his own right. He’s a patron of the arts, a musician and a mechanic.”

Kiki had asked what Berg had meant when she said that. Kiki was well aware of her father’s interests and what he looked like. She didn’t see what the big deal was.

“If he ever finishes mourning for your mother, he’ll be a real catch” Berg had said, “Your Great Grandfather remarried if I recall correctly.”

Kiki knew that was true enough, she had gotten along well with Hermine Reuss though it wasn’t until she had gotten older that she had understood that Hermine was really her step-great grandmother. Wilhelm the 2nd having died months before Kiki had been born and that she had been his second wife.

Those were the thoughts that were rolling around Kiki’s head as she sat at the desk that was in the dormer window that overlooked the garden. Over the rooftops of the houses across the back gardens and alleyway, Kiki could see the new medical center whose construction was nearing completion a couple kilometers away. She knew she wanted a separate life of her own, that would be the key.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Nine


13th June 1957

Berlin

“In conclusion you are reasonably healthy” Doctor Berg said as they went over the results, “It seems that spending most of the last year in Japan was good for you.”

That was good news. Kiki had endured her annual physical earlier that week, the whole time she had been acutely aware of the absence of her mother and waiting for the results was not fun. The Gräfin had asked if she wanted her to come in with her, but Kiki had declined.

“You did ask for a cardiac check-up” Berg said, “Have you noticed any issues, arrhythmia?”

“No” Kiki replied.

“I see” Berg replied, “You’re worried about what happened to your Aunt and Mother.”

Kiki just sat there staring at Berg for a long moment. Berg had hit the nail on the head.

“While we can arrange that for your own peace of mind it would be completely unnecessary at your age” Berg said, “While I understand your feelings, to an unaware observer it makes you look like a hypochondriac.”

“That wasn’t my intention” Kiki said.

“Also, if you also carry through with your intention to be a Doctor, you’ll have a lot of experience of your heart being listened to in the coming years” Berg said.

“Excuse me?” Kiki asked.

Doctor Berg smiled at that, “How do you think Doctors learn?” She asked, “That, among many other things.”

In all of Kiki’s thoughts about becoming a Doctor she had never put a whole lot of thought into the practicalities of going about doing that.

“Is that how you learned?” Kiki asked.

“Not quite” Berg said, “When I was in University, I was the only woman in my class, the other students were afraid to come near me.”

There was something incredibly amusing to her about that memory.

“I had been a nurse in the Polish war” Berg said, “There wasn’t a whole lot about those men that was a mystery to me, they couldn’t say the same thing. I think they were intimidated.”

Kiki could see why Berg would find that amusing now. At the time that must have been mortifying. Now, not so much. She was her mid-fifties, short and squat, she was at least a head shorter than Kiki and she kept her hair cut short she said because she had grown tired of taking care of it. Doctor Berg wasn’t particularly intimidating unless she wanted to be.

“It’s not like that now is it?” Kiki asked.

“Things have changed some but not as much as I would like” Berg replied, “We’re trying to fix that though.”

“Anything particular?”

“Outreach and mentoring” Berg answered, “We’re playing the long game.”

Something about the way that Berg said that suggested that there was more going on here than she was aware of. It did sound interesting though.


Wunsdorf-Zossen

After months spent at the Mürwik Naval School getting dirty looks from his instructors Christoph had been assigned to the High Command as a Staff Officer. Most days he had spent sleeping in the back of the classrooms or bored out of his skull doing drills. It did have its perks though. Flensburg was a navy town, so it seemed like every place welcomed a Sailor, many of the Cadets had more money than sense so card games and telling stories in the of his time in the Pacific had turned out to both profitable and enjoyable.

When word had gotten around that Christoph had been assigned to Wunsdorf everyone thought that it was a joke. Even Pops had asked if Christoph had photographs of one the Admirals screwing a goat or something. It wasn’t until he had gotten to Wunsdorf that he had discovered that that he had been assigned to the office of the Commander in Chief of the Military High Command, a detail that completely baffled Christoph.

As he walked through the busy offices Christoph was sort of lost. While his wasn’t the only naval uniform he had seen, he was aware of exactly how junior he was here. The medals he was wearing were mostly those of an Enlisted Sailor, the Pacific Victory medal and South China Sea medal told a story that these pencil pushers had to pay attention to. It took him some time, but he found the office of Generalfeldmarschall von Holz, where the Markgraf himself was rubbing antibiotic ointment on a large, painful looking scrape on his leg.

“Oberlieutenant Hase reporting, Sir” Christoph said only to have the Markgraf staring at him.

“If you could make yourself useful and hand me that roll of gauze on the table next to you” The Markgraf replied. Christoph looked and there was roll of white gauze sitting on top of a first aid kit.

“Children are a health hazard Lieutenant Hase” The Markgraf said as Christoph handed him the roll, “Thirty years of riding motorcycles and I’ve avoided this sort of injury. Then I start trying to teach one of my children to ride and this happens.”

“I see” Christoph said. How many times had he listened to Pops complaining about how he was an obnoxious bastard? Thousands, but they had been stuck on the SMS Rhineland together for years so that was unavoidable.

As Christoph watched, the Markgraf finished bandaging his leg and rolled his pant leg down. “I asked for you by name after I read about your exploits and your armed Trawler in the Pacific” He said, “We need people with knowledge of what’s going on over there.”

“Really?” Christoph asked, “I didn’t think anyone paid much attention.”

“When you fished Albrecht von Richthofen out of the drink you got the whole world’s attention” The Markgraf replied.

That was something that Christoph had hardly considered. That whole thing had been Bert’s show.

“Before I tell you what you’ll be doing for me I’ve one question” The Markgraf said, “Why do you have crosses tattooed on the soles of your feet?”

Christoph found that amusing, the Markgraf had been in the Luftwaffe for most of his career as a Paratrooper. He would have had no opportunity the learn the traditions of the Navy.

“In the event that the ship sinks and I end up in the ocean, they are supposed to ward off sharks” Christoph answered, he could tell that the Markgraf was skeptical.

“Does that work?”

“I don’t know” Christoph replied, “I’ve never been in a hurry to find out.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Thirty


6th July 1957

Potsdam

Three months to go and Kat would officially be done with this forever. To her bewilderment, there was an ongoing effort to get her to change her mind within the Heer. It was sort of surprising because she had always been the odd one out and many of the Generals who she had answered to had made no secret about their dislike of her. Beyond those who hated her for her gender, there were those who felt that she was a loose cannon. The truth was that she was looking forward to her life being entirely her own. Still, she had a job to do and Schafer had sent word that the Emperor wanted to see her.

That was why she was walking through rooms and down corridors she had not been in for some time. This wing of the Sanssouci Palace had been where Kira had held the Summer Court of the Empress. The life that they had held during that time was gone, replaced by the weight of age upon the building. The large room had sunlight pouring in through the large windows and Louis Ferdinand was sitting on one of the chairs looking at the official painting of Kira and scattered around the room were dozens of sketchbooks and canvases, mostly in pencil but there were plenty of them were in charcoal and pastels. Kat recognized them as Kira’s work. There were also a few empty wine bottles around, hardly surprising considering the circumstances.

The Empress had loved art, particularly these sketches. She just had felt that her work wasn’t good enough for others to see, it was something that Kat had never made a big issue of. Louis had one of the sketchbooks open in his lap and to Kat’s surprise it was sketches of her own face. Or at least her face years earlier. The very next sketch showed the look of surprise on her face as an infant Freddy pulled on her hair. She realized that those two sketches were from the day that Kat had first sat down and had a face to face conversation with the Empress in the solarium at the Hohenzollern Palace.

“How do you do it, Katherine?” Louis asked, “The constant reinventing of yourself? Coming back from pain and loss, again and again?”

“Peter Holz would tell you that its because I’ve never been who people have thought I was” Kat replied, “Mostly, it was because it was the only way forward.”

“Markgraf von Holz’s younger brother?” Louis asked, “The Doctor who is known for handling traumatic stress?”

“I’ve known him for a very long time” Kat replied, “Having a building blow up in your face leaves a mark.”

Also, it had been a centerpiece of her growing catalog of nightmares and caused one of her ears to ring intermittently for the next twenty years. Kat thought that to herself but didn’t say it aloud.

“Forward” Louis said somewhat ruefully before poured another glass of wine before pausing. “Where are my manners” He mumbled before he went to find another glass, which he poured some wine into before handing it to Kat.

“I’m really not supposed to have this while on duty” Kat told him.

“That is the truth of you right there Katherine” Louis said, “It always comes back to that, duty and loyalty. It was what Kira liked about you. As Emperor, I am telling you that you are off duty this afternoon, so let’s have a drink in remembrance.”

Kat took a sip of the wine, it had a complex flavor that was probably beyond her ability to properly appreciate.

“You were the closest thing that Kira had to a friend, you were certainly one of the few people in this place she felt she could trust” Louis said, “She said that she regretted some of the things she asked you to do. There were times when Kira was certain that you secretly hated her.”

Kat choked on the wine when he said that. It was a little too close to the truth.

“We had our moments” Kat said as she recovered from that, without elaborating.

Louis didn’t need to know that Kat had been trying to find a way to divorce herself from her life as the hand of the Empress when Kira had died.

“How is Kristina?” Louis asked, changing the subject.

“Keeping busy” Kat replied, “She is determined to join the Medical Service and is doing everything she can to make that happen.”

“You think that she’ll be able to do that?” Louis asked, “I’m worried that she presses herself too hard.”

“I think she will try her best” Kat replied, “Life has a way of throwing up obstacles though.”

“I have a hard time imagining what that sort of obstacle would even look like” Louis said.


Tempelhof, Berlin

There was too much light pollution in the city for telescope to be good for much. Looking at the moon which was in its first quarter was what Ben had been doing. When his father had taken the new position as a Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Sciences Department of the new Humboldt Campus of the University of Berlin. This had presented a problem for Ben because Tempelhof being near center of Berlin wasn’t a great place if one aspired to be an Astronomer.

After looking at the moon for a while from the rooftop of the house that he was still trying to think of as home Ben had gotten bored. He was about to pack up the telescope when movement in the top floor of one of the houses across the alley caught his eye. Despite his father’s dire warnings about what would happen to him if he ever caught Ben looking into the neighbor’s houses with the telescope, he pointed it at the window where he had seen the movement.

It was Gräfin von Mischner’s house. Everyone in the neighborhood knew she was nuts, so there was additional thrill of spying on her house. Through the window on the top floor Ben saw a girl his age wearing what looked like a dark blue silk robe with pink flowers on it sitting in front of a mirror. She was brushing out hair that was mass of brown curls and then started braiding it. Ben watched until she got up and closed the blinds. Then with disappointment he put the telescope away. He could swear that he had seen her before but couldn’t place where. She also lived in one of the attic rooms that her understood were the quarters for servants in the well to do houses on the block. The Gräfin supposedly owned, leased or had sold every bit of land this neighborhood had been built on, so she certainly counted as well to do.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Thirty-One


12th July 1957

Tempelhof, Berlin

As much as Ben had wanted to pretend otherwise, his attempts to spy on the girl across the alley had not gone unnoticed. Having her destroy the front wheel of his bicycle and having him land heavily on top tube by shoving a steel rod into the spokes as he rode past had certainly let him know in a hurry. He hadn’t seen her hiding behind one of the garages until it was too late.

“What did you do that for?” Ben gasped, as he lay in the gravel of the alley, writhing in pain.

“You’ve been trying to look into my bedroom all window with that stupid telescope” The girl said angrily, “Don’t try to deny it. You’re silhouetted against the night sky up there and it’s no more than twenty-five meters from my window.”

“Who are you?” Ben had asked the girl only to have her turn on her heel and walk away.

“I catch you doing that again and I’m telling the Gräfin” The girl said over her shoulder, “What happened to you is nothing compared to what Tante Kat will do to you.” Then she slammed the gate going into the back garden of the Gräfin’s house. He’d been spying on one of Gräfin von Mischner’s nieces? She supposedly had several of them.

It would have ended there except Ben’s mother had seen him stagger into the house and had seen what had happened to his bicycle. Ben was in an impossible situation, if he told his mother what had happened and why then he would be in serious trouble. He hadn’t thought through how his mother would keep badgering him until he told her what had happened. Before he could say anything else, his mother was on the phone with the Gräfin’s house. Minutes later the Gräfin herself was dragging the girl, who Ben had learned was Kristina “Kiki” Fischer, into his parent’s house. She just stared at the floor.

“I apologize for Kiki’s actions” The Gräfin said, “She has had a difficult time lately, a death in her family necessitated her moving in with me and Douglas after her father found himself unable to care for her.”

“Give me one good reason why she did that?” Ben heard his mother ask, “She could have seriously hurt Benjamin. I know that you take in girls with difficulties, but I thought you had better control of them.”

It was then that Ben saw the look on the Gräfin’s face and Kiki’s mortified reaction to what her Aunt was doing, he realized too late that this was a deliberate ambush. “It would seem that your son has been spying on Kiki in her bedroom at night while she is getting ready for bed” The Gräfin said.

Just like that, the energy in the room changed and Ben had his mother giving him a withering look.

“Benjamin Bernhard Hirsch” His mother said in a tone of voice that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. “When your father gets home…”

Ben gulped. This was going to be bad.


Kleinburg, Silesia

Every morning, Asia was woken up by one of the servants. Käte made a point of making sure that she kept regular hours. Otherwise Asia would be up at all hours, unable to sleep because when she slept the dreams came. Back in Danvers, strapped down and helpless as her body convulsed with the electric current. Käte then made her eat breakfast with her. Keeping a routine is important after a major traumatic event the Gräfin reminded her every time she complained about the rigid schedule. Käte had made sure that Asia knew the importance of that during one of her bad days. The worst moments so far had been the crippling moments of dread and fear that consumed her unexpectedly, leading her to have panic attacks. Then there were the nightmares and how her hands still shook whenever there was a loud noise.

Gia had come to visit a few times, but every time Asia felt a stab of guilt about how much Gia had sacrificed to rescue her whenever she had thought about it. The last time that Gia had been in Kleinburg she had mentioned that Anya was upset about having to move to Moscow with her, the girl didn’t want to leave her friends behind and was going to have a hard adjustment to make. Gia had mentioned that Fyodor, the Russian Officer who had led the attack on the hospital had been making excuses to be around her a lot since she was living in Moscow. Asia had urged her to be careful, there was a reason why they had all been urged to be careful around that man.

Finally, there were the bitter pills of the Order of Louise being disbanded and Kat retiring in a few months that Asia had to swallow. It felt like she had lost her purpose over the last few months in addition to what the Americans had done to her and was completely lost. Asia had been told that when she felt ready, there was an Instructor’s slot at the School the BND ran in Posen that was being held open for her. That was true with Kris as well, the BND had learned about her health problems and promptly benched her. The Sisterhood of the Karambit, once feared throughout the world, seemed to have died overnight without the rest of the world even noticing that they were gone.

It was enough to get Asia to start crying again, something that she was starting to hate.

“It will get better dear” Käte said to her and gave a pat on the shoulder. “Just give it time.”

It was all Asia could do not to scream at her that she was wrong, the whole world was caving in on itself and no one cared.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Thirty-Two


21st July 1957

Berlin

It had been a confusing week for Ben. Sure, he had been in loads of trouble for spying on Kiki, but his father’s reaction had not been at all what he was expecting. He had read Ben the riot act, took his telescope away. Then he had made sure that Ben knew that he was extremely disappointed that he had violated their neighbor’s privacy and that was a very bad thing for him to have done because… Then Ben’s mother had left the room and his father’s entire attitude changed. His father was all smiles, that while he felt that Ben had been stupid in how he had gone about it, he had been caught looking in on a pretty girl and there nothing wrong with that. Just next time approach her in a neutral setting and no spying, that was just creepy.

The fact that they had moved into the house only six months previously had meant that cleaning out the garage or the attic storage wasn’t that much of a chore. Instead, Ben got to do yardwork because the back garden had never been put in order. Mostly tall grass and shrubs that had sprung up there on its own. Ben’s mother had been talking about hiring someone to clean it up, plant some trees and flowerbeds, make it a space worth spending time in. Why should they pay someone to do the job when they had a fifteen-year-old son who had time to spy on the neighbors? That was why Ben had spent all afternoon every day for the last week with a shovel, a wheelbarrow and a billhook.

He had just finished hacking down a weed that was taller than he was and digging out the root when he heard a voice behind him. “You make that look like a bigger production than the projects my oldest brother wants to do. That was why he joined the Pioneers.” To his annoyance he saw that Kiki had climbed up on roof of the garage where his parents parked their car and was sitting there hugging her knees. She was wearing a pair of trousers that had been cut off just above the knees and an old cotton T-shirt. He couldn’t help but noticing that she was wearing red Converse sneakers with no socks.

“Don’t you have other things to be doing?” Ben asked, “Bicycles to destroy?”

“I paid for your bicycle to be fixed” Kiki replied, “Kat made me pay out my own pocket as opposed to asking my father for the money.”

Kiki didn’t sound very happy about having to have done that.

“What does your father do?”

“He’s a General” Kiki replied, “Luftwaffe.”

“I suppose that was how you ended up with Gräfin Katherine” Ben said for lack of anything else to say. It was said that the Gräfin was one of the storied Hellcats, the offshoot of the Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger Corps that was known for being the craziest of the crazy. If her father knew the Gräfin from that…

“She is a friend of my family” Kiki replied, as the details swirled around Ben’s head. One of those details was potentially dangerous.

“You have an older brother in the Pioneers?” Ben asked.

“Two older brothers” Kiki replied, “Freddy joined because he wants to be an engineer, Mikey is planning on joining the Panzer Corps next year.”

“Your whole family is in the military?” Ben asked half joking.

“Yes” Kiki said, “I’m planning on joining the Medical Service as soon as I’m old enough.”

Ben gulped and went back to digging at the root. He was getting the impression Kiki came from one of those military families that were soldiers going back to the dawn of time.

“How many brothers and sisters do you have?” Ben asked, that seemed like a safer subject.

“Three brothers and two sisters” Kiki said.

That family sounded huge to Ben. No wonder Kiki had gotten fostered out, that would be way too much for anyone to handle.

----------------------------------------------------------------

“Poor Louis has no idea the storm that is headed his way” Cecilie said.

Kat didn’t disagree with that assessment.

“Then we’ll manage” Kat replied.

If she had her way, Kat would solve the problem by canceling the whole upcoming social season. They had done that enough times. About the time that Louis Ferdinand had started to emerge from his black period following Kira’s death he had discovered the speculation that was swirling around him and his personal life. It seemed that every Royal family in Europe and many wealthy families that had higher aspirations had made excuses to have their eligible daughters in Berlin over the coming year. Louis had immediately decided that spending the summer on the Hohenzollern Lands in Southern Germany was in his best interests. According to Schafer and Louis Junior, he had stopped raiding the wine cellar and had shown a renewed interest the automotive field. Stuttgart being nearby helped with that. Louis was considered a patron by both Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, and they had always been happy to oblige his interests.

Louis Ferdinand’s younger sister, Cecilie had come from her home in Tübingen with her family in tow to help put things back in order at around the same time that Louis had fled Berlin. Kat had found herself shoved into managing the Emperor’s social schedule on top of everything else. Mostly that had involved explaining why Louis was not currently available.

There had been substantial changes in the law after the death of Louis’ older brother in Spain. The whole concept of morganatic marriage had been done away with. Even so, Cecilie had raised many eyebrows when she had married an Oberst she had met at a Military Hospital she had been volunteering in during the war. Her husband taught Military History at the Eberhardt Karls University these days, a profession that wasn’t hampered by having left one of his legs and an eye in Russia.

Into this was Kat’s impending retirement. She had a bad feeling that in the coming months, she would be leaving the First Foot only to have her life consumed by managing the Emperor’s affairs. Doug found the whole thing hilarious, he said that Kat just couldn’t help herself.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Thirty-Three


4th August 1957

Moscow, Russia

The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church had been positively euphoric to have Gia among the Communion. It was clear that he was one of those who bought into the idea of who they thought Jehane Alexandra was. Since she had returned to Russia, Gia had realized what Kat had meant when she had talked about her public persona being an unwelcome roommate who couldn’t be evicted. Many people in Moscow held her in great reverence and the further she went out into the countryside the worse that got. She didn’t want to think for an instant about what was said about her in places like Siberia and the Far East.

The story that got the most play was about her confronting Stalin himself in his prison cell. How she had seen the suffering that had been inflicted upon her family reflected in the treatment of the imprisoned despot and felt that was wrong even for a monster like Stalin. Now, in light of more recent events, Gia was being depicted as a crusader. Not to liberate the Holy Land or fight the heathens, but to challenge the entire world to be a better place.

Kat’s friend Nancy had told her that as far as public perceptions were concerned there were organizations, governments and corporations that would kill to be seen in the same light that she was. That reinforced Gia’s belief that Kat and Nancy got along so well together because they were both equally insane, just in different ways. The Russian people would probably view her with considerably less warmth if they knew what was going on in her head. How she was torn about who she despised more at the moment, her cousin Georgy or his friend Fyodor Volkov and how a bit of regicide would solve so many of her problems. There were also several moments lately when Anya had been severely trying Gia’s patience. The girl had dreamed of moving to Moscow. Now it had happened, and she had to leave her friends behind. Anya had raised stubborn noncooperation and being passive aggressive to an artform as she had expressed her unhappiness about the move.

Her turning twenty-nine the prior month had resulted in her cousin hinting that she was running out of time for certain things. Gia had demanded to what he had meant by that only to have Georgy sheepishly change the subject. Fyodor had been a lot more direct. He had warned her that Georgy’s advisors were pressuring him to find a suitable husband for Gia and order her to marry that particular man. Apparently, Gia’s independence was giving women ideas, Heaven forbid. She probably had Georgy’s wife Lidiya to thank for him not doing something so stupid, not yet anyway. Fyodor’s solution was exasperating for Gia, it was also presumptuous and self-serving on his part. He had dared to suggest that Gia consider a marriage of convenience to him for practical considerations. He pointed out that he had been courting her as Alexandra Lukichna, an individual as opposed to those who saw her as an easy means to wealth and power. Unlike them, he had always been trying to win her heart.

It was all exactly in keeping with every cynical thing she had heard among the sisterhood about men in general and how they viewed her. Fyodor’s efforts had been clumsy, heavy handed and he had never once given her a chance to get to know him beyond his apparent new-found wealth and abilities as her cousin’s good soldier. It simply wasn’t enough. How could someone be so obviously competent, yet completely clueless at the same time?


Hohenzollern Castle

For the first time in months that Kat had seen Louis somewhat happy and that was good to see. She was however less thrilled with the company he was keeping this afternoon but was willing to overlook that. Particularly because she had the foresight to tell Doug to bring his camera.

Kat had come with Douglas, Tilo and Nancy because she and Nancy had business with the Emperor. Doug had suggested that they make a weekend of it, a chance to escape from the pressures of home and their children for a few days. A couple hours on Saturday afternoon had been spent talking to Louis about media strategy and he could not have been less interested. Eventually he had just told Nancy to do what she thought would work best regarding public relations.

Today was different, however. Kat realized that this was Louis in his element, talking cars with other men who shared his passion. A few days before, Porsche had delivered a 356A convertible to the garage that Louis had built in a hollow on the mountain below the castle. The engine compartment was open, and he was talking about it with a Frenchman and two Americans who he had met at the Porsche factory. The Frenchman was Robert Benoist, a semi-retired racecar driver who was looking to start a racing team and had been looking for sponsors, corporate or just someone rich enough to throw money at it. The Americans were two actors who had roles in the latest American Western that John Wayne was making with Sergio Leone in Spain. One of them, James Dean, Kat had heard of, the other, a Clint Eastwood, she had not. Though bizarrely Tilo had met Eastwood once in California just before the Mexican War when he had been serving as a lifeguard at an Officer’s Club pool in Los Angles.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Thirty-Four


15th August 1957

Tempelhof, Berlin

Sitting in the kitchen of the Gräfin’s house was always awkward. Petia, the Housekeeper had let Ben know the rules of the house the first time that had entered her kitchen as she had stood there chopping up potatoes for that evening’s dinner. Among other things he was not to go above the parlor floor. His hands were supposed remain in plain view at all times. Kiki is a good girl and would remain so. If he had a problem with any of that he would learn that Petia’s knife could be used for far more than just chopping up potatoes.

Even though it was now the Summer Holiday, Kiki was still studying Latin. That sort of thing had come as a surprise to Ben, the ambition that Kiki had to finish her secondary education two years early and that she was being encouraged to do that. Today, there was the added complication of Zella being present. Ben had thought that Zella was amazing when he had first seen her ride up the alley on her motorcycle. He had learned since however that she looked at him with complete disdain and just who her terrifying father was.

An hour earlier, Ben’s father had given him a 50-pfennig coin and suggested that he go see if Kiki wanted ice cream. The whole thing was absurd, his parents had seen him talking to Kiki while he worked on the yard and thought that it was adorable. Running across the alley he had seen to his dismay the presence of Zella’s Ducati and the sound of Petia and Serhiy the Cook talking in Russian through the screen door at the back of the kitchen. He found Kiki and Zella sitting at the kitchen table Zella reading a magazine, celebrity gossip, this one speculating on the marriage prospects of the Emperor now that he was a widower. Kiki was writing phrases in Latin from a textbook in one of her notebooks.

Zella had seen Ben come in and she didn’t react. Kiki had said that it was because he wasn’t the sort that got her attention. Apparently, Zella was into Rock & Rollers. Black leather, greasy hair and all of that. Unfortunately for her, all the boys their age who were like that locally knew that Markgraf Emil von Holz, Zella’s father, would make them envy the dead if they were stupid enough to so much as say hello to his little girl. Kiki had greeted Ben warmly though and asked him to join her and Zella at the table. Then to Ben’s disappointment she went back to her Latin.

He was left spinning the coin on the table and trying to muster the courage to ask Kiki if she wanted to take a break from that and walk with him to the neighborhood market. Petia and Serhiy continued their conversation as they were apparently arguing over the ingredients for the next meal.

He was about to say something when Kiki took off her glasses. It was easy to forget how pretty her eyes were with how they were obscured most of the time, that caused his words to stick in his throat. Kiki said something in Russian to Petia and Serhiy, that caused Serhiy to bust up laughing and Petia to frown at her before saying something in rapid fire Russian. Kiki replied in kind. It was one more difference between Kiki and Ben, he had heard hints that Kiki’s mother had been a Russian noblewoman who had fled the Bolsheviks. Her even being able understand Petia, much less respond to her like she had suggested as much.

Kiki just gave the Housekeeper an impish smile before fiddling with her glasses and the coin fell flat on the table. A Berlin 50-pfennig coin had the Imperial Eagle on one side and a girl holding a shock of wheat on the other. The coin had landed with the eagle side down and to Ben’s astonishment, he noticed that the girl on the coin looked a lot like Kiki without her glasses.

“You look like the girl on the coin” Ben said only to watch Kiki freeze like Ben had just said something that he really shouldn’t have.

“Possibly because that is her” Zella said, “She was the model, or a photograph of her was anyway, a couple years ago. Kiki’s mother thought it was adorable, Kiki disagreed.”

“Did you win a contest or something?” Ben asked Kiki who clearly did not want to talk about this.

“It depends on what your idea of a contest is” Zella said. She looked like she was on the verge of laughing about that. Like if it was all some joke that she got, and he didn’t. Kiki just frowned at Zella, according to Kiki they were old friends and like with most friendships there were times when they got on each other’s nerves. He had wondered where he had seen Kiki before. Her being to model for the girl on the coin did sort of solve that mystery.

“What did you want Ben?” Kiki asked, changing the subject.

“I wanted to know if you wanted ice cream?” Ben asked, “From the market.”

He was hoping that she would say yes, but fearful that she would at the same time.

“Let’s go” Kiki said as she got up from the table, shooting one last accusatory glance at Zella who had gone back to her magazine.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Later they were walking home in warm afternoon sunshine. Ben was enjoying his ice cream in the paper cup until he noticed that Kiki wasn’t. On the walk to the market he had noticed that she had constantly been looking over her shoulder and when they were in the store, she looked around every corner with a great deal of caution. While he had bought the ice cream, she had watched the street.

“Is everything alright?” Ben asked.

“No” Kiki replied, “I’m not used to this, public, the market, any of it.”

Once she said that Ben remembered that he had only ever seen her in their respective houses or in the back gardens until she had come with him. Was there a reason for that?

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Thirty-Five


19th August 1957

Berlin

Kat was prepared to ease Louis back into the swing of things, but when he went straight to Berlin as opposed to going to Potsdam, it quickly became apparent that after the time he had spent away he was ready to dive back into his role as Emperor. It was just as well because Kat and Cecilie had been running out of excuses to give the Chancellor regarding the whereabouts of the Emperor. While, his presence might not have been as critical as it had been during prior generations, his absence had been felt in a number of ways. Once the main issues of National security, the current battles in the Reichstag and the events that were in Louis’ interest to pay attention to were covered. There were also a few other things that he needed to be made aware of, like the thing that had caused him to flee in the first place wasn’t going away.

“How many are there?” Louis asked.

“We’ve turned away a dozen…” Kat replied.

“That doesn’t sound so bad” Louis interjected.

“Today” Kat finished, and she saw his reaction to that.

“Who are the favorites according to the odds makers?” Louis asked ruefully.

“Margaret of England” Kat said, and she saw Louis make a face. The English Princess has a reputation that proceeded her, and Louis wasn’t the sort that wanted to sleep with one eye open for the rest of his life. “Margaretha of Sweden, Astrid of Norway, Infanta Pilar of Spain are the others…”

There was one more among the top contenders, but Kat was reluctant to tell Louis. “Jehane Alexandra of Russia is considered an outside favorite” Kat finished.

“Most of them are practically children and that last one is a joke” Louis said, “After Kira, the Junkers will not tolerate another Romanov Princess. Besides that, she made her bed and now she gets to sleep in it. She will find that Russia is a lot less forgiving of her independent nature."

Kat detected a dark undercurrent in what Louis said about Gia, he had to be aware of the role that she had played in the sequence of events that had ended with Kira suffering a heart attack. This was the first time that he had mentioned it.

“There are also a number of heiresses and socialites who you need to be aware of” Kat said mildly.

“I’m sure that you and Cecilie have a number of excuses for me to put them off without offending them” Louis said, “I would suggest that you put them to use.”

“Very well” Kat replied.

“How are the children?” Louis asked, “Other than Junior, I know how he is.”

Of the six Royal children only fourteen-year-old Louis Junior had remained with his father over the prior months. Months which Kat was certain had to have been instructive for him. Kiki had come to live in Kat’s household. Vicky and Rea were living with their Aunt’s family. Freddy was preparing to ship out to Vietnam at any time and Mikey was discovering that his love of equestrianism was holding him in good stead at the military academy he was attending.

“They are doing well” Kat replied, “I got something here that you ought to find amusing.”

She rummaged around in the satchel that she had brought to the meeting until she found the photographs she was looking for.

“One of my people took these in the neighborhood I live in” Kat said, “It has been a challenge keeping her protection discreet while giving the space to step out in the world. She is always looking for them and I’m afraid that is causing her difficulty.”

It was a series of photographs of Kiki with Ben Hirsch as they had gone for ice cream a few days earlier. The whole thing had seemed innocent enough and the team of BII Agents assigned to keep watch on Kiki had let it play out. They had remained close enough to keep her safe while staying far enough away to give her the illusion of being alone.

Louis found it amusing, still he had questions.

“You properly vetted this boy before you allowed him around Kristina?” Louis asked, “Just in case there is something in his background that creates a danger for Kristina?”

“Benjamin is the son of one of my neighbors” Kat replied, “A Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University.”

Louis nodded, most of the people who had moved into Kat’s neighborhood worked for the University in some capacity.

“Ben is a nice boy, who has been respectful of Kiki and they are a cute couple” Kat continued, “He had abided by the ground rules that we have established. Still, we understand that we are dealing with two fifteen-year-olds and they are being watched very closely.”

“Where there is a will there is a way” Louis said.

“I’m afraid so” Kat replied.

“Perhaps I ought to introduce myself” Louis said, “Really put the fear of God into him.”

“I wouldn’t do that just yet” Kat replied, “Kiki has told him some half truths and made some understatements about who she is because she doesn’t want her identity to interfere with her life and relationships. If you do that, you’ll mess that relationship up even if you don’t frighten the boy to death.”

“He doesn’t know that Kristina is my daughter?” Louis asked.

“No, he doesn’t” Kat replied, “And she is worried about what will happen when he figures it out.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Thirty-Six


25th August 1957

Tempelhof, Berlin

It was another warm summer might and Ben was atop the roof of his house trying to see the stars. He chanced a quick glance in the direction of the Gräfin’s house and saw that Kiki’s blinds were closed and the lights were out. It was a very pointed way of making her displeasure felt because she knew he was out there to see it. Just a few days earlier Kiki had seen him on the roof of his house, she had waved and smiled before closing the blinds. All because he had done something stupid, or if he was being honest with himself a series of stupid things. When Ben had asked his father about what had happened, in the couched language that he had been forced to use, he had been told that girls were complicated and that was something that he would need to learn to deal with. It all had something to do with the wedding that was going to take place in a week.

When the heir to an old Junker family married the younger daughter of one of the new Junker families it was a huge production. Ilse, Katherine von Mischner’s younger sister was marrying the son of Graf von Richthofen and preparations for the wedding were in full swing. Where Ben had first gone wrong was that he had been in the Gräfin’s kitchen when Albrecht had arrived to visit Ilse and Ben had been awestruck to be in the presence of one of his heroes. Kiki had been far less impressed by either Albrecht being a Raumfahrer and the first man in space or Ben’s reaction to it. The rest of the weekend had gone downhill from there as Kiki had been somewhat irked to find herself ignored.

Then things had really gone off the rails.

It had all related to the wedding itself being the social event of the summer. People had kept asking Kiki if her father was going to be present and she kept saying that she didn’t know. It had been when two of the Gräfin’s brothers had made a series of ribald jokes about the parade of women storming the Hohenzollern Palace because of Louis, Kiki’s widower father and had questioned if having that circus at Ilse’s wedding was a good idea.

That was when the details had clicked in Ben’s head. Kiki’s big secret, the thing that she had been avoiding talking about. When Ben had stupidly brought it up with Kiki, he had seen the warring looks of anger and fear that had crossed her face. He had also made the mistake of asking her why she had not just told him who she was, he realized later that he had inadvertently accused her of lying to him when he’d done that. She hadn’t taken it well but instead of getting angry, Kiki had just asked him to leave. Ben could have handled her yelling at him and getting upset, but the resigned “Please leave” had a sense of finality to it like a door slamming shut.

It had been what had come next that had left Ben shaken to the core. Before he had even been able to get out of the house, he’d been taken aside by the Gräfin and two of her brothers. They were both the sort of big psychotic types who tended to self-select for the Panzer Corps Dragoon Infantry. One of them was even a General, but it was obvious that it was Gräfin Katherine who called the shots. “Kat’s the brains of this family” Johannes had said to Stefan who seemed amused by the whole thing.

Ben had heard that the Mischners were only a generation removed from being gangsters and if the rumors were true it was less than that. Standing there with Johannes’ hand on his shoulder, Ben realized that the nature of the family hadn’t changed, instead it had been their employer.

“I know that Kiki asked you to leave” Katherine said in an even voice that sounded calm and reasoned but had the power to make the hair on back of Ben’s neck stand up. That was when she had revealed to Ben that she had people everywhere, it was something that Kiki had been aware of. That was what she had been looking over her shoulder at and around the market for when they had been there. Katherine had then produced a file that contained a summery of his entire life. The places he had lived, his school marks, health information. Oddly, the file mentioned his father several times in connection with Quartum. When Ben had asked about that Katherine had told him that that it was something that he didn’t need to know about and that it was something he was advised not to ask questions about either. His father was a Chemistry Professor, what could he possibly be doing that would touch the world that the Gräfin lived in? Then he had seen the photographs of himself and Kiki in the yards, walking in the neighborhood and at times when he had not known he was being watched. It was evidence that Katherine had people everywhere and Katherine had asked him to refrain from telling anyone else that Princess Kristina of Prussia and Kiki Fischer were the same person.

Ben wasn’t stupid, he remembered an offhanded comment that Kiki had made once about how one of the rules of her arrangement with the Gräfin was that she not draw attention to herself. Apparently, if she violated that she would go away and that wasn’t what Ben wanted. Looking at the darkened window, he just wanted it to go back to how it was before he had opened his stupid mouth.