Security solutions, p.22
Security Solutions, page 22
Hjalmar opened his pack and took out more food, all wrapped with care. “How many people are you expecting, Astrid?”
“NESS, in two shifts. Some of the Bibelgesellschaft. Casimir Wesner’s group. Lifeguards. Maybe some others.”
Hjalmar’s backpack, like those of the other men on the night shift, contained what food wouldn’t spoil in a few hours of the July evening. Astrid heard from passersby today’s temperature was 72 degrees Fahrenheit. It felt hot, although up-timers were only willing to grant “decently warm.” So they’d decided to buy meat from the food booths rather than carry it from the townhouse and leave it in the heat all day. They’d also purchase drinks. They had no way to keep milk cold, and anything water-based was too heavy to carry in the quantities they’d need. Besides, Brother Václav had said he’d provide the beer.
Ditmar steered Lukas’ wheelchair into position.
“I do not need to stay in this thing all night,” Lukas declared.
“No one says you do.” Trudi patted his hand.
Astrid did not consider herself much of an authority on relationships, but that looked like “couple” to her. She’d have to ask Barbara to observe.
By seven o’clock—they could just hear the middle school bells many visitors assumed were in a church’s tower—a wide cross-section of people had gathered. Astrid found herself pressed into the role of hostess.
“I assure you, Ursula, Agathe, Maria, and Anna prepared the food,” she said again. “I am not a cook.”
“Oh, not true, Sauerbraten,” came a voice.
Startled, Astrid spun around to see several men from Bretagne’s Company, led by the captain himself.
“Miss Schäubin.” Giulio Bretagne swept off his feathered hat and bowed. Astrid curtseyed, as ridiculous as it made her feel.
“Hauptmann Bretagne. Sergeant Wolfe.”
Neustatter approached. “Hauptmann Bretagne.”
“Neustatter!”
The two men shook hands, and Astrid slipped out of the conversation as it turned to shop talk. She glanced around and spotted Leigh Ann Ennis’ kids among the other children. Arne Helgerson was telling all of them a story. When it was done, he stood. “A moment, boys and girls.”
Arne approached Astrid, motioning with his eyes for her to step out of earshot of others.
“There is something you should know. Frau Julia passed around a drawing of a man she called Sprunck. I recognize him. We had words last fall. He was threatening a serving girl. I happened upon it by chance.”
“Dank, Arne. We wondered why he hired men to break down the bridge. Revenge. It fits what we know of his character.”
“If I see him again . . . ”
“Call the polizei, us, the Resistance, the lifeguards. Just about anyone.”
“I am not sure what I have to do with all of this.”
“You are a good and decent man, Arne, which is enough to anger someone like Sprunck, I think.”
“I hope you find him.”
Arne went back to storytelling, and Astrid surveyed the crowd. Her brother and Miss Želivský were standing a little apart from the others. That was interesting. Barbara and Sunshine appeared deep in conversation. The Anabaptist profiler wore her usual long sleeves, long skirt, and bonnet, while the lifeguard wore her blue two-piece swimsuit. Astrid laughed as a wandering Brennerei und Chemiefabrik Schwarza photographer asked for a picture.
Mathew Woodruff approached, pushing another wheelchair through the crowd.
“Casimir!” Neustatter waved.
Miss Želivský and Brother Václav hurried over to Casimir Wesner.
“They let me out of Leahy this afternoon, but I had to promise to take it easy.”
Woodruff steered him over to Neustatter.
“Neustatter!” Wesner exclaimed. “Danke. My associates told me what you did. I do not remember any of it.”
Neustatter surveyed the banker. He had two black eyes, what looked to be a broken nose, and his ribs were taped up. “I am not surprised. You took a bad beating.”
“This is a crowd.”
“I have a team guarding the tech fair,” Neustatter told him. “These two teams will relieve them at eight. Which reminds me . . .
“Miss Schäubin!”
Astrid hurried over.
“Since the team leaders seem to be occupied, form up Teams One and Two.”
“Ja, sir!”
A couple minutes later, she had Teams One and Two in a column of twos. Ditmar and Hjalmar slotted into place. Astrid fell in at the rear.
“Forward march!”
Neustatter marched them to and across the swimming pool parking lot. They located Klaus first.
“Detail, halt!”
Ten agents took a final step with their left feet and then stamped right feet even with left. It made just enough noise to draw attention from some passersby.
“Agent Recker, post!”
Astrid wasn’t sure what Neustatter was doing, but Karl sidestepped from the second rank to get clear of the formation, stamped, and marched forward. He cornered and halted in front of Klaus with another stamp.
Klaus had long since gone to attention. Karl presented arms, and Klaus followed.
Report!” Neustatter ordered.
“All quiet!” Klaus stated.
“You are relieved,” Karl returned.
“I stand relieved.”
Karl stepped left, and Klaus copied the movement.
“About face!”
Both men brought right feet back at an angle, pivoted, and stamped again. Klaus fell into formation beside Astrid.
Astrid thought both men handled the improvised changing of the guard very well.
They located Wolfram next. Jakob relieved him with the same sequence. One of Team Two’s two-man ranks was now gone. Wolfram took the open spot on the left, and Astrid stepped forward, forming a Team Three rank.
NESS continued to circle the tech fair. Neustatter gave more commands when posting or relieving the new agents. Those from the village or who’d been with NESS for a year seemed to pick up his intentions by instinct. At the end, NESS had almost the same formation, but with Astrid’s Team Three in front and the new Team Four in back. Otto had ended up in the team leader’s position, and Astrid had no idea how. There’d been no spoken order, but somehow Neustatter had made it happen. They marched back to the picnic.
“Detail, halt!” Neustatter ordered. “Well done. Fall out!”
The formation dissolved as the day shift headed for food and family. Astrid watched Sergeant Wolfe intercept Otto.
“I did not know NESS trained drill and ceremony.”
“We do not,” Otto told him.
“Surely that was rehearsed.”
“Nein. At least not by the day team. We just knew Neustatter would want us to show off, but not too much. Half of us serve in the National Guard, so it was not hard to adapt.”
Astrid watched Hans Wolfe choke down a word. Whether it was on her account or the children’s, she didn’t know. The sergeant settled on, “Impressive, Brenner. Very impressive.”
“Dank.”
They parted, and Astrid noted Otto sought out Barbara. She put guard duty and drill out of her mind and joined the group of Bibelgesellschaft students and their families.
“Astrid.”
“Georg.”
“Guten Abend, Astrid,” Georg and Katharina’s mother said.
“Guten Abend, Frau Meisnerin.”
“I did not realize so many of Neustatter’s men had wives and children,” she said.
“Just four. Stephan und Ursula und Wolfram und Anna from our village. Phillip und Agathe from last year’s class. Peter Johann und Maria from this year’s class. The other children are our lehenlady’s, Leigh Ann Ennis. Her husband is in the USE Army.”
“Who are the other soldiers?” Katharina asked.
“Bretagne’s Company. They are one of the other outfits in West Virginia County. We work with them sometimes.”
“You have more women agents,” Katharina observed.
“Just one. Krystal von Kardorff.”
“Adel?”
“Ja.”
“Just one? Your brother is talking with a woman, and I see a very pretty up-timer over there.”
Barbara grinned. “Hjalmar met Miss Želivský during a case. Und Regina will be a freshman at Calvert—Grantville High this fall. She is the daughter of Peter Johann and Maria, right over there. Down-timer, but as attached to the up-time Old West as Neustatter.”
Katharina looked at her friend. “How do you know this? Does it have something to do with why Marta and I have not been able to find you for several days?”
Astrid jumped in when she saw both Barbara and Katharina’s parents were paying attention. “Barbara has been busy profiling. It is . . . complicated.”
Barbara’s mother’s eyes narrowed. “Does complicated mean dangerous?”
Astrid saw her eyes cut toward where Sunshine Moritz had been. She knew Or scandalous? was the unspoken addition to the question and thought fast. She wasn’t about to say, Ja, Friedrich and I pulled guns on a couple goons hired by a madame who may have been in league with a spy who is also a serial rapist.
“It was complicated enough I do not know everything about the case,” she answered. “It is up to Herr Chief Richards which parts can be made public.”
“Hmm.”
Alas, Barbara’s parents were nobody’s fools. Astrid was pretty sure they could both tell everything she’d said was true, but incomplete. So she nodded in same direction Barbara’s mother had looked.
“That lifeguard—Sunshine—did the dangerous things. She rescued a man trapped right over there in Buffalo Creek, then she swam the creek with a rope so Neustatter’s team could cross to rescue Herr Wesner.”
“Oh!” Barbara exclaimed. “I talked to her about using the pool for baptisms. She said it is okay as long as all the other denominations can do so, too.”
Most of the Brethren laughed at the idea of other denominations wanting to baptize by immersion in a swimming pool.
Just as Astrid was exhaling in relief, she spotted someone else approaching. Maria waved to her, but made a beeline to Barbara.
“Danke.” The girl knelt to hug Barbara. She gave Trudi a quick wave, and then was gone.
Barbara’s parents looked like they expected an explanation.
“Barbara helps people.” Astrid chose her words with care.
Herr Kellarmann gestured toward Trudi. “How does she know your agent’s wife?”
Astrid shrugged and did not correct his assumption. “I worked a different part of the case.”
She was shading the truth a bit. She didn’t know, but Astrid could connect the dots, as the saying went. Still, no one had told her.
Barbara’s parents looked impressed. Her father sipped a beer, lost in thought. Then he looked up. “What is this? It is a better beer than I am used to.”
Astrid waved to catch Brother Václav’s attention. When the Praemonstratensian monk noticed, he came right over.
“Herr Kellarmann, Brother Václav.”
The Catholic monk and the Anabaptist seized each other up. A couple minutes later, they were talking about the beer.
“What is this one?”
“Prager Sommergeschenck. Prague Summer Gift.”
“Interesting. It is light and crisp, but almost a small beer, ja?”
“Ja,” Brother Václav confirmed. “What the up-timers call low ABV, alcohol by volume. Brother Ondrej said it would be popular here.” The monk shook his head. “I do not know how he knows. He just does.”
Barbara cocked her head. “Does he study people?”
“You have no idea.”
Astrid tried to keep a straight face. She had to look off in another direction, which happened to be toward the swimming pool. Then there was no stifling a grin when she spotted two women.
* * *
“I am not sure I should be seen in public in this,” Frau Boekhorst stated as she and Sunshine walked from the women’s locker room across the parking lot and over the footbridge toward the fountains.
“You look great, Josyntjie,” Sunshine told her. “You’re ready to go in the water if you have to fix the fountains, and I’m ready to rescue anybody who falls in. So let’s go have fun.”
Karen Reading had outdone herself with swimsuits for both of them. They were a heavier down-time cloth than Sunshine would have preferred. Josyntjie’s emerald-green one-piece ended in shorts with a little skirt over top of them, which Sunshine thought excessive and cheerleadery. It had a shallow scoop neck and frilly cap sleeves—ridiculous concessions, in Sunshine’s opinion.
Sunshine had held out for the proper color for lifeguards—red. And she’d insisted on a two-piece, not that anyone could tell. The shorts were cut tighter than men’s swimming trunks, and the halter top had thin straps and a V-neck Sunshine thought reasonable, even if it had caused her father to blanch. Her new swimsuit had cost her a pretty good chunk of what she was making at the pool this month, but it was worth every penny to keep lifeguarding.
Sunshine recognized someone. “Here comes the scary-looking guy with the rifle who was with you when the scaffolding collapsed.”
“His name is Ditmar Schaub.”
“I think he likes your swimsuit,” Sunshine observed.
“I believe all those other young men coming this way have their eyes on you,” Josyntjie returned.
“Yeah,” Sunshine agreed. “Hi, guys!”
Hawker, Aaron, Jack, and Ritter Friedrich had all asked her to the concert and fireworks. Sunshine was flattered, but she wasn’t ready to choose. She’d suggested they all be on standby in case they had to pull one of the fountain crew—or anyone else—out of Buffalo Creek. Besides, over the last few days she’d been thinking more about lifeguarding and construction safety than about boys. The Rescue Squad wanted to cross-train with the lifeguards. Sunshine shuddered at the thought of having to rescue someone from Buffalo Creek downtown, where buildings stood at the water’s edge on both sides. She didn’t know—yes, she did. She’d do it. The guys were all welcome to watch the concert and the fireworks—and her—and she’d watch her water.
* * *
Astrid looked away before she drew anyone else’s attention to Frau Boekhorst and Sunshine. She turned in place and saw Lukas and Casimir comparing notes from their respective wheelchairs.
“What happened to you?” Wesner asked.
“Got shot. Saxon agent,” Lukas told him. “You?”
“Surprisingly similar. But beaten rather than shot.”
Neustatter headed their way.
“We knew Sprunck was trouble, but not this level of trouble,” Wesner declared. “I have been interviewed by the polizei and by a Leutnant Schmidt of the National Guard. Everyone has asked me questions without answering all of mine.”
Neustatter laughed. “Is it not amusing how all of them are leutnants, and they are all named Schmidt?”
He was about to say more when a voice came over the loudspeakers positioned around the field.
“Welcome to the water concert featuring St. Mary’s organist Linda Bartolli and aqualist Athanasius Kircher!”
The organ began a hymn, and a jet of water shot up from the end of one of the pipes in Buffalo Creek. At the end of the next line, water shot up from a different pipe over on the left. Then after the third line, from a pipe on the right. At the end of the verse, all three sprayed upward together.
The next song was a march. As the organ crashed out notes, water sprayed into the air, and the first fireworks exploded over Buffalo Creek.
“Ooh! Ahh!”
Sunday, July 8, 1635
Four days later, when the bells tolled 7 p.m., Neustatter circled Hough Park, gathering the day shift.
“The vendors have taken home what little they did not sell.” He waved a hand. “The rest of this is breaking down booths and tables. We have finished our mission. Let’s go home. Dinner is at the townhouse, and you are all off tomorrow.
“Teams One and Two are train guards on Tuesday. We will do some training while they are gone.”
Monday, July 9, 1635
Trudi Groenewold pushed Lukas Heidenfelder’s wheelchair down Kimberly Heights. Astrid walked alongside. They had to stick to roads and so veered left, turned right, and then turned almost all the way around to the left on the web of little roads which all claimed to be parts of Porter Avenue. At the end of the driveway-like straight stretch, they turned right on Route 250. From there they would already see NESS’ office.
Trudi steered Lukas to a ramp at one end of the wooden walkway outside the offices.
Astrid fumbled with the key, then succeeded in unlocking the door.
“You look more tired than I do, mädchen,” Lukas said.
Astrid frowned. “I should not. I have not been standing twelve-hour guard shifts every day like the rest of them.”
“Nein, you helped Neustatter with a couple other missions and went all over Grantville making things happen. Standing guard is one kind of tired, but what you did is a different kind.”
Astrid blinked. “That is . . . insightful, Lukas.”
He laughed. “I promise not to make a habit of it.”
Astrid held the door open as Trudi wheeled Lukas inside.
“It is good the building has ramps and wide doors,” Trudi remarked. “Did you anticipate men would be hurt?”
Astrid shook her head. “Oh, I am sure Neustatter knew it could happen, but the ramps and doorways are because of up-time law. Public buildings had to be handicapped accessible.”
“Sometimes I think the up-timers had far more laws than we do. Other times I think they had none at all.”
“Different laws,” Astrid agreed.
“Speaking of law . . . ” Trudi spun the wheelchair around in front of Neustatter’s desk so Lukas was facing the door. “Why did you tell the pastor about me?”
Astrid pulled her own chair back from her desk and sat down. “Because you need a new line of work.”
“Spare me the lecture about morals.”
Astrid shrugged. “That is part of it. The other part is I do not want a prostitute working for NESS. It is bad for business, und it might cause some to think all the women at NESS are prostitutes. Have you met Krystal von Kardorff?”
