1636: The Viennese Waltz

CHAPTER 35

December 1635

Marton von Debrecen’s Townhouse, Vienna

“Our young ladies have very noble beliefs, but they are not altogether practical,” Amadeus complained to Marton.

“Their up-time world must have been populated by saints,” Marton agreed. “Vicky gave me chapter and verse on the rights of the accused.”

“We need to talk to Jack Pfeifer, you think?”

“Do you think we can trust him not to go running to Princess Hayley? He’s her lawyer, when all is said and done.”

“I think he’ll respect our privacy. And I think that he can give us some practical limits. The thing is, Marton, I would prefer to stay as close to Hayley’s rules as we can. There is something that is just right about them. I’m not quite sure what, but something.”

“Me, too.” Marton agreed. “While we’re at it, though, we should have a talk with Dr. Faust and Moses Abrabanel. And what about your friends, Rudolph and Julian?”

“Not Rudolph. He’s a good and honest man, but he doesn’t think before he speaks. As for Julian. . he’s more circumspect, but Carla is the only von Up-time who didn’t get offered noble rank, and Julian’s parents are. .”

Marton waved off the explanation. He knew about the von Meklau family, and was sure that, within just a few more generations, they would accept fire as a useful tool.

“On the other hand, Julian is always up for intrigue,” Amadeus stopped. “You know who we really need to involve in this?”

“Who?”

“Hayley’s father.”

“He’s an up-timer and likely to have the same prejudices as his daughter.”

“Father says that Janos Drugeth says that he’s probably a spy for Francisco Nasi.”

“Is he in town?”

“No. He’s back along the rail line, negotiating rights-of-way and surveying routes. But he’s expected back at the end of the week.”

“Fine. In the meantime, I am going to go talk with Moses Abrabanel and Jakusch Pfeifer, and I want you to go have a chat with Dr Faust. Maybe the up-timers have some kind of magic technology to help them arrest criminals and Dr. Faust knows about it.”

Fortney House, Race Track City

“In a way they do,” Hertel Faust said. “They have what they call forensic science, which is a way of gathering evidence from the scraps and tiny bits people leave behind. Some of them we can do, and some we can’t. Brandon and I put together fingerprint kits last winter, and the barber surgeons at the water park hospital have learned to type blood.”

“What good does that do?”

“It can narrow down the number of your suspects.” Dr. Faust went over to a bookshelf that was too full by any reasonable standard. “I have a subscription to the Mystery of the Month book club.” Dr. Faust blushed a little. “Also the Romance of the Month book club and Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Month book club and Cheat Sheet Compilation book club.” Dr. Faust pulled a book from the shelf. “Dr. Quincy, M.E. This is a story about a medical examiner who helps the police solve crimes by examining the bodies of murder victims. He can determine who killed them by the marks left by the weapons on the bodies of the victims.”

Amadeus looked at Dr. Faust skeptically.

“Frau Fortney says that it’s fiction and only loosely based on actual up-time forensic techniques. But it’s fun to read about and I have done some of the things in the book to see if they work and they do, at least sort of.”

“What sort of things?” Amadeus was curious in spite of himself.

“Blood spatter, for instance. When a pig is stabbed, you get one kind of blood spatter. When it’s shot, you get another. And you can tell things about where the shooter was standing from where the blood spattered.”

Suddenly Amadeus was less curious. “That’s all very interesting, Herr Doctor, but we’re trying to find out what’s going on before-for instance, Gabrielle-is harmed.”

“Oh, yes. Quite right.” Faust scratched his head. “None of these seem to focus on determining what someone is up to before they do it. I will see what I can find, though.”

Moses Abrabanel’s Office, outside Vienna

“Honestly, I’ve been sort of expecting some type of reaction like this for months,” Moses Abrabanel said. “The changes are frightening and the up-timers are the center of them. While it was just Race Track City, the complaints were political and because the emperor liked his car, no one wanted to push their objections to extremes. Now, though, it seems that the Barbies are intent on subverting the social order.”

“Do you really think that?” Marton asked.

Moses put his hands to his forehead and rubbed his face for a moment. “Yes, in a way I do. But I’m not sure the Barbies are wrong. I think a world without pogroms would be an improvement.”

Marton closed his eyes for a moment. Moses certainly had a point, at least if you were a Jew. “My concern is that someone is going to try to kill the Barbies.”

“They have guards and they are armed,” Moses offered.

“And someone is having them watched. I want it stopped before the attack.”

“Then have your people pick up one of the mercenaries.” Moses shrugged. “I’m not going to tell Susan about it, and I’m not going to object.”

A Tavern in Vienna

Adorjan Farkas felt an itch between his shoulders. It wasn’t the first time he’d had such an itch and he had learned to pay attention to them. Someone was after him. He could feel it. He looked over his shoulder and hid every time he turned a corner. Normally he drank in the common room, but he’d paid extra for an alcove because of his itch. When he saw the guardsmen entering the tavern, he slipped out the back before they saw him. There was a guard out back, but he wasn’t really expecting Farkas. The moment Farkas saw the guard, he attacked.

He jumped forward, pulling his knife as he moved, and shoved it into the guardsman’s belly. The guard screamed like a girl, but Farkas didn’t really care about that. All he’d been interested in was getting past the man. He ran out into the street, bloody knife in hand, to the accompaniment of more screams, and ran. For three blocks and two alleys, he was followed. Then he found a place to hide. It was a soldier’s shack near the city wall and unoccupied at the moment. Farkas waited half an hour, then left the shack, wearing the clothing of the soldier. It didn’t fit, but it was a different color than his own clothing, and the hat was a different style.

He wasn’t sure what had gone wrong, but with the probably dead guard, he couldn’t afford to hang around to find out.

That night, Farkas was on a barge going downriver.

Basement, von Debrecen Townhouse, Vienna

“I didn’t do anything!” whined Racz.

“You were watching Princess Millicent Anne Barnes von Up-time, and you work for Adorjan Farkas.”

“I wasn’t watching anyone and what business of yours is who I work for?”

Johannes hit him. Racz was tied to a chair, but Johannes didn’t care. Erwin was in the hospital out at Race Track City and probably going to die, because this fuck’s boss had wanted a clear way to run.

Racz spit blood and a tooth, then tried to pull loose. It didn’t work and Johannes smiled. Then he got himself a little under control. “Your boss cut up a friend of mine when he ran for it. So I want him in that chair and I want to take my time with him. But until I get him, I’ll make do with you. In the meantime, do me a favor and lie to us. Because every time you do, I get to hit you.”

Racz looked at Johanne’s face, then at his hand, then back at his face. “Look, I don’t know anything about that. I don’t tell the captain what to do.”

“What did Farkas tell you to do?”

“Just watch.”

Johannes hit him again.

Two Nights Later

“We caught three,” said the commander of Marton von Debrecen’s guard. “The rest got away,”

“Why so few?”

“We didn’t have the men to go after them all at once. And Farkas made quite a scene when he ran. That warned the others. The men we got were mostly far enough away so that they didn’t hear about it before we found them.”

“Did they know anything?”

“Not much. At least not individually. When we put it all together with the help of Herr Pfeifer and his clerks, we ended up with a bit more than I was expecting.

“Farkas was hired by some noble to kill the Barbies, but not until after the wedding. We are assuming that they meant the wedding of Prince Karl Eusebius von Liechtenstein and Princess Sarah Wendell von Up-time. And then, a week or so ago, the contract got canceled.”

“Then what were they doing, still watching the women?”

“Apparently, Farkas wasn’t happy with the cancelled contract, so he was looking for some other profit to gain from the observation. A kidnaping, perhaps. None of the men we caught actually know. What we do know is that they lost the contract after the Barbies got ennobled.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“If someone was offended by the Barbies and felt that having peasants killed, but not nobles. .”

“You’re talking about Archduke Leopold!”

“Not necessarily,” the captain said, but Marton could hear in the man’s voice that he did think it was the archduke. “It could have been someone in the They of Vienna who decided to back off after the Barbies got ennobled.”

“That doesn’t make much sense, either. We knew they were going to be ennobled before they were, but the contract didn’t get called off till after the ceremony. Correct?”

“Yes, My Lord Count.”

“I’d suspect one of the Liechtensteins, but I don’t see them backing off just because Ferdinand III hung a title on the girls. In fact, with Gundaker, the title would just make him more angry.” Marton shook his head. “None of this makes sense.”

Liechtenstein House, Vienna

Gundaker von Liechtenstein almost canceled his plans when he heard about Farkas. After considering the matter, however, he decided that he was too far in to get out, save on the other side. He did hire a mercenary to bring him Farkas’ head. He wanted Farkas dead because the man could answer questions that Gundaker didn’t want answered, but at the same time he had a perfectly good excuse for wanting the man dead, in that the Barbies, two of them, were about to become family. It was almost his duty to kill their attacker, whether the attack had actually happened or not.

He rang the bell and had the steward bring in some of the carbonated wine. Then he went back to his paperwork and to his thoughts. Farkas had been a mistake. . and possibly Lamormaini as well.

No, he decided. At least for now, he wouldn’t have Lamormaini killed. Too much risk for not enough gain. Besides, Lamormaini and the Spanish-leaning Jesuits were just the cats’ paws he needed. What was the up-time term? A cutout. The thing about a cutout was that it eventually had to be cut out. After the bomb had gone off. At that point, Lamormaini would be nothing but a liability. He would make arrangements.

He got up and went to see Karl Eusebius.

* * *

“What can I do for you, Uncle?” Karl looked up in surprise as his uncle came in. Uncle Gundaker hadn’t been in any hurry to talk to him for over a month now.

“For now, we still own the Liechtenstein Tower?”

“Yes. The imperial government won’t get it till mid-January.”

“What about contracts for long-term storage?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know that the cost of storage is still quite high, in spite of the new warehouses planned for Race Track City?”

“Yes, I know.” Karl nodded.

“I want to rent one of the basement rooms in the Tower for the next four or five months, till they finish those warehouses. I have acquired a large consignment of apples for a specialty wine. But I need a place to store them that is dry, cool, and secure. And not too expensive.”

“Yes, there is a grandfather clause in the transfer because we had already sold some apartments. But we’re talking about prime real estate. Are you sure you want to store barrels of apples in that?”

“Only if I can get a good deal.”

Karl didn’t push the price very hard. This was the first sign of rapprochement he had gotten from Gundaker.

Debrecen House, Vienna

Jack Pfeifer looked around the room. Marton and Amadeus were at one end of the table, and Sonny Fortney at the other. Jack, Hertel Faust, and Carla Barclay were arranged along the sides. They had all been seated and they all had drinks. There were snacks on the table. Something the up-timers called donuts. Marton had just asked Sonny about the laws against forcing people to give evidence against themselves.

“The girls are right, you know, as far as the laws are concerned,” Sonny Fortney told the group. “There’s a reason Moses didn’t get into the Promised Land.”

Moses Abrabanel looked over at Sonny Fortney in surprise. “And what reason is that?”

“Because sometimes, when your job is leading your people out of bondage, you have to cheat a bit. After all, Moses is the guy who called down the plagues on Egypt.”

“God delivered the plagues,” Moses said.

“Yep, that’s true. But the point is that calling them down had an effect on Moses. Sometimes there are not any good answers and someone has to do something iffy-or even downright evil. It’s never something to be proud of, and there is a moral cost. Also, if you do it enough, you end up one of the bad guys, no matter how noble your motives.

“What about spying?” asked Amadeus.

Sonny Fortney looked over at Amadeus like he had no clue what he was talking about. Then he gave a twitch of a shrug. “Yes, that would be one of the things that leaves a mark on the soul. You’re making friends with people with the full intent to betray them as necessary for your cause.”

“What sort of a cause would justify that sort of betrayal?” Amadeus wondered aloud.

“I’m not sure ‘justify’ is the right word. Necessitate, maybe. ‘We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ There’s also a moral cost to standing around doing nothing while those rights are being denied to your fellow men. Like I said, sometimes there are no good answers, just a choice between evils. The scary bit is how easy it is to convince yourself that those necessary evils aren’t evil because they’re necessary.”

There was something in the up-timer’s face and voice that Jack couldn’t quite identify. A hardness. . or a tiredness.

“Then what do you think we should do?” asked Carla Barclay.

“Break the law,” Sonny said. “But don’t kid yourselves that what you’re doing is good or just.”

After that they got into ways and means. Hertel and Jack were assigned to coordinate the information they gathered and-especially in Jack’s case-give them what legal cover he could. Carla would, in essence, spy on her parents, who had fallen in with the Spanish faction at court. That was a group of conservative nobles and clergy, mostly Dominican, but including about a fourth of the Jesuits.

“Do you think we should include Julian?” Amadeus asked Carla.

“Not yet. I’ll see what I can find out from him.” Then she looked over at Sonny. “Yeah, this really sucks.”

Jack could sympathize with the young woman, but the reason she was here was because they needed an information source into the Spanish faction. As well, Carla’s name had been on the list of people Farkas was going after. Which was another reason to suspect Archduke Leopold.

Liechtenstein Tower Construction Site, Vienna

The concrete arches gave the interior of the tower a forestlike look. It was as though the ceiling was held up by flowers or smooth trees. There were pipes for gas lighting that ran beside channels for wires, once they had enough light bulbs to light the place. And the place had an unfinished look. Bare concrete columns, and bare concrete floors.

The shops around the edge of the building were mostly finished and they were putting a wooden roof over the center plaza. Karl Eusebius von Liechtenstein, in a yellow fiberglass and rosin hardhat, was standing at a table with the construction foreman, going over the placement of the load-bearing arches. “The idea is to use as little steel reinforcement as we can get away with.”

“Yes, Your Serene Highness, but I think we should go ahead and use reinforcement in this section. It will let us skip this whole set of supports.” He pointed to the central open arches that honestly looked like a cross between the acropolis of Athens and a forest of almost gothic arches. The arches were slightly different in shape and started about halfway to the two-story ceiling.

“It’s not the money, Heinrich,” Karl said. “It’s just that steel is really hard to come by at the moment. It would probably cause a delay and Sarah has instructed me to have the two floors ready for the wedding by mid-January or she’s going to start looking for a more efficient suitor.” Karl looked over at the foreman, saw his expression, and said, “Oh, go ahead and laugh, Heinrich. But believe me, you’d rather have Judy the Baracudy angry at you than her sister Sarah.”

Heinrich squeezed his legs together in unconscious reaction to that comment and Karl tried not to laugh.

The Hofburg Palace, Vienna

“Are your parents going to be able to attend?” asked Her Imperial Majesty, the Empress of Austria-Hungary. The room was cozy by Hofburg standards, but incredibly plush. Aside from the empress, her step-mother and sister-in-law were there, along with Sarah, Judy, Vicky, Hayley, and Millicent. Susan and Gabrielle had both ducked out on the preparations. They would show up at the bridal shower with gifts, and at the wedding.

“Yes,” Sarah let herself smile but continued gravely. “Dad got fired from the treasury when Wettin came in. And considering the guy Wettin put in at treasury, the Austro-Hungarian thaler is liable to become the preferred currency in the next few years.”

“Really?” asked the dowager empress.

“Well, they couldn’t fire Coleman Walker. He has another two years on his term before he has to be reconfirmed. But if the head of the Fed as well as the head of treasury are Wettin appointees, I would expect confidence in the American dollar to diminish.”

“I don’t know whether to be upset or pleased,” Her Imperial Highness Cecilia Renata said. “I mean, I don’t wish your family any bad luck, but it’s to our advantage to. .” She looked around and sort of ran down.

“Actually, no. The USE is running a couple of years ahead of the rest of Europe in industrialization, and it will be easier for you guys to gear up if you can buy crucial parts from the USE. Things like water pumps to make mining possible at greater depths.”

“Enough,” declared the empress’ mum. “We’re hear to talk about wedding plans, not dreary economics. “You said your parents were coming, too?”

“Yes. We’ve gotten the king in the Low Countries to loan us a Jupiter again. In fact, there is a possibility that Their Majesties will come to the wedding. The thing is, a Jupiter can’t make it all the way from the Low Countries to Vienna in one hop, so they would have to stop in Grantville. Which, as it happens, is right on the way. But the politics involved in King Fernando landing in the USE, both on the way here and on the way back. . there would have to be some assurances from Ed Piazza that no one would interfere with them. Bohemia isn’t a problem, because they will be at five thousand feet all the time they are over it.”

“I’d love to see Maria Anna again,” said Cecilia Renata.

“So would I,” said Empress Mariana. “I’ll mention to Ferdinand that he should perhaps write a letter to the President of the State of Thuringia-Franconia on the matter. In the meantime, tell me more about this up-time custom, the bridal shower?”

Sarah listened as Judy, Vicky and Hayley told the highest noble ladies in Austria-Hungary about bridal shower and the sorts of gifts that were given at the different types of showers. The “kitchen” shower idea brought forth quite a bit of laughter, but the “lingerie” shower was given more approval.

Liechtenstein House, Vienna

“Well, Nephew, are you getting a bit nervous?” Uncle Maximilian asked with a smile that seemed to Karl less than completely kind.

“Yes, Uncle, a bit. But overall, I am quite happy.” And he was. He even felt more than a little sympathy for both his uncles and most of the rest of the people in his class. He had, after all, gotten to choose his own bride, and he hadn’t had to do it based on establishing or maintaining control over lands for the family. He picked up his fork. It had four tines and was electroplated in gold. It was very nice flatware, but it was flatware that most prosperous burghers could afford. He speared a piece of roast beef from his plate and popped it into his mouth. After he swallowed, he continued. “I have been incredibly lucky. First in finding Grantville on my grand tour, and then in finding Sarah Wendell. I feel a bit guilty about the limits our family’s position put on the rest of you and, at the same time, incredibly fortunate that my choice of bride was allowed to be mine.”

Gundaker ate in silence.

Liechtenstein Tower, Vienna

“What have you got?” the guard asked the carter.

The carter pulled out the paper work. “Barrels to go in the cellar.”

The guard took the paperwork and read it over. Everything was in order. It was to go in room B-27, one of the mid-size basement rooms. A load of apples.

They used a powered winch to lift the barrels off the wagon and lower them to a pallet on a trolley. That, in turn, was used to shift them to the room where, pallet and all, they were left in the corner. Then another pallet, and another after that, till B-27 was loaded with barrels.

Debrecen House, Vienna

“What have you found out?” Marton von Debrecen asked Jack Pfeifer.

“Nothing of use. We managed to tag one more of Farkus’ men and we’re now convinced that there was a priest involved.”

“Oh, come now. If there is evil done in Vienna, there’s a priest involved.”

“I know. That’s why I said nothing of use. We know that there was a plan to kill the girls, and we know that it was called off, but we don’t know if the plotters gave it up as a bad job or switched to a new plan.”

“Is there any reason to believe that they went to another plan?” asked Amadeus.