Appointment in Berlin

by Neil Maresca

  This exchange took place over breakfast in the communal dining hall, a large, barren room furnished with long tables and metal folding chairs. Normally, it would have been filled with students from the Technical Institute, but today its only diners were the six Allied Student Ambassadors and their dozen or so ‘guides’—and, of course, the omnipresent Frau Viser.

  The Student Ambassadors engaged in casual, non-personal conversation about the quality of their accommodations, and their schedule for the day. Apparently, Lucas thought, they have all come to the same conclusion that he and Peter had—the whole place was bugged.

  However, when they were shepherded out of the dining hall onto the front steps of the Technical Institute to await their transportation to the People’s Women’s Fitness Institute, they were free to speak without fear of being overheard.

  “We have to talk,” Peter said to Kate.

  “The last time you said that, you never showed up. I waited, but you never came.”

  “I know. And I’m sorry, but I was scooped up by Strickland and de Groot. I had no choice. Please, Kate, Listen to me. That night….”

  “That night was a mistake, and we both know it. I’ve tried to forget it.”

  “So have I—but I can’t. You’re right. It was a mistake. We both knew the rules about relationships in the Agency. But we did it anyway. So mistake or no mistake, it happened, and I can’t forget it.”

  They were standing on the steps of the Technical Institute in full view of the other Ambassadors and a contingent of East German security guards, and they both had to restrain their emotions and pretend they were having a casual conversation. Peter wanted to reach out and take Kate in his arms. Kate wasn’t sure what she wanted. He had left her bed without even saying goodbye, not called her for weeks after, told her he had to speak with her then left her standing alone, but worst of all, she had seen him kissing Anke, and she had no doubt that he had done more. For more than two months, she had been on an emotional roller coaster, one minute wanting him, another, hating him. She told herself she was over him, but didn’t really believe it.

  “OK,” she said. “You wanted to talk. Talk.” Her voice sounded cold and harsh, and she knew she was being hard on him, but she couldn’t help herself.

  Peter looked around nervously. No one was paying any attention to them. The van was late, and Fruelein Viser was angry. She was excoriating one very frightened security guard, while Lucas, Penelope, Rene, and Francois were huddled together, watching the scene with amusement.

  Peter swallowed hard. He was uncharacteristically nervous. He hesitated.

  “Well,” Kate said, “What are you waiting for?”

  “I hadn’t pictured it like this,” he said. “I had envisioned Paris, a summer’s night, overlooking the Seine River with Notre Dame lit up in the distance.”

  “Well, it’s not Paris. It’s not summer. It’s the crappy GDR; it’s winter, and I’m freezing, so please get on with it.”

  Peter took a deep breath and as he exhaled, he whispered, “I think I’m in love with you.”

  “You THINK you’re in love me! What do you mean, you think you’re in love with me? You either love me or you don’t. There is no think about it. I don’t have to think about it. I know it. I love you.”

  She hadn’t meant to say it, but she had. It just came out, and it startled the both of them.

  “You love me?”

  “Didn’t I just say that, you dummy. Yes I love you. I think I loved you from the first time I saw you in the waiting room at the USIF offices, and I’ve thought about you every day since—even before that night.”

  “You love me?”

  “Yes, but you have a lot of explaining to do. I saw you with Anke.”

  “Anke?”

  “Yes, Anke. What’s the matter with you? Have you lost your mind?”

  “I think I have—along with my heart.”

  “Well, you had better find them both. The van is here and Fruelein Viser is coming this way.”

  Chapter 50

  February 17, 1957

  The People’s Technical Institute

  East Berlin, German Democratic Republic

  The visit to the People’s Women’s Fitness Institute went without complication, as did the following day’s excursion to the GDR’s newest and largest social experiment, the Gemeindezentrum, or People’s Community Center, a large apartment complex, complete with an in-house gymnasium, swimming pool, and auditorium so “the people could exercise their minds as well as their bodies.” The apartment building was adjacent to a steel works, which employed the residents and a supermarket that fed them. Lucas and his fellow Ambassadors were lectured by government officials, and allowed to meet a few selected residents who told them how wonderful life was in the GDR, but they were not free to move about on their own or talk to anybody who was not on the official list.

  It depressed Lucas, who saw in it the ultimate degradation of the human spirit. You were born into the Gemeindezentrum, lived and worked in the Gemeindezentrum, and died in the Gemeindezentrum. He saw no difference between it and the company-owned mill towns of the Industrial Revolution that had spawned communism. They have recreated the past, he thought, with themselves in charge instead of the mill owners. It only served to increase his hatred of communism.

  Peter and Kate were also unimpressed with the community center, which reminded Kate more of an old-age home than a people’s paradise. They stayed as close together as they could without attracting undue attention from Frau Viser, who seemed to be everywhere at once, and had the power to cool their passion with one cold glance.

  “She knows,” Lucas told Peter later that evening when they were back in their room.

  “I know,” Peter replied, “Although I have no idea what use it is to her.”

  “You’re the spy, not me, but it seems to me that it’s all about information and leverage. She’ll write it all down somewhere and sometime in the future she will make use of it to compromise you in some way. If she knows you care for Kate, then she can control you by threatening her.”

  “You know, I think Strickland made a mistake selecting me for the CIA You would have been a better choice.”

  “Nonsense. You’re a natural.”

  “I thought so at one time, but now I’m not so sure. I’m a terrible spy. I already compromised myself by telling you; I refused to follow Strickland’s order to seduce Anke, and I’ve fallen in love with another agent—and you’re right, that makes me vulnerable. And I’ll tell you something else—Strickland ordered me to spy on you. He suspects that you are hiding something, and I think he’s right, but I have been unable to find out a single useful thing about you except that I believe you are a good person., and whatever secret you have is your business and not the Strickland’s, and not the CIA’s either.”

  “I don’t know if you are good spy or not, but for what it’s worth, I think you are a good person too, and I’m very glad we have become friends…but what are you going to do about Kate? If what you say is true, you can’t continue your relationship and still remain an agent.”

  “I’m not sure. I have to explain to her about Anke, that’s for sure. After that, I really don’t know. I’m hoping to get a chance to talk to her tomorrow while we’re at the farm. There should be plenty of opportunity while we’re outdoors walking the fields. There’s something else….”

  “Yes?”

  “In keeping with being a lousy spy….”

  Lucas could see that his friend was troubled, and so he waited and didn’t respond immediately. Finally, however, he said, “You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.”

  “No, no,” Peter protested. “I want to tell you. It just sounds stupid….I have a bad feeling about this.”

  “About what?”

  “I’m here for more than to just look at the commies’ power plant.”

  “That’s no surprise. I had assumed as much from the beginning. You’re not going to blow it up are you?”
/>
  “No, nothing like that. I just have to run a small errand for Strickland. He assured me it was nothing, but I feel like I’m being played…like there’s a game going on that I know nothing about, like I’m a piece on a chess board being moved around by forces I can’t see and can’t control. Worst of all, Lucas, I’m beginning to believe that I’m a pawn, and I’m expendable.”

  “Is there any way I could help?”

  “No. Believe it or not, I know nothing about this ‘errand.’ I’m just supposed to wait to be contacted by some mystery man, and do what he says. I think I’m supposed to pick something up and bring it back to Strickland, but I have no idea what it is, or when, where, or how I am supposed to get it.

  “To make matters worse, Kate’s supposed to be my backup, but she knows even less than I do. I’m worried that something’s going to go wrong. I don’t care so much for myself, but I’m afraid that Kate will get caught up in it, and I can’t stand to think of her getting hurt.

  “Now that I think about it, there is one thing you can do for me.”

  “Anything, just let me know what it is.”

  “I have no right to ask this of you, but if something happens to me, would you look out for Kate?”

  “Of course, but nothing’s going to happen to you. I don’t think Strickland would have asked you to do anything particularly dangerous—after all, you’re not really a full-fledged spy are you? You don’t have your 007 designation just yet. I think this is just some kind of test to see how well you do. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the ‘errand’ involves bringing back something of no value at all like a belated Christmas card.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “I am. Don’t worry.”

  But Lucas didn’t believe what he told Peter. He knew what Peter only suspected. There were forces moving pieces about, and in the scale of real world power and politics, people like Peter and Kate counted for very little. He had seen first-hand how easily people’s lives could be terminated. Peter, he realized, with his supremely confident good humor and optimism was quintessentially American, and dangerously naïve and innocent.

  He made up his mind that he would not only look after Kate should anything happen to Peter, but he would also look after Peter and, if possible, protect him from harm. He had already lost too many people he cared for. He didn’t want to add Peter’s name to the list.

  Chapter 51

  February 18, 1957

  A Collective Farm

  East Berlin, German Democratic Republic

  It was a miserably cold and overcast day.

  “A lousy day to have to visit an East German collective farm,” Peter griped.

  “On the other hand,” Lucas quipped, “There is no good day, or good reason, to tour an East German collective farm.”

  “Stop complaining, you two Capitalist cupcakes,” Kate said, joining in on the fun. “This is brisk German air. It’s good for you. It will make you strong like those German girls we saw the other day. And it’s not overcast. That’s not a cloud you see overhead. It’s pollution.”

  “Now I feel a lot better,” Peter said.

  They had stopped walking and stood looking out over a field of wheat that was being worked mainly by hand, with only a little help from a Russian made machine of uncertain age.

  “Is this the best they have to offer?” Lucas wondered aloud. He had taken a cross-country trip with his family several years earlier. They had driven across America from coast to coast, past corn fields and wheat fields filled with row after row of crops being harvested by large modern machines. Even the smallest family farm put this cooperative to shame.

  Lucas saw that Frau Viser was busy with some of the locals, so he walked on ahead, leaving Kate and Peter alone to discuss their futures.

  Peter wasted no time. He quickly caught Kate up on his stay at the Roosa’s, including Strickland’s instruction to seduce Anke and use her as a conduit for misinformation. He told Kate everything—except his special ‘errand’ for Strickland and his misgivings. It wasn’t that he wanted to be anything less than honest with her, but he recognized that the less she knew, the less danger she would be in if anything should go wrong. He couldn’t share his fears and misgivings with her, but he did tell her of his plans to leave the CIA once this mission was over.

  “I’ve been giving this a lot of thought,” he said. “And I’ve made up my mind. When we get back to Leiden, I’m going to tell Strickland I’m not cut out for this secret agent stuff—the diplomatic corps, OK, but not the spy business. It’s too dirty for me. I couldn’t do what Strickland wanted. I find that I’ve even lost a little respect for him. I understand that he’s a soldier and we’re at war, but I can’t square my conscience with the idea that Anke is just collateral damage, and it’s OK to use her. Besides, if I stay in the CIA, I can’t marry you, and I intend to marry you as soon as we’re out of this God-forsaken country.”

  “Is that a proposal?”

  “I guess it is. Like I said the other day…not where or how I planned it. Close your eyes and pretend we’re in Paris. Maybe that will help.”

  “Oh no. I want to remember this day forever, just as it is—standing in East Germany on a bitter cold day watching a group of collective farmers pretending to be happy while moving hay from one field to another in the vain belief that this will demonstrate the superiority of the Communist system. So romantic! Perhaps on our 50th wedding anniversary, we can come back here.”

  “Is that a ‘Yes’?”

  “Of course it’s a ‘Yes.’ Now give me a kiss before Frau Viser comes back.”

  Later that evening, back in their room, Lucas chided Peter.

  “You and Kate weren’t very discreet today. I don’t think there’s anybody who isn’t aware of what’s going on between you.”

  “I don’t think it matters anymore. Kate has agreed to marry me, and I’ve decided to give up this spying business. I plan on telling Strickland as soon as we get back to Leiden.”

  “Good for you! Congratulations! I’m delighted for both of you.”

  “I want you to be my best man—if that’s OK with you.”

  “I’d be honored. Wow—a wedding. I’ll give you credit, Peter. When you set your mind to something, you don’t waste time.”

  “And what about you?”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, you. When are you going to ask Anke to marry you?”

  Peter watched as Lucas crawled back into his shell, his enthusiasm and animation falling off him like leaves from a dying tree.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “Not your fault,” Lucas murmured.

  “I swear…nothing happened between us. I truly believe Anke is a good girl. She was abandoned by her mother, and has been horribly used by her father. She needs you Lucas—and I think you need her.”

  Lucas took a long time to reply. He sat down at the small desk, looked down at the floor and began speaking very slowly, directing his voice to the floor as if confessing some terrible sin.

  “You’ve been wondering about my secret,” he began. “I’ll tell you what I have never told anyone else. Perhaps it will help you understand about me and Anke.”

  Peter sat in the only other chair in the room and waited.

  “It’s not a secret so much as it is a fear, a fear and a hatred. When I was ten years old, I watched as my father was assassinated by a communist, not just any communist, but a trusted employee and friend. He would have killed my mother and me as well if he had not been prevented. A short time later, this same assassin killed my older brother…well, not quite my brother, but the closest thing I have ever had to a brother. The communists have taken just about everything away from my mother and me. They have killed people I love, and look at what they have done since taking power in Russia. Stalin killed more people than Hitler, and Khrushchev enslaves millions of people in Eastern Europe. Communism is evil, and the people who serve it are evil as well.

/>   “When you told me that Roosa was a communist, and Anke was doing his bidding, I couldn’t stand it. You’re right about my feelings for her, but I couldn’t bring myself to look past the fact that her father was a communist. It brought back too many bad memories. I know it sounds unfair, but you haven’t seen your father shot, or spent weeks on the run in fear for your life. After you told me about her and her father, I couldn’t think of her kindly anymore…I couldn’t separate my feelings for her from my hatred of communism.”

  “But you care for her, Lucas. And I believe she is innocent. I don’t believe she is a communist.”

  “You’re right. I care for her—a lot, and to tell you the truth, and I don’t believe she is a communist either.”

  “Then you’ve got to tell her.”

  “I know. I left without saying anything to her.”

  “Talk to her as soon as you get back. Maybe we can have a double wedding!”

  “Slow down. I don’t even know if she likes me.”

  “I’m sure she likes you. How could she not like you? You’re probably the nicest person I know—aside from Kate of course.”

  “I wish I had your confidence.”

  “Don’t worry. Everything will work out. Life is good.”

  “You’ve changed your tune. Yesterday, you were depressed and worried. Today. You’re all smiles.”

  “Love will do that to you, you’ll see.”

  Chapter 52

  February 18, 1957

  The Walter Ulbricht Electric Power Plant

  Hazelhorst, German Democratic Republic

  Frau Viser studied her charges as they disembarked from the van. She disliked babysitting these CIA and M-6 recruits, but she recognized the importance of her assignment. It was brilliant; she had to admit it—a public relations coup and an undercover operation all in one.

  Party Secretary Ulbricht wanted to show the West that the German Democratic Republic was a force to be reckoned with, and he also wanted to show Russia—and particularly Khrushchev—that he was a force to be reckoned with. And the new Minister of State Security, Frau Viser’s boss, Erich Mielke, saw an opportunity to use Ulbricht’s proposed public relations program to strengthen the Stasi’s international operations. So he placed his top international spy expert in charge of this group of fledgling Western agents.