Chapter 6

It had been almost a year since the war was over. There were still a million Americans in Germany and God only knew how many Russians in Berlin. Karl was incensed that his country was now broken up into two separate parts. To make matters even worse, his own home in Berlin was now administered by no less than four separate "zones" of British, French, American and Russian forces. Of course the British, French and American Zones were fairly intermingled with little if any difficulty in moving from one zone to the other. It was the Russian Zone that caused the primary problem. The German people in that zone were virtual Russian prisoners with little if any freedom to do anything except follow orders from the military and the special units that insured absolute obedience. Most of the residents in the "Soviet" zone were reluctant to cause any problems for the conquerors from the east because of their years of obedient loyalty to the Supreme Leader and their underlying willingness to accept orders without question.

Major Steiner was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Allied lawyers and most of his men were repatriated to the non-Russian zones because their involvement mostly on the Russian front made them criminals in the eyes of the Soviet high command. Fortunately, the Russians had little intelligence about Steiner's special units and it was not until years later when some defecting British intelligence agents informed Moscow about the use of Steiner's units that they realized how effective he was in delaying the German defeat in the East. They made formal demand for his extradition to the Soviet zone but it was refused solely because by that time he had already married Colonel Roxanne Hightower in a private ceremony just outside Nuremburg. Somehow, he had been cleared for American citizenship in a manner still debated by investigators into his background.

The notification that his German wife and child were both killed in a night bombing raid was not totally unexpected to Steiner but it was still a shock to his nervous system. There were literally no personal effects remaining due to the devastation of the bombing which obliterated the entire neighborhood. Karl knew it was a story told a million times over in thousands of towns and cities in several different countries but it seemed a lot more real and depressing when one is the victim.

Steiner used his wife's recommendations to get a position with the occupying forces at one of the transferred to Allied control SS barracks as a camp supervisor. He thought it strange to see the young Americans laughing and running down the same hallways where the sound of stamping boots rang out with a sound of authority and the pervasiveness of fear before and during the war years. The fact that the "Iron Curtain" had rung down over Eastern Europe made him ecstatic that he and almost all of his men had made it to the Allied zone and out of the hands of the NKVD units purging their German prisoners with "blood on their hands."

While he worked for the Americans, Steiner was able to assemble a number of his former unit members in the role of back-up unarmed security for the Allied camps that dotted the landscape. He even found employment for their spouses and other dependents as cleaners, repair workers and other assorted jobs without arousing any suspicion as to their work during the war. More than a few years passed and Steiner grew a bit more confident that the eastern enemy was losing interest in his role in the war and that even the Jewish searchers in the rubble were convinced he was not one of the "evil" SS officers who were actively involved in the liquidation of all Jews and partial Jews from every segment of German society. He even gave employment to a few survivors of the camps who were determined to remain in a land that did its best to destroy their lives and steal their property. He applied the successful "Don't ask and don't tell" method of screening for employment when it came to religious background and totally ignored the visual impact of an overly long nose or a last name that seemed suspiciously Semite.

His spouse was supportive of his work in the camps of the American soldiers but she kept it all at arm's length knowing that he preferred it that way. Her influence had little to do with his success and eventually he was promoted to lead supervisor for military installations in the American zone and retained control over thousands of workers providing services to the occupying forces. Many times in his role as a leader Steiner came into contact with old acquaintances that were aware of his special talents but they did not discuss his military role in the war and he never brought up their membership in the Nazi party. Of course, it was very "Quid Pro Quo" but there was no paper trail to point in his direction.

His beautiful and clearly over-sexed spouse Roxanne surprised him by admitting she had been carrying on an affair with her superior, a two-star General from an unlikely place called Alabama. It was disconcerting but he had no regrets about the shapely female Colonel with strange methods of interrogation. When she asked if he wanted a divorce, he declined because in all honesty it was better to remain safely married than single and at risk of being pre-judged as not conforming to "normal" expectations. As a sort of consolation prize, she sent her younger sister "Sam" to help maintain his household in her absence and told him to look out for her because she had just gone through a terrible time with news that her long missing husband was confirmed KIA from recently released details given to the military authorities off of a list of expired prisoners of war.

Samantha Hightower was almost exactly the opposite of her beautiful sister Roxanne.

She had short, chopped off hair that looked messy or at least ignored for lack of concern. Her glasses didn't quite fit properly and one of the arms was ready to fall off due to a loose screw. When Steiner picked her up at the airport in Frankfurt-am-Main, he spotted her only because of her long slender legs that were the only part of her body that was identical to her sexy sister.

"You must be Roxanne's sister. I hope I have not been making you wait too long. The autobahn was a mess this morning."