Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Thirty-Four



7th December 1970

Estancia María, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

It had started with an argument between Doctor von Preussen and the Sergeant in charge of her security after he had received a radio transmission and had come back furious. Ernesto had hardly been able to understand the rapid-fire German that had gone back and forth. It had sounded like he had accused her of withholding information about something that Ernesto had been unable to catch. She had said that it was impossible, she hadn’t been with anyone since she had left Germany and that a mistake must have been made. Did she look like she was six-months along and wouldn’t she be the first to know? The Sergeant had turned and told her that he wasn’t alone in being tired of her constant lies and self-destructive behavior, so it didn’t matter what she was. The other three men present had agreed with that assessment. All of that was beside the point because with the Chileans coming. They were going back to Rio Gallegos that instant, and he was not going to listen to any more bullshit.

Ernesto was given the choice of either going with them or walking. That was how he had found himself in the backseat of the Iltis as the Sergeant, the Corporal who was driving were in the front and the other two men who were different flavors of Lance Corporal were riding in the back with the remaining supplies. They had done this to prevent Kristina from jumping out the back when they came to a stop. It seemed that she had done that sort of thing before and they were not taking any chances.

Over the last couple months, Ernesto had observed Doctor von Preussen and had found that she was not to his liking. She was beautiful, however he found her to be boring. She was entirely too straitlaced, driven, and married. Watching her get thrown into the back of an Iltis like a sack of flour because of things that she had done in the past revealed that she apparently had a bit more depth than he had thought.

It had been on the road back to Rio Gallegos where the things had really gone sideways with the appearance of the Chilean Airforce. The Iltis had been strafed, Ernesto remembered the sound of shells hitting the bonnet and exploding, seconds before the Corporal had lost control of the vehicle and it had careened into the ditch on the side of the road. Ernesto must have hit his head because everything had gone black at that point. When he came to, he saw that the Iltis was resting on its side and that Kiki was standing with a pair of Gauchos who had come to help. The Corporal and the Sergeant had been torn apart by shell fragments and the two in the back had been thrown from the vehicle when it had crashed, that had ended badly for them.

To Ernesto’s surprise Doctor von Preussen was weeping for the men who had been so abrupt with her just a couple hours earlier. The Iltis was a total loss, that included much of the equipment that they’d had and especially the radio. Ernesto had figured that they were sort of screwed at that point, but it had not been until they had arrived at Estancia María that the full picture became clearer. It was not good. There were entire armies between them and any sort of safety. The people here knew Doctor von Preussen from the medical missions and saw helping her as a means of returning that debt. What had surprised him, but really shouldn’t have was that she had ditched her uniform for civilian clothes worn by the of the people in this region shortly later though she still was more than happy to be a Physician. It showed what she really considered her profession to be. The military rank was just superficial trappings and if she needed to dispense with it in order to hide until she had a workable plan, that wasn’t a problem. Ernesto could also see that she looked the part of a local woman with her dark hair and her blue eyes were not out of place. There were a lot of people in Patagonia descended from Welsh and German-Swiss settlers from the prior century about. The trouble was the way she walked, like if she owned whatever place she happened to be and when she opened her mouth, she couldn’t help but sounding urbane and educated.

“I know a lot about head injuries” Doctor von Preussen had said, when Ernesto had asked why she was putting up with him not contributing much for the first couple days.

“How is that?” Ernesto asked, half-jokingly.

“What happened a couple days ago wasn’t the first time someone tried to kill me” Doctor von Preussen replied, “One of the other times left me with a skull fracture. At least this time, it was simply being in the wrong place, impersonal, you know.”

That was a shocking detail about her. He would have thought that the daughter of the German Kaiser led a sort of charmed life. It seemed that Doctor von Preussen’s life was anything but that. As for what that argument with the Sergeant had been about, she waved that off. “Those jackals have not honored a single boundary of mine since I arrived in this wasteland” She said, “I would not put messing with the results of a blood sample to cause me trouble past them. Especially if they think that the result could get me sent home.”

Ernesto couldn’t imagine having to consider that and had said as much to Doctor von Preussen. He had also called her that and she had asked him not to. If they were stuck together, they might as well be friends and her friends called her Kiki. It was an odd request from her.

“It’s a nickname” Kiki said when Ernesto asked about it. “One my brothers gave me.”

“Deal then” Ernesto replied, “Only if you call me Che.”

“Why would you want that?” Kiki asked.

“Why would you want to be called Kiki?” He asked in reply.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Thirty-Five



21st December 1970

Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport

First a telegram and then a form letter informing Ben of things he already knew. Kiki had gone missing on the 4th of December in Argentina, and the Ministry of War said that they would notify him when they had further information, presumably from the Chilean Government. Then nothing for the next several days. He had gone to the Chilean Embassy and had refused to leave until he got answers. Eventually, using the title as Burggraf of Balderschwang he had tried to get through to the Chilean Ambassador to argue his case.

Kiki was one of the most harmless and caring people Ben knew, all she wanted was to help people. If the Chilean Military had her, it was because she was on a medical mission at the time. Instead of listening to him, they had thrown him out, but not before giving him the runaround. It was at that point that his brother-in-law told him to cut it out. They were working through diplomatic channels to find out what had happened, and his actions were not helping. The entire time he’d had the feeling that something was going on that Friedrich wasn’t telling him.

Finally, enough was enough. They had made the mistake of not taking him seriously and underestimating him at every turn.

Walking through the open doors of the hanger, Ben looked at the Black Knight. The aircrew had fitted her with three large ferry tanks for the long journey ahead. If the Chileans, and even Kiki’s brother, wanted to play games with him them they were about to find out that he was actually the sort who could change the rules if he wanted. And he knew for certain that they were going to be begging him to stop if they didn’t become a lot more forthcoming in a hurry.



Estancia María, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

It came as no surprise to Jesus Aiza that the Argentine side of the border looked exactly the same as the Chilean side. The difference as he had discovered was that in this side there were people shooting at him at every turn. In the weeks since the war had started, the Army had swiftly discovered that they had a problem with partisans who knew every detail of the land they were fighting on.

Getting sent to the rear to help with this problem was seen at first as a godsend to Jesus and his men who had fought against boredom on the outskirts of Rio Gallegos. They had been swiftly disabused of this notion as they had suffered from repeated hit and run attacks and ambushes in unlikely places. It felt like they were chasing ghosts and not getting to the root of the problem. So, it was fortuitous that Intelligence finally came through regarding the suspected location of a German BND Hunter/Killer Team. It was what Intelligence regarded as the monster under the bed, for obvious reasons. They said that such teams usually had four or five members and they could look like anyone so be cautious. He brought along a half dozen of his men who were all armed with the automatic rifles that had the name Eugene Stoner stamped on the lower receivers for some reason. He had seen what those rifles could do if anyone were stupid enough to cause trouble. So, a small team of German soldier-spies didn’t scare him.

Pulling into the sheep station, Jesus looked with disgust at the small buildings made of wood that was heavily weathered and covered in peeling paint. It was a poor place in a country that was full of such places. The only reason for its existence was the river that flowed by. It was a wonder that people lived in a place like this, it certainly didn’t look habitable from his perspective. Getting out of his jeep, he walked over and started pounding on the door. He was surprised by the woman who answered.

“Is there an emergency?” She asked, Jesus couldn’t help but notice that she spoke with an instantly recognizable accent as he pushed his way into the laborer’s hut.

“No, Siniora” Jesus replied, “We have had reports of partisan activity.”

“Doctora” The woman said, correcting him. “This is a medical mission that has been complicated by your war, which I want no part in.”

Jesus stood there awkwardly. There was nothing to see here. Just a bed, a table, a few chairs, and a stove to heat the place.

“While you understand our nations are not formally at war” Jesus replied, “The are certain considerations that need to be taken. If I could see your papers, please.”

With a bit of reluctance, she handed him a passport that had an identification card in the fold. It identified her as Kristina Fischer and gave a street address in Berlin as her residence. The ID card was from something called Universitätsklinikum Friedrich-Wilhelm and had a picture which matched the passport photo. His saw the blue “Star of Life” symbol for Medical Personnel throughout the world printed on it, which was consistent with what she said she was. Then he noticed another symbol, one he had only seen once in a movie a few years earlier. An eagle with outstretched wings superimposed over a compass rose and wreath, German Special Forces FSR.

Jesus reached out and grabbed a fist full of the woman’s hair and twisted it. Outraged that she had tried to gull him like this.

“Where is the rest of your team?” Jesus demanded.

“There is no team” She replied, her voice filled with pain.

Then Jesus noted a sharp pain spreading from his arm and saw something flash in her hand below his chin. He was unable to say a word or take a breath as the strength went out of his legs and he crumbled to the floor.

----------------------------------------------------------------

“It wouldn’t have killed you to have left me alone” Kiki said as she heard the rifle fire outside as the Chilean Lieutenant’s men were swiftly dealt with. Her attempt at a bluff had clearly failed.

It was not as if the Lieutenant could answer her as he was leaning against the wall in a spreading pool of blood. She had cut the vagus nerve in his neck just after severing his brachial artery. It really hurt her to use her medical knowledge this way, but he had given her little choice. She had hoped to wait out this mess in this isolated location, but that plan clearly wasn’t going to work, Kiki thought to herself as she wiped the blood off her karambit.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Thirty-Six



25th December 1970

Rural Santa Cruz Province

“This is the worst birthday ever” Kiki finally said when Che asked her why she seemed so upset.

They had been walking cross country in a generally north-western direction for the last few days after they had left the Estancia. The rolling hills of the Patagonian Steppe made for slow going. They were also avoiding roads, hopefully Chilean patrols as well, and moving in a direction that any pursuers wouldn’t expect. Kiki had never paid a whole lot of attention about how heavy her medical bag was, but with the shoulder strap cutting into her, it was sort of hard to ignore. Che suggested that she leave it behind and she had burst into tears. That bag, a gift from her father, was a part of who she was. Kiki could no sooner leave behind her left arm. All the frustrations of the previous days had boiled over, especially when she realized what day it was.

“This sheep infested country is just an awful place” Kiki sobbed, “It took me away from the people I love. Left me stuck in the middle of nowhere. Then there are the nightmares that I’ve had since I got here.”

“Nightmares?” Che asked. He had observed that she was a restless sleeper over the last few weeks they had been stuck together. Was that actually out of the ordinary? He was also aware that she had a pistol and a small, razor sharp knife she wasn’t afraid to use. So, waking her up was out of the question.

“I started having them about the time I arrived in this God forsaken country” Kiki said as she kicked a rock and it rolled away down the hillside ahead of them. “That was back in August. The greatest hits are waking up as someone else, my teeth falling out, and finally, the one where my husband and oldest brother are trying to kill each other.”

“I am not a Psychiatrist” Che said, “It sounds to me like you should speak to one of them about that sort of thing. And happy birthday by the way. How old are you now? If you don’t me asking.”

Che didn’t really care how she was, it was just something to stop her from the spiral of self-pity that he had seen her enter into once before, just after she had dropped that Chilean Officer. It seemed like there were moments when she was determined to be miserable and be a pain to everyone else unfortunate enough to be around her.

“Twenty-nine” Kiki replied and that was when a pair of jetfighters streaked across the sky. “My idiot husband flies those.”

“I doubt he’s an idiot if he flies one of those” Che said.

“With me out here and out of communication with my Regiment, he’s going to be in a state” Kiki said, “He is going to want to come looking for me, but he can’t, not on his own. That is where him being an idiot comes in. The Oberst in charge of his Air Wing is going to ask who wants to volunteer to come to Argentina and Benjamin will be the first to raise his hand. That is the sort of predictably idiotic behavior I’m talking about.”

“And here I was thinking that romance was dead” Che said.

“Romance is hardly romantic if it gets you killed” Kiki replied.

“That is an amazing thing coming from a Princess” Che said with a smirk, “Don’t let Disney hear you.”

“Seriously, fuck Disney” Kiki said, her previously morose attitude was gone. “Do you have any idea how much trouble those people have caused me? And for anyone who thinks my life is romantic. Does any of this shit look romantic to you?”

She gestured to the landscape ahead of them. A lot of dirt and scrub brush, however, the Andes were on the horizon.

“We can see the mountains from here” Che said.

“Not helping” Kiki replied, “Chile is just across there.”

“If we are going to get north of this mess, we will need to cross the mountains, a couple different times” Che said, “It’s a journey I’ve made a few times, just not during a war and in much better company.”

“How far north?” Kiki asked, “And what do you mean by better company?”

“Bolivia has declared itself neutral” Che said, “If we…”

“Is that a joke?” Kiki asked, “That’s thousands of kilometers north of here.”

“Unless you fancy crossing the front lines and risk having whatever happened a few days ago happen again, except with more guns pointed at you, then you need to think in terms of wider geography” Che said, “That doesn’t mean we are walking the whole way though.”

There were a few details Che had left out of the plan, like the final destination. There was also his involvement in the war to consider. Getting Kristina to safety and back with her own people would make him a hero. After that he could bow out, resume his life, and hopefully no one would say shit about it. Of course, he didn’t exactly have a whole lot of faith that the Government in Buenos Aires were not going to be complete bastards and shove him right back where he had been before.

“This plan of yours had better work” Kiki said crossly.

That made for two of them.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Thirty-Seven



31st December 1970

Rio Gallegos, Argentina

“By the time we got there, the Iltis had been picked clean by the locals and it took some doing to find out the rest” Manfred said to Oberstlieutenant Schier, “It was hit by fire from the air, and we recovered the remains of four of our men. The locals said that two others escaped with minor injuries. A man and a woman. They were last seen traveling north.”

“Very well Oberlieutenant Mischner” Schier said, “You are dismissed.”

It was obvious to Manfred that he was not pleased to get that news. Sneaking in and out of the city, past the entrenched Chilean Division surrounding the city, complicated matters. Searching for one missing Iltis had been a tall order. The 7th Recon had managed it, because that was the sort of mission they had been formed to perform.

The 7th Recon had also gathered a considerable amount of intelligence about what was happening outside the city. Martzel Ibarra had been busy. The people of this region were scattered across dozens of estates and imposing any sort of organization would be like herding cats and he had pulled it off to a degree. They had been fighting a guerilla war and Manfred had included mention of it in his reports as something that they needed to provide material support to. That was a rare bit of good news, something that had been in short supply since word had reached them that the 5th Panzer Battalion had been redirected to Comodoro Rivadavia to help the Argentine Army hold the line there. Manfred had pointed out that if the Panzers were here, they could break the siege and gut the Chileans from behind. He had been told that same argument had been made at the highest levels. Just defending the Petroleum Industry of Argentina was more important if they were going to keep them in the fight.

As Manfred walked across the Naval Yard, he saw that Oberstaber Jost Schultz was waiting for him.

“Gather a dozen volunteers” Manfred said, “I’m tired of sitting around here with our thumb up our ass. It’s time we got into the fight ourselves.”

“Yes, Sir” Jost said clicking his heels, his eyes alight. Manfred knew that was music to the Oberstaber’s ears, but he didn’t care. He was tired of sneaking around and wanted to make some noise to ring in the new year.



Córdoba, Argentina

It had been a long flight done in multiple stages as the Schlasta 5 Squadron from the 18th SKG, taking several days as the logistics had to be worked out before they could leave for the next leg. From Berlin-Brandenburg to Madrid, then onto the Cape Verde, and finally the longest leg to Buenos Aires avoiding Brazilian Airspace. They had only been given a few days of rest before being sent to Córdoba, located smack dab in the middle of Argentina. There was supposedly no point in this country that was out of reach for the 18th SKG. It was something that suited Ben, because he could see on a map that Santiago was within easy reach and he was planning on paying them a visit or two that they would not be forgetting. It was something that he might not have been inclined to do before, but Friedrich had told him that little piece of information that had changed the entire equation and left Ben sputtering in helpless outrage.

That wasn’t to say that there wasn’t other work to be done in the meantime. Ben laid the throttle on as the Orkan sped down the runway. Spark took off seconds after he did and the two of them took a westerly course before turning south. That was when they heard from ground control that there were two fast moving targets that were eastbound at eight thousand meters, and their transponders were not squawking the right signals. Meaning that they were fair game.

Ben could hear Wim and Kozlov, Spark’s System Operator, conferring in their jargon as they confirmed radar lock on the two targets. Ben waited until they were within a hundred kilometers before he launched two Sperling missiles. The two targets continued on their course and altitude, they had to know that they had been painted by search radar but were trying to outpace interception. It was something that might have worked in the past, it was just that the rules had changed as four Sperlings sped at them at several times the speed of sound. When they closed to within a kilometer, the radar seekers on the Sperlings went active. To the men on those airplanes, their threat indicators would have read it as a missile launch right on top of them. There was little time to react.

“Splash one” Wim said as they watched the attempted evasive maneuvers through the radar scope. This was followed seconds later, by “Splash two.”

Even as it happened Ben knew that it would not be this easy in the future. The other side would quickly adapt, and there were very few Sperling missiles available. It would rapidly become the same desperate fight that had existed over Korea.

Hours later, after Ben had landed, they received a phone call saying that the wreckage of two F-11C Tigers had been found near General Alvear. The rest of the Squadron was overjoyed by that, not only was it their first kills in this conflict, but this meant that Ben had finally passed the number required to earn the Military Class of the Blue Max, for real. As far as they knew he was the first man to win both the Civil and Military Award in decades. Watching them he realized that it wasn’t what was important to him anymore.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Thirty-Eight



1st January 1971

Rio Gallegos, Argentina

“My Aunt says that usually it is a good thing when your enemy is screaming their heads off” Manfred said when he reported back to the Oberstlieutenant as the sun rose over the Atlantic Ocean.

“Your Aunt is widely considered to be insane” Schier said, “Especially by those who have worked with her over the last thirty years.”

“Granted” Manfred replied, “Of course, she has officially retired as of midnight back home.”

Oberstlieutenant Aaron Schier, had only commanded the 7th Recon Battalion for a few months at the time they had been deployed to Argentina and he made a point of ignoring Manfred’s observation about his Aunt Katherine. The steep learning curve that resulted from being in the field was one that he had survived, so far. He had told Manfred directly that the likes of him going “hunting” the night before was the sort of thing that put that to the test.

It had been simple enough. Manfred had taken a position overlooking where he could see directly into a Chilean bivouac with a Thorwald sniper rifle and ruined the smoke breaks for a dozen odd soldiers. They had even been kind enough to have a burning coal right in front of their faces to help with his aim as he had peered through the ten-power scope. Manfred had kept the remainder pinned down for hours, until the someone in command had decided that charging after him with armor was the best course of action. That was when he had called down the high-velocity artillery that was dug into the bluffs overlooking the city and escaped with the men who had volunteered providing him cover fire. The trouble was that he had not gotten permission before engaging in that action.

“It was especially stupid for you to risk yourself like that” Schier said, “This had been a quiet sector, until you kicked over the hornet’s nest. Do you really think that the Chileans will let this slide?”

“I was not too concerned about what they think, Sir” Manfred replied.

“Your actions are credited with destroying a number of enemy vehicles” Schier said, “This is one of those times when I don’t know if I should put you in for a medal or have you court-martialed for insubordination. Now get out of my sight before I have you shot.”

Manfred knew not to question a reprieve when he got one.



Base Aérea Chabunco, Punta Arenas, Chile

“We figured that warning you of what our observers saw was the best course of action” Mr. Smith, obviously not his real name said. Reinaldo thought that he looked like he had come straight out of Central Casting as a CIA Spook. The news he brought though, was chilling.

Guillermo Rodriquez AKA William Driscoll, who Reinaldo knew as Drifty, had been killed when the plane he had been flying had been shot down by a type of interceptor that was not known to be operating in the region. The rub was that it had been done with a weapon with capabilities Reinaldo had only heard about in theoretical discussions. He had to force himself to put aside the death of a friend and focus on what was known about the weapon system before it could kill him too.

“50 miles?” Reinaldo asked, “How could you not see that coming?”

“They have some sort of passive system that goes active in the final seconds” Smith said, “As far as we can tell, Rodriquez must have thought he was just getting painted by a closing aircraft’s search radar even though his warning systems would have shown that he had been locked by enemy radar. Then he and his wingman got clobbered”

That sounded about right to Reinaldo. The Argentine pilots had used their radar to mess with them several times. Getting a radar lock far outside the actual capabilities of their planes just to be cute.

“This is what we know about that system and possible counter-measures” Smith said as he handed Reinaldo a ream of paper, hundreds of loose pages.

“Anything else I ought to know?” Reinaldo asked.

“Yes” Smith said, “Word is that this was the work of a Major Benjamin von Hirsch of the German Luftwaffe. I don’t think I need to tell you about their history of field testing their new toys this way.”

Reinaldo’s mouth went dry. He knew that name and it meant that things would have gotten a lot more dangerous in the skies of Argentina regardless of any new missile systems.



Coyhaique, Chile

War or no war, or possibly because of the war. The business of business went on. In this case, road construction as Kiki did her best not to draw attention to herself as she walked past a group of men who were clearly workers on the vast highway project into the remote southern reaches of this country. It was a boom town that they had found when they had arrived, hardly the sleepy outpost that Che said he had passed through a few years earlier. Looking at the mountains towering over the town, Kiki was glad that they were not having to walk over those.

Crossing over into Chile had been simple enough. The day before they had walked over a range of hills and had come to a dirt track that linked remote farmsteads. There had been no checkpoints or officialdom visible, and Kiki wondered how Che had known that it was there. Of course, he had said that he had been this way before, but she could only guess as to why he would have wanted to escape notice in times past.

“At this moment, all I want is a bath and an actual bed to sleep in” Kiki said.

“And I wish I could flap my arms and fly to the moon” Che said. He had grown increasingly sarcastic over the prior days. Tired from the long walk across the Santa Cruz Province, even if he was too stubborn to admit it. “Exactly how do you intend to pay for that.”

“I have my means” Kiki said as she dug through her Doctor’s bag until she found what she was looking for, an American ten-dollar bill. “Think this will be enough?”

“Plenty” Che said, “Any other secrets in there?”

“As if I would tell you” Kiki said, “Then they would no longer be secrets.”

The truth was that when she had been in Los Angeles an eternity earlier, she had gotten money from the bank. One hundred dollars in twenties. She had spent part of it on gifts for Nella, Nan, and Mirai. Then had forgotten about it until now. She still had sixty dollars left. She also had Argentine Pesos and German Reichsmarks but had a feeling those wouldn’t go over well here.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Thirty-Nine



18th January 1971

Santiago, Chile

“You can still walk to La Paz if you want” Kiki said as they sat in the hotel bar, “I’ve made other arrangements.”

Unfortunately for her, the television was on and that kept drawing his eye. The news story tonight was about heavy fighting in a place called Caleta Olivia on the Atlantic Coast. The Anchor was saying that the Chilean Army had taken the town after several days of combat. Che could have sworn that he had seen the exact same news report just a few days earlier about a location several kilometers north of there, meaning they had actually been pushed back. It was nice to know that some things never change.

“Exactly what arrangements?” Che asked.

“A chartered flight to Buenos Aires avoiding hostile airspace, of course” Kiki replied, “The last month has been fun, but I would rather shoot myself in the head than walk another kilometer, spend a night sleeping on a crowded bus, or God only knows what in the coming days.”

It was a bit disappointing, but Kiki had never been in this for adventure. Merely for survival. So, it came as no surprise that she was making other arrangements now that she had the resources at her disposal.

After the long journey by bus up from Coyhaique. All Kiki had wanted was a real meal, a bath in hot water, and sleep for as long as she could. The first two had been easy to get in the hotel. The third unfortunately was interrupted when Santiago came under attack and every anti-aircraft gun in the city opened up at once. That had probably been what had convinced Kiki that she needed to take matters into hand. She had found a phone and had gotten in contact with someone, Che had no idea who, but a few days later she picked up a considerable amount of money from a bank here in Santiago after it had been wired there for her. Enough money for her to get them presentable clothes and a ride on an airplane.

“It sounds like you have things under control then” Che said.

“You’re welcome to come” Kiki said, “It will get you home far faster than whatever plans you might have had.”

It was an odd thought, just where was home these days? Che thought to himself. And in a country where nonessential travel was being strongly discouraged, it seemed that Kiki had found a way around that. He supposed that it was more proof that if you have money, you can make most obstacles disappear. Hardly a surprise.

“What time do we leave then?” Che asked.

Kiki smiled, he had no idea what she had been expecting, but it seemed that was the right thing for him to have said.

“This afternoon” Kiki replied, “The charter company said that we can depart as soon as we get there.”



Over the Andes Mountains, North of Santiago, Chile

“Reaching waypoint sigma” Wim said aloud, “Come to a course of one hundred ninety degrees.”

The Orkan flew hugging the mountainsides as Ben watched the ground avoidance radar as he turned onto the course that Wim had just called. He knew that Wim was closely monitoring the threat warning indicators. Every radar in this country tended to set that thing off and Wim acted like if all of them were an Interceptor that was bearing down on them, anti-aircraft artillery that was about to open up, or a SAM site that the Recon flights might have missed. Ben couldn’t remember where he had seen it, but the turn of phrase Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean that they aren’t after you certainly applied. Wim’s attention drifting wasn’t something that he needed to worry about. In the corner of Ben’s eye, he could see the shadow of the Black Knight as the landscape rushed past and a quick glance in one of mirrors mounted to the coaming where the canopy met the windscreen showed that the three other Orkans he was leading on this mission were in close formation.

“Eighty-five kilometers to target” Wim said, as Ben carefully controlled the throttle and the wing angle with his left hand. His mind took note of how green it was on this side of the mountains as the Orkan dropped down into the wide valley the target sat in. He increased the throttle and the reheat came on. He knew that on these bombing runs he needed to come in hot or else he was painting a target on himself. Wim counted down the kilometers as the targeting computer took over. There came a lurch as the bombs fell away from under the belly and wings of the Black Knight. The hangers and flight line of the Chilean Air Force’s base of operations, the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, was today’s target. A heartbeat later, the plane was buffeted by shockwaves from the explosions. Ben wasn’t planning on sticking around to survey the damage. He would let recon take care of that.


Santiago, Chile

“At least you didn’t pay the charter airline up front” Che said to Kiki as sat in the open door of the car laughing hysterically. The black comedy of this situation was not lost on her.

No sooner than the cab had pulled into the parking lot of the airport, it had been subjected to an airstrike. The building that housed the charter airline and presumably the airplane that would have taken them out of this country were both reduced to smoking ruins in the blink of an eye. They had watched it all from a few hundred meters away.

“I am just cursed” Kiki said as her laughter turned to sobbing.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Forty



1st February 1971

Mitte, Berlin

With all the resources in the world and Freddy found that he couldn’t seem to change anything. Earlier that week the story had leaked that Princess Kristina had gone missing while performing her duties as a Physician on a medical mission in rural Argentina. To say that the public was less than pleased to get this information was an understatement. The public persona of Kiki was sort of odd from Freddy’s understanding. Her introverted nature made it so that people could project onto her what they wanted, for good or ill. Mostly what they saw was of her helping people in her profession, so that meant she was generally well regarded. At the same time, there were her critics who saw her as a spoiled rich girl who had never really had to work a day in her life and only played at being a Surgeon. Finally, there were the crazies who hated her for what she stood for.

Freddy had been forced to make a public statement on radio and television where he just told the facts. Yes, Kiki was missing after the area she was in had been overrun. The vehicle she had been riding in had come under attack and according to scouts from the Heer, she had walked away from it. Nothing more was known. After that things had taken a life of their own and Freddy had watched as an event occurred the day before that he knew Kiki would have hated. Ever on the lookout for a chance to increase his own visibility, the Metropolitan of Berlin had reached out to his Catholic and Lutheran counterparts so that they could pray for her safe return. And then he had dropped the bombshell that Freddy had wanted to keep under wraps for weeks, that she was pregnant as well. That left Freddy fuming. He had felt that he needed to tell Benjamin about that, but it was no one else’s business. It was an unconfirmed rumor for the most part, there was one positive blood test that had been performed in less-than-optimal conditions. Supposedly, Kiki’s security detail had been on their way back to Rio Gallegos for that exact reason when the Iltis they were in was shot up by the Chilean Air Force.

That was the sort of thing that really set people off.

The problem was that the OKW was telling Freddy that the public’s expectations needed to be tempered. There was one Panzer Division in Argentina, a few hundred Naval personnel, and a single Squadron of fighter-bombers, all of whom were at the end of their logistical tether. Whatever ended up happening in South America was going to be a long slog that would reach its conclusion long after the present drama had been resolved.



In transit, near Los Molles, Chile

Kiki had refused to leave her room for a few days after the debacle at the airport. Not that Che could blame her. Her comment about being cursed probably played into that. Almost every night, the Argentine Air Force paid Santiago a visit and the last time the hotel had shuttered as bombs fell nearby. It had quickly become obvious that they needed to leave. Even if the chances of getting blown up wasn’t ever present Che was getting the impression that being Argentinean or German in Santiago wasn’t particularly healthy, especially after Kiki’s brother made a public statement regarding her status and that had been plastered all over the news.

As Che had tried to arrange transportation, he had eventually had an angry and frustrated Kiki tell him to just buy a fucking car already. It was something that had not occurred to him until she had said that. It was something that had simplified everything. He had swiftly found a factory new Honda N600 at the dealership and the Salesman had been overjoyed when Che had offered him cash for it. It turned out that banks in Chile were not interested in extending people car loans at the moment, it didn’t take too many guesses why.

It had only taken a few minutes to pack their bags, mostly because there wasn’t a whole lot to pack. It had taken far longer to get out of Santiago because they weren’t the only people trying to leave. Eventually breaking out of that crush of humanity, they had started the long drive north. It was Kiki’s turn to drive for the first leg of their journey to La Paz while Che was in charge of the radio for a few hours. For a time, it felt like all the stress and frustrations of the previous weeks fell away. It was when they saw the wide Pacific Ocean off to their left and with pop music on the radio, it felt like anything was possible.



Tempelhof, Berlin

Sending Kage Akio had been the best call. He was a Japanese National and neither the Argentinian nor Chilean Governments would have reason to detain him.

Kat hung up the phone, trying not to become angry. Akio had reported in from the safehouse in Santiago. Kat understood that he had done his best, there were things happening beyond his control and that getting angry would solve nothing. It seemed that he had missed Kiki and her traveling companion by just a few hours. According to the Hotel Manager of the place where Kiki had been for the previous weeks, she was in good health as far as anyone could tell.

Kat had wanted to monitor several bank accounts belonging to Kiki knowing that when she turned up, she would likely access one of them. However, the banks had dragged their feet and Kat had been forced to get a Court Order. That had slowed things down considerably. Picking the phone back up Kat dialed the number where Louis Ferdinand could be reached. Louis had asked Kat to find Kiki and that was proving to be rather difficult as most of Argentina seemed to be stuck in the stone age. At least this time she would have something to report.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Forty-One



2nd February 1971

Colchane, Chile

Crossing the Atacama Desert at night turned out to be a bit of a treat. Kiki could see the bright stars overhead as the headlights of the car shown off into the darkness of the highway ahead. Che had fallen asleep with instructions to wake him before they reached the Bolivian border. It was how they had done it since they had left Santiago the day before. One of them would drive while the other slept or at least watched the changing countryside pass by. Sometimes they talked, but often there wasn’t a whole lot to say. Kiki and Che had been stuck together for the last couple months and by this point it was obvious they had exhausted most of the things that they might have talked about otherwise.

Rounding a turn, Kiki saw that the brightly lit border station was ahead off in the distance. She considered elbowing Che awake, but she had grown tired of playing games. She just wanted out of Chile.

Slowing as she reached the checkpoint Kiki stopped the car. She noticed armed soldiers, teenaged conscripts for the most part, standing around looking bored. They were probably too naïve to understand how lucky they were not to assigned to a unit was fighting in the war thousands of kilometers south of here.

“Good morning” A soldier, an older Noncom from the look of him, said as Kiki rolled down the window. “What brings you this way.”

“Me and my friend Ernesto are Doctors who were on a medical mission when this wretched war caught us off guard” Kiki said, “We are trying to get clear. We had a flight out of Santiago, but the airport was attacked, and our plane was blown up. This was our second plan, though we are still making it up as we go along…”

Kiki trailed off when she realized she was babbling. She also realized that every word she had said was true.

“We will try not to keep for too long then Doctora” The Noncom said, “You have your papers?”

With a bit of reluctance, Kiki produced the same passport and identification that had set off that Chilean Officer a thousand years earlier hoping that was a one-off thing. Che was awake and was not thrilled that she had failed to wake him.

“A German and an Argentinian?” The Noncom asked, an eyebrow raised.

“As I said, we want no part in this war” Kiki replied, “Hippocratic oath and all of that.”

The Noncom gave Kiki and Che an appraising look before he turned and yelled over his shoulder. “José, get your worthless butt over here! I think we’ve a solution to your little problem!”

One of the soldiers, a young man with a sheepish look on his face stepped forward.

“I would have offered him a cash bribe” Che said softly, “This works too. I would say that this is a classic case of how the love bug bites and I’ll leave the matter in your capable hands. So, you may need to use one of those vials of antibiotics that you guard so fiercely.”

Kiki knew that Che was probably correct about that. For most soldiers, a Doctor outside of their chain of command was a godsend. This was because any Doctor on the inside would need to report any cases of certain diseases they ran across to their superiors. That included the one that Che had mentioned.

----------------------------------------------------------------

An hour later, Kiki and Che were rolling down the highway again, this time on the Bolivian side of the border as the sun was rising over the mountains. The feeling that Kiki needed to constantly look over her shoulder was gone and that was profoundly liberating. Che was driving, but Kiki wasn’t ready to sleep just yet. She also feared the dreams that would come.

“Look at you, Doctora von Preussen” Che said, “Treating VD among your enemies.”

“I tend to agree with Father Lehmann” Kiki replied, “Fear and ignorance are our enemies, not boys a long way from home making questionable choices.”

“You are hardly the stereotypical German” Che said.

“What is the stereotypical German?” Kiki asked.

“Spiked helmet, God, Kaiser, and Country in that order, if they aren’t one and the same. Patriotism as a religion of sorts.”

“For starters, those spiked helmets went out of style decades ago” Kiki replied, “If you met either my father or brother, you would know why I do not think they are akin to God and I am hardly out of the ordinary in that regard.”

“Still, that was like something out of a movie” Che said.

Kiki frowned. “I get scripts from time to time from various screen writers who want to base their work on my life” She said, “Most of them seem to lean into the spoiled Princess line, which I hate or making me out to be some sort of saccharine sweet moral paragon which is worse. I’m sure you have figured out by now that I am none of those things.”

The image came unbidden to Che’s mind was the aftermath of what she had done to that Chilean Officer. She had killed him silently with his men just a few meters away, and they had been listening for any trouble. The fact that she only seemed to regret that her knowledge of human anatomy had been what had enabled her to do it, not the deed itself was a bit disquieting. That was learned behavior and just who had she learned it from?

“As for patriotism…” Kiki said with a snort, “Right now all of Germany is celebrating the centennial, starting on the 18th of January which is the hundredth anniversary of the formation of the German Empire and running through the 10th of May. That tells you everything you need to know.”

“What happened a hundred years ago on the 10th of May?” Che asked.

“The Treaty of Frankfurt am Main officially ending the Franco-Prussian War” Kiki replied, “Suga, my sister-in-law, says that it is because no one really wanted to freeze in the cold for fireworks twice in January, and they get to rub the whole thing in the face of France once again. That’s patriotism for you in a nutshell. My cave is better than yours, Cro-Magnon bullshit.”

“Isn’t Cro-Magnon in France?”

“You know what I mean” Kiki replied as she resumed looking out the window in silence.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Forty-Two



8th February 1971

Tempelhof, Berlin

Kiki had just sort of assumed that she would just get sent back to Rio Gallegos where she would resume her old life. As annoying and hectic as that might seem. Things hadn’t worked out that way though. When she reached La Paz, she had taken on step into the German Embassy there just to try and find out what was going on and found herself being taken into custody by the Military Personnel on site. Because she had been reported missing in action, she needed to be debriefed before any thought could be made towards allowing her back into the field. That had resulted in her being put on the first plane home. The last time she had seen Che had been just after she had stepped up to the Embassy doors. He had been standing next to the car with an apologetic look on his face and Kiki figured that the louse had probably had a fairly good idea of what was going to happen. Not that Kiki could complain too much, he had his own Government to contend with when he got back to Argentina. Kiki had also learned that Ben was in Argentina with the Squadron from his Air Wing that been deployed to Córdoba. It was something that she was extremely displeased over, yet she also understood that it was entirely her fault. If she hadn’t gone missing, then he probably wouldn’t have volunteered to go.

Once she had landed in Berlin, Kiki had been whisked off to a house somewhere in the suburbs on a street she didn’t recognize. She figured that if she left it wouldn’t take too long to find an S-Bahn station that would take her to the center of the city and from there, home, in short order. Escaping though, that was something that she had had quite enough of lately. It was in that house where she had been grilled by men and women who were of the type normally associated with the BND, grey functionaries. There was also considerable interest in her case by the First Foot Guard. What had happened with her security detail? Where had she first gone into hiding? What had happened with the Chilean Army that had convinced her to move on from there? Why had she gone into Chile? And dozens more like that. Frequently, they had doubled back on certain aspects of her story, trying to trip her up, to see if she were lying. There were also questions about her traveling with Doctor Ernesto Guevara, who had quite a reputation as a womanizer. Kiki had told the truth, with survival consuming all her energy and the thought that around every corner might be a contingent of the Chilean Army, the two of them had far greater concerns. So, Ernesto was a friend who she had gotten out of a difficult situation with and that was that.

There were finally the medical tests that would put the rumors about her health to rest. The previous Friday she had endured a battery of comprehensive tests, to rule out or confirm anything and everything. It was all entirely to her annoyance that it had even been deemed necessary. She had received a call from the hospital saying that there was one last thing that they wanted to do before they went over the results with her.

Arriving at the University Hospital, she saw that Nora Berg had come out to greet her.

“The Prodigal Daughter has returned home I see” Berg said with a slight smile.

“Is there even such a thing?” Kiki asked as she walked through the doors. “And wouldn’t that imply that I am lazy and wasteful?”

“I don’t think you are wasteful” Berg replied as they walked towards the elevators, “You just have everyone who loves you pulling their hair out in frustration and you can be lazy at times.”

Getting off on the fifth floor, Kiki entered the Imaging and Radiology Department with Berg.

“They just want to see what is going on inside of you first” Berg said, “To clear up a few things.”

“There is nothing out of the ordinary to see” Kiki said, “The rumor is that I am pregnant, and I haven’t been with anyone like that since Ben last year. Right before the whole IUD thing. Since then, I walked halfway across South America and drove for much of the rest.”

Kiki almost asked Berg if she looked like she was eight-months pregnant. Then she remembered what had happened the last time she had asked that question.

“When you were with Ben, that would have been what, late July?” Berg asked, “If I recall correctly.”

“Yes” Kiki replied as they entered the exam room.

“I know you’ve done this before” Berg said, “It will just be me, Doctor Stein, and the Technician in here today.”

The Technician was a woman Kiki’s age wearing the pastel surgical scrubs that identified her as the equivalent to a Nurse. It was something that revealed just how important this Department had become over the course of the last decade. The presence of Doctor Stein was a surprise though. He was the head of Radiology in this Hospital. Kiki would have thought that he was far too senior to take an interest in her case.

Minutes later, Kiki found herself staring at the ceiling as the cold probe was being run across her belly. The gel they used to facilitate the process did nothing to help it feel any less intrusive. It brought to mind the first time Kiki had done this when she had been fifteen with her mother thinking that it was the greatest thing ever. Much to Kiki’s profound embarrassment.

“This is extraordinary” Kiki heard Stein say softly, “You can hardly tell.”

“That is enough of that” Berg told him, “You saw what you wanted, now you can go. Kristina is not to be gawked at. This is rare but it does happen, especially with women in stressful jobs.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Forty-Three



10th February 1971

Plänterwald, Berlin

Today, Kiki wished she could make time stop as she was sitting in her cottage trying not to think about her current predicament. A couple days earlier she had been laying there on an examination table, looking at something completely different from what she had been expecting, the outline of a baby at around eight months gestation. Of all the people in the hospital, only Nora Berg had shown any understanding. With the rest there had been an undercurrent that was nothing less than accusatory. How could she have not known? Being the question that seemed to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Berg had said that she had heard about conditions like Kiki’s several times before, that it was rare, but it did happen. It was even rarer that she took it nearly to term without her condition being externally visible. Something about how it was situated on Kiki’s hips. Apparently, this sort of thing was most common in women with stressful careers or who found themselves in other difficult situations. There were theories about the mechanisms.

For Kiki, seeing that screen had felt the same as when she had watched the airplane that was supposed to take her to safety get blown to smithereens at the airport in Santiago. She had never wanted anything to do with motherhood, or children of her own for that matter. She was good as an aunt or a big sister. Now, she was having to wrap her head around the prospect of being a mother and according to Berg, that could happen at anytime over the next few weeks. The other thing was according to the Technician who had conducted the ultrasound, it looked like Kiki was about to have a daughter. Which was pure insanity when considering how her relationship with her mother had panned out. Berg had told Kiki that she should pick a name and not allow herself to be consumed by things that would probably never happen.

The situation with the Medical Service was not much better. There had been many questions about what she might have done differently. From arguing with the Feldwebel in charge of her security detail, to her decision to leave Estancia María and travel north through Chile to Bolivia. The conclusion had been reached that she had made the best choices with the information she had available, but she had also exercised questionable judgement in the process. Kiki had also gotten herself and a subordinate out of a difficult situation with her compromised health being noted as a factor. Kiki had been told that it was just as well that she was going on maternity leave because that meant that a decision about what to do with her could be put off. Her status as an Officer in the Medical Service would be reevaluated next year if she chose to return. Kiki understood what that meant, she had become a problem that they wanted to go away.

Arrangements were being made for her to talk to Benjamin. For the life of her, Kiki had absolutely no clue as to how she could even begin to explain any of this to him.



Córdoba, Argentina

It had come as a great relief to Ben, knowing that Kiki was safe. She hadn’t needed to be rescued, having saved herself which was perfectly in keeping with who she was. He had gotten a call from Theater Headquarters telling him this and advising him to stop taking so many stupid chances and the suggestion had been made that he be pulled off the line. That was all well and good, except it would have been nice if they had told him before he’d had that little navigation error over Santiago a couple nights earlier. As Ben had said when he had been debriefed, it was a mistake that anyone could have made…

Ben had also been told that he would be getting a chance to finally talk to Kiki as soon as it could be arranged. He figured that she would probably be rather sore that he had gone to Argentina despite her asking him not to.



Santiago, Chile

While the progression of the ground war had gone largely to plan, it was the air war that was growing increasingly worrisome. The growing dominance of Argentine industry, which was the real reason for this war when it came right down to it, was making itself most felt there. The concern was that eventually it would start making itself felt on the ground as well before a peace could be forced across the negotiating table.

Salvador Allende was touring what was left of La Moneda Palace after what his experts were saying were five-hundred-kilogram bombs had left the building gutted. First by the explosion and then by the subsequent fire. It was an ingenious little system that the Argentine Air Force and their German friends had cooked up. Pampero and Orkan fighter-bombers flew low through the Andes at high-speed hitting Santiago. If planes from Chile’s Air Force attacked them, they got bounced by Mirage fighters and if they mixed it up with the Mirage fighters first, the fighter-bombers got through entirely unmolested.

As far as Allende could tell, the attacks on Santiago did little to further the war effort for the Argentine side, but as a purely symbolic action it was priceless. As such, it had him on the phone nearly every day with the Government of the United States asking for additional help for the city’s air defenses.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Forty-Four



12th February 1971

Plänterwald, Berlin

Looking at her friends, Kiki realized that Zella looked entirely too smug. For years she had said that Kiki was destined to end up like this and that she needed to have a life before it was too late.

The fact that this had snuck up on her must be icing on the cake for Zella, Kiki thought to herself sourly.

There was also the detail that there were conditions on her returning home. Kiki was basically under house arrest until… She didn’t even want to think about that. But she was stuck here with Nora Berg watching her every move like a hawk and a large contingent of the First Foot patrolling the grounds who were not inclined to be kindly disposed towards her at the moment. All of this was at the request of Freddy and Suga. Not only was this not how she wanted to live her life, but her cottage was supposed to be a refuge for her, not a comfortable prison cell. She had tried to call up Freddy to convince him to do something about what had become intolerable, but he wasn’t taking her calls. Freddy’s Personal Secretary had told Kiki that if she left a message then he would get back to her, eventually.

For Kiki, it felt as if she had smashed into a wall comprised of everything she had worked against her entire life. How many times had she been warned that few people were impressed by her antics? That she was working herself to death to impress people who would always see her as a selfish, immature princess no matter what she did. She had managed to give her detractors a vast amount of ammunition this time because people had died and had escalated a war. Everywhere Kiki looked there were people who simply did not believe that she had been unaware of her condition, she couldn’t help but noticing the accusing looks everywhere she looked.

“Why do you look so sad?” Aurora asked.

Kiki didn’t respond, Aurora had said that things were going well for her. Earlier that night, Aurora had spoken at length about how things were going. She had met a guy at the annual vacation to the Prora in Benz on Rügen Island and apparently it was serious this time. She said it was odd to be dating someone her grandparents would have approved of, but there she was. Zella’s only thought had been to ask when they would get to meet this mystery man and Aurora had said that she would invite Moishe around if Zella promised to play nice. To this Zella blew a raspberry back at Aurora. There was no way that Zella would make such a promise, especially if one of her best friends was involved. Aurora had no idea how much Kiki envied her. As a Jewish girl whose parents were among Berlin’s Artistic Community, Aurora had grown up with basically no expectations towards what she would become and had been completely out of the public eye. She had no idea of how lucky she was.



Rosario, Argentina

The Government was actually pleased that he had deposited Kiki at the German Embassy in La Paz and then found his way back to Buenos Aires. They saw it as resolving a set of thorny problems for them. They had liked the result of her vanishing in the face of the Chilean advance in that it had brought a greater commitment towards the survival of the Argentinian Republic by the old powers of Europe, particularly Germany and France. They clearly had not wanted anything bad to happen to the Princess though, so Che getting her to safety solved that problem. In his opinion that sold Kiki short. She had played an active role in getting herself out and had walked for several days without complaint from Estancia María to Coyhaique. There had also been the bus ride from there to Santiago. Che couldn’t recall the name of the American movie, but there was a gag about something unlikely happening that revolved around it being the same as a socialite being seen on the New York Subway. Well, the Princess Royal of Germany had ridden on a crowded bus for several days while surrounded by some of the poorest people in Chile who were trying to escape what they thought might soon become a warzone.

As a reward, Che had been granted a month’s leave from the Navy. Coming back to Rosario wasn’t exactly a reward though. His wife was never thrilled at first when he came back, filling his ears with complaints about everything that had happened in his absence. This time, there was the well-publicized months long trip with a younger woman involved. At least his children were happy to see him, and they had been amazed that he was driving a new car. Thought Celia, his oldest daughter had asked him where the rest of it was or if it had shrunk in the wash? He had not wanted to hear that. The little Honda had provided tireless service crossing deserts and mountain ranges without a hiccup.

In the days since he had come home, Che had seen what the tabloids in the market had to say about Kiki and they were full of speculation about what had happened. From what he could see, they were trying their hardest to find fault in her conduct. In his opinion that was a farce, and someone needed to set the record straight. When he got home, he got out his typewriter and started putting down on paper everything that had happened to the best of his memory.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Forty-Five



23rd February 1971

Over Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego

The Chilean Army might have made rapid advancements elsewhere, the Main Island of the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago had been a very notable exception. The Army had hit the Argentinian defenses on the island and had been stopped cold. Then after weeks of heavy fighting, they had been pushed back hard, Cerro Sombrero and Campo Cerro Manantiales had swiftly fallen under Argentine control giving then control of much of the southern shore of the Strait of Magellan.

Now Porvenir, the largest Chilean holding on the Island was being threatened and if it fell then holding on to any remaining settlements would become untenable. At that point, Punta Arenes would be within easy striking distance.

That was why the Chilean Air Force was shifting all available resources available to support the Army. The trouble was that this was coming at a time when the President had been grabbing everything that he could to defend the Capitol thousands of kilometers to the north. Reinaldo couldn’t tell if that had been an ingenious move by the Argentinians or a happy coincidence for them. His own Squadron had been slated to move north except things had heated up down here before that could happen.

That was how Reinaldo found himself doing air-to-mud bombing runs in his Super Tiger. There had been some grumbling during the mission briefing about how this was hitching a thoroughbred up to a plow because the pylons that held the Mark 82 500-pound bombs tended to fall off if the plane pulled more than five or six gravities. If they got jumped by Mirage Fighters while they were on a bombing run, then they would be sitting ducks. Fortunately, the FAA didn’t seem to be around this afternoon. Reinaldo saw it as a chance to beef up his numbers with FACh Brass in Santiago. Like pencil pushers everywhere else, they tended to see how things looked on paper to the exclusion of everything else. The others in the Squadron wondered why Reinaldo was up for decorations and promotion, well that was the answer.

Taking off from Base Aérea Chabunco, Reinaldo began his third sortie of the day. Flying the thirty miles across the Strait in minutes. As he had practiced in Pensacola, he flew parallel to the lines on the enemy side. Here and there, green tracers flew up towards him, but whoever was on the ground wasn’t particularly good at leading a fast-moving target. He wasn’t planning on sticking around long enough for them to get lucky though. Dropping the bombs on what he thought was a cluster of advancing armored vehicles, Reinaldo turned back to base.

This time, he was surprised to see a large amount smoke coming from Aérea Chabunco as he entered the traffic pattern. He was advised to make a crosswind landing on what should have been the wrong runway. Taxying towards the flight line he was directed to park his plane at an alternate location. From the cockpit, he could see the flaming wreckage of airplanes and hangers that had been intact just an hour earlier when he had left. Just what the Hell had happened?



Strait of Magellan

The 12.8 Centimeter guns of the SMS Z66 “Schwertwal” had lobbed high explosive shells at the assigned targets. Now, the Schwertwal was racing north for the Second Narrows at flank speed as the Captain, who was never pleased with anything, looked extremely happy this afternoon. She was just one ship among the Destroyer flotilla that had set out from Puerto Belgrano days earlier. The working theory had been that if they made their way north from the Drake Passage without getting identified, they could catch the Chileans flatfooted. The ships had run parallel to the coast, bombarding high value targets including the Army Barracks and the Airforce Base. The raid had gone largely unopposed and that was something that no one was anticipating would happen again.

For Louis Junior, this was the anxious part of the entire journey, far more than the high seas and foul weather of the Drake Passage. As he made his way down from the Bridge to the Combat Information Room, he could feel that the others watching the radar scopes felt much the same way. It was anticipated that this operation would draw an immediate response, just it was unclear what form that would take. What was clear as day however was that it would take the Flotilla several hours to get clear.

So, the crew of the Schwertwal remained in General Quarters with the Anti-Aircraft guns and the Missile Launchers primed to go at a moment’s notice. It was unknown just what the Chileans might have dug in along the North Shore of the Strait. Louis didn’t want to find out by having a Damage Control Party trying to fix a hole in the side of the ship, so he was making sure that everyone was on their toes.

Making his way aft, he saw that the men manning the AA Guns were looking warily at the Missile Launchers and he really didn’t need to say anything to them. If the Launchers sprang to life, then it meant that enemy aircraft were within thirty to forty kilometers. The radar guided 37-millimeter guns had an effective range of six kilometers, so that meant that they would have seconds to get a targeting solution on the aircraft racing at them over the speed of sound.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Forty-Six



28th February 1971

Moscow, Russia

Gia was attending the groundbreaking ceremony of the latest building that was to be constructed in the center of Moscow. This time it was for a new Ministry of Foreign Affairs building that would be a showcase for Russia’s reemergence on the world stage. It was a theme that Gia had heard many times before. At the start of the construction of the new Moscow State University Campus a decade earlier being the most notable example. It had been used for other buildings, a hotel, an office complex, even a few residential buildings. The truth was plain to see in the actual buildings that had gone up after ninety percent of Moscow had been leveled during the Second World War. It was mostly shoddy prefab construction that had proven extremely difficult to get rid of because more of it seemed to go up all the time regardless of what those in positions of power actually said. Gia had waged a year’s long campaign against official corruption within the City and State, but it felt as if she were trying to shovel away a mountain of sand with a teaspoon.

The hope was that this building would truly become a showcase of what was possible as opposed to settling for what was barebones practical. It was hard not to be skeptical though and Gia found herself looking forward to spending most of the summer in her house in the Transbaikal Oblast. Perhaps that was the problem though? She could always escape somewhere far away. At the same times though, where it felt to Gia like if this entire city was trying to drive her insane and she needed to escape for a few months.

Alexie would also be extremely disappointed if they didn’t go east for the summer. He loved how he was able to run wild for the summer holiday and be a guide for the other boys. Gia had taken a page from her cousins in Berlin in that she took a number of boys from a variety of backgrounds who lived in Moscow with her to the Transbaikal. It was important for Alexei not to spend his childhood alone and to have friends his own age. The last thing that Gia wanted was for her son to end up as a neurotic mess, that was what seemed to come from being isolated during formative years.



Tempelhof, Berlin

At the moment Kiki was trying to figure out who she hated more, Doctor Berg or Benjamin. Ben for his absence and Berg for her presence.

“This is your first, Kristina” Berg said patting her on the shoulder as the car that was taking her to the University Hospital turned into the parking lot, “So this is going to take a long time but count your blessings, this could have come as a complete surprise for you.”

It was all Kiki could do not to tell Berg to fuck off for telling her that this was her first, the only way there would be another was over her dead body. She had woken up early that morning with what felt like the worst case of cramps in her life but mercifully it had passed until it happened again. Berg had taken one look and said that it meant that the baby was coming, that had merely been the first contractions and that there would be plenty more. That they needed to get her to the hospital and that she had already called the Midwife. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but the entrance of the hospital was a complete circus when they arrived. There had been a whole lot of hype surrounding this, most of it embarrassingly revolved around her physical appearance. Mostly because she didn’t look pregnant. That was drawing a lot of unwelcome speculation and her having been out of view since she had returned from South America weeks earlier had not helped. While she had been shielded from the brunt of it by staying on her family’s estate, Kiki was aware of the harsh criticism she was getting subjected to by the press and the feeding frenzy that had come with that.

Kiki had spent a great deal of time staring at her midsection trying to figure out what had happened and what was happening. There was a slight bulge in her abdomen, but it really took effort to see that anything was different.

“I don’t want to tangle with that a bunch of hyenas” Berg said before she instructed the Driver to keep going around to one of the side entrances. Before they got out of the car, she said to Kiki. “Regardless of whatever anyone might tell you, there is no right way to go about doing this.”

“Having a baby?” Kiki asked in reply as she noticed that the Attendants were clearly intending to treat her like any other patient checking into hospital.

“No, there are only a couple different ways of going about that” Berg replied, as the car's door was opened. “I was referring to being a mother.”

“I think that we both know what a disaster I… I…” Kiki started to say, except the latest contraction caused her to stop midsentence and trying desperately not cry out in pain.

“I doubt you’ll be a disaster at all Kristina” Berg said as Kiki was helped onto the gurney.

Then as Kiki was wheeled into the hospital, she could hear Berg answering questions about her present condition. All she kept thinking about was how she had made a complete mess of things. Even in this.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Forty-Seven

1st March 1971

Tempelhof, Berlin

All it took was a look from Kat and the men from the Press who had been shouting questions at her fell silent as she entered the hospital. This was not the time or place for that.

Kat had briefly worked in Journalism, so she understood the need for a free press. That was one of Kat’s many careers that had not panned out. That one was because she had a horrible habit of driving the story rather than merely covering it. She had also tried a few other things, but nothing had really taken until she found herself the Prefect of Berlin. Once in a fit of pique, Marie Alexandra had complained that the only thing Kat was good at was being in charge whether those whose lives she ruled over with an iron fist liked it or not. She ran her household in a benevolent dictatorship and that extended out to include the city of her birth as well.

Among Kat’s children, Marie had always loved theatrics and had a way with words. It was a bit naïve to think that Kat ruled the city like an Autocrat of the last century, even if her role wasn’t proscribed by those who were inclined to be suspicious or resentful of an appointed monarch of sorts, there were the realities of the City itself to consider. Little things like when people flipped the switch in their home and lights came on, the electricity had to come from somewhere as just one example. There was a water in their pipes, the food on their plate, and even the television signals that were their entertainment which all required countless inputs scattered across tens of thousands of kilometers that all fed into Berlin. If any one of those links got cut for any reason, then blame frequently fell upon the person in the most visible position. There was also the aspect of a city of millions having thousands of factions all of whom felt that their needs were paramount. Kat had understood that almost anyone who was appointed, elected, or was stupid enough to claw their way into the role of Prefect of Berlin had better understand the City and the actual limits of their power or else the city would eat them alive.

The Press played a key role in functioning of the City, that didn’t mean that Kat was always thrilled to see them or answer questions. Especially when she was attending to a personal matter. As Kat watched, one of her men press the button that would take them up to the appropriate floor. A few minutes later, they stepped off into the Maternity Ward. Places like this had changed considerably since Kat had been in them more than a decade earlier. The blue and white antiseptic theme that was mostly universal in hospitals had been changed to pastel hues meant to provide relaxation and comfort. As a mother though, Kat understood that it was all a front. The reality was that there were plenty of things that went on behind the scenes here that were far less than comforting. Simply put, pregnancy and childbirth could be incredibly dangerous. Kat certainly had enough memories of what that was like to know.

Kat was stopped by members of the First Foot Guard as she made her way into the wing that had been secured by them the day before. As unfair it was that Kiki wasn’t in good graces with the Heer Unit that protected the Royal family because of events beyond her control, they still were not about to shirk their responsibilities. Entering the suite of rooms, Kat saw that Freddy, Suga, Louis Ferdinand, and Charlotte were talking with Doctor Berg in the outer room. It was too early to introduce the older children to their newest niece or cousin if Kat had to guess, so Mairi, Nella, and Nan were absent. If Kat had to guess, they were home asleep at this hour.

“How is she?” Kat asked Louis Ferdinand, she found that she had trouble figuring out the proper way to address Louis after his retirement. She had only met his father couple of times and that had been after she had been left deafened and hurting by the Reichstag Bombing. That had not been a great time for Kat. The two of them had always played their respective roles for decades, all of Kat’s adult life. Louis choosing to retire when he reached the age of sixty-four had changed all of that.

“Nina is as well as can be expected, healthy even if she is a touch small” Louis answered, “They are worried about Kristina though, all of this was most unexpected.”

That was a bit of an understatement. Kat had heard the details of Kiki’s escape through Chile and how she’d had no idea that there had been an additional companion who had made that journey with her. There was also the aspect of Ben volunteering to go to Argentina, ostensibly to look for Kiki after she went missing in a romantic but ultimately foolish move that was typical of him. As the Commander in Chief of the Landwehr Units of City of Berlin, Kat had ordered Ben’s immediate return a couple weeks earlier. That took time however and as far as Kat knew he was still in Argentina. It was hardly a surprise that Kiki blamed herself for how all of this, though she shouldn’t.

Entering the inner room, Kat saw that Nadine and Bernhard, Ben’s mother and father were standing there with Nadine holding her granddaughter. Whatever differences Nadine might have had with Kiki over the years, this was something that transcended that. Ben was an only child who had been something a surprise for his parents when he had come along. Kiki looked terrible, but she was awake and watching her in-laws closely. Kat was aware of some of the things that Kiki believed about herself, the truth was that she couldn’t have been more wrong.

“Good morning” Kat said to Kiki as she sat down in the chair beside the bed. “You went through with naming her that?”

Kiki just gave Kat a slight smile. Nina was the name that Kiki had said would be something that few people would make the connection with. It being a diminutive of Gianna. With her full name, Nina had four middle names as was traditional. With those being Eleanora Charlotte Nadine Katherine, Kiki had picked names of women she either wanted to either make peace or get even with.

“Your mother gave me one like this when Tat and Kol were born, a third stone was added when I had Marie Alexandra” Kat said as she removed a jewelry box from her purse. “It was on short notice, but the Jeweler was understanding.”

It was a silver pendent with a polished lapis lazuli stone in the center and a faceted aquamarine stone set beside it. When Kira had given one like it to Kat, it had been at a time when she had been overwhelmed be the responsibility of motherhood. It felt right that she was returning the favor two decades later.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Forty-Eight



3rd March 1971

Over Patagonia near Tucu Tucu, Argentina

It had become instinctive reaction whenever they got notified of a radar lock from long distance. Dive for the deck and turn sharply at a right angle to hopefully break radar lock and force the Sperling missile to go active and maneuver to intercept. Reinaldo had no idea if it worked or not having never actually encountered a Sperling yet. That changed in a hurry as the radar on the missiles went active as he dove for the deck, jettisoning his wing tanks and firing off chaff in an effort to not get killed. He and Pancho broke in different directions and lost all coordination as soon as that happened.

Reinaldo had been working with the Chilean pilots, trying to impress upon them von Richthofen’s maxim, the Squadron lived and died as a team. He had finally gotten through to them using language they understood, Fútbol. They all understood that it didn’t matter how good an individual player was if the rest of the side was crap. That was what the Squadron was, a side. The problem was then getting them to understand that in the air because the way that they fought was World War One style every man for himself. The saving grace had been that their Argentinian counterparts were not a whole lot better but that hid a huge problem that Reinaldo was faced with at that very moment. There was a Squadron out there that lived and breathed the words of Boelcke and von Richthofen for decades. They were the only ones armed with Sperling missiles.

As Renaldo came out of a bank, he saw several long contrails across the sky, curving right towards him. Punching the afterburner, the Super Tiger raced along the ground at treetop level, if there were any trees in this country. Reinaldo heard the shrill alarm as he was locked by search radar again. Glancing in the mirror, he saw that he had not one but two Orkans on his six. He rolled into a hard turn, banking two his left, nearly blacking out as he was crushed into his seat. The alarm went silent as he broke the lock and the two planes overshot him.

Looking over his shoulder as he banked back to his right, Reinaldo saw that the two planes were engaged in a high turn in an effort to reacquire lock on him. Pulling his plane into the hardest righthand turn his could manage, shuttering as it nearly stalled. Reinaldo fired the two Sidewinder missiles under his wings as soon as he heard the buzzing of them locking onto the two Orkans. He didn’t wait around to see if either of the Sidewinders managed to get a hit. He raced west towards a ridge he saw in the distance. In the mirror he thought he caught a glimpse of the two Orkans firing flares and engaging in radical maneuvers to evade the missiles he had fired.

It was then that Reinaldo’s mouth went dry as he saw a third Orkan, this one painted almost entirely black, appear in the mirror just as it fired yet another missile. He yanked back the throttle, causing the engine on his Tiger to spool down go cold as he thumbed the button to release flares of his own. As the missile ran astray, Reinaldo hit the throttle trying to gain speed before he hit the ground. Looking up through the canopy, he saw the Orkan, its wings fully spread as it rolled towards him trying to get an angle. He could only envy the ability of the German plane to do that as he tried to counter. Both planes entered horizontal scissors as the Orkan pilot was trying for a kill and Reinaldo was trying to stay alive in a situation that was not to his advantage. Breaking away, Reinaldo raced for the ridge and climbed over it, rolling upside-down as he reached the crest, he pulled his plane into a hard curving trajectory as he went down the other side and rolled into a hard turn that took him north up a mountain valley with an alpine lake running up the middle. The idea was to put the ridge between himself and the Orkans. To his complete shock, he saw that the black Orkan had matched him move for move. It had been thought that few planes in the air could match a Super Tiger in a drag race, especially if there was a turn at the end of the track as such. The Orkan pilot had somehow managed it.

With sickening dread, Reinaldo watched as green tracers leapt out of the nose of Orkan and he heard a loud CLANG! The controls of the Tiger went completely to mush, and the General Electric turbojet engine made disturbing noises as it came apart. Frantically, he grabbed the handles of the ejection seat and was blasted out of his stricken plane. As the parachute was yanked open, jerking him a stop, he thought he saw the long trail of smoke as the Tiger spiraled out of control and slammed into a mountainside. Hitting the water of the lake he had seen Reinaldo was shocked by how cold the water was; even in what was a warm day early autumn. Looking towards the distant lakeshore, Reinaldo was trying to figure out how to get there without freezing to death when an aluminum boat with a small outboard engine pulled up beside him.

“Are you alright?” The old man who was piloting the boat asked and was shocked when Reinaldo expertly climbed aboard without tipping it.

“Thanks” Reinaldo said as he lay in the bottom of the boat, wondering which side of the border he was on.

“What sort of soldier are you?” The old man asked.

“Sailor actually” Reinaldo replied, happy that he had managed to get out alive.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Forty-Nine



5th March 1971

Buenos Aires, Argentina

All Ben had to do was make it onto an airliner bound for home, but it seemed like every time he made a move in that direction something else got in his way. This time it was the President of the Republic of Argentina who he had to contend with.

There had been a couple letters that had been rushed to him, the first from Kiki and the second from his mother. The differences between them in tone was quite stark. While Ben’s mother didn’t hide how she still didn’t particularly like or trust Kiki, it a different story with Nina. She had gone on at length, gushing about how she remembered when Ben was that little. How Nina had his nose and the prettiest eyes, which she would have inherited from Kiki. But few had seen Kiki without her glasses over the last twenty years including Ben’s mother. Ben’s mother wrote that she just loved them when they were this age, before they got older, started having opinions and made very questionable decisions. A not-so-subtle hint being directed Ben’s way.

The letter from Kiki could not have been more different. She wrote that she felt terrified because she understood the weight of responsibility. Here was this tiny, delicate life completely dependent upon her and Kiki was afraid that she would make the same mistakes as her mother. There was also an undercurrent that Ben understood because the few times they had talked about having children, Kiki had made clear that she thought that being a mother was not something she had in her. Now, there they were with Kiki having to grapple with having to face that alone and Ben on the wrong side of an ocean.

Into this, came the obstacles that kept appearing. Ben had found himself trying to bring his replacement up to speed, only to watch as that replacement had nearly gotten himself killed with the loss of his plane and another Orkan damaged with the mechanics doing everything they could in an effort to avoid having to write off the airframe. The last scrap with the Chilean Air Force had been a standard patrol of four planes, until they had attempted a long range shootdown of two FACh Tigers. Ben had watched as the two planes had evaded the Sperling missiles but had separated in the process. That meant that they should have been easy pickings, but the Tiger the patrol had gone after had had kicked their teeth in.

The pilot of the Tiger had made a turn that was impossibly tight for a plane with that degree of wing sweep and had gotten off two shots with the beastly heatseeking missiles that the Americans had perfected. This is what had resulted in one Orkan getting shot down and the other limping back to friendly territory on one engine. Ben had run the Tiger pilot down as he had tried to escape through the Andes after he had shown incredible aptitude in evading him. Ben had known that he had gone against another ace pilot, something that had been confirmed later when he learned that it had been Reinaldo Contreras who had been fished out a lake near Villa O’Higgins. The Chileans had been busy crowing about how their guy had taken on the best that the other side in impossibly long odds and had given far better than he had got in the days since. That certainly was an interesting spin on what had happened. That had been Ben’s fourth and final confirmed “kill” of the campaign, that much was something which was not disputed. Search and Rescue had managed to pluck Ben’s replacement and his WSO out of the Patagonian Steppe before the Chileans got to them. Considering that there had been only ten remaining Orkan Fighter/Bombers based out of Córdoba, the loss of two planes was greater than they could afford.

Into that was the official reaction to everything that had happened over the last few months. Ben was being credited with far more than just shooting down a few enemy aircraft, two of which had been targets of opportunity. The Argentinian Government had told the Luftwaffe that he had led an air offensive that had forced the Chileans to shift their various air defense assets around, away from the battlefield so that the Argentine Airforce could gain the upper hand. That had given the ground forces breathing room to get their feet back under them after initially getting pushed back by the Chileans. It might not have been much, but they had scored some desperately needed victories.

As Ben had been departing from Córdoba, Jasta 11 from JG1 had been arriving and they were not happy about how things had worked out. The way they saw it, Ben’s accomplishments would overshadow whatever they managed to do in the future. There were few things that angered them more than being shown up by what they considered a bunch amateur Jabos. He had been happy to leave just so he wouldn’t have to listen to all the complaining.

When Ben was passing through Buenos Aires, President Martínez insisted upon his presence and he was in no position to argue. It was just that Ben was aware that every additional day he spent away from home made Kiki murdering him a little more likely. He had been informed that a special act had been rushed through the Argentine Legislature that the President of Argentina had signed declaring a Ben citizen of that country so that he could receive the honor they felt he was due. As he stood there with President Martínez in front of an applauding crowd with the new silver medal and the crest Argentina hanging on a blue and white ribbon pinned to his tunic, he recognized that it would be second in precedence only to the Blue Max.

As it turned out, these people had really liked that he had bombed the Presidential Palace in Santiago.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Fifty



7th March 1971

Plänterwald, Berlin

Ben had not seen Kiki in months and had been a bit unsure as to what sort of greeting he would receive when he got home. She stood there with disheveled hair, glasses askew, and her bathrobe seemed to be covered in something that Ben didn’t want to contemplate. That was the scene that greeted him when he walked into Plänterwald cottage. He had wanted a shower and a few hours sleep after spending most of the last two days aboard various airliners or in airport lounges. When he said that, Kiki, along with a few strangers who he had not been properly introduced to had just laughed. Though Ben got the impression that Kiki had laughed not because she thought it was funny, but because she felt obligated to.

“I get to take the shower and you get to meet our daughter” Kiki said flatly in a tone of voice that suggested that Ben would not like what would happen if he attempted to argue with her. There was also mention their daughter, which was totally unreal until Nina started screaming. He heard the shower being turned on a few minutes later and realized what the undercurrent here was. Kiki was probably having a complete emotional meltdown a few meters away and this was her only chance to be alone to have it. Ben had probably been the only one to notice.

A moment later, a matronly woman came down from upstairs holding Nina as she tried to calm her. She said something to him in a language that Ben didn’t understand though the accent was unmistakable. It was the same one that Kiki used when she spoke English much to the surprise of British or Americans she spoke to. Which meant that this woman could only be one person, Fianna Dunn, Kiki’s own Nanny from almost three decades earlier who had spent nearly every moment with her until she was around the age of five. Ben had heard about her plenty of times, but they had never met until today.

“I beg your pardon” Ben said as Nina was continuing to shriek.

“I said that this little girl is being a devil as her like are want to do” Fianna said, “And I told her that everything is better now that Poppa is home.”

“A devil?” Ben asked, “My mother had a very different perspective.”

“All of us can be until we learn better and seeing a grandchild as all sweetness and light is a grandmother’s prerogative” Fianna replied as she handed Nina to Ben who nearly panicked. “Speaking of learning.”

It took a few minutes for her to get Ben holding Nina correctly. Apparently, this wasn’t the first time she had done that because she worked as a Charge Nurse at a maternity ward in her native Ireland, a career she had started after her time as a Nanny in Berlin was through and fathers who needed to learn the basics had been something Fianna had seen nearly every day. She had taken a leave of absence to come here. She said that with her own children mostly grown up, caring for the child of a woman she had cared for was an honor and the House of Hohenzollern paid very handsomely for her expertise and discretion. The other two women in the house were part of a larger team who had worked with Freddy and Suga’s children in recent years. Apparently, Charlotte and Suga had not given Kiki a choice in the matter. They had told her to accept the help because she had the means to not go about this alone.

“Kiki was the same way as a child” Fianna said, “Too serious, taking responsibility all the time because she felt she had to. I see that it has only gotten worse as she’s gotten older. Imagine walking a tightrope, no net, and there is a crowd below cheering for you to take a misstep and fall. The circumstances of her having this little one feed into that.”

Ben understood that, Kiki had said in her letter that she had been unaware of her pregnancy right up until a few weeks before Nina had been born. The problem was that the legion of detractors whose perceptions Kiki had been battling for years had leaped on this matter. How could have Princess Kristina, as both a woman and Physician not notice something so key about herself? And if that wasn’t enough, there were those who suggested that not only had she known but had knowingly put herself and those responsible for her protection at risk because she was a spoiled brat who put her own ambitions first. Ben knew that was a load of rubbish, but Kiki’s superiors in the Medical Service had to take those allegations seriously and that had left Kiki swinging in the wind until the investigation was complete. The fact that most of the witnesses were dead and the locations remained behind the lines of the war in South America had not made for a speedy process.

Ben’s train of thought was abruptly interrupted by Nina spitting up all over his shirt just as Kiki came out of the bathroom in a fresh set of clothes.

“I told you they can act like angels one second, devils the next” Fianna said, Ben didn’t argue that she had said no such thing. At least not to him.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Fifty-One



14th March 1971

Mitte, Berlin

It was raining as they drove to the next story they had been assigned to cover. Yuri was outraged over recent events, but Zella wished he would cut it out. It was like a small dog trying to bite someone’s ankle and only getting a mouth full of cloth in the process. It was hardly a surprise that Yuri would react this way, he had always taken things way too seriously.

“I don’t see what the big deal is” Zella said, “People like novelty and you can never tell where they will find it.”

“Still, getting beat by a show with an animated mouse and elephant?” Yuri demanded, “What is up with that?”

Zella just shrugged. It was a children’s program that was suddenly the highest rated thing on television and these things happen. “Mairi loves it” She said in reply, “And I thank that is the target audience.”

“There are not too many girls like Mairi” Yuri said.

“Six-year-olds?” Zella asked, “I think there are lots of those out there.”

“You know what I mean” Yuri replied, “Beyond being your friend’s niece, she is also the Emperor’s daughter.”

“Ask Kiki how that works for her” Zella said, “The happiest I have ever seen her was when she found out that Nina would not hold the title of Princess but would be a Gräfin due to her connection with Ben. Kiki seems to think that it has been a curse that has poisoned everything in her life.”

Yuri looked bewildered for a second. “She has a husband who went to the ends of the earth looking for her, money, and now a healthy daughter?” He asked, “How is any of that poisonous?”

Zella looked at her hands on the steering wheel as she waited for the signal to change. How exactly to explain this to Yuri, mostly because she’d had her own differences with Ben. Embarrassingly, it had mostly been that she felt Kiki could do a lot better than the first guy who had ever shown an interest in Kiki as a person rather than a fancy title. In the years since Ben had stepped up to become the sort of man who Kiki deserved, not that Zella would ever admit that to her best friend.

“It just has been” Zella replied, “You have never been around Kiki when she is in a mood as opposed to what is put out there for public consumption. You would understand if you had.”

Yuri gave her the look that he always gave Zella whenever she mentioned something about Kiki or her family that fell under the category of Not for Public Consumption. He knew that Zella would not betray her friendship with Kiki, but he also felt that Zella was sitting on several stories that could be big because of that.

“I cannot believe we are getting beat by that stupid children’s show” Yuri said, switching back to safer topics.



Base Aérea El Tepual, Puerto Montt, Chile

“That fucking bastard” Reinaldo said when he saw the photograph the front page of the newspaper. This drew a few curious looks from the other men in the Squadron who were eating their breakfast, but they went back to their food when they saw what he was looking at. Everyone knew that he had gone mano a mano with the Black Knight after he had managed to down one of the hated Orkan fighters which had taken on a fearsome aura over the summer. He wouldn’t be getting a second chance and that was grating.

Benjamin von Hirsch, the infamous Black Knight who had terrorized the skies over Chile and shot Reinaldo’s plane out from underneath him had gotten himself sent home. In the photograph, he was receiving the Military Class of the Pour le Mérite from the German Kaiser, a medal that every aspiring pilot knew about. The article also said that he had been promoted, both in military rank and in the Imperial Court of Germany, Lieutenant Colonel and Markgraf, whatever a Markgraf even was. He had apparently been assigned to be an instructor for the Luftwaffe Air Wings in the Military District he lived in, again, whatever that was.

It was all a reminder of how it had taken Reinaldo days to get out of the wilderness of southern Chile and how in his absence there had been some changes. The Fourth Air Brigade had been withdrawn from Base Aérea Chabunco outside Puerto Arenas after repeated visits by the Argentine Navy had left the runways unusable. The other change was that his squadron’s planes had been replaced with brand new F-11E Super Tigers straight from the Grumman factory, which was about time. The rub was that this was about the time that the CIA had caught up with Reinaldo. Word had leaked out about him going toe to toe with the German Ace and President Allende wanted to give him a medal, they were not happy about the resulting publicity. They had pointedly reminded him about how as far as the U.S. Government and Navy were concerned, Flight Captain Reinaldo Contreras didn’t exist. What part of this being a covert operation didn’t he understand? Publicity was the exact opposite of that and if the Germans learned of this and saw it as an advantage to out him as an American pilot, then it would jeopardize this entire operation.

“Fuck them” Reinaldo muttered to himself as he reached for the hot sauce that helped make the powdered eggs somewhat palatable.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Fifty-Two



22nd March 1971

Los Angeles, California

“We were told by Sergeant Wilkinson that you were someone we wanted to talk to” The Producer said as he shook Ritchie’s hand. The Producer was in Ritchie’s estimation what would happen if an oily shark somehow managed to take on human form and cram itself into a three-piece suit. As the Producer let go of Ritchie’s hand, Ritchie had to fight the urge to make sure that all of his fingers were still there.

“I am a bit surprised to get your call” Ritchie replied, “I only recently completed the field assessment and since then I have mostly been out in Imperial Country.”

“Bill mentioned that” The Producer said, “Out in the desert working for Uncle Sam for a few weeks. You are former Special Forces, right?”

“Something like that” Ritchie replied, doubting that the Producer knew a damn thing about any of it.

“That’s good” The Producer said as he turned and walked swiftly across the filmset with Ritchie trying to keep up. The set was designed to look like any one of the streets that surrounded the studio. Ritchie wondered why they would go to so much effort to make this when they could just go a hundred yards in any direction. “Mind if I call you what? Richard? Dick?”

“Ritchie works” Ritchie said, knowing that he wanted to make a good impression. Shooting the Producer for calling him Dick would be the exact opposite of that. Though the Department might give him a medal for doing so.

The last few months had been good as Lucia and Ritchie had settled into their new house. Spending his time fixing the place up had been a welcome change from the madness he encountered on a daily basis Downtown and in Skid Row. As his first-year field assessment had finally come, Ritch had passed with flying colors, getting the automatic promotion to Police Officer II, and there was the real prospect of being transferred elsewhere in the Department. That was when Captain Evans had reentered the picture, something that Ritchie had mostly forgotten about. He had said that they would talk when Ritchie got back from guarding the State of California against any incursions by the Mexican Army. Ritchie knew that meant that there was a strong possibility that he might be recruited into the Tactical Division, D Platoon in particular, based on his time in the Green Beret alone.

In the meantime, Ritchie had gotten a call from a Producer in Hollywood asking if he would be interested in a Consulting gig for a television show. Set in Los Angeles, it was supposed to be about Police Officers, Firefighters, and Paramedics as they battled the disasters that struck the city on a regular basis, both natural and human caused.

The reason Ritchie was interested was because he was looking at transferring to a four-year University for an honest-to-God Bachelor’s Degree it the near future and Lucia was making noises to the effect of not wanting to spend her whole life working as a Day-shift Cashier at Ralph’s. There was also the very real possibility that there would be things that they couldn’t predict happening, not to mention both Ritchie and Lucia’s respective mothers asking the obvious sorts of questions.

Suddenly, money was a major concern. Consulting for a television studio who wanted to make a gritty show about first responders was a way to that without being crooked. Ritchie was prepared to give them grittiness by the truckful if there was a decent amount of money involved.



Plänterwald, Berlin

Kiki had been asleep for about five seconds before Nina decided that sleeping was not in her interest. As she picked Nina up out of the crib and tried to calm her, Kiki thought about how Nadine loved her so much. Perhaps Nina ought to go to Oma’s house and stay there until she was ready to go to University, Kiki thought to herself. Even as she had the thought though, Kiki felt a touch of guilt that she’d had it. It cleaved a bit too close to a conversation which her Sister-in-Law and Stepmother had forced her to have just after Nina was born.

Hearing about both sides of her family’s long history of mothers rejecting their children had not been a comfortable thing to listen to. Charlotte had told her that it wasn’t actually unique to her family, it was just that there were extensive records that went back centuries because of their prominence. It was the reason why Charlotte and Suga had pressed Kiki to accept all the help that was being offered. It was yet one more example of the long and ever-growing list of disadvantages of being who she was. Being from an old family and having a Social Worker for a Stepmother came with that.

Finding herself with a fussy newborn who would not calm down or sleep even though it was in the early morning hours, it was becoming clear to Kiki that there was a reason why everyone had been so concerned. There would have been no way that she could have possibly done this on her own, not even with Benjamin home. Then there was the aspect that everyone was too polite to bring up with her or talk about in her presence. That Kiki had made no secret of the fact that she had never wanted to be a mother in the first place, now she was having to learn on the fly.

Kiki also couldn’t help but feel terrible about Fianna Dunn coming here. Fianna had apparently dropped everything to come to Berlin to help out and Kiki felt a stab of guilt every time she her. She had barely thought about a woman who’d had a profound influence on her life in the years since she had gone back to Ireland. Instead, Kiki remembered the sense of betrayal she had felt because someone she cared about was going home after having completed the task she had come to do. It was one more memory that Kiki now looked at and cringed.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Fifty-Three



2nd April 1971

Mitte, Berlin

Charlotte and Louis had been more than happy to watch Nina for the evening so that Kristina and Ben could catch up on things. Of course, Louis might no longer be Emperor, but he still had his many of his old sources. They were telling him that his daughter and Son-in-Law had fallen asleep on the couch with the dog in Kristina’s house only minutes after Louis and Charlotte had left with Nina. That was predictable.

A few weeks earlier, Charlotte had mentioned a scholarly article she had read that suggested that there might be an evolutionary component to why babies become fussy and monopolize their parent’s time for the first several months of their lives. That was easy enough to figure the reason for, the squeaky wheel gets the grease as it were. He knew that in the theory of Darwinian Evolution survival was cutthroat business where survival was often the luck of the draw with the most ruthless being favored. A human infant was hardwired to do what was necessary to survive by keeping its mother close at all times. Louis also figured that the fussiness served the purpose of making sure that the baby’s exhausted and exasperated parents were far less likely to produce a potential rival anytime soon. At least those were things that he had gleaned from watching his own children. Louis knew full well that he was not an Anthropologist, so while he had discussed this with Charlotte, he had not wanted the conversation to go further than that. Who knew what his children would have to say?

“Remember when Nella was this small?” Charlotte asked as she fed Nina from a bottle. “Doesn’t seem that long ago.”

In the manner of children since time out of mind, Nina was behaving perfectly for Opa and Oma. Not that Louis was under any illusions about how that could change in a heartbeat. As far as Nina was concerned, Charlotte was one of her people, just not Momma though. It remained to be seen just how tolerant she would remain.

“Time flies” Louis replied. Nella and Nan were in the next room watching television. They had lost interest when they found out that Nina didn’t do a whole lot, not yet. Louis figured that those two would be in for a surprise in a year or so when Nina would become extremely interested in what her aunts were doing. There were times when Louis wished that Nan could have spent her early childhood with him, and Charlotte like Nella had. Nan’s life had just been brutal up until they had taken her in, and it had taken her a long time to learn how to be a somewhat ordinary Child. That was a time limited thing though. Both Nella and Nan were growing up and they were slowly taking on the outward appearance of young women.

“Kiki is doing her best” Charlotte said, “All of this has been an incredible surprise for her, and she lacks many of the things that she could escape to in the past.”

“Is that such a bad thing?” Louis asked, “She has tended to run away from problems in the past, this isn’t something she can run from.”

“Perhaps” Charlotte replied, “I heard that the Medical Service didn’t pull any punches this time, she is in a lot of trouble.”

“I think that Koblenz is going out of their way to let Kristina know exactly what the chain of command is and her place in it” Louis said, “She has wanted to be treated the same as everyone else her whole life and that is exactly what she is getting.”

With that Nina finished her bottle and Charlotte watched as Louis picked her up and her on his shoulder. He gently patted the left side of her back until he heard a soft burp, he kept her there though until Nina fell asleep.

“You are rather good at that” Charlotte observed.

“It comes from having a lot of practice” Louis replied, “Seven children, four grandchildren including this one.”

“I doubt that Kiki and Ben will be interested in having another for a long time” Charlotte said, “Michael and Birdie have said that they are waiting until Birdie has completed University. Victoria has said that she is waiting to produce the spare for King Albrecht, which sounds even worse when she says it. And finally, Marie Cecilie is still happily single. So, Nina will probably remain the baby of this family for the foreseeable future.”

“We should count our blessings then” Louis said, “I always expected that Marie Cecilie would meet some African Prince with a bone through his nose and I would end up having to explain to the public why I didn’t have a problem with it.”

“That is a horrible stereotype” Charlotte said, and Louis was unsure which part of his last sentence she was referring to.

“These days, Marie Cecilie has her own people to do the explaining for her without my involvement” Louis said, “The African Prince in question hasn’t shown up yet, though I think that would come as a real surprise for the people of Galicia.”

Becoming the Queen of Galicia and Ruthenia had worked out well for Marie Cecilie. Basically, she had been given a tapestry to weave the fabric of a nation to her liking and she had leapt at the chance. She had set the new nation on a defiant course with the goal of turning Krakow and the other major cities of the region into centers of learning and enlightenment. Most notably, she had proudly cast a vote against her brother becoming Emperor of Germany.