Karl Ernst wanted to embrace Ewa one more time, but she was already gone before he raised his arms up. He walked out into the hallway and to the base of the stairs. Elaine was waiting at the top of the stairs.
“What is it?” Elaine asked.
“George Lucht is dead.”
“Lord Everton, do you see anything that would suggest Stalin being swept from power and a new Soviet leader making peace with Germany?”
“No, no.” Lord Everton said in a singsong manner. “Those in the Kremlin fear Stalin more then they do the Germans.”
“Well, then, gentlemen,” Admiral Payne addressed the entire table, “is it then the general consensus that our Count DeWohl is pulling his material out of thin air, or is there any astrological basis for all of his predictions?”
The men looked at one another and nodded their heads in agreement, as if they agreed it was now OK to reveal a long kept secret.
“The Count does have an understanding of astrological principles,” Jenkins began in a diplomatic manner, “however, when it comes to the relevant use of these principles for interpretation, then it seems, as you put it – he is pulling this out of thin air.”
The other men shook their heads in agreement, and a muffled “Hear, Hear” could be heard from several members.
“Lord Everton? What do you think about DeWohl?”
“Oh, I think he remembers more about Berlin than he is telling us, yes, yes, I do at that!”
“Remembers, Lord Everton?” Windelton asked. “As in a memory?”
“Yes, yes, he has lots of memories of Berlin. As a small chubby school boy who was teased a lot, as a young teenager having an affair with a 30 year-old divorcee. Yes, yes, his mind is full of the ladies!”
Admiral Payne began to see the picture first. “You mean he lived in Berlin as a child, he grew up there?”
“Oh yes, certainly yes. He read Goethe like all the others. He didn’t like math though. A pity, he could have been a really good musician. Yes, he would…”
Admiral Payne looked around the room. “We may have a dangerous situation here, gentlemen.” The other men began to get the picture as well.
Lt. Kingston spoke first. “If our Count is really not from Hungry, but actually a German, then…”
“…we are all in a lot of trouble.” Jenkins finished.
“Oh, no. No trouble at all.” Lord Everton said while getting up and walking over to the photo that seemed to fascinate him. “He’s not a patriot or anything, he’s only in it for the money… and the girls. It’s the uniform that gets the girls, you know.” After examining the photo, Lord Everton turned to the group and smiled.
Lt. Kingston turned to Admiral Payne. “Does he mean DeWohl has been hired by the Germans?”
The Admiral did not answer. Instead he turned and stared at Lord Everton. After a few moments, the Admiral questioned the eccentric Lord. “Lord Everton, if he is doing it for the money, just who exactly is paying him?”
“Why you are!”
There was a silence around the room.
“Yes, we pay him. But is there anyone else?”
“Why no. That’s the reason he is here. You are the only ones who would pay him now. This is the best job he’s ever had. That’s why he’s here, the money, the fancy hotel room, girls, and the uniform to get the girls… especially… a pretender… the uniform…”
His commission. Payne thought to himself. “That’s why he insisted on a commission.” The Admiral’s angered was tempered by a sense of relief that – at least according to Lord Everton – DeWohl was merely an opportunist and not a German plant.
“Shall we have him arrested?” Lt. Kingston asked.
“No.” The Admiral decided. “We have enough problems justifying this department without the press getting ahold of a story like this. What can I say to the Prime Minister if the papers read ‘Naval Intelligence recruits phony astrologer’? Just search his room for now. We’ll handle this in house.”
Jenkins nodded to confirm his understanding.
“Now, gentlemen. If this turns out to be just a minor problem as it appears, I think we can solve this discretely. We can transfer him to another department, then out of the picture all together.”
The group gave a murmur of agreement.
“With that resolved, gentlemen, let’s focus on these new wonder weapons the Polish underground has been sending us so many reports on.”
“I see why the early Spanish explorers called this place ‘the fair winds’, the breeze here is absolutely perfect.”
“Thank-you, señorita.” The waiter said, as he placed the two decorated drinks down on the wicker table. “Would the couple like to order their dinner now?”
The Count looked at his wife, showing the decision was being left up to her.
“Please, let me see what this drink does to me, I think that will determine what kind of food will follow.” The Countess said with a smile.
“Very well, señorita, a wise decision.” The waiter replied while standing at an almost military style of attention, then bowed and left.
“Where did you learn what Buenos Aires meant?” The Count said while raising his glass for a toast.
“It was on the hotel information booklet in our room.”
“I see.” The booklet was the very same one the Count had said was useless when they first entered their room – prompting him to throw it into the trash so he could set his personal belongings on the table.
“I’m glad you told me to meet you hear darling, I wondered where you ran off to after New Orleans.” The Countess pretended not to know she knew the Count returned to New York with his mistress.
“I felt we needed to talk, my dear. I mean, really talk… about us.”
The Countess had never heard such a tone from her husband before. “Dear, do continue.” She said while taking her first sip of the fruity drink.
The Count looked out over the ocean, as if contemplating what was happening on the other side. “Dear, if the war continues as it has, and the Nazis win – which at this point looks like they will – I don’t think we could ever go back to Europe again.” There was a deep sadness in his voice, from one who has lost his home, and in the Count’s case, an empire.
“So where will you go?”
“That’s why I asked you to come here. I don’t want to simply decide where I will go, I would like for us to decide where we will go.”
The Countess put her drink down. She had not heard him talk like this since he courted her decades ago. “Us?” She asked acting surprised.
“Yes, dear, us. Please, let’s not play games or use this moment for revenge.” The Count said sincerely. “I became jealous in New Orleans. For the first time in my life, I became jealous. It was a rather ugly feeling, actually.”
Emotionally moved by the openness, the Countess reflected on her horrible sensations in New Orleans as well. Is what she felt jealously as well? “And your suggestion for our future?”
The Count looked relieved. Her answer suggested hope for their relationship. With the Nazis and Japanese taking nearly all of his possessions and instruments for manufacturing wealth, he now realized the value of his relationship with his wife. “During the years I have done some investments here in South America, just in case of such an emergency.”