Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

Part 124, Chapter 2100
Chapter Two Thousand One Hundred



23rd October 1971

Tempelhof

Douglas had given Sophie one of the old cameras that he was no longer using and today, he was walking her through the process of developing the negatives and using them to make photographs. Kat had told her that the camera was one of the ones that he had carried with him during the Second World War and that she needed to take good care of it. Sophie had understood, and she had taken care of it despite it looking like it was pretty beat up long before she had taken possession of it.

The image of Cheshire sitting on the windowsill of Sophie’s bedroom appeared as if by magic as Douglas developed the photographs that Sophie had taken over the prior weeks. She seldom had enough money available for a new roll of film and getting Douglas to help her develop the rolls she had was rarer still, so every photograph she took was a moment that was precious for her somehow. There were other photographs, like those from the roll she had shot at camp over the Summer Holiday. That included a silly one of her and Ziska on a skiff during the summer before. Then there was one of Darya scolding Fleur who looked up at her in the way that most dogs did when they stared at you intently though they couldn’t understand a word you said. The little dog had grown too old to do much more than sleep most of the day, but still found the energy to raid the garbage if the opportunity presented itself.

Douglas clipped the photograph on the line to dry as they moved on to the next one. This one featured Malcolm juggling three apples in the kitchen to show off his learning to have done that. Only a few minutes later Petia had chased the two of them out of the kitchen and they had eaten the apples in the back garden. “I think that Kat will want a copy this one” Doug said, “Interesting how Malcolm has become a more frequent subject of yours since you came back from camp this year.”

“He has been around more is all” Sophie said, grateful for the dim red light of the darkroom made it difficult for Douglas to see her reaction to him saying that.

Douglas chuckled as he moved on to the next photograph, another picture of Cheshire. This time he was staring intently at the goldfish in Tatiana’s bedroom. Seconds later, Tatiana had chased both Cheshire and Sophie out of the room.

“This one is also good” Douglas said.

“Thank you” Sophie replied.

Then they moved on to the next roll of film.



Washington D.C.

“The fragments of steel found on the scene are consistent with alloys produced by Krupp Works in Essen” The expert giving the briefing said as a chart with chemical compositions came up on the screen from the overhead projector, “Also soil samples showed traces of a mixture of RDX, TNT, and powdered aluminum which is consistent with general purpose bombs used by German Luftwaffe. The blast radius suggests that it was a Five-Hundred-Kilogram Aerodynamic Explosive Bomb or AS500, similar to those that the Luftwaffe has been dropping on Chile for months.”

A new picture appeared on the screen, this one of schematics of the bomb in question. There was also a chart comparing it to the Mark 83 in American use.

“You are saying that the Germans dropped a bomb on General Pinochet?” Nelson Rockefeller asked, “Without the witnesses on the ground ever seeing the plane that dropped it?”

“That is the current working theory” The expert replied, “There are some in the Chilean Military who are convinced that it was an inside job with a powerful car bomb, but we find that unlikely though.”

“You mean to say that it would hard to place a thousand-pound bomb in someone’s car without them noticing?” Rockefeller asked.

“Yes” The expert replied.

“And are we to believe that the Germans now have invisible airplanes?”

The expert looked a bit flustered by that one.

“We don’t believe that Sir, not for an instant” The expert said, “But the only plane in the region was a high-altitude reconnaissance plane flying at over seventy-five thousand feet. We find that to be an unlikely means of delivery.”

“Exactly how unlikely?” Rockefeller asked.

“I don’t know” The expert said, “The odds of dropping a single bomb from an airplane flying that high and hitting a car in the middle of a city that happened to have a high value target standing near it? That would be like teeing off from the top floor of the Empire State building and getting a hole in one.”

“Do I need to remind you just who we are dealing with here?” Rockefeller asked.

“But as I was saying, it is very unlikely that…” The expert said before trailing off as he realized he was getting a venomous look from the President of the United States.

“I don’t care how unlikely it was, I only care about how it might have been done” Rockefeller said coldly.

“Yes, uhm… I’ll get my team right on that, Sir” The expert said as he gathered his things and prepared to leave in a hurry.

Rockefeller watched with great annoyance as the expert fled. Was this really the foremost expert in the field or was he the one who just happened to return their calls? Rockefeller didn’t know. It was a reminder that on his last day in office, Harry Truman was said to have been positively giddy as he had walked out of the Whitehouse for the last time. Rockefeller understood exactly what Truman must have been thinking as he left. That was the exact moment that Rockefeller discovered he couldn’t finish this term fast enough. The Republican Party was asking if he was going to run for the third term, in gelled in his thinking at that moment that they could all get fucked as far as he was concerned.
 
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A Leica II camera similar to the one that Doug gave Sophie when she showed an interest in photography.

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In medicine there is a phrase that is drummed in to medical students and new doctors "When you hear hoof beats think horses not zebras" well in this case zebra is the right answer.
Apparently nobody briefed the briefer because there must be a section at the Pentagon the deals in the possibility of theoretical weapons being developed and this falls in that area.
I don't see the United States being that far behind Germany in technology but it is in the applications of it that is where the United States is at a disadvantage.
For the Republican presidential contest Vice President Hartsfield must be considered to be the front runner with George Romney who at this point IOTL was Nixon's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and John Volpe of Massachusetts who also at this point IOTL was the Secretary of Transportation could be the leading candidates of the moderate wing of the GOP and for the conservative wing Robert Taft Jr. Governor of Ohio could be the leading candidate.

It is very smart for Doug and Kat to get Sophie interested in photography as that will allow her to express herself in an artistic manner and help exercise any demons that is still bothering her.
Of course the crush that Sophie is having on Malcolm could force Doug and Kat to sit both of them down separately and together at some point to have an extremely awkward discussion that will be embarrassing all parties concerned.
 
Of course the crush that Sophie is having on Malcolm could force Doug and Kat to sit both of them down separately and together at some point to have an extremely awkward discussion that will be embarrassing all parties concerned.
They are aware of Sophie's crush, they are also aware that she is at the age where she falls in love with the idea of people rather than anything tangible. Malcolm will say or do something soon enough that will break the spell.
 
So either the americans haven't even thought about bombs guided by a team on the ground, or the guy briefing the president isn't cleared for that knowledge.
Probably the latter, although we can't rule out the possibility that the Pentagon has decided not to tell the politicians about certain experimental projects on the basis that they are experimental. And because most politicians (or their staffers) can't keep a secret.
 
Probably the latter, although we can't rule out the possibility that the Pentagon has decided not to tell the politicians about certain experimental projects on the basis that they are experimental. And because most politicians (or their staffers) can't keep a secret.
You'd think they'd know better than to blab about state secrets. Who wants to elect someone who can't keep their mouths shut about the country's secrets?
 
Part 124, Chapter 2101
Chapter Two Thousand One-Hundred One



5th November 1971

Los Angeles, California

When Big Mike walked into the Ralph’s on West 3rd in Wilshire with Ritchie, he figured that he might as well take advantage of the situation and went to the bakery to get a few boxes of donuts, which would be enough for everyone back at the station. Lucia had called Ritchie just after they had completed rollcall and said that they needed to talk, immediately. That sort of thing seldom meant that great news was going to be conveyed.

Walking back up to the registers, Mike saw that Ritchie and Lucia were talking off to the side. Lucia was looking a bit worse for wear, green around the gills as it were, and Ritchie was carrying himself about the same way he did when they were about to break up a barfight at a biker hangout. He didn’t need to hear the conversation to have an idea as to what it was probably about because he had been in the same place Ritchie was right that moment a few times himself. It meant that Ritchie wouldn’t be able to have anything nice in his house for next couple decades, a shame too, Ritchie’s place in Eagle Rock was one of the places he escaped to when he couldn’t stand the chaos of his own household. So much for that, Mike thought to himself as he put down the boxes down on the counter.

“Will that be all, Sir” The clerk asked as he rang up the purchase, while his words respectful, his tone was not. It was the sort of thing that Mike had grown used to. Police were not loved by everyone. It was just a part of the job.

“Yes” Mike said as he handed the clerk a five-dollar bill.

While the clerk was fishing around the till for the change, Mike surveyed the scene. The store was filled mostly with bored housewives picking up a few odds and ends because it was something to do midmorning after the kids had been sent off to school. The clerks were from the surrounding neighborhoods and seemed like the sort who tolerated their customers because it was what they needed to do to pay the rent. He’d read a book recently that talked about always looking for what seemed out of place, of course in a Los Angeles grocery store that sort of had a fluid definition. The clerk finally handed Mike his change that he took his sweet time counting back to him.

That was when a man who must have been in his early twenties slouched in through the automatic doors at the front of the store. He had a ballcap low over his face like if he didn’t want to be seen and his clothes looked like he had slept in them. He took one look at Mike’s uniform and bolted for the Out Door.

Cursing under his breath, Mike started to give chase. Ritchie must have noticed what was happening because he was after the man in an instant, Lucia staring agape, having no idea what was going on. Just before the man reached the door, Ritchie intercepted him, and he stupidly took a swing at Ritchie. Stupid move, Mike thought to himself. Uncle Sam had spent a lot of time and money training him to take on far worse than the likes of some random hood.

Ritchie sidestepped the punch before grabbing the man’s arm and twisting it up behind him. Momentum carried the two right into a plate glass window that shuttered but didn’t break, the man’s ballcap fell to the floor as his face was pressed against the glass. That was when the man started yelling as Ritchie was slapping handcuffs onto him and the other people in the store were all staring at what had just happened.

“This is brutality man!” The man yelled as Ritchie pulled him away from the window, “I wasn’t doing nothing wrong.”

Years earlier, Mike’s mother had warned him to never use double negatives when he spoke. She said that anyone who heard that would automatically assume that he was stupid. Hearing what the man had just said, Mike saw the truth of that for what must have been the millionth time.

“Then why did you run the instant you saw us?” Ritchie asked, “That wasn’t the least bit suspicious.”

The man was silent for a few seconds, clearly not having thought that through.

“That’s the fucking asshole I told you about the other day!” Lucia yelled, “The one who’s been shoplifting from us!”

Lucia then switched to Spanish, calling the man all sorts of nasty names. With his hands cuffed behind him, the man would be helpless if Lucia decided to get even, and she was clearly moving in that direction. Mike had a great deal of experience and understood what would happen if he tangled with a Mexican woman a third his size. It wasn’t a fight he could win.

“We got him Lucia” Mike said, drawing her attention as Ritchie took the man out to the squad car. “And this time, he isn’t coming back.”

“Oh” Lucia replied, “I guess so.”

“Show’s over!” Mike yelled as he collected the boxes from the check stand, and everyone went back to their business.

Walking out to the car, Ritchie had put the man in the backseat and was waiting behind the wheel. “What am I supposed to do with all this?” Ritchie asked as Mike sat down.

“Don’t know” Mike answered, one thing he didn’t do was give out free advice because you got what you paid for. “Donut?”

“Nah” Ritchie replied, “If I ate those, I’d end up looking like you.”

Real funny, Mike thought to himself as he heard snickering from the back seat. He slammed his fist against the cage that separated the front from back. “No one asked you!” He yelled as the man yelped in response.
 
Ritchie’s superiors may like the way he handles himself out in the field and with previous updates about the rise in heroin use and trafficking having him go to Narcotics Bureau as an undercover officer might make sense to them…
 
Ritchie’s superiors may like the way he handles himself out in the field and with previous updates about the rise in heroin use and trafficking having him go to Narcotics Bureau as an undercover officer might make sense to them…
I doubt it. At this point, odds are he's become kind of notorious around the neighbourhoods he grew up in/currently works in. Former wild child turned soldier turned cop, and a German Princess turned up at his wedding...he's way too well-known to be any value as an undercover officer. Far better to have him in a SWAT-type role.
 

ferdi254

Banned
Country answering your last question would be asking for a bear attack so I resist.

And for the guided bombs. AFAIK the USAAF entered WW2 OTL with the claim they could hit a fuel barrel from 10,000 feet which again AFAIK was even true but only on a sunny day in Arizona without wind.

They learned the hard way OTL that this does not help in hitting moving targets or in bad weather. ITTL they did not learn that lesson at all so why come up with a solution for a problem that in your eyes simply does not exist.
 
...he's way too well-known...
He's known in the gossip columns at least in a way that gives him respectability, he's known for being firm but fair on the streets and is VERY good at what he does. He works with black and white cops.

It's 1971, TV Cameras are portable. I keep circling back to Richie being the subject of a documentary, starting as a one off, but rapidly turning into a series about the department as a whole.
Imagine Cocaine Blues being made early as Heroin Blues and turning into LA COPS and Spinning off into NY COPS, Chicago COPS etc.
 
You'd think they'd know better than to blab about state secrets. Who wants to elect someone who can't keep their mouths shut about the country's secrets?
You'd think so, but some people like to brag a little, especially if its something no-one else knows. Or they want to score some quick political points during an election, or because their poll numbers are down, maybe with a photo-op thrown in. Or they want to make a quick buck using insider knowledge. Then there's straight out treason of course.

As for electing someone like that, well, pick a country. You'll find people like that and the people who keep supporting & voting for them anywhere.

Cynical of me, I know.
 
Another thought:
How long until someone realises that the laser survived take off, flight and being dropped in a drop tank, that video cameras are quite small and that the laser designator could be co mounted with the video camera with the feed being piped to the RIO of an Orkan allowing the aircraft to designate and target it's own targets without a ground operator?
 
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