My Immortal The Vampires of Berlin (4 page)

Waldon knew the secret would probably get out someday, but he vowed that it wouldn’t happen on his watch. In fact, one of his principal jobs at the agency—besides killing off the remnants of Al Qaeda and its various splinter groups—was to ensure that the secret didn’t get out. Under a classified Presidential directive, he was authorized to take any steps deemed necessary to prevent that from happening, including the use of deadly force in any jurisdiction.

When he heard that the topic of the meeting was Operation Tristan, he got worried. Worried enough to have CIA chief counsel Charles Corgan in the office with him. “Are you ready?” he asked.

Corgan nodded and pulled out a yellow legal pad as a three-dimensional hologram of General Hastings appeared in front of them. The lawyer was amazed by the latest and greatest toys that Waldon constantly got his hands on, but the new 3D technology was just a little too realistic and creepy for him.

Waldon got right to the point. “How bad is it?”

“Someone stumbled onto Tristan again,” General Hastings replied.

“Who?”

“Gerhard L. Richter III, a semi-celebrity and very strange writer from Vienna. They call him ‘the professor,’ but he doesn’t teach anywhere, he just writes shitty occult books. In fact, we can’t find any evidence that he even has a college degree. We’re not sure who gave him the information about Operation Tristan, but it appears to have been a significant security breach. He’s been visiting the locations described in the dossier.”

“How certain are you that he has good intel?”

“100%. One of our analysts hacked into his goddamn laptop.”

Waldon still didn’t panic. They had contingency plans to deal with anyone who got too close. They also had a heavily armed Delta Team on standby in London, 24/7. “Why did you authorize this surveillance in the first place?”

“I didn’t authorize squat,” Hastings replied. “In fact, I didn’t even really know anything about this Richter character until this morning. Our analyst, Michael Zigmund, is a big fan of his books. So is my wife.”

“Did he have a search warrant?” Corgan asked. He didn’t fully understand the situation yet, but he was running the usual legal scenarios through his mind.

“No one authorized Mr. Zigmund to do anything,” General Hastings replied. “He’s an overly-curious and hyperactive nerd, just out of college. He couldn’t wait for Richter’s next book to come out. He
had
to know what was next. Lucky for us.”

Corgan thought the solution was simple. “No problem. We’ll get the German courts to issue an emergency restraining order to prevent him from going public.”

“That will buy us some time,” Waldon said.

“Agreed,” Corgan replied. “Germany’s laws are much more restrictive than ours when it comes to Nazi bullshit. In fact, if you give the Hitler salute, you can go to jail.”

“I hate to veto the CIA’s mutual admiration society, but you don’t understand what’s going on here,” Hastings interrupted. “Richter conned his way into a classroom at Humboldt University; his lecture starts in a few minutes. Because of the success of his latest idiotic book, the press might actually show up to hear what he has to say.”

Waldon remained unconvinced. “No one will believe him anyway. With a little covert and malicious PR, we can discredit him so bad that he won’t get an invitation to speak at a middle school science fair for the next forty years. If that fails, we’ll drug him and get photos of him
in flagrante delicto
. There’s a tabloid website in Los Angeles that will be all over it.”

General Hastings sighed. There was no way around it—he had to tell them. “Listen to me, gentlemen. Professor Richter is
not
some run of the mill moron who will be deterred by risqué photos. The document that Zig lifted from his laptop is
not
a collection of half-assed UFO theories. We don’t know how he got it yet, but it’s Dossier #6561—the same top-secret dossier that was prepared for President Truman after the war; the same dossier that no member of Congress has ever seen. Get the picture?”

Corgan put his legal pad down and closed his eyes. The atmosphere in the office went ice cold.

It finally happened.
Goddamn it
, Waldon thought. His heart and his mind raced. The United States government suddenly faced its most serious crisis since the Second Korean War. “Did you notify the Chancellor?”

“She was in a closed-door session mediating the latest skirmish between Greece and Turkey. She didn’t get the message fast enough or didn’t appreciate its significance. Either way, there was a catastrophic failure in communication and we didn’t reach her until a few minutes ago. The German feds and FBI are on the way to Humboldt University, but they won’t get there in time. We can worry about who screwed up later, but we need to fix this. We have seven minutes. Ready, go.”

Waldon threw his breakfast against the wall and screamed. “Fuck!” It had been three years since he had thrown food, but a little food throwing during a national crisis was good for the soul.
That danish was stale anyway
, he thought.
I hate lemon danish. Fuck lemon danish
.

The lawyer got him to snap out of it. “Are there any other food groups that you want to attack before we decide on a course of action?” Corgan asked.

Waldon didn’t answer—he was already running solutions to the crisis through his mind. “We’ve gotta take him out,” he muttered. Then he punched a button on the speakerphone. “Gilman!”

“Sir?” came the voice on the other end.

“Get the German Chancellor on the line.”

“Yes, sir!” came the reply.

“Not so fast,” Corgan interrupted. We have to contact the President for approval first.”

“No time.”

“But under the law...”

“Under the law, I have the emergency power to take these actions without Presidential approval. I don’t care if we have to launch a fucking tomahawk cruise missile into that building. We will
not
allow that lecture to proceed.”

Corgan remained unmoved. “Sir, you are obligated under federal law to get the President’s approval prior to conducting targeted assassinations in NATO countries. There is a procedure. A protocol.”

“Screw protocol and screw the three years that you spent in law school. We’re in deep shit right now. Duarte has been the leader of the free world for less than a week—we don’t have time for him to get over the sticker shock.”

Waldon turned back towards the hologram. “General, who do we have on the ground?”

“Only one agent is close enough,” Hastings replied. “Julia Heckmann. Fortunately, she’s been following Richter.”

Waldon breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God. Give her the green light. Terminate him.”

“She’s a librarian.”

Waldon was stupefied. “A librarian? You sent a goddamn
librarian
on a covert mission?”

“We didn’t send anybody.
Your
CIA librarian just happens to be in Berlin on vacation—I trust that she has had the standard weapons training. In any case, we are lucky that
our
NSA analyst was smart enough to ask
your
CIA librarian to follow Richter around, just in case
your
CIA agents need to move fast. Which they do.”

Waldon punched a button on the phone. “Gilman—get Julia Heckmann on a secure line. I want the Delta Team mobilized and agents sent to Gerhard L. Richter’s home in Vienna. Get everything that goofball owns that could contain data—every DVD, CD, iPod, iPad, notepad, computer and cellphone—on a plane headed back here before lunch.”

“Yes, sir!” came the reply.

Corgan put his hand to his head as the hologram of General Hastings disappeared. It was all too much. The thought of testifying in front of a grand jury that was seeking to indict him on conspiracy charges gave him a migraine. He felt the wave of pressure and pain building behind his left eye like a tsunami.

“Get the lifeboat ready, counselor. We’re going to have some explaining to do,” Waldon said with a smile.

Corgan didn’t return the smile. He was contemplating what would happen to his wife Lynne and their three kids if he went to federal prison.

Director Waldon read the worried look on his attorney’s face. “Charlie, please draft a memorandum that expressly advises the CIA against taking action in Berlin without the express written consent of the President. I will acknowledge receipt of that memorandum in writing.”

Corgan nodded appreciatively, but he knew that a memo wouldn’t save him if information concerning Operation Tristan went public. The resulting chaos could make the 2014 collapse of the Euro pale in comparison. If things got so bad that the United States government fell, Germany, Russia and the Czech Republic would soon follow. They had all been involved in the cover-up.

6

Julia walked away from Humboldt University. She felt bad that Zig might lose his job, but she wasn’t going to jeopardize her security clearance over a trespassing charge. Besides, she wasn’t even in Berlin on business—she had a family reunion to be at in a few hours.

Her cellphone rang. Julia looked at the caller ID and sighed.
This should be interesting,
she mused.

“Hi Zig. I’m sorry I didn’t...”

Julia stopped talking the second she realized that Zig wasn’t on the line—it was a CIA communications officer. She knew the call wasn’t a prank when she was asked to recite classified passwords and personal information to confirm her identity.

Then she literally dropped her phone when Director Waldon got on the line. She had only seen Waldon once in person, at the Langley commencement—she had never actually spoken to him before.
Of all people, why would he want to talk to me?
she wondered as she picked her phone up.
I just spent the last six-months in a windowless library digitizing semi-confidential historical documents that are of no significance to anyone. I’m not even a field agent; I’m a glorified file clerk.

Waldon got right to the point when the phone was back to her ear. “Your friend Michael Zigmund asked you to keep tabs on Professor Richter.”

“Yes, sir,” she stammered. “Zig told me that he could lose his job if I didn’t find him.”

“He isn’t going to lose his job. Frankly, we’re lucky that he asked you to follow Richter. Are you still tracking him?”

“He just went into the school. That’s as far as I got.”

“Did his lecture start yet?”

“I’m not sure. I tried to get in, but—”

Waldon cut her off. “Julia, listen to me. The United States is facing a grave national security threat that is directly connected to Professor Richter. I’m about to give you an important mission that I need you to carry out without question or delay. Do you understand?”

What the hell is going on here?
Julia wondered as she struggled to get the words out. “Yes, sir ... I think so.”

“Are you armed?”

Julia gasped. “Sir, I haven’t touched a gun in a year. I’m not even authorized to pack heat in Germany. I could get arrested.”

“I assure you that neither the United States nor the German government will prosecute you for anything that I’m about to ask you to do. Now, we need you to get into that building and do whatever it takes to stop Professor Richter from giving his lecture, including but not limited to terminating him. Do you understand?”

Julia was stunned. What had started out as a casual favor for a college friend just turned into a once-a-career mission. She recalled Waldon’s commencement speech. He told the crowd that in the CIA, anything could happen on any given day.
Well, that theory is certainly true
.

“Do you understand the assignment, Julia?”

“Loud and clear, sir.” Julia gathered her courage and went back to the school. She didn’t know how she was going to get in, but she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
Not this time. No way in hell.

As it turned out, Julia had no problem getting past the security guard. He was already dead.

7