Vicky peterwald dominato.., p.12
Vicky Peterwald_Dominator, page 12
Her rig drove around the palace to one of the back entrances. To her left were the gardens. Now they were overgrown in some places. In others, wind and rain had uprooted trees or shrubs.
"How the mighty have fallen," kept running over and over in her mind. The temptation to run, to get back up the beanstalk, to take her fleet back to where the worlds were prosperous and people were happy was almost overwhelming.
Still, she was a daughter. Despite her twisted feelings about her father, he was still her father. She could not let him end his years in abject poverty.
Auntie Iris, Rena, and Hilda huddled together near the door. An ambulance was parked there, and her old friends crowded around a warm brazier, draped in emergency blankets.
Just how cold were the warm parts of the palace?
The back hatch dropped, and Vicky’s protection detail exited. The sergeant blocked her way, eyeing the surroundings, until he was content that his Grand Duchess would be safe.
What had she done to earn such loyalty?
As soon as she turned the back corner of the carrier, all three of the old cooks were lumbering her way. She rushed to meet them.
When they met, there was a long moment of hugs. Her honorary aunties kissed her on her cheeks, and she kissed them on their tear-covered cheeks as well.
"It is so good to see you again, Vicky. So good," Iris said. The others mumbled the same thoughts in their own words. Hilda was speaking German, she was so excited.
"I'm so glad to see you, too. How would you like a job cooking for me?"
"We'd love to," Rena said, immediately.
"We couldn't leave your father," Iris put in, quickly. "We're all he has left."
"I've come to get him and take him back as well," Vicky said.
"Well, in that case, you can take us right now," Iris said.
"You don't need to pack?"
"Honey, we don't have much but the clothes on our back. Your father hasn't had two pfennigs to rub together since, well, he got back from that meeting with you a year ago. We get food, not a lot, and, if you ask me, not all that good, either, but we know how to make a good meal no matter what falls off the grocer's truck."
"Well, I can assure you, I can set you up in a fine new kitchen and send you to the market for the best of what you want."
"How are you going to get them Bowlingames to let loose of your father?" Rena asked.
"Do you know who took him?"
"It sure wasn't the Imperial Guards," Iris said. "Damn fools haven't shown up for work for nine months or more. Come to speak of it, not many of those people he knighted or ennobled showed up much after he got back."
"Work stopped on expanding the palace even before he got back," Rena said. "By the time he got home, the place was just about deserted. A few weeks later, they turned off the electricity."
"They said we hadn't paid our bill," Hilda put in. "Imagine that!"
Vicky could. What had her father done that left him penniless? She knew the middle age fool was deep in the dregs of a midlife crisis and was wrapped around the Empress's little finger, but the exact manner . . .?
"Maggie, search the official records. I want you to download all contracts or proclamations signed by the Emperor or any other major official in the palace, especially his Minister of the Imperial Purse for say, the last five years."
"Searching, Your Grace. This may take a while. What I'm finding is massive. Can I send it up to the flagship?"
"If you need to, distribute it wherever you can fit it in. Just make sure you can find it when we need it."
"Your Grace, we're going to need one huge server farm to store all this data," Maggie said.
"Your Grace, Blue here. There must have been a major server farm in the palace. Can Maggie find it?"
"It is in the first basement, central wing," Maggie reported immediately.
"Major, we need a team down in the basement, pronto," Vicky shouted at the closest senior officer. "You're looking for computers. Maggie, give these men instructions to get there."
"I got 'em," an officer called, and a platoon took off on the double with a major at the lead and several techs joining them, humping large packs with no visible weapons.
Vicky knew she needed to make some fast decisions.
Did she sent her beloved cooks off in one or a few gun rigs to get them back up the beanstalk? She considered that for a short moment, then shook her head. Right now, she had two brigades at her elbow. Better to have her most favorite people in the world, other than Mannie, at her side.
Did she wait to find out if they could remove the data direct from the palace's own servers? That might take more time than she had.
"Maggie, can you keep data mining while we move to the Duke of Wannsee's palatial digs?"
"Your Grace, the wide area network is very narrow here, but I can do a lot over the landlines. Yes, I can."
"General Pemberton, leave a company of armor and infantry here to handle whatever they do or don't find in the basement. Get the rest moving toward the chateau of the Grand Duke of Wannsee, Ernst Bowlingame."
"Yes, Your Grace," and he began rattling out orders to get the six battalion-sized task forces moving off quickly. In a few minutes, he had succeeded in doing it without any hint of a traffic jam.
Vicky insisted on keeping her head up in the gunner's turret; she wanted to see just what the Bowlingames had done to her Greenfeld. It didn't take long for her to go from disgusted to angry.
General Pemberton had assigned two battalion task forces to two four-lane roads that led toward the chateau. The other two battalions were assigned to two-lane roads on the flank of Vicky's pair.
Vicky's two battalions were on a major thoroughfare. There should have been plenty of commerce.
What she saw as her rig raced by, were stores that looked closed. Stores that were burned out. Several churches had people sleeping in line in front of them. At one church, Vicky spotted a sign promising a soup kitchen at 8:00 am.
They passed a large industrial park. Weeds grew in the parking lot and factory windows were shattered. One large building looked gutted by fire and abandoned.
Who was starting all these fires? Better yet, where was the fire department when all those fires were burning?
In nice neighborhoods, homes were also burned. Others were empty and boarded up.
She'd known, rationally, that the Bowlingames were willing to destroy the entire Empire if they could rule over the wreckage. Now she was looking at it.
She found a burning rage filling her.
"Your Grace?" Maggie interjected.
"Yes."
"The tech team has found what looked to have been a server farm in the first basement of the palace. All equipment was removed. The palace is also flooded. Nothing there is salvable."
"Thank you, Maggie. Advise General Pemberton that the team is his to redeploy."
"Vicky," Maggie went on, "There is a large data farm at the First Interstellar Bank of Greenfeld. It's owned by the Bowlingame family. A lot of the data I'm pulling out is from that server farm."
"General Pemberton, would you mind dispatching an infantry-heavy battalion to join the one from the palace and have them take over a bank downtown? I'd like a download of all the information in that bank's data banks.
"Your Grace. Somewhere around here are tanks left over from state security. Now, they may not have been used for several years. Their crews might also be poorly trained and not recently drilled. However, I don't know that. I can't recommend that you send two companies deep into downtown. If you want a presence there, I recommend we send two battalions and be prepared to fight our way in and out."
"Captain Blue, have you identified any tank parks anywhere close to Anhalt?"
"I have several large armored parks under observation. None of them look to be in very good condition. A few of them have small trees growing through the pavement. However, I will keep them under observation and let you know if any troop movements begin. By the way, there are several barracks secured behind tall barbed wire fences scattered around the city. Not only is there zero action in the barracks, but the mess halls haven't started on breakfast. What are they doing, keeping banker's hours?"
"I'd like it very much if they did," Vicky said. "General, does this meet with your approval?"
"Yes, Your Grace."
"One more question. Are there tube artillery and rocket launchers with all four of the task forces dispatched to the other ducal estates?"
"Yes, Your Grace."
"Please check on the loadout of Willy Pete for those weapons and the Grand Assault Craft overhead."
There was a brief pause before the regular, "Yes, Your Grace," came back this time.
Admiral Bolesław came to stand beside Vicky where she sat in the gunner's seat with her head up in the armored bubble.
"Would you like to discuss anything with me, Your Grace?"
"No, Alis. This is a Peterwald thing. You don't need this black mark on your gentle soul."
The admiral said nothing more, just went to take his seat in the fast rolling rig.
19
Her Imperial Grace, the Grand Duchess Victoria's infantry fighting vehicle rolled to a halt outside the chateau of the Grand Duke of Wannsee. It was beautiful to behold.
The huge chateau was located in the center of a large park. Hectares of gently rolling hills were covered with dazzling green grass, dotted with ancient oaks, and a few ponds here and there. Behind the chateau, what looked like carefully-manicured woods raised their leafy boughs.
Vicky tried to remember if she'd ever been invited to this place as a child. Oh, right, it had belonged to Prime Minister Bartram, bestowed on him by her father. As she recalled, it had originally been built by her great-grandfather as a country retreat.
Fortunately, the neighbors were still several kilometers from the chateau. None of them lived dangerously close for an artillery barrage.
"General Pemberton," Vicky ordered in her clipped Grand Duchess voice, "please advance a sufficient force to within one kilometer of the chateau. The tanks are to load a general-purpose demolition charge in the chamber. Understood?"
"Yes, Your Grace," was immediate.
An infantry-heavy battalion task force advanced to surround the chateau. Even with the rumbling of motors and rattling of treads, there was still no sign of activity in the duke's residence.
"What day of the week is it today?" Vicky asked Maggie.
"Sunday, Your Grace."
Vicky had gotten lucky. Luckier than she had any right to expect.
"General Pemberton, I understand the 16th Marine Light Infantry Battalion is with us today."
"Yes, Your Grace.
"Please have the battalion commander and the command sergeant major rap on the door and require whoever answers it to take them immediately to the Duke's bedroom. Correction, to wherever he is sleeping. They may take a force they consider appropriate to bring him before me. Oh, and remind them they are not to fire unless fired upon. Tell them the Grand Duchess remembers their history and gives them this as a gift. However, we really want to talk to this degenerate."
"Understood, Your Grace. I have passed those orders on in your exact words. Colonel Burke thanks you and will do his best to return with the Bowlingame bastard, and yes, Your Grace, I understand your choice for this assignment and I think the entire uniformed service will approve it."
Vicky hoped that they would. What she hoped more for was that this explosive mixture would not blow up in her face.
Five tanks and six infantry rigs advanced on the front door to the Grand Duke's chateau.
"Maggie, have you reconned the chateau?" Vicky asked.
"Yes, Your Grace, and yes, I have located the Grand Duke. He is in bed with a young girl I do not believe to be his wife."
"In his own bedroom?"
"I suspect so, Your Grace. It is quite palatial."
"Did the colonel take along a combat engineer?."
"Yes, Your Grace."
"Advise Colonel Burke that if his first knock does not bring immediate results, he might apply a small amount of explosives to the lock."
"He thanks you, Your Grace."
"Provide him with a drone to lead him to the bastard."
"I have several waiting with him. He has knocked and counted off ten seconds, Your Grace. They are now filling the keyhole with explosives."
"Advise him 'very good,' Maggie."
From a kilometer away, Vicky hardly heard the soft pop.
"The infantry team is in the chateau and they are following my drone."
"Your Grace," General Pemberton interrupted, "there are people fleeing the chateau, out the back. Many are in night clothes, some are hastily dressed. What shall we do with them?"
"Collect them. See if you can separate the servants from the important people. Keep them separated."
"Yes, Your Grace."
"Colonel Burke has the Grand Duke in custody. They are hurrying him, as well as his wife, out to meet you."
Vicky suppressed a grin. Was the wife the one in bed with him, or had they had to haul her out of another room? It really didn't matter. Interrogating the two of them together might work better than one at a time.
"Your Grace, I think we have located your father."
"Thank you, Maggie. I don't need that information at this moment. General Pemberton?"
"Yes, Your Grace."
"Have an infantry and armored team advance to all the doors out of the chateau. No more are to leave. Am I understood?"
There was a pause before he answered, "Yes, Your Grace."
"Second, General, is there activity at any of the other four ducal chateaus?"
"No, Your Grace."
"I do not want them disturbed. However, lay out a fire plan for all four of them as well as this one. Concentrate on general purpose demolition shells, but mix in some Willy Pete."
"Your Grace," might have had a question mark after it, but since nothing more was said, Vicky chose not to answer the question that hung in the air.
While Vicky had been talking, her rig had rolled up to the chateau. She arrived just as a middle-aged man was hustled out of the blown-in doors.
He was naked, as was the middle-aged woman who was dragged out between two troopers. They stood there, trying to cover themselves.
Vicky strode out from her rig and eyed the pair.
Both the man and woman's eyes grew big when they saw who stood before them.
Vicky made sure that the two of them suffered as she took them in from head to toe and then back again. She then turned to Colonel Burke.
"Colonel, I don't fault you for rushing these two out here, but I must ask, were they dressed this way when you found them?"
Colonel Burke reported to her, at attention and saluting. "Your Grace, we found both of them naked and in the arms of much younger lovers."
The looks the two stark naked people threw at each other would have killed. Apparently, neither knew of the other's dalliance. Or maybe it was just that they hated having the other's wandering put out there for all to see.
This bit of palace frivolity might have provided a week of entertaining distraction. However, Vicky had no intention of being distracted.
"Ernst, I am the Grand Duchess Victoria and I have come for my father, Your Emperor. Please deliver him to me."
It was fascinating to watch the man before her change from huddled over and using both hands to hide his genitals. He unfolded to his full height, smiled unctuously, and began gesturing with one hand while still using the other to maintain a modicum of modesty.
"Your Grace, maybe we could find a better time and place to discuss this matter. As you can see, I am not at my best at the moment."
Vicky cut him off. "Ernst, you are never at your best, only your worse and worst. Have you forgotten? We Peterwalds do not negotiate with kidnappers and terrorists. I have no intention of negotiating with you."
Vicky paused for a moment, then issued an order. "Command Sergeant Major, I want both of these people standing at attention when they address me. Please see that they do."
An order was barked, and four privates saw to it that four arms were held at their sides and their privates were out there for all to see.
"Now, Ernst, while not negotiating with you, I will tell you what is about to happen. You may see to it that my father is out here as quickly as he can manage to walk."
Vicky let that sink in, then gave the two before her a grin full of evil intent. "Alternately, you may return to your chateau. You may have noticed that there are a lot of tanks with guns aimed at your residence. Five seconds after you reenter your house, they will begin firing."
Vicky turned to take in the tanks and the trembling, naked self-styled Grand Duke followed her eyes. "A bit farther back are a dozen artillery pieces and several rocket launchers. In the space of one minute, they can deliver over one hundred and eighty rounds of 210mm. Some of those rounds will include Willy Pete. Ernst, do you know what white phosphorus does?"
The man managed to include a shake of the head among his trembling.
"It burns, Ernst. It burns and only quits when it has exhausted itself. If you get a flake of it on your skin, say your nose, you have only two choices. You can let it burn your nose off, or you can have a battle buddy cut out the WP with a knife. Right, Sergeant Major?"
The sergeant major had drawn his bayonet and waved it in front of Ernst's nose as if he was already prepared to cut it off.
The lord of the manor flinched and took a step back. The two privates holding his elbow shoved him back into place. The naked Grand Duke did his best to both keep his nose away from the sharp bayonet the sergeant major was still using to weave the air in front of him.
Ernst also made a manly effort to cover his family jewels again.
The privates grinned and yanked his hands away from his privates.
"Now, there is one thing more you need to consider, Ernst," Vicky said, continuing on in her most calm and businesslike voice. "There are tanks, artillery, and rockets surrounding those splendid hovels your brothers are sleeping in. The moment I order the destruction of your house here, and all within it, I will also order them to fire on your brothers as well."
