The Berlin Vendetta: Book 3 in the series 'The Enigmatic Defection' Page 11

  “I am not here to hurt you,” Schmidt said.

  “Oh? Why are you here then? Even more, why am I?”

  “I just want to talk to you.”

  “The way you talked to Daniel or the way you talked to me in East Germany?”

  “It was part of my job,” he said. “If I had not done it well I would have lost it.”

  “There is doing well and doing well. What do you want?”

  “I want to go back to prison and I want protection in return for information.”

  “You said that to Daniel and then you captured him. You nearly killed him before that,” Shirley said. “You then came after me.”

  “I would not have hurt you,” Schmidt said. “I had to do what I did because there were people with me who would have killed me if I did not do what they asked. I was not aiming to kill Daniel. I planned it all very carefully.”

  “Why did they want you to speak to Daniel?” Shirley asked.

  “They wanted me to get information from Daniel. I said I would deal with it but they insisted on coming to your house. Not to kill you but also to see if you knew anything.”

  “How is your foot?” Shirley asked.

  “Painful when I walk.”

  “And your hand?”

  “It will heal.”

  “So what information do you have?” Shirley asked.

  “I would like to meet with Daniel and Schloegel.”

  “I am not leading them into any traps,” Shirley said.

  “It is not a trap. We could meet in a cafe or something.”

  “No. Tell me and I will pass it on.”

  “I want to speak to them.”

  “And I won’t arrange it. Tell me, Schmidt, and I’ll see what I can do for you.”

  “Hans,” he said.

  “Maybe. Tell me.”

  “You promise to speak on my behalf?”

  “I do not make such decisions. Why don’t you just leave the country?”

  “I have relatives here and I like living here. I could be of help to Intelligence.”

  “I think that’s pushing it a bit,” Shirley said. “I will see what I can do if what you tell me is helpful.”

  “You won’t believe me.”

  “Try me.”

  “I want to tell you who employed me to do what I did to Daniel and why it was done the way it was.”

  “I’m listening,” Shirley said.

  “Then I want Daniel to put me back in prison because I’m not safe outside.”

  “Who employed you?” Shirley asked.

  “I’m not sure who is running the show but I have names of other people. It is better for you not to have them arrested because if you keep them out of prison they might lead you to exactly what they’re going to do.”

  “And what is that?” Shirley asked.

  “Try to stop the elections, even to stop the official reunification.”

  “So why did they want Daniel?” Shirley asked. “And why was his parents’ house ransacked?”

  “I didn’t know about his parents,” Schmidt replied. “They wanted Daniel because they felt he would be in a position to find out what they’re doing so they wanted to keep him out of the way. He’s been snooping around for some time trying to find out if anyone is going to try to disrupt the reunification celebration. That’s why they wanted you too. You are both important people and you’re connected to Intelligence.”

  “I’m not connected to Intelligence,” Shirley said.

  “They know you are a clever woman and in touch with German Intelligence. They were afraid you would become involved even though you weren’t in Germany.”

  “So why havn’t they tried to get hold of us here?” Shirley asked.

  “I don’t know. They probably will before the third. Will you follow up the people I’ve told you about?” Schmidt paused. “About whom I’ve told you. You see I know what to do with my prepositions.”

  “I’m not at all sure I trust you,” Shirley said.

  “I need to be put in prison,” Schmidt replied. “Will you ring Daniel and arrange it? Tell him you have me prisoner or something.”

  Shirley dialled a number on her mobile. “Darling? Can you come and arrest Schmidt?”

  “Where?” Daniel asked.

  “Where are we?” Shirley asked Schmidt.

  “We’ll take you to the station on Friedrichstrasse,” Schmidt replied.

  “Friedrichstrasse station,” Shirley said into the phone. “Bring the police.”

  And both the police and Daniel were there in minutes. Schmidt turned to Shirley as he was ordered out of the car.

  “Thank you,” he said. She nodded, he got out of the car and within minutes had been taken away. Daniel turned to frown at Shirley.

  “What’s that all about?” he asked.

  “Let’s go back to the lodge?” she replied. “Can we do that without being followed?”

  “By whom?”

  Shirley held out a piece of paper. “First ring Johann and tell him to get hold of and arrest those men.”

  Daniel looked at the list, his face creased in a frown. “Why these people?” he asked.

  “Do you know them?”

  “I’ve met them. There’s no way they’re involved. Schmidt is just trying to cause trouble if it was him who gave you the names.”

  “Just do it,” Shirley said. “And keep them locked up until after the third.”

  “I can’t do that,” Daniel said.

  “Why”

  “They’re friends of mine. I can’t put friends in prison.”

  “If they were brothers and sisters I would say lock them up,” Shirley said. “This is very important and we can’t take risks. Please, Daniel. Do as I say and keep them locked up. Don’t let them know you have anything to do with it. Maybe Johann could say they’re being locked up for their own safety and they could be in danger, anyway.”

  Daniel took out his mobile. “I don’t know why I’m listening to you,” he said.

  “Yes, you do. Just do it.”

  Daniel was not sure he liked the tone of Shirley’s voice. He certainly did not like what he was doing. But he trusted her judgement more than anyone he knew and he had to forget she was his wife. He spoke into the phone for a few minutes and Johann was as loathe to do what he was asked.

  “Are you sure about this?” he asked.

  “Yes. Shirley says we must.”

  “If Shirley says so I’ll do it. Maybe I can tell them it’s for their protection.”

  “Shirley suggested that,” Daniel said.

  “Then great minds think alike. I could also say we need them to help us with our enquiries. Be careful, Daniel, and try not to let Shirley go off alone again. No, I take that back. You won’t be able to stop her.”

  “Too right.” Daniel shut his phone, pocketed it and turned to Shirley. “They’re going straight out to arrest them,” he said.

  “What excuse will they use?”

  “Johann says they’ll tell them they need their help with some enquiries they’re making. Are you sure about this, Shirley? Schmidt is not to be trusted.”

  “In this instance I think he is. What did you do with our breakfast?”

  “I nearly chucked it in the bin. I put it in the fridge.”

  And would she tell him what was going through her mind, she thought. Did she want to tell him? Except that she hadn’t really worked it out herself. Yet if she didn’t tell him maybe lives would be put at risk. They made their way to the little lodge where they had stayed the previous night and knew they had not been followed.

  She made her way to the bedroom. “Warm the food,” she said. “I’m starving.”

  “I have been in torment over you today,” he replied.

  “Oh? Why?”

  “You know why. I’m not inclined to warm up anything. You’ll probably drive away before I dish it up.”

  She looked back at him. “You’re pouting,” she said.

  “I am not pouting!” His
words were explosive. She smiled.

  “Come in the shower with me then if you don’t want to cook. I’ll do it later.”

  “I’ll warm up the food,” he said, turning away.

  She undressed, went in herself and was relieved when he joined her a couple of minutes later.

  “I thought I was losing my touch,” she said. “I wouldn’t like that.”

  “Schmidt could have hurt you,” he said, beginning to wash her.

  “I’m not stupid,” she replied.

  “The celebrations will start at midnight day after tomorrow. We only have two whole days.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “What did Schmidt say to you apart from giving you the names and asking to be arrested?”

  “I don’t want to talk about Schmidt in the shower,” she replied. “Distract me. I need it badly.” She put her arms round Daniel and held him tightly. “I love you.”

  “I have to love you to put up with your nonsense,” he replied. “If I didn’t I would leave you to stew in your own juice.”

  “If you didn’t we wouldn’t be in the shower together. Love me, Fitzgerald, and then let’s go and eat.”

  Chapter 6

  1st October, 1990

  It was six in the morning and Shirley had been working on the computer for an hour, repeatedly returning to the site which Connie had showed them. She put her cursor on the little dot which led her to the other site and began to go through it again, her thoughts on the microtape which led to discovering that Joshua was a member of the Chain Quintet and his subsequent death. This page was not a microtape but she rather felt it led to other things, things which the people who accessed it would be able to find.

  So how? She began to slowly run the cursor over the page looking for a link. A letter maybe? A sentence? A word? A picture? Pictures were too obvious but she tried the couple there were without any result. She enlarged the screen and looked at it carefully. She tried every comma, full stop, apostrophe, colon and semi colon but still nothing happened. There were three pictures. One of the Brandenberg gate, one of the tower near Alexander Platz and an aerial photograph of East Berlin. She tried the cursor on them again but still without success.

  Maybe a part of the picture though that would probably be unlikely because someone who did not know the site might put their cursor on it by mistake. The corners? It still didn’t work. Maybe nothing from this page and there probably weren’t anymore sites. She enlarged the picture to four hundred percent, scanned it carefully and what she saw on the bumper of a car made her feel a bit nauseous.

  A tiny syringe. It was hardly visible and decidedly blurred but it was definitely a syringe. She put the cursor on it and a new site came onto the screen.

  So who had discovered a way to do this, she thought, because normally one needed an address. Whoever did should be sharing it because it could transform the way the internet worked.

  It wanted a password. Her face screwed in concentration as she looked at the box asking for it. A password. What would the password be? Something medical, she rather felt, but what and how many times could she attempt the password before the site disappeared from view? She typed in carefully. Pneumothorax. She must get the spelling correct.

  The screen came alive and was full of information. Names, events, dates, places. There were pictures which included the death of Joshua. That she had seen because someone filmed it from the end of the corridor. Doing such a thing was totally macabre, she had thought at the time, but it helped them in their enquiries, Lindell had told her afterwards. There were documents which had been made public at the time. None of the articles were things Shirley did not know.

  But there had to be more to it than what she was seeing, she thought, because there always was more. The microtape which she had found of Joshua’s the day before he died had seemed relatively clear but it was only her who had seen the eyes which did not belong to the faces on which they had been put. It was the way Nagel and Joshua were identified as the last two members of the Chain Quintet.

  And then there was the beard of Schneider, chief of East Berlin Intelligence at the time and not related to Abel Schneider, Abel had told Shirley. Shirley saw a map in it when Helen said it was over marked. Daniel saw his submarine, Galanton Two. Whoever had made the tape, and Shirley rather suspected it had to have been tampered with and added to afterwards, was very clever. Now she had to be clever or she was going to miss something important.

  She went onto the coded site and began to study it closely. She had already identified two codes and was not at all sure that there was not another one. Which pointed to it being written by the person who made the microtape before Joshua was killed. She shut her eyes as memories flooded over her of the killing.

  She must not be sidetracked and she needed Helen, she thought, which was where she was going to go despite the earliness of the hour. She slipped off the bed quietly, dressed in the bathroom and when Daniel woke an hour later she had gone.

  There was a note on the pillow. “I’ll ring you later. I love you with all my heart.”

  She was so frustrating, Daniel thought as he went into the shower. She talked of honesty but she rarely was herself. “Honest! That’s rich.” His smile was twisted as he thought of what she said soon after his return to West Berlin. “You don’t know the meaning of the word.”

  “I had a reason.”

  “You had many reasons and none of them were any more truthful than the last. You, my darling, are most definitely the pot and I am the kettle.”

  But what was happening now was very serious, Daniel thought, and he couldn’t protect Shirley anymore than he had when Schmidt grabbed him and then went to their house. It was Shirley who dealt with things then though he would have done so given time. But they could probably achieve more now if she would only work with him and be more honest, if she would not keep insisting on going off on her own. She knew far more than she was saying, he felt sure.

  Shirley in the car dialed on her mobile and was relieved when Helen answered the phone. “I know it’s early,” Shirley said. “But I need you. Did I wake you?”

  “No. Johann has already gone out, I think to the prison to see Schmidt. He also wants to talk to the people he had arrested yesterday. Where shall we meet or do you want to come here?”

  “I’ll come to you. Nobody is following me, I know, so we should be okay.”

  “I’ll get us breakfast or have you had any?”

  “No. I didn’t want to wake Daniel. He doesn’t know where I am.”

  “Ouch. I’ll see you soon then.”

  Shirley put her car in the garage when she arrived which was what they all did. They had chosen the lodges carefully. Isolated with no other lodges or house nearby, some way from Berlin. Helen came to the door and the smell of egg and bacon was more than acceptable to Shirley.

  “We’ll eat and work at the same time,” Helen said as Shirley set her laptop on the table.

  “Do you have to go in to work?” Shirley asked.

  “Not until the sixth now. What do you have for me?”

  “This.” Shirley accessed the site without letting Helen see how she did it, loathe to share what she had found so distressing the day before. Maybe she would at some time but not just yet, not until she felt she could be sure about anything.

  “Do you remember how you found the map on Schneider’s beard?” she asked.

  “You found it,” Helen replied.

  “But you said it was over marked which I hadn’t noticed. I probably would never have seen the map if you hadn’t commented on it. Daniel, as you know, saw Galanton two on it and neither you nor I saw that. It’s a matter of perspective, I suppose. I need your perspective now.”

  “Is this the site Connie found?” Helen asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you know who runs it?”

  “No. It’s quite progressive really because usually you can only access sites by the URL. Somehow somebody has found a way to do it without act
ually typing in the URL There are some pictures on here I want you to study. We could eat first, if you like.”

  “I can do both at the same time,” Helen said. “What are we looking for?”

  “I don’t know. There are pictures of a few people who were working in East Berlin, both in Intelligence and in the Underground. As you see, all the members of the Chain Quintet are also here, including Joshua. I think they all have their own eyes though it’s a bit difficult to tell and I’m probably being stupid and over imaginative. I’m not even sure what I’m hoping to see.”

  “There’s a building in Joshua’s hair,” Helen said, pointing. She traced her finger round it. “It’s the Reichstag. See? The hair is thick as his was but slightly lighter for the building.”

  “I didn’t see that,” Shirley said.

  “You would have given time. Can you make the pictures bigger so we can study them one at a time?”

  “Yes, of course.” Shirley began to eat while she studied the screen, her face screwed in concentration. It was nice to have someone with her, she thought, but she had Daniel so why didn’t she ask him? She wasn’t quite sure except for the suspicions which were rising in her mind which would upset him. She would like to work with him, she thought, but she found working with Helen satisfying. Except that she was upsetting and frustrating Daniel and she didn’t want to do that. Tears rose to her eyes suddenly. She turned sideways a bit.

  “You’ve found something which has upset you,” Helen said, putting her hand in Shirley’s and squeezing it. “Can you share it?”

  “I’ve been on the computer for some time,” Shirley replied. “My eyes keep watering.”

  “Looking at screens for too long isn’t very good. Shall we have a rest from it and finish our breakfast?”

  “Maybe that would be a good idea.” Shirley pushed down the lid of the laptop and buttered a piece of toast. “This is delicious. Samuel and Michael like egg and bacon though it’s mashed up, of course, because they havn’t any teeth. It looks quite a mess on their plate.”

  “No teeth at all?” Helen asked.

  “No. Is that good or bad?”