1634: THE BAVARIAN CRISIS – snippet 54:
Mary and Veronica were thinking about having lunch in a pretty clearing by a big creek. At least, Mary thought it was a creek. It would have been a creek, up-time.
Veronica said that it was a river. The tiny stream that ran by Grafenwöhr itself was a brook, but they had followed the road about three miles south from the town and now they were looking at the river.
1634: THE BAVARIAN CRISIS – snippet 52:
Mary Simpson had been right. The epidemic was almost over, at least the part of it on which she had been working. There had been no new infections yesterday or today. There were still people sick in the hospital, of course, and numerous convalescents.
1634: THE BAVARIAN CRISIS – snippet 51:
Chapter 27
Optiones Ineptae
Amberg, the Upper Palatinate
They had collectively kicked themselves. Mary had been so tired when she got back to the Schloss the night after Veronica left that she hadn’t brushed her hair—just washed her face, brushed her teeth and then collapsed into bed. So she hadn’t found the note until the next morning. It had been an object lesson on the dire consequences of sloppiness.
1634: THE BAVARIAN CRISIS – snippet 50:
Amberg, the Upper Palatinate
The day after Veronica’s visit, Kilian went down to Amberg first thing in the morning, taking Hermann with him. He did not find Arndt particularly helpful. The man appeared to be seriously distracted.
He did manage to find his nephew Johann Rothwild, Sara’s son. That was no problem, really. Rothwild worked as a bouncer at a really rough tavern in an old mining settlement a couple of miles outside the city walls and had for years. Johann could be a really helpful man in a pinch, Kilian knew. He had demonstrated that several years before. Johann and Hermann between them could probably take care of the worst of Kilian’s current problems.
1634: THE BAVARIAN CRISIS – snippet 49:
Chapter 26
Occasio Rarissima
Amberg, the Upper Palatinate
Veronica sat in her room in the Schloss, looking out the window and tapping her fingers on the table. She had just finished breakfast, eating by herself, and reading the newspapers. It was old news, of course, by the time it reached Amberg. A week old, at least; more often two weeks old. Not that it would benefit her a great deal to have more recent news. She wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
1634: THE BAVARIAN CRISIS – snippet 48:
The other men who assisted the Jesuits in caring for the sick had only one thing in common. Chosen by Duke Ernst and the up-timers, they had all had the disease before and survived it. And, of course, a second thing: they were willing to come. Duke Ernst had not forced them, other than some of his own direct subordinates and some of the city employees. A few Catholics—there were not many Catholics in Amberg any more. Several Lutherans, several Calvinists. A Jew, just a peddler passing through the city. Two Swiss men who listed no religion when they arrived, which probably meant that they deserved burning for heresy. Jakob Balde, now in charge of the hospital, had chosen not to ask them for details.
1634: THE BAVARIAN CRISIS – snippet 47:
Mary Simpson made the diagnosis first, long before Bill Hudson had finished leafing through his manuals. Through the admiral’s old friendships in the Netherlands, she knew people at the World Health Organization who had worked for the international center for vaccination when the disease made its way through the former Soviet republics in the early 1990s.
Diphtheria.
1634: THE BAVARIAN CRISIS – snippet 45:
Amberg, Upper Palatinate
“I suppose there’s no way to restrain General Banér now,” said Duke Ernst. He leaned back in the chair in his office and studied the mass of papers on his desk. “As if I didn’t have enough to worry about already.”
PYRAMID POWER – snippet 58:
Chapter 34
The ravens still flew across the heavens bringing word to Odin about the troop-build up in Jötunheim, which was stretching even Loki’s power’s to exaggerate. They also, in exchange for their favorite jelly beans, brought word of what was happening in halls of Asgard. Odin was doing his best to ready the Æsir for war. He had sent messengers to the Vanir and South and East to Surt and Muspellheim.
1634: THE BAVARIAN CRISIS – snippet 45:
Amberg, Upper Palatinate
“I suppose there’s no way to restrain General Banér now,” said Duke Ernst. He leaned back in the chair in his office and studied the mass of papers on his desk. “As if I didn’t have enough to worry about already.”
Colonel Erik Haakansson Hand chuckled and shook his head. “After the news of Ahrensbök? Not a chance. Johan was champing at the bit already. He’s jealous by nature, and of no other of my cousin’s generals is he more jealous than Lennart Torstensson. Johan Banér is looking at his thirty-eighth birthday, in a couple of weeks, and Lennart just turned thirty-one. Now, the upstart Torstennson has the great victory at Ahrensbök under his belt—and to make things worse, he was the commander-in-chief at the battle, not simply serving under my cousin. So now Johan is determined to match the feat—come as close as he can, at least—by seizing Ingolstadt from the Bavarians.”
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