Part 57, Chapter 783
Chapter Seven Hundred Eighty-Three
13th December 1949
Berlin
“Kat wasn’t taking any arguments, Gia” Ilse said, “It was either this or Australia.”
“Would that have been so bad?” Gia asked only to get dirty looks from others.
Apparently, Kat had come home from Jena the prior afternoon and had a long talk with Douglas. Then she had called everyone in this morning for a full meeting of the sisterhood except for Gerta who was still in South Africa. They were told to pack their bags and head for the Hohenzollern Palace under guard. Douglas was backing her every step of the way. She hadn’t minced words, someone was making a major play for power in the Berlin underworld and they were all in danger because of their connection to her. Petia had stayed with Kat as they had closed up the house and removed anything of value, but she was expected to join them when that was done. Asia had confessed to Gia that she was scared that she would never be able to return to the house that had become her home. “It’s the people who make it home” Gia had told her. It was a lesson she’d learned over the prior months. As much as they aggravated each other at times, they couldn’t imagine life without this odd family they’d formed. Kat had said that life would go back to as normal as it ever was when she got to the bottom of what was happening.
Anne was delighted by this turn of events. While she and Kris obviously didn’t celebrate Christmas, with the Social Season starting and the Holidays coming they would all be in the same place for those things. It was a spin that was met with groans. Leave it to her to try to see the silver lining on this hurricane. Gia was happy that her suite of rooms had become the place where they had all decided to spend their time, she’d been lonely a lot over the last few months.
Warsaw, Poland
It was because he had gotten bored. Meyer Lansky had been approached by a punk named Justyn Kozlow a few years earlier. Justyn had led a gang of street rats in Danzig shipyards until he’d been caught and expelled from East Prussia following a lengthy sentence in prison. He’d only been freed because he’d volunteered to fight the Russians. It had been shortly before that Soviet War had ended that Justyn had approached Meyer. He’d been tempted to tell Justyn to get lost but he’d been sidelined for a while at that point. It was nice to have someone asking about the knowledge that he had.
Meyer looked at message from his protégé and hoped that the kid knew what he was doing. The plan was a good one, but he had his misgivings. It was like when Lucky had first made his play for power decades earlier. They had ruled New York after that, but few were as ruthless in the follow through as Lucky and Meyer knew that the Germans were complete savages when they went to war. The plan was to eventually eliminate Otto Mischner but that would do them no good if they didn’t take out his successor, the trouble was that no one knew who that was. Cut off the head and not only would a new one take its place, it would be looking for vengeance and it wouldn’t be satisfied until the vendetta was complete. Meyer was aware of several possibilities. Of the two legitimate Mischner children, the son was too straight-laced, was only dangerous in the context of his role in the military and his own Father-in-Law had told anyone who would listen that he was something of a dolt. The daughter was ruthless enough and was supposedly death personified. However, she disliked her father, was too much of a public figure and no outfit would follow a woman. Meyer knew that once moves started being made then all differences would be set aside, and the daughter was just too dangerous to ignore.
That left an array of illegitimate sons and one known daughter. The daughter was hardly the sort to offer a challenge, Meyer figured that if they told her to leave Germany forever then she would be on the next plane and the remaining sons had mostly all vanished in the recent weeks which was a worrying sign, that meant that there might be a leak in Justyn’s organization. The exception had been Joseph Keller. Sending a few knife men after Keller had been a waste of time and effort but Justyn had wanted to send a message that couldn’t be ignored. Their observers of the scene had said that Katherine von Mischner herself had been one of the investigators who’d responded. So, that meant the effort might have been worth it, but Otto had remained where he was for a long time because he was a cagey ruthless bastard. The counter move was coming, Meyer knew that hoped that Justyn was either fleet enough to pull Otto out of the shadows and still be able to get clear before that hammer came down.
So far from what Meyer had observed, Justyn lacked subtly. He went for big noisy spectacles and liked to be seen leading. He would learn some discretion or Meyer would miss talking to him after Otto got through skinning him alive. Either way, the tight-ass Germans who acted like they were the masters of the world and treated their neighbors with thinly disguised disdain would get some well-deserved comeuppance.
13th December 1949
Berlin
“Kat wasn’t taking any arguments, Gia” Ilse said, “It was either this or Australia.”
“Would that have been so bad?” Gia asked only to get dirty looks from others.
Apparently, Kat had come home from Jena the prior afternoon and had a long talk with Douglas. Then she had called everyone in this morning for a full meeting of the sisterhood except for Gerta who was still in South Africa. They were told to pack their bags and head for the Hohenzollern Palace under guard. Douglas was backing her every step of the way. She hadn’t minced words, someone was making a major play for power in the Berlin underworld and they were all in danger because of their connection to her. Petia had stayed with Kat as they had closed up the house and removed anything of value, but she was expected to join them when that was done. Asia had confessed to Gia that she was scared that she would never be able to return to the house that had become her home. “It’s the people who make it home” Gia had told her. It was a lesson she’d learned over the prior months. As much as they aggravated each other at times, they couldn’t imagine life without this odd family they’d formed. Kat had said that life would go back to as normal as it ever was when she got to the bottom of what was happening.
Anne was delighted by this turn of events. While she and Kris obviously didn’t celebrate Christmas, with the Social Season starting and the Holidays coming they would all be in the same place for those things. It was a spin that was met with groans. Leave it to her to try to see the silver lining on this hurricane. Gia was happy that her suite of rooms had become the place where they had all decided to spend their time, she’d been lonely a lot over the last few months.
Warsaw, Poland
It was because he had gotten bored. Meyer Lansky had been approached by a punk named Justyn Kozlow a few years earlier. Justyn had led a gang of street rats in Danzig shipyards until he’d been caught and expelled from East Prussia following a lengthy sentence in prison. He’d only been freed because he’d volunteered to fight the Russians. It had been shortly before that Soviet War had ended that Justyn had approached Meyer. He’d been tempted to tell Justyn to get lost but he’d been sidelined for a while at that point. It was nice to have someone asking about the knowledge that he had.
Meyer looked at message from his protégé and hoped that the kid knew what he was doing. The plan was a good one, but he had his misgivings. It was like when Lucky had first made his play for power decades earlier. They had ruled New York after that, but few were as ruthless in the follow through as Lucky and Meyer knew that the Germans were complete savages when they went to war. The plan was to eventually eliminate Otto Mischner but that would do them no good if they didn’t take out his successor, the trouble was that no one knew who that was. Cut off the head and not only would a new one take its place, it would be looking for vengeance and it wouldn’t be satisfied until the vendetta was complete. Meyer was aware of several possibilities. Of the two legitimate Mischner children, the son was too straight-laced, was only dangerous in the context of his role in the military and his own Father-in-Law had told anyone who would listen that he was something of a dolt. The daughter was ruthless enough and was supposedly death personified. However, she disliked her father, was too much of a public figure and no outfit would follow a woman. Meyer knew that once moves started being made then all differences would be set aside, and the daughter was just too dangerous to ignore.
That left an array of illegitimate sons and one known daughter. The daughter was hardly the sort to offer a challenge, Meyer figured that if they told her to leave Germany forever then she would be on the next plane and the remaining sons had mostly all vanished in the recent weeks which was a worrying sign, that meant that there might be a leak in Justyn’s organization. The exception had been Joseph Keller. Sending a few knife men after Keller had been a waste of time and effort but Justyn had wanted to send a message that couldn’t be ignored. Their observers of the scene had said that Katherine von Mischner herself had been one of the investigators who’d responded. So, that meant the effort might have been worth it, but Otto had remained where he was for a long time because he was a cagey ruthless bastard. The counter move was coming, Meyer knew that hoped that Justyn was either fleet enough to pull Otto out of the shadows and still be able to get clear before that hammer came down.
So far from what Meyer had observed, Justyn lacked subtly. He went for big noisy spectacles and liked to be seen leading. He would learn some discretion or Meyer would miss talking to him after Otto got through skinning him alive. Either way, the tight-ass Germans who acted like they were the masters of the world and treated their neighbors with thinly disguised disdain would get some well-deserved comeuppance.
