Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Two
24th June 1967
Adriatic Sea, northeast of Ancona
As nautical darkness set in, it was expected that the smugglers would put to sea. Looking through the Sperber device Louis Junior was watching the distant Italian Coast for the “Rum-Runner” style boats employed by them in this region. While the view through the scope was like being underwater, it enabled them to sneak up upon the boats they were tasked with intercepting and cornering them before they had a chance to run off and do something stupid. Some of the time anyway.
Italy being what it was, wherever there was an illicit profit to be had there was also a Mafia Don with his finger in the pie and that meant that things got a bit complicated out on the water. The smuggler crews knew that the Don’s investment would be paid back in either blood or treasure. The latter being the hard currency that anyone still dealing with the Albanians these days. The former though, that was what caused Louis so much trouble. The crews feared what the Don would do to them far more than getting killed or arrested by the Navies patrolling the Adriatic. So, they would put up a fight to protect the Don’s investment if running wasn’t an option.
The smuggling boats were large enough to deliver their cargos but small enough to evade search radar, sacrificing everything else including crew comfort to that end. Coupled with the most powerful engines available, usually old V-12 aircraft engines, they were difficult to catch. And when they did run, the pursuers would likely come under fire from someone on the fantail with an automatic rifle or even a machine gun. As Louis had discovered, putting a cannon shell into a hull packed with munitions and high-octane fuel was a bad idea. Sometimes they went boom and the last time that had happened the Windhund had been forced to return to Port because of substantial blast damage.
Into this was Louis’ life, what there was of it these days. The somewhat dubious highlight of the week had been receiving a letter from Zella, and she was her usual self. Taking a break from shooting her documentaries, she had taken a holiday in the South of France and she had talked about how much fun she was having. Included was a photograph that she had taken of herself at the beach where it had appeared as if she had partaken of the French habit of minimalist beach attire which she found amusing. It was difficult to tell for sure though because of the angle she held the camera and she had joked in the letter about how Kiki would react upon seeing it. A closer look revealed that she was in fact wearing a swimsuit even if it was hard to see, making him do that was probably her intention in taking the picture. Louis wondered what possessed Zella to pull provocative stunts like this. It was as if she saw that song written by John Lennon about how she could be superficial and got off on cheap thrills as a challenge to be worse.
Halle (Saale), Anhalt
The hall that was being used by the University for the Midsummer Celebration was crowded as Kiki and Ben made their entrance. Ben was wearing a suit tonight that was appropriate for the black-tie event, while Kiki’s choice was an elegant gown made from silk that was such a dark shade of blue that it was almost black. The only nod to their careers was that they would wear civil awards only because Kiki felt like they might as well be in uniform if they did anything else and she didn’t want that. That was why his was wearing the Order of the Rue Crown on its green ribband over his right shoulder with its star next to the Polaris Medal. Kiki had done something similar except she was wearing the Grand Cross of the Order of Louise which had a white ribband and star. She also had a version of the Johanniter Order on a black bow pinned to the left sleeve of her gown, “There are advantages of having your cousin as the Grand Master” Kiki had said when Ben had asked about it.
As they were introduced, Ben noticed that everyone had stopped and stared. Prinzessin Kristina von Preussen zu Hohenzollern and Burggraf Benjamin von Hirsch zu Balderschwang. That was who he was now, and it was the first time that the full weight of that was sinking in. It sounded impressive, but it was just a road with a few houses and a store. With a planned ski resort going in on the opposite side of the valley from the land that Ben owned, they were optimistic that perhaps one day they would be able to build a hotel and perhaps apartments for the workers one day. Small wonder that they had been euphoric when they learned that Ben had leased a corner of his property to the University of Berlin in conjunction with the University of Munich so that an observatory could be built there. That meant year-round employment and other opportunities. Ben had gotten the people of the area to like him by the oldest means possible, he had inadvertently paid them off.
As Ben led Kiki out onto the dance floor, he noticed that she seemed nervous. While she had gotten better over the years, she still found being among people to be a draining experience.