Chapter Three Hundred Seventy-One
26th February 1944
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Vladimir realized that should have considered human nature before he started this latest fool’s quest. But what else should he have done? He had the impression from the Orthodox Church and from the soldiers of the Provisional Army that he’d met that they considered him lacking in some way. There were whispers that he would be the second coming of Nicholas the Second. Finally, there were the persistent rumors that there was a potential heir to the Russian Throne with a stronger claim than his out there somewhere. And Vladimir knew that if there was a better option many would take it in a heartbeat. These people didn’t realize that their great European Allies led by Germany were planning on dismembering Russia. They were enjoying a peaceful occupation of Ukraine and Belorussia because the independence movements in those places were getting everything they wanted out of this. When that reality sunk in there would be Hell to pay and if Vladimir’s position wasn’t secure then then he would become the obvious scapegoat.
It had been an attempt to get to the bottom of those rumors that had caused Vladimir’s latest headache. He knew roughly what had happened in British Colombia and it had been confirmed with that movie that had come out a few years earlier. Gunmen coming in shooting, the little girl wounded and fleeing on foot in freezing temperatures as weather closed in. It made for a bleak ending of the movie, the girl dying in the snow. Fading out with warmth and safety just beyond reach. So, by his own estimation it would have been someone in the buildings who survived. That meant Olga or Tatiana. Knowing his sister, if Kira really had smuggled one of them into Germany then she would do something clever to hide the surviving Nikolaevna sister where no one would think to look.
Vladimir had learned of several Russian women who had been prisoners of war and had been wounded in combat. Kira had secretly sponsored their medical care and rehabilitation. To him that seemed like a good place to start. He had dispatched a few trusted officers of the Provisional Army to investigate and that was where he encountered the first of several snags.
One of the officers had gotten himself killed when the subject he was investigating had turned out to be violently unstable. Another had given up and told Vladimir that he should too. That man had then gone back to the Pioneer Corps, something else he had suggested that Vladimir do as well. It was the understanding that the Germans were allowing the Provisional Army to do railroad and construction work with the Pioneer Corps so that they wouldn’t have to fight their fellow countrymen and they were building for a postwar Russia. Vladimir knew the real reason was that they weren’t trusted and certainly weren’t considered equals. He had no desire to be a part of that.
It was the third officer though who was causing the most trouble. Senior Captain Petrov had fallen in love with one of the women he was investigating. She was way too young to be one of the Nikolaevna sisters but worse of all this Nika Utkin was close friends with Gianna Strobel, a close relative of Kira’s pet lunatic. The last thing on Earth Vladimir needed was that redheaded harpy backed by a Company of Paras here demanding to know what he was up to. Even if the Freiin had once saved his life he had no doubt that she would pull the trigger on him if ordered to.
Berlin
It was the first time that everyone had been sitting around the table for a proper family meal in years. Hans had been on the front and Kat had been off doing whatever she was doing. Most nights in had been Marcella and Klaus with Gianna around depending on the circumstances. Marcella was happy that everyone was finally under the same roof again in what had been entirely too long.
Kat was quiet all meal. It was the sort of quiet that had Hans worried. While she never had been the most verbose and outgoing person he’d known, somewhere along the line she had picked up the air of someone who had seen too much and was growing less attached to the concerns of the world. After dinner, he found her sitting on the back porch staring at Aunt Marcella’s garden. There was some snow but most of it was bare ground that was visible in the yellow porch light.
“It doesn’t look any better the longer you stare at it” Hans said.
“I was just thinking about how Marcella had me work on the garden after the Reichstag blew up” Kat said, “Things were simpler then.”
Hans just shrugged. “You can’t go back to how it was then” He said, “And if I recall you weren’t exactly doing too well at that point.” He could have put the word “either” at the end of that.
“I’m just tired of being Freiherrin Katherine” Kat said, “It’s just as much of an act as anything that Gerta does. I’ve never been that person and I’m really starting to hate her.”
“Then don’t” Hans said.
“But it’s what people expect” Kat said.
That really surprised Hans, Kat had always been willing to throw herself into the middle of things and take insane chances. She had basically just said that she had done it because of other people’s expectations.
“As I said before” Hans said, “This person you think you need to be, stop being her, be selfish and look only to your own self-interest for once.”
“If only it were that simple” Kat said. The 28th Regiment was going into the field and she was expected to go along with them.
