Chapter Two Thousand Three Hundred Eighty-Seven
11th July 1975
In Transit, Over the English Channel
Jack supposed that Marie Alexandra must be used to the slings and arrows of international travel and airlines. Taking a private jet from Dublin to Berlin was very different from that and she had seemed surprised at every step along the way. After Marie had spent an evening showing extraordinary tolerance towards Jacqueline, the least that he could do was let her tag along on a flight that he had planned on taking to Berlin anyway.
Presently, she was sitting in her seat with her eyes closed wearing headphones and murmuring words in a language that Jack could hardly speak but recognized all too well. In the sunlight streaming in through the window, she almost looked angelic. Through a quirk in genetics, Marie strongly favored her father in her appearance with a heart shaped face and high cheekbones. The red hair and her eyes were inherited from her mother. Anyone who had ever seen those blue eyes staring coldly at them found it hard to forget, though Jack didn’t find Marie to be cold. Kat had once told him that she thought Marie was a lot like who she might have been if things had been different. There was probably a bit of truth in that, though Jack was reminded of a proverb about how God tended to both give and take.
“Why is a German girl trying to learn Gaeilge?” Jack asked.
Marie opened her eyes, removed the headphones from her ears so that they were hanging around her neck, and hit stop on the small tape player, a wonder of engineering not much larger than the cassette tapes it played. Marie had brought dozens of tapes with her, mostly for learning languages but music as well. Jack could see the Sony and Stereo emblazoned on the front of its plastic case. Marie had mentioned that she been given the tape player from Princess Kristina as a gift. The Princess frequently received products from the Sony Corporation before they were offered to the general public, this was apparently one of those things.
“Excuse me?” Marie asked, “Did you say something?”
“I heard you asking for directions to the nearest bus stop” Jack replied, “And was wondering why you are studying that particular language.”
“It interests me” Marie replied, “And I was just in Ireland, when in Rome.”
“I see” Jack said, starting to wonder if even he had not fully understood Marie’s abilities. He had heard that she was a Polyglot, but just what did that mean? “How many languages do you speak?”
Marie took a minute to think about it. “English, of course” She said, that happened to be the language they were speaking that minute. “German, French, Metropolitan and Quebecois, I grew up with the latter. Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, though I have struggled a bit with some of the Southern dialects. Spanish and Italian were easy after learning Latin in School. I also learned Greek in School. I have been trying to learn Arabic, but study materials of that are a bit hard to find and I haven’t met many native speakers, that is the same problem I ran into when I was learning Swahili. I would like to study Vietnamese and… What?”
Jack must not have been able to hide his growing disbelief.
“I was just thinking that in many respects you are just as formidable as your mother” Jack said, “She was also frequently underestimated as well.”
“Is that why you tried to kidnap her?” Marie asked.
Jack felt a bit embarrassed that Marie knew about that but realized that this was one of those times when candor was warranted.
“The US State Department was concerned that American interests were going to be disrupted by the actions of General von Holz. I was working with Naval Intelligence at the time, and it was felt that your mother was the weak link in that operation.” Jack replied, “The intention was to question her and then let her go.”
“What idiot came up with that plan?” Marie said with a barely suppressed giggle. If Jack had known then what he knew now, he would have understood that the entire scheme amounted to almost suicidal stupidity.
“Paul Finley” Jack replied, “My so-called superior who sprung that on me at the last second so I couldn’t talk him out of it, and we narrowly avoided being prosecuted by the Australians. The Navy used what your mother did to me as an excuse to get rid of me, medical discharge, and I had little choice but to get a one-way ticket on a ship to Ireland.”
“I see” Marie replied, “I only knew my mother’s version.”
“What is different about her version of events?” Jack asked.
“She said that she was happy that the two of you provided a welcome diversion from her companion that night who she had been about to thump” Marie said, “She also mentioned being pleased that she avoided getting blood on her dress.”
“That sounds like her” Jack replied, “I recall that she was wearing a loose, cream-colored dress with a green sash around her waist, it really would have been a shame to ruin it.”
Marie paused for a second.
“She gave me that dress a few years ago and insisted that I try it on so that she could see how it looked” Marie said, “She said she got it in Australia, but didn’t tell me the whole story.”
“There are a number of things that I am sure your mother would like to tell you, but she has sworn to keep them secret. In some cases, forever.” Jack said, “There is a reason why she has been my client for so long. I am one of the few people who understands her as Kat, the woman from Pankow-Heinersdorf, as opposed to her titles and that nickname that has stuck with her for decades.”
“Die Tigerin” Marie said softly, her voice hardly heard over the sound of the engines of the airplane.
