Chapter Six
As Barbara sat in the lobby, she thought back to the eighties in Leipzig when she, as Susan Lampley, had taught English at the Language Institute. Marianne had been Barbara's favorite student and her friend, at least as much as she could have a friend and stay under cover. Barbara's covert mission in East Germany was to help dissident groups work against the Communist government. For sixteen months, the Stasi, the East German Secret Police, knew that the American English teacher was attending dissidents' meetings, but they didn't see her as a threat. The Stasi didn't interfere with the meetings much, as long as they didn't get too vocal; however, they had moles in each group.
It was one of these moles who had discovered that Susan was funneling large sums of money to the dissidents. Once they found out, the Stasi had no doubt that the money came from the CIA, and that the seemingly innocent teacher was a CIA operative. She was arrested the same day. In truth, Barbara was lucky: during her time in Eastern Europe, she had been doing far more than funneling money to dissident groups, but the Stasi never found out about her other activities. Then again, she certainly didn't feel lucky when she was imprisoned and maltreated in the hell known as Bautzen prison. Eventually, she was exchanged for a Czech spy.
While these thoughts were flowing through Barbara's mind, she was also checking the lobby, collecting information. She could identify some of the people walking by as security—police, men and women who had to be FBI, and non-Americans who also fit the bill. Then she realized what she had registered unconsciously earlier: Marianne looked like one of them, too. Oh, for God's sake, is Marianne with the German security contingent, she asked herself? Just what she needed…hum…she wondered…. Maybe it WAS just what she needed?
At ten minutes to noon, Barbara folded her paper and walked toward the hotel entrance on her way to the café to meet Marianne. With a start, she saw that Carlos Costa was nearing the door from the outside. Shit, Barbara thought, what if he recognizes me? There was nothing she could do except keep going and hope he wouldn't notice her.
As she moved out the automatic door, he walked in, engrossed in conversation with the man accompanying him. He even glanced her way, but Barbara could tell that he decided immediately that Amanda Perkins was of no interest. Women like Amanda were almost invisible, an invisibility Barbara had found an excellent disguise. That and the fact that such men inevitably underestimated women like Amanda—or maybe women in general—had helped Barbara complete her missions with great effectiveness for many years. True as she knew this to be, it was nonetheless a relief that he had ignored her.
On the other side of the lobby, Karl Frenzel was not ignoring her. He had watched her as she sat in the lobby. He also observed Marianne Jaspers leaving the hotel shortly after her. Could they be meeting, he asked himself? The American had given no sign that she had recognized him in the hallway on the fifth floor, but why else would she be meeting with his operative? Could she be telling Jaspers about him?