Brandenburg

by Henry Porter

  He turned. Harland had begun unfolding a large map of Leipzig. ‘Well, that’s some cause for a small celebration, isn’t it? Did everything sound all right to you?’ He was evidently pleased to be rid of the pair from London.

  Rosenharte poured himself another drink and lit a cigarette. ‘It means nothing,’ he said.

  Harland searched his face.

  ‘It means nothing that the Stasi have kept to their agreement by releasing Else,’ he continued. ‘Not to release her would have sent a message to me that they did not believe in Annalise’s material. Besides, they know they can pick her up any time they want. That’s why I want her and the kids out as soon as possible.’

  ‘We’re going to talk about that in a minute. Just show me where this house is in Leipzig.’

  Rosenharte went to the table and immediately pointed to the spot on Clara Zetkin Park. ‘It’s not easy to see from the park because there is a high fence and some trees, but access is potentially good, should anyone wish to visit Abu Jamal unannounced. Kafka will tell us the moment he is there. And if he stays at another house she will get this information to me.’ He pointed out the addresses given to him by the Russian.

  ‘Good, now we need to talk about your brother and his family. First your brother. Al, have you got those photos?’

  Griswald moved to a desk in the window, picked up an envelope and withdrew several large satellite images. ‘These come from 1985, but they should be good for our purposes.’

  Rosenharte peered at them, moving his head up and down to bring them into focus. ‘You need reading glasses,’ said Griswald.

  ‘I don’t. My eyes are tired.’

  ‘Believe me, you need glasses.’

  At any rate, Rosenharte saw enough to put his finger on the main entrances to Hohenschönhausen, the interrogation centre and the hospital building that ran along the inside of the perimeter wall.

  Macy Harp and the Bird got down close to the four photographs. ‘One thing is immediately obvious,’ Harp said. ‘We only stand a chance of pulling this off while he’s still in the hospital. Once he’s been transferred back to the main detention and interrogation centre, there will be little hope of locating him quickly. But the hospital wing does provide opportunities, even though we have no idea where he’s being kept in that building. If we knew that we would be in better shape.’

  ‘There is something that I can do to find that out,’ said Rosenharte.

  ‘Oh, how?’ asked Harland.

  ‘I must be allowed my secrets too,’ he said.

  ‘We will need the information fast,’ said the Bird.

  ‘I’ll try to get it as soon as I can, though how do I communicate with you? That’s going to be a problem.’

  ‘Let’s concentrate on this problem for a moment,’ said Harland. ‘How sick is your brother? We need to know whether he can walk or even climb. Up until now we’ve never cracked open a jail, which I suppose may be one thing in our favour, but if your brother is unable to move, we need to take that into account.’

  ‘He’s sick,’ said Rosenharte, ‘but the moment he realizes he’s being freed he’ll do everything he can to help. He knows it will be his only chance.’

  ‘Was he in bed when you saw him?’ asked Harp.

  ‘No, he was sitting at a table. I think it was a room they use to continue interrogations while prisoners are receiving treatment. And I do not believe he was drugged.’

  ‘Was there any sign of a gurney or a stretcher in the room?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘So, we can assume he walked. That’s good to know, but we will need to take some emergency medication for his heart and maybe a tranquillizer or two. We’ll get advice on that.’

  ‘What’s the earliest you’d be ready to go?’ asked Harland.

  Harp frowned. ‘Seven to ten days. Maybe more. It depends how long we take to exfiltrate Konrad’s missus and the boys. Cuth is going to handle that. He shouldn’t take more than thirty-six hours from start to finish.’

  Harland glanced at Rosenharte, then spoke. ‘Clearly, these two operations need to be planned as near as possible to each other. I’m keen for Else and the boys to disappear without being noticed. Maybe they should visit you in Dresden.’ He paused. ‘But I have to get these ideas sanctioned by London and . . . well. One thing occurs to me straight away. Once we get Konrad and the family out, there’s absolutely nothing to keep you in the GDR. We’d lose our contact with Kafka.’

  ‘That’s correct,’ he told them. It would be pointless to deny he would leave for the West.

  Griswald rubbed his hands together. ‘Rudi - may I call you that? - you gotta have some faith in us. We’re going to a lot of trouble to help you and it doesn’t look good to our governments if you continue to hold out on us.’ Then he opened his arms in a gesture of appeal. ‘This thing goes beyond you and your family. To be brutal, it’s five people against the lives of many. The intelligence you have brought to us today could be massively important. We need to get to work on it straight away. We have to equip ourselves with all the information.’

  There was a silence in the room. He felt uncomfortable. All eyes had come to rest on him expectantly. ‘I have one good card in this game,’ he said pleasantly. ‘You all understand that once I give it you, I may condemn my brother to rot in that place.’

  Griswald started shaking his head. ‘You got it all wrong. We’re not communists, Rudi. We’re different. I’ve known Bobby for a long time and he’s never welched on a deal. None of us enter an agreement that we can’t keep. If we say we’re going to get your brother out we’ll all do our damnedest to get him out. You know why that is? It’s because we’re compelled to make the distinction between what your side does and what we do, between a secret police force and an intelligence agency. We’re not angels, but you cannot doubt our motives.’

  ‘You forget that I’ve been in the business. I understand the symmetry of the two sides. And besides, I don’t have Kafka’s permission to reveal her name.’

  ‘That’s crap, Rudi. It’s implicit in the information she gave you. No one could say those things and not expect to be named. She understands that. She’s put herself on the line.’

  ‘But I still have a responsibility to her. I have to protect her.’

  ‘No, we have a responsibility to her and to the people who wind up at the end of one of these terrorist attacks. That’s what this is about.’

  Rosenharte put his hands up. ‘I’ll think about it. But if I do give you her name, I’m going to need certain guarantees about her safety.’

  ‘That goes without saying,’ said Harland. ‘There’s just one more area I want to explore before you go off with Cuth and Macy to discuss arrangements for next week.’

  ‘And that is?’ Rosenharte had watched Harland closely these past few hours. He was clearly a field man with little taste for office politics, yet he conducted himself well, letting first Costelloe then Griswald say the things he needed to be said, even if it meant him looking less capable.

  Harland looked away. ‘When the Bird and Macy came back from Dresden after seeing you, they told me about the surveillance deployed against you. They said it was truly impressive - so heavy that they doubted they would be able to get near you.’

  ‘It was,’ said Rosenharte.

  Macy Harp produced a grin as confirmation. The Bird nodded sagely.

  ‘What I don’t understand is how you were able to slip away to travel to Leipzig and to contact Kafka without being observed.’

  ‘I caught the very earliest service to Leipzig. There was a car in my street, which I assumed was Stasi, but they didn’t stir when I left the building.’

  ‘Yes, but given the effort they had mounted in the previous week, it seems downright strange that they did not follow you to Leipzig. Do you see what I’m driving at?’

  ‘No, I don’t.’

  ‘Well, that was the one time you needed to be travelling without restriction and unwatched.’ He let that thought settle in the
room. ‘When were you picked up again?’

  ‘In the main square going back to the Bahnhof.’

  ‘How long was it since you had parted company with Kafka?’

  ‘Not long, perhaps twenty or thirty minutes.’

  ‘And up until that time you had not sensed you were being followed?’

  Rosenharte shook his head, then remembered the tall man in a checked shirt. ‘That’s not entirely true. There was one man who appeared after I left Kafka. It seems the same man had presented himself at the Gemäldegalerie. At least the description of my visitor matched.’

  ‘Was this man Stasi?’

  ‘No, I know the type well. He was far too obvious, too big to be a good surveillance officer.’

  ‘Have you any idea who he was?’

  ‘I was puzzled at the time, but then I forgot about it because I had so much on my mind. He spoke to one of the assistants. By his accent, she took him to be Polish or Czech.’

  ‘And that didn’t ring any bells?’ asked Griswald.

  ‘Of course it did, but even in this affair I cannot believe the man who died in Trieste and this individual were associated.’

  ‘I’d put money on it,’ said Harland, ‘though I don’t know what it means. But let’s just get back to the main square in Leipzig, shall we? Who spotted you?’

  ‘It was Colonel Biermeier.’

  ‘Biermeier! Now there’s a coincidence.’

  ‘No coincidence. He’s in charge of my case for General Schwarzmeer. He needed to find me urgently because they wanted me in Berlin. The Stasi knew I was giving this lecture. That’s how they managed to track me down to Leipzig.’

  ‘Certainly,’ said Harland. ‘But if they were so desperate to apprehend you, why not go to the lecture theatre where you were due to speak at a certain hour, which they would have no difficulty in finding out from the local headquarters. Why wait until so late in the day? It doesn’t make sense.’

  Rosenharte had to admit that it didn’t but he needed food and rest. He was not going to make this his worry.

  Harland persisted when he gave no response. ‘There’s something here that none of us are seeing, Rudi. Both Alan and I feel there’s a hidden hand at work. We need to understand who it is and why. Someone is helping us.’

  Rosenharte saw Vladimir’s elliptical expression in his mind.

  16

  The Return

  Next morning Rosenharte awoke just after nine when Griswald brought him a cup of coffee. He then sat down in a chair at the end of the bed. Rosenharte felt awkward. He liked to be showered, shaved and dressed before facing the world.

  ‘I’m not good at this hour, Mr Griswald,’ he said. ‘It takes me time to find my . . .’

  ‘Equilibrium,’ Griswald offered with a smile. ‘Hey, don’t worry. I’m the same. It’s our age.’ He didn’t offer to leave but sat there beaming. ‘Jessie’s gone out to get you some new clothes and shoes,’ he said eventually. ‘We’ll need them to hide some money for you. Bobby is away talking to his people back in London.’

  Rosenharte nodded and got out of bed, feeling rather foolish in the pair of oversized pyjamas provided by the American. He carried the cup and saucer over to the window and looked out on the view again.

  ‘We need that name, Rudi. We can’t take action unless we’re able to confirm your intelligence.’

  Rosenharte turned to him. ‘But you’ve already taken action based on what she’s told you. You said so last night.’

  Griswald conceded a nod. ‘Still, it would help my side to commit the necessary resources.’

  ‘I am your major resource. I am costing you very little money. You’ll have the name, don’t worry. When Else is out of the country and safely in the West with Christoph and Florian I will tell you and by that time we will know when the Arab is coming to Leipzig.’

  The American shrugged as though he hadn’t really been expecting Rosenharte to move on this. He put his hands to his face in a brief attitude of prayer. ‘I have a question for you, Rudi.’

  ‘Go ahead.’

  ‘You’re an intelligent guy. You must have known you were making a mistake in Brussels. Surely all your training meant you knew the risks of not telling your side immediately about Annalise Schering’s death?’

  Rosenharte was surprised. He sat down heavily on a covered bench by the window, lit a cigarette and used his saucer as an ashtray. ‘Why’re you asking about that now?’

  ‘You see, we have to consider the possibility that you did tell them; that they’ve known all the time and have been playing along realizing that the truth channel was exactly that.’ He stopped and leant forward. ‘That would explain why you have managed to live in relative peace and obscurity over the last dozen or so years. If this is the case, it would mean this whole damned thing is a Stasi con.’

  ‘There was very little time that night and I was genuinely shocked by her death. She was very young and I felt guilty about using such a trusting person. You see, I already felt bad about asking her to help us.’

  Griswald had started shaking his head before Rosenharte finished. ‘But you were trained as a Romeo. You were trained to make love to women and use them. That was your sole purpose.’

  ‘No, that was not my sole purpose. I was sent to the West as an illegal with a false identity and background. I was destined for long-term work.’ He paused and looked Griswald in the eye. ‘And you know why I agreed to do this. Because it seemed the best hope I had of getting to the West. In the right circumstances I would have defected. But I was not just a Romeo.’

  ‘But you were schooled in the art of love back in the East. We know about these things. Your speciality was seducing lonely secretaries.’

  ‘It was not my speciality. It was part of the job of every agent sent as an illegal to the West.’

  ‘Yes, but the training included techniques of seduction, guidance about the right psychological moment to broach the subject of espionage.’

  Rosenharte snorted a laugh and stubbed out his cigarette. ‘You’re like Biermeier. You’re exaggerating the effort the Stasi put into this. Do you imagine there was some kind of love school where we were taught about sending flowers and the multiple orgasm? No, there were just a few talks, one to one, on certain techniques and signs.’

  Rosenharte almost smiled at the memory of the anonymous man with the air of a black marketeer who came to the spy school at Potsdam-Eiche and gave each member of the class a tutorial. He described it all to Griswald. Watch their feet, the man would say. When a woman’s feet are pointing in your direction, she wants you. If she is sitting down opposite you and her legs are crossed with one foot moving, she is already anticipating the rhythmic movements of the act of love. If her gaze shifts from your eyes to your mouth, if she toys with her hair or brushes her chin she is sending out an invitation. If she places her hand on her hips, touches her mouth or even looks down at her own cleavage, she is drawing attention to her most attractive features and is signalling that she is available. On the other hand, if she keeps her arms folded across her breasts, looks away when she speaks or smiles at the wrong moment when you are speaking, she is not interested.

  It had all seemed ridiculously literal to Rosenharte but the Stasi treated it no less seriously than the sessions about building the woman’s psychological dependence on her agent and introducing the idea of passing the odd piece of intelligence to a friendly agency - usually Sweden or Denmark. Only when sufficient intelligence had been gained and the woman was too compromised to tell her own side would they reveal that the true destination was East Germany. Rosenharte had pretty much done everything by the book and he thought things were going well. Then Annalise had kicked up when he’d asked her about the private lives of three men in the Commission. She knew immediately that he was working for the East Germans. After that, things had deteriorated quickly and before very long he was looking at her body in the bath.

  Griswald listened intently to all this, then asked him once more for the name be
fore eventually leaving Rosenharte to get dressed.

  It was agreed later when Harland returned that there might be the need for one more meeting with Annalise, though they would wait to see how things went with Konrad before this was arranged. Rosenharte would tell the Stasi the next rendezvous was set for the middle of October in the West. After that he would make it plain that she was willing to undertake the trip to East Germany.

  At eleven Jessie returned with a new jacket, a pair of shoes and two shirts. The Bird set about making neat incisions along the line of the front seam and the collar of the short blue overcoat and inserted the $2,000-worth of high denomination Deutschmarks. He dissected the insoles of the new shoes and padded each with five $100 bills. The remaining $2,000 was stitched into the backing of a broad leather belt. While this went on Harland schooled him in the new procedure to make contact with them, which involved a code that changed each week.

  At the end of the morning, Rosenharte was introduced to two men and a woman - all citizens of the Federal Republic - who would slip into East Germany and find their way to Leipzig over the coming weeks. They were on loan from the West German intelligence service, the BND. For the moment, the three were known as Red, White and Orange. They were already familiar with the procedure for contacting Kafka. Rosenharte knew it was only a matter of time before they identified her, but he had no choice but to go along with the arrangement.

  Before they set off to Checkpoint Charlie, one of the Germans showed him a photograph of a pleasant-looking apartment block in a small town near the BND’s headquarters in Pullach. There was a play area for the boys, plenty of room and a view of the Alps from the back of the building. This was where Else would be housed until Konrad arrived. A local school had already agreed to take the boys in, and most of the neighbours worked for the BND and would be able to keep an eye on them.

  Just past one o’clock, Tudor drove Jessie and Rosenharte to Friedrichstrasse where they got out and entered the Cafe Adler. The place was already under surveillance by Griswald’s people, but as yet no known Stasi faces had been spotted. Jessie was subdued. He looked at her with an interrogative raise of the eyebrows. She avoided his gaze and looked out at the traffic passing through the checkpoint. Gradually her hands moved across the table to touch his. Their eyes met. ‘What I’m going to say now is me,’ she whispered.