Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

What would be great is if the CIA operation in Montreal also found out that other countries intelligence services are also doing surveillance operations on Marie Blackwood which leads to them asking why?
What would even better is if the CIA operation in Montreal attracted the attention of those other countries intelligence services. As in they notice whats going on and check on who the girl is that the CIA is following.

Ottawa

- a restaurant hosting a dinner for the "cultural attaches" of several foreign embassies (not including the US)

British CA: "Apparently, she's one Marie Alexandra von Mischner-Blackwood, aka the youngest daughter of the Tigress of Pankau."
German CA: "Ja, I can confirm that. She is staying with her grandparents while studying at university."
Japanese CA: "But why are the Americans following her around?"
Australian CA: "Paranoia & stupidity probably. They've held a grudge against her mother ever since she visited Australia on holiday when she was 18 and they tried to kidnap her for some stupid arsed reason."
Russian CA: "That really happened?"
British, German & Australian CA's: "Yes."
Italian CA: "Would the Americans be stupid enough to try a repeat performance?"
Australian CA: "No idea, mate, but we've started a betting pool on them doing something stupid while she's here."
German CA: "Count me out. I want to stay in one piece."
Russian CA: "I think we should pool resources to keep an eye on the Americans. Perhaps a camera crew?"
Australian CA: "Brilliant! I'll supply the popcorn."

RCMP Headquarters

Mountie 1: "Sounds like it's getting crowded in Montreal."
Mountie 2: "I'll let the boss know."
 
As I think about it, Marie Blackwood is a legitimate person of interest to the various intelligence agencies because by the time Marie at 18 she is already:
1: The youngest member of The Order of Louise for her actions during the kidnapping of Princess Kristina, and in the past the Order has been used as an unofficial intelligence service by the Empress.
2: Marie is known by this time as someone who has an ungodly talent for languages and is able to pick up new ones somewhat easily.
3: As an Official Companion to Empress Suga, Marie has information on who is up, down, in or out of favor not just in Court and Society, but also in some cases the government itself.
4: Marie has the potential in the future if not already to be used a backdoor diplomatic channel as at a Diplomatic Reception Marie is approached by a foreign diplomat who tells her something and then Marie passes it along to Empress Suga who in turns tells it to her husband, Kaiser Friederich IV who then tells the Chancellor, all of this happens in a few hours from Marie getting the information to the Chancellor receiving it and deciding what to do with it.
5: Even through her mother, the Furstin of Berlin no longer has any official connection to the BND or other governmental roles, she is still basically the Chief Advisor to the Kaiser and there is nothing that happens in Berlin and the rest of the Empire without Kat knowing about first, thus Marie may have some valuable insight to what is going on in Berlin.
With all of this in mind, Marie has to be very careful of any contacts by people who have not been vetted by her grandfather and more importantly no trips to the United States on her own without some special arraignments beforehand.
 
Ninjas, yes real Ninjas, you forgot that Kat has at least one on call and I would imagine that the Japanese might have a few more available that would be looking quietly on Mademoiselle Blackwood while she is in Canada. I don't think the <insert Oriental> job there might even have some people taking a second look at them in the area. What would be funny if she speaks Japanese to one of the locals that has nothing to do with the services in a normal business transaction and they think there is another player in the game.
 
What languages does Marie speak?
Aside from German, I seem to recall English, French, Korean and Japanese. Any others?
 
What languages does Marie speak?
Aside from German, I seem to recall English, French, Korean and Japanese. Any others?
I think she speaks some Swahili dialect, I recall her trying to talk in it to an african-american in a previus update.
 
"Sir, I have the Minister of Defence of Canada on line one for you".
"Thank you, I'll take that, can you bring me a coffee please"
"Yes sir, also, I have the Minister of Defence of the German Empire on line two for you"
"Heck, best make it a strong coffee then"
"There is also Sir Malcolm Blackwood of the RCMP on line three for you sir"
"OK, Best Irish up that coffee Loretta"
"And I have a Katherine Von Mischner on line four for you sir... Sir"?
"Loretta, forget the coffee, just bring me the bottle please".
Priceless!!!!
 
Part 135, Chapter 2323
Chapter Two Thousand Three Hundred Twenty-Three



2nd September 1974

Mitte, Berlin

“These are your aunts and cousins” Sjostedt said to Monique as the train pulled into the vast train station that was under the streets of the German Capital. “They are very curious about you but remember when dealing with your aunts to always be respectful.”

It had been a bewildering few days as she had watched Piers Sjostedt, who her grandmother said was her grandfather, call in a number of favors with shockingly prominent people to expedite the process of moving her out of Fossoy and to legally take up residence in Flensburg. The obvious problem was that she was French. There was also the issue of his family, the reality of which struck Monique as being completely unlikely if not insane. He had referred to them as the Diné, but they were known by a different name which she had only heard in movies, Navajo. And that despite having served in the German Army her grandfather had been born in Arizona near a place called Four Corners. There was also an open question as to whether or not the Aunts as he called them would accept her. It seemed that among the Diné that was any woman her mother’s age or older, regardless of blood relation.

That had been a bit hard for Monique to wrap her mind around, until it was pointed out that the structure of the bones in her face and her dark hair pointed directly to that heritage. There where other aspects of her appearance which could easily be attributed to his half-Danish background as well.

Sitting on a train pulling into the station, Monique was totally apprehensive about what was waiting for her. All of her meager belongings had fit in a suitcase, so it wasn’t a complicated process in getting off the train and stepping onto the platform. Her whole life, she had listened to what her neighbors had to say about the Boche. How they were harsh and militaristic. That officialdom was king. They were also frequently compared to bloodsucking lice by her neighbors with how they intruded where they were not welcome and took everything. The not so hidden pretext of those comments was that many had heard and/or spread the rumors about Monique’s father.

The scene on the platform was nothing like that, if anything it looked identical to what she had seen in Paris just a few hours earlier. There were businessmen identifiable by their suits and briefcases. Families greeting loved ones as they arrived home. There was a group of young people Monique’s age wearing brightly colored clothes that were artfully tattered. When they spotted a pair of soldiers wearing blue and grey dress uniforms, they began pantomiming what they thought soldiers did with exaggerated salutes and marching around comically. The two soldiers just shook their heads, laughed, and kept walking.

“Those are men from my old Regiment” Sjostedt said, “So, they have nothing to prove, not after what they did in South America.”

“How do you know that?” Monique asked.

“The patch on their shoulder” Sjostedt replied, “A fortress on a hill, I was there when the 140th Souville earned that.”

“I thought that you were a peace campaigner” Monique said.

“Yes” Sjostedt said, “And my experiences as one led me to the other.”

It was one of the odd contradictions that Monique had observed about her grandfather. He was proud of his time in the service, yet at the same time he had spent considerably more of his life in the cause of peace.

Climbing the stairs, they entered the waiting area of the train station. Monique had never been in a cathedral, but the wide space with long wooden bench seats and high ceilings lit by golden lights were as spectacular as she imagined they were.

Three elderly women warmly greeted Sjostedt. He had told Monique that they were Nina, Matilde, and Elisabeth. There were a handful of younger women and a shocking number of children. Monique realized they were her great aunts’ children and grandchildren, possibly great grandchildren as well. They all turned and looked at her.

“Our brother has told us a lot about you Monee” One of the women, presumably Nina said with a smile. “You are someone I never expected to meet.”

Monique was unsure how to respond to that, and all these people who came to meet her. What if she disappointed them?

“You are also very beautiful” Nina said in a stage whisper.



Montreal, Canada

The first day at University and Marie’s head was spinning as she arrived back at the Blackwood House. The Professors had launched right into the coursework, obviously with the assumption that it was what they were there to do. She had inadvertently frontloaded her schedule because that was what she was used to. Only finding out later that few of her fellow students voluntarily signed up for a class before Nine O’clock in the morning unless they were left few other choices. The flip side of that was that her classes were done by early afternoon.

Heading into the kitchen, Marie was looking through the refrigerator looking for something that could be prepared quickly when Margot found her. She was a bit surprised that her grandmother even knew where the kitchen was. Mostly, she preferred to tell the Housekeeper who passed it on to the Cook what she wanted a few hours in advance.

“You don’t need to be as coarse as your mother” Margot said as she saw that Marie was preparing a sandwich.

“I don’t think that coarse is the right term Grand-mère” Marie replied, “My mother always believed that we should be self-sufficient.”

She almost called Margot Oma out of long habit, but her Grandfather had warned her that it would be rather provocative to do so if she wanted to remain a guest in this house.

“We will have to agree to disagree” Margot said handing Marie an envelope, “This letter arrived for you and is this normal for you?”

It was a bit disappointing that someone had opened the letter, Marie thought to herself as she removed it from the envelope skimmed through it, but that probably wouldn’t have done them much good as it was written entirely in Japanese script. Marie wondered how Margot would react if she knew the letter was from Suga asking how she was adjusting to living in a new city and going to university.

“Yes” Marie replied without elaborating.

“You really are a polyglot?”

Marie just shrugged and smiled.
 
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Marie needs to talk to her grandfather about Margot opening her mail because it is not only rude and an invasion of privacy, but also a federal offense in Canada to open mail that does not belong to you without permission.
Unless it was the work of either Canadian intelligence or more ominously it was the work of a foreign intelligence service...
 
I wonder if Piers will ever consciously realize that the Aunts, as fearsome as they can be, are far more accommodating, accepting and understanding about people's backgrounds and his own judge of character than he thinks they are.

Heading into the kitchen, Marie was looking through the refrigerator looking for something that could be prepared quickly when Margot found her. She was a bit surprised that her grandmother even knew where the kitchen was. Mostly, she preferred to tell the Housekeeper who passed it on to the Cook what she wanted a few hours in advance.
Except for special occasions, or dietary restrictions, everybody in Marie's home eats whatever Petia decides to cook, otherwise they can scrounge up a sandwich or two themselves.
It was a bit disappointing that someone had opened the letter, Marie thought to herself as she removed it from the envelope skimmed through it, but that probably wouldn’t have done them much good as it was written entirely in Japanese script. Marie wondered how Margot would react if she knew the letter was from Suga asking how she was adjusting to living in a new city and going to university.
Pretty sure that letter was opened a couple of times in transit unless it was hand delivered by a diplomatic courier. As for those suspecting Margot of being nosy, please remember that in many households with permanent live in staff, all mail, including personal mail, is unsealed by said staff prior to being delivered to the recipient. In such cases, bills are opened and assessed as being either household, which would probably be paid out of the household account by the housekeeper, or private, which may or may not be delegated for payment by the head of household. Private mail is typically unsealed but otherwise left unopened & unread by staff, unless directed otherwise. For the Blackwood household, with both Sir Malcolm and Marie being in residence, all mail, including private mail, would also be opened to determine whether or not said mail poses a security threat to the recipient.
“You really are a polyglot?”

Marie just shrugged and smiled.
The moment in which Margot discovers just how little she really knows about her grandchildren.
 
Finally! For three weeks I've been reading this non-stop in every moment of my free time. What an amazing story!

A question though: what's the population

1) of Germany proper
2) of the empire as a whole (poland, bohemia, slovakia, baltics)

What's the exact relationship between Germany proper and the rest of the Empire? I assume they all use the same money, have the same passport and free movement of people, but is there anything more than that? Does bohemia pay taxes to Berlin for example?

And finally, how is the Empire drawn on maps? Like one big chunk or separately?
 
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I wonder if Piers will ever consciously realize that the Aunts, as fearsome as they can be, are far more accommodating, accepting and understanding about people's backgrounds and his own judge of character than he thinks they are.
The Aunts are survivors, first and foremost. They are also the institutional memory as it were. The thing which Piers Sjostedt would have on his mind is the thorny issue of just who is, and is not, someone who is considered one of them.
 
A question though: what's the population

1) of Germany proper
2) of the empire as a whole (poland, bohemia, slovakia, baltics)

What's the exact relationship between Germany proper and the rest of the Empire? I assume they all use the same money, have the same passport and free movement of people, but is there anything more than that? Does bohemia pay taxes to Berlin for example?

And finally, how is the Empire drawn on maps? Like one big chunk or separately?
Population wise, it is complicated. No Holocaust or wholesale destruction on 1943-45. No partition and no expulsion of ethnic Germans across Eastern Europe at the end of WW2. Silesia, Pomerania, Posen and East Prussia all remain part of the German Empire ITTL. So you would be looking between 85 and 90 million inside Germany itself. The satellite countries that make up the remainder of the Empire are another 35 to 45 million.

The relationship between Bohemia and Berlin is similar to the one arranged with Bavaria in 1871, which is also true with Galicia-Ruthenia. You might have noticed that it has its own military among other things.

On a map it would be in lighter or darker shades of grey or blue depending. However, I am terrible with maps...
 
Population wise, it is complicated. No Holocaust or wholesale destruction on 1943-45. No partition and no expulsion of ethnic Germans across Eastern Europe at the end of WW2. Silesia, Pomerania, Posen and East Prussia all remain part of the German Empire ITTL. So you would be looking between 85 and 90 million inside Germany itself. The satellite countries that make up the remainder of the Empire are another 35 to 45 million.

The relationship between Bohemia and Berlin is similar to the one arranged with Bavaria in 1871, which is also true with Galicia-Ruthenia. You might have noticed that it has its own military among other things.

On a map it would be in lighter or darker shades of grey or blue depending. However, I am terrible with maps...
That's way too low for population. First off, the generally more stable and prosperous interwar period means that the people who did not have children OTL, would TTL.

Then the less destructive, less Holocaust-y WW2 means that many those who died OTL, didnt TTL, thus had children.

Then the usual post war baby-boom would surely happen here. We follow characters who are generally the type to plan pregnancies and use birth control, with the exception of Olli and recently Sepp. Olli who has what, 7 kids? And Sepp whose parents have three kids despite struggling to afford them.

Then there is the immigration, both from the German diaspora returning as well as foreign immigration.

So I'd say ~110 million, give or take 5 million minimum. Remember in 1914 Germany had population of 67 milli,on.
 
That's way too low for population. First off, the generally more stable and prosperous interwar period means that the people who did not have children OTL, would TTL.

Then the less destructive, less Holocaust-y WW2 means that many those who died OTL, didnt TTL, thus had children.

Then the usual post war baby-boom would surely happen here. We follow characters who are generally the type to plan pregnancies and use birth control, with the exception of Olli and recently Sepp. Olli who has what, 7 kids? And Sepp whose parents have three kids despite struggling to afford them.

Then there is the immigration, both from the German diaspora returning as well as foreign immigration.

So I'd say ~110 million, give or take 5 million minimum. Remember in 1914 Germany had population of 67 milli,on.
Mind you that was a guestimate, so give or take some. It was also about this time (mid-70's) that Germany peaked from a demographic standpoint.
 
That's way too low for population. First off, the generally more stable and prosperous interwar period means that the people who did not have children OTL, would TTL.

Then the less destructive, less Holocaust-y WW2 means that many those who died OTL, didnt TTL, thus had children.

Then the usual post war baby-boom would surely happen here. We follow characters who are generally the type to plan pregnancies and use birth control, with the exception of Olli and recently Sepp. Olli who has what, 7 kids? And Sepp whose parents have three kids despite struggling to afford them.

Then there is the immigration, both from the German diaspora returning as well as foreign immigration.

So I'd say ~110 million, give or take 5 million minimum. Remember in 1914 Germany had population of 67 milli,on.
And after the hard twenties in Germany, the deaths in WW2, the expulsions after and the partition it had like 80 millions in 1980 OTL.

I think it would be next to 120 millions in Germany only.
 
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And after the hard twenties in Germany, the deaths in WW2, the expulsions after and the partition it had like 80 millions in 1980 OTL.

I think it would be next to 120 millions in Germany only.
Yup. And Right now I think Germany is in for another population Boom, as the WW2 veterans TTL are becoming grandparents. Though that's likely the last one before the population levels off.
 
Part 135, Chapter 2324
Chapter Two Thousand Three Hundred Twenty-Four



7th September 1974

Falkensee. Brandenburg

In theory, they were holding Tatiana for debrief. The truth was that she felt like she had hardly done anything worth mentioning. There had been some questioning, looking at photographs of people who might have been her customers over the summer. Tatiana’s Interrogators seemed particularly interested in the big shot who had come around several times and was a close personal friend of the restaurant’s owner. He always tipped heavily, and the other waitresses had warned Tatiana to always stay at least an arms-length away from if you could help it. Then there was the Black man who had come in with the big shot a few times, many of the others had liked him on the other hand. Tatiana had not understood the appeal. He had seemed entirely too polished; it was as if he was constantly trying to be what people expected as opposed who he really was. The Interrogators wanted Tatiana’s observations on those two in minute detail. What they ate, who they had spoken with, and the like. The rest of the time she was living in a one room apartment in Falkensee while attending classes at University in Berlin this week to maintain the pretense that she was going about her life as normal. Now that it was Saturday morning, she had figured that she would have the whole day to herself. Apparently, her Superiors had other plans when Frau Sagen, not her real name, let herself in to the apartment.

“Good morning, Tatiana” Frau Sagen said.

It was an odd how Frau Sagen always said the exact same things whenever she entered the room. Her placing her briefcase on the table proved that she did the same things as well. Nothing else seemed to have changed about Frau Sagen over the three years which Tatiana had known her either. She hadn’t changed her hair and her clothes looked exactly the same.

Which was really odd.

“Did you enjoy your little holiday in Boston?” Sagen asked. That was a strange way to put it.

“I worked as a waitress the entire time” Tatiana replied, “That is hardly what I would call a holiday and I did nothing worth mentioning.”

“You only think that” Sagen said, “There were things going around you there in Boston and we really didn’t want you to know more than what anyone would expect.”

“What exactly is that supposed to mean?” Tatiana asked, finding that she simply didn’t like being left in the dark.

“It means that if Anne Morgan, who you were at that time, suddenly becomes an expert in International Affairs and domestic American politics, it would raise a great deal of suspicion” Sagen said mildly in reply.

“She might just like being informed” Tatiana said.

“Would that be in keeping with the legend that we have constructed” Sagen said.

Tatiana was really starting to dislike some of the aspects of Anne Morgan. Despite managing to get into University, she didn’t seem to have a great deal of intellectual curiosity and was a total introvert. Which was something that Tatiana had inadvertently made part of her character. Even her recent travel to the United States had been about making money rather than exploration and she seemed to fear meeting new people. Tatiana realized that even the way she had conducted herself had played into this, almost entirely because she figured that social interactions left her dangerously exposed.

“It was of particular interest to us that when you had spare time during that last week you never left your room” Sagen said.

“That was because photographs of my mother were on the front page of the New York Times and the Boston Globe” Tatiana replied, “Not just any photographs though, they were the ones of her when she was my age, and everyone says that I look like her.”

“You were afraid that someone would make that connection though no one was looking for you in Boston so even if they did, they would have put it down to mere coincidence” Sagen said, which made Tatiana’s actions during that last week seem very silly.



Mitte, Berlin

After years of work, it seemed that the considerable amount of time and money that the CIA had invested in this operation would finally be about to pay off as the returns of the State Elections here in Germany came in. While that changed nothing at the Federal Level, it showed that the National Liberals were currently ascending, and the Social Democratic Party couldn’t hold off a General Election for long. When that happened, their man on the inside would be at the heart of the new Government. The trickle of information that they had been receiving would become a flood.

That was the reason why the mood was buoyant in Berlin Station these days. After years of constantly being on the back foot when it came to their dealings with the Germans, they were finally getting a chance to start to even the score.

Robert Hale didn’t feel like celebrating, unlike the colleagues he had resented for years he knew that there was still important work needing to be done. Unlike the flashy cloak and dagger nonsense which struck him as flirting with disaster, his job was to gather the information that the policy makers back in Washington needed to make proper decisions on matters of war and peace.

That involved going through numerous publications trying to get a feel for the public mood in Germany. The upcoming elections struck Robert as a lot of noise that signified nothing. German politics had been defined by center-left and center-right political parties that mostly agreed on all the truly important issues.

Flipping open the society page of one of Berlin’s many newspapers, Robert saw the announcement of the impending marriages of two of the grandchildren of the Prince-Elector of Silesia. The implications of groom in one of the couples was the son of the current Minister of the Interior and the bride was the daughter of the Commander in Chief of the Bohemian Military were staggering when mentioned in the context of the House of Richthofen. The other couple was the less glamorous granddaughter who was marrying the son of an Auto Worker. Oddly, it was the latter marriage that Robert was having trouble figuring out the implications of.
 
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Robert Hale: "I don't get it. Why is a member of the German nobility marrying the son of an auto mechanic? This doesn't make any sense. I mean, what's the angle here?"
Analyst 1: "Could just be a love match."
Analyst 2: "Don't be stupid. None of these aristocrats ever do anything without an angle."
Hale: "Exactly. Look here, her brother is marrying the daughter of the head of the Bohemian armed forces. That makes sense because it ties three powerful families with ties to the German and Bohemian Royal families closer together. But this one? I just don't see it."

File clerk (filing newspapers into storage): "Hmm. About time those two finally got married, they've certainly taken their time about it. Oh, and his sister's getting married too! That's sweet, and to a commoner too, just like her mother. That's going to make the family popular with the public. The Old Baron will certainly work that angle come the elections. I don't see Silesia flipping to another party in the Reichstag after this."
 
Oh Tatiana... You just failed your first field assignment.
You didn't do your homework, one of the first things you needed to do was to be able identify the local bigwigs on sight such as I don't know, maybe the Speaker of the House, "Big Bill" Stoughton who's district you are working in.
The Speaker is the second most powerful man in the United States only President Nixon is more powerful, and you just missed a chance to get some information.
Now that man that "Big Bill" was with was his Protégé, Rep. James Hendrix (D-WA) and "Big Bill" showing him off in his district is something that the Political Analysts back home would be very interested in,

On the upcoming weddings, King Michael would very much like to host the wedding of the daughter of the greatest war hero in Bohemian history and his wife the leading producer of "Quality" Films and Television Programs in Bohemia which has attracted a lot of productions (and Money) from around the world to Bohemia.
Of course, Suse Rosa will object to it, but doesn't she know that this is her mother's one chance to have the wedding of her dreams because she and her husband had the Honeymoon first and Suse Rosa was the product of that?

As for the wedding of the granddaughter of the Kurfurst of Silesia, this wedding will take place on his turf and the guests who will be attending are some of the most important people of the Empire and you can count on him to pull out all the stops to show off the respect that everybody has of him.
Of course, his daughter, the mother of the bride could if all breaks go a certain way become the next Chanceller of Germany, which kind of make up the fact that her husband is a lummox in his eyes.
 
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