Fritz Bauer and the Courtesan of Paris

By Raymund Eich

Enter an alternate history, where in 1916, the guns of the Great War fell silent.

Now, in the 1920s, a veteran of the trenches struggles to build a lasting peace...

...while against him scheme the merchants of death.

~ ~ ~

Equipped only with tact, cleverness, fluency in French, and a Luger pistol, Fritz Bauer arrives in Paris on a highly secret mission.

Many a young prince has journeyed to the City of Light to receive instruction in the arts of love.

But when that young prince is the German emperor's grandson...

...French public opinion seethes over ignoble defeat...

...and publicity of the prince's visit could topple the French government, or drive an assassin to spark another round of devastation and mass slaughter...

Millions of lives rely on Fritz and his talents. 

In Paris, he must forge uneasy alliances with both his counterparts in French intelligence and the young prince's hostess. Only with their help can he play and win a dangerous game in the shadows. 

Someone wants another Great War.

Who?

And can Fritz and his temporary allies find and stop the enemies of peace before time runs out? 

• Language: English
• Publisher: CV-2 Books
• Release date: May 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223053446

Raymund Eich

Raymund Eich files patent applications, earned a Ph.D., won a national quiz bowl championship, writes science fiction and fantasy, and affirms Robert Heinlein's dictum that specialization is for insects.In a typical day, he may talk with university biology and science communication faculty, silicon chip designers, patent attorneys, epileptologists, and rocket scientists. Hundreds of papers cite his graduate research on the reactions of nitric oxide with heme proteins.He lives in Houston with his wife, son, and daughter.

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Fritz Bauer and the Courtesan of Paris

FRITZ BAUER AND THE COURTESAN OF PARIS

AN ALTERNATE HISTORY SHORT STORY

RAYMUND EICH

CV-2 Books

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CONTENTS

Fritz Bauer and the Courtesan of Paris

About the Author

Other Books by the Author

FRITZ BAUER AND THE COURTESAN OF PARIS

Fritz Bauer traveled light, only a hand bag with two clean shirts and his shaving kit. On the platform, he made his way past the last cars in the train. The vaulted ceiling made the station interior a cathedral to the machine age. Sounds echoed off the tan limestone block walls. The churn of a departing train’s spinning wheels, the scurry of feet, and a thousand conversations in a blur of French he could not follow.

The speed whiskers of chrome that ran along the lower sides of the cars cast his blurry reflection back at him. He lithely stepped around two porters loading a luggage cart, an older German couple where the ruddy-cheeked husband surveyed the station from above his walrus mustache with a self-satisfied glint in his eye, and a French businessman checking a watch pulled from the vest pocket of a fraying blue suit.

No one took notice of Fritz. Good. Being nondescript had kept him alive in no man’s land. It made it much easier to do his job these years since the war.

On the concourse, with the tang of axle grease and diesel exhaust fading from his nose, Fritz found the sign he’d been told to look for. A man with brown eyes leaned on the limestone wall next to the sign, newspaper folded into fourths held in one hand. With his other, he tapped the blunt end of a pencil against his narrow chin. Otherwise, as nondescript as Fritz, plain suit in a shade of gray, hair trimmed short, face clean-shaven in the new style.

His contact. Fritz approached and the man looked up. A flash of distaste, but the man’s expression quickly shifted to that of a stranger making polite conversation. Pardon me, he said, but do you know an eight-letter word for ‘boat’?

Fritz put on a pondering look. "Does chaloupe fit?" he said, with an accent to make his high school French teacher proud.

The man looked at the newspaper, then tapped his pencil against his forehead, twice. I should have thought of that myself. Thank you. He lowered his voice. Fritz angled his ear toward him, to hear every word over the echoes inside the station. "Go outside, past