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Ground Zero - Part 2

A Tale from the Agent's Lounge

Ah! That was refreshing. Nothing like a hot shower after a big breakfast. And those omelettes! Almost as good as the steak last night. They really know how to eat down here. I'm so glad that you guys prefer meeting here in Brazil rather than the dumps the KGB used to meet my mom and dad in back in the Cold War Days. I mean, who the hell in their right mind wants to go to Chad, even before the civil war? I guess the old KGB guys are loving it in the FSB now, eh?

"Eh?" That is a Canadian expression I've picked up while working for F.O.X., a silly little word. It's sort of a verbal question mark sometimes and a confirmation statement at others. Hang around those maple sap sucking hockey hose heads long enough and you'll start saying it too, eh.

Yes, I'll be getting on with my story again shortly, no need to be so impatient. Yes, I understand that your superiors in Moscow are anxious to get to the point of this. They will be even more anxious when I tell you want I want after I am done with this tale. No, no. No getting ahead of ourselves. Let me conclude this story and then I'll tell you why I contacted you and volunteered to meet you hers, away from the prying eyes and ears of F.O.X., okay?

No, you really do not have much choice, but trust me, it will be worth it.

Where did I leave off? Oh, yes, with Silver's capture.

* * * * *

Silver came too slowly, not instantly like he did from a normal sleep. A pain in the back of his head and rough rope cutting into his wrists told him what had happened. He had been ambushed and was now a prisoner. Keeping his eyes closed he listened for clues as to where he might be and if there was anyone in the room with him. He tuned out the sound of his own breathing and heart beat so that he could make out the slightest sound.

"No use pretending, I know that you are awake." A female voice said in German. "And I know that you understand me, I've read your file, Canadian." Her German sounded local and he guessed that she was with the East German security force.

Silver opened his eyes a crack to let them get used to the bright interior of the room he was in. He found it interesting that his captor knew he spoke German but did not know his name, or his codename. That could mean that however the mole inside FOX was they had not had time to pass that information on to the KGB, either that or the KGB had not passed it on to the Stasi.

When his eyes had adjusted Silver opened them and drank in the scene. He was lying on a single bed in an otherwise bare room lit by a single high intensity ceiling fixture. The door had a keypad lock that would require a combination to open. Leaning against the wall by the door was a female German shepherd in a form-fitting black body suit. Her feet were bare, as were his. In fact, all of his clothes were gone. Presumably they were in a nearby room. The only weapon she had was a wooden truncheon. Not much to fight with, but still, deadly enough in the right paws, especially when one's opponent was trussed up like a thanksgiving turkey.

She was very fit and very well put together, he thought, full figured and curvaceous without being saggy or droopy. He thought that he may have seen her once or twice while doing his reconnaissance. But surveillance personnel rarely participate in captures or interrogations, and she was having a hard time keeping her eyes away from his crotch. His assessment was that he was perhaps dealing with someone who had overstepped their authority in hopes of big impressive score. His interest piqued. Silver decided to play along.

"To whom did I owe the pleasure?" Silver asked in slightly accented German as he let his eyes roam over her generous contours. He shifted his weight and spread his legs slightly, tensing his abs at the same time so that they rippled.

Her eyes followed the rippling motion down, down ... and then shot back up to his face. "None of your business." Heidi replied. She had no formal training in interrogation but felt that she should not be giving out personal information. "What were you looking for in the tunnels?"

"Mushrooms. I'm an avid gourmand."

She stepped forward and smacked him once across the bottoms of his feet with the baton, but not hardly hard enough. Silver, who had been interrogated by professionals, put her down as an amateur and wondered how he could put that information to use. He made a show of writhing in pain though, because that allowed him to flex his chest and arm muscles while lifting his legs to expose his ass.

"You were wearing a very interesting cummerbund." She said, trying not to stare at thighs and glutes that a gladiator would be proud of. "What does it do?"

Silver decided to answer truthfully. He did not know why this novice was questioning him, but if he delayed she would eventually call in the real interrogators and a technical exploitation team and they would have their answer whether Silver talked or not.

"It is a radiation detector." He said, relaxing his muscles to look less imposing. "I'm looking for a misplaced nuclear bomb that a Soviet General intends to use to start a war. I think that it may be somewhere near where you captured me. And I think I know when he intends to set it off. Whatever you do with me, it is vitally important that it is found and disarmed before he can detonate it."

Heidi bit her lip as she absorbed what the fox said. Her assignment, the recent news that Erik Honaker and the rest of the hard-line leadership had been taken to a Soviet government compound far away, and upwind of Berlin, the increased surveillance by both the American and Russian radiological troops. It would not be the first time that KGB had 'forgotten' to pass on information to their German colleagues. You would almost think that they don't trust us, she speculated.

"How does it work, your radiation detector?" She asked, unconsciously brushing back her long dark hair and arching her back to lean against the door.

Jesus, she'll be pawing off in another minute, Silver thought, and an unbidden image of her doing so made something down below twitch. He fought to concentrate.

"It is tuned to the radiation profile of the particular bomb. Hold the wristwatch level and press the stud in twice then hold it there. The arm for the hour will give you the radiation reading in millirads and the minute arm will point to the source of the signal."

"I'll be right back." Heidi keyed in a code on the lock that controlled the door and left the room. When she turned Silver recognized the ass that he had admired on the subway platform earlier in the day. Warmth spread across his groin, but he had better things to do while she was out of the room.

There was a small living area on the other side of the door where she had left her shoes and street clothes as well as everything that she had taken off the Canadian agent. The detector with its wire connecting it to the wristwatch was on a side table, along with the smuggler's map. She picked the watch up and pressed the stud as instructed. The hour indicator swung around to indicate eight-thirty while the minute arm shot around and stopped at fifteen minutes past. When she turned the watch the hour indicator did not change but the minute arm swung like the north arrow on a compass as you rotate it. The device was telling her that it had located a strong source very nearby, a little north of here.

She put it down and returned to the bedroom, picking up a set of shackles on the way. The fox was still lying on the bed where she left him, but he was on his side now, with his bound paws held up to his chest, his legs bent with his bound feet behind him, and his rather large cock lying across his thigh. Heidi suddenly felt very warm in the chilly room.

"Do you know where we are?" She asked when she remembered to speak.

"No."

"This is a Stasi safe house, or a safe basement, to be exact. We hide contacts here that we don't want to share with the KGB or use it to interrogate people with Russian connections without their knowledge. It was built in a former bomb shelter under Lindenstrasse, across from the Humboldt University. Your device seems to think that the bomb is on the other side of the street, under the university."

"That's what I suspected from the signals I was getting on the subway." Silver confirmed. He could see sweat beading on her brow. The dampness made the body suit cling even more. "I was on my way to check it out when you jumped me."

Heidi thought hard. "I will take up the search. I have your device and the map. If I find anything I will have to report it to my superiors. They will decide your fate."

She saw the fox's eyes go blank and felt a chill that was half fear, half desire.

"You need me to go with you. The general that put the bomb there may have surveillance on it and a way to detonate it remotely." Silver explained. "I have a contact that can disarm the bomb. We need to get him here to Berlin and in position so he can do that before some buffoon gives the game away."

The insult hit her like a dash of cold water, more so because she recognized that she was out of her depth. She tucked the club up under her arm and prepared to chain the fox to the bed so he would not get up to trouble while she was out.

She went to grab his legs, keeping her eyes averted to avoid staring at the trouser snake dangling from his crotch. But before she could touch him his paws were on her. She leapt back, expecting him to stumble with his ankles tied but he was on his feet the next instant, and his feet were untied, as were his wrists. In a single smooth motion he knocked the truncheon away and twirled the startled shepherd around, driving her up against the far wall. He finished with a small knife at her throat.

He shaved a bit of fur down to the skin. "Like it?" He asked. "Ceramic blade and polymer grip, designed to defeat any metal detector you might have used on me while I was unconscious."

"Where did you have that hidden?" She gasped.

"Now it's my turn to say none of your business." He smirked. "But perhaps I should check to make sure you aren't hiding something similar."

His hard body was pressing up against her back and buttocks, trapping her tail between them as he rubbed and squeezed her through the thin outfit. She shivered when his rough digits poked and prodded between her legs and under her tail.

Satisfied that the skin-tight suit was indeed hiding nothing he raised the knife off her throat, but did not take it away. "You're not a regular field agent." He said, more as a statement than a question.

"No." She admitted. "Until last week I worked in the records section, keeping the files up to date on foreign agents operating in the region mostly. That's why I was able to recognize you at the airport. I suspected that you may be here because of the increased radiation survey activity and decided to follow you from there."

That told Silver a lot, mainly that he had not been compromised by the double agent he was hunting back at FOX. That alone made it more likely that Scarlet was the one he was looking for because she was one of the few senior agents not in Ottawa when the mission came down. His heart lurched at the possibility that his lover was a spy for the other side. Then his heart hardened, and he leaned harder against the Stasi officer, wanting to punish her for news she had unknowingly delivered.

"You have a photo of me in that file?" Silver growled.

"A fuzzy one. It does not do you justice. But it was enough once I saw your eyes, the way you took everything in at the airport and your gunfighter's walk."

Silver made her explain about the walk and he grunted when she was done. I'll have to watch that, he told himself, vowing to study walking patterns when, if, he got back to the Academy and reminding himself to pick up a pair of lightly tinted sun glasses for transiting public spaces in foreign countries.

He relaxed a bit, but continued to lean against the shepherd's round bottom. "What else did it say about me in your file?"

"That you were not very good at surveillance, due to your size and appearance," Silver conceded the point, "but that you were a fairly good shot."

Silver bristled. "What, only 'fairly good'?"

"Well, we don't have many examples to go by. When you killed Comrade Preying Mantis you blew her up." Heidi found herself leaning back against a growing bulge pressing on the backs of her thighs.

"After shooting six of her colleagues!"

"And when you exchanged gunfire with a group of KGB and Stasi in Dresden two years ago you only managed to wound Comrade Putin."

"Putin? Was that the Squirrel?" She nodded yes. "That was a snap shot with my off-paw after being wounded in an ambush while dragging my unconscious superior out of the line of fire. I'm pretty sure I hit him and at least a couple of others. Even if I didn't kill them. It was an unexpected confrontation. We were all trying to get away without compromising our missions."

"I'll make a note to have your shooting prowess re-evaluated." She promised.

Silver took the time to drink in the scent of her fur and ran a paw down her flank much more gently than when he had been searching for weapons.

"Anything else of interest in my file?

"Hmmm. Comrade Preying Mantis did mention that you were considerably skilled in the art of lovemaking in the mid-mission report she filed before you killed her. A few other female contacts in the west have agreed with that assessment."

Having reached her thigh he reversed his paw, tracing the contours outlined by her body suit up across her abdomen and around her breasts.

"Well, I try to please."

"They say that you frequently succeed. Did you learn that skill at your Academy?"

"They helped refine it. Do they teach such things at your spy school?" He felt her hard nipples through the thin cloth and rolled one between his digits. Heidi shuddered in response.

"Not for record clerks. I took an abbreviated course for agents when I got this assignment." She began rolling and rocking her hips against his crotch and felt the protrusion there grow hotter and harder. "We did not cover this topic."

"It's a skill like many others." Silver commented as his lips sought out the tender flesh where her neck met the jaw line. "One needs regular practice to keep at the top of the game."

"And have you?" She asked as she turned her head to allow his mouth full access to the nape of her neck. "Practiced ... lately."

"Actually I'm over due for a good workout."

He had put the knife away sometime during the conversation and now both of his paws were caressing her breasts and sides.

She gestured toward the bed. "Do you think that we have all the equipment that we need here?"

"Some olive oil, elastics and a few ping-pong balls would help but this will do. How do you open this suit you're wearing?"

There is a little zipper up in the collar somewhere."

Silver paws searched for a moment then he said "To hell with it", grabbed a double paw full of material and tore the suit open from neck to tail hole. Once split he rolled it off her arms and down her front, letting his paws linger on firm flesh under sparse fur as he went. The he took a half step back and went down on one knee to pull the tattered garment down her shapely thighs, trailing kisses as more and more of her was revealed. He turned her to face him as he stood back up and their lips meet as if drawn by magnetic force.

After a long, sweet kiss hat involved intertwined tongues and roving paws he pulled away to get a good look at her. Having examined him when he was naked and unconscious she had already noted the vertical scar through his left eyebrow, a half-dozen other old wounds and a recently healed burn mark on the back of one paw. "You said you were hit in the fight in Dresden?"

Silver pointed to a puckered mark on his right bicep. "This one."

She kissed it, sucking on the stiff flesh of the scar until it softened and grew warm.

Silver pointed to a shallow knife scar on his abdomen. "This one came from close encounter with a border guard."

Heidi kissed it too.

"I got kicked in the crotch in a high school basketball game that left me with a little cut rigggghht here." He was pointing to a tiny line on the knob of his penis, which was now fully erect and straining toward her.

"Oh, you poor baby." She said as she dropped to her knees before him.

Heidi took the full length of his cock in her mouth and sealed her lips around it. She wrapped her nimble tongue around his shaft and worked it around in her mouth until it was coated with her saliva. Then she drew her head back, slowly, keeping the suction on it until just the knob remained inside. Twisting her head back and forth she teased the sensitive skin stretched tight by the intensity of his erection. Silver threw his head back and gripped her around the ears as she repeated the sequence several times.

When he could not hold back anymore he broke away from the grip of those lips and scooped her up from the floor. He tossed her onto her back on the bed where she landed with a grin on her face and her legs spread. It was his turn to kneel before her, kneading her thighs as his tongue worked its way toward their junction. There it found a slit that was already moist and emitting an odour that made his cock even harder.

He pushed her thighs back to expose both holes and licked the upper one while tickling the one just below her tail with the pad of his thumb. Saliva dribbled down from one to the other lubricating both. Soft pink petals emerged at his tongue's urging and he drove it between them to explore her sweet depths. At their apex he discovered a hard little button of flesh that quivered at his touch. He licked it and sucked on it, even gave it a gentle nibble, delighting in the way she writhed and wiggled under his mouth.

A couple of inches lower his thumb was well oiled from his spit and the juices she was producing so he pressed it against her puckered tailhole and felt it stretch. He pressed harder and it opened enough for the tip to penetrate. He pulled it out and moistened it by rubbing it on her glistening slit before going back. This time this thumb went in past the first knuckle and he was able to rotate and pump it in and out in time with his flashing tongue.

Heidi was moaning and pulling at the fur on his head so hard he was afraid that he would be bald by the time she came. Silver decided to change tactics. Pulling his head back but keeping his thumb inserted in her tail hole he rolled her over and urged her onto her knees in the single bed. He stood up and her butt was on a level with his groin. Before he could move in she reached back and took his quivering cock in her paw and guided it to her slippery slit. She rubbed the head against her clit to moisten it then slipped it between the fleshy lips of her cunt and eased herself back onto it.

She had to let go with her paw to let him all the way in. He held her tail down along her spine with his free paw as he drove his hips forward. She rocked back on her knees at the same time and his flat abs meet her round ass with an audible smack. They pulled apart, stopping just as the tip of his cock was at the entrance to her heavenly gates and then came together again.

Silver gript his teeth as the grip of her hot vagina started his balls twitching again. Heidi had no need to hold back, so she moaned and grunted as his stiff rod rode over the sweet spot inside her and rubbed her own clit furiously. Silver continued to plumb her ass with his thumb, and that felt good too.

It had been so long for either of them that it only took a few minutes for them both to cum. With triple the stimulation Heidi came first, but continued to pump and bump the big fox as steaming liquid shot out around his cock. She buried her face in the mattress of the little bed and cursed in low German as his thumb and cock brought her trough a series of small, sharp orgasms. She was ready to call for a ceasefire when she felt him stiffen and drive his prick into her one last time.

Silver pulled his thumb out so he could hold both of her hips. He held her ass against his pelvis as his meat cannon shuddered and fired several loads deep inside her. He groaned as wave after wave of pleasure so intense it hurt washed over him. When it was done he stayed like that, cock buried deep inside her, breathing heavily while she slowly rolled her hips around it.

"So," he finally caught enough breath to ask, "did I live up to my reputation?"

"Well I don't know." Heidi said with a wicked grin as she pulled herself off his still engorged cock and rolled onto her back. "The file did mention something about quick recovery and stamina that you have yet to display.

Silver crawled into the single bed with her and held his cock up for her to see that it was willing and ready for another bout. "Consider it displayed." He said.

It was almost as erect as it had been going in a few minutes earlier, she admitted, but kept her admiration to herself - It wasn't his ego she wanted to stroke.

"Is it like your western cars?" She asked. "All for show? Or can you put it to good use?"

The challenge stimulated him, and his cock responded by rising up in its full glory.

"Hop on lady." He said. "I'm driving you home."

After the fourth session of lovemaking fatigue overcame Silver. He had been preparing for the mission night and day before flying over and had only a few hours sleep the night before. He had not eaten much either. Heidi was wide awake, however, despite a warm glow that filled her insides and tempted her to lie down beside the foreign fox and sleep too. But her mind was in turmoil.

Sleeping with the enemy could be considered treason - especially after the second or third time. What she should have done was to overpower him and escape while he was in the throes of orgasm, except she had been in her own throes at the time. The file was right about one thing, the silver fox delivered, each and every time. No having to fake an orgasm to please this one. She could always claim that he was too powerful for her. "He had me pinned down for hours." No, she thought, that sounded fake.

Maybe I should just go report now, she thought. I can claim that I seduced him and wore him down until he was exhausted, that last part is true enough. She toyed with the fur on his back while she made her decision.

She got up, retrieved the shackles, which had featured prominently in session number three, and slipped one end around his ankle and the other around the iron frame of the bed. She closed them as quietly as she could, tensing up when he mumbled and shifted in his sleep. Then she slipped into the other room where she hastily washed, dressed and grabbed her purse with the encoded phone number she was to call when she had something to report.

The safe house built into the tunnels underneath Lindenstrasse gave out onto an old corridor connecting an old bunker to one of the ghost subway stations. She would have to get to the surface to find a phone so she headed to the bunker where she had entered the underground labyrinth several hours ago. But to her surprise the bunker was no longer empty.

There was a creature standing at the far end, just on the edge of the cone of light cast by a single hooded bulb mounted on the wall near the exit. It was a wolf, a grey wolf; a common enough species here in Central Europe. He was leaning against the wall and examining his claws as if he was waiting for a friend that had been delayed. It was not anyone that she could recall seeing before, either in real life or in the files. She approached, slowly and cautiously in case the fox had some backup that she had missed during her surveillance.

"Agent Heidi Schafer." The wolf said when she was still five paces away.

"Y-yes." She admitted. His nonchalant attitude and calm declaration of her name made her nervous. "And who would you be?"

He stepped forward and offered his paw to shake. "My name is Wolfe. Marcus Wolfe."

Heidi almost choked. Marcus Wolfe! The head of the Stasi intelligence Division. He had a reputation as a ruthless master spy, but not a cruel one. It was said that he frowned on the excessive violence of Milke and his NKVD cohorts who returned to take positions of power after the war. But it was also said that he was not above sacrificing a pawn in order to capture a knight - or a senior foreign agent. Suddenly Heidi was reminded of exactly how low she was on this particular totem pole.

She swallowed hard and stepped forward to shake his paw. At least when they threw her in prison for life - if she was lucky - she would have a good story to tell about the time she meet Marcus Wolfe. But then she remembered that no one, not even the senior administrators of the Intelligence Division, had ever seen the elusive Wolfe's face, and she wondered if he would let her live now that she could describe him.

Not that there was much to describe. He was of average height, average build and his fur had no distinctive makings, not the part that was not covered by his clothes in any event. His face was not remarkable, but there was a hint of nobility in his well-formed snout. His eyes were yellow, as many wolfs' were, and shone with intelligence. His grip was strong, but friendly, assuring. Heidi found herself relaxing at his touch.

"Director Wolfe, I have something important to report."

"Does it have anything to do with the last few hours you spent with the Canadian agent, Silver?"

Heidi's skin was burning under her fur. "Herr Director I -"

He waved it off. "Never mind. You were outmatched in the seduction game. Did he tell you anything useful while you two were ... engaged?"

Heidi told Wolfe about spotting the Canadian agent in the airport and deciding to follow him. She described his behaviour in West Berlin and finished with what Silver had said before he jumped her. "He wanted me to help him find the bomb so he could bring in an expert to disarm it." She finished, and then waited nervously for him to tell her exactly how badly she had screwed up.

"You did well to follow your instincts and stick with him." The spymaster said. "We would have never have thought to look for it in the middle of the city. But it explains a lot of strange things that have been happening recently - Honneker's absence from the city for one. He has always hated this city. He was imprisoned in Berlin during the Great War and there are rumours that he collaborated with the Nazis near the end. Afterward he was close to the Soviet Military Council, Timofeyev among them, and advocated burning Berlin to the ground along with all of its citizens rather than let the allies occupy half of it. He was from Saarland and never liked Berliners, that's why he issued the order to shoot to kill anyone attempting to get over his wall. With his help Timofeyev would have no trouble moving the bomb into place."

"What do we do now?" Heidi asked

"You go back to your foreign agent and agree to help him locate the bomb - it is the quickest way. But we cannot allow his western experts in to disarm it. Not only is that a breach of our sovereignty but it would take too long. We have known about these "Barrier Bombs" for some time now and had plans to deal with them if and when their use was imminent. The loss of this one was upsetting, but we can deal with it ourselves once it is located. We will have to move quickly, though, although Timofeyev's target is no doubt the treaty signing he will achieve the same effect if he sets it off sooner. Here, take these."

Wolfe passed her a set of keys and a boxy device with numbered buttons on the front and a short antenna sticking out the top.

"What is this?"

"It is a mobile phone. The soviets have set up a network they call the Altai radio telephone switching system. It consists of a number of towers that cover all the big cities in the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, including Berlin. It transmits on 330 megahertz and you can even move from one tower to another without losing the call. Very clever. Underground reception is a bit spotty but the main tower is very close to here so you should be able to get a signal when you find it. If not, head toward the surface and keep trying until you get one."

It was roughly ten inches long, three inches deep and two across and it weighed about two pounds. "It's so small." Heidi marvelled.

Wolfe showed her how to use the phone, counting on her excellent memory to retain the instructions. Then he told her what number he would be at. "Call as soon as you find the bomb." He reminded her.

"What about Silver?" She asked. "What happens to him once we are done?"

"We'll deal with that when the time comes." Wolfe replied. "And don't call him by his codename unless he has told you it himself. They don't know that we have a source for such information yet."

Heidi hurried back to the safe house, half excited to be working with the mysterious spy master himself and half afraid for what he would do to the silver fox once the bomb was found. She entered the code on the outer door and stepped inside, hoping that the Canadian would still be asleep so she could remove the shackles without having to explain why she had put them on but her hopes were dashed. The silver fox was in the outer room, sitting at the dining table naked, sipping freshly made coffee and munching on some tinned biscuits he must have found in the larder. She was glad that she had decided to put the mobile phone Wolfe had given her in her bag before coming back.

"I hope you don't mind." He said waving a biscuit in the air. "I was starving."

"Where did you hide the lock pick, with your ceramic knife?"

The fox shrugged. "Trade secret."

"I'll bet." Heidi sat opposite him and helped herself to a biscuit. She was very conscious of the fact that Wolfe had the place bugged. "I've decided to help you find the bomb." She announced between bites.

"Good. I suggest a quick shower first. Anyone guarding the device will smell us coming otherwise."

Heidi took a whiff of the air. They smelled like the Stasi agents that had spent a night in the sex clubs of Hamburg before returning to the east. What Wolfe must have thought of me when I was standing close to him, she thought.

"If we're going to work together we should introduce ourselves; I can't refer to you as 'the foreign spy' if we run into any university employees in the tunnels." She stuck out a paw, as Wolfe had done. "I am Heidi Schafer. What should I call you?"

The big silvery fox grinned. "You can call me Sterling. That would do for a first name or a last name, whichever you prefer."

Heidi was aware that that name Sterling also meant a type of high quality silver. It came from the old German word for a certain silver coin - a sterlinc. Renters who paid for their lease with such coins were referred to as Sterlings, and it soon became an official name.

"Sterling it is then."

After showering, separately to avoid further delay, the two set off to search for the bomb. Silver lead the way, activating the detector every few seconds. When they came to locked doors Heidi used the keys that Wolfe had given her, telling Silver that all Stasi agents had access to these tunnels. He cocked an eyebrow in disbelief but did not comment further.

Several times they had to backtrack as they found themselves at dead ends, but like working a corn maze, they gradually got closer as the signal grew in strength. Eventually they found themselves in a basement storeroom filled with old desks and dusty books.

"We must be under the university by now." Heidi commented. She picked up an old volume and saw that it was one of Max Plank's works on applied physics. "Yes, we are inside one of their buildings. I don't have keys that work from here on."

Silver pulled a pair of carbon steel rods out of his pocket. "Not to worry, I can take care of the kind of locks they use in places like this."

Another fifteen minutes brought them to a large wooden door banded with iron that probably dated back to the earliest days of the university, when the academics needed to shelter from Prussian invaders and the occasional angry mob. It had a new lock though, and not the kind that you could buy at the local hardware store.

"Will you be able to open that, Sterling?" Heidi asked, frowning.

Silver knelt by the door and began examine its edges. "Yes, although it could take a few minutes. But I have to make sure that there aren't any alarms or bobby traps on it first. I'd hate to have the presence of a nuclear device confirmed by setting it off."

Heidi stood back while the fox worked. She relied on her phenomenal memory to recall everything she had ever read in the files or heard in the hallways of Stasi Headquarters about alarms and traps used by the GDR or the Soviets. She summarized them for Silver and he was able to locate one such device and neutralize it with a magnetic strip he had disguised as a credit card. Then he set about picking the lock.

"Here goes nothing." He said in English as he turned the latch and inched the door open. Heidi pulled her head down between her shoulders and squeezed her eyes shut in anticipation of an explosion but none came. Silver swung the door wide and they stepped inside.

The room was about five meters a side and built like an old dungeon, with stone walls, dirt floor and large iron rings embedded in both. The ceiling was high and there were iron grates at the top that let in a hint of sunlight and air. In the middle of the floor was something that looked very much like a steel drum lying on its side in a wooden cradle. The cradle had wheels, but it was chained down through several of the iron rings in the floor and secured with a large padlock. The steel drum had soviet markings.

Silver's watch was indicating the strongest possible signal. "This is it." He said. "A gun-barrel type nuclear device, similar to the one dropped on Hiroshima but much smaller and much more efficient. An explosive charge drives two pieces of uranium together and the result is a nuclear explosion of about 10 kilotons - powerful enough to vaporize the treaty signers and most of downtown Berlin on both sides of the wall. The rest of the city will get knocked down by the shock wave that travels through the ground and then be set on fire by the fireball when it bursts out of this shallow grave."

Heidi backed away a step. "Are we in danger of radiation poisoning?"

"No, the nasty part is shielded." Silver continued to examine the device, prepared to describe it to the last detail for the Swedish expert that would deactivate it. It looked like something had been added recently on an access panel on the end of the drum. There was a display unit from a digital clock, but it was blank. There was also something that looked like a touch-tone telephone, but much smaller, and with a short antenna. He bent to look closer.

Across the room Heidi had decided that it was time to call Wolfe. She turned her back to the Canadian Agent and activated the mobile phone. She punched in the number Wolfe had given her and pressed the dial button. The device buzzed to indicate that it was sending out a signal as it searched for the radio tower.

Silver barely heard the tone from across the room, but when the device he had guessed was some sort of mobile phone lit up and made a similar whine his mind made the connection.

"Heidi! Don't - " but it was too late. The mobile phone connected to the bomb only needed to receive a signal to activate the timer. Silver watched as it flashed 1:30:00 for a few seconds before changing to 1:29:59 and began counting down from there.

Startled by his shout Heidi pressed the disconnect button and tried to stuff the mobile device back in her bag but Silver crossed the room and grabbed her wrist before she could hide it.

"What is this? A mobile phone? Let me guess, it works on the same frequency as the Soviet Altai System?" Silver had been reading up on the subject on Williams' suggestion. He knew that of the three systems operating in Europe at the moment the Nordic one was most advanced, but had the least coverage. The West German system only worked on the trains and the platforms of the rail system. The soviet network had the greatest coverage, and it operated at a higher frequency, to ensure better penetration so that the devices would work indoors. The main radio and television tower in East Berlin carried its signal. That tower was nearby, and the openings in the ceiling of this room probably helped bring the signals directly down on the device attached to the bomb.

"But how could I have set it off?" Heidi asked. "Shouldn't it only go off if someone calls it? I don't even know its number!"

"Normally these things communicate with the nearest tower at low power until the phone receives a stronger activation signal. Your transmission signal must have overpowered the receiver on the phone attached to the bomb." Silver said. "We used to get the same effect on Citizen Band radio when a powerful transmitter was close to a receiver, even when it wasn't tuned to that frequency the signal would wash out everything else. In this case it was enough to activate the timer."

"Why would Timofeyev have it on a timer? Couldn't he have called from anywhere with a signal tower?"

"Not if he wanted to distract us from looking in Berlin. He could have made arrangements to leave the city just after activating it. Ninety minutes would be plenty of time for someone like him who has access to military aircraft."

"He would be flying out of Schonefeld, on the southern edge of the city. There is an old storm water tunnel running from downtown to a reservoir near the airfield. The Soviets use it to move people in and out without advising us. They think that we do not know about it but we do."

Silver bent to examine the phone and the wiring connecting it to the bomb's detonator. Two wires, a red one and a blue one came out of the back of the timer and disappeared through a hole in the bomb's casing. Not much to go on, especially since cutting either could set off a bobby trap. Then he noticed that a small light on the face of the phone labeled 'autodial' was lit up.

"Shit, I think this thing called him when you set it off."

Heidi pulled her arm away and began sailing Wolfe's number again. "Well, now that we've started it there is no harm in using the phone. If I call Marcus Wolfe he can intercept Timofeyev at the airfield and hold him there. I'm sure that the general will tell us how to disarm this thing if he is faced with joining the citizens of Berlin in the hell he has created."

She pressed the 'call' button and Silver's eyes went wide as the timer lost thirty minutes all at once. Now there was less than an hour to go on the clock.

"Jesus, put that thing away." He ordered, showing her the results. "Your next call could set this thing off. We'll have to manage this ourselves."

"Any suggestions?"

"If we can't bring Timofeyev to the bomb, we'll bring the bomb to Timofeyev."

Heidi frowned. "And just exactly how do you intend to do that?"

"Here's the plan."

Fifteen minutes later Silver had picked the lock on the chains and wheeled the bomb on its cradle out into the main tunnel. He looked at his watch anxiously as the sound of a passing train drowned out all other noise. But after the train passed the rumble of an engine, a poorly tuned engine, could be heard approaching. Silver drew his ceramic knife and waited to see what would appear.

Blinding lights came around a bend in the tunnel. They came straight for the big silver fox but veered off at the last second. The Trabant limousine that Silver had seen earlier in the smuggler's den skidded to a stop a few feet away.

He opened the driver's door and helped Heidi out. "Did you have any difficulty getting the car?" He asked.

"No. They were very cooperative once I identified who I was working for ... especially after I gave them my Stasi-backed credit card." She sighed. "I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do when it comes time to settle the claim for this mission."

"You could always defect, if that helps." Silver offered as he opened the rear hatch of the enlarged Trabant and began pulling the back seats out. "The initial interrogation period can be a little rough but afterwards our people will resettle you with a Canadian passport and a good job."

"Thanks, but no. Milke is notoriously strict with traitors and even Wolfe does not mind locating them for him."

Silver had the back cleared and had pushed the cradle right up against the rear bumper of the limo. "Well, if we survive this maybe I can arrange some compensation through the smugglers - a joint payment sort of thing."

Heidi smiled and squeezed his arm as she moved in to help him shove the bomb into the car. It weighed a ton, but the cradle was designed to slide off the carriage and by using the chains to haul on it they got most of it inside. The springs and shocks were fully compressed by the excess weight.

"Looks like a Low Rider." Silver mused. "We'll use the chains to hold the hatchback down so it doesn't slide out." Silver told her, looping the heavy links through the inside latch and back to the cradle again. "There. Let's go. I'll drive, you navigate."

Using her near-total recall ability Heidi brought the map of the sewers and tunnels up in her head and directed the Canadian agent generally south and east.

"We will have to get into a subway line up ahead and follow it for three hundred metres to get into the storm water conduit." She advised.

Silver saw the opening coming up. "Are we going to be able to drive in there?" He asked.

"We do it in small utility vehicles all the time, so do the Soviets."

"I'll bet no one has ever tried it in an overloaded Trabant Limousine before." Silver laughed. "If we make it we'll set a record."

Heidi gave him a wry smile. "No one has managed to get a Trabant across the city on the regular streets without it breaking down at least once, so we'll set two records."

"You are so reassuring."

"You are welcome."

The tunnel was on the same level as the subway and someone, perhaps the smugglers, had built ramps over the rails. Still, the undercarriage of the Trabant scrapped on the exposed steel, sending a shower of sparks up the half opened hatch. Silver mumbled curse words under his breath as he eased the vehicle around to point down the tunnel. The wheels fit nicely between the tracks but there was no room to manouver. They were trapped until they came to the storm water tunnel.

Silver noticed that there was a set of indicator lights up ahead. Two of them were red, one above the other.

Does that mean what I think it means?" He asked his East German counterpart.

"I'm afraid so. The next train on this track will be coming at us head on."

Silver pressed the gas pedal to the floor. The Trabant, not a fast car when empty, was struggling along under the weight of the nuclear device. But its headlights picked up the storm sewer entrance up ahead. Like the tunnel that they had come out off, it too had ramps to make getting over the rails easier.

Silver prayed as he slowed down to take the ramp. He turned the wheels as soon as he could and the front end climbed up to the slightly higher tunnel entrance. There was just enough room for the car to get around and as soon as it was pointed down the tunnel he hit the gas again. The car lurched forward ... and then stopped. Something was caught on the rail. Silver hurriedly put it in neutral least it stall out; he did not want to take the chance that he could not get it started again.

He and Heidi squeezed out of the compartment and rushed to see what was wrong. They discovered that the weight of the bomb had compressed the suspension so much that the back end of the frame had caught on the edge of the rail.

"We'll have to take the bomb out to get it over." Heidi said.

"We'll never get it back in again." Silver noted. "But I have an idea. Where do they keep the jack for changing tires?"

"Under the driver's seat."

Silver reached in and came up with a scissors jack and the crank to turn it. He put the jack under the bumper of the Trabant where it was attached to the frame and began cranking.

"When I was in the Army we used this trick when our reconnaissance vehicles got hung up." He explained. "You get in the driver's seat and get ready to drive forward when I tell you."

Heidi complied. She could feel the car rising as Silver cranked madly. There was a squeal of metal on metal as the frame came free of the rail, but that was followed by another as the bumper began to separate from the frame. In the rear-view mirror she could see the big fox bracing himself against the side of the tunnel as he rocked the car back and forth on the little jack.

He was getting easier to see, and Heidi realized it was because he was being illuminated by headlamp of an oncoming subway train.

"Hurry!" She screamed as she revved the engine but to no avail. The rear wheels that drove the car were off the ground, they had to be so that the frame could clear the rail.

Silver uttered a gut-wrenching cry as the light from the speedily approaching train blinded him. Two of his claws ripped off as he flexed his legs and shoved against his braced arms with all his might. The Trabant rocked forward, started to rock back, and then his strength overcame the vehicle's momentum and it rolled forward again, just enough to drop off the jack on the other side of the rail.

The drive wheels made contact and the little car shot forward. Silver released his grip on the rough concrete and dove after it, grabbing the outside handle on the hatchback and letting it pull him from the subway tunnel. Behind him the blaring horn from the driver who had finally noticed the fox in the tunnel raised in tone as it approached. There was a crash of steel on steel as the lead car crossed over a junction in the track, and then the sounded of the horn was muted as the body of the train blocked it.

Heidi drove forward only a dozen meters before stopping the car and rushing back to see if Silver had survived. She found the fox lying on the floor of the tunnel behind the Trabant with his eyes squeezed shut and his paws embedded in the twisted metal of the door handle.

"Are we there yet?" He asked, keeping his eyes firmly shut.

"No. Get in the car, we have just over half an hour to find Timofeyev and get him to deactivate the bomb. Silver got in the passenger side and Heidi pushed the little two-stroke engine as hard as she could. Fortunately the tunnel was slopped downhill to aid the runoff so despite the weight they were able to get the vehicle up to its notional top spread of sixty kilometres per hour. It took just over ten minutes to drive the length of the tunnel to the southern edge of the city.

"Quite the shortcut." Silver said as the exit loomed. "How do we get onto the military portion of the airfield?"

"The exit is inside the fence and there is a ramp leading to the taxiway. We've seen the Soviet's unloading utility vehicles from their large cargo aircraft and driving them straight into the tunnel. Sometimes they come back again with fewer passengers, sometimes with more."

They emerged into the sunlight and Heidi took the ramp at full speed, not wanting to slow down and risk the engine failing on the steep slope. By the time they reached level ground they had lost half of their speed, but they didn't need it as directly in front of them they saw an An-12 cargo plane with its ramp down. A Soviet Zil limousine with a general's flag was waiting its turn to drive on board.

"Want to bet that that is Timofeyev's ride out?" Silver asked.

"No bet. But why is he bothering with his car? The plane will hardly have time to clear the danger zone even if it leaves now."

"He doesn't know that the timer has lost thrifty minutes, I guess. Hey, I have an idea. Give me the wheel."

They fumbled in the front of the undersized car as Silver crawled over the transmission hump and Heidi passed control while climbing over him. Silver aimed the Trabant right for the open ramp and floored the gas pedal. The whole car shook as the little engine strained to go faster.

"What's your plan?" Heidi asked, holding on to the strap above the passenger door for dear life.

"To swap cars with Timofeyev. I've going to drive this piece of shit right up the ramp and onto the airplane then pull the parking brake and drift it sideways to jamb it in good and tight. You jump out before we pass his limo and commandeer the car. Once you are far enough away from the bomb call your boss and have him evacuate as much of the area around the airport as he can while you get your ass out of here."

"And what about you?"

"If Timofeyev is on board he may be able to stop it, but if not I'm going to use the gun I found in your safe house to convince the pilot to fly the plane and the bomb as far and fast and high away from populated areas as possible."

"Gun? What gun? Oh, never mind. If you think that I'm letting you take all the glory while I run for safety like a tame fraulein then you have another think coming!"

They were approaching the plane quickly, and the soldiers loading it had noticed them. "No time to argue." Silver declared as he reached across her and pulled the latch to open the passenger door. "Someone needs to alert the authorities and you are the only one of us with a phone and a contact with someone powerful enough to get immediate action. It has to be you. Auf wiedersehen!" He called as he shoved her out the door.

Heidi barely had time to curl into a ball before she struck the grass on the edge of the taxiway. She rolled until she slowed and rose to her feet in a dead run headed straight for the Zil. When she got there she jerked the driver's door open and pulled the surprised bear from out behind the wheel. She jumped into the already running vehicle and jammed it into gear. Then she left a long curved line of rubber as she peeled away toward the civilian end of the airfield.

Maybe the airport authorities will believe me and get the people into the old bomb shelters, she thought as tears clouded her eyes. She drove with one paw as her other fumbled with the mobile phone. Fortunately it had a redial button and Wolfe answered before the first ring ended.

"You are at Schonefeld Airfield." The spy master stated. How did he know that, she wondered? "Is the bomb there also?"

She confirmed that it was. "How much time is left before it explodes?"

"Ten minutes, nine, maybe." She told him of Silver's plan.

Wolfe cursed, something rumour had it that he never did. "I have alerted the airport and the wardens of the surrounding neighbourhoods. Get yourself clear or get under cover."

"Is there nothing we can do to help him?" Heidi asked, referring to the Canadian agent.

"There is nothing you can do." Wolfe replied, and then he disconnected the call.

Nothing I could do, but he insinuates there is something he can do, she thought. What makes him think that I can't help when I'm so much closer? Without dwelling on the issue she wrenched the wheel around, putting the heavy car into a skid. When it was pointing back toward the plane she released the wheel, hit the gas and the car shot forward.

Back at the airplane Silver was having a little trouble. The Trabant had climbed the ramp easily enough and his trick with the parking brake had wedged it into the cargo hold nicely, but there was a small problem. The general had already had a large trailer put on board and now the driver's door of the Trabant was right up against it. Silver had to crawl over the central hump and out the passenger door before he could see what was up inside the plane.

Of the four soldiers he had counted as he barreled up the ramp two were smashed between the trailer and the Trabant. Another was at the top of the ramp fumbling to bring his rifle around. He was so close that Silver shot him without bothering to aim. His eyes were busy searching the cargo hold for sign of the fourth soldier anyway.

A 'crack' of gunfire and a flash from the soldiers AK-47 gave away his position. If he had aimed better or thought to put it on full auto he might have taken the big fox out then and there but the single bullet merely singed the hairs on one of Silver's ears. Before the slight pain even registered the Canadian agent had brought the pistol up and returned fire, three shots in a diagonal line traversing where the flash had come from. A scream that ended in a gurgle and the thud of a falling body told him that the coast was clear for him to proceed.

Someone was trapped inside the trailer and they were shouting in Russian and banging on the door which must have jammed when the overloaded Trabant rammed into it. Silver understood enough of the language to figure that the person inside was very high in rank and very pissed. On the assumption that it was Timofeyev he took a bar used for tightening hold-down straps off the wall and pried the door open with it. A sputtering General in full dress uniform emerged, spewing insults and threats in Russian about the clumsy workers loading his aircraft.

Silver apologised in German for not knowing enough Russian to understand the General. Timofeyev switched to that language to berate what he thought was a local airport employee.

Look what you imbeciles have done to my trailer!" He shouted. There was a hint of panic in the old veteran's voice. "Now how are we to take off?"

"My apologies, Herr General. If you have a phone I can call maintenance and have your aircraft on its way in minutes."

"Here." Timofeyev passed Silver his mobile phone.

"And would you happen to have the code to disarm your nuclear device on speed dial, Herr General?"

"Eh?"

Silver raised his pistol. "Sorry to inform you that your bomb is on board. It goes off in about five minutes. There is no way to outrun it, so give me the code to disarm it, now."

Timofeyev's jaws opened and closed several time in silence. His head whipped around, taking in the dead soldiers and the miserable East German excuse for a limousine with the nuke sticking out the back.

"This is not possible."

"Oh, you better believe it sunshine -" Silver was cut off by a bullet that struck the wall of the aircraft near his head. He turned to see who was shooting at him just in time to witness the heavy Zil limousine strike the soldier that had fired at him. He saw Heidi jump out of the vehicle and grab the soldier's assault rifle and fire at some unknown threat in the direction of the Soviet air terminal. She fired as she backed up the ramp of the aircraft.

Silver turned back to the trailer but Timofeyev was gone. He saw movement near the front of the cargo hold and fired off the last of the small pistol's bullets in hope of winging the general but a door slamming up near the front of the compartment told him that Timofeyev had escaped to the fight deck. A quick glance out one of the round windows confirmed that the flight crew and the general had used the escape hatch and were now running as fast as they could toward the concrete bunkers designed to shelter fighter aircraft from nuclear air bursts.

Some good it will do them when the explosion comes right beside them at ground level, he thought. Or at least close to ground level. Not that it matters much for me either.

Heidi had made it to the relative safety of the cargo bay. Whoever had been shooting at her had stopped, probably to run away once the General told them what was on board, he mused. He weighed his options. The cockpit door was probably locked and even if he could get in he had no idea how to fly an airplane. It was too late to run and by the time they go back to the car it would be too late to drive also. There was only one desperate thing left to try. Silver reached into his pocket and pulled out the ceramic knife he had brought on the mission. Inside the grip there were a number of tool tips that fit on the end of the shaft. Once the grip was reversed to cover the blade it became an effective screwdriver.

He ran to the back of the Trabant and threw open the hatch. Heidi joined him as he began unscrewing the access panel that the timer was attached to. There was just over a minute left to go on it when he got the last screw free and pulled the heavy lead-lined panel away.

"The red and blue wires running from the timing device o the firing mechanism seem to form just a basic circuit." Silver told Heidi. "A live wire sends the signal to fire and the other is just a ground wire. Pulling the live wire out should stop it."

"But which is live and which is the ground?"

Silver had reversed the grip again and reached in to put the blade under the red wire. "In shop class the red wire was usually live."

"Usually?"

"If the pair was red and black, but if it was red and white the white wire was live."

"What about red and blue pairs?"

"I never saw a red and blue pair before."

"We use black and white pairs in Germany, on both sides of the wall. Maybe red and blue is specific to the Soviet Union?"

"So what is it? Red is live because the East is Red or red is ground because the Motherland is Red?"

Heidi bit her lip. "The East is Red is on half of their posters, so live, I guess. It makes as much sense as anything else."

"Okay." Beads of sweat had formed on Silver's brow and as they accumulated they started dripping into the bomb mechanism. He wiped it away with his sleeve. "Here goes nothing."

Silver doubled the red wire around the blade, closed his eyes and was just about to cut it when he felt a paw on his shoulder.

"I'll take it from here." A deep, smooth German voice said without a hint of nervousness. Silver stepped away and a nondescript grey wolf leaned in with a pair or wire cutters and snipped the blue one. The timer immediately stopped showing 00:00:07 - seven seconds shy of exploding. The wolf straightened up.

"Marcus Wolfe, I presume?" Silver said.

The wolf turned to face him. "Yes, how did you know?"

"Heidi went all stiff and serious when she saw who it was." Silver lied. He had actually seen one of the few photographs of the elusive spy master, one taken surreptitiously by a F.O.X. double agent in nineteen seventy-eight.

"Ah! And you are Mister Sterling, I believe."

Silver suspected that the twinkle in the back of Wolfe's eye was because the GDR Intelligence Chief knew better, but he played along.

"Just Sterling is fine."

They stood there in silence for a few moments. Silver was keenly aware that he was alone deep inside enemy territory with nothing but an empty pistol and a little knife. Maybe I can take Wolfe hostage and negotiate my way out, he thought, running the pad of his thumb along the blade.

The corner's of Wolfe's eyes crinkled as an understanding smile filled his face, as if he knew what Silver was thinking. He casually mentioned that a number of his agents were covering them with sniper rifles. "In case Timofeyev or one of his soldiers tried anything." He claimed. "But they do get a little nervous, so you should put your knife away." He told Silver kindly as he stepped back from the fox and the bomb. "But if you ever intend to have children I suggest that you first use it to replace that access panel."

Silver hurriedly did so while Wolfe and Heidi conferred in whispers at the bottom of the ramp. When he was done he pocketed the knife and joined them, careful to keep his empty paws in view.

"So," he began, "where do we stand now?"

"We have contained the news of this attempt to derail the treaties and start a war, but things will never be the same. The youth on both sides of the wall are clamouring for it to come down and not just here in Germany. Most of the other Warsaw Pact nations have similar issues. The treaty will still go ahead, but the Soviets have lost a lot of face though this, so the signing will take place somewhere safer, Washington perhaps."

Silver indicated himself and Heidi. He was a foreign agent, she was an acting agent that had slept with the enemy. "What about us?"

"Agent Schafer has told me of your, uhm, cooperation at the safe house and of your heroism the subway tunnel. Despite your illegal presence here in the German Democratic Republic we owe you a debt - the bomb would never have been found in time without you. Your decision to bring it here was a stoke of good fortune as I was on my way here to arrest Timofeyev when it was reported that he was leaving and I am one of the few people in the GDR who knew of these 'Barrier Bombs' and how to disarm them. So to repay you for your bravery and luck I have decided to let you leave the GDR without further ado. This airfield also serves as the main civilian terminal for international flights and we can have you on a plane for Switzerland this evening. You are still carrying your Swiss identification, no?"

Silver smiled at the extent of their knowledge and confirmed that he was indeed carrying his forged Swiss ID.

"Good. And just to make sure that you get there safely I'm sending agent Schafer with you. A suite will be booked at the Zurich Hilton in your names. Please do the honourable thing and send her back well rested in a day or two, will you? I'll need good agents like her to contain the chaos as the Communist Bloc crumbles."

"Of course, Herr Wolfe."

"Please, call me Marcus. And one more thing Sterling, do not let me catch you here in East Germany again."

"I will stay away ... at least until there is no more East or West, just Germany. Then I may come back and buy you a beer or three."

"I look forward to it, whichever side wins this cold war we occasionally bring heat to. Now, on your way. Agent Schafer has a credit card so you two can purchase new clothes and toiletries at the airport while you wait for your flight."

"Uh ... about that credit card ... " Heidi began.

"Lost it in the tunnels when we got hung up on the tracks." Silver interrupted. "Maybe a subway worker will find it and turn it in. I have credit cards and traveller's cheques, enough to cover the necessities. Consider it my contribution financial to this joint venture."

Wolfe gave them both a doubtful look but in the end he shrugged. Silver and Heidi turned to go.

Silver took Heidi by the paw as they strolled over to the commercial air terminal. "Do you think he will keep his word about letting me go and keeping you on?" He asked.

"He has never lied to me yet."

"Oh? You've known him for a long time?"

"No, just a couple of hours, but, so far so good." She replied, squeezing his paw.

"Yep." He agreed, thinking of the way this mission had unfolded, especially the prospect of another one or two nights with Heidi in a proper bed. "So far so good."

* * * * *

According to the report I snuck a glance at Silver spent a week in Switzerland with the GDR agent, only leaving after the signing of the IRBM Treaty. I think they must have been told to stay and keep an eye out for anyone transiting between Moscow and Washington, where the ceremony was held. With her eye for spotting rogue agents and his innovative ways of handling unforeseen situations they would have made quite a team. No, I don't know if there were any other attempts to stop the treaty, but I do have a few more tales that will interest you boss, Yermolayev. So why don't you send this one off for evaluation while we order in some food and get some rest. Tell you what, since this suite has a fully stoked bar I'll treat you all to some of my more famous martini variations. You'll love them, guaranteed.