by Paul Blake
Arthur stood up, ‘You get out of here now, before I end you.’ He removed a piece of paper from his pocket and key and gave it to Mihael. ‘This is the locker number and key. I’ll see you tomorrow at the safe house to give you the rest of the money. Don’t worry you’ll get Todor’s share too.’
Mihael pocketed the paper and turned to Alec and said, ‘Come on Foster.’
Alec picked up his jacket and put it on; he was comforted by the weight of the pockets. He turned to Arthur. ‘I’ll see you again.’
‘No, you won’t. You do your job, and they’ll be safe. Just remember that.’
24
The train slowed as Alec and Mihael stood up to alight at Bahnhof Berlin Zoologischer Garten. They had ridden seated next to each other, the silence only broken twice when Mihael had answered his mobile phone. Alec got the gist that Newbury was checking on them, and figured it was going to be a regular thing. It’s so frustrating. I could beat the crap of him here and now and be free to get Sara, but Arthur has his buddy on a tight leash. I can’t risk him hurting her. I need to find a way of telling Claudia where she is. I’ll bide my time, this Mihael doesn’t seem like the smartest, so maybe he’ll make a mistake, leave an opening.
The train stopped, and they stepped off on to the platform.
‘The lockers are this way,’ Alec said. ‘Come on.’ He walked off knowing Mihael would follow. They walked down the stairs to the ground level, and Alec headed towards the lockers.
‘Which locker is it?’
Mihael fumbled in his pockets for the piece of paper, ‘0217.’
‘And the key?’ Alec moved to that locker and held his hand out. Mihael was clearly subordinate in the two relationships Alec had observed him in: with the driver, and with Arthur, maintaining an authoritative stance could help me later. Mihael passed Alec the key. He placed it in the slot and turned, the locker popped open, and Alec opened the door wider. Alec reached in and took out the silver briefcase; it had a nice weight to it. He held it out for Mihael to carry. That’s one hand less for defending yourself. Mihael took it without comment.
‘Right, we need to get some gear. I know a place not far away,’ Alec said.
‘We’re supposed to go the cathedral,’ Mihael protested.
‘You can go to the cathedral, sit out all night up on scaffolding in the middle of December if you want. Me, I’m already cold, and it’s going to get worse during the night. If you don’t want us to freeze to death, we’d better get some equipment and some supplies. You didn’t do mountain exposure training in the KGB?’ Alec said.
‘No, I was based in Turkey,’ Mihael admitted, with a flush to his cheeks.
‘I went on a course with the SAS, one week up a mountain with the toughest guys you could ever imagine. Trust me I know what I’m doing.’ That’s right, building relationships and compromising people’s trust is what I do best.
‘Ok, we go get supplies. Don’t try anything though.’
‘Don’t worry, Arthur has my niece, I’ll carry out the job.’ Only if there are no other options. ‘Come on, let’s go.’
They left the station through the main entrance on to Hardenbergplatz. Alec could see McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts opposite. They crossed over onto Joachimsthaler and headed south.
‘Is it far?’ Mihael asked.
‘Just down here a little bit, not far.’
They walked past a florist and some restaurants until they came to the junction with Kantstraße, there was a large sporting goods store on the corner over the road, and opposite that on the other side was a skiing store.
‘You were right, these weren’t far at all,’ Mihael said.
‘Oh, those aren’t where we’re going; they don’t have the right equipment. They’re like Sports Depot in Bulgaria; we need something like Camping Rocks. These are more sports fashion than practical,’ Alec said. The amount of information in my head about the ex-Soviet bloc countries surprises even me sometimes.
‘I see. Yes. You’re right. How much longer?’
‘You’ll be surprised,’ Alec said.
They crossed over Kantstraße, walked past the Karstadt sports store and continued walking for two minutes until they reached the junction with Kurfürstendamm. Alec turned right onto “Ku'damm” and stopped as Mihael’s phone rang. Arthur again? Mihael spoke into the phone, he didn’t tell Newbury where they were going. That’s a good sign. After the call ended Mihael asked, ‘how long until we’re there? You better not be trying anything.’
Alec put on a broad smile and pointed to the entrance of the Kranzler Eck Berlin shopping mall beside them. ‘Here we are, I was about say before your call. We need to go to Jack Wolfskin, they’ll have what we need.’ Alec noted that Mihael was breathing a little harder. Not used to walking? Maybe the broken nose isn’t helping. He smiled.
‘That wasn’t far. You were right.’ Mihael smiled back.
They entered the shopping mall and looked at the store directory for Jack Wolfskin. Alec let Mihael find it on the plan. He already knew where it was located.
‘Well done, Mihael, you’ll be part of the SAS in no time.’
Mihael beamed at the praise.
In the store, Alec headed straight for the sleeping bags and chose the most expensive one.
‘That’s almost 300 euros, I’m not paying that,’ Mihael protested.
‘I’m paying, it was my idea.’ The company are paying. It is business related; I’ll be able to justify the expense to the penny-pinching bean counters. Alec smiled to himself. If I live that long, of course. The smile evaporated. ‘We’ll need the best if we’re to survive the night. It’s going to be cold.’
Alec bought two of everything: sleeping bags, rain covers, thermos flasks, self-inflating mats for the sleeping bags, and backpacks. They moved over to the clothing section, and Alec picked out a large parka for Mihael, a couple of jumpers for them, thermal undershirts, thick gloves and hats.
‘You’re going to need layers to stay warm,’ Alec said. Mihael was wearing a beat-up, black leather jacket and jeans. The bulkier you are, the more restrictive your movements will be.
‘Aren’t you going to get a coat?’
‘No, this is fine,’ Alec said. He pulled the lapels of his jacket. ‘It’s windproof and has a fleecy layer. I’ll be fine.’ I’d prefer to keep this, thank you.
When they were at the till Alec added a penknife to the pile of items. Alec paid for the goods, and the sales assistant put them in the backpacks to make them easier to carry. Alec and Mihael left the store with the packs on their backs.
‘Now for supplies,’ He said. ‘There’s a Lidl round the corner.’
Outside the shopping mall, it had turned dark. They walked the two minutes to the Lidl supermarket and stocked up on drinking water, cold meats, bread and cheese. Not much of a last supper. We can’t be having an open flame on a scaffold, now can we? They returned to the Zoologischer Garten station area. There they stopped off at McDonalds and bought some coffees and a meal each. At the seating area, Alec took the thermos flasks from the backpacks and filled them with the coffee.
‘Ideally, we should wash these out before using them. I suppose it doesn’t matter too much,’ Alec said.
‘Why’s that?’
‘Dust from the factory they are made at gets inside and can affect the drink. We’re more concerned with having hot liquid to keep warm than whether it tastes great.’
Once they had finished their meal, they stopped off at Dunkin’ Donuts and bought a selection of doughnuts and bagels. Alec decided they had enough supplies to last them the night. They went into the station and boarded the S3 train to Hackescher Markt station.
◆◆◆
They exited the station and came out onto Henriette-Herz-Platz, there were a number of restaurants under the red-brick arches supporting the tracks overhead.
‘How come we didn’t eat in there?’ Mihael asked as they passed the BBQ Kitchen restaurant, ‘it smells delicious.’
‘It
does, you’re right. The food tastes pretty good there too. But we look like the world’s oldest gap year students. That’s not the sort of place where we’d go; we would stand out too much. Somewhere like McDonalds is great for maintaining anonymity. You get everyone there from businessman to families to backpackers. We’re getting close now; you should be able to see the cathedral soon.’
They turned onto Burgstraße and followed the path of the Spree, as predicted the cathedral was in the near distance across the river. They crossed on to Vera-Brittain-Ufer, the waterfront promenade that runs parallel to the rear of the cathedral. They passed the nude bronzed statues of Berliners sitting on the wall enjoying the view, and went down the steps to the lower promenade, right alongside the river and below the terrace restaurants with their empty tables in the chilly air. The walkway was separated from the river by a grey ornate iron fence. Too high for me to push him over, even if I did Arthur would call before I could reach him, putting Sara at risk. I can’t have that. As if on cue, Mihael’s phone rang. Alec carried on walking as Mihael stopped to answer it.
‘Alec, wait!’ He called. A breakthrough? Mihael had always called him Foster before.
Alec stopped; he was outside the DDR Museum. They were closing up for the night. Alec thought about Peter, and how his phone call this morning had interrupted the man’s visit there. Sorry, Peter for getting you mixed up in this. Mihael caught up with him.
‘What’s that?’ he asked, pointing at the building.
‘It’s a museum dedicated to how life was in the DDR.’ Mihael had a confused look on his face, so Alec explained. ‘The DDR was the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, after World War Two Germany was split into East and West. The DDR was the east, along with half of Berlin. The river there was the part of the border in the city, the other part was the Berlin Wall which you would have heard of.’
Mihael nodded, he looked interested in the history lesson, so Alec continued, ‘Mihael is Slovenian, isn’t it? Is that where you are from?’
‘My father is from there. I was born and raised in Bulgaria.’
‘I’ve been to Sofia a few times, it’s a lovely city. I love all the street art, the paintings on buildings.’ Not really, it’s a very poor imitation of Berlin.
‘I’m from Pernik, it’s much nicer than Sofia, and every winter we have the Surva, the festival of masquerade. You’ll have to… oh.’ His face dropped and then became stern as he remembered his purpose.
Slowly, Alec, slowly. Alec patted his arm, ‘I’m sure it’s a great place, who knows, I may get the opportunity… in this life or the next.’ Alec smiled as he mimicked Russell Crowe in Gladiator. Mihael returned the smile, but Alec could see he didn’t get the reference. ‘Where was I? Oh yes, the DDR museum. Inside the museum there are exhibits all about everyday life during the period, so people can see how people lived and worked. It’s very interesting. Shall we continue? It’s not too far to the building site now.’
‘I think so, yes.’
They walked up the stairs and came out in front of the Radisson Blu hotel and the Karl-Liebknecht Strauss B2 highway. To their left, Alec could see the Berliner Fernsehturm, lit up in the clear night sky. It’s such a lovely view of the city from up there, especially at night. They crossed the highway and headed right towards the Humboldtforum, or Berlin Palace, which was in the process of being reconstructed after being demolished in 1950. This was where they were going to hole up in and where Alec was going to shoot from. They walked around the perimeter, past the Humboldt-Box, a futuristic museum about the Palace, its history and how it would look after the reconstruction. Alec thought the Samsung branding that adorned the museum and the palace reconstruction site was gaudy but appreciated that private enterprise was needed to fund the venture and was glad it wasn’t coming out of the taxes he paid to the German government. He wasn’t considered as part of the diplomatic corps which paid their taxes to the UK. It was a bone of contention among some officers as German income tax was slightly higher than the UK. The structure was protected from vandals and the public by an eight-foot-high black wooden fence all the way around.
‘There’s no way I can climb that,’ Alec said.
‘Yes, you can,’ Mihael said. ‘I’ll help you.’
They walked to a darkened corner around the back of the structure, away from the main road. Mihael crouched down and cupped his hands.
‘Come on, Alec. You can do it.’
‘I’m not sure about this, Mihael,’ Alec warned. He put his backpack on the ground and then placed his hands on the wooden fence; he put his foot in Mihael’s hands and braced himself.
‘3… 2…,’ Mihael counted down. A memory of scrumping apples with his brother Mark flashed in Alec’s head. His brother small foot in Alec’s hands, Mark must have been five or six. The same countdown. Their frustrated attempts to scale their neighbour’s fence, for the apples lying on the grass. They used to covert those apples, looking down from their bedroom window above.
‘1… go!’ Mihael finished.
He pushed Alec high; Alec’s fingers grabbed for the top edge of the fence. He finally got purchase and pulled himself up, Mihael still pushing up his legs. The top of the fence was a foot-wide flat surface. Alec struggled but managed to get his leg up, and the other soon followed.
‘I’m up, I can’t believe it!’ There was exhilaration and exhaustion in his voice. ‘Pass me up the bags.’
Alec laid across the top of the fence, his feet dangling over the over the side. Mihael passed up the bags and briefcase. Alec gently lowered them the other side.
‘Now you Mihael,’ Alec lowered his hand and felt the strong grip in return. He counted down and at “Go” pulled with all his might.
Mihael’s feet scrabbled for purchase, slipping on the slick painted surface. His fingers reached the top and Alec grabbed the wrist with his free hand and pulled even harder. His face reddened from the strain and he felt his back beginning to go. Mihael managed to get a leg up on the top and gradually brought the other one up. They both collapsed on their backs, breathing in draughts of the chilled night air.
25
Alec and Mihael made it to the top floor of the palace. The palace was a concrete shell that looked like a multi-storey car park. Plain pillars and functional concrete staircases. There was dim lighting on each floor. Possibly to assist the security patrols, if there are any. They stopped to dress in their camping clothes and for a light meal. There was scaffolding covering the outside of the building, from the ground to the roof. Some sections of scaffolding were covered by an awning, plain on the inside, Samsung branding on the outside. Alec decided that they would stay on the scaffolding, between the building and the awning. That should give us some protection from the arctic wind outside, and also from any patrols inside the building.
They made their way round to the section of the palace facing the cathedral. With the penknife Alec made a small hole in the awning to ensure they were lined up with the entrance to the cathedral, Alec calculated that they were approximately one hundred and twenty metres from where the Prime Minister would exit their vehicle. I could probably hit that with a catapult, let alone a sniper rifle. With a sniper rifle, it’ll be like I’m standing next to them. They set up their self-inflating base mats and got into their sleeping bags to protect them from the cold. The sky was overcast, and Alec hoped it didn’t rain during the night. That would make an already miserable situation far worse. Once they were settled Alec asked Mihael questions about his time in Turkey and what home life was like in Bulgaria. At one stage Mihael showed him pictures of his girlfriend, and Alec knew that Mihael was starting to see Alec as a person rather than a target. Slow and steady, gain his trust, make friends. When it comes to the end, he may hesitate, hell, he may even let me go. I’ll need any advantage I can get.
They talked, ate and drank the still warm coffee from the flasks. Newbury interrupted proceedings at random times checking up on them. Alec noticed Mihael was taking longer to answer the phone
each time. When they weren’t talking, Alec was thinking about Sara and the times they had spent together. How she always looked happy to see him and her excitement with each new place, exhibition, and show that Alec took her to when she came to Berlin. He always looked for fun, different things for them to do and see. Last time he took her to an art and music show in a cellar at Rosenthalerstraße, called Monsterkabinett. She loved going through the courtyards covered with street art and graffiti, she took countless photos, even getting selfies of them in front of some of them. Alec paid for tickets from the excitable host at the entrance to the show. They then went to the Eschschloraque bar next door while they waited for the show to begin; the bar was littered with strange creatures and artworks. When it was showtime, they descended the narrow staircase to the cellar, and the English-speaking host took them into the darkness where they experienced a bizarre mix of robotics, monsters and techno. Sara absolutely loved it and had told him she wanted to go again.
The night passed as it does, Alec looked for opportunities to contact Claudia to tell her where Sara was, however, Mihael didn’t let him stray. He followed Alec during toilet breaks and during their own security patrols when they checked to see if they were being watched. Alec tried to keep the frustration out of his voice. He didn’t want to spoil the groundwork he had laid. If I’m still alive, I have a chance. He kept telling himself.
At one stage he dozed off, snug in the layers of clothing and the warmth of the sleeping bag. He was woken by Mihael and was surprised that it was daylight.
‘What time is it?’ He asked.
‘Just after eight, we have two hours before the Prime Minister gets here. You were shouting in your sleep.’
‘Probably, I get regular nightmares, have done for many years now. Sorry. Did you get any sleep?’
‘No, I can’t until this is done.’