When Ede arrived back home, he noticed a great number of empty packages and cartons near the rubbish bins. It seemed like his neighbours had gone on a shopping spree, again, and bought themselves quite a few things the new Germany had to offer. Where they had gotten the money from, Ede didn’t really know – or wanted to know.
His flat was on the third floor, which meant that he had to pass the apartment of Mr and Mrs Wiencke. He considered the woman an unpleasant gossip who stuck her nose into everything that was going on in the house. He also suspected that she had been a Nazi informant back in the old Germany, but he couldn’t prove it – yet. Mr. Wiencke was a nice guy, though, who nevertheless had to live with her. If the guy one day snapped, Ede would testify on his behalf that it was self-defence.
Of course, as nearly always, the woman was on the stairway, pretending to clean the meticulously polished stairs.
“Good evening, Mrs Wiencke,” Ede greeted her.
“Ah, good evening, Herr Kommissar,” she greeted back. “Seems like switching sides was very profitable for you,” she mumbled under her breath.
“Pardon me?” Ede turned around.
“Nothing,” the woman replied and went back into her flat. Ede continued on and soon entered his flat, where he was enthusiastically greeted by his two children Marie and Günther before they, again, vanished back in their rooms to play with their toys.
“Anna, I´m back!” Ede shouted for his wife.
“I´m here!” she shouted from the living room. When Ede entered the room, he saw her sitting in front of a PC.
“Darling, what are you doing?” he asked.
“Oh´, I´m working,” Anna replied flippantly. “I´ll be finished in five minutes.”
“Working?” Ede repeated.
“Ah, I forgot I haven’t told you yet,” Anna said. “Mr Delitsch has agreed to re-hire me as his assistant. It seems he has problems finding the right people to work for him and he asked for my help. But first I need to learn more about these computers.” She continued typing. “Fantastic. Truly marvellous, these things. You can write much faster and more accurate. It even highlights your mistakes! Oh, I just love this!”
“Delitsch? From the shipping company you worked at before we got married?” Ede clarified.
“Exactly that one,” his wife confirmed.
“What about the children?”
“My mother can look after them after school for a few hours,” Anna assured him. “So, you don´t have to worry about that.”
"Yes. And?"
"Well, the children..."
"My mother looks at them after school for some hours. Nothing to worry about." In this moment Ede heard a noise coming from the kitchen. He looked into the room to see a dish washing machine working. And a new stove, oven, refrigerator and microwave oven. He found a list of the delivered cargo on the table in the kitchen, where he could see a new coffee machine, a washing machine and dryer were listed.
“Darling, where did you get the money for all those appliances?” he wanted to know.
“I bought them,” Anna replied. “I´ve been working for Mr Delitsch since November 1st, but until he´s finished with re-organising his company, I´ll be working from here.”
“Mrs. Wiencke will…”
“I don´t care what the old hag or anyone else is going to say about this,” Anna told him, a determined glint to her eyes.
“But why do you feel the need to do this?” Ede wanted to know. “I´m working so hard to support this family.” Anna sighed and finally stopped typing on her computer.
“But you shouldn’t have to,” she said as she turned around to face him. “You were demoted for being a NSDAP-member, a move I was against from the start, but you assured me that it would help your career. Instead of sitting at home and doing nothing, why shouldn’t I work and earn us money we clearly need.”
“But why didn’t we talk about it?” Ede wanted to know, a little hurt when he noticed the accusing undertone in his wife´s statement. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“To be honest, I felt it was better this way,” Anna admitted. “I wanted to work and I didn’t know if you would have allowed me to…”
“Why on Earth would I want to forbid you from working?” Ede exclaimed aghast. He would have tried to talk her out of it, but if she had truly wanted it, he wouldn’t have stood against her.
“You would have tried to talk me out of it, though,” Anna pointed out. “And I just didn’t know if I had the strength to fight you.” Anna had seen the UT woman around her, all so confident and independent. She had wanted that, too.
“Am I not good enough?” Ede asked weakly.
Alarmed, Anna stood up and walked over to him. She laid her hand atop his cheek and forced him to meet her gaze.
“You are the best man I have ever met,” she told him with all the sincerity she could muster. “And you gave me two beautiful children, for which I will ever be grateful for. I love you, and will always love you, like I swore so many years ago when we married. Even if you were unemployed, I´d still stay with you.” Then her lips met his and for the next hour Ede forgot all about his worries.
“You should have told me,” he spoke quietly as he stroke Anna´s hair. “We would have worked something out.”
“I know,” she whispered back. “I should have.” She would think about something to make it up to him. Maybe a short trip to one of the German islands? Just them and the kids? Or maybe something from Ali´s brother Mohammed? She knew that Ede didn’t want to spend their money on frivolous things, but she had seen how he looked at those big TV screens when they walked through Hamburg. Maybe one of those?
Ede, meanwhile, had already drifted to sleep.
Ede was deep in thoughts when he entered his office the next day. As always Ali was already sitting on the desk opposite of Ede´s and was deeply engrossed in a file. When the door closed behind Ede, he looked up from his reading and greeted his colleague.
“Moin,” Ede replied. Proofing again why he was a detective, Ali immediately recognized that Ede had something to get off his chest.
“What´s going on?” he inquired.
“Well, my wife wants to start working,” Ede told him.
“What´s wrong with that?”
“She didn’t talk to me about it first,” Ede replied.
“Then, welcome to postmodern times! Her women do whatever they want!” Ali laughed.
“In our times women did whatever they want, too,” Ede pointed out.
“I know what you mean, but there´s nothing you can change about that,” Ali pointed out.
“Yes, you´re right,” Ede sighed.
“Did Mohammed deliver the washing machine?” Ali asked.
“Oh, yes, he brought it yesterday,” Ede told him. “My wife tried it out immediately, but she used to much detergent. The whole washing room was flooded with bubbles. Eventually a technician came around and showed her how to do it correctly.” Both men laughed.
“Anyway,” Ali changed topic. “I´m looking at the file of our soldier. Quite decorated, the guy, with several medals to his name. A sniper, too. Took out a Taliban commander from two kilometres away.”
“Ouch,” Ede winched. “What were the Taliban again?”
“A terrorist group based in Afghanistan,” Ali answered. “They orchestrated hundreds of attacks all over the world, the severest one in New York, where they brought down two skyscrapers and killed thousands of people in only a few hours. We supported the US when they retaliated.”
“Did we win?” Ede asked.
“Conventionally? We did manage to conquer Afghanistan, but the Taliban just went underground and continued their war from there.” Ede nodded in understanding.
“So, what´s that other stuff on your desk?”
“It´s for you,” Ali replied. “Documents about our victim from Bialystok. Seems someone over there works very fast.”
“Considering we only sent the request only yesterday, it certainly seems so.” Ali just shrugged, so Ede picked up the documents and started reading. He was halfway into the first one, when Ali interrupted him.
“Ede, didn’t his sister tell us about a mission he was sent on the day of the Event? It isn’t mentioned in here at all.”
“She did,” Ede confirmed. To be sure they called her and after asking her after the health of his brother (no change her, still in critical condition), she could indeed confirm, too, that her brother had been on a mission on the day of the Event.
“That´s weird,” Ali commented. “A mission so secret that it isn’t even mentioned in his file? For what reasons?”
“Here´s another mystery,” Ede threw in. “There exist no Margarethe Eberhard, at least none who´s still alive. She died 1921, only two years old, in Bialystok. It seems that our victim´s real name is likely Agnieszka Prz... Przy... Przybilski. A Polish citizen.”
“A Slavic Nazi?” Ali raised his eyebrows.
“She was a collaborator,” Ede sneered. “According to this she betrayed several Jews to the Gestapo, including her former boss, a physician called Dr. Modersohn.”
“So, we have to victims, don´t we? Was one of them only collateral damage? Or were both targets? Is there a connection between them?” Ali wondered out loud.
“Maybe,” Ede shrugged. He stood up and wrote all those question on a whiteboard that hung on one wall of their office, which they called their ‘murder board’. On it was everything they had uncovered until now. “We´re just not seeing it.”
“Did our soldier plan all this as some kind of alibi? To fool us?”
This was the first time that Ali stated such a weird theory, but although very unlikely, Ede thought about it for a moment before he discarded it. “I don’t think so. And even if, he would have needed help.”
In this moment the phone rang. Ali answered.
“Hamburg police, Kriminaloberkommissar Ali Yüksel speaking... Jacek... Is it you?... How... Did you catch the smugglers this time?... Then you had just bad luck- or luck... I'm sorry to hear about Agneta... Oh, she left you a month ago already?... And now she was taking you to court?... Well, then congratulation to your new freedom!... Oh, and thank you for the files... What files? The ones you sent to us!... You didn't?... No idea?... Wait, my partner has to listen as well... Yes, I have a new one...” He activated the speakers and Ede could now, too, hear the heavily accented voice of Jacek Król.
“This is Kriminaloberkommissar Eduard Tramsen speaking,” he greeted the other.
“Ah, so you´re Ali´s new colleague, then?” Jacek replied. “Did he already take you to the Reeperbahn?”
“I´m married,” Ede replied.
“So was I,” Jacek replied. “Maybe that´s one of the reasons why that’s no longer the case. Agneta left me for our dentist and was trying to sue me!”
“Ehm…” Ede didn’t know what he should say to that.
“Anyway, I have no clue about the files you´re talking about,” Jacek reaffirmed.
“You're in Bialystok?” Ede asked.
“Yes,” Jacek confirmed. “I´m kind of a liaison officer here to help the locals building up a modern police force. It´s difficult, though. Most of the Poles around here think that I´m a traitor for working with the Germans. I think I´m staying in Germany once this mess is over.”
“Anyway,” Ali interjected. By now Ede had recognized that you needed a firm hand with this Jacek, lest you never get the information you needed from him. “We´ve got the murder of Margarethe Beyerlein who was indeed Agniesza Prz... P R Z Y B I L S K I.”
“Ah, Przybilski,” Jacek repeated without problem.
“She was born in 1919 in Bialystok, like the real Margarethe, who died only two years later.”
“I´ll check it out,” Jacek promised. “But now the reason why I called you: A Stefan Richter was murdered here – his throat was cut. He´s listed as living in Hamburg, so I´ll send everything we have over to you. Might you get me a little more data bout him?”
“Of course,” Ali replied. “Just give us a little bit of time. The next time you´re in Hamburg, we´re gonna re-visited the Reeperbahn.”
“Yeah,” Jacek cheered. “But this time with your partner, too. He sounds alright.”
“Well, you can´t see how he´s trying to kill you with his gaze alone,” Ali laughed. Ede tried to stay mad at him, but he didn’t really manage it, and soon he was laughing too. They ended the call after that.
“What now?” Ede asked.
“I think we should fulfil Jacek´s request,” Ali suggested. “I need a break from this case.”
“Yeah, maybe we really need some distance to clear our heads,” Ede agreed. “Let´s take a look at Mr. Richter´s flat.”
Mr. Richter lived in Altona, so they drove to the address they had from him. On the way to the flat Ali's mobile rang.
“Yes, Andrea?” he greeted. Andrea Weber was another officer in their department, but usually stayed at the office to do all the tasks the officers on the street didn’t want to do. “You´ve got the information about the bayonet?...I see…Thanks, bye.” He ended the call.
“We´ve finally got the information from the Bundeswehr,” Ali told Ede. “The bayonet belonged to a member of Einsatzgruppe A who died in a fight with partisans back in 1943. His equipment was never discovered.”
“Aren´t those SS units?” Ede asked. Ali´s face was set in a grim expression.
“They were the ones responsible for rounding up the Jews and other ‘subhumans’ for extermination,” he replied. Ede kept silent, the guilt he still felt over joining the NDSAP just for career reasons rearing its ugly head again.
“So, the bayonet was issued to one of those thugs and subsequently went missing,” he steered the conversation back to the topic at hand. “So, what? Some Polish partisan found it and traveled to Hamburg to kill an old Polish woman?”
“Perhaps,” Ali shrugged. “Perhaps someone with a personal grudge against her. One of the people she betrayed.”
“It could also be, though, that the bayonet was sold on the black market,” Ede pointed out.
They were again interrupted by Ali´s phone ringing. He took the call, but it lasted barely a minute before he hung up again.
“Guess what?” he said to Ede. “You won´t believe it, but Magarethe´s…”
“Agnieszka!” Ede corrected him. Ali just glared at him.
“Her DT version has been killed as well. Jacek just got the information that a young German Margarethe Eberhardt has been found killed in Warsaw.”
“Now, that´s interesting,” Ede replied. “How´s she been murdered?”
“He didn’t know yet,” Ali said. “But he´s gonna get new intel soon.”
They arrived at the street where Mr. Richter´s flat was situated. Cars were parked on both sides, making it difficult to navigate through it.
“You´re allowed to drive a little bit faster, you know,” Ali teased. “If you continue like that the food delivery truck behind us will only deliver cold food.” To be honest, Ede was driving that slow, but Ali liked to joke at his expense.
“Asian food at 10am?” Ede wondered as he looked into the rear-view mirror. “Where´s the flat?”
“Just over there!” Ali pointed towards the second house on the left side in front of them. Because the street was already full, Ede parked in front of the garage of the house next door. Perks of being a detective.
Just as they exited the car, a young man of about seventeen years and of mixed race heritage left the house where Mr. Richter lived and looked at them with curiosity.
“Are you police?” he wanted to know.
“We are,” Ali confirmed.
“Wow, that was fast,” the boy replied. “I just reported the burglars a few minutes ago.”
“What burglars?” Ede demanded to know.
“The burglars in Mr. Richter´s flat,” the boy answered, his brow furrowed in confusion. “The ones I called you about?”
“And they are in Mr. Richter´s flat?” Ede repeated, exchanging gazes with Ali.
“Yeah, I just reported them…” the boys started when a white Mercedes Sprinter passed them slowly on the street as two men left the building and walked towards the transporter.
“That´s them!” the boys shouted, pointing at the two men.
The men, now aware that they had been discovered, started to run. The boy tried to follow them, but alas, even though he was fast, he had a longer distance to cover and so the man made it to the car and jumped into the cargo area. Then the car hit the accelerator and was gone.
Ede wanted to pursue them, but the car was already vanishing around the corner. So, instead he reported the burglary over the radio. Later, the transporter would be found abandoned at the side of the street with no signs of the burglars who must have exchanged cars.
Ali cursed. Ede kept silent, because he had already learnt that you shouldn’t interrupt his colleague when he was cursing in his mother tongue.
“Fuck,” he exclaimed. Then he looked at the boy who had come back to them. “Boy, you were really fast, but next time let the police officers do the work. Those guys could have been armed.” Neither of them would have caught them, though, as none of them were as fast as the boy. “I guess only Usain Bolt would have gotten them.”
“Who´s that?” the boy asked.
“Usain Bolt? Just the fastest man alive, my boy,” Ali replied. “You are an uptimer, aren´t you?”
“No, I´m not,” the boy laughed. “I was born in 1926. Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi is my name.”
Ede didn’t care much, but Ali seemed intrigued. “That name sounds familiar somehow.” The boy shifted on his feet.
“Well, it seems that I went on the emigrate to the US to become a famous journalist.”
“Of course!” Ali exclaimed. “You´ve written that book ‘Neger, Neger,…”
“Schornsteinfeger’,” the boy finished. “Yes, that´s the book I have written or will write.”
“And how do you feel about that?” Ede inquired.
“It´s weird,” the boy shrugged. “Shortly after the Event two elderly Americans came to the broken-down house my mother and I lived in and offered their help. Apparently, they´re my sons from the future. Mr. Admoeit´s mother die shortly after the Event and so, as recognised Nazi victim, the city offered us the flat. My ‘sons’ are here helping, too, while my mother´s still working and I may even get the chance to attend the gymnasium.” His eyes shone when he told them that.
“But why aren´t you at school right now?” Ali wanted to know.
“I came back and got my sports bag,” Hans replied and held up aforementioned bag. “When I was about to leave again I noticed these men entering Mr. Richter´s flat. The man´s currently out of town and because I´ve never seen them before I called the police.”
“Alright,” Ede replied. “You really should get back to school. I´ll accompany you and tell the teachers that you didn’t miss anything on purpose.” Ali meanwhile would take a look at the flat.
Fifteen minutes later, Ede returned and went to the flat where Ali and several police officers were already inside.
“Any problems?” Ali wanted to know.
“Nothing,” Ede shrugged. “His teacher was very understanding. He won´t get in any trouble.” He paused. “Anything interesting here?”
“Well, in my personal opinion this flat is way too tidy,” Ali replied. “It looks very impersonal, because there are only a few personal items.”
“Ah, it´s as tidy as a soldier´s room in the barracks.”
Ali just nodded. Ede looked around, too, adding that Hans had told him that Mr, Richter had very few visitors only and was a very reclusive man. He was quite nice and warm to Hans and his mother, though.
“Nothing really fits…” Ali said again. “We have a dead Polish woman, a German soldier used as scapegoat, a man murdered in Poland…”
“The younger version of said Polish woman´s dead, too,” Ede added.
“Is there really any connection at all?” Ali wondered. “And what about the burglars? They didn´t seem to have stolen anything at all.”
“Well, if there is a connection, I can´t see it right now,” Ede said. “But I think there´s definitely one.”
“We should just head back,” Ali suggested. “Tell Jacek what happened.”
“Alright,” Ede agreed.
Now, instead of one mysterious case, they had two cases they needed to solve. Or maybe it was really only one?
An hour later the both of them went back to their car.
The flat had been meticulously clean. A few books, which didn't tell anything about the man who had owned them. No pictures, nothing. As if this man had no personality. Or as if he had hidden it perfectly well behind the white tapestry. Well, their colleagues from the Spusi (Spurensicherung, forensic identification) were still working. If there was anything to discover, they would find it.
Ali and Ede were just starting to drive when they recognized the truck behind them.
“Isn´t that the same food delivery truck that already drove by when we arrived here?” Ede asked.
“Yeah, it´s the same Asian food truck,” Ali agreed.
“We´ve been here at least for an hour and it´s still here?” Ede pointed out.
“Maybe they´ve got a new delivery around here,” Ali guessed.
“Mmmmh,” Ede murmured, not really convinced by that. “Still seems odd.”
Carefully, Ali craned his neck to get a better look at the truck´s license plate. “The plate number is HH-3839.”
“What?!” Ede exclaimed. “That´s enough! We´re gonna stop them and get ourselves some answers. I was already suspicious when we had that car with AS-3838 follow us yesterday. Make a call to the precinct and have someone pull up all information they can get on those plates.”
Ali looked at him, concerned. “That could give us away. What if whoever´s behind all this monitors our logs?”
“You´re right,” Ede sighed.
“I´ve got an idea,” Ali told him. “Turn right into the next street. I live nearby and know that the street is too narrow for that truck, but not right away. If we can get them to follow us long enough, they´ll be stuck and won´t be able to turn around. It´ll happen after you pass my car.”
“But what´s your car?” Ede asked.
“You´ll see,” Ali grinned. “I had to park it on the street because of maintenance work in my garage.”
Ede did as Ali had told him and turned into the next street. It was indeed pretty narrow and he was afraid that he would damage the cars he drove by, but fortunately enough, nothing happened. Then he saw a car that wasn’t very common in Germany at all – or even in the rest of the world right now: A 1960 Lincoln Continental.
“That´s not a car, that´s a battleship,” Ede exclaimed.
“I worked on it for nearly ten years,” Ali replied, beaming with pride. “The day after the Event the post brought me the last piece I had ordered from the US several weeks before. I was afraid that it didn’t make it, but now the car´s complete. And well, we Germans don´t call it a street cruiser for nothing, do we?”
Ede just rolled his eyes. After they had passed the Lincoln, Ali opened the car´s door on his side and exited the car while Ede steered the car forward, the truck following him. Ali, meanwhile, took a seat in his Lincoln and waited for the truck to pass him by before he started the engine and drove onto the street, thereby wedging the truck between Ede´s car in front of it and Ali´s car behind.
Both Ede and Ali slowly left their cars and made their way towards the truck, clasping their police-issued guns (a Walther PPK for Ede and a Walther P99 Q for Ali), ready to use them at any notice. It was only the third time in his career that Ede had actually drawn his weapon.
“Police!” both shouted simultaneously. “Get out of the car with your hands up!”
There was movement behind the front window. Ede could see two shapes moving, but there was still the possibility of a third person hiding in the cargo space behind them. Just when he was about to shout that they should hurry up, the doors of the truck opened and two men got out of it: One of Caucasian and the other of some kind of Asian ethnicity. Ede wasn´t really good at discerning the exact country.
“Don´t shoot!” the Asian exclaimed. “We´re on the same side.”
“What did the Chinese say?” Ali wanted to know, as he stood a little bit behind.
“I´m no fucking Chinese!” the man shouted incensed. “My parents came from Vietnam.” He took a deep breath. “Anyway, you´re going to get a call within the next minute.”
Ali and Ede exchanged gazes. “Who are you?” They hadn´t lowered their guns.
“Leutnant Schrödter and Leutnant Hanh Nguyen, Abwehr and MAD, respectively,” the Vietnamese replied. “We can show you our IDs if you would stop pointing your guns at us.”
In this moment Ede´s cell phone rang. “Tramsen speaking…Polizeipräsident Meyer? Wants to speak... Herr Präsident... Jawoll!... Yes, we do... Goodbye!”
Ede needed a short moment to collect himself. Then he put his gun back into its holster and beckoned for Ali to do the same. “That was the police president. We are to let them go.” He pointed at the two men. “We´re also ordered to accompany them.” Ali scowled.
“We better get some answers there,” he said, turning to the two agents. “Otherwise, we´ll get nasty.” He went back to his car and manoeuvred it back into the parking space it had occupied before, which took quite some time and skill. By now their scene had drawn several onlookers, some of them filming them with their phones.
Ali just scowled. “Fucking vultures, in a few seconds all of this will be on YouTube.”
Ede just kept quiet and followed him back to their car.
Half an hour later they found themselves in an office building in City Nord, a quarter of the city which mainly housed office buildings, including the dependencies of several big corporations. The house they were led to was nearly empty as it was in dire need of renovations. Nevertheless, a certain Deutsch-Argentinische Handelsgesellschaft Buenos Aires-Hamburg mbH had its seat in the building.
An elderly woman sat at the reception and greeted the group with a short nod, which the two agents that accompanied them reciprocated. They were led to an office in front of which door a uniformed man was already waiting for them.
“Damn,” Schrödter cursed under his breath. “The Small W's already here.”
“Ah, there are our lieutenants,” the man jeered. “As slow as always. If it was up to me…”
“Well, luckily it isn’t, Herr Hauptmann,” Schrödter cut him off halfway. It was obvious from the tense atmosphere between them that there was history between the three men.
“For now,” the man grumbled. “The Major wants to see you. He’s eagerly awaiting your report.” He tilted his head towards the door. The two agents left Ali and Ede and entered the room. Meanwhile, the Hauptmann turned his attention back to the two police officers.
“And now to you!” he barked. “I’m Hauptmann Wellmann-Klein and if it was up to me, you civilians wouldn’t even be allowed up here.” He pronounced the word as if it left a nasty taste on his tongue. “But unfortunately, no one will listen to me, so I was ordered to give you these access cards which will allow you entrance to this building.”
“Thank you,” Ali replied. “With such a warm welcome, I feel right at home.”
“Do you think you’re funny?”
“No, no, I just wanted to show my uttermost gratitude,” Ali replied. “Herr Klein-W…”
“Wellmann-Klein,” the Hauptmann retorted indignantly. “Hauptmann Aloysius Wellmann-Klein.”
“My condolences,” Ali joked. “You see, we foreigners aren’t good in remembering strong and honorable German names, especially me. I’m much better with easy ones such as Calhangolu.”
“He’s really bad with names,” Ede concurred, supressing his laughter. “He couldn’t remember mine until a few weeks ago.” The Hauptmann looked like he wanted nothing more than to shoot the two of them on the spot.
“Just go to room 2.23,” he grinded out. “But before that you have to have your cellphones checked in room 2.03, so please proceed there first.”
They went to the room and knocked. They heard nothing at first, but some seconds later a kind of "hai", both interpreted as "Herein" (please enter).
Ali entered first. The shuriken barely missed the tip of his nose.
Ali, who normally reacted instantly, just stood there staring at the shuriken, which was in the centre of a target. Ede reacted faster and pulled him out of the room. He wanted grabbed to his gun, but there was none. He had had to surrender it at he entrance of the building.
In this moment a young woman, about 1,65 m, with short brown hair with a red touch appeared at the door. She was as shocked as the both policemen. She still had her mobile playing music at the side. She wore training cloths.
Ede was furious. “What the fuck are you doing? You could have killed us!” he screamed. The young woman had lifted her hands and tried to apologize, but she had no chance as Ede continued: “What were you even doing? Who the fuck throws shuriken around in an office building?!”
“Ede, just give her a second to explain,” he tried to calm down his colleague. Ede was about to stop his rant, when a Major, together with both known Leutnants, arrived.
“What's going on?” he demanded to know in a voice that was used to be wielded with authority.
“We were told to give up our mobiles for inspections in this room,” Ede started to explain. “When we entered my partner was nearly hit by a shuriken.”
“Lieutenant Engel?” The Major turned around and looked grimly at the petite woman.
“Herr Major, it’s currently 11:30,” she replied with her head held high and back straight. “It’s commonly known by everyone working in this building that I train during this time and that my room is only to be entered after I explicitly allow it.” She turned towards Ali. “Are you alright?” The detective juts nodded.
“We weren’t told that,” Ali remarked.
“Wellmann-Klein!” the Major barked. Seconds later, the Hauptmann appeared.
“In my officer,” the Major commanded and all of them followed him. On the display next to the door his name was noted down as Major Schipper. When they were all crammed into the small room, he started talking to the Hauptmann.
“Herr Hauptmann, I do have some questions for you,” he started. “Did you select the number for the licence plates used in this operation?”
“I did.”
“And why did you take a series of nearly identical numbers?”
“I see nothing wrong with that.”
“And why did you chose for a big VW caddy, marked as food delivery truck for an Asian restaurant wen you could have chosen something more inconspicuous?”
“Because of Lieutenant Nguyen’s Asian descent, I though that a delivery truck would be more unobtrusive than our standard vehicles.”
“And lastly, why did you send the police detectives to Lieutenant Engel’s office despite knowing that it was her training hour?”
“Standard procedure 08/15 c, sir. Everyone being an outsider has to give up the mobile for control,” the Hauptmann replied. “And with all respect, this is a work place, not a fitness studio. If Lieutenant Engel wants to train, she’s supposed to do it in her own free time and not here.”
“So, you see no wrongdoing on your part?” the Major wanted to know.
“Of course not, Herr Major!” The Major just looked at him – his gaze indecipherable – before he turned back to the rest of them.
Now Ede and Ali would finally get some answers.
“Well, Herr Yüksel, how did you know that we were spying on you?”
“We were surprised to see a food delivery truck so early in the morning,” Ali replied. “It’s usually not something that you see so early in that residential area. Then there was also the odd license plate: Yesterday, a suspicious vehicle had the plate number AS 3838, this one had AS 3839. That puzzled us. As our current case was getting stranger and stranger with each revelation, we decided to stop the car and talk to the driver. And now we’re here, nearly getting killed by shuriken.” Ali shrugged.
“I’m so sorry…” Lieutenant Engel tried to apologise again, but she was interrupted by the Major.
“Lieutenant Schrödter?”
“Herr Major, Liuetenant Nguyen and I did try to convince the Hauptmann to let us use a more inconspicuous vehicle, but he was adamant that we use the food truck.” The Major turned towards Hauptmann Wellmann-Klein and just bore his gaze into the man.
“Herr Major, this is the most incompetent executed mission I’ve ever been part of.” The man wasn’t able to stay silent for long under the scrutinising gaze of the older man. “It could even become detrimental to all our career prospects –“ he meant his own, that at least was clear to everyone in the room “- and all because of the incompetence of the Lieutenants here…”
“Lieutenant Nguyen, do you feel like the Hauptmann’s dislike has a racist undertone?” the Major interrupted. The Lieutenant’s eyes widened in surprise as he had not expected to be addressed, but he shook his head.
“No,” he replied. “We may have our disagreements with the Hauptmann, but he never brought my ethnicity into it.”
“I see,” the Major murmured. “Please, Herr Hauptmann, carry on.”
Wellmann-Klein struggled a little bit, before he continued: “It’s obvious that the Lieutenants’ incompetence led us here while Lieutenant Engel’s disregard for basic house rules nearly led to a deadly case of friendly fire. This team simply is not working.”
“The team is not working?” the Major repeated with raised eyebrows. “What about me, then? Come on, Herr Hauptmann, you’ve been honest with your thoughts so far, so let’s not end that streak.”
The Hauptmann gulped visible, but then he apparently found his courage again and straightened his posture. “It was your decision to let everything play out instead of stepping out of the shadows and taking the reins. But instead your blunders nearly revealed the whole affair to the public! This could have been a successful mission if you had handled it differently.”
“What I’m hearing are the complaints of someone who’s only concern is the advancement of his career,” the Major replied, still calm and collected. “I do wonder how you even made it this far. There is no ‘I’ in ‘team’, but you don’t seem to see that. Instead you chose again and again to put your own vanity before the mission.”
“I did everything as procedures demand it!” Hauptmann Wellmann-Klein defended himself. “The cars I chose were the cheapest ones, which saved the department a lot of money. In my former position as supply officer saving money was something that was acknowledged…”
“It’s not only about the cars,” the Major interrupted. “You committed a series of mistakes that nearly cost us this mission. A series of license plates numbered straight from 3836 to 3840. A Caddy who didn’t even work here and then allowing strangers to walk around in the building unsupervised, which nearly ended in severe bodily harm.” Everyone knew where this was going, even Wellmann-Klein.
“I have connections,” he tried to save himself in a last ditch effort, but it was a weak one, even to his own eyes. Then the other door to the Major's office opened. Two men entered the room. Ede could recognize police president Meyer. The other one was rather small, wearing the uniform of a navy full admiral.
“I have heard enough. Hauptmann Klein-Wellmann,” the little Admiral said. “You are dismissed. You are to leave Hamburg today. In a week, you shall receive your new posting.” That it wouldn’t be something as important as his current posting was left unsaid but not unheard.
The Hauptmann glared at the Admiral but then retreated. The three Lieutenants let out a breath of relief.
“Lieutenant Engel,” the Admiral continued. “I do value the unique skillset you bring to this department but do be more careful in the future about how you decide to hone your skills. I’d like to avoid friendly fire if possible, especially when there’s not even an enemy around.” He chuckled.
“Yes, Admiral Canaris,” Lieutenant Engel replied.
The Admiral turned towards Ali and Ede. “I’d like to have a chat with the Major and Mr. Meyer. May I suggest that you accompany Lieutenant Engel to have your phones checked, like you were supposed to before?” All three of them nodded and soon the two police detectives found themselves following the smaller woman back to her office, where the two shuriken were still stuck right in the middle of the target. Ede noticed that there was also a daisho, a katana and a wakizashi, stashed in the small room.
“We hadn’t yet the chance, but I’m Lieutenant Josephine Engel,” she introduced herself. She opened her mouth, probably to apologise again, but Ali didn’t let it come that far.
“You don’t have to apologise,” he said. “Nothing happened and we should just carry on.” Ede was a bit perplexed that Ali was willing to let the issue go that fast. He had expected a rant about workplace safety or something.
“What are training exactly?” he asked with interest.
“Oh, it’s Ninjutsu,” Lieutenant Engel answered. “I’ve always been fascinated by Ninjas and their fighting styles.”
“Then why didn’t you join a more fighting orientated unit like the KSK or other commando soldiers?” Ede prodded.
She sighed. “I wanted to, but I’m also good with computers, so I landed here.” She shrugged. Apparently, it wasn’t such a sore point any longer.
“How did you even become a soldier?” Ali wanted to know.
“Well, I hacked into the ministry of defence,” Engel admitted sheepishly. “They caught me and gave me the choice between signing up or going to prison.”
“Can’t be that difficult to hack into our government,” Ali joked. “Germany´s cyber security is a joke.”
“I never said it was the German ministry of defence,” the Lieutenant replied cryptically. “But I´m not allowed to say more.” She obviously enjoyed the astonishment on both of their faces. “So, gentlemen, where are your mobiles?” Both detectives handed over their cell phones.
“Mr. Tramsen, right?” Ede just nodded. “Your battery isn’t even charged.” Ede just shrugged, but he could just imagine Ali readying himself to mock him. However, before he could do so, the Lieutenant remarked, Ali's hadn't been charged either. “It’ll take a while, but you’ll have your phones back as soon as possible.” she said before Ali could say anything, completely astonished.
In this moment, there was a knock on the door and Lieutenant Schrödter stuck his head into the office. “The Admiral wants to speak to you.”
“Finally, we get some answers,” Ede thought to himself.
Now that there weren’t so many people occupying the room, he noticed that Major Schipper’s office wasn’t as small as he had assumed it to be. Now the only occupants beside Ali and him were the Major, police president Meyer and Admiral Canaris.
“Mr. Tramsen, Mr. Yüksel,” the admiral greeted them. “I hadn’t yet the time to properly introduce myself, but I’m Admiral Canaris, head of the Abwehr. You already know Major Schipper and your own police president, of course.” He nodded towards the other two men. “I know you must have many questions, and I have decided to answer most of them. But be aware that you are neither allowed to write anything of it down anywhere nor are you allowed to talk about it with anyone besides those currently in this room.” His gaze hardened. “I don’t need to tell you what the current emergency laws allow me to do with you should you decide to break those terms.”
They both had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Ede didn’t want to read the fine-print because he didn’t really want to know what punishments he could receive, but he was a policeman and a German official, so he just couldn’t bring himself to skip it. He signed, as did Ali.
“Everything seems to be in order now,” the Admiral remarked as he skimmed over the papers before handing them over to the police president. “Have you ever heard of ‘Operation Orpheus’?” Both detectives shook their heads. “That doesn’t surprise me. It was an operation meant to liberate the KZs from the SS shortly after the Event. The official position is that the Wehrmacht forces did that on their own. Which still is the official position, by the way.”
“I’ve seen a few clips on YouTube about the liberation of Auschwitz,” Ali said. “Very emotional stuff.”
The Admiral just nodded. “Indeed. Very useful propaganda pieces. However, it is not known that the KSK was deployed to help the Wehrmacht, The sniper in one of those videos who is shown to kill a guard on a watchtower was no Wehrmacht soldier but Lieutenant Schmutdke.”
“I still don’t get how this leads to this complot,” Ede thought out loud.
“As you know, the Federal Republic does not have the death penalty,” the Admiral continued. “However, it was considered the best option by everyone involved if certain high-ranking or famous Nazis would die instead of receiving a public trial and prison sentences.”
“Are you telling us that their last stand didn’t really happen and they were executed illegally instead?” Ali exclaimed as Ede arrived at the same conclusion only a split second later.
“Exactly,” the Admiral confirmed.
“And Lieutenant Schmudtke couldn’t quite live with that burden?” Ede continued deducing.
The Admiral nodded. “He saw a lot of missions, that the public should and will never be made aware of. We put him on leave as he’s unfit for duty and ordered him to get help, but he refused. I hope he still recovers.”
“And you helped us indirectly as well?” Ali asked.
“Yes we did. We observed Lieutenant Schmudkte and when the investigation started we made sure to leave some breadcrumbs so that no one would prod further into the Lieutenant’s past. It didn’t seem to have worked out that well.” He let out a small chuckle.
“So yes, we asked Prof. Püschel for help and he acted swiftly. The final report is being written at this very moment, neatly tying up everything.”
“And you also hired his attorney?” Ede asked.
“No, we didn’t, but he was also made to understand about the consequences of a breach of secrecy.”
“The military file, the origin of the bayonet, the Polish files...” Ali said, more to himself.
“What Polish files?” the Major interrupted him. Ali looked at him.
“That wasn't you?” he asked. The major shook his head.
“So, you don’t know that we have to other murders in this case?” Ede asked.
“No,” the Admiral shook his head. “Who?”
“It seems Agnieszka Przybilski aka Margarethe Beyerlein was murdered twice. Her DT version was killed near Warsaw,” Ede told them.
“And who's the other victim?” the admiral wanted to know.
“Stefan Richter from Hamburg,” Ali answered. “Killed in Bialystok, the place of birth of Mrs. Beyerlein.”
The admiral paled. “Stefan Richter's dead? Killed?” he looked at the major, who looked quite surprised as well.
“You know him?”
“Yes, I know him- Or better knew. His real name wasn’t Stefan Richter, though, but Chaim Oren.”
“That sounds Hebrew,” Ali pointed out.
In this moment the door to the office opened and Lieutenant Engel entered, out of breath as if she had just run a marathon. “Herr Admiral, I have to report that the detective’s mobiles have been compromised.”
“By who?”
“I compared the code with our data bases of known spying tools,” Engels replied. “It came up with Mossad.”
“Mossad?!? Isn't that the Israeli secret service?” Ede asked. “I thought they didn’t exist anymore.”
“Well…” the Admiral took a sip from a glass of water before he continued. “That’s not quite true. Due to the Event’s arbitrary rules about who got transported back and who not, there were some Mossad members or close associates transported back, as well, who re-found the organisation again, albeit on a much smaller scale. It’s not the only one: There are countless remnants of other agencies around – CIA, MI6, FSB to name a few – which is huge problem for us.” He sighed. “Anyway, we did have a kind of non-aggression pact with the Mossad. They concentrate on laying the foundation for the founding of Israel and keep out of our operations and in return we leave them be. Sometimes we even share information. It has worked well until now.”
“Israel? That’s a real can of worms you’re going to open,” Ali grumbled displeased. His grandmother was a Palestinian who had fled to Northern Syria where she would eventually meet his grandfather at the border to Turkey.
“I do not comment the government’s decisions,” the Admiral replied. “I only execute them.”
“Isn’t there a way to get to know what the Mossad’s up to?” Ede interrupted. “If you do have the Mossad under surveillance…”
The Admiral laughed. “Surveillance is a strong word. We’re already stretched thin as it is, so we really only know what we’re picking up on the go. We did have an inside person, but that was Mr. Oren.”
“So, our only contact is dead?”
“We have some others, but to establish contact with them outside our standard protocols would be extremely difficult and dangerous for them.” Canaris also didn’t mention that you could never be sure about their loyalties as well. “Mr. Oren was a good contact.”
“With him dead, does that mean that the Mossad definitely turned hostile?” Ali threw in.
His question was met with silence until the Admiral spoke again. “Our informal agreement with the Mossad had many opponents on both sides. Some agents thought that the Mossad shouldn’t leave the punishment of Germans to Germans, but they were a minority.” He shook his head. “No, I don’t think the Mossad turned hostile as a whole.”
“But it could be a splinter group within?” Ali continued. The Admiral nodded.
“Fräulein Leutnant,” Canaris turned towards Engel. “Were you able to discern from where this virus came from?”
“Of course!” Engel exclaimed eagerly. They used Lavi 2.8, which isn’t a very new program and has some unique flaws which make it easily recognizable. For example…”
“Lieutenant, we do not need all the details,” the Major interrupted her, probably aware of her penchant for lengthy technological explanations.
“Ehm, yes.” Engel turned slightly red before she continued. “One of the program’s greatest flaws was that you could retrace the original Trojan virus with one of your own; a bug that was fixed in version 3.0. I already deployed our counter-trojan and am just waiting for it to activate itself.”
“I guess it’s a waiting game then,” the Admiral sighed. “Please inform as soon as new information is available.” Engel saluted and left the room.
Although Engel got them an address only an hour later, it still took time to plan everything.
Officially, the MAD and the Abwehr soldiers where helping the Hamburg police in that one particular case. Unofficially, it was Meyer and Admiral Canaris who were planning everything and just needed an official front to make it all look legit. However, they were dead-set against deploying any additional forces that weren’t already aware of what was going on, so in the end it was only Meyer, Canaris, their drivers, Major Schipper, the Lieutenants Nguyen, Schrödter and Engels as well as Ede and Ali.
The Mossad was using a warehouse in Moorfleet, an industrial area where the observation truck they were using didn’t stand out. They rented out a whole car workshop to use as temporary HQ, which earned its owner quite a nice sum.
Before one could even start thinking about storming the building, they had to gather more intel, a task which fell to Engel as she was the most familiar with the various instruments in the van. The others used the time to walk around and stretch their legs.
It was Ese who volunteered to get them something to eat from a nearby McDonald’s.
“So, how comes you’re so good with computers?” he asked the Lieutenant.
“Since age five,” Engel replied proudly. “My mother used to work all the time – my dad left us around that time – and I spent a lot of time with my grandfather, who owned an old 486 with MS DOS and later Windows 3.1. Oh, how I loved that machine.” She sighed with fondness.
“486? That´s really old,” Ali remarked.
“Yeah, it was, but it still had great games though,” she replied. “Like Wing Commander, Civilization, Master of Orion, X-COM…”
“…Flight Commander, Task Force 1942, The Great Naval Battles of the Atlantic…” Ali continued.
“…The Glory Days of Origin and Microprose,” Engel finished.
“Yeah, those were good games,” Ali sighed.
“Civ III, Baldur’s Gate…I could go on forever,” Engel said. “And from that age on, PCs were my favourite toys. But my mom didn’t want me to sit in front of the screen all day long, so she made me take a Judo course, but after I watched a documentation about Ninjas, I decided to switch to Ninjutso. My mom didn’t care as long as I got out of the house for a few hours a day.” She shrugged. “The hacking just came. It wasn’t a conscious decision on my part. I didn’t go ‘Oh, let’s hack into government servers’ one day. I just…ended up there, I guess.” She laughed. “I know it sounds silly, but it’s true. And just after I got my Abitur I hacked…” She looked around as if she feared someone was overhearing them. “Well, that particular government doesn’t exist any longer, but I’m not allowed to talk about it anyway. That was the moment when the MAD knocked on my door and offered me a job.”
“And you accepted?” Ali asked.
“I did it more for my mom than for myself,” Engel replied. “She´s got AIDS from when a stoned junky got her with an infected knife. The MAD pays for a lot of medication that insurance wouldn’t cover, some of it even experimental.” A small pause. “And I wanted to become a soldier, anyway, so it all worked out in the end. What about you?”
“Well, I, too was fascinated by computers from a very early age on,” Ali started. “But my family couldn’t afford one, so I´d always use the one at my friend’s. He was a German, though, and my grandmother didn’t really like that and tried to have my father force me to cease all contact with him. He didn’t really enforce it, though, and I wouldn’t have followed his order anyway. Grandma was just an old bitter woman stuck with traditions that were even outdated in the most rural areas of Turkey at that time. But then my friend moved away and so began the worst time of my life. I felt cut off, with nowhere to belong and I made some of the worst mistakes of my life back then…”
He was interrupted by Ede opening the doors of the van. “Everything’s alright?” Both of them nodded. He squished himself onto another seat, gave them their food and kept silent as Engel and Ali continued talking about games.
The following time, the three of them just sat in the van and ate while Ali and Engel exchanged additional titbits about games and electronics while Ede grew more and more confused as they continued talking. They were interrupted, though, when their instruments picked up someone trying to phone out of the building.
“Asia Restaurant “Süßer Lotus”, how may I help you?” the lady on the other end answered the call.
“I´d like to order some food…” the person within the building started. With great presence of mind, Engel re-routed the call to their van.
“I`m so sorry, but our telephone is currently not working right,” she took over the call. “Telekom, you know?”
“Ah, of course I do,” the man replied. “Horrendous prices for horrendous service.” Engel laughed at his joke.
“What do you want to order then?” she asked. The man gave her his order and hung up. Without wasting any time, Engel called another operative and ordered him to get the food and deliver it to the hidden Mossad base. He did and when he came back he reported that he had seen two guards, perhaps three, and that he had to deliver fourteen dishes, so they assumed that this was the number of people inside.
Then they continued to wait.
“Never thought the van would be useful in this case,” Ede remarked.
“Well, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while,” Engel replied.
“Was the Hauptmann really that bad?” Ali wanted to know.
“Even worse!” Engel moaned. “He was politically active, so he knew the right people in the right places. Somehow, he managed to become ecology officer in a unit and tried to apply peace-time standards while we were at war.” She shook her head. “He impeded very important stuff at the front because he insisted they follow regulations, instead of making it up as they go and he was constantly trying to save money instead of lives. When he criticized his superior too often, he was sent here to Hamburg where he had little to do with only a small team.”
“Leutnant Nguyen and Schrödter?” Ede wanted to know.
“And me, of course!” Engel exclaimed. “Honestly, we would have fared so much better without him. We had to step in several times to keep him from blowing everything up, which made him furious. Major Schippers was his predecessor and had given us some leeway, which he wanted to take away. He wasn’t man enough to do that directly, so he started to campaign against us behind the scenes. Then you came and now he’s gone. I call that a win.” She laughed.
“I guess there’ll be some disciplinary action in his immediate future,” Ali added.
“Damn right!” Engel agreed.
Someone knocked on the door. It was Leutnant Schrödter who asked Ali and Ede to come with him in order to attend the meeting with Canaris about storming the Mossad building.
A few minutes later they were sitting in the kitchen of the garage and listening to President Meyer, who had called a SEK team (SWAT team) to arrest the suspects. Of course, none of them knew about the true nature of the case; officially they were dealing with armed drug dealers.
“My team is here in five minutes,” Meyer told them. “Not long and we can wrap up this whole mission.”
He had barely finished his sentence when his phone rang. “What?” Meyer exclaimed after he had taken the call and listened to whatever the person on the other end had to say. The police president rubbed his temples and hung up.
“The team transporter had an accident near the Horner Kreisel,” he told them. “A fucking Fiat 500. A team of highly skilled combatants stopped by a Fiat 500 who didn’t use his turn signal.” He sighed. “It’ll be at least another thirty minutes until another team can get here.”
“Damn!” Canaris exclaimed. “I don’t know if we have that much time.”
“Well, currently they aren’t doing anything,” the Major interjected. But as if he had jinxed them, a white van drove up to the building and was loaded with moving boxes.
“We can’t wait any longer,” Canaris muttered. “We’re going in.”
“We’re only ten people,” Meyer interjected. “We should wait.”
Canaris shook his head. “No, we’re going in and I know exactly how.”
Five minutes later, their Asian delivery truck drove up to the building and parked next to the men loading the other van. Lieutenant Nguyen, wearing the appropriate clothes, greeted them and asked if they were the ones who had ordered the Asian food. One of the men acknowledged, whereupon Nguyen asked them if they would be so kind to help him carry the containers inside.
It was when the Mossad men were standing behind the van that Ede, Ali, Lieutenant Schrödter and Engel pushed open the door and pulled the men inside where they knocked them unconscious with a few well-placed hits. Meanwhile, Canaris and Meyer had their gun drawn and were walking towards the man still standing near the Mossad’s van.
However, the men’s reaction to being ambushed by German secret service agent was unusual.
“Admiral Canaris!” one of them exclaimed and even saluted.
“Do I know you?” the Admiral wanted to know perplexed.
“Captain Moshe Davidson of the Mossad,” he introduced himself. He didn’t seemed to be unsettled about the guns still pointed at him. “There seems to be a misunderstanding if our own allies ambush us like that.”
“There sure are a lot of things that need to be cleared up,” Canaris replied.
“Well, such things should not be discussed out in the open,” Davidson told them. “Why don’t you follow me inside.”
“We’ll keep your men as collateral,” Meyer insisted. The knocked-out men were tied up and Engel was ordered to guard them – to her very dismay. The others, meanwhile, followed Davidson inside the building.
There was one guard near the door Davidson led them to, but when the Captain shook his head, he stepped aside. Inside, there were dozens of computers with at least ten people walking throughout the room and attending to them.
“What are you doing here?” the Admiral wanted to know.
“We´re trying to stop a Jewish terror attack on German soil,” Davidson replied.
“Explain,” Meyer ordered sharply.
“I´ll try to tell you as much as possible, but I’m only second-in command here until Colonel Oren gets back here from Poland,” Davidson replied.
“What’s he doing in Poland?” Canaris wanted to know, not revealing that the Colonel was dead and would not come back.
“He wouldn’t divulge any details,” Davidson admitted. “He didn’t want anyone to accompany him, telling us that it was something he needed to do on his own. I think he wanted to meet someone.” He shrugged. “Anyway, a month ago, Isaak Modersohn over there –“ he nodded towards a youngish looking teenager on the other side of the room “- contacted us.”
“How would a civilian know how to contact you?” Meyer inquired curiously.
“That’s something I won’t tell you,” Davidson replied firmly. From the expressions of both Meyer and Canaris it was obvious that they weren’t happy with that, but they choose not to press the issue further.
“Please continue,” Canaris asked.
“Isaak told us that his older brother Jeremiah had joined the Irgun who were planning an attack in Germany, right here in Hamburg.”
“Why would you do that?” Ede spoke up, his question directed at the young boy. Isaak looked at the Captain and when said man nodded, turned towards Ede.
“This isn’t Nazi Germany,” he spoke up. “This isn't Nazi Germany anymore, this isn't the Germany that tried to eradicate our people. But my brother couldn't see that, for him you're the same people that killed our family. He's changed; it was as if he was slowly replaced by a person I don’t know; full of hate, rage and self-righteousness. Whatever the German government did, it wasn’t enough for Jeremiah, never enough. I want my old brother back.” He swallowed. “Besides, what’s the point of it anyway? Germany will win this war eventually, and once that happens, we need its support for any sort of new Jewish state to be established. An attack would only erode that support.”
“What can you tell us about the Irgun?” Meyer steered the talk back.
“A right wing terrorist organisation,” Davidson started to explain. “Originally, it was only active in Palestine, but apparently it’s been also established in Europe.” He sighed. “If they manage to commit any sort of attack, German support for us will evaporate and we need that support, especially as we cannot rely on Stalin and the US and UK will be in far worse shape once this war is over and cannot guarantee our safety as they did in the old timeline.”
“So, Isaak contacted you…” Canaris prodded.
“Yes, and then we were sent here. We started to observe his brother, who had already killed a Polish woman and was now planning to kill her uptime counterpart as well, which we were unable to prevent.” Either way he was a really good actor or his sorrow was genuine. Neither Ede nor Ali could tell. “He escaped. We tried to save Mr. Schmudtke, and called the police, before we made our getaway.”
“Finally some answers,” Ede exclaimed as he couldn’t hold himself back anymore. This case had confused them long enough.
“Yes, indeed,” Davidson replied. “Mr. Schmudtke was one of the men who liberated Auschwitz. We owe him much. But we also tried to covertly get evidence to you.”
“So you were the ones who send us the Polish files,” Ali interjected.
Davidson nodded. “We also thought it might send you in different directions while we were trying to clean everything up here.”
“And where are these terrorists now?” Meyer interrupted.
“Ehm…”
“You don’t know,” Canaris exclaimed aghast. “So, now we not only have to look out for a murderer, but a whole group of terrorists wanting to attack civilians. And you don’t have any leads as to where they are!”
“You’re right,” Davidson relented. “But Colonel Oren is in Poland in order to get more information…”
“Captain Davidson, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I have to inform you that Colonel Oren has been killed in Poland by an as of yet unknown person,” Canaris informed the other man and he looked truly sorry while he told the man the sad news. “Do you know who he wanted to meet?”
Davidson’s face became ashen as he took in the news.
“No, I don’t,” he whispered. “I need a few moments, if you’d please excuse me.” And then he was already out of the door. Puzzled, the Germans turned to the other Mossad agents in the room.
“Colonel Oren was not only our superior officer, but also the Captain’s uncle,” one of the men spoke up. “I’ve heard he practically raised the Captain himself after his father died. They were really close.” He fell silent as a sombre mood fell over the room.
“I don’t want to sound callous as I know all too well the feeling of suddenly losing a person you hold dear, but the same might happen to innocent Germans if we don’t continue,” Meyer spoke. “Mr. Modersohn, please tell us everything you know.”
“Well,” Isaak started, “Jeremiah and I are the last remnants of our family. While we survived Auschwitz –“ he gulped, trying to compose himself “- the rest of my family didn’t, including my father Dr. Modersohn. If the liberation had happened even one day later, I would have died, too, as I was selected to be killed on the day it took place. It was pure chaos – the alarm suddenly started to blare and then the SS thugs were just running around, shooting and shouting. One of them attempted to throw a grenade in our barrack, but before he could do it, he was shot down by one of the liberators, which later turned out to be Lieutenant Schmudtke. It shames me that Jeremiah tried to kill the man who saved us.” He looked up at them. “Is he…is he dead?”
Ali shook his head. “No, but he’s in a coma and we don’t know if he’ll ever wake up.”
“At least he still got a chance,” Isaak whispered. “I thought we’d come too late.”
“I think you saved his life,” Ali replied. “But why would your brother want to hurt him?”
“I just don’t know,” Isaak said dejectedly. “He’s so full of hatred. After…after Auschwitz the only thing on his mind was revenge. Revenge for the family that we had lost. We had a huge fight about that.”
“And you don’t?” Ede wanted to know.
“No,” Isaak replied, looking him straight in the eye. “There’s a difference between justice and revenge, and I don’t think Jeremiah knows that anymore. I could understand why he killed Agnieszka, because she was the one who betrayed our family. We turned to her for help, gave her our money, so that she would hide us. With one hand she took our money and with the other she took the Nazis’.” He clenched his fist. “So yes, killing her I could understand. But Jeremiah didn’t want to stop just there. In his mind all Germans are to blame for our family’s death, so all of them had to pay. We fought and separated. I won’t bore you with all the details, but through contacts I managed to get a hold of the captain and told him everything. And now we’re all here.”
“Indeed,” someone muttered. They turned around to see that Captain Davidson had come back, probably already a while ago, and was leaning against the door frame. When he had all of their attention, he walked towards them. “Let`s continue.”
“Who did your uncle plan to meet?” Canaris repeated his question from before.
“The answer remains the same,” Davidson replied. “He gave us no name, I only know that it was a downtimer. But no name. He just told us that it was important. That it was to stop a catastrophe.”
“What did he mean with that?” Ede asked.
“I have no idea,” Davidson shrugged. “He usually has all of his data backuped somewhere, as always, but as of yet, we haven’t found anything.”
“Do you have the names of the other members of that terrorist group?” the Admiral wanted to know.
“We have some suspects,” Davidson replied. “But nothing definite. We were following Jeremiah to get some more information, when we had to intervene and save the Lieutenant.”
“You don’t need to cover for me,” Isaak interrupted. “I was the one who gave up his position and tried to save him, even though it costed us Jeremiah.”
“What’s done is done,” Davidson shrugged. “We don’t know how many there are or even where they are. We only know that some of them are former Mossad members who didn’t support our decision to cooperate with the German government.”
“And when did you plan to inform said government of the activities of your former colleagues?” Canaris asked bitingly.
“Best case scenario we would have stopped them without ever informing you,” Davidson replied unapologetic. “The German government would have never known about the schism in our organisation.”
“Well, that did work out splendidly for you so far, didn’t it?” Meyer drawled, an angry undercurrent to his voice. “Maybe we could have caught them already if you had told us about them beforehand. I am responsible for this city and may God have mercy on you if anything happens to it because of your goddamn secrecy!”
“It wasn’t my decision alone,” Davidson tried to justify himself.
“It doesn’t matter whose decision it was,” Canaris cut in. “It won’t change anything. Until now, nothing’s happened that can’t be swept under the rug.”
A few people were killed, but I guess that’s normal if you’re in this line of work, Ede thought, but he knew better than to say it out loud.
“So, you say we should trust them?” the Major wanted to know.
“Yes, I do,” Canaris replied. “I knew Oren and if Captain Davidson is anything like his uncle, then we can trust him.”
“We need to get to his flat,” Davidson told them. “Until now we thought it was more important to stop the terrorists than to find out who my uncle met, but maybe that person’s the key to everything.”
“There was already an attempt to break into his flat,” Ali told him. “But the burglars were seen and fled the scene. We don’t know if they were successful, though.”
“So, they weren’t just burglars, but terrorists?!” Ede exclaimed. “We could have had them already! Scheiße!”
Ede, Ali, Lieutenant Nguyen and Captain Davidson were all driving in the same car on their way to the flat. There were some comments about Ede’s driving style, but he resolutely ignored all of them. Rather arrive late and safe than not at all.
“Mr Yüksel, I meant to ask, but where did you get that Lincoln you’re driving from?” Nguyen asked.
“You’re driving a Lincoln?” Davidson threw in, interest piqued.
“Yeah,” Ali replied. “A 1960 Lincoln Continental. My father got it for me…a while back. It was a wreck, nothing more than an empty shell. It took me years to get all the parts and fix it up, but it was definitely worth it.”
“Josephine’s driving a 1967 GT 500 Shelby Mustang,” Nguyen added. “And despite her name, she definitely doesn’t drive like an angel.” He laughed at his own joke.
“Josephine as in Josephine Engel?” Davidson wanted to know. All three of them nodded.
“You know her?” Nguyen wanted to know.
“I know of her,” Davidson confirmed. “We’ve had a whole file on her, code name ‘Ninja Sword’. She hacked the Americans, the Russians and the Iranians…well, allegedly, because we’ve never got enough evidence.” He shrugged. “Her intel on Lieberman nearly ended his career.”
“She’s really that good?” Ali wanted to know. Davidson just nodded.
“Who’s this Lieberman?” Ede wanted to know.
“An asshole. A kind of Joseph Goebbels,” When he saw Ali’s and Nguyen’s startled expression, he expounded further. “Look, I’m an Israeli, a Jew and a patriot, but that man was a perversion of all those things. Some of his policies were straight out of a dictator’s playbook.” He shook his head. “How he, as a Jew, could even suggest deportations…He was a very dangerous man.”
“The whole Netanjahu administration was kinda right-leaning,” Ali added. “But Lieberman was the worst.”
“I think we need a government that is willing to compromise,” Davidson said. “That’s my opinion, one that’s shared by many other Mossad agents. But you know…politicians.” All the men in the car nodded in approval.
“Your decision to stay here’s very surprising, at least for me,” Ede said. “I mean, there must be a lot of Nazis around you’d rather see dead. A lot of people who aren’t getting punished out of necessity.”
“You want to know why I choose to stay and help the country that gassed four million Jews?” Davidson dead-panned. Ede nodded.
“To be honest, if I were you I wouldn’t,” he added.
“Some didn’t and went over to the Irgun, but I stayed because of the Admiral,” Davidson replied.
“Canaris?” Ali was baffled.
Davidson nodded. “When he was head of the Abwehr he helped my grandparents escape the SS. Also, I like to be on the winning side of things.”
“Folks, I think we have to shelve that conversation because we’re nearly here,” Nguyen interrupted. “Just around the corner.” Ede followed his directions and soon they were in front of the building which they had already visited before. He parked the car and soon after they were in the flat.
Again, they searched every nook and cranny, but it was to no avail.
“What are we even looking for?” Ede wanted to know.
“A book,” Davidson replied. “My uncle used books to hide his secrets. Usually a code that would give away a location or something.”
“Are you sure forensics haven’t found it already?” Ede prodded.
“No,” Davidson shook his head. “I looked over all the items you guys took.” He smirked. “Our hackers aren’t as good as Ms Engel, but honestly? The IT at your department is a joke.” A knock on the door interrupted them. When Ali opened the door, it was Hans, the neighbour’s boys.
“Oh, it’s just you,” he spoke as he looked at them. “I thought the burglars were back.”
“Then why did you knock, when there could be criminals in here?!” Ali wanted to know horrified. Hans shifted on his feet and revealed a kitchen knife which he had been holding behind his back. All four men’s jaws dropped.
“What are you doing with that knife?!” Ali hissed even more horrified.
“Well, in case you were the burglars I needed something to defend myself,” Hans replied.
“I doubt any criminals would have even opened the door,” Davidson pointed out.
“I definitely didn’t think that through,” Hans admitted.
“Where’s your mom?” Ede wanted to know.
“At work,” Hans replied. “I just wanted to see who was there.”
“You should go back to your flat and go to bed,” Ali said. “Tomorrow’s school after all.” Oh, how he wished he could do the same. Hans nodded dejected and turned around.
“Wait!” he exclaimed. “I nearly forgot, but there’s something I need your help with.” He vanished into his flat only to reappear a minute later with a bible in his hand.
“Mr Richter gave it to me,” he explained. “He told me that I should send it to a Mr Jakob if something was to happen to him.” He looked up at them with pleading eyes. “Can you help me find him? You’re police, after all, so you’re good at finding people, aren’t you?”
Davidson gulped. “I am Mr. Jakob. You can give it to me.”
Hans was somehow suspicious, but as Ede and Ali nodded, he handed over the bible to Davidson.
“One day I’ll tell you the whole story,” Davidson told the boy. Hans just nodded, obviously disappointed that he didn’t get told now.
Soon after the three had left the building and were driving back to the Mossad HQ.
Arriving there, Davidson wasted not time starting to look through the book.
“My uncle and I used to play this game when I was a child where he would mark certain words in a book,” he started to explain. “On their own, these words were pretty much nonsense, but if you had the right decoding key, you would know which letters you needed to take from them in order to get the hidden message. The key was usually also hidden in the book.”
“But how would you recognise the key?” Ede asked puzzled.
“He’s marked page 94,” Davidson replied and pointed at aforementioned page. “Which means I need to take the digit sum, which would be 13. Again, that means that I have to take the first letter of the first word and the third word of the second word and so on until I reach the 13th word. Then I’d need to look for the next marked page – 115 in this case – and take the seventh letters of the next seven words and so on and so on.”
“That’s ingenious,” Engels remarked. “But it would have gone a lot faster with a computer.”
“Well, my uncle wasn’t a really technophile,” Davidson shrugged.
It would take some time until Davidson would have the whole message, so everyone not belonging to the Mossad – except Major Schippers who would stay with them as ‘advisor’ on the Admiral’s insistence – left the room in search for something to do until they would be needed again.
Admiral Canaris seemed weirdly invigorated, though.
“Gentlemen…and women, this was the most interesting day since Cartagena in 1916,” he told them. “Keep up the good work!” And then he vanished down the hallway.
“What happened in Cartagena?” Ede whispered to Ali as they made their way towards where one Mossad agent had shown them the sleeping quarters where located.
“Oh, I know,” Engels interjected. “I looked the Admiral up when I started to work for him and let me tell you, it’s quite an interesting story.” She sat down on one of the empty bunk beds that was in the room. “He was a secret agent in Spain but needed to leave the country in 1916. He managed to evade a French submarine and an auxiliary cruiser on a small sailing boat until he and his fellow officer reached the German sub that was supposed to pick them up.” She bent down to get rid of her shoes, letting out a relieved sigh when her feet finally popped free. “He’s had quite the remarkable career: Officer on the cruiser SMS Dresden, fleeing the internment, arriving Amsterdam via Plymouth as Chilean national, secret agent in Spain, caught in France but escaped an Italian prison in 1916 to return to Spain and then to flee via Cartagena.”
Ali and Ede listened to her in rapture. They both were aware that Canaris was a man of deep renown, but to actually hear some of his exploits was a different matter altogether.
“Sounds like a German James Bond,” Ali muttered.
“Who’s that?” Ede wanted to know, pretty sure that it was one of Ali’s UT culture references.
“You haven’t heard of it yet?” Ali exclaimed aghast. “007? ‘My name is Bond. James Bond’?” Ede just let his silence speak for himself. “Damn, once this is over, we’ll be having a movie night…or maybe several, there are, after all, quite a few of them.”
They talked for a while still, but when the clock turned to midnight, they both went to sleep.
“Wake up, you slugabed!” Ede nearly fell off the bed when Ali screamed right into his ear. He had a few choice words for his colleague when he sat upright, but at least his partner had a big and hot cup of coffee read for him. Small mercies.
“How late is it?” Ede asked.
“Already 9 o’clock,” Ali replied.
“Any news?”
“Yeah.” Ali sipped from his coffee. “He’s found the message. Only three words, actually.”
“And???” Ede prodded.
“’Menachim’, ‘Begin’ and ‘Nakam’,” Ali replied, looking as confused as Ede felt. Instead of asking for clarification Ede was pretty sure Ali didn’t have either, he instead went over to the sink in the room and tried to make himself look at least a little bit presentable. There was no saving his crinkled shirt, but he could at least make sure that his hair was neat and his face clean. Only now he noticed that Engels was nowhere to be found.
“One of the guys challenged her to some hacking duel,” Ali told him after he’d asked his partner. “I don’t think he knows what he’s gotten himself into.”
Davidson entered the room while Ede was wolfing down the chocolate bar Ali had brought him from one of the vending machines down the hallway.
Menachim Begin was an Israeli prime minister,“ he explained after Ede had asked him after the code words. “He was a Polish Jew who came to Israel in 1942 whereupon he rose to become the leader of Irgun.”
“Your prime minister was a terrorist?” Ede repeated baffled.
“Who wasn’t at that time?” Davidson shrugged. “I won’t sugar-coat anything, they committed some serious crimes, but as prime minister he managed negotiate the peace deal with Egypt and got a Peace Nobel Prize for it.”
“So, he could be the murderer?”
“I don’t know,” Davidson replied.
“But why would the leader of a Jewish terrorist organisation come to occupied Poland?” Ede wanted to know. “And who is this Nakam?”
“Not who, what,” Davison told them. “It’s another terror group. They tried to poison the water supply of some German cities. They didn’t succeed.” He added hastily.
“Oh, Scheiße!” Ede exclaimed. “And we have no idea where they are?”
“Begin made a mistake, though,” Davidson explained. “He used the name Biegun – his old name – to enter Poland and Germany.”
“So, let me clarify this,” Ede began, “We not only have one but by the looks of it several Jewish terror groups working here in Germany?”
Davidson and Ali just nodded.
“I can’t deal with this like that,” Ede said, gesturing at his ruffled appearance. “I need an ironed shirt for this shit. I’m going to go home, talk to my wife and maybe shower…no, definitely shower, hoping, of course, that neither the Allies nor a Jewish terror group will have blown up the country by then.”
“I already talked to her,” Ali supplied. “Told her we had a really important but time consuming observation going on.”
“See you later,” Davidson nodded.
On his way home, Ede thought about what they had to do now; Finding Mr. Biegun in order to find a terrorist cell, so that they could find even more terrorist cells. Sounded easy, alright…
