Volker was eating his Apfelstrudel silently and looked with interest at the woman. She had something… Something he missed in the personality of some agents back in his days in the Büro. As Viktoria asked the agents to speak a toast, Volker stood up and raised his Bierglas. He was already a bit tüdelig when he yelled. " Ich will! Aauf ein starkes und geschlossenes Rheinland! Und auf unsere Gesundheit!" His glas was faster empty that the other guests could see him drinking. Volker sat down again and carried on eating his Apfelstrudel. "Ohh Jürgen, der ist einfach köstlich. Well done! This Aroma... Herrlich!"
He looked around and found Alfred in the corner. "Alfred! A glass of this Riesling bitte! Let's see what Reinhardt der alte Haudegen has created hier..."
Karl-Heinz stopped flirting with Kapitänin Lichthammer for a second, took his Bierkrug and turned to the rest. Jürgen didn't see if his father was drunk or just a bit mind-absent as the old man yelled; "Auf von Albrecht und ein ewiges, rheinländisches Reich!" Jürgen had to chuckle a bit as his father finished his toast.
At the same time, the shuttle with Kommissaroberrat Horst Stieglitz was arriving. The young man came with a thick military coat and murred as he left the shuttle. "Guter Gott da war ja Saigon wärmer..."
"For Rheinland!" Viktoria answered back, trying to play down Karl-Heinz drunken toast. Only a few moments later Karl-Heinz's attention was back on Lichthammer. In the meantime Volker ordered more apfelstrudel and was busy eating it so she gestured to Jürgen to join her.
"Well that was fun." she said before adding. "So what did you want to talk about?" she asked in a carefree manner as if she wasn't curious at all. But of course she was.
"Neugierig, meine liebe?" he grinned shortly. "Nun, we have a Problem. After our withdrawal from the front, I thought we would have enough Agents to protect Rheinland, so more Agents for the Inspektorat or the Marinekommando. But the recent events… It shows we don't have enough men and women. I also felt the anger of the Volk on the Büro... Gottverdammt we probably made the wrong decision..." He sighted and shook his head. He laughed shortly " Sorry, I am melancholic sometimes, especially after much Riesling. But putting all this aside, I am glad you want to join the Inspektorat. We will need to think about a new strategy now, as the enemies of state operate more effectively. The co-ordinate their small numbers right. I am here to look for ideas with all persons hier. I also asked the Kommissaroberrat to come and look for opportunities…"
The young Offizier just entered the room and heard Jürgen's words. "Nun, Ich sehe, I am on time. Herr von Thielau, I can have a look into my Akten and I will see if I can help you in this matter, mein Freund. But maybe you, Frau Landers have something to say before I can come with ideas."
Viktoria nodded while listening to each of Jürgen's concerns, silently agreeing with his points. "It is as you say. Aber.." Viktoria paused, still considering how to express it. "We do have the numbers and the forces to protect Rheinland. The problem is that our most manpower and efforts are aimed at expanding BDM's fleets."
Her eyes wandered to Hanna who made a thunderous laugh while Karl Heinz told her something she couldn't make out. "We have so many new Kaptains, while the Kommissariat is undermanned. Fortunately the Inspektorat is in a better shape. But still... Why are we following this 'Expansion Doctrine'?" Viktoria asked, seeking insight from her boss.
Jürgen looked some time at Viktoria and thought about her words. "Ich habe keine Ahnung, Fräulein, Direktor Enfield didn't disclose the reason of the expansion to me... It's unfortunate. *he sighs* Well, that information you seek is most probably disclosed to the Oberkommando only. As I see, Herr Stieglitz has just arrived. *He saluted before the Kommissaroberrat*" Horst looked at both and sat down. "The reason for the Befehl for this Operation is klassifiziert with the Code Schwarz, I am neither introduced. But I agree with you. We have not enough agents in the Kommissariat, it feels like Frau Laurenz, Herr Oberhauser and I run it alone. We don't get unterstützung from the government... It seems they are disappointed by our decision to not fight Kusari. The decision was probably the right one, but I don't understand our Aufrüstungs doctrine then."
"The thing is, Rheinland's authorities are too corrupt at the moment. We have had proof for that accusation, unfortunately these Aufzeighnungen were shot down with my old U-Boot. The people in the Government are Kriegstreiber, they prefer to fight. I, for my part, know people in the right position, who want to work against that corruption. But we don't have the success by now we calculated earlier to archieve. I am sure, that problem is one of the roots of Rheinland's whole economic and politic situation."
Viktoria's flashed with interest, as a hunter would at the sight of their prey. "What kind of corruption Herr Jürgen? " the Agent asked, seeking more details and specifics.
"Nun, the authorities. We have had corrupt Agents, corrupt Soldaten, corrupt Polizisten... The companies were powerful. But not only these paid the authorities... This, Frau Landers, was recently, before Admiral Hetzer took over. In the Polizei the same happened. My Nichte, Kara, took over and started to fight corruption in the ranks of the Polizei. She is pretty successful. Unfortunately, we, the Inspektorat, especially the Abteilung für innere Dienstaufsicht, has not been able to find the corrupt agents. I am soon going to ask for external help from the Polizei Sondereinsatzkommando, if we can't find them ourselves. This corruption must end." It seemed to the others in the room as this has been the spot triggering Jürgen. "Jürgen mein Freund, maybe we should think about someone who's able to fight corruption from a better position, than we are in at the moment..." Volker thought loudly. He had something in mind he wants to share with the present members of the Büro, but he's not sure if all will like the idea.
She wasn't sure what to say. Corruption even within the Inspektorat? Everyone in the room knew that the Inspektorat was the last defense for justice.
The Polizei is responsible for civilian crimes, but in the rare cases the law enforcement is abusing the law, then the Internal Affairs of the Polizei or the Military Police are responsible but even they are secretly monitored by the Inspektorat, the specialized department of Rheinland's primary Intelligence Agency which also monitors all the activities of the Marinenachrichtendienst.
Now she understood why she was invited in the Thielau Estate. "Shit." Viktoria said softly and crossed her legs. Her eyes briefly met with Jürgen who was about to give an important reply to the former Direktor's proposal. For all his history and experience, Volker was retired and unable to make a decision so he had obviously more leeway to speak his mind unlike Jürgen or Viktoria.
"Its indeed scheiße, Frau Landers, we have learned about this issue, because the Bundesministerium für Innere was suspicious too. The Sonderkommission of the highest Polizeiinspektion for internal affairs found out about it. They haven't got any names by now, but we are working closely together with their team for such incidents. In the meantime, Volker mein Freund..." Jürgen turned to the former Direktor who had finished his Apfelstrudel and was already smoking a cigarette again."You said you have the idea to turn to someone in a position in the government? Those who are the corrupt people! You mean that? " Volker looked at Jürgen. He was almost angry that Jürgen thought so dumb.
"Nein natürlich nicht, Jürgen!" He went on more carefully, as he didn't know how both others would react. "Nun, I think we all see that this government doesn't work as good as it does. They are corrupt. They weakened our forces and let it happen, that literally every law enforcing group is corrupt now. They let the war with Kusari happen and still fight it on. Many people are not happy with them anymore... Es braut sich etwas zusammen, Rheinland is starting to wake up from their hibernate. I sometimes ask myself if we defend the right people... The people who don't defend values, but lobbyists, corruption and other ***** of that sort." He looked at the agents."There is something going on already in Rheinland already, meine lieben Kollegen, we could think about supporting these people... If you want to get rid of these problems, just as I like to get rid of these."