Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety-Four



26th June 1970

Pacoima, Los Angeles, California

Don’t get too close to the subject unless you want to get shot at. Ty Coleman’s Editor had not minced words when he had given him the assignment, as if he needed one having worked in Germany for several years before returning home to LA. The Princess was coming to Los Angeles, but she had not told anyone what her plans were. Kristina was a famously private woman who didn’t like being photographed, she was active in the German Special Forces, she had a diplomatic passport so God only knew what she might have brought into the country.

It all served as a warning the German Royals were not like their British counterparts when it came to the tabloid press. They managed things in a vastly different manner, not caring to be tourist attractions or public attractions and most of them had a career of some sort these days. Most of the palaces and residences had been turned into museums and galleries. The German Imperial Press Law of 1874 was something that every Journalist and Editor operating in Europe had to be aware of because it had real teeth, getting a story wrong over there could potentially have serious consequences. Antagonizing the House of Hohenzollern was hanging a “Kick Me!” sign on your back.

None of this was helped by most of them being for lack of a better word, boring, especially the Kaiser himself. He had cut the Royal Bureaucracy back to bare bones during the Second World War as a demonstration of solidarity with the German public and had not rehired the vast majority of it after the war ended. That meant that Palace intrigue was basically nonexistent and the closest thing to a royal scandal that Ty had covered during his time in Europe had been when the Board of Trusties who managed the family’s assets had been caught with their hand in the till. The story had ended after a few weeks because they had all been arrested, and the Kaiser had recouped most of his losses by seizing theirs after he sued them for breach of contract.

Kristina herself was particularly aggravating. Bespectacled and almost always sour-faced when anyone from the Press tried to talk to her. She even made a point of always wearing clothes that looked the same which made most photographs of her were worthless. Basically, Kristina was no one’s idea of glamorous Princess. There was also her marriage to what turned out to be her high school sweetheart, total snooze-fest.

Then today, of all things she might have done in Los Angeles, Kristina went to a working-class neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. As Ty sat in his car getting weird looks from passersby and sweating through his shirt, he wondered what the Hell she was thinking.

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This was just the first of several events that would culminate with the wedding on Sunday. Kiki had been told that this was small as these things go, so she couldn’t imagine what the main event was going to be like. Ritchie, who had been rather surprised when Kiki and Ben had shown up at the front door of his mother’s house, said that they had needed to rent an event hall at the recreation center at a nearby park because the wedding had grown larger than initially planned. Kiki knew exactly how that sort of thing happened and figured that Ritchie would probably be grateful if rather than giving him a wedding present, she just cut him a check.

That didn’t mean that she didn’t have other considerations in the meantime though.

Kiki was trying to get air down her throat as her eyes were watering and her mouth felt like it was on fire. This was great amusement to Concha, who had insisted that she try her salsa roja. It had been delicious for the first few seconds, then the peppers had kicked in. Ritchie’s family found this incredibly amusing, they had tried to warn her. After a minute, she took a drink of beer to help ease it a bit.

“This is almost as spicy as the Kimchi I had all the time when I was in Korea” Kiki said. That was found incredibly amusing, but that had turned into amazement when Kiki took a second chip. So, far that afternoon she had been careful not to draw too much attention to herself, knowing that it should be focused elsewhere. Watching her try something new, especially when it was figured that she didn’t know what she was getting into tended to draw attention.

Finishing the bottle of beer, Kiki caught Ben’s eye and they drifted back across the back yard momentarily forgotten as the focus of the party shifted elsewhere. She was finding that she was enjoying it here. If anyone knew who she was here, they didn’t seem to care. They just knew that she was a friend of Ritchie’s from the Army. This crowd was also largely composed of Spanish speakers, or at least what passed for Spanish in California. Between the Latin and French that had been drilled into Kiki’s head in school until she was nearly fluent in French and conversational in Latin, she could understand most of what was said. Though making herself understood proved a bit more difficult. There were a number of others who Kiki recognized just from the way they walked, U.S. Special Forces. Kiki caught a glimpse of one of men from her security detail standing by the back door of the house. They were good at being unobtrusive, but still…

“Are you still going by the name Fischer?” The man who had introduced himself as Huck asked, “I remember from ten years ago, in China.”

“Doctor von Preussen these days” Kiki said as she pulled a fresh bottle of beer from the washtub filled with ice and looked at the vexing cap.

“I also heard talk that you’re a Light Colonel now” Huck said, “Pretty good run over a decade.”

“I guess” Kiki replied, “You know who has the bottle opener?”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety-Five



27th June 1970

Rio Gallegos, Argentina

“Time for you morons to earn your keep for once” Jost said as the ramp on the back of the airplane was being lowered. Of course, the Oberstaber was pleased by this turn in events, Manny thought to himself, as long as the 7th Recon was in the field the paperwork for his separation could not be processed. Before they had gotten orders to prepare for movement, Jost had been calling in every favor, blackmailing, and threatening everyone he could think of in an unsuccessful effort to keep that from happening. Manny had talked with his father about Jost, and his father had told him that Jost Schultz’s entire identity was wrapped up in being a Noncom in the Heer having been in it for the entirety of his adult life. Without that, what would he be? The idea that they would be “Earning their keep” was particularly ominous. They were in Argentina to train and advise the Argentine Army.

Did Jost know something that the rest of them did not?

Stabsgefreiter Einar Tann, the Estonian Rifleman who everyone joked looked the part of a Viking, had suggested that Jost had no intention of returning Wunsdorf-Zossen at the end of this. Rainer Maus had then made a smartass remark about how he had thought that for those like Einar getting into Valhalla was a good thing, earning himself a dirty look from everyone else within earshot. Typical Maus. The truth which everyone understood was that a Senior Noncom who longer cared if he lived or died was a very real danger to everyone around him. That was why Maus was on everyone’s shitlist during the long flight to Rio Gallegos.

On the other end was the three Soldaten and a Fahnenjunker that the Platoon had taken on, all still teenagers and just out of Basic Training. At least Jost knew what he was doing. Fahnenjunker Grünbach was supposed to be learning how to be Squad Leader, which was a difficult thing to do in the field. That was why Manny was keeping Grünbach close for now. If Manny put him into a Squad with an established leader and the others would eat him alive. If Grünbach got a chance to prove himself then that might change. The three Soldaten were suburbanites who had never even handled a weapon until a couple months previously and were largely clueless about living in the rough while out in the field. This was a direct result of institutional issues that Manny had noticed. The first was that the 2nd Army drew its personnel from the 3rd Military District, which included Berlin/Brandenburg. That meant that the vast majority of the recruits had either urban or suburban backgrounds. The second was that because the 7th Recon was seen as an Intelligence Unit, someone far up the food chain had made certain assumptions about how best to fill its ranks. That was why the three fresh fish had scored high in various aptitude tests but had been encouraged to join the Heer as opposed to going to University for whatever reason. The result was that Manny had trying to teach them fieldcraft and they had not proven to be the most receptive of students. On the other hand, they had figured out how to use those cursed radios far faster than Christian and Ralf had managed.

Walking down the ramp, the first thing Manny noticed was that it was cold, hovering around freezing, which was the reason why they had been ordered to bring their winter gear. The other thing was that the brisk wind was causing the turbine blades in the turbofan engine of one of the big Junkers Transports parked on the tarmac to slowly spin. On other side of runway, a dozen civilian aircraft including what looked like a former Argentine Airforce Ju-52(A). Manny knew that they had been replaced years earlier with a twin turboprop of native design, to actually see one in flying condition was a bit of a novelty. Back home those were only seen in museums. Beyond a chain-link fence, was a range of low hills under a grey overcast.

As Manny watched, the Battalion’s vehicles started to be unloaded from the transport planes. The entire reason they had been tapped for this mission was because most of their equipment could be airlifted. Any other outfit in the 4th Division would be stuck here in Rio Gallegos until the Panzers, APCs and other tracked vehicles arrived by sea. When Manny had spoken with the Oberstlieutenant before they had left Wunsdorf. The two SPz-4 APCs that were used by the 7th Recon as mobile command posts had to be left behind and the Staff was going to have to rough it with the Other Ranks out in the field. No one was pleased by that development. There was also the open question about the nature of the mission they were playing beyond the official line. The 7th Recon Battalion was the scout element of the 4th Panzer Division. Was the rest of the Division going to be following them? And if so, why was that in the works? Manny had a feeling he would be finding out the answers the hard way.

One of the Iltis cars rolled down the ramp and once again, Manny was amazed by the sheer amount of material that the men managed to pack onto those. It parked next to one of the tracked VAFs that was festooned with crates carrying who knew what. Manny suspected that there was about to be an economic crisis of sorts in whatever black market existed around here as all manner of contraband flooded in causing the prices to drop…

“Will you believe this shit?” Jost asked snapping a piece of paper, his earlier good mood having evaporated.

“What is it Oberstaber?” Manny asked.

“They got us in the Naval Barracks in town by the Seaport” Jost replied.

“And?” Manny asked in reply. At that moment, he didn’t care where they would be temporarily staying. If it was out of this wind, it was perfect as far as he was concerned.

“We got standards, they don’t” Jost said, “With our luck, there will be Marines next door. Have you ever stood downwind from one of them? And the Sailors, don’t get me started on them.”

“Isn’t your younger brother a General in the Marine Infantry?” Manny asked and got a dark expression in return.

“That just proves my point” Jost said in a tone that might have frozen water.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety-Six



28th June 1970

Pacoima, Los Angeles, California

The reception was drawing to a close as the night wore on. The crowd had thinned a bit, so Ritchie and Lucia had already spent some time saying goodbyes to their guests before they left for the night. The band had resorted to playing requests as there were still several couples interested in dancing. Mostly, everyone was at their table having seconds of cake or they were standing in knots talking.

“I think that we got out at the right time” Parker said, “Some of the things I’ve been hearing through the grapevine about what the CIA has been up to have been questionable.”

They were standing at the open bar waiting for drinks, the music from the band made eavesdropping difficult. That was probably why Parker approached him here.

“How certain are you about your source?” Ritchie asked.

Parker just shrugged, which was typical for him.

This was the first time that Ritchie had seen Parker since he had left the Special Forces to go work for MGM over in England more than a year earlier. They had not had a chance to talk before now because Parker and Sigi had only flown in the night before. They had been traveling around Europe after the filming of the latest James Bond film had wrapped up. When would have Parker had time to talk to his source? Ritchie didn’t know.

“I don’t know if you heard, but the Government of Chile has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. Some in the CIA are thinking it would be worth it to give them a push” Parker replied, “There is also talk that the Germans have been moving assets into Southern Cone in case someone down there does something stupid.”

Ritchie looked across the hall at Kiki who was talking with his mother and Lucia. He still couldn’t believe that they had invited Kiki, or that she had decided to come. If what Parker was saying was true, that complicated things. Though Ritchie wasn’t sure how that affected him even if he had a couple German Officers at his wedding. He was no longer in the Special Forces, the National Guard Division he was a part of seemed mostly concerned with what was happening along the West Coast from Oregon all the way to the border with Mexico. He had heard that unofficially the Division kept a close eye on what was happening in Baja as well, it would be foolish for them not to. How events on the very southern end of South America might come into play here he couldn’t begin to guess.

“It was because of that Ecuadorian thing, isn’t it?” Ritchie asked, “Why the Chilian Government is teetering?”

“The undeclared war in Ecuador was a proxy war between Chile and Argentina” Parker said, “In turn, Argentina has been closely allied with Germany for years. Since that failed coup there that the German Navy helped them squash.”

That was one of those stories that was hard to ignore. A Battleship firing into a city with its main battery was one of those things that got people’s attention, even twenty years later. Only the Germans would be crazy enough to pull a stunt like that.

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For Kiki, the wedding was a bit of a tightrope to walk. If she had dressed too nicely, she would upstage Lucia. On the other hand, if she wore clothes were seen as being cheap or tawdry it would be seen as an insult. Luckily for her, the nature of the wedding had enabled her to sidestep that. Ritchie was Noncommissioned Officer in what Kiki realized was something like the Landwehr Divisions back home as well as being in the Los Angeles Police. So many of the guests were wearing the dress uniforms of the US Army and the LAPD. That was why Kiki had worn her Medical Service dress uniform whose grey-blue fabric didn’t look particularly good on anyone, the Medals and Orders she wore with it though, those changed everything.

“What are you going to do with the rest of your week?” Concha asked, “While you are in LA?”

“The holiday is over after this I am afraid” Kiki replied, “Tomorrow, I am supposed to be at the Medical Center at UCLA giving a lecture about my role in the Medical Service. Then there is the rest of the week, I have some time at a free clinic in the City Center lined up as well as a few meetings which I would prefer not to do but are a necessary evil.”

“Because you are a Princess?” Lucia asked.

“No” Kiki replied, “As a Field Surgeon. I would have declined if they were asking me solely because of my family connections.”

“You don’t like using family connections that way?” Concha asked, “If I was in your shoes, I’d use them in every way I could.”

Kiki paused. How did she explain this in a way that Concha might understand? It seemed that in Concha’s thinking, using family connections to advance yourself was something that you did if you were smart, and Kiki understood that she didn’t really understand Kiki’s stubbornness.

“When I was a little girl, my father’s Retainer, Katherine told me that unless I earned my own place in the world, I would always be beholden to my father and oldest brother” Kiki said, “I have always wanted to be a Doctor, so I joined the Medical Service as soon as was old enough.”

“This Katrina sounds like a smart lady” Lucia said, “But what do you mean by retainer?”

“Kat is sort of the Royal Assassin, or at least she was” Kiki replied.

“You still have those over there?” Concha asked with a bit of disbelief.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety-Seven



29th June 1970

Rural Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

They were supposed to be getting a lay of the land by traveling down one of the roads that led away from Rio Gallegos and to ascertain the condition of a narrow-gauge railroad that ran from the coast up to the mine in Rio Turbio. The idea that they had been ordered to do this by the Oberst to get some of the men out of the barracks for a couple of days was entirely believable. Sending out patrols had always been a good way looking like you were doing something without doing a whole lot. The Volkswagen Iltis was perfect for this region, which had become very evident in Rio Gallegos where most of the civilian vehicles were either versions of the Iltis, the ubiquitous Opal Blitz, and even a number of old Kubelwagens.

So far today, Christian had seen that there was absolutely nothing to see. Just rolling hills covered in a thin dusting of snow. There was also a noticeable lack of trees, all the plants were scrub brush that was only about waist high at most.

Even the road, National Route 40 which supposedly crossed the whole of Argentina from south to north was only a graveled track that was going more or less in a westerly direction. The map said that the road turned north eventually and ran parallel to the Andes. Occasionally, they saw signs denoting sheep stations but even those were few in number. There were also the somewhat odd mile markers every few kilometers.

Looking at how desolate the countryside was, Christian was starting to understand the warnings he had been given about how getting lost out here could have consequences far worse than merely being embarrassed. That was why Christian was keeping a close eye on the map and hoping that Maus kept to the main road. The difference between the National Route and some unnamed track leading nowhere was not as great as he might have preferred. They had been advised not to be afraid to ask for help from the locals, many of them were of German or Swiss descent. However, they had also been warned that because the frontier with Chile was close by, so most people saw the presence of soldiers in their communities as bad news. Which was it? They also had been warned against crossing the border into Chile, an invisible line that was no more than a few kilometers away.

Looking in the mirror, Christian saw the second Iltis of their patrol about twenty meters behind them. Einar was in command of that one and had Jorge, their liaison from the Argentine Army as a passenger. Christian figured that Jorge’s rank was roughly equivalent to Unteroffizer and had been somewhat underwhelmed by the man. He also got impression that the Argentinian had been assigned to the 7th Recon as punishment for some unknown infraction. The fact that they had needed to stop an hour out of Rio Gallegos because Jorge had been overcome with motion sickness had done nothing to dispel that notion.

Coming around a bend in the road, they came across a sight that looked like something from another century. Men on horses guiding a herd of sheep the opposite direction.

“Gold Four to Gold Nine, be advised that we are stopping to let local commerce proceed” Christian said into the radio.

“Are you sure?” Einar asked, “We are pushing it if we are going to make our destination by nightfall.”

They had been advised against attempting to travel down these roads after dark because the hazards would only increase. As if the presence of the Gauchos wasn’t a big clue that despite the fact that the vehicles that they were riding in might have been built within the last couple years, this landscape was little changed from how it might have been a century earlier. They had not seen anything resembling a streetlight outside the very center of Rio Gallegos. Not that it was much of a consideration because Rio Turbio was only a couple hours further up the road, so they would have to really get lost to not make it there before dark.

“Don’t worry about that” Christian said into the microphone. “So, we get to camp out tonight, we have far more important considerations here.”

A few weeks earlier, Manny had told Christian that if he ever wanted to become a Feldwebel he would need to start showing leadership in the field and act without having to be ordered to. He also needed to consider his actions within the context of the larger mission. That was understandable from Christian’s perspective, but there had been many times when he had seen how Manny had not seen the obvious when it was right in front of him. These Gauchos for example. Manny would have let them pass with probably no more than a friendly wave. Christian saw different possibilities. These people lived right up against the border and you would be kidding yourself if they didn’t conduct business on both sides of it. Christian had seen it many times before while growing up in Cottbus which was close to the border between Brandenburg and Silesia. Anytime there were two areas with different taxes and demands, small scale smuggling was just a given. Often it was in the form of cartons of cigarettes or cases of booze. If you could buy it cheaply on one side of the line and sell it for a profit on the other, the incentive existed to do just that. The thing was, the Gauchos living in this region had something far more valuable than they realized, information. They knew this country and what was happening across the line in Chile. Both those things were of high value to the 7th Recon.

“Good day” Christian said with a smile as one of the Gauchos approached the Iltis. He could see the covetous look the man was giving the vehicle. Here in Patagonia, a four-wheel drive military package Iltis would be the ultimate status symbol. It wasn’t for sale though. Then Christian saw some of the other things that the Gaucho was pretending not to take an interest in. Christian knew in that instant how to buy his cooperation, it was just a question of getting Manny to go along with it.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety-Eight



30th June 1970

Mitte, Berlin

It was just an odd coincidence, but both reports had landed on Helene’s desk on the same day. As Minister of Interior, her job was to go through them and glean what she could as the information pertained to her field. The first report detailed lessons learned in the invasion of Poland and the second had been compiled by the BND, explaining just what had happened in Serbia and Albania a few years prior.

There were entirely too many parallels in those reports for comfort.

In both cases, nationalistic groups had decided that the best course of action had been the removal and/or extermination of another group had been in their interest. The Albanians had made the mistake of involving themselves on behalf of the Bosniaks and had realized too late that a substantial portion of their own population was seen as undesirable to the combatant Nations. In Poland, that had been the direction that things had been going in, except they had been stopped cold by a timely intervention.

Was this a part of the human condition? Us versus Them and when the wrong set of conditions occurred, demagogues among the Us would do their level best to turn the majority against Them, the minority. She had read report after report about the obnoxious antics of Martin Bormann since she had taken on the role of Minister of the Interior. The man had been a brute, whose demise from a massive heart attack a few months earlier had been met with a considerable amount of relief within the Ministry. The Nationalist Party that he had led had splintered with former members throwing out accusations against one another. This had culminated a week prior when Klaus Barbie had shot and killed Adolf Eichmann at their Party’s headquarters in Frankfurt. The Head of the BII had been gleeful when he had phoned Helene to tell her what had happened. They got to arrest Barbie for murder as well as seizing every document they could lay their hands on as evidence. The later part was something that they had wanted to do for a long time.

Helene knew for certain that if Germany had fallen into such a state where a thug like Martin Bormann could gain power, Helene doubted that he would not hesitate to perform an atrocity on the scale of what had happened in Albania. Would society go along with such actions? Monstrous crimes that defied comprehension because they were on a massive scale? Helene had no idea. At the same time, there were groups on the far left like the Jacobins and the unreconstructed Stalinists who existed on the fringes. History revealed what they were capable of.

Helene’s role as the Minister of Interior made her the one responsible for keeping people like that contained. While at the same time she was supposed to be safeguarding the constitutional guarantees that made it so that they were free to spread their poison.



Palomar Observatory, Mount Palomar, California

“We are pleased that you came to visit Doctor Hirsch” Doctor Horace Babcock, the Director of Palomar Observatory said as he shook Ben’s hand, “And don’t believe for an instant what Herman Kempf has to say about me.”

“I hadn’t thought to bring it up” Ben replied as they started walking in the direction of what he presumed was Babcock’s office, “All he said was that I ought to mention to you something about a Chess rematch. He said you’ve been ducking him.”

“Oh, he would say that, wouldn’t he” Babcock said, “The lengths that man has gone to avoid saying that I beat him in a fair match is simply astonishing.”

“If you say so Sir” Ben said. He couldn’t help but noticing that Doctor Babcock and Professor Kempf were definitely two of a kind.

“No need to call me Sir” Babcock said, “A young man like you who has already has a number of accomplishments under his belt, I am proud to name as a colleague.”

“What are you trying to sell me on Sir” Ben replied and saw a look of annoyance cross Babcock’s face.

“I just laid it on a bit thick, didn’t I” Babcock said, “Professor Kempf said that you were looking continue to further your education.”

“And you were hoping to poach one of his students?” Ben asked, “For Caltech?”

Babcock just shrugged, as if to say you cannot blame a fellow for trying.

“That is for this autumn” Ben said, “I’m just here to take the tour tonight.”

“Yes” Babcock said adjusting his glasses, “I seem to recall being told that there would be two of you.”

“Originally it was planned that my wife would accompany us” Ben answered, “But she was exhausted after giving a lecture on Emergency Medicine and doing a tour of the UCLA Medical Center. She told me to go ahead on my own while she catches up on sleep, apparently she has something planned for tomorrow in Downtown Los Angeles.”

“I see” Babcock replied, though he probably didn’t. Kiki had told Ben that one of the difficulties she had encountered was that when people pictured a Physician it was inevitably an older man, distinguished looking, and she obviously didn’t fit the bill.

Just before they reached the door that led into the Observatory complex, Ben couldn’t help but notice the bright glow of city lights reflected off the clouds to the west. Whatever the difficulties that had been encountered in constructing the Argelander Observatory, a key consideration had been that the nearest large city was more than a hundred kilometers away.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine



1st July 1970

Los Angeles, California

The Free Clinic in Skid Row that was run by UCLA was a bit surprised when Kiki showed up that morning saying that she had volunteered to work there for the day, and it had already been cleared with their Superiors. Mostly they didn’t care who she was, as far as they were concerned Kiki was a Doctor who was willing to work in one Los Angeles’ roughest neighborhoods. The people who lived here were those who few cared about. Drug addicts, alcoholics, people who were mentally ill who were able to function at a high enough level so as to not end up in a State Hospital, or any one of a thousand other reasons why they had ended up destitute. Here in the clinic, none of that mattered. They were here to provide care for everyone came through the doors. Kiki was a bit aghast at how limited the supplies were and that there was nothing like the Medical Service in America. She was told that she was to help the people who came as best she could and not to worry about any follow up care.

At the same time, Kiki had her actual mission in the back of her mind and how that lack of follow up care made that more difficult. The clinic staff and the patients would probably be rather put out if they ever learned the truth. As the day wore on, Kiki discovered that it really didn’t matter. It seemed like everyone here deferred to someone who seemed to be in a position of authority and her being a Physician placed her in that exact position. So, with each patient Kiki took a blood sample and had it sent to refrigerated storage. Arrangements had already been made for the samples to be redirected to a waiting flight that would take them back to a laboratory in Germany, presumably. For understandable reasons, Kiki had not been told the details.

The day had passed swiftly, with Kiki taking care of the patients as swiftly as she could. What she didn’t expect was a patient whose name she knew entered the exam room. It was not someone she had actually met, but she had certainly heard enough complaints about him a decade earlier. James Morrison, better known as Jim, according to Zella who’d had an unwanted encounter with him at the time. The T-shirt that he was wearing that had the words Take me drunk, I’m home spelled out across the front of it and a pair of short pants that was worn year-round here in Los Angeles, even by grown men, suggested that he hadn’t changed that much since he was sixteen. As if what he said as soon as Kiki entered the exam room wasn’t proof of that.

“Hey Babe” Jim asked as he was sitting on the exam table, “Do all the girls look like you where you come from.”

This wasn’t the first time that Kiki had gotten a reaction like that, people knew she wasn’t from here as soon as she spoke. So far, few had placed her accent because they only knew the silly exaggerated version that found its way into American movies and television. This wasn’t helped by Kiki having been taught English by Nurse from Ireland when she was still a small child. It was something that Jack Kennedy had gotten a bit of a laugh about when he had come to Berlin to conduct business with Kat when Kiki had been living in her house.

“If you are not prepared to be respectful, you can leave right now Mr. Morrison” Kiki said flatly, “Why are you here? Beyond the obvious, that is.”

“What’s so obvious?” Jim asked.

I can tell just by looking at you that you drink too much and need to become better acquainted with something called soap judging by the smell, Kiki thought to herself but didn’t say aloud.

“You wouldn’t be in here otherwise” Kiki said.

“You see. My knee is hurting, and I could really use something for that” Jim said, and something about the way he said it bugged Kiki. A glance she had taken at his file had told her that he had also been in the clinic for his back, knees, and also complaining of chronic headaches. It was obvious what was going on and it was something that she didn’t want to contribute to. Looking at Jim, she suddenly had an idea of how this situation should be handled. It wasn’t entirely ethical but giving Jim the pain medication that he was angling for wasn’t either.

“If you could tell me which one?” Kiki asked.

Jim looked down at his knees. “Uh… The left one” He said.

“Very well” Kiki said, as she reached for her field bag. “Your file said that you have been in here before with the same complaint. Perhaps it is time we took steps to address it permanently.”

Jim watched as she removed a bottle of local anastatic, the syringe with the largest needle she had and a scalpel from the bag. A horrified look spreading across his face.

“Don’t be a baby Mr. Morrison” Kiki said amicably, “This is just going to be a little bit of exploratory surgery.”

“Shouldn’t you do that sort of thing in an actual hospital?” Jim asked.

“We don’t really need to” Kiki said with a pleasant smile, “I’ve performed amputations in the field before and most of my patients survived, so you are in good hands.”

“Are you insane?” Jim asked as he tried to scoot across the table away from her.

“It depends on who you ask” Kiki replied, “I’ve been called that quite a few times, sometimes even worse things than that. Now, lets see to that knee.”

At that second, Jim had had enough and bolted for the door. Kiki could hear the yelling and a couple crashes as he made his way out through the lobby. For someone with a bum knee, he could certainly run fast. The Charge Nurse, who had struck Kiki as being the sort who had seen and heard everything, looked into the exam room shaking her head as Kiki put her things back into her bag.

“It turned out that Mr. Morrison didn’t need any treatment this afternoon after all” Kiki said.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand



3rd July 1970

Rio Gallegos, Argentina

The quarters they had been assigned turned out to be every bit as bad as Jost had predicted and they had already spent several days just making the barracks livable. The buildings were in were only a few meters from the concrete embankment on the river that the KM Southern Squadron and Argentine ships moored to when they came into port. The crews coming back to their ships late at night tended to make a lot of noise. There had nearly been a few altercations because of that. Jost’s prediction about having the Marine Barracks next door hadn’t come to pass, instead the Marines were down the river by the perimeter fence with the coal terminal just a stone’s throw away. So yes, there were worse places that they might have ended up.

On the other hand, Manfred had discovered that he had no shortage of volunteers whenever he needed someone to go on a patrol. He had a feeling that was only going to get easier the longer they stayed in Rio Gallegos, because there simply wasn’t a whole lot to do in the town. It had been Manfred’s hope that the training and advisory mission they had been sent on would begin immediately, but the Argentine Army here didn’t have the same urgency that they had in Buenos Ares. Much of the disputed border region was to the west and south of them. Supposedly no one was crazy enough to start a conflict during the winter around here according to them because of that. The Oberstlieutenant had told the General commanding the forces in this region that now was when they needed to be training and was dismissed. So, the 7th Recon was at loose ends, probably until spring came.

Then they could look forward to getting overrun by the Chileans, Manfred thought sourly to himself.

Into this was Christian Weise. Manfred had told him that he needed to start showing initiative and what that looked like was a bit unexpected. He had this brilliant idea that they should not be focused on the Argentine Army, instead on the Gauchos who lived in this region. They were mostly Drovers, but dabbled in other fields as well, such as prospecting and smuggling. Christian pointed out that they had connections on both sides of the border, and it wouldn’t be too difficult to get them on side.

Christian’s ideas of how to go about that raised a few questions though. What exactly did they have which those people would want? And would they anger the Argentine Government in the process? The Oberstlieutenant said that those ideas needed to be taken seriously. The first question’s answer was obvious. The material they had brought with them. Vehicles and weapons in particular. Which led directly to the second question. Finally, the Oberst had warned Manfred that Christian’s latest promotion was probably a given with his record and time in service. It was just a matter of the paperwork catching up with them. When that happened Christian’s ideas would carry a lot more weight, especially in a place like this. That was something that would also make Manfred’s job more difficult as well.



Los Angeles, California

“Not one more word about this Ritchie” Lucia said, “This was a wedding gift, so put your pride aside for a few seconds and be gracious.”

The contents of the envelope on the table between them was what was at issue. Kristina, whose very presence at their wedding had been a complete surprise for Ritchie, had sent a Cashier’s check for a considerable amount of money that had been signed over to Ritchie and Lucia. Enough to pay for the balance of the wedding costs and give them a nest egg as well. It was the sort of thing that changed their lives for the better and as Ritchie had found, his wife and mother had formed a united front against him on the matter. They didn’t understand the questions that would inevitably be asked if anyone ever found out. Had Kristina, a Military Officer from a foreign country, asked for anything in return? Had the whole thing been contrived somehow? Would anyone believe that he had not known Kristina was coming until she showed up at his mother’s house? Ritchie had tried to explain that to Lucia and his mother. They assumed that it was out of pride. He assumed that wasn’t much of a surprise really. They had dealt with that sort of thing before, many times in fact. This wasn’t that, or at least Ritchie hoped it wasn’t.

“Just how are we going to explain any of this?” Ritchie asked.

“Tell the truth” Concha replied, “If anyone asks that is, and if they want to learn more tell them to talk to Kiki.”

“This isn’t like you loaning Bobby fifty bucks to cover his rent last month” Ritchie replied, “Which reminds me. When is he planning on paying that back?”

“When he gets around to it” Concha said, “Remember, not everyone in this family has been as fortunate as you over the last few years.”

Lucia nodded in agreement.

It was something that Ritchie had been hearing about since he had come home from New York. The decline in the fortunes of Lockheed had hit this neighborhood particularly hard. The jet airliner that they had attempted to build had failed to make it to even the prototype stage and that had resulted in several rounds of layoffs. However, there was talk that the Engineers had something in the works thanks to the Hendrix Act, whatever that was.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand One



4th July 1970

Los Angeles, California

Before she left LA, Kiki had agreed to meet with Ritchie and his partner Bill Wilkinson for coffee. The place they went to sold coffee and donuts in the early morning hours. It being Independence Day in America, the conversation had gone in that direction and Kiki had ended up taking about what she had seen herself in her family’s archives.

“I’ve read the correspondence between Friedrich der Grosse and your own Founding Fathers is interesting” Kiki said, “Friedrich wanted to be seen as an enlightened leader, but his relationship with the American Revolution was complex. He recognized your independence but was cautious due to his dealings with the British.”

“Your great, great however far back grandfather really played that kind of role?” Wilkinson asked, with a bit of disbelief.

“There is a sword in Washington D.C. that was a gift to President Washington” Kiki replied, “At the same time, he didn’t think that America could survive as a republic and thought that it would eventually rejoin the British Empire.”

“Also isn’t Frederick the Great a distant uncle of yours?” Ritchie asked, “He didn’t have children of his own.”

“You know about that?” Kiki asked.

“Lucia got a few books from the library after she met you” Ritchie said.

Kiki took a sip of the coffee, even with sugar and cream added to it, it really was terrible. There was also a fresh glazed donut filled with raspberry jam on a plate in front of her, Kiki was taking her time with that because it was surprisingly good.

“Wouldn’t having kids be one of the things a King is expected to do?” Wilkinson asked.

“Friedrich is rumored to have been a homosexual” Kiki replied, “Though that is subject of debate.”

Kiki could have told them about how over the last few decades the whole “Friends of Friedrich” thing had emerged, mostly as a means of poking the sensibilities of the more conservative elements of German Society. However, she didn’t know if they would understand. Kiki had her own perspectives on such matters, mostly revolving around how grossly unfair she thought that the choices that her sister Victoria had been forced to make were.

Wilkinson didn’t seem too surprised. “The world takes all types” He said with a shrug. Kiki figured that there were few things that he had not seen over his career.

They sat there for a few minutes in awkward silence that left Kiki stewing in her own thoughts. About how she and Ben had spent a day up the coast in Malibu as guests of a retired actress and her son. The invitation had been something of a surprise. Lili and Kiki’s father had had an affair a few decades earlier in the 30’s back during what her father called his adventures in America. Eventually, they had married other people. Still, Lili had invited Kiki to her beach house, and it had been interesting to say the least. While Lili had just been intent on getting to know her, the son, Sean, had been a bit more direct. He had jokingly called Kiki his might-have-been little sister. That was a bit odd because they were essentially the same age. Still, it had been an opportunity to go to the beach while in California in a relatively private location.

“Did those books say anything about Kristy here?” Wilkinson asked.

“Not really” Ritchie replied, “Mostly they ended with her grandfather, one mentioned her father.”

“Most serious historians aren’t interested in contemporary events” Kiki said, “My father said that his legacy will not be defined until at least twenty years after he is no longer Kaiser.”

“True enough” Wilkinson said, “But I made a few calls, friends of friends, you know. It seems that our counterparts in Berlin have quite a few things to say about the Princess here. Did you really run through gunfire after a bombing to pull a wounded cop to safety Kristy?”

“I wasn’t thinking” Kiki replied, “I got an earful about risking my life like that. First from my mentor as she was draining the hematoma from when I was hit with a nine-millimeter bullet, then from my father for being so stubborn.”

“That sounds like quite a story” Ritchie said.

“I don’t think it is” Kiki replied.

“There was also her getting a blue max without firing a shot” Wilkinson said.

Kiki looked at her donut, her appetite gone.

“I liked that no one knew me here” Kiki said, “It was refreshing.”

“That is the other thing I learned” Wilkinson said, “You are not one to crave recognition either.”

“It is not about recognition” Kiki replied, “It’s that I do not know exactly why I might be getting it. Is it because of my conduct, or because of who I am? It is frequently difficult to tell.”

“So, you pushed things past all points of sanity?” Wilkinson asked.

“You are really good at this?” Kiki asked in reply, “Aren’t you?”

“It is my job” Wilkinson said, “Knowing why people do things. And you are an odd woman, but only in a good way, I’ll grant you that.”

Funny how often people reached that conclusion about Kiki. There were times when action had needed to be taken and Kiki had done her level best to rise to every situation. The trouble was that it resulted in conclusions like that.

“I think that ideally, there are times when we are dutybound not to turn away from what we are witnessing” Kiki said, “Me as a Doctor and you as Policemen.”

“Ideally” Wilkinson said, “The world is far from ideal though.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Two



5th July 1970

Calabasas, California

The falling out between Howard Hughes and Boeing had been spectacular. Their Executive Vice President of Marketing had started it when he had said at a meeting that Hughes had become an embarrassment and they should no longer have direct dealings with him. Hughes had fired back that Boeing wouldn’t be Boeing if not for him. He was the one who had risked his neck to show off the performance of the Dash 80 years earlier. They had not appreciated the reminder, pointing out that he had risked a valuable prototype as if they had not received a flood of orders for the 707 based on Hughes’ actions. The war of words had escalated until Hughes broke off all contact and vowed to ruin them in retaliation. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.

The failure of Lockheed to even build a prototype of their TriStar airliner after they realized that Douglas had beat them to the market with an aircraft which was externally identical and for a lower initial price had nearly killed the company, however Hughes had instantly seen the opportunity that represented. He might have had a bad reputation in some circles, but there was nothing wrong with his ability to get people on the phone and making connections. He fondly remembered how Lockheed had been happy to play ball when he had wanted the Constellation put into production back in the 1940’s. It seemed that they were open to playing ball again. While Lockheed was doing well in military contracts, with the Hercules Transport being a standout example. However, investors were not exactly thrilled to learn that they had an expensive prototype at Muroc Air Force Base that may or may not result in a production deal depending on the whims of the Pentagon or Congress. Or worse, having that prototype be out at Groom Lake, the USAF airfield that didn’t officially exist, and not being able to breath a word about it without risking arrest. Airliners were high visibility prestige projects that the public and investors loved.

Arranging a meeting between the respective Corporate Officers of Lockheed and Curtis-Wright had been surprisingly easy. At the moment, Boeing was competing directly with Focke-Wulf-Dornier after having come to dominate the domestic market. Then two things happened. Boeing’s latest airliner falling out of the sky due to suspected severe icing problems and the Hendrix Act. The law was geared to maintain a robust aerospace industry in the United States and keeping it internationally competitive. While Boeing was receiving its share of the Federal largess, so was everyone else and Hughes saw that there was a window of opportunity there if someone wanted to break Boeing’s near monopoly.

It was at that meeting where Hughes had revealed the other calls he had made. Across the Atlantic, not everyone was thrilled with the status quo. FW-Dornier played a similar role to Boeing in their dominance of the European market. The consortium that had began the manufacture of Airbus Aircraft over the last few years was willing to make a deal, in this case, the licensing of Junkers Jumo turbofan engines to Curtis-Wright in return for capital investment, and Hughes himself had plenty of money he wasn’t doing anything with. Those engines were powerful enough to make Lockheed’s original idea for the TriStar, a twin jumbo, a reality. While Hughes’ reputation had suffered in recent years due to his various personal problems, on good days he could still sell iceboxes to Eskimos. This was a good day as he announced to the gathered corporate boards the project that Lockheed was bringing to the fore, the Galaxy airliner.



Los Angeles, California

The schedule had changed, with Ritchie and Wilkinson working the day shift. After months of working graveyard, it seemed strange seeing being out in daylight. The people who were about today were a far different crowd and there were a lot more of them. The other thing that was odd was that Wilkinson was letting Ritchie drive today, something that rarely happened.

“I can’t believe you are still sore with me” Wilkinson said, “Kristy is a big girl, so she is more than able to handle anything I could throw at her.”

“She’s a friend, and you interrogated her” Ritchie replied, not mentioning how Kiki had probably saved him and Lucia a lot of headaches in the coming months as they worked to build a life together.

“I was curious about who she is” Wilkinson said.

“You talked to the German Police” Ritchie replied, “That is taking things a bit too far.”

“Actually, it was the State Police in Berlin and all I needed to do was get ahold of a Desk Sergeant over there, apparently Kristy is rather well known to them. She has worked in Emergency Rooms in Berlin for years.”

That rang true, Doctors and Nurses in area hospitals became extremely familiar to them. Along with Ambulance Drivers and Fire Fighters, they were people who they dealt with every single day.

“Still” Ritchie said.

Wilkinson paused for a minute and was looking out the window. Ritchie saw what had caught his attention, an extremely attractive woman in a sundress.

“Aren’t you married?” Ritchie asked.

“Yeah, but I ain’t dead” Wilkinson replied, “And neither are you apparently.”

Ritchie realized that he had eased his foot off the accelerator slowing the car. With a bit of embarrassment, he brought the car back up to speed. In the mirror, he saw that the woman had an amused look on her face as she stepped into a business and out of sight.

“You want to know what the real thing that struck me about struck me about Kristy” Wilkinson said, “If she thought that she would save the world by burning it to the ground, I don’t think she would hesitate before she struck the match.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Three



10th July 1970

Operations Command of the Armed Forces, Near Potsdam, Germany

Long before Micha Oberst had ended up here, some wise guy had written Join the Luftwaffe and see the World in large black letters on the concrete wall of the bunker in which he worked in. For some odd reason that had never been painted over. Perhaps it was because the Oberlieutenant got the joke and approved. More likely he simply didn’t care. The Reconnaissance and Analysis Company that Micha was a small part of spent all of its days staring at monitors as the surveillance feed from several orbiting satellites was beamed down so that it could be recorded and analyzed. Every day they issued a report on the observed state of world affairs that was to the respective staffs of the Emperor, Chancellor, and the other relevant members of the Government. Micha’s section was also involved with monitoring soldiers in the field and providing intelligence to them if possible, but the technology to that either had not been invented yet or was a secret that was above his paygrade. Of course, Micha being a lowly Funker meant that almost always seemed like everyone else in the room outranked him.

How the graffiti figured in was that they were observing the world while never, ever actually traveling anywhere. The bunker was in fact located just a few kilometers from his parent’s house. Not that he made it there often, he always needed to be on call in case there was a crisis which kept him close to the barracks. There was also the small matter of Micha’s name, which had all sorts of things wrong with it. Something that he had not realized until he had dropped out of University and joined the Luftwaffe because the only job that he had found in Berlin had not been enough to pay his bills. His parents had made a point of turning his bedroom into a home office for his father as soon as he had moved out, so moving back in with them wasn’t an option. As for his name, Micha Oberst, the Drill Instructor had had a field day with that. Was he a boy or girl? The Instructor had said that he couldn’t tell by looking at him, but it didn’t matter because that had just been an excuse to kick him up and down the Parade Ground. As for Oberst, was he putting on airs? The Instructor had just the cure for that. Eventually, Micha had made it through that, but he had discovered quickly that he was not really going much further than that. He had found himself staring at monitors, watching the satellite feed, and flagging anything that he thought was of interest. The trouble was that while the job had been exciting at first, months later he was still looking at the same images because things seldom happened quickly.

“I had better not catch any of you sleeping this time” The Feldwebel said before he stomped out. A month earlier that had happened on different shift, and the entire Company had been bawled out. It seemed that the message had been, don’t get caught as opposed to don’t do it. Micha found himself battling boredom with sludge coffee and fought the temptation to shove a pencil into his eye with everyone else.

At that moment, the satellite feed that Micha was watching was passing over the Western United States. It looked like a hot day there, zooming in on the beach, he saw that it was crowded with people. Zooming out, he saw that traffic was backing up on the freeways like it did every afternoon. That meant that those frolicking in the sun were in for an exhausting trip home at the end of the day. Over the following minutes the Los Angeles Basin rolled past, and Micha zoomed out. Except for March Air Force Base there wasn’t a whole lot to see. Zooming in on that, Micha made note of the number and types of aircraft on the flight line. Next was Muroc Air Force Base, which was a hive of activity. The surrounding countryside was the Mojave Desert, a thousand shades of brown. How did people live there?

Then came the nameless airfield that sat north of Las Vegas. Salt flats and an absurdly long runway. It was dead as always. Word was that while they had sprung a few surprises on the U.S. Air Force over the years, the USAF knew exactly when the Luftwaffe satellites would be overhead and timed their operations accordingly. Micha noted that there was no visible activity to report at that site, the same as the last thousand times he had seen it. Finally, there was Davis–Monthan Air Force Base just outside of Tucson, Arizona. Micha could see the rows of airplanes baking in the early evening sun. Many had been cut up with the pieces laid out in full view. Those were nuclear capable bombers whose existence had been cut short by strategic arms limitations treaties. It had been in that manner so that both sides could see that the other was honoring what had been painstakingly negotiated. Micha’s understanding was that there was a similar site in South-West Germany. After a set period of time the aircraft would be shipped off to the foundry.

About the time the view crossed into the Texas Panhandle from New Mexico, the land below went dark. Micha could have switched cameras and continued watching what the Americans were doing in infrared, but he knew that others at the monitors that surrounded him were already doing exactly that. Instead, he took his mandated break after turning in his notes to the Head of his Section. Word was that a few years earlier one of the Analysts had flipped out and had started smashing monitors after spending too long staring at one of them. Taking a break after a few hours had been required after that.

Running up the flights of stairs to ground level, Micha stood outside the steel blast doors, happy to be out from under tons of concrete breathing stale air. It was a cool humid night, and the ground was wet from when it had been raining earlier. In the east, the sky was pale in the predawn.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Four



12th July 1970

Plänterwald, Berlin

Kiki’s cottage faced the river, behind it was a small garden that was fenced in by a wooden trellis works that had climbing roses growing on it. There was a pergola that covered a concrete pad which sat next to a reflecting pool that had small fish swimming in the clear water. Zella thought that it was nice, but at the moment it was still too new, and she also felt that Kiki didn’t appreciate it fully. In the years ahead, it would be beautiful. Presently, Zella was making the most of it, laying on the concrete pad enjoying the feel of the sun on her skin. Kiki being Kiki, she had not objected to Zella doing this but had insisted that Zella put on the zinc oxide crème which she had in abundance. There were times when Zella thought that Kiki must own stock in the company that made that crème considering the amount of it that she used. While it was nice to avoid a painful sunburn, Zella saw it as a part of the inevitable progression of Kiki’s life. Kiki had been acting like a mother for years. Zella knew in her heart that it wouldn’t be much longer until that was no longer an act.

Frequently, there were times when it felt as if Kiki was sprinting towards middle age and after years of rebelling against being placed in a Kristina shaped slot, that was exactly where she had ended up. That was why Zella was always trying to get her to live a little before it was too late. Unfortunately, she had never had much success in that regard. That was evidenced by Kiki sitting in the shade at the table that had been set up under the pergola and was editing typewritten pages with a red pencil. She had told Zella that it was the report of what she had seen while working in a free clinic in Los Angeles, California. It was something that she had been working on in her spare time since she had gotten back from America. There were a couple problems. The fact that a “free clinic” even needed to be a thing in the first place and how to point out that it was a serious problem without offending the sensibilities of the Americans. Rauchbier was laying under her chair, snoozing on a warm afternoon.

“I thought that Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest?” Zella asked as she sat up and looked at Kiki.

Kiki gave her a look of annoyance.

“This is important” Kiki replied.

“And your own time isn’t?”

Kiki took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. “Ben has been talking to you?” She asked, “Hasn’t he?”

“No” Zella replied, she had never liked Ben. These days she tolerated his presence purely for Kiki’s sake and wondered at times what exactly Kiki saw in him. So, talking to him behind Kiki’s back was totally out of the question. Ben was out this afternoon, surprisingly or not, for reasons that related to the Wilhelm Institute and his quest to continue his Post-Doctorate education. Just the thought of that made Zella’s head spin.

“He has been after me about that too” Kiki said as Zella put her dress back on. “But we just got back from California and before that I had not been doing my job for months.”

That would be how Kiki saw things, Zella thought to herself as she padded on bare feet to sit down at the chair across the table. “You were not on holiday the entire time” She said, “You were conducting a Royal tour because your father ordered you to. That was your duty as a Princess, now you are kicking yourself because you weren’t able to fulfill your other duties during that time. The weird part is that if you hadn’t done either you wouldn’t have been missed.”

“You can’t be serious” Kiki said, “The work I do is necessary, that whole tour was a distraction that took me away from that.”

“And what was the backlog of work when you returned?” Zella asked.

Which caught Kiki short, she didn’t answer the question.

“It was a well-oiled machine before you got there” Zella said, “You were assigned to it because it was understood that you could come and go without there being too much undue fuss. If you learn something while you are there, good, if not then there is no great loss.”

“Exactly how would you know that?” Kiki asked.

“General’s daughter” Zella replied raising her right hand. She figured that telling Kiki that her career had just been deliberately stalled would be the wrong tact. It was something that she had actually discussed with her father, Kiki’s rise through the ranks had been fast and she was young for her present role. It was in the Medical Service’s interest to have her mature in that role before she advanced further, so they were perfectly happy to give her all the time she needed. The trouble was that Kiki wasn’t exactly wired to see things that way.

“Your father told you that?”

“More or less” Zella replied, “He played a key role in setting up the Medical Service as an independent branch, so he knows a thing or two about how it is run. You are the Second in Command of a unit that is dispersed across an entire Military District and is composed mostly of professionals. Enforcing discipline is hardly a problem, so the work is mostly administrative.”

“If it is set up so that I can really come and go as easily as you say, what do they think I am going to be doing with my time?” Kiki asked, with the annoyed tone coming back into her voice.

Zella wasn’t sure if it was safe for her to be the one who answered that question.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Five



18th July 1970

Kreuzberg, Berlin

Reviewing the latest entry in her diary caused Anne to pull a previous volume down from the shelf. The entry from a couple years earlier about her introduction to Kat’s ward Sophie, back then Sophie had been this scared little thing who was always afraid of getting hit by the adults who surrounded her. While no one would argue that Sophie was completely normal now, years later, it was obvious that she had come a long way. Little things like how she flinched whenever anyone tried to touch her, were still evident. At the same time, when Sophie and Franziska had come to Anne’s house to help Lina pack for camp that day, the girls had spent the afternoon laughing and enjoying themselves and not a whole lot of packing had been done. Just the fact that Sophie had learned how to laugh again was a sign of that. More than anything, Sophie reminded Anne of the other girls in Kat’s care who she had met years earlier.

It was hard to imagine Asia as the farm girl she must have been as opposed to the silent, sullen girl Anne had first met after the Soviets had killed her parents. Leni’s retreating into books because her reality was too painful for her to bear and how she still celebrated the death of her father. Kris, whose fragile bones resulting from childhood malnutrition had limited her opportunities. Ilse watching Anne with her family, trying hard to hide the emotions from her face because she had never had one at that point. Judita, whose jealousy drove everyone away from her until her epilepsy caused her to finally accept that she needed the support her adopted sisters provided her. And finally, there was Gia, whose scared body bore testimony to the hardship she had endured because she had been born into the wrong family. They had all come around in their own time, sort of.

It was sort of hard to argue that any of them had led particularly normal lives in the years since. Still, Kat’s intervention had changed them for the better and had probably diverted them from reaching tragic ends. Anne thought she was seeing what looked like with Sophie and she was also seeing something that she had not noticed when she had been younger. That Kat worried a lot about the girls currently in her care.

Jo was excited because she had received a teaching assignment that would take her on a real adventure and Kat fretted because she felt that Jo was being naive about what she was getting into. Suse had recently made some poor choices and while there had been no serious consequences this time, Kat had found herself having to help patch things up between Suse and Gerta. There had been a near miss that would have been a severe blow to Gerta’s vanity and Suse had called her out for that sort of selfishness. The situation was rather ironic considering difficulties that Kat had been having with her own daughters. Sophie showing improvement was a great relief to her. Unfortunately, Kat had also mentioned that a battering ram was flying at them as a direct result of the poison that Sophie’s mother had dripped into her ears that basically implied that she was going to be promiscuous on top of already being dishonest and worthless. Sophie would just become an even greater shame for her family than she already was. Adolescence was coming for Sophie and Kat knew that she would take it badly for exactly that reason. It staggered Anne that a mother would do something like that to her child on top of the abuse and neglect that Sophie had already suffered. It was as if all the legitimate fears that a parent had had metastasized into something twisted and dark. Kat had said that there was also a large amount of projection involved as well. Sophie’s mother, Elke, had been seduced by a superior and it had cost her the career that was supposed to have been her escape from the Dickensian existence she had grown up in. It struck Anne that Elke had been brutally punishing Sophie for her own mistakes. Kat had also said that she was still looking for Sophie’s father because of the unfinished business she had with the man. The fact that he was apparently out of Kat’s reach suggested that someone with a lot of pull had hidden him, protecting Kat from her worst instincts.

Looking at the page, Anne realized what she had just written. Kat, who in many ways was mother to all of them, even Anne who had joined the Eyes and Ears of the Empress of her own volition, a role she still played for a different Empress. “The forgotten bastard daughters of Berlin, the mice in the shadows and the broken birds of inequity. Never to be introduced to Society because that would require remembering them in the first place.” Leni had said that in the midst of Anne’s own introduction to the Royal Court when four of the Eyes had crashed the party and had been drinking stolen champagne when Anne had spotted them in their hiding place. Leni had always had a way with words, and she would probably know how to write about Kat in a way that didn’t make her look like she was completely unhinged at times.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Six



25th July 1970

Near Los Grutas, Rio Negro Province, Argentina

After two days on the road, some fifteen hundred kilometers, finally reaching the destination was a relief. The unrelenting sameness of the Patagonian Steppe which National Route 3 ran through was punishing. Even the occasional sight of the Atlantic Ocean, which was always to their right did little to break up the monotony. Turning off the road, the Iltis rolled across first railroad tracks and then a cattle guard onto a dirt track.

“How big is this place?” Manfred heard Christian ask over the radio, he was in the other Iltis that was trailing them.

“This is one small corner of it” Manfred replied, “The estate is the roughly the size of Saxony, and the Don’s interests extend down the coast. I would say that you have probably driven across land that he owns in the Santa Cruz Province.”

Manfred heard Christian give a low whistle. El Coronel Don Martzel Asier Ibarra was incredibly rich by anyone’s standards, the land was just a small part of it. There were several mostly legal operations in the countryside that were pouring money into his coffers. The briefing that the BND had given him before they had left Rio Gallegos had been informative filling in a lot of details that he had not known about the man. Having been recruited by Abwehr back in the 30’s, Martzel had been involved with the covert side of the Spanish and Soviet Wars. Somewhere along the way, Martzel had gotten rich, retired to his native Argentina at a relatively young age and come with an impressive résumé from his time in German service. Just the fact that the Argentine Government had given him an Army Officer’s Commission and allowed him to carve out his own kingdom in Patagonia spoke volumes.

They continued north according to the compass for a considerable period of time. Looking out into the distance, Manfred couldn’t imagine what this place would be like during the summertime, flat, hot, and brown as opposed to flat, cold and brown he supposed. They crossed a low range of hills and to Manfred’s amazement, there were trees growing in the wide valley they were dropping down into. They passed through a tiny village that wasn’t even on the map and turned to drive west along the river. Manfred realized that this place probably existed entirely because Martzel wanted it here and it was a planned community, shades of Feudalism.

“Rook to Gold Three, can we get a status update?” Manfred heard a voice crackling with static and the strange distortion caused by the Command Net encoder say. It was all he could do not to tell Rook to fuck off.

“Mission is proceeding as planned” Manfred said, “We are nearing the Casa now.”

Even as he said it, Manfred saw the Casa coming into view. It looked more like a fortress than a house. It was clearly designed to be both functionable as well as defensible. The first question Manfred might have asked was if that was necessary. When he had a chance to think about it though, he realized that if there was trouble out here, they couldn’t just call the police.

“Thank you Gold Three, I’ll pass that on to the Prospector, Rook out” Rook said, and that channel went dead.

As the Commander of this operation, Manfred was given wide latitude in how he went about doing it. However, the Brass liked to be appraised of what was going on. That was where Rook came in and he was a miserable bastard. Leaning back in his seat, Manfred made an obscene gesture at the sky and it was his hope that Rook got a good look. Maus saw what Manfred had done and started laughing.

Driving through the gates of the Casa, Manfred stepped out of the Iltis. After sitting all day in the passenger seat his legs felt rubbery, much to his annoyance. Taking off his helmet, he strode towards the doors of the main building. He got quite a greeting when the door opened. Christian was walking a pace behind Manfred, and he heard him mutter “What the fuck?” The House Staff were lined up in the entry hall. Martzel stood on the front staircase with his wife.

“Welcome to the Casa Graf von Mischner” Martzel said with a smile.

“I think you have me confused with my father” Manfred replied.

Martzel just shrugged. “You are a long way from Berlin, so no one here cares” He said before looking at Christian, “Just who is this?”

“Unterfeldwebel Weise” Manfred replied, “The Leader of the Squad that accompanied me.”

“Very well” Martzel said, “Tell him that he and the rest of your men are my guests tonight.”

Christian was standing right there so Manfred didn’t need to say a word. He wondered what Martzel was playing at with this show. A minute later, he followed Martzel into the Salón and the Staff scattered the instant Martzel’s back was turned.

“We have a meal planned for this evening that will be a treat for you” Martzel said.

“I am not this important” Manfred replied, “If the Oberstlieutent were here I could understand it, not me.”

“You’re a German Dragoon Teniente Primero in Patagonia” Martzel said, “That makes you more important than you realize.”

“Perhaps” Manfred said.

“That also makes you privy to the plans of your Government in Rio Gallegos.”

As soon as Martzel said that, Manfred knew what the game was. He was getting pumped for information in this place where Martzel basically was the State.

“We had been considering winning over the local people in the Far South by providing them with Medical and Educational opportunities” Manfred said.

“That is a load of bullshit” Martzel said, his entire attitude changing. “Where do the guns come in?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about” Manfred replied.

“Perhaps you are out of the loop, but I find that unlikely” Martzel said, “Allende and his attack dog Pinochet are running out of options. So, everyone expects them to start a short, victorious war to keep from getting overthrown.

“What does that have to do with weapons?”

“Those are my people you are attempting to win over” Martzel said, “They know if there is a war, they are living what will be one of the battlefields and that Buenos Aires doesn’t give a shit about them.”

That was something that Manfred had not considered.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Seven



29th July 1970

Comodoro Rivadavia, Chubut Province, Argentina

After a few days spent as guests of Coronel Ibarra and the relative paradise that was his house on the banks of the Rio Negro, the long drive back to Rio Gallegos had been something that no one had been looking forward to. All they needed to do was to look at a map to see why, they had driven nearly two thirds of the way across this country. Parked in the parade ground of the Argentine Army garrison, Christian could see that the Commander was apparently less than thrilled to see them back so soon.

The trip north had been productive. Manny had told Christian that he had been able to secure agreements regarding the provisioning of the 7th Recon with the Coronel. That would simplify things immensely and it meant that they would have better food in the Mess Hall. Manny had also told him that his many of his suggestions about what to do about the locals down in Santa Cruz Province had come up almost immediately. Just he had not told Christian which suggestions though he didn’t need too many guesses to figure out what might have been said.

When Christian had returned from the patrol that had taken him to Rio Turbio they had spoken at length. He’d told Manny that if the balloon went up, they would be in a world of shit with a scattered civilian population and an iffy logistical situation. It had been that last part that had prompted Manny to make a call to Rook, asking if there was anyone in Patagonia who was trusted by the German Army. Coronel Ibarra, who Manny’s Aunt Katherine vouched for, had been the first name mentioned. As for what to do about the civilians, Christian had suggested that they ask for volunteers along the lines of the Landwehr Corps they had encountered in Galicia a couple years earlier. Christian had seen how effective farmers could be with old bolt-action rifles could be if they knew the land they were fighting on. Manny had pointed out that was an idea that had several problems. The next step was obvious, once they had an army of irregulars the question would be whether or not they armed them, and Buenos Aires would probably be furious regardless of what happened. As far as they were concerned, a Mestizo with a rifle was a revolutionary regardless of context. Christian had seen how the Gauchos he had met typically carried knives and he had no doubt that they knew how to use them. Still, they weren’t stupid, and they knew that if they got caught between two armies, they would get ground to paste if they couldn’t defend themselves.

Past that, Christian had seen how even things like teaching basic literacy or offering medical services would probably go a long way here. If they really wanted to win the locals over, they would get a team of Veterinarians to Argentina. Dogs, horses, and sheep were all highly regarded in the parts of rural Argentina that Christian had seen.

“We got Rook on the Command Net” Ralf said from the back seat, “What do you want me to tell him?”

Christian knew that it wouldn’t do him any good to bite Ralf’s head off over Rook calling. No one wanted to deal with the High Command’s messenger boy who called every few hours asking what was going on after they had made his acquaintance when he had been assigned to them a couple weeks earlier. There were rumors that he could see them where they were, but Christian found that a bit implausible.

Plugging his headphones into the main radio, Christian keyed the microphone. “What do you want Funker Oberst?” He asked.

“You are not supposed to call me that Gold Three” Rook said indignantly, “Radio protocol.”

“I don’t care” Christian replied, he was tired, and he didn’t feel like playing the Micky Mouse games that a Rear-echelon fuckwit like Rook seemed to thrive on.

“Where is Gold Two?” Rook said, “He is not responding.”

Christian looked out at Manny as the argument with the Garrison Commander grew more heated. He wasn’t sure what this was about exactly. This being South America, it could be a local Official looking to get his palm greased, the Garrison Commander trying to pull rank on a Foreign Officer who was outside his chain-of-command, some strange beef he had with Manny, or who knew what else.

“He is practicing a bit of diplomacy and isn’t in a position to talk to you at the moment” Christian replied.

“Can I get a status update from you then?” Rook asked.

“We are trying to avoid sleeping in our vehicles tonight” Christian replied, “And the Commander of the Garrison here in Comodoro Rivadavia has a problem with us. Need anything else?”

“No” Rook said, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

It was a stupid question considering where Rook was.

“Not from sixteen thousand kilometers away” Christian replied.

Rook was silent for a few seconds. He could provide intelligence and put them in touch with friendly assets. What he could not do, was get them out of an annoying situation from halfway around the Globe.

Technology couldn’t solve every problem, Christian thought to himself. It was something that was painfully obvious to everyone but the likes of Rook it seemed.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Eight



1st August 1970

Schwielochsee, Spreewald National Park

The previous year, Marie Alexandra had spent the Summer Holiday in Canada and spending it with her paternal grandmother had not been a great experience. This year was supposedly going to be different, unfortunately for Marie her mother’s intervention had blown apart whatever plans she might have had if she had made any. Instead, she had wanted weeks of unstructured time to just pursue her muses. Her mother had had none of it, she was going to camp with Sophie and that was the end of it. To Marie’s complete shock, she had found that every other adult in her life had presented a united front against her. Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop Aunt Marcella had said. And besides that, had it ever occurred Marie that her parents were looking forward to not having their children underfoot for the Holiday so that they could get personally reacquainted? Marie’s Great Aunt did have a point, sort of, but the images that came to mind that involved her parents… Marie found that incredibly gross.

Suse Rosa and Josefine had told Marie that she ought to be looking forward the spending the summer in the Spreewald, she was old enough to be a guard as opposed to one of the prisoners. She hadn’t quite gotten what that meant at the time and she was certain that Suse and Jo were up to something. Just they were older, in their 20’s, so unless it was something major Marie’s mother didn’t want to hear about it.

When Marie had arrived at the camp on the shore of the Schwielochsee, she had been told that as a fourteen-year-old she was responsible for minding the younger girls in her section. That included the cabin that Sophie and Ziska shared with Lina and Ilona. Mostly that included keeping them busy as much as possible, because as Marie had been warned keeping twenty girls who ranged in ages from seven to twelve out of trouble was difficult if she failed in that task. She had tried to get the girls interested some of the plays that she loved, without much luck so far, and had mostly been involved in exploring the forests and wetlands of the Spreewald with them. That didn’t mean that Marie was immune from involving herself in the very sort of tomfoolery that she was supposed to be preventing others from engaging in. Something that she was starting to have misgivings about even when she was in the process of doing it.

Maja, the girl who Marie was sharing a cabin with, knew about the gap in the hedge when Marie had asked her if the rumors were true. So, that was how Marie found herself stumbling through the dark on the second Saturday in which she was on holiday. This was decidedly not her idea of fun.

Everyone had all seen the lights of the camp next to theirs and were curious about who was there. The trouble was that a hedge of thorny bushes grew from the shoreline to the road that was backed by a tall wire mesh fence that was nearly impossible to climb. There was one gap in the hedge that allowed the fence to be approached and there had been talk about just what happened there at night if they happened along at the right moment. Maja said that she had done this the year before.

Leaving the tree line, Maja and Marie crept up to the fence, listening intently for signs that they had been discovered. The reason why Marie had been reluctant to do this in the first place was because it was impossible for the adults to not have heard the same rumors that she had, but it seemed like there was no one else around. Pushing through the narrow gap towards the fence in the starlight she felt a branch on the thorn bushes snag the hem of her dress and was reminded anew how stupid this was. Something about the arrangement bothered Marie, she started to say something, but she was interrupted by Maja.

“Is anyone there?” Maja asked in a stage whisper.

“Nobody here, except us chickens” A voice on the other side of the fence said. Marie wondered exactly what she had gotten herself into here.

“Shut the fuck up Adi” A different voice said.

“I was just joking around” the first voice, presumably Adi, replied.

“Is it just you tonight?” The second voice asked.

“I got Marie with me tonight Ferdi” Maja said, “You remember me from last summer?”

“Yeah, I guess” Ferdi replied.

This was even sillier than it had sounded to Marie when Maja had described it to her. Adi and Ferdi had come out here in the off chance that someone might happen along, and they could talk through the fence? What was the point in that? It all seemed so perfectly random.

“Does this Marie have anything to say for herself?” Adi asked.

“Other than being a bit annoyed and wondering what the big deal is” Marie said crossly.

“Never mind her” Maja said, “Marie’s been in a mood since her parents had her shipped here for the summer.”

“You could do worse Marie” Ferdi said, “Could you imagine spending all summer in the city?”

That was exactly what Marie had wanted. Sleeping in until noon everyday and watching television until something else caught her fancy. All while not being responsible for anyone or anything else. That would have been a proper holiday.

It was then that they were caught in the beam of a powerful flashlight. It was the thing that had bothered Marie, the gap being where it was happened to be a predictable location for this sort of interaction, a purpose made trap. Marie heard Adi and Ferdi running off on the other side of the fence, but there was nowhere for her to run away to because of the thorn bushes.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Nine



2nd August 1970

Plänterwald, Berlin

“Can you understand things from my perspective?” Kiki asked, “I’m not sure if I even want to… start a family, and I have everyone pushing me in that direction. The last thing anyone seems to want to talk about is what I want.”

Ben was trying to but wrapping his head around some of the things that Kiki was saying was a bit difficult. It had started when Kiki had talked with Zella. Ben knew that Kiki’s best friend had never been shy about sharing her opinions in the past and she had told Kiki where she thought Kiki’s life was going, apparently it wasn’t a pretty picture. Fitting neatly into a Princess Kristina shaped slot with Kira Kirillovna looking at her from the afterlife and nodding approvingly. Zella had always had a way with words and that had proven to be something that Kiki had been unable to shake off. Ben had never met Kiki’s mother, but it seemed like Kira’s disapproval was always floating around in the back of her head. Then Nora Berg had reminded Kiki that her IUD was nearing its expiration date and suggested that it may represent an opportunity, depending on what she wanted.

Ben knew he should have seen it coming, but this had caused Kiki to have her latest existential crisis. What did Kiki want with her life? Did she even want to have children? What about the Medical Service? Apparently, they really had placed had in her current assignment because they anticipated she might move in that direction. At the same time, word had spread that portions of the 34th Medical Services Regiment were being activated and if she wanted to push all of it aside, Kiki only needed to volunteer for whatever was going on.

Kiki had decided to talk to Ben about it and he was left in a quandary. While he was glad that she had talked to him before reaching any decisions this time. It was a reminder that she had not always included him in matters like this before they had gotten married, and he had worried that it would continue. Ben also realized the enormity of the questions that Kiki was asking. It wasn’t just her though. What did they want together? As in choices they made that would affect both of them. At the same time, Ben realized what wasn’t happening to him. He had been exploring his options for continuing his education and had not once been asked the questions that Kiki was getting presented with every day. He also knew the subtext of what Kiki was saying and what made her happy.

“Just what is the scuttlebutt regarding the 34th’s deployment?” Ben asked, “And just how long do you think you’ll be gone if you go?”

Kiki gave him a surprised look. “I never said I was going to do that” She replied.

“And you would be torturing yourself if you didn’t” Ben said, “I know that is what you will do.”



Tempelhof, Berlin

Looking under her desk, Kat saw that Fleur was the absolute picture of despondency as she laid curled in a ball by Kat’s feet.

“I miss them too” Kat said as she gave Fleur a pat on the head, “But they will be back at the end of the holiday.”

For the last fourteen years, the little terrier mix had lived for Kat’s children and she always got this way whenever they went away for more than a few days. Kat could also see that Fleur’s age was weighing on her, though she was apparently in good health. That was always the case with family pets. Having them really was a lifetime commitment.

When they had gotten Fleur the primary concern was that if she would be a good fit for Kat’s family living in the city. Hans had known a Farmer he had dealings with outside of Wunsdorf-Zossen who he knew was looking for homes for a litter of puppies. The timing was fortuitous because they had just moved into this house and Tatiana and Malcolm had wanted a dog for a long time by that point.

What Kat had not quite realized at the time was just what Fleur was. Not any particular breed, her kind was of the sort of terriers that had sprung up in the trenches of the First World War to combat the rats that numbered in the millions. Being tough and intelligent were what was needed in an environment like that far more than being pretty. Most of all they were survivors, which was something that Kat liked. In the decades since, they had followed the Military wherever it had gone and had remained consistent in form and function. It hadn’t been a coincidence that Fleur had been born just a few kilometers from the gates of a large military base.

Cursing herself for allowing that distraction, Kat focused on the sheets of paper on her desk or tried too anyway. After a few minutes, her mind started wandering again. This time it was about the call she had received from the Head Councilor of the summer camp that Marie and Sophie were attending. It seemed that Marie had gotten in trouble for being out after curfew and had been trying to contact the boys at the camp next door. Kat had almost asked if she was talking about Marie or some other girl.

Kat’s experience with her youngest daughter was that while Marie could act the part of a hormonal teenager at times, she hadn’t shown much inclination towards having a whole lot of interest towards boys. If anything, Marie was a total eccentric with her ever-changing appearance and persona. It was something that put off most of her peers. There was also her love of literature and plays as well as her inclination towards being completely frivolous at times. It was something that Marie shared with neither her nor Douglas and Kat had no idea where that had come from.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Ten



3rd August 1970

Near Rio Gallegos, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

The hills across the river from Rio Gallegos were in a strategic location regarding the city and the task of establishing hilltop fortifications had fallen on the 7th Recon when word reached them that the 4th Panzer Division was due to arrive from Germany in the near future. There were also hills located south and west of the city that had were in their focus as well. They had scouted out those locations, it was the arrival of the 16th Storm Pioneer Battalion along with a ship full of heavy equipment had kicked those plans into high gear.

No one had ever accused the Pioneers detachments of small thinking. They had taken one look at Rio Gallegos and had said that the port needed to be improved and expanded. Then they had started asking questions about the rail lines. Like why exactly had no one ever extended a Standard Gauge line south from the Rio Negro Province? As if a thousand kilometers was no big deal. In the thinking of the Pioneers, who worked on the Imperial German Railways which ran from Spain to the Russian Far East and Vietnam, it wasn’t. The Oberstlieutenant put them to work on the hilltop fortifications before they got bored, much to everyone else’s relief.

The trouble was when the Argentinians learned what was happening, the reaction was decidedly mixed. The locals who lived in the city of Rio Gallegos had celebrated learning that there were suddenly a number of jobs needing to be done over the winter. The landowners of the land the hills were located on were not happy that they were losing control over portions of their property for the duration of the crisis. The smarter members of the community looked at the arrival of eighteen thousand additional soldiers into the region with barely concealed horror.

Jost’s perspective was that they were doing work that should have been done years earlier when the Kaiserliche Marine had established itself here. It seemed to him that the live and let live attitude towards the British in the Falklands had not gone both ways. The British had understood that the Argentine Government had a conflicting claim on those islands that they had been pushing in the League of Nations for years and had acted accordingly. Jost knew that the secret network of listening posts rumored to have been established by Admiral von Schmidt was aimed just as much at their British and French allies as it was against the Americans.

As Jost watched, concrete was being poured that would become the base of an 8.8-centimeter Flak 56 Dual Purpose gun, more than enough to ruin the day of anyone who came within range. The radar that would be used to aim them was being installed in a bunker on the back side of this hill with the antenna on a tower on the crest. Jost could see that this position in the highlands held a commanding view of the plains south of Rio Gallegos and the Atlantic Ocean approaching the bay that the Gallegos River emptied into. Glancing over he saw that the three new men. Jost was perfectly aware of how absurd it was to call them that seeing that they looked like they were not old enough to shave. They were dicking around when they were supposed to be digging a trench so that PVC conduit could be installed for electrical and communications cables. All while having the mistaken notion that they were not being observed. Jost had made certain that all of them had were in different Squads within their Platoon so they could learn from the veterans who surrounded them without engaging in this sort of garbage. The trouble was that when it came to work details like this one, none of them were exempted from it.

“You little shits think I don’t see you! Back to work before I shove my foot up your ass!” Jost yelled at them and they swiftly got back to work except one of them seemed to be dragging his feet a bit. “That goes double for you Hauer!”

“You want to shove both your feet up Hauer’s ass Oberstaber Schultz?” Brun asked, “That’s pretty kinky, I didn’t know you were into that sort of thing.”

Hauer and Baier stood there trying to hide their reaction to what Brun had just said as they took a couple of steps away from him. They both knew that messing with Jost was a bad idea.



Washington D.C.

One of the unwritten rules of the Presidency had been established by George Washington back in 1796 when he chose not to run for a third term. Nelson Rockefeller was starting to understand why that was. That also was the same reason why his predecessor, Averell Harriman, had looked positively buoyant as he had left the White House years earlier. To stick around for a third term was asking to land in a rubber room, pumped full of tranquilizers. If the domestic situation wasn’t creating endless headaches, there was an international issue about to blow up elsewhere.

“We estimate that the Germans will have a Mechanized Division in place in Rio Gallegos within a month” Brent Scowcroft said. He was one of the few people who had been present when Rockefeller had been sworn into office what seemed like a million years earlier who was still left in the Administration.

“Why are we only learning about this now?” Rockefeller said.

“The CIA says that their source has been scarce lately” Scowcroft said, “The Tigress has been on the prowl and Gesellschaft der Stille, if I am reading this right, Germany’s answer to Cosa Nostra has been making their presence felt. There is an ongoing crackdown going on against what are called lifestyle crimes in the major cities. That coupled with the upcoming transfer of power in a few months means that everyone over there is on edge. And the CIA’s asset is getting cold feet because he fears exposure.”

“How bad could it be for him?”

“He told his handler that if he gets exposed, our first clue would be when his head gets thrown over the fence from Pennsylvania Avenue” Scowcroft replied, “The people he is dealing with are not known for moderation.”

“Regardless of that, what are we going to do about the Argentine situation?” Rockefeller asked.

“Us?” Scowcroft asked in reply, “Nothing. I would hope. Right now, South America is a web of interlocking alliances and precarious economies. The Germans getting involved in what has the potential to be a bottomless morass actually works out quite well for us.”

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Eleven



4th August 1970

Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport

It was to Suse and Jo’s surprise that Kat was there to see them off and knew exactly what was going on. They had thought that they had made the arrangements on the sly. Sure, Kat had some idea of what Jo was up to, but Suse had not mentioned that she was planning on accompanying her.

Jo had her teaching assignment, but Suse’s reasoning was a bit different. The project she had worked on the prior year, the radical redesign of the turret on the Panzer VIII “Leopard” had been adopted by ĈKD for the Bohemian Army. The process of retrofitting the new turret onto the existing hulls had begun months earlier. Rheinmetall had been forced to follow suit, curiously driven by the Navy. It seemed that the Marine Infantry had decided to replace their antiquated Luftpanzers with what had been dubbed the Leopard II. They had a great deal of experience with autoloaders and the reduction of manpower required appealed to the Marines for that exact reason. The Heer had adopted the new turret and high-velocity gun, but they were not thrilled about the process in which it had happened. The Reichstag was unhappy about the expense and money was getting shifted around from other necessary projects to pay for this. Which meant that there were a lot of pet projects that had unexpectedly gotten short shrift. Suse’s father had decided that her leaving the country for awhile might be good thing as there had been threats against the design team that she was the public face of.

So, this wasn’t exactly a holiday.

Berlin Technical University had wished Suse luck and said that she would be welcome to return when she made it back in a manner that she had found extremely patronizing. What was particularly galling was that she had done exactly what they had wanted her to do. Pushing aside her annoyance, Suse had decided to go with Jo because it sounded like a real adventure. Besides that, no one knew more about the inner workings of Panzers than she did. Opportunities might present themselves.

Then Suse found out that Kat’s niece, Manny’s little sister, Ina von Mischner would be joining them, like it or not. And Kat’s reasons for being so agreeable came into focus. As much as her mother’s flighty nature bothered her at times, at least it was never wheels within wheels like it was with Kat.



Wunsdorf-Zossen

Overnight things had changed.

The casual call for volunteers had changed when orders arrived for the entire 34th Medical Services Regiment to prepare for movement immediately. Kiki found herself having to answer questions from her subordinates that she did not have ready answers for, that is beyond the obvious. Didn’t they watch the news? All roads seemed to lead to Argentina.

The worst part was that many of them were professionals, Physicians with various specialties. Most of whom were not thrilled with the prospect of leaving their practices for an open-ended commitment. The Nurses and Orderlies who were reservists were a bit more down to earth, mostly concerned for what would happen to their families in their absence. Kiki had to answer questions from all of them because part of her job was to handle matters like this so the Oberst who commanded the Regiment wouldn’t be bothered. Lieutenant Juta Balodis had been appointed Kiki’s aide and she was a godsend as Kiki felt like she was juggling a thousand balls with everything that was going on.

On top of this, Kiki had her absurd personal life to contend with. When she had been in the Doctor’s office the day before, they had discovered that the copper-silver alloy ring IUD that she had been told was reaching its expiration date had gone missing sometime over the last year. Kiki had been told that this happened, occasionally the body expelled them. She had instantly understood that for at least the last few months her and Ben had unknowingly been playing with fire. The nerve-wracking pregnancy test that had followed had been negative, much to her profound relief. Kiki had known for years that she didn’t have it in her to be a mother and nothing that had happened had changed her mind in that regard.

Kiki had tried to get an appointment to have a new IUD installed but the orders had arrived which complicated things. Doctor Berg had told her in a brief phone conversation that it was a simple matter of not fucking anyone in Argentina and telling Benjamin to keep his hands to himself in the meantime. That was sort of covered by the “Love, Honor, and Respect, to be faithful” clause of their wedding vows that Berg had been present for. Kiki had told her former mentor that wedding vows were not a contract and Berg had laughed. Berg had then told her that it was actually the oldest sort of contract, two people promising to spend their lives together and not fuck around. It was also one of the hardest ones for people to keep to.

Feeling a bit put out by that, Kiki had asked Berg what the Hell she would know. It was not as if she could get married. Berg’s reply was that she had seen the results of infidelity throughout her long career. Berg also that she knew a lot of women who had been married for years and had come to envy her lifestyle. Not every man was as accepting of his wife having a career as Ben seemed to be and Kiki outranking him was exactly the sort of thing that resulted in violence in some households. She was lucky in many regards. It was a perspective that Kiki had not considered until Berg had pointed it out to her.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Twelve



6th August 1970

Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport

It was the end of an era for the 18th Fast Attack Wing. For years they had used various versions of the Arado Pfeil and as of today, that was officially over. All remaining Pfeil aircraft in the inventory were to be decommissioned per language of Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty of 1968. They were a nuclear capable fighter-bomber that had, in theory, enough range to hit intercontinental targets even if it would have been a one-way trip. That had been what had doomed them as opposed to their growing obsolescence. Everyone in the Air Wing knew that it was a load of shit, their planes had been thrown into the treaty because they had become a fleet of aging aircraft that the Luftwaffe could afford to sacrifice without harming the rest of the Service Branch.

It was something of a disappointment for SKG 18 when that announcement had been made a couple months earlier. Then had come watching as ferry crews came and took the airplanes away a few at a time. Everyone knew that they had been taken to Kaiserslautern, then cut up and laid out for the whole world to see. For Ben and Wim, it had felt like they had let an old friend down when they had handed off Black Knight III to the ground crew for the last time.

Today, they were being briefed on the Arado Orkan, the fighter-bomber that would replace Pfeil in the coming days. Judging from the photographs it was much smaller and supposedly it had greater flexibility. It was another Transatlantic project by Avro and Arado. To Ben’s eye, it seemed to lack the greatest quality of the Pfeil. Which was that the Pfeil looked extremely fast while still parked on the tarmac, so they knew it was a hot ride from the instant the wheels left the runway. Or as Wim said, it felt like trading in a Porsche for a Volkswagen. It remained to be seen if this was the Föhn Sports Package or the almost comically underpowered Microbus.

As Ben listened to the representative from Arado drone on about engine thrust, radar, variable sweep, whatever that was, and he just kept tuning him out. All of this would be in the guidebook and he would need to do a check ride in a trainer before he flew the new plane for real. So, little of this briefing really mattered. His mind kept going back to how Kiki had looked the last time he had seen her. She had just gotten back from a Doctor’s appointment and there was a car sent by her Commanding Officer there to pick her up. They hardly had time to talk, she had only a few minutes to pack her things. Before she had left, she had kissed him and told him she would call when she got to Wunsdorf and knew more.

Sure, she had called him the next day, but she had told him that the 34th Medical Services Regiment would be deploying with the 4th Panzer Division to South America. The trouble was that Ben knew that he would not be seeing her for months. She had also told him about how they had basically not been using any contraception over the last few months by accident. They had gotten lucky, and nothing had happened. Ben did sort of question if that was truly a lucky outcome. If Kiki had gotten pregnant, she wouldn’t be deploying overseas, and he figured that she would be able to not feel she was letting anyone down because it would have been beyond her control.

Was he being selfish to even consider that?

All Ben knew was that Kiki’s sudden departure had almost been painful this time. Finding himself sitting on the couch with Rauchbier and it being a question of who missed Kiki more had really driven that home.



Rural Silesia

Nico took careful aim with his rifle as one had to do when hunting rabbits. They were widely regarded as pests by the farmers, and the phrase breeding like rabbits came into play. There was never a shortage of them. The trouble was that his rifle was chambered to the standard service cartridge of the Army and hitting a rabbit center-mass did ugly things to it. Which Opa had told him was extremely wasteful.

There was also the minor detail that a rabbit’s head was a much smaller target. Niko was starting to understand how Manfred the Younger had become as good as he was. He had needed to be in order to live up to Opa’s standards. Lining up the hooded front sight at the end of the sixty-six-centimeter barrel with the rear notch, Niko squeezed the trigger. As recoil pushed the stock into his shoulder, he remembered not to flinch in anticipation. It was a mistake that Bas often made. The bullet has left the rifle before you feel it, he had been told.

Niko waited for the rifle to stabilize and restore the sight picture before he worked the bolt. He could see that the rabbit was sprinting for the bushes on the far side of the clearing, because he had clearly missed.

“My turn now” Bas said delightedly as Niko handed the rifle to him. Niko hit the target occasionally. Bas almost never did, and he didn’t seem to mind. Manny though. He could have made that shot on a running rabbit, Niko had seen him do it. Opa said it was from natural talent that had taken years of practice to come to fruition. Niko could do the same thing if he applied himself and there were no shortcuts.

He knew that Opa would want to discuss this with him at length tonight. He would also need to do the messy work of dressing the rabbits he had managed to get. Those would go to the Kennel Master and be used to feed the dogs.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand Thirteen



8th August 1970

Rio Gallegos, Argentina

It really did feel like they were going back in time. The flight from Berlin to Buenos Aires had been aboard a modern airliner. After spending the night in a hotel in the capital the next stage of their journey had been from there to a rough city whose existence depended on the oil export terminal aboard a turboprop. Their accommodation wasn’t nearly as nice as they had been woken several times by shouting on the streets below. The last stage had been to Rio Gallegos aboard a tri-engine cargo plane that looked like it was older than they were. The larger group they were a part of was apparently the first group of civilian volunteers to be sent to further the mission the military in what had been described as something of an impoverished backwater according to their briefing.

Suse Rosa kept telling them it was an adventure, and she was right. If your idea of adventure involved lots of dust and insects so far. Ina hardly said a word over the last few days. While she had never been particularly verbose, she just sat quietly looking out windows and observing the world passing by. Jo had started a few times to draw her out in conversation but had realized the real reason for her silence. This was the first time in her life that had stepped out from the shadow of her parents or grandfather. There had been a call for teachers and medical personnel willing to volunteer to go to Patagonia and Ina had applied as Veterinarian. Ina had never thought that her application would be accepted, she had barely completed her education. The presumption had been that people who were older and had far more experience would be wanted for this. Ina had been wrong, and she was understandably terrified that she was way in over her head.

As they stepped off the airplane, all Jo wanted was a hot bath and twelve hours sleep on a bed that wasn’t moving. That wasn’t going happen because in was Manny who was standing there, and he did not look happy to see them.



Los Angeles, California

After months of working graveyard, it felt strange to be driving around during the daytime even if it was in the middle of the summer. The calls they were getting were far different as well. The sort of skells they normally dealt with were not inclined to cause too much trouble during daylight hours, because they either were asleep or perhaps most astonishingly, they had jobs to go to. It was a hot day, even by LA’s standards. Ritchie could feel sweat soaking into his shirt and he wished that there was an involved crime scene somewhere airconditioned to hang out for a few hours.

So, Ritchie and Wilkinson went from call to call, mostly nuisance complaints. It seemed that loud music and public urination being the two most popular today. Both of those things could be solved just by the sight of a squad car rolling down the block. They had talked Baseball for a while. At the moment though it seemed like the National League West was doing its best to drive the fans insane with the Dodgers locked in a battle with the Giants for second place and Cincinnati out to a wide lead. The Reds were not particularly great either. So, they had dropped the subject after a few minutes.

“Lucia wants to look at houses this weekend” Ritchie said after several minutes of silence.

“Any particular neighborhood?” Wilkinson asked.

“Not yet” Ritchie said, “Lucia has big ideas though. Schools, parks, and whatnot.”

“Schools?” Wilkinson asked, “You do know that means that she sees you in the yard playing catch with Ritchie Junior in a few years.”

“I’m not stupid” Ritchie replied, “And it doesn’t matter if we cannot get a mortgage.”

“You’re a Cop and former Army Special Forces” Wilkinson said.

“With a name that ends with a vowel” Ritchie said.

Wilkinson shrugged. “You didn’t get the memo?” He asked, “Everyone hates Poles these days.”

One of the strange things that had occurred over the last few years. The war in Poland had resulted in Thousands of ethnic Poles looking for greener pastures leaving Poland. Many of them had turned up in Los Angeles. That meant that the local bigots had a slightly different group to focus their hate on other than the usual Blacks, Mexicans, and Chinese.

“I’m glad you can joke about that” Ritchie replied, “But the dislike of Mexicans in SoCal transcends time and space. It has to. How else can we be told to go back to Mexico when we’ve been here longer than anyone save the Indians?”

Wilkinson just shrugged again. He didn’t really understand what was going on with Ritchie. If they could find someone in a halfway decent neighborhood who would sell to them, there would still be the challenge of finding a bank willing to give them a home loan. Without a miracle they would end up living in the same sort neighborhoods that they had grown up in. Lucia had made it clear that was the last thing she wanted. Ritchie just wasn’t sure how he could make it happen even if they presently had the resources to make a substantial down payment thanks to a renegade German Princess.

“Something will come up” Wilkinson said, “It always does.”

Ritchie just wished he shared Wilkinson’s optimism.