TS 2 Part V Chapter 16 A

Chapter 16

November 4^th, 2009

Zurich

The sound of children laughter was a welcomed surprised when Konrad entered in the house. He gave his overcoat and gloves to Dieter and told the bodyguard to bring his briefcase to the library before he walked the stairs up, following the sound of feet running across the second floor. 'Eberhard must be having a hard time trying to get them into their pyjamas; they used to do the same to Guntram.'

When he reached the nursery hallway, he was surprised that the laughter had ceased and there was only light at the boys bedroom. Konrad opened the door and found his two sons already in bed with Eberhard sitting in the middle, reading a story for them. “Good evening, my Duke,” he said and rose.

“Good evening. I thought I've heard some trouble.”

“No, nothing at all. The boys were seeing which one was faster to reach the bed. A sort of competition, sir.”

“Very well, good night,” Konrad said and kissed his two serious boys.

“Would the Duke not stay and check their folders?” Eberhard said, cutting Konrad's escape. While the man looked at him in disbelief, Eberhard placed two folders on his hands and simply turned around and left the bedroom.

Viennese Waltz

Prater Park around 1960

Viennese Waltz

December 20^th, 1963

Vienna

'I didn't leave on my own. She forced me,' Karl Heinz thought bitterly while a young stewardess served him another glass of champagne. 'Marianne was driving me crazy with this year's Christmas party. Over three hundred people invited! She can deal with them all by herself. I have enough.

'Why am I flying there? It's not because of this stupid meeting.

'It's because I want to visit Konrad alone, without interferences, yes, that's it. Gustav is right. The boy shows great promise and we should make it official.

'It has nothing to do with Friederich. It's a simple coincidence that he took the child to Vienna to visit his relatives and show him the city.'

Once more his gaze wandered over the clouds, and he closed his eyes tiredly. 'Friederich has never shown me anything else but respect or friendship. He may still be young, but he's sensible and a very good advisor.

'Much better advisor than Marianne has ever been. If I could, I would

remove her from the Council, but it could cause trouble. She is a Liechtenstein after all.

'And the Council chose a Hasburg-Kassel to be the next Griffin's tutor. It's a clear move. Gustav speaks only good things about him, and he's right. Friederich is a good diplomat, but that must be his Jesuit training.

'So here I am, counting the days till Marianne goes away, hoping to get the chance to be alone with him. Nothing will ever happen between us as he is only concerned about continuing with his religious career. Perhaps, if we both were free, there could be something between us.

'Do I really want to go through it all, again? I still miss Heinrich, but Friederich is nothing like him.'

* * *

Cyber Specials Nov. 23-27 Code: DELIRITAS

Sasha, the Cat

In all his misery, Guntram found an unusual good companion: Sasha.

Sasha is a pure bred Siberian Cat. They are large and massive animals (weight between 4.5 to 9 kilos). "Not your usual kind of cat," according to Constantin and he is right. 

The specimen which inspired Sasha character

This breed is not (yet) very well known outside of Russia, where they were a favourite of nobility, keeping mouses away. In Russia, only the animals with dark shades of fur are accepted for competitions as breeders want to keep their "wild" looks intact. In America, all colours are fine. These cats behave almost as dogs, following you everywhere you go but at the same time their natures are quite independent. They meow much more than any other cats and love to play with water (not the usual kind of cat, I told you)

They love to climb 

Siberian cats grow slowly and they can be considered as babies for the whole first year of their lives. A responsible breeder will advise you to bring the cat home when she is six months old (instead of the customary 3 months old for most cats species) Females are more independent than males and prefer to go hunting than staying in the house. If she wants out, she is out, even if she has to jump from a fifth store. Males are very territorial but love to stay at home and be literally on top of you. Once you have a male cat in your house, the cat will attack any other new pet you bring home. 

Siberian cats are excellent hunters and not afraid of many other animals.

Medvedev’s cat Dorofei meets the Obamas.
Not only does the president of Russia have a cat, but he travels with his cat as well.
Dorofei has even an entry at Wikipedia

TS 2 Part V Chapter 15 B

Something woke Guntram and he looked around in the semi-darkness, seeing that Constantin was deeply asleep, still clutching his waist. With great care, he removed the arm trapping him and left the bed toward the bathroom, closing the door behind him. The bright light hurt his eyes and he felt more miserable than ever before. He had to grab to the marble sink and lean his head against the mirror, to fight against the nausea as the images of his previous actions assaulted him violently.

'I'm a piece of shit. How could I do it? I swore never to fall in this game and I just fucked like a bunny with Constantin.'

His fist hit the marble with full force but the pain didn't alleviate his remorse or fury at himself.

'There's no way out now. I will never see my boys again.'

'I was only number two in Konrad's list and he had enough of me.'

'Constantin will never set me free.'

TS 2 Part V Chapter 15 A

Chapter 15

October 19^th, 2009

'Today is my birthday. Happy 27^th anniversary to me,' Guntram thought sarcastically and sighed wearily when he realised that the blue paint he was using for the dress didn't match with the one previously employed. He took a rug and started to remove the paint, frowning and crossed at his own clumsiness. 'Since I was fifteen I could keep track of the colours, and now, I have to redo the most stupid things ten times before they are fine.'

'Do Klaus and Karl still remember me? Are they happy with Konrad? Who takes care of them?' He returned his attention to the painting again and contemplated it gloomy. The imaginary woman's portrait was lifeless and he knew it was bad, very bad, no better than a doodle.

“Would you like to have tea now, Guntram?” Massaiev asked from the studio's entrance.

“No, it's all right. Thank you,” answered Guntram and continued to erase the mistake, ignoring Massaiev, but he came forward 'to inspect if I'm working or loafing.'

“Who is she?”

“Maria Magdalena,” Guntram blurted as this was the first idea that went through his mind. 'I'm not creating, I'm just wasting materials so they leave me alone. No, I'm painting before I kill somebody.'

“Really? She doesn't look like a prostitute. She reminds me more of a businesswoman.”

“Maria Magdalena was one, offering a merchandise men are stupid enough as to pay for,” Guntram said defiantly.

“Are we having a bad day because we are a year older? I told you happy birthday in the morning.”

“Age has nothing to do with my mood. This is just another day,” Guntram said louder than before. “Now, let me fix this. Your master would like to see some progress.”

“I see.” Massaiev turned around and preferred to ignore the challenge. 'Punishing him today is useless. He's sore and will close to us much more. He's unlike the others who were begging to get some attention from us. But those were poor boys and this one is a prince. “Should I tell Tania to bring your tea here or do you prefer to have it with me at the garden? It's your chance to go outside.”

'Thank you for reminding me it's you who holds the leash,' Guntram thought darkly but considered that maybe this was his chance to be out for a little while, not locked in the studio or the winter garden because of the rain. “Outside, if you don't mind Mikhail Petrovich.”

'Good manners even if he's losing. “Very well, join me in ten minutes.”

* * * 

Lulu Coupon. Expires Nov. 16th.

Election Night

Tired?
Nervous?
Unable to cope with the long wait or that anchorman repeating the same thing over and over?

I might have something else for you.

If you check on the right side of the page, below the picture of The Substitute-Book I, you will find a link to read the entire book This one is one of the last beta-versions (not the one edited by Stacey and currently published by Lulu.com) and it's perfectly legal for you to read or download it for your personal use.

I only kindly request you not to upload it into one of those file sharing webpages as that only supports piracy (and it's a felony too). No, I haven't changed my mind about ebooks and all that. I keep the fully edited versions for the published books, but I thought that if you can read TS2 here, you can have the complete TS1 without resorting to dubious websites.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3Z7Wkv7EP9VNW96U3ZIVkcxX2s

TS 2 Part V Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Ferdinand von Kleist's diary

August 12^th, 2009

Goran returned yesterday from Argentina. Empty handed but with a clear idea of the motivations behind the attack. Konrad is devastated and blames himself for a plan that was set decades ago and we could have never imagined. Our poor Guntram never stood a chance; he was nothing else than a pawn at the heretics' hands.