Adam Forster was up at five a.m. on the day of the rally in Berlin. He made a coffee and, sitting in front of the window in his hotel room, watched and waited for the sunrise. He glanced at his watch—it was eleven p.m. in Washington D.C. He stood, grabbed his phone and returned to the window. Adam dialed Mitch.
“Hey Adam,” Mitch answered.
“I didn’t wake you obviously,” Adam said speaking in a low voice so as not to wake Ellen.
“No, I was waiting up to give you a call after six your time to make sure you were feeling okay about it all,” Mitch said. “I’m just watching a re-run of the Redskins game from last week.”
“The Cardinals will still win,” Adam said.
Mitch laughed. “Spoiler. So are you under control?”
Adam exhaled. “Sure. But you know how it is before these things … you’ve run through every scenario in your head except the one that will happen. Remember in London with Hackett in the Underground? Who would have thought he’d pull that prank at the last minute.”
“Who would have seen that coming?” Mitch agreed.
“Yeah. I’ve been thinking about The New Aryan Order, thinking about how desperate they might be to win. We’ve counted on them having significant security in place themselves, but…” He stopped mid-thought.
“So you think that despite the fact they want the top jobs—Chancellor and President—they would be prepared to take those jobs at any cost?”
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
“Nothing in any of their notes or transcripts indicated that they intend to go that way,” Mitch said, “but we’re prepared for that. The SWAT teams are ready.”
“Fine, just wanted to flag it again,” Adam said. He finished his coffee.
“How are Eve and Ellie going working together?” Mitch asked.
“Chalk and cheese but thick as thieves,” Adam said.
“Only two idioms, that’s slack of you.”
Adam laughed. “Well it’s early here. Ellie’s up, I can hear her moving around. Want to talk with her?”
“If she comes out of her room. Do your best to keep me posted throughout. It’s a blueprint for here.”
“Are you going to stay up all night?” Adam asked.
“I’ll get a few hours’ sleep now and get up about three-thirty. If the rally is at ten a.m. in Berlin, that’s four a.m. here,” Mitch calculated. “I need to know how it plays out. It should be all over by noon, which is six a.m. our time and then it will be all over the international media.”
“What time does your march start?” Adam asked.
“Seven, and I suspect they started it early for that reason. By the time the USA is waking up to the international news of the neo-Nazi march in Berlin, it will begin to stir on our own streets,” Mitch said. “It will be interesting to see how that works here, but I’m guessing D.C. will attract more dissenters on the back of the European news.”
“Agreed,” Adam said. “Here she is, I’ll put Ellie on.”
“Be careful Adam.”
“Yeah, sure. Talk during the morning. Ellie … it’s Mitch.” Adam passed the phone over to her. “Nice pajamas by the way.” He admired her leopard print flannelette shirt and pants.
“Thanks.” She took the phone. “Hi Mitch.”
“Are you wearing the leopard-print pajamas again?” Mitch asked.
“It’s cold. There is nothing wrong with my leopard PJs. I’m going to get everyone in the team a different pair to reflect your personalities, like an FBI zoo.”
“I’m not even going to ask … so, are you feeling okay about today?” Mitch asked.
Ellen nodded as Adam held up a coffee cup to her.
“I’m fine. I couldn’t sleep for thinking about it, but I think we’ve covered everything that is in our control. If you like, I can wear my phone earpiece and call you. You can hear it all.”
“No, but thanks. As much as I’d love that, I want you to be one hundred per cent in the moment paying attention. Just call me when you can. Now Ellie…”
“Is this when you give me the ‘be careful’ lecture or the ‘don’t sleep with Adam’ lecture?” She rolled her eyes at Adam.
“Well if you don’t want it …” Mitch said with a hint of dejection in his voice.
Ellen laughed. “No give it to me. I know you’ll feel better afterwards.”
“Good. Don’t take any risks, Ellie, you know that. It’s not worth it. Make sure our security guys and the Berlin police have eyeballed you before the march begins and know who all three of you are. Watch each other’s backs so at least we have our own cover and all the other things I regularly say about coming back safely, good luck and thanks. Got it?”
“Got it boss. You and Nick be careful today too.”
“I’m always careful.”
Ellen scoffed. “Yet somehow trouble finds you.”
Adam and Ellen heard a soft knock on the door and Adam opened it to find Eva there, dressed in black and wearing a New Aryan Order badge.
“Eva’s just arrived,” Ellen told Mitch with a wave to Eva.
“Good, and Ellie, call me during the morning when you can.” Mitch hung up.
“Speaking of not being able to sleep …” Adam turned to Eva.
“Who sleeps before a mission?” She saw Ellen’s coffee. “Yes please, a coffee would be great,” she said to Adam.
“Right, I’m onto it.”
“Was that Mitchell?” Eva asked.
“Yes, he’s up late to check we’re all coping. He’s a worrier,” Ellen said.
“I can imagine that. His head is always going, even when he’s not using it,” Eva said.
Ellen looked at her, surprised. “Wow, you read him well in a short space of time.”
“Are you both feeling ready?” Adam butted in to steer the conversation away from Mitch.
“Absolutely,” Ellen said. “It’s a bit hard with the language barrier, but I suspect actions will speak louder today.”
“They will,” Eva agreed. “Plus Adam and I will be close by so if any orders are yelled that you need to know, we’ll direct you. I have two NAO badges for you to wear so we can blend in with them.” She removed them from her pocket and gave them each a badge.
Eva continued. “So we leave here at six-thirty, head to Kreuzberg, lie low, and have breakfast nearby where we can sit in the window of a café to watch the flow of people coming into the area. Then we can blend into the crowd after nine a.m., eyeball security and the police, ready for the ten o’clock start.”
Adam agreed. “Then, we do our bit at around twenty-past-ten, unless someone starts the action for us sooner.”
“We need to check out where the media and communication team is as well, as we don’t want to be on their footage. They’ve been told to keep to the perimeters for their shots but it helps if we keep it in mind,” Ellen said.
The three sat in silence as the sun rose and filtered through the windows.
Eventually Eva spoke. “Are you two going in track gear and leopard pajamas or changing?”
Ellen laughed. “Yes ma’am, we’re onto it.”
She rose and headed for her room. Adam stayed behind.
“Can I ask a favor?” Adam asked.
“Of course, Adam,” Eva said.
“Can you not tell Ellie that you and Mitch, you know … slept together.”
Eva looked towards Ellen’s room. “Oh, are they together?”
“No! Definitely not, I didn’t mean that.”
“She likes him?”
Foster shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“He likes her?” Eva asked.
“I don’t know.”
Eva frowned.
“I’ll go change,” Adam said.
“Right. Good idea.” Eva watched him leave the room.