Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Ninety-Seven
1st January 1969
Moscow, Russia
It was cold in the apartment just after midnight as Gia snuggled against Fyodor in the bed they were sharing tonight. All she could think about was how Alexei was probably sleeping soundly in the warm, spacious apartment she normally lived in, in the center of Moscow. She was here out in the suburbs as a protest as she had for the prior two weeks. The construction company that had built this building had refused to finish the job and Gia had decided to put what people said about her to proper use by living in the building until the construction company was shamed into acting because the media had taken an interest in Gia’s cause, even if it was mostly as a human interest story. The oddsmakers had told the even press that they were not going to make bets as to how long Gia would stick it out because they knew not to bet against her after some of the things that had happened in the past.
Fyodor and a couple dozen of his men had tagged along as security. The result was that Gia and Fyodor shared the bedroom while the people in the rest of the building looked with no small amount of fear at the Spetsnaz soldiers who were among them. That was until the local toughs who had been terrorizing the residents fled the district after their leaders had been found in the building’s entry with their arms and legs broken.
Gia had learned a lot about this building and the ones that surrounded it in recent days. They were of prefabricated concrete construction, capable of being thrown up fast and could, in theory, help alleviate the housing crisis that had plagued Moscow for decades. The construction type had also been expressly banned in Germany with the rest of the Europe following suite with the exception of Serbia and England for some incomprehensible reason. Gia personally found the buildings to be uniformly soulless and boring.
“This reminds of something I was thinking about the other day” Fyodor said, “What if you had remained Gianna Strobel instead of coming home and taking back your identity? What would our life be like?”
“What do you mean our life?” Gia replied, “I would have been a reporter for the BT and the Mirror as well. I might not have ever met you.”
“Some things are just meant to happen” Fyodor said, “I would have come to Berlin on a task for Georgy, we would have met, and the rest would be history.”
“I fear that you would have found yourself with a rival or two for my affections” Gia said, and Fyodor just shrugged.
“We all know who the best man is” Fyodor said jokingly.
“If you only knew” Gia joked back. For years she suspected that he knew about her relationship with Asia but had the good sense not to mention it. That was just the sort who Fyodor was.
Mitte, Berlin
“She is a complex young woman” Louis Ferdinand said, “For all her evasions and protests, have you noticed what Kristina is not doing?”
“If you say so” Ben said. As much as he loved Kiki, her manic behavior at times could be aggravating. Often it felt like she had to be maneuvered into doing something and whether or not it was something she wanted never seemed to be a factor.
Ben sipped from a bottle of soda water that was from the small refrigerator behind Louis’ desk. He’d had no idea it was even there until Louis had opened it and pulled the bottles out. Louis had said that they were in for a long night and would need to keep their wits about them while they waited. For lack of anything better to do, they were talking about what was generally going on and the subject of Kiki’s reaction towards the announcement of their eventual marriage came up.
This was because Kiki had dropped everything, including whatever plans she might have had with Ben hours earlier when she had received word that Victoria had gone into labor on New Year’s eve and had rushed off to the airport to catch a flight to Munich. Ben was disappointed, but he understood that Kiki had made a solemn promise to her sister that she would be there for her. Oddly, because Kiki had been continuing her education by working in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of the University Hospital, she was the perfect person to help her sister. Louis had left the festivities that were going on in the Old Winter Residence and had returned to his home office to wait for news. Freddy and Ben had been invited to accompany him. Freddy had declined, saying that someone would need to play host in Louis’ absence.
Shortly after midnight, the phone finally rang.
Munich
“You are the sister who facies herself a Doctor who Victoria mentioned” Frau Aue said when Kiki had introduced herself to the elderly Midwife. The way she said that suggested that she felt that Kiki’s medical knowledge made her a mere apprentice. None of this was helped by Frau Aue looking like the very stereotype of a witch. Doctor Berg had warned her that she would encounter those like Frau Aue in her career, at best she should try to learn from them because they had probably forgotten more than Kiki knew, which was why they had been hired to assist the birth. Otherwise she would be well advised to keep out of their way.
When Kiki had rushed into the hospital she had been out of breath after running from the car to the ward in a sprint. Frau Aue had laughed and told her that this was her sister’s first baby, so there was no need to hurry. That had been early in the evening. Kiki had found herself among the team of surgeons on standby in case of an emergency. They were observing Frau Aue and her two assistants, both cut from the same cloth and were likely to be one of Frau Aue’s daughters and granddaughter if Kiki had to guess.
The baby finally came at around midnight.
Frau Aue turned and looked at Kiki and said, “You are his kin so introduce him to his mother.”
Kiki had a so far nameless baby wrapped in a blanket thrust into her arms. The look on his face reflected the mutual confusion that both he and his aunt were feeling. There was a commotion in the waiting area as Frau Aue and a Surgeon who Kiki had not been introduced to were looking at what Kiki realized was the placenta as it was being expelled. Taking her eyes off that, Kiki focused on Vicky who looked completely dazed. She’d had a rough day by anyone’s standards.
“You’ve a little boy Vicky” Kiki said with a smile.
“Max” Vicky said absently as she took him from Kiki. “I told Albrecht that we had agreed that if it were a boy, we would name him Maximilian Joseph, it made him happy.”
“Max then” Kiki said to Vicky and then she saw the celebration that was ongoing in the waiting area. “What is going on out there?” Kiki asked Frau Aue.
“Typical stupidity” Frau Aue replied as she washed her hands with isopropyl alcohol, the tone of her voice one of disapproval. “The Registrar thinks that the boy might be first child born in the New Year, in Munich at least. Good omens or some other manure.”
Kiki had not thought of that.