Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Eighty-Eight
14th April 1974
Tempelhof, Berlin
Sepp’s mother was watching a wedding on television when he emerged from the room he shared with Hagen and Dieter. Rummaging through the kitchen, he saw that there was nothing to eat. With everyone busy, no one had thought to go to the market. That meant that Sepp would need to go himself to one of the few markets that was open on Easter Sunday. It was only a question of which labels he wanted to listen to his complain about, those in Korean or those clearly marked as Kosher.
“Who is getting married?” Sepp asked.
“The Czar of Russia to a Greek Princess” His mother replied, not taking her eyes off the television. “You got home late last night?”
Sepp didn’t know if that last part was a question, or just a statement of fact.
“I had an errand to run” Sepp said.
“It didn’t have something to do with that girl of yours, did it?”
“Yesterday was Zoe’s birthday” Sepp replied, “I stopped by her place to wish her a happy birthday.”
“Oh” Sepp’s mother said, it was as if she had expected him to deny it. “That’s her name, Zoe?”
“Sophie actually” Sepp said, “And don’t worry, nothing is happening because she is just a friend.”
Sepp’s mother seemed almost disappointed by that despite her frequently admonishing him not to throw his life away by getting distracted. Girls were just one of the distractions in question. The thing about Sophie being a friend, that was true except he wished she could be far more than that.
Just the thought of that though reminded Sepp of the awkward way that the brief conversation with Sophie had ended the night before. He must have interrupted her as she was taking her dog out as one of the final acts of the night, because she had been standing there barefoot in what he had later realized was a nightgown. When she had bent down to stop her dog from jumping up on her, he had caught a glimpse down the front of the nightgown. While it wasn’t something that he hadn’t seen before, beyond magazines and television he had seen women sunning themselves in the park. This had felt very different, and he had been left tongue tied.
“Whatever you say” Sepp’s mother said, seeming to not believe a word of that. “And have you seen your brother?”
“Didi is still asleep last I looked” Sepp replied.
“Not Dieter but Hagen” Sepp’s mother said, and Sepp almost groaned aloud. “I cannot recall seeing him since Friday afternoon.”
Something that Sepp knew about Hagen, that his mother seemed uninterested in, was that he was a complete psychopath. If Sepp had to guess, his brother was somewhere pulling the legs off an insect or the like. The last thing on Earth Sepp wanted was to be spending the one day off this week he had running all over town looking for a younger brother who probably didn’t want to be found.
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“I have no opinion on the matter, now go tell your friends that” Kiki said to a tabloid reporter seconds before he was dragged off by Hospital Security as members of First Foot were standing between her and the reporter.
It was something that had happened several times already today and it had been suggested by the Hospital Administration that she go home for the day. While no one had suggested that it was her fault, the tabloids wanted her opinion about the Russian Czar’s wedding, he was a distant cousin of hers. The trouble was that Hospital was short-staffed because of the holiday, she had a job to do, and they were interfering with it. At the same time, after what had just happened a few minutes earlier she probably would have liked to have left of her own accord.
“Bad day Princess?” A familiar voice, one that Kiki had not heard in a long time, asked.
“Do you people ever quit?” Kiki asked as she tried to wave off the two men from the First Foot who were about to thump this man. She knew from experience that them doing that would be counterproductive. By doing it they would become a part of the story. For some demented reason, this man had to pick today of all days to show up.
“I am not one of ‘you people’ if you mean like that guy who your goons just dragged off” Hunter Thompson said. The American Journalist had been sitting unobtrusively in the waiting room, ignored by Hospital Security and the First Foot.
“The First Foot are hardly goons” Kiki replied.
“Potato pototo” Hunter said, whatever that meant. Judging by the tone, Kiki had a feeling that she would probably deck him if he explained it.
“Why are you here?” Kiki asked, when she wanted to tell him to just go away.
“Because it is where the action is” Hunter replied.
“Or is it because the Russian Government refused to allow you into their country?” Kiki asked flatly.
“You know about that?” Hunter asked in reply.
“It was a good guess” Kiki said. Every other serious Journalist was in Moscow at that moment including Zella who had left the day before. The fact that Hunter was skulking around a hospital in Tempelhof spoke volumes.
“There was a bit of a misunderstanding last year with a story I ran with” Hunter said, and Kiki really didn’t care what he had to say in his defense. She was tired of these games.
“You want a story?” Kiki asked, “Come with me then.”
She started to walk back in the direction that she had just come from not really caring if Hunter could keep up. She walked back to the cubical which had been curtained off, the cleanup had not yet begun. Basically, it looked like a charnel pit with blood everywhere along with the detritus of a failed surgical effort and the body of the young man who Kiki had been unable to stabilize was still there with a sheet thrown over him.
“He was brought in with multiple stab wounds, believed to be the result of criminal activity and I couldn’t save him” Kiki said, “You probably saw the police leave after taking everyone’s statements.”
Hunter just stood there surprised, and it took a lot to surprise someone like him. He had said it himself that she was having a bad day. He had just been unaware of what that looked like.
“I am about to go tell a family something that will absolutely wreck them” Kiki said, “Do you want to watch that too?”