Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread II

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Eighty-Eight



24th July 1965

Heuberg, Württemberg

It was Ina who made up his mind in the end.

Increasingly annoyed by his parents, Manfred caught a train across town to Pankow and dropped in on his Great Aunt Marcella where he knew he would always be welcome. Most of all the conversation would mostly be about something, anything, other than what he would be doing over the next few years. It had turned out to be exactly what he had needed.

Aunt Marcella had heard from Josefine Falk that Manfred had been dating Suse Rosa Knispel and she had a lot of questions regarding that.

“Was the relationship serious?”

“No, of course not” Manfred had replied.

“Why not?”

“Ask Suse” was met with; “She is not here, you are, so please answer the question.”

Manfred then had to explain to Aunt Marcella that Suse just liked going out and having fun on Friday nights and having him with her as a date insured that she got left alone.

“And she has been doing this with you for months?” Aunt Marcella asked after a moment to thought.

“Yes” Manfred had replied.

“I think that someone likes your company Manfred Johannes” Aunt Marcella said with a knowing smile.

“You sound just like Ina” Manfred had said, “She has these romantic though hardly realistic notions about what might happen if I stay in Berlin.”

“Don’t be too hard on your little sister” Aunt Marcella had replied, “She is going to come into her own when she gets older, she is a lot like her namesake aunt in that regard.”

“Ina and Aunt Kat have nothing in common” Manfred had replied.

“I wouldn’t be so certain of that” Aunt Marcella had said, “Ina is a lot like what I imagine Katherine would have turned out if she hadn’t had to cope with so much early on. If Otto had not become the sort of monster whose evil hurt everyone closest to him or perhaps if Suse Rosa hadn’t died things would have been very different. I’m not blameless because I couldn’t always protect her, God knows I tried.”

“Suse isn’t dead” Manfred had said completely aghast, which Aunt Marcella found incredibly amusing.

“I don’t pretend to understand much of what Gerta does” Aunt Marcella had said, “But it always seems to work out for her. She named her little girl after your maternal grandmother for some odd reason.”

That had crystalized things for Manfred. It was incredibly odd that he had never made that connection before, but it laid bare the truth about the role that he needed to play in the world. Not just for Ina but for the multitudes out there like her.

As it had turned out, no one had been impressed by his reasoning after he had made that choice. His parents had been disappointed in him and Suse had flown into a rage that he still couldn’t understand the reason for. Now weeks later, he was still getting yelled at by a rotating cast of characters over several exhausting days. Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Manfred thought glumly to himself as he watched the sun rise over a castle that was on the top of a nearby mountain.



Jena

Waking up the first thing that Ben saw was Kiki asleep while laying on her side, a line of drool down her cheek and soaking into the pillow. She had always said that if people understood the details of her life there would simply be no way that they could ever think of her as glamourous. It was a small way that Kiki didn’t really understand how people thought. She wasn’t seen as being glamourous, rather people tended to see that she was human and having the same problems as anyone else.

It was then that Ben noticed that the covers had been pushed away from Kiki’s body revealing that because of it being warm the night before she had gone to bed without putting on any pajamas. It also was a reminder of what else had happened the night before when they had made love and the part of him that was still an adolescent was thrilled in seeing her naked.

That was when Rauchbier jumped up on the bed and Kiki opened her eyes, ruining the perfect moment. He almost said “bad dog” aloud and which would let Kiki know that he had been watching her sleep. That was sort of creepy regardless of context. Kiki swung her legs off the bed and was wiping her mouth while giving her dog a death stare.

“This little shit needs to go out” Kiki said as she grabbed her silk robe from where it was hanging. “Have you given any thought about what we discussed last night.”

“You mean about being your guest this summer while you are playing the Lady of the castle” Ben replied, “Won’t that cause a bit of a scandal out there in the Sixteenth Century.”

Kiki gave him a look. That had been how she had described the people who she had been dealing with in Hechingen. The construction of the Sony assembly plant had renewed interest in the area by technology companies. The European divisions of Hewlett-Packard and International Business Machines as well as Zuse KG were looking into locating faculties there. Kiki had found herself having to mediate between those who wanted the high paying jobs that the technology industry would bring and those who wanted everything to remain exactly how it had been for centuries. Kiki wasn’t seen as a neutral party in the process because she had been the one who had worked to bring industry into the Principality in the first place.

“I think I’ll just be happy to see a friendly face over the holiday” Kiki said.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Ninety



12th August 1965

Rural Württemberg

The training cadre had been broken up into several teams, they had been given a map and a compass then given a crash course in Orienteering. The Unteroffizer giving the lecture had told them that they would be timed and that he didn’t want to have to spend out search parties if they got lost. Judging by the reaction that Manfred had seen among the others, spending an afternoon “lost” in the countryside was exactly what they were planning on. The trouble for him was that he had been taught land navigation by his grandfather since he had been a child, men in his family didn’t get lost in the woods. It was simple as that and it was almost as obnoxious as how his connection with his father had played out over the prior weeks. It might not be the harsh realities that his father had warned him about that Manfred face at some point in the future, but the expectations he was confronted with on an almost hourly basis had been daunting. It was something that had not made him popular around the barracks as those standing nearest to him tended to get caught up in whatever crap the Drill Instructors wanted to dump on him. It was also well known that he would be an Oberfähnrich the instant he completed basic training.

That was why Manfred found himself running along a path on a hillside somewhere north of Tailfingen according to the map and they were looking for the next marker. The others with him were not thrill about the relentless pace that he was taking, but once again the expectation had to be met and Manfred didn’t care if he had to drag them across the finish line. Anything less would give the Drill Instructors the perfect excuse to kick the shit out of him. At least it couldn’t possibly be as bad as weapons instruction had been. Manfred had been one of the few men in the cadre who knew how shoot and maintain a G44 when he had arrived from his time in the Berlin Cadet Corps. That had gotten him accused of grandstanding, but if he came up less than that he obviously wasn’t putting in the effort. You volunteered for this, Manfred thought reminding himself of that like he had every few minutes for weeks.

Coming to a stop, Manfred sighted two of the landmarks that the map said they were supposed to use to triangulate on the location of the marker. One was a hilltop and the other was the highest tower of the castle that he had seen several times in the distance, but not close enough to see too many details until today. He noticed that a black, white and red Imperial flag flew atop the tower and a long blue pennant was just below it. Supposedly that meant that the owner was home. That was hardly a surprise, probably someone’s summer home.

“The Emperor lives there from time to time I’ve heard” One of the other men said, “Word it that it belongs to one of his girls these days.”

Manfred just shrugged. He was aware of who Princess Kristina was. Ina was one of the young women who interacted with her socially because of their connection with Aunt Katherine. He recalled a somewhat severe woman in her twenties who had coldly peered at him through the lenses of her glasses without ever saying a word the one time he had met her. Ina had said that Manfred had gotten her wrong, but he couldn’t figure out how.

“Everyone spread out and look for the marker” Manfred said changing the subject.

“Whatever you say” One of the others said. Manfred had been having to keep them on task all afternoon.

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

This was not how Kiki had imagined how she would spend her holiday. Looking out the open window from her desk that was buried under a mass of papers, Kiki’s mind wandered to all the thousands of things she would rather be doing rather than feeling like a prisoner here. Rauchbier was sleeping contentedly on the floor in the sunlight that was streaming through the window. She had been so busy that she had been unable to take him for his daily runs, it was with considerable guilt that she let the castle’s Kennel Master take care of it for her. She had been surprised to learn that the castle even had a Kennel Master. He was a middle-aged man who seemed to like dogs more than people and normally bred hunting dogs in Hechingen, the title was more of a formality since there had been no dogs in the kennel since Kiki’s grandfather had vacationed here decades earlier. He was more than happy to help with Rauchbier who he considered a good sport. His encouragement of the Whippet’s hunting prowess was something that Kiki looked at with mixed emotions. This was especially because Rauchbier had caught a few rabbits in the fields below the castle that the Kennel Master had happily put into his own stewpot.

Beyond the paperwork that Kiki was trying to tackle, she had several guests in the castle at any time as well. There were several Japanese businessmen from Sony, Honda and Fujifilm who thought that staying in a real German Castle was an incredible lark and understood that Kiki was major investor in Japanese corporations in Germany. Then there were the Americans, Executive Officers from various technology companies who understood that the Princess of the Hohenzollern Province would at least listen to their proposals. The most touching moment of this summer so far had been with the arrival of Robert Noyce and his family. Sure, he was here because he hoped that Kiki would invest in the company that he was starting that would make a new form of integrated circuits. Kiki had seen how his daughters had looked around in awe at the castle and the real-life Princess who lived there.

Not that it was all fun. Kiki was having to spend a great deal of time getting the estate’s books straightened out and smoothing the ruffled feathers of the various City Mayors and local councils who were not exactly thrilled with the changes she was pushing. So far, none of her guests seemed to be aware of the not so subtle insult that they were getting subjected to in the seating arrangement in the Castle’s Great Hall. Traditionally, merchants were seated about the level of the salt and that tradition was problematic if Kiki was to convince them to invest in this community if they ever figured out what that meant. Finally, Ben had been informed that his application to join the Space Program had been approved if he was interested in being the Third Alternate Science Officer in an upcoming mission. Kiki had told him that training to be a Raumfahrer was too important to just let slide even if it meant that she wouldn’t see him at all over the Summer Holiday.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Ninety-One



29th August 1965

Potsdam

At least it was a nice day for an outdoor reception. They had lucked out in that regard. Kat had also taken advantage of the fact that she was here in her capacity as Chief Court Mistress, as opposed to the Generallieutenant commanding the KSK. So, she was wearing a sundress as opposed to a heavy wool uniform that all the men seemed to be wearing.

The arrival of a Presidential delegation for a State visit at the Summer Residence basically put everything on hold. Louis had been talking with Architects about the design of a new Winter Residence somewhere near the center of Berlin now that the House of Hohenzollern’s finances were back in order. That and things of far more importance had been shelved for now. The money that Kat had loaned him was getting paid back directly or in the form of land grants in southern Germany. So, everything had worked out, sort of. Long experience had taught Kat to be suspicious of when things seemed to be going well. Because when it all ended it tended to come as a surprise.

Enter Nelson Rockefeller.

The American President had recently signed a law that guaranteed that every American had the right to vote and had immediately faced a massive backlash from his own political party. It was hardly a surprise that the honeymoon was over. President Rockefeller was to the left of his own party these days and was probably one of the few men who could have gotten nominated and then go on to win the election. His signing of the laws that had languished during the prior Administration had revived the prospects for the Democratic Party, who oddly stood to gain the most from them. Kat had followed American politics since the 1940 Presidential election and still found it absurd theater at best.

The consequence of that was that Rockefeller was in Potsdam trying to get a foreign policy victory by talking up a strategic arms limitation treaty. As if either the Emperor or Chancellor would be disagreeable with such a thing. Louis had been writing editorial columns under his various pseudonyms again about that exact topic. Comparing nuclear arms to battleships in the last century. How the arms race between the German Empire and the UK had needlessly raised tensions, becoming just one of the many causes of the First World War. Like always though, the Devil was in the details. International treaties were a matter of give and take, frequently with all parties coming away not particularly happy with the result being the best outcome.

Kat was also aware that those who drafted the treaties either lacked imagination or wrote gaping holes within them. Her own people had gotten copies of the draft treaty and discovered that there were dozens of holes in the language that both nations could easily exploit. The favorite example was the series of drone aircraft that Fieseler had built going back to the Fi 103 which had been used to great effect against Moscow during the Second World War. Since then there had been substantial developments in that program had taken place over the last twenty years with the latest versions being turbojet powered and certainly nuclear capable by design. Not one word was said about them.

If Kat had to guess, she would assume that it was just how the game was played. As she got older, Kat was starting to realize that she didn’t have a whole lot of patience for those sorts of games.

“Deep thoughts?” Kat heard a voice ask and she saw Louis Junior approaching her. He was wearing the white summer uniform of the Navy with a shiny new Polar Service Medal pinned to it. A couple days earlier he had told Kat about how he had found it hard to reconcile what people said about him serving in a far-flung place like Wilhelm Station versus what he had in fact done there. If he had worked logistics in Kiel no one would be impressed, doing in Antarctica made it completely different somehow. Kat told him that was just how life worked, it frequently didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

“Just about what they are trying to do here” Kat said motioning to Louis Senior and President Rockefeller as they answered questions from the gathered press pool.

“The treaty” Louis said.

“Peace is always a worthwhile goal” Kat replied.

“I understand that” Louis said, “But the show, is it needed.”

“Actually yes” Kat said, “Visibility, public support, political accountability.”

Kat saw Louis frown. He didn’t have a whole lot of use for politics. Neither did Kat, though she was in a better position to tell people to go sod off these days. Louis Junior was still working his way up the ladder and it was obvious to everyone that since he had returned to Potsdam he had been at loose ends. He couldn’t afford to tell people what he thought of them the way that Kat regularly got away with doing.

“Perhaps you should sail a yacht around South America, go to Hollywood and date an actress or something” Kat said, “That is the sort of thing that younger princes do.”

Louis smiled at that. It was what his father had done in the thirties before the untimely death of his brother Wilhelm, who had been the Crown Prince at the time, had put him next in line for the throne.

“Perhaps I ought to go to Stuttgart and work on an assembly line like he did with Ford in Detroit then” Louis replied.

“Do you also secretly wish you were a mechanic?” Kat asked. It was an aspect of Louis Senior that few knew about, he was happiest when he was tinkering with engines in his workshop. Like everyone else Louis Junior found that amusing.

Minutes later the press conference ended, Louis Senior and Rockefeller eventually passed where Kat and Louis Junior were watching.

“I would like to introduce you to Fürstin Katherine of Berlin” Louis Ferdinand said, and Rockefeller gave her a quizzical look. It was nice to know that she still had the right sort of bad reputation. “And my son Louis.”

“The Antarctic explorer?” Rockefeller asked and Kat noticed that Louis’ smile became fixed as he shook the President’s hand.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Ninety-Two



5th September 1965

Hohenzollern Castle

Kiki was supposed to be headed back to Jena in a few hours and she wasn’t getting ready to go. Instead she was wishing that she was dead while lying face down on her bed having just woken up badly hungover, with Rauchbier licking the back of her neck. The night before she had participated in a local festival to celebrate the start of the harvest, Kiki understood that it was just pretext for throwing a large party where everyone got extremely drunk. The Local Council in Hechingen had cooked it up to bring the tourists and their money into town. As the current Princess of Hohenzollern Kiki was expected to attend. She had attempted to moderate her drinking at the event and keep her head about her. It hadn’t worked, every time she had turned around someone else had been shoving a drink into her hands, mostly beer and cider but plenty of wine as well as a few stronger drinks. Things had gotten a bit out of hand.

Kiki remembered laughing at some stupid joke with her head swimming and then singing along with the crowd. She knew full well that she couldn’t sing to save her life. What must the locals think of her after a little display like that? Rauchbier made a groaning sound followed by a sharp bark, meaning that he wanted something from her, but it was like driving an icepick through her skull.

Lifting her head, Kiki looked at Rauchbier who had his ears perked up and he was looking at her expectantly.

“You’re lucky I love you, otherwise you would be ground into next week’s sausages” Kiki said to Rauchbier who whined expectantly. He clearly needed to go out, so with great reluctance Kiki forced herself out of bed. Apparently, she’d had the wherewithal to change into one of her old Hertha jerseys though she couldn’t remember coming back to the castle the night before. Letting Rauchbier lead as they made their way down to the courtyard Kiki did her best not to give into the nausea that she was feeling as her head throbbed.

She hadn’t bothered to go look for her glasses, so Kiki’s vision grew blurry beyond a few meters. That was why she didn’t see Rolf, the Kennel Master across the courtyard. Rauchbier did though and he forgot why they had come outside in the first place and ran to greet the man. As always, he gave the dog a friendly pat and what Kiki knew was a piece of jerky. Rolf tended to ignore her, which was something that she found refreshing at times.

“I heard you got deep into the cups last night Kristina” Rolf said with slight smile. He could probably see that she was having a painful morning and she didn’t see the point in correcting his lack of formal address this morning.

“I didn’t want to be rude and people kept asking me to try this or that” Kiki replied, “By now everyone in Hechingen is probably talking about what a lush I am.”

“No, everyone could see that you are a bit of a lightweight” Rolf said mildly, “Instead they are talking about how much fun the ice queen is when she finally pulls the broomstick out of her ass. You ought to try it more often, without getting plastered first though.”

Kiki was aghast, in many ways that was worse.



Fort Drum, New York

This time when the 1st SFG returned from China they found a very different country and Army than the one that they had left months earlier. After years of battling things out in Courts about the need for reform, Congress had finally passed a series of Civil Rights Laws and the result was a country in turmoil. There was sharp divide between those who felt that the laws were going too far and those who felt that they didn’t go far enough that cut across all party lines and the bright lines that had existed in the past seemed to have evaporated.

How it affected Fort Drum was in that the segregation that had existed in the Army had gone away almost overnight. That meant a whole lot of work for Parker as he had to figure out how that would affect their mission going forward. Personnel that made up the teams had to be tailored to suit the mission and they couldn’t always tell where said mission was going to be. A few years earlier it had been thought that they would be spending a lot of time south of the Rio Grande and an effort had been made to recruit Spanish speakers into the Special Forces. That was how they had ended up with Specialist 1st Class Valenzuela in the Squad. Then they had spent most of their time in recent years in China. It was the sort of thing that Parker remembered that John Casey used to make jokes about. Winter coats in the Tropics, pith helmets and mosquito nets in the Arctic. He also would have had a few words to say about the actions of the Government, he had been fond of the Mark Twain quote about how when Congress gets together it was your money or your life. Considering how it often fell to outfits like the 1st SFG to implement the dictates of the Government that quote took on whole new meanings.

Parker knew that he could use Jonny here about now, if for no other reason than to have someone irreverent enough to tell him that the entire situation was crap. First Sergeant Cooper was too buttoned up to play that role.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Ninety-Three



6th September 1965

Munich

This meeting revolved around the entire reason why Emil had gone to work for BMW in the first place. The OKW had announced that they were accepting bids to replace the aging fleet of motorcycles in service and they had a rather diverse set of requirements. The ability to operate on and off road and capable of being maintained in the field by someone with a cursory knowledge of mechanics were understandable enough. The military also considered sidecars indispensable for reasons that even Emil found suspect, they were passé on the civilian market though and added a layer of complication. The other thing that had to be considered was that while the OKW preferred that vehicles be manufactured within the Empire they wouldn’t turn away a winning bid if it was clearly superior. That meant that BMW was competing directly with their Japanese counterparts for a very lucrative contract that would buoy the finances of whatever company got it for at least the next two decades.

That was where Emil came in. Over the summer, while his team had been competing in races across Europe, he had been working with Wilhelm Messerschmitt’s department to come up with an engine that would meet the needs of the military. The problems with the two-cylinder boxer engines that BMW had long used were well known, it was why he had moved to an opposed four-cylinder layout. The engine that Willy’s people had designed was a departure from everything that BMW had made in the past, longitudinally mounted, liquid cooled and three-cylinders but keeping the shaft drive. Emil and a couple of his engineers had designed the resulting motorcycle to be as rugged as possible and wherever possible they kept the engineering simple as well.

This morning Emil had given his presentation to the corporate board and he had discovered that many of the company’s executives had assumed that Emil’s name alone would be enough to get BMW the contract. It proved what they knew, Emil had fought more battles with procurement over his career than he cared to think about and he doubted that they would budge at all if he tried to twist arms years after he had retired. Instead, it was probably the cache of the new motorcycle seen as being designed by the von Holz racing team more than anything else that got people’s attention in Wunsdorf.

The knowledge of why Emil was doing this was at the back of his mind the entire time. Willy said that he had two and four-cylinder engine prototypes as well, just there hadn’t been a call for that range just yet. It meant that BMW Motorrad would have an answer for Honda’s Standard motorcycle going forward.



Heuberg, Württemberg

Just when Manfred had thought that things couldn’t get worse, he had found himself having to contend with Christian Weise.

Over the prior week, the training Cadre had gone back to weapons training. Not just the G44 this time but the whole range of weapons from pistols up to Panzerfaust 500 with the goal of making them familiar enough to use them in a pinch if it ever came to that. Manfred had made the mistake of mentioning the role that his father played in the design of the AG44 and the Instructors had accused him of trying to get special treatment that way. It turned out that his Instructors had been in contact with his father and he was going to get some special treatment indeed, in the form of several days on KP duty. Then as additional punishment, he had been told that the worst Soldat in the entire Cadre, Christian, was his responsibility. All his screwups would now get him as well as Manfred punished. It wasn’t that Christian was lazy or lacked initiative, it was that he didn’t seem to know anything beyond the neighborhood where he had grown up. Apparently, he had grown tired of tightening bolts on an assembly line all day and joined the Heer because it was something different. He had been told that the Heer needed people with his skillset, knowing how to drive a lorry. Manfred had thought it was a joke at first when Christian had told him that. Then he had found out that Christian had never heard about time zones…

A bit of respite came when Manfred got a letter, he finally got a chance to open it at the end of the day, minutes before lights out. Laying on his bunk, his body aching from the day’s drills followed by hours spent in the scullery. It was from Suse Rosa and she said in it that it had taken her time to find the courage to write an apology for what had happened the last time they had seen each other. She felt horrible about how she had reacted when she learned that he had gotten something that she had wanted for years but had found it physically impossible. The irony of Suse’s words were quite profound considering what Manfred had been going through for the last several weeks. Included with the letter was a school photograph of Suse that had probably been taken just a few days earlier.

“Is that your girl” Christian said from the top bunk as he hung over the edge and was looking down. “She’s pretty.”

“I guess” Manfred replied. The Instructors must have gotten a laugh when they had reassigned the bunks so that Christian slept in the bunk over his, he was never more than a few meters away from Manfred. Ever.

With that, the lights went out and by now everyone knew that sleep was the only thing of importance. The lights could come back on at any second…

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Ninety-Four



17th September 1965

Mitte, Berlin

Zella didn’t slam the door when she came in through the door of the garage. Emil heard cursing as her date, who had been leaning in for a goodnight kiss, narrowly avoided getting hit in the face by it. Just the fact that she had taken the time to wear a dress and doll herself up a bit suggested that she had clearly hoped for better.

“Your date didn’t go well?” Emil asked mildly as Zella threw the bolt loudly. If the man on the other side of the door wasn’t aware that he had messed things up somehow before, that put an exclamation point on it. By now Emil was used to his twenty-four-year-old daughter’s moods so he was hardly fazed by her anger.

“Why are all men so presumptuous?” Zella demanded angrily.

It was something that Zella had been complaining about since she had started working at ARD over the summer. She was surrounded by men who had watched her documentaries and they had a very different interpretation than the one that she had intended. They had seen a rather attractive young woman on the TV screen, and it seemed that it had turned their minds to mush. Having Zella present, in person, had hardly helped matters. Maria had suggested that perhaps Zella ought to play it differently than giving all of them the cold shoulder and should at least try to be sociable with the more civilized among them. That apparently had not worked out. The fact that she had come in through the service entrance into the garage as opposed to the front door suggested that she was avoiding her mother as well.

“Not all men” Emil replied, “Someday you’ll meet someone who treats you halfway decent.”

Zella looked annoyed by that. “So far this year the only decent person who’s asked me out on a date was a friend’s little sister. If you would believe that.”

“Did you accept?” Emil asked, only to get a sour look from Zella.

“Not my thing” Zella snapped as she walked into the garage. “Just dinner and movie he said, with no strings attached. Then on the way home he suggested that perhaps we ought to go back to his place and have a nightcap and it was obvious what he really meant.”

As a father, Emil was rather pleased that his daughter had the reaction that she had. After the events of a couple years earlier she had sworn off entirely men for a long time, she had only started dating again recently.

“Was the movie any good?” Emil asked, changing the conversation to a hopefully safer topic.

“The latest James Bond film” Zella replied, “It was good if you like action movies, I’m not sure about the new guy they cast as Bond though. Scottish actor who I’ve never heard of before, McCallum.”

Emil had never heard that name before either. He had seen the previous Bond films and found them to be an enjoyable distraction. He kept finding himself comparing the character of Andrea Herzog, the female BND Agent who Bond had a platonic relationship with, to Kat von Mischner. This new movie was the first that had not been written and produced by the late Ian Fleming. Emil figured that Maria would probably like to have a night out on the town with him, so it would be a good excuse to see it.

“This is what you are working on?” Zella asked, looking past Emil at the motorcycle and the way she said proved that he was going to have a bit of a problem. She was instantly smitten. They had built two prototypes for the tests that were to be conducted by the Heer and had been left with a frame and engine for a third bike. On a lark, the Engineers had given it a race suspension and had tricked it out in the style of the Café Racers with an eye towards keeping it as light as possible to show the executives at BMW the possibilities for a new series. From the look on Zella’s face it was clear where she stood.



Tempelhof

Sitting in her new bedroom, Suse was annoyed by her sudden change in circumstance. Her mother had insisted that she accompany her parents and brother to Bohemia so that she could get to know her father’s family. Meeting her grandparents and cousins had been a lot of fun despite Suse’s reluctance. Her mother telling everyone that she had been in a snit since her sweetheart had left for the Military had been something that they had all instantly understood, much to Suse’s surprise. It had been what had come at the end of the summer that been most upsetting.

Her parents had told her that she was old enough to make a choice. Her father had been offered a chance of lifetime by Prince Michael of Bohemia, the chance to command a Division and help build a new Mechanized Field Army. That meant that Suse could either return to Berlin to finish her education at her Gymnasia or else stay with her family in Prague and go to school there. This had been discussed by her parents for months and plans had been made for whatever decision Suse made. The upsetting part had been that they had left her in the dark until they had sprung it on her.

Suse had opted to return to Berlin, but now weeks later she wondered how much of her decision had been driven by anger. Living in one of the guest rooms of Aunt Kathrine’s house was a radical change. Returning to school had not been what she had been expecting. Jo was gone, having progressed to University and of her classmates the only one she interacted with regularly was Ina, which was incredibly awkward.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Ninety-Five



4th October 1965

Tempelhof, Berlin

“It was Zella having her heart set on getting the motorcycle that her father’s team had designed that convinced the company to move them into production” Kiki said with considerable amusement, “Instant market research.”

“That is well and good” Berg said, she had known that Kiki preferred to talk about others for ages. “But how are you doing, personally Kristina?”

Kiki would have to say not good if she was being honest. While the medical exams that all students returning to Jena from holiday were encouraged to have had revealed nothing untoward, Kiki had still been struggling physically because of her emotional state. Stressed and exhausted all the time. She had been encouraged to speak with someone from the Psychiatric Department at the University Hospital. They had taken it at face value when she had told them that she was already seeing Doctor Holz, but that was hardly telling the complete story.

She had been fine almost the entire time she had been in the Hohenzollern Provence. Then she had messed everything up by getting drunk and making a complete fool of herself. Ever since then she had dreaded getting a phone call from Nancy Jensen saying that a photograph of her doing something stupid had emerged and it was about to get plastered across the front pages of the tabloids. Everyone in her family had been warned about how hungry those rags were for a royal scandal in Germany.

“I’ve been well” Kiki replied after a second’s hesitation.

“I can tell when you are fibbing” Berg said, “Now try that again, the truth this time.”

Kiki frowned; Berg had never allowed her hide behind pleasantries. Either something about her demeanor must have given away what she was going through, or else Berg had enquired had she was doing from one of her sources in Jena. Both those possibilities were equally likely. Berg would keep after her until Kiki told her what had happened.

“I made a mistake in Hechingen” Kiki said, “There was a festival and people kept giving me drinks and I think I made a complete fool of myself.”

“I see” Berg said, “Exactly how bad are we talking here?”

“The men in my security detail told me that I spent the night drunkenly singing and dancing in the market square.”

“Oh” Berg replied, staring at Kiki. Who knew what she was thinking, but wasn’t venturing an opinion for once?

“I get that this would be no big deal for almost anyone else and I am blowing this completely out of proportion” Kiki said, “That I lack perspective, but I’m not like most people, I cannot afford to be.”

“Then don’t make it a habit” Berg said, “It sounds like you had security on hand and were in a relatively safe environment, even if it was in public. This shouldn’t be causing you this much distress.”

“There might be photographs though” Kiki replied.

“Is that really what this is about?” Berg asked, “Losing control of yourself, which I can understand would be scary. Or is it that you finally coming to terms with something else?”

Kiki didn’t have an answer for that.



Rural Brandenburg

Time and speed were two things that Zella knew would help clear her mind. She had spent the entire morning editing video and she had stopped midafternoon when she had realized that she would rather shove a pencil through her eye than look at another second of tape. Getting on her motorcycle she had originally intended to go home, but without any thought on her part she had taken a detour or three and next thing Zella knew she was passing out of the suburbs and leaving Berlin heading north on A11.

The traffic was light, and the road was straight enough that Zella could lean on the throttle in relative safety. She was going around a hundred and forty kilometers per hour, the top speed of her R27. The new motorcycle that she had seen in her father’s garage could best that easily. Apparently, it was one of the prototypes for a new series that didn’t even have a name yet. She had begged her father for a chance to take it on the test track, but he had said no. If Zella wanted one, she could wait until next year when they went into production, if they did, and buy like everyone else. That had been a small disappointment compared to the greater disappointments that had occurred over the prior weeks leading up to that.

Seeing brake lights ahead, Zella let the speed drop off and coasted as the traffic was jammed up ahead due to construction. She took her time because one could never tell what some idiot commuter in their car might do when they saw her coming up behind them. The workers stared as she passed, mercifully she didn’t hear any of the lewd comments that she had come to expect from men lately.

As Zella neared the end of the construction zone, she was startled as another rider on a British motorcycle flew past her, the sound of a parallel twin filling the air. He had not slowed, instead opting to dart between the cars which was asking to get killed. Suicidal recklessness, she thought to herself as she accelerated with traffic. Minutes later the road crossed a bridge and into the Schorfheide Forest, Zella realized that she had never visited the vast nature preserve before.

Turning off the main road, Zella rode into a village. Parked in front of the market was the British motorcycle, the word Triumph spelled out in gleaming chrome letters on the red & white painted gas tank. The rider was leaning on it and was drinking a bottle of pop, with his helmet off Zella realized that she knew him and he was one of the last people she might have expected.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Ninety-Six



4th October 1964

Münsingen Proving Grounds, Württemberg

The 3rd of October involved a Company sized detachment of the Cadre being loaded onto lorries and driven an hour or so north-east. For Manfred an hour spent not having to worry about the Instructors or Christian had been an unbelievable luxury. Then they had arrived at Münsingen where the detachment had been further split into Platoon sized elements. The group that Manfred was in had been marched to a wooded ridge that overlooked a small valley. The rules were simple, they were not supposed to advertise their presence or leave the ridge without given express permission or being ordered to. Then finally they were told that they would need to subsist on what they had been issued before they had left Heuberg, meaning survival rations. The weather was good, however clear nights in the highlands brought their own problems.

The first night had been spent shivering in the blankets in the shelters that they had packed in on a thin foam pad that didn’t provide much comfort. Once again Manfred had been stuck with Christian, and he had discovered that keeping him out of trouble was proving to be a full-time job. The next morning, the Instructors had made them break camp and march to a different ridge.

After weeks of frenetic activity, this version of survival training after a long march over rough terrain would almost be a welcome change of pace if it hadn’t been so cold. It wasn’t really survival training from Manfred’s perspective. It was more about learning to live outside the range of the field kitchens if necessary. As Manfred had learned, don’t talk about what you know, where you learned it or who you learned it from because no one cared. Instead, he was to just do it, and if he really wanted to keep the Instructors off his back Manfred would show others as well.

Unfortunately, there was simply no way to do erbswurst and hard biscuits that were possibly older than they were correctly. If you didn’t break a tooth, then you must be doing something right. There was also instant coffee, citrus drink mix, somewhat dubious bouillon cubes or dehydrated cheese that all reacted weirdly with the chlorine tablets that went into the drinking water. Packets of salt and sugar that were always in short supply. A tin containing rye bread that was about as palatable as the hard biscuits and finally the small jar of unidentifiable jam. For breakfast there was oatmeal as well, but with sugar and salt always in short supply…

Manfred mused about the food situation as he ground the capsule of erbswurst as finely as possible with the hilt of his bayonet. In theory, the capsules that came in yellow or green varieties from the sealed package, would dissolve in boiling water, the fuel pellets for the small folding stoves they had been issued were only good for about twelve minutes, barely enough to get the water boiling.

There was considerable irony in Manfred eating this sort of “food” while sitting in a forest. He had seen evidence of small game around, but to eat it he would have to catch it and cook it. It was simply not possible with the rules he was trying to follow. The Instructors had said that if they caught a whiff of woodsmoke, the dumbass who lit it would be spending the rest of basic training on KP. And while the G44 could be used as a hunting rifle, even if the Instructors didn’t hear the report, it was well known that God have mercy on the man who couldn’t account for all the cartridges he had been issued when they returned to base.



Althüttendorf, Brandenburg

“Were you trying to get yourself killed back there?” Zella said as she shut down the engine on the R27, “Because bombing through traffic like that is a good way to do that.”

Louis Junior just looked at her with a smile, which was aggravating. Mostly because it was instantly obvious that among all the royal siblings, he and Kiki favored their father the most. It was the same sort of smile that Kiki tended to have when she thought she had someone’s number.

“I read your book Marcella” Louis said, “It was a part of what inspired me to buy this.”

“Nice to know that someone did” Zella replied. Though the book she had written about the journey she had taken had not been remaindered, the publisher had declined a follow up. It was then that a sedan full of BII Agents came tearing into the carpark, Palace Security if Zella had to guess. It seemed like the all the von Preussen family made great sport of ditching their security details. Louis had left them behind when he had driven between the cars, it was the sort of thing that Kiki used to do before that sort of arrogance had nearly gotten her killed.

“My minders are here” Louis said taking a drink of the bottle of pop, “You make documentaries, right?”

The BII Agents were giving Louis a death stare from the sedan but hadn’t gotten out.

“Right now, I spend my days editing video that other people shoot” Zella replied, “The last few days I have been trying to cut forty odd hours of footage about the paint industry into something coherent.”

“You mean to say that you are having to watch paint dry?” Louis asked, like everyone else who Zella had told, he found that funny.

“There’s a human element as well” Zella said lamely.

“If you ever decide you want to do something that is far more interesting, I’m supposed to be taking command of a gunboat out of Kiel next week” Louis said, “It’s the least I can do for one of my former dance partners.”

When they had been children Louis Junior had been one of those frequently been dragooned into being the dance partner of his older sister’s circle of friends when they had become obsessed ballroom dancing after Anya had gotten them into it. Years later, it remained a pleasant memory for everyone involved. Knowing how to dance like that had also served Louis extremely well socially ever since then.

“I would have to speak with my employers” Zella replied.

Louis just shrugged as he finished his pop and pitched the bottle into a rubbish. A minute later he started his motorcycle and pulled out of the carpark with the sedan following him. Zella was extremely glad that she didn’t have that kind of life.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Ninety-Seven



11th October 1965

Heuberg, Württemberg

The little jaunt into the forest had been almost enjoyable until the weather changed, and it started raining. There was a joke that Manfred had once seen about how spending your entire vacation in some hellish tropical pesthole was good idea, because after that regular life felt like paradise. He just couldn’t remember where he had seen it. After a week of sleeping rough, eating questionable food that there hadn’t been enough of, being cold and wet all the time, returning to the heated barracks with real beds and hot running water had been a very welcome change. Sitting in the Mess Hall Manfred noticed that he was still eating questionable food, just the nature of it had changed. He stared at his tray and tried to guess what sort of meat that was part of the main dish had started out as before it had been boiled into a grey mystery. Looking across the table, Manfred saw Christian shoveling food into his mouth hardly even tasting it and he wondered how his life had come to this.

One of the Instructors had talked briefly to Manfred shortly after they had returned, and the conversation had left him confused. He had been asked about his skills as a hunter and his membership in a Hunting Society back in Silesia. How that had played into how Manfred had conducted himself over the five days spent on the training exercise. The Instructor had asked him if he had been tempted to bend or break the rules and Manfred had honestly said that he had thought about it but obviously had not acted. The conversation had ended there, and Manfred had been left wondering why it had started in the first place.

The stack of letters and a couple of packages that had been waiting for him had been a happy occasion until Manfred had read the letters. Reading about Suse’s life as she adjusted to living at his Aunt Kat’s house had been amusing. Suse had unexpectedly found herself playing big sister to Manfred’s cousins while her parents were living in Prague. Aunt Kat had sent Manfred a package containing goodies and things that someone in his position would find useful.

Then there was the letter and large package from his grandparents. The package contained a uniform coat in his size that while it was Heer issue, it was in high demand and difficult for someone as junior as Manfred to get until everyone senior to him had gotten one. With winter coming the jacket and flak vest alone that they typically wore would hardly keep him warm. He didn’t want to think about what strings his grandfather must have pulled to get it to him, or what would happen if anyone else figured out that it had happened. The letter which his grandmother had written said that his grandfather was incredibly proud that Manfred the Younger was making something of himself and that they both missed him at the annual banquet of the Silesian Hunting Society at the Richthofen Estate that marked the start of hunting season. His grandmother also mentioned how his grandfather was wheeling and dealing as the upcoming Königswahl was only a few years away. Silesia needed to choose an Elector and Manfred’s grandfather was playing a key role in making that selection. Manfred knew his grandfather, there had been two things that had driven him his entire life. Hunting and personal ambition. There would only be one name that Graf von Richthofen would put forward and suddenly Manfred was happy that Silesia was a very far away from Heuberg.

Finally, there was the letter that Manfred had received from Christian’s mother. Frau Weise had said in it that she had heard all about him, her son had written to her that Manfred had taken him under his wing and had described him as being one of the best of the Soldaten in the Training Cadre. She said that she was profoundly grateful that he was looking out for her son. Having her thank him like that and finding out what Christian thought of him had been a shock to Manfred.



Kiel

One of the things that had come with volunteering to spend most of the two prior years in Antarctica was that Louis Junior had his choice of assignments when he returned home. He had requested to be with the Baltic Fleet and Wunsdorf had slated him to take command of a boat that had just come in from her shakedown cruise.

SK-12 was brand spanking new when Louis stepped aboard her, so new in fact that the crew hadn’t had a chance to dub her with an unofficial name yet. One of the first batch of the new fast gunboats which had been designed in keeping with the expanding mission of the KM. Fast, heavily armed and having the range to conduct patrols in places like the Mediterranean or Eastern Pacific with minimal support. The crew was mostly on liberty, so he was free to explore her to his heart’s content.

Though they were of roughly the same dimensions as the older torpedo boats and were built of more modern materials and had the latest marine diesel engines. The real difference was that the SK series armament was composed entirely of light autocannons and machineguns. Looking that the double 37mm cannons in the bow section, Louis realized that the idea of joining the Navy had come from a desire to try out similar weapons aboard the SMY Hohenzollern IV when he had been a child. There were additional 20mm cannons mounted aft and machineguns amidships.

Looking at the armored bridge, Louis smiled. She was all his and he figured that even with the additional responsibilities, it was probably going to be a lot of fun.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Ninety-Eight



23rd October 1965

Moscow, Russia

It was snowing as Gia stepped onto the platform. She had come from her house near Lake Baikal where she had spent an enjoyable summer with Alexei and working on her latest manuscript without distraction. Fyodor had been there most of the time but had been called away on some errand for Georgy that she got the impression that she was better off not knowing the details of. The nurse who helped care for Alexei and Gia’s maid had traveled with them on the days long journey back to Moscow. It seemed like every time Gia took that journey, the view changed with the villages along the Trans-Siberian Railroad swiftly becoming towns, there had even been resorts springing up along the shores of Lake Baikal that Gia had seen when she had needed to go into town.

It all played into how there seemed to be more people looking to board the trains heading east than there were walking down the platform towards the station. Years earlier Gia had been rather skeptical of her cousin’s plans for Siberia. It had always been a place of exile and death with a harsh climate even before the revolution in 1917. Georgy’s idea was to convince people that they were living in a heroic age like the Americans had a century earlier and much to Gia’s amazement, it had worked. The result was that Russian movies and television were filled with stories that followed similar themes but were clearly aimed at different people finding something in the East. A factory worker discovering freedom from the weekly trudge, a member of the former regime looking for redemption or a solder escaping boredom. All those things were covered. They depicted Siberia as a grand adventure for those brave and tough enough to seek their fortunes there, all while lamenting that it would probably be gone in a generation.

Even Gia’s story was hardly separated from all that. She owned an expansive estate in the Trans-Baikal region and while she had been comfortable before, the diamond mine that Fyodor had started with the backing of Georgy had made them suddenly one of the wealthiest couples in the world. Because it was her nature, Gia always had history at the front of her mind as she threw money at various charities and had financed the construction of several abbeys and churches in Siberia. The world at large thought of her as a living saint and she felt obligated to live up to that much to her own aggravation.

Reaching the doors to the station, Gia saw that Anya and Fyodor were there to greet them. Anya was all smiles even as Fyodor was tipping the Porter who had brought their luggage from the train. Anya still walked with a slight limp and had been accepted as an Associate Choreographer at the Moscow State Ballet with aspirations of being a Director someday. She was happy that she had found a way to remain a part of the Ballet despite her injury. What Anya didn’t need to know was that Gia had paid a considerable amount of money into their endowment to get her that position. Seeing her adopted daughter happy made it worth it to Gia though.



Kiel

The tavern outside the gates of the Naval Shipyard was used to hosting the crews of ships while they were in port. What they were not used to however was having the ship’s Officers present as well. That was because tonight, the exception being a token watch, twenty-eight of the thirty Men and Officers of SMS SK-12 were meeting here because they had a great deal to discuss before she went into active service the next morning. When they had wrapped up the dry material about what their expected mission on the Baltic and North Seas would be over the next several months, they got down to the business that everyone had really come here for. While the name in the registry was her pennant number, SK-12, every light unit had an unofficial name as well and after particularly meritorious service such a name could be made official as a reward to the crew. The question was exactly what that should be. By tradition, it was up to the crew to decide and the result was a spirited debate. As Captain, Louis acted mostly as a mediator, keeping things civil and not venturing an opinion of his own until everyone had said their piece. Louis’ XO, a Deckoffizier who didn’t mind the fact that the entire crew, including Louis himself were half his age watched with detached amusement.

One of the first suggestions had been penguin because Louis had served in Antarctica. That had been shot down immediately because the consensus was that it would be a good way to end up as the laughingstock of the Fleet. Other names were shot down in turn as being too common, several of the men were aware of more than one boat whose crews had chosen the same name of another. It was the sort of thing that had led to brawls in various seaports over the years. Finally, after considerable debate they were at an impasse. Everyone had good suggestions, but all of them had issues so there was no way that they could get a majority. That was when Louis spoke up.

“My sister had a suggestion should consider” Louis said, “And as far as I was able to learn there isn’t a Windhund in the Baltic Fleet.”

Kiki’s suggestion had really been kleiner Windhund, but Louis figured that first part wouldn’t go over well with the crew. If they did vote for that name it would be Kiki’s dog Rauchbier who would be painted on the sides of bridge of SK-12. It was inevitable that Kiki would bring the whippet around at some point and Louis had no doubt that the dog would easily win over the crew.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Ninety-Nine



1st November 1965

Heuberg, Württemberg

It had been twelve weeks that had seemed to grind on forever. Then just like that, they were over. The Instructors had hardly let up on them though, the final task had been to have the barracks cleaned for white glove inspection so that it would be ready for the next training cadre, whenever it arrived. They had gotten their orders ahead of leaving that afternoon and to Manfred’s surprise he was going to remain in Heuberg to receive advanced training in Advanced Radio Operation, Observation and Field Studies, whatever that meant. That sounded good but didn’t seem to mean a whole lot. Manfred had thought that he was going to Wunsdorf to be trained as a Platoon Leader. Instead he had been pulled aside by an Oberstlieutenant who he had seen at a distance before and told that his Uncle Stefan had recommended him for something a bit more interesting. It had turned out that the Instructors had been keeping careful track of everything that he had been doing over the course of training and they had reached some rather surprising conclusions.

It was hardly a surprise that they had noticed that he was an athlete and that he was tall, making him ill-suited for service in most armored vehicles. However, they also threw around terms that gauged his ability as a leader, how he handled adversity and if he could think for himself. Apparently, he inspired loyalty. It was a shock to him just how contrived everything that had happened to him over the course of basic training had been, but he could practically hear his father’s warnings about how the Heer really worked as he walked away from the meeting with the Oberstlieutenant. He had been told that he was being given the opportunity to be the part of something new and that it was up to him to make the most of it. It had been when the Oberstlieutenant had shook his hand that Manfred noticed that he was wearing a familiar patch on the sleeve of his uniform, a cat leaping through flames. Meaning that the Oberstlieutenant had come from the 28th Independent Fallschirmjäger Regiment of the KSK. Just what was someone like that doing recruiting among the Panzer Dragoons?

Walking into the barracks, Manfred could smell the chemicals that had been used to clean the barracks and found Christian sitting on a chair with his usual vague smile. Christian was getting sent to the Quarter Master’s Battalion of a Division in Posen which meant that he would drive a lorry as planned and that Manfred would finally be free of him. He might be staying at Heuberg, but he would still need to collect his things to move to a different barracks.

“I heard about what you got Manny” Christian said, “Or should I call you Sir.”

Though Manfred had not said anything, word had gotten around that he would be promoted to Fahnenjunker upon completing basic training. Despite him finding himself doing punishment details with the others, it had still thrown up a wall between them.

“Whatever” Manfred replied, “You ought to be leaving for Posen, right?”

“Actually, no” Christian said, “After you left an Oberfeld came through and asked if we wanted to volunteer for the same thing you got. The other guys said that the first rule of being in the Army is to never volunteer, but someone needs to watch your back.”

Inspires loyalty, Manfred thought sourly to himself, somewhat misguided in this case. Somewhere nearby someone was probably laughing their heads off at how things had panned out and not for the first time he wondered exactly what his Uncle had gotten him into.



Moscow

To my dearest and most beloved Sister

I hope that this letter finds you well and that your recently concluded journey was without incident. Heinrich is doing well, and I so look forward to seeing you and my Godson at Christmas time. Our children are too young to appreciate how they truly are cousins, but I hope they will be instant friends…

Gia read on through the letter that Asia had sent. While Asia had gotten over their breakup ages ago, she still liked to needle Gia about it in the letters that she sent. To anyone else who read it, they see nothing untoward, but Gia understood the frequent double meanings that Asia employed and could read between the lines. The relationship between them had been the first time in Gia’s life when she had first understood that matters like that were far larger than just herself and the need to keep it solely between them. She loved Fyodor just as much as she had loved Asia but had never mentioned it to him, Gia didn’t know if he would understand. As it was, he seemed to see what he wanted, that Gia had a deep familial bond with Asia. They had also realized that Alexei and Heinrich truly were cousins in that they both had the same Great Grandfather. It truly was their hope that the two boys would be like brothers growing up. Reading down the letter, a paragraph caught Gia’s eye.

I had your cousin Vicky come to me for advice, she is such a dear girl and she fears that she will never be able to find love because of her social rank. I told her that she should give it time and that there was no one way to live her life. She would just have to muddle through like everyone else. I wish that I had more offer her than that.

That was a bit of a surprise.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred



27th November 1965

Kiel

Kiki picked up the phone on the third ring. When SK-12 had returned to Kiel earlier that evening and in the hours since, he had been unable to sort his thoughts. He had realized that his older sister might be one of the few people who would understand where he was coming from.

“Ever had a monumentally bad day Kristina?” Louis asked when Kiki had asked why he had called.

“Exactly how bad” Kiki asked in reply.

“Bad” Louis said in an exasperated tone…

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

The wipers could hardly keep up with the spray that was hitting the windscreen. As SK-12 fought her way forward eastward through the storm at the best possible speed. It was fortunate that the bridge was enclosed, in the earlier torpedo boats the bridge was open and that would have made for a miserable day. They had been riding out the storm in port when they had ordered out to a trawler that was in distress and needed immediate aid. Dispatch in Kiel had not been able to give them much, just something about damage from the storm and an internal fire. It had already sounded like a mess before they had even left the harbor.

As they neared the map coordinates, there was a worrisome lack of radar contact and an orange glow on the horizon. Despite the icy rain and high seas, they only found a slick of burning fuel oil. No wreckage or any other evidence of the trawler. Louis had put all of that into his report, they must have missed the trawler’s sinking by minutes. When Louis had submitted his report of the incident the Flotilla Captain had made him revise his report, leaving his conclusions out of it. “Just keep to the facts as you found them Oberlieutenant von Preussen, nothing more” Was how he had termed it.

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

Kiki had listened silently as Louis told that story.

“That’s what happened” Louis said.

“How fast can your boat go?” Kiki asked.

“Eighty-five kilometers per hour” Louis answered, “In good conditions.”

“Was this morning what you would call good conditions?” Kiki asked.

“Hardly, but still…” Louis started to say.

“One of the first things that I was taught when I joined the Medical Service was that despite our best efforts, we will still lose people” Kiki said, cutting Louis off.

“I understand that” Louis said, “I was told something similar in the Naval Academy. To lose an entire ship’s crew though.”

“It’s bad, you are right about that” Kiki replied, “I know all about how that feels and don’t miss it.”

It was something that Kiki didn’t talk a whole lot about, not to Louis anyway. He had gotten a taste of what she must have gone through every single day in the FSR. It was hardly a wonder that she said she was happier as a student.

“Are you still thinking about bringing Rauchbier to Kiel before Christmas?” Louis asked changing the subject. Kiki wasn’t letting him off the hook though.

“I’m not telling you to get used to it” Kiki said, “But everyone gets to tear off a black tag, sooner or later. It has to be done to save lives.”

The practice of triage was well understood. Too much effort expended on a hopeless case might expend resources that were better used elsewhere. The black tag meant that a judgement had been rendered. Louis could only imagine how much having to make a call like that must have hurt for someone like Kiki. And as it had turned out, he wasn’t as different as he might have thought.



Heuberg, Württemberg

Reading the letter that had just arrived, Manfred caught up on what was going on with Suse Rosa, his quasi girlfriend. One day they would need to hash out where they really stood with each other, but until then it was a good way to learn what was going on at home. His parents had been trying to put a happy face on things whenever Manfred had contacted them. Suse’s letters told a different story.

It had turned out that Manfred’s mother was furious about what had happened. Suse had said in her letter that Kat along with Manfred’s parents had been arguing about the matter in the office that Manfred’s Aunt maintained in that house with the door closed. While Suse had not been able to hear what they had been talking about, it had been heated from the sound of it. When Manfred considered what he had been doing for the last few weeks, it was hard to figure what they were all so worked up about. Unless they knew something that he didn’t, which was always a possibility.

As for Suse, she had learned that there was a good chance that she would be starting at the Berlin Technical University to study Mechanical Engineering next year. It was odd, for Suse it was her second choice, yet Manfred was aware of a lot of people who would give anything for an opportunity like that. It was perfect for her as well and in Manfred’s thinking it would probably be a lot more exciting than what he had been doing.

Every morning there was morning roll call and announcements. That was followed by breakfast, then hours of lecture and labs involving the newest radios and encoding devices that the Heer was fielding. Finally, midday they had lunch, then came a few hours of what had been dubbed team building exercises, mostly in the form of more drill instruction but also practical lessons in woodcraft and small unit tactics. Finally, late in the afternoon they were free to do whatever they wanted. The first week, Manfred had wandered around the small town that stood outside the barracks within the Heuberg Training Area, until he had realized that there wasn’t a whole lot to do there. Since then he had just been using that time to catch up on his sleep.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred One



19th December 1965

Mitte, Berlin

The small studio that had been set up in the spacious penthouse apartment that her family was now spending the winter months in was being used for the annual Christmas greeting by the Emperor. Sometimes, it came as a bit of a surprise to Kiki that many who she attended University with saw him the same way that she did. He had been Emperor for their entire lives, so the fatherly countenance and the occasional silly joke were what they expected. This year there was emphasis on how Louis Ferdinand, along with the Chancellor had met with the American President and how he was encouraged in the hope that past animosities could be left behind.

Kiki watched as her father finished reading that short statement before wishing everyone watching peace and happiness over the Holidays and the new year in conclusion. The presentation was occurring on the Sunday before Christmas this year. What followed was the sort of thing that they did every year, letting the people know what they were up to. It was sort of like the form letters that some people sent out, except it was on television. Appearing with him this year were Freddy, Suga and Mirai. Like always Suga was a magnet for the cameras, in the past she had been concerned about her reception by the German public because of her Japanese background. As they had seen over the past few years, those concerns had not played out. Instead, most people saw her as this exotic Princess who had graciously adopted their nation as her own.

What followed was a short documentary that Kiki’s father had narrated about what the family had been up to played. It showed Freddy continuing with his Legal Apprenticeship, featured in was footage of his homelife with Suga as well. Michael in Bohemia watching from horseback as soldiers conducted a military exercise. Kiki in a white lab coat at University in Jena, mentioning that she was very close to becoming a Field Surgeon. Louis Junior on bridge of the SMS SK-12 “Windhund” as the Gunboat sped across a nearly black sea under a grey sky. Vicky and Rea sitting in lecture halls and what they were studying, also at University. Finally, Nella romping with Freddy’s dogs in Potsdam and sitting in a classroom. Overall, it seemed very positive and upbeat.

The trouble was that Kiki was aware that things were not so great for herself. While she had been progressing in the Medical Academy, it felt like she was barely holding things together. She had been doing everything that Doctor Holz had suggested, but there were times when her life just became completely unbearable. Into this was having to be there for Vicky, who had turned out to be a complicated mess as well.

It was becoming obvious that Ben wanted more from their relationship as opposed to seeing her for a weekend every few weeks. She didn’t have the first idea what to say to him. Would he accept that she wasn’t ready for more? Because she couldn’t abandon things now that she was so close to achieving her goals. It was getting very close to how it had been the first time they had broken up with them moving in very different directions.

There was also her promise to Nella to take her to the Alexander Marketplace this week. The last two years Kiki’s youngest sister had gorged herself on sweets until she had gotten sick at the Christmas Market. This year Nella had promised that she wouldn’t do that again, both Charlotte and Kiki were skeptical of such a promise. Nella had about as much impulse control as anyone expected of a six-year-old so Kiki figured that she ought to phone ahead and make sure that the nice Russian woman who had helped them in the past was stocked up on candied ginger root for when Nella inevitably made herself sick. Last year Kiki had needed to go hunt down her stall and wasn’t even sure if she would still be there.



Tempelhof, Berlin

Laying on the bed in Jo’s room with Jo sitting cross-legged at the other end, Suse was flipping through a catalog of women’s dresses knowing that none of them would look good on her. It seemed like all of them were made for women who were, not to put too fine a point on it, built like Jo. Suse had often joked that her friend looked like a Nordic Goddess, that didn’t seem so funny anymore. As she had gotten older Suse had realized that her short stature resulted in people treating her like a child, when she obviously wasn’t. Oddly, her mother didn’t treat her that way but for Suse there were other difficulties. Her mother simply had no edges and that had driven Suse insane since she had been an adolescent.

“Why don’t they make clothes for women like me?” Suse asked.

“Petite you mean?” Jo asked in reply.

“That almost sounds good” Suse said, “But you know what I mean.”

“You mean to say that you have a boyfriend of sorts who was attracted to you for something other than the mere physical” Jo said tartly.

It was something that Jo complained about often. It seemed that looking like Jo did caused her a lot of problems. Not the least of which was the fact that not only did no one take her seriously, they thought she was stupid and easy. Neither of which were true.

“Yes, he just loved my brain” Suse said, “So much so that he hasn’t bothered to write back.”

“He will” Jo replied, “Manny is sort of like a big lovable dog, loyal to a fault but a touch dim.”

“He’s smarter than you think” Suse said.

Jo just gave Suse a smirk in reply.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Two



23rd December 1965

Jena

Making the drive all the way from Berlin only to turn right around and go back to retrieve Vicky and Rauchbier made Kiki wonder if it had been worth it. While she was here, she also felt obligated to attend this week’s group session with Doctor Holz. Unfortunately for Kiki, Vicky had heard from one of her Professors that a great way for a sibling to show support was by attending some of these meetings and Kiki had asked her not to probably a bit too emphatically. That would have added a layer of complication to the whole thing, especially because Vicky knew Kiki at a level that few others did, and she had wanted to talk about what had happened so far with the minefield that was the Holiday Season.

“Nella had sworn up and down that she wouldn’t make herself sick this year” Kiki said, “That promise lasted right up until she smelled the fresh spice cakes. Once again, I found myself with a very sick little girl to care for in a public place.”

There was snickering around the group at that.

“Kristina is describing the impulsive actions of a child” Doctor Holz said, “There are many here who have engaged in behavior that was just as impulsive, except with drugs or alcohol.”

That caused the snickering to end in a hurry.

Killjoy, Kiki thought to herself.

“My relationship with my youngest sister is special” Kiki said, “Charlotte rarely indulges her, and I think she should have everything that the holidays have to offer. I told her that she needs to learn some moderation or else Charlotte will put her foot down next year.”

“And you get to be the fun mutti in the meantime” One of the others in the group said.

“I am hardly Nella’s mother” Kiki replied.

“You said it yourself when you described who Nella was” The Man said, “That you were seventeen when she was born, that’s more than old enough.”

“That is a matter of biology of course” Doctor Holz said, “There is also the question of socialization to consider. I personally consider the relationship between Kristina and her half-sister more like that which is between an aunt and niece because of their age difference. I know that people generally tend to be far less permissive with their own children. Particularly if they actually have to live with them.”

“What does any of this have to do with anything?” A different man in the group asked and he had Kiki’s most sincere gratitude.

“Human relationships” Doctor Holz said, “Something that everyone in this room has struggled with maintaining as opposed to sabotaging them. Possibly the most difficult thing for people to relearn after the kind experiences that all of you have had.”

Everyone was silent after Doctor Holz finished speaking, the only sound was that of awkward shuffling in their chairs for several minutes.



Heuberg, Württemberg

Over December, Manfred, along with the other who had volunteered to stay in Heuberg had been subjected to rigorous academic testing. Something that had come as a complete surprise. They had been told that the tests were simply pass/fail and built around determining their ability to learn. However, they had been told that if they failed, they would be sent back to their old units. While Manfred had passed the tests easily enough, it was Christian not failing that had been an astonishment. There had been plenty of other guys who had failed for whatever reason. Then an Oberst who Manfred recognized turned up and Manfred figured out long before the others just how much trouble they were in.

With the arrival of Oberst Obenhaus, Manfred knew the relatively easy time that they had been enjoying was ending abruptly. He knew that for two reasons, the first was because the Oberst’s reputation as a real hardass preceded him. It was well known that Obenhaus had come up through the ranks and had been among the last class of Shock Troops trained by Willy Rohr in the twenties before Rohr’s death in 1930. It was shortly after that when the Shock Troops had been mostly replaced by the Panzer Dragoons. Manfred had also seen Jost Schultz with Obenhaus, which meant that as soon as the Christmas festivities were behind them the outfit that had been forming in Heuberg was going to get its collective butt kicked. That likely meant that the outfit was going to become a whole lot smaller in the coming weeks as well. They were still being kept in the dark regarding what the ultimate purpose of the them was going to be. Someone had to have a vision of that and from some of things that Suse had put in her letter, Manfred had a sinking feeling that he knew who it was.

So, as Manfred stalked through the forest with the Winchester 1895 rifle chambered in 30-06 Springfield that he’d had sent from Berlin. The Cooks had asked him to procure something special for the Mess Hall on Christmas. He had also seen how they were putting in their best efforts as opposed to their usual indifference. Manfred had even gotten the Commandant of Heuberg to give him permission to do this.

For a few seconds he felt like he was back on his grandfather’s estate as he took aim before he squeezed off the first shot. It was here when the old Winchester came into its own as Manfred emptied the magazine in seconds, taking aimed shots as fast as he could work the lever. He dropped three of the boars with as the rest of the sounder bolted for the underbrush. Manfred looked with a bit of disgust as he saw that two of his shots had missed. He knew how difficult it was to have gotten a hit once the sounder had bolted, still he thought he could have done better.

As Manfred walked towards the three downed boars, he considered the effort that would be required to dress them before he could hand them over to the Cooks. It would be a whole lot of work and if the Cooks performed one of their typical atrocities, he figured that he would need to shoot them too.

“I’ve never seen anything like that” Christian said as he followed Manfred.

“You need to get out of the city more” Manfred replied.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Three



29th December 1965

Tempelhof, Berlin

Kat could hear the children decorating the house for New Year’s Eve from her office. That came mostly in the form of arguing about just how they ought to decorate. Marie’s voice was an addition this year because Kat had told her that she could stay up until midnight. Kat figured that she would join her older siblings on the couch in the parlor, falling asleep well before midnight in front of the television. Kat and Doug would wake them up a few minutes before the hour to ring in the New Year and send them off to bed. Everything seemed to be going well domestically, Kat just wished that one of her closest friends wasn’t so sore with her.

There had only been a few times in the past when Kat had seen Helene angry for this long. Oddly, it had been when she had attempted to join the Luftwaffe back at the start of the Second World War that came first to mind. It had hardly been the intention of Kat or Hans to have things play out this way with Manfred getting caught up in their project, not that it made Helene any less upset. Having her child in the Heer was only slightly better than prison in her thinking.

Kat understood how Helene felt, she had made it clear what would happen to any recruiter from the Military or Intelligence Agencies who stupidly spoke to her children, it would involve a great deal of screaming and a missing person report. However, Kat knew that eventually they would be old enough to make their own choices. Not only that, but with Tatiana constantly going out of her way to spite Kat these days, the best way to get Tatiana to do anything would be for Kat to forbid her from doing it. Marie was not old enough to be that way yet, but Kat knew that was probably coming and wasn’t looking forward to it. Malcolm still struggled in some subjects at school but had found that he had a talent for mathematics. He had become interested it the numeral languages that had been developed by Abwehr in the twenties and thirties originally as cyphers but had become the basis of computing in the areas of the economy where it had been applied. Among Kat’s current wards, Josefine had started University and Suse Rosa was in her final year at the Gymnasia. While the two of them had always been dear friends, living under the same roof had drawn them closer together. It was a welcome development for both because Kat knew that Jo and Suse complemented each other when they teamed up. Suse was also more like Gerta than she was willing to believe, that meant that Kat would need to keep a close eye on her. So, none of Kat’s children were headed down that sort of road, for now anyway.

It had been because Hans had approached Kat after the Sino-Korean War had ended with a report detailing the deficiencies of the Divisions of the 2nd Army during that campaign. One of the key findings was how real-world intelligence had been difficult to come by as the 2nd Army had advanced because the prior commander of the Army had placed too much emphasis on aerial and satellite reconnaissance after being wowed by what the Luftwaffe was offering. He had allowed the reconnaissance assets immediately under his command to atrophy. Hans wanted to reconstruct those assets starting with the reconstituted 7th Reconnaissance Battalion of the 5th Panzer Brigade, a key Portion of 4th Panzer Division. Except in Hans thinking, it would need to be along the lines of the KSK. That meant that 7th Recon would become a Jager Unit that would fill an important Intelligence function. It was something that Kat had found intriguing. Building it would take time however and not be an easy process.



Heuberg, Württemberg

The day after Christmas, the hammer came down exactly as Manfred had figured that it would. Getting woken well before dawn to crawl though icy muck wasn’t anyone’s idea of a good time. That was their introduction to Oberstaber Jost Schultz. He had said that he was disgusted by the soft lifestyle that they had enjoyed over the previous months and that he would make real soldiers of them. Jost made it clear that in his thinking, he was doing them a favor. Word had also gotten around about Manfred being one of the hunters who had helped provide Christmas dinner along with how he had dropped three boars with five shots in seconds. He should have realized that was the sort of thing that drew the wrath of Instructors, worse of all he had seen it coming. Everyone else had not knowing as an excuse.

“Mischner!” One of Jost’s lackeys called out, “The Oberst wants to see you in his office, NOW!”

It was out of the ordinary for someone like Oberst Obenhaus to give someone like Manfred the time of day. The only exception to that was when something had gone horribly wrong, so he could hardly be blamed for not being in a hurry to get there. That he was also wearing a dirty uniform that reeked of sweat and burnt nitrocellulose did not help matters.

“Fahnenjunker von Mischner reporting as ordered Sir” Manfred said upon entering the office, with the hope that formality might spare him from the worst to come.

“At ease” Obenhaus said, “Oberstaber Schultz said you were something of a marionette but everything we’ve seen suggests that you can think for yourself.”

Manfred relaxed a bit, though he remained on guard.

“What can you tell me about your grandfather?” Obenhaus asked.

“I know that he is ambitious and is trying to angle himself as a kingmaker” Manfred said knowing that wasn’t the whole truth, the Graf was also doing his level best to make himself King. “What has he done this time?”

Obenhaus seemed amused by that.

“Not that Grandfather” Obenhaus said.

Manfred gulped. Ever since his father had sat him down and told Manfred the full truth about Otto Mischner, he had feared that this exact question would be asked.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Four



31st December 1965

Tempelhof, Berlin

Kat’s prediction about the kids falling asleep on the couch in the parlor came true around ten o’clock. Doug was able to get a few photographs of the children with the dog asleep in there. He knew that Kat adored pictures like those. That included Malcolm and Tatiana, at just shy of their fifteenth birthday they might have been past that. Evidently not. Suse and Jo who were seventeen and eighteen respectively, found it funny and helped Doug with the lighting. Hans and Helene’s daughter, Ina was reading a book with Marie’s cat on her lap. Occasionally, they heard a bit of the party that was going on downstairs as the household staff were throwing a party of their own.

The adults of the house then sat around the table in the library talking until just before midnight. Ilse and Albrecht had come back from Silesia where they had spent the Christmas Holiday. It seemed that Albrecht was rather aghast at what his father had been up to over the last several months. “I think that old vulture has really lost the plot this time” Albrecht said to Doug when he got the chance. “He thinks that he can appoint himself the Elector of Silesia.” Kat must have overheard that, but she didn’t say anything. Doug knew that Kat had some strong opinions about the Graf, how she had once taken a promotion in the Imperial Court so that he wouldn’t interfere with her brother’s marriage. Her getting elevated to be the Fürstin of Berlin might be what was driving the Graf, but one could never tell with him. Doug knew that he had always been an extremely ambitious man and was not one to let an opportunity to advance the Richthofen family pass.

There was a brittle peace between Kat, Hans, Helene, and Stefan that was holding for the moment. Doug had heard from Nizhoni earlier that night over dinner that Kat and Hans had cooked up a project and that Stefan had unknowingly gotten Manfred the Younger caught up in the middle of it. That had also been right before Stefan had been promoted and appointed to the General Staff of the 2nd Army, so he hadn’t been able to undo his mistake. Until Nizhoni had told him, Doug had not seen the big picture. He had understood that the Mischner siblings were arguing among themselves, but that was hardly out of the ordinary.

At a quarter to midnight, they went in to wake up the children. They found that they needed to wake up Suse as well after she had fallen asleep in one of the library’s armchairs. As they counted down to midnight, Doug thought about everything that had happened over the previous year. He figured that it had been a good one and his hope was that the coming year would go just as well. Next spring, they were planning a trip to Canada to visit Doug’s parents and sister, it would be the first trip like that since Kat had become the Fürstin of Berlin. That ought to make it interesting.

Doug was carrying Marie as they made their way out through the front door, lowering her gently onto her feet when they stepped onto street. At the stroke of midnight fireworks started going off all over the city and Kat stepped close to give Doug the first kiss of the new year. For a few seconds Doug completely forgot the others around him, it was just Kat and him. Then Hans popped open a bottle of Champagne, snapping Doug back to reality, and was pouring glasses that he was passing around. Helene handed one of them to Doug before taking one for herself.

Marie was looking at the glass in Doug’s hand curiously, so he caught Kat’s eye and she nodded with a slight smile on her lips. They had discussed this, how they needed to occasionally acknowledge that Marie was getting older. “You can have a sip” Doug stage whispered to Marie. And she was delighted right until Marie tasted it, then she had the expected sour look on her face.



Heuberg, Württemberg

It was Saturday morning as well as New Year’s Day now that midnight had come and gone. It was bitter cold, and it was snowing harder as Manfred made his way to the main gates. Christian had told him that Heuberg was supposedly the coldest place in Germany and as Manfred walked between the guard shacks making sure that those on making sure that those on Sentry Duty were awake, he believed it. He had been forced a few days earlier to explain how he was in no way connected to his Paternal Grandfather’s activities. That was when he found out that an extensive background check had been done on him and presumably the others who had volunteered.

That meant that Obenhaus must have known what the score was before Manfred had walked into his office, he just wanted to see if Manfred would tell him the truth. The whole thing had been a test and like so much that had been happening over the last week it was difficult to tell what was real on top of being cold, wet, and exhausted constantly. Jost had been a real nightmare. The day before New Year’s Eve the Platoon that Manfred had been assigned to had found themselves hip deep in cold water trying to get across a stream. Jost had mentioned that he had found himself in similar situations many times in Russia and had a Lieutenant who had understood that their own personal needs were often secondary to the mission. Then Jost had dropped the name of that Lieutenant, Hans Mischner. The rest of the men had looked at Manfred accusingly after that, like if Jost was punishing them for something that his father had done before he had been born.

Suddenly, Manfred did not have a whole lot of friends except for Christian. Tonight, Jost had ordered him out of the barracks and told him to keep those on sentry duty awake because he would be punished if Jost caught any of them sleeping. As Manfred kicked the side of the guard shack to awaken the Soldat inside he knew two things. The first was that he would probably be persona non grata in the Mess Hall, the other was that he had been told that the Noncommissioned Officers were playing similar games with all the Fahnenjunkers.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Five



3rd January 1966

Near Jassel, Poland

Having put the snowplow blade on the Hanomag tractor, Olli was clearing the road that led to the highway that led into Jassel. His neighbors waved as he passed, and he could see that their farm was an unbroken snowfield. When he came back this way he would ask if they needed the driveway cleared between the road and their house. Olli was perfectly happy to do it and he knew that having the goodwill of his neighbors would be something that would always pay off down the line.

Things might have been quiet this time of the year out on the farms in the countryside, but Olli was discovering that things were taking a worrisome turn in the cities as the war of words between the Galician Region and Warsaw had erupted into open violence on several occasions. When the Emperor had given his Christmas address it had not been comforting this year. Olli simply knew too much about what was going on behind the scenes and most troubling of all was that Olli’s old friend, Erwin Bachmann, had taken something that Olli had said to him to whole heart. That a movement needed to come from the ground up with a broad base of support.

A few days before Christmas Bachmann had personally thanked Olli for giving him that advice even though he had not been prepared to hear it at the time. Not only was that dangerous because it seemed like Warsaw had people everywhere these days, but Olli suspected that it was probably something that Bachmann only paid lip service to. The former Generallieutenant did best when he had someone from the outside paying the bills, and inevitably that someone had an agenda that extended far beyond Poland. Olli had heard that it was Slovakian interests who were backing Bachmann this time. If they were, it was for the most cynical of reasons. A plebiscite in the Galician region to separate from Poland and forming a State within the German Empire would establish the precedent for the Slovakians to have a plebiscite of their own, to leave the Empire entirely.

What Bachmann did not seem to understand was that he was roiling up a situation in Southern Poland that would bring the military straight to their door if things got much worse. It simply didn’t matter if it were the respective Polish or German Armies, either of those would bring ruin upon the people of this region and further inflame an already bad situation.



Washington D.C.

The new year was already off to a rocky start. It was an election year and William Stoughton; the Speaker of the House of Representatives was preparing to make himself a real thorn in Nelson Rockefeller’s side. It wasn’t personal with Speaker Stoughton, it was business. An everyone knew that when Big Bill came to your door demanding a pound of flesh, he a knife and a scale with him. It was up to you what got paid, because he didn’t give a shit where it came from so long as he got his cut. And if you lacked the wherewithal to make the cut yourself, he would cheerfully make it for you.

It was with that in mind that Nelson had the Speaker briefed about his latest phone conversation with Kaiser Louis Ferdinand. There was no percentage in it for Stoughton. There was little that he could take back to his Congressional District in Massachusetts. Though Nelson might have though that being able to tell his constituents that they were a bit less likely to be incinerated might be a good thing. Still, because Stoughton was third in line for the Presidency, he needed to be briefed on Foreign Policy. Nelson observed with a bit of delight because he could tell that the Speaker was bored to tears.

It did not help that the Kaiser wasn’t an overly exciting man. He wasn’t a loose cannon like his grandfather or a womanizer like his father. He had talked about Classical Music and the Arts with Nelson when they had met over the summer. It was easy to forget that he was the largely ceremonial leader of an Empire that had an antagonistic relationship with the United States since the Des Moines incident decades earlier. When Nelson had talked to the Kaiser a couple hours before, Louis Ferdinand had said that antagonism was a luxury that they could no longer afford.

Then the subject changed to the actions of Louis’ oldest daughter. While Louis Ferdinand had been meeting with Nelson in Potsdam, the Princess Royal had been entertaining executives from mostly American and Japanese corporations. Letting them stay in a real castle and enjoy the rustic charms of Southern Germany at their leisure. It was done to persuade them to locate facilities in the Principality that Kristina was the ruler of. Speaker Stoughton laughed at that.

“Just what is so funny” Nelson asked.

“Because that girl would get herself thrown in prison doing that in this country” Stoughton replied, “The advantage of being a Princess in a country that still has Kings, Dukes, High Muck-a-Mucks, or whatever. Who arrests the Princess for violating the Hatch Act?”

“I don’t think that the Germans have High Muck-a-Muck as a title” Nelson said, “And I don’t know if conflict of interest laws apply in a case like that, even in this country.”

“If one of your girls was doing something like that, you had better believe that I would be making hay over it” Stoughton said.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Six



6th January 1966

Mitte, Berlin

“I am sorry to tell you that there will be no documentary about your boat” Zella said when she got Louis Junior on the phone, “For the time being anyway, my employers will not approve the funding.”

It was strange, Zella didn’t work for the BT with Bart as her supervisor anymore, but she still found herself having to leap the same sorts of hurdles. She was finding that still paying dues was taxing her patience like nothing else.

“You are not missing much” Louis said, “With the harbor iced up this winter we had to take the Windhund out of the water and put her in storage. I’m staying in the Bachelor Officer’s Quarters in Kiel while the crew is aboard the St. Louis.”

“St. Louis?” Zella asked.

“She is an old Ocean Liner that is now an accommodation ship in the harbor that serves as Winter Quarters for the enlisted men” Louis replied, “She smells so badly of dirty laundry and unwashed bodies during the winter that it is said that even the pigs they keep on the deck complain.”

“I see” Zella said, “And what’s this about the Windhund being out of the water? She is what, thirty or forty meters long?”

“Thirty-six meters” Louis replied, “And that is rather small, which is why she is a boat rather than a ship.”

“As unpleasant as you make that sound, it is still better than where ARD wants me to go next” Zella said, “They want me to make a documentary about dairy farming in Silesia and Poland over the next few months, blessed are cheesemakers and all that bullshit.”

“After a few months filming that, you will be an expert on bullshit” Louis replied, “Won’t you?”

“That’s really funny” Zella replied, “I didn’t have to call to tell you what was going on.”

“Perhaps” Louis said, “But that wasn’t why you called.”

Zella waited for Louis to tell her what he was getting at.

“Kiki and Rauchbier” Louis said, “How that went.”

“Kiki told me that it went well” Zella replied, “That your crew loved Rauchbier.”

“She would say that” Louis said, “But that is hardly a complete version of what happened. What she probably left out is that Rauchbier kept going after rats on the pier and every time he caught one, the crew cheered him on while Kiki just looked embarrassed as she had to deal with another dead rat. I told her to kick them off the pier, there is always something around looking for an easy snack.”

“You know how she is though” Zella said, “Kiki wants everything to be perfect in a world that is far from that.”

“Perhaps if she spoke up when she was uncomfortable then it would be easier for her” Louis said.

“That will never happen” Zella replied, “I know that she analyzes everything to death and her internal dialog is always going a thousand kilometers a second, she doesn’t just let anyone in. Not easily anyway.”

“She is one of the most guarded people I know” Louis said, “That cannot be healthy.”

“What she is doing is working for her” Zella said, hoping that what she had just said was true.



Tempelhof, Berlin

The letter from Manfred did arrive. Unfortunately, Kat got to it first and while she didn’t open it, she did keep it from Suse until after they had a conversation. The sort of conversation that Suse would rather face a public flogging than have.

“Sooner or later he is going to come visit you here Suse” Kat said, “And there are a few things you need to understand before that happens.”

“You don’t need to have that sort of talk with me” Suse replied, “I know the rules of this house, no boys above the parlor floor and hands will remain in plain sight at all times.”

“What about when you are not here?” Kat asked mildly, “Have you given any thought to that?”

Suse gave Kat a blank stare. The truth was that she had not considered that.

“I know that you try to be sensible” Kat said, “However, you can be just as impulsive as your mother at times.”

“Meaning what?” Suse asked angrily.

Comparisons to her mother grated on her like few other things.

“It means that you are very likely to give a boyfriend a goodnight kiss and by the time you start thinking clearly again, you will be crawling out of his bed and trying to figure out what happened to your clothes” Kat said, not reacting to Suse’s anger.

“I would never…” Suse started to say as she felt her cheeks start to flush.

“You don’t think that you would” Kat said, “The problem is that I am concerned that your brain might switch off and no thought would be involved.”

“Not when it comes to something as serious as… that” Suse said awkwardly.

“When it comes to fucking you are just another hormonal teenager” Kat said, “And the influence of your mother on top of it. You can see why I am concerned.”

Suse knew that her face must be turning a shade of crimson. She recalled that when she had been twelve, she had heard a classmate describe sex as sticking your finger up someone else’s nose and it wasn’t snot that dripped out afterwards. She had stupidly repeated that joke to her mother and had gotten a vivid lecture about all the ways that was correct and incorrect. It was completely mortifying when Suse had realized that it was her nose in question. That had put her off for a long time.

“Can I have the letter?” Suse asked.

“Yes” Kat said handing her the letter, “But understand that I want you thinking about these things before they become an issue. You are involved with my nephew, so just think of how Helene and Gerta will react if things go wrong.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Seven



14th January 1966

Mitte, Berlin

It was Friday night and Zella was at home, sitting on the couch and watching a television show that was making her wonder if this was what rock bottom looked like. She might have checked the listings in one of the newspapers to see if any of the bands she knew were playing. That would require getting up from the couch after an exhausting and frustrating week. She knew that she should probably get up and change the channel or turn it off considering how what she had been watching had ended and something strange had come on, but she was reluctant to get off the couch. Perhaps Kiki was on to something in that she refused to have a television at her place in Jena.

The American superhero series Batman was being rebroadcast in Berlin a few days after it had aired across the Atlantic. It was both silly and surreal, a lot like if cotton candy were made into a television show. Did people in the United States find this funny or something?

ARD still had her editing video and she dreaded the thought of editing anything like what she was currently watching. She had meant what she had said to Louis Junior about dairy farms in the east being bullshit. Her employers were enthusiastic about the project though and they wanted her out in the field to make it happen. That probably had something to do with the dairy cooperative that was funding the documentary. It was in keeping with what Zella had learned involving the economics of Public Broadcasters, they preferred it if documentaries came with self-funding mechanisms. That was why they were not interested in most of Zella’s ideas, her name alone or even that of most of the people she knew were not enough to justify the cost of production.

That was also why she feared that she would find herself editing a German version of Batman. That was when the fight scene started, and the music started…

“What are you watching?” Zella heard her father ask as the word “POW!” appeared in animated letters across the screen as the Batman punched one of the Joker’s henchmen.

“A program that makes me wonder if something weird is in California’s water” Zella replied.

“Is that what this is supposed to be?” Emil asked absently as he left the room just as Bert Ward as the Robin did a cartoonish looking kick aimed at Cesar Romero’s Joker. The word “OOF!” appeared on the screen.



Albstadt, Württemberg

After weeks of training, Manfred learned that he was in the 4th Division’s 7th Reconnaissance Battalion and that detachments from it would work in concert with the other units within the Division. That included his father’s old unit and that meant that Manfred was close to getting where he had wanted to go in the first place. The issue was that the specialized training they were receiving was growing more difficult. The 7th Recon was being held to the standards of the KSK. Manfred had heard that the KSK was like their SKA predecessors in that they were said to believe that training should be harder than combat and that was becoming easy to believe. Sweat now, saves blood tomorrow taken to its fullest extreme. Added to that was the mission of the 7th Recon. They were to act as the eyes of the Division, avoiding direct engagement with the enemy and providing actionable intelligence. To that end every single man in the Battalion had been trained to be on the radio with Divisional Headquarters and to be able to call in air and artillery assets as well.

That was why it came as a bit of a surprise when training ended abruptly on Friday afternoon and Jost ordered Manfred’s Platoon onto lorries so that they could go into Albstadt. He said that because of all their hard work lately, they deserved a reward. Naturally, everyone suspected that Jost was putting one over on them right up until the lorries pulled into the carpark in Albstadt. It was then that they all learned that they were going to the double feature that was playing at the local cinema. The first film was a screwball comedy staring Dean Martin, Jack Lemmon, and Jerry Lewis about a weekend in Atlantic City that goes horribly wrong. The second was the theatrical rerelease of Ingmar Burgmann’s The Seventh Seal.

Afterwards they went to the local eatery/tavern where they were told that they could have one entrée and a glass of beer. It seemed that the Platoon had money set aside for entertainment, because they were nearing the end of specialty training, they needed to use some of it or forfeit it all. The sour note was that Manfred had ended up seated at the same table as Jost. Christian being loyal to a fault had joined them.

As they waited for their food, Manfred was reading the latest letter from Suse Rosa. It seemed that Fürstin Katherine had taken her to task about the possibility that when Manfred came back to Berlin something might happen between them and they needed to head off the consequences. It was a radical notion. Not because of the possibility of the action in question but because Manfred wasn’t sure who scared him more, his Aunt Katherine or Suse’s father. He was hardly paying attention to the conversations at the other tables when he heard Jost mutter something.

“Excuse me, Oberstaber?” Manfred asked.

“They all preferred that first film” Jost said with a slight grin, “It wasn’t the one I wanted them to see.”

Manfred realized, not for the first time, that Jost was an extremely odd man.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Eight



2nd February 1966

Mitte, Berlin

It had been twenty-seven years since that awful day, as Kat was occasionally reminded by the ringing in one of her ears. Her Social Secretary had been inundated with requests for interviews which happened every single year. Like if she would have anything new to offer. There had been books and movies about the events surrounding the Reichstag bombing. Why should Kat have to answer questions asked by people too lazy to go to the library? She absolutely hated to think about what would be in store for her in three years. Instead, Kat was with Klaus Voll doing something that she felt was a far more enjoyable task than dwelling on what Kat personally regarded as her worst professional failure, one where hundreds died. It was also in a location where no one would think to look for Kat, the studio that had Voll worked out of for the last two decades.

“This is just amazing” Voll said as he looked at Suse’s hair. Unlike Gerta, Suse had been born without the wide curls and as far as Kat knew it had never been cut. Voll had asked to see it worn down, which was something that Suse seldom did. The result was a cascade of blond hair that fell to her waist.

“It’s plain” Suse said, as if that described far more than just her hair.

“I disagree with you love” Voll said standing behind Suse and looking at her reflections in the three mirrors, “There is nothing about you that is plain. Your eyes are particularly striking, such an extraordinary shade of blue.”

Suse smiled at the compliment.

This was exactly why Kat had brought Suse to Voll ahead of her birthday at the end of the month. The Auteur was extremely good at what he did and that included making the women he worked with feel like they were perfect when he finished. He had spoken with Kat the day before about the things that troubled Suse regarding her appearance. She had told him about how Suse had been subjected to teasing by her more popular classmates about her small stature and sharp features, they had thought it was funny to say that Suse was something other than human. The way that those same features caused most adults to treat Suse like a child didn’t help matters. Voll was treating Suse like if she was a young woman who was able to make her own decisions. Kat also felt that her goddaughter needed a great deal of help in this regard because she had spent most of the first two decades of her life as a tomboy with the ambition of commanding a Panzer.

“Katherine said that you have a boyfriend” Voll said, “They probably keep him awake at night.”

“Manny is a boy and he is my friend” Suse replied, “I’m not sure if he is more than that, it’s weird.”

“Not weird, love. Never say that” Voll said as his assistant started getting Suse’s measurements. “Say that it is complicated. It makes you so much more interesting.”

Kat had watched Voll at work for years with herself and the other girls who had come of age under her supervision. The sort of needless drama that teenagers engaged in while they were still trying to figure out life seldom surprised him.

“Complicated and interesting?” Suse asked, clearly amused by that.

“Yes” Voll said, “It helps you be mysterious, if you can cultivate that then the boys will find you irresistible.”

Suse blushed when he mentioned boys finding her irresistible. The young men who she interacted with generally treated Suse like if she were invisible, especially when she was in the presence of Jo or Ina, both of whom were far more conventionally attractive than Suse was.

“Now if you will excuse me for a moment Suse Rosa, my assistants will finish here while I have a word with your Auntie” Voll said, “We won’t be more than a few steps away.”

Stepping aside, Kat saw Voll’s whole demeanor change. In the past he always went out of his way to present himself as flamboyant and nonthreatening. However, Kat knew about Voll’s past, how he had spent a decade in the Heer as an Officer and had led an Infantry Company in Spain. The way he was presenting himself now was probably the way he had then.

“If this is about the payment” Kat said.

Voll gave her an annoyed look.

“I know that your money is good, it’s about your friends in the Berlin Police going on another of their queer hunts” Voll said, “People close to me are getting targeted.”

“Just what do you expect me to do?” Kat asked. This seemed like a non sequitur.

“You are the Fürstin of Berlin, Katherine” Voll replied, “I told some friends that I would talk to you.”

“It is a figurehead position” Kat said, “The Governing Mayor and the Red Hall hold the real power.”

“And everyone knows who holds their leash” Voll replied.

It was obvious that Voll had thought about what he was going to say when he got the chance. Kat also felt that she owed Voll a great deal after all the uncritical advice he had given and discretion he had shown over the prior years.

“I’ll have to see what I can do” Kat said with an exasperated sigh.