Security solutions, p.3
Security Solutions, page 3
“Makes no difference to me,” Neustatter stated.
But it does, Astrid thought. Now they will be the ones facing backwards in their seats.
“Und we will lock the door to the next car,” Eggers added.
Ah, so he saw that part.
“Fine. I will keep Wolfram on the back stairs. Got to have a rear guard. Which side do you want him on?”
Clever, Neustatter. Clever. Astrid wasn’t sure if there even was a right answer.
“Left,” Eggers said after another minute. “Most of the stations are on the left.”
“What about us?” the burgher who had stood up earlier asked.
“I regret our conversation will probably keep most of you awake,” Neustatter answered. “But at least you will be out of the line of fire.”
Halle Station
Friday, June 22, 1635
It was after midnight when the southbound Schwarza Express was shunted off onto the second line and rolled into Halle Station. At the same time, the northbound Magdeburg Express pulled away from the station on the main line.
“Halle Station! Anyone disembarking?”
“You could all leave the train here,” the burgher suggested.
“Train guards,” Neustatter said. “We cannot leave.”
“I am not getting off the train,” Miss von Kardorff declared.
“Then we stay, too,” Eggers said.
Several passengers left the third car, including the vocal burgher. Two or three people looked like they intended to board but were quickly pulled aside by those leaving the train. Only one man boarded. He found a seat in the back. Neustatter just shook his head.
“I see no reason to involve the stationmaster,” Neustatter said. “If all the rest of you would please move to the right side of the car? And Wolfram, if you would step down and let the Committeemen pass?”
“Hans, you first,” Klaus directed. “And the reactionaries move down the aisle to the back.”
Hans left by the rear door and reentered at the front of the car. Klaus followed, and then Gebhard, so at least one of them was always in a position to cover the von Kardorffs.
“You suckered me!” Neustatter declared when he saw Gebhard had finally been able to draw his pistol while outside the train.
“Ja, I did,” Eggers acknowledged. He locked the door to the next car as the conductor’s cry of “All aboard!” rang out from somewhere forward. Just as he sat down looking satisfied, Sergeant Johann Sandhagen came up the car’s front steps. He held a lantern in each hand.
“I am not armed. But since we have crossed into Thuringia-Franconia, you are my problem. So I ought to be back here.”
“There is a soldier on the train!” It was the first thing Astrid had heard CoC Hans say.
“Ja,” Neustatter answered. “One military police liaison per train. Surely you knew this?”
Surely they did not, Astrid realized as the train started to move.
Sandhagen replaced the lantern hanging at the front of the car, slipped past the CoC men to replace the lantern in the back, and then found an empty seat in the middle on the left side. Neustatter dropped into the seat ahead of him and moved all the way across to the window, his pistol still up, momentarily in a one-handed grip. Astrid took the one behind the sergeant, grateful to finally be sitting down properly. She sat next to the aisle, gun hand casually resting on the back of Sandhagen’s seat.
She heard Wolfram tell the von Kardorffs, “Your turn to sit down. Two seats up from the back, bitte. I have recent experience with hand-to-hand fighting on a train, and I must insist on an empty seat between us.”
Dank schön, Wolfram. Just what I need to be thinking about—Lucas getting shot in the ambush last month. Especially when we roll right past the spot, in the dark, with a swordsman behind me . . . Oh! Astrid realized something.
“Did you speak with the stationmaster, sergeant?” Klaus Eggers demanded.
“Nein. If I wanted to force an end to this, I would have had him hold the train while I summoned help from the camp outside the town. But I did not.”
Astrid saw an expression cross Egger’s face. Evidently Neustatter did, too.
“You boys are not AWOL, are you? Those rifles are SRGs.” Neustatter’s voice was casual. He held up his left hand when Hans started. “Not my watch. I got out of soldiering. Mostly.”
“So we are back to Ritter von Kardorff’s children,” Klaus Eggers stated. He was speaking even more quickly.
Trying to lead us away from Neustatter’s question about being AWOL, Astrid figured.
“We cannot let them live,” Gebhard said.
“Why?” Neustatter asked. “Are they anti-Semites? Or witch hunters?”
“Probably.”
“Probably is not good enough. Everyone has heard of the Committees of Correspondence lists. Either they are on the list, or they are not. Show us,” Neustatter challenged.
Again there was a pause in the conversation, with the clickety-clack of the train the only noise.
One of the passengers finally broke the silence. “Obviously they are not on your list. Sergeant, I insist these men be arrested at the next stop! And these incompetent guards replaced!”
“Mein Herr, so far these guards have kept anyone from getting hurt,” Sandhagen pointed out.
“If you will not, I will! I know men in the new prime minister’s government!”
Klaus Eggers shifted to cover the man with his rifle. “You are niederadel!”
“Sure sounds like it,” Neustatter agreed. “Astrid, you have a better angle on him. Wolfram, you cover the von Kardorffs. I have Gebhard and Silent Hans.”
“Neustatter,” Eggers warned.
“What? I have one gun on you and your men instead of two. Stop complaining.”
“If you have contacts in Prime Minister Wettin’s government . . . ” Miss von Kardorff began.
Klaus Eggers interrupted her. “That will mean nothing in the SoTF.”
“Are you of the adel?” the boy demanded. “And you have been sitting here silent the entire time?”
“He does not want to get involved,” Klaus told him. “You are not worth it to him. It is how the adel is.”
“You would let them take us?” The boy’s voice rose.
“Of course he would! He is a coward like the rest of them!”
The newly-discovered noble reached for something.
“Freeze!” Neustatter barked. “Either drop it in the aisle or very slowly come over here and sit down next to Sergeant Sandhagen.”
“I will not!”
“Wolfram, cover the CoCs.” Neustatter lunged across the aisle and pistol-whipped the noble. With his left hand he stripped the dirk out of the noble’s hand while his right—pistol still in hand—snaked under the man’s arm and around the back of his neck. Neustatter hauled the man out into the aisle by brute force and deposited him next to Sandhagen.
“Astrid, shoot him in the back of the head if he tries anything. Wolfram, you have the von Kardorffs.”
“Impressive,” Eggers allowed.
“The rest of us all seem willing to talk,” Neustatter noted.
“I will . . . I will . . . You will hang for this!” The noble started to lunge to his feet, but Sergeant Sandhagen grabbed him by the bicep and shoulder and drove him back into the seat.
“Let us kill him, too,” Gebhard proposed.
He is driven, almost unhinged, Astrid thought. Why?
“Astrid?” Neustatter asked.
“Ja, boss?”
“We are in Saxon County now, are we not? If someone was killed on a train, who do you think would get to the murderer first, Colonel von Hessler or the Saxon Ghost?”
Astrid thought about it. “I say von Hessler.”
“Why?”
“He has the Levies spread out along the river. Which means they are right along the railroad, too. He would hear anything very quickly.”
“The Ghost finds out everything in Saxon County,” Neustatter countered.
Klaus gave them a very skeptical look.
Astrid rushed her next question a bit. “What do you think would happen?”
“Von Hessler would probably just shoot them,” Neustatter said. “The Ghost? Who knows? I heard he hanged Saxon officers last year.”
“He is not real,” Eggers stated.
“Sure he is. We met him last month—and the troop of dragoons that rides with him. Miss Schäubin? Five bucks on the Saxon Ghost.”
“Five bucks on Colonel von Hessler,” Astrid agreed.
“Neustatter.”
“What is it, Wolfram?”
“I saw a light when the train came around the bend. We are coming up on Schkopau.”
“I dank ihnen,” Sergeant Sandhagen said. Astrid smiled at the phrasing. One didn’t hear a formal thank you in Amideutsch often.
“This is the Saxon Run,” the sergeant continued. “Von Hessler and the Saxon Ghost are not the only ones out there. The SoTF thinks members of the Saxon adel were behind the attack on the train last month. So I need you to point your guns away from each other and cover the doors.”
“The sergeant is correct,” Neustatter stated. He got up and moved backward down the aisle, pistol pointed straight up. “Wolfram, keep the left. I have the right. Ritter von Kardorff, I am going to trust you to not draw your sword. Eggers, one of you can watch the nobles, but the other two need to cover the forward doors.”
“This is a trick!” Gebhard exclaimed.
“No trick,” Neustatter said. “We need to be on the alert all the way to Camburg.”
“I will watch the reactionaries,” Gebhard declared.
“Fine.”
“If it is a trick, Neustatter, you would be the decoy.” Klaus spoke slowly. “So I will watch the door on the right.”
“Fine.” Neustatter said it like he didn’t care.
He probably doesn’t, Astrid thought. Oh, yes. “Herr von Adel, remember I am right behind you,” she said aloud.
Facing outward toward a possible external threat put a damper on conversation as the Schwarza Express passed Merseburg, Camp Devastation, and Weissenfels. Sergeant Sandhagen got up and shuttered the lanterns.
After a few minutes, Astrid’s night vision came back. “Coming up on Eulau,” she observed. “Just beyond is where the train got attacked last month. Watch the ridgeline.”
“I see a torch!” Klaus called out.
“Von Hessler’s watchtower,” Neustatter told him.
“What is next?” Klaus asked.
“Camp Terror. It will be on the right. Then we cross the bridge over the Unstrut and stop at Naumburg Station.”
“What is this camp?” Ritter von Kardorff asked.
“It was a railroad construction camp,” Astrid heard Neustatter tell him. “Then the USE regiments built it up when they marched through in ’33. Now it has a garrison of SoTF National Guard and Saale Levies.”
“And the name?”
“A joke made by a Saxon soldier, but the Levies kept it.”
Miss von Kardorff suddenly recoiled from the window. “There is nothing out there!”
Astrid had felt the clickety-clack of the train change. “We are on the bridge, up over the river.”
“This is unnatural,” the woman declared.
The sound changed again.
“We are back on land,” Astrid offered, still not turning her head. She heard Miss von Kardorff sigh in relief.
“I see lights,” Klaus announced.
“Naumburg Station.”
A few of the passengers stirred as the train coasted up to the platform. Astrid heard one quietly question another. “Shall we find an inn here and finish the journey tomorrow, on a safe train?”
“Nein. This is Saxon County. It is no safer for us than this train.”
Astrid was pretty sure he was wrong, but saw no reason to butt into their conversation.
The conductor came up the steps. “We are going to add a fourth car here,” he announced. “Once it is hooked up, I will ask all of you passengers to move to it.” He leaned back out the door and waved.
The train was moving before anyone could protest. It rolled a little way from the station and stopped again.
“What is happening?” Gebhard demanded. “Neustatter, you planned this!”
“I have been right here with you, Gebhard. How would I have done it?”
Gebhard’s aim shifted from the von Kardorffs to Neustatter. “Who else could have?”
“A good question,” Klaus Eggers agreed. He turned away from the door. “How does this extra railroad car happen to be here?”
“It is for emergencies,” the conductor told him. “Camp Devastation was raided a year ago in the spring. There were no trains nearby to transport troops. Since then there is always an engine and an extra car either here or at Halle.”
As if to punctuate his words, another train rumbled. Then there was a heavy thud against the back of the car.
“They are hooking up the fourth car now.”
No kidding, Astrid thought.
“The engineer and I know what is going on back here,” the conductor informed them. “We are not stupid. You must work this out among yourselves, but we must move our passengers to safety.”
“This makes sense to me,” Sergeant Sandhagen declared.
Someone banged on the rear door. Neustatter unlocked and opened it.
A beefy man dressed in brown stood there. He had a green cloth tied around his upper right arm. “We are ready for your passengers,” he said.
“Who are you?” Klaus Eggers demanded.
“Ich heisse Peter Hofmann. I am a farmer in Kleinjena, a mile up the road. But I am in the Saale Levies, too.” He pointed at the green cloth around his arm and continued in the same almost-Hochdeutsch that wasn’t quite the same as the Grantville Amideutsch they’d heard from Heinz Kraft yesterday. “Colonel von Hessler ordered me to take five men and protect the train to Grantville, then come back in the morning. He said to stay out of whatever was going on, just keep the train safe from outside attack.”
“I do not believe you,” Gebhard stated.
“This is part . . . what do they call it? Krystalnacht, is it not? Not our problem,” Hofmann stated.
“Weak sisters,” Eggers snarled.
Hofmann matched him glare for glare. “There are no witch hunters in the Unstruttal. Since last fall, Jews live in our village—a minyan or something like that. I think it means ‘a whole bunch’ in Jewish. We do not mind if men from the Yellow Circle Regiment march through or ride the trains. More and more men and women work in shops and factories along the rivers. Most of them belong to unions. We are you.” He pointed right at Eggers. “War with Saxony is coming. Do not start anything right here on the border. Not unless you intend to stay and help finish it.”
Hofmann’s tirade silenced everyone.
“Guess I owe you five bucks, Astrid,” Neustatter spoke into the silence. “Well, Herr Eggers, I agree to Hofmann’s terms if you do.”
Astrid could practically see the man thinking.
“We are now behind schedule,” the conductor announced.
“We cannot have that.”
The conductor gave a firm nod. He’d evidently missed Eggers’ sarcasm. “Since it is all settled, I will move the passengers now.”
“Go ahead,” Eggers agreed.
The passengers quickly gathered up whatever they had brought with them and moved to the fourth car.
Gebhard pointed at the noble Astrid was still covering. “He stays.”
“Why?” Neustatter asked.
“Because he is one of them,” Gebhard stated.
“He was not going to help until you forced the issue. He appealed to Sergeant Sandhagen and was not going to defend the von Kardorffs. How does that set him against you?”
“He spoke against us!”
“I speak against you, too. Gebhard, you are a dummkopf. Free speech.”
Gebhard swore at Neustatter.
“And the horse you rode in on,” Neustatter returned.
“Silence!” Klaus Eggers ordered. “Get the noble out of here!”
“Your call,” Sergeant Sandhagen said. “Herr, this way.”
The noble shied away as he passed Neustatter.
“Now you come back here and sit down, Sergeant,” Eggers instructed. “I do not want you planning anything against us.”
“Fine.” Sandhagen looked at Hofmann. “Neustatter has another team in the first two cars. Try to work together if anything happens.”
Hofmann nodded. “Good luck.”
They shut and locked their respective doors as the train began to move.
As the clickety-clacks came closer and closer together, Gebhard said, “We cannot make an example of the reactionaries without witnesses.”
Neustatter glanced away from his door. “Do you seriously want to kidnap an audience?”
Eggers smacked Gebhard in the back of the head. “Nein.”
“Next item. You need to convince me the von Kardorffs are legitimate targets,” Neustatter stated.
“We told you. The father—”
“But they are not on your list, are they?” Neustatter’s tone was harsh. “What makes you think you can kill them?”
“We have to cut out the rot,” Gebhard answered. “Like father, like child.”
“You are just like them,” Astrid blurted out. “They know of one lazy villager—and treat us all like that. You know of one rapist and murderer and treat them all like that. But the Constitution forbids corruption of blood. I thought the Committees followed the Constitution.”
She had the satisfaction of watching Klaus’ mouth open and close a couple times. And Silent Hans flushed.
“They are . . . Not . . . On . . . Your . . . List,” Neustatter stated. “You are not allowed.”
“Do not presume to tell the Committees what we can and cannot do,” Eggers snapped. He turned away from his door as well. “We are past the camp and approaching Jena—the Committees’ territory. You have no one else you can call upon.”
“Do not be too sure,” Neustatter told him. “But since we are not in Jena yet, what do you have to say about Miss Schäubin’s point from the Constitution?”
