Klaus, Man in Black, Europe, drove the Mercedes to the stables where they picked up the wagon and two horses, a gift of Count Stefan von Hoffmann.  Stefan saw that the horses were saddled and ready when they arrived.  Nanette got right up on the buckboard and asked Klaus a question.

“Do you have a last name?”

“Novak,” Klaus said.  “It is honestly Nowak, a Polish name.  I am only half-Prussian.  Klaus is a good German name, and I stick mostly with that.  It raises no questions.”

“My husband is Milton Decker, but he says he does not like the name Milton.”

“A good English name,” Klaus said as they started out.  “Perhaps he does not like the name because he is not an Englishman.”

“No,” Nanette said.  “He just doesn’t like it.  He says he even got his mother to call him Decker.  The people we traveled with all called him Decker.  Other people call him Decker or Colonel Decker.”

“What do you call him?”

“I tried calling him Milton a couple of times, but it did not fit him.  I call him Decker.  I guess I am getting used to it.”

Decker and Tony came up to the front and Tony asked, “So why didn’t we take the train to Paris?”

Klaus raised his voice a bit to answer.  “They are beginning to stop the trains heading into the west.  Your papers are in order, and they should not bother Americans, but you never know.  We are three days from Saarbrucken on the border with Lorraine.  Another two days will get us to Metz on the border with France.  We will probably have to show our papers twice, but then we will move on.  Even if the soldiers on the train do not question your papers, personally, we may be stuck in the station for a day, maybe a week while they check everyone else.”

“Better to keep moving,” Decker agreed.  He was not sure when the war would start.  He thought maybe August fourteenth.  He did not have Lincoln there to look it up in the database.  Maybe that was just as well.  Less chance he could screw something up.  Better to get out of Germany without stopping.

Klaus got Tony’s attention.  “You have the purse Count Stefan provided?”  Tony nodded. It was mostly paper Marks and Francs, not the gold, silver, and copper coins he was used to.  He patted his britches leg glad Lincoln showed him a few things he could do in shaping his fairy weave to hide the money.

The travelers did get stopped on the border of Lorraine, as predicted.  The province had only been in German hands for forty-three years, and while that might sound like plenty of time to adjust, it is a mere drop in the bucket the way Europeans read time.  Before 1871, the area was French, and the French sympathies in the province still ran strong along with some resentment against the imposition of the German language on everyday life.

As expected, though, they did not wait long.  Decker tried his line.  “I’ve been recalled, what with all the potential trouble on the continent.  I have a ship for the United States waiting in Le Havre.”

“Why didn’t you take the train?” the man asked.

Tony took up the answer.  “Trains get stopped and face unexpected delays.”

The man nodded and returned their papers.  He did not know if that was true, but it sounded right.

“Besides,” Tony said.  “On the train we would miss all the good people we have seen in our travels.”  He smiled, so the man smiled and gave a small salute as Tony and Decker mounted and they all continued down the road to Metz.

They also got stopped after Metz, on the actual border with France, again as expected.  These guards were tougher and nosier.  They wanted to search the wagon and wanted Decker and Tony to give up their service revolvers.  One soldier lifted the blanket in the back of the wagon and asked, “What is this?”

Nanette watched from the buckboard and held her wand in her lap.  The blanket mysteriously slipped from the soldier’s hand.

Tony and Klaus were up front arguing with the sergeant in charge.  Tony was afraid they found Decker’s rifle, but Decker was right there to answer.  “It is a prototype grill for the general.  He likes outdoor cooking.  This grills without the need for a fire.”  He made it up.

“How does it work?”  The man lifted the blanket again only to have it slip once again from his fingers.

“The black screen.  It collects the sunlight and focuses it, like a magnifying glass.”

“You have two?”  The man tried one last time on the blanket.  This time, he grabbed a chunk of blanket and held it firmly.

“No. It is taken apart.  They work together.”  Decker yanked the blanket out of the man’s hand and recovered the equipment.  He smiled at Nanette and yelled.  “Sergeant.  You better check with your commanding officer before you go any further.  You might be fighting the Russians, French, and British if things don’t settle down.  Do you really want to anger the United States as well with an international incident?  Klaus, get in the driver’s seat.  Tony, mount up. We are going.”

The sergeant felt suddenly like he wanted to let them go.  He thought about the international incident while Nanette put her wand back into her lap.  He moved his soldiers back and let the Americans ride on.  He only later decided he should have looked in the wagon himself and found out what they had back there, but it was too late.

Klaus explained when they got fully into French territory.  “It is a communication device.  There are two of them.”

“They look like monitors,” Decker said.  “I assume they project video as well as audio.”

Klaus shrugged and looked at Tony and Nanette, but they were no help being native to that time and place.  “A ship came down in the Crimea.  We salvaged these four units and brought them to Mishka.  Martok worked on them. Do you know what I mean?”  They did.  Martok was another life of the Kairos, one from the far future who was an engineer and mathematician.  That was about all they knew, but they knew who he was talking about.

“She said she was going to leave a week earlier, only a week after the Archduke got assassinated, but she had to do extra work on your communicator so it would function properly on American electricity.  I didn’t even know there were different kinds of electricity.”

“Anyway,” Decker prompted.

“Anyway, we need three right now in Europe.  Men in Black from satellite offices in Athens, Warsaw, and Scandinavia are headed to Moscow.  Men from the central offices like Istanbul, Sophia, and Vienna, are all headed to Berlin.  Western Europeans, including from the main Men in Black European office in London are meeting in Paris.  Mishka says your job is to deliver the fourth device to the main North American office in Washington.  She says you won’t get there before the first meeting, but it will be needed in the future, as you well know… Whatever that means.”

“World War Two?” Tony blurted out.

“Thanks Lincoln,” Decker said with a grin for Nanette.  “Not for public consumption might have been a better thing to say.”

“Oh.  Yeah.  Sorry.” Tony said.

“So, what are you all meeting about?” Nanette asked to move away from Tony’s embarrassment.

“Mostly about sticking to our job and not getting drawn in if the world goes to war.  We need to watch for aliens and alien threats and let the human race do whatever it needs to do.”

“And the Masters.”  Nanette added.  “We need to watch out for the Masters, too.”

Klaus nodded before he killed that thought.  “The trouble is we have no way of knowing in advance what is or is not supposed to happen, historically.  Only the Kairos can know that.  Maybe if some obscure German arms maker comes up with an alien type of ray-gun. That might indicate something is amiss, but even then, we are just guessing.”

“So, I need to be watchful,” Decker said in part to himself.  Then he spoke to everyone.  “But first we need to get to Paris, then to Le Havre, then back to the United States.  I’m looking forward to all that back pay.”

Nanette nodded.  “I’m looking forward to spending it.  But mostly I can’t wait until you meet my mother.”

Decker made a face like he might want to put that off for as long as possible.  He tried not to let Nanette see.  Tony saw and grinned.  Nanette grinned as well because she saw without having to see.

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MONDAY

9.11 Blitz. Elder Stow finds himself in the midst of London’ darkest hours. Don’t miss it, and remember, the episode will run Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, AND Thursday. Enjoy, and Happy Reading

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