Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread II

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Thirty-Six


1st March 1961

Werder

Looking up at the cabinet, Suse once again cursed her stature. It was out of reach for her, so she would need to get a chair or something again.

“For someone who hates acting, you certainly love theatrics” Gerta, her mother, said as she reached up and opened the cabinet. “Now, what did you say you needed out of here?”

The task that Suse had been working on was forgotten as she was reminded of her current difficulties. She spun on her heel and went back to her room. Lately, it had all been the same no matter hard she tried to make things be otherwise.

While a recent trip to the Doctor had confirmed that Suse wasn’t a dwarf and was still likely grow a few centimeters, it didn’t paper over fact that nearly everyone she encountered towered over her. She was small in all dimensions, 1.4 meters in height and weighing 38 kilograms reflected that. The blond hair and the cornflower blue eyes that had been inherited from her mother gave her an unearthly appearance. That was something that had not gone unnoticed by the other girls in her class, especially when they learned of her odd birthday on the 29th of February. The jokes about how she wasn’t quite human, but was something else entirely, had flown around. Outside of class, things were fine because she had the presence of Jo Falk kept her tormentors at bay, but because Jo was a year ahead in class was different story. For months she had endured the whispers and snickers.

If her outsider status wasn’t already apparent, the fact that she didn’t fit in anywhere certainly cemented it. Suse’s mother had encouraged her to pursue acting but that had ended abruptly this year when her gymnasia’s drama club cast her as an elf in the spring production. She had stormed out of the auditorium and had refused to return. This was merely the latest disappointment that Suse had caused her mother. The tumbling class had been a disaster despite Suse actually being good at it and she had managed to get into a fight with her dance instructor. Her father had tried to be helpful by suggesting that Suse take boxing lessons if that was more suitable for her or perhaps, they ought to ask her mother’s friend Katherine for advice, but her mother said that either of those things were out of the question. The last thing that Suse needed was to become one of those girls after what had happened to Asia. Her father had said that ultimately Suse might not give her mother a choice in reply. Suse was still trying to figure out what that had meant.

The bright side of her life lately was when Prince Michael had introduced her to Alberta of England, or Birdie as she preferred to be called. Oddly, Suse had found that she had a shocking amount in common with the English Princess, despite their obvious differences. Both of them were outsiders within their own communities and consistently failed to live up to the expectations of others. Where Suse was tiny though, Birdie was tall, and her body was all weird angles. All elbows and knees if that was possible. Weirdest of all was how she talked about Michael. Apparently, Michael’s mother had tried to arrange a union between their respective houses by joining them in marriage. Birdie jokingly referred to him as her former intended.

Since Birdie wasn’t going to be marrying Michael, or anyone else for that matter if she had her way, she had decided that they needed to find someone else for him. This had come shortly after Suse had introduced Birdie to Jo, so she wanted in on the fun. Jo was nothing like her more awkward friends, but she still remembered what it had been like when she had first come to Berlin from Denmark and how it had been Suse who was her first real friend. This week Birdie had received a letter from Michael saying that he thanked them for their efforts on his behalf and that while Irene was a lovely woman, that wasn’t how adults worked.

Suse was going to write back to Birdie, explaining her opinion about that when she had discovered that the cartridge in her pen was dry. That was when she remembered why she had wanted to get into that cabinet in the first place. Her mother was never going to let her hear the end of this.


Mitte, Berlin

Kiki had just finished leading a group of students on a tour of the museum and she was left exhausted mentally. Maintaining the level of enthusiasm required to keep their attention was something that didn’t come naturally to her. Not wanting to talk with anyone else for a time, she went to wing of the museum that housed the exhibition halls. A few years previously, two new halls had been added to the museum that reflected its role as the institutional memory of the service branches.

The hall for the Pioneers had been designed to resemble the inside of a train station and was a monument to the vast projects that they had engaged in. The motto of the Pioneers was over the entryway in Latin; Aut viam inveniam aut faciam. I will find a way or make one. If one had to describe the mission of the Pioneers, that was it in a nutshell. The Hall for the Medical Service couldn’t be more different. The goal of the Medical Service was to play up that they were part of a tradition that went back millennia. The stained-glass windows reflected that by depicting how some version of them had been there at key moments of history, offering healing and hope in a world gone mad. It was debatable if that was true, but Kiki liked to think that it was. The hall itself was of green marble and Kiki felt at peace while she was here. No one had moved the folding chair that Kiki had left in the hall the previous day.

“You always come here after leading a tour group” General von Lettow-Vorbeck said as Kiki got up from her chair, “Not that I blame you.”

“I’m sorry Sir” Kiki replied, “I wasn’t my intention to have you come here to find me.”

“Nonsense, it is good for me to see where my aides scurry off to when they think I am not looking” The General said, “Besides that, I know that having you lead groups of children is not easy for you.”

“Oh” Kiki replied. She knew that the General had a dozen other aides of various ranks who were appointed to help the museum run smoothly. Over the last couple of months, he had only spoken to her briefly, either assigning her to the museum or to run an errand elsewhere.

“I got a call about you” The General said, “Volunteering for advanced search and rescue training at Laupheim this summer. I must say that would be an impressive thing to do.”

After Kiki’s bluff a week earlier things had sort of snowballed. Sigi’s helicopter Regiment was extremely interested in having her once she completed the required training.

“That is something that I’m not sure I will do” Kiki said, “It seems contrary to my goals.”

“Your goal is to be a Surgeon, correct?” The General asked, “Training doesn’t get more relevant because they want people who can keep their head in a crisis.”

“I hadn’t thought of that” Kiki replied.

“That’s why you aspirants get assigned to old fuddy-duddies like me” The General said, “To give you a kick in the right direction.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Thirty-Seven


8th March 1961

Mitte, Berlin

It was International Women’s Day and Rea considered herself lucky that she wasn’t handcuffed to the chair while she watched events only a few kilometers away unfold on television. There was a march of professional women through the center of Berlin, thousands of them. However, Rea was under house arrest until her father said otherwise. It was either school or her suite of rooms in the palace, she was to go nowhere else. Rea’s father had said that if she was patient, some sort of alternative means would be found for her to get involved. It was something that Rea was finding it difficult to do.

“I should be out there” Rea said to Japik over the telephone. “As opposed to being cooped up in here.”

Rea was almost able sense him shrug in reply to that even though he was at his parent’s house in Wedding, a distance away.

“Your father has to consider the political angles, part of job of Emperor unless he wants to go hide in the Canadian wilderness” Japik had said, “You have to admit that is something that you are not inclined to do, consider all the angles, ever.”

The last thing that Rea wanted was a reminder of her personal failings or the consequences of what might happen if things ever truly went to Hell. Her cousin Gia owned a couple hundred hectares and an abandoned house in British Colombia because she was afraid of what someone else might do with it if she sold it for that exact reason. It was where her grandfather, Nicholas II had spent his final years in exile after being forced to leave Russia by a revolution and watching his family dwindle away.

“I swear the way that my father acts, you would think that I was frolicking in the Tiergarten starkers” Rea said.

“Not the same thing at all” Japik said, “That isn’t actually political, and no one would care if you did that.”

“What?” Rea asked, not expecting him to say that.

“Your older sister, who everyone thinks is the ultimate good girl would get people’s attention that way” Japik replied, “On the other hand, everyone already knows that you’re a rotten little shit.”

“I love you too” Rea said flatly. After all the difficulty she had gone through describing her platonic relationship with Japik without revealing the sorts of things that could put him in legal jeopardy.

“Sorry, but that is what makes you perfect” Japik said, “The other one is mind numbingly boring to spend much time with.”

“What, that makes me the evil twin?” Rea asked.

“No” Japik replied, “I don’t think you are evil at all. You are certainly the fun one though.”

Japik had been poking fun at Rea about where she fit in among the stereotypes regarding twin sisters since he had met Vicky. As if she could ever really escape that aspect of herself.

“Thank you for that” Rea replied, meaning it somewhat. “I’ll be sure to tell Vicky that you think she is boring.”

“Now you are being the evil one” Japik said.

“And don’t you forget it” Rea said with a laugh.

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

Kiki obeyed every military courtesy whenever she encountered Oberstabsfeldwebel Musongole. He had served the General since they had fought the British together during the First World War, though it was impossible to tell exactly how old he really was. He was one of the few Askari who had taken the German Government up on their offer of resettlement in Germany after Ost Afrika had been turned over to the British which was one of the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Of those who had remained in Africa, the German Government had honored their side of the bargain by paying them a pension in return for their service half a century earlier.

It was something that she was reminded of as she was standing next to the African Soldier as they were waiting for Kiki’s father and stepmother to enter the Museum. Compared to Musongole wearing an immaculate dress uniform, everyone else looked downright slovenly and that included Kiki herself. The War Museum took its funding from a variety of sources beyond the public and that included grants from the Hohenzollern Trust. Everyone knew that was a polite way of saying the money came from Kiki’s father in his capacity as Emperor.

What that meant in practice was that when Louis Ferdinand came to the Museum everyone pulled out all the stops to impress him and let him know that his money being used prudently. That included having the staff waiting by “Lucifer” the old Raupe Panzer with the fire breathing stallion painted on the side of it that guarded the main entrance.

“This is an honor” Musongole said.

“The Emperor is my father” Kiki replied, “This is hardly the first time I’ve seen him.”

That was a bit of a ticklish issue around the Museum, everyone knew who Kiki was. At the same time, they had been ordered to treat her like she was any one Fähnrich who was here to learn.

“In this capacity though?” Musongole asked, “As a soldier, while there is an Imperial Inspection of your posting?”

Kiki had to concede his point. The Museum was considered an active military post, even if it was for purely symbolic reasons. A visit by the Emperor was huge deal here.

“I’ll keep that in mind” Kiki replied.

“Good” Musongole said, “The General also said that you were the one leading the tour of Museum by his Highness and his wife.”

Kiki felt a knot form in her stomach, she was being encouraged to volunteer for SAR training and she didn’t view that with nearly as much trepidation. This added a great deal of complication to her involvement in today’s events.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Thirty-Eight


8th March 1961

Mitte, Berlin

“You were just adorable” Charlotte said to Kiki after the presentation of the upcoming events that the Museum had scheduled for the summer. With the twentieth anniversary of the start of the Second World War coming up, it was reflected in the content of the seasonal program. That had included a vast amount of Newsreel footage of the war and the home front. It had been in the home front film that had shown the Imperial family playing a role in the propaganda efforts that had been ongoing and that included footage of Kiki herself as she grew from a newborn to a small child, something that she found to be incredibly embarrassing. This was intermixed with footage of assembly lines and fields being harvested. Kiki did find the clip of her older brothers puzzling over ration cards that had been filled out in their name to be a bit amusing. The same dynamics of how they behaved towards each other played out the exact same way even now.

There was other footage too. Her father in his role as the figurehead commander of all German Armed Forces inspecting the troops. Him pinning medals on soldiers who tried to look stern even as they glanced at the camera nervously and tried not to smile. Kat meeting with Kiki’s mother and it was shocking how young Kat looked at that time. Then came one that was an even greater shock, Kat with Helene von Richthofen and Lagertha von Wolvogle at some sort of formal event. She was made up in a manner that was completely unlike Kat and that was followed by clip of her dancing with Manfred von Wolvogle. The Field Marshal might have had the reputation of being one of History’s great Generals, but from look of things he had also been an incredible dancer, even as an old man.

Afterwards while everyone else was still listening to General von Lettow-Vorbeck speak over light refreshments, Kiki had found her way to the Medic’s Hall in an effort to decompress. Leading her father on the tour while knowing how much was riding on it had made it particularly nerve-wracking. Then Charlotte came looking for her.

“Everyone says that” Kiki replied to Charlotte’s observation, “Though if Freddy and Mikey say that, they would ask about what went wrong.”

“That is the role of older brothers” Charlotte said as she looked up at the stained-glass windows, “Though they were in that compilation film as well. Who is this?”

“Friedrich Spee” Kiki replied as Charlotte looked next at the window featuring Theodor Fliedner. Other windows featured the work of various Holy Orders in healing the sick in the Medieval Era to Doctors, Nurses and Medics in more recent times. The central window at the head of the hall featured Hippocrates along with Asclepius, as well as Asclepius’ daughters Hygieia, Panacea, Aceso, Aglaea and son, Telesphorus.

“A lot of these windows are blank” Charlotte said.

“There is a debate going on as to what to do with those” Kiki said knowing that more than half remained blank with only clear glass, “Some think that specialties of medicine should be honored, others think that it should be a reward for a lifetime of service.”

“What do you think?” Charlotte asked.

“A mixture of the two, leave the decision until they order the windows” Kiki replied, “It would just extend what they are already doing.”

“And cause more arguments in the future” Charlotte said.

To that Kiki just shrugged. If there was one thing that the world taught her it was that people would always find something to complain about. And some people complained louder than others.


Washington D.C.

If there was one thing that Bill Stoughton abide it was weakness in others when it came to doing the things that needed to be done, especially when they couched in terms of principle. His namesake ancestor might be painted as the villain in depictions of the hysteria that had gripped what then Massachusetts Colony, but Bill took a different perspective. Someone had needed to step in and impose order and it was an important thing that Bill understood. In a moment of crisis, people would follow those who were strong, right or wrong was simply not a factor in moments like that.

Back in his home Congressional District back in Massachusetts there was an uproar because the Cambridge Police had beaten a suspected rapist who they had caught in the act trying to break into an apartment to the extent that Doctors felt that it was unlikely that he would ever walk again. The complaints were that too much force had been used by the arresting Officers. Hell, if Bill had been there it would have been academic. This DeSalvo perv would have gotten a quick burial, as opposed to living out his years in a wheelchair at taxpayer’s expense.

The most galling part for Bill was that as the newly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives was that because it was a local matter it would be unseemly for him to comment on it. That was what his Congressional career had come to. Getting elected to represent the People of his District and he couldn’t talk about the issues that affected them. There was one thing that he could talk about however and getting the man who he increasingly regarded as “President Windsock” on the phone was a big part of that.

“This is a direct challenge to American authority, Sir” Bill said only to listen to President Harriman tell him that he was misreading the situation. All that had happened was that a fleet had come though the Windward Passage entering the Caribbean Sea.

The subject was that a German Carrier had passed through the Panama Canal on their way to Korea but not before passing so close to Guantanamo Bay that they had been visible on the horizon. The U.S. Naval Base on Cuba had become a contentious issue as the Langist Government of Cuba was trying to renegotiate the terms of the lease. They felt that the U.S. Government should be paying considerably more than that they were and had taken the issue to the League of Nations.

If that were the only thing that Bill felt that Averell Harriman was screwing up it would be one thing, but having it come in the wake of the deals he had made to get reelected President it was one more nail in the coffin of his Presidency as far as Bill was concerned.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Thirty-Nine


24th March 1961

Munich, Bavaria

Being in the city was like an itch that he couldn’t scratch. That was how Albrecht I, King of Bavaria found it when he needed to come into Munich on official business. He much preferred to spend his time in Starnberg. In this case it involved his presence in the Landtag so that the Bavarian Parliament could be formally dissolved ahead of the General Elections that were going to be happening in a few weeks, not just in Bavaria but throughout the German Empire. Considering the complicated relationship that the Kingdom of Bavaria had with the rest of Germany, no one wanted, any funny business or even the perception of it, to occur here. As it was Bavaria made a show of maintaining its independence. The Government had more power than that of most of the other Federal States and maintained its own Military beyond the Landwehr.

Still, many who Albrecht had talked to had voiced a similar concern. Despite a robust manufacturing and aerospace sectors, Bavaria was in danger of becoming a vast theme park. Many of the same politicians he was hoping that the voters would do away with came across like if they would be pleased if history had stopped sometime in the early Nineteenth Century before all that unpleasantness that came after 1848. The SDP might be confined mostly to the cities, but their potential DEP coalition partners were expected to make a good showing in the upcoming elections. While Albrecht himself didn’t agree with everything they stood for, there was a good chance that they would finally do something about a nation that was growing stagnant. If the elections put a dent in Bavaria’s reputation of being a bastion of the Empire’s more conservative political parties, then that would be a small price to pay.

Albrecht was also in Munich to see how his son Franz, who had once again made a hash of things in Berlin just a few days earlier was fairing. While he admired the gumption that it must have taken to make a marriage proposal of a girl that he had only met before a few times in passing. He said that he had done because the prior winter when he had spoken to her, she had seemed nice. The results had been less than satisfactory, she had turned him down. It also suggested the lengths that Franz would go to get Albrecht’s approval, or at least get him off his back regarding his personal life.

The young lady who Franz had asked certainly could have complained or made a big display of publicly smashing him, but she hadn’t. Instead she had said she was flattered, but had gently explained that the answer would have to be no. In Albrecht’s thinking that was probably just as well. The girl was well known to be a blue stocking and that career of hers would have been a complete scandal just a couple generations ago. The reason that she would be going to Württemberg in a few months screamed that if she had agreed to it then the entire Kingdom would know exactly who wore the pants in that household at best. At worst, it would make plain that the whole thing was a sham. It was better that Franz remain single rather than have that happen. God only knew how long he could have managed to keep up that particular farce. Not very long if his father had to guess.


Tempelhof, Berlin

Sitting around the table in Kat’s formal dining room, it was wonderful to have Gerta and Helene for lunch like they had ages ago when they had all lived under the same roof. Of course, the topics of conversation had changed a great deal in the years since. At the moment the topic was Kiki’s encounter with the feckless Franz von Bayern.

“It seems to me that Kiki handled it the best that she could have” Kat said, “Though I think that the whole thing sort of panicked her.”

“What was running through his mind?” Helene asked, “I would be completely mortified to ask a question with even half that significance.”

“She always tries to be nice to everyone” Kat replied, “I’ve never heard her say that she actually dislikes anyone, just mentioning that she doesn’t like someone’s behavior at a given moment.”

That drew an immediate response from Gerta and Helene. They knew that there were some people who Kat couldn’t be in the same room with. It was because once they made an enemy of her then she would be inclined to deal with them as such, with savage ruthlessness.

“It was stupid, I can see that” Gerta said, “But it was also a bit romantic. Like something from a different century.”

“It was that” Kat replied, “But there is always hard cynical thinking behind this sort of thing. If you asked Klaus Voll, he would tell you that was probably all about. It was a common practice in less enlightened times to keep up appearances.”

“You cannot be serious” Helene said, “This is the Crown Prince of Bavaria that you are talking about.”

“There’s also the King of Italy” Gerta said, getting a dirty look from Helene in the process.

It had always been the same with them. Helene’s politics had always leaned to the left, but only so far as the things she was comfortable with were concerned. That included her very strait-laced personal life. Gerta on the other hand, had imagined herself as far more sexually liberated than she ultimately turned out to be, something that had included a fair amount of experimentation right up until she smashed headlong into the very real consequences that only women got to experience. While Kat wasn’t sure about what the deal was with Prince Franz, he certainly gave her the impression of a few things.

“I talked to Gia the other day” Kat said, hopefully changing the subject to a less touchy topic. “She’s in a bit of a state because the Russian State and the Orthodox Church are planning some events to honor the members of her family who died twenty years ago.”

“How is she managing?” Gerta asked, “When Gia moved to Moscow she left so much behind. I still don’t understand why she did that.”

“She had her reasons” Kat replied. Neither Helene or Gerta knew what those reasons were and why Gia had not been given a choice in the matter.

“I think that she needs to put the past firmly behind her” Helene said, “If she was smart, she would use these events to do that.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Forty


3rd April 1961

In transit, Rural Brandenburg

Sometimes the best thing that you have to say about a month is that it had come to an end. March had been arguably to worst month that Kiki could ever recall. Driving back to Berlin after spending the morning in Kiel on a rainy afternoon, was actually something of a relief. The windshield wipers moving at a different rhythm than the music playing on the radio. Kiki was looking forward to the summertime when she could drive with the top down, though at the moment that seemed both incredibly far away and frighteningly close. Especially after what she had been doing in Kiel, trying to facilitate the purchase of the SMS Preussen on behalf of the War Museum. The reason why the Navy was reluctant to part company with the remaining Battleships was because the USS Montana and the Iowa Class Battleships were still out there and that had come up frequently in the fruitless discussions. Something about how the Preussen Class were the only ships in the world that had a “zone of immunity” against the 16-inch/50 guns that the United States Navy used. Kiki had forgotten to ask what exactly that meant. And exactly how many centimeters were in an inch?

Between giving the Museum tours, her father and stepmother, running errands for the General. as well as the full implications of what she had volunteered for sinking in she had hardly had a chance to think beyond the next five minutes. It all had to do with the paperwork that had resulted when at the suggestion of General von Lettow-Vorbeck she had accepted the offer to go into Search and Rescue Training. Kiki had inadvertently volunteered to join the Airborne in the process, something that she had not known at the time. It was off to Laupheim Airfield in Württemberg in July to learn far more than she had imagined that she would be. Everything had to be in order before she left, and three months had come to seem like very little time atop everything else.

Then Franz von Bayern decided to pay her a visit.

Kiki had met the Crown Prince of Bavaria a few times during the Berlin social season over the prior winter. He had been shy, and Kiki had tried to draw him into conversation a couple times. It had turned out that she had made a bigger impression on Franz then she had intended when he had proposed marriage out of the blue because she had been nice to him. It was an offer that she had declined as gently as she could. Later, however she had listened to his reasoning and it did make a certain kind of sense, just not for her.

Zella and Aurora seemed to think that what had happened next was the most hilarious thing that they had ever heard. Charlotte had visited Kiki in her room in the Museum Staff housing so make sure that she was alright, as if she might have gotten hurt somehow. Then there was Doctor Berg’s take on the whole thing which catapulted the entire thing into the realm of the completely absurd. While Berg had said that Kiki had handled the situation well. Berg had also said that it wasn’t a bad deal for Kiki in that she would get all the benefits of being married with considerably fewer of the drawbacks. If she had been born decades earlier that probably would have been the best deal she could possibly have hoped for. Berg said that she was just playing Devil’s Advocate, but Kiki could see that Berg had meant every word of what she said.


Dublin, Ireland

At Jack’s Law firm they were used to many of the strange things that came from having him working there. Having an angry Kat von Mischner come through the door was not for the faint of heart but it was one of those things. Jack had to remind her that even if she was an important Client, the Secretaries were not there for her to verbally abuse.

“Tell me that this is a joke?” Kat said after giving Jack a chance to review the papers that she had been served with just hours before.

“It is no joke and I would be remiss if I told you that this will not be expensive no matter how it turns out” Jack said, “Mrs. Beck is probably hoping that you will settle to make this go away.”

“And every right-wing newspaper in Germany would pounce on that as an admission of guilt on my part” Kat replied, “In this matter as well as anything else they can they can cook up.”

“I see” Jack said, “Exactly how do you want this to be handled?”

“Her son was a monster who saw nothing wrong in hurting a child to send a message to that child’s father” Kat said, “I want her to have to answer for why she thinks stating that fact is slandering his memory.”

This was the continuing hangover from the publication of Kat’s biography. Merten Beck’s mother had brought a lawsuit against Kat because while her son’s name had never appeared in the text it wouldn’t be difficult to figure it out.

“That makes it easy then” Jack said, “The truth is clearly on your side.”

“But what are we going to do when her lawyers demand financial information?” Kat asked. Clearly, she had been thinking about this.

“That will pose a bit of a problem” Jack said, “Hardly an insurmountable one.”

“I wish I had your confidence” Kat replied.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Forty-One


6th April 1961

Philadelphia Naval Yard, Pennsylvania

In his seat on the bridge of the USS Blue, Jimmy Carter watched as the vast bulk of the USS Montana passed by as they returned to port after spending the winter battling the elements in the North Atlantic. She was still in mothballs at its mooring on the Delaware River against the unlikely event that the SMS Prussia or her sisters ever came out to play, or at least that was the pretext. The reality was a bit more complicated. There had been talk of scrapping the old Battleship, but as long as Mike Mansfield was the Senate Majority Leader that was unlikely. The people of Montana would be furious if their Senator allowed that to happen.

The Blue was returning to port after an extended time on patrol. The Destroyer was of an older design that had swiftly become outmoded as the Navy had struggled to keep up with the staggering progression of technology. Still, that had allowed her to become a platform for several novel technologies to optimize her for Anti-Submarine Warfare and for Carter to be given command of her a few months previously. His first assignment had taken the Blue into North Atlantic and the Denmark Strait and the Norwegian Sea to track the German Ballistic Missile Subs.

Carter had spent years pursuing the German Subs, the missile boats and the attack boats that protected them. They were referred to as being the grey ghosts of the Atlantic, secretive and elusive. They put to sea in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven and headed for the North Atlantic, from there it was off to parts unknown. Sometimes they played a cat and mouse game with the British for old time’s sake, but it was obvious to Carter exactly who they considered their opponents.

Lately, Carter had seen a worrying trend, the Kaiserliche Marine was putting to sea in large numbers. Sonobuoys that had been deployed by the Blue and her helicopters had detected no less than three of the missile boats and one attack boat headed north towards the Arctic Sea. Intelligence said that surface units had been spotted passing through the Suez Canal in fairly considerable numbers. With the Carrier Group that had passed through the Panama Canal weeks earlier, this meant that the KM had shifted its focus to the Pacific. Hardly a surprise really, after what happened last year at this time. Apparently, no one in the region wanted to get caught flatfooted again by Chinese saber rattling and they were calling in favors to get their allies to send help.


Wunsdorf-Zossen

Schultz had been able to rely on his great strength his entire life having grown up on a Bavarian farm and then gone on to wrestling and the military. Unfortunately, the very source of that strength had turned out to be his undoing. Shortness of breath and tightness in his chest had been growing worse in recent months. His Doctor had said that it was the result of his heart being enlarged and that other than advising him not to exert himself had not told him anything worth hearing beyond him saying that there wasn’t a great deal that they could do. Life didn’t stop and he still had obligations.

Unfortunately, it all came to a head in the middle of the night when he collapsed in the kitchen of his own house after feeling what felt like a horse kicking him in the chest. It took a while before Helga had found him there and the medics who were there to drive him to the hospital found themselves with a problem because he didn’t fit on the trolley, so they had needed to call in additional help to carry him out.


Pusan, Korea

It was an unexpected awakening. Sure, Tilo was used to being unexpectedly woken because that came with having two small children in the house. This was different. The telegram had been a few words. Heart attack, please come home if you can, serious condition.

Nancy was still half asleep as she made her way from the kitchen with a cup of coffee in her hand as Tilo was on the phone trying to make the appropriate arrangements, something that was difficult from halfway around the world.

“If he dies it will make Kat happy” Nancy muttered.

“That is a horrible thing to say” Tilo replied and Nancy just shrugged.

At that moment, Tilo was both appalled that his wife would make such a comment, while having to concede that she did have a point. He had no idea what had caused the anger that Nancy’s friend had for his father but whatever it had been it had caused a major falling out. Tilo knew that it was wrapped up in the reasons why his parents had wanted Nancy kept at arm’s length. His father’s career. It remained shrouded in secrecy, though Tilo had been able to glean a great deal. Mostly that his father had led one of the Abwehr Hunter/Killer teams in the 1920s and 30s. Katherine Mischner had been one of his recruits and they had some sort of falling out. Kat’s actions in the following years were well documented, which made it clear that she was no longer involved with Abwehr. It didn’t take a genius to figure that he must have done something that Katherine regarded as unforgivable.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Forty-Two


8th April 1961

Mitte, Berlin

“Do you know who I am?” The red-faced tourist bellowed, and Kiki wished that he would just stop. Dealing with people who were angry over things that she couldn’t do anything about tended to leave her stammering and unable to find the right words. It wasn’t helped by the tourist in question being a doughy middle-aged man who had the look of a former athlete gone badly to seed. Judging from his words he thought he was a big deal wherever he had come from.

“I… I think you are asking the wrong question” Kiki replied, and the tourist didn’t seem to understand what she meant by that. He just looked at her with a blank expression on his face.

This had been her lot over the past week as the Easter Holiday had progressed. Even with no University classes to consume her mornings, she was expected to lead groups in the Museum that was busier than ever. As someone who spoke several languages the more troublesome groups tended to become her problem, like today when Kiki was leading a mixed group that included several Americans through the exhibits of the First World War and one of them took exception to how the U.S. Army conducted itself in France as was mentioned in passing by the Museum. German Prisoners of War being held by the Americans had noticed that they had been treated better than soldiers in the U.S. Army who happened to be of African descent.

“No point in taking it out on the girl Frank” Midge who had introduced herself without being asked to at the start of the tour said as Kiki led them to the next hall, “She’s doing her best and I doubt she had anything to do with this.”

“I would think that a museum with an international reputation would have a better class of tour guides” Frank said. It was probably just as well that he would never know the irony of what he had just said.

The exhibits for the Soviet War were safe enough. The next ones though, South Africa and Mexico threatened to set off Frank again. Much of the captured material, mostly weapons and equipment, was very obviously American in origin. Kiki kept them moving until they were in the courtyard where they could either go on to the large warehouse that held the collection of vehicles or see the submarine that was moored on the river. Fortunately, the tourists would be someone else’s problem. Kiki would go back to the Medic’s Hall to try to calm herself so that she could lead the next group of tourists without having a panic attack.

“Thank you for guiding us through the museum” Midge said, and Frank grumbled something that Kiki got the impression he had been pressured to say by his wife.

“You're welcome” Kiki replied quickly. The last thing she wanted to engage in the pointless small talk that the Americans seemed to be unable to live without, so she turned on her heel and walked away.

“That was a bit rude” She heard Midge tell Frank before she turned the corner.


Tempelhof, Berlin

“Who is Jean Pouliot?” Kat asked as she felt was not the start of a headache coming on as she listened to Jack read off the names of people who were willing to testify against Kat in open Court. The lawyers working on behalf of Berta Beck had really dug into Kat’s past and there seemed to be no shortage of them.

“Someone who you obviously don’t remember by name” Jack replied, “But he claims that around Christmas time in 1945 you attacked him without provocation in Montreal.”

“That was more than a decade and a half ago” Kat said as she tried to recall the events in question, “He was that drunken twit who wouldn’t take no for an answer even after several warnings.”

“I see” Jack said, it was clear that none of this surprised him.

“That jackass Finley isn’t going to show up?” Kat asked, “Is he?”

“Paul Finley isn’t one of the people who they want to call” Jack replied, “The fact that it can be demonstrated that he was in the commission of a crime hurts the case being made by the Plaintiff.”

“I would argue that could apply to most of the people on this list” Kat said.

“Yes” Jack replied, “But can it be demonstrated to the panel of Judges who may or may not be inclined to see it that way when your reputation for violence is factored in?”

Kat was not happy to hear that. She had spent her life handling herself as best she could in extraordinary circumstances. This was spinning all of that to make her out to be some sort of lunatic. It was starting to irk her that Jack didn’t seem to be too worried about how this was progressing.

“Did you really threaten to cut Ernst Staller’s nuts off?” Jack asked, “I could have warned you that making that threat was eventually going to come back to haunt you.”

“I thought he was still in prison after his involvement with the Frick-Rosenberg Coup attempt” Kat replied.

“The State couldn’t hold onto him forever” Jack said, “And apparently he blames you for the fact that the only job he has been able to land since they let him out is as a washroom attendant, so he was more than happy to speak with Frau Beck’s lawyers.”

Kat just stared at the papers on her desk. This whole situation seemed to be growing worse by the hour.

“If you have a plan, it had better be a good one” Kat said to Jack who just shrugged.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Forty-three


9th April 1961

Mitte, Berlin

It was a funeral service like no other that Saint Hedwig’s had ever seen. When such a prominent member of the Church passes away it is normal for the Funeral Service to be a raucous affair, they had no idea what they were getting with this one.

Aside from the recent deceased’s family and their guests, the vast majority of the people present seemed to be there to make sure that he really was dead. The remainder were those merely curious because they had heard the rumors about the man. It was easy to identify most of the former, nondescript men who had eyes that seemed like that of a shark. Katherine von Mischner, who had watched the service from one of the alcoves just seemed angry, though she didn’t say a word to anyone. Though later as things began to spiral, she did look amused. Jacob Schmidt was equally silent, but it was noticeable something was off about him as his wife Esther and one of his Aides guided him to his seat.

It all had started well enough, but things swiftly got out of hand. The litany had been the one chosen by the Widow and clearly it was how she preferred to remember her husband. Then the eulogies had started, and they were delivered by people who had actually known the man and weren’t afraid to say what he was like.

Not that the seating for the extensive Schultz family was much better. Helga, the matriarch of the family had been married to Johann S. Schultz for forty-eight years and was not taking the loss well. Despite that, she still felt the need to give her youngest daughter and her youngest son Tilo’s wife the stink-eye. After years of living in the Order of Saint Clair, Inga had suddenly decided that she couldn’t do that anymore if she wanted to be true to herself. She had decamped to Berlin where she had found work as a Hospital Administrator and was now happy with her life. Tilo had married Nancy, an American woman who had worked directly for his father’s enemies before she had landed a job in the Public Relations Department at Volkswagen. Presently, she was on leave from her job as the Press Liaison for the Imperial Court and the Order of Louise. Ava was a bit more charitable towards Nancy but couldn’t understand the choices that her little sister had made. Hanna was trying to be the peacemaker like she had since she had been a little girl, without much success.

Jost, Lenz and Tilo had been stuck with the thankless task of trying to keep the grandchildren in order. Despite the ongoing service, Jost reverted to dealing with them the same way he would if they were new recruits. Lenz and Tilo, despite their much higher rank had a lifetime of conditioning to let senior Noncoms deal with minor matters. The two oldest grandsons, Erik and Karl were completely indifferent to what was happening until Ditte, Karl’s older sister, got after them to help. It was a bit too late to prevent it from becoming a complete fiasco. Fortunately, it didn’t become an International incident though the potential was there.

Later, once the burial, and wake were completed the Bishop quietly told Tilo that his family wasn’t going be excommunicated after the day’s events. Besides that, no other denomination would have them, so the Catholic Church was stuck with the Schultz family because they had been grandfathered in. It was impossible to tell if he was joking or not.


13th April 1961

At least it had been a fairly easy morning, the group that Kiki had been leading was composed mostly of Japanese tourists. Once she got past their love of flash photography, they were extremely appreciative of her efforts. They seemed to be delighted to learn that she had lived in Kyoto for a year and they were very polite when it came to her Japanese, which Kiki knew was far from perfect. If only every group was as respectful. The previous group had been families who had looked upon Kiki as a babysitter of sorts. Next week, schools were going to be back in session and Kiki would get the privilege of leading other people’s darling children through the Museum.

Today, Kiki had just handed off a group of tourists to the next guide when she got a message that she had a visitor waiting for her in the Staff Dining Hall. At first, she was a bit reluctant. This was unexpected and it was a long trudge to the top floor of the Eastern Wing which contained the Staff Housing. Then she was told that meant the next group would be handled by someone else, effectively giving her the rest of the afternoon off. That put an entirely different spin on things.

The Dining Hall wasn’t a large room as these things went. It could be crowded during the regular mealtimes, particularly around noon. It was late afternoon, so the only one present was a Heer Major who Kiki had never seen before. He was seated at the table with a cup in front of him and a file that he was reading. He motioned her to have a seat across the table from him.

“Fraulein Fischer” The Major said as she sat down with a smile that suggested that he knew it was an alias, he set the folder down on the table and Kiki saw that it was her own personnel file. “I am Major Kepler, and I happen to be the S7 for the Training Cadre that you have applied to join this July. From reading your file I must say that you are an interesting young woman.”

“That brought you all the way to Berlin?” Kiki asked.

“I had other business here in the capital” Kepler said, “And the General always welcomes anyone with a few good stories to his table. Besides, I was curious about an Imperial Princess volunteering for some of the most arduous training imaginable and a career in what could only be described as insanely dangerous at times.”

“Because I want to” Kiki replied.

Kepler leaned forward, “That isn’t a good enough answer” He said, “I would say that you think you have something to prove, if I had to guess.”

Kiki was silent.

“You also turned down an appointment to train at Judenbach two years ago” Kepler said, “What we do at Laupheim is assumed to not be as extreme as Judenbach, that assumption would be wrong. We expect the same things and have a similar attrition rate.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Kiki asked.

“Because while you’ve already checked many of the boxes of what we demand of our people, you should not be expecting that this will be easy” Kepler replied, “With that in mind, would you care to explain your motivations.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Forty-Four


17th April 1961

Tempelhof, Berlin

Kiki looked at the papers detailing exactly what she could expect as well as what would be expected if she went to Laupheim and was at a complete loss. Her lunch forgotten on the table in front of her. The previous Thursday Major Kepler had given them to her with the warning that the training she would be doing was pass/fail, with failure being far more likely. No one would care about her being a girl or her social rank as a Princess. They would only see her as a Fähnrich who aspired to lead one of their FSR teams. If she didn’t measure up, then she would be gone, and the service would be better for it. Kepler had made it very clear that she could back out at any time with no judgement. History was working against her, of a couple hundred women who had volunteered to join the Special Forces only a handful had ever passed.

“You look worried” Doctor Berg said from across the table.

“Ever gotten yourself into a situation and realized you might not be able to handle it?” Kiki asked as she handed Berg the sheets of paper.

Kiki tried to eat some more but her stomach seemed to be rebelling against her.

“It looks like they want only the most dedicated and determined” Berg said, “There is a great deal of personal risk as well. Is this what you want?”

“It’s like I was saying to Major Kepler, I want people to see me as me” Kiki said, “Not Princess Kristina, not the daughter of the Emperor and most of all not as the spoiled rich girl who relies on her family name to open all the doors for her.”

Kiki had been a bit reluctant to tell that to Kepler when he had asked her what her motivations were. It was the truth though, if by some miracle she did this then no one could say that she hadn’t earned her place ever again.

“And you think that this is a way to do that?” Berg asked.

“Yes” Kiki replied, “Though I think this is impossible.”

Berg just harrumphed and read down the papers she was holding. “While I think that this will be extremely difficult, I don’t think it’s impossible, and this parachute instruction on the ninth week will probably be a whole lot of fun” She said, “This also reminds me that that your annual physical examination is coming up.”

Leave it to Doctor Berg to remind Kiki of a detail like that there at the end.

“Scheduling that will be one more thing that I have to do” Kiki said as she was starting to feel like she ought to just go to her room and throw the blankets over her head and wait for her problems to solve themselves.

“I’ve met a few of the women who have passed through one of these courses” Berg said, “And all of them have one thing in common. Not necessarily being physically strong or stubborn, though I’m certain that helps. Instead, they all have an awareness of who they are, are smart enough to use what resources they have wisely and to see garbage like this for exactly what it is.”

“Excuse me?” Kiki asked, wondering what Berg was getting at.

“You said that this was given to you by the Regiment’s S7, this Major Kepler?” Berg asked in reply.

“Yes”

“The idea is to intimidate you into withdrawing your name before you set foot in Laupheim” Berg said, “The mental aspect of this whole thing started as soon as you sent them the paperwork. Let me guess, Major Kepler filled your ears with how heavily the odds are stacked against you before he handed you these?”

Kiki had no idea that was what had happened.

“How do you know this?” Kiki asked.

“You don’t honestly believe that this is the only time in your life that you will encounter a situation like this?” Berg asked, “In the surgical theater, you will get challenged constantly and you will need to have an answer every single time or else someone might die. And it is not always obvious what’s going on. Seeing clearly the games that people play are a big part of that.”

“The other thing that is on the bottom of the second sheet” Kiki said, “If by some miracle I make through, I will have to put my education on hold for at least the next two years.”

“Yeah, so?” Berg said, “It will be two years spent learning the sort of things that can’t be taught in University. You are already far ahead of most others your age, so I would call it a sabbatical more than putting things on hold.”

“I’ll also be in the Heer as opposed to the Medical Service” Kiki said, “That will throw a bit of a wrench in whatever you and Doctor Holz have planned for me.”

Berg seemed to find that incredibly amusing.

“It will serve that pompous windbag right to have you no longer be under his direct purview for a while” Berg said, “My personal belief is that you will return home when it suits you to.”

“Home?” Kiki asked, puzzled by that response.

“Or at least what I think is the closest thing to home you’ve had over the last few years” Berg said, “Here, in this hospital or with your friends who are at the University.”

Kiki had never thought about it that way before.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Forty-Five


1st May 1961

Tempelhof, Berlin

It had been suggested that Kiki have a plan for what she would do afterwards if she washed out at Laupheim. If Kiki was being honest with herself, she replaced “if” with “when” but as she was learning, even her other plans were fraught with difficulty.

“This shouldn’t be an issue for you” Kiki’s Student Advisor said, “Just pick up the phone and call your father, get him to give the University a donation or something.”

For her that was possibly the most humiliating suggestion that he could possibly have made for her. For the rest of her life Kiki would have the suggestion that she had gotten into the next stage of her education by such means following her. She would also have everyone in her class knowing that someone better than her would have gotten the shaft. It was the result of deliberate policy by the University they limited the number of slots available to enter different stages of the Medical program. Kiki had completed the portion required to become a Medic or a Nurse, but the learning curve had gotten a lot steeper. While her scores were good, she was competing with other students whose scores were even better. It wasn’t the first time that Kiki had failed, but this was the first time the very best she could do wasn’t quite enough.

“Can you put my name forward anyway” Kiki said, “For the waiting list.”

“I can” The Advisor told her, “But baring a miracle you will just have to wait until next year and hope for a better outcome. Perhaps something will have changed between now and then.”

Kiki felt like her head was about to explode at how she was being painted into a corner. That something would have to be Laupheim and it was starting to look like if she went there it would no longer be a matter of pass/fail, it was pass or die trying.


Wunsdorf-Zossen

“We finally got the first prototype onto the track” Emil said, “And Zella is being every bit as insufferable as I figured she would be when I saw the design for the fairing that she sold the Engineers on.”

Horst just shook his head at that. The single-minded ruthlessness and devil may care attitude that annoyed Emil about his daughter was exactly the same as the one that Emil himself had displayed throughout his adult life. There was also another aspect of Emil that rankled Horst quite a bit, he was becoming certain that there was a painting molding away in some hidden corner of Emil’s house. While everyone around him was starting to suffer the ill effects of age, Emil remained in good health and was even somewhat youthful even into his sixth decade.

“You aren’t riding it are you?” Horst asked. If Emil was doing that, it would be too much for Horst in light of his own problems.

“No” Emil replied, “The prototype is like strapping yourself to a rocket except you are on the outside. That’s a young man’s game, I think I’ll stick with my old R68.”

That was rich, Emil’s BMW was the fastest production motorcycle in the world when he had bought it less than a decade earlier. Horst ought to know, he had heard Emil brag about that enough times. Then again, if Zella was really like Emil, then the young man’s game in question might actually be a young woman’s game as well. Horst found the thought to be extremely amusing. The great GFM Markgraf von Holz finally meeting an enemy that he couldn’t defeat, his daughter, who was apparently as big a pain in the ass as her father.

“What’s this about the cruise that Nina told Maria about last week?” Emil asked changing the subject. Due to competition from the airlines the ocean liners that had once plied the Trans-Atlantic route all either gone to the breakers or had been repurposed. These days they were used to provide vacations to mostly retirees who wanted to go sightseeing without having to put in a great deal of effort. It had been much to Horst’s annoyance that he was exactly the sort who such vacations were being advertised to.

“Nina’s idea” Horst said, “Around the Mediterranean Sea, stops in Italy, Greece and Egypt. See the Pyramids.”

“That sounds fun” Emil said, “Better than just knocking about the house and driving Nina nuts.”

It was a reminder to Horst that the wives always talked to each other. The result was that Emil probably knew more about what was going on with Horst than he otherwise would have.

“If you say so” Horst replied.

“Think about it” Emil said, “People who remember who you are will love nothing better than to be rubbing elbows with Mad Dog Horst himself.”

“I always hated that nickname” Horst said. He had been given that name when he had landed like a ton of bricks on the Division that he had unexpectedly been given command of. It had originally been an insult, denoting the role that he was seen as playing for Field Marshal von Wolvogle, later as the race to Moscow had heated up the men of the Division had started using it as one of affection. They were the tough bastards being led by the toughest bastard. The fact that they had won the race to the Russian Capital had cemented Horst’s reputation.

“At least no one has made a movie about your supposed exploits” Emil replied, and Horst had to agree with that much. Emil had been subjected to that for decades.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Forty-Six


5th May 1961

Fort Drum, New York

As it had turned out, spring had been a shitty season for the 1st SFG. First, Ritchie had gotten a Dear John letter from his girlfriend back in Los Angeles, it had turned out that his extended absences weren’t exactly compatible with a long-term relationship. Then it seemed like one by one the other men in the unit found themselves with whatever domestic arrangement they had on the rocks.

Jonny himself had gotten into a massive argument with Gloria about where they were going and exactly what they wanted in their relationship. The retribution that he had inflicted upon the two men who had made her into a guinea pig in their little experiment had not gone over well with her. In Jonny’s mind that was how things were handled in CIA and the Army when someone stepped onto turf where they didn’t belong. While she had not objected too much at the time, Gloria had decided afterwards that it shouldn’t have been handled that way.

Weeks later, several newspapers received a letter to the Editor by Surgeon General Peter Holz of the German Joint Medical Service using the strongest possible language to condemn the reckless actions of the Central Intelligence Agency. A few days later, Congress had gotten into the act and the whole thing had become a three-ring circus.

Just like that Project Janus, which CIA had been conducting in secret had been exposed to public scrutiny and the public was not liking what they were seeing. The whole thing seemed to come directly from the imaginings of the truly paranoid or the laboratory of Doctor Frankenstein. Brainwashing, mind control and worse, the list had run on and on from there. Exactly what need did the Government have to conduct experiments of this nature? No one was buying the explanation that it was in case someone else came up with it first. For once it seemed that there was a bit of justice to be found.

Then, once things had started to settle down a bit, word came that the latest edition of biography of Katherine Mischner that Gloria had written was at the center of a lawsuit in Germany. Part of the problem was that Libel laws there were very different than those of the United States and if it went bad. Gloria could be ordered to delete or rewrite sections of the book if she wanted it sold within the German Empire, not to mention the damage to her reputation. She left for Europe right when Jonny got word that he was headed for China again and she said that she would be in touch when he got back.


Over the Mid-Atlantic

Moses Newton, formerly known as Martin King, had a bit of a hair-raising time sitting in the 1st Class Lounge at Idlewild Airport as he waited for the connecting flight to Berlin. It was the first time that he had been in America since he had fled Atlanta decades earlier. So, any second he expected either the Airline Management to ask him to leave or half of the New York Police Department to burst in to arrest him. Nether of those things happened. Roberto Martin, Moses’ Agent, had no idea about his that aspect of his client’s past and had assumed that it was entirely the former that was making Moses agitated. After how the U.S. Presidential Election had shaken out, the country was bracing for a particularly violent summer and Martin Luther King had become a particularly potent symbol of Black resistance across the South. He was the mythical warrior who had taken on the White Power structure and the Klan and they had been unable to find him before he struck again. He was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Moses wondered how people would react if they ever learned the truth.

“The staff here in New York assumes that if you can afford a 1st Class ticket then you belong here” Roberto said, “The only color that they see is green, so be sure to give them a nice tip.”

If only the whole world was so simple, Moses had thought to himself as he had boarded the plane. According to Roberto, London and Berlin were burgeoning scenes and if he ever wanted more than broadcasting in Argentina, as well as not being interested in returning to the United States, he should bring his act to Europe. He didn’t see what the issue that Roberto had. Moses was able to live far better in Buenos Aires than he ever could have in the United States and his show was rebroadcast throughout the Americas, one of the advantages of Spanish being nearly universal everywhere south of the Rio Grande. What had prompted Moses to change his mind was that the German RRG International and BBC International were both interested in rebroadcasting his show. That was the sort of opportunity that came along once in a lifetime.

The long flight over the Atlantic was exactly that, long. Especially after having spent the entire morning on the flight from Mexico City to New York. There was nothing to see out the windows except the top of clouds and the ocean. The woman seated across the aisle from Moses and Roberto was decidedly not interested in small talk. When Roberto tried to engage her in conversation, she just gave him a dirty look until he looked away and then went back to scribbling in her notebook. Moses heard her mutter a comment about men being presumptuous.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Forty-Seven


8th May 1961

Tempelhof, Berlin

All the jokes about the behavior of lawyer’s hardly held a candle to the clients. Or at least that was Jack’s experience. After all the urgency that Kat had in making the current mess that she was in go away, neither she nor Gloria Steinem seemed to be in much of a rush today. They were supposed to be discussing legal strategy, instead Jack was watching as they found other things to do. Waiting around the office in Katherine von Mischner’s house for them to get their act together wasn’t his idea of time well spent.

Gloria had complained about how jetlag had left her exhausted and feeling like she should be in bed asleep even though it was midday. Still, she had the energy to play jacks with Kat’s youngest daughter and was having a good-natured argument with Marie about the differing rules of the game depending on which side of the Atlantic you were on. So, Jack figured that she just had hoped that he might have made this all go away before she had needed to come to Berlin herself. Kat had informed Jack that Gloria was looking for a change in scenery. She had a boyfriend that she was on the verge of breaking up with and Kat had convinced the Kaiser to commission a biography of Kira Kirillovna, his late wife, with Gloria as the author. That was quite an opportunity.

Kat said that she was on the phone with her friend over something that she said was critically important, but instead it sounded like she was gossiping over recent events. He might have been put off by that except he knew she was on the phone with Helene von Richthofen. She was Kat’s sister-in-law and very likely the future German Minister of Education after the General Election just a week prior. So, Jack was only mildly annoyed.

Franz Richter, the local co-counsel who had come highly recommended, seemed to be taking this in stride. As Jack had learned over the several days of working with him, it took a lot to get a reaction from the German lawyer.

When Jack had first been introduced to him, Franz had seemed to be completely bloodless and he had stressed that they needed to allow the Gräfin to set the pace. That was why he seemed to be in no rush to move proceedings along. It was also a reminder to Jack that here in Berlin, rank truly did have its privileges and as the official companion to the Kaiserin, Kat was near the top of the heap. Franz had also somehow confirmed a detail about the case that the Plaintiff’s lawyers were preparing that Jack hoped was an unforced error that they wouldn’t catch. While he was certain that Kat would appreciate the idea of her detractors being done in because they had bought into their own bullshit. Jack knew that when she heard the theory that they were going to present Kat was going to be livid. Keeping her from doing something stupid out of anger was going to be fulltime job and Jack figured that was probably the real plan of Plaintiff’s lawyers whose entire case seemed to rest on the idea Kat was out of control and violence prone. It was so that her version of events could be completely discarded. The question in Jack’s mind was how they would get Kat to listen and keep to their plan as opposed to helping their opponents.


Hohenasperg Prison

The events of today were completely out of the ordinary. It was something that didn’t sit well with the Trustee or the two men who were helping him with the task he had been sent to do.

Prisons were institutions that thrived on routine, and that was having life proceed the way it had for decades. All institutions have their own rules and those within its walls abide by them and the very existence of the institution itself made it resistant to change. Word reaching them that abolishing capital punishment was one of the first orders of business of the new Government didn’t sit well with the inmates of Hohenasperg. One of the rules that they understood was that the worst sorts of criminals got a one way trip to Spandau Prison and depending on the nature of the inmate they received a long drop with a quick stop, a chance to look down the barrels of six rifles that came with a blindfold and a cigarette if they liked, or most often, they would have a date with Madam Guillotine. Now that would be a thing of the past.

Then there was the situation at hand, it was completely out of the ordinary.

The body that had a prison blanket as a shroud had belonged to a man who had been in solitary confinement longer than two men carrying him had been alive as the Trustee walked ahead as one of the guards unlocked the doors ahead of them. It was extraordinary that this man had survived well into his seventh decade, seemingly kept alive by sheer hate, even while surrounded by men who wanted nothing more than to see him dead.

The Trustee knew the two men helping him well, career criminals who had not done anything that rose quite to the level that would have seen them executed but was enough to have it be in the State’s interest to keep them here. Finally, they entered the room that was their destination. They were deep underground and in front of them was a steel wall.

The Trustee pulled a lever and a hatch swung open and heat radiated out. “Too bad he’s dead” One of the men carrying the body said as they levered it through the hatch. “Him going in alive would have been what he deserved.”

His partner snickered at that.

“Enough you two” The Trustee said sharply as the hatch to the incinerator swung shut, “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. Right now, he’s falling towards a fire far hotter than this one.”

There was simply no room to argue with that. Every man in the prison knew that eventually they would face that final judgment. With the exception of the truly hardest of them, it was something that they feared.

With that Bernd Stoltz passed from the world, as if he had never existed.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

One Thousand Four Hundred Forty-Eight


11th May 1961

Tempelhof, Berlin

“His name is Heinrich Matthaei and the entire University is just buzzing about what he and his team are doing” Ilse said, “Genetics, the brave new world of biology.”

Tilde had asked what was happening at the University and Ilse had to struggle to keep the bitterness out of her voice. She frequently felt as if she were a lone voice in the wilderness, trying to warn the world of the potential dangers of industrialization. Only to get drowned out by the multitudes who saw industry as a source of well-paid jobs and pollution as something that just went away. There were also discoveries in other fields that were exciting but didn’t make them feel like they needed to do anything. However, Ilse knew that if she started in on that topic, the others around the table would ask her to stop. They had heard this all from her many times before. Today’s lunch was the first time that the seven of them had gathered in months. They were also acutely aware that one of them was missing from the table. Gia needed to be here, but she was mired in Moscow these days.

Everyone else was keeping busy. Asia had embraced her role as Mistress of the Key and Kris was an instructor at the BND training facility in Falkensee. Judita had once told Ilse how she had envied Asia and Kris when they had been sent to be agents for the Empress overseas. Then she had seen the price that the two of them had paid. It wasn’t all fun and adventure. Kris had paid with her health, aggravating the problems with her bones. Then something terrible had happened to Asia in America. She wouldn’t talk about it, but Ilse had once mentioned something about an American researcher and Asia had flown into a complete rage. It was clear that Asia was far from rational on the subject, it was something that all of them had seen.

Instead, Judita had drifted for a while at University, after she had graduated her epilepsy had made finding a career a real challenge for her. The first job she’d had over the summer after her fifth year at University in a department store had ended badly when she had suffered a seizure and the manager had been less than understanding. These days, she worked for the University Admissions Office and did her best to avoid the stressful situations that seemed to trigger her seizures.

Tilde was working with girls at the same State school that she attended when Kat found her and was happy with what she was doing. Leni was back on maternity leave waiting for the birth of her second child. After how hard it had been for her to conceive the first one the second had come as a complete, though not unwelcome, surprise. That meant that in a few months they would have a new addition to what they jokingly referred to their growing family and that Anne’s little girl would no longer be the baby.


Kiel

It seemed strange to Christoph that while the ships under his command were in storage and moored to the piers, they still had upgrades and refits planned that needed to be carried out. It was all because in the event of a crisis all four ships needed to be underway in twenty-four hours. Today, he had been briefed on the latest plans from Wunsdorf that had dubbed Contingency Sigma Phi. In that event he was to prepare the ships to take on full crews and would then take his place as the Command Gunnery Officer aboard the SMS Brandenburg and further orders would follow.

It was better than the previous Contingency Alpha Epsilon, which assumed that the destruction of Kiel was eminent. His standing orders were to get the ships underway and proceed north to the shelter of fjords in Norway with his skeleton crews as well as anyone else who could get aboard while maintaining radio silence. The new plan suggested that someone had realized that the old girls still had some life in them. There was also load of high explosive and advanced anti-personnel shells that had recently been added to the magazines of Christoph’s ships. While he didn’t show it outwardly, Christoph was thrilled that there was a chance that they would have one last hurrah.

“They are keeping you busy I see” Arend said as he entered Christoph’s office.

“And if they didn’t you would see me being a slacker and find something for me to do Pops” Christoph replied.

Arend just laughed, they both knew that it was true. The semi-retired Oberdeckoffizer was teaching a new generation at the Mürwik Naval Academy. It was a nice way of saying that he was terrorizing them into being proper sailors before they developed the sort of outsized egos that might endanger their crews. He also happened to be Christoph’s father, but that wasn’t general knowledge.

“What do you want?” Christoph asked.

“Why do you assume I want something?” Arend asked in reply.

“Because I know you” Christoph replied, “If you didn’t want something you would send a message telling me to meet you at one of the dockside taverns so that you could soak up free drinks and tell exaggerations to the gullible tourists.”

“I liked you a lot better before you got wise” Arend said.

“What do you want Pops?” Christoph said, repeating the question.

“I need to call in a favor” Arend said, “But it is an opportunity as well.”

This ought to be good, Christoph thought to himself sarcastically.

He knew full well what had happened when Pops had called in favors like this in the past. It usually resulted the Shore Patrol coming through the Forecastle looking for anyone who they figured looked guilty. At same time, Christoph owed Arend several favors and there were a lot of men in the fleet who owed Christoph. Failing to honor the bargain tended to result in others not holding up their end in the future.

“Alright” Christoph said, “What is it?”

Arend gave Christoph a slight smile before yelling “Get in here!” over his shoulder.

An Ensign who Christoph had never seen before poked his head through the door. The Ensign’s look of trepidation increased when he saw Christoph’s rolled up sleeves and the tattoos on his arms.

“Louis, this is my boy Christoph” Arend said, “Christoph, this is Louis, the Emperor’s brat and the newest member of your crew.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Forty-Nine


13th May 1961

Over the North Pacific

Once again, they were on their way to China and that involved an incredibly long flight. The first leg from New York to California followed by the second that took them across the Pacific. Being little more than cargo, the Army didn’t exactly concern itself with their comfort and after having already spent almost a full day sitting on the inward facing aluminum bucket seat Ritchie just wanted off the plane. Simon Kravitz was obviously trying to deal with the boredom that they were all feeling by picking a fight with Jules Mullens.

“This is bullshit” Kravitz said looking at the newspaper that he had grabbed in New York as they had been leaving. “They are naming the new team the Skyliners after two weeks of voting by the general public.”

“You liked a different name?” Ritchie asked.

“New York Metropolitans” Kravitz said, “It’s perfect.”

Ritchie glanced nervously towards Mullens who was a dyed in the wool Red Sox fan. Mullens might be quiet for the moment, but everyone in the Squad knew that if he started talking Baseball with Kravitz then it would swiftly devolve into shouting. In his thinking, any Baseball team out of New York City was a dumpster fire at best according to him. With both Kravitz and Mullens being Buck Sergeants it wasn’t as if one of them could just order the other to shut up.

“How many times have we told you not to talk Baseball on long flights?” Jonny growled at Kravitz.

That caused Kravitz to fall silent. Everyone knew that they needed to tread carefully around Jonny these days. While his girlfriend hadn’t given him the axe yet, they all knew that with the sorts of arguments that they had been having lately it was a matter of when, not if. The fear was that when the mail caught up with them in China Jonny was going to get a letter making it official and he was going to go ballistic.


Mitte, Berlin

As Kiki ran around the outer perimeter of the Museum grounds she thought about recent events.

“You are a healthy young woman” Doctor Berg had told her a few days earlier when the results of Kiki’s latest medical examination had come back. “Try to stay that way.”

That was classic Nora Berg. Recently, Charlotte had told Kiki that it was wonderful that Kiki was willing to play the role of surrogate daughter for a woman like Berg who had placed her career ahead of all other considerations. Kiki’s stepmother was unaware that Berg had other reasons for not having a family though Kiki didn’t bother to point that out. The whole thing had been a bit of a surprise to Kiki. She had never really considered the nature of her relationship with her mentor. It did however put Berg’s constantly telling her to eat more vegetables into perspective. Charlotte was taking University courses to regain her Certification as a Social Worker, so observing family dynamics was where her head was at these days.

Thinking of odd family dynamics, no one else knew that Kiki had been spending a fair amount of time with Sigi. She was excited that Kiki would be coming to lead one of her Regiment’s FSR teams when she completed training in the Autumn. Kiki had told her that it was only if she could pass and that was not a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination. Sigi just looked at her and said that she was certain that Kiki was going to make it.

Then there was her little brother. Louis Junior had vanished from his Academy Class in Mürwik and no one seemed to know where the seventeen-year-old Prince had gone which was driving a great deal of speculation. Nobody had asked her, but if they had Kiki would have told them that Louis had finally run off to join a traveling circus. Neither her father nor Charlotte seemed too worried, that suggested that they knew exactly where Louis was.

Kiki stopped running long enough to open the Staff entrance of the Museum and then entered the stairwell. Taking the steps two at a time she ran up the stairs to the fourth floor that held Staff housing. Opening the fireproof door, she avoided talking with anyone as she made her way to take a shower and find some fresh clothes.


Kiel

The two-stroke engine of the launch changed pitch as Christoph expertly guided it up to the floating dock that was tied up to the side of the SMS Preussen as Louis rode in the bow with a load of crates from the SMS Rhineland between them. Christoph had said that they needed to get one of the Coxswains to teach Louis how to pilot a launch so that he could run errands like this himself, which happened to be exactly what Louis wanted. Louis threw a line to one of the waiting sailors, that happened to be the extent of his responsibilities for the moment.

Over the prior academic year Louis had struggled in the classroom portions of the Academy but had excelled when the class had gone to sea in one of the Tall Ships that the Academy maintained. Then he’d had Oberdeckoffizer Neuman take an interest in him and the Warrant Officer had convinced Louis’ father to let him sit this year’s end of term exams early so that he could spend the summer months with the Fleet-in-being that was in Kiel. Korvettenkapitän Christoph Hase wasn’t at all like what he had imagined an Officer was supposed to look like. Apparently, he had been a senior Noncom before making the jump to the Quarterdeck and serving as a Staff Officer in Wunsdorf. To Louis, he looked like a pirate from a movie, lacking only a tricorn hat, purple frockcoat and a parrot.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Fifty


27th May 1961

Rural Brandenburg, Near Luckenwalde

The forest here was a part of Crown Lands and in the near future it would become the latest of Brandenburg’s State Nature Preserves. Freddy had wanted a chance to come and see it while his family were still the direct owners. He also enjoyed taking a walk on a nice spring day as the seasons slowly transitioned to summer. The dense growth of leaves on branches made it like walking through a green cave.

Aki loved running through the forest. He was joined today by Frost, a mostly grown grey Akita puppy who Aki had sired. Exactly how that had happened was a story that was either amusing or mortifying. Rin, an Akita bitch belonging to an Assistant of the Japanese Ambassador had gone into heat on the same day that Freddy had been visiting Suga. Dogs not being nearly as fastidious over such matters as their human owners had resulted in Freddy having to smooth things out with Rin’s owner and he then found himself with seven Akita puppies to deal with. Six had gone to various prominent families who Freddy knew had country estates. He had decided to keep Frost, because even at a few months of age Frost was too much of a handful to entrust to someone else. It was an odd metaphor for how his life had gone, others got a few minutes of pleasure and he got tasked with cleaning up the resulting mess.

When Freddy had talked to his father about that, his father had looked at him and told him that was what came from being an adult and as he took on greater roles of responsibility then it would get worse. Even if Freddy never took his father’s place that would remain true if he wanted to do anything worthwhile with his life. He certainly had Edward the VIII of England as an example what could happen if he wanted to have no real responsibilities. The English had dealt with a Monarch who had grown inconvenient by adjudicating him to be insane after he had suffered a psychotic break. Then there was also the example of his younger brother, Michael was King of Bohemia. Michael spent most of his time as an Officer in the Panzer Corps, only taking on the responsibilities as “King” when he had to. Oddly, the Government of Bohemia seemed to be fine with that arrangement. And on the subject of having no real responsibilities, Freddy’s father had told him that his youngest brother had joined the Fleet-in-being in Kiel under the Command of one of Emil Holz’s former Aides. That hadn’t seemed like a big deal until Freddy had been briefed on the details of Contingency Sigma Phi and how that related to the larger framework of the Naval strategy over the next two years.

Then there were his crazy sisters. Kiki had gotten it into her head that she needed to take on training to enter the Special Forces and had recently turned down the chance to become the Queen Consort of Bavaria. Ria seemed to be searching for a crusade to join. Vicky was quiet at the moment, but how long could that last? What was Freddy’s youngest sister Nella up to? She might have only just turned three, but Freddy knew from experience that was hardly an obstacle to the sort of over-achieving that his sisters typically engaged in.

As for Freddy himself, his relationship with Suga continued to be complicated. She said that the instant they became an item the German public, which had been very tolerant of her, would suddenly remember that they had a history of xenophobia. Besides that, there were tens of millions of women throughout Europe who would love nothing better than to make his acquaintance. The pressure towards dynastic marriage wasn’t as much of a thing in Europe, not anymore anyway. Freddy had a slightly different perspective. Suga was one of the few women who knew where he was coming from and wasn’t afraid to tell him when he was screwing things up. She was also a genuine friend and he didn’t have very many of those.

Aki and Frost, who had run ahead of him both went to ground as they did when they knew that there was an intruder nearby. Partly due to Freddy and Aki, the breed had developed some popularity in Germany, but many found the habit of Akitas silently stalking “prey” in a catlike manner to be unnerving.

“Aki, heel!” Freddy called out when he saw what the intruder was, a girl who looked like she was nine or ten years old. Aki returned to Freddy without further prompting, Frost came bounding along with him. Even though Freddy had trouble getting Frost to obey much of the time, chasing after Aki was a game to him.

“Poppa!” The girl yelled, and she took off running. From the girl’s perspective two large dogs had just erupted out of the foliage only a few meters from her.

Grabbing ahold of Frost’s collar, Freddy clipped the leash on. He didn’t doubt that Aki would stay with him, he wasn’t sure about Frost who was still learning. These people might not be so keen on him even if he just wanted to play. Presently a family, mother, father, two boys and the girl came walking the opposite direction up the trail. The girl looked to be the youngest.

“Sorry if the dogs startled her” Freddy said. He could tell that the mother recognized him because she just gaped at him as she walked by.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Fifty-One


1st June 1961

Mitte, Berlin

Say what you will about the Germans, Jack thought to himself as he walked into the hotel bar, they were certainly as a group, punctual.

He was meeting Franz Richter and the Lawyer was already waiting in the bar though Jack was a few minutes early. Back in Dublin the time to start an informal meeting like this would have been considerably more nebulous.

“Herr Kennedy” Richter said.

Jack just nodded in return before sitting down across the table from Richter and waited in silence until the waiter came for his order.

“This case isn’t what it seems” Richter said once Jack’s drink arrived.

“I could have told you that” Jack replied, “Berta Beck lacks the means to pursue a case like this, so someone with deep pockets is backing this.”

“Yes” Richter replied, “It reads like a who’s who among the leaders and financiers of the far-right Monarchists and Nationalists.”

“You know this?” Jack asked, a bit bewildered.

“None of this is a secret” Richter said, “While Gräfin Katherine has a generally good public image, it is largely because most of the people writing about her are sympathetic to her. Those who hate her and what she represents have a very different take. They see how she has steadily amassed wealth and power. Not only can they no longer dismiss her, but they can see that she is still a relatively young woman and they fear what she might become over the next decade.”

“If that is true, then they cannot think that this lawsuit is the means to stop her” Jack replied.

“You work Criminal Law in Ireland” Richter said, “How often did you encounter people who bought into their own garbage?”

“Nearly every day” Jack said. They believed the sorts of things that they told each other about Kat behind closed doors and implied in the newspaper columns that they wrote. They were wrong about what she was, Kat was better than that while at the same time being far worse than they imagined. They might fear what she would be in a decade, if they knew the truth then they would be petrified about what was coming at them as soon as this lawsuit was over.


Munster, Germany

Months as a Staff Officer in Wunsdorf and Kurt finally got himself reassigned. However, it wasn’t to command a Panzer Brigade. Instead, he was sent to Munster to teach Junior Officers tactics in night fighting. It seemed that with a new generation of Sperber devices becoming standard equipment in all armored vehicles in the Panzer Corps, Kurt was seen as an expert in the field. When he had conducted his own evaluation of the latest device, he had discovered that the photoreceptors were less likely the burn out and the shock that came from the main gun of a Lynx didn’t knock the Sperber device out of action. Kurt knew that he really could have used this version of the Sperber device two decades earlier in 1943. Hell, he could have used the rest of Lynx for that matter, back then.

“Blue Six, where the Hell do you think you are going?” Kurt yelled into the microphone as he watched the movement of the Platoon that he was commanding tonight. Blue Six, or Lieutenant Michael von Preussen, or was it von Bohemia these days, was a bit of a surprise to Kurt. The young King of Bohemia was one of the young men who Kurt had been tasked with teaching to lead Companies.

“Sorry, Sir” Blue Six replied, “Could you repeat that?”

It shouldn’t have been a surprise to Kurt, but Michael was proving to be an aggressive Panzer Commander along the lines of what Kurt himself had taught him to be. The result was that Kurt was getting a dose of his own medicine. He could think of dozens of times when he had charged ahead after ignoring his commander’s voice as it had come over his headphones. Frequently, it had been the fact that Kurt had come out ahead alone that had prevented him from being disciplined in the wake of such occurrences. “Yeah, it worked this time but if you do it again…” Kurt had found himself using those words. None of this was helped by aggressive PCs being popular with the crews.

Tonight, how that was working was that the Platoon was in position to ambush an “enemy” column. Michael had grown impatient in exactly the same manner that Kurt himself would have a couple decades earlier. He could either let Michael come to grief or else he could back the play in hopes that he could salvage something from the bloody chaotic mess that was about to happen. He had about five seconds to make up his mind because even at night a Lynx wasn’t exactly inconspicuous and unless whoever was in charge of the opposing force was asleep, they would see it. In this were a real battlefield then he couldn’t afford to just let a Panzer get destroyed.

“Hell” Kurt muttered to himself before yelling “Everyone forward, form up on Blue Six!”

Kurt would give Michael the ass reaming that he deserved once this was over and the after action would reflect that Kurt was forced to improvise once Blue Six was out of position. No matter how this turned out, he already knew what the subject of the next lecture was going to be.

Kurt could hear the sounds of the various Panzer crews over the radio net. A charge like this might be stupid and wasteful, but it was thrilling. This happened to be exactly what they had signed up for.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Fifty-Two


14th June 1961

Mitte, Berlin

Outwardly, Kat was calm, and her face was expressionless. Jack however knew better than take it at face value. The rigidness of her posture and a cloud of pure malice that Jack could sense radiating from her clearly suggested otherwise. He knew better than anyone what Kat was capable of and at this moment she was like a bomb that was about to explode. Jack knew that would be a disaster. He hoped that she would hold it together when this had started, after today he worried that several people living in the Berlin area would find themselves suffering a series of “accidents” of some kind in the near future. A Generalmajor was not without means, there were rumors that she had done it before and there were secrets of this city that Kat von Mischner alone knew.

The Plaintiff’s Lawyers had just gotten through voicing their theories regarding Kat’s moral depravity and why she was now lying about what had led up to the murder of Merten Beck. They were careful to avoid bringing up later events that would give the German Government cause to invoke State Secrecy, squelching the entire case. Everyone in the Courtroom knew that BND, BII and OKW were all itching to do that, and they would have the full backing of Emperor Louis Ferdinand if that happened. They included a series of sworn affidavits of individuals who had been on the receiving end of Kat’s frequent use of violence and deceit. Then came the theory that seemed designed to bait Kat, that she had really been in a relationship with Beck. It was absurd on its face and it was a perfect example of what Richter had referred to as believing their own garbage.

Finally, the Plaintiff’s Lawyers concluded and there was a brief recess before the Defense would start to make their case. As Jack and Richter spoke with each other about what exactly they were going to do with Kat, it became an issue if she could control herself because what Richter was about to say was exactly the sort of thing that would make her see red. It took the entire recess for Jack, Douglass, Ilse and Gloria to convince Kat that she needed to keep herself under control. As the session resumed, Kat sat there fuming.

While they had prepared to make a case if need be, Richter asked the Judges to dismiss the case. The logic was that even if the case by the Plaintiff’s was true, a twelve-year-old could not legally consent to relationship of that kind with a man fifteen years her senior. The case of slander being made against Katherine von Mischner was that she had said that Merten Beck was a criminal and had been lying about the sort of person that he was after her father had killed him. The Plaintiff’s lawyers themselves had confirmed that detail. It was obvious why Kat didn’t like that argument. It could be said that this could be seen as validating the sort of malicious rumors that were spread about her to a degree.

It worked when after consultation the Judges dismissed the case.

Still, it was obvious that no one felt like celebrating afterwards and as the Berta Beck sat there looking poleaxed it was obvious that someone had built up her hopes about justice for her son. Jack just hoped that his fears about Kat’s reaction to all of this would prove unfounded, or at least Berta wouldn’t be a primary target of Kat’s wrath.

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

Every muscle in Kiki’s body ached as she lay on her bed and looked out the window at tall television tower with the stainless-steel dome that was taking shape. Already, the reflection taking the shape of a cross had been noted and a comedian had quipped that the Patron Saint of Television had not been named yet. The Vatican had shot back that he was wrong, Saint Clare of Assisi had been named the Patron Saint of Television in 1958, her feast day was on the 11th August. The Catholic Church was perfectly happy to tell more to people who were interested. That was a rare bit of savvy from the Church considering the ham-handed manner in which it had handled the series of scandals that had engulfed it in recent years. Charlotte, who was Catholic, had told Kiki that perhaps the Church would come around and make the changes that it needed to eventually. Kiki wasn’t optimistic. The Catholic Church was only just barely starting to address the problems presented by the reformation, a few centuries late.

For Kiki herself. She was putting herself through everything she remembered from basic training and the additional training that Kat had put her through prior to her departure for Korea. All in the hope that it would at least prepare her somewhat for where she would be going in just a few weeks. The General had been quietly encouraging that. While she didn’t know his actual opinion of women taking on the roles that she was trying to, he had done nothing to discourage her. Kiki knew that in a very short time she would be surrounded by men who would be bigger and stronger than she was. Her understanding was that she would have to push herself past what she might have thought were her limits to merely be good enough.

Not for the first time did the nagging voice in the back of Kiki’s mind tell her that she had painted herself into corner and that she was setting herself up for an epic fall.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Fifty-Three


18th June 1961

Over the Mid-Atlantic

Gloria was going home after spending the last several weeks away. She had started and stopped writing a letter to Jonny that explained what was going on. She had given up on that until she got back to New York and had entirely too much on her mind after what she had witnessed in Berlin.

The first thing she had noticed was that with the twentieth anniversary for the start of the Second World War was coming up in a month. The response that Gloria had seen was surprisingly subdued. It was like if that particular war was something that the people of Germany saw as having been an obligation and they weighed any lingering sense of triumph against the very real cost that they had paid as a country. It had been a total war that had radically changed their society in ways that they were still trying to come to terms. Gloria wondered if that had something to with the reaction.

The second thing was that it had taken a bit of digging on her part, but she had figured out what the real reasons behind the lawsuit that had drawn her in as well.

It was really all about Louis Ferdinand.

When the German Kaiser had proposed changing how his successor would be selected and he had inadvertently created a power struggle in Berlin in the process. It was because if Louis followed through with his intention to retire in 1971 and there was really a Königswahl were every State in the Empire would have a vote for his successor then the City-State of Berlin would have an Elector for the first time in centuries. It would effectively turn the City into a very large, powerful Principality and it was an open question as to who the “Prince-Elector” would be. Someone, in a sudden burst of clarity, had realized that no matter who the candidate was, they would almost inevitably be someone who had the backing of some of the key organizations and individuals within the city itself. The Order of Louise was well positioned to be one of those key organizations.

That was why certain right-wing groups had gone after Kat in the way that they had. They were trying to lay the groundwork for denying her the role of playing kingmaker to the person from Berlin who would quite literally be The Kingmaker. Gloria knew that the group of mostly old men in question were a bunch of dinosaurs ready for extinction and stuck in a tarpit of their own creation. It was only a matter of time for that to happen. Too bad they couldn’t see the historic nature of what was coming in the years ahead.


Schwielowsee, Brandenburg

Aurora had joked that she and Zella had needed to convince General von Lettow-Vorbeck to order Kiki to take a couple days off so that she could spend the weekend with them on what Zella was jokingly referring to as an adventure. What that looked like in practice was them spending the weekend on a Dutch barge that had been rented by Zella’s family. It was so that her father could escape from the world after the introduction of the BMW motorcycle that his team had designed and built on the racing circuit. It seemed that the automotive press was extremely interested in the details surrounding his new career.

Kiki was thinking about this after she woke up in the bunk bolted to the wall of the small cabin that she shared with Zella and Aurora early in the morning with the grey light of predawn coming through the open window. She could hear the rumble of the diesel engine that propelled the barge on its leisurely cruse down the River Havel. It played a nice counterpoint to Zella’s soft snoring in the bunk below Kiki’s and a mosquito that was buzzing around. The night before they had left the pier on the River Spree after her friends had made a big show of liberating her from the museum.

As Kiki had enjoyed a light dinner with Zella’s family, she had watched the lights of Berlin drift past. It had occurred to her then just how deeply she had buried herself in her preparations for her departure for Laupheim on top of the regular duties that she had at the museum and whatever errands the General sent her on. The General had told her to have fun and he didn’t want to see her back in the museum before Sunday evening at the earliest. Zella had told her that they could spend the weekend doing whatever they wanted the night before. Swimming, just lazing in the sun, or perhaps just catching up on her sleep on Saturday, whatever Kiki wanted. Of course, Zella said that she would need to think about doing whatever Kiki might suggest they do. Kiki had laughed at that. After everything that they had done over the years, Zella was still Zella and it was Kiki’s sincere hope that she would never change.

That was when Kiki heard a “ribbit” and she looked over the edge of the bunk and saw a frog on the floor. It was a reminder that Zella’s little brother Walter was onboard as well. She would have thought that he would have grown out of playing pranks like this on his sister, the presence of the frog suggested that Walter hadn’t. Just then the Frog’s tongue shot out and the buzzing of the mosquito went silent. Kiki smiled as she climbed down from her bunk and picked up the frog.

“Thank you, Herr Frog” Kiki whispered as she opened the screen and dropped the frog out, she heard a splash as the amphibian hit the water.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Fifty-Four


24th July 1961

In transit, rural Württemberg

It was dark in the back of the lorry with the canvas cover over the bed that Kiki was sitting in with a dozen others. It was hardly a surprise that she was the only girl. And she wasn’t drawing attention to herself for reasons that were too obvious to mention. She could hear the ribald talk that the men engaged in when they knew that no one would call them on it. It was in the middle of the night and Kiki had no idea what time it even was. All she knew was that it was very late, to the point of it being early. Every once in a while, the lorry went around a turn and she caught a glimpse of a half dozen other lorries like the one she was riding in out the open back. She was aware that there were an equal number ahead of one that she was riding in. The only possessions she had brought were what had fit inside the rucksack by her feet and she had strongly been encouraged to bring as little as possible. The air blowing in smelled of forest that was in the midst of the height of summer.

“You can be true to yourself without radically changing who you are. Has it ever occurred to you that most of the people you are trying to gain the approval of don’t care if you continue to give until you have nothing left?”

That was the last thing that Zella had told Kiki before she had left Berlin and those words had been biting. In the last weeks before she had left Berlin, Zella’s frustration with her had grown more evident with every change that Kiki had made. Doctor Berg had urged her to be patient with Zella, telling her that she was scared about what would happen to a dear friend. Since they had been children, Zella had been Kiki’s protector and she was at a loss about what to do over what Kiki was doing next.

Then when Kiki had cut her hair, Zella had really blown her stack. It had been a practical consideration. Kiki had realized that over the next several months she probably wouldn’t have the time or energy to take care of it properly and the result would only be a tangled mess. The long curls that had been a large part of Kiki’s appearance since she had been an infant were gone, replaced by her hair only being a few centimeters in length. The most embarrassing part had not involved Zella, instead it had come when Suga had looked her and had told Kiki that she shouldn’t be sad, because it would grow back eventually.

Zella had continued to react as if Kiki were foolishly giving up her identity and was unlikely to ever gain anything from doing so. That was what had prompted her to make that biting remark when they had parted just the day before. Kiki’s doubts had done nothing but multiply on the train ride and now in the lorry. Even as she had told herself that none of this was any of Zella’s business, one thought kept rolling around in the back of her mind.

What if Zella was right?

It reminded her of the photograph that Kiki had in one of the pockets of her flak vest. Taken on the barge just a month ago. It was of Kiki, Zella and Aurora sitting on lounge chairs that were on the deck. Everyone had been so happy at the time and now that seemed very remote.

“What is your deal?” Kiki heard a voice ask her. She was seated in the lorry with her arms around her knees with her back against the cab while leaning on the canvas wall.

“Leave the boy alone” Another voice said, “He’s been quiet since we left the train depot, not everyone flap his gums like the rest of you lot.”

The second voice belonged to a Noncom who had been tasked with keeping them in line until they got to Laupheim after arriving by train in Ulm. In the dim light, it was understandable as to why he had made the mistake that he had. She was wearing the field uniform of the entire military in the brown/gray water splinter pattern and had a flak vest over that. It was completely unrevealing. When combined with the blue Medical Service beret, the epaulettes of a Fähnrich on the shoulder straps and the reflection of her glasses they tended to “see” what they expected. It this case, the Noncom thought that she was a beardless teenager. Kiki’s hope was that he wouldn’t be too sore when he, along with the rest of the men on this lorry, saw her in good light.

Just as she had that thought, the lorry rolled through an open gate and into blue-white floodlights.

“Everyone out!” The Noncom yelled as the lorry stopped and Kiki grabbed her rucksack before following the others out of the lorry. Everyone here had already gone through basic training, so no effort was made to yell at them. Just falling in for rollcall and barracks assignment was disorientating. Standing under the flood lights and being tired the long journey from Berlin it felt like if they were in a fog.

Finally, they got to her and Kiki couldn’t believe that she had forgotten one of the details that she had been warned about beforehand. “Fähnrich Fischer, you’re assigned to the women’s barracks and you will be shown to your quarters” An unfamiliar Noncom said, “I don’t think I need to remind you that you will be expected to adhere to our standards even if by necessity your quarters are separate.”

“No…” Kiki paused to see what rank he held, “…Spear.”

“Good” The Spear said before he moved on.

Kiki could hear the sound of the men surrounding her talking in low voices to each other while trying not to be noticed. Word about her gender spreading around was inevitable, but this was a bit faster than she would have liked.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Fifty-Five


28th July 1961

Tempelhof, Berlin

The human brain was a wonderous thing to behold, it was also something that rarely seen for very good reasons. This current case was one of the rare exceptions, the young man had come to the hospital complaining of blinding headaches and nausea. A new type of x-ray imaging had revealed a dangerous condition inside his skull in the form of an aneurysm that could rupture into a potentially lethal cerebral hemorrhage at any second. It was something that necessitated cutting it open. Now as Peter was watching the Neurosurgeon did the delicate surgery to repair damage that might have been there undetected since the patient was born. Peter was here observing out of curiosity as well as his niece asking if he could look in on this particular patient. It seemed that the young man was a friend of some friends of hers and she had told them that she would attempt to get their friend the very best of care. Naturally, Zella had picked up the phone to call him. Not that Peter minded, this was a fascinating case.

“Like what you see Doctor Holz?” The Neurosurgeon asked.

“I’m always up for watching a masterpiece be performed” Peter replied.

“I wish I shared your optimism” The Neurosurgeon said, “Any time we perform surgery like this it is always touch and go.”

Peter understood that even if he didn’t like it. Even after decades of progress, Medical Science seemed to always come down to “Wait and see” and it remained the aspect of his career that he personally disliked. Even this surgery was successful the young man might make a full recovery, survive but never really recover up to and including being left in a vegetative state, or he could die. Too much of it seemed to come down to intangible things.

The families that he spoke to found it difficult to accept those limits. Or in this case speaking to his friends who were in a Rock & Roll band that Zella had written about in the past. They said that the young man’s mother was flying in and would be here in a few hours.

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Sitting in the hospital waiting room seemed like the correct thing to do considering her involvement. Still, she did feel like an outsider here. She wasn’t a part of the band. Zella was someone who wrote about them in the BT.

It been John who had convinced his friend Stuart to go to the hospital, later as the seriousness of his condition became clear. Stuart had once been the Bass Player for the Moondogs but had quit in favor of Paul early on and had switched to the graphic arts. It had been in that capacity that he had designed the covers for all the band’s singles and the LP album that was about to be released. It had been to Zella’s surprise that John had turned to her because George had told him that she was related to a Doctor who was supposedly one of the better ones in Germany and they had a friend who clearly needed help. That was a bit of an understatement, however Zella was a bit reluctant after what had happened the previous time that she had seen her Uncle Peter a couple months earlier.

It hadn’t been Zella’s intention to eavesdrop and it was not like if she could close her ears, but she had overheard the conversation in her Uncle’s parlor between him and Nora Berg. It had been shocking for Zella to hear Kiki being discussed that way, to learn what these people who she had put so much trust in actually thought of her. They made Kiki sound like a trained poodle that they could get to perform tricks on command and Zella’s Uncle had described Kiki’s desire to win their approval as obsessive. What had been very clear to Zella was that they didn’t seem interested in Kiki’s wellbeing as a person, instead their interest seemed to be in having her be the poster girl for the Joint Medical Service. Kiki’s aspirations weren’t even a factor in their thinking.

Over the following weeks, Zella had watched as Kiki had pushed herself hard to prepare herself for Laupheim. She couldn’t just tell Kiki what she had heard, not without saying how she had heard it. Then Kiki had her hair cut and Zella had seen how she had behaved as the Stylist kept asking her if she was sure that it was something that she wanted. It was incredibly obvious that it was something that Kiki didn’t want to do but had felt obligated. Then had come the alternating looks of horror and sadness as Kiki had seen her reflection in the mirror. She had done something to herself that couldn’t easily be undone, and it was all for people who preferred a very limited idea of what Kiki was and not who she was as a person. That was what had prompted Zella to tell Kiki as much of the truth as she could out of frustration.

Kiki was among the most generous people that Zella had ever met and people who she trusted were taking advantage of her. Once again, Zella had Kiki tell her all about how she needed to stop being so selfish and immature. But what was she supposed to have done? Sit quietly as Kiki passively destroyed herself? Worst of all, why was Zella better able to talk to a misanthrope like John and not one of her dearest friends?