Part 40, Chapter 498
Chapter Four Ninety-Eight
29th October 1945
Tsingtao, China
Maria’s latest letter to Emil had come with the front section of the Berliner Tageblatt from the Sunday edition just a week prior. The feature article was about Jehane Thomas which was also the vivid front page of the Sunday editions of the newspaper was known for. The artist had faced the challenge of depicting a figure who no one had actually seen. He had opted for a waiflike female figure approaching a monstrous ogre locked in a cage. Apparently, Maria had convinced Kat Mischner to finally introduce her to the Jehane. Maria had explained in the letter that Kat had been the girl’s protector for years. That was hardly a surprise. Kat was close with Empress Kira, who better to see to the safety of a young woman who needed to be kept hidden away. Telling the world that Jehane had died so that no one would even be looking was perfectly in keeping with how Kat did things.
Maria had said in the rest of the letter that she missed Emil and really wished that he could be home. Baring that she stated rather bluntly that if he wanted to be there for the birth of their child then he would need to hurry up and end the damned war before early February. It seemed that even Field Marshals had hard deadlines.
Here in the Far East, things were going about as well as expected. There had been the set of three of the missile attacks launched by the Luftwaffe earlier that month. For some reason the OKW was holding off further attacks. It had something to do what Admiral von Schmidt was up to, strangely that had come with Abwehr suddenly entering the theater in a big way. They had told Emil that while he needed to be ready to move at the proper moment they could risk briefing him on the ongoing operation, not yet anyway. Emil should have been expecting this all along, Jacob von Schmidt had found a way around him.
The problem was that to Emil’s understanding von Schmidt’s plans tended to run like the American cartoonist Rube Goldberg’s machine diagrams. Hugely complex devices designed to perform simple tasks that required everything to go perfectly to work. Emil had been warned by Augustus Lang that there have been times when von Schmidt’s plans had gone horribly awry including the time his house burnt down, and his wife nearly killed, or the German Government being largely decapitated at a critical moment in world history. Emil had a bad feeling that if whatever clever plan von Schmidt had blew up then it would be up to him to clean up the mess.
On the Chinese mainland they had finally pushed the Japanese out of the cities, taking a large number of prisoners in the process. It was Emil’s understanding that was something that had not happened in this war until now. Emil had also learned the price to finally get the Chinese moving. Augustus Lang had agreed to hand control to Tsingtao over to the Chinese at the conclusion. Some of the Generals from the Marine Infantry had been unhappy with this development. The 3rd Division took pride in being based out Tsingtao and saw China as their Division’s home. The Strategic reality was that between Russia, Korea and Taiwan they didn’t need the concession on the Chinese Mainland. Tsingtao had proven too difficult to defend and was too small to serve the purpose that such a place would need to in the future.
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Martin was walking down the street trying his best to go unnoticed as a patrol car rolled down the street in the opposite direction. The Summer of madness had ended but that had given way to an Autumn of uncertainty. The mystery as to who had blown up the Governor’s car had deepened with the wave of bombings that had happened across the South. Of all the absurd things, the newspapers were attempting to say that it was all the work of one man. It was insane, that man would have needed to have been in several places at once. And something that was all too predictable was happening. The local law enforcement was turning a blind eye to the frequently disproportionate retaliation. It was different when it was the good ol’ boys doing the violence and law breaking so long as they kept it on the correct side of the tracks. The bible was clear about how that sort of thing will eventually find its way home, you reap what you sow was a common theme. But like hypocrisy these good Christians just never got to that in their selective readings on Sunday mornings.
He had laid low all Summer, expecting his door to be kicked in any second. Something that had fortunately never happened. He had been trying to sort his thoughts into coherent form during that time. Did he regret his actions? Of course not, what happened was justice. The truth was that his guilt or innocence didn’t matter. He was guilty of whatever passed for law in America cared to hang on him from the day that he was born. He had composed his thoughts on the matter and written a carefully worded essay that had gone on for several thousand words. It didn’t mention his involvement in the bombing or the massacre that had preceded it beyond being a witness. It was in an envelope that was going to New York, the world needed to understand what was happening here.
29th October 1945
Tsingtao, China
Maria’s latest letter to Emil had come with the front section of the Berliner Tageblatt from the Sunday edition just a week prior. The feature article was about Jehane Thomas which was also the vivid front page of the Sunday editions of the newspaper was known for. The artist had faced the challenge of depicting a figure who no one had actually seen. He had opted for a waiflike female figure approaching a monstrous ogre locked in a cage. Apparently, Maria had convinced Kat Mischner to finally introduce her to the Jehane. Maria had explained in the letter that Kat had been the girl’s protector for years. That was hardly a surprise. Kat was close with Empress Kira, who better to see to the safety of a young woman who needed to be kept hidden away. Telling the world that Jehane had died so that no one would even be looking was perfectly in keeping with how Kat did things.
Maria had said in the rest of the letter that she missed Emil and really wished that he could be home. Baring that she stated rather bluntly that if he wanted to be there for the birth of their child then he would need to hurry up and end the damned war before early February. It seemed that even Field Marshals had hard deadlines.
Here in the Far East, things were going about as well as expected. There had been the set of three of the missile attacks launched by the Luftwaffe earlier that month. For some reason the OKW was holding off further attacks. It had something to do what Admiral von Schmidt was up to, strangely that had come with Abwehr suddenly entering the theater in a big way. They had told Emil that while he needed to be ready to move at the proper moment they could risk briefing him on the ongoing operation, not yet anyway. Emil should have been expecting this all along, Jacob von Schmidt had found a way around him.
The problem was that to Emil’s understanding von Schmidt’s plans tended to run like the American cartoonist Rube Goldberg’s machine diagrams. Hugely complex devices designed to perform simple tasks that required everything to go perfectly to work. Emil had been warned by Augustus Lang that there have been times when von Schmidt’s plans had gone horribly awry including the time his house burnt down, and his wife nearly killed, or the German Government being largely decapitated at a critical moment in world history. Emil had a bad feeling that if whatever clever plan von Schmidt had blew up then it would be up to him to clean up the mess.
On the Chinese mainland they had finally pushed the Japanese out of the cities, taking a large number of prisoners in the process. It was Emil’s understanding that was something that had not happened in this war until now. Emil had also learned the price to finally get the Chinese moving. Augustus Lang had agreed to hand control to Tsingtao over to the Chinese at the conclusion. Some of the Generals from the Marine Infantry had been unhappy with this development. The 3rd Division took pride in being based out Tsingtao and saw China as their Division’s home. The Strategic reality was that between Russia, Korea and Taiwan they didn’t need the concession on the Chinese Mainland. Tsingtao had proven too difficult to defend and was too small to serve the purpose that such a place would need to in the future.
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Martin was walking down the street trying his best to go unnoticed as a patrol car rolled down the street in the opposite direction. The Summer of madness had ended but that had given way to an Autumn of uncertainty. The mystery as to who had blown up the Governor’s car had deepened with the wave of bombings that had happened across the South. Of all the absurd things, the newspapers were attempting to say that it was all the work of one man. It was insane, that man would have needed to have been in several places at once. And something that was all too predictable was happening. The local law enforcement was turning a blind eye to the frequently disproportionate retaliation. It was different when it was the good ol’ boys doing the violence and law breaking so long as they kept it on the correct side of the tracks. The bible was clear about how that sort of thing will eventually find its way home, you reap what you sow was a common theme. But like hypocrisy these good Christians just never got to that in their selective readings on Sunday mornings.
He had laid low all Summer, expecting his door to be kicked in any second. Something that had fortunately never happened. He had been trying to sort his thoughts into coherent form during that time. Did he regret his actions? Of course not, what happened was justice. The truth was that his guilt or innocence didn’t matter. He was guilty of whatever passed for law in America cared to hang on him from the day that he was born. He had composed his thoughts on the matter and written a carefully worded essay that had gone on for several thousand words. It didn’t mention his involvement in the bombing or the massacre that had preceded it beyond being a witness. It was in an envelope that was going to New York, the world needed to understand what was happening here.
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