Agent Orange by Langford Stephen

Author:Langford, Stephen [Langford, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-06-04T22:00:00+00:00

Keeton walked slowly along the southern border of West Berlin’s Tiergarten, his senses honed to search for the man they had code-named Whisper. He had been there several times in his capacity as a covert agent and had watched the postwar changes over his CIA career. Tiergarten had been a big lush park until the war. The Allies had bombed it and the whole city practically to the ground. Any trees still left standing had been cut down for firewood by desperate Germans. They had finally started planting trees again, and now the area seemed to be coming back to life. Still some work to do, Keeton thought.

Roy had driven him to the Victory Column, the famous Berlin landmark situated between the Brandenburg and Charlottenburg Gates, and let him out at the northwestern end of the Grosse Sternallee. He had taken this path through the Tiergarten to Whisper’s preferred meeting place, the monument to Richard Wagner. Keeton recalled his instructions. Look for an old man wearing a cream sweater and blue argyle socks, sitting at one of the nearby benches.

Keeton himself had dressed down and was wearing a light polo shirt, white slacks, and a black trilby hat. His watch read six o’clock. He casually circled the monument a couple of times, pretending to study the statues as he scanned up and down the busy Tiergartenstraße. Nothing. Five minutes later he finally selected a bench himself and sat down. A few moments later, a man walked up and sat opposite him. Keeton discreetly glanced over.

Blond hair, in his thirties, dark sport coat and tie, studying some kind of pamphlet. Definitely not an old pensioner. Seems completely disinterested. Wait. Blue argyle socks.

“My name is Zeppelin,” the man said softly in English.

Keeton’s pulse quickened as he discerned what this could mean. Was Whisper in trouble, unable to make it to the meeting place? Had he returned to East Berlin? “Ich bitte um Verzeihung?” he answered. I beg your pardon?

“It’s OK. I really am the man who Vogel calls Zeppelin. Whisper the East Berliner, the apartment overlooking the factory, this meeting to discuss the defections, everything. I am Zeppelin. It’s OK.”

Keeton spoke without looking over. “Do you enjoy Wagner?”

“I find him repetitive and dull,” the man answered back with the correct countersign.

“Is Whisper in trouble?” Keeton asked.

“Definitely not,” Zeppelin answered. “Whisper doesn’t exist. I made him up.”

Keeton took a sharp breath. “Now you’re going to have to explain, and quickly!”

“Relax. For your purposes all of the intel passed along is valid. I’m sure that you have an agent being held in that factory. As for the ruse, I don’t want to be just an asset, another one of Vogel’s runners. I want in the company itself.”

“This isn’t the way to gain our trust,” Keeton snapped back. “But I’ll let Vogel handle that. Do you actually have anything to give me?”

“Listen, I based Whisper on my very own uncle, who really does live in an apartment building near the factory over on the other side and who really did accidentally notice what was going on.

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