Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread II

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Thirty-Seven


22nd June 1955

Berlin

The week after Anne’s twenty-sixth birthday had been both wonderful and exhausting. Her novel, Daughter of the Stone Forest, had been approved for publication and was going to print. The story was odd, a fantasy that had been inspired by a museum exhibit about Neolithic Europe she had seen and while under the influence of hashish. Judita had hashish proscribed to her by Doctor Brandt as a means to help her control her epilepsy but she had been reluctant to try it on her own. Anne and Asia had tried the drug with her, for moral support. They had spent the rest of the afternoon listening to records, and that was when Anne had started telling Asia and Judita about the story that was just rattling around in her head.

Later Anne had started typing up the outline of what would become the manuscript. Trying to get as much of it down as she could as she before she forgot it. It was totally unlike anything else that Anne had written before. Normally, she had tried to write realistic stories, even going for semi-autobiographical. Instead, she had written nearly a hundred thousand words about what she imagined the life of a woman living in what would one day be Pomerania would have been like. A woman whose life gets upended when a brain injury causes her to have visions of an impossible future. It had included details like magical realism and what was perceived as the actions of powers beyond mere mortals. While Anne had found it all a bit out there, the publisher had loved it.

Today, she had opened a package and saw an advanced copy of her novel. It was everything that she had ever wanted.


Peenemünde

“Try it again Kapitänleutnant” Albrecht heard the Director say through his headphones as he wondered for what must have been the thousandth time what the point of all this was. “See if you can best your previous time.”

He was working on a simple puzzle, or at least it would have been simple under other circumstances. Flipping three-way switches to get the right sequence of lights between red, green and amber. The bottom row had to match the top. The difficulty was that he was doing it while sitting in a contraption that was spinning around on more than one axis, and any time he shifted his weight it caused the spinning change in a random manner. He had also felt in his ears that the room had been depressurized, so that the air he was breathing was very thin. The first time that Albrecht had tried this he had been violently ill, so had everyone else who had tried it. Unlike a couple of the others, Albrecht had been able to adapt.

According the Program Director, Project Atgeir was on schedule. Increasingly, Albrecht saw it almost as a nuisance. It had taken him away from the pursuit of that British bomber that no one had been able to successfully intercept yet. He had been informed that he was the second alternate in the first launch. Meaning that it if the first pilot got scratched followed by the second, it would be Albrecht’s turn. He didn’t need to be told that the odds of that happening were next to nil. Still, he had needed to proceed as if he was first pilot. That included training lot what he was doing now and a lot of tests, both medical and psychological. Speaking of which…

“Kapitänleutnant von Richthofen” Albrecht heard the voice of one of the Psychologists say through the headphones. “You remember how word association works?”

“How could I forget?” Albrecht asked in reply only to get a long pause. “Proceed” He said with a bit of annoyance.

“Red” Came over the headphone.

“Amber” Albrecht replied. Let them chew on that one, he thought to himself. He was supposed to answer the questions with no thought, just to answer as quickly as possible.

“Dog?”

“Hydrant”

“Sky?”

“Rocket”

“Dragon?”

“Pops”

“Love?”

“Ilse” As soon as Albrecht said that he knew he’d made a mistake. He could hear the scribbling of the pen on paper over the intercom. His love life, or lack thereof, was none of their business.

“That will be all for now Kapitänleutnant” The Psychologist said, “Continue with the exercise.”

With that the pattern of lights abruptly changed and Albrecht started flipping the switches as rapidly as he could. It took a minute, but he got the pattern right and the spinning stopped.

“The exercise is over Kapitänleutnant” The Director said.

Albrecht sat there for a minute, his inner ears taking a minute to catch up with the lack of motion. He knew that this wasn’t a case of pass/fail. It wasn’t even a test. The idea was to create a trying situation where he had a task to complete with emotional and physical distractions. Knowing what the purpose was didn’t make it any less aggravating.

“You had better not have puked in there” Albrecht heard a voice say as the door to the airlock swung open.

Hauptmann Dunst, the golden boy of the Luftwaffe and slated to be the first man in space.

“You’re just mad because I always hog the biggest bits” Albrecht replied.

Dunst flipped Albrecht an obscene gesture as he climbed into the simulator. With nothing else to do, Albrecht closed the door and waited for the pressure to equalize with the outside world.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Thirty-Eight


4th July 1955

Berlin

“If only my Doctor looked like Doctor Brauer there” Frau Nagler said as the credits rolled at the end of the show, “A very handsome young man.”

“Young?” Kiki asked, “He’s what, forty?”

“That’s young to me dear” Frau Nagler replied.

They were watching a medical drama set in the Casualty Department and Wards of the very hospital that they were sitting in. The fictional Doctor Brauer was an Emergency Surgeon who gave everything to his career. It was noticeable to Kiki that the character was a complete wreck in every respect that didn’t involve being a Surgeon. Frau Nagler didn’t care about that though. The dramatic music, the feeling of excitement and certainty that only a writer could come up with and an actor portray were all she cared about. From what Kiki had seen from around the hospital in the short time she had been volunteering, Doctors frequently had to make educated guesses and run tests to figure out what was going on without doing further harm to the patient. It was a process that often took hours or even days and would have made for terrible television.

“That is what you want to be Kiki?” Frau Nagler asked, “A Surgeon?”

“Eventually” Kiki replied, “I just want to find a way to help.”

“That is really wonderful” Frau Nagler said, “When I was your age, we simply were not given so many options. You truly are blessed.”

With that, the Evening News came on and the lead story was about the peace talks that Kiki’s father was trying to arrange. There Louis Ferdinand was with Freddy at his right hand as they greeted the Turkish President as he got off an airplane.

“Speaking of handsome young men” Frau Nagler said, “Prince Friedrich is closer to your age.”

Kiki almost voiced her disgust at that. The brother with a fat head who called her Whippet all the time was Princess Kristina’s problem, here she was just Kiki von Fischer.

“He’s not my type” Kiki replied and left it at that. If Kiki was being entirely honest, she didn’t have the first clue if she even had a type. She just knew that every boy she met her own age were either bores or they talked endlessly about things that she had no interest in. It got even worse if they knew who she was. That was when the inane questions started.

“His father though is an odd duck, good Emperor though. For all our sakes I hope he lives to a ripe old age” Frau Nagler said, “I remember what happened to Friedrich, his great grandfather, the poor man. He died after only a few months and his son was never quite right for the job. The world would be a very different place today if he had lived.”

Kiki found it a bit amusing that Frau Nagler called her father an odd duck. It was as good a way to describe him as any. A newspaper editorial cartoon had once depicted him as a heron, but that didn’t seem to fit quite right. Kiki had to take Frau Nagler’s word about her family history. She knew that she could look it up easily, but Kiki also knew that the history books were not always the most reliable sources of information. Kiki’s mother remembered Wilhelm the 2nd as a sad old man defeated by time, the history books had said something else entirely.

The next story came on the news, this one detailing how the massive construction site in Tempelhof was snarling regional traffic.

“If you could change the channel please” Frau Nagler said, “There must be something better on.”

Kiki wasn’t inclined to disagree.

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

When Nancy arrived home, she found that a note had been dropped in the mailbox of the house. It clearly had not come through the mail, instead it was a plain white envelop with her name written on it. Nancy recognized the handwriting as belonging to someone who had been a friend at the Vienna Embassy when she had still worked with the State Department. It warned Nancy that she should be advised that entering any properties of the United States Government including Embassies and Consulates would be unwise. While no one knew what was going to happen if Nancy did that, the powers that be in State were not people she should trust to act in good faith. While she had not actually broken any laws someone very high up was angry with her, someone who no one dared to cross. Kat had said that when she learned what Nancy was doing, she had feared that something like this might happen.

Looking out her bedroom window. She saw the street out front, the leaves on the trees and a woman walking a dog. It could have been a side street in any city that Nancy had ever lived in, but there was something unique about it. She liked the place that she had ended up. At the same time the thought kept rolling through her head was an observation that Asia had made, the relationship that she had with the country of her birth was like an emotionally abusive spouse after a nasty breakup. They had done everything they could to force Nancy out. Now that she was gone, they were still making things difficult because of hard feelings.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Thirty-Nine


11th July 1955

In Transit, North of Bremen

Kiki knew that at that same time she should have been at the hospital volunteering. Oddly, because she had been spending time in the hospital along with the efforts of some of the others the entire Troop was being rewarded with a trip to the seaside. It seemed that they had far exceeded the number of hours that they were supposed to do during the just finished term. It made them look good and it made the Troop Leader look good.

“Don’t look so surprised” Zella said, “Kat has always known how to get people to do the things she wants by having it be what they think they want.”

Kiki fell silent after that, listening to Zella and Aurora talk to each other. She didn’t want to contribute to the conversation because she knew that she would start complaining. No one wanted to listen to that, particularly because they were supposed to be escaping from their lives for a few days. Kiki was left questioning the reality that she really that easy to manipulate.

“What do you want to do for your birthday this year?” Zella asked. It took a few seconds for Kiki to realize that she was talking to her.

“I had nothing planned” Kiki replied, “The whole birthday in July thing was for public consumption and I’m no longer considered a public figure.”

Zella and Aurora just laughed at that. Few in the Press had gotten the idea that Kiki was to be left alone. So far, no one had discovered that she was volunteering in the hospital because of some clever shifting of her around. Strangely, Kiki felt a bit of guilt that she would be out of town for a few weeks and would not be in the hospital despite the patients encouraging her to go.

“How we celebrated Kiki’s birthday in December was loads of fun” Aurora said, “She is right about July being so much empty frippery.”

“Roasting marshmallows?” Zella asked, “Not to mention when we got into trouble for stealing that stuff and making a mess.”

Aurora didn’t respond to that. She had very seldom caused trouble in her life and in this instance, she didn’t regret it, not for a second. Zella on the other hand was constantly getting in trouble for something, she saw that as just one more time that she had gotten caught.

“We’ll do that again” Kiki said, “Except on the beach and it will still be loads of fun and there will others too. A formal party wouldn’t be.”


Fort Meade

Parker had learned his lesson, keep two sets of manuals. One for the men to have access to, the other he kept locked in the drawer of his desk. If the Base Commander or any other Brass came through on an inspection, the one that he kept locked up would be the one they could look at. If anyone asked, he was to tell them the truth. Anyone who had been around long enough to get promoted knew what the score was. Parker could have a complete set of manuals, or he could give the men in his Squad complete access, but he couldn’t do both. It was the same reason why in the motor pool many of the Noncommissioned Officers refused to let the Enlisted even consider using whatever tool kits they had. From an organizational standpoint it was atrocious, but it was just how things were done.

Jonny and some of the other Sergeants joked about what they had seen in Mexico. That other Armies in the world did things differently. How the German Army was devastated because the taking of Mexico City had occurred twenty-three minutes forty-one seconds behind schedule. Jonny had said that he had watched once as their mechanics had worked on the engine of one of the assault guns that was supposedly the most common type of armored vehicle in the German Army. He said it was like watching surgery except it was diesel engine and transmission, not a tool or part out of place. The other thing he had seen was that the French Tank crews had figured out how to use the heat from the engines of their tanks to cook food. Parker suspected that Jonny had been pulling his leg with that last one.

As Parker got further into the swing of things, life did get easier. He still had his father and few of the Officers on Base pressuring him to accept the billet for Officer Candidate School. Jonny had told him that if he did that, they would probably send him to Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Jonny had not elaborated but he said that would be a stupid move and not just because their posting was a CIA cover. If he still wanted to go down that road, he should hold out until he got a better offer. To top it off, their involvement in the Silk Road Rally had been nixed this year. For some reason both the CIA and, more worrisome, Ford were keeping their people close to home.

At the moment, everywhere outside the base felt heavy, like the air right before a lightening storm. While nothing had happened yet, they were all holding their breath. Jonny had reacted with his usual bravado when Parker had talked with him about it. “What’s the matter Parker?” Jonny had said, “Afraid of being a real soldier?” Parker didn’t mention that he would have to be insane not to be, he had asked about whether or not as being soldiers assigned to the motor pool they would be on the front lines. Jonny had just laughed at that before he explained to Parker what the score was. Jonny had come from 10th Mountain and Parker was regarded as Airborne because he had done jump training with the CIA. If everything went to shit, they should expect to immediately be reassigned to Studies and Observations Group which had recently been moved to Fort Drum, New York. That was when it occurred to Parker that Jonny had been asking the same questions months before he had.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Forty


15th July 1955

Langeoog Island

Kat was watching the girls on the beach from the back porch of her house as they celebrated Kiki’s “birthday” by roasting marshmallows and making s’mores, something that Nancy had introduced them to. It was nice to see them acting their age as opposed to being in such a rush to grow up. Between her having a definitive date for her service to end and Leni, who certainly deserved to be happy, getting married. Like the girls Kat had been a rush as well and lately she had learned that she had gotten a vast number of things wrong. Kat had run into one of her teachers in the market and she had gone on at length about how it was such a reward to see everything that Kat had made of herself. The teacher’s memory of things had been shockingly different from Kat’s. Her teachers as a group had been doing everything that they could for her in the Realschule that she had been attending that had been the only real option in her neighborhood. Later, Kat had been one of a handful of students who they had gotten into University preparatory classes in hopes that they might have a better life.

At the time Kat had thought that they were trying to force her out. Standing there in the market Kat had realized that for years she had resented people who had tried to give her a chance at life, she had just been too hurt and despondent to care. She had confused their concern with condescension. Kat was left wondering what else she had gotten wrong in her life. Worse, she had felt the burning at the back of her throat and the coppery taste in her mouth that suggested that the ulcer was back the entire time she’d had that conversation. Taking the girls to the islands had seemed like an easy way to take a break without actually taking a break.

She had talked with Doctor Holz about this, he had felt that it was good that she was finally examining her life. It was something that was far overdue. He had then scheduled her to have her stomach examined and a more general health check so that they could take care of the ulcer before it became a problem again. As soon as she got back from this Scouting trip, she had that to go to and it was something that she wasn’t looking forward to.


Berlin

When Helene had jokingly suggested that Gia pay to put out a hit on Fyodor Volkov, she considered it a serious possibility. First had come the letters and gifts. Small trinkets that were uniquely Russian; mostly in the form of bad poetry, chocolates and vodka. Gia had written back a few times, trying to gently discourage him from trying to woo her this way, an effort that had quite the opposite effect. Eventually, Gia had written to the one person she knew she could depend on to give her the skinny on what was going on in the Czar’s inner circle. A week later Gia got the letter that Lidiya, the Czarina of Russia had written back confirming that, yes, Fyodor was sweet on her and it was cute. Worse, he had asked Georgy as the head of the Romanov family if he had permission to court Gia and Georgy, the bastard, had basically wished him luck. Gia was rather certain that they must have had a big laugh about that over drinks in Moscow. Gia knew what they called her in the Czar’s inner circle, the Ice Saint or Grand Duchess Zima. She didn’t even want to think about the sorts of jokes that went along with those names.

Then Fyodor had gone quiet for a few weeks. Gia would later learn that he had been sent to Siberia as a representative of the Czar, in a letter that had had been in a small package that had arrived at Gia’s house. Included with the letter was what Gia had thought was a piece of quartz the size of her thumb in a velvet bag. It seemed like strange gift for Fyodor to have sent her. In an effort to figure what the Russian Major was up to she had gone to the Gemology department in the University of Berlin. The Department Head had nearly had a heart attack when he had taken one look at the stone which had turned out to be an uncut diamond.

Because Kat was out of town, Gia had gone to Helene for advice. Helene, being as practical as she was, had jokingly suggested that Gia sell the stone and use the money to rid herself of the troublesome Russian suitor. Then Helene had turned around and said that considering that it was an incredibly thoughtful and valuable gift it was, perhaps she should consider going on a date with Fyodor the next time he was in Berlin. The contradiction, not to mention the whiplash, was infuriating.

It was later when Gia had been eating dinner with Anya that she regretted encouraging her ward to venture her opinions. Anya said that having a real family was an exciting prospect. Gia had told Anya not to be silly, they were a real family and Anya had disagreed. To Anya they were a good start, but to her an ideal family would consist of a mother, father and children. They were still far from that. In that moment Gia was very tempted to ask Anya what she would have done if Gia had not broken up with Asia but had thought better of it.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Forty-One


1st August 1955

Berlin

Kat really did look small when she was here like this. She had been sedated so that an endoscope could be put down her esophagus. Now she was sleeping in recovery she was looking peaceful for once, or at least Peter thought so. They also had a bit of a mystery, the Surgeon who had performed the endoscopy had said that Kat's ulcer had not been aggravated when they had looked at it.

Peter had always tried to maintain objectivity with his patients, but he had known Kat for more than half her life and had enjoyed watching her personal advancement. Sometimes it was amazing that she had ever managed to become a productive member of society. When she had been a child a criminal of some sort would have been far more likely. Her health, both mental and physical were important to him. That was why he had agreed when she had asked him to oversee the endoscopy and the treatment that followed.

Now that it was done, and they had the inconclusive results back Peter cast a slightly wider net. With a quick phone call down to the lab Peter had gotten them to run a few preliminary tests on her blood samples and considered it fortunate that it would take several days for the complete round of tests to be run. That would enable Peter to stall giving Kat any answers during that time. He could have had them rushed but felt that time to consider the next few steps was always a good thing to have with Kat von Mischner.

He had also been advised several times that letting patients know about his speculations tended to panic them. So as difficult as it was for him, Peter was letting the system confirm the answers before telling the patients. He could think of several causes of what had been going on with Kat and the odds were good that it was just heartburn brought on by her burning the candle from both ends again.

When she woke up, she would at least be happy to learn that her ulcer wasn’t acting up again and she would have come away from the experience with nothing worse than a sore throat.


6th August 1955

Nancy was walking with Kat as they entered the Charlottenburg Palace. From what Nancy had seen it was incredibly ornate and huge. Kat had said that she needed to come back sometime during daylight hours and see the gardens.

“It’s all very simple” Kat said, “The meeting will be called into order, then the will be the announcements, following that is when the new members are introduced, that is where you come in.”

“What follows that?” Nancy asked.

“You’ll get a pretty silver medal on a bow and be proclaimed a Dame of the Order of Louise” Kat replied, “Then comes the reception where we have light refreshments and plot world domination with the Illuminati.”

Nancy concealed her annoyance with Kat over that comment because she knew what her friend was going through. Earlier that week she had gone in to have an ulcer treated only to be told the she had not aggravated it again. Her Doctor had said that they would run further tests and that they would get back to her when they had answers.

Kat had responded by being flip about everything the way she did when she was worried, concealing fear behind sarcasm. Nancy could see how she looked fatigued because she was worrying constantly and had been talking to Petia in Russian about how her stomach was bothering her regardless of what the Doctors said. Aside from Douglas, Kat didn’t talk about her health with anyone else. Nancy knew the reason why she did that, anytime one of the girls had an issue, a personal matter, their health or something else, the rest of them rushed in and tried to help. They usually did more good than harm, but they would be full of suggestions and speculation. Anyone who wasn’t a total hypochondriac before would be after that.

“I understand you are going through a trying time right now” Nancy said, “But I have no idea if I am worthy of membership in the Order or have been approved by Louis Ferdinand.”

“For starters, Louis signed all the required documents a few weeks ago when your name was put forward for consideration” Kat said, “He almost never attends these things. Your work with Volkswagen and the Imperial War Museum makes you more than worthy.”

“I’m glad that you think so” Nancy replied, she had her doubts. At the back of her mind was the possibility, however remote, that even after everything that had happened someone would jump out and say that it was all a joke.

“I’m also the Dame Commander of the Order” Kat said, “Who do you think does the deep background checks on the potential new members?”

“You’ve known me for more than a decade, don’t you think that makes you somewhat biased?”

Kat just shrugged at that question. “Aside from your personal connection to some very disreputable people, there isn’t a whole lot there” She said.

“What disreputable people?” Nancy asked.

“Dietrich Schultz and his father Johann Schultz” Kat replied.

Nancy looked at Kat crossly, “Just because you don’t like Johann Schultz for something stupid that he did twenty years ago doesn’t mean that Tilo is the same as him” She said.

“That’s why you’ve not spoken to him in over a year?”

So, Kat really had conducted that investigation.

“Flensburg is way out of my way” Nancy replied only to have Kat smirk at her.

“He’s not been there in months” Kat replied, “The Sealions needed a new XO in Cuxhaven.”

That was just as far out of her way. If Nancy didn’t know that Kat hid anxiety behind a wall of smugness, she figured that she would be very angry about now.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Forty-Two


8th August 1955

Berlin

Peter remembered that when he had been taking Chemistry in University the concept of entropy had been thrown around quite a bit. The idea that it was mathematical certainty that all systems will eventually fall into disorder. He should have remembered that when Kat had come in that afternoon.

“You’ll be pleased to know that your ulcer wasn’t the cause of the issues that you have been having” Peter said, leading with the good news first.

“That isn’t exactly helpful” Kat said, not even bothering to hide her annoyance. “You mentioned that last week.”

“We did however discover a few irregularities” Peter said, “I just hope that we can discuss these matters without having you taking it badly.”

Kat just stared at Peter, he knew she hated it when people talked around things. It was something she had grown less tolerant of as she had grown older.

“The blood tests revealed that you are generally healthy, and we were able to rule out cancer or infection” Peter said, “However the level of hCG in your system is extremely elevated.”

The look on Kat’s face suggested that she knew the implications of that as soon as Peter said it and it was something that she was extremely unhappy to hear. She sat there refusing to talk to Peter for the rest of the session as he tried to get her to talk with him about what her options were. Then she went out into the lobby and waited until her husband came for her a couple hours later. Worse, because the hospital was required to report any medical issues that might affect the ability of an Officer to carry out their duties. Wunsdorf found out what was going on about the same time Kat did and it took about fifteen minutes for the news to leak to the Press…

That complicated everything.

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

“That is my older brother Henrik who I am with” Frau Nagler said as they were looking through the photo album, she looked to be ten-years old in the photograph, “He died at Gravelotte, in France I remember how sad that was.”

Frau Nagler then flipped the page, “That is my second oldest son, who was named for Henrik. He also died in France, in a different war though. Franz, my oldest never came home from South-West Africa, that’s him here.”

As Kiki listened to this and looked at the photographs, she felt a huge amount of guilt for what had happened to Frau Nagler’s family. All the men had been decimated by war and Imperial ambition.

“I’m sorry about this” Kiki said, “For everything.”

“What have you to feel sorry about?” Frau Nagler asked.

“It was my family that did this to yours” Kiki replied.

“I think that the French, British and Russians had a bit more to do with it dear” Frau Nagler said, “And it wasn’t as if any of your ancestors were acting alone, there were plenty of others who helped them along the way. No one blames a Princess for her Great-Grandfather’s mistakes, no one sane anyway.”

Kiki paused for a second, she had just given away the game. Frau Nagler just chuckled at Kiki’s reaction.

“The whole world watched you grow up Kiki” Frau Nagler said, “Except for those here with dementia it will take awhile for people to forget what you look like.”

“I thought all I needed was a different name” Kiki mumbled.

Frau Nagler just smiled at that.

“When you walked into this tomb you surprised everyone” Frau Nagler said, “Then you started telling everyone that you are going to be an Army Doctor and spend your life in the service of others, no one wanted to discourage you.”

“Medicine is its own service branch so there are no Army Doctors” Kiki said, “That simplified things during the war.”

“You knew what I meant” Frau Nagler replied, “You are a good person, even if your Grandfather and Great-Grandfather would have been better off bagging groceries.”


Washington D.C.

It was a slow fuse that had been burning for years. Every Court decision over the last year had been decided on the basis of Smith vs. Indiana. Today the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed Smith vs. Indiana with Roberts vs. Lacey that school segregation was illegal under the United States Constitution. In the following hours reports started coming of the mixed reaction across the country.

In Virginia there was a high-profile attempt to dissolve the local school district and give away the buildings to a newly formed corporation to maintain segregation. No one was fooled and that was headed straight for the Courts. That was one of the few examples of a halfway intelligent attempt to side-step the law. Mostly, it was unfocused rage that swept the country with schools and other public buildings being targeted for arson and vandalism.

As a heat wave swept across the eastern seaboard things grew more tense. Then a fire swept through a juke joint in rural South Carolina, several of the customers perished when they were trapped inside. It might not have seemed like much, accidents happened frequently in unregulated establishments like the one where the fire occurred. However, this time rumors grew wild with retelling. This time it wasn’t the pattern of tit for tat had had marked the previous decade. Like that house in South Carolina, it all went up in flames.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Forty-Three


12th August 1955

Berlin

“You will feel a bit of discomfort Ma’am” The Obstetrician said.

It was all Kat could do not to tell him to fuck off as she stared at the ceiling and tried not to think about what was going on.

Kat had sat in lobby of the office that Doctor Holz used when he was in Berlin for hours until Doug had come to collect her. By the time she had gotten home on Monday evening, word had gotten ahead of her and everyone there was overjoyed about the idea of Kat having another baby. A baby that Kat had been extremely adamant that she didn’t want until she found herself in the situation where she would have to decide whether or not to have it.

She had walked upstairs where she had made a point of slamming the bedroom door and locking it behind her. Minutes later Doug had come up to join her. Kat had listened to Doctor Holz as he had explained to her what was happening as much as she really had not wanted to. Apparently, it was unlikely that she had gotten pregnant again considering that the odds were and at her age. He thought that it might have had something to do with the anti-inflammatory drugs she had been taking for her headaches which had somehow negated the effectiveness of the IUD. Or at least that what Doctor Holz said his theory was. There was no absolutely medical research backing that up, something that Doctor Holz has mentioned. He had also said that if Kat was going to have any more children this was probably going to be her best opportunity. It was what she had talked about with Doug for several hours as they had weighed the pros and cons.

In the end, Kat had concluded ending a pregnancy was something that she couldn’t bring herself to do. She had talked with Doctor Holz in the past about how she sometimes thought about what might have been, not with any regret, but she didn’t want to have any more lost possibilities to think about when her own mind seemed intent to torture her. That was had led her to be here today. If she was going to do this then she would have to have certain things taken care of.

According to Doctor Holz this was the latest technology that they were using. Small comfort as she winced from what the Obstetrician and the Technician assisting him were doing. The Obstetrician had tools that had quite literally gone where the sun didn’t shine while the Technician had this device that the size of a large electric shaver that he was holding to her lower abdomen. That device was at the end of a cord that hooked up to a machine the size of a phone booth that smelled of hot metal. The Technician had told her what it did, but it had been a bunch of jargon that she could hardly understand. Something to do with sound waves.

“Got it” The Obstetrician said, and Kat heard the clank of metal on metal as he dropped the IUD into a stainless-steel surgical tray, from her perspective it just looked like a small tarnished silver ring. With that Kat knew that the die was cast, and she had just agreed to put her entire life on hold for… She had no idea how many more months.

“Perhaps you should show Gräfin Katherine the monitor” The Obstetrician said to the Technician.

The Technician turned the machine on it’s castors so that Kat could see a small television screen. On it was indistinct black and white image.

“I’m going to try to get you a better image Ma’am” The Technician said, “But from judging from the size, I’d say it looks like you are six to seven weeks along.”

A white blur on the screen resolved itself slightly. Kat was a bit bewildered by what she saw, it looked like a tadpole but then what had she been expecting?


Sylt Island

Jacob had been coming here for thirty years, this island that was slowly being eroded away by the North Sea. First it had been with Esther, Sarah and Nessa, then as the girls had lives of their own it had just been Jacob and Esther some years. This year Nessa had had been joined by her husband and two children and Sarah had come with her partner and son. It had been a pleasant two weeks, but the girls had needed to return home. All of them had tolerated the reality that as a Grand Admiral and the Commander in Chief of the Kaiserliche Marine Jacob was never allowed to completely leave work. He had to spend at least an hour each day keeping abreast of what was happening in the Fleet and keep track of his various interests around the globe.

In a couple of days Jacob and Esther would return to Kiel. Then their own lives would resume. However, a new project that Jacob was working on during his own time had been consuming a great deal of his thoughts of late. If Jacob had to describe what he did, he might have said the he studied patterns. Anomalies were what made things difficult and Jacob had realized that for his entire career he had been an anomaly for a lot of different reasons. Jacob had been writing his autobiography in an effort to understand that.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Forty-Four


2nd September 1955

Berlin

Doug had decided that he owed Kat a dinner and a movie after the sort of week that she’d had. Working almost entirely on the administration side of the First Foot because she was blocked from doing anything else. Lengthy discussions with the Empress in her capacity as Mistress of the keys that didn’t amount to much. Then at home, Kat had to deal with Tatiana and Malcolm excited at the prospect of a new brother or sister being on the way but that had led directly to Tat asking questions about how if it was growing in Kat’s belly then how did it get in there? That had necessitated a very careful conversation with Tat where she was told enough to get her to stop asking so many questions without telling her too much. Before they went to their dinner reservation Kat had insisted that Doug drive her to the house in Tempelhof.

It was the first time that Doug had been in the new house in weeks. In that time, it had gone from being four masonry walls to having floors, a roof and a great deal of the finish work was done. Kat was looking pensive as she looked around. Since the surprising news that she was pregnant Kat had been hit with the full range symptoms and the emotional rollercoaster that had come with it. To no one’s surprise she had been placed on light duty and forced to do something that came unnaturally to her. Delegating the more physically demanding responsibilities to the XO of the First Foot. Recently, when the Regiment had gone out for field maneuvers like they had every autumn for the last few years. She had found herself in the Division HQ with a map, a radio set and an entire camp full high-ranking Officers who were acting even stranger than usual around her.

Strangely, Kat was unhappy with Helene who had been instrumental in changing the law. Just a few years earlier Kat would have been placed on medical leave for duration of the pregnancy followed by maternity leave. Now even the Heer had to come up with a reasonable accommodation for the first six months. It was almost as if Kat had wanted them to force her out like the BII had.

“This is going to be the master bedroom” Doug said, as Kat walked to the windows and looked down into garden and the alley three floors below. It would be beautiful eventually with plants and trees, now it was just muddy expanse pockmarked with footprints. The wooden form was still around the drying concrete walkway that went out to the garage.

“It’s all bigger than I thought it would be” Kat said absently.

It was a rowhouse, one of several on this block. The basement plus five floors if the attic was included. Garden floor, parlor floor, the two floors that contained the bedrooms and then the attic space. Kat didn’t want to admit it, but the demands of her social ranking made a smaller space impractical. Then there was the Architect had told Doug that if they wanted better return on their investment having a Gräfin and her family living on this block. The people who aspired to be within her social circle would clamor to live here.

“It will be a lot nicer when we move in next month” Doug said, “Right now it is still very unfinished, the additions you insisted on delayed construction by a bit.”

That was one way to put it. The plaster that would cover the walls of this room had not been completed and they could hear the workers downstairs installing the shelves in the library. In the basement Kat had insisted that a pair of secure rooms be constructed of steel reinforced concrete. The workers had no idea what they were building but it was like the safe from the old house on a massive scale. The stairwell had been of similar construction and the exterior doors were not the sort that could easily be kicked in. The house wasn’t quite a fortress, but it would hold many unpleasant surprises if anyone was stupid enough to mess with Kat here in what had been jokingly referred to as the Tigress’ Lair.

“You know my reasons” Kat said as she stepped out of the bedroom into the stairwell. “If this is going to be our home, feeling safe is a part of it.”

“With your usual overkill” Doug said.

Kat didn’t respond, instead she was looking up the stairwell at the skylight above the fourth-floor landing. The stained glass had been sourced from a company that Kat’s Uncle Klaus had referred them to. It was the least that he could have done considering that a considerable amount of the hardware in the neighborhood had come from Klaus’ shop. Something that Kat said she had nothing to do with. While he knew he could believe that Kat had nothing to do with that. Kat’s Aunt Marcella was different. Ruthlessly leveraging her connection with her niece was perfectly in keeping with the sorts of things that she had done in the past. Keeping the family business afloat by any means she could had been her habit for decades.

“It will look nice?” Kat asked, “Once it’s done.”

“Of course” Doug replied, “Everything that we’ve always wanted even if we are getting more than we ever were expecting.”

“I was thinking that I like the name Marie” Kat said with a vague smile.

“I think that I might have a few things to say about that” Doug said.

Kat’s mood changed to annoyance as they walked down the stairs. “Don’t you dare” She said, “The last time you did that, and we ended up with twins.”

“That is not how it works Kat” Doug replied, “You said that when you did that sonar thing, they told you that they would have detected a second twin. You made a point of asking.”

“I don’t want to chance it” Kat said, “If a second baby pops out this time I am definitely filing for divorce. Having four of your rotten children is too much for any woman to put up with.”

Now Doug suspected that she was pulling his leg. “But what if it’s a boy?” He asked.

“Then he’ll teased a bit in school” Kat said matter of fact, “It would hardly be a surprise, with a name like that. He would have it coming for having the nerve to be born with that sort of physical and mental impairment.”

“You would name our son Marie?” Doug asked, “And how is being a man a disability?”

Kat just blew a raspberry at Doug in reply, she did seem to be in a good mood at the moment. That was why Doug figured that he would wait until tomorrow to tell her that he had sent a letter to his parents.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Forty-Five


4th September 1955

Berlin

Tatiana and Malcolm were excited because of the telegram that had arrived from Canada the afternoon before saying that Blackwoods were coming here in December. It was in response to the letter that Doug had sent them and had neglected to tell Kat until it was already in Canada. That was why she had sent them outside to play before she did something that she might regret later. Presently, she was in the parlor dozing away a Sunday afternoon wrapped in a blanket on the couch. The reality of her condition was that she was left fatigued constantly. While not as annoying at the backaches or morning sickness, it was still a nuisance. As tired as she felt, Kat’s mind was still racing which was keeping her awake.

The twins were thrilled that Opa and Oma Blackwood were coming to visit over the holidays this year. Aunt Emma and Uncle André were coming too with Casandra and Pierre, two cousins who they had never met. Kat knew that Margot would absolutely hate being called Oma by the twins, so she did nothing to discourage them. There were also the matters of languages and religion. Kat was agnostic, but her Aunt Marcella was… Kat was quite sure what her Aunt was. Doug and Ilse both seemed to delight in being recovering Catholics. Petia was Russian Orthodox. Nancy was still marginally Lutheran, Anne was Jewish, and Asia was Catholic because that was how she maintained a connection to the larger Polish community as opposed to any real belief. Margot would find a whole lot to hate in all of that. Around the house a mixture of German, French, Russian and English was spoken almost interchangeably. The result was a great deal of confusion for the Kindergarten Teacher who had found herself interacting Tat and Kol. Again, that would probably be something that Margot hated, especially when Tatiana switched languages in the middle of a sentence as she tended to do.

By then they would have moved into the new house and things would be a bit different. At the same time not so different. The new house was just a few kilometers from the old one, so it was a certainty that the girls from the sisterhood would be around constantly. There would also be the domestic staff to consider. To maintain the new house as well as keeping up appearances as Gräfin and an Oberst, they would need a cook and a housekeeper as well as having Petia around to manage the household. They would need to also consider that they would need to hire a nurse to help out with the baby when it arrived. Because it would be Petia who screened the applicants before Kat even spoke to them, the odds were extremely high that it would be from points east of Berlin. Later, the applicants would be put through further screening by the BND that would weed out any GRU types that might try to infiltrate Kat’s household. Kat didn’t think the last step would find much. The Russian sisters had very little love for the Russian Military and Intelligence Services, they were also quite good at sniffing out Intelligence Officers. If the GRU Agents were smart they would hope that the BND or BII got them first…

Kat thoughts were interrupted when there was a knock on the front door and she pried her eyes open. A minute later there was a second knock. She tried to get back to sleep but there was third knock. Whoever it was, they were persistent. Obnoxiously persistent. And no one else who was home seemed interested in answering the door.

She threw the blanket off and reluctantly walked towards the front door. Throwing the bolt and opening the door Kat was greeted by a young woman who was the sort of blond that came from a bottle if her eyebrows were anything to judge by and a smile that was as fake as her hair color. She was wearing the blue uniform of a Fähnrich which meant that Kat couldn’t send her packing as much as she wanted to.

“I’m not sure if this is the right place” The young woman said in a chirpy voice that put Kat’s teeth on edge.

“Right place for what?” Kat asked. The young woman looked at Kat and she clearly saw her tattered sweater and mussed hair, not to mention the dilapidated condition of the house.

“I was given an address where I was told Oberst Graf von Mischner lived” The young woman said, “Are you his wife or daughter?”

“What if I told you that I was the girl that he keeps on the side?” Kat asked. Did this girl really have no idea who she was and how was that even possible?

“There are regulations regarding conduct of Officers prohibiting that sort of thing, correct?”

“Who are you?” Kat asked in reply, “And you honestly believe that?” That was the sort of regulation that was enforced when someone really pissed off their CO.

“Sieglinde Grimmelshausen” The young woman said, “My friends call me Sigi.” She pointedly ignored the question that Kat had asked.

“You had better come in” Kat said, “Before the world eats you alive.”

“The Comandante said almost the exact same thing when he ordered me here” Sigi said as she stepped into the entry and followed Kat into the kitchen only to get a withering look from Asia who was seated at the table when she tried to introduce herself.

“You said that the Comandante ordered you to bother me” Kat said as she took a cup of tea wishing that it was coffee for what must have been the millionth time. She knew it would only be a matter of time before Doctor Nora Berg slithered back into her life. Then it would be no caffeine, too much of the wrong sorts of food and everything else that went with it. The thought of Doctor Berg and Margot Blackwood in the same place was however extremely amusing.

“He said that I was to report the Oberst von Mischner” Sigi said her voice full of naive arrogance, “I’ve been appointed to be his aide.”

With that Asia started laughing, not stopping until a look from Kat stopped her.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Forty-Six


11th September 1955

Potsdam

Kira had requested Kat’s presence immediately at the Summer Residence. There were serious security matters to discuss and other more personal matters that the Empress felt that they should touch on. It was a reminder of something that Kat had made sure of when the streets of Tempelhof had been laid out. Kaiserin-Kira-straße went right through the campus of Humboldt University and would be one of the main streets through the development, which happened to be as far as it could be from Kat’s house and still be inside project’s boundaries. Kira was happy with that and Kat didn’t have to drive on it any time she took her car anywhere.

It had turned out that she was stuck with Sigi for the next six months and that the girl was supposed to learn from her. When Kat had called the Commandant of the Berlin War Academy he had apologized that he had not warned Kat beforehand. Sigi’s family sat on the Corporate Board of Rheinmetall so accommodating her was in the interest of the OKW and the entire military by extension. It was also a major feather in Kat’s cap. Kat had told him that she was due to retire in less than two years, was also going to be required take Maternity Leave in December. So, what did she care about the Heer’s internal politics? Kat had unthinkingly made that call in front of Sigi who looked completely shell-shocked. The first shock that afternoon was that she had assumed that Oberst von Mischner was a man and she had managed to offend Gräfin Katherine von Mischner. The second was hearing the language that Kat had used to describe her. Seriously, Sigi had never heard the term fuckwit until Kat had used it to describe her. The third was that yes, her new CO was pregnant, so she could deal with it or get lost.

By then the Sisterhood was showing up for Sunday dinner and the appetizer was clearly Sieglinde Grimmelshausen. The Star Chamber had absolutely nothing on the Sisterhood when they found that they had an interloper among them who had not earned her place at the table. By the end of the evening Kat knew everything about Sigi as the girls had gotten her to divulge a lot of embarrassing personal details. They had also reduced her to a blubbering wreck, so Kat had to find a place in the house for Sigi to sleep that night as well as being a sympathetic shoulder for Sigi to cry on. Despite her efforts to appear grown up, Sigi still had a lot of maturing ahead of her and the world wasn’t always a nice place.

Now, a week later Sigi had found her place, sort of. Sleeping on the couch in the parlor didn’t agree with her and she was having to adjust to having the girls around constantly. It was Kat’s hope that today Sigi would start to learn and stop jumping at her own shadow.

“You are only to speak if spoken to” Kat said to Sigi as they entered the Western Wing of the Sanssouci Palace where Kira had her Court during the summer months and as long into the autumn as she could get away with. “You are not to stare and try to keep focused on the topic at hand. The Empress is going to want to talk about personal matters, answer her questions succinctly. Understand?”

“Yes, Ma’am” Sigi said in a small voice.

As they entered the Court, Lea was just wrapping up the briefing that she was giving the Empress. The wave of rioting and arson that had swept the South-Eastern United States over the last few days was the topic. Kat wondered about the sort of madness that would cause people to burn public buildings, schools and churches within their own community. It was difficult to make sense of it.

“Katherine” Kira said in greeting, “If I didn’t know any better, I might say that you have been avoiding me.”

Possibly because she had.

“I’ve been busy getting my family ready to move” Kat replied, “The new house is supposed to be finished before the end of the month.”

“I understand that you’ve other news as well” Kira said, “I need some happy news after what has been going on with Masha.”

That was the other reason that Kat had avoided the Empress, a week earlier her sister Maria, who Kira called the nickname Masha, had suffered a major cardiac event at her husband’s estate in Alsace. Kat knew that a heart attack like the one that Masha had suffered, while not immediately fatal, resulted in a grim prognosis. It was a glimpse of what might happen if Kat failed in her efforts to get the Empress to take care of herself. That was when Kat noticed that she had unconsciously betrayed herself by moving her right hand protectively over her belly where she knew potential life was growing.

“It is a bit too soon to make an official announcement” Kat replied as she withdrew her hand.

Then Kira leaned forward, “You can tell me Katherine” She said conspiratorially. How many times had Marcella told Kat that she was Kira’s window into the wider world? At the same time her relationship with the Empress had grown strained because of the manipulations that Kat felt were frequently not necessary.

“I’m due in late March or early April” Kat said.

“That’s wonderful” Kira replied.

“I’m hoping for a girl but with my luck it will be a boy” Kat said, “I love Malcolm, but having him pulling Tatiana’s hair, hiding her dolls and being troublesome makes me glad there’s only one of him. Two boys would be too much.”

“That changes when they're older, girls get more complicated” Kira said, “Just the other day Kristina…”

“Excuse me?” Sigi asked.

“Who is this?” Kira asked Kat, pointedly ignoring Sigi who had gone pale with fear when she realized her mistake.

“Fraulein Grimmelshausen” Kat replied, “She was recently appointed to be my aide, and she’s still learning.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Forty-Seven


22nd September 1955

Cumulusweg 5, Tempelhof, Berlin

Uncle Klaus had said that he had arranged a surprise that she would see the instant she walked up to the front of the house. Doug had parked the bus on the street so that he could see their reaction as they entered the house as a family for the first time. He had also brought his camera equipment. Meaning that it was all going to be captured for posterity. It was a good day for this, a clear autumn afternoon with sun giving the entire street a golden glow.

As Kat walked up to the stoop, she saw the newly finished bronze doorknocker that was mounted on reinforced oak front doors. Kat knew that hidden from the street on the side of the stoop was the service entrance that gave direct access to the garden floor and the kitchen. It was the doorknocker itself that was the surprise. As she got close, Kat could see that it was done in the same design as the banner that hung in the Luftwaffe exhibition hall rendered in bronze.

When Kat had walked through the house a few days earlier she had noticed that there was a very subtle theme in various corners of the house that the door knocker was the most overt part of. Cats in the form of things like stylized tigers engraved on the doorknobs or a single tile on the kitchen floor that had a feline stalking across the floor. There was another tile a couple of rows over that had a mouse, so it was actually sort of fun. The truth was that she didn’t know if she should be touched or furious about those additions to the decor.

“Wait a second” Doug said as Kat pulled out her keys. He had the tripod set up and he was pointing at the door as Tatiana and Malcolm were getting antsy from waiting, luckily Ilse was there to keep them from wandering off.

“Now” Doug said as he stepped around the camera and joined Kat on the stoop. As she opened the door with Doug beside her, she heard the click of the camera as the timer triggered the shutter.

“If you could give me second” Doug said as he went back to dismount the camera from the tripod. The twins didn’t listen as they rushed into the house only to find that the inner doors of the of the entryway were closed against them and Kat barring the way.

“Wait for your father” Kat said to them as Doug leaned the tripod against the wall of the entry.

With that Doug opened one of the inner doors and entered the foyer before he turned and got a photograph of the twins as they had their necks craned and they were looking up the stairwell that went from the garden floor up to the fourth floor. Like any other row house, it was fairly narrow, but had a great deal of depth. The one they were standing on now was the parlor floor which contained the parlor as well as the library and office so that both Kat and Doug could have a dedicated work space at home. Down stairs in the garden floor was the kitchen, pantry and the dining room which opened out into the back garden.

As Doug led the twins up to the bedrooms that were going to be theirs, for the first time in their lives Tatiana and Malcolm would be sleeping separately. They would also be on a different floor from their parents with their rooms facing the garden directly over the master bedroom. It wasn’t a worry because Tante Ilse’s room was just across the hallway. Contrary to what Doug might have believed that arrangement wasn’t an accident. Kat getting pregnant again had basically ruined those plans, but it was something she could live with.

As the children were excitedly exploring their bedrooms a door opened in the hallway and Sigi stepped out. There was a narrow staircase up to the attic that had been divided up into a collection of rooms for the live-in staff. Aunt Marcella had pointed out that this house was designed with being home to several generations of the same family in mind and being self-contained in terms of maintenance. The fact that every house on the block was identical, suggested that it would be professionals from the city and senior faculty from the nearby University campus and hospital who would live here. That would make for an interesting mix.

“I hope that you find the room to your liking” Kat said to Sigi.

“Better than sleeping on the couch at the old house” Sigi replied.

“Good” Kat said, “Have you heard from my brother?”

Sigi gulped, “The Oberst confirmed that he and his family are coming this evening for the housewarming party.”

“Good” Kat repeated.

In the time that Sigi had been Kat’s aide she had gone from one mortification to the next and had yet to get her feet back under her. At first Kat had been surprised that Sigi had not known who she was until she talked to Gerta and Helene about it. Helene had pointed out that it had been more than a decade since they had been the three furies taking Berlin by storm while being the poster-girls for the volunteer effort. Since then they had gotten married, started careers and families. Sigi would have been just a small child when they had been doing those things.

It had taken a bit of effort on Kat’s part, but she had gotten Sigi to open up. Not the embarrassing secrets that the girls had gotten her to divulge, but what Sigi really wanted, why she was doing this. A year earlier, Sigi had watched a movie about helicopter assault on Pingfang. Kat knew it well, she had several friends in the SKA who had been in on that operation. Sigi had seen how the rapid assault had saved the lives of the thousands of people who were prisoners there. Actions that had meant something, Sigi had decided that her life was empty and lacked direction, so she had signed for the War Academy with the intent of becoming a helicopter pilot. It was an ambition that Sigi still harbored though like most young women in the Academy she had found herself being pushed towards Administration and Logistics. Sigi had voiced her frustrations to the Chaplain, who once upon a time had been one of the Soldaten of the 28th Fallschirmjäger Regiment.

It had been the Chaplain who had convinced the Academy’s Comandante that Sigi should be appointed to be Kat’s aide.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Forty-Eight


28th September 1955

Rural Brandenburg near Zossen

The 140th Regiment along with the rest of 8th Panzer Dragoon Brigade was fighting as straight infantry with armor and artillery acting strictly in a in support role, with a separate chain of command. Even with radios coordination was proving difficult because for the last several years Hans had trained to have the different elements of the Division acting in concert. Fighting with one arm tied behind their backs had made for a long month as the autumn exercises had concluded. Spending an evening at Kat’s new house had been a pleasant diversion. For years Hans had heard Kat joke about days when she feels like jamming a pencil in her eye. The last few days had been like that for Hans. He knew that he was in trouble when his sister’s skewed perspective started to make sense. The worst part was that Hans recognized the tactics in question.

He was walking down the side of the road as a column of Flakpanther Kugelblitz Panzers from the 91st Air Defense Battalion went past returning to base. The Panthers had been modified to have a turret that carried a pair of radar guided 30mm autocannons in an oscillating turret. They had yet to be used in combat, but it was figured that they would make life extremely difficult for any low flying aircraft that came too close to their columns.

That was when an Iltis pulled up and stopped. Hans Recognized the familiar face in the passenger seat, Walter von Horst.

“I swear that someday you’ll be a Generaloberst and still be walking everywhere, the Soldaten will just love that” Horst said, Hans wasn’t sure if Horst was being sarcastic or not. “Get in.”

With that Hans climbed into the back seat of the Iltis and the driver put the utility vehicle into gear and resumed driving towards Wunsdorf.

“Mind telling me why the 4th Division is aping American tactics?” Hans asked, “The only conclusion I can reach is that we are terrible at fighting that way. It works for the Amis because they always insist on having loads of everything. In Mexico I saw them throw rifles away as opposed to cleaning them, for example.”

“So that the powers that be can get a better handle on them” Horst replied, “As for their waste, it’s hardly a surprise, they invented the concept of planned obsolescence.”

“You are one of the powers that be” Hans replied, he hardly wanted to get into a debate with Horst about the habits of the Americans. The time he had spent in Texas had confirmed everything that his sister had to say about that country. She had liked the Pacific North-West, that was it.

Horst just gave Hans a look that basically said, Yeah, so what.

“Our best prognosticators think that the odds of things going bad in the United States are becoming greater every day” Horst said, “These are merely educated guesses, but I’ve learned its stupid to ignore them. One thing that we should never forget is that the things we do here affect policy as well as strategy.”

That was a sour thought for Hans. Fighting the Americans in America and there was only one organization that could get the Heer embroiled in a mess like that. It wouldn’t be the first time either.

“The League of Nations needs to find someone else to be their policemen” Hans said, “Now that the British are out of India, they will be available to stick their tongue into that light socket.”

“I won’t disagree with you there” Horst replied with a laugh.

Hans sat there in silence for a few minutes. Kat said that she was retiring from the military, that she’d had enough. Hans was starting to see her reasoning, he wasn’t an old man by any means but had already fought in four wars, five if you considered the Far East a separate war. He knew that if he was deployed overseas again for a year or more the chances were extremely high that Helene would not be there when he came back, she had her own career and life outside their marriage. If pushed, she might decide that she preferred him to remain gone. That was why Hans was starting to think Kat had the right idea, that it was time to find something else to do. Perhaps if he at least started looking into that possibility it would get Helene to back down a bit.

“Have you talked to your brother at all?” Horst asked.

“Regarding?” Hans asked in reply.

“His intentions regarding my daughter” Horst asked, “I only asked because Nina is getting impatient, she’s had the entire wedding planned out since Stefan got back from Mexico. It’s been couple years.”

Hans knew that Nina was a formidable woman and while it was clear that Stefan wasn’t taking advantage of Nizhoni there were limits. Stefan and Nina weren’t even engaged, though they had been an item for several years. Hans figured that Stefan must be one of the most patient men alive, or that was how the insanity that seemed to infect the entire Mischner family had manifested itself in him.

“Stefan said that they are holding off making decisions until Nizhoni finishes school” Hans replied.

Horst suddenly looked extremely annoyed.

“Your brother is not the problem” Horst growled, “Waffling over personal matters is a bit of a family trait, just leave it that.”

“Who else in your family acts that way?” Hans asked.

“I told you to leave it at that” Horst replied.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Forty-Nine


9th October 1955

Potsdam

Anya knew that she would be told to turn the lights out any second, but she was waiting until she was told to do so before she did. She was sitting at the desk in her bedroom doodling in a notebook and trying to put her thoughts in order.

Despite some attachment difficulties and religious indoctrination, she’s a reasonably well adjusted eleven-year-old girl. That was the conclusion that the Psychologist that Sasha had taken her to had concluded. It was because Anya was having difficulty in school, not the academics but because she had trouble making friends her own age. It was easy talking to those older or younger than her, but among her classmates the same age as her it felt like there was a vast gulf that couldn’t be crossed. This had been prompted by her putting in the hard work to attend the same Gymnasia as her friends, that all of them were couple years older had been noticed.

The way that Zella and Kiki had reacted when Alfred Hitchcock Presents had premiered, the show from BBC Television being rebroadcast in Germany, had left Anya wondering exactly what well adjusted even meant. Then there was the bit about religious indoctrination, that was just confusing. There were times when Sasha gave her a look of exasperation, usually just after Anya had made a comment about relationships or of what she realized was of a religious nature after she had said it. Anya was discovering that a lot of what she had thought she had known about world when she had been in Pskov wasn’t exactly true. The world was really an extremely messy place. When she had been in Constantinople and Jerusalem Anya had felt like she was walking on ghosts, in the months since the feeling had faded and reality had come crashing back in.

A big part of that was Major Volkov, he looked like he stepped off a movie set where the male lead was a dashing Russian Officer. Sasha turned her nose up at him as he tried to win her over. To Anya’s absolute astonishment Zella found it all incredibly romantic. Apparently, Zella’s father, then an Oberst in the German Airborne, had gone to great lengths to win the heart of Zella’s mother. Now Sasha had a man willing to do that for her. Anya was left wondering if Zella was sort of insane also the notions of love and romance left her confused.

A plaintive “meow” came from under the desk by Anya’s feet and she looked down to see Ivan staring up at her. Picking the big cat up, he oozed into her arms the way that cats that had been handled a lot tended to do.

As Anya scratched Ivan under the chin and he was purring loudly.

“You’ll always love me, won’t you” Anya said affectionately to Ivan right before he bit her hand.


Wunsdorf-Zossen

If it was something that was so obvious that Hans von Mischner could pick up on it, then the whole OKW needed to up its game. Not that Horst considered Hans stupid, far from it. Tactically, he was gifted but he had yet to really develop as a strategic thinker, Horst suspected that it was because Hans tended to see the world as a Football pitch. Battles were individual games and campaigns were seasons. It wasn’t a bad way to think, but there were many difficulties with that. War wasn’t Football. As much as the OKW and Mistry of War might disagree with Horst’s thinking. Unlike war, there were rules in Football.

It was all the result of an analysis that had been produced by the OKW that suggested that the current unrest in the United States was just a prelude to a larger storm further down the line. It was felt that President Truman would tamp down anything that happened during his term, whoever followed him might not be as capable. The concern was that like in the Great Depression, the American Civil War in the 1860s and the American Revolution a period of lawlessness in US could easily spill across into Canada and Mexico. Both the British and the League of Nations would be screaming for help if that happened. It struck Horst as the very definition of an unwinnable conflict. The only thing worse was a recent analysis that suggested that instability in China would be a growing concern in the coming decade.

Horst’s thoughts were interrupted when he heard a murmur of voices outside the front door of his house. He hated the role that his daughter was continuing to make him play as he threw the bolt open and opened the door. Nizhoni and Stefan were standing there, exchanging pleasantries and wishing each other good night.

“Wrap it up…” Horst started to say to Stefan, but he paused when he saw that some idiot had promoted Stefan. When had that happened? “Hauptmann von Mischner.”

“Goodnight Nizzi” Stefan said and then he walked off into the night.

Nizhoni walked into the house, it was obvious that she’d had a pleasant evening.

“You know that one of these days you are going to have to either shit or get off the pot” Horst said as he closed the door.

“Mama told me about what she had to do to get you to the altar” Nizhoni said, “You said at the time that there was no need to rush. Didn’t you Popa?”

Horst glowered at his daughter, he remembered what had driven his decisions decades earlier. While he had no idea what was going on in Nizhoni’s head, it looked to him like she was pulling the exact same sort of crap he had.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Fifty


15th October 1955

Tempelhof

When Helene arrived to have tea with Kat and Gerta, it was the first time that she had seen the house in daylight hours. She might had been inclined to be jealous of her friend if she didn’t know what the real score was. The house was new, and it seemed fairly nice, however Helene had seen the neighborhood. Like the house it was new, but unlike the house it didn’t have a personality and it would take years for it to develop. Currently the neighborhood was half finished buildings, streets without sidewalks and muddy patches of bare earth that would one day be parks and gardens.

On the street that Kat lived on, the two rows of large town houses faced each other across two sidewalks and the street itself. In a few years there would be hedges providing a modicum of privacy on the lower floors and trees shading the street, presently the maple trees that would provide most of the shade were just saplings between two posts and hedges had not been planted yet. With the seasonal overcast, the effect of that was pretty bleak, a fact that wasn’t helped by Kat’s house being one of the few on the block that was already occupied. If Kat got depressed this place could very well feed into that and Helene was understandably concerned. Gerta had a slightly differing perspective, she had noticed the cats that had been worked into the décor and thought that it was wonderful tribute to Kat.

“Have you ever thought of getting a real cat to complete it?” Gerta asked.

“Actually, Douglas thinks that the twins are old enough to get a dog” Kat replied, “I’m still thinking about it.”

“You are such a creature of the city” Gerta replied, “Suse grew up at my father’s house in Werder. Dogs, cats, horses and even rabbits were what she grew up with. I wish that Alois had that.”

“Wunsdorf is hardly the big city” Helene replied, “More of a village.”

“That happens to sit right outside the gates a military base” Gerta said, “They’ve gone so far out of their way to make a suburban enclave that it’s scary.”

That was a reminder of how Helene was splitting her time between the house she shared with Hans on the base in Wunsdorf and the municipality in Silesia where she was compelled to spend a great deal of time. It was one more example of the sort of thing that had been causing a great deal of friction between them of late. Then Hans had come home from being out in the field for a week and he had told Helene that he understood that if he were deployed for an extended period of time again it would put a strain on their relationship. He was prepared to give it all up resign his commission, if it made it easier for her. The bastard. That was the last thing Helene wanted. Yes, she had been extremely worried about him when he was overseas but if he resigned Helene already knew how that would end. Unless he found something else to do quickly Hans would give in to his worst impulses. Hans with way too much time on his hands and lacking for direction would not end well for…

“Is everything alright Helene?” Kat asked.

“Your brother is infuriating sometimes” Helene said.

“Tell me something I didn’t already know” Kat replied sardonically.

Helene shot Kat a dirty look.

“Trouble in paradise?” Gerta asked.

“No” Helene said, “It’s just that it seems like if we are from two very separate worlds.”

“It’s because you are” Kat said, “Hans was worried about that when he started dating you, but with the war and everything else that was going on, it seemed like life had to lived in that exact moment.”

Helene felt a stab of guilt about…

“I’ve always tried to live in the moment, war or no war” Gerta blurted out causing both Kat and Helene to wince. They had seen the consequences of Gerta’s frivolous attitude too many times.

“What?” Gerta asked.

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

From where she was sitting in the office Sigi could hear the Gräfin and her friends talking downstairs in the dining room, but not enough to tell what they were talking about. They had gone quiet for a few minutes before resuming again. According to the Gräfin they were all friends going all the way back to when they had been schoolgirls. She hadn’t said anything about it but Sigi found all three women extremely intimidating. All of them were successful in their particular fields and took no prisoners in achieving their goals. Sigi on the other hand was learning just how far from doing anything with her life she was. Especially because the last month had been one difficulty and humiliation after another.

That first dinner had been absolutely horrifying. Later Sigi would learn that the other women who had been sitting around the table were Gräfin Katherine’s inner circle. Young women who had been recruited a decade earlier who formed an unofficial spy ring working directly for the Empress. They had toyed with her all evening. The questions that they had asked had started innocuous enough. What her name was? What her father did? Before she had known it, Sigi had been answering questions about her personal life. And the way they had asked the questions, there were no proper answers. More than once, she had found herself giving answers to earlier questions that had been too mortifying to answer because those answers disproved the later questions. It had all boiled down to one monumentally embarrassing question before the Gräfin had stepped in and said that she didn’t need to answer that. As if her questioners didn’t already know.

The Gräfin had said that Sigi would need to earn the respect of the sisterhood as they called it. Sigi had no idea how that would be possible.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Fifty-One


16th October 1955

Zossen

As Manny and Ina were running up the dirt road splashing in the puddles Hans kept an eye on them. Frau Sorg had been given the day off, something that Hans and Helene had been encouraging her to do now that the children were getting older. She had been hired by Helene’s mother when Manfred had been born, a retired Pediatric Nurse her skills had been needed when Manfred had been born several weeks premature. A lifetime spent working in hospitals had left her with no family of her own and she was content to have Manfred and Katherine as surrogate grandchildren.

Hans had taken the children out for a walk in the fields that surrounded Wunsdorf. The children had been bouncing off the walls and he needed time to think. He had broached the idea of him leaving the Heer with Helene and she had not said it aloud, but he could tell that she hated the idea. However, Hans saw that every time he got deployed for an extended period of time and she felt abandoned. Every time he came back, her greeting became a bit icier. He feared that he would eventually come home to an empty house or worse, be one of those men who got served with divorce papers in the field. Hans had certainly seen both of those things happen enough times. As it stood, he had no idea what Helene wanted from him.

Then a sound that was unmistakable to Hans, but not one that his children were as familiar with grew louder. Thousands of footsteps and the rumble of tracked vehicles, an army on the march.

“To me” Hans said to Manny and Ina in a voice that suggested that they had best mind him as they stepped off the side of the road.

Ahead of them, around a bend in the road, came a column of Infantry. Hans recognized them as they grew closer as being from a different Regiment than his. As they grew closer, he saw that they were from the 49th, also from the 4th Panzer but long-time rivals of the 140th. Ina hid behind Hans, while Manny was mesmerized by the spectacle of the Panzer Dragoon Infantry marching past. They prided themselves on being the toughest soldiers anywhere. Trained to advance and work with the Panzers themselves, they liked to think that they made the modern notion of war of movement possible.

That was when an Iltis stopped in front of Hans and the Oberst commanding the 49th leaned out. “Getting a jump on things already, von Mischner?” He asked as Hans struggled to remember his name.

“No” Hans replied wondering what the Oberst was talking about, “I’m just getting these two little monsters out of the house for a few hours.”

“I see” The Oberst said, “Then you haven’t seen the latest notice the High Command sent out?”

“I figured that I would leave that for tomorrow” Hans replied.

The Oberst seemed to find that amusing. “Generalmajor Gross got himself promoted” He said, “Someone in the OKH took leave of their senses and decided that you would make a good replacement for him.”

“The entire 8th Brigade?” Hans asked, wondering if there was an appeals process.

The Oberst laughed, “Congratulations, I guess I ought to call you Sir” he said, before the Iltis started moving forward again.

Jost and Soren were going to laugh their heads off. Helene however would be furious, this was yet one more wrinkle in an already difficult situation.


Over the North Sea

It was a good day for this, a vivid blue sky and a solid overcast below, hopefully the British would be too busy nursing their hangovers from the night before to pay too much attention to their radar scopes. Albrecht was back where he belonged, in the cockpit of an interceptor as they hunted the elusive British bomber that had consumed the squadrons of the Fleet Air Command for months. There had been a few more encounters but no one had managed to get the photograph that the OKM wanted. The prize kept getting more and more valuable. This was because the British had somehow found out about the game and things had grown more interesting in a Chinese sense.

For Albrecht it was good to be back after months of training in Peenemünde. In November he was supposed to leave for a tour of the launch center in Cam Ranh, right in the middle of the rainy season. It was not something that he, or anyone with any sanity, would be looking forward to. There was a bit more urgency as Albrecht had been moved up to first alternate. The reason for that was why Risky was laughing in the back seat.

“So, let me get this straight” Risky said, “The Luftwaffe scratched this guy because they felt that he might not be moral enough to be a pilot?”

“In his defense, we would have been jammed up if either of us had done the same stupid thing” Albrecht replied, “He had two women convinced that he was going to marry them.”

“We’re Sailors” Risky replied, “Everyone expects us to have a girl in every port.”

“Does your wife know that?” Albrecht asked and Risky made a noncommittal noise. As far as Albrecht knew Risky had never stepped out. Most men thought that they were too smart to get caught when the ugly reality caught up with them. Risky’s wife would happily castrate him for less and he knew it.

In the case of the Luftwaffe pilot that they were talking about, there was a third woman who had given him a disease of a social nature. Intended one had met intended two in the same ward of the hospital where the bug was being treated. They had compared notes and things had turned very sour.

“I got a contact” Risky said and started calling the vectors as Albrecht shoved the throttle forward and thumbed the reheat switch. They saw a grey dot against the blue sky that became a white dot as they drew closer.

“Have that camera ready!” Albrecht yelled as he could already see the Brit banking sharply and rolling into a dive. His mouth went dry as he saw that it was far larger than he had at first thought. Tailless delta, Albrecht thought. Everyone who had gone after this plane had discovered that they couldn’t turn inside of it and if they tried to stay with it, they stalled.

Albrecht rolled his plane into a tight spiral trying to keep the speed up as he aimed ahead of the bomber. Risky would have a fraction of a second to get that picture. Albrecht hoped that Risky got it as the airplane shuttered as it started to stall.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Fifty-Two


20th October 1955

“Our best people cleaned it up as much as they could Sir” Jacob’s aide said, “But there are limits.”

The photograph had been taken by Oberbootsmann Joseph “Risky” Volk, who happened to be the Systems Operator/Observer on the plane flown by Albrecht von Richthofen and it had quite the story behind it. Jacob had heard that story while he had been taking Albrecht to task for nearly getting himself killed over the North Sea while he was supposed to be representing the interests of the Fleet in Peenemünde.

“Very well” Jacob said as he looked at the photograph. It wasn’t great, the reflection and distortion from the canopy of the Ju331F, not to mention the angle was off. It was correct in that it wasn’t a whole lot to go on, but it was enough to give the Brits a black eye when it got released to the Press.

The Bootsmann had been upside-down and being pressed into his seat by several gravities as the airplane was basically falling out of the sky in a spin. It was a miracle that he had gotten that photograph at all. The Luftwaffe had doubts about the suitability of a Naval Aviator in their precious operation, yet here was one pushing an airframe to it’s limits while his subordinate performed the tasks as ordered. If it were not for the stupidity and coming dangerously close to insubordination involved, it would have been a triumph.

“Arrange for Kapitänleutnant von Richthofen and Oberbootsmann Volk to receive the rewards that were promised” Jacob said, “And have someone tell the Kapitänleutnant that if I hear about him being anywhere other than Peenemünde or Vietnam over the next several months he will find himself assigned to Antarctica for the duration of his career as a Matrose.”

“I’ll get right on that Sir”

There were rumors, that Jacob maintained a secret base in an isolated corner of the frozen continent where he sent people who really infuriated him. While there was a base in Antarctica, several in fact, mostly research stations, he had never needed to send anyone there as punishment. He did however like to keep his options open in the event that someone was ever stupid enough to call his bluff.


Berlin

Sitting in her office Helene was spitting mad and deeply frustrated at the same time. Hans had been talking retirement before, then he had learned that he had been promoted to Generalmajor when he had been tapped to take over the 8th Panzer Dragoon Brigade which had changed the entire conversation. That was overall command of the Infantry component of the 4th Division, nearly four thousand men. What Hans hadn’t realized was that there was a political aspect to this. It was being asked if Helene’s position had anything to do with that promotion. She didn’t expect him to put his career on hold for her, she had even been about to tell him not to retire on her account. Now, Helene was seriously considering making a Hans Mischner voodoo doll, so that she could shove pins through it, or better yet, throw it through the blades of a turbine engine.

Helene had issued a press release stating that her husband’s career had no bearing on hers. The opposition had seized on it, though everyone knew that Helene was a very junior member of the majority coalition. They wanted to know why she wasn’t giving her full-throated support to her husband’s career. Not even an hour earlier they had been asking if she had used her influence to get him that promotion. Hans had said that it was probably Walter von Horst who had gotten him the promotion. Helene had been on the verge of picking up the phone and giving Horst a piece of her mind when she remembered that Nina Sjostedt, Helene’s former mentor, was his wife. It seemed that no matter what she did, she couldn’t win.


Washington D.C.

Thank God for Hurricane Ione, Truman thought to himself.

The Deep South was spiraling when Ione had rolled up from Cape Verde. The hurricane had dumped several inches of rain on Georgia and the Carolinas before rolling up the East Coast and dissipating in the North Atlantic. It was sort of hard to hate your neighbor when you were busy trying to avoid drowning. That had enabled the problems to be tamped down, for now anyway. The trouble was that Truman could already see the next crisis brewing.

Lyndon Johnson was the clear front-runner for the Presidency in 1956. As Truman knew full well the Vice President was one of the best campaigners he’d ever seen, but he had some unfortunate tendencies. God help them if the Washington Press Corps ever caught wind of that on a slow news day. Earlier that day, Truman had received word that Adlai Stevenson, the Governor of Illinois had formed an exploratory committee in case he threw his hat into the ring. Among other things was a phrase that had been bandied about. “In your guts you know he’s nuts.” It was obvious who they were talking about.

Truman, whose entire Presidency had involved keeping the peace between the various factions of the Democratic Party had seen instantly how this had the potential to be a major seismic event. The split between the northern and southern wings of the party that had been the threat all along would be there for all the world to see. If neither Stevenson or Johnson backed down it was all too likely that what was left of the Republican Party would back Stevenson. That was basically blowing up the gameboard and hoping that there would be some semblance of order when the pieces landed.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Fifty-Three


14th November 1955

Peenemünde

Staring out the small window of the simulator, Albrecht had thought that it couldn’t get any worse. Then it did.

“This place is amazing” Albrecht heard Ilse say over the headphones. “From a purely scientific standpoint that is.”

“You didn’t tell us that your girlfriend was scientist” Director von Braun said, “I’ve had an enjoyable afternoon showing the lovely Doctor Tritten around.”

For the last few weeks Albrecht had been trapped in Peenemünde where he had been subjected to every medical test that they could think of. Then some more that he was certain that they must have made up on the spot. As the first alternate he had to do everything that Linus Dunst did. Today they had him in what they said approximated the capsule that would take him into outer space, for the entire day, practicing every combination of system failure imaginable. The checklist was starting to haunt Albrecht’s dreams. And the simulator seemed to be growing smaller every hour he spent in it. Having Ilse show up on this day of all days was just too much and the Director had better be keeping his hands to himself…

“You do know that we hear you Bert?” Ilse said, and Albrecht was certain that he heard laughter in the control room. The throat mic had just caught the bit of his thoughts that he had inadvertently said aloud. There was also a video camera recording his every facial expression.

“Your girlfriend is in good hands Kapitänleutnant” The Director said, now Albrecht could hear uproarious laughter in the control room. They must be just as bored as he was out there, unfortunately for him they had decided that he would be the entertainment this afternoon.

“Can we take a break for lunch?” Albrecht asked.

“That is not something that you can do in orbit” The Director replied.

“The mission is supposed to last no more than five hours” Albrecht said, “I’ve already been in here for six.”

There was some deliberation in the control room.

“Very well” The Director said, “Just be back in there in one hour.”

Climbing out of the hatch, Albrecht knew that he had another month before he was scheduled to leave for Vietnam. The Space Program wanted to start launch operations as soon as the rainy season ended in Cam Ranh. They were saying that they had the bugs worked out on the Atgeir 5, Albrecht hoped that they knew what they were talking about because the prototype had blown up on the launchpad six months earlier.

After climbing up the ladder to the airlock, and letting it cycle Albrecht saw Ilse peering curiously through the window of the outer door. At least he would be in good company when he ate lunch today.


Berlin

Watching the Gräfin talk with her daughter about what she had done for the first half of the day in Kindergarten. It seemed that driving her teachers to distraction with endless questions was Tatiana’s favorite thing to do. Her mother’s pregnancy was her favorite topic of late because Tatiana had discovered that it caused most adults to run for cover. The strangest part was that the Gräfin was encouraging that behavior. Then Tatiana had spent the rest of the morning playing capture the flag in the park next to the school with her friends. Every evening Katherine made a point of listening to Tatiana and Malcolm for an hour as they clamored to tell her what adventures they had during the day.

Sigi had difficulty reconciling the different aspects of the Gräfin’s personality. So far, she had seen four of them and in all of them one might think that she was an entirely different person. The Gräfin was warm with her children, but absolutely icy and stern with the men under her command. She behaved in the same icy manner with Sigi if anyone else was around. The Gräfin had said that it was what she needed to be and if Sigi wanted to have a successful career she would need to be different things to different people. An entirely different aspect of the Gräfin’s personality revealed itself when she was advised about lifting the ban on her Mother-in-Law. It seemed that Katherine had Margot Blackwood banned from Germany a few years earlier because the alternative involved murder. Then Oberfeldarzt Nora Berg had shown up on the prior Saturday afternoon and had demanded to know why the Gräfin had not called her as soon as she had learned of her condition. Sigi had heard Katherine mutter something about not wanting to hide a body in her condition under her breath and she meant it. It was then that Sigi realized that the Gräfin was not someone to make an enemy of.

Today, she saw the fourth aspect. They had driven to northern Berlin where Katherine had decided that she wanted to go to a graveyard. The Gräfin’s face seemed pale and she was looking mournfully at a grave marker.

“This isn’t the only grave here” Katherine said, “My father is buried beside her, but we didn’t put maker here for him because of what might happen.”

Sigi had heard the rumors about what Katherine’s father had been, a master criminal of some kind. Her mother had died extremely young from the looks of things.

“I come here from time to time as a reminder to take nothing for granted” The Gräfin said.

“What prompted it today?” Sigi asked.

“Life” The Gräfin replied, “The twins are getting older and today I thought I felt the first fluttering of this one.”

The Gräfin emphasized her abdomen.

“What is that like?” Sigi asked.

“Terrifying” The Gräfin replied.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Fifty-Four


2nd December 1955

London, England

They had flown all the way to England to join Queen Elizabeth as she presided over the ceremonial opening of the new terminal of the London Airport, formally known Great West Aerodrome, the same airport that Kat had flown out of many times. For some reason, they had ended up staying overnight when Kat felt that they could have arranged to never have to leave the airport. Fly in, everyone gives their speeches and the ribbon is cut, then fly back home before anyone even noticed that they had left. Instead Kat spent a mostly sleepless night on a too soft, unfamiliar bed in a London hotel room across the hall from Emperor Louis. On the other hand, leaving Sigi in Berlin to mind her affairs while she was away in London was a definite plus.

When Freddy had begged off Michael had been dragooned into being a stand in. The fifteen-year-old Prince of Bohemia was far more comfortable astride a horse than trying to learn the role of diplomat at his father’s side. It was also clear what the ulterior motives were from the way that Michael kept finding himself in the company of Princess Alberta. Right now, they were an awkward teenager and a shy preadolescent girl but fifteen or sixteen years from now there were possibilities. Kat found the whole thing pretentious, no one had any way of knowing if Michael and Alberta would be remotely compatible a decade and a half from now.

Mercifully, Elizabeth finished her speech and Louis could start his. The Emperor was normally good at keeping these things brief. Kat had watched him practice what he was going to say on the plane the day before. Bridging the distances between nations, peace, exchange of ideas and friendship. Kat had almost said that he should say something that wasn’t a cliché but had thought better of it. The sooner that the Emperor was done then they could be on their way home.

“Do you need to sit down Katherine?” Elizabeth asked.

“I’m fine” Kat replied. Though she was aware that she wasn’t.

Elizabeth looked at Kat’s midsection with a look on her face that basically said that she knew Kat was full of shit. At nearly six months Kat was already showing and the uniform tunic did little to hide it.

“You need to because the men under your command are watching over you as much as they are your Kaiser” Elizabeth said, matter of fact.

“I was clear in my orders” Kat replied, “Orders that they are breaking if that is what they are doing.”

“It’s not that simple and you know how men can be” Elizabeth said, “Last year with Mary was a real nuisance.”

Since Alberta, Elizabeth had had two more children, Anne and Mary. Three girls. It was being said around England that they had best be prepared to have one Queen or another for an extremely long time at the rate that they were going. Kat personally didn’t see what the problem was with that, she should know about being a woman in what was traditionally a man’s role.

“I’m scheduled to go on maternity leave starting next week” Kat said, “But this was arranged months ago.”

“I see” Elizabeth said as she led Kat over to the seats of what would be area of the airport terminal with shops selling food, magazines and whatnot to travelers. “It’s been entirely too long since we had a chance to visit.”

“What about the ribbon cutting?” Kat asked.

“We will have Alberta do that, if there is one thing my daughter seldom has to be asked to do twice it is cutting things up” Elizabeth said and then she turned to one of her people and sent him for two cups of tea.

A few minutes later two paper cups were placed on the table between them. “I probably shouldn’t” Kat said.

“Why is that?” Elizabeth asked.

“At home, my diet and exercise are closely monitored by a woman who I am certain is the reincarnation of Attia the Hun” Kat replied, “One of the things she is clear about is no caffeine during pregnancy.”

“Then it will be our secret” Elizabeth said, “Why does the Tigress of Pankow put up with such a woman?”

“Because she’s my Doctor and because she holds an equivalent rank to mine in the Medical Service, I can’t just have her thrown out as much as I want to” Kat replied, then she paused for a few seconds, “Why are you doing this?”

“Because you are the friend who arranged for me to sneak off and learn to drive a tank” Elizabeth said, “A debt that can never truly be repaid.”

“That was years ago” Kat replied, before she took a sip of tea.

“And you never asked for anything in return” Elizabeth replied.

“You have nothing I want.”

Elizabeth gave Kat a strange look, “That is something that I very seldom have heard anyone say to me” She said.

Kat just shrugged, she was beyond caring what anyone thought about her. It didn’t shock her that most of the people who approached Elizabeth wanted something. She knew that from her role as Kira’s advisor and it was a big part of why she was trying to help Kiki eventually escape that life.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand One Hundred Fifty-Five


10th December 1955

Oracabessa, Jamaica

When Ian Fleming read the Sunday edition of the paper when it arrived almost a week late, he was quite certain that she did it on purpose. The headline read; Original Bond Girl goes on Maternity Leave following Royal Visit and the photograph was of a visibly pregnant Kat von Mischner having tea with the Queen.

That was after Fleming got a phone call from Kingston asking his opinion about the article that he had not even seen yet. After the success of the first two James Bond films, the plan had been for a big international release of the third film over the Christmas Season and that was exactly what they had done the prior Friday, and everything had been going swimmingly. Until this. Over the production of the third firm Fleming had the script writers suggest to him a few times that perhaps Andrea Herzog ought to be getting on with her life. Like if Fleming didn’t know what that meant. While he was aware through the grapevine that Kat had trained several apprentices and had hardly been sitting idle in Berlin, the thought of one of his characters accepting the life of a wife and mother… UNTHINKABLE!

It was enough to make him want to get a drink, and then he remembered that he already had one in his hand. Better make that a double, he thought to himself.


11th December 1955

Tegel Airport

“Do you have any idea what they just subjected me to in there” Margot said as Doug, André and Sir Malcolm’s aide loaded the suitcases into the Microbus. The presence of the aide was a reminder that this was not a pleasure trip to visit family over the holidays for Doug’s father, though that was what the stated reason. Doug had seen how Kat had been unusually buoyant that morning just before he had left the house. Whatever had happened to his mother, she must have not only have known about but had been in on the planning. They had probably done everything shy of strip searching her.

“What sort of car, van or whatever this is, is this?” Emma asked as she tried to get her children situated on the middle seat.

“VW Microbus” Doug replied, “Useful, even if it is underpowered and strange looking. They aren’t sold in Canada yet, I guess.”

Emma didn’t respond as she was too busy trying to keep her daughter Casandra from crawling under the bench seat.

“You said that you have moved away from that house with those… young women?” Margot asked. It was clear that she had wanted to call them something else. Doug’s father had said that Margot had promised to be on her best behavior and Kat had gotten the sisterhood to agree that they would allow Margot to start it before they retaliated. The house divided into warring camps, peace on Earth and good will to all man, Doug thought to himself.

“We moved into to the new house a few months ago” Doug replied, “Though you will find that Katherine maintains a personal and professional relationship with the women she has mentored.”

“That sounds wonderful” Emma said as Doug pushed the clutch in so that he could start the engine of the Microbus. If you only knew, he thought to himself.

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

It being Sunday morning, traffic was light, so they got across the city rather quickly even if the Microbus did not care to go at speeds over eighty kilometers per hour with a full load of people and luggage aboard. Pulling into the garage, Doug watched as everyone got out of the vehicle and he saw their reaction when they saw the house for the first time. Admittedly, it did look terrible. The currently barren back garden had the long row of houses looming ominously over it. A few trees had been planted but anything else would have to wait until the springtime. There were a few patches of snow from a couple days earlier that did nothing to lighten the mood.

“Looks like the welcoming committee noticed we are here” Doug said trying to lighten the mood.

The door to the laundry room that was the entry into the kitchen and dining room opened up, Tatiana and Malcolm ran out with Ilse following them.

“These are Tat and Kol, of course” Doug said, “And you remember Kat’s sister Elisabeth?”

“It’s been years, but yes” Sir Malcolm said as they made their way to the house.

Then Doug noticed that his mother was looking extremely bewildered as Tat and Kol were asking questions and talking at her. He had not thought about how the way his children talked and even the way they moved would be completely foreign to Margot. She had not seen either of them since they were babies. They might be speaking the sort of French that they had grown up with. The sort that had become the private language between themselves and their father, but the way they said certain words or worse if they switched to English revealed exactly where they were from.

Doug noticed a bit of movement up on the parlor floor. He saw that Kat was watching out the window of the library with that slight smile on her face, the expression she had when she knew that she had just scored a major victory. Kat had known that this would happen.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One thousand One Hundred Fifty-Six


18th December 1955

Wunsdorf-Zossen

“…then I tell him that he was right, and I was wrong” Tilo said, “That he, and he alone, could get what he wanted.”

“That is one way to handle a Sea Lawyer” Jost replied.

“My Commanding Officer thought so” Tilo said, “It became a self-correcting problem and he didn’t need to deal with it.”

“How long did he last in the barracks?”

“This is the Marine Infantry” Tilo replied, “He got grabbed coming through the door. Lucky for him that I spoke to Reier beforehand. Hospital, not the morgue, you know how it works. And the damnedest thing was that no one saw anything.”

Jost just shook his head, “We do things differently in the Heer” He said, “It never would have gotten that point, the trouble maker would have been transferred out before he became an issue.”

“If I did that there wouldn’t be anyone left in the Regiment” Tilo said.

The two of them had needed to escape the house, the wholesome family Christmas that their mother was insisting on this year. No drinking, swearing, fighting or any of the other things made them who they were. So, they had gone to a nearby tavern that was packed full of Enlisted men from the nearby base. Tilo had noticed Jost was given a rather wide berth.

“Too bad the Navy has first claim on you” Jost said, “The Souville Regiment has a new Oberst who doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground.”

“Is that almost a compliment of my abilities?” Tilo asked.

Only to have Jost glower at him.

“I’d rather have you in charge than Lenz” Jost growled in reply after a few minutes of angry silence. “At least you know what the business end of a rifle is for, even if all that reading has turned your brains to mush.”

“My brains are hardly mush” Tilo replied.

“They must be considering the sorts of good things you are passing on for stupid reasons” Jost said.

“I have no idea what you are talking about” Tilo said.

“Keep telling yourself that” Jost replied, “Someday it will even be true at the rate you are going.”

Tilo knew what Jost was getting at and really wished that he would just shut up about it.


Berlin

It was a constant headache for Sir Malcolm, getting Margot to mind her manners while they were guests in this house. Not that Katherine made it easy. Apparently, there was a deal that she had made with the women in her circle, they were going to let Margot make the first move. That sounded a bit ominous. Katherine herself was polite and courteous, but there wasn’t a great deal of friendliness in it. Oddly, a girl who must have eighteen or nineteen years old lived in the house and she had been appointed as Katherine’s aide. Sieglinde or Sigi, she had been a big help with Margot. One of the rare young women who managed to meet Margot’s standards despite her country of origion.

Instead of doing what Sir Malcolm had really been sent her to do, he had found himself spending all week in the extensive museums that this city was known for and enjoying the seasonal festivities. It was getting frustrating, waiting for the call from the German Ministry of War. A call that had yet to come. He figured that he had perhaps one shot in convincing the German Government to license certain pieces of machinery. The reason they needed it was also something that would cause the most difficulty. Canada’s southern neighbor and if it became unstable. Sir Malcolm had been sent because of perceived difficulty that Ottawa was having with London. They didn’t want to find themselves in a crisis and having to deal with the foot dragging that official London was infamous for.

Getting to know Tatiana and Malcolm, was a nice distraction from that. Seeing Malcolm, or Kol as he tended to be called, in the library reading a dogeared book about the Antarctic explorers with a lot of photographs. Looking at the books that were on the shelf, Sir Malcolm saw that there were a substantial number of books about exploration. Mostly the Arctic and Antarctica but several more about Africa and South America.

“You read all of these?” Malcolm asked.

“Yes” Kol said with a smile, then the smile faded. “Poppa read them to me.”

It was hardly a surprise that Kol didn’t know how to read very much at this point. The Germans made a point of letting children be children and letting them learn from playing until they started learning formal subjects as a class. The merits of that were debatable.

“Your great grandfather, my father would have had quite a few things to say on this subject” Malcolm said, “He was with John Rea during the search for the Franklin Expedition when he was a young man.”

Kol looked at Malcolm wide-eyed, he would have heard about the doomed Franklin Expedition. How it had played a substantial role in the exploration of the Canadian Arctic even in its failure, cold comfort to the crew that was forced to resort to cannibalism in the face of death by starvation and exposure. But had Malcolm’s grandson heard the other side of the story? How that expedition was used as an example of how arrogance and ignorance could prove to be lethal in the far corners of the globe.

“Didn’t know” Kol replied.

“Now you do” Malcolm said.

It wasn’t a surprise really that Kol was interested in exploration from a young age. The three walls of the library that weren’t covered by the large bookshelves were festooned with framed photographs that had been taken by Douglas that were from around the world. Katherine had traveled extensively as well.