The Double Game

by Dan Fesperman

  35

  I walked Litzi home well after midnight, but didn’t stay. Both of us felt that my proper place that night was under my father’s roof. Too restless to go straight home, I detoured into twisting lanes and alleys through the heart of the city. Even there, Vienna was never completely at peace. The troubled and the restless were forever on the prowl, shoulders hunched. Car wheels hummed out along the Ring, and the legions of surveillance cameras gazed eternally from on high.

  I ended up on a narrow street I remembered from my teens—playing soccer with friends, the ball bouncing wildly off walls and door fronts, skipping crazily on the cobbles. At the end of the block was an old bookstore that had once been a favorite of my father’s, smaller than Kurzmann’s but in far better shape. I recalled the fussy old proprietor, who’d had little patience for fidgety boys, although the shop itself had been a wonder, with a richer concentration of treasure than most of Dad’s haunts. By necessity, probably, since its holdings were crammed into a single square room with only a tiny office in the back.

  I peered through the picture window into the gloom of its high shelves. A streetlamp lit the view. A tapping noise made me whirl around, but it was only water dripping from a downspout. I read the familiar name painted on the plate glass: Der Flügel, German for “The Wing.” Then I noticed something that had never registered before. Beneath the name was a tiny drawing of a piano. Flügel was also slang for a grand piano, because of its winglike shape when viewed from above.

  In the middle of a busy day, with people and cars hurtling by, I doubt my mind would have been focused enough to make the connection that occurred next. But in the calm darkness of two a.m., the tiny piano stirred up an old name from deep in the readings of my past: Max Flügel, nickname Das Klavier, or the Piano.

  He was a minor but remarkable character who first appeared in Lemaster’s A Lesson in Tradecraft—Flügel, the can-do fixer who ran a safe house in Hamburg. He also had another distinction, if my memory was correct. He once had an encounter with Heinz Klarmann, the freelance operative modeled after Lothar Heinemann.

  Now the store had my full attention, especially as I recalled Lothar’s cryptic words about where he’d stashed the last remaining copy of his unpublished novel. It was hiding “in plain sight,” he’d said, and if I wanted to find it I had to “think like a book scout, that is, like a spy.”

  I checked the store hours posted on the door. They opened at ten a.m.

  When I got back to Dad’s I pulled down his copy of A Lesson in Tradecraft and found the following exchange, set at Flügel’s safe house in Hamburg. It comes just after Heinz Klarmann’s narrow escape from a would-be assassin:

  Klarmann stood a few feet inside the entrance, dripping November raindrops on the tatty carpet. He’d already tracked mud onto the floor, and Flügel watched from the end of the hallway in obvious disapproval, shaking his head and clicking his tongue.

  “Shoes off, if you please!”

  Klarmann grumpily complied.

  “That jacket as well. Use the hook by the door. The filthy hat, too.”

  “So is this to be the dockage fee for safe harbor? Perpetual attack by an anal-retentive key holder? Perhaps I should take my chances with the Russians.”

  “Your life, your call. My house, my rules.”

  For a moment Klarmann hesitated, as if actually weighing the option. Then he frowned and shrugged off his jacket, grumbling all the while. But he left the hat in place, and Flügel held his tongue even as Klarmann walked defiantly toward the stairs, the soggy hat dripping as regularly as the ticking of a clock.

  And there you had it. A fussy proprietor named Flügel offering “safe harbor” for Lothar Heinemann’s alter ego. One didn’t even have to think like a spy to make this connection. Certain that I was on the threshold of discovery, I slept soundly.

  In the light of morning I was more uncertain about my epiphany. It felt like a stretch, mere coincidence. But it was still intriguing enough to check out. I took precautions to keep from being followed, by boarding a series of trams and buses, then doubling back until I strolled up to Der Flügel shortly before 10:15. The door rattled open. No need for a bell in a shop this small.

  An older man with wisps of hair plastered across a shiny scalp nodded to me from a stepladder. He was shelving books in the Mozart section, which took up half a wall.

  “Guten Tag.”

  I replied in kind and went straight for the fiction. The books were neatly alphabetized by author. Several nice finds leaped out at me, but when I reached the H’s there was nothing by Lothar Heinemann; the volumes jumped directly from Heinrich Heine to Hermann Hesse.

  I checked a few other categories—Local Interest, European History. No luck. So much for my moment of inspiration. I cleared my throat. The fellow on the ladder responded immediately.

  “Are you looking for something special?”

  “Do you have anything by Lothar Heinemann?”

  “The book scout?” He looked flabbergasted. “For him, you mean?”

  “No, by him. A novel in galley form. I don’t know the title.”

  “I wasn’t aware he had written a novel.”

  “It was never published.”

  “Ah! That explains it, then. We do not deal in manuscripts. Oh, begging your pardon, we do not deal in unpublished manuscripts. We do, however, have a very limited collection of manuscripts, three or four by some German authors. But those are kept under lock and key in our special collection. Although I’m certain none were written by Lothar Heinemann. But if you would like to check for yourself, I can obtain the key.”

  “Sure,” I answered halfheartedly. “Where’s the special collection?”

  “In the office. But we must proceed quietly. Herr Ziegler has not yet had his coffee.”

  I thought he was joking until I noticed his look of trepidation. He fairly tiptoed toward the office in the back, where he put his ear to the door, then knocked lightly.

  “Herr Ziegler?”

  “Yes! What is it?” A snarl from within.

  “A customer wishes to browse the special collection.”

  A loud sigh. Then the creak of an office chair. The door swung free. Herr Ziegler glared at us as if we’d interrupted the world’s most indispensable work. Balance sheets and order forms were fanned across his desk, but so were the football pages of the Wiener Zeitung, next to a steaming mug of coffee and a half-eaten slice of strudel. He was tall, thin, and imperious, a weathered strip of jerky with watery blue eyes.

  He gestured for us to enter, then barely moved out of our way. The clerk walked crabwise to keep from bumping him but I brushed on past, heading eagerly toward a glass-fronted bookcase along the far wall. The clerk fumbled with a set of keys, then unlocked the bookcase and pointed toward the bottom.

  “The manuscripts are down there, as you see.”

  But I was already looking at the fiction titles. As with the books in the rest of the store, they were in alphabetical order. Novels filled the two top shelves. I quickly scanned the H’s, but saw no Heinemanns. I checked again to make sure. Nothing.

  Any remaining optimism from the night before was now gone, and I was about to turn away when I spotted a blank powder-blue spine—the very sort of cheap cardboard jacket often used for prepublication galleys. It was in the wrong part of the alphabet, but I pulled it out anyway. Title and author were printed in block letters on the plain blue front.

  Der Kurier

  Heinz Klarmann

  Of course. Now it seemed obvious. A pen name stolen from his alter ego. Just enough of a tweak to throw off any searchers who inquired by telephone, which was probably how my handler would’ve worked to save time, proceeding store by store across Europe.

  “Do you have any titles by Lothar Heinemann?”

  “No, sorry.”

  Even if someone had checked in person, they would’ve had to breach Ziegler’s inner sanctum, and even then they would’ve been greeted by a blank spine shelved with the K’s.r />
  “Sir, don’t you want to see the manuscripts?”

  The poor clerk was down on his knees with a small pile.

  “I’d rather have a look at this,” I said. “Can you tell me what the price is?”

  Ziegler, having returned to the sports pages, wasn’t paying us a bit of attention. The clerk stood awkwardly. He took the book and flipped open the cover to the inside page where the price should have been, scribbled in pencil.

  “I’ve never understood why we keep this old thing,” he said. There was no marked price, so he flipped to the back.

  “Well, I’d definitely like to buy it.”

  Or, short of that, maybe I’d snatch it straight from his hands. That’s how eager I was to begin reading. If it even came close to living up to Lothar’s billing, then I had just discovered the key to everything. At the very least, Lothar would now have to reveal the name of our handler.

  “Herr Ziegler,” the clerk said in a begging tone, “our customer would like to buy this volume, but, well, I can’t seem to find the price.”

  Ziegler sighed and looked up from his paper, peering above his reading glasses.

  “Which volume, Klaus? You’ll have to actually show it to me.”

  Klaus raised the pale blue cover into view. Ziegler’s expression instantly changed to one of alarm.

  “That’s not for sale! It’s not even supposed to be available for inspection. Put it away at once!”

  I snatched it out of Klaus’s hands as they both gasped. Ziegler seemed to take notice of me for the first time. He smiled tightly and extended a long, thin arm.

  “As I said, sir. That book is not for sale. So, if you please.”

  “Are those Lothar’s standing orders?”

  His mouth opened. His eyes narrowed.

  “Who are you?”

  “Bill Cage, Warfield’s son. I’m a friend of Lothar’s.”

  “So you say.”

  “Call him. He’ll vouch for me.”

  Ziegler seemed uncertain of what to do next, so I got out Lothar’s business card, the one with nothing on it but a number.

  “Here’s his mobile number, in case you don’t have it.”

  “Of course I have it! It’s Lothar Heinemann, for God’s sake!”

  “Then call him. Tell him Bill Cage is in your shop, and that I’ve found the book.”

  Ziegler eyed me again, then morosely picked up the phone. He was not accustomed to following orders, and he was grim as he punched in the numbers.

  “Heinz, please … Ziegler at Der Flügel … Yes, Lothar. There is a man here, Bill Cage. He has, well …” Ziegler cringed like a boy with a bad report card. “He has found your book.”

  Lothar’s laughter was audible across the room. An expression of immense relief spread across Ziegler’s face. He propped his elbows on his paperwork and puffed his cheeks as he exhaled. He gestured for me to come forward, then put his hand over the mouthpiece.

  “He wishes to speak to you. If you will just hand me the book first.”

  I grabbed the receiver but held on to the book. Ziegler grimaced but didn’t fight back.

  “Is that really you, Cage?”

  “You owe me a name.”

  “Of course. I’ll pay in full.”

  “Where are you? When can we meet?”

  “Berlin. Regrettably, we’ll have to do this by telephone. But you must read the book first.”

  “You’d better tell Ziegler. He seems inclined to keep it.”

  “He will keep it. You’re going to read it there, in his office. That book is not for sale, not even to you. How long have you been in the shop?”

  “No more than fifteen, twenty minutes.”

  “When an hour has passed, they’re going to come looking for you, to see why it’s taking so long.”

  “Curtin?”

  “Him or the Russian. Perhaps both. They’ll have guessed why you’re there.”

  “How do you know I haven’t lost them?”

  His laughter this time was more of a wheeze.

  “Listen, Cage. You’re in for a very long day. There is still a fifty-fifty chance that no harm will come to you, but only if you follow my instructions.”

  Did I believe him, or was he just trying to scare me?

  “I want you to put Ziegler back on the line so I can make the necessary arrangements. He will piss and moan, but he’ll get the job done, and when he hangs up he’s going to tell you what to do next. But I don’t want you doing anything further—nothing, do you hear me? not even take a piss—until you’ve finished reading it. Then I want you to call me. From the phone at Der Flügel, not from your own. That’s when I’ll give you the name. Understood?”

  “That could take hours.”

  “My prose isn’t that bad, Cage. It’s the only way this will work. If you leave the store before then, with or without the book, then I promise you’ll never get a chance to even read page one. You must trust me on that.”

  “Okay.”

  “Good. Give the phone to Ziegler. Is that fool of a clerk Klaus there?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then pray to God he doesn’t handle the arrangements. Good luck, Cage. And happy reading. I hope I’ll be speaking to you again.”

  I handed the phone to Ziegler, who by now was very grave in manner. He said little as Lothar talked to him other than the occasional “Yes,” nodding all the while. A few minutes later he hung up. The first thing he did was order Klaus home.

  “On your way out, put the ‘Closed’ sign in the window. I’ll write a note explaining to our customers that there has been a family emergency.”

  It reminded me of the note in the window at Antikvariát Drebitko, which didn’t seem like a good omen, but of course neither Klaus nor Ziegler knew about that. So Klaus merely nodded, seeming relieved to be escaping a situation that had suddenly turned tense and serious. Ziegler waited for the office door to close before addressing me. He took a set of keys from a drawer and put them on the desk.

  “This is my spare set. You’ll need to lock up when you’re done. Then I want you to put them into this envelope and drop them back through the mail slot. Do you understand?”

  “I’ll be locking up?”

  “Pay attention, will you?”

  “I understand. I’ll lock up, then put the keys back through the mail slot, inside the envelope. Where will you be?”

  He shook his head, as if that wasn’t relevant.

  “This is the most important part, so listen closely. You are not to take any notes. None. When you are finished reading, you must move the filing cabinet away from the wall. This one here.” He tapped it. “Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Behind it you’ll find an opening to an old coal chute that used to come into the building from the alley in the back. Drop the book into the chute. Don’t worry about its condition, just drop it there and then slide the filing cabinet back into place, do you understand?”

  “I understand.”

  “After you’ve done that, you will let yourself out of the store as previously instructed.”

  “Okay. And then?”

  He threw his hands in the air and shook his head, as if to say that was none of his business and never would be, no matter what happened to me. It wasn’t exactly reassuring, but by then I was eager to begin reading.

  “If you are quite clear on all these matters of procedure, then I will leave you to your work. Good-bye.”

  He departed in a rush. Moments later I heard the lock smack home on the outer door. All was silent. It was just me and the book. I sat down at the desk and turned to page one. The book was in German, of course, but here’s the rough translation of Lothar’s opening paragraphs:

  On this particular Wednesday in Budapest, the spy known as Headlight had decided to employ a different sort of courier. A boy, no more than ten years old, and an American at that. He was one of the privileged specimens from the embassy, although you never would’ve guessed it from his loose and un
gainly brown shorts, which were just like those worn by all the grimy locals that numbered among his playmates.

  He was an intelligent boy, the American, and carefree in the way that only an outsider could be in this capital of closely held secrets. Yet there was something inherently wary in his gaze and demeanor, as if life itself up to now had been one long covert action. In other words, he was the perfect choice for the task at hand.

  Well, Lothar certainly knew how to start things off. Not only was I hooked, I was already oblivious to any thought of the forces that would soon begin gathering outside the walls of Der Flügel, waiting impatiently for me to emerge.

  Even if I’d been aware, I’m not sure it would have slowed me down. This was the first spy novel I’d read since the Wall had come down, and for all I knew it might be my last. So I sure as hell was going to make the most of it. I turned the page, eager for more.

  36

  Lothar was a fine storyteller, and if not for my urge to wring the significance from every detail, I would gladly have surrendered to his narrative powers. His tale briskly wound its way through all the cities I’d once called home. The names of his characters were easy enough to decipher: Earl LeGrange for Ed Lemaster. Jeff Anderson for Jim Angleton. Bartlett Pierce for Breece Preston. Warren Cave for my father. And me, of course, appearing simply as the Boy.

  But Lothar’s most daring stunt was that all the code names were as real as the locations in which they operated: Headlight, Blinker, Taillight, Nijinsky, Dewey, Oleg, Leo, Thresher, and quite a few more. Somehow, through all his footwork, the indefatigable Lothar had tracked down everyone, Russians as well as Americans.

  As their deeds unfolded, it became clear that only Headlight, or Lemaster, was ever certain at any given time about what both sides were up to. But which one was he working for, and toward what end? Lothar’s art was that you weren’t sure, even as Headlight played both sides against the middle.

  The McGuffin, or plot point on which the book hinged, was the question of whether the CIA would be able to keep the Soviets from getting their hands on a copy of NATO’s contingency war plans for central Europe. It was one of the novel’s few weak points, which led me to believe that Lothar had made it up. In fact, it was fairly easy to spot the moments when he was winging it, or finessing gaps in his knowledge. His prose may have been powerful, but his powers of invention were weak. This told me that however thoroughly he’d penetrated the operations of both sides, he had never uncovered any of the actual secrets they were trafficking in.