“Herr Hitler…”
“Count…”
Hitler knew the Count was a heavy pipe smoker, and required there be no smoking in the room during the meeting. While this tactic would not be successful with the Count at this meeting, it would later prove very effective on the 30th of September in 1936 over Munich Pact when Neville Chamberlin signed away the Sudetenland. Chamberlin, a heavy chain smoker, was locked in a non-smoking room for hours and was not only brow beaten by the stylized rants of Hitler, but also gave up Czechoslovakia so he could finally have a cigarette.
“Come,” said the Governor General, “more drinks! We can play with the Polish models later.”
“Good idea!” Bruno said while reaching for his pants. “I need some fresh air.”
“Ah, you’ll get a breath of fresh air – and much more – when you get a look at Herr Krafft’s Elaine. She is sure to inspire you for some really great works!”
Krafft was troubled by the Governor General’s reference to Elaine. His tone made it appear Dr. Frank could do whatever he wanted with Elaine. Were the Reich rulers the type who would treat German women as they had done the Polish ‘models’?
Krafft led the way up the stairs, but was stopped by the Governor General when they had reached the kitchen. Jens and Bruno passed them and continued on into the music room where many of the guests already reached a higher state of intoxication.
“Were you offended by Bruno’s form of inspiration?”
Krafft did not answer.
“You must forgive him… after all, he is an artist… very eccentric… but still, an artist.”
The pause indicated this was a sufficient excuse for Dr. Hans Frank, Jens’, and Major Wolf’s, to accept Bruno’s behavior. After all, his is an artist.
Krafft’s thoughts gradually shifted from the Polish models to Elaine and arrived at the thought that she was somewhere in this house. The thought made him wince. What was she seeing?
“I think I should see how Elaine is doing.”
Krafft walked back into the music room, which was now almost completely filled with cigarette, pipe, and cigar smoke. There was no sign of Elaine.
“Herr Kraft?” A soft voice rose up behind him.
Karl Ernst turned and froze inside upon seeing the figure that whispered his name. It was the redheaded woman he noticed at Fesel’s Dark Fire building in Berlin.
“Uh… sie…?” Krafft’s shock suddenly turned to excitement, which he immediately subdued causing him to freeze.
The woman, however, returned his unfinished statement. “I’m Ewa Mann. I saw you at our building, but was unable to meet you in the office. They would not allow it.”
This answered Krafft’s wonderment when he entered the office with Fesel and did not see this red headed woman that so caught his attention through the office window. What Karl Ernst Krafft did not know was that her presence here tonight, as well as the two of them not being introduced the office – was actually part of Fesel’s plan.
While Hess calculated the planetary motion, his passenger seemed to be more concerned with the ground below.
He had been flying with Hess on eight different occasions, in five different airplanes. The Reichminister had access to any plane he wished in the Luftwaffe and it was rumored he had seven different planes reserved for him exclusively – on for each day of the week.
As would any aviation enthusiast, Hess naturally took full advantage of his flying privileges and actually had more flying ours then many of the senior Luftwaffe commanders.
When the airfield lights of Ulm twinkled on the horizon, Hess’s passenger let out an invisible sigh of relief. This was not the first flight with Hess that ended up arriving in an unexpected destination. Oddly, in each one of his eight trips with Hess there occurred an event that could be described as an emergency.
“Ulm tower, this is SM2928, emergency request…”
Hess began his landing preparations on the radio. While nearly every airfield in Germany knew that SM2928 was Hess’s call letters – for they heard them often – only the man sitting next to Hess knew their origin and significance.
“S” was for Saturn, the planet that Hess was supposedly a specialist on, both in interpretation and physical characteristics. “M” was for the Moon, which Hess was constantly trying to get close to every minute while he was in the air – in the same way Icarus flew up towards the sun.
Once he actually flew into Russian airspace when he simply pointed his plane towards the rising Moon and continued towards it for several hours never taking his eyes off the white globe.
The numbers “2928” were numerical associations for the same two heavenly bodies. The orbit of Saturn takes approximately 29 years to circle the Sun, while 28 is the approximate number of days for the Moon to circle the earth.
Hess’s passenger wondered if these call letters and numbers blessed Hess, saving from one minor emergency after another – or if these symbolic references were perhaps the very thing that caused these constant mishaps.
Hess’s passenger opened his notepad and began to study the data, as if to somehow maintain the meeting that – for this day at least, since they had to land in Ulm instead of their intended destination – would now most certainly not take place.
“Herr Krafft?” Ewa interrupted, which seemed to be her habit. “Is it true what everyone says about you?”
“I beg your pardon…?”
“I… I just want to know if I could trust you.” Ewa changes character from emancipated woman to frighten schoolgirl in one sentence – one gesture.
“What do you mean?”
Ewa did not answer, but instead looked nervously around at the other guests at the party. Nearly everyone was looking at Krafft and Ewa out of the corner of their eye.
The musty perfume of Ewa was starting to have an effect on him. Despite being married and in full public view, his desire to put his arms around her tiny waist and merge his body into hers was only held back by his mind reminding him such desires were not supposed to exist and most certainly were never to occur.
Ewa then noticed Elaine starting down the stairs with Frau Ney. Before Krafft could see this, she quickly grabbed him and pulled him around the wall of the hallway leading to the front door. Her touch and closeness made it even more difficult for Krafft to hold back the desire to embrace her.
“Don’t let anyone know about this…” She said, handing Karl Ernst a folded piece of stationary, “…please!”
Ewa then hurriedly walked back into the music room and then vanished into the hall leading to the kitchen, with Krafft watching her every step.
“Karl Ernst!”
Krafft turned around and saw Elaine. He squeezed the note Ewa had just given him.
Chapter 8 – The Decision
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Bettina, on her knees, looked up at her master, dressed in full formal military honors from the waist up, and completely naked from the waist down. It was a game Goebbels liked to play only when he was away on vacation. He would admire himself in the mirror with all the awards and decorations of Nazi Germany on his chest, while his subjugated servant rewarded his ego below.