Berlin/Niedersachsen
13th February RY154
The first report I received of problems on Niedersachsen came from Maximillien Hauer, head of the Gestapo, who reported to me that one of his operatives had been murdered and her body found concealed in a dumpster in a light industrial area of the capital of Hannover.
Given the general popularity of that particular branch of my organisation - after all, people rarely become members of the Gestapo to win friends and influence people - the occasional murder in the line of duty is far from unheard of, and I didn't consider it particularly unusual. Moreover, he commented that there was already a senior officer on the ground there from Berlin pursuant to a different investigation, and that he was taking charge. I was curious that the senior officer he mentioned was from the Forstapo, rather than his own branch of the RSHA, but apparently a combined investigation was taking place between the two branches, as sometimes happens when their jurisdictions coincide.
The latter had me curious, though, so I asked Marja Tomas to invite Dominik to come to my office. He had returned to work that week after finally recovering from the injuries he'd received just before New Year, albeit that we hadn't made a formal announcement to that effect as yet, and was no doubt catching up a stack of paperwork. However, this seemed sufficiently important that I wanted to hear from his own lips what was happening.
He duly turned up about half and hour later, looking surprisingly well and relaxed, all things considered. Of course the fact that I had helped him and Silke von Halle sort out a few personal problems a couple of weeks before had probably contributed to that. (They'd been close for a long time, but the fact that they were siblings had always prevented anything untoward happening. However, it had recently occurred to me that because Silke was a child of both Blood lines within the Reich, it might be possible to adjust her genetics, so that the other line was dominant, thereby eradicating the problem of consanguinity between them, and had duly done so once Dominik was healthy enough to appreciate it.)
"Niedersachsen," I commented as he came in.
"Yes, Herr Reichsführer?"
"A report would be nice," I said mildly.
"Understood," came the answer, "Obergruppenführer Linz was briefing me earlier. The Gestapo chief there, Obersturmbannführer Landau, has been undertaking an investigation into the possibility that there was a leak in the Forstapo office in Hannover which was giving information to the Shape Shifter Railroad. He contacted Obergruppenführer Hauer, who in turn contacted Linz, and they agreed on a combined Gestapo-Forstapo operation. One of my investigators was sent there forthwith, and has since reported that he believes the leak could be as high as the Forstapo Bureau Chief in Hannover. One Alexia Merten."
"Sloppy vetting?" I asked, looking at him but not really expecting him to admit it.
"Her vetting at the time was exemplary," he replied, evenly, "she passed with flying colours, otherwise she wouldn't have been given a position of that seniority."
"And yet there's a problem?"
"She was taken into custody on Monday, and under interrogation it was confirmed that she was, indeed, leaking information to an undesirable organisation."
"And the murder?"
"Standartenführer Ulrich has reported to me that the agent he had following another suspect has been killed. He was about to begin doing the forensics after he'd contacted me."
"Who was the other suspect?"
"Sturmbannführer Hermann Geisen. A scientist at the Advanced Military Technological Research Institute."
The AMTRI facility was one of the most sensitive locations in Reich territory, specialising in the development of new and improved weapons for the war, at a number of technology levels. It was a multi-force organisation, shared between the Wehrmacht and ourselves, with sponsorship from a number of key industrial and non-military concerns. Despite my protests at the time it was established, it had been decreed that while my people should be given charge of security, overall command of the facility would rest elsewhere within the Reich forces, and the current Kommandant, Oberst Erhard Lambert, was from the Heimat-Heer.
The name Geisen also rang bells for a number of reasons. Primarily it was the father, Berndt, not the son, with whom I had had dealings in the past. About eighty years before, I had assigned him to work with Johan Hartwin on the Nevers Contagion on my behalf. Geisen senior had retired from service around the turn of the century, albeit with the honorary rank of Standartenführer in respect of services rendered, and gone into private industry, becoming the head of one of our more successful industrial conglomerates.
I'd suspected for a long time that in the intervening years he had become sympathetic to the cause of shape shifters within the Reich, and had been tacitly turning a blind eye to the fact. However, I hadn't figured his son for being involved. Moreover, if we were talking about the son I thought we were (he had three), he was one of our best ballistics experts, and had been key in the ill-fated rocket research facility at Nordstrand, which had been destroyed almost exactly a year before. Since then, he had been appointed as head of the AMTRI Ballistic Weapons division, so if he was compromised...
"Are we sure there's a link between Geisen and Merten?" I asked.
"They're certainly lovers," came the answer, "have been for some time. However, Geisen didn't admit anything more than that when he was brought in for questioning this morning."
"How thoroughly was he questioned?"
"Given his father's influential position, Standartenführer Ulrich opted to start with a brief interrogation, and then released him but had him tailed to see if they'd shaken anything out of the tree."
"And let me guess...the tail who was assigned to him was pulled out of a dumpster about an hour ago."
He paused a moment, before saying, his tone almost embarrassed. "Yes, Herr Reichsführer."
"Go to Hannover and deal with it, Dominik. Now. Before it spirals out of hand."
I could see him thinking about arguing, but it only took him a few moments to realise that doing so would probably not be the best idea.
"Yes, Herr Reichsführer," he answered, and with a smart salute and a click of his heels he turned and headed out of the office.
I watched him go and then returned to my work, but the interlude was relatively short lived before Niedersachsen came back onto my radar with a bang. Literally. There was a knock at the door, and Marja poked her head inside.
"Brigadeführer Schaefer is here to see you, Herr Reichsführer."
Paula Schaefer is Head of Communications at Hradcany Castle, and has been for some years. She is without a doubt one of the best communications mages I've ever met, as well as very competent Trump artist, and is key to maintaining communications between Berlin and the Reichs-SS elsewhere in our territory.
"Send her in," I said, and moments later she entered the office. She saluted smartly, and then stood at ease when I invited her to.
"I'm going to take a wild guess that this isn't good news?" I commented.
"I'm afraid not, Herr Reichsführer," she replied, "we've had reports of an attack on the Advanced Military Technological Research Institute in Hannover."
"Go on."
"Initial reports indicated that there had been an accident. However, then further reports of explosions continued coming in and it quickly became clear that it was under attack.."
"Any particular areas of the facility?"
"The Ballistic Weapons division."
I mentally cursed. There was no way that could be a coincidence, given that Geisen junior had been brought in for interrogation that morning.
"How bad is the damage?"
"Significant in the labs, less so in the offices. The Chief of Security, Obersturmbannführer Reier, has instituted a lockdown and as the individual attack sites are deemed safe by the fire-fighters they're investigating, but they aren't finding any trace of hostiles. It's almost as if the attackers have disappeared into thin air."
"Keep me informed."
"Yes Herr Reichsführer."
"Anything else?"
"A report from the Gestapo office on the Shadow. Something about a murder."
"That's old news."
"Apparently not, sir. It seems that Oberstgruppenführer Gerlinde's investigator has been killed. Although reports became confused as apparently he turned up at Gestapo headquarters after the initial reports of his death."
"Is there any more information?"
"Not as yet, sir, although again, I'll prioritise."
"Thank you, Brigadeführer Schaefer. Return to your department, and if you need to contact me, call me. I should be on the ground in Hannover shortly."
"Of course, Herr Reichsführer," she answered, straightening me up and offering me a salute, before turning and leaving. Pretty much as soon as she was gone, I bought Dominik's Trump to mind and gave him a call. This definitely didn't count as dealing with the problem before it spiralled out of hand.
What I didn't expect was that the first thing I would feel from him was pain.
"Oberstgruppenführer Gerlinde?"
"If you could see your way to giving me a hand, Herr Reichsführer...?" he said, gingerly, and I got the impression that he was reaching for me. I mentally extended a hand to him, and moments later he fell rather than stepped through to my office. As he got to his feet, I could see that he was somewhere between human and demon-formed, covered in gouges which were leaking blood, and obviously in quite a lot of pain, and what there was of his uniform was filthy and covered in dust. I also noticed that he was missing his Honour Dagger.
"I see you've been dealing with the problem, Oberstgruppenführer Gerlinde."
In response he let out a stream of invective which would have made a maiden blush. I waited for him to finish venting his spleen and set his self-healing in motion, and then looked expectantly at him, not impressed in the slightest at his performance so far. Yes, he had only just returned to duty, but...
"It's a fucking mess," he said, finally.
"Care to explain?"
"It felt like an all out attack on Gestapo headquarters. We thought we had the perpetrators locked down in the cells, but sadly not, and as we tried to stop them escaping, the place started coming down around our ears."
"Did you recognise any of the attackers?"
"No, Herr Reichsführer. Although my assessment is that most, if not all, of them were shape shifters, so appearance is relative. One of them decided to take me on."
"I trust he or she got a nasty shock?"
"He was toast...right until his flight reflex kicked in," came the answer, and I could sense Gerlinde's disappointment at not completing the job. But then, I guess it was his first fight since returning to duty, and he'd probably been enjoying it.
"Did they get any of the prisoners out?"
"They rescued the traitor Merten, but I think the others were killed in the explosion."
"And you were...?"
"Under what felt like a ton of wreckage. Thank you for the assist, sir."
"We'll see if you still feel that way when I've taken a good look at the damage and decide whether this fuck-up needs to go on your permanent record."
"Yes, Herr Reichsführer," he answered, finally sounding a little chastened.
For all his flaws, and there are many, I have a soft spot for Dominik, but sometimes he presumes too much upon our relationship. Moreover, losing an Honour Dagger is one of the worst offences a member of my group can commit. Perhaps I do cut him more slack than I would some of the others, but it would do him good to have his wings clipped for a change.
I waited until he'd departed my office, and then contacted Hauer, to discover that he was already on site. I called in Karsten, Radulf and Stuckart to accompany me, because if things were as bad as they sounded I wanted some backup. And then, once we were assembled, we went through to where Gestapo headquarters Hannover had been last time I'd seen it. We arrived to see fire engines, a security cordon and a building which was little more than a heap of smoking rubble.
A fucking mess didn't begin to cover it.
As I assessed the situation, I could see that search and rescue was in full swing, but as yet the number of bodies lined up under covers was smaller than the number of people undergoing triage. Hauer had taken charge, presumably because the ruin in front of me was part of his organisation - a significant part, in fact, being the key facility for the Niedersachsen Group of the AdR - and once he had brought us through, he saluted and then returned to co-ordinating the rescue effort. The Guard took up positions around me while I observed for a few minutes, but once I was sure he had things in hand, I decided to leave him to it and see if there was anything I could discover regarding who had been responsible for the attack.
Given the fact that the ruins were still smouldering and unstable, trying to do anything within the building itself was going to be a non-starter for a couple of hours, although at least there were a pair of structural mages from the emergency services on site which should speed up proceedings. However, for the place to have been so thoroughly destroyed, the external warding must have been compromised. All the key Gestapo facilities were now protected by the Arcane Defence Group, a specialist unit of the best defensive mages within the RSHA, with responsibility for installations of significance within the Reich's sphere of influence, and the ruin in front of me was no exception. Which meant that whoever had got through the warding had to be an exceptional sorcerer, with experience in both normal and blood warding.
Of course, blood and ritual magicians are more common in the Reich than perhaps in other places, but then the question would be why would a Reich Citizen attack a Reich facility? More likely was that the attackers were from elsewhere, probably Sable, and if that were the case, the list of potential suspects shrank noticeably.
I brought my magical senses to bear, and started to walk what was left of the perimeter, Karsten and the others highly attentive as I did so. As it turned out, it took a remarkably short time to come up with an answer. In a semi-concealed doorway around a third of the way around, I found traces that three people had been waiting: a male and two females from the impressions I was getting, although at least somewhere along the way they had take some pains to conceal their appearance, no doubt expecting someone to do exactly what I was doing now.
I detected two magical signatures, one of which I didn't recognise, although I noted it down for future reference. The other, however, I knew all too well. Francesco Ragoczy. Brother Robert's favourite blood mage, and one of the few remaining Sable operatives carrying a death sentence on their head from Rensburg (the Kaiser having been uncharacteristically merciful to four of the others a couple of weeks before, without deigning to share his reasons with me, although as far as I could tell, it had something to do with his sister).
If ever I needed confirmation that Sable was involved in this outrage, this was it.
I extended my magical scan towards the building, and started trying to figure out what he had done. After all, even given his exceptional talents as a mage, the destruction was more than I would have thought possible given the reputation of the ADG. What I learned, however, concerned me greatly. He'd had time to stand there and unpick the wards from the bottom up, with absolutely no indication that he was, at any point, disturbed or even felt remotely threatened, and had then started laying magical charges at key locations around the building. Moreover, the impression I was getting was that he'd been instructing the other mage in what he was doing as he went along...using his attack as a lesson.
Such arrogance on his part, combined with a breach of security which demonstrated unconscionable incompetence on the part of the Gestapo section chief on Hannover, made me furious. If he'd survived the carnage, Landau would need to be made an example of, and if I ever got my hands on Ragoczy I'd sever his spine personally.
I contacted Hauer on comms, ordered him to send me a couple of guards, and then brought a Trump of Hans Luitpold, head of the ADG, to mind.
"Herr Reichsführer?" he said, a little surprised to hear from me.
"Your presence is required," I answered, and offered my hand to him.
Wisely, he didn't argue, instead taking my hand and coming through to join me without demur.
"Sir?"
"Hannover Gestapo headquarters," I said, indicating to the ruins.
"That isn't possible," he replied, looking surprised.
"It obviously is possible, Gruppenführer Luitpold. Bring through whoever of the ADG you need, study the methods used to destroy the warding, study the ruins, and make sure that it can't happen again."
"Of course, Herr Reichsführer," he answered, regaining his composure and snapping off a salute.
Around then, Hauer's guards arrived and I instructed them to watch Luitpold's back, and then turned on my heel and headed back towards the main courtyard at the front of the building. Hauer saw me arrive and split off from what he was doing to join me.
"How bad is it?" I asked.
"Personnel-wise, it could have been worse," he answered, "apparently Obersturmbannführer Landau had smelled a rat when a group of personnel arrived accompanying someone purporting to be Standartenführer Ulrich, who started throwing orders around regarding access to the cells."
"Presumably on the back of reports that Ulrich was already dead?" I asked, thinking back to my earlier conversation with Schaefer.
Hauer covered his surprise that I already knew about that little piece of information, before nodding.
"Yes, sir. One of his men had reported that he had been killed by a group of unidentified operatives, shortly before being killed himself. So Landau had already increased security, and as the explosions started, he managed to evacuate many of them."
"And yet despite the fact that an emergency had been declared, he didn't increase physical patrols around the building."
"I'm still trying to confirm that or not."
"That was a statement, Obergruppenführer Hauer, not a question. The individual who took down the arcane defences here was untroubled for at least fifteen minutes, and there was no sign of patrols during that time according to my own readings."
"I'll look into it, sir."
"I would hope so," I answered, less than pleased, "tell me, has there been any sign or indication of the whereabouts of Sturmbannführer Hermann Geisen?"
"Beyond the fact that he was apparently brought in for interrogation earlier and then released, no. Do you think he's connected with this?"
"The murder which seems to have kicked this all off appears to have been the tail assigned to him by Landau. So yes, I think he's connected with this. I'm just not sure how, given that I've identified one of the perpetrators as a Sable agent."
"But why would they attack here? The trouble at the AMTRI I could understand, as it has strategic value. But Gestapo headquarters? Even Graham's people aren't usually crazy enough to do that."
"Merten was Geisen's lover, and she's the one confirmed escapee."
"But why would Sable be interested in freeing a Forstapo officer? It's not as if they usually have warm feelings towards that branch of the RSHA," he replied, a little incredulous, "and equally, their actions probably killed the other prisoners, which doesn't seem like the usual MO. I would have expected them to try to free all the prisoners on principle."
"According to Gerlinde, they did but the prisoners never had the opportunity to take advantage of the fact before matters got out of hand."
"Gerlinde? What does he have to do with this?"
"He was in the basement when the building blew."
"Still alive?"
"At the moment," I replied. Not that I had any particular intention of executing Dominik, but even a covert threat can be useful in reminding people of their duty, "if Landau's still breathing, have him detained and taken to Berlin, and make sure that all officers are alerted to look out for Merten and Geisen...it would be useful to have them alive for interrogation, but I'm not overly fussy."
"Yes sir."
With that, I decided it was time to take a look at the AMTRI and co-ordinate with Reier. No doubt I would also need to speak with Oberst Lambert, and it seemed inevitable that my representative there was going to be called to account for the breach of security, especially given ADG involvement in the setting up of the arcane defences there as well. I ordered Hauer to arrange a car for me, and once it arrived I climbed in, taking Karsten and Stuckart with me. Radulf I left behind to be my eyes and ears at the scene of the disaster.
This was proving to be a very, very bad day and heads were going to roll.
* * * * *
I spent about an hour over at the AMTRI facility, co-ordinating with Reier and having a less than civilised chat with Oberst Lambert (I left my escort outside the room for that one as it was likely to prove embarrassing). While I outranked him by a significant margin, I couldn't escape from the fact that in this case, my people had dropped the ball. Not that the realisation or acceptance of that improved my mood any.
Once the unpleasentries were over, Reier gave me the opportunity to see if I could learn anything from the now extinguished Ballistic Weapons lab. As I did a forensics check of all the affected areas, I noted three things: the same magical signature as Ragoczy's observer (although no sign of Geisen junior's own signature, except where it should have been); that there was no physical sign of who that mage was, even masked images, despite the inescapable evidence that he or she had been there, as if they had literally been part of thin air (which given a proclivity among Sable agents with the ability to shape shift to choose an elemental form based on air, led me to one conclusion); and that it appeared the terrorist had been acting alone.
An additional matter for concern was the fact that I knew for certain that when the ADG had set up the warding around the facility, they had included wards against the intrusion of sentience, even if apparently disembodied - having seen Sable use that technique before - and yet the terrorist had still managed to penetrate the facility. I made another mental note to order Luitpold to instruct his people to improve such wards further, if at all possible, and to co-ordinate with Reier (and whoever his inevitable successor would be) to conduct an exhaustive investigation into how the wards could have been penetrated.
Suffice to say, by the time I got back to the Gestapo headquarters building site, I was feeling decidedly cranky.
"Status report?" I asked Hauer as I crossed to join him.
"The structural mages have managed to shore the building up and a lot of the rubble has been dealt with. The death toll looks like nine personnel plus thirteen injured, with half a dozen of our people unaccounted for and also a couple of Oberstgruppenführer Gerlinde's men."
"Can we get into the cell area yet?"
"They're just clearing the access now. It isn't going to be easy making our way down there, but it should be possible."
"Let's go," I answered, and without waiting for him to join me I headed inside. He hurried after me and fell into step beside me once he caught up, under the watchful gaze of the Guard.
The smell of burning was still strong, and there was a lot of dust in the air. I quickly cast breathing filter spells for our group, so we wouldn't choke on the dust, and we started scouring the ground floor of the building. I could see that, in places, the walls still looked precarious, but could feel the structural spells which would keep them in place until the building was either repaired or demolished (looking at the mess, the latter seemed more likely). The staircase up to the remains of the first floor was smashed and broken, and obviously no-one was going up by that route any time soon. However, presumably the rescue crews would have been up there already.
My interest, however, was in the cell block, my hope being that I could identify the four perpetrators who had murdered Ulrich, and staged the actual incursion...or at least get faces for them. Hauer led us through the ruins until we reached the down staircase. It didn't look as badly damaged as the other had, and we carefully headed downstairs. As we approached the guard room in front of the cell block door, we could hear the voices of the structural mages as they worked on clearing the damage, and as we reached the entrance I could see them disintegrating more of the rubble.
I took a moment or two to familiarise myself with their signatures, so I could exclude them from any investigation I would need to make, and then, once they were satisfied that the place wouldn't come down on our heads, they withdrew discretely.
I glanced around the guard room and saw three uniformed bodies. A quick magical check confirmed that they had been dead before the building came down. Hauer communicated back to the rescue crew to come and pick them up, while Karsten and I stepped through the cell block door. Beyond I saw more bodies, both uniformed and non-uniformed, and on the floor in one corner, as if cast carelessly aside, was Gerlinde's Honour Dagger. I crossed to it and picked it up, tucking it into my belt at the small of my back, and then started trying to see what had happened.
I brought my magical senses to bear, and began sweeping the area. Four men had come down into the cell block, one of them indeed looking like Ulrich (who I had seen around Hradcany Castle in the past, as he was on Dominik's personal staff), attacked the guards and the proceeded to open the cells. They were obviously looking for someone specific, but seemed happy for anyone else who wanted to, to make a speedy exit. I got clear pictures of all of them for future reference, but recognised none. Geisen certainly wasn't obviously among them.
Up until that point, it seemed that Landau had followed the established procedure for if a cell facility was attacked, and locked down the area once they were inside, trapping them and releasing gas to immobilise (or preferably kill) them. To the officer monitoring the magical visual feeds from the cell block, it would have looked as if it had worked, as a short while later they fell to the ground, as did all the prisoners they'd released who were attempting to leave the cells. However, I could see that they had managed to block the vents - using, of all things, the bloodied uniforms of the men they'd killed - and therefore weren't as affected by the gas as they should have been. Given the evidence of my own eyes, I was inclined to agree with Gerlinde's assessment that they were more than likely shape shifters (yet another note to self: make sure cell block gas is upgraded to kill or at least seriously incapacitate shifters).
What did surprise me, was that Gerlinde was the one who broke containment, entering the cell area after it was supposedly secured with a mixed group of his men and local Gestapo officers. Which of course was the point at which the fight had started. One of the Sable agents had assumed demon form and engaged him directly (Dominik changing likewise to defend); another grabbed a woman who I assumed was Alexia Merten and left at speed with her over his shoulder; and the others had accounted for Gerlinde's escort. At one point, I caught the flash of his Honour Dagger speeding through the air towards one of the attackers, and saw it almost take off the hand of one of the terrorists, and decided that perhaps he hadn't been completely careless (not that I was going to let him get away scot free for the transgression of leaving the weapon behind).
A surprisingly short while later, his escort were dead or incapacitated. He was still locked in mortal struggle with the demon-formed individual and was winning hands down, it seemed, until the coward did, indeed, shift to flight mode and head off up the stairs. Then, with the sounds of the first explosions, the others began to clear out, but before he could follow them, Dominik had caught a lump of masonry on the back of the head and was knocked senseless. At which point the world fell in on him.
I'd seen all I needed to see, and headed back into the guard room, my Guards falling in beside me.
"Have you come to any conclusions, Herr Reichsführer?" Hauer asked, as we walked, and I gave him a rough summary of what I had ascertained. His reaction seemed suitably serious. Then, once we were above ground again, I handed the site over to him and Luitpold, who by now was accompanied by three more members of the ADG.
I was going to need to return to Berlin to start writing up reports on the incident, especially as the Kaiser was no doubt going to get on my case about it sooner rather than later.
* * * * *
Once I was back in my office, I jotted down some initial impressions, as well as the list of people who were wanted in relation to the incident. When I had finished, I headed downstairs, first to Schaefer's domain, so she could communicate the identities and images of the suspects to all officers, and then on to the cells where Landau was being detained. I spent almost an hour questioning him both mentally and physically, and by the time I was finished, his day was definitely going worse than mine. But frustratingly, I didn't really have that much more new information than I knew already.
Cursing somewhat, I cleaned myself up in the guard room, and then returned to my office. Once there, I brought a Trump of Berndt Geisen to mind. There was a slight delay before he answered, and when he did, he appeared surprised...and a little nervous...to see me.
"Herr Reichsführer..." he said, quietly, "it's been a long time."
"Indeed, Herr Doktor," I replied, "I trust you're well?"
"Well enough, thank you. What can I do for you?"
"Have you heard from your son Hermann recently?"
"He was staying here a couple of weekends ago, yes."
"And since then?"
"We haven't been in contact...why?"
"Consider this to be something of a courtesy call," I replied, and I could feel his wariness increasing.
"Sir?"
"It appears he may be in a spot of bother," I answered, in my most sincere tone, "of course, given his rank in the SS and your own years of faithful service to the organisation, I may be in a position to help him. So I would therefore be much obliged if you would let me know should he get in contact with you."
"What kind of bother?"
"Hopefully merely a misunderstanding which can be cleared up quite quickly. But that can't be done if I don't have the opportunity to speak with him. I hope you understand..."
He looked at me through the Trump and our eyes met, and I could see fear in his. Curious, I took the opportunity to scan his surface thoughts and detected worry, concern and a distinct nervousness, none of them merely to do with Geisen junior.
"Herr Doktor. Is there something I should know?" I asked, mildly, and could feel him trying to come up with a good answer. But underlying his deliberations was the fact that he loved his son and didn't want to see him hurt.
"I genuinely haven't heard from him, but I will, of course, inform you as soon as I do," he said, finally, although even as he said it, I knew that he was lying.
"I'm delighted to hear it," I said, with my best false smile, "of course, I'm sure I don't have to tell you what the consequences might be if you let me down...or if it turns out that this little misunderstanding can't be easily dealt with after all. But hopefully that won't be an issue."
"I remember who my friends are, Herr Reichsführer," he replied, his tone a studied neutral, but his thoughts gave him away to a degree, in as much as I didn't get the impression I was the friend he meant. Perhaps the time was coming to haul in some of that slack I'd been giving him...
"As do I, Herr Doktor," I replied, mildly, "as do I."
And with that I broke the contact. Dealing with Geisen senior could wait for a few days. However, today had been long enough, and there was still one thing left which needed to be handled this evening.
Dominik.
I sent word to Tristan Heydrich, Jürgen Kessler and Gerlinde himself to meet me in the Gruppenführersaal at the Wewelsburg at nine that evening, and then finished up for the night. I locked away my papers, and then transferred to my quarters in the castle where I could clean up, change and prepare.
* * * * *
I walked into the Gruppenführersaal bang on time, accompanied by Schultz (given that this was Order business), to see that the others were already present. All were in dress uniform, as were we, and I noted that Dominik was looking rather healthier than he had earlier in my office. However, he also seemed subdued, well aware that he wasn't in my good books just at that moment. Schultz and I took our places at the table, and then to emphasise the point that he wasn't in my favour to Dominik, in sight of all three of them, I slipped his Honour Dagger out from where it had been tucked in my belt at the small of my back, and laid it in front of me on the round table.
"Brothers," I began quietly, "one of our number committed a serious breach of etiquette today. It falls to me to punish him for that."
"Breach of etiquette?" Dominik demanded, surprised, "you're hauling me over the coals for a breach of etiquette?"
I looked at him, feeling anger welling inside me at his insolence.
"Silence," I snapped, eyes blazing and fury obvious in my tone, and he was so surprised that he complied.
"As I was saying," I continued, attempting to control my tone so that it was merely icy, rather than blazing, "one of our number committed a serious breach of etiquette today by allowing the symbol of his membership of this Order to be tainted by abandoning it and leaving it uncleaned after use. He also displayed a lack of control over his own subordinates and failed to comply with an order to deal with the matter."
I could feel Tristan and Jürgen standing in silence at their places around the table as I spoke, and guessed that Rikart was attentive, as always, but my attention was totally focused on Dominik.
"In passing judgement, I have not failed to take account of the fact that you have recently been convalescing from injuries received, and that you have only just returned to active duty..."
He seemed to relax slightly, until I continued speaking, as much to the others as to him alone.
"However, the traitor Alexia Merten was appointed before his leave of absence...long before his leave of absence... and therefore he bears some responsibility for her actions."
By now, Gerlinde looked tense and uncomfortable, and was obviously aware that I had more than a slap on the wrist in mind.
"So first. With respect to his dereliction of duty in this matter, I hereby demote our Brother to the rank of Obergruppenführer for a period of one year, or until he should prove himself sufficiently that this demotion be reversed, whichever is the shorter. In addition, a reprimand will be placed on his permanent record with immediate effect."
From off to one side, I think at Tristan's position, I heard an exclamation of surprise. I ignored it, still focused on Gerlinde, and indicated for him to join me. He did so with a certain amount of trepidation (and inevitably anger), and I touched the collar tabs on his uniform, cast the spell I have for such purposes, positive and negative, and the insignia were adjusted accordingly. His face was a picture of shock, as no doubt he hadn't expected me to take such an action.
"Those present are to bear witness to this action."
"So witnessed," the others answered in unison, and I gestured for him to return to his place.
"Second. With respect to his breach of the etiquette of this Brotherhood..."
I carefully withdrew a silk cloth from my pocket, coated with a shape shift inhibitor, and then picked up Gerlinde's blade and ran it across the cloth as if to clean it. Once that was done, I placed the cloth back the table and this time walked round to Dominik's position. All the while, he was watching me like a hawk, and for once I could see fear in his eyes, instead of his usual arrogance.
When I reached him, I took hold of his left wrist and forced his hand it palm down onto the table. Then, with a single motion, brought the dagger down. The razor sharp blade passed through the back of his hand, out through the palm and into the table beneath. Blood welled up from the injury immediately. He managed not to cry out, although I heard an exclamation of surprise from Tristan, off to my right, but as my eyes met Dominik's, I could see that he was biting back the pain. My point had been made...so to speak. We stood in silence for a few seconds, eyes locked, and then I took hold of the dagger once more, drew it back up, and presented it to him hilt first.
"Never, ever, disappoint me again, Dominik."
"I'll do my best, Herr Reichsführer," he said, quietly.
"Excellent," I replied, then broke off my gaze and stepped back, "this matter is concluded. Gentlemen, you are dismissed."
All four snapped salutes at me simultaneously, and then Tristan, Jürgen and Dominik made their way towards the door, and presumably in Dominik's case towards the infirmary, as he wasn't going to be able to heal the injury through his inherent abilities. Schultz remained, although he crossed to join me, rather than remaining at his place at the table. He looked as if he wanted to speak, but wasn't quite brave enough to do so.
Once the others were gone, I picked up the cloth, crossed to his place and carefully wiped away the blood which had spilled on the table, before disintegrating the cloth with a simple spell. The inch deep scar in the wood would remain, and I also suspected that Dominik would keep the physical scar once it did heal, which would hopefully serve to remind him not to take anything for granted, however much our relationship bordered on friendship.
Then I brought the Pattern to mind and jumped myself and Schultz back to Panenske Brezany.
What I needed now was a very large Scotch.