Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

[jonmb]

As far as I recall, the perception of Prince Harry's role and recall from Afghanistan was overwhelmingly positive.
It must be pointed out that the UK press knew about his deployment and agreed to keep the story quiet. The story was broken abroad. The UK media lapped up this detail and this added to the positive spin. With the media in unanimous support of Harry, it was hard for any (if there even were any) dissenting voices to be heard.
Nancy will probably not need to do much work with the story, but her role will still be important here.
I am sure that Prince Harry, like Kiki, also recognised the necessity of being recalled while feeling he was abandoning his colleagues.

 

[ferdi254]

It is pretty simple logic. Does the probability rise of anyone attacking that ship if Kiki is on board? Yes it does.

Can you countermand that by naval assets? Yes you can but it comes at a price. Are you willing to pay the price? Answer of Germany: No.

Case rested.

 

[ejpsan]

Previously Kiki when she was deployed went as (Rank) Kristina Fischer this time it is Major Doctor Princess Royal Kristina von Prussen zu Hohenzollern with all the publicity that goes along with it.
The original idea was that Kiki gets some time to relax, practice some medicine, and garner favorable publicity for the JMS.
Having Kiki getting kidnapped is counter-productive to those goals and if there was credible active intelligence on that it is better safe than sorry to get Kiki out of there.
She still can stay on one of the islands clinics with a couple of S-Boats on patrol and a couple of squads of Marine Infantry for protection.
As for the German people they will more than understand as Kiki has done more than enough to serve Germany and she is still under 30.

 

[LordVorKon]

Another thing to keep in mind is we've really only seen the situation from Kiki's viewpoint and internal monologue. There may well be evidence of a credible threat that Kiki was not fully briefed on, for reasons which probably make sense to the people making the decisions. We as readers have to keep in mind that events are usually presented "from a certain point of view" in this tale.

 

[dave_r_gilbert]

There wasn't any backlash that I can remember. IIRC, the general feeling was that it was good he'd done his bit, but pulling him out was the sensible thing to do.

It'll be the same here.

Prince Harry's nickname/callsign in afghanistan was "bullet magnet", and as soon as part of the media (I forget which bit) revealed he was there, that stopped being funny, and became true.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Thirty-Nine



6th October 1969

Mitte, Berlin

Sven Werth looked at the hardbound volume in his hands, one of several that had been in the box that had been delivered to his office and wondered if it had been a mistake. The title was Hunting Killers, the extraordinary inside story of the man who investigates the most heinous of crimes, in his own words. It was composed of the reports Sven that filed and what the Ghostwriter of the book had fleshed out from the extensive interviews that they had conducted over the course of several weeks.

The cases that had most interested the Publishers had been Joachim Kroll and Oskar Dirlewanger. Dirlewanger had gotten his just deserts in Spandau Prison when Madam Guillotine had taken her cut. Sadly, from Sven’s perspective, Spandau was now a museum. The yard where the worst criminals and despots of the era had met their end. So, Kroll had been thrown in a cage and was being held at the convenience of the Emperor, meaning that the only way he was getting out of there was feet first.

Sven had also mentioned Otto Mischner and Urban Dreschner. At first the Writer had wondered why he had brought them up, but as Sven had told the story a lot of things had become clear. It wasn’t widely known until Sven had included it in the book, just how far Otto’s influence had loomed over the City with it still being felt more than a decade after his death. It seemed that the Devil you know is just as capable of stealing your soul as any other. Sven had included what he considered the greatest secret of all, that Urban Dreschner had been Otto Mischner’s son. Urban had been a bullet that the people of Berlin had dodged, being both as intelligent and ruthless as his father as well as being a complete sociopath. Far from just being Otto’s designated heir until they had killed each other, Urban had been a dark, twisted funhouse mirror version of Kat Mischner because he was actually her half-brother as one of Otto’s many sons.

Sven told the story of how he had investigated the murder of Merten Beck and had reached the point where he could have gotten Kat and Otto to turn on each other by revealing the truth about what had motivated Beck to brutalize the then twelve-year-old Kat. She would have cheerfully served her father up to Sven if he had done that. Fate had intervened though when Sven had landed in the hospital after getting stabbed by Oskar Dirlewanger and it had been Kat who had saved his life. He had eventually concluded that justice had been done in the Beck matter even if Sven didn’t personally approve of the method. Sven had decided that he would go after Otto Mischner by other means and had come close to ending the organization, that Otto had founded. He didn’t mention that he had done it with the willing assistance of Kat after she decided that Urban Dreschner represented a dire threat to her children. There was also evidence that the GS, the Society of Silence, as the Mischner Organization had come to be called, was on the rise again and someone might be foolish enough to go after Kat in retaliation.

There were several other cases mentioned, but those were the big three that had cemented Sven’s reputation. What Sven didn’t know at the time was that the book would be a bit more widely read than he could have anticipated.



Tokyo, Japan

The Government had asked Kiki to play the role of Diplomat once it was clear that she wasn’t going to be traveling on with the SMS Antonia Marie. With the Japanese Emperor planning on traveling to Bohemia for the upcoming wedding there were several matters that needed to be worked out. Because she had special access to the Japanese Imperial Court due to her kinship by marriage, Kiki was in the perfect position to facilitate matters. However, Kiki being Kiki she had her own problems to contend with and was somewhat aggravated by the actions of the two Governments involved. Then there were the Japanese themselves…

The scene at the airport had been surprising when they had landed. It seemed that news of Kiki’s impending arrival had leaked ahead of them and the result was a circus because of something that she had done months earlier. The President of a Japanese corporation had died in her care after a plane crash. Without telling anyone, Kiki had gone to the airport to meet his widow to offer her condolences and had spent the following days cutting through the red tape on behalf of the family. That action had rocketed the public perception of Kiki in Japan into the stratosphere. The result was the press out in force to meet the plane along with a small army of photographers and a massive adoring crowd.

Then had come the mad rush to the hotel, where Kiki had been briefed about the current situation and the intentions of the Japanese Government. She had been inducted into the Order of the Precious Crown as a formality when she had still been a child and it had been a part of her ribbon bar that she had not thought much about. It seemed that the Japanese Government wanted to give her another decoration for her efforts on behalf of their nation on the 3rd of November. She and Ben would be their guests in the meantime. This had come when Ben had originally been planning on going home and at a time when things were still fragile after the argument that they’d had the previous month. There had been a lot of things that had been said that had been a long time coming and while that had sort of cleared the air, that had also left both of them bruised. The timing of the diversion to Japan could have been better.

 

[FickleCrossroad]

What Sven didn’t know at the time was that the book would be a bit more widely read than he could have anticipated.

Uh-oh. Big uh-oh.

 

[Dan]

Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Thirty-Nine



6th October 1969

Mitte, Berlin

Sven Werth looked at the hardbound volume in his hands... Sven had also mentioned Otto Mischner...

Someone is going to start digging into Kat, especially if everything in that section has gone into the book.

Once they do, Kat's enemies, (they're still out there), will be licking their lips at the thought of revenge and thinking they finally have a way to take her down.
We'll also find out how good JFK's money laundering skills are.
Also, given how some of Kat's money has been used, i.e. keeping the Royal Household afloat in the wake of the embezzlement scandal, this is going to splash back onto the Emperor.

That's before the crminal elements put 2 & 2 together regarding one of Kat's adopted daughters...

 

[ejpsan]

This is Ben's first time as the official consort for Princess Kristina and he should be a hit also with the Japanese public as he is War Hero in his own right, he was in the crew of the first space flight to the Moon with a Japanese woman Astronaut who was the mission's Science Officer, and he owns the land that the World's largest telescope.
Ben may surprise everyone by being a natural and at ease in the media spotlight, after all he should have gone through the space program's "Charm School" just like the the OTL NASA astronauts went through.

By now the money Kat has from Otto's Organization has been so thoroughly washed, rinsed, and dry cleaned that it can be showed that every Pfennig can be traced to "legitimate" sources, but that won't stop the stories of the legend of Otto's "Lost Fortune" with some of the more colorful tales being that it is somewhere in the Hartz Mountains in gold coins.
As long as Kat pays the correct amount of taxes on the money and is not doing anything illegal or unethical the government is not going to look too closely at it unless it can be proved that the money came from the proceeds of illegal activity.
I can see a highly fictionalized version of Otto's Organization being a worldwide hit with a novel and film that romanticize him.

 

[Stoffel02]

I can already see a :The Hunt for Minschner's Treasure, airing on the History channel with the host being the Ancient Aliens guy.

 

[Salamander]

This is Ben's first time as the official consort for Princess Kristina and he should be a hit also with the Japanese public as he is War Hero in his own right, he was in the crew of the first space flight to the Moon with a Japanese woman Astronaut who was the mission's Science Officer, and he owns the land that the World's largest telescope.
Ben may surprise everyone by being a natural and at ease in the media spotlight, after all he should have gone through the space program's "Charm School" just like the the OTL NASA astronauts went through.

By now the money Kat has from Otto's Organization has been so thoroughly washed, rinsed, and dry cleaned that it can be showed that every Pfennig can be traced to "legitimate" sources, but that won't stop the stories of the legend of Otto's "Lost Fortune" with some of the more colorful tales being that it is somewhere in the Hartz Mountains in gold coins.
As long as Kat pays the correct amount of taxes on the money and is not doing anything illegal or unethical the government is not going to look too closely at it unless it can be proved that the money came from the proceeds of illegal activity.
I can see a highly fictionalized version of Otto's Organization being a worldwide hit with a novel and film that romanticize him.

This overlooks the annoying little fact that the Kaiser and the government are aware (unofficially) of where Kat's funds may have come from. Remember Helene probably knows due to her cabinet position. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure those particular intelligence reports were written on paper designed to spontaneously combust the second that they were read.

Sven's book is still going to fuel a shitload of conspiracy theories, as well as a few plots against Kat's household & wards by those seeking to gain control of Otto's former empire. Possibly even an actual attempt on the Lair of the Tigress itself. If so, to quote Mr. T, "I pity the fools".

Edit: The Tokyo diversion could be beneficial for Kiki & Ben's relationship. Hell, Kiki might even get it through her skull that she is being honoured for WHO she is, not WHAT she is.

 

[ejpsan]

Ironically it could be Anne's husband the accountant turned author who writes a novel about how The Mischner Organization money was laundered.
In the most simplest way that I can explain as the reality is much more complex, Kat has been over the years awarded lands from the Kaiser and then she has took out over the years a series of loans from German banks using said lands as collateral, the loans in turn were sold to other banks around the world with the money from the Organization providing the funds.
The Organization money has already been through the wash a couple of times it self and the profits from the "investments" that Kat legitimately made were then used to pay off the loans and that shows that the money came from legal sources.
This makes it virtually impossible for anyone to prove that Kat has Otto's money in the first place.

 

[Darth_Kiryan]

What Sven didn’t know at the time was that the book would be a bit more widely read than he could have anticipated.

Uh-oh. Big uh-oh.

Indeed.

You often have to wonder how much of Kat's heritage is going to come back and bite her in the ass eventually.

He didn’t mention that he had done it with the willing assistance of Kat after she decided that Urban Dreschner represented a dire threat to her children. There was also evidence that the GS, the Society of Silence, as the Mischner Organization had come to be called, was on the rise again and someone might be foolish enough to go after Kat in retaliation.

This actually makes me wonder but there has not actually been a true direct threat against her children yet. IIRC Ubran implied the threat enough, but no one has actually harmed Kat's children yet. With Sven's book coming out, and even the re-rise of the Mischner crime side, then I would say that whoever is pulling the strings will want to go straight for Kat's family.

 

[Darth_Kiryan]

Ironically it could be Anne's husband the accountant turned author who writes a novel about how The Mischner Organization money was laundered.
In the most simplest way that I can explain as the reality is much more complex, Kat has been over the years awarded lands from the Kaiser and then she has took out over the years a series of loans from German banks using said lands as collateral, the loans in turn were sold to other banks around the world with the money from the Organization providing the funds.
The Organization money has already been through the wash a couple of times it self and the profits from the "investments" that Kat legitimately made were then used to pay off the loans and that shows that the money came from legal sources.
This makes it virtually impossible for anyone to prove that Kat has Otto's money in the first place.

That's true, but I though Kat made sure that all the money was gone now, because she gave it to Louis when Von Papen did his money scam thing.

 

[FickleCrossroad]

Sven's book is still going to fuel a shitload of conspiracy theories, as well as a few plots against Kat's household & wards by those seeking to gain control of Otto's former empire. Possibly even an actual attempt on the Lair of the Tigress itself. If so, to quote Mr. T, "I pity the fools".

Kat has at least one more good fight left in her, and she made Poland look easy.

Tat reading the book is a POV I'd love to see.

 

[jonmb]

Another POV I'd like to see is Marie reading the book.
I always wonder if P-M has a purpose behind Kat's panic room beyond it being a very secure storage room.

 

[FickleCrossroad]

Another POV I'd like to see is Marie reading the book.
I always wonder if P-M has a purpose behind Kat's panic room beyond it being a very secure storage room.

Pretty sure this is the reason.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Forty



9th October 1969

Mitte, Berlin

It being a Thursday afternoon, the V8 Club was empty except for a few regulars who inexplicably liked the menu. The Club was known for many things, never the food though. Elis was teaching Johann how to do the books in an effort to ease Sarah’s workload slightly. For years Sarah had helped Elis manage the place on top of her career and after a recent panic attack, she had been told that she had been suffering from exhaustion. The stresses of her life from day to day as well as continuing decline of her father, something that never seemed to end, had just gotten to be too much.

Sarah had been advised to take a vacation and make effort to delegate some of her responsibilities. Part of the problem was that Elis wasn’t too thrilled about the prospect of having to trust someone “not in the family” so he had decided that Johann was old enough to start learning the family business. And by that, he meant the Club, not the other one. Sarah had told him that wasn’t funny and if he even thought about teaching her son the finer points of armed robbery then the American FBI would be the least of his worries. Elis had just laughed and went back to talking to the vendor who delivered the Club’s liquor and beer. It had worked out so far because Johann was good with numbers, even if he wasn’t a Mathematical savant like Nessa.

Sarah had come home earlier than usual because things would need to be set up ahead of the weekend which was expected to be busier than usual. The latest incarnation of the English band Mythology was coming to town and everyone expected the place to be a zoo. The previous week, Sarah had talked on the phone to Tony Iommi and he had promised that their Singer would be on his best behavior because they all remembered what had happened the last time. Sarah had said she would believe it if she saw it and just in case, she would call the Police and tell them to set up for Riot Duty ahead of time. Tony had laughed, Sarah had been dead serious.

That was why Sarah was less then thrilled by the interruption when Django Reinhardt walked in. One of the projects that Sarah had been involved in for years was the Reinhardt Orchestra, Django’s long-term labor of love whenever he wasn’t touring with his quintet, so she felt obligated to drop everything. The man who walked in behind him wasn’t someone who Sarah had expected, or wanted, to ever see again.

“Isn’t that Zöller?” Elis asked, “Haven’t seen him around in a long time.”

“I know who he is” Sarah snapped.

“It’s been what? Eighteen years?” Elis said, “Or seventeen years, nine months, give or take.”

“I am glad you find this amusing” Sarah said.

“With all of us, the chickens eventually come home to roost” Elis said seemingly oblivious to how that might apply to his own situation. Johann just watched with smirk on his face, unaware of how any of that applied to him. He just saw that years earlier his mother had involved herself with something that was fertile ground for his Uncle Elis to poke fun at her for and clearly, he hit a nerve.

“Tell you what Elis, how about you go fuck yourself” Sarah said sharply.

Elis just shrugged as Sarah stomped off. Exactly what was she supposed to have done? It was not like if Johann had not had questions over the years and she had always struggled to answer them. Perhaps she could have phoned Zöller to arrange an introduction, his wife would have loved that, Sarah thought to herself sarcastically. Hello, I know it has been a rather long time. Oh, by the way Karl, there is something that perhaps you ought to know…

“Are we interrupting something?” Django asked as Sarah approached his table.

“John Elis, the owner of this establishment, is being a pill” Sarah replied.

“If I could introduce you to…” Django started to say.

“We already know each other” Sarah said a little too fast, interrupting Django. “Karl and I played together in the Philharmonic when we were younger.”

“I would like to think that we were a bit more than that, we had a wonderful season together before I tragically got called away” Zöller said, “Gertrud occasionally asks who the other woman was.”

Apparently, the minor detail that Sarah had never considered Karl to be more than a donor clearly had never entered his mind otherwise he likely wouldn’t find this nearly as amusing. Nor had he ever figured out that it had been Sarah who had arranged for him to receive an Oxford Fellowship just of get rid of him. Afterwards, Sarah had heard through mutual friends that he had gotten married and had become a Professor at the Hamburg Music Academy. Why couldn’t he have stayed in Hamburg? Sarah though to herself. Still, that time had not been completely unpleasant, and she had gotten Johann out of the deal even if it had come at the cost of her relationship with Carla Herrema. Her partner at the time had found living with a small child to be more than she could handle.

“I see” Django said, though Sarah doubted he knew the full extent what had happened. “I’m sure that you have heard the rumors about whether or not I intend to retire by now.”

“Actually, no” Sarah replied, “I don’t have time for gossip.”

“That is one of the things I like about you” Django said, before launching back into the conversation, “As I was saying, there are rumors that I am considering retirement, I am not, net yet anyway. However, I have been convinced that I need to take on an understudy or two.”

Sarah was wondering where Django was leading with all to when Johann walked up to the table.

“Going out Ma” Johann said, he kissed her cheek goodbye before bounding out the door in the way of most seventeen-year-olds with limitless energy.

“I didn’t know you had children” Zöller said.

“Just Johann” Sarah replied, “Though I also have Elis. He might nearly be sixty, but he acts the part.”

 

[Rinasoir]

A family can be two lesbians, a 17 year old, and a 60 year old American Bank-Robber turned club owner.

Hell, throw in a small dog and we're basically entering the world of bizarro Frasier.

 

[jlckansas]

Sven's book will be something that the movie and television industries in lots of countries will just eat up. Setting it in each countries individual cities and with their individual gangsters will make it look good. Think of how many stories have been adapted from other countries to fit the local norms.