Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III
- Thread starter Peabody-Martini
- Start date
Bas used public sources from newspapers to make it seem that it came from someone in an official capacity.
Oliver North was sceptical of it, but it did match with what the deep source that the CIA developed in the German government was telling them.
BTW the waitress at the coffee shop that Sir Malcolm and Bert Lane were at, is a CIA agent, and she was paying very close attention to what they were saying.
Oliver North was sceptical of it, but it did match with what the deep source that the CIA developed in the German government was telling them.
BTW the waitress at the coffee shop that Sir Malcolm and Bert Lane were at, is a CIA agent, and she was paying very close attention to what they were saying.
Not CIA, it's Marie trying to keep track of Grand Pere and making sure he is taking care of himself. One thing her and Margot can agree on and this is a way to at least be nice to one another.
Part 143, Chapter 2587
Chapter Two Thousand Five Hundred Eighty-Seven
17th October 1976
Breslau, Silesia
University was a huge adjustment for Bas. He recalled how Niko had once told him that he would surprise everyone if he went to University, despite his academic struggles, that was exactly what Bas had done. His father had told him that one word from him and he would be a Leutnant in the Marine Infantry if University didn’t work out, but he had made it rather clear to Bas that it was the preference of both of his parents that higher education be his main concern. Besides that, someone needed to be around to watch Niko’s back. Bas had heard about how Niko had made an enemy or two in Argentina. While Niko innately understood politics and was smarter than him, Niko often didn’t pay too much attention to those who had somehow lost his respect. Unfortunately, that included his Commanding Officer in the 3rd Hussars.
It had been following that conversation when his father had given him a book that he said Bas could learn a great deal from. It was the biography of a Second Century Roman Charioteer named Gaius Appuleius Diocles who had an astonishingly long career in an extremely dangerous sport and became the wealthiest athlete in all of history in the process. In the end Diocles had simply walked away and vanished from history, though it was believed that he had settled in Northern Italy and lived quietly for the rest of his life.
Bas had read the book in one sitting over a weekend, unable to put it down as he had read about the dangerous sport, how any distractions or bad luck could easily have fatal consequences. A single man with the reins tied around the waist to a team of four horses in the lightest possible chariot, often being involved in several races in a day. Bas had noticed that Diocles used strategy often letting his competitors eliminate themselves, basically being smart about how he approached each race.
He had shared his conclusions about what he thought his father wanted him to learn from the book in his latest letter to Henriette. It seemed like the sort of thing that she might be interested in as he had already discovered that she wasn’t particularly impressed by sport, even if she had seemed to enjoy watching him on the field. It was Bas’ hope that Henni might like that he was pursuing intellectual matters, or at least trying to. His worry was that he felt he was a bit hopeless in that regard. There was also the consideration that Henni was a year older than he was, Canadian, and she had Alice, so there was this gulf between them. It had not seemed to matter when he had been in Montreal, but now that they were limited to communicating via letters across the Atlantic it felt huge.
The last letter from Henriette had been in response to Bas writing about how Niko had been sore with him back in September after Niko had spent two weeks out in the weather subsisting on survival rations while Bas had been a Gofer at Headquarters. Niko had been unaware that Bas would have traded places with him in a heartbeat. Henni had said that Niko would get over it, and by the time the letter had arrived that much had been true, but a lot more had happened in the meantime. Niko had run into Monique Chanson socially. It had turned out that his Uncle Stefan was married to Nizhoni Horst, one of Monique’s cousins meaning that they had run into each other regularly over the last couple months.
Bas had written about all of that in the letter he had sent off a week earlier and it had crossed paths with Henriette’s latest letter. Lately she had written about attending Dawson College and how she was preparing for the big jump to McGill next year as a transfer student, finally getting her life on track. She mentioned the trips to the Lady’s Athletic Club in Montreal that she was a member of. She and Marie Alexandra made use of the heated indoor pool and it was wonderful, especially during the wintertime. Then Henni wrote about how she worried about Marie. She understood that Marie was painfully shy at times but was concerned that she was also lonely.
Bas didn’t have an answer for that. There had never been a time when Marie Alexandra had not been around during Bas’ childhood. Either at Aunt Kat’s house or on Opa von Richthofen’s estate and he had always thought of her as much a part of his family as his little sisters. It was the three of them. Marie, Niko, and Bas had all been born within a couple years of each other. Bas wrote all about the games that Marie always involved them in with her playing the role of Robin Hood, Alice Kingsleigh, or any one of dozens of others. It had been fun. That was until an incident that Bas remembered quite well, Marie and Niko having an argument over whether or not she could be one of Musketeers because she was a girl. Marie had been quite certain that Niko was wrong and that the books meant nothing because they were hardly living in Paris in the Seventeenth Century. A couple years later, Marie had taken on Niko in Fencing, beating him soundly in Sabers and Bas suspected that the memory of that argument had been behind the look of satisfaction on her face as she had embarrassed Niko in a sport that he had dominated in.
17th October 1976
Breslau, Silesia
University was a huge adjustment for Bas. He recalled how Niko had once told him that he would surprise everyone if he went to University, despite his academic struggles, that was exactly what Bas had done. His father had told him that one word from him and he would be a Leutnant in the Marine Infantry if University didn’t work out, but he had made it rather clear to Bas that it was the preference of both of his parents that higher education be his main concern. Besides that, someone needed to be around to watch Niko’s back. Bas had heard about how Niko had made an enemy or two in Argentina. While Niko innately understood politics and was smarter than him, Niko often didn’t pay too much attention to those who had somehow lost his respect. Unfortunately, that included his Commanding Officer in the 3rd Hussars.
It had been following that conversation when his father had given him a book that he said Bas could learn a great deal from. It was the biography of a Second Century Roman Charioteer named Gaius Appuleius Diocles who had an astonishingly long career in an extremely dangerous sport and became the wealthiest athlete in all of history in the process. In the end Diocles had simply walked away and vanished from history, though it was believed that he had settled in Northern Italy and lived quietly for the rest of his life.
Bas had read the book in one sitting over a weekend, unable to put it down as he had read about the dangerous sport, how any distractions or bad luck could easily have fatal consequences. A single man with the reins tied around the waist to a team of four horses in the lightest possible chariot, often being involved in several races in a day. Bas had noticed that Diocles used strategy often letting his competitors eliminate themselves, basically being smart about how he approached each race.
He had shared his conclusions about what he thought his father wanted him to learn from the book in his latest letter to Henriette. It seemed like the sort of thing that she might be interested in as he had already discovered that she wasn’t particularly impressed by sport, even if she had seemed to enjoy watching him on the field. It was Bas’ hope that Henni might like that he was pursuing intellectual matters, or at least trying to. His worry was that he felt he was a bit hopeless in that regard. There was also the consideration that Henni was a year older than he was, Canadian, and she had Alice, so there was this gulf between them. It had not seemed to matter when he had been in Montreal, but now that they were limited to communicating via letters across the Atlantic it felt huge.
The last letter from Henriette had been in response to Bas writing about how Niko had been sore with him back in September after Niko had spent two weeks out in the weather subsisting on survival rations while Bas had been a Gofer at Headquarters. Niko had been unaware that Bas would have traded places with him in a heartbeat. Henni had said that Niko would get over it, and by the time the letter had arrived that much had been true, but a lot more had happened in the meantime. Niko had run into Monique Chanson socially. It had turned out that his Uncle Stefan was married to Nizhoni Horst, one of Monique’s cousins meaning that they had run into each other regularly over the last couple months.
Bas had written about all of that in the letter he had sent off a week earlier and it had crossed paths with Henriette’s latest letter. Lately she had written about attending Dawson College and how she was preparing for the big jump to McGill next year as a transfer student, finally getting her life on track. She mentioned the trips to the Lady’s Athletic Club in Montreal that she was a member of. She and Marie Alexandra made use of the heated indoor pool and it was wonderful, especially during the wintertime. Then Henni wrote about how she worried about Marie. She understood that Marie was painfully shy at times but was concerned that she was also lonely.
Bas didn’t have an answer for that. There had never been a time when Marie Alexandra had not been around during Bas’ childhood. Either at Aunt Kat’s house or on Opa von Richthofen’s estate and he had always thought of her as much a part of his family as his little sisters. It was the three of them. Marie, Niko, and Bas had all been born within a couple years of each other. Bas wrote all about the games that Marie always involved them in with her playing the role of Robin Hood, Alice Kingsleigh, or any one of dozens of others. It had been fun. That was until an incident that Bas remembered quite well, Marie and Niko having an argument over whether or not she could be one of Musketeers because she was a girl. Marie had been quite certain that Niko was wrong and that the books meant nothing because they were hardly living in Paris in the Seventeenth Century. A couple years later, Marie had taken on Niko in Fencing, beating him soundly in Sabers and Bas suspected that the memory of that argument had been behind the look of satisfaction on her face as she had embarrassed Niko in a sport that he had dominated in.
@Peabody-Martini a Facebook advert for a gig with The Moondogs. They appear to have gone into Ska in OTL.
It's at a Social Club in Leicester, UK in a few weeks.
It's at a Social Club in Leicester, UK in a few weeks.
IOTL one of the names that the Beatles had before they settled on that name was Johnny and the Moondogs, so it wasn't something I made up.
Part 143, Chapter 2588
Chapter Two Thousand Five Hundred Eighty-Eight
2nd November 1976
Montreal, Canada
The evening news was on television when Marie got home, and Richard Nixon was speaking. To absolutely no one’s surprise the election in the United States was a complete blowout that had been called not long after the polls closed on the East Coast and he was thanking the American public for a renewed mandate, to take them all to a bright future with unity and shared prosperity. Marie tried not to show her reaction to the real cynicism that was masked by Nixon’s tone. Her feeling was that the real truth was in the sort of campaign that had been waged. This had been followed by the concession speech by Gerald Ford who had just suffered one of the worst electoral defeats in his nation’s history.
Then the news shifted to the continued fallout from the string of arrests that had occurred a few weeks earlier in the United States. Marie’s understanding was that someone in her own Government had stepped wrong and allowed Nixon to demonize the whole of Germany in the final days of the election. The prior weekend, The Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live had featured Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase discussing at length that what had happened was a remarkable set of circumstances that had happened totally by coincidence and that there was nothing at all suspicious about the timing, with a wink and a nod. That had been following a sketch which supposedly was at an “America First” meeting where everyone present was speaking with a badly done European accent of some sort.
The trouble for Marie was that these recent events affected how she lived her own life. Her grandfather had warned her that certain activities would be regarded as extremely suspicious and unless she wanted to cause him a great deal of trouble she would stop. Sir Malcolm wasn’t like her grandmother, Marie cared about what he thought and knew that he wasn’t speaking out of turn. Someone must have told him something and he had taken the time to warn her. Still, Marie felt stuck. She was used to changing her appearance to suit her moods or just for a needed shift in perspective. Marie found that keeping the same appearance all the time was uncomfortable. She had also realized that accidental interview she had given the local News Channel had been a mistake because that had revealed to her grandfather that she did that.
“Hello Marie” Margot said absently as she noticed Marie watching from the doorway.
“None of this is exactly news” Marie said as she joined her grandmother on the couch. Sir Malcolm was dozing in his chair, typically what he did after supper most nights.
“Yes” Margot replied, “But it is still important.”
With that the news switched to a different story, this one about the attempted military coup that happened in Belarus and the resulting civil war. A helicopter painted green was seen flying low over the city of Minsk as green tracers flew past it in grainy video footage. Marie felt that it was a far more important story than the reelection of Richard Nixon.
“Robert Lane left a message for you” Margot said as the news mercifully switched to tomorrows weather forecast.
“Not Henni?” Marie asked.
“No, just Robert” Margot replied, Marie didn’t know if Margot would have even taken the call if it had been Henriette.
“Did he say what he wanted?” Marie asked.
Margot just shrugged.
Marie’s grandmother had become completely uninterested what Marie was doing in recent weeks. She might have complained, but that was actually an improvement.
Minsk, Belarus
Two things had happened over the last few weeks. The first was that Manfred the Younger had finally been promoted to Oberstleutnant after years of being a Public Relations Officer in the 140th Regiment in the 4th Panzer Division. The second was that he had been sent to Belarus to act as a Military Advisor to the Government as they fought the Junta who had attempted to overthrow them just a few weeks earlier.
This had come at a particularly bad time for Manny because he had Suse Rosa to contend with. Not only did she absolutely hate being pregnant, Suse had made it abundantly clear that if Manny missed the birth of their child he would be served with divorce papers. He knew that she wasn’t bluffing, and it was part of family history how his own mother had reacted when his father had been called away and she had been pregnant with Ina.
It was Manny’s Uncle Albrecht and Aunt Ilse who had become the biggest help to him during this present situation. Albrecht was basically the King of Silesia these days and he had pointed out that Manny represented what was a cadet branch of the House of Richthofen. So, they had no objections to having Suse come to Breslau. Ilse had been able to get through to Suse that what had happened was beyond their control.
That was a comfort as Manny looked through his binoculars at the urban fight that was happening in the distance. While the bulk of the Belarusian Army had remained in the barracks when the coup had happened, a substantial portion of them had joined the Junta after the initial putsch had failed. That their numbers had been bolstered by Russian “volunteers” was not a secret. Nor was it a secret that the Army in Ukraine had gone on high alert at the same time this had happened. The situation was far more complicated than it had first appeared.
2nd November 1976
Montreal, Canada
The evening news was on television when Marie got home, and Richard Nixon was speaking. To absolutely no one’s surprise the election in the United States was a complete blowout that had been called not long after the polls closed on the East Coast and he was thanking the American public for a renewed mandate, to take them all to a bright future with unity and shared prosperity. Marie tried not to show her reaction to the real cynicism that was masked by Nixon’s tone. Her feeling was that the real truth was in the sort of campaign that had been waged. This had been followed by the concession speech by Gerald Ford who had just suffered one of the worst electoral defeats in his nation’s history.
Then the news shifted to the continued fallout from the string of arrests that had occurred a few weeks earlier in the United States. Marie’s understanding was that someone in her own Government had stepped wrong and allowed Nixon to demonize the whole of Germany in the final days of the election. The prior weekend, The Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live had featured Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase discussing at length that what had happened was a remarkable set of circumstances that had happened totally by coincidence and that there was nothing at all suspicious about the timing, with a wink and a nod. That had been following a sketch which supposedly was at an “America First” meeting where everyone present was speaking with a badly done European accent of some sort.
The trouble for Marie was that these recent events affected how she lived her own life. Her grandfather had warned her that certain activities would be regarded as extremely suspicious and unless she wanted to cause him a great deal of trouble she would stop. Sir Malcolm wasn’t like her grandmother, Marie cared about what he thought and knew that he wasn’t speaking out of turn. Someone must have told him something and he had taken the time to warn her. Still, Marie felt stuck. She was used to changing her appearance to suit her moods or just for a needed shift in perspective. Marie found that keeping the same appearance all the time was uncomfortable. She had also realized that accidental interview she had given the local News Channel had been a mistake because that had revealed to her grandfather that she did that.
“Hello Marie” Margot said absently as she noticed Marie watching from the doorway.
“None of this is exactly news” Marie said as she joined her grandmother on the couch. Sir Malcolm was dozing in his chair, typically what he did after supper most nights.
“Yes” Margot replied, “But it is still important.”
With that the news switched to a different story, this one about the attempted military coup that happened in Belarus and the resulting civil war. A helicopter painted green was seen flying low over the city of Minsk as green tracers flew past it in grainy video footage. Marie felt that it was a far more important story than the reelection of Richard Nixon.
“Robert Lane left a message for you” Margot said as the news mercifully switched to tomorrows weather forecast.
“Not Henni?” Marie asked.
“No, just Robert” Margot replied, Marie didn’t know if Margot would have even taken the call if it had been Henriette.
“Did he say what he wanted?” Marie asked.
Margot just shrugged.
Marie’s grandmother had become completely uninterested what Marie was doing in recent weeks. She might have complained, but that was actually an improvement.
Minsk, Belarus
Two things had happened over the last few weeks. The first was that Manfred the Younger had finally been promoted to Oberstleutnant after years of being a Public Relations Officer in the 140th Regiment in the 4th Panzer Division. The second was that he had been sent to Belarus to act as a Military Advisor to the Government as they fought the Junta who had attempted to overthrow them just a few weeks earlier.
This had come at a particularly bad time for Manny because he had Suse Rosa to contend with. Not only did she absolutely hate being pregnant, Suse had made it abundantly clear that if Manny missed the birth of their child he would be served with divorce papers. He knew that she wasn’t bluffing, and it was part of family history how his own mother had reacted when his father had been called away and she had been pregnant with Ina.
It was Manny’s Uncle Albrecht and Aunt Ilse who had become the biggest help to him during this present situation. Albrecht was basically the King of Silesia these days and he had pointed out that Manny represented what was a cadet branch of the House of Richthofen. So, they had no objections to having Suse come to Breslau. Ilse had been able to get through to Suse that what had happened was beyond their control.
That was a comfort as Manny looked through his binoculars at the urban fight that was happening in the distance. While the bulk of the Belarusian Army had remained in the barracks when the coup had happened, a substantial portion of them had joined the Junta after the initial putsch had failed. That their numbers had been bolstered by Russian “volunteers” was not a secret. Nor was it a secret that the Army in Ukraine had gone on high alert at the same time this had happened. The situation was far more complicated than it had first appeared.
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Some Stray Observations:
Nixon is known as "Tricky Dick" because of the way he maneuvered the Republicans to pick the weakest possible Presidential nominee against him, first he got the GOP to pick Gov. Agnew who was suspected by some to have potential ethics shortcomings, then four years later he was able to run against one of the leading figures in the America First movement, Gov. Ford of Michigan, who on paper as a fiscally conservative, Pro-Civil Rights moderate, would have very difficult to beat in a straight up election, his isolationism made him vulnerable to charges that he was a dupe of the Germans and the fact the the very organization he founded as a student at Yale Law School was thoroughly compromised by the BND didn't help.
Nixon will be able to extract more favorable concessions from the Germans in the next round of Arms Control negotiations and trade talks.
Bas is much smarter then thinks he is, and more importantly, he is much smarter the others think he is, which makes him that more dangerous to deal with in the future.
Nixon is known as "Tricky Dick" because of the way he maneuvered the Republicans to pick the weakest possible Presidential nominee against him, first he got the GOP to pick Gov. Agnew who was suspected by some to have potential ethics shortcomings, then four years later he was able to run against one of the leading figures in the America First movement, Gov. Ford of Michigan, who on paper as a fiscally conservative, Pro-Civil Rights moderate, would have very difficult to beat in a straight up election, his isolationism made him vulnerable to charges that he was a dupe of the Germans and the fact the the very organization he founded as a student at Yale Law School was thoroughly compromised by the BND didn't help.
Nixon will be able to extract more favorable concessions from the Germans in the next round of Arms Control negotiations and trade talks.
Bas is much smarter then thinks he is, and more importantly, he is much smarter the others think he is, which makes him that more dangerous to deal with in the future.
Bas has been taught by his Father, his Mother, honorary OPA V. Richtofen, his actual Grandmother, His Uncles, Honorary Aunt and Uncle the parents of Niko, Manfred the younger, Marie, Tatiania, Malcolm the younger, Reiger( and if his mother knew that, oh boy) assorted people in school, and finally you just know sometime Kat herself set down and gave him the talk.
Part 143, Chapter 1589
Chapter Two Thousand Five Hundred Eighty-Nine
6th November 1976
Whitby, Ontario
“If you want to prove that you really are as clever and talented as your grandfather says you are, you’ll make your own invitation this weekend” Bert Lane had told Marie Alexandra a few days earlier. “Just tell Mr. Mayne that I sent you when, or should we say if, you get into his office.”
Then he had given Marie an address located near Toronto on the shore of Lake Ontario that curiously was a blank spot on the map. She recognized that he was trying to entice her with a challenge, one that was several hours out of her way. It was also abundantly clear from the sort of nearby rail infrastructure was a lot more than just empty space because it was exactly what would be necessary if heavy equipment was moved in and out of there. Marie understood that it would be incredibly stupid to go anywhere near such a place and if Bert Lane knew she was coming then so would everyone else. Yet still there she was having taken the train to Toronto the night before and then the bus out to the small suburb of Whitby.
Marie knew that if she was really expected, then they would be looking for a twenty-year-old woman with long red hair. Regrettably, Marie’s normal appearance was a rarity, a key part of the reason she disliked it so much. That was why she had worn a black wig on the long journey from Montreal. The cold November weather had been that the bulky wool coat she had worn had drawn little notice and it had made her age and physical description difficult to ascertain. She had ditched the coat and wig in Toronto and had switched to the trashy blond look she had used the summer before in Montreal. The idea of that was one that her mother had once told her about. If she couldn’t hide who she was, then she needed to make it work in her favor. That was why she was outside the gates of what was doubtlessly a military installation of some kind shivering in clothes that were for someone far more concerned with their appearance rather than the climate. The only nod to the weather was the thin University of Montreal sweatshirt which didn’t do much beyond providing a bit of misdirection in case this didn’t work and she had to run.
“I’m looking for that piece of shit Billy Gagnon” Marie said with as much venom as she could muster as soon as she got close to the guard at the gate, she knew of several men in Montreal named William Gagnon so the odds of one being here were extremely high. “I know he works here in all that hush-hush stuff, yeah. Apparently that includes not telling me that he is married.”
The guard gulped when Marie said that bit about hush-hush, it was just a guess on her part but apparently it was a good one. Still, that didn’t stop him from trying to look down the front of her shirt. Her mother had pointedly warned her since she had reached adolescence that men were stupid that way. There were rumors that her mother had used it as a distraction during the Soviet War, often with a fatal result for those distracted. Marie wasn’t her mother. She didn’t have it in her to shoot people in the head no matter how much they might have it coming. Instead, she used the small device hidden in the sleeve of her sweatshirt and pressed the two needlelike probes into his side.
The guard froze as thousands of volts of electricity coursed through him. When Marie stepped back, he fell to the ground twitching. It looked exactly like someone having a seizure. “If I could get some help here!” Marie shouted drawing the attention of everyone within earshot.
“What happened?” One of the other soldiers, this one wearing the stripes of a Sergeant demanded.
“I was talking to him, and he just fell over” Marie said in a panicked voice. “Twitching and stuff. Is he okay?”
“About what?”
“That’s none of your business” Marie said, shifting her tone to being indignant.
The Sergeant face grew cloudy before he grabbed Marie’s arm and yanked her past the guard post, through the gates and into the installation. “I’ll be the judge of that” He muttered as he dragged Marie across what must be a parade ground and into a musty building. Marie was acutely aware of how she was breaking one of her mother’s most important rules; That most men were bigger and stronger than her, so never, ever let them have the upper hand. Of course, Marie also had been told by her mother that there were times when she needed to break the rules.
As they passed into what looked like an administrative building, they got more than a few curious looks, before the Sergeant shoved Marie into a room with Bert Lane and an unfamiliar man who was roughly the same age having a discussion. The two men paused to stare at them as the Sergeant snapped to attention.
“You warned us of an infiltrator” The Sergeant said, “I think she did something to the man on guard duty.”
“Then you are a fucking idiot” The man with Bert said, with an Irish accent.
“What Colonel Mayne is trying to say is that her instructions were to get in here” Bert said, “No one said how.”
“What is this all about?” Marie asked, having had enough as she removed the bleach-blond wig.
“Welcome to Special Training School Number 103, which also happens to be the home of more than a few secrets” Bert replied, “I was just telling the Colonel about how I dared the daughter of the Tigress of Pankow to test our security.”
Mayne just laughed and the Sergeant looked at her like if she were a live snake that had just slithered into the room.
6th November 1976
Whitby, Ontario
“If you want to prove that you really are as clever and talented as your grandfather says you are, you’ll make your own invitation this weekend” Bert Lane had told Marie Alexandra a few days earlier. “Just tell Mr. Mayne that I sent you when, or should we say if, you get into his office.”
Then he had given Marie an address located near Toronto on the shore of Lake Ontario that curiously was a blank spot on the map. She recognized that he was trying to entice her with a challenge, one that was several hours out of her way. It was also abundantly clear from the sort of nearby rail infrastructure was a lot more than just empty space because it was exactly what would be necessary if heavy equipment was moved in and out of there. Marie understood that it would be incredibly stupid to go anywhere near such a place and if Bert Lane knew she was coming then so would everyone else. Yet still there she was having taken the train to Toronto the night before and then the bus out to the small suburb of Whitby.
Marie knew that if she was really expected, then they would be looking for a twenty-year-old woman with long red hair. Regrettably, Marie’s normal appearance was a rarity, a key part of the reason she disliked it so much. That was why she had worn a black wig on the long journey from Montreal. The cold November weather had been that the bulky wool coat she had worn had drawn little notice and it had made her age and physical description difficult to ascertain. She had ditched the coat and wig in Toronto and had switched to the trashy blond look she had used the summer before in Montreal. The idea of that was one that her mother had once told her about. If she couldn’t hide who she was, then she needed to make it work in her favor. That was why she was outside the gates of what was doubtlessly a military installation of some kind shivering in clothes that were for someone far more concerned with their appearance rather than the climate. The only nod to the weather was the thin University of Montreal sweatshirt which didn’t do much beyond providing a bit of misdirection in case this didn’t work and she had to run.
“I’m looking for that piece of shit Billy Gagnon” Marie said with as much venom as she could muster as soon as she got close to the guard at the gate, she knew of several men in Montreal named William Gagnon so the odds of one being here were extremely high. “I know he works here in all that hush-hush stuff, yeah. Apparently that includes not telling me that he is married.”
The guard gulped when Marie said that bit about hush-hush, it was just a guess on her part but apparently it was a good one. Still, that didn’t stop him from trying to look down the front of her shirt. Her mother had pointedly warned her since she had reached adolescence that men were stupid that way. There were rumors that her mother had used it as a distraction during the Soviet War, often with a fatal result for those distracted. Marie wasn’t her mother. She didn’t have it in her to shoot people in the head no matter how much they might have it coming. Instead, she used the small device hidden in the sleeve of her sweatshirt and pressed the two needlelike probes into his side.
The guard froze as thousands of volts of electricity coursed through him. When Marie stepped back, he fell to the ground twitching. It looked exactly like someone having a seizure. “If I could get some help here!” Marie shouted drawing the attention of everyone within earshot.
“What happened?” One of the other soldiers, this one wearing the stripes of a Sergeant demanded.
“I was talking to him, and he just fell over” Marie said in a panicked voice. “Twitching and stuff. Is he okay?”
“About what?”
“That’s none of your business” Marie said, shifting her tone to being indignant.
The Sergeant face grew cloudy before he grabbed Marie’s arm and yanked her past the guard post, through the gates and into the installation. “I’ll be the judge of that” He muttered as he dragged Marie across what must be a parade ground and into a musty building. Marie was acutely aware of how she was breaking one of her mother’s most important rules; That most men were bigger and stronger than her, so never, ever let them have the upper hand. Of course, Marie also had been told by her mother that there were times when she needed to break the rules.
As they passed into what looked like an administrative building, they got more than a few curious looks, before the Sergeant shoved Marie into a room with Bert Lane and an unfamiliar man who was roughly the same age having a discussion. The two men paused to stare at them as the Sergeant snapped to attention.
“You warned us of an infiltrator” The Sergeant said, “I think she did something to the man on guard duty.”
“Then you are a fucking idiot” The man with Bert said, with an Irish accent.
“What Colonel Mayne is trying to say is that her instructions were to get in here” Bert said, “No one said how.”
“What is this all about?” Marie asked, having had enough as she removed the bleach-blond wig.
“Welcome to Special Training School Number 103, which also happens to be the home of more than a few secrets” Bert replied, “I was just telling the Colonel about how I dared the daughter of the Tigress of Pankow to test our security.”
Mayne just laughed and the Sergeant looked at her like if she were a live snake that had just slithered into the room.
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I was trying to think of where I heard the name Mayne, reading your comment helped me remeber the show I was watching 2 weeks ago, SAS: Rogue Heroes. Intersting show; based on the "true" story of the begining of the SAS.
Kat is going to kill them. Slowly. Unless Marie is just hired to teach others how to hide themselves in plain sight, or to how identify those who are. Then Kat MIGHT just settle for maiming them.
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I think that Mr. Lane wanted to use Marie as a test of base security, but that won’t mean that Sir Malcolm or Kat will excuse him unless he promises that this was a one off thing.
Marie on her part, just wanted to see if she could do it.
I suspect that Kat and Sir Malcolm will have a talk with Marie about not getting involved in that world.
While Marie is in Toronto, she should take in a show at the Second City Improvisation Theater where the likes of John Candy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, are still preforming.
Marie on her part, just wanted to see if she could do it.
I suspect that Kat and Sir Malcolm will have a talk with Marie about not getting involved in that world.
While Marie is in Toronto, she should take in a show at the Second City Improvisation Theater where the likes of John Candy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, are still preforming.