Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread II

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Twenty-Six


21st December 1962

Mitte, Berlin

Sitting on the deck of the Meta Kiki had a front row seat of what happened across the river. Smoke and dust came billowing up from between the buildings up the river off to the south. Seconds later came the roar of the explosion and Kiki felt the barge rock as the big bay windows on the back of the museum rattled.

In the course of events, you will have a duty to respond. Kiki was reminded of that as she watched, she was also acutely aware that she had no idea what was going on. The Berlin East Railway Station was over there, so it could be an accident of some kind. Rushing into the saloon, Kiki threw open one of the lockers that was under the floor. She yanked her field pack out from where she had stored it and it seemed much heavier than she remembered. Two items that she felt reluctant to grab were the pistol and the gas mask that she had never needed in Korea. The memories of her shooting into the night months earlier came to mind, but Kiki’s Instructors drilling the idea that she be prepared for anything until she understood exactly what she was dealing with.

Kicking off her shoes, Kiki pulled on the steel-toed hobnailed boots. Then with movements that had become automatic through long practice, she put on the flak vest over the parka that she was already wearing and the belt which had the holstered pistol on it among other things went on over that. She avoided looking at the pistol as she buckled it around her waist, it was somewhat dismaying that she needed to pull it tighter than she had worn it in Korea. That meant she had lost weight again and Berg would give her an earful when she found out. Pulling the straps of her pack over her shoulders, Kiki walked towards the ladder up to the pilot house. The blue beret that hanging on its peg, Kiki had taken it off a few weeks earlier and had not thought any more about it. Today it felt right to put it back on.

Minutes later, Kiki was walking towards the nearest bridge crossing the river. When the BII Agents who had been tasked with giving her a loose protection detail caught up with her.

“We can’t let go any further” The Lead Agent said as he tried to keep up with the brutal pace that Kiki was keeping, “Our orders are to get you to a safe place until we know what we are dealing with.”

“That’s not happening” Kiki replied as she kept walking.

“Princess Kristina” The Agent said stepping in front of her, “We are not asking.”

Kiki gave him a smile that could have frozen water, the perfect way of letting him know that he clearly had more nerve than sense. “I outrank you in every respect. You can help me, or you can get out of my way.”

“Threats are not going to get you anywhere” The Agent said.

“That was a promise” Kiki replied vehemently. The Agent gulped, they were aware that she had gotten through FSR training and that she was perfectly capable of dismantling an offensive BII Agent who had overstepped his authority.

That was when the streets were rocked by a second explosion.

As the Agents stared at the cloud of smoke rising over the city.

“Do you see that?” Kiki yelled, “That was aimed at people responding to the first blast. You said that you wanted to know what we are dealing with, there was your answer.”

That seemed to end the argument.

With that Kiki started walking in the direction of the explosions. Much to her annoyance, the BII Agents kept following her. Why had she mentioned that they had the option of helping her? After walking several blocks, they started seeing damage to the buildings. The East Railway Station was a completely shattered wreck. The only time in the past that she had seen destruction on this level had been when she had been in Andong, where every building had been gutted by fire and they were all falling in on themselves. This looked just as bad. Looking into a car that had been crushed by falling rubble, Kiki saw that the driver was pressed hard against the steering wheel. His skull was caved in and just looking she could see that he was already dead. He didn’t use a seatbelt, Kiki thought to herself as she saw that is was hanging next to the door post. Pressing on, there was a man wearing the green uniform of the Berlin Police and he was still bleeding. Without thinking about it, Kiki rushed forward and saw that he had a hole in his chest. No sooner than she registered that then dust was kicked up by her feet and the sound of a bullet ricocheting reached her ears. Someone was shooting at her and the BII Agents were yelling at her to get back to the alley where they were sheltering. Grabbing the policeman under his arms she pulled him towards the alley. Something hit Kiki’s chest and she was knocked over backwards. Getting back to her feet, Kiki pulled the policeman into the alley.

“That was stupid” The BII Agent said as Kiki cut open the policeman’s shirt. She saw that it was a hole that had blood seeping out of it. There had been talk of equipping the police with armored vests similar to those worn by the military, that would have prevented this injury. Looking at her own vest, Kiki pulled the bullet that had hit her out of the fabric that had melted around it. Nine-millimeter if she had to guess, there would probably be a massive bruise caused by that. At least whoever was shooting at them didn’t have a rifle.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Twenty-Seven


22nd December 1962

Mitte, Berlin

What had played out in the vicinity of the Berlin East Railway Station had been brutally effective. Setting off a large bomb just outside the station which was full of commuters on a Friday afternoon had been merely the first stage. The second blast had been aimed directly at the emergency personnel responding to the first. Gunmen had remained in the area to ambush the additional responders as they had entered the area, only fleeing as large numbers of police backed by the military arrived. Evidence suggested that they had been armed with pistols and submachine guns that all fired the same very common cartridge, which would make tracing the spent cartridges alone difficult. Dozens had been left dead and hundreds more had been injured. The Railway Station was considered a complete loss.

At the moment, fingers were being pointed in all directions about who was responsible and who was going to take the blame for this calamity. There was no shortage of suspects. Throughout the Empire there were several separatist movements and a large number of malcontents who were mostly seen as harmless blowhards. The Polish Independence movement and Refus d'accepter in Alsace were no strangers to violence but mostly had had been relatively quiet lately because the efforts of the BII in subverting those movements had been effective. It suggested that there was a new player on the scene who had gone for making a big splash and they had directly targeted the State itself. Using large bombs carried by lorries had been a tactic used by Poles nearly a decade earlier and Berlin East had been the terminus of lines that extended to Moscow, Warsaw, Kiev and the Baltics. That pointed directly to a movement in the east, but intelligence said that in Poland and Slovakia the separatist and criminal elements were already scrambling to get out of the way of a crackdown that they knew was coming. They had obviously been caught flat-footed, otherwise they would have already vanished into the woodwork.

Then word got out that among those who had been responding who had gotten shot was Princess Kristina who had been on leave from the FSR…

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

“Try to hold still” Doctor Berg said, “Otherwise this will hurt more than it otherwise would.”

The Panzerweste Ausf. C, the type of flak vest that Kiki had been wearing had done its job in preventing a serious, possibly fatal, injury when she had gotten hit. Unfortunately, it had been like getting kicked in the chest and it had not been until well after midnight when Berg had taken the time to notice how stiff Kiki’s movements were that anyone realized that she had been injured. After that, word had spread faster than Kiki had thought possible and had grown with retelling. By then most of the seriously wounded had been evacuated, so Berg had time to give Kiki her undivided attention.

It was in one of the medical tents sitting next to an electric heater and under the high-powered lights that Berg had forced Kiki to take off the vest, as well as the parka and shirt that she was wearing underneath. Centered just next to her sternum, Kiki’s chest was livid with reds and purples. Berg had taken one look at it and said that it would need to be drained.

“Your whole nobility of character thing is wearing extremely thin” Berg said as she pushed the needle of the large syringe into the hematoma. “There are better ways of giving your life meaning other than getting yourself killed.”

Kiki looked down at the syringe that was filling with blood and lymph as Berg drew it out. She figured that now wasn’t the right time to have a sharp comeback to that comment.

“I heard through a colleague that you were referred to Minke Glas” Berg said as she withdrew the needle, “Perhaps you ought to talk to her about why you are constantly pulling these little stunts. Hold this.”

Kiki took over holding a cotton swab over the puncture as Berg reached for one of the instant ice packs that had come into use recently by the Medical Service.

“I’ve only met Doctor Glas once” Kiki replied, “I’m not sure if I will again.”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Berg asked as she switched the cotton swab for the icepack, “She’s good at her job, she was able to help Ilse Tritten and her problems are far worse than yours.”

That caught Kiki a bit short, Ilse was Kat’s younger sister. It also explained how Charlotte had known who Glas was in the first place. There was commotion outside, Berg stepped out and a draft of cold air came into the tent. A reminder that it was still December regardless of whatever else was going on.

Then to Kiki’s complete mortification, her father and Freddy bulled into the tent only to look at her in shock before turning around and getting chased out by Berg. “You wanted to see if she was still alive. You saw, now get out” She said.

Berg was chuckling as she came back into the tent and threw a blanket over Kiki’s shoulders.

“There is a rather lengthy list of things that men cannot handle in my experience” Berg said, “Seeing their adult daughter’s body is right up there with childbirth I’m afraid.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Twenty-Eight


24th December 1962

Mitte, Berlin

The man who called himself Mithras stared out the window at the city under grey skies on Christmas Eve. The weather had changed from snow to a cold drizzle that seemed to seep into everything a few days previously. That was hardly the sort of thing that was typically associated with the holiday.

The attack on the train station had gone well enough, keeping his people from idiotically bragging about what they had done had proven to be the real challenge. Mithras knew that was how the State and Federal Police generally were able to catch criminals. It was the BII’s dirty little secret. More often than not, they got a call from an annoyed brother-in-law about the element that their wife’s younger brother was bringing into their house and then they took the blame so that domestic harmony was restored. Mithras had seen the truth with the infamous serial killers who had hunted within the realm that the BII was at a loss when they didn’t have an obvious motive or convenient informant. From what Mithras had heard, they were currently kicking over rocks in Poland to see what crawled out, so that bit of misdirection had worked. Mithras’ backers were pleased, but then all they cared about was burning the nation that they felt was becoming ossified under the House of Hohenzollern to the ground.

The issue that Mithras had was that he had had years to plan the attack on the station. Now his movement was expecting him to come up with something equally spectacular for the future and that was proving difficult. Any future operations he would basically need to think up on the fly and he had seen what had happened when the others in his movement who were only slightly younger than him tried to do things that way. That almost always blundered massively. They were children of privilege who were to foolish to understand just how lucky they had been in life. They weren’t exactly street-smart despite having spent their entire lives in this city, all they understood was that for the first time in their existence they were being told no and that made them easy to manipulate. They only needed someone to give them direction.

Then there was his other problem.

Despite being a student of the classics, the name Mithras was a part of that. He had always been fascinated by the mystery cult that had sprung up in the Roman Empire and how it had persisted for centuries without State sanction. In many respects he had modeled his movement after it, making sure that few within the organization knew the whole structure of it and those who did were carefully vetted. Lately though, the concept of Nemesis had been intruding on his thoughts. In this case, she was the Princess who gave up the life of a University student to take on a completely thankless task in a war that most of the public had preferred to ignore. It was as if she were a strange mirror image, even down to her choice of musical instruments. Word had it that she was one of the first people on the scene after the second bombing and that…

“Are you going to join us Lothar?” Mithras heard his mother say. A reminder about the day to day realities that he faced.


Hohenzollern Castle

Everyone was trying to keep the events of the prior days from casting a pall over the Christmas celebrations. Today, the meal in the Great Hall was a part of that with her family and their guests arrayed around the table in the traditional manner. Kiki had found herself seated between Michael and Louis Junior. Benjamin had come despite Kiki’s misgivings and whatever his relationship with her was, he had found himself seated just below the salt with the rather expansive family of the Mayor of Hechingen. A not so subtle way for Kiki’s father to acknowledge his existence and put him in his place at the same time. Kiki had however noticed that Freddy and Suga were seated together and she had a sinking feeling that she already knew the reason why the Japanese Princess was present. It was something that everyone had seen coming for the last twenty years.

All Kiki had been able to do over the prior days was recover from her injuries. Fortunately, her cambers in the castle were comfortable and the staff were more than happy to accommodate her needs when she had found that she could hardly move. The only thing she had managed to do before she had left Berlin was to arrange for Hera to be cared for. She didn’t want anyone else to try to remove the cat from the boat because getting Hera into a carrier was bloody business for everyone but her. Still, Hera did need to eat, and her sandbox needed cleaning. The castle was exactly as she remembered it and with it being situated on a mountaintop, it meant that the location was incredibly isolated in the wintertime if there was any kind of weather. As the multi-course meal wrapped up Kiki’s father prepared to make announcements the way that he did every year before the gift exchange.

“I’ll keep my words brief because I know that most of you have plans” Louis said. This was greeted with applause and Kiki did her best to hide her annoyance. He did the same joke every year and everyone played along.

“Let me begin with how blessed I feel to be surrounded by dear friends and family, in good health despite their best efforts.”

He was looking directly at Kiki when he said that last part and there was a bit of laughing around the table. If this castle had a trapdoor like in the movies, she would have cheerfully dived through it to get away.

“I am proud to announce the engagement between my son Friedrich and Princess Suga-no-miya Takako of Japan” Louis continued, “She is a very lovely young woman who we have gotten to know very well over the last few years and are happy to have become a part of this family.”

That was met with polite applause. Kiki knew that this news was not without controversy in either Germany or Japan.

“Also, as you are aware my daughter Kristina reaches her age of majority early tomorrow morning. My hope is that the Principality of Hohenzollern welcomes her as your new Princess and that she brings the diligence and dedication that she has learned over the last few years to her new role here.”

That was met with applause and Kiki was getting a lot of curious and calculating looks from down the table.

Her father continued on for several more minutes, but Kiki didn’t listen to any of it. She had completely forgotten that her father had set this up years earlier. Now it was something that she was going to have deal with.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Twenty-Nine


30th December 1962

Hohenzollern Castle

Walking along one of the retaining walls, Kiki was troubled as she thrust her hands into the pockets of her parka and the hood enclosing her head. She felt trapped here and had just wanted to get out and get some air. Her breath was smoking in the cold and snow was falling. She had been given a crash course in the history of this castle and the land that surrounded it. There were also the secrets of the castle itself. The crypts and tunnels that ran deep underneath the castle. While it was not a hereditary title, her status as Princess of Hohenzollern was something that could never be taken away from her no matter what she did with the rest of her life.

When the preliminary report on the Berlin East Railway Station had come out that last part had become increasingly important. While she had only been mentioned in a few paragraphs in a report that had run on for almost two thousand pages, what it had said had been stinging. It described her conduct as laudable but reckless, chastising her for ignoring her own injuries. She had run ahead of the people who had been tasked with protecting her, endangering herself and them in the process. It echoed Berg’s comment how Kiki needed to find a way to give her life meaning that didn’t involve getting herself killed. Out of context, Berg’s words sounded terrible. Kiki had seen the truth though; Berg had been scared by what had happened. This had not been Kiki neglecting her health again, she had been hit by a bullet and that had taken things to a different level.

“Everything you see belongs to you” Kiki heard Ben say, “Except for Stuttgart, we don’t talk about Stuttgart.”

Kiki looked over the wall. Stuttgart sixty kilometers to the north and part of that city were visible on a clear day. Today, with visibility was only a few hundred meters at most so that wasn’t an issue. What Ben had said was nowhere near the truth either.

“Sorry you walked into the middle of all this” Kiki mumbled. All this family drama had certainly been more than she had expected.

“Spending a holiday in a drafty old castle in middle of nowhere, sharing a suite of rooms with my girlfriend’s brothers who are all bigger than I am as they ask probing questions about my intentions. Then I learn that the castle apparently belongs to my girlfriend.” Ben said, “What else could I ask for?”

Kiki gave an exasperated sigh, “They aren’t giving you too hard a time, are they?” She asked.

“No” Ben said, “They have a lot of questions about me being a pilot and how serious I am about you. Is Whippet really your nickname?”

“Freddy has thought that was funny since we were children” Kiki replied, “I never have.”

“I see” Ben said, “As of a few days ago, he is your guest. You can have him thrown out if you want.”

“As strongly tempted as I am to do that, I’ll still need to live him in the future and I like Suga, who would probably leave as well” Kiki said, “I’m going to have enough trouble in the coming year without that.”

“How much trouble could someone like you possibly be in?” Ben asked.

“I’m probably going to get thrown out of the FSR and things at University are a complete mess” Kiki said, “It seems like I’ve been doing everything wrong.”

“I think you are intent on feeling sorry for yourself” Ben said, “You could get most of that straightened out with a phone call or two and I don’t think you leaving the FSR would be an entirely bad thing. Being in it seems to have brought out the worst in you.”

It seemed like everyone had been able to see that clearly except Kiki herself. It wasn’t a comfortable feeling to have and it didn’t change anything about how she no longer felt like she had a clear way forward. She still had a commitment to the FSR.

“Everything is a mess then and it will stay that way” Kiki said glumly.

“No” Ben replied, “You are one of the few people I know who cannot fail. It isn’t because of your family, that is a millstone around your neck. Instead, it is entirely because of who you are.”

At least Ben tried to understand who she really was as opposed to the image that people had of her as a bloodless intellectual who also happened to have never aged past the age of twelve. Kiki stared down the mountainside towards the invisible villages that she knew were in the valleys below. The people who lived down there had their own lives that Kiki was going to play a role in even if it was largely symbolic. What would they have to say about her? The girl who preferred to live in a small boat on the rivers when she had the option of castles. She felt Ben hug her from the side, he pushed back the hood of her parka and leaned in…

They were interrupted by being inundated with snow being dumped over their heads. Her glasses lost and cheeks stinging, Kiki looked and saw Freddy with a snow shovel that he had found somewhere.

“Wouldn’t want you getting too cozy with your guest Whippet” Freddy said with a wide smile, “People might talk.”

Ben found Kiki’s glasses and handed them to her, she really did need to talk to her father the next chance she had about having Freddy removed from the property. Whether or not he would be ambulatory was up for debate after what he had just done.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Thirty


31st December 1962

Mitte, Berlin

The Grand Ballroom was lit up with brilliant multi-colored lights and the scene was like something from another century. Louis knew that of his ancestors with the exception of those who had been warriors in the Medieval period, would have been perfectly at home here. Louis was playing to role of host as they counted down the remaining minutes of 1962.

The reaction that Louis got when he returned to the Winter Residence was a reminder that he was counting down the days when he would no longer be Emperor. Everything that had happened in his absence over the prior week needed to be addressed that instant. When the day came that all of that was someone else’s problem was going to be welcome. Charlotte had asked him what he would do with himself. Louis had said that his grandfather had gone fishing in Gulf of Mexico with General von Wolvogle. Then they had gone to Samoa. When she had said that she had a hard time imagining him doing that Louis had said that he would think of something.

Spending the Christmas Holiday at the Castle had been a welcome retreat, but now everyone needed to go back to their lives. In Louis’ case, he needed to be present to host the royal New Year’s Ball in Berlin, Freddy and Suga were expected to be present as well. The announcement of their impending marriage saw to it that all eyes would be on them. Everyone knew that barring misadventure Freddy would be Friedrich the IV of Germany in only a decade and he was an apprentice of sorts presently. In addition to attending Law School, he was being seen in public with increasing frequency acting as his father’s proxy.

It should have been no surprise that Kristina was going back to the boat she had moored behind the War Museum. It would probably be to her dismay that security at the museum had been markedly increased in her absence. There was also no guarantee that she wouldn’t just cast off and go somewhere else up or down the river. Louis wasn’t worried too much though. She was supposed to report back to FSR in a few weeks and would need to come to a determination about her future. Even if it was to learn that they were giving her the boot, Kiki would still show up for it. She had always taken obligations seriously.

For Louis though, it had been nice to see that his oldest daughter had a life beyond the FSR or Medical Service. Extending the invitation to Benjamin Hirsch had been Charlotte’s idea. To get a measure of the boy, was how she put it, what wasn’t on paper. The son of a Chemistry Professor, Ben had met Kiki when she had lived across the alleyway at Katherine von Mischner’s house. These days when Ben wasn’t a student at the University of Berlin, he was a Reserve Officer in the Luftwaffe. That last part was something that Louis approved of. He had mentioned that he had been trying to volunteer for the Space Program. A glance at his record had revealed to Louis that Ben had come in just shy of induction into the Order of the Pour le Mérite, something that would advance his application.

The misgiving that Louis did have with Benjamin was that his middle-class background and how he was completely unfamiliar royal protocol that was bloody serious business. As much as Kiki tried to reject that, she took to it like breathing because it was a part of who she was. Charlotte thought that Louis was being a bit of a snob. Her perspective was that, yes, Ben was a commoner, but he probably wouldn’t be forever at the rate he was going. He would a Ritter at least if ever made it into orbit. The real question if he was a good fit for Louis’ daughter?

Still, it had been amusing to watch Ben and Kiki on their best behavior with Friedrich, Michael and Louis Junior in the background. At the same time, Friedrich had Suga on hand who he was trying to impress. Freddy had finally just played the role of the protective older brother when he had dumped a shovel full of snow on Kiki and Ben’s heads when he had caught them trying to steal a kiss out on one of the castle’s terraces. Later, Kiki had come to Louis and had asked what her options were. Could she have her brother removed from her property? And did Hohenzollern Castle have a dungeon? Kiki was ultimately disappointed when…

The band stopped playing and everyone started with the countdown. At the stroke of midnight, the netting up by the ceiling parted, hundreds of balloons, copious amounts of confetti dropped down, fireworks were going off outside. Louis set propriety aside and shared a kiss with Charlotte, he was aware of the flash bulbs going off. Let them see, he thought to himself unaware that he had provided a photograph that would run the front page of every newspaper in Germany the next morning.

1963 had arrived.


Pacoima, Los Angeles, California

Ritchie’s head had been swimming long before midnight rolled around and he was currently laying on the concrete patio behind his parent’s house trying not to be sick while his older brother, Bob was on the rusted lounge chair. They were currently playing a game of fireworks or gunshot as they were looking at the city lights reflecting off the smog. The television was on in the house and Ritchie could hear the program that his mother was watching with his younger brothers and sisters in the living room to kill time.

Ritchie had made the mistake of matching shots with Bob earlier in the night. The result was that their mother was not happy about having them getting drunk in her house and had said that their father would give them a sound thrashing when he got home from work. She had then made them take it out back.

A few hours later, they were out of tequila and midnight was finally rolling around.

“I think there is some beer left in the refrigerator” Bob said absently.

“And have Mom kill me?” Ritchie asked, “Fuck that.”

“Brave Army man” Bob replied.

“I know Sergeants who wouldn’t mess with Mom”

Bob laughed at that and there was a loud BOOM! from a few streets over.

“I think that was a cherry bomb” Ritchie said.

“Nope” Bob replied, “Thirty-Eight, someone shooting the moon.”

The tempo of the background noise increased, and Ritchie heard cheering. “Happy New Year!” Richie yelled. With any luck this one would go a Hell of lot better than the previous one had.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Thirty-One


5th January 1963

Pankow-Heinersdorf

There were times when Jo felt it was sort of odd that Aunt Marcella became her Aunt from the moment that she had been welcomed into Kat’s family. The instant acceptance had caught her off guard years earlier, it still was something Jo had difficulty with at times. Helping Marcella clean out the attic of the house that Kat and Hans had grown up in was becoming one of those times.

“This belonged to Kat when she was your age and it would probably fit you, why don’t you try it on Josefine” Marcella said as she handed Jo the blue dress that she just removed from a cedar chest, “She never wore it though. It’s yours if it fits you.”

“Why didn’t she wear it?” Jo asked.

Marcella paused of a few seconds before saying, “Kat went through a difficult time, seven or eight years, where she tried to make herself as unattractive as possible. Button down shirts and trousers under an old coat were all she wanted to wear. Anything too feminine ended up in this chest.”

Jo held the dress up to her herself as she looked in the mirror full length mirror in the corner. She still had the same translucent skin and white blond hair that she always had, just these days she was finding herself with a figure that brought a great deal of unwanted male attention. She could certainly understand why Kat had concealed herself in such a manner. Suse had once told her that looking like a goddess from a Nordic epic must be such a hardship, her voice had been dripping with sarcasm. It was easy to see why Suse would say that, she had inherited her mother’s slight build and her father’s short stature. Many people had the mistaken notion that Suse was a cuddly little elf, then they actually got to know her and learned just how caustic and opinionated she could be.

“Why not give this to Tatiana in a few years?” Jo asked as she continued to look at the reflection.

“Because you’re here now” Marcella said, “There will still be plenty of other things around for Tatiana and Marie Alexandra when they get older. Now go try that on.”

As Jo changed her clothes, she thought about what had brought her here today.

The invitation to come over to Aunt Marcella’s house had come a few days earlier just after Jo had managed to get ahold of her mother on the phone. It had not been a pleasant conversation because Nathalie was trying to chase her off. She was still looking at three more years as a guest of the State in Denmark and something else was going on that she didn’t want to talk about. Kat muttered some dark comment about Jarl being up to his usual shit again. Jo understood that Kat was referring to her long absent father and that a lot of effort had gone into keeping their kinship from even becoming common knowledge. Kat figured that spending the day with Aunt Marcella was just the thing she needed after that.

“What do you think?” Jo asked as she finished putting on the dress.

“It looks lovely” Marcella said, “A touch dated, but that isn’t a problem. Retro as the young people call it, is fashionable? Yes?”

It was clear that Marcella had no idea what she was talking about, but Jo smiled and nodded. The dress wasn’t as unfashionable as she thought it was. Years earlier Marcella had probably bought it for her niece thinking that it was practical and would be flattering at the same time. Kat apparently wasn’t ready for that at the time.

“Thank you for this” Jo said, and Marcella smiled herself. It was Jo observation about her that even if her daughters and granddaughters were not hers, or were not even blood relations, she loved them all the same.


Wunsdorf-Zossen

Wearing the blue and white dress uniform of the 3rd MID as an Unteroffizer got him served a lot faster at this public house than Erik ever was by himself. It was something that Erik remarked upon after they had gotten their drinks. It seemed that Erik had learned a touch of discretion. After that the conversation had turned to their career aspirations.

“Postal Service?” Karl asked, marveling at the absurdity of that. Their Grandfather made an entire career of reading other people’s mail. Now Erik was talking about delivering it.

“What else am I going to do now that I’m out of the Marine Infantry?” Erik asked. The surgeons had managed to mostly restore his voice, but the enforced silence that he had been put through had been instructive to him. “If I had known that would work, I would have cut his throat ages ago” was what their grandmother had said on the subject. Erik had healed in time, that hadn’t been what had driven his change in careers though. Once the shooting had stopped Karl had discovered that his commitment to the Marine Infantry had lapsed. He could go or stay, his choice. Both Karl and Erik had enlisted at the same time to avoid getting the book thrown at them. So, they had gotten the news at about the same time. Karl had decided to stay, and Erik had told the Marine Infantry exactly what they could do with the reenlistment forms. Of course, their situations were completely different. Karl was eligible to make Feldwebel within a year, while Erik was still a Soldat. Perhaps delivering mail in rural Brandenburg was the perfect place for him.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Thirty-Two


7th January 1963

Mitte, Berlin

Kiki was sitting propped up by pillows on her bed looking out the window of her sleeping cabin with Hera nipping at her fingers, trying to get her attention. Eventually she just gave in and let her cat onto her lap. She was hiding from so much today and even on the river it seemed like she couldn’t escape from them.

A week earlier Kiki had discovered that the security at the museum had been increased. That wouldn’t have been a problem except she discovered that someone had chained her barge to the concrete embankment with actual heavy steel chain and had done a very thorough job of it. She figured that she would need a cutting torch to free her boat because a pair of bolt cutters wouldn’t do the job. And she didn’t know how to use a cutting torch. Oberstaber Musongole said that the Emperor, meaning Kiki’s father, had said that he would appreciate it if she stayed put for the time being.

Living on the barge meant that Kiki could travel and bring everything with her. While no one was keeping her here, she would have to leave most of her things behind. The thing was embarrassing and filled Kiki with self-loathing. Princess Kristina von Preussen, the spoiled little girl who could be effectively trapped merely by being inconvenienced. Now it was Christmas Day according to her stated religious affiliation. It said as much on the identification tags that she still wore around her neck by habit and she was finding that she just couldn’t find the energy to get out of bed. The view was one of the advantages of living where she was, so she was looking out the window as commercial barges loaded with goods passed up and down the river. Most of them were unpowered and needed to be towed, some not. Next week, Kiki would go back to Laupheim and the screening test for traumatic stress would be done, which she would inevitably fail again. Then she would need to get on with her life.

Hera turned her head around and looked up towards the ladder. A few seconds later, Kiki heard a few sets of footsteps on the deck and there was a knock on the door. With a bit of annoyance Kiki got out bed and climbed the ladder. Throwing open one of the curtains that enclosed the pilothouse, Kiki saw her father and a pair of bodyguards standing outside. Kiki reluctantly opened the door and was met with a cold blast of air. Her bare feet almost instantly went numb.

“Your mother would throw a fit” Louis said with a smile, “Your spending the day in bed on today of all days.”

It was only mid-morning, so he was exaggerating a bit though Kiki had been perfectly prepared to spend all day in bed.

“Are you here to drag me off to Church?” Kiki asked.

“No, I’m here for something else, though us making an appearance later would be a good idea” Louis said, “Let my subjects who happen to be of the Orthodox faith, which you are in theory one of, that I’m not ignoring them.”

It was a reminder of how complicated their family’s religious perspective was. They had always been told that they would need to be pragmatic about it and they might need have their stated beliefs be what was best for public consumption in the given circumstance. With thousands of people from across Eastern Europe in addition to the previous waves of Russian refugees who had arrived over the previous decades. Having Kiki continue with the Church of her childhood had been suggested to her since she was in her early teens and there was politics involved.

“So, why are you here?” Kiki asked.

“To give you a bit of perspective” Her father replied, “Now go get dressed.”

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

This was perspective?

Kiki kept thinking that as she was led on the tour through the hospital. Broken bodies, missing limbs, skin that was left looking like it was melted wax. The list of things that Kiki couldn’t unsee kept going. She had been present during the initial aftermath of these injuries, now she was looking at the ongoing process of learning how to live radically altered lives. A very painful process at that.

Kiki followed her father, not saying a word. What was the message that she was supposed to be receiving here? That she should be thankful in that her injuries were of a nature that people could see just by looking at her?

Finally, they were led into an open ward and it looked like more of the same. Kiki’s father stopped at a bed. The man lying there was only a few years older than Kiki was. He had the sickly, pallid appearance of someone who was still recovering long illness. A livid surgical scar ran from his chest all the way down to his belly. “You came back, Sir” He said weakly.

“I figured that you could use the company Kord” Louis said, “My daughter Kristina wanted to hear what happened to you.”

The man, Kord focused on Kiki who just stood there awkwardly.

“Had a bit of a disagreement with the Chinese and caught a couple of their bullets” Kord said, “Not much else to say…”

Kiki saw that even with him in a sickbed Kord was able to give her a wink, even though just saying it left him breathless. That sort of unnecessary bravado let Kiki know exactly which service branch he was from. Marine Infantry. Who else would be crazy and/or stupid enough to do something like that with the Emperor standing right there?

“I was thinking about what came next” Louis said.

“I… was bleeding out, and this medic on the helicopter actually had her hand in my chest trying to pinch something off or something, it was under fire and…” Kord fell back breathless again.

“You remember that?” Kiki asked.

Kord focused on her again “You’re her… aren’t you?” he demanded.

“I don’t know” Kiki replied, “There were so many.”

Kord’s expression changed from recognition to disbelief.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Thirty-Three


14th January 1963

Wedding, Berlin

If he had known what was in store for him in the meeting in the abandoned warehouse with the man who financed his movement, Mithras would have put it off. Instead he had unknowingly walked into a sticky situation. The Financier was not happy with the turn that things had taken. Then again, he was seldom happy anyway. If Mithras had to guess, it had something to do with being a Monarchist who despised the Monarch he in theory served under.

“We are making plans for the royal wedding that is coming up this summer” Mithras said, and he got a baneful look from his Financier. The Financier made a gesture and one of the thugs who he had as bodyguards hit Mithras on the side of the head, sending him sprawling.

“I would hope that you were smart enough to learn from your mistakes” The Financier said, “I want the House of Hohenzollern discredited, interfering with them directly has the opposite effect.”

It was something that they had learned well after their prior operation. One of the medics responding to the East Railway bombing had been Princess Kristina and she had been hit with a bullet, the armored vest she was wearing preventing serious injury. Still, the public looked upon her as the Angel of Anju persona that she had taken on in Korea. Mithras looked upon that as propaganda, nothing more. There was simply no way that a Princess would have been allowed to do the things attributed to her. The odd part though is that Mithras might have seen her take that hit. Among the first of the responders in military uniforms, this figure had been dragging a policeman to cover and had been knocked down only to get back up like if nothing had happened. His feeling that he was on a collision course with her only intensified because of that.

The Financier looked down coldly at Mithras, the cadaverous cheeks and long face really did the impression that the man was a corpse. “The country that I knew as a boy is largely gone” He said, “We are trying to save what is left and cannot afford for there to be any more mistakes. Stick to the strategy or else I will have you replaced.”

Replaced in this context involved Mithras getting a bullet in the back of his head.

“What if I told my people that you are not interested in taking down the monarchy?” Mithras asked as he got back to his feet, “Only replacing it.”

“The belief of the children who follow you is shallow at best, they will follow whatever Pied Piper I put before them” The Financier said, “I hope that you find what is about to happen instructive.”

“What is supposed to be instructive?” Mithras asked, only to see the Financier exchange a nod with one of his thugs. Then punches and kicks started raining down on him.

Before he lost consciousness, Mithras recalled his misgivings months earlier about accepting the backing from a politician. What was he going to do now, call the police?


Laupheim, Württemberg

Her father had said that Kiki lacked perspective and he had done his best to give her some by introducing her to the patients she had treated in Korea as well as having several bags of mail, all addressed to her, dropped off at the Meta for her to sort through. All of them were from people expressing gratitude that she had saved their father, brother or nephew. On an intellectual level Kiki understood what her father was getting at, at the same time though it was the really messy cases and failures that had stuck with her.

The test was a series of timed questions designed to induce the stress in the person taking it. The questions were also randomized and tended to be disturbing in nature. To Kiki’s relief she managed to get through it this time. Still, having the Medical Officer staring at Kiki the entire time gaging her reactions was nerve wracking. She sat there in the uncomfortable chair watching him mark off her responses.

“Welcome back Oberlieutenant” The Medical Officer said, “An extra month off seems to have been what you needed.”

“I didn’t do anything” Kiki replied.

“Other than stepping up in a manner that few others would have done while you were on leave?”

“You mean the East Station?” Kiki asked in reply.

“You are truly a confusing person Oberlieutenant von Preussen” The Medical Officer said, “Everyone who looks at you and sees a woman who should have the world on a string. You don’t though. Instead you see the trappings of royalty as something that you have not earned and redouble your efforts.”

“Is there a point to this?”

Kiki had heard all of this a thousand times before. What no one seemed to understand was that Kiki saw how people looked at her when they learned who she was. The countless times that it had been implied in a conversation that she didn’t know what it was like to go without a meal or what the cost of milk was in the market.

“The point is that if there is anyone around who has earned the right to call herself Princess then it is you” The Medical Officer said. That wasn’t what Kiki had been expecting to hear.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Thirty-Four


27th January 1963

Tempelhof, Berlin

Out of habit Kat was reading the Sunday editions of Berlin’s newspapers. She remembered how she used to compile the day’s news to brief the Empress. She had certainly had her differences with Kira, particularly towards the end when Kiki and Gia had been exiled and Kat had been trying to distance herself. However, she missed the discussions that they had every Sunday morning for years. Asia played a similar role to the one that Kat had with Charlotte, but Kat was now the Obersthofmeisterin and that meant that she saw to the entire Court of the Empress and the Empress herself wasn’t as interested in International affairs as her predecessor. The day to day politicking within the Court itself seemed to win out. Recently she had been discussing the appointment of a new Kammerfräulein with Charlotte. It was Kat’s opinion that Rea was perfect for the role, she was tough, was her own person and most of all Ria needed some sort of responsibility in her life because having her at loose ends was asking for trouble. Being given the dubious honor of being the leader of Maids of the Court was perfect.

That was far better than what Kat was reading in the newspaper. Since the East Station bombing there had been a wave of vandalism throughout the major cities of Germany, mostly in the form of broken windows and graffiti. Doubtlessly it was the work of the so-called Jacobins who were proving to be something of a curse and an unknown number of copycats. Somehow this new movement was unlike any that had caused trouble in the past in that this one seemed to be able to enforce silence within their ranks. A worrying sign. The Global economy was adding fuel to that particular fire as they were in the midst of what economists were saying was the worst recession since 1929. What many considered the cause of that recession was printed out in the in the International Sections of the newspapers, the deepening crisis in China. Generalissimo Kai-shek was hanging on by his fingernails but even as he did it, China was fracturing in a way similar to the it had centuries earlier at the start of the Three Kingdoms period. Something else that was worrying.

What all of this was starting to remind Kat of was that period of time between when the shootout in the Hohenzollern Palace occurred and when the deadline arrived starting the Second World War. It was as if every couple of decades the whole world needed to go insane.

There was a bit of commotion in the parlor and Bas came running into Kat’s office, his arms outstretched, and he was making a buzzing noise with his lips. Fleur, the little rat terrier that belonged to Kat’s family was barking at his heels. For some indiscernible reason, Marie was chasing after them in one of the blue and Alice in Wonderland dresses that she loved so much with her cat, Cheshire riding in a baby buggy that she was pushing. Kat had shown her that there were other adaptations of that story where Alice was wearing red or yellow, Marie didn’t seem to care though. Jo could be heard in the hallway yelling loudly at the children two that Kat was trying to work, and they shouldn’t bother her. It was hardly a surprise that Josefine had the mindfulness normally expected of a sixteen-year-old. Kat pretended that she didn’t see or hear them as she looked back to her newspaper. As much as Kat liked to keep informed, she didn’t need insanity out there in the world when there was so much of it already happening under her own roof.


Potsdam

It had been on a lark. When Erik had been recovering from the surgery that had restored his voice, he had been handed a pamphlet detailing how veterans returning from conflicts overseas would be given preference if they applied for Civil Service positions. Erik had filled out the application and turned it in. With his lack of education and the reputation that even a cursory investigation would uncover, Erik figured that the answer would be a very emphatic NO! Instead, he had been asked to take an examination and had been referred to the Postal Service for an apprenticeship under Hoebaer, who Erik had learned was a cagey bastard in the short time since they had been introduced.

“You will learn that we do far more than carry mail around, Herr Garver” Hoebaer said as they walked through the empty sorting facility that normally would have been a hive of activity except it was a Sunday afternoon.

“So long as it doesn’t involve me carrying a rifle I don’t care” Erik replied.

“You came from the military, didn’t you?” Hoebaer asked.

“Marine Infantry” Erik replied, something that he couldn’t get far enough from, fast enough. If Hoebaer had an opinion about the nature of Marine Infantry, he kept it to himself.

Hoebaer made a noncommittal sound and said, “While we won’t ask you to carry a rifle you will discover that what you learned in the Service will be very useful, even if it is how to wait for creaky wheels of officialdom to move.”

“You know this from experience?” Erik asked.

“Let us just say that I had the joy of spending a couple winters on the Steppe” Hoebaer replied.

Meaning that Hoebaer had fought in the Soviet War.

“I see” Erik said.

“Yes” Hoebaer said, “Ordnance disposal. You know anything about explosives?”

Erik knew that position well. Men who occupied that position were considered crazy even by the extremely loose standards of the Marine Infantry.

“No” Erik answered, “I was a gunner.”

“Then you’ve a lot to learn” Hoebaer said, “My last apprentice lost his nerve and ended up in a rubber room. I hope you do better.”

“What did you say you did again Sir?” Erik asked as they entered a room that was empty except for the package in the middle of it.

“I didn’t” Hoebaer replied, “Welcome to the wonderful field of Postal Inspection. Now keep your mouth shut and your eyes open.”

Erik looked at the package. Was this building empty for a reason other than it being a Sunday?

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Thirty-Five


1st February 1963

Wunsdorf-Zossen

The commute from Wunsdorf to Potsdam had proven to be horrendous with Erik having to take a train all the way into Berlin before getting on a different train that took him to where he worked. He was looking for an apartment that would be closer to work and there would be the benefit of not having to explain to a date that he lived with his Mother and Grandmother.

“I cannot believe that your co-workers pulled a prank like that on your first day” Helga, Erik’s Grandmother said after he finished explaining how his week had gone.

It had turned out that the “suspicious” package in question was something that Hoebaer had set up himself and there had been bets taken as to how Erik would react when he saw it. Once everyone had their laugh though, Hoebaer had told him that he really had been a sapper with the Pioneers in the Soviet War and part of Erik’s job would be knowing how to handle it when, not if, something potentially dangerous got sent though the mail. That said, people sent the weirdest things through the mail, far beyond even the obvious things like certain rubber and leather goods or extremely dicey publications. While mostly it was a matter of people having questionable taste there were those out there with darker motives. According to Hoebaer it was the later who they on the watch for and that included bombs and chemical weapons sent via mail. It had turned out that the previous apprentice who Erik had replaced had lost the plot after such an incident where the package had not been a prank.

“You know how guys are” Erik said, “I can think of plenty of times when Opa did far worse.”

Erik watched his Grandmother’s eyes narrow. Reminding her of her husband’s habits was clearly the wrong tact to have taken. For ages the joke had flown around that all the Schultz boys were destined for either the Regiment or prison. Erik and his cousin Karl had been on their way to prison when their Uncle had intervened on their behalf.

“Your Grandfather was far from perfect” Helga said, that was possibly the greatest understatement that Erik had ever heard. “The long absences, the secrets that he kept and the sorts of people he brought around the house. That devious Spaniard or that Mischner girl.”

“Kat von Mischner is the Generallieutenant in charge of the KSK” Erik said, “And Juan Pujol-Garcia is one of the richest men in Europe these days.”

“That just proves my point” Helga said, “The girl hated your Grandfather after she figured out what he really was. She was one of those present at his funeral just to make sure he was really dead. And a fortune like the one that Herr Pujol-Garcia has amassed is impossible by honest means.”

Erik wasn’t going to say it, but when he had died Opa Schultz had a lot of enemies and they had turned out in force at the funeral. It had only been the ruckus that had been caused by the younger grandchildren that had prevented some sort International incident because none of the spies had wanted to get caught up in that shit show. One didn’t earn the rank of Oberst and claw their way to the top of the BND without doing that. There was also the aspect of him being the basis of the original nemesis of James Bond. The old boar had led quite a life.


Near Copenhagen, Denmark

At some point Nathalie realized that they couldn’t hurt her anymore and that her tormentors had painted themselves into a corner. There was no way that they could allow her to live after what they had done. There was also the question that they had kept asking, which was the one thing that she would never divulge no matter what they did to her.

“This all ends now” The man, one of her guards said, “Just tell us what we want to know.”

Nathalie looked at him through swollen eyes and smiled with broken teeth. They were dead men. They just didn’t know it yet and they would die screaming in a way that she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of doing. “Go to Hell” Nathalie muttered, and she endured several more minutes of getting stomped on for her trouble.

After a time, Nathalie was lifted by her arms back to her feet. The feeling of broken bones in her left arm grinding together brought a bit of sense back to her. A rough hand grabbed her hair and forced her to look the man in the face.

“Just tell us who the father of your girl is?” The man asked.

It was what they wanted, Josefine’s paternity. There had been rumors for years about the answer of that question, but Nathalie had never confirmed any of them. She understood that Jo would be pawn in the games that the vicious men who wanted to take Jarl’s place played. It was something that Nathalie had always thought that she would die before she allowed that to happen to her daughter. Now it seemed that Nathalie was going to prove just how serious she was about that. As this man stood in front of her, the sadistic bastard who had gone out of his way to hurt and violate her every way he could think of to get her to talk she realized that he would do the same thing to Jo if he got the chance. He would never get it though. Jo was under the protection of Gräfin von Mischner and she had said that she would keep Jo as safe as if she were one of her own children. Nathalie made her choice in that moment. She spit in his face.

She caught the surprised look on his face as spittle mixed with blood dripped down it before a blow struck Nathalie in the side of the face that knocked her flat even with the men holding her up. Even as the repeated kicks to her head and face came in, she kept the image of Jo as she had been before she’d sent her away. She heard the sounds of dismay as these men discovered that she was beyond answering their questions and the darkness came up to claim her.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Thirty-Six


2nd February 1963

Tempelhof, Berlin

Just once Kat wished that the second day of February would pass without incident. It seemed like something awful always seemed to happen on that date. Not every year certainly, it just seemed that way. First Kat had received a phone call from a contact in Copenhagen, telling her that contingencies that she had put in place years earlier had come into play. Kat had sat there uncomfortably watching her children eat breakfast, knowing that Jo was about to have her entire world irrevocably altered.

It wasn’t a surprise a couple hours later when Sven Werth had come to Kat’s door with a woman who was from the Danish Government. The presence of Werth himself was though. He had been promoted to Senior Chief Inspector and supervised every Crimes against Persons Unit in the Berlin/Brandenburg jurisdiction of the Federal Police. Notifying family members was something that would normally be handled by someone far less senior. That meant that he was here for Kat’s benefit just a much for Jo’s, someone high up in the BII or Federal Police was worried about her reaction. At the same time it did reveal their hand to a certain extent, if they had known that Kat had ordered Nathalie’s body to be stolen from the prison infirmary so that a proper autopsy could be carried out there would have been far more than just two people present. The fear was that she might perceive a threat to her family and go to war with whoever was responsible and that was the real reason that Werth had come. A couple decades earlier that doubtlessly would have been true and Kat would have been on the first train to Denmark. She had other responsibilities though, not the least of which was Jo. Having Werth and that Danish woman leave after a short time made that clear, Jo didn’t have anyone else. Instead Kat would bide her time, until it came time to act.

So, she sat with Jo as they informed her that something terrible had happened when her mother succumbed to her despair. It was a kind way of talking around suicide, something that Kat already knew was crap. She had already spoken with the Pathologist who she was paying to conduct the autopsy. Just from his initial observations, Nathalie had not died by hanging herself. Instead she had been savagely beaten and there was evidence that other forms of assault had occurred perimortem that he had been reluctant to discuss with Kat. The hanging had been done postmortem in an attempt to make it look like a suicide. Apparently, the plan had been to cremate Nathalie’s body before any questions could be asked. Then the body had vanished as Kat had arranged and that had changed things.

Not realizing that Nathalie was in danger in the first place had been a profound failure on her part though. Kat felt that failure acutely as she was trying to comfort Jo, whose reaction was all too predictable. Even with Ilse helping, keeping Jo from doing something stupid because of grief was proving difficult. Marie, Sabastian and Nikolaus were watching from the hallway outside the parlor. They were still too young to understand was happening, just that Jo was laying on the couch with her head on Kat’s lap sobbing uncontrollably. There had been a part of her that had innocently believed that her mother would come back for her one day and because she had never actually met her father it was as if she had lost her family in its entirety. The most important thing now was that Jo knew that the family who had taken her in would not abandon her, ever.

Even as Kat dealt with the present crisis, she was starting to think about what would come next. As soon as she had real answers, she would need tell Jo the truth about what had happened, though she had a dark feeling that truth would not be much better than thinking her mother had killed herself. Before that though, Kat needed a plan. Seeing to Jo’s safety was right up there with her own children, the challenges with regards to a teenager who Kat had encouraged to be independently minded were obvious. The best thing to do would be for Kat to speak with Louis Ferdinand and Charlotte, having Josefine declared a friend and companion to Rea or Vicky would place her in an environment where anyone threatening would be tangling with the First Foot. Then Kat would need to speak with Jarl to start what would need to be an unofficial investigation. That Swedish lunatic would be channeling his ancestors about now, the shield biting berserkers in particular. God knows that Jarl looks the part, Kat thought to herself. When he learned that the mother of his daughter was murdered, he would butcher those deemed responsible. Kat realized that she would need to make sure that he got the right ones. Because this whole thing would have to be done unofficially and as quietly as possible. Kat would need someone without a previous connection to her, she thought knew just the person to have her back this time and sort of an expert in doing things quietly. Kat just needed to convince him to help and she didn’t have the first clue as to what motivated him.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Thirty-Seven


4th February 1963

Mitte, Berlin

Jo was starting to wonder what Kat was thinking by sending her here today. Kat had told her that she owed it to her mother to get on with her life and had brushed aside Jo’s protests. She had insisted that Jo put on her nicest clothes and had driven her across town to the Winter Residence. That was when Jo had been introduced to Princess Marie Cecilie, who left a lot to be desired. Finding herself in one of the corners of the large room where the Empress held her Court without her being present was a part of that. The only other people in the room were a handful of workers who were changing the lightbulbs in chandeliers that lit up the room and they were ignoring Jo and Marie Cecilie.

“I personally think that the entire idea of introducing young Ladies before the Imperial Court is an outmoded relic of another era and it is just obscenely patriarchal” Marie Cecilie, “We are led out like cattle for auction as if our only value is in having a uterus that can regularly pop out preferably male offspring.”

She looked at Jo as if she expected a reaction to that comment and Jo just wanted to slap her for being so moronic.

“Tough crowd” Marie Cecilie muttered. She had just been appointed the Maid of the Chamber, her role was to be deputy to the Chief Court Mistress and to oversee the Maids of the Court. That included preparing them for their introduction to Society. The obviously practiced speech that she had just done suggested just how seriously she took the whole matter. Jo was the first “Maid of the Court” that she had met and dealing with her on top of everything else was the last thing that Jo needed.

Jo had been introduced to Marie Cecilie this afternoon, it was odd to be formally declared a friend and companion of a girl she had never met before. Especially one who seemed to go through life as frivolously as Marie Cecilie did. She didn’t seem to understand anything about how life really worked outside the walls of her family’s various residences.

“Just shut the fuck up Marie Cecilie” Jo said, “I don’t care.”

Marie Cecilie just stared at Jo as if she had grown a second head. It took a few seconds for her to regain her composure, apparently no one had ever said anything like that before.

“What could possibly be more important Josefine?” Marie Cecilie demanded.

More important than a tradition that Marie Cecilie was making fun of only few minutes earlier. Jo could think of about a million other things.

“My mother died a few days ago” Jo said, once she had gotten past crying over the whole matter, she had just become numb to the whole matter.

Marie Cecilie just looked at her dumbfounded.

“Is that a joke?” Marie Cecilie asked, “Er… Was it sudden?”

“Suicide tends to be” Jo replied, her voice far more flip than she intended.

“Why are you here then? Shouldn’t you be with your family?”

“The closest thing to family I have left insisted that I meet you” Jo replied, “She said I need to look to the future.”

“That was a horrible thing to say” Marie Cecilie said, finally something they could agree on, sort of.

“Yes” Jo said, “But Aunt Katherine has been through a lot in her life.”

“Wait” Marie Cecilie said, “Which Katherine? Don’t tell me you mean the Gräfin?”

Jo watched her whole demeanor change.

“Is there something wrong?” Jo asked.

“Kat doesn’t do anything without having a very good reason for doing so” Marie Cecilie snapped, “And what is with this Marie Cecilie business, no one calls me that.”

“No one calls me Josefine either!” Jo practically yelled in her face.

To Jo’s surprise, Marie Cecilie didn’t get angry. Instead, she laughed. “The last girl who they sent to be my official friend was a complete jellyfish” She said, “Which you are not, thank God.”

“Jellyfish?” Jo asked.

“No brain or spine but somehow gets through life” Marie Cecilie replied, “My actual friends call me Rea”

“Please call me Jo then.”

“We are going to have so much fun” Marie Cecilie, no Rea, Jo corrected herself. Then she remembered hearing rumors about a girl named Rea a couple years ahead of her in the Gymnasia who had gotten thrown out for gross misconduct. Once again, Jo was left wondering what Kat had been thinking but for entirely different reasons.

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

All these years later, Kat still missed coffee.

There was a social aspect to tea though that wasn’t quite comparable to anything else she had ever encountered. That went doubly for today when she was meeting with Suga regarding the upcoming wedding where Kat had been asked by the bride and groom to play a key role in the proceedings. Considering that she had been a surrogate Aunt to Friedrich for his entire life, so she was more than happy to do that.

Even with the event itself still months away, there was a staggering amount of planning ahead and even with a staff involved Kat showing up to offer Suga moral support was more than welcome. Having tea with Suga also served a second purpose. When Kat met Suga at the Japanese Embassy, she dropped a letter in the lobby. The contents of the letter meant nothing to everyone but the person she wanted to talk to. Now she had to wait.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Thirty-Eight


6th February 1963

Rangsdorf Airfield, Brandenburg

After spending months in Korea finding out exactly how much damage a Hornet helicopter could soak up, Sigi had thought that she would be able to enjoy a period of relative quiet. As it had turned out 5th KHF was still an extremely active unit. The close proximity of Berlin meant that they frequently flew support missions for the Guards Corps. What that basically meant was that everything the Helicopter wing did was in the full glare of the media limelight. Any time the Emperor and Empress left the capital by air, it was usually the 5th KHF that provided the transport. That also resulted in them hosting VIPs like they were today.

With Kiki finally having returned from extended leave, her brother and his intended were visiting as a part of the tour publicity tour that they were conducting around the Empire. For the last several weeks Friedrich and Suga had been turning up in various cities and locations a couple times a week. Today, that was Rangsdorf and it was entirely because of Kiki’s presence. Friedrich had a gift for his sister that was clearly an inside joke that Sigi doubted Kiki would find remotely amusing. The joke would ultimately be on him because he had not factored in the reality that Kiki wasn’t alone here, and he was very much the outsider. Sigi was reminded about what Kiki had to say about her brother. That for all the maturity he normally showed, he still acted towards his younger sister in a way that he had since they were children. The problem was that Kiki had grown extremely tired of it.

It had fallen on Sigi to show them around the airfield and the crate that Friedrich had brought was left in the hanger next to one of the space heaters.

“This is Hauptmann Grimmelshausen” Friedrich said as they stepped out of the car, “She was the first woman in orbit, and is a dear friend of my sister.”

Sigi knew that she was a lot more than that but held her tongue. She figured that Friedrich learning that he was actually her nephew wouldn’t go over well.

“You are already so accomplished” Suga said with a wistful smile. She was beautiful and refined, able to play the role she had because it was what she had been taught to be for her entire life. Everything that Sigi had failed to be according to her mother’s varied complaints over the years. Seeing the admiration in Suga’s eyes certainly put that in perspective. There was no way that Sigi would ever be considered right to be the future consort of the Crown Prince any more than Suga could fly a Hornet helicopter on an attack mission.

The tour went as anticipated, with Friedrich and Suga asking questions as Sigi led them around the airfield. While there were FSR personnel around, it was noticeable that Kiki was nowhere to be seen. Usually she was out on the flight line or around the equipment lockers so that she could make sure that none of the leaders of the teams she commanded were cutting corners in their haste to depart when the dispatch call came if she wasn’t in the corner of one of the hangers that she used as an improvised office. The walking tour went past all those places. It occurred to Sigi that if Kiki was actively avoiding her brother then this was exactly what that would look like.

Eventually, they were forced to page Kiki over the intercom.

Minutes later, Kiki appeared near the flight line wearing a pair of the grey-blue insulated coveralls that had been developed by the Luftwaffe but was now worn by aircrews throughout the military regardless of service branch. The only real differences were the branch, unit and specialty patches that were sewn on. Kiki’s was no different, Medical Service and Heer patches, the patch for the 5th Combat Helicopter Wing and Field Medic. A curious affectation that Kiki had adopted was the red ribbon that she wore with her hair tied back even when it was worn under that blue Medical Service beret like it was this afternoon. There had been considerable debate within the FSR Company and the helicopter crews about the meaning of that, if there even was one, but so far no one had been able to guess what it was, and Kiki hadn’t been interested in enlightening them.

“Hello Freddy” Kiki mumbled before being far more enthusiastic in exchanging greetings with Suga.

“I know that you still go to the same church as Momma used to drag us to” Friedrich said, Sigi could see from the slight smile that he had that he was going to spring that gift on Kiki now. “And I was busy elsewhere and didn’t get a chance to give you the gift I got.”

Sigi saw the expression on Suga’s face become fixed. She doesn’t approve of him doing this either, Sigi realized this and she started to wonder what the outcome would be.

With that Friedrich opened the crate and removed the black and white whippet puppy that he handed to his sister. Admittedly it was cute, but Kiki instantly recognized what it was and was livid.

Suga said something in Japanese that Sigi didn’t need to know the language to understand; “Told you so.”

“Don’t worry about this Kiki” Sigi said, “There are always dogs around the barracks, so he’ll be welcome.”

“You take him then” Kiki said handing it to Sigi.

As Sigi watched, both Kiki and Suga started talking at Friedrich. He had obviously gone too far this time and would hopefully learn something from it. Looking down at the pup, Sigi realized that they would need to think up a good name for him.

That was when Friedrich asked Sigi to leave and Kiki angrily said that she had every right to be here because she was a part of their family.

Sigi really wished that Kiki hadn’t told her brother that.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Thirty-Nine


7th February 1963

Mitte, Berlin

As Kat waited for her guest in the headquarters of the KSK, she thought about the events of the prior day. Learning the truth about her onetime aide was a bit amusing. She had suspected that Sigi had a powerful sponsor throughout her career, just Kat had no idea how high that had gone. Freddy had called yesterday evening after what even he admitted was a childish prank had gone horribly wrong in ways that he didn’t intend.

In all these years of jokingly and affectionately calling his sister whippet, it had never occurred to him that she wasn’t in on the joke and had silently resented it to no end. He had found himself having to contend with his sister and fiancée who were both outraged by his crass behavior. He had gone way too far this time. Then in the middle of all of that, the subject of Sigi had somehow come up and Kiki had blurted out what their real relationship with her was. That had shaken Freddy’s perspective to the core, and he had still been trying to process that information when he had talked to Kat.

That had led Kat to ask exactly how old he was, and Freddy had glumly replied that he was going to be turning twenty-four in just a couple days. She had then told him he needed to accept that with his grandfather being a notorious womanizer it was extremely likely that Sigi wasn’t the only unknown aunt or uncle he had out there and that spending his birthday alone would be a small price to pay if he learned that actions had consequences. To say that it was not what Freddy had been expecting to hear was a bit of an understatement, it also seemed that the women in his life were all saying the same thing. Kat had said that perhaps that ought to tell him something and the embarrassment he was feeling should be instructive and he had a few apologies to make.

Apparently, the pup had stayed with Sigi and Kiki, the truth was that living in the barracks of an airfield wasn’t a bad life for a dog. Sure, there were regulations against that, but most Commanding Officers turned a blind eye. There were stories about dogs, cats and even goats being adopted as Unit “Mascots.” Hans had even told her once about how a Company in his Division was rumored to have kept a pig for a considerable period of time. Life was probably better for the dogs. According to Hans the Company in question eventually ate the pig and presumably goats wouldn’t have it much better.

This incident also cleared up a few mysteries about Kiki. For a long time, Kat had been wondering the reason why she had volunteered to join the FSR. It had seemed like a step too far from what Kiki had said she wanted to do with her life when she had already made several similar steps. A chance to be close with a woman who happened to be her father’s half-sister, that was the sort of thing that Kiki would find irresistible. The problem was that Kiki had paid, and would continue to pay, a very high price for that course of action…

Kat heard the movement. It was very subtle, just the sound of cloth against a hard surface. It was why she kept her good ear turned towards the doorway. This building was as secure as it could be made from a military standpoint, but the individual who Kat had reached out to had trained for his entire life to circumvent such measures. With her right foot, she pressed a button and the overhead lights as well as several flood lights that she had set up came on. In her hand was the latest pistol that Walther had sent her, a new version of the PPK that had a silencer screwed onto the barrel. It was a bit disappointing that he was wearing the same regular street clothes that anyone out on the streets of Berlin would be wearing in the wintertime. This was however hardly Feudal Japan, so he would have needed to have kept with the times.

“Good evening Akio” Kat said, “I see you got my invitation.”

“General von Mischner” Kage said through gritted teeth as he did nothing to formally acknowledge her presence. He was young, but still a professional. Finding that he had walked into a trap would grate on him like few other things and Kat knowing his given name revealed a massive leak of information on his end.

“I presume that you have questions” Kat said.

“Do you really think that is adequate protection?” Kage asked clearly referring to the pistol in Kat’s hand.

“The latest from Walther” Kat said, “Fifteen shots of 9-millimeter Kurtz, far more than adequate.”

Kat could see the calculations going on in his head. She knew that he was thinking about how he could either escape this trap or kill her and how heavy a price he would pay in doing so.

“When I turned on the lights, I also alerted a Platoon of Hellcats downstairs” Kat said, “Something else you should factor in.”

If Kage considered the weight to fire that was descending on him in that moment a threat, he didn’t show it.

“That does explain the second part of your message” Kage said, “Most men would consider this checkmate.”

The message had consisted of a copy of a drawing of a Ninja from a century earlier with a series of letters and numbers on the bottom of the page. Chess notation.

“But you don’t consider this checkmate?” Kat asked.

“I think my odds are far better than average” Kage replied, “I did wonder why you consider me a pawn.”

“I don’t” Kat replied, “The notation is about a pawn that gets to the far side of the board, it gets to be whatever it wants.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“The Japanese Government has you working as a janitor at their Embassy” Kat said, “Sure, that is a cover, but it is also a profound waste of your abilities. Fortunately for you Germany is the far side of the board.”

Kage stood there for a long moment impassively. In the hallway outside came the sound of the Paratroopers preparing to storm the office. There was absolutely no subtlety with such men. Still, if they came in behind a wall of 6.5-millimeter bullets and grenades, Kage would die the same as any other man.

“I’m offering you a job Kage Akio” Kat said, “Your choice.”

Kat offered him the one thing that the Japanese Government had consistently denied him.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Forty


11th February 1963

Rangsdorf Airfield

As she had in Korea, Kiki found herself staring at the ceiling. The difference was that she was on a proper bed as opposed to a cot. The white painted plaster of the ceiling of the women’s barracks was also very different from the rubberized fabric of the tent she had lived in while she had been in Korea.

Even though she was in charge of four other teams, Kiki still spent a great deal of time in the field with whatever team happened to be on call when she was. Mitzi said that was what the teams liked about her. Kiki’s replacement had been content to run the Platoon from his desk and had been somewhat clueless about what went on in his absence while the teams were out in the field, so they had been extremely grateful to have Kiki return.

Unfortunately, it was days like today that he had not understood. An accident involving two lorries, one with a tank loaded with a volatile petrochemical and icy roads. The scene that had greeted the team had approached the sort of carnage that they had not seen since Korea and it had been declared a recovery effort before they had gotten there. The Fire Brigade on scene had been hit particularly hard. One of the lorry drivers had still been alive when they had arrived, but he had been trapped inside the wreckage. They had been forced to cease the rescue effort when the tanker had ignited. Kiki’s team had been treating burns that the rescuers had suffered in the resulting explosion.

While Kiki had been helping the firefighters as they were grappling with what had happened, she couldn’t help but feel relieved. As much as Kiki hated to admit to it, she was secretly glad that she didn’t have a new nightmare to join the collection that she already had. Being forced to save herself and abandoning someone she had been trying to save would certainly have done that. The smell alone had been bad enough. Her return to the 5th KHF had been contingent upon her continuing her sessions with Doctor Glas and she wondered if this was something that she should talk about. She had so many other things, her stupid brother topping that list. As is was, she found herself with reems of paperwork needing to be filled out as she had prepared the incident report. While the FSR had been too late to accomplish anything, the detailed reports that they took after every action had proven to be a goldmine for investigators. That was why official Wunsdorf was insisting that they always do them no matter what.

Something landed on her and Kiki felt a wet tongue on her chin. Rauchbier. The mechanics in the flight line had given him the name that had stuck after considerable debate. After a kind of beer that they liked, of course. It was perfect when one considered that he was black and white and belonged to an FSR Unit. The whippet puppy had found the woman’s barracks to be the perfect home for him. Since his arrival, he had hardly been put down for a minute and smothered with attention. Lifting her head, Kiki looked at Rauchbier who had his ears perked up and wagged his whip-like tail when Kiki looked at him.

“You are making it very difficult for me to dislike you little dog” Kiki muttered.

“We can like the dog” Sigi said from the doorway, “Even if your brother is an ass at times.” Kiki had not heard her approach, but that did explain how Rauchbier had made it up onto her bed. He couldn’t jump that high yet.

Sigi, one more thing that Kiki felt could be added to the long list of things that she felt guilt over.

“I’m sorry I blew up your life” Kiki said.

“Whatever” Sigi said, “It’s only a small circle of people who know about that right now. I am going to Berlin to speak with your father about what the future holds. All of this was inevitable, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if he knew who I was the entire time.”

Looking at Sigi, Kiki could see the resemblance between Sigi and her father when he had been younger. It would be incredibly obvious what was going on if they spent too much time around each other. When Freddy had apologized to Kiki for his behavior, he had mentioned that detail. Supposedly Kat had told him that he needed to be prepared for the possibility that Sigi was not the only long lost relative that they had out there. It was something that Kat would be something of an expert on. Like Kiki’s grandfather, Kat’s father had really gotten around. There had also been an aspect of that conversation with Freddy that Kiki had picked up on and would never have expected. He was envious of her which seemed absurd. Freddy had spent a couple years in Vietnam with the Pioneers doing important work and had volunteered to go to Korea, but their father had pointedly refused to allow him to go. Now, among the children of the royal family, Kiki was the most decorated, but Michael and Louis Junior had proven themselves as well and would continue to do so. Louis Junior was leaving for Antarctica on a two-year expedition next autumn. Michael had thrown himself into the task of reshaping the Bohemian Military with the credibility that he had gained in Korea.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Forty-One


17th February 1963

Mitte, Berlin

When Helene had accepted the position of Minister of Education in the Shadow Cabinet while the National Liberals led the majority coalition it should have occurred to her that when the Social Democrats retook the majority, she would be asked to take the real position. Suddenly, she had needed to come up with what the education policies of the Democratic Ecology Party even were and how she needed to square them with that the SPD. The fact that the Ministry of Education was considered one of the keystones of the response towards the deepening recession that much of the world was experiencing. That was exactly what had happened and the sharp contrast that it had on her life at home could not have been more profound.

Her daughter Ina wasn’t the greatest of students, preferring to spend her time writing bad poetry and having her head in the clouds. Helene knew that was about all that could be expected of a thirteen-year-old girl, but she was still annoyed. Convincing Manfred that there was more to life than football and girls was proving even more daunting. Hans did his best, but he remembered what it was like to be Manfred’s age and didn’t exactly have his heart in reining their son in. It was a disappointment of Helene’s that Josefine Falk’s interest in Manfred had waned over the prior year as most of the girls in Manfred’s circle were not the sort that she approved of. Oddly it was because they were a lot like what Helene expected Ina to be like in a couple years. There was also the aspect of Helene’s father not so subtly pushing Manfred in the direction of the Luftwaffe.

This year Helene’s parents had decided that spending the winter in Silesia was not in their interest this year, so they had spent the season at their townhouse in Berlin. Considering that Helene had already been living there with Hans and the children while the Reichstag was in session it had for a very crowded house. It had been in January that Helene’s mother had told her that her father was concerned about his health, but the Doctors had told him that it was entirely because he had astonishingly lived to an old age. He was having issues that came from having led an active life, arthritis in his knees and back, trouble with his eyesight among other things. Heaven forbid that the great Generalfeldmarschall Graf von Richthofen need to wear glasses at the age of seventy-one.

That had hardly stopped him from giving his opinion to Hans about his namesake grandson. He had said that for most young men sport often took priority over education and that Helene would be asking for trouble if she attempted to stand in the way of that. She knew that in his youth her father had done some insane things, most notably climbing to the top of a church steeple and tying his handkerchief to it when he had been a cadet in a military academy. Perhaps it was a good thing that they couldn’t seem to keep Manfred off the football pitch.

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

Life had taken Kage a lot of strange places, but few were stranger than the one he currently found himself in. He had absolutely no love of the respective Governments of either Germany or Japan but as Gräfin Katherine had pointed out, she wasn’t the German Government and right now she needed someone outside the normal organization that surrounded her.

Katherine had also told Kage that looks could be extremely deceiving when it came to the man that she was meeting with today, Jarl Gunnarsson. He looked like a tramp in an old wool coat, with shaggy blond hair and beard that was showing a great deal of grey. According to Katherine this man controlled the narcotics and other unsavory trades within Europe and that she suspected that some unknown player was attempting to usurp his position. There were also questions regarding a considerable amount of money that had vanished years earlier.

Kage had been surprised that Katherine had showed him a copy of report from the autopsy that had been conducted at her direction. It was easy to see why Katherine was outraged by this situation. The woman who had been killed was a mother of a girl who was under her protection. Even without details, it was obvious that someone didn’t engage in torture like that unless they really wanted information. Katherine had said that it could only be for leverage. When Kage had suggested that perhaps she was inserting her own history into this matter he had seen how she had given him an absolutely withering look. Then she had pointed out that the Doctor who had conducted the autopsy had been able to determine the blood types of the attackers. Then she had asked Kage if he understood how that determination had been reached? And what they would they do to Jo if they got ahold her? Kage didn’t have an answer for those questions. So, he played the role that she requested for now, waiting and listening.

“I wonder how your brother might have handled a situation like this” Jarl said, “And wonder if I lack the ability to keep a lid on things.”

“Urban would have called a meeting and with every single one of his potential rivals and enemies present he would cut Jo’s throat himself to prove that no one could gain power over him that way” Katherine said, “It was that aspect of him that made me decide that he was too dangerous to have in circulation. If my father hadn’t killed him, then I would have.”

Jarl clearly hadn’t been expecting that turn, his reaction made Kage wonder exactly what the relationship was between Jarl and that girl.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Forty-Two


22nd February 1963

Mitte, Berlin

The V8 Club was packed, Zella had never seen anything like it before. The Moondogs were touring through Europe to promote the new album that they had out and this time they had broken through into some commercial success. They had also been informed that they were getting airplay on the other side of the Atlantic and there was the real possibility that they could have a North American tour. What that meant was that the Moondogs were getting too big to play clubs. Still, just having them here had brought a lot of acts through the doors of the V8 and John Elis was perfectly happy to sell drinks to the crowds who came. The Moondogs were in their first intermission and Zella could hear herself think after the previous hour then the band had given their Vox Amplifiers a run for their money.

Zella had wanted to watch the show but found herself having to contend with the opening act whose name escaped Zella at the moment, but they were talking about changing anyway, who were at the bar and their lead singer who was intent on chatting her up even if that involved trying to yell over the music. The fact that she was really not interested didn’t seem to dawn on him. John and Paul of the Moondogs had described this tour as being something of a “shotgun wedding” with the band opening for them being from an entirely different scene. So far, Zella wasn’t exactly impressed by them. They seemed to think that they could exchange volume for actual ability. In person they came across as firmly middle-class and were definitely from London, the lead singer, Roger something or the other, had told Zella as much within a minute of sitting next to her. The thought occurred to her that John Lennon must really hate these guys.

“What do you find so amusing?” Roger asked when he saw the look on her face.

“Nothing important” Zella replied as John Elis gave her a look and motioned a question. Did she want Roger to stop bugging her? Zella shook her head; she didn’t want to see what that would look like. Elis had gotten to know her extremely well and the events of the prior year had been informative, Kat asking just how much she knew about him in particular. She had spent her life around people who she knew could be dangerous, Elis was no exception. Roger was annoying but harmless. “If you want me to be objective about your band when I write the review of this show, you will take a hint though.”

Roger just smiled and looked around for a less prickly conquest. That suited Zella just fine, for her this was just one more example of her life finally getting back to normal. The series of articles and illustrations that she had done on the Korean conflict had been well received after they had run in The Mirror and the music reviews that she had been doing for the Arts and Entertainment Section of the BT had kept her busy. Still, she was a bit put out by how disconnected events in Germany had been from those in Korea. It was as if they had been happening on a different planet. Of all the people she knew, only her mother and Aurora had had followed events closely. Her mother was the Editor-in-Chief of a major newspaper, so that was hardly a surprise. Aurora had followed along because both of her two closest friends were over there and she had just broken up with her boyfriend, so it had been a bit of an escape for her.


Breslau, Silesia

Returning to Breslau wasn’t exactly what Helene had wanted to do this week, but the iron rule of politics was that one had to be elected to office in order to make changes. That included time spent each month in Breslau. What was incredibly ironic was that after all the grief that she had given Hans for his frequent absences, he had finally gotten to a point in his career of relative stability only for Helene to be the one whose career kept them apart. Her mother had suggested that she resign and resume teaching if she was so unhappy with her present career. While it was true that she had been happier as a teacher, she had felt unfulfilled in that role.

Of course, if Helene was being truly honest, she would have to say that the one time in her life that she had been truly happy had been when she had been in the Luftwaffe Auxiliaries during the Second World War. The ambiguities that had plagued her in the years since had been absent. If she had a better, more secure, idea of her place in the world then Hans being absent in South Africa and Mexico wouldn’t have caused her so much angst.

These days though, the Auxiliaries were gone. They had been folded into the various service branches after the war because of their success, something that Helene had been told that she should be proud that she had played a role in. But did that mean that they were gone entirely? Hardly. The spirit of the Auxiliaries lived on in the women who had made careers of their own. Digging through the papers on her desk, Helene saw the photograph that went along with a story that had been buried beneath the fold. While she had hardly wanted to have made a career in air traffic control herself, there were others that she felt she needed to talk to. It was just a question of making the arrangements.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Forty-Three


25th February 1963

Rangsdorf Airfield

Stepping out of the car when the driver opened the door and followed by her aide, Helene was greeted by quite a sight. The Helicopter Wing that she had come to see was treating her like if she were a visiting Staff Officer conducting an inspection tour. She knew that it was something that she should have been expecting but simply hadn’t thought about until she arrived here. She was a Teacher with a Doctorate and within the Civil Service that made her roughly equivalent to the Commanding Officer of the 5th KHF. When she factored in being the wife of a General of Panzer Dragoons and daughter of a Generalfeldmarschall it occurred to Helene that she spent entirely too much time in the shadow of her husband and father. It had her being shown respect in her own right strange to her, on some level she still saw things from the perspective of when she had been in the Auxiliaries.

The reason for her presence was the article that she had read that had been cut out from a right leaning newspaper that had questioned the return of Princess Kristina to the FSR. It focused not some of the rumors about her current fitness, but whether or not she should have even been allowed to join the elite Search and Rescue units in the first place. The fact that they used a photograph of Kristina from five or six years earlier suggested a great deal about how the newspaper and by extension, the public at large preferred to think of her. As a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl as opposed to a woman of twenty-one. Helene realized that she needed to see for herself what Kristina was up to having not seen her since she was the same age she had been in the photograph. What had also been to Helene’s complete surprise that within the 5th Combat Helicopter Wing, a formation equivalent to a Regiment in size, there were seventy women who played various roles, from enlisted members of the FSR and mechanics up to pilots as well as the role of Platoon Leader in the FSR Company that Princess Kristina was currently playing.

“Oberst Stück” Helene said in greeting.

“Minister von Richthofen” Stück replied. His file had said that he had been among the earliest helicopter pilots in the Heer, having flown a substantial number of missions with the Hellcats towards the end of the Soviet War.

“You didn’t need to go all out for a former Oberfunker” Helene said.

Stück smiled slightly. Helene knew that by saying that she had taken the attitude that most soldiers preferred politicians to have, not pretending that she knew how everything was done.

“We don’t get a visit by a Government Minister often” Stück said, “Still, the Minister of Education was a bit of a surprise.”

“The men and women under your command came from somewhere” Helene replied as they fell into step with each other, having thought about that very question beforehand in case he asked it. “I wanted to see what the system is getting right and wrong as far as technical education is concerned.”

Helene knew that was music to the Oberst’s ears. She had discovered that the aviation units of the Heer and the Luftwaffe had been requesting the Ministry of Education increase the funding for the technical fields over the last several years.

“That sounds good” Stück said incredulously, he had heard that before.

“I also wanted to look in one of the celebrities in your unit” Helene said, “I knew her when she was younger.”

“Which one?” Stück asked, “There is the Princess, she’ll probably want to avoid you, and the Raumfahrerin.”

“Raumfahrerin?” Helene asked.

“Hauptmann Grimmelshausen” Stück replied, “You’ve heard of her?”

“Sieglinde Grimmelshausen is here?” Helene asked in reply, that was a surprise. Of course, she would have heard of her. Helene remembered that she had been green with envy when she had seen Sieglinde on television when she had come back from orbital flight years earlier. She was everything that Helene had wished she could have been when she was younger.

“Yes” Stück replied, not elaborating further.

As the tour continued, Helene was led through hangers and shops. Turbine engines and helicopters dominated. Then she entered the FSR section and she saw the array of equipment hanging from the walls. According to Stück they needed to be prepared for anything that they might encounter in the field. He said that they needed to tailor the equipment to suit the mission and if they needed to radio for additional gear it was considered somewhat embarrassing.

Entering the barracks. Helene saw what she expected, white painted walls and wooden floors, all immaculately clean. The woman’s barracks was more of the same and it did remind her of her when she lived in the Castle during the war. The Enlisted lived in open bays and the Officers who lived in the barracks had individual rooms. While everyone was lined up and prepared for inspection, a black and white puppy was sniffing at Helene’s ankles in complete contradiction of what they were trying to do.

“Rauchbier” Kiki hissed, the puppy just looked at her and wagged its tail, that must be the dog’s name. Helene recognized Kiki and wasn’t surprised. The Oberst just seemed amused by it.

“Your dog?” Helene asked.

“He is the barrack’s dog” A different woman, who stood down the hallway said. “Also still learning.”

Helene could see that Kiki looked a bit exasperated by the situation. She knew that when she finally got a chance to talk to her, she would need to get the entire story.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Forty-Four


26th February 1963

In transit, Rural Brandenburg

The helicopter was headed south. This time they didn’t had not been dispatched to clean up after a car wreck and Kiki was thankful for that. Instead they were headed for a range of wooded hills in the southern part of Brandenburg where a sightseer had not made it back to her hostel the night before. The police were asking for all the help they could get and that included them. Spending a day tromping through the snow only to find that the person they were looking for was shacked up with a local who they had met at the village tavern was actually a welcome change from the carnage they normally encountered. At least walking through the countryside was peaceful. The conversation that Kiki had ended up having with Sigi kept running through her mind as she watched the ground race by.

“How thrilled are you about who you were a few years ago?”

That was what Sigi had said after she had told Kiki about how she had actually met Helene a few times when she had been working as an aide for Kat von Mischner six or seven years earlier. Apparently Sigi’s appearance had changed to such an extent between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six to make her nearly unrecognizable. Sigi felt that it was a good thing that she had been forgotten in this case and she did make a comment about everyone involved was actively trying to forget how her introduction to Kat had gone. That had prompted Kiki to ask what had happened and Sigi had steadfastly refused to say anything more on the subject.

There was also the thing that had prompted Helene to visit in the first place. Kiki was under no illusions about how her family was seen and that they were not universally loved. Kiki’s father had even told her that there was a substantial number of people within the Monarchist faction of the Reichstag who would cheerfully replace him with one of his cousins who were seen as more traditionally minded. The rest of the family could just go away, they were never specific as to where. Kiki’s father had always warned her that the extremes of political spectrum were the most dangerous for her. One side would see her as an obstacle to be dealt with and the other as vermin in need of extermination, the result however would be exactly the same. The newspaper column just illustrated that reality. For Kiki though, they questioned not only her presence in the FSR but suggested that her entire career was inappropriate and suggested that she would be better sequestered in the palace until a suitable marriage could be arranged. There was a fair amount of self-righteous bible thumping thrown in on top of the misogyny as well. Berg had once sarcastically told Kiki how extraordinary she thought it was that God always seemed to tell men like that exactly what they wanted to hear.

The helicopter touched down outside Grünewald and the team spilled out, it was noticeably colder than it was in Rangsdorf.

“We signed up for this” Kiki said in response to the team’s grumbling as she looked at the map which showed the route that the sightseer had she was going to take. The had all the makings of a cold and boring day. While she could live without the cold, boring was good because it meant that nothing was happening.

That was how they passed their afternoon, walking across fields and over hills along the border of Saxony as the sun descended towards the western horizon. Looking at the map again, Kiki reckoned that they were a few kilometers east of Ortrand. If they didn’t find the sightseer soon, they would probably need to head for the town to sneak in a hot meal before they radioed for their ride home. That was when Kiki noticed that she felt like she was being watched. It was the same feeling that she’d had right before she had emptied the magazine of her pistol into the night. She was leading a team this time and there would be consequences if she allowed herself to give in to paranoia. Kiki stopped and looked around carefully, making sure that it wasn’t just her overactive imagination and traumatic stress. Looking at the dried brush left over from the previous summer, Kiki saw that it looked like someone had pushed through recently just they had gone to great lengths to hide their footprints. That suggested that if this was real then there was a good chance that whoever this was, they didn’t want to be seen.

Kiki caught Ingo’s eye and signaled for the rest of the team to stop. “What is it?” Ingo whispered as he got close.

“There is someone close” Kiki said, “Who is trying not to be seen, look for yourself.”

Kiki pointed out what she saw, and Ingo unslung his rifle from his shoulder. The rest of the team realized what was going on when they saw him doing that, moved into position and went to ground. No sooner than they had when Kiki heard the sound of a rifle bullet pass through the space that Mitsi had just vacated.

Kiki drew her pistol from her belt, seriously wishing that she had brought a rifle along today. Then again, she hadn’t planned on getting ambushed in what was practically her back yard and hadn’t wanted to haul around the extra weight, Kiki thought to herself as she heard more bullets passing overhead. Without being told to, Anton was calling for reinforcements.

“Make every bullet count!” Kiki called out. She knew that the ammunition that the team had was very limited.

“Headquarters wants to know what the hell is going on!” Anton yelled at her.

“We’re under attack, that’s what!” Kiki yelled back, when the truth was that she didn’t have the first clue as to what was going on.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Forty-Five


26th February 1963

East of Ortrand, Saxony

Once the shooting started, Kiki found herself yelling orders at Anton as he called for help and even as rifle bullets were flying past, they were told that even with assets in the area it would be some time before help arrived. Looking at the team, she knew that the attackers wouldn’t be content in shooting at the trees where they were sheltering in for long and whoever they were, they would figure out that the best tactic would be to just rush them eventually. There were only six of them and five rifles. None of them had figured that they needed more than a single magazine. This was a search and rescue mission, not a war. The only exception to that was Kiki having a couple extra magazines for her pistol, when she had put the belt on around her coat those had been included because she had not thought about it. The thought raced through her mind that something would need to be done and no one else there to do it for her.

“Valentin, Mitsi” Kiki said, getting their attention, “I need you to protect Anton. Rolf and Ingo come with me, if you can see any of them start shooting when I give you a signal.”

With that Kiki was on her feet running while trying to keep as low as possible through the trees at a right angle to the direction that the rifle fire was coming from. The shooting continued. Turning in that direction Kiki slowed as she moved towards what she hoped was the flank of their attackers. Rolf and Ingo, originally trained as paratroopers, were spaced out the proscribed distance. Moving through the underbrush in a crouch, Kiki heard more shooting and saw a couple of them. They had old bolt-action rifles left over from the Second World War after a minute they paused to reload. She couldn’t help but notice that they were laughing and joking. This was just a game to them and that filled Kiki with anger. Pulling her whistle out from under her coat she closed her lips on it even as she took careful aim with her pistol. Blowing a long tweet with the whistle, she fired two shots both center mass on the two shooters she could see. Then she was running forward, taking two additional shooters by surprise. The sharper sound of Rolf and Ingo’s rifles filled the air as they took shots at the shooters who found the tables had been turned on them.

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It had been going so well, until it wasn’t. The team that they had lured into this isolated stretch of forest resembled the one that they had been told to watch out for according to their contact in Grünewald who had seen them get off a helicopter that had landed near there. A few hours later, they came walking through the forest occasionally calling out the name of the nonexistent sightseer who had been reported missing. All that was left was waiting for her to reveal herself. For some reason Mithras thought that she needed to be eliminated and they had spent months coming up with this plan, even arranging for a dozen Mosin-Nagant rifles to be delivered to them. The problem with it, as they discovered, came in the from of heavy winter clothes that obscured details.

As Alexis had watched, one figure was shorter than the rest was walking towards the back of the group and the shape of the body under the coat was doubtlessly feminine. Alexis took aim and only to see the figure vanish at the same instant he fired. The others opened fire as the group that they watched went to ground. The others shot at where the group had been for a minute and Alexis figured that this was probably ineffective. So much for the revolution, he thought sourly to himself.

Alexis was about to yell at the others to cut it out when he heard someone blow a whistle and shooting that sounded different came from his right and in front of them. Turning he saw three figures attacking his group and the others in his group started running from them.

“Get back here!” Alexis yelled at them, “We still outnumber them.” Then he saw one of the others go down, shot through the head. For a few seconds Alexis froze with indecision as he watched the others run. They had left him no choice but to follow. Alexis had taken no more than a few steps when he felt like if his leg had been hit by a piece of lumber and it collapsed underneath him…

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As the sound of approaching helicopters filled the air, Kiki was disgusted by the situation that she found herself in. She found herself having to treat wounds that she had very likely inflicted.

“Swine” Kiki hissed at the man, little more than a boy really, who had been shot through the thigh and Kiki was trying to keep him from bleeding out before additional help arrived. “I never hurt anyone before today, and you caused this.”

For some reason the man was filled with rage when she said that. “You are lying you Hohenzollern whore” He yelled sitting up, “I was there when you shot Andreas and…” He was cut off when Ingo ground the heel of his boot into the leg with the hole through it. Kiki saw that his face was pale with pain and he was desperately trying not to scream.

“Stop it Ingo” Kiki said calmly, “If he goes into shock he could die and that would be bad.”

“Yes, Ma’am” Ingo said as he stopped, then he crouched down until his face was only a few millimeters from the man’s. “This is what happens when you fuck with the Green Devils.”

The man seemed to wilt when he heard that.

“I’m not one of the Green Devils” Kiki said correcting Ingo.

“That’s crap” Ingo said, “That counterattack was the sort of thing that the great Katze herself would have done.”

Kiki noticed that none of the others disagreed with him.