“And Kraut…” Mrs. Schroeder laughed, “…trusts that the house will not collapse as he sleeps, and that he is safe and free to display his belly to the world with his tongue hanging out for all to see. It’s a simple trust from a simple mind, but it’s a trust based off of nearly two decades of me ensuring that for him.”
Lena laughed. It felt good to have spent this time with Mrs. Schroeder. Even though she had kept this secret from the group, and from Lena until now. And even though she was likely withholding more information. She was a trustworthy person, and Lena made a silent pact with herself to rely on her wisdom, no matter how dangerous doing so felt.
“One person I don’t trust, however…” Mrs. Schroeder said with a dire tone, “is Patrick.”
“You…” Lena said, startled. “You know about him?… How?”
“Don’t trust that one, Lena.” she continued, ignoring the question. “Don’t trust him. Follow his orders, and say the things you have to say; but for the love of God, do not trust him.”
Lena sat outside a small cafe, smoking a cigarette on a Monday. It was roughly five in the afternoon and the city was still busy about her, passing the baton of business from reports and labor to conversation and cocktails. As normal, few cars passed through the street, while hundreds of bicycle-born pedestrians choked the city on their way to meet friends and lovers. The general chill in the air seemed to provoke the denizens into a more urgent stride, yet it did nothing to daunt the general mirth. For all intents and purposes, this was a happy day—for everyone else, that is.
Lena was at the appointed spot, awaiting instructions. Awaiting being the operative word, since she knew nothing about what waited for her in the coming hours… or days, or weeks. Since arriving back in the GDR, she had received a blissful few days of normalcy, and she and Vivika had made good use of this time to relax, shop and generally amble about with very few cares in the world. Yet Lena was beginning to realize that anything more than a day of peace and quiet made her itch with anticipation. Not an ‘excitement-for-more’-sort of itch, but rather the ‘something-bad-is-going-to-happen’-type. A few days of hearing nothing and Lena was on edge.
Thankfully, she had received her instructions to sit outside of this cafe and wait. But that was the extent of it and she was hopeful she wasn’t waiting for a bullet to the brain or a black-bagging of some kind. Those things did happen, after all.
She scanned the city in front of her, smiling at the people as they walked past. They all seemed so happy to be free of work. While Lena couldn’t necessarily relate, it still lifted her spirits. She noticed, what appeared to be a young couple walked briskly hand-in-hand. The man was wearing a polo shirt, and slacks of the evening variety. His company was wearing his overcoat to stave off the chill, yet it was unbuttoned, so as to display a very nice purple dress underneath, “They must be on a date!” she thought. “How very sweet!”
She watched another couple. This one was elderly, and they moved at a snail’s pace. He was hunched over from a life spent working hard for her, and she was hunched over from a life spent helping him make it through. Although both needed support, both defied gravity in a mutual embrace that made every step all the easier. Lena loved them instantly, and hoped one day she could love someone who loved her that much. They also wore their pants really high, and this made Lena laugh.
Perhaps a half block away, a taller man wearing a slightly ratty suit and black fedora ambled down the street. He looked to be tunelessly humming to himself and smoking a cigarette, no doubt trying to calm himself after a long day’s work. By the way he shuffled about, he struck Lena as a professor of some sort. Looking at him, she felt the urge to smoke another cigarette herself. So, she pulled out a stick, put it in her mouth, and lit a match. Sadly, this was one of two matches she had left, and the first snuffed out.
“Oh, bother.” she thought; she hated it when this happened. She continued looking around. On the other side of the street, was a young woman walking her dog. They were, perhaps, the cutest couple she had yet seen. The woman had a stately aura to her, wearing a conservative business outfit and a tightly manicured bun only partially obscured by a tasteful headscarf. She looked to be a somewhat humorless individual, with limited grasp for social interaction. And yet the dog she walked—some maniacal creature barely larger than a handbag—twisted, turned, and unleashed a minuscule yet spirited assault on the leash.
This dog seemed to switch moods as often as it switched directions. It first bit at the leash, then rolling onto it’s back to scratch some newly discovered itch. After this, it attempted to climb up the woman’s leg, only to attempt a backflip right before forgetting the leash and all-out sprinting towards… well, whatever. Oddly, the well-mannered woman seemed to be perfectly at peace with the furry bundle of electricity, smiling at him and cooing in a voice that Lena couldn’t quite make out. They were the perfect pair, these two.
Again, Lena tried to light her cigarette with her last remaining match… and again, it fizzled out uselessly, “Ah well.” she thought peacefully to herself, “These things do happen.”
The tall man in the slightly ratty suit walked by then. He stopped just a few feet away, pulled a match out of his matchbook, and lit his cigarette. After being satisfied with its lighting, he casually tossed the matchbook on the ground and walked away.
“Oh, well, that worked out well,” she thought to herself. Looking around a few times, she reached over and grabbed the matchbook. She opened it up, and took a second to read the words ‘’Dritte– 6th’ before casually ripping out a match and pocketing the rest. It didn’t really matter if she threw out the matchbook or not, as she always kept a fresh book in her pocket, and it’s not like folks didn’t occasionally write on matchbooks. Yet it was the principle of the thing, and she knew Red-hat (now Black-fedora) would be mad if she didn’t take every precaution.
Standing up and stretching casually, she looked around to make sure she had gathered all of her things. She hadn’t brought all that much, really. She just needed to waste a few moments to give Red-hat three blocks or so of headway before following him. Counter-surveillance was very difficult to do on your own (at least it was for her), but it was much easier to do in pairs. For one thing, anyone she was paired up with would obviously be better at this than her (so she wouldn’t have to try so hard). Plus, they almost never put someone on her when she was running doubles. She still had to keep a lookout, however, just in case.
Once Red-hat was about three blocks away, he paused briefly for a rest, and to take in the sights. Lena used this opportunity to lazily amble in his direction, taking frequent stops to look in shop windows or smile at children and dogs. This was the first half of her duties—to show Red-hat that she had no tail on her. She did this simply by walking. Red-hat would be able to immediately spot someone who stopped when she did. The three-block distance would give him an easy two blocks to see anyone.
One block passed, then the second, and Red-hat stood in the same place, tunelessly humming to himself and smoking a cigarette happily. Once Lena had reached the second block without any sign from Red-hat, she kept walking. This block, however, Red-hat began walking slowly towards her. Lena lit a cigarette while walking. This was perfectly normal behavior and didn’t symbolize anything in particular. It did give her a chance to briefly pause to look around for any tail he might have, though.
Seeing no sign of a tail, Lena decided to relax on this unimportant corner for a moment. She watched Red-hat walk down the street, stopping to greet a young lady, then again stopping to pet a dog. After a moment, he moved forward again, only to stop and look in a local store. Seeing something he liked, apparently, he walked in, and Lena lost sight of him, “Dammit.” she thought, they always took forever in these stores.
She leaned against a wall, smoking her cigarette. It wouldn’t have been that big of an issue, truly; she had smokes and she was tightly bundled against the occasional chill, but she had been cooling her heels out in the open air for, what, almost an hour and a half now? She wanted to get moving and get this meeting over with. In an effort try and stave off the chill and boredom alike, she resolved to people-watch some more. It was an easy conclusion to come to, since it was what she was supposed to be doing, anyways.
She watched another old couple, a younger man reading a newspaper across the street, a few girls skipping rope a block away, and a young woman taking artsy photos with an old camera down an alleyway. Nothing out-of-the ordinary. A few more minutes passed, and then a few more. The old couple had finally moved on, as had the girls skipping rope and most others who were out for the day. The man reading the newspaper still sat there… but why wouldn’t he? He was reading. The young woman was still taking her artsy photos of the cracks in the wall, “Artists,” Lena smirked to herself, ignoring the fact that she did similar things as well.
Red-hat finally exited the store with a brown bag of goods under his arm, and began walking back down the street. He had a gift for fading into the crowd, and Lena admired his ability to do so. She allowed him roughly a block-and-a-half of headway before she began slowly traipsing after him. But as she did, she took one glance at where the man reading the newspaper was slowly folding his newspaper and standing. “Gotcha,” Lena thought.
She did the best she could to curb her excitement as she switched gears. She wasn’t 100% sure that this man was following Red-hat, but he was by far the most solid lead. She only needed a few more signs, and she had her man. After a few blocks of Red-hat ambling down the street, and Lena moseying slowly after while watching Newspaper-guy do the same, Red-hat finally stopped for a breather. “Come on…” she thought. “Come on… give me another sign.” Just a moment later and Newspaper-man stopped as well, to look at a particularly interesting crack in a nearby wall.
“Yes!” Lena thought, that was all the proof she needed. Granted, she was supposed to wait for three signs, but knowing herself, she had likely missed one. Suddenly, she realized that her shoe was magically in need of re-tightening (these things happen, after all). Bending over to take a few moments, she noticed Red-hat, just a few blocks ahead, take off his black-fedora and inspect it for cleanliness, “That’s the signal.” Lena cheered at herself; she would no doubt get kudos for her progression. As if sensing her pride, Newspaper-man happily pumped a fist in the air, cheering for her benefit, before disappearing inside of a nearby store. “It’s going to be a good day,” Lena congratulated herself.