Chapter Two Thousand Seven Hundred Nine
15th August 1978
Riesengebirge National Park, Giant Mountains
Rain was drumming on the canvas roof of the tent that Sepp was sleeping in most nights, just not tonight. He supposed that he ought to consider himself fortunate that the tent had been pitched on a raised wooden platform. Every few minutes there was a flash of lightening seen through the gap in the front tent flap, followed a few seconds later by the crash of thunder. The thunder had been what had woken Sepp up from an exhausted sleep, like most days he had gotten into the sleeping bag that was on a foam rubber pad that was neither thick or long enough as soon as he finished supper and slept until the sun came up. Tonight though a storm had blown in during the early morning hours and had woken him. He was aware that the other three guys in the tent were awake, but no one felt like talking.
The events of the prior day kept replaying in Sepp’s mind. How he had given his opinion when asked and it had been wrong. Senior Ranger Strumpf had shown him the work order that detailed what they were going to be doing yesterday afternoon and it was simply improving the drainage on the fire road by digging trenches across it, placing PVC pipe, and then filling in the trenches. Sepp’s suggestion would not only have been more work, but it would have been counterproductive. It seemed that whoever had come up their work assignments knew these things inside and out. Strumpf had told him not to sweat it over lunch when they had taken a break from work to eat the meal that had been comprised of military ration packs. Learning to read the instructions was a valuable lesson for Sepp to have learned no matter what he chose to do after he went back to the city.
To change the subject to something less annoying Sepp had pointed out the nature of what they were eating to Strumpf. If they were not in the Heer why were they eating Heer rations? Strumpf had just shrugged in reply. He told Sepp that the Forest Service had a foot in more than one of the Service Branches. In times of war their personnel were assigned to the Heer’s various Jager Corps having incredibly valuable bushcraft skills. That meant that every Candidate spent some time in Judenbach. They also sent their people to be trained by the Pioneers, Medical Service, Luftwaffe, and the Navy depending on the needs of the Service. If that was the case, Sepp had asked, why have a bunch of University Students up here in the mountains doing all this work as Forester Candidates. Strumpf had replied that it took at least five years to train a Forest Service Ranger and they didn’t have the resources for any but the most serious Candidates. Having them up here doing work that was valuable even if it was boring, was how they sorted out who was serious from who wasn’t. Sepp had asked how they knew who was serious and had been told that it all depended on who signed up next year. While Sepp might be less than thrilled by his lot at the moment, he might think about things differently next spring.
That left Sepp with a lot to think about as he saw another flash of light. Less than a second later, there was the crash of thunder as storm must have been almost right overhead.
Near Los Grutas, Reo Negro Province, Argentina
When Monique had agreed to travel to Argentina to tour the holdings of Richthofen family she had no idea what she was in for. She was expecting something like the Richthofen Estate that was extensive comprising of plots of land scattered across Silesia, Poland, and Galicia-Ruthenia. Instead, she had found that it was a vast ranch nearly the size of Bavaria comprised of sheep and cattle stations, and even included entire towns on the Patagonian Steppe. Everywhere they had gone over the last two weeks, Monique had watched as Niko had been greeted warmly as his father’s proxy. It seemed that having the Don’s son travel all the way from Germany to listen to them was a huge deal. Monique had been asked by Niko to talk to the other half of the people who would not be inclined to speak to him, wives, daughters, and mothers. It had been something that she had looked at with a bit of trepidation.
Then Monique found out what they thought of her.
Somehow word had reached this distant corner of Argentina that Monique was the granddaughter of Bishop Piers Sjostedt of the Lutheran Church and that she was studying Theology at the University of Flensburg. She wasn’t sure exactly how that would go over in an overwhelmingly Catholic country. They also knew that Monique was also Niko’s intended, which made them extremely curious about her. Finally she found out that by local standards she was considered extremely beautiful, which was a surprise. Monique had never seen herself as anything special in that regard.
Now after what must have been thousands of kilometers of dusty roads in the back of a VW Iltis that had been made for civilian use. They reached the house of a family friend of the Richthofens, Martzel Iberia. As the gate closed behind the Iltis, Monique saw that it was more of a fortress compound than a mere house. All the exterior walls of the buildings were white painted masonry and they had clay tile roofs. As they walked into the entry of the main house, Monique saw that they were being greeted like visiting royalty, then it occurred to her that was what Niko was. Don Martzel himself was there to greet them.
“I was sorry to hear about the passing of your grandfather” Martzel said as soon as he saw Niko, “He was a great man.”
That was something that had been said to Niko often as they had traveled though Argentina. Then Martzel turned his attention to Monique.
“And it is an honor to finally meet you Mónica” Martzel said, “I never got a chance to thank your grandfather for those socks I received during the Soviet War.”
That was something else that Monique had heard a lot, in some of the oddest corners of the world.
