Chapter 7: He Moves in Darkness

I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me;
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
--Robert Frost, "Mending Wall"

Monday, December 11, 1989
5:05 P.M.
East Berlin

The snow had been falling for about an hour, and a few cold flakes kissed Lee's cheek above the edge of his coat. Hunching his shoulders a little more deeply, he tried to keep his ears tucked below the turned-up collar of his coat and away from the wind's bite. He dug his hands into his pockets and strode onward with his head down, towards the building on Ruppiner Strasse.

Amanda would be waiting for them with Erik Jaeger on the other side of the tunnel, chafing at her orders not to enter the tunnel and cross into East German territory. Hard to see how it made a difference, this late in the game, but national sovereignty was still national sovereignty, and the East Germans did not want anyone entering or leaving the country without official permission. From the information Yannah had already passed on, some kind of conspiracy was definitely afoot, but there was no way of knowing how high up in the ranks it went.

Lee shook his head. When political power shifted at the national level, there were always impacts on individual people. But in this case, those impacts could be extreme. If the two Germanys unified, even the highest-ranking East German officers would likely be demoted, or at least would no longer reap extra benefits from being favored members of the Party. And because of a few people like that, he was here freezing his ass off instead of shopping for Christmas presents back in Arlington. He let out a quick puff of breath as he realized his thoughts were with his stepsons and wife, not on the mission at hand. 'Watch it, Stetson,' he warned himself. The distraction might have been different from last time, but the danger was the same.

He rounded a corner onto Schoenholzer Strasse, glancing ahead to a brown brick building near the end of the block. Two figures huddled in the doorway of Number 7, lit by the streetlights overhead, and for a moment his heart stopped. It was like seeing ghosts of himself and Travnik, entering on that fateful night.

He forced himself to shut down that train of thought as he approached his final turn. As he got closer, he tensed. The figures still had not entered the building where he and Travnik had stood, and he began to wonder if something was wrong. In a brief flare, a cigarette lighter came to life, and the two figures began moving down the steps, one tucking a red-and-white package into his coat. Lee couldn't help but wonder if the free market had already arrived, or if the Marlboros had been obtained through other means.

He reached the corner and turned to his left, waiting for the traffic light to change. The building just past the opposite corner was his target, a large red brick structure four stories high, stretching the few hundred yards from the street corner to the blankness of the Wall. He remembered being struck by that on his previous visit, the strangeness of a city street abruptly blocked off by concrete and barbed wire, or at night, the streetscape abruptly ending. This side of the Wall was bare, but he knew across the no-man's land and past the guard towers, the concrete on the Western side would be covered in colorful graffiti. Perhaps even a few memorials, considering the importance of this neighborhood in the many attempts to cross the Wall. Though there was probably not a memorial to Dmitri Sikorski and Pyotr Travnik, at least not with their names visible. And if what Yannah said was true, they deserved no monument at all.

Someone bumped into Lee's shoulder as they hurried past, and he looked up to see the light had changed. Flexing his fingers inside his pockets to keep them warm, he strode across the street and past the building on the corner, towards the music shop adjacent to it. Glancing around one last time, he slipped into the alley and made his way towards the back of the building. He was immensely relieved when the door at the back opened at his touch. Stepping inside, he saw a short flight of stairs leading up to his right towards the shop, and a longer stairway descending into darkness in front of him. A single bare bulb over his head cast stark light on the walls.

He shut the door behind him and stamped his feet to shake off the snow, noticing a set of wet footprints leading down the stairs before him. The back of his neck prickled when he realized they were larger footprints than Yannah's would be. Unbuttoning his coat, he reached back to draw his weapon. After taking a deep breath, he made his way down the wooden staircase as quietly as he could, wincing when a board creaked.

As he came to the bottom of the stairs, the light from the landing above was just enough to reveal a hallway extending to the left. He reached the final step and paused a moment to listen. There was no sound except the muted honk of a horn from the street. His shoes scraped on bare concrete as he started into the darkness.

The corridor stretched the length of the building, and he began to wonder if it extended under the Wall, too. A faint sliver of light finally caught his eye, ahead on the left. He made his way forward more cautiously, straining his ears, but in vain. As he reached the end of the hall, there was just enough light coming from under the door on the left for him to see another door immediately opposite. No sound came from either door. He looked down, but there wasn't enough light to see which direction the footprints went. After bending down to feel the floor for wet footprints, he realized the dank basement air meant the entire floor was damp. No help there. Taking a deep breath and readying his pistol, he turned the knob on the door to the right and stepped inside.

A bare bulb overhead lit what was obviously some kind of storage area, though it was storing very little at the moment. Rows of dusty shelves lined the wall, with only a few cardboard boxes stacked up near the door. Pausing to make sure he had his mental compass straight, Lee moved towards the northern wall. He saw nothing resembling a tunnel entrance, though perhaps it was behind some of the shelves. He started peering underneath the ones at eye level, looking for some kind of indication of where they were supposed to go. Jaeger hadn't said anything about a trick entrance, so the tunnel had to be easy to find. Assuming this was the right room. He straightened up to leave the room and check out the one across the hall.

He was badly startled to see a man in uniform standing just outside in the darkened hallway, pointing a revolver at him. "Your hands in the air, please," came the quiet command.

Lee froze. His arms were down at his sides, but if he moved quickly enough, he thought he could dive to the side and fire. He watched the uniformed man more closely, trying to gauge what kind of response he could expect. Then a second armed man appeared behind the first, and Lee silently cursed. Tossing his pistol into a corner of the room, he sullenly raised his hands to shoulder level.

The first man stepped forward into the room, and Lee's eyes narrowed as he recognized him. He had been in a similar face-off with this man before, in a very different place. The man was watching Lee's face closely, and seemed pleased to see recognition dawning. "Yes, Scarecrow, you and I have met before. 1980, wasn't it, in Angola. I fear you will not be the one to triumph this time."

Karin was the man's name, Lee remembered. Sergei Karin, then as much a foot soldier of the Cold War as Lee had been. They had come face to face in the middle of a guerilla war, one of the dozens of battles the US and the USSR had fought through proxies. In this case it was the Soviets supporting a corrupt regime and the US supporting various rebel factions in Angola and adjacent countries. He'd wounded Karin but had been forced to escape without his prisoner.

But why would the Soviets be interested in stopping an East German agent from crossing over to West Berlin? They had enough problems keeping their own population in line, now that the physical manifestation of the Iron Curtain was down and the taste of freedom was in the air. Then the second, shorter, man entered the room. Lee saw that he, too, was wearing an East German uniform. Unlike Karin, however, he was blond-haired and blue-eyed, and his identification tag read, "Meyer." If he wasn't Russian, then what was going on?

Karin must have seen the confusion on Lee's face, for he smiled. "Your Miss Alberts did a fine job of leading us to you," he started. "There are still many in the East German ranks who see the wisdom of cooperating with Mother Russia and not giving into the capitalists."

"No," Lee said aloud, his mind churning. "I don't believe you." Didn't he? Or did he just not want to believe he'd been betrayed again?

Karin laughed and stepped forward, the second man coming around to stand behind Lee. "Believe what you want, my friend. Yannah Alberts told us where you would be and when. And as you can see, she was right."

Lee clenched his jaw. How else would they have known who he was and where to find him? The anger started to surge up inside of him. What the hell had he been thinking?

And then he quelled his rage with a single thought. Why would Yannah be trying to capture him here, knowing Amanda and Erik were a shout away? Why hadn't she just done something the other day when they met at the university? And there were only two men here, one of them not a German. He forced himself to calm down and think. Something else was going on.

Karin continued, "You will be quite a prize to bring back to Moscow, you know. Both of you." His pause seemed purely for dramatic effect, and Mark's words from years ago about Russians having to make a statement echoed in Lee's head. It figured that Karin would betray Yannah, in his turn. If the Russians knew she had been helping West German and even American agents, she was in for a rough time of it. They'd be trying to get as much information out of her as out of him.

But Karin was speaking again. "We know the name is inaccurate now, but as you are still the Scarecrow, she is still Mrs. King."

Lee's stomach dropped. "What do you mean? Amanda's not here. She's not part of this."

"She will be soon." Gesturing towards the open doorway with his weapon, Karin continued, "Across the hall, if you please. She and our companion will be joining us there."

Lee took a step forward. "I don't understand," he replied, fighting to keep his voice firm. "She doesn't know anything that could be of use to you."

"Oh, we both know that's not true," the Russian responded. "Besides, it doesn't matter what she knows or doesn't know. It only matters what *you* know." He paused. "And what you are willing to tell us."

A chill ran down Lee's back, along with the realization that he was going to have to get away from these men or go down fighting. No way was he going to have Amanda used as a means of getting him to tell Agency secrets. He knew he could withstand a lot on his own, and Amanda had received considerable training in resisting interrogation. But he also knew he could be broken if it meant saving her from harm.

At a prod in his back from the man behind him, he moved forward, across the dark hallway and into the other room. The light was switched on, and he blinked at the brightness. This room, too, was nearly bare, but was distinguished from the first one by a large, dusty painting of a pastoral scene hanging on the wall. His hands still held away from his sides, he stopped in the center of the room and turned around.

Karin nodded towards the painting. "If you would remove it from the wall, please?"

He moved as slowly as he could, his mind racing. Karin wanted the tunnel entrance open. But Yannah couldn't have told him Amanda was waiting so close by, because he hadn't told her about that part, and so she couldn't have known. Was Karin going to cross over to West Germany and drag her back? If that was the plan, he wouldn't give it very good odds. He knew Jaeger was waiting with Amanda, and that meant --

Oh, hell. He stopped in his tracks. It meant Yannah wasn't the only traitor around here.

"It's Jaeger, isn't it?" He turned away from the painting to look at Karin. "Your 'companion'."

"Very good, Mr. Stetson. Yes, another man who has seen the wisdom of joining the fight against the corrupt West. He has been a great help to us over the years."

Over the years? "How long?" Jaeger couldn't possibly have been with the East Germans since before '81, if he knew Yannah was a double agent. What had happened since?

"Long enough," came the reply. Karin motioned with his gun towards the artwork, and Lee reluctantly turned back to it. Putting one hand on each side of the frame, he lifted upwards and pulled it off the wall. Staggering a little under the weight, he took a few steps to the side and dropped it to the ground, leaning it against the wall.

He had uncovered a hole about one meter on a side, opening out at waist level. He peered into it, trying to listen for any sounds of someone approaching, but someone grabbed his upper arm and jerked him back. It was Meyer, who gave him a shove back towards the middle of the room.

"Now what?" Lee asked, standing up straight and facing the two men once he'd caught his balance.

"Now we wait."

Lee wasn't about to wait in silence. "So I take it you're behind the threats against Kohl and Modrow."

"I am flattered you think so highly of me," the Russian replied. "I am not well-placed enough to give those kind of orders."

"Why, Karin? The Wall is down. It's the end of the Iron Curtain, the end of the Soviet Bloc. The writing is on the wall, no matter how you try to fight it."

"You don't understand." The Russian took a few steps forward until he stood in front of Lee. "You are familiar with the saying, 'Nature abhors a vacuum'?" When Lee nodded, he continued, "We do what we must to maintain the balance of power. I do not think you fully understand the consequences of the 'end of the Iron Curtain,' as you put it. We cannot allow reunification to happen, and if it means innocent lives are lost, we are prepared to accept that."

Lee stared at him. "You're threatening violence against civilians because you can't bear the though of losing any of your power. That's not quite so noble as you make it out to be."

"That's not what I said -- " Karin stopped abruptly at a sound behind him in the hallway. He jerked his head at Meyer. "Find out what that was." The blond man nodded, and stepped out of the room, holding his gun at the ready.

That evened the odds a bit. Apparently Karin thought so, too, for he leveled his revolver at him. "No more talking," he said.

Lee stayed watchful, aware there wasn't much he could do at the moment. He glanced at the tunnel entrance off to his right, but there was no sound from within. Looking at Karin, he thought the man was starting to look nervous. He must have been expecting Jaeger and Amanda by now. Good. Any sign something had gone wrong in the Easterners' plan was good news.

"Meyer's taking an awful long time getting back, isn't he?" he asked almost conversationally. "Things aren't going the way you planned, Sergei."

Karin opened his mouth to reply, and then there was a noise from the tunnel. He glanced to his left, and then he took a few steps towards Lee. Lee's eyes flicked back and forth between the Russian and the dark opening of the tunnel, from which he could definitely hear someone approach. Then Karin suddenly grabbed Lee's arm and pulled him in front of his body, pressing the gun to his side of his head.

It took a second for Lee to orient himself. When he understood what was going on, his heart sank at the new situation he faced. Crouching inside the entrance to the tunnel was Amanda, the pistol in her outstretched hands trained on Karin. Which meant it was pointed at him.

"Mrs. King," Karin called as if greeting an old friend. "Or should I say Mrs. Stetson? We've been waiting for you to join us," and he pulled Lee a little closer. "We were just waiting for you to arrive under slightly different circumstances."

"Oh, well, we found out about Jaeger," she replied, looking at Lee questioningly. He gave her a slight nod to indicate he had figured it out, too. "And we took care of him. It's all over," she continued in a firm voice as she stepped out onto the concrete floor. "The West Germans are right behind me, and the East Germans are right behind you. I don't think they'll take too kindly to you overstepping your borders like this."

Oh, crap. Lee knew that tone of voice. It was the same cheerfully overconfident one Amanda had used nearly six years ago, the first time she had faced down Soviet agents holding him at gunpoint, successfully convincing them she was the Scarecrow and that the building was surrounded. He'd been astonished Zinoviev had fallen for it then, and he'd be surprised if Karin fell for it now.

Unfortunately, he was not surprised. The revolver pressed into his head more firmly as Karin replied, "I call your bluff, Mrs. King. However you managed to overcome Jaeger, he would have made sure in advance that no aid would be forthcoming from your side of the Wall. My men will be coming shortly, and I would suggest you drop your weapon."

"You never did bluff very well, Sergei," Lee taunted through his clenched teeth. "If you had extra men in the hallway, they'd already be in here. It's just us, two against one."

"Yes, but I would appear to have the advantage," Karin responded, thumbing the safety off his gun. The click seemed to reverberate through Lee's skull, and he saw Amanda's eyes go wide. He stood still, trying to ignore the sweat he felt trickling down his temple. He remembered standing at the top of a grassy hill, holding a gun on Amanda, and how the trust in her eyes had shone through her fear and enabled him to do what he had to do. He tried to convey that same trust to her now. 'You know what you're doing,' he silently urged her. 'Don't give in.'

He was pleased to hear her reply firmly, gun unwavering. "You won't kill him. Moscow wants him too badly." Lee had no idea how she had managed to figure that one out, or what she had managed to do with Erik Jaeger. He was looking forward to finding out. If he made it out of this intact.

"That may be true, Mrs. King. You, however, would merely be the icing on the cake." He could feel Karin's right arm tense, and suddenly he knew what the Russian had planned. Lee had been right earlier: the Russians didn't want Amanda for her information, but as a tool to break him. She was the expendable one. And Karin had a perfect shield in place. Lee desperately reached to intercept Karin's arm as it began to move.

He was a second too late.

Karin's right arm flashed out, pulling the gun away from Lee's head to point it at Amanda, as his finger tightened on the trigger. "No!" Lee shouted, as the report of the revolver echoed in the basement room.

He thrust an elbow back into Karin's midriff, ready to follow it up with a quick punch to the jaw. When he met with little resistance, he was startled enough to turn his head, just in time to watch the Russian fall to the floor. The left side of his uniform was slowly soaking through, red blood looking black on the olive green shirt. Confused, he whirled toward Amanda to find her on her back, raising herself onto an elbow. "I'm all right," she quickly reassured him. "I just thought it might be a good idea to duck."

Lee let out a long breath. "How'd you manage to do that?" he asked, pointing back towards the man on the ground. He had realized Karin's change in plan as soon as he understood the Russian was making him into a more effective shield. Amanda might be a good shot, and had even had to hit living targets before, but he didn't think she would be so bold as to try and put a bullet into a man standing behind him. Maybe it was the adrenaline.

"I didn't." Amanda gestured off to Lee's left as she scrambled to her feet. "She did."

Lee whipped around to see Yannah Alberts standing in the doorway, pistol still pointed at Karin's body. Not taking his eyes off her, he reached down to remove the weapon from the Russian's hand. "Yannah," he acknowledged, fingers flexing around the revolver's grip as he rose.

She turned to face him, but didn't lower her weapon. "Lee," she replied, eyes flicking down to his gun.

"You're late."

Her long hair swirled as she jerked her head back towards the dark hallway behind her. "I had business to attend to."

Lee waited a moment longer, tensing his muscles to spring if necessary. "Karin said you told him I was going to be here."

She took a deep breath, and he could see her double-handed grip on the gun tighten. "And you believed him."

He was aware of Amanda standing right behind him, of how far he would have to reach to push her down to the ground. He raised his left hand an infinitesimal amount as he asked, "Should I?"

Yannah's blue eyes darkened. "You still do not trust me."

"It'd be a lot easier to do if you put down that gun."

She looked at his weapon again before meeting his eyes. "Not when I may need to defend myself."

"You won't need to if you answer my question truthfully." He shifted his hand upward another inch.

The corner of her mouth turned up. "I doubt that's accurate. You see, I did tell Karin you were going to be here."

"You -- " Lee brought his weapon up the rest of the way, training it on Yannah's head. "Put it down. Now."

She shook her head. "Not until you hear me out."

"I'm warning you -- " Lee started, but was cut off by Amanda's hand on his shoulder. "Let her talk," she said quietly.

"Thank you." Yannah nodded at her. "I told him you were going to be here, yes. With the information I had been able to gather, I knew he was part of the conspiracy that has trapped me here. My friend, the one who warned me I was not safe, told me today that your Herr Jaeger was part of it as well. What I did not know was whether or not I would be believed without proof." She nodded down at her coat pocket. "May I?"

Lee nodded, keeping his aim steady. She slowly reached into her front coat pocket and withdrew a small tape recorder. Pressing a button, she held it out for them to hear. "If it means innocent lives are lost, it is a cost we are prepared to accept," came Sergei Karin's voice. She pressed another button, and the click echoed in the silent room.

Amanda's voice broke the stillness, asking the question before he could. "Why did you use Lee to trap Karin? Why not do it yourself?"

"Because I knew Lee did not trust me. I knew even if I brought you a taped confession, you might think I had made it up. Without knowing what Jaeger had told you about me, I had to make you hear the truth for yourself. This," she hefted the tape recorder and looked from Amanda back to Lee, "is my insurance once I am in the West. I do not know what Jaeger might have been saying about me, and to what extent it has been believed."

"He told me plenty," Amanda said, stepping out from behind Lee. "He said he'd been selling information to the East Germans for over a decade."

"How is that possible?" Lee snapped.

"He said it was really just for the money. He didn't care about loyalties, his own or anyone else's," and she gestured at Yannah. "But then the Russians made him see that with the fall of the Wall, his market for information would be drying up, and they convinced him to help with their plans."

"So the information I was feeding him was not new. Everything I found out about the conspiracy, he was able to suppress. Any piece of information he gave to me was just what they wanted me to know." She took a deep breath, suddenly looking older. "I do not know how long he has been working both sides, how much damage he has done. I would hate to think all of my work has been for nothing."

Amanda nodded, and he felt her hand on his upper arm. "They were going to bring you to Moscow, too, Yannah. Jaeger said it was time to find out just how much you knew about the Agency, that your usefulness to him had ended. That's how I know you're telling the truth."

At that, Lee looked at his wife. He saw the truth of what she was saying in the depths of her brown eyes. "We need to get through the tunnel, Lee. The three of us. There might be more coming behind Karin, I don't know."

He let his arms drop as he accepted her words. He looked over at Yannah, and then bowed his head. "I'm sorry." Sorry he hadn't trusted her, sorry her "usefulness" to a West German traitor meant her life's work was suddenly thrown into doubt.

He heard her footsteps echo off the cement floor as she came forward. "Don't be," she said softly. "If I was in your place, I would not trust someone like me, either."

Suddenly he was tired. Tired of the emotions of the past hour, of the past week. Of the past eight years. He raised his head to look Yannah in the eye. She looked tired, too, with circles under her eyes he didn't remember seeing the other day. He was afraid she would look even more downcast once the full impact of Jaeger's treachery came to light. "Amanda's right, we should go."

She nodded, opening her mouth as if to say something, and then falling silent. Turning to Amanda, she asked, "You took care of Jaeger, I assume?"

The corner of Amanda's mouth quirked up. "You could say that." At the inquiring lift of Yannah's eyebrow, she went on, "You'd think someone who's supposed to be a top agent would know not to turn his attention away from an American he's guarding when she's standing right next to a piece of wood the same size and shape as a baseball bat." She made a swinging motion with her arms.

Lee felt a grin creep across his face, and he saw Yannah smile as well. "Then it is safe to cross." She stepped toward the tunnel.

He surprised himself by laying a hand on her arm. "Why don't you let me go first?"

She looked amused. "American chivalry?"

"Not exactly." He exchanged a swift glance with Amanda. "I'd feel better with you watching our backs."

Yannah smiled, understanding the trust he was giving her. "Very well."

He turned to Amanda to see her eyebrows raised and a look on her face he knew all too well. It meant he was in trouble for something he hadn't figured out yet. He cast his mind back over the last few minutes, and then he understood. Looking into his partner's eyes, he gestured towards the tunnel. "You've been through here before, Amanda, so you should be in the lead."

"A wise man," he heard Yannah murmur, but his eyes were focused on Amanda, who was trying to suppress a smile. "Damn straight," was all she said as she hefted the gun in her hand and climbed into the tunnel.