“That is my grandmother.”
“Did your grandmother ever tell her of her Jewish roots?”
“Why… no.”
Both men looked at each other, as if they were bored over what they were to do next.
“Frauline Meyer, come with us.”
“Uh…” Krafft wanted to say something but was too drunk to speak or even think clearly.
Both Sabina and Krafft nearly fell down the 5 steps to a basement and another hallway.
“Uh… toilet.” Was all Krafft could mutter.
Sabina helped him into a room twice the size of a regular rest room. On one wall was a toilet and washbasin, on the other a large couch, which Sabina folded out creating a bed.
Krafft stood in front of the toilet, and out of habit waited for Sabina to leave while fighting the backlog of urine crying to be released. Sabina turned and walked to the door, but only to lock it and return. Her slender hands unzipped him, then slipped through the opening in his trousers and maneuvered his penis out, which burst a flow into the toilet.
When he was finished her hands went from holding to squeezing.
“You, you, you…” She cooed to the rhythm of her pulsations.
When he felt her lips and tongue surround him, his entire body vibrated.
For the rest of the evening, Sabina was in complete control of Karl Ernst Krafft.
Von Wohl had been waiting for 20 minutes avoiding the mixture of rain and snow with his umbrella. Fighting wind was difficult since two of the buttons were missing, which he never had an opportunity to fix. His eyes were busy watching the people that passed through the two huge doors to the High Command.
His lunch ‘date’, the lovely Frau Natalia Hildebraudt, wanted two horoscopes cast, one for her and her new lover. Von Wohl thought back to when all three met at an acquaintance’s dinner party. It was an awkward situation since the husband was also seated at the table.
“Herr von Wohl, may I introduce you to Frau Hildebraudt. She would like your analysis of a Gemini woman in relationship with a Scorpio man.”
“Madame, what is the nature of the problem in the relationship so far?”
Natalia didn’t know what to say, there were no problems, she just wanted to know if this was to be just another of her numerous affairs, or something that might be serious enough to create scandal and divorce from her husband.
Von Wohl sensed a complication by her lack of answer, and immediately began to speak in generalities.
“Madame, the tendency of hidden secrets and guarded emotions in a Scorpio make it difficult for other star signs to grasp and understanding of their nature and moods. This can compound the difficulties with the wishes of a Gemini woman, whose very nature is open communication and the desire to…”
Von Wohl wondered if he would be able to recognize her again as she walked out of the High Command building covered in heavy fur and leather against this freakish mid-April snow. At the dinner party she wore an elegant pure white silk gown that clung close to her hourglass figure. At this moment he seemed to remember her body more than the face that went with it.
Ahh, to have that body.
“Yes, that would be possible.”
Von Wohl jumped. The strange voice behind him he had heard before. Turning slightly, out of the corner of his eye were two men walking a few paces away from him.
“Good, Karl Ernst. If that is possible, then we could alter the entire fifty-third passage as well, so that we could say those who made an alliance with England would be betrayed.”
Von Wohl watched both men as they crossed the street.
Fesel and Krafft! Von Wohl thought to himself. So, the Herr Doctor was not blowing hot air. Von Wohl thought back to his first conversation with Fesel, then began to piece together all the clues, conversations, and rumors over how the Nazis were using astrology for propaganda and military purpose.
“Herr von Wohl?”
Ludwig turned and saw a stunning Frau Hildebraudt smartly outfitted in a coat of fox skins. She was just a beautiful dressed for winter as in a slinky evening gown.
“I’m sorry I’m late, General Pritze tied me up…”
“Please, madam, any wait is certainly worth the joy of your presence. Come, let us duck into Der Tagbuch before we catch cold.”
Ludwig’s ‘date’ with Frau Hildebraudt went as many of his business luncheons had; describing the basic tendencies of each zodiac sign, the descriptions and meanings of the Sun, Moon, and ascendant in each sign. However, this particular conversation was running on automatic. Seeing Krafft and Fesel talking had Von Wohl’s conscious mind racing elsewhere.
How he could have his astrological ‘expertise’ working on the war effort? Had the Kaiser used astrologers in the First World War, we might have won! were his thoughts as Frau Hildebraudt was finishing part of her life story.
After finding a table in Der Tagbuch, the rich coffee began to jog von Wohl’s memory of his first, and only, meeting with Karl Ernst Krafft in 1928.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the Astrological Society of Berlin is proud to have as the guest speaker to end our Summer Solstice Convention, the master of trajectory motion, the father of Saturn cycle statistics, the discoverer of applied Harmonics in planetary motion, maker of the first 40 year ephemeris of the planet Pluto… Karl Ernst Krafft!”
Those in attendance at the convention would go on to have a noticeable impact on astrology and the Third Reich: a much younger Baron von Hoogerwerd, Ernst Schulte-Strathaus, Rudolph Hess, and Henning Von Tresckow, later general, who was behind a little known assassination attempt of Hitler on March 13, 1943 by disguising explosives as two gift wrapped bottles of Cointreau liquor. (Upon hearing of Hitler’s safe arrival, he sent his accomplice Favian von Schlabrendorg to retrieve the package and replace it with two genuine bottles. It was found later the detonator became defective in the high altitude cold air.)
Krafft’s speaking engagement was widely anticipated. The Swiss astrologer had the best-documented prediction record in Europe, and single handedly applied statistics to every sign of the zodiac to illness, talent, longevity, and life changing events. However, he was at the convention to talk about something entirely new.
“Herr von Wohl, do you think my husband will see how deeply this relationship really is?” Ludwig managed to hear Frau Hildebraudt’s direct questions, and gave a superficial answer he predicted she wanted to hear instead of putting any reason or thought on her conflicts.
Von Wohl was sitting next to the Baron during Krafft’s lecture.
“Amazing.”
“Isn’t it? How is it, Baron, that Krafft is able to see all of these associations?”
The Baron did not answer.
After the lecture, von Hoogerwoerd asked Krafft this very question in another variation during the question and answer session.
“I came on the idea of harmonics, good sir, after reading Kepler’s theory on Pythagoras’s work, Music of the Spheres.”
Standing next to the Baron, von Wohl tried to get more out of the answer.
“Music of the Spheres?”
“Pythagoras believed the intervals in each planet’s orbit corresponded to the frequencies of the tones found in the musical scale.”
“I see…” Von Wohl visualizing the possibilities in term of physics.
“Kepler advanced this idea, theorizing that each planet then, must have its own musical frequency based on its orbital characteristics, as well as a general cosmic rhythm that exists when you look at all the planets together, creating an ever changing ‘song’, or music as it were.”