Chapter 47: A Troublesome Woman

Wednesday Afternoon

After dropping Cynthia off at the house I parked the jeep in the old barn where I hooked it up to a charger.

Back at the house I found Tango waiting in the study, where our lunch had been set out for us. I had asked for him to talk about his Bride. His marriage was coming and I needed to deal with Bente’s request that I bed her on her wedding night, instead of Tango. It was not like she expected me to teach her anything, she just wanted another prize.

The “White Scarf” was intended to honor virgins (who had stayed virgin) until their wedding when the Patron would instruct them about sex on their wedding night. The instruction assumed that they needed it, were willing, and the the Patron or his designee was available. The present Patron had given up the task, due to his age, some time ago.

For the first 10 brides of the Colony, the instruction was needed, as the maidens spent puberty isolated in a female-only camp with no knowledge of sexual matters. Also, they expected to be “pierced” the day when they chose to enter adulthood. They were told that involved a fishbone or thorn through the ear, so they were in for a surprise after they got a new name and were given adult garments to wear. That was when their “piercer” introduced them to an adult male body.

When the second and third wave of colonists arrived, the white scarf reflected what was then the custom in Europe of having the family, clergy and authorities observe consummation, where the Patron or his designee stood in for all the above. It also replace the earlier custom of Droit de Seigneur or lus primae noctis, the feudal lord’s or warlord’s right to a bride. Before 1600 - when they all came from Europe - many in the Colony considered this normal and natural, it was all they had ever known. For over 200 years there was nobody to give then new ideas. Finally, after 1800, the Patron sent men out to become soldiers in the armies of South America, and then return with news of society.

In Spain, Bishop Foxe thought long term. He considered that the isolated small population in the tropics, wearing minimal clothing, would either go puritanical or promiscuous. He opted to load the dice against what he called “French Vices of Disease.” Well for a Bishop in the 1500’s, the science of venereal disease was not a strong point. He intended that the public honor would encourage young women, raised in a tropical climate, to remain virgins until marriage instead of “experimenting like savages.” (The Incas of the time encouraged widespread sexual experimentation for young teenagers.) The white scarf replaced the traditional white dress.

Admittedly, in the West today the white dress is more a style tradition/mandate rather than a sign of virginity, even divorced brides wear white the second, or fifth times around. But not in the colony. Even after WW2, when the German brought so much information about the world, the Colonial tradition of a virgin bride, and the perceived honor of being bedded by the Patron, retained its place as a tradition. For example, the White Scarf was not considered for divorced or widowed women, who were honorable but not virgins.

Bente was not a virgin. She had been in a temporary marriage with a man who went into military service. But she did consider herself very special, a pioneer of special merit who therefore deserved the honor and pleasure of my company on her wedding night.

Part of her justification was that she was the first of the German descendants to be admitted into marriage and the general society of the Colony. In her home she was taught to strive, succeed, and be rewarded. She therefore considered the white scarf a reward she had earned as “the first.”

Cousins And Germans

You might wonder about these Germans and how they got here. There are a few stories of Germans fleeing to South America after the war, bringing their society and their traditions with them, whether to metropolis of Buenos Aires or the isolation of the Amazon jungles.

Our Germans were not like that.

Even before D-day there were those in the German military who knew what was going to happen to the homeland. People in the scientific communities reached the same conclusion, with the additional expectations that they would be pursued by both the East and the West for their knowledge. When captured they would be given a choice between an unfair trial as a war criminal or a life of forced service to a government that would never allow them the freedom promised to citizens. Neither choice appealed. But one of our “Cousins” had a different idea.

In the 1500’s Bishop Foxe had set up boarding schools for orphans in Europe. Jesuit methods were employed to build values, including loyalty. Ostensibly to fund this work he created a small company of cargo ships. These ships were run by “Cousins,” graduates of the orphanages and their first priority was to support the Colony. Today the Cousins continue, doing both legitimate business and the Patron’s shady business. Some captains of the cargo ships are promoted as “Travelers” serving the Patron as agents, sort of knights errant like Don Quixote or James Bond or the Knights Templar. All are accorded the title and papers of “Monsignor” (it made travel easier, even if the Church did not know) and they usually work alone.

In Europe some Travelers took undercover jobs as officers employed in military service in the World Wars, including the Spanish Civil War. Many of these officers served Spain, Italy, Germany and England.

One notable senior Traveller was a Spaniard known as Monsignor Gepard. In particular Gepard formed a close association with the German Navy captains in the Civil War and then in WW2. All of the higher officers in the German military were trained prior to Hitler coming to power so the had some affection for the pre-WWI traditions of honor and maintained a dislike for Hitler’s methods. The Navy was probably where the old traditions were strongest.

As D-day was approaching Gepard and a German Naval Captain named Hilgers came up with an outrageous plan to help some people escape at the end of the war. They proposed using a submarine to make a rocket attack on New York after landing assassins who would take out FDR. (Killing Churchill was not an option, he was always moving with great protection. But FDR was a sitting duck who considered himself safe.) Hilgers and Gepard claimed this was possible by using Gepard’s pro-Nazi cadres in the US and Cuba to set up the strikes. Hitler loved the impossible plan, he could hardly restrain his glee when it was presented. Whenever he became depressed as his military failed again and again, he would focus on this proposal to fight off his crushing depression. He gave Hilgers a long-range sub (a type IX D) that was under construction plus everything else requested.

Captain Hilgers gathered a group of a dozen or so like-thinking submariners (call them NotZis) then made sure that most of the sub crew (about 60) was Nazi-victory-or-death fanatics who needed to be shot. These were the type of folks who could embrace the impossible plan and keep it secret even in the web of intelligence agencies who saw conspiracy in every facet of the Nazi leadership.

As soon as the sub cleared its minimal trials and was free to navigate the NotZis promptly shot the Nazis at their stations with custom-made silenced Luger pistols had made for them. Their extended magazines were loaded with custom fragmenting ammo, much like what Air Marshals use today. The sub was designed to lay mines, which made disposal of the bodies very efficient. Then they made for a rendezvous.

Meanwhile, on shore Gepard had gathered a group of top German scientists (many with specialities in mind-altering drugs who were on Moscow’s top 10 list). These scientists were all eager to opt out of the East/West post-war lottery. Each brought along their top research assistant. All were in harms way, but Gepard promised to get them to a place of refuge in the tropics which nobody knew about - he called it the Colony. Gepard assured them that he had been there, that the colony was 100% white, 50% female, and that it was accessible by an ocean-crossing ship. (Some type IX subs could circle the globe without refueling.) Because of the location the East and West had no idea it was there.

Gepard also included a few experienced Cousins who could help run the sub.

To the escaping Germans, who were 100% male, the escape sounded too good to be true. Then Gepard showed pictures of the Colony, it looked like a town that could be a street in old San Francisco transplanted into a rain forest. Topless women on horses were herding cattle. They would never shovel snow again. That sold the idea.

The plan worked. Avoiding trade routes the sub crossed the Atlantic and sailed up the Amazon, with most travel on the surface at night and submerged during the day. They had plenty of supplies (the sub carried provisions for the entire crew on a trip to Japan and back) so they took their time and very few risks reaching the Amazon and sailing up the river. At the time, Brazil’s navy was not a concern. Between Manaus and Iquitos they encountered a steam-powered river transport owned by the Patron. Eventually they departed from the Amazon as the transport guided the sub up the tricky winding Amazon tributaries that bend back and forth like snakes doing an orgy. Near the destination, after unloading the sub was submerged and hidden in an overgrown side-stream. The sub would be cannibalized, the skills to operate it could not be maintained in the Colony. The rest of the journey was made by river boat and, for the last 10 miles, in the Patron’s trucks.

The Patron welcomed them all with a feast, including a fashion show. (Wardrobes needed adjustment, and he wanted his guests to see what women wore - and didn’t wear.) After a feast he turned the trucks carrying the Germans around and sent them to a spot almost halfway back to where the sub was. Some supplies and tents were already there.

The Patron firmly believed that Germans could not stop talking about politics, whether it was democracy, fascism, socialism, communism, royalty, theocracy the Kaiser or whatever. He reminded everybody that the first World War featured two German royal families (Germany and England - many forget that English royal blood is German). That in turn led to WW2, with the Spanish Civil War as the prelude/testing ground for the new technology of death and politics for all three dominant views. By late 1945, cities like Coventry, Dresden, Stalingrad and Hiroshima screamed to the world where such talk led, and the debate was far from over. The Patron was not having it.