Roskilde, Denmark, Scandinavia, 11 July 1971

The Domkirke was packed to overflowing. A State funeral - especially a 
Royal one - could count on massive attendance from Heads of Government, 
diplomats and other movers and shakers.

Christian Gustav II, newly succeeded but still uncrowned King of 
Scandinavia* paid particular attention to the military attaches of Germany 
and the USM, who were sitting next to each other and, apparently, chatting 
idly during a pause in the funeral ceremony for Christian Gustav's father, 
Frederik Gustav, who had died the previous month in an airmobile accident 
while flying back from the Eastland** .

Christian Gustav looked across the crowded aisle and caught the eye of a 
tall, grey-haired Colonel in the red tunic of the Royal Life Guard. He 
raised an eyebrow at him, twitching his gaze back to the Mexican and the 
German and received a fractional nod in response. He smiled faintly at the 
Deputy Head of the Royal Information Service and leant back in the pew, 
satisfied that the conversation between the two would be transcribed and 
analysed from the tiny Kramer-produced*** wireless overhearing device.

The Global War**** had taught Scandinavia both the value of neutrality and 
the advantage of intelligence. Carl Gustav was clear on the need to 
maintain both.



* The personal union of the Kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the 
Grand Duchy of Finland, the Duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg 
and the dependencies of Iceland, the Faeroe Islands and Greenland. Formed 
after the extinction of the Vasa dynasty in Sweden and the election of the 
King of Denmark - Norway as simultaneous King of Sweden. Developments 
since have seen a Scandinavian Parliament (the Rigsdag) advising the 
Monarch, whose constitutional position is not unlike the Kaiser's in OTL 
1871-1918.

** The Baltic Grand Duchies which had been under first Danish, then 
Scandinavian protection since the breakup of the Russian Empire. A source 
of some tension with Germany.

**** The persistent rumours of a close relationship between the Danish 
East Asiatic Company (owned largely by the Crown) and Kramer Asssociates 
may well have had some foundation in truth. Certainly, Scandinavia 
appeared to stay comfortably on the leading edge of technological 
progress.

**** Scandinavia had remained largely unaffected by the Global War - by 
rigorous adherence to neutrality, the country had even prospered, by 
virtue of its privileged position as an entrepot for intelligence and 
back-door contacts between the belligerents and its willingness to broker 
international trades freely to whoever could afford to pay. The 
convenience of this arrangement far outweighed any conceivable strategic 
advantage to any belligerent in occupation.