“I… it’s so… I can’t…” she began crying even harder. This was it. She would die knowing she had failed the only one she knew had truly looked out for her. And she would be dying for those two traitorous bastards that had… oh why her?!
“Take a leap, Lena. Just trust me.”
“I am working for the Americans!” she blubbered. “I’m so sorry, Grandfather! They told me so many things! They promised me things, and I believed them! I’m so sorry!”
Grandfather pulled her over into his lap and wrapped her up in a big hug. He held her close with such warmth, “Oh Granddaughter…” he said. “Don’t you worry, I forgive you. We’ll set things right. You couldn’t have done anything too serious at this point. We can make it work.”
The two sat for several minutes, Lena making a nice waterfall of tears on his shoulder, and him holding her close. If Lena was to die shortly after this, well, at least she had come clean about the whole thing. But she would die knowing she had betrayed her Grandfather to this level, “Oh, how wretched this is!” she thought to herself, “This is how I repay him!”
“You know I have to ask more questions, Lena,” he said after a while. “I can make all of this go away. But in order to do that, I need you to be honest with me again.”
“Okay,” Lena sniffed. She was fully prepared to betray the Americans if she had to. They had put her in this position, after all.
“I’m not going to ask you what you’ve done. You’ve only been back a short time, so you’ve not done any lasting damage. To be honest with you, whoever you’ve met on this side of the Wall is worth more to me alive than otherwise, and I won’t ask you to betray your friends and neighbors. But I do need to know who you were propositioned by.”
“Matt York,” she replied without hesitation. Oddly, Grandfather didn’t appear to be the least bit surprised by this.
“I figured,” he laughed. “Like I said, the Americans and the HVA have very separate interests. But the clandestine services and their little operations are pretty easy to sniff out once you’ve done counter-intelligence for as long as I have. That, and intelligence apparatuses can be a lot less original than you might think. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if they were trying to get Matt York over into the GDR just like me.”
“H-how did you know?” Lena sniffed with surprise.
“Oh, call it a hunch.” he laughed again, “He’s just a little too perfect. That, and the fact that most of you are using your super-secret rooftop radios to listen to Radio Brandenburg?! Why in the hell would they be playing that anti-American nonsense unless they were trying to butter us up? Matt also speaks weird German. If you watch his interviews, he speaks it nearly flawlessly, but he uses phrases he would only know if he grew up on this side of the Wall instead of being handled by a case officer on that side, and he uses the phrases out of context. He’s being handled by someone that didn’t quite account for that. That’s pretty typical of intelligence organizations these days.”
“That makes a lot of sense. But how did you know that we were…”
“Well you’ve already told me about the roof-top radios.” he chuckled. “And, come on. You think my block doesn’t have its own? The only reason I don’t personally have one is because I have carte blanche from the State to do whatever the hell I damn well please. But I have my community too.”
“That’s so awesome!” Lena giggled. “You are so punk rock.”
“More than you will ever know,” Grandfather winked. “What, pray tell, were those idiot Americans wanting you to singlehandedly mastermind?”
“Well…” Lena thought. She knew she had to tell him, but she knew that doing so might risk his ire, or worse, get Hans in a worse position than he was already in, “It’s… complicated.”
“Oh, come on, tell me!” Grandfather rolled his eyes. “Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s particularly grandiose and movie-worthy. I would expect nothing less of you and your hijinks.”
“…it’s… it’s about Hans.”
“Oh my,” Grandfather’s voice took on a serious tone. “Oh my, yes. I was wondering when that little issue would come to call.”
“You aren’t mad at me, are you?”
“Oh, gods no! I’ve been waiting months for this to come up. And let me tell you this: I’m honestly surprised that the Americans have been this loyal to some random asset. Normally they just debrief the network and let the poor bastard rot, which is more or less what we would do. But I’ll assuage your fears, since you are being so honest with me: Hans is alive and well.
“He’s scared, of course, and could do with some fresh air. But I’m not of the business of torturing people—especially children. Remember, I’ve actually had teenagers. I know what the little shits are capable of. Unless the Americans are wanting to cultivate agents who have the particularly rare skill of liking girls or having acne, I know that they didn’t trust him with anything more than I would. Gods… what better way to get some girl to date you, than to tell them you are a super-secret spy? No, Hans is perfectly safe. Just between you and me, I’m only keeping him locked up because I know it pisses off the Americans. If it were up to me, I’d have one of my own agents spank him, and then pack him across the Wall.”
“But what about the network?” Lena asked, before thinking better of it.
“Oh, I know who most of them are,” Grandfather said, with a wink. “I even know who the radio operator is.”
“You know Mrs. Schroeder?!” Lena gasped, before thinking better of it.
“Of course, I do!” Grandfather scoffed. “But that doesn’t do me any good—it’s their crypto keys I’m after. If I go after Janet Schroeder, they’ll just switch the keys and then I’m back to square one.”
“Gertrude.” Lena corrected, trying to be helpful, “Her name is Gertrude Schroeder.”
“Oh, goodness me,” Grandfather sighed. “Age takes the memory first. In any case, I have no intention of brutalizing Hans or her. I only want their information. Once I can find out their crypto keys, I’ll just listen in. That way I get better information, and I don’t have to harm anyone. Much more neighborly, don’t you think?”
“That’s wonderful,” Lena sighed, relieved.
“But back to the important parts. You and I both know that you aren’t working for Matt. Matt is just an agent; I need to know who his boss is.”
For a second, Lena hesitated. She felt betrayed by Matt and Mr. Collins for putting her in this position. Yet something about Mr. Collins was just so… trustworthy. He was the sort of man that everyone wanted to be around. He was a genuine person that knew how to let unimportant things slide. She admired him, and didn’t want to disappoint him. Yet he was also on that side of the Wall—no one could touch him over there. What harm could telling Grandfather actually do?
“You won’t hurt him, will you?” Lena asked sheepishly.
“Who? Matt or his boss?”
“Either, I guess.”
“Oh, Matt can be controlled.” Grandfather laughed. “Worse comes to worst, we’ll just deport his British arse and be done with it. But his boss is a case officer. By and large, those people are untouchable from a political standpoint, and he wouldn’t ever be on this side of the Wall if he knows what is good for him.”
“His name is Marcus Collins, I think,” Lena said plainly.