“Did you agree to do this mission?” snapped Kostyshakov.
“Yes, sir. Of course, I did.”
“Did you just say ‘our’ to describe what’s been stolen from us?”
“Yes, sir, naturally.”
“Then you’re a Russian soldier, at least until we’ve accomplished our mission, and for as long after as you adhere to the Empire.”
“Yes, sir. Sir, I never meant I’d abandon the mission. It’s just…”
“I understand.”
“Do we tell the troops?” asked Basanets.
Kostyshakov went silent then, and stayed that way for some time, thinking. If we tell them how do we control them and keep them from taking revenge on the Germans here? No, people are not rational. And an army is just a mob with a sense of teamwork. And how do we accomplish our mission without the Germans. We’ve no chance of getting anywhere without that airship. And we’re not even quite ready to go even if we went now. I wonder…
“Who knows?” he asked Basanets.
“Within the hour the whole camp will.”
“I see. Assemble the battalion. I’ll speak to them in two hours’, no, three hours’ time. Are Major Brinkmann or Feldwebel Weber available?”
“Brinkmann’s already gone to consult with General Hoffmann, sir,” said Nenonen. “Weber’s here.”
“Send someone for him.”
“It’s simple greed and paranoia,” said Weber. “I wish I could put a better face on it than that, but I can’t. Before leaving to see Hoffmann, Major Brinkmann told me that Hoffmann was dead set against this scale of theft, but he’s already on thin ice with Hindenburg and Ludendorff, so couldn’t do much.”
“Is the mission still on?” asked Kostyshakov. “Will we have the zeppelin to take us where we’re going?”
“As far as I know, sir. Certainly, I’ve seen no changed orders.”
“Any suggestions on how I present this to my troops? We’ve all gotten along very well, so far, but this could turn your guards into real guards and my Imperial Guards into sullen mutineers.”
“I’d say… be fairly up front and honest, but maybe not fully honest. For example, it wasn’t the tsar who gave away all this, it was the Bolsheviks. That’s still more evidence that they’re enemies of Russia, isn’t it, sir?
“As for us, what choice did we have? Did Germany have a moral choice? Should we, in fact, have condemned tens of millions of Russian citizens, as Christian as we are, ourselves, to Bolshevik slavery, to atheism, to the dictatorship of the Reds?
“Did Germany have a practical choice, either? We’ve got millions of men, here, ourselves and the Austrians, all of them desperately needed in the west. How do we move them where needed without a thick buffer it would take the Reds—or the tsar, for that matter—months or years to reoccupy?
“And then there’s the future…”
“Break ranks,” Daniil called out in his loudest shout. “Break ranks, gather round, and take seats.”
“Anyone who hasn’t heard yet, raise your hands.” Perhaps fifty men, or a few less, hadn’t gotten the news.
“Okay, for your sakes, here it is: The Reds have effectively surrendered to Germany, ceding about a third of our population, half our industry, and a huge portion of our coal, maybe as much as nine tenths.”
Not unexpectedly, the battalion began a low grumbling, with the men casting angry glances the way of the German guards, though not, interestingly enough, at Taenzler.
“In the first place,” said Daniil, “who can blame them? You think we would not have sliced away a good chunk of German and Austria-Hungary if we’d won? Be serious, boys; it’s the way the game is played. We played; we lost; and now the Reds are paying up.”
The grumbling reduced but did not go away.
“Now savor that, for a moment,” said Daniil, “the Reds gave it away. Not the tsar, not the people, the Reds. You want to be angry at someone, don’t turn on the Germans who’ve been helping us these last several months; think about the Reds who are holding our true ruler and his family as prisoners.
“Moreover, what should the Germans have done? Left all those people, our countrymen in the past and in the future, to the none too tender mercies of the Reds? To the terrorists? To the atheists? To the people who shout ‘power to the people’ but only mean ‘power to the people who shout power to the people’? We should be happy that a third of our people have been kept out of the hands of the Bolshevik slave masters. For now, unless we succeed in our mission.
“Finally, I want you to think about the future. Specifically, I want you to think about how we get our patrimony back. The Germans aren’t actually taking much for themselves, you know. So, if we do our job, and Russia acquires a legitimate ruler again, there’s no particular reason not to expect our country to be made whole again, given a little time.
“Now, I have time for a few questions, but not many as we have to get back to training…”
Brest-Litovsk
“I have a question, sir,” said Major Brinkmann, during one of the walks that had become quite infrequent since the beginning of what Hoffmann thought of as The Budapest Project.
“No need, Major; yes, of course I intend that the Russians should still go and save their royal family.”
“Thank you, sir; I and they appreciate that, I am sure. But the question is really how do we do this legitimately, now that we’re at peace with the Bolsheviks. Sending enemy armed forces on our airships to liberate their prisoners, you know, is not exactly a friendly act.”
“Hmmm… good point, Brinkmann. Let’s see. In the first place, I have carte blanche from the kaiser to do what it necessary to free his cousins and the Hesse and by Rhine women. Mind, he tends to fold when confronted by Hindenburg and Ludendorff, so I can’t do any of that too openly. So… we have an airship…”
“An airship and two fighters, now, General.”
“Oh, yes, I forgot about the two fighters. Where are they, by the way?”
“They’re at Jambol, with the airship. Once a crossing point over the lines is picked they’ll displace forward with their pilots and ground crew to act as escorts, to and from.”
“Ah, good. Now where was I?”
“‘We have an airship… ’”
Hoffmann was not merely the best staff officer of the war, he was great in a crisis, cool, calm, collected, and—above all—ruthless. “Ah, yes. We have an airship, but it’s at loose ends. So we’re going to report it as in serious need of maintenance after its flight to Africa, much more serious than originally thought—and didn’t you say they’re making substantial modifications to carry troops? Well, there you are. Then we’re going to form a corporation, I think, in Sofia. Consult a lawyer there.”
“A corporation?”
“Yes, an air transport corporation. Where there’s a will there’s a lawyer; find a competent one and let him figure it out. But let’s call it something like ‘Sofia-Moscow Air Transport.’ Then we lease the airship to the corporation. Of course, the corporation will pay for the lease with money we’ll give them from captured Russian pay chests, but let’s not worry about trivia, eh? I think maybe the airship ought to have a double-headed eagle painted on it, too, to let anyone who sees it know it isn’t German.”
“All well and good, sir, I mean, except for the fraud and lies parts. Oh, and the theft and conversion and…”
“Cease, Brinkmann, your naysaying. It’ll be fine. Now, as for the crew… arrange discharges into the reserves for the lot, then instant hiring, at much higher pay, by Sofia-Moscow Air Transport, Incorporated. Explain to them that they can go along with it, or they go into the camp that will soon enough be vacated by the Russians. I’m sure they’ll see reason. Oh, and tell them they’re back in the kaiser’s service as soon as their mission is complete.”